WoW has entire classes for whom they have only one off GCD ability. Retribution paladins and Arms warriors have one or two for each classes, most of which are proc based. Holy paladins come Pandas will have zero because they lose Rebuke. Most of those that are off GCD are damage buffs which is hardly an active ability, is it.

Rogues have an artificially lowered GCD but also have a throttle in place drastically lowering the amount of APM required to actually micromanage to the pace of energy regen.

Casters have a haste dependent GCD which is largely irrelevent due to the timing of attacks. The responsiveness you attribute to the GCD is due to the GCD being lower than most cast time spells. This is also a game which gives casters a finite pool of damage and also has spent the last two expansions trying to figure out a way to remove that limitation without completely breaking the game. They've failed for at least three arena seasons doing that.

I also doubt you have more than 100 APM in Starcraft 2. I certainly don't and WoW was barely even keeping pace with me at a yawn. If you think it was a challenge then you're certainly slower than me.

Simply put, you've yet to give an actual reason why WoW, a game which requires you to use LESS actions and has even more restrictive systems than SWTOR is somehow "better" because of it. Protip - the standard GCDs in both games is THE SAME LENGTH.

Never played WOW - SWG is the only MMO ever played. I find SWTOR combat to be very clunky. I haven't even made it off the home planet yet to PVP - I'm still being pawned by NPCs with my classes except sith/jedi.

I'm use to playing officer in SWG where I could manage my fast attack and aoe specials, cooldowns, manage multiple targets, los, stim buffs, camera pan - all fast and with ease. SWTOR just really seems clunky in comparison, and I'm sure it's me as I've yet to figure out a good keyboard/mouse setup to deal with fluid combat.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/11/13/blizzard-arenas-were-a-mistake/

 

lol. Not the brightest crayon in the box are we?

 

Blizzard even admitted it's the worst thing they ever did because the second the thing was created, the game there on out has to be changed and balanced around them. The second you insert arena in games, no matter how you slice it, the game is now a game balanced around arena and everything else (questing, PvE) are now side thoughts.

 

Not the other way around.

impressive response

Nope.

Yup.

Even if didn't believe what I was saying, it wouldn't change the fact.

I know on the wiki it says it's 1.5 seconds, but anyone who's got to level 20 in WoW can tell you that's not the case.

Any anyone with half a brain can tell you its 1.5 seconds.

1.0 seconds for DK's in unholy presence.

Interesting and lucid post. That GCD really is an issue only when, as you say, you go to multiples. Even then, as one young man pointed out rudely, you can do it if you manage resources and your opponents are poorly skilled relative to yourself.

But your point, I think, stands. The iron-locked GCD helps force a certain lag-aware playstyle and it is not a fluid, swift playstyle. This is too bad, but as another rude young man pointed out, it's as much a function of the software demand as game balance, I believe.

Getting your GCD down as low as possible absolutely matters when you play at a certain level - or even if you are just "in the zone". You can do a lot in less than a second, I think few of us who play a lot of games could convincingly argue that. If you'd like to, please review high-ish level WoW PvP or SC1/2 videos first.

If it becomes an issue for BW, I think they might have Alacrity affect the GCD. I'd bet they tested it, but as to whether or not it's implemented, we'll see. Not for quite some time, though, as it would change the balance on so much.

Finally, an appeal. To those of you who reply, please consider if you wish another venom-filled immature cesspit akin to the WoW boards. It may amuse you for now, but eventually it will tire you out and annoy you.

Some foresight: build a healthy, courteous online community and it will be useful and pleasant to visit. Don't and it won't.

This

Not to MENTION how there is no diminishing returns (noticeably anyway), so you can be stunned until death.

 

Maybe to alleviate this, they should put way more things off of the GCD, but I don't know what that would do for the already atrocious server side lag.

.

/fix pvp

I don't think the analogies were quite necessary. I agree more things should be off the GCD, your class buff, interrupts, and relics / cooldowns (1 min +).

Despite the dynamic environment of PVP, I am still able to use my global cd's whenever I wish until I am stunned or CC'ed, this is a luxury for a ranged class, melee have issues with range.

Yes you can get stunned to death... this exists in any MMO, WOW in particular different stuns were on different diminishing returns kidney shot versus cheap shot for example, blind sap etc..

Could they improve the resolve system? Sure I think they should add slows and especially SNARES to count toward your resolve bar. Resolve actually does work, if you aren't getting healed / guarded / taunted while being focused you will die and be stunned to death... if your team supports you won't.

