Casting and spell animations...lackluster?

[Rimmer]

Well. Let's think about which ones have cool and unique animations: Earth Render, Arrow Helix, Iron Tempest...

And then I know Axe has two WS types. There's the Upward Swing, and the Over Head Smash. the standard upward swing works for slashing skills, while the overhead smash is truer for blunt skills. It is true they could do something fancier. than reusing a lot of those.

The axe weaponskills are definately boring... I'd like to see my character jump in the air and slam her axe into the ground generating shockwaves, much like seismic strike..Definately a huge lack of multi hit weapon skills as well..

Shantotto would be laughing her ass of at some of those spell animations... Ohohohoho!

It is true that alot of the games animations are incredibly lackluster, hopefully this gets commented on by Yoshi & the team soon, as i believe it to big a huge problem with the game currently.

[Lusavari]

Shantotto would be laughing her ass of at some of those spell animations... Ohohohoho!

This line removes any and all credibility you could possibly have. =/

Otherwise, as I was explaining, yeah, everything is not really that great. No Flashy Raging Rush or Shadow of Death sort of deals. Plus considering some of the names, you'd suspect more to go along with them.

[Hotohori]

Penta Thrust was pre-50 in XI, and it was pretty effing cool. But frankly even Raging Fists (late 30s for MNK iirc) was way better looking than the majority of skills in XIV. Power Slash was like level 10, and it looks better than most skills I've seen in XIV. Earth Crusher, Seraph Strike, Tachi: Hobaku; Jinpu and Koki, Viper Bite, Freezebite, Starburst, Sunburst, Gust Slash, Cyclone, Sturmwind, Circle Blade, all of those skils had better graphic effects and all (except perhaps koki, can't remember exactly the level on that one) were pre-50.

Also, Flare 1 in XI looks WAY better graphically than Flare 1 in XIV, no excuse for Ancient magic looking like barely recognizable pops on a monster and doing less damage than the tier 2 nukes.

Chaos Thrust is pretty much the same animation as Penta Thrust but 6 hits. Simian Fists is a 9 hit version of Asuran Fists. Maim is exactly Raging Rush, 3 hits and Storm's Path is Sturmwind perfectly. All of these things are in the game now but maybe you haven't seen them much. Do you really want a mage class to use physical staff and wand weaponskills like the ones you listed either? They were quite poorly balanced compare to others. Rage of Halone is essentially Vorpal Blade. Also maybe when samurai is release there will be something that looks familiar to any of the great katana and katana skills that were in 11.

[Demacia]

Chaos Thrust is pretty much the same animation as Penta Thrust but 6 hits. Simian Fists is a 9 hit version of Asuran Fists. Maim is exactly Raging Rush, 3 hits and Storm's Path is Sturmwind perfectly. All of these things are in the game now but maybe you haven't seen them much. Do you really want a mage class to use physical staff and wand weaponskills like the ones you listed either? They were quite poorly balanced compare to others. Rage of Halone is essentially Vorpal Blade. Also maybe when samurai is release there will be something that looks familiar to any of the great katana and katana skills that were in 11.

That's great and all, but it doesn't excuse the fact that by level 10 in an 8 year old game, your spells and WS were already on par/cooler looking than a lv50's in a game released in 2010.

[MRBJ1978]

I totally agree with what you all have said about the spell animations... I know how bad the battle system itself needs to be fixed and how there are bigger issues than this, but for me the sights and sounds of the game I am playing are just as important. Especially what I have come to love and expect from my Final Fantasy games!

Other than living, eating, sleeping, and breathing for the Summoner job (lol), one of the main things I look forward to in all Final Fantasy games is playing as the spell casting jobs. I cant wait to see the spell animation and hear the sound FX and see how they get bigger and badder as they go up in level. I could not wait for FF XIV to come out because I knew that the spells were going to look awesome but boy did I have a shock in store!

I cannot believe how this is supposed to be the UPGRADE to FF XI and be so superior as far as graphics go, yet the spell animation and sound FX in FF XI blow FF XIV out of the water! The elemental spells are bad enough, like a tiny pebble hitting the monster for a Stone spell, but when I saw the animation for Dia, Bio, and others like Rasp and Shock... I was horrified! What the hell, you need a magnifying glass to even see it... I want stuff that looks and sounds like Blizzard IV and Thunder IV from FF XI not stuff that looks and sounds like it came from FF IV. Heck, what am I saying, even those animation and sound FX look and sound better...

