2.5s Recast/GCD feels wayyy too long.

[Powercow]

No, faster raid mechanics don't have anything to do with it. Simple example, BDO has amazing combat that flows very well, yet there's no dungeons or raids. You don't need difficult bosses to know whether the combat is good or bad. I know even when I do nearly perfect on my rotation that the playstyle is not very fast, every action doesn't feel like it leads to the next naturally other than that the next skill lights up. As for weaving, the amount of extra skills are very limited by the Kenki, not to mention the idea of "weaving" itself is an unnatural concept. It's basically "here, while you are waiting for your combos to come up, use this completely unrelated skill as filler.

It's essentially watching a TV show and every 3 episodes, one episode is a filler, it has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever and is only there to fill the timeslot.

So you like DMC, BDO, etc. Have you tried one of those rhythm games like Osu! or StepMania or something? Those are much faster but would likely ruin your enjoyment of those other games. I get the feeling that raw speed seems to be the only thing that matters, and only in a vacuum, completely devoid of any context. You keep compartmentalizing the individual aspects of combat, it's a mental thing that some people have trouble overcoming. You say the opponent doesn't matter in terms of making the fight interesting, which is a... unique sentiment. To you, fighting a training dummy needs to be as exciting as fighting a dragon god. A perfect example was earlier with you thinking that "I can take X skills and just multiply it by 13%", completely missing the extra Kenki you would have gotten. It's like you see a tree, and another tree, and all these other trees but can't see there's a forest there.

As for your TV analogy, bizarre as it is... FFXIV's combat is more like an episode. No good TV show is "100% GOGOGO" the whole time. Action movies, Kung Fu movies, even stuff like DBZ knows that in order to keep the audience engaged you need to slow down sometimes. Take any epic battle scene -- a lightsaber duel, a fighter jet battle, an epic cavalry charge, whatever it is and you'll see that there's always moments where things slow down. Do you flip out at the movie for taking a moment to breathe? Without those moments, the more exciting times aren't exciting. It gets exhausting. Same thing happens with MMOs -- if you have a spec that's ALL OUT ALL THE TIME then it gets very boring after a while.

Also I watched a BDO combat video and... yikes you wanna talk about animations not flowing? I couldn't find an example of any two skills used in sequence that didn't look jarring as hell. Know what might help make it flow? Slowing it down a notch so the animation could finish. But nah, let's do a spin, then when the sword is behind my back and I'm facing the wrong way snap to me facing forward and slamming the ground -- only to snap into me charging forward with my sword at a completely different angle. Such flow, such smooth, such not-clunky!

You can just create a macro for hiding and showing your skillbars with "/hotbar display [Number]"

*looks at old textbook*
Well old friend, it seems you've been replaced...

[Physic]

There hasn't been positionals in WoW in like a decade. You are deliberately misinterpreting things. I'm done talking to you.

he wasn't just talking about wow, the OP mentions blade and soul, gw2, and Tera as well. have you ever played these games?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eErnAyxCmnE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWIBSxrkLso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-93iXO3V88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWg475UhF7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_cROszlsQ



If you look and see how often they press buttons, and the lack of gcds, you can see why he might find ffxiv slow and clunky with gcds.

[Daralii]

he wasn't just talking about wow, the OP mentions blade and soul, gw2, and Tera as well. have you ever played these games?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eErnAyxCmnE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWIBSxrkLso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-93iXO3V88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWg475UhF7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_cROszlsQ



If you look and see how often they press buttons, and the lack of gcds, you can see why he might find ffxiv slow and clunky with gcds.

But they're comparing apples and oranges. Them and BDO are closer to action games, while XIV is probably closer to a rhythm game in its weird attempt to combine something akin to WoW and FF's ATB system.

[Misutoraru]

It is good to see OP enjoy B&S, Tera and BDO those action base MMORPG, they are aiming at the audience like OP
Yet, not every game cater to every type of players. Some people just enjoy the pace of FFXIV and might not found those action base fun.
It is perfectly reasonable to have a say about something you don’t like, but that doesn’t mean we have to follow those game.
This 2.5s have been with us since 2.0 and I doubt it will ever get change

[Daralii]

It is good to see OP enjoy B&S, Tera and BDO those action base MMORPG, they are aiming at the audience like OP
Yet, not every game cater to every type of players. Some people just enjoy the pace of FFXIV and might not found those action base fun.
It is perfectly reasonable to have a say about something you don’t like, but that doesn’t mean we have to follow those game.
This 2.5s have been with us since 2.0 and I doubt it will ever get change

They could always go back to the Tanaka era. Wait for the stamina bar to fill to execute a basic attack to generate TP to wait for the stamina bar to fill to execute a more advanced attack that cost more stamina, wait for the stamina bar to fill...

[Powercow]

They could always go back to the Tanaka era. Wait for the stamina bar to fill to execute a basic attack to generate TP to wait for the stamina bar to fill to execute a more advanced attack that cost more stamina, wait for the stamina bar to fill...

Light Strike -> Feint -> repeat

*vomits in nostalgia*

[Roshidon1]

It was a good effort, Powercow (funny name considering I play a Tauren in WoW) but I don't think XYR is listening.

[Physic]

They could always go back to the Tanaka era. Wait for the stamina bar to fill to execute a basic attack to generate TP to wait for the stamina bar to fill to execute a more advanced attack that cost more stamina, wait for the stamina bar to fill...

they had an iteration of the combat that was pretty fun, right before they added the first version of this one. Basically they bossted stamina gain drasticly, i remember drg could set up an insane doomspike line aoe combo.

overall ffxiv combat is a weird beast, for me, overall, I would say the gcd type system is probably one of the weakest points of the game overall, it doesn't feel strategic/tactical/deliberative enough to have the mandatory wait times, maybe if you could queue actions...

anyhow the game is what it is, and gcd aint going anywhere, but I definitely understand the OP's point, especially as I come back to ffxiv after a break.

I recognize though many of this games players specifically requested lower apm back before 2.0, and what I dislike might be part of why they picked this game.