Does WoW have a faster pace than FFXIV?

[tdb]

No.. you're not. You're not reacting to anything. A reaction means something has occurred against you and you are taking an action to actively avoid it. A scripted encounter means that you move from position A towards position B not because something has occurred to force you to move/react; but because you saw the boss take a completely separate action, but that action precedes the ability that would need to be avoided, and so you preemptively take action to negate what will follow in the bosses ability procession.

You may know that you need to move at a specific time, but you won't always know exactly where to move. Maybe the boss places a delayed AoE on a random player, or it fires a wide beam in a random direction. You know the attack is coming, but you still have to watch the boss to know where it's coming and react accordingly. Some examples:
- Sophia ex's duplicated attack mechanic - it's not scripted which clone you have to move under, or which attack she does (although being close and just behind avoids both)
- Midgardsormr's spin/roll attacks in O10. You have to watch what he does to know whether you need to move close, far, to sides or to corners.
- Midgardsormr's flame breath mechanic just after the add phase. The order in which players are targeted is random.
- Omega's starboard/larboard mechanic in O11. The boss flipping around between the two attacks makes it even more difficult to get straight.
- Several boss mechanics in the Copied Factory. All bosses have mechanics where the targeting of an attack is randomized and you can't just move to a fixed place at a fixed time.

And let's not forget the perhaps most important source of randomness: other players. You can never predict exactly what they do, and it has a significant effect on where the attacks are aimed. Only raiding with a static alleviates this to an extent since you get to know each other and can do more planning beforehand, but there are still factors like someone being drunk or tired which may make them forget or react sluggishly and then others will have to adapt.

Also, even if many of FFXIV's fights are loosely choreographed dances, they're incredibly complex dances. Some people (me included) get satisfaction from mastering such a dance. It's kind of like playing an instrument (piano in my case) - a particular song is always the same, but it still feels good when you can move your fingers in precisely the right way for several minutes without making a mistake. If that's not your thing, that's fine, but it doesn't make FFXIV an objectively worse game.

[frostmagemari]

Also, even if many of FFXIV's fights are loosely choreographed dances, they're incredibly complex dances. Some people (me included) get satisfaction from mastering such a dance. It's kind of like playing an instrument (piano in my case) - a particular song is always the same, but it still feels good when you can move your fingers in precisely the right way for several minutes without making a mistake. If that's not your thing, that's fine, but it doesn't make FFXIV an objectively worse game.

I'm sorry, where did i say that XIV was a worse game? The OP asked about the pace of the game vs WoW, and the scripted to the second fights is what slows down it's pacing by a staggering amount. If you can prepare and in most cases plan ahead because you're following a script, it has a slower pace than a game that does not give you that luxury.

Being critical of a game's systems in comparison to other games does not mean i have the belief that one is worse; but i don't need to extol every facet of the game to enjoy it.

[Nedkel]

I'm sorry, where did i say that XIV was a worse game? The OP asked about the pace of the game vs WoW, and the scripted to the second fights is what slows down it's pacing by a staggering amount. If you can prepare and in most cases plan ahead because you're following a script, it has a slower pace than a game that does not give you that luxury.

Being critical of a game's systems in comparison to other games does not mean i have the belief that one is worse; but i don't need to extol every facet of the game to enjoy it.

No, OP said FFXIV combat is faster because it contains more mechanics in the design comparing to wow in which you just spam abilities.

[frostmagemari]

No, OP said FFXIV combat is faster because it contains more mechanics in the design comparing to wow in which you just spam abilities.

You didn't read the OP at all then, did you?

I've heard that, due to the higher global cooldown, FFXIV feels slower for some people. However, I've played both FFXIV and WoW, and I find, barring the obviously faster classes, the gameplay generally feels faster in FFXIV. I'm not 100% sure why FFXIV feels faster, but if I had to guess I would assume it's the movement. I find this game has you dodging AOEs and boss mechanics more often, not to mention positionals. I just fought Storge with the Monk, and that was one of the more hectic fights I've experienced. Dodging it's AOEs while landing your positionals, and trying not to trip up your combo (that may just be me, as I don't know the rotation) took not a small amount of focus. At any rate, what do you guys think? Is WoW faster paced or FFXIV, and why?

He specifically makes mentions to combat flow of the fights, and in his opinion, XIV's combat is faster paced; even though it is scripted. And i was saying that it is not faster paced. The pace of the fight slows down because there is nothing unforeseen happening. You already know to prepare to dodge something after boss uses X move. You already know to avoid the edges of the arena after Y move. You already know to prepare a defensive because the tank-buster happens at X points in the fight. You don't need to actually watch the fight much at all, you just need to know that X will happen and only worry about that next.

Hell, we had a post by SaberMaxwell that said "We knew the mechanics, we knew when they'd come and how much damage they would do" and that they had to start inventing ways to make the fights more interesting for them; in a game that has a fast paced combat/boss system, you don't get those luxuries.

[Driavna]

No, OP said FFXIV combat is faster because it contains more mechanics in the design comparing to wow in which you just spam abilities.

Do you understand that FF14 has the same problem, right? We have a lot of classes that follow very rigid rotations that you repeat over and over. Having more buttons to press means nothing really.

Also, what has this to do with pacing? WoW has faster gameplay compared to FFXIV. That does not make one game better than the other, is all about preferences. But I guess is another one of "those topics": WoW bad, FFXIV good!

[tdb]

I'm sorry, where did i say that XIV was a worse game? The OP asked about the pace of the game vs WoW, and the scripted to the second fights is what slows down it's pacing by a staggering amount. If you can prepare and in most cases plan ahead because you're following a script, it has a slower pace than a game that does not give you that luxury.

Being critical of a game's systems in comparison to other games does not mean i have the belief that one is worse; but i don't need to extol every facet of the game to enjoy it.

Apologies if I inferred too much from your posts. I might have also confused you with someone else in the preceding discussion. I got a general vibe of "FFXIV's boss fights are highly scripted and you need no actual skills to perform the dance" (not necessarily from your posts, just from the discussion in general). Not that less skills needed necessarily equates worse either.