Please bring more action in combat :(

[Frein]

I've wanted to love FFXIV from the start, but after the massive letdown release was for people it seems they did the only thing they knew how to: Create a game nearly identical to the only one they've done before; FFXI. I don't see the original FFXIV as a 'risk', I see it as something that needed to be heavily refined and polished, not completely abolished; but it looks like they saw it as one, and here we are today.

I completely disagree. The release version was fundamentally broken. No matter how much you polish a turd, it's going to remain a turd. Just about every "original" design decision was absolutely horrible with seemingly no thought put into what they actually mean for the people playing the game. The cumbersome market wards, the random exp that incentivized dragging out fights, the stamina system that let you frontload all your power to the beginning of combat, the excessive amount of different items and quality levels, etc. The list goes on and on. Everything was just fundamentally broken on a design level, so even if the technical aspects didn't suck ass (lag, bad UI, lag, lacking server features, lag, and did I already mention lag?), the game was just poorly designed.

As far as the launch combat system goes, it was nothing like a true action MMORPG, it was a traditional one with manual auto-attack. Auto-attack is now automatic for the same reason your character's breathing is: You're supposed to do it all the time so you might as well not have to do it manually. I mean, was there ever a time to NOT attack? That's right, there never was. You just kept pressing that 1 pretty much from start to finish except when you had just blown all your stamina on a bunch of WS and cooldowns.

[Jinko]

OP this isn't WoW.

As the post above said using a mouse to play this game in its current state will make the experience twice as bad and cumbersome than it needs to be.

Hopefully when the Mouse/keyboard changes come in it will play more like a regular style MMO.

[Zahak]

Replying to you Rowe. It only takes me two auto attack hits to get enough TP to use fullthrust or my other ws to start my combo (about 500 tp per hit). Also when you get higher level those first few cheap weaponskills will unlock a chain of higher combos if you meet the conditions. And when you use the following ws in a combo it won't require tp at all. Getting free weaponskills all the time

[Rowyne]

Replying to you Rowe. It only takes me two auto attack hits to get enough TP to use fullthrust or my other ws to start my combo (about 500 tp per hit). Also when you get higher level those first few cheap weaponskills will unlock a chain of higher combos if you meet the conditions. And when you use the following ws in a combo it won't require tp at all. Getting free weaponskills all the time

I appreciate the helpful response, Zahak. Nice not to get shot down in flames (which is becoming all too common around here, anymore).

I'll pass that on to him, as he's promised me he'll do this year's Starlight Celebration event with me. Maybe I'll get one last chance to get him to try out combat before he gives up the game before 2.0.

I still think the battle system changes could use some tweaks. Standing around at the beginning of combat doing nothing but waiting, even if it's only through a couple auto-attacks, isn't ideal, IMO.