Abilities can't be used till animation ends.

[Althea]

But... you don't have to.

Unless they changed it recently, you did. Off the GCD abilities, in various other MMOs, are exactly what they say they are. If the button's lit, you can literally hit it anytime you want and it immediately happens. Here in FFXIV, you can hit it, and it won't go through because the previous spell animation's still going.

[Thorauku]

Hence why me, and any of my friends who played are no longer subbed.

Goodbye to you and to your friends. Same goes with TS.

I love how the animation works, it doesn't prevent me to do what I want to do during battles.

[Atkinsj7]

there not going to lose subs because of this. Your the first person that has complained about this i highly doubt people will unsub

[Fayto]

Unless they changed it recently, you did. Off the GCD abilities, in various other MMOs, are exactly what they say they are. If the button's lit, you can literally hit it anytime you want and it immediately happens. Here in FFXIV, you can hit it, and it won't go through because the previous spell animation's still going.

No, that is because there is a one second unseen cooldown. I cancel my animations all the time with off GCD abilities.

[Mikara]

The second sentence was more in response to off GDC abilities not being spamable, hince having to use my entire face to hit them.

[Nero]

Do you only have off-GCD abilities assigned to your controller? Cause that's contradictory and certainly not productive at all to this thread lol.

I believe he was being sarcastic, because that is the only circumstance the OP would have the problem he described.

[Ryusajin]

I have to agree with this to at least some extent. A Paladin in my coil group was moaning about this recently- if he's in the middle of an animation when he needs to silence, then he's screwed. Rage of Halone is the worst, the animation for it is so long.

Having said that, I do appreciate the way it is in an aesthetic way as it makes things flow better visually. Just sucks not being able to take advantage of an ability you're supposed to be able to use any time it's needed.

[Lafiele]

I recently stopped subbing because quite frankly the game feels "unresponsive" compared to other MMORPGs I've played.

In FFXIV when I use an ability and the GCD (Global Cool-down) is activated, I cannot use an ability that is off the global cooldown until the animation for the ability I just used finishes. The same is true for animations that last longer than the GCD, I cannot use another ability till both the GCD AND my current animation have finished playing. This prevents me from using a move that's on the GCD and off the GCD at the same time (ie: interrupt + use an ability for rotation). Every other MMORPG I played "effects" (ie: damage, healing, etc.) happened as soon as an ability was used, not after the animation had finished. While FFXIV's combat looks fabulous, this "locking" of the input while animations are playing feels clunky. I am hoping SE switches more abilities (if not all) to do their affects as the ability is used instead of waiting for the animation to end.

I think accounting for animation delay is part of the skill required though. For example, one of the big difference between LoL and dota 2 (dota 2 often referred to as the much harder but both similar concept games) is turning animation. In LoL, the player can turn their hero immediately with no delay while dota 2 heroes have a turning animation every time you move. This becomes quite important especially when juking and at high level play whereas LoL greatly dumbs down this concept. Some would argue this makes movement clunky but in fact these animation delays are more a realistic addition to the game from other perspective. If you're good you should be able to account and react for such delays and even use it to your own advantage.

[Mikara]

So, I got bored and decided to debunk this entire idea of "you can't interrupt animations at all". I was able to interrupt the animations of the following abilities: Straight shot, Heavy shot, Blood letter, Venom bite, Wind bite, Quelling strikes, Raging strikes, Blood for blood, Barrage, Hawks Eye, and Internal release. I was not able to interrupt Repelling shot (because the animation moves you away from the target) and Blunt arrow (because the animation is too quick to interrupt with the current invisible 1 second between abilities timer).

On another note, I didn't try any of my AoE abilities because WHO CARES, isn't 11 abilities enough to prove that this doesn't hold up anyways?

[TheMax1087]

I'm still trying to figure out what this topic is actually about. Except for perfect balance(which I have to spam to get it to activate even when I'm not doing anything), I've never had a problem using an off-gcd during an animation. Considering monks have two attacks with animations that last nearly the entire gcd(dragon kick and demolish), it seems like I would've noticed not being able to use steel peak and internal release during them, especially since I weave off-gcd skills during those two specifically because of their long animations.