Quote Originally Posted by DrWho2010 View Post
say you don't want to lose uptime by having to deal with a knockback. now you can ignore pre-positioning and just keep on wailing on.
I'm more than aware of the benefit. I maximize its use, myself. And I do get satisfaction out of doing so. I just doubt it's more than I'd get from using more versatile tools well, if I didn't already have that otherwise useless tool taking up their would-be role.

Let me rephrase:

When you have, say, a knockback mechanic with a minimal interval never less two minutes spread, we're essentially paying bar space just to not engage in a fight's design. That in turn both reduces apparent urgency and theme in that fight and reduces the need for polish or satisfying usability across other, more versatile skills -- say, Aetherial Manipulation, Fists of Wind as actually doing something of note, Jump and the various Dives as a much more timely kb-immunization period over their animation locks, Shields as notable kb-mitigation or -nullification, etc. That seems, to me at least, too large a hole in the long term for the satisfaction of having hit a particular extra-and-otherwise-useless button at the right time to climb out of.

Or, put another way, it just feels like a very half-assed impasse, atm. Either the cooldowns of nullifying abilities should be longer or the mechanics more frequent, such as to at least generate nearly as much gameplay through choosing when to use the nullifier as otherwise seen through all the various other skills or play that would interact with the non-nullified mechanic (Sprint, gap-closers, move-to's, prepositioning, shields, etc.), or the specific nullifier should be removed and other, more versatile, job-specific, and/or granular/nuanced ways of interacting with the mechanic improved upon.