Machinist leg animations... cemented to the ground?

[Tolmos]

The complain of the OP is that the legs move normally while moving around during a skill animation (bards and machinists), regardless what the over part of the body do.

Actually, I'm not really concerned with the way the body looks moving; it's standing STILL that is the problem.

I got spoiled a bit by Guild Wars 2. The Engineer class is a gun user, and the character uses their legs to brace against the recoil when standing still. But if you start running, it cancels that leg animation and you run like normal without ice skating around. It creates this amazing fluid and natural/realistic animation for the class that looks great whether you stand still, run, or go from standing to running.

More than anything, if the developers cannot find a way to solve the leg problem, I just wish the animation team would revisit skills like Slug Shot so that there is not this hugely obvious recoil for the upper body that does not affect the lower body.

[Berethos]

But if you start running, it cancels that leg animation and you run like normal without ice skating around.

At which point the upper body and lower body animations no longer always sync up, and you (at least the last time I played) end up getting mismatches in animations, or (for melee) "powerful" swings that don't look at all effective because those kinds of swings use the torque of the shoulder, hips, and feet turning properly to generate their power, and you're just seeing the upper body part of the movement instead (it's like watching someone just kind of swing a bat back and forth versus a proper swing at the plate).

To my eyes, that looks as silly as sliding around, so I can't agree that it's amazing. It is fluid looking, but it had to compromise to make it work...which is exactly what the sliding is - a compromise for full bodied (except for Bard and Machinist, sadly) animations plus mobility.