FFXIV’s Combat Has Become Too Obsessed With GCD Uptime

[BabyYoda]

I think one of the biggest issues with FFXIV’s current combat design is that the game has become too centered around one idea: keep your GCD rolling at all times.

Of course, maintaining GCD uptime matters. I am not saying players should randomly stop pressing buttons. The problem is that the entire design philosophy seems to revolve around making sure almost nothing interferes with the GCD.

Tank mitigations? oGCD.

Important healer tools? Mostly oGCD.

Buffs? oGCD.

Utility? oGCD.

A lot of meaningful actions now happen between GCDs instead of being part of the actual rhythm of the job.

The result is that the GCD becomes a train that never stops, while everything else is squeezed in between.

This creates several problems.

First, it reduces the weight of decision-making. When most important tools are oGCDs, the player often does not give up anything meaningful by using them. You simply press the button between two GCDs and continue your rotation. That can feel smooth, but it can also make mitigation, healing, and utility feel like external cooldown management rather than a deep part of the combat system.

Second, it makes jobs feel more similar. If the core rule is always “press your GCD on cooldown and weave everything else between it,” then the difference between jobs becomes less structural and more cosmetic. Skills may look different, but many of them end up serving the same practical purpose: an oGCD button that does not disturb the main loop.

Third, it creates a strange problem for healers. Healing is supposed to be part of the role’s identity, but the game often teaches healers that using GCD heals is a mistake unless absolutely necessary, because it costs damage. As a result, healer gameplay becomes less about naturally balancing healing and damage, and more about avoiding GCD healing as much as possible.

Tanks also suffer from this design. Mitigation is usually handled through oGCDs that are pressed at specific moments without really affecting the job’s rhythm. This makes defensive gameplay feel somewhat detached from the core combat loop, instead of being a stronger part of the tank’s identity.

To be clear, I am not saying oGCDs are bad. They are important. They make the game feel responsive, fast, and clean.

The problem is when oGCD becomes the default answer to almost every design issue.

If every important action has to be oGCD just so the GCD is never interrupted, then the game loses some of its tension, trade-offs, and decision-making.

In my opinion, FFXIV needs to rethink its relationship with GCD uptime. Not every meaningful action should be designed around preserving the GCD at all costs. Sometimes, real trade-offs between damage, healing, mitigation, movement, and timing are what make a job feel deeper and more engaging.
Good optimization should not only mean:

“Never stop the GCD.”

It should also mean:

When do I keep going?

When do I delay?

When do I sacrifice damage for safety?

When is breaking the rhythm actually the correct decision?

Right now, FFXIV often removes those questions by turning most important tools into oGCDs so the train never stops. That makes combat cleaner and easier to execute, but it can also make it feel flatter, safer, and less ambitious.

[Arrius]

Having tank mitigations/emergency healing being tied to a global cooldown sounds like not a good idea, as we got a slow one and being unable to respond in a timely matter when a sudden situation demands immediate action.

And all this sounds more like giving tanks and healers a harder time while the DPS, yet again, are mostly unaffected by it.

[Reimmi]

I imagine this will be much less of an issue in evolved mode
Hopefully anyway

[BabyYoda]

Having tank mitigations/emergency healing being tied to a global cooldown sounds like not a good idea, as we got a slow one and being unable to respond in a timely matter when a sudden situation demands immediate action.

And all this sounds more like giving tanks and healers a harder time while the DPS, yet again, are mostly unaffected by it.

I understand the concern, and I agree that emergency mitigation or emergency healing should not feel slow or unresponsive.

But that is not really what I am asking for.

My point is not “turn every tank defensive or healer tool into a normal GCD and make the role clunky.” That would obviously be bad.

What I am asking is: why can’t some core tank or healer actions be designed as part of the job’s GCD rhythm in a way that feels natural and unique?

A good example is Dancer.

Standard Step and Technical Step are tied to the GCD structure, but they do not feel like they ruin the gameplay. They temporarily change the rhythm of the job, create a different gameplay moment, and still feel like part of Dancer’s identity. You are not just pressing your usual combo while weaving everything else. The job itself changes pace for a moment, and that is part of what makes it distinct.

So why can’t tanks and healers have more of that kind of design?

Not emergency buttons that must be instant. Those should stay responsive.

But core defensive, healing, or support actions could interact with the GCD in a more job-specific way, instead of everything being reduced to “keep your damage GCD rolling and weave all the important tools between it.”

For example, one tank could have a defensive GCD sequence that changes its rotation during mitigation windows. Another tank could convert defensive timing into stronger follow-up attacks. A healer could have healing actions that are not simply “lost damage,” but are built into the job’s damage/healing flow in a way that feels intentional.

The issue is not that oGCDs exist. oGCDs are necessary.

The issue is that FFXIV often treats oGCD as the default solution for almost every meaningful action, because the GCD must never be disturbed.

