Please remove the character lock on skill animations...

[Fixy]

You are basically skill capping your own game at a very low level by putting animations on skills that lock your character in place.

Shoot an arrow and a monster starts to breath fire? Tough luck buddy, you're getting hit when you're spamming your move button.

This literally keeps the game at a state where no matter what you add to the game, the game will always be limited to its own engine, when a simple release of the lock would make it completely undone (why world of warcraft is so popular... it was the first game to do this).

Also some new animations COULD be nice. I mean, you made the game look pretty much perfect (except for copy pasted terrain but thats different) with character models looking really nice and the scenery too, but you gave every race the same animation for everything? Why? Why would you do that when you put so much time into characters and environment before basic game play mechanics.

But I digress, removing animation locking is a great start to make your game popular. Most people do not want to play an MMO where they cast an ability and have to wait 4 seconds to move again while your character does it copy pasted animation at the speed of smell.

[Elgorian]

Agreed, when a lot of the combat mechanics that we have now focus around placement. On the sides of a mob to avoid an attack or behind it etc. If the mob decides to move while we're in the middle of doing something..... oh we're sorry but you have to die because this animation is just so awesome you can't move!

Was honestly one of the things I did like about WoW is you could easily move (even if it meant canceling your actions) to get where you need to be for survivial.

I know in FFXI if you timed blinks at the right time you could accomplish this but FFXI didn't have as big a deal with the needing to be placed in certain spots as WoW or FFXIV does.

Would love to see the animations breakable or continue while moving.

[Celebcarca]

I disagree...WoW is cartoonish....FF has always tried to be more realistic. The reality is that a sniper doesn't make a 1000 yd kill when hopping around running in circles. They have to stop and focus. I'm sure William Tell didn't shoot the apple from someone's head while jumping around, running in circles. The fact of the matter is this, if you paid attention, you would have a rough idea of the mob's TP. The mob uses his special moves when they have TP. Plain and simple. Now, how about your use your "restrictive moves" after his? Why not learn to play the game instead of SE dumbing it down for you? Those placement moves you whine about may be provided in the context of party play and if you are doing your job correctly (managing aggro, etc), an archer shouldn't have hate. FF doesn't allow you to spam buttons without consequence. It is a different game. IF you are soloing, maybe you should look at other skills. I hated WoW and left it because I wanted the feeling of teamwork that is required to accomplish things like CoP in FFXI. If WoW was perfect, please go back...If not, why did you come to FF? Now, if WoW wasn't perfect, why then must this game follow its imperfection? Face it, a larger percentage of the population likes WoW because a larger percentage of the population are unthinking sheep. Don't talk to me about what WoW requires, I ran a raiding guild and WoW requires nil skill for people to get uber gear. In addition, WoW was not popular because it was the first game that allowed you to run around and spam abilities.

This is much more about the PvP whining that is institutionalized now in WoW. The same people who whine about not being able to jump. Let me tell you, people in plate and chain armor don't do much jumping and if so, they will definitely tire before the end of the fight and probably end up dinner in a can.

If a mage is casting an ancient magic that requires all his focus, he should have to stand still. A marauder mustering all his strength for that lethal blow is not going to get it done by running around. Matter of fact, if he is not completely balanced, his movement would cause him to deal a less than effective blow. That is why we have auto-attack.

Now, to me the compromise would be this. If they take away the movement restriction then in its place they reduce the effectiveness of your skill.

If you are partying and the mob moves from the tank, it is the party's failure to control emnity that is at fault. Mages in FFXI could not go around blasting ancient magics without drawing hate. They had to learn when and where to use them.

If you are honestly saying that FFXI did not require attention to location, you're dead wrong. The role of the bard was nothing but location. The role of the THF and offtank---nothing but location. I am guessing that in FFXI you played a pure dmg dealer and never had to worry about these problems because A.) You did not get far enough in the game to get booted from a party for failing to recognize this or B.) You played with people that were good enough to compensate for your inablilty.

From what I see, this game requires FAR LESS of it than FFXI did.

[thepoet03]

Celebcarca I couldn't agree more I played in a raptor party last night and our mages must have died 4-5 times each and the DD were getting pounded.. Me on the other hand didn't get hit once... I was DDing from behind so their forward facing TP move never hit me and I know how to use moves that drop threat and keep my stone skin on. Also if I did get hit not a drop of MP was wasted on my cause I could heal myself and steal mp... People are lazy and instead of using skill they just want to face smash the keyboard or controller until they win. Lucky for the bad players the Tank and I and one of our mages was decent enough.

[Cycloptichorn]

I guess I don't understand. You seem to want to be able to cancel out of your most powerful attacks. How does that resemble strategic or skillful play?

If you make the decision to do a move that locks you in place a few seconds, you takes yer chances. And it's realistic, too - try hitting anything hard with a sword, or anything at all with an arrow, when your feet aren't well set.

[Lienn]

I disagree. Skill lock is a must...its not like you can stop a swing in the middle just because you saw the monster moving. IMO if you started a WS or action you MUST finish it before being able to move.

Its part of the player skill knowing where to be before using an action.

[MariyaShidou]

Animation lock needs to stay, although they need to work on battle choreography to accommodate Auto-Attack better (which they said they are working on). MMOs are moving toward action game, and it's unrealistic to be able to immediately cancel your sequence of attack.