Am I the only one who dislikes the GNB changes?

[Oizen]

Yeah thats a point I can get behind. I kinda wish the Lionheart combo had continuations in it. Even if the effective damage was the same as now.

[CKNovel]

You could already do that BEFORE Sonic Break got locked behind No Mercy, and this the one change I don't like as a 30 second cooldown reduction on Sonic Break makes more sense at this point... with Bow Shock also getting a Duration increase to 30 seconds and a cooldown reduced to 30 seconds as well...

No, before you couldn't delay your Sonic break otherwise every next use would suffer from that delay.
In EX1 you can delay Sonic break use in a 60s window to have it on the add rather than the boss that is about to disappear.
Next NM window, you'll have Sonic break not delayed and able to use it earlier. And since SB has a 30s dot, it's great to be able to shift it around in your NM window.

Another example: On MCH you can also use Chainsaw on cooldown but hold Excavator to strike both the feather and the boss.
We have more flexibility on tools rather than blindly using them on cooldown or delaying them and having them permanently delayed.

Yeah thats a point I can get behind. I kinda wish the Lionheart combo had continuations in it. Even if the effective damage was the same as now.

Lionheart exactly exist for the purpose of removing the oGCD bloat GNB suffered.
Remember that in EW, Gunbreaker 120s had 8 oGCDs spread over 8 GCDs during its NM window. When you needed to kitchen sink mitigation, it simply sucked.
In Ultimate it was especially tiring.

[DRKoftheAzure]

No, before you couldn't delay your Sonic break otherwise every next use would suffer from that delay.
In EX1 you can delay Sonic break use in a 60s window to have it on the add rather than the boss that is about to disappear.
Next NM window, you'll have Sonic break not delayed and able to use it earlier. And since SB has a 30s dot, it's great to be able to shift it around in your NM window.

Another example: On MCH you can also use Chainsaw on cooldown but hold Excavator to strike both the feather and the boss.
We have more flexibility on tools rather than blindly using them on cooldown or delaying them and having them permanently delayed.

This sounds like poor cooldown management to me. Alternatively this could also be yet ANOTHER issue with the 2 minute META.

Lionheart exactly exist for the purpose of removing the oGCD bloat GNB suffered.
Remember that in EW, Gunbreaker 120s had 8 oGCDs spread over 8 GCDs during its NM window. When you needed to kitchen sink mitigation, it simply sucked.
In Ultimate it was especially tiring.

I can see WHY you came to this conclusion, I just don't agree with, since Gunbreaker SHOULD be a high skill ceiling job when it comes to oGCDs such as more Continuation skills and 3 charges on ALL defensives, but again the 2 minute META kinda makes it hard for Gunbreaker to do that... Also kitchen sinking defensives feels more like poor game design as opposed to a tank buster followed by a raidwide AoE every 30 second intervals, which would make boss encounters feel more engaging as a result, unless they do kitchen sinking every 30 seconds in which case we end up right back where we started...

[CKNovel]

This sounds like poor cooldown management to me. Alternatively this could also be yet ANOTHER issue with the 2 minute META.

That's not "poor cooldown management", that's smart cooldown management. In fact, there was no cooldown management for Sonic break, you just used it as soon as possible, it was simply braindead.
We have more leeway and we are more than just "press on cooldown without thinking". Now you can freely move them around to optimize damage without suffering for a permanent drift.

The point is: Unless before, you now have a choice to express your skill and maximize damage.
It's up to you to exploit that choice, maybe when the boss/add is about to die you want to move Sonic break ahead.

I can see WHY you came to this conclusion, I just don't agree with, since Gunbreaker SHOULD be a high skill ceiling job when it comes to oGCDs such as more Continuation skills and 3 charges on ALL defensives, but again the 2 minute META kinda makes it hard for Gunbreaker to do that... Also kitchen sinking defensives feels more like poor game design as opposed to a tank buster followed by a raidwide AoE every 30 second intervals, which would make boss encounters feel more engaging as a result, unless they do kitchen sinking every 30 seconds in which case we end up right back where we started...

Kitchen sink was a poor design, I agree.
But they can simply have the boss auto dealing a lot of damage

But pressing continuation 3 times isn't skillfull, it's mere execution.
Gunbreaker never was on the high skill ceiling, it was always simple to play just very busy. Not difficult, just busy.
If you repeat that for long hours, it's just draining.

2 min meta has nothing to do with those topics, 2 min meta is boring but it's not responsible for every problems.

[DRKoftheAzure]

That's not "poor cooldown management", that's smart cooldown management. In fact, there was no cooldown management for Sonic break, you just used it as soon as possible, it was simply braindead.
We have more leeway and we are more than just "press on cooldown without thinking". Now you can freely move them around to optimize damage without suffering for a permanent drift.

The point is: Unless before, you now have a choice to express your skill and maximize damage.
It's up to you to exploit that choice, maybe when the boss/add is about to die you want to move Sonic break ahead.

