How does FFXIV fare against other modern MMORPGs?

[Stanelis]

Well, it feels like 10APM sometime on some jobs, especially some melee jobs. People complain about 2.5s GCD in XIV, but seriously, it's not too uncommon to go 10+ seconds without anything to do. Need TP to do a weaponskill, most of your abilities have 5+ minute cooldowns, etc.

Also, I'm not including movement in the APM estimates... and 10 APM is 6 seconds avg between ability usage, afterall and I can tell you that waiting longer than 6 seconds between doing things is very common.

Currently on melee jobs on FFXI you WS every few seconds if you know what you're doing (ie you have the relevant gear, with all the haste and multi-hit), and you need to line up your buff (without any GCD) and coordinate with your teammates for skillchains. Sure FFXI is a game where you have to think about when to go ham but when you do you have to quickly make use of your abilities, as there aren't any GCD. If you spend 10 secs+ without doing something, you don't really know what you're doing.

And your point is moot for healers, support, tank and mage jobs, on which you are always casting something.