FFXIV - Intermediate Combat Mechanics

(Last updated: Mar. 2024)

So, you want to get better at combat, huh? This page explains several intermediate combat mechanics that can help you get better at the game.

Positionals

While it really should be considered a basic concept instead, it is important that everyone be aware that all melee classes have moves that deal extra damage depending on their location relative to the enemy, known as "positional" skills.

Generally, whenever a weaponskill is a positional, it will say so in the tooltip. The example above is Reaper's Gibbet skill, which has increased potency when attacking a creature's flank (i.e. its side).

Whenever you click on a player, mob, or creature in the game, a target ring will appear around that entity's feet. For most entities, the ring will look like the one shown below– without my annotations, of course. This signature ring with an open back helps to tell you where to stand relative to them to get your extra damage.

Anywhere within the cone made by the open back of the indicator is considered the rear. Flip that cone vertically and you get the front or "cleave" area. Anywhere that isn't in those two zones is considered the flank. Melee DPS should try to straddle one of the borders between the rear and the flank to reduce movement distance between the two.

Please note that none of the melee classes have front positionals, so tanks should generally be the only people that stand in the cleave area. Also tanks, please don't spin the boss.

Sometimes, entities will have closed target rings around them, in which case positionals will not apply and you'll get the bonus damage no matter where you hit them! Closed rings are commonly used for wall bosses or enemies in Bozja.

Snapshotting

FFXIV's entire combat system revolves around snapshotting, which is the idea that mechanics resolve on the server tick when they finish casting. This design pattern affects two major things: enemy telegraph resolution and over-time actions.

Have you ever been running outside of an enemy AoE, dodge the attack's VFX, then wonder why you still take damage? That's because of snapshotting. When the enemy's attack finishes casting, the game takes a "snapshot" of its current state and uses that to calculate whether or not someone will be hit. If you were standing within the telegraph in that snapshot, it doesn't matter where you're standing a few seconds later, you're going to take the damage.

Snapshotting also comes into effect when we talk about calculating potency for actions that damage or heal over time (i.e. DoT/HoT). Whenever you finish casting a DoT/HoT, the game takes a snapshot of you and your target's buffs/debuffs, then uses that snapshot to calculate the action's potency for its entire duration. Even if the buffs expire while your DoT/HoT is still active, because the potency was calculated during the snapshot, your ability will still damage/heal as if the buffs were still active.

To see this in action, just go to any training dummy in-game and hit it with some DoTs! The first time, just do a normal DoT. The second time, give yourself a damage buff, and right when it's about to expire, cast the same DoT. You should see that the second DoT still adheres to the damage buff even after it expires!

Snapshotting can be found in lots of other areas of the game, including the new Fall Guys mini-game in the Gold Saucer. The sooner you wrap your head around snapshotting, the more sense the game will make.

Skill Queuing

In XIV, we players are always told to remember our ABCs when it comes to dealing damage: Always Be Casting! Every frame that you're not casting something is a DPS loss, so to be as optimal as possible, you should always be casting something during a fight.

Every job has weaponskills or spells that share what we call a GCD, a global cooldown. This shared timer is what sets the tempo for your attacks and prevents you from just unloading all of your skills at once. Typically, your GCD will be around two to three seconds, depending on how much of the skill/spell speed stat you have. To be following your ABCs means to always have this timer running, which means you need to press your next skill/spell on the exact frame that your GCD timer resets.

Now this might sound tricky to do, but in reality it's pretty easy because of a game mechanic we call Skill Queuing. Essentially, if you press a weaponskill or a spell