IMO not having Auto-Attack has been the best part of the game for me....

[TheLove]

We didn't need auto-attack we needed a more visceral combat system (faster, functional, intuitive). Now we are just going back in time. Let me grab a sandwich while I auto stab these crabs I'm farming... Bleh...

yeah thats more like it... boring

[Hikozaemon]

We didn't need auto-attack we needed a more visceral combat system (faster, functional, intuitive). Now we are just going back in time. Let me grab a sandwich while I auto stab these crabs I'm farming... Bleh...

why where u ever farming lolcrabs.

[Cendres]

why where u ever farming lolcrabs.

Yes because you know that was totally the point of me writing that.... >.>

[Dreamer]

Attack spells? I'm sorry, you haven't actually fought anything yet. Let me lay this out for you: Cast Fire 2=deal around 50 dmg. Use Spirit dart=deal around 50-55dmg. You can use 3 spirit darts in the time it takes to cast 1 fire2. Unless in a BR, attack spells are useless. Ancient Magic is ALWAYS useless. DoTs are nice, yes, but only on NMs and when you have 3 mages in a NM party, you don't need to continuously cast DoTs so the 1111111spam will still happen. Debuffs? HA! The only useful debuff is paralyze and that's a THM spell. If you have a thm in the party, the CON will still be 1111111111111111.

My Fire2 ranges from 235-335 depending on the enemy I'm fighting, slightly more once I have the enemy debuffed. My standard attack does about 40-60 damage, so there's very little to be compared there, all before you account for triple/quadruple stacked DoTs on the enemy. Individual ticks for those all do damage roughly equivalent to the mage standard attack.

[Scape]

We didn't need auto-attack we needed a more visceral combat system (faster, functional, intuitive). Now we are just going back in time. Let me grab a sandwich while I auto stab these crabs I'm farming... Bleh...

It will only be doing your normal attacks. That's it. You still can't just go afk. You still have to manage all your timers and use all abilities yourself. Not sure why having to go back to press your normal attack button every 1-3 seconds is considered any more fun by people. It down right turns your brain to mush during a long NM fight, where no matter what you are doing, you have to constantly go back to pressing 1/A/X, whatever you use to attack.

All auto attack does is normal attacks. Are we some how losing some kind of grand strategy that I am not aware of with auto attack? Is it really that more strategic and action packed having to press your attack button that often?

Now, I don't really think auto attack was the answer to what we needed, but it's nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be, as if it will play the game for you or something. If the game doing your normal attacks for you leaves you with nothing to do yourself, then you are definitely doing it wrong in the first place.

edit; oh, and to the above poster. You are still pretty low as far as mages go. I believe you will probably see your spell damage drop of dramatically as you get higher in level and fight higher things. I know that I especially never see that stuff cast on NMs.

[Physic]

It will only be doing your normal attacks. That's it. You still can't just go afk. You still have to manage all your timers and use all abilities yourself. Not sure why having to go back to press your normal attack button every 1-3 seconds is considered any more fun by people. It down right turns your brain to mush during a long NM fight, where no matter what you are doing, you have to constantly go back to pressing 1/A/X, whatever you use to attack.

All auto attack does is normal attacks. Are we some how losing some kind of grand strategy that I am not aware of with auto attack? Is it really that more strategic and action packed having to press your attack button that often?

Now, I don't really think auto attack was the answer to what we needed, but it's nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be, as if it will play the game for you or something. If the game doing your normal attacks for you leaves you with nothing to do yourself, then you are definitely doing it wrong in the first place.

with the advent of auto attack and no stamina you are fundementally changing the strategies and tactics of fighting, many people played in a way that it made no difference, but trust me, its a big difference with what techniques are best/work and the overall playstyle of the game.

Im not saying they cant make an auto attack system work, im just saying it is not the same, and many strategies/skills/playstyles will have to change.
Hopefully it will be cool, but i guarantee it wont matter if they dont change the SP reward system, since most people will spend most of their time leveling up.

[Scape]

oh, I totally agree that strategies and play styles will have to change. I am a little nervous about that part actually. I consider myself pretty good with the jobs I have at 50. Once they change everything, I could very well have multiple 50 jobs that I don't know how to play and will have to learn how to use efficiently all over again. And considering I don't exp on them, just NM hunt, my chances to do that is slim normally.

[irongripz]

auto attack is lazy,and boring, but needed in this tp style battle system.

[ellohwell]

The game shouldnt revolve around TP generation. Then autoattack wouldnt even matter. It doesnt even do anything good for the combat system at the moment besides automate tp generation. The amount of damage you gain from autoattack is so minimal.

Hopefully with this "combo" system which basically jsut sounds like a rotation set system, things will be more interesting.

But meh, combat has never been good in FFXI or FFXIV so I wont hold my breath. I will just stick to being a crafter lol until they destroy that aspect of the game too.

[Jhanaka]

Hello,

As this thread is a bit older and we have introduced Auto Attack, I will be closing this thread as it can no longer offer any new feedback.

Thank you,

-Senior Game Master Jhanaka