Were you using Sonic Break before Gnashing Fang or after? Because this COULD POTENTIALLY matter depending on the fight. And after the change to Sonic Break being locked behind No Mercy I still pressed it along with Bow Shock and Blasting Zone before Gnashing Fang, mostly because it looks the LEAST janky but still cool to see out of ALL the GCD and oGCD double weaving combinations, due to Double Down and Sonic Break being 60 second cooldowns and Gnashing Fang being 30 seconds.

Kitchen sink was a poor design, I agree.
But they can simply have the boss auto dealing a lot of damage

2 min meta has nothing to do with those topics, 2 min meta is boring but it's not responsible for every problems.

But pressing continuation 3 times isn't skillfull, it's mere execution.
Gunbreaker never was on the high skill ceiling, it was always simple to play just very busy. Not difficult, just busy.

I had to take these 3 quotes out of the order that you put them to address something; ALL 3 of these COMBINED IN THE ORDER THAT I PUT THOSE QUOTES IN MAKE MORE SENSE THAN THE PREVIOUS ORDER, for your to argument about Gunbreaker not being a high skill ceiling job to have any meaning.

Kitchen sink was a poor design, I agree.
But they can simply have the boss auto dealing a lot of damage

This is true for not just Gunbreaker, but ALL tanks.

2 min meta has nothing to do with those topics, 2 min meta is boring but it's not responsible for every problems.

The LONGEST defensive cooldowns that aren't invulns are 2 minutes, this is NOT exclusive to DPS META, and when you combine that with kitchen sinking cooldowns, yeah it becomes even more obvious that tanks aren't very engaging outside of dungeons. Though longest healing cooldowns for healers are STILL 3 minutes long and are locked behind ye olde 3 minute META. But that's a different can of worms right there...

But pressing continuation 3 times isn't skillfull, it's mere execution.
Gunbreaker never was on the high skill ceiling, it was always simple to play just very busy. Not difficult, just busy.

Combine this with the previous 2 statements, and yeah, I see WHY you think Gunbreaker was never a high skill ceiling job... but there other factors that also come into play, such as the devs poor leveling design choices from Shadowbringers onward... which makes Gunbreaker in older content feel as the skill floor and ceiling is only as high as either Post-5.x Warrior or Pre-3.x Paladin... The latter of which we should have moved AWAY from when design new jobs but here we are... And it also doesn't help that the devs don't make make content that could potentially make Gunbreaker be that high skill floor+ceiling tank... not without Warrior mains causing an uproar anyway...

[CKNovel]

Were you using Sonic Break before Gnashing Fang or after? Because this COULD POTENTIALLY matter depending on the fight. And after the change to Sonic Break being locked behind No Mercy I still pressed it along with Bow Shock and Blasting Zone before Gnashing Fang, mostly because it looks the LEAST janky but still cool to see out of ALL the GCD and oGCD double weaving combinations, due to Double Down and Sonic Break being 60 second cooldowns and Gnashing Fang being 30 seconds.

The LONGEST defensive cooldowns that aren't invulns are 2 minutes, this is NOT exclusive to DPS META, and when you combine that with kitchen sinking cooldowns, yeah it becomes even more obvious that tanks aren't very engaging outside of dungeons. Though longest healing cooldowns for healers are STILL 3 minutes long and are locked behind ye olde 3 minute META. But that's a different can of worms right there...

Combine this with the previous 2 statements, and yeah, I see WHY you think Gunbreaker was never a high skill ceiling job... but there other factors that also come into play, such as the devs poor leveling design choices from Shadowbringers onward... which makes Gunbreaker in older content feel as the skill floor and ceiling is only as high as either Post-5.x Warrior or Pre-3.x Paladin... The latter of which we should have moved AWAY from when design new jobs but here we are... And it also doesn't help that the devs don't make make content that could potentially make Gunbreaker be that high skill floor+ceiling tank... not without Warrior mains causing an uproar anyway...

Was all this deconstructing ever necessary? Same goes for the uppercase, I can feel your emotions but I'm confused by the logic.

It's up to you to use your imagination and think outside the box. I can think about a lot of scenarios where you'd want to use your Sonic Break outside of No Mercy without delaying it. Dungeons are a easy example where you'd rather use your aoes in No Mercy then use Sonic Break on the tankier target. Same goes if you're about to kill the boss, you would want to have Sonic break earlier.

I'm confused by your point about defensive being 2 minutes... I don't understand the point you're trying to make? Healers 180 are tools able to top the party, Tanks 120 are tools to keep yourself alive. If tanks CDs were 180s nothing would change but the mapping around those, you use them when a tank buster is about to happen, nothing more.

GNB will never be a high skill ceiling job for the simple reason that there's no high skill ceiling job in the game. All jobs are meant to be "easy to learn, difficult to master".