Defensive buttons don't work properly

[Valence]

If there is one infuriating thing in this game's pvp, it's how unresponsive defensive universal buttons feel. I'm talking about Guard, Recuperate, and especially Purify.

Not later than yesterday I've had a game where in spite of spamming Purify, the button was just sending back "ding ding ding ding" feedback with the visual feedback that it was being pressed, yet did literally nothing for more than 2 seconds because I suspect I kept eating new crowd control abilities one after another (and for the smartasses around there, no, I wasn't being meteodrived or whatever, I know my pvp, and this happens all the time to various degrees, this is just one example of it).

I'm starting to seriously suspect that the game prioritizes crowd control effects above anything else and worse, a simple cc refresh will push any purify use down the queue. I don't know exactly how this works server side, but it's insanely bad and generates no small amounts of frustration for players all across the board. I don't know anybody I've talked to that doesn't seriously despise how those abilities do not work properly.

Purify especially should have absolute priority over anything else. Else what's the point if once you finally purify the cc effect is already almost over??

[Post]

This isn't new to the 7.2 action timing changes, is it? I feel like I've had similar experiences with unresponsiveness at least through 6.x but I don't really remember Feast and before mostly because defensives to press and crowd control weren't as common.

[Novani]

This isn't new to the 7.2 action timing changes, is it? I feel like I've had similar experiences with unresponsiveness at least through 6.x but I don't really remember Feast and before mostly because defensives to press and crowd control weren't as common.

Nope. It's been a problem since 6.1, as the servers pretty much run on dial-up unless it's animation, who knew squatting was such a high priority? This is basically why current day Resilience buff remains close to useless unless you're under 100 ping, so it can actually last 1 of the 2 seconds of resistance it provides.

Though I should also clarify that the problem itself has existed even longer, it's just it's been noticeable since that patch, and only becoming more universally apparent as time has gone on.

The game engine either way needs a serious update to accommodate the direction they're trying to go into, but that can keeps being kicked down the street.

[Loggos]

Agree 100%. This unresponsiveness is the most frustrating problem in pvp for me. Nothing is as demoralising as "doing everything right" (pressing the right button in the right moment/have "correct" muscle memory and reaction) and still being punished simply because.
Since this happens repeatedly, it becomes a "default" experience of pvp and if the default is continuous frustration and demoralisation, then at some point it supersedes any kind of fun and enjoyment. And that's really unhealthy for the game mode. I wish SE took this seriously.

The defensive buttons are the biggest culprits but it happens with other skills too. It's particularly egregious with LBs. It occurs way too consistently that your LB just doesn't react even if you spam the button.
And since you often need your LB in critical moments you can seriously screw up your encounters or even whole games if your buttons just don't do anything even though you, the player, give active input. LBs that require you to be close to the enemy group can become a death sentence purely because of that (and even moreso if they have long animation lock or if a LB requires you to use several actions in succession*).

It's terrible game design if something as important as your LB is turned into an input delay gacha game instead of skill expression.

Though, there are many situations where it can be similarly annoying when it happens to regular skills, esp. you job-specific defensive actions.

*Obligatory pct injection: it's just. not fun. if you barely got through the first part of your LB (chocobo) because of course it would only activate after your 5th button press only for your second part (star prism) to not activate either until after the 5th press and- oops, you died in the meantime.

[Mercury_Grey]

Let's nto forget even if you hit your recuperate before any damage you still taek teh damage first

[SpritePR]

purify in particular is pretty bad. I think it needs to go back to 3 seconds so you have a window of opportunity with the molasses feeling of input registration.

[Loggos]

Sometimes it also feels like the 2s CC imunity doesn't work either. I've had situations where I purified and got hit with CC right again even though technically the 2s hadn't expired yet. Wether a bug or not, this currently makes purify even more expensive and buffs CC-heavy classes even more.

I'm starting to seriously suspect that the game prioritizes crowd control effects above anything else and worse, a simple cc refresh will push any purify use down the queue. I don't know exactly how this works server side, but it's insanely bad and generates no small amounts of frustration for players all across the board. I don't know anybody I've talked to that doesn't seriously despise how those abilities do not work properly.

Purify especially should have absolute priority over anything else. Else what's the point if once you finally purify the cc effect is already almost over??

I wonder if the same could apply to recuperate. It happens pretty consistently to me when I get attacked by several people: I spam recuperate, get one single heal, then there's a gap of several seconds where nothing happens on my end (and there's no animation lock, no gcd and no CC to interfere either) whereas I eat damage left and right. As if that damage is prioritised. Either I die or I get a very delayed second recuperate (and then I die anyway). Super frustrating because in theory I might have been able to outheal them and make an escape but I got stunned by netcode CC.

[Valence]

I had a very fun one yesterday. Stunned, UI goes greyed out, I purify, UI comes back online, I press guard, only to get immediately back to grey because a second stun lands, then the game seems to remember that Purify is also a ward and should nullify that second stun, I get my UI back, but Guard is on cooldown...

Like for real?