FFXIV’s Combat Has Become Too Obsessed With GCD Uptime

[ForsakenRoe]

What I am asking is: why can’t some core tank or healer actions be designed as part of the job’s GCD rhythm in a way that feels natural and unique?

A good example is Dancer.

Standard Step and Technical Step are tied to the GCD structure, but they do not feel like they ruin the gameplay. They temporarily change the rhythm of the job, create a different gameplay moment, and still feel like part of Dancer’s identity. You are not just pressing your usual combo while weaving everything else. The job itself changes pace for a moment, and that is part of what makes it distinct.

So why can’t tanks and healers have more of that kind of design?

We do have some actions on Tanks and Healers that are non-damage related, but GCD. Macrocosmos and Pneuma come to mind for Healers, but way back when in 2.X-4.X, WAR's Inner Beast had a mitigative component (which was actually hefty Lifesteal in 2.0 specifically), was a GCD, and cost 5 'stacks' (the functional equivalent of 50 Gauge nowadays). Even those feel kinda 'ough' though, like if I compare how it 'feels' to use Macrocosmos here, versus its estranged cousin Rewind in WOW, it's night and day how bad Macro feels by comparison

As for the Dancer comparison, it could be argued that we used to have that stuff, back in HW/SB, as Tanks had alternate combos that applied Mitigative effects. For example, Storm's Path for WAR reduced the enemy's damage by 10% (and heals the WAR), while Storm's Eye boosted their own damage by 10% (and their Emnity combo, Butcher's Block, was the highest potency total of the three combos). DRK had Delerium as an alternate combo-ender to Souleater, which did more damage than Souleater and reduced the enemy's INT (aka, Magic Damage) by 10%, but Souleater did more damage than Delerium if you used Dark Arts to empower it. So you'd alternate between the two, Delerium to maintain the debuff and to regulate your MP, and Souleater to spend MP when you had enough spare (and the debuff wasn't going to fall off)

These debuffs were removed because... Not sure why, really. PLD's was kinda not-good (10% STR/Physical Damage reduction, most damage bosses did was Magical TBs and Magical Raidwides), but I don't think it was that. More likely they just couldn't be bothered with considering 'oh we need to increase the boss's damage output by 15%, because the Tanks will reduce it back down with their debuffs' on every piece of content. Could be a good way to differentiate the MTs and OTs in 8.0, though, bringing such a system back, and it'd explain why EG WAR is going to be considered an OT (IE it goes back to being able to reduce the enemy's damage by 10%, with 100% uptime)