The combat system still needs a lot of work.

[Dzian]

I actually love the combat speed and all of the abilities. Maybe it's different for PC but I have no hotbar problems on PS4 but that's besides the point...

Some classes can feel way less fun than others. Like PLD is boring compared to DRK imo. There's barely anything you have to press as PLD besides 1-2-3 and buffs. Since lv26... But DRK, I love it! So many things I have to press and so many tools, I really like that you have to be involved with DRKs skills to play it... Although I was a baddie before the BF had to teach me how to use the defense buffs the right way..

Paladin can be boring but it can be amazing. The problem it faces is that in a group that's even slightly above average half of a Paladins toolkit is beyond useless.

In a group that's below average however that same toolkit can become pretty powerful and really turn the tables to get that group through the content successfully.

[Zojha]

I'd certainly love a bit more responsiveness - hands up everyone who ever used a skill, saw the animation go off halfway, heard the sound effect and ended up getting angry because the ability just whiffed. It happens particularly frequently when targets move, such as in PvP, but it sometimes happens in PvE as well. If I can't use the ability or it won't connect, please throw me an error message instead >.>

[MomomiMomi]

I'd certainly love a bit more responsiveness - hands up everyone who ever used a skill, saw the animation go off halfway, heard the sound effect and ended up getting angry because the ability just whiffed. It happens particularly frequently when targets move, such as in PvP, but it sometimes happens in PvE as well. If I can't use the ability or it won't connect, please throw me an error message instead >.>

http://i.imgur.com/ucwCNW5.png

Working as intended.

[Derio]

Well console players don't have hotbar or too many skills issues. As it gets incorporated in with muscle memory. However in 4.0 I could see some skills getting fused together and them just adding traits for lvl 60-70 with new enhanced versions of current skills.

One thing is clipping in this game vs combat speed.

[Shurrikhan]

While I usually like that I can keep all my main combat abilities within 2 bars (24 skills) even with every button-bloating talent available in WoW, I'm in no rush to massively prune XIV. By all means, prune it. But, pruning 60% would leave the only the bones of a game. Case in point: Legion WoW. While some specs feel the best they've ever felt, even making interesting and entertaining use of the annoyingness or button-scarcity of previous abilities or builds, others feel like the hallow shell of a class (see: WoW's angriest population, the Hunter forum), all because developers and players are rarely going to agree on what provides core or satisfying gameplay, let alone be consistent (even within the same alleged philosophy or under the same authors of such changes) in their pursuit of it. And to be clear, the good developments in the bad ones there are in now way related; the specs that improved did so through finding fitting mechanics that increased complexity or simply reverted or replaced less fitting abilities from prior builds, while generally the most iconically "Legion" (simplification; core identity only) whole-hog reworks have been met controversially or outright negatively.

Undoubtedly, we also as players are going to disagree on how much manual control we should have. But that's where the arguments should lie, in my opinion. How many buttons do you want to be pressing, and with what regularity. It it falls under x importance, is it worth having at all? What kind of synergies or dependencies could make a particular tool more interesting in the wider context. It should NOT be about how much complexity a given class can have. You'll have 60+ levels to learn a given class or job, come 4.0. Now, I'm not saying that if one fails to learn all the details about a job in that time, that the failure is on them — information should be conveniently and smoothly given in order to bring out the meat and flavor of the job, and the design itself intuitive given those steps of learning, both directly provided and as reasonably surveyed, experimented with, and discovered for oneself. That's part of the whole fun of leveling. I would argue, even, that it's one of the few truly good parts therein likely to be had in this game. Cutting away abilities with the direct purpose of simplification, rather than convenience, intuitiveness, or above all else - attractiveness, is to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Now as for fluidity, to be honest there are at least as many things that annoy me about WoW's combat as XIV's, granted that's when using the latter only through WTFast. In WoW I quickly miss the auto-face targeting on non-channeled abilities, I miss the movement-at-tail-of-cast leniency for stutter-stepping, I miss the longer GCD when it I get that instant proc that allows me to take... a few hurried steps, tops? Though at the same time, I admittedly have missed feelings about the massive gap in actions-per-minute that comes from unloading all one's CDs at the start of a fight vs. the lull thereafter of all abilities on cooldowns. I love the feeling of my DRK getting Low Blow after Low Blow proc in already busy double-weave rotation. I like my Bloodletter procs and fighting for room enough to sync them. But, I've also enjoyed playing hurried 1.0 base GCD specs in WoW, hacking away with animations ceaseless enough not to feel weightless. Therein lies the catch: if it weren't for double-weaving oGCDs, I could (1) have a faster starting GCD, say 2.0s base, and (2) wouldn't have to avoid Skill Speed (TP drain viability aside) on the basis that I'll quickly clip my double-weaves. Now, the latter can be fixed and the prior mitigated with a simple enough concept — scale animation times to attack speed, but I have no idea if that's actually possible, especially for SE's coding team... who, lest we forget, thought it faster to make new two-handed art assets for all =< lvl90 Conjurer weapons than code a way for a 2-handed weapon or a 1-handed weapon to be glamoured into one another. But as for double-weaves impact on the necessary GCD speed beyond that? That's a real decision to be made. Do we want that variation of high actions-per-minute to low, burst to lull, or do we want something with a higher APM floor and lower ceiling? At present, animated double-weave oGCDs are about the only thing XIV has that's unique. But providing space enough for them probably costs our endgame community more than a few players, bored to sleep by an abnormally long GCD before acquiring the oGCD abilities to fill its gaps, who quit during the leveling process.

