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

[Calypsx]

I usually just press my instant off GCD abilities when the GCD timer hits the half way point after a skill. It always works and comes out when I press it then.

I actually kind of like it, it's improved my timing and play so I don't mash keys anymore and all my moves are smoothly transitioning into each other with added buffs in between each attack. I'm also learning to read patterns and study enemies instead of twitch reacting to them.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[JiaYow]

... I'm also learning to read patterns and study enemies instead of twitch reacting to them ...

Your sentence is a spot-on explanation of how fights are going to work in FF because of this broken system. You're not fighting, you're playing Super Mario.

You know, where you know the first level by heart because you've played it dozens of times and can run through it blindly? You jump even before something shoots at you because you know that a monster is going to appear in 3 seconds?

Fighting in a MMO (and every MMO i've played until now except for FF seems to agree with this) should be about reaction, tactics and dealing with hard mechanics. If FF actively prevents you from *reacting* to something, what's left is to run out of circles and press your stun when your timer tells you to. I refuse to believe that this is intended - it's simply a hefty oversight that's very hard to fix now, so they just ask us to "base our strategies around this".

[Calypsx]

Your sentence is a spot-on explanation of how fights are going to work in FF because of this broken system. You're not fighting, you're playing Super Mario.

No i'm pretty sure i'm fighting. I like animation locks and decision making. Knowing what attacks leave me open reminds me of playing a fighting games, I can be punished for hasty offensive play, and can be rewarded for making correct defensive decisions and holding off my attacks. I just feel paladins need to have their stun skill reworked so they aren't forced into the stun bot roll.

To fix the problem you're stating, all they have to do is make the fights more dangerous and make the enemies patterns less predictable. That way it's not like "playing the first level by heart again". The GCD and animation lock mechanics don't even have to be touched for that, just the enemy ai and skills like the paladins stun.

I don't want to see the combat mechanics changed, I actually enjoy them a lot, I can flow freely from attacks and off gcd buffs in between and it's a lot of fun nailing them correctly. I just want to see the fights and encounters changed. It really comes down to preferences, I don't know what else to tell you. I like it, some don't. The only thing I want is for the encounters to be more randomized and different for each fight.

Or they could just change all the off GCD abilities to say "Can only be activated in the middle of the GCD" so it doesn't confuse players. I have yet to feel the need to mash the key to get it to work, but it can be deceptive because it shows it's available earlier on. Maybe have the skills grayed out until the GCD reaches the half way point?

[Khalette]

The only thing I wish was that when I hit an ability I don't have to hit it five billion times for it to finally go off. I hate abilities that are open off of GCD (like silence/self-buffs) and I have to press them 4-5 times for them to actually go off. Or worse, GCD is up, I press silence and it doesn't go off.

It's -clunky- and I don't care if main abilities have a 20 second GCD, I just would like instant abilities to be instant, twitchy, reactive abilities. It's clunky and slow. Honestly, this is the only thing that drives me crazy about the game. I love everything else I've encountered so far, and aside from little changes, this is the biggest annoyance that is game-breaking to me.

I can't imagine this game actually having competitive PvP with a clunky system like this.

[Dorfentyme]

It's unfortunate. Companies in this day and age shouldn't be making mistakes like this.

[Kanzer]

Thinks he speaks for everyone

If I were like one of those '1.0 players' you described, then, well, I daresay I'd have that stance. But I don't, if you haven't noticed I'm actually enjoying the game. And I'll post as much as I feel like posting, thanks.

And just a side note, as much as you think or wish you did, you don't speak for everybody, or even the vast majority, unless you actually have some cold hard data to back up that claim. And no, this thread doesn't count as cold hard data, it's a very small representation of those who play the game as a whole, and even then it's the whiny loud representation, so...yeah.

I totally agree with you, the biggest problem with this is that not all skills share the same animation and have varying degrees of length, so for this to work the system would need to determine the recast cooldown based on the previous skills animation, I don't see SE doing this.

This isn't a problem.

Going by the recent feedback from the dev team they are happy to sit idly by and not fix any of this stuff because it takes too much time and effort.

That's because the issue introduced in this thread isn't a problem, and their official response is directed at that. Is there Latency? Yes. Should they optimize their rather slow .3 second location check? Yes, definitely. Should they completely redesign their animations and every boss encounter in the game cause a bunch of whiners are incapable of making critical choices and somehow think 'twitch' reaction is the very definition of skill? No, no they shouldn't.

This still doesn't tackle the problem of reactive skills such as Shield Bash and Blunt Arrow sharing the same GCD as the rest of the skills.

