FFXIV moved away from auto-attack while WOW went without... how odd.

[Onidemon]

We added auto-attack to the game and in WOW's new expansion, the monk class uses the system we used to have. What do you guys think? Article below

http://kotaku.com/5852427/one-hour-i...-pandaren-monk

One Hour in the Paws of a World of Warcraft Pandaren Monk
Join me as I go on a mystical journey on the back of a giant turtle, learning the ways of the new Monk class, the ways of the Pandaren race, and how strange it is to play a melee character in World of Warcraft without an auto attack.

Blizzard may take forever to finish their games, but when they announce one they make damn sure they've got something playable to show for it. That's how I got my paws on one of Mists of Pandaria's Pandaren Monk for an hour this morning at BlizzCon 2011.

I've often said the journey of a thousand miles begins with character creation, and in the case of the Pandaren demo at BlizzCon that's a very limited beginning. Since female pandas are currently just male pandas with labels over their heads that say "I'm a Girl", the only real option I had was deciding my Monk's name. Eager to get into the action, I chose my default trade show MMO character name.

Crecente the panda came to life in the Pandaren starting zone of The Wandering Isle, so named because it's built on top of a gigantic turtle. The first thing I did was type '/dance'. Sadly, nothing happened.

The Monk class starts with two skills at level one. Jab is a basic attack that uses the regenerating Chi resource, the Monk equivalent of Rogue energy. Using Jab generates light and dark energy, represented as four dots on either side of an Asian dragon-styled interface element. These dots are used to power advanced martial arts techniques, like the second starting skill, Tiger Palm, a more damaging attack.

These skills are put to the test during my second quest (the first merely involved fetching a pair of handwrap fist weapons from a rack), in which I was tasked with beating up some training dummies. I walked up to one, clicked it, and nothing happened.

Oh yeah, no auto attack. How odd.

Where other melee World of Warcraft characters can simply click on an enemy to automatically begin attacking, the Monk can only initiate an attack by using a skill or ability. It feels odd at first, but later in the demo I began to get skills that helped shed light on the reasoning behind the choice. Around level four or five I earned a darkness-fueled kicking skill that replenished a point of dark power if I killed an enemy with it. That's a task made much easier when you don't have to worry about an auto attack futzing with your rhythm. I imagine Monk players will be extremely busy during combat as they get up in levels; at least the good ones will.

A series of quests led me across a distinctly Asian-flavored land, filled with serene majestic temples, mystical caverns, calm, tranquil waters, and monkey creatures that jump on your back for no damn reason.

No, seriously, I was on a quest to repel monkey-creature invaders from a village, and one of the monkeys leapt onto my back, clinging to me as I killed his companions. For one brief, shining moment I was a panda with a monkey on his back, and I understood the mystical balance of all things.

The balance of all things plays a large part in this opening story, steeped in ancient wisdom, focused on the spiritual and the elemental. It was at once familiar and foreign. One moment I was performing a standard gather X number of Y quest, the next I was battling other Monk students while balanced on wooden poles, or chasing the playful Spirit of Water across a pond, playing tag.

Or fighting the most adorable little bunny creatures away from a farmer's carrots. I really wish I had a picture of these Vermind (I believe that's what they were called). They're the next Murlocs, mark my words.

The familiar and foreign theme carries over to the Monk class as well. With their Chi energy and the light and dark dot mechanic they felt like Rogues initially, only with outrageous rolling about instead of stealth. Once I earned the Flying Tiger Kick, the Monk version of a Warrior's Charge skill, I began to see how they might function as a tank.

Unfortunately the choice between healing, DPS, and tanking (as well as Alliance or Horde) doesn't happen until level ten, and I had to stop at seven.

There is much promise here, in this ancient Asian land, where the pop culture references turn from sci-fi fantasy to kung fu movies and comic book martial artists; where the battle between the Alliance and the Horde isn't as important as the battle for inner peace and tranquility.

I feel sad, knowing that war will soon spill over into this untouched land, but I get the impression Crecente the Panda Monk will be able to handle anything they throw at him

.

[ellohwell]

Most MMOs move away from auoattack nowadays. Barely any games aside from MMOs even have autoattack anyway. So i do think it is moving backward to implement something like autoattack. It's the kind of decision that comes about from a false appraisal of what is a "standard" in MMOs.

Autoattack wasnt a standard, it was a limitation holding the genre back.

Personally, I dont see what people see in the feature, myself.

[Richard_BG]

inb4supressionlock

[Enyyx]

+1 for hoping 2.0 gets rid of auto attack again.

[Onidemon]

+1 for hoping 2.0 gets rid of auto attack again.

Well WOW might just be testing the waters for a non-auto attack system. If it works well they might introduce the system for all classes but if they fail at it like FFXIV did, then the Monk class might eventually go back to auto-attack too.

[Tanoshii]

I'm fine with no auto attack as long as there are fun buttons to push during combat that aren't simple 'Light Stab' which simulate auto attacking anyway.

[Zenaku]

I'm fine with no auto attack as long as there are fun buttons to push during combat that aren't simple 'Light Stab' which simulate auto attacking anyway.

Funny as a level 30+ish pug in ffxiv i had over 3 bars full of spell Attack,def,buff and i use everyone of them and only use the auto attack when needed which was to build up TP. I still don't understand why people hate the system maybe they could have made it better but w/e

i enjoy ffxiv with or without auto attack.

[Frein]

I'm fine with no auto attack as long as there are fun buttons to push during combat that aren't simple 'Light Stab' which simulate auto attacking anyway.

This.

Blizzard stated that their goal with the monk was to make a class that plays like a fighting game. Pre-AA FFXIV never felt like a fighting game. Everything stemmed from your TP builder which was the basic attack you'd spam a lot regardless of the situation.

[vax]

Auto attack is why i'm playing FFXIV. But this is because i preffer slower games and that is why i love FFXI combat. I hope TP gain get slower than atm and damagee from normal attack get a bit of more dmg.

[Picoman]

idk but if its stamina bar the 2 hours after patch their forums will explode.