Caster skill gap and solution (maybe)

[BabyYoda]

since existing casters has been getting gutted each expansion from 2.5 sec GCD until now 1.5 which if you calculate it you can move before cast ends 1.2 or 1.15 sec.

2.5 cast time for mages and healers are being removed and Pictomancer design kit is a clear sign that they want to remove the 2.5 sec cooldowns or at least not using it for most of healer/mage kit.

I was thinking of this as a solution:

Caster can have 2.5 sec GCD and they can also move while casting (not like walking-casting MCH and BRD from PVP) but actually moving but there is a catch:

- if player moved while casting casting time will increase 20% while moving but when player stop moving it will move casting to be faster.
- if player moved while casting healing or damage spells will be less 20%.

this will make casters more approachable and easier to play for casual people and potentially improve min maxing dps for Hardcore players. (move in downtime but standby in burst).

NOTE:
I am not a game developer or have any experience in game design I am just a player,
I write what I think would be cool to see and maybe I am wrong and that's ok.

[LyraShu]

I get writing on stuff you think is cool, I think that is a good reason why forumns exist is to talk with fellow players and get good game discussions going whether its mechanics or what have you. And on the same hand, I am not a developer either so we can only do our best research and be willing to talk through ideas.

Now talking about your point, this is because I see the class "identities" this way, but casters to me is a job that you have to plan your casts a bit more in order to get that sweet juicy damage in. Really, I think removing cast times on casters would make the job a bit too "easy" to play and even harder to master. I already have an issue with this game making early content way to easy so much so that, if you want to get into higher end content, you almost have to relearn the entire game. In this case, you would have people moving while casting to keep safe and away from harm, but never really know that there damage is affected by that (believe me, people don't read at times) so when it comes time for them to really push out the damage in higher end content (if they do it), they won't know why they seem to be carried more then helping.

What I love that they added is the triple cast in BLM so you can use that for times when needing to move, or swiftcast option in SMN (granted, this is a weird caster class cause you can really MOVE while playing this one), or even the doubecast option from RDM. They give you tools in order to use so you can keep those spells going, you just have to plan it out a bit more. If they wanted casters to be able to move around more, I think this is more the direction they should be going. BUT AGAIN, I is just like you...I can only offer my thoughts!

[mallleable]

I would rather BRD, and MCH get walking casts in PVE than giving them to magical ranged. To me, walking casts seems like a mechanic designed with phys ranged in mind so it would be kinda odd to give it to magical ranged. It seem like the problems with the caster role right now is BLM being incredibly janky, the discrepancy in gameplay between SMN, and the rest of the magical ranged DPS, PCT still feeling a little overtuned and the 'rez tax.' Addressing those should take precedence over making spell casting easier imho.

[BabyYoda]

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sorry but I have to write that I am not game designer because some people take things too personal and serious, Forum should be the place for people who want the gameplay to be improved, even having bad opinion.

I don't think walking casting will be good as design for Mages and caster, it look like Phys range mechanic more than casters,
I like triple cast for BLM too and I think it is good design and that is 6 spells each 2 min.

BLM can keep the identity for high risk/high reward,
but I mean the casters who miss the mark being casters which is SMN and PCT.

the designers tries to move away from 2.5 casting time for these two jobs.

I don't want Casting to be removed from the game but make it less punishing if player moved while casting to make it more approachable for other players instead of removing it completely,
Instead of canceling the spell, just let people have to cast them with higher cast time instead of 2.5s it will be 3s, maybe less damage too.

there should be clear tutorial instead of letting people search on Youtube of how to play their job.

[dspguy]

I feel like casters have been paying back for nearly 11 years the benefits they had in 2.0 in the first raid tier. There were plenty of "near-boss" mechanics that had to be handled by melee, but not by casters. And nearly all mechanics that required casters to move also required melee to move. So, melee pretty much were shafted the entire first raid tier, if not the second one as well.

Melee were very unpopular to play at that point. SE made adjustments later in ARR. And in this player's opinion, it swung the other way against casters ever since.

[Turtledeluxe]

Devs are not going to implement anything that will broaden the skill gap to this degree.

You're going to have really low performing vs very high performing with this.

Someone who wants to move is going to have catastrophically less dps than vice versa.