I think the game would be more interesting if some jobs had unique GCD-based mechanics that create identity and trade-offs, the same way Dancer’s dance steps create a distinct rhythm without making the job feel bad.

[Jeeqbit]

It's really players that created this design. They became obsessed with uptime due to having played other MMORPGs, and those players pressured other players to follow suit even if they wouldn't have prior to that pressure. As a result, SE was increasingly pressured to do things like: reduce healer casts to 1.5 seconds, make giant hitboxes, etc.

As for off-globals, I think the primary issue with them is that they don't cost MP, and they could simply solve the problem by making them do so. The difference between healing at level 50 and healing at level 100 is insane. Healing coils you run down your MP fast, but at 100, MP isn't really something to think about in comparison. A problem in 1.0 was supposedly that no matter how much you cast a cure, you didn't run out of MP, but when you take into account abilities, we reached a point where MP doesn't cross your mind a long time ago.

To an extent, it is the standard MMO design itself that causes this as well. The hotbar system with a short GCD. If it were like more traditional FF games with menus and super slow recast times like FF11, it would stop you really caring about it as much due to how slow the combat system is. When you have 6-10 seconds between attacking for example, you can not only think very tactically about what your next attack is, but also spend that time moving and doing mechanics that may be nowhere near the boss.

[ForsakenRoe]

What I am asking is: why can’t some core tank or healer actions be designed as part of the job’s GCD rhythm in a way that feels natural and unique?

A good example is Dancer.

Standard Step and Technical Step are tied to the GCD structure, but they do not feel like they ruin the gameplay. They temporarily change the rhythm of the job, create a different gameplay moment, and still feel like part of Dancer’s identity. You are not just pressing your usual combo while weaving everything else. The job itself changes pace for a moment, and that is part of what makes it distinct.

So why can’t tanks and healers have more of that kind of design?

We do have some actions on Tanks and Healers that are non-damage related, but GCD. Macrocosmos and Pneuma come to mind for Healers, but way back when in 2.X-4.X, WAR's Inner Beast had a mitigative component (which was actually hefty Lifesteal in 2.0 specifically), was a GCD, and cost 5 'stacks' (the functional equivalent of 50 Gauge nowadays). Even those feel kinda 'ough' though, like if I compare how it 'feels' to use Macrocosmos here, versus its estranged cousin Rewind in WOW, it's night and day how bad Macro feels by comparison

As for the Dancer comparison, it could be argued that we used to have that stuff, back in HW/SB, as Tanks had alternate combos that applied Mitigative effects. For example, Storm's Path for WAR reduced the enemy's damage by 10% (and heals the WAR), while Storm's Eye boosted their own damage by 10% (and their Emnity combo, Butcher's Block, was the highest potency total of the three combos). DRK had Delerium as an alternate combo-ender to Souleater, which did more damage than Souleater and reduced the enemy's INT (aka, Magic Damage) by 10%, but Souleater did more damage than Delerium if you used Dark Arts to empower it. So you'd alternate between the two, Delerium to maintain the debuff and to regulate your MP, and Souleater to spend MP when you had enough spare (and the debuff wasn't going to fall off)

These debuffs were removed because... Not sure why, really. PLD's was kinda not-good (10% STR/Physical Damage reduction, most damage bosses did was Magical TBs and Magical Raidwides), but I don't think it was that. More likely they just couldn't be bothered with considering 'oh we need to increase the boss's damage output by 15%, because the Tanks will reduce it back down with their debuffs' on every piece of content. Could be a good way to differentiate the MTs and OTs in 8.0, though, bringing such a system back, and it'd explain why EG WAR is going to be considered an OT (IE it goes back to being able to reduce the enemy's damage by 10%, with 100% uptime)

[BabyYoda]

...

Yes, this is much closer to what I mean.

I agree that simply making something a GCD does not automatically make it feel good. Macrocosmos and Pneuma are good examples of that. A GCD action still needs to feel like it belongs naturally in the job’s flow, otherwise it can just feel awkward or like a damage tax.

The older tank examples are actually closer to the design direction I am talking about. Not necessarily bringing back permanent 100% uptime damage-down debuffs exactly as they were, because I understand why that can create balance problems for encounter design.

But the idea behind them is valuable: defensive or supportive identity being part of the job’s core rhythm, instead of every meaningful defensive action being detached as an oGCD cooldown.

My concern with 8.0 is that tanks might only get different DPS combos while their defensive kits remain mostly the same template: reduce damage, then add a small extra effect like a barrier, regen, shield, or bonus healing.

For Warrior, I would rather see it lean harder into raw endurance. For example: increased max HP, increased healing received, or even a delayed-damage mechanic where part of incoming damage is staggered over time instead of taken immediately.

For Gunbreaker, I think cartridges could interact with defense more directly. Spending cartridges to reduce incoming damage, convert pressure into mitigation, or empower defensive follow-ups would make its defensive gameplay feel more tied to the job’s identity.

These are just examples, not exact balance suggestions.