Last but not least: what annoys me most about XIV gameplay, even with WTFast, is the apparent packet loss. There's nothing worse than seeing a skill queue, the GCD trigger for it, yet no weaponskill actually go off, or an ability pop its animation, and no buff appear. Without WTFast pre-Heavensward the general latency could get nearly as bad, where I could miss out on comboed potency on a queued finisher just because the mid-step hadn't triggered the bonus yet, but since HW 250 ping's rarely been rotation-shattering. Though I do have to play Monk or another mostly single-weave job to play near-optimally until resubscribing to WTFast.

[Dualgunner]

As a dragoon whose burst involves flowing two oGCDs between every GCD and intentionally keeping skillspeed down so I'm not clipping GCDs, I may be a bit biased when I say I am okay with the current system. Only thing is Zojha brings up a good point mentioning when we see and hear the ability go off...and it just doesn't. It's happened a lot where I'm halfway through the burst to realize my Chaos Thrust didn't wanna join, B4B said no, and BotD is having a bad day.

Perhaps more responsive in that, the effect of the ability is applied before the animation if at all possible, so things like that happen less frequently?

[Ametrine]

Benediction...well all instant heals, are supposed to be buffers more than an "Oh SHIT!"

I got to the point Bene and Tetra where more about saving MP and time......



But, the rumor about combat getting streamlined a bit is true. Yoshi-p talked about it in a few different interviews that the team has noted the skill gaps between players has grown since 3.0 and they intend to rework certain aspects and rotations to close it.

The long and short of it is, he wants all jobs to be as accessible at 70 as they were/are at 50.

[Iromi]

OP you say you want combat to be more akin to modern times, but WoW came out in 2004. It is not modern. It is old.

Anyway, if any combat changes were to happen I'd just like to see some actual CC usage and a real support class.

[Raynar]

Hey all, I just recently came back again after giving Legion a go. Great expansion, but the community in WoW is abysmal these days and overshadows all enjoyment I get from the game. I hadn't played FFXIV for a couple patches, so I'm finding all kinds of new stuff to do and having a great time.

One thing still bothers me though about this game. The combat and movement feels so terribly clunky, especially after spending a couple months in Azeroth again. The fluidity of CD usage and ZERO lag during combat and movement in WoW makes FFXIV feel insanely sluggish in comparison. FFXIV has become a superior game in a lot of ways and is in my opinion one of the best MMOs to date, it's just a shame that it's held back by this clunky combat system and laggy movement response.

Well I understand your reason for this Thread But Sorry this modern MMO has PS3 Limitations....

[Wavaryen]

OP you say you want combat to be more akin to modern times, but WoW came out in 2004. It is not modern. It is old.

Anyway, if any combat changes were to happen I'd just like to see some actual CC usage and a real support class.

To be fair wow keeps updating its combat and legion did a bunch of good things to the combat. Warlocks changes alone is crazy good. Summon a army of demons? Realm Reborn is amazing game, but this combat makes me leave..