The problem with "Instant OFF GCD" abilities makes combat feel less rewarding.

[Ninix]

This is extremely annoying, but since they've said time and time again that they're not changing this behavior, whatever, I can accept it.

What I *really* hate, though, is how there's no UI feedback or ability queue for this animation delay. You can't reliably know if the ability will go off or not with one press, so you basically have to mash the key until you're certain it's activated, and then begin to mashing the next key.

If I could press the key ONCE and have it activate once the previous animation has finished (y'know, like I can do with regular weaponskills and spells if I press them a bit before the GCD is up?) I would be far less annoyed with this.

[nimrod]

Needs to be FIXED ASAP, combat is the most important thing in an MMO - while u Level- while u do ENDGAME content.

Hope it gets more attention on PLD f.e. are also the 2.5Sec GCD not helping at all about this problem.

[Meta]

I'm more annoyed about the audiovisual feedback we receive; the UI registers your input, but it's not always clear-cut that the ability has been activated when readying your next action in a short period of time.

If there's a downtime period because of server issues or intended game design, fine, but at the very least give me audiovisual feedback that conveys "you can't use this now" and "the ability did not activate".

Better yet, why not have the user client store the command in a queue and relay that information to the server as soon as it can? That way we don't have to constantly mash keys and still not activate intended actions. This implementation of an action queue made even 1.0 feel like it had a smooth (but not interruptible) flow of combat.

[Silverwalk]

Figures. We are playing the finished game

[Silverwalk]

It just seems like they didn't finish working out how GCD, animations and instant abilities would work together. During beta there was a ton of feedback on this but nothing changed in the release and now it's "working as intended".

This along with the 300ms built-in lag seems to me like something that should have been worked out in the first year of development. Yoshi is a hard-core PvP'er, I wonder how happy he is with the result as a player himself.

[Meimei]

Why am I getting flashbacks to the responses the FFXI forums get...?

[Fenwick]

Fighting against the controls is never a good way to instill difficulty, it's just annoying.

[VahnValbosce]

It's not... I play warrior and I can use a Non GCD Ability before my Global Cooldown ends.

Example:

Heavy Swing -> GCD -> Foresight -> GCD Ends and I can do Skull Sunder.

You have to time it properly. You get one Non-GCD Ability per global.

This Is STILL Final Fantasy, and still requires thought and strategy, not button mashing.

[cfStatic]

It's not... I play warrior and I can use a Non GCD Ability before my Global Cooldown ends.

Example:

Heavy Swing -> GCD -> Foresight -> GCD Ends and I can do Skull Sunder.

You have to time it properly. You get one Non-GCD Ability per global.

This Is STILL Final Fantasy, and still requires thought and strategy, not button mashing.

If there was anything worth considering or requiring of thought process / strategy, you might be right. As it is now, I just pop a buff or non-gcd damaging ability and continue on with my rotation. There are much more important things that require my attention at any given time than trying to micro manage shit that doesn't need to be micro managed. This isn't turn based combat, and a GCD isn't a turn. Real time combat should be that: real time.