Animation Lock: Why don't you like it?

[stanleyyoung]

for me it wasn't so much that the animations duration being the main problem, it was the latency. using a ws that lasted maybe around 2-3 secs (taking a good guess) was kinda so so but the lag/latency was terrible which we can all agree. And personally i felt the lag/latency was the killing blow to why ppl wanted shorter ws animations which apparently happened in alpha then lead to ppl saying you barely see what happened along with ppl just spamming a few select abilities.

[Firon]

I didn't mind the lock for some ws but being locked for stuff like provoke and stuff was just silly. Chaos Thrust and such should lock you place.

[Brannigan]

Animation lock made perfect sense with the old fights and old combat system. People complaining about being locked while eruptions spawn under you are kind of missing the point of what others in the thread are saying. You were SUPPOSED to die if you carelessly used your abilities and weaponskills. Every boss with attacks that you needed to avoid had safe windows/ways of preventing death on lock.

They definitely had the ability to adjust/remove animation lock if they wanted (in fact I think that they increased it on Doomspike II at one point). Tons of single player games lock you in place while you attack, so I never really got why people hate it so much. Animation lock is the only thing that made the old fights and combat system actually work.

That said, I don't really care much that it's not in 2.0 as long as they make the combat system good and try to keep the pacing of fights similar. Everything bosses did in 1.0 had a lot of weight behind it and it made tanking fun.

[Kikosho]

I never had a problem with Animation Lock since it was a gameplay mechanic, no arguing around that. The problem with it reared it's head when SE decided to change boss encounters. There were no complaints over the locks, least not widespread with the original 5 NMs we had, since those mobs followed the tank and spank route of XI. It was only during Ifrit that this came about and alot of the hatred for animation locks came from actually having to adjust your skill use to counter what the boss was doing as opposed to just spamming away as was the norm prior. Using a skill meant that you were locked not only for the duration of the skill but also were in a different spot server wise which lead to multiple deaths. The unbearable at times lag of 1.0 just exasperated this issue.

Like someone mentioned earlier, Tera has animation locks but it isn't an issue for 3 main reasons. Not everything has animation locks so you could buff on the go or bind on the go for example so it has smart uses of when to lock and when not to lock. Animation length is also not extremely long and while there are a few long animations, those animations could be shorten by using another skill prior to it. Animations themselves can also be canceled by dodging or blocking out of it. You still have to commit when you use a skill but the due to low root times and being able to dodge out of it (there is still a CD on dodge so you had to be mindful), it became a non-issue for PvE and PvP.

All in all, I have no problems with animation locks (I do play lots of Street Fighter >.> ) as long as it's done smartly and within the context of the game.

[Miliant]

Characters shouldn't be locked during battle at any time, and especially in a game that aims at having any kind of real pvp. Anyone that has pvp'd past ballista in any MMO knows that being locked in place equals a swift death.

[Shougun]

Animation blending > animation lock.

Animation lock = stupid.

ON ALL POINTS.

Playing a game with a forced lag.. lol -_-;

[Kikosho]

It's not forced lag, it's you committing to a skill and getting punished for it if you choose incorrectly. The problem with it in 1.0 was that you essentially locked yourself in position for a long time due to animation length + combo length. All they needed to do was add something that allows you to cancel the current animation should you need to, but on a cooldown, so you can choose whether to continue your skill for damage or move out for survival.

[Shougun]

. . .cancel the current animation should you need to, . . .

Exactly, you should be able to cancel your action. Perhaps if you get over 75% your spells go on cooldown and your mana cost is taken - the follow through you were talking of (but I think wasting your channel casting time is punishment enough, like in Ifirit if you dont time your spells right you are wasting valuable DPS time and pressuring your tank and healer more). But being required to stop and basically "stunned" is unnecessary, and you can argue it adds difficulty but I argue not. The devs must design content around this issue, and JUST like Yoshida said - this is a problem, he wants more responsive combat but he cant make it with the system at hand. So yes with what we have it can be an extra challange, but without we can have MORE challenge. (not all my points are directed towards you :P, just so you dont think "but i didnt say that... lol")

With animation blending (which wont be ready until later beta, so we havent seen it yet) the aesthetic issue should be no problem, since the animations will be pulled together to look meaningful.

I think the biggest issue, at least the one I gave the most merit to is aesthetics and that should all be but history with the animation blending system in place.

Animation lock must die.

[Warlock]

This thread is bad and you should feel bad...

[Klefth]

Well... imagine someone using Aura Pulse, Dragon Kick, Simian Thrash, Ring of Talons or Doom Spike while moving. Yeah, that would look amazing, wouldn't it?

I say animation lock should still be there for some stuff. For things like buffs and such skills, it is kind of dumb and unnecessary, but removing it from weaponskills also would make them look beyond ridiculous.