At first I thought this was an interesting post, but then I realized you don't really know what you're talking about. Not only that, you also have your facts wrong and attack people that try to correct you.

Base WoW GCD is 1.5 seconds (same as ToR), with the exception of few melee classes (cats, rogues, unholy DKs) - most of their abilities trigger 1 second global cooldown. Also shaman totems only have 1 sec GCD, affliction warlocks have talent that decreases the GCD on curses to 1 sec, resto druids have talent that decreases the GCD of rejuvenation to 1 sec and arms warriors have 0.5 sec GCD on hamstring. That's it, iirc. Haste lowers GCD, but only for casters and it can never be lower than 1 second, no matter how much haste rating you have.

I don't get your rant about 1.5 sec being somehow great for arenas, but awful for everything else and it leaves me with the impression that you don't really know what you're talking about. The mechanic imposes same restrictions on arena play as on everything else in the game. Also for the record, personally I don't agree with saying arenas are toxic for MMO. An endless headache to balance, sure, but arenas are what kept me and my friends subscribed to wow for a long time after raiding and PVE in general lost it's shine for us.

I do however agree with OP's point - that the GCD is a bit too long. GCD, aside from the server-client communication issues, also has role in the game design itself - it is what prevents too many things happening at once, so to speak and also to put a bottleneck on classes with manabar-like resource systems. This is why ferals, rogues and DKs have lower GCD in wow, they use energy or runes and runic power as a resource. I play only my bounty hunter (and sith warrior in beta), so I don't know about resource systems of other classes. But I definitely feel like the combat could be more fast paced, as far as using abilities goes. Especially because the game engine feels a bit lazy, like somebody already mentioned.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/11/13/blizzard-arenas-were-a-mistake/

 

lol. Not the brightest crayon in the box are we?

 

Blizzard even admitted it's the worst thing they ever did because the second the thing was created, the game there on out has to be changed and balanced around them. The second you insert arena in games, no matter how you slice it, the game is now a game balanced around arena and everything else (questing, PvE) are now side thoughts.

 

Not the other way around.

While I might not agree with everything you said 100%, I do agree, and have been saying since there release, that arenas ruined wow. What makes PVE interesting and fun will always make PVP in-balanced, It is impossible to balance for both, ideally PVP would be 100% separate from pve. There would be pvp only abilities and gear, so that the two could exist without ruining balance or homogenizing classes.

Also for the record, personally I don't agree with saying arenas are toxic for MMO. An endless headache to balance, sure, but arenas are what kept me and my friends subscribed to wow for a long time after raiding and PVE in general lost it's shine for us.

 

While logically I can't comment on why PVE lost its shine for you, I would argue the introduction of arenas did not help.

Any anyone with half a brain can tell you its 1.5 seconds.

 

1.0 seconds for DK's in unholy presence.

or arcane mages with first tier talents, or shamans with any haste gear, or hunters (period), or any non feral druid with Nature's Grace, or...hell anyone beyond level 20.

And yeah, I'm sure EEEEVERYONE but DKs has a 1.5 second GCD at level 85. EVERYONE.

lol, fool.

Interesting and lucid post. That GCD really is an issue only when, as you say, you go to multiples. Even then, as one young man pointed out rudely, you can do it if you manage resources and your opponents are poorly skilled relative to yourself.

 

But your point, I think, stands. The iron-locked GCD helps force a certain lag-aware playstyle and it is not a fluid, swift playstyle. This is too bad, but as another rude young man pointed out, it's as much a function of the software demand as game balance, I believe.

 

Getting your GCD down as low as possible absolutely matters when you play at a certain level - or even if you are just "in the zone". You can do a lot in less than a second, I think few of us who play a lot of games could convincingly argue that. If you'd like to, please review high-ish level WoW PvP or SC1/2 videos first.

 

If it becomes an issue for BW, I think they might have Alacrity affect the GCD. I'd bet they tested it, but as to whether or not it's implemented, we'll see. Not for quite some time, though, as it would change the balance on so much.

 

Finally, an appeal. To those of you who reply, please consider if you wish another venom-filled immature cesspit akin to the WoW boards. It may amuse you for now, but eventually it will tire you out and annoy you.

 

Some foresight: build a healthy, courteous online community and it will be useful and pleasant to visit. Don't and it won't.

THANK YOU for having sense as well as obvious skill.

Ehh, my eyes started bleeding after the first couple sentences.

I take it, blah blah blah, I'm not leet so fix it so I can be. The game is only 2 days old!!!