Animations and their effect on Combat

[MistressAthena]

Nothing like jamming on my Benediction key and 4 seconds later it actually goes off. Instant, my fanny.

It's the worst with the PLDs most powerful spell (forget the name atm >.> dead tired). Which makes you go invincible for so many seconds. How many times I've died due to lag + waiting for an animation you can't even properly see, only to see the spell go off as you die. ffs SE.

It's supposed to be an "oh Crap" situation ability, not a 'well maybe I'll be troubled in a bit, I guess I'll press it now just in case!" ability...

That being said, I'm poorly disappointed in the animations in general. They are fast, look like crap, and ultimately do nothing other than to slow down your spells, which is just coupled even worse by the global CD.

1.0 had fluid nice animations, that looked great, and felt like a real fight was going on. 2.0 looks like 7 people waving their arms frantically with flashy lights going off. Totally retarded imo.

[sasakusaku]

Worse? How worse can it be to try to cast my only instant heal spell to save the day only for it to go off 4 secs later when the target is already dead? I think it's about the same lol.

[Reiterpallasch]

Here we go again:

It's a flat timer that prevents you from using abilities immediately after using another. Animation has nothing to do with it.

[complexxL9]

Hi everyone.

Before I say anything, I just want to say I am thoroughly enjoying FFXIV so far and plan to continue playing for the foreseeable future.

Basically, I'm posting here to get people’s opinions on the fact that Combat Animations take priority over the actual effects of the ability. This is something I've seen in other MMOs in the past and it really does ruin otherwise flawless combat systems, particularly from my point of view as a Tank in an FC progressing in Bahamuts Coil. Here are a few of the things I've noticed about animations messing with combat:
I have had to split this over a few posts due to the 1000 character limit.

Continued…

Yes OP we know all about it, and it is "working as intended".
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...less-rewarding.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-in-this-video

also related
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...es-the-casting.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ight-mechanics

[Velox]

Here we go again:

It's a flat timer that prevents you from using abilities immediately after using another. Animation has nothing to do with it.

I think you misread the OP. It's not about the global cooldown. This thread is about the responsiveness of skills after initiating them. Some skills, although "instant" have a lengthy animation that has to occur BEFORE the actual skill effect happens. This, coupled with latency issues, can lead to a lot of problems in fights when quick reaction is needed to respond to threats and damage spikes.

And I believe the devs have stated that this will not be changed. It takes some getting used to, but I've gotten pretty accustomed to preempting the need for certain skills based on mob behavior and damage patterns, even when using skills like Benediction. The lengthy animations actually add a bit of a challenge which I find myself enjoying.

[vincent1]

thank you all for making this post with this information. and especially thank you for letting me know it is working as intended. it helps me to understand the core mechanics of the game and make a more informed choice about staying or leaving.

thanks again. I appreciate the info