Originally Posted by
Physiologic
I think I've done most of the (hopefully level-headed) discussions in the first GCD thread against the utilization of GCD in PvE.
The purpose of a mobile MMO is to create fast, quick games to farm a couple of items here and there, for a majority of players. It's to level up at a decent pace too, so you don't shut too many players out of repetitious grinding. Now there are some extremists, like me, who can play hours at end. My parties at Balefort Sewers can go through maps anywhere from 3 to 4 minutes, and roughly 15 minutes to get through all maps.
Now, with PvE GCD in effect, it took an elite party over 5 minutes to get through Bandit Hideout (usually we can clear it out in 3 minutes and 30 seconds, with leet players). Stronghold takes roughly 4:00-4:30 with the same leet players, so I don't even want to know how long it will take to finish Stronghold - maybe 7 minutes? Bosses take an excruciatingly long time to kill simply because the 0.5 second cooldown adds up for everyone. There's no change of strategy involved at all; my entire party is using the same exact combos we used prior to GCD, but at an infinitely slower rate. At the rate our party went through Gold Fever, it'll take about 25-30 minutes to complete all the Sewer maps. Now take into consideration noob parties that go through Alien Oasis and Balefort Sewers for the first time. I can't fathom how long they will take, nor the amount of frustration they will experience trying to simply grind out levels. We have leet lv 55-56 players dying at Plasma Pyramid...
I believe the PvE GCD will push PL further and further away from a "casual" MMO into an MMO fit more for hardcore players. But if the intent is to market primarily for hardcore MMO players (like players in WoW), then I can see how the GCD's challenge is warranted. Otherwise, the grind will definitely be way too tough for new players. I believe enemy nerfs or increased skill damage needs to balance GCD out.
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