2.5s Recast/GCD feels wayyy too long.

[foussi]

The gcd is pretty much fine as it is now and like the game isn't fast paced. And some classes would be pretty much overpowered or straight up would attack too fast if the gcd is lowered.
*Looks at blackmage*

And it probably prevents us from destroying bosses in seconds.

[Powercow]

I always like this argument. "FFXIV is soooooo slooooooooow" -- says someone either playing a slow job, is low level, or isn't doing it right.

Samurai is a medium-high-speed job, floating somewhere around 49 APM on a training dummy if you count positionals as just one button press (usually it's two, as most people right-click+strafe. In that case it'd be ~55.) For the record, 49 puts it right around Demonology Warlock, which is in the upper half speed-wise for WoW. It's true none of the jobs this expansion quite match up to the fastest WoW DPS specs (Fury Warrior at 67 apm, highest in FFXIV right now is Ninja at around ~55 for one-button positionals, ~60 for two.) Still, the difference isn't dramatically large, and many WoW refugees complain about there being too many mechanics to dodge during boss fights in FFXIV. That would certainly imply that FFXIV fights require more movement than WoW. I disagree however, as even a cursory glance at the world first race in WoW shows there's *plenty* of crap to dodge there, too.

I'm kind of lowballing the FFXIV numbers btw. They're honestly probably a bit higher, as people generally stop casting whenever they have to be off a boss, and on someone like Innocence that's a decent amount (the jumps, the phase transition, getting marked with the big circle, etc. This means about 4%-ish offtime during a pull), so bump the FFXIV numbers up a tad if you'd like. And no, I'm not counting Bloodbath, Sprint, etc., just the rotational stuff. My WoW numbers come from SimCraft, which is literally "this is you playing at your absolute maximum" and also doesn't include defensives for non-tanks. Any APM above the listed amount is wasted APM.

Also, I can kinda tell why you think the combat in this game is slow. If you need help with Samurai and pushing buttons faster there's resources you can turn to (The Balance is pretty good), but in general you should be doing ~30% more APM than you are now. Most of the time for melee it's simply a lack of confidence in your rotation (which causes hesitation as you stop to think what button to press next) or fear of keeping high uptime on the boss (dodging very far from bosses to avoid mechanics instead of staying on it.)

And if anyone says "but positionals don't count lol" -- it's literally you pressing a button to get more DPS. It counts as an action.

[Angry_Evil]

I always like this argument. "FFXIV is soooooo slooooooooow" -- says someone either playing a slow job, is low level, or isn't doing it right.

I mean... you can take a quick peak at his fflogs to tell that even with his super slow 2s GCDs he can't press buttons right and plays SAM incorrectly.
Meanwhile me here on my summoner double triple weaving lol and want even slower GCD...

[YanderePrincess]

Out of all the MMORPG(s) I've played(WoW, Black Desert, Tera, ESO, Blade and Soul, Guild Wars 2, and FFXIV), FFXIV has the longest GCD and the most clunky combat. I don't know what was the design intent behind such a long recast time? Have you guys ever been stunned for 2.5s during combat? It feels like 2 hours. That's how it feels to sit there waiting for that 2.5s every skill. Even stacking Skill Speed + 13% from my buff only reduce it to 2seconds.

IMO, in terms of content, FFXIV is only behind WoW. In terms of graphics, it is only behind Black Desert, but in terms of combat it's really near last out of all the popular MMOs. FFXIII-3 and FFXV both had great and fluid combat, so why can't FFXIV after numerous expansions?

Are you bothering to weave your oGCDs in between your GCDs? Aside from the occasional proc drought on Dancer, I'm pretty much constantly pushing buttons. Not to mention queuing up my next WS so that it goes off as soon as that GCD finishes.

[Sequora]

Maybe try playing something a little more complex? SAM isn't exactly the most complex DPS in the game.

[Juanpierre]

Try a ninja and you won't feel like things are slow lol.

But I will say that when I first started the game, I had the same feeling. Came from WoW with a 1.5s GCD, and this game felt slow and clunky. But I got used to it quick and saw the reasoning at higher levels with all of the oGCD weaving. To do that correctly you need timing and dexterity.

[brasteir]

I've played a lot of gw2 and wow but in this game the fights get so hairy sometimes and they demand a lot of attention that when I have that rare moment I've exhausted ogcd's (mch particularly) I'm relieved I can just do my basic combo and focus on doing mechanics. Also I think in wow they did something to the gcd, I was playing bfa on my outlaw rogue and it was so jank because animations would end before the gcd came up. What made the long gcd tolerable for me in ffxiv was that the animations were long also.

[Sathona]

I thought the same until i hit endgame content etc,now it doesnt bother me and i can see why they dont do it like WoWs etc. theyd have to change core stuff overall for these to work~
Anyway i kinda like the way XIV plays atm with GCDs etc

[Kabooa]

I too wish I could break my 123 keys when Titan breaks out his SPODLERS? .

[Physic]

actually 1.0 had no gcds at all. i believe they just had stamina and animation times. Gcds came with arr i think, some people wanted slower combat, and less button presses.

imo the gcd system is not that good for combat, but many of yall like it so, its clearly debatable