You do know that way back in the day, almost everything was on the GDC and only a handful of special skills were off it. The problem was as time went on they added more and more abilities that were off the GCD and finally they corrected that mistake in BFA.
We’re talking about removing choice because per you something easy can’t exist. So it all has to be made harder. So yes, flying fits here just fine.
I didn’t bring up Swifty. Dayon did by mentioning how awesomely OP his one shot macro was, which it actually wasn’t. And that was their justification for the GCD change. Poor if you ask me.
I’ll take 11 on-GCD abilities and 18 off-GCD abilites.
And two conditional abilities which override others under the right conditions.
For a tank, I’d probably shift further into the off-GCD pool.
Which translates into 13 on-GCD abilities and 20 off-GCD abilities.
… meh, those numbers are probably a fool’s hope. Still, I think they’d make for a better set-up than what we’re dealing with currently.
It feeling more sluggish IS the problem.
Power and tuning can always be tweaked as needed. But if the gameplay isn’t inherently fun, which the lack of off-GCD abilities gets in the way of, that can’t be resolved without removing the direct impediment to the problem.
So you want Fury Warriors etc. to load all their mega dps under 2 seconds and kill anyone without any chance to react to it? GCD chances are the last thing this meleemongosperg game needs to worry about. More abilities, more plays to make.
I fully expected a nonsensical Final Fantasy themed post from the OP.
If you want the devs to understand why there is no “rhythm” in the game, then you need to actually explain it. You aren’t.
I completely disagree that everything feels “off” or that there is not a natural flow.
I disagree that macroing a ton of abilities to the same single button press changes this.
If you want changes, lay things out specifically. Don’t use vague buzzwords where no one actually knows what you are talking about. Followed up by analogies that don’t actually bring a point to the discussion.
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Im sure that it is. Also sure that its affecting some players more than others…mentally. If it applies to everyone, no one is actually disadvantaged, any more than we will be when the level crunch comes. Its all relative.
but yeah, I agree, if it aint fun for half the playerbase, thats a problem that needs to be remedied.
personally…and this might just be me…there was no rhythm at all before the GCD that was noticeable.
Now there is.
Again…for me personally it feels that way, probably why Im ok with th GCD as it is now.
we designed a class this way
Lets punish players who make the class easier to play with macros and add ons
Why are blizz the only devs who are like this.
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I dont understand. I have a lot of macros on my characters.
But if the class is so hard to play without macros in the first place, shouldnt that be remedied first?
Depending on how you want to look at it, it was more than half.
Currently, it might be less than half… but only because so many have left.
Am I reading this right, you found the game’s rhythm AFTER the GCD change?
That could come down to different strokes for different folks, though the game feels incredibly monotonous in the moment-to-moment gameplay.
Conversely, my own experience was that the change ended up derailing the rhythm… and I haven’t been able to find it in WoW ever since.
That being said, “rhythm” is a tricky thing… and quite frankly, it can’t really be quantified. It’s a feeling for sorts, and in my case it actually helps me reach the psychological state known as “flow” (other times called stuff like “in the zone”).
There’s a reason I drew upon musical examples in the first post, using a metronome (which is a constant and steady tick-tick-tick) to represent WoW’s present condition and a catchy battle theme for what I’d like it to be. Some basic features I’d like could be better described in musical terms:
- Variations in the lengths of the notes, including rests when appropriate
- Accented notes and fermatas
- Crescendos and decrescendos, pianissimo and fortissimo
- Chords
- Melody and harmony
It’s definitely a gut feeling, but something that’s sorely needed.
Though you are raising a reasonable point in saying that some people might actually prefer the steady tick-tick-tick for a metronome-like rhythm in the gameplay. If off-GCD abilities were allowed back in again, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be applied universally to all classes & specs; some could still rely heavily on abilities which are still on the GCD.
As I said earlier, tuning adjustments can be used to iron out power imbalances.
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Good times.
That and spell reflecting glacial spike were great.
They need to. Combat is sooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooow now. It’s boring. Downright boring. Push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait, push a button and wait.
Which class is this that has a 1.5 GCD for everything?
Yes please! I was out of the loop (from WoW) for a while but recently I’ve really dived into BFA and played a bunch of different classes. The global cd changes were bad. Any time you have an ability that does nothing but increase the damage of all your attacks, and you put that on the gcd, it feels bad to have to wait to start attacking with < example ability > up. Not to mention many of these abilities don’t have much of an audio cue for them. Some of the abilities I’m talking about are:
- Berserk for druid. Reduces the energy costs of all of your abilities for something like 20 seconds.
- Trueshot Aura for MM hunter: Reduces the focus cost of your aimed shot for 20 seconds. (Also on the gcd).
I’m sure there are many more examples, and Blizzard even acknowledged one of them (ignore pain) in patch 8.1 I believe. Still, more changes need to be done.
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You realize the original game had WAY (nearly all) abilities on the GCD right? Including things like interrupts.
The change was mainly to offensive CD stacking.
Funny how people like to ask blizzard to undo what they did for the result they get.
RNG is for slowing down gear acquisition. GCD is for slowing down ability uses, and so on.
How long people will still mistake that “complaining something works as intended” is productive.
Reverting the GCD change is one of the things I want most. Even after all of BfA I’m still trying to play like pre change and it’s awful. Fast reaction should be a good thing but WoW’s all, (Grandpa voice) “Now slow down there, lil whippersnapper”. And I’m not even a twitchy player. The GCD change must be even worse for good players. Please, Blizzard, change it back.
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this a million times this
Rather than break the GCD the solution should be to remove all those offensive cooldowns. Replace them with actions and spells rather than boring temporary power increases.
I very much agree. Modelling gameplay and the actions you take after music is an incredibly effective way of binding a player into their character and immersing them within the game world and environment.
The Master Class and ideal display of this would, of course, be Doom 2016 and Doom: Eternal. (With Eternal being near-perfection.)
I’m not saying we should all be Doom Slayers who chance upon a group of demons, setup a boombox and introduce them to Mick Gordon’s incredible Boss music while stomping said demons into paste so brutally that it makes Hidetaka Miyazaki stand up and go “I say…”
But actions, abilities, and our characters should flow like music. As my characters play now, they stagger like a drunken one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.