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[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.

[superss]

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.

yay phys!!! i like that!

[Echelong]

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.

Actually from a few friends I have that still play WoW they changed the game a lot to be more casual friendly than those of us that came form the MC, BWL, Naxx and AQ20 and 40 era. One friend told me C'tunn(I think this was the name, sorry forgot its been a long time) was one of the main reasons because of the difficulty it had back then.

GCD could still be applied to PVE but in a less annoying way. .5 seconds might not seem a lot on paper but its a lot on the game. Maybe all they need to add is a feature that prevents skill to be used simultaneously or a smaller GCD. I agree with you if maps take too long it would be a very long grind especially the grind to 56.

[Kalielle]

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.

Except that hardcore players would also want fast-paced gameplay which this one isn't after GCD.

Just finished a Stronhold run. It took 4 potted dps players to kill the queen and even then it took a while; they couldn't even make a dent in her with no one potting and even with just a single mage potting. (In case you're wondering, we had 5 in the party and I was the tank keeping King away since I had somehow messed up the pull, and no I don't usually do that - don't know what got into me lol...)

So I agree that some rebalancing of mob hp is definitely needed with cooldown. But even then I wouldn't be a fan of it because it changes how the gameplay feels. The main problem isn't that levels are slower to get through, it's that they're less interesting.