(10-15-2016, 12:36 PM)Valence Wrote: Out of curiosity from someone that hasn't played BaS, why would you choose its combat over FFXIV classical combat system?It feels far more physical in a way that's hard to describe. It's more like... the cool things you see people doing in cutscenes (especially the Stormblood trailer recently released)? You get to do that.
The way the game puts an emphasis on manual blocking, dodging, and parrying, on high-speed movement, on heavy crowd-control effects, the incredible animation work... it all comes together to create a feeling of personal power that you just don't usually get in these types of games. It's the sort of thing usually reserved for dedicated character action games like Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising, Bayonetta et al. Granted, it's not as deep as those games, but that's also to its credit - the learning curve isn't anywhere nearly as steep, and it works better in the context of a game where you're supposed to be helping your party members.
In FFXIV, the combat has a strong tendency to feel disconnected, like I'm just going through the motions (the rotation), and that nothing I'm doing really has any connection with the physical world that my character is supposed to inhabit. Everything feels floaty, detached, with nothing but numbers to inform me of my performance.
In Blade & Soul I can knock down the boss and literally choke-hold them so my party members can beat them up without retaliation. I can send my enemies flying away, then close the distance instantly, move to their back just as fast, stun them, knock them into the air, and then follow up with an air combo. I can parry their attacks, causing them to be momentarily stunned, then retaliate with crushing force.
In FFXIV the only mechanics have to do with where you're standing, who you're targeting, how well you handle your class role (tank, DPS, heal), and *very occasionally* how you time your stuns (the only CC effect that is relevant in FFXIV). The lack of active participation in the combat has bored me to tears and is the primary reason I completely burned out on Heavensward so fast (after playing the game almost religiously in ARR, mind you).
Of course, I also recognize that I'm a particular kind of player who tends towards games with high skill caps (one of my most-played games is Starcraft, after all), and I do understand that the slower-paced, more simplistic style of combat works for a lot of folks. B&S (and PSO2, and Dragon's Dogma Online, etc., etc.) is just the type of game I gravitate more towards these days, and I'd just be pleased as Punch if FFXIV could join the roster.
