Casting and spell animations...lackluster?

[Kiroh]

Again there is a Flare II already in the .dat files. As for amazing weaponskill animations, was there any in FFXI that were amazing pre-50?

Penta Thrust was pre-50 in XI, and it was pretty effing cool. But frankly even Raging Fists (late 30s for MNK iirc) was way better looking than the majority of skills in XIV. Power Slash was like level 10, and it looks better than most skills I've seen in XIV. Earth Crusher, Seraph Strike, Tachi: Hobaku; Jinpu and Koki, Viper Bite, Freezebite, Starburst, Sunburst, Gust Slash, Cyclone, Sturmwind, Circle Blade, all of those skils had better graphic effects and all (except perhaps koki, can't remember exactly the level on that one) were pre-50.

Also, Flare 1 in XI looks WAY better graphically than Flare 1 in XIV, no excuse for Ancient magic looking like barely recognizable pops on a monster and doing less damage than the tier 2 nukes.

[Hotohori]

Penta Thrust was pre-50 in XI, and it was pretty effing cool. But frankly even Raging Fists (late 30s for MNK iirc) was way better looking than the majority of skills in XIV. Power Slash was like level 10, and it looks better than most skills I've seen in XIV. Earth Crusher, Seraph Strike, Tachi: Hobaku; Jinpu and Koki, Viper Bite, Freezebite, Starburst, Sunburst, Gust Slash, Cyclone, Sturmwind, Circle Blade, all of those skils had better graphic effects and all (except perhaps koki, can't remember exactly the level on that one) were pre-50.

Also, Flare 1 in XI looks WAY better graphically than Flare 1 in XIV, no excuse for Ancient magic looking like barely recognizable pops on a monster and doing less damage than the tier 2 nukes.

Chaos Thrust is pretty much the same animation as Penta Thrust but 6 hits. Simian Fists is a 9 hit version of Asuran Fists. Maim is exactly Raging Rush, 3 hits and Storm's Path is Sturmwind perfectly. All of these things are in the game now but maybe you haven't seen them much. Do you really want a mage class to use physical staff and wand weaponskills like the ones you listed either? They were quite poorly balanced compare to others. Rage of Halone is essentially Vorpal Blade. Also maybe when samurai is release there will be something that looks familiar to any of the great katana and katana skills that were in 11.

[Demacia]

Chaos Thrust is pretty much the same animation as Penta Thrust but 6 hits. Simian Fists is a 9 hit version of Asuran Fists. Maim is exactly Raging Rush, 3 hits and Storm's Path is Sturmwind perfectly. All of these things are in the game now but maybe you haven't seen them much. Do you really want a mage class to use physical staff and wand weaponskills like the ones you listed either? They were quite poorly balanced compare to others. Rage of Halone is essentially Vorpal Blade. Also maybe when samurai is release there will be something that looks familiar to any of the great katana and katana skills that were in 11.

That's great and all, but it doesn't excuse the fact that by level 10 in an 8 year old game, your spells and WS were already on par/cooler looking than a lv50's in a game released in 2010.

[Endemerrin]

Chaos Thrust is pretty much the same animation as Penta Thrust but 6 hits.

The Chaos Thrust animation is a single hit. I don't know what animation you've been seeing.

Rage of Halone is essentially Vorpal Blade.

Rage of Halone is a single thrust forward with the sword. Vorpal Blade is a four hit weaponskill. Again, I don't know what animations you've been seeing.

There are a few decent looking weaponskills in this game, but it's no excuse for the fact that a lot of weapons are just clones of eachother. 80% of my weaponskills as a Gladiator involve me performing a circle-slash esque attack. It's just old, and boring. Almost every single weaponskill in FFXI varied. There were a few that were copies of eachother, sure, but most weren't.

Playing the "Well, the level cap is only 50" card is just silly. As people have pointed out, there were plenty of awesome looking weaponskills pre-50 in FFXI.

I don't believe the current animations are acceptable. Even the basic attacks are repetitive.