Quote Originally Posted by Lyth View Post
Why is it that in many games, a player's 'ultimate attack' is gated behind some form of resource gauge? I'm not just talking about Final Fantasy as a series and its Limit Break/Trance/Overdrive/Quickening systems. You see it come up in other genres as well, including fighting games, and even team based PvP games like Overwatch. Why don't you just Omnislash on a fixed recast timer?
I'm cool with backloaded damage; I just don't quite see why it'd be any more "organic" than a CD when it's used at a precisely regular integral unless faced with downtime (in which case one is merely punished for being a resource- and therefore more uptime-dependent job in any non-continuous fight).

I guess I could see it if (A) those gauges just had a larger bankable maximum (in generation time) so you could actually delay for and work around various CD periods and/or (B) the kits weren't otherwise discouraged from using Skill Speed, so it'd actually feel like we have an effect on the frequency of those 'ultimates'?

Due to the flat 1.5 non-SkS-scaling GCDs and present examples time-to-cap, we just don't really seem to have that, but if those two things get fixed, I'd love to push some of the APM bustle of the opener back to later in the fight so we don't feel so "on-off" or one-note.

The other nice thing about resource systems is that they allow you to be a bit less predictable with your button presses, because little variations in gauge gains can result in you being at different resource levels on different pulls.
That feels like the very first thing any raider would want to be rid of, but admittedly, the need to do so (to maximize uptime, to have a tank-pull, etc.) is itself gameplay, so I quite like that.

MCH's setup with Drill being roughly on a seven GCD multiple makes it functionally a variable four step combo of sorts. The common theme is that the order of the button presses gets swapped up in varying ways.
If I ever actually had to decide on which CD-weaponskill to use first on MCH, instead of being able to cycle the very same order at all times with no conflict, I would agree.

I don't think MCH or DRG force button presses to get swapped up in varying ways (except perhaps shallowly in the case of Fang & Claw -> Wheeling Thrust and Wheeling Thrust -> Fang & Claw -- though one could just hit both buttons and queue whichever one is possible at that moment), but I'd be all for a job that actually did cause us to swap them up.