What are your thoughts on FFXIV's combat?

[Semirhage]

I get this though at the same token ogcds are pretty much only things that makes the long gcd bearable.

I'll take oGCDs as long as they're impactful and require thought. I'm not a fan of the glut of oGCDs we already have that require no decision making: Is the cooldown timer done? Press it.

[Bobby66]

I'll take oGCDs as long as they're impactful and require thought. I'm not a fan of the glut of oGCDs we already have that require no decision making: Is the cooldown timer done? Press it.

I personally prefer higher APM playstyle which why I am a fan of GW2 ele builds.

[Rilifane]

I'll take oGCDs as long as they're impactful and require thought. I'm not a fan of the glut of oGCDs we already have that require no decision making: Is the cooldown timer done? Press it.

I usually like high APM classes but I'm in the same boat and the overabundance of meaningless "press on cooldown, yay!" oGCDs annoys me.

Transpose is a good example of something with risk vs reward and decision making. Transpose lines can be a nice dps gain throughout the fight - or backfire big time and you lose a lot more than you could've gained while also serving as an emergency button for Eno upkeep and allowing to switch to UI to use US during downtime/ between pulls. It's not a button I press that often but when I do, it's a deliberate decision I made based on filler spells available, MP ticks and upcoming boss mechanics. Sharp and Triple have a bit of decision making to it because while it's a dps loss not catching Despair with Triple, it's a much bigger dps loss to lose GCDs so it's mobility vs slight dps gain. Sharp is similar.
Amplifier on the other hand is just another "press on cooldown" button. Boring.
RDM had a bit of decision making with their backflip vs that other thing only cowards used Engagement and of course SE took it away like several other buttons that had some risk vs reward tied to them.

[Gemina]

I get this though at the same token ogcds are pretty much only things that makes the long gcd bearable.

For some. I don't mind the little break here and there, and favor jobs with a lower amount of oGCDs, or have their oGCD on a proc system. I took to DNC like a fish to water because of this. High APM can still be ok for me to handle if the rotation is streamlined like SAM. On a job like AST where the oGCDs are akin to a large tin filled with butter cookies, I just tend to throw them out there coz... they're drifting... I guess.

[MoofiaBossVal]

FFXIV's combat is mediocre.

Due to the input delay and slidey nature of combat, you feel like you do not have immediate control over your character and his actions like in other MMOs (namely WoW and FFXIV). Your hits do not feel impactful like in GW2. The disconnect between an orange telegraph disappearing and the mob's attack animation occurring makes combat feel unimmersive. And your character's piano rotation based gameplay with three dozen different abilities to manage makes the player concentrate on their action bar, rather than looking at the action on screen. There is also a cacophony of effects going off onscreen that make it difficult to see what is happening when you have at least 4 different players fighting at least 1 mob. You are reliant on an unimmersive UI overlay to decipher what is happening, which boils what should be exciting fantasy battles down into a mundane math problem.

[Curemefi]

I really dislike too many long Cooldown skills. Instead why not making the skill usable after a set of skills/rotation. Or making it available when the specific "job" resource is sufficient. It's more manageable, smooth and fun that way.

[Tulzscha]

It could be a lot better.

I quit the game around lvl 30 because it felt so slow and unresponsive. Came back and forced myself to keep going and it's better with more abilities but animation locks/delays are still awkward as hell. Second worst part of the game imo.

Jobs not feeling complete until lvl 80+ is a huge problem especially considering how often the game scales you down for roulettes and fates. Losing abilities for anything feels awful every time. Worst part of this game imo.

Combat mechanics are painfully basic and dull outside of some bosses. There just aren't enough meaningful ways to interact with enemies or the environment. Hit your dmg buttons and move out of orange (which you don't even have to do all the time), that's it. Utility is all but non-existent which is sad, that's a potentially huge area that could add a lot of depth to the game - hard cc, soft cc, playing outside of roles, having more varied ways to deal with more varied mechanics, etc.

Job design is kind of a mess. The homogenization of jobs within roles sucks but helps with balance I guess. Healers having a billion abilities to heal that go unused in most content while they spam a single dps ability might be the worst part of FFXIV's job design. The majority of content doesn't seem to be designed with job abilities in mind.

Most of the jobs I've played are just boring, all the challenge comes from executing your rotation through difficult raid mechanics; outside of raids they're very dull. At the same time some jobs aren't very intuitive.

It's hard to explain but it's like abilities don't do enough mechanically, they're shallow. Sometimes there are too many abilities, sometimes too few, but either way they feel underwhelming to use much of the time. Melee combos are a good example: 3+ abilities you hit in sequence that deal some damage and that's it, then 2-3 more for aoe, then another sequence that spends a resource to deal some more damage and that's it. So many abilities to do the same thing with a different animation.

My biggest gripe with the UI is not being able to customize buffs and debuffs more. It's not too bad.

The gcd+ogcd combos feel good when they line up properly. Slide-casting feels great.

I will say some of the most fun I've had with mmo combat was WoW's Affliction Warlock against 2-3 targets. You simultaneously have about 9 total debuffs to track across multiple targets, resources coming in randomly that you have to spend before they cap and ideally during buffs which are also random sometimes, the occasional bit of utility and filler spells when everything else is good. All that while dealing with raid mechanics. There was no static rotation and the abilities themselves were very basic but there were a bunch of things to pay attention to and juggle which is what made it exciting.

Meanwhile in FFXIV everyone has a more or less fixed rotation with a fixed 2 minute burst window and the only changes come when a mechanic interrupts your rotation which usually ends up feeling bad due to how structured and busy the rotations are.