Combat speed, and what it ultimately means for everyone.

The Furious

The factor of tactical thinking plays an important role in both early levels (where there aren't many skills to choose from, anyway) and more importantly so, in the later levels of the game and "the endgame" following the story portion of level 50.

Tanks might feel somewhat repetitive, and Warriors in particular feel they have been overlooked considerably compared to their Paladin counterparts; but the actual speed of combat feels quite different in later levels, rewarding tactical thinking and correct use of a player's skills much more than "blind button-mashing" would.

I have had the privilege of playing with a diverse array of players thus far, both friends, Free Company members and random people from a variety of servers. When the tough gets going, no one thinks about GCD in the middle of a battle. There is a challenge linked with staying alive, mastering a fight's execution and optimizing it for the group tackling it, with the classes available at any given time.

It is possible, even as a healer or a tank, to breeze through the game's early dungeons relatively unscathed, even multitasking (to a degree) while happily clearing a dungeon. It's not possible to do the same in level 50 content, and live to tell the story later.

It is possible to own the best gear at some level, and still die a gruesome death because your skills (or a fellow players' skills) were not timed correctly.

It is possible to forget about the timers and the cooldowns, and feel entirely justified to sit back and enjoy the feeling of downing a challenging boss, whether this is Titan Hard Mode (a case severely impaired by latency and responsiveness issues, but not always so) or Twintania (recently killed by the first couple of Free Companies worldwide).

Ultimately, combat speed ought to be judged on its own merit. There is a visible preference to tactical play, prioritization and correct use of resources in every class and role.

As is often the case, a bad player will not be salvaged by their cooldown duration, or their casting speed, and will proceed to entirely waste their resources (whether MP or TP) in a matter of seconds, without any practical effects to show for it. A good player, such as a fellow Warrior I know of, will actively attempt to make the best use of the tools they have and yield very good results considering the limits of their toolset.

Looking to the (Patch) Future

Of course, setting aside the rose-tinted glasses for a while, one can plainly observe that there are aspects of the game which need the magic touch of the developers to further optimize. Healers' enmity, or "threat generation" to enemies, seems to be somewhat uneven among the two existing classes fulfilling that role; warriors are already slated to be "tweaked for the better" in the upcoming 2.1 patch. Every class has a wishlist, and its only human nature to want the best for what we play.

However, this does not and should not mean that the current battle system is "broken". While classes are quite diverse in their own way (the trinity system is in full use in ARR, after all), and melee damage-dealing could probably benefit from several steps of class / infrastructure optimization, the general consensus thus far is that combat does not have any game-breaking elements hampering it.

The first (and the subsequent) "numbered patch" of ARR will be eagerly anticipated for balance reasons as well as quality of life changes certain classes crave more than others. But if a system was broken, this would have become blatantly apparent already. It's not, and while combat fluidity leaves a lot to be desired, a consistent battle experience is there for the taking, no matter which role you prefer to play. After all, a new role, life and combat experience in ARR is only a couple of clicks away.

Feedback is always welcome, feel free to leave a comment here!