The main point is that tank identity should not only come from different damage rotations. It should also come from how each tank survives and responds to damage.

I do not want tanks to become clunky. I want their defensive gameplay to feel distinct.

[flowerfairy]

It's not necessarily an obsession with Always Be Casting that's the problem. It's the obsession of damage uptime requirements.
Though, it wouldn't be fair to blame it on the players. High damage uptime is genuinely necessary to clear Extremes+, because of extremely strict hard enrages. This is the actual problem.
When the fight can only be cleared in an extremely strict timeframe with an extremely strict quota for damage, it's no wonder damage is prioritized over everything else.

I think strict hard enrages are why unique job identity may feel lacking. Every action a job makes has to count towards meeting that damage quota.
It's why there's an obsession with damage-neutral GCD heals. The decision making factor of "heal GCD vs. damage GCD" simply can't exist when one choice is so much more important than the other.
I also think it's the reason why the "enhanced" fight design still feels same-y, if only making movement-heavy mechanics even more obtuse.
When the hard enrage is that prevalent, there's really no room to challenge players on anything else except disrupting their damage rotations.

I think, if we want a job's GCD actions to truly feel unique and separated from damage, fights have to take a soft enrage approach.
The coils raid is a good example. The hard enrage still exists, but it's extremely lenient compared to current fights. You'll hardly ever see a hard enrage here.
Instead, the fights are centered around burning through the party's healing and mitigation resources. Saving your healer's MP and keeping the tank's mitigation cooldowns at a steady roll is paramount to clearing.
DPS checks still exist in coils. But instead of wiping the raid, they burn through the party's resources even harder.
This allows the tank and healers much more control and skill expression over the fight, and they won't have to feel bad about not constantly dealing damage.

I think with this kind of design, jobs won't feel obligated to bring nothing but damage. The choice of "recovery action VS damage action" is now a much more balanced decision.
We could also have unique utility skills separated from damage, such as restoring MP for the healers.

It's kind of funny, because the current fights like to pretend that soft-enrage mechanics still exist, such as Honey B Lovely getting damage stacks and Vamp Fatale's attack range increasing.
But they still follow the same exact formula of a strict timeline with a strict hard enrage for the last 7 years or so.

For one expansion, I'd like to see a return to a soft-enrage style raid. I think it would be fun

[LeCorbeaux]

Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the GCD system in the first place. I'd very much prefer it if most actions had their own cooldown, most of your damage output would come from autoattacks and actions would mostly be about applying buffs, debuffs and movement, and you could interrupt non-instant actions by other actions as a rule. Some more action types would be nice as well; for example: A one-minute "fire breath" spell which applies a heavy movement debuff on the caster (you can only walk slowly while casting it), breaks when you lose LoS (or do any other action, or get stunned, and so on...), and besides doing autoattack-equivalent fire damage also adds a "burning" DoT and weakness to fire damage if you manage to finish casting it without interruptions.

[BabyYoda]

...

I agree with this, and I think it is probably close to the root cause.

Maybe the issue is not only “Always Be Casting” by itself, but the fact that so much of the game is built around strict damage uptime and hard enrage checks.

When every job is expected to contribute to a strict damage quota, any action that does not directly support that goal starts to feel like a mistake. This is especially noticeable with healers, where “GCD heal vs damage GCD” often stops being an interesting choice because the damage option is favored unless healing is absolutely required.

But I also think this mindset is already deeply embedded in the job design philosophy, especially for healers and tanks.

It sometimes feels like non-damage GCD actions for tanks or healers are treated as design issues because they interrupt the damage loop. As a result, most important utility, healing, and defensive tools are pushed into oGCDs so every role can maintain as much uptime as possible.

I do think some players contributed to this mindset by optimizing around “Always Be Casting” and complaining whenever utility, healing, or mitigation affects their uptime. But I do not think this is only a player-created problem. The developers have reinforced it through encounter design, job design, hard enrages, and the preference for damage-neutral utility.

That is why I think the issue is bigger than just GCD vs oGCD.

The real problem is that the game often treats anything that interrupts damage uptime as inherently bad design, even if that interruption could create meaningful trade-offs or stronger job identity.

I agree that a softer enrage approach could help. If fights challenged party resources, healer MP, tank mitigation planning, and recovery more directly, then tanks and healers could have more room for skill expression outside of pure damage uptime.

But another option could be to make some tank and healer GCD utility partially damage-neutral through job design.

Not by turning every healing or defensive tool into an oGCD, but by making those GCD actions interact with the job’s rotation.

For example, a healer GCD heal could generate a later damage follow-up, or a tank defensive GCD could create a counterattack, resource refund, or empowered action if timed correctly.

This way, recovery and mitigation would not always feel like pure damage losses, but they would still be part of the job’s rhythm instead of being detached from it.

For tanks and healers especially, I would like to see more identity built into how they heal, mitigate, recover, and respond to damage, instead of nearly every important tool being designed around preserving the damage GCD at all costs.