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

[Hirosashi]

It's only really infuriating for things like silences or stuns.

Things that really need to be used reactively.

So you end up doing nothing for 5-10 seconds while you wait for the ability you have to interrupt, instead of approaching combat like one would expect.

To call them "off GCD" is entirely misleading.

If you are standing there for 5-10 seconds then your ability is on its actual cool down or you have lag my mind can not even comprehend where talking at max 3 seconds which is plenty of reaction time.

[Kantide]

The problem is that people expect the game to work they way they want it to, not the way it was designed. There are plenty of MMOs out there with different combat systems and maybe the complainers should consider whether this is the one for them. It is inherently easier for the complainers to adjust to the game than for the game to adjust to a vocal minority. If it was that bad the server wouldn't be overloaded and we might not have these lag issues which will fix themselves in time.


I am guessing these are the people that call Capcom when Ryus hadoken isn't the right color of red or call Konami to complain when Snake's CQC combo fails to knock out an enemy in 3 hits. No? Then why complain here. The issue is the same as the other two I just posted. That is how the developer designed it.

If it broke the game, that would be different. Some of the things like asking for a sort feature, or fixing lag, yes. Asking a dev to redesign a working and already fun combat system (again, just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't fun for 500k other people) is like asking a singer to go from Hip Hop to Country.

[Khaap]

You wouldn't believe the number of lost benedictions I've had, where it fires but the player still dies and I lose my cooldown so I cant even save someone else.

[Rin_Kuroi]

That's unfortunate. I guess its just a matter of time before I get sick of the combat. Maybe I'll get used to it.

Can we at least have something that shows when instant abilities can be used? Maybe add it to hotbar cooldown effect or something. I really really hate spamming away on a button because I don't know when I can actually use that ability.

[complexxL9]

That's unfortunate. I guess its just a matter of time before I get sick of the combat. Maybe I'll get used to it.

Can we at least have something that shows when instant abilities can be used? Maybe add it to hotbar cooldown effect or something. I really really hate spamming away on a button because I don't know when I can actually use that ability.

You want UI to show when skills are actually available for use? But that is crazy, it takes all the strategy out of combat. If devs start listening to this nonsense, next thing you know, people going around asking for visual cues to be accurate. SE please make game harder, not easier! If things start to work as you expect they would, then where is the challenge? Also how would arr stand out in the crowd of mmorpgs if you take these unique strategic aspects out of it?
-WhiteKnight

[Rivienne]

I love my instant cast spells! I am not sure I entirely understand this issue...

As far as I have ever been able to tell it casts instantly, just like it says, doesn't it? It goes off, you see it go off, then you see it hit.. No waiting for the GCD, non-interuptable. <3

The way I see things is as follows (correct me I am wrong):

GCD:
Trigger Action -> Action Performs -> Global Cool down -> Trigger Next Action -> Action Performs -> Global Cool down

Off GCD:
Trigger Action -> Action Performs -> Trigger Next Action -> Action Performs

And with off GCD, you can alternate, without waiting in certain circumstances. like

GCD Action -> Perform -> Off-GCD Action -> Perform -> GCD Action

Thus allowing you to just keep going without pause if you have figured out a good strategy.

One example of where I use them is when I go solo monster hunting I can chain like so: Lightning -> Virus -> Aero -> Stone -> Fluid Aura -> Repose -> Cure 1 -> Wait for Virus and Fluid Aura cooldown while Sleep in effect, then repeat (or some other similar chain using stone II).

I never notice any delays in this, it is a very smooth chain of events both in action, and in appearance.

In dungeons I often use <tt> macros, and am prone to throw the instants in between cures of the tank where it is safe (both in terms of healing and aggro) just for a bit of extra dd. And on a rare occasion if I am having trouble keeping the tank healed with a particular mob monster, and things are about to go south fast, I can do fluid aura <tt> to push an enemy away from the tank, and then cast cure II, before the enemy returns (I am also looking forward to getting swiftcast).

Anyways, just my own input. Not entirely certain where people are coming from with complaining about this because I honestly don't see what is wrong in the first place. Granted, I am not the fastest of players. But even so, the only way to decrease the wait would be to remove the perform step, or make a shorter animation, which would reduce the overall quality of the game visually. For me at least. Or to use a stacking attack, where it performs all the animation at once, but not sure how well that could work in an environment like this, more the pure turn based games.

