Alpha Video 5 - 3 sec GCD combat seems slow

[Crayge]

I have another concern that stems off of this. Not only do we have a 3 second global recast, it is the only recast for all of our weapon skills/spells/etc. Is this going to lend itself to at higher level we'll find all our jobs just using their one strongest ability? If its available every 3 seconds along with everything else, why bother using any of the other skills?

One thing I loved about 1.0's combat system was how the different recast timers + combo system made it so you always had good reason to use ALL the weapon skills you had at your disposal. I loved the variety in attacks that this facilitated and the fact that our skills didn't become useless after we got new ones. It was a thing of beauty and made combat more engaging for me.

I realize we haven't seen how the new combo system will work. I also realize that the higher weapon skills might be managed more by something other than recast time, like higher tp cost. But those things considered... this system seems like such a step backwards. They spent over a year tweaking and fine tuning the combat system to make it something really solid and different... it was great! All it needed was the new server structure/graphics engine ARR is bringing. Why... why are they throwing out all that work for... this?

[Skies]

I have another concern that stems off of this. Not only do we have a 3 second global recast, it is the only recast for all of our weapon skills/spells/etc. Is this going to lend itself to at higher level we'll find all our jobs just using their one strongest ability? If its available every 3 seconds along with everything else, why bother using any of the other skills?

One thing I loved about 1.0's combat system was how the different recast timers + combo system made it so you always had good reason to use ALL the weapon skills you had at your disposal. I loved the variety in attacks that this facilitated and the fact that our skills didn't become useless after we got new ones. It was a thing of beauty and made combat more engaging for me.

I realize we haven't seen how the new combo system will work. I also realize that the higher weapon skills might be managed more by something other than recast time, like higher tp cost. But those things considered... this system seems like such a step backwards. They spent over a year tweaking and fine tuning the combat system to make it something really solid and different... it was great! All it needed was the new server structure/graphics engine ARR is bringing. Why... why are they throwing out all that work for... this?

Look at the description of the attack, you gotta pause. Combo Action: Double the attack power
Again
And again, this time it ALSO has a Heavy effect in addition to double attack power, presumably also being third hit in a chain.

Combos are still present, they give benefits for being used. Global cooldowns won't lock you into using only the 'best' ability, it just makes easier to recover from a miss or badly-timed combo starter or to restart the combo chain from the middle if you screw up.