And please don't even get me started on how lame and disappointing the casting animation is... you hold your hand up in front of you, it glows, you hear a faint hissing noise, and the only difference between THM and CON are the colors? Really? Do we really need to say yet again that this is supposed to be a UPGRADE from FF XI? When you were casting a BLM spell it looked and sounded as if you were really calling forth something powerful, I don't even know what to compare it to in FF XIV. I love love love the Mage jobs but this really makes me want to stay away from them or just go back to FF XI full time because every time I play as one on FF XIV I just get pissed off because of how awesome it could have looked and sounded yet how crappy it is!

[Frisque]

It's Flare. FLARE. The one flare. The only flare. FF Flare. Second-only-to-meteor flare.
I'm okay with Fire I and II looking *okay* but come on now. If Telah cast half of these ancient magics do you know how much crap he'd be given by the team?

This. I finally got my R44 Skills and was so excited to try them all out! I tried Tornado and Burst, and my excitement fizzled when the spells were cast. "Ancient Magic"? REALLY?

The guys in my shell suggested I try Flare. "Surely" said they, "it can't suck. It's effin FLARE!". The animation are tiny little circles, and a little thing comes up that says "flare!". gee.... thanks?

The buffs are more exciting than the freaking ancient magic

The .dat shows that FFXIV has skills prepared for up to rank 100 and we are only looking at the tier I to II versions of the skills at best when already evidence of tier III, IV and V yet to be seen.

IIRC, things that make it to the .dat files are not always released in their respective games. Aion had info for classes that still don't exist in theirs, according to the data miners on their forums. Further, there are mobs who cast some of the same spells we do who are higher than R50... example, AFAIK we don't get Protect III, and yet Snurbles can cast it. Therefore, IMO info that may be in the .dat files isn't valid content)

[Shazaam]

Agreed, the casting animations, spell animations, weaponskill animations, are all lackluster.

It is one of the hallmarks of FF to have animations that make you feel like a real hero.

This area needs drastic improvement. They should be over-the-top. And when you get to the highest tier, they should be ridiculous, reality-shattering, stupidly powerful animations. (even if it ends up doing only 2 dmg).

[Kafeen]

As far as spells go, its not so much the animations I'd like to see changed as the effects of the spells them self.

Rather than having all the elemental spells acting the same with the only difference being the type of elemental damage it deals, I'd like to see each one be more unique.

For example:
Fire: Flame thrower style effect, adds burn effect
Earth: Creates a crevice from the player to the mob, temporarily knocks mobs over.
Ice: Encases the target in ice, slowing their movement.
Water: Jet of water soaking the target, reduces Lightning resistance
Wind: Pushes mobs mobs away from the player.
Lightning: Lightning fired from the play, chains across targets within range of each other, short stun effect.

[Laughlyn]

lol well as you can see im cnj 50 and... where's my BOOM spells?

When i hit 44 & tried "Flare" it was like....?????
...wtf is this bullsh...

Then i tried...Burst..........."Humming Spell"......30~ sec after... zoo0p!
.... -.- ...wtf?

lolburst... anywayz, this is unacceptable, even the outrageous animations,
my bad... what animations?

Even my regular t2 spells do more damage over shorter period of
time it takes to cast Burst / flare etc...

I want BOOM, Violent, Raging Elemental nukes & make it worth while the time it takes to cast them.

And to defend the THM, there dark magic spells... a black sphere?
The sound-effect is kinda cool but a dark-sphere?
Add some lightning to it, some acidity to them.

New Edit:
There's also something gone Horrible wrong with the CNJ ability called "Tranquility" (wich allows you to refill your MP instantly) The "Instantly" part is complete bull---.
In battle thats is almost impossible to do, i dont know if its the server-lag killing the activation of the spell or some major ingame bug preventing it from being instant cast. (it like its being locked up when used in battle)

And hellz no, my PC is a monster so lag is never an major issue.

[AlexiaKidd]

Agree with this some of the animations are great but most are very poor. I recently posted a vid in a thread of how I would like the stamina bar to work like it did from FFXIII and I after watching the vid I also added that they need to make the spell and animations like in that too, they look so much better. Here is the link so you can get a better idea of the spell animations I would like ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-pzptgE4a4