Off GCD:
Trigger Action -> Action Performs ->0.5-1sec animation cooldown-> Trigger Next Action -> Action Performs->

I could be wrong, but I think you misunderstood me. The perform step is the action being performed, not the action taking effect. There is no animation cooldown, because the action doesn't take effect, until the animation is complete. This isn't a post action cooldown, this is the action being carried out.

[complexxL9]

The way I see things is as follows (correct me I am wrong):

GCD:
Trigger Action -> Action Performs -> Global Cool down -> Trigger Next Action -> Action Performs -> Global Cool down

Off GCD:
Trigger Action -> Action Performs -> Trigger Next Action -> Action Performs

And with off GCD, you can alternate, without waiting in certain circumstances. like

GCD Action -> Perform -> Off-GCD Action -> Perform -> GCD Action

Off GCD:
Trigger Action -> Action Performs ->0.5-1sec animation cooldown-> Trigger Next Action -> Action Performs->

And with off GCD, you can alternate, without waiting in certain circumstances. like

GCD Action -> Perform -> 0.5-1sec animation cooldown-> Off-GCD Action -> Perform ->0.5-1sec animation cooldown-> GCD Action

here you go.

[Rin_Kuroi]

Anyways, just my own input. Not entirely certain where people are coming from with complaining about this because I honestly don't see what is wrong in the first place.

Animations block the use of certain skills. If I want to use Atherflow + Lustrate (two instant cast abilities) to heal the tank I have to wait for the animation of Atherflow to finish before I can use Lustrate. Since just about everything has an animation this is effectively a GCD for all abilities even for non-GCD ones.

[Rivienne]

Animations block the use of certain skills. If I want to use Atherflow + Lustrate (two instant cast abilities) to heal the tank I have to wait for the animation of Atherflow to finish before I can use Lustrate. Since just about everything has an animation this is effectively a GCD for all abilities even for non-GCD ones.

I think you misunderstood what I was getting at. Every skill performed takes effect after an animation of the skill being performed. That is, the enemy doesn't receive damage from an axe blow until after the axe visually is seen to hit the enemy. I just am not sure I understand why people equate having to wait for the blow to land in the first place before being able to trigger another, with a post-effect cooldown.

This isn't technically a global cooldown, because a cooldown takes place after the action has already taken effect, and the effect isn't taking place until the animation finishes. The reason you cannot stack as quickly is simply because you cannot trigger one action, until the previous action takes effect. You aren't waiting for the animation, you are waiting for the effect itself, which is dependent on the action being performed, which is in this case tied to the visual representation, or animation.

I think this makes the most sense personally. Sure I would love if I could re-actively hit buttons and have them take instant effect, but then I wouldn't see any visual representation of the actions, it would simply be instant effect, or it would be a delayed animation which would stack strange since you could strike a killing blow, but then not see the blow until after the enemy dies. Which detracts from the immersion of the fights. Either you get real time animation, at the cost of waiting for the animation before the effect, or you get no animation, or you get a lagged animation which would be detrimental to the quality of the overall visuals.

Not trying to be argumentative here, I simply don't see a problem. I am looking at this from both the immersion perspective, and the implementation perspective, and I would prefer having consistent visuals with consistent effect time, over instant attacks with inconsistent or non-existent visual effects.

Not true, on ADS the second i hit blunt arrow the cast bar for high voltage stops, not stops when the animation is done. just because there is a delay to when you see the number (client side) and when you hit the skill, does not mean there is a delay on the server side. If it worked the way you say it does then there would be many more issues with stuns in game then there are.

Hmm. That is very interesting, I would have to see it in action to understand what you are trying to say, but I have not myself seen anything like you describe as Archer, Conjurer, or Arcanist (I haven't spent enough time on the other classes to feel I can speak to them). At a guess, there may be secondary issues relating to a) the general issues people have with drawing priority and b) server client lag, muddying the waters here. Because this has truly been absolutely consistent for me barring the occasional lag spike rubber-banding. I spent awhile playing with Virus and with Fluid Aura when I first acquired them to understand how to make use of them, and I have never seen this inconsistency you are speaking of.

[Azgarde]

I wrote this on another topic, and thought I'd write it here too, because it definitely affects GCD usage and such:

Square said they didn't want to stress servers and only make a checkup on your location every 0.3 seconds. It will end up not working in the long term.

Make a boss ability where the delay between the visual for the spell effect and the time we have to move is 1.5 seconds. Now, consider the AoE appeared 0.3 seconds later than it really got cast, consider the 0.3 seconds server checkup on our location. You have 0.6 seconds less to move. So a 1.5 seconds time reaction is going down to a 0.9 seconds reaction time.