The only one of those abilities that shares GCD with anything is Shield Bash, cause you know, it's on the same GCD. Blunt Arrow is not. If you know you're going to need it in the next couple seconds, the don't shoot your arrow for some other purpose. As Ricky says, it doesn't take rocket appliances to figure that out.

Are we really supposed to stand there and do nothing until a monster uses an ability in fear of missing the chance to stun or silence them, its just really bad design.

Are you afraid your epeen will shrink if you fall behind a bit on the damage meters because you ensured the groups survival?

Endurance means squat when you are on the floor dead because you didn't evade an attack, or someone didn't stun or silence the monster in time.

How asinine, it means plenty. Do you have the endurance to concentrate long enough to know when it's your turn to interrupt and when you should be prioritizing that over other things? How is that any more 'mindless' and 'boring' than pressing the same sequence of buttons over and over instead?

If I was being held in a prisoner camp, I would have to deal with it, doesn't mean I would like it ! (Stupid analogy I know, but I am fighting stupid with stupid here.)

Right, comparing a video game to a concentration camp, I'm sure those who lived it would love to know how much you downplay their suffering. You're not fighting stupid, you're just living it.

But bu bu but !! this game is heavily twitch based go fight Titan if you haven't already, thankfully Titan is scripted so we can "plan ahead" otherwise we would all be completely screwed.

Bu bu bu bu Titan is super twitch based, and it's not! That's basically what you said right there. And I think no more needs to be said about that. lol.

Planned ahead standing there doing no DPS just so I can stun something is hardly planning ahead that's being restrictive.

So doing a particular job is restrictive? I'd have to disagree, only a whiny kid would think doing something important and not being able to do 'SUPER AWESOME COOL STABBY STUFF' at the same time is restrictive.

[M4Fade]

WoW isn't perfect (nothing is) and gets a lot of public flak despite having more subscribers than most other MMOs combined, but the one thing that WoW has that nobody can argue against is fluidity.

On a core, fundamental level, World of Warcraft works. If you push an attack, that attack happens. If you run to a spot to avoid an AOE, you avoid that AOE. If a boss starts casting a spell and you press an interrupt, that interrupt happens instantly and successfully every time. WoW has a fluidity and responsiveness that a many recent high-profile games (TOR and ARR especially) simply lack.

How any development staff can sit down and say "Let's make a hotkey, tab-target MMO" and then expend zero effort in nailing combat absolutely boggles my mind. WoW exists. It's easily accessible. It's free until level 20. Have your devs play it. If your WoW-like game feels sluggish and laggy compared to WoW, then you need to start over. You don't release a game with a similar monthly fee while offering what is clearly mechanically inferior to WoW. The final kicker is ARR even managed to have a terrible tab-target system, too! How do you even mess up tab-target? How?!? SE knows, apparently.

Just want to re-quote one of my favorite posts from another thread regarding this whole delay/GCD issue. The last part of his post really HITS home.

[Dorfentyme]

Just want to re-quote one of my favorite posts from another thread regarding this whole delay/GCD issue. The last part of his post really HITS home.

Exactly. There simply is no way to defend this. If Square wants to compete with MMOs in this day and age, they need to not develop a system that wasn't even great 10 years ago.

Hell, a lot of steps they have taken show that they still aren't up to date with current technology. Time limit on dungeons so they can avoid duty finder server congestion? Really? Yeah because that's totally needed if you're using hardware from this decade.

[cfStatic]

I like animation locks and decision making.

Allow me to interject:

Animation locks don't exist. When you get Demolish, and then again when you get Dragon Kick, check it out. They're Monk's longest animation abilities, lasting over a second in animation time. Both of them can be clipped with off gcd abilities.

Decision making: What decision making, exactly? All decisions I make regarding off gcd abilities happen because boss mechanics, not because the GCD is super long.

Honestly the whole thing just sounds like a bullshit justification on SE's part. Just because they say it was designed that way to allow for decision making doesn't mean that everyone is going to start making decisions there or that there is even a need for it.

[CrstyCaptin]

Just want to re-quote one of my favorite posts from another thread regarding this whole delay/GCD issue. The last part of his post really HITS home.

Great quote. Couldn't agree more. This game will never have a great combat system until they fix this crap. For a re-launched game I don't know how they left the latency the way it is. It's utter crap. You notice it leveling up but it's not a big deal. When you finally get to content where you need to stun/silence or wipe, it becomes apparent that something is wrong. When you get to content where it's dodge or wipe it's clear they dropped the ball. It's sad to see because the game looks great and they had some good ideas for fights, but this is just ruining those fights.