SE, from bottom of my heart, change damn GCD animation

[Noxifer]

Now, the ring must disappear before the skill is ready. This makes it easier to tell.

Well, actually... I don't know if it's due to latency or their coding being similar to macro coding (no fractions of seconds for you! >:C), but I can activate CDs about a second or two before the ring vanishes. It's mostly noticeable through Brutal Swing, due to needing to time stuns on certain mobs' attacks. I've tried to check it via the tiny tiny countdown numbers (on dummies or otherwise "lazy" fights where I can take attention from the fight to actually look at the hotbars), and it seems that the counter reaches 0, and then the game goes, "Oh, this skill is ready now, I guess I'd better remove the overlay." Meaning there's a small delay between skill being ready and the cooldown overlay disappearing.

Admittedly, it's better to be able to activate a skill before it's "ready" than it is to think it's ready when it's not, and it's a lot better since they lowered the brightness a bit, but it's still annoying on those GCD cooldowns, since you pretty much know the rhythm of it by heart anyway. IMO, it'd be best if GCD overlays were in the old style, and only the longer cooldowns used the new style. Unfortunately, I rather guess their response to that request would be "PS3 limitations" =/

[Waeksyn]

Well, actually... I don't know if it's due to latency or their coding being similar to macro coding (no fractions of seconds for you! >:C), but I can activate CDs about a second or two before the ring vanishes./

I've seen this as well. I'm sure it's due to the round trip delay. The more lag you suffer, the earlier you can jump the skill.

A better design would allow you to take advantage of this delay in a repeatable way. For example, have the sweep only happen in the last 4 seconds of the refresh time while keeping the number to check progress. Your lag might allow you to fire when this changed sweep is 3/4 finished for example (much easier to see than when there is just a sliver left). Adding the sweep only in the last 4 seconds also helps direct your attention to the skill at a more relevant time.

Most importantly, remove or change this completely for GCD skills. Way too much visual clutter.