Animation Locking

[Yaffy]

Depending on the skills you're using, you may or may not have realized that some abilities now lock your character in place. That is, you are unable to walk or sprint for a certain period of time upon using an ability. This isn't new to this update, but I wanted to discuss this change since it's planned to be a universal addition to all combat abilities over time and I wanted to see other's opinion on it. I know not everyone can really comment because a lot of abilities aren't affected by it, but since it's a change that will affect all players eventually I think it's important for people to speak up now before their abilities get changed.

Personally, I feel that combat is a lot clunkier in general with this change. I know the idea behind this change was to make the newer animations look better (And they do look pretty cool!) and to try and prevent players from kiting, but I think it really ruins the fun flow Gorgon combat had. As someone using Unarmed/Shield it's removed a lot of my control during combat and has been really annoying to try and adjust to.

I think one of the major issues is that the animation lock makes melee combat significantly worse, both performance wise and in terms of enjoyment. As a melee player moving around in combat is something you're basically doing all the time. Especially if you're trying to attack new enemies as they approach your party, defending other players or trying to catch moving enemies, all very frequent occurrences. Because of the animation lock you'll still be trying to move around while attacking, but now your character will awkwardly pause in place every half second, you'll move for half a second and then you'll pause for half a second again. It's very disorientating and feels clunky, like you're constantly being CC'd by roots and stuns. It's essentially a nerf to all attacks, but especially melee since you want to change your positioning all the time.

Another issue is that the logic behind what moves lock you in place for how long seems to not make much sense gameplay wise. For example, first aid and armor patching don't lock you in place, presumably because you're intended to be able to use these abilities to heal yourself while fleeing battle. However, Shield's reinforce locks you in place, despite being an ability you would use in the same way. Bulwark mode is also a very odd case, where both enabling and disabling Bulwark mode lock you in place, despite disabling it normally being a free action that doesn't use your global cooldown.

I understand a big reason for the animation lock was to avoid breaking the new animations and to try and nerf player's kiting abilities so they can't kite enemies to death without being hit, but the way it's applied to some attacks doesn't make much sense to me either. For example, "Punch" is both an attack that doesn't involve your feet and is a melee attack which means you're in range for anything to hit you back, so there's really no reason for it to lock you into place.

Overall while I think the new animations are cool, the inability to move while using abilities really makes the game less fun for me, and it's a constant annoyance when I'm just trying to play normally. For me I think I'd honestly rather have some "Weird" floaty animations over something that's so detrimental to gameplay. I think an animation lock for melee could work too, but it should be limited to very specific and powerful abilities where it makes sense for the character to get locked into place (Ex. Epic attacks), rather than on every button. That way it can feel more impactful for those attacks rather than just being a constant annoyance. For ranged it's not as bad, but I think if the intent was to prevent kiting then a heavy slow down would be preferable since at the moment it just makes it feel like every ranged attack is a channeled spell instead. I personally don't think it has a place on buffs at all except in very specific scenarios, since it makes trying to buff up before running into battle feel incredibly slow and a lot less fun (I mean, imagine if an army couldn't shout a war cry and run into battle at the same time, it'd be pretty awkward right?)

That said, I really want to hear other people's opinions about the animation lock if possible. There's been this idea floating around that it won't bother most players since only "Advanced" players move around while fighting, so I want to hear from more casual players too on how they feel. Also even if your skill lines haven't been affected, now is the chance to speak up about your opinion before the inevitable changes are made to it.

[cr00cy]

I'm generally against animation locking in fighting, if it means I can't move my character. It always makes combat feel clunky and unresposivle. It's ok if I have to finish skill animation before using another skill,a s log as it's not too long and I cna move around whoel time. But essentialys elf-stunnign myself eevry tiem I press button to attack? No thanks.

I can tolerate it if it's only on selectef few, rarely sued skills (like ults, or in case of PG epic attacks), but not on every skill I use.

I haven't palyed in a while, so I don't know how bad it is, but I'll guess I'll jump back and see. There is whole new zone to explore afterall.

[poulter]

Agree with your points. It feels 'clunky', breaks the flow of things (immersion) and detracts from the enjoyment.

[Panic]

Not keen on it either, doesn't leave much room for strategy if all I can do is stand still and hope they run out of health first. If it was only epic attacks then that would give a reason to combine them with knockbacks or stuns to avoid taking damage. Ranged also feels a little silly if every fight is going to be 99% point blank.

Enemies dont seem to obey these locking rules, stuff will happily chase you while attacking.

[Melkhiresa]

I tried to keep an open mind when I switched out of bunny to try out the new animations as a biped but my initial hatred of it has only grown worse as I compare one with locks and one without. As others have said above it just feels horrible and constraining and combined with the large amount of roots being thrown at us in Povus I feel about as mobile as a beached whale. I know this part is subjective but the new animations, as least when it comes to Ice magic, barely feel like any sort of upgrade over what was there before but now come with a severe penalty.

If you are dead set on having some sort of anti movement animation lock in this game for whatever purpose please consider either it just slowing you down or only on select abilities per skill and not literally everything. Buffing Ice armor to be stopped in place to cast Shardblast that then stops me and only has a 10 yard range so anything like casting goblins that move tend to be out of said range due to the above just feels bad. This is made even worse when trying to cast any body aoe on feared mobs as such it always seems to miss due to the increased delay. I was honestly hoping new animations would smooth out the jank and delay Ice Magic has on some of it's abilities but sadly it only increased it.

It would be nice to get some feedback on the reasoning behind this and if it is due to the reasons Yaffy Listed above.