Abilities can't be used till animation ends.

[Nero]

Unfortunately some players in this thread don't know what is good for them

Some people do believe they know whats good for them, by playing Armchair Dev.

and would instead like to pretend that only the elite can handle FFXIV's GCD that is inexplicably (and unnecessarily) three times longer than in any other MMO.

Does not matter how long it is on other Games, FFXIV is not "other Games". I know this childish attitude from 5 year old kids these day.. ."but daddy.. all my friends have an iphone, i have to have one too"...

What people forget is that the GCD is built with a higher levelcap in mind. So if it feels slow now it is for 2 reasons; 1) you are used to it since you play the game for a while 2) levelcap is currently 50 and each levelcap raise will add 3-4 more skills to your bar. Each Levelcap Raise will probably be around 5 Levels.

Let aside that a lower GCD would mean speeding up the Animations even more, make them look retarded or get rid of them. They are allready way faster than they were in 1.0.

What are you doing at lets say Level75 or 99? Faceroll-Spasm, because you will never be able to actually play your class effective with 20-25 more skills on your bars? What to complain about then? WWAAAAHMBULANCE.. we have too many skills, GCD is too short, We need Animation lock.

Like you have said.. some players unfortunately don't know what is good for them.

[Zaels]

Everyone can handle it, most of us just don't like it. There is nothing fun about a character that feels slow.

Please share what data you have to prove that most people that play this game dislike the system.

[Cons]

I find a much bigger issue to be when I click a skill that IS ready and it simply doesnt activate, so now I find myself constant clicking until I see that it HAS started

[AlestrinVier]

I personally like the system how it is to a certain extent. The battles are tailored to the global cooldown so it doesn't have a profound impact. For example, Twintania's Death Sentence is a longer cast than the global cooldown which gives plenty of time for a reaction to it.

However, I do believe there are some abilities that should be entirely free of the GCD and animation lock. I primarily play White Mage so:

For white mage, I think certain buffs such as the Divine Seal buff and Swiftcast should remain affected by the animation lock. They add to the experience of "focusing more" or "channeling heavier" to achieve the desired power.

However, for something like Benediction which is an ability used at those moments where you need to recover in a split second, they should go off instantly. The ability itself is 90% wasted because it's so difficult to use it in time at those moments when it is important.

[Athol]

Some people do believe they know whats good for them...
Like you have said.. some players unfortunately don't know what is good for them.

Weird the gcd feels like it lowers the skill cap to me. I think it's probably a 50/50 split of for and against the slow combat. I can see possible reasons for it but to make the combat require more skill isn't one of them. I love everything about the game except the slow combat and the horrible pvp it has.

[Junpei]

Additionally with dragoon, people complained about it's jumps animation lock enough that it was shortened. However, the jump animation is still longer than 1.5s, so if I mash the jump button after using a weapon skill it will still delay my next weapon skill (gcd will be over but unable to use anything because still jumping).

The invisible 1sec GCD that appears after using a weaponskill/ability mostly prevents me from using 2 buffs in between skills. I wouldn't mind the 1s delay if ABILITIES did not trigger it. I'm ok with Weapon Skills causing it for the sake of fluidity. But if I want to trigger Blood for Blood and Life Surge at the same time I should be able to do that.

[Stormblossom]

The animation lock is immensely frustrating for key tanking/healing abilities:

I've died on several occasions due to holmgang not being possible to trigger immediately. I've missed key lustrate casts because it was impossible to trigger immediately. I've seen and heard party complaints numerous times about Holy ground and Benediction failing to trigger, and in many of those instances the animation triggered but the ability did not.

These instances are definitely an issue with the overall game design. What is the point of a panic death prevention ability that isn't on the GCD if we have to plan to need it by not using abilities on our GCD or other off GCD skills?

Abilities like Inner Release and Blood for Blood being impossible to trigger together without either delaying your main rotation or putting a gcd skill in between is more of a mild annoyance, but it is still just that. An annoyance that makes the game play feel far less smooth.

In addition to this, there is something weird that happens with client/server sync on GCD rotations:

I've experienced numerous cases of my main being on monk because I pushed dragon kick, I saw my character do the dragon kick animation, I pressed the next ability in my rotation and it failed because I wasn't in the correct stance, paused for a moment, pushed again, got the same message, and realized that Dragon Kick never actually went off, and I'd gotten a 'not ready yet' message after the animation had already gone off. That most DEFINITELY makes the game play feel not smooth.

While I can and do play and enjoy the game as it is now, it would definitely feel better if our off GCD skills weren't animation locked.

[Lulza]

The invisible cooldown between gcd and non-gcd abilities is a conscious design decision.

It levels the playing field between keyboard users and controller users giving them time for the extra keypress to switch hotbars.

[Themis]

I've experienced numerous cases of my main being on monk because I pushed dragon kick, I saw my character do the dragon kick animation, I pressed the next ability in my rotation and it failed because I wasn't in the correct stance, paused for a moment, pushed again, got the same message, and realized that Dragon Kick never actually went off, and I'd gotten a 'not ready yet' message after the animation had already gone off. That most DEFINITELY makes the game play feel not smooth.

This also happens on Dragoon, and probably other classes too. It's a little jarring because you see the animation half execute, but because of some reason (mob not really where it appears, for example) it doesn't complete and so nothing actually happens. Because effects occur following the animation, and not before/during, what you see isn't what you get. If there's one thing I'd like to see improved, it would be this.

The OPs issue, I have no issue with, personally. In terms of MMOs, I've only really every played XI and there is an "invisible" GCD between spells and abilities too (~3 seconds or so?), so for me a 1 second delay is really not a problem.

Not being able to use an instant cast lifesaver when you opted to use a different ability instead (eg, Using Cure but deciding Benediction would be better because they actually took more damage than you expected) is simply the result of your choice to use ability A over ability B. A good awareness of the battle situation should give you enough information to make a calculated judgement on what to use. Don't think of these abilities (Hallowed Ground, Lustrate, Holmgang etc) as "oh shi-" buttons, but things you use when you need them. Don't use Rage of Halone if you know you'll need Hallowed Ground within the next 1 second. If you miss it, it's often due to a bad call, not a result of a 1 second delay between action use.

[Sikkun]

Since pro damage after animation seems to be the more hostile group please explain this to me. On a boss they have a cast bar it draws a red circle on the ground. You have to be out of the red circle BEFORE the cast bar finishes, not before the red circle is gone...and most deff not before the giant explosion happens. So while you dont take damage until the animation you do take damage if you didn't clear the circle before the CAST which is why you can look epic running into explosions without taking damage. Confusing...this whole argument has a simple solution, if I cant cast anything during an animation gray out my entire hot bar until I can. Problem solved, no more confusion. You can argue over which is better but we wouldn't be arguing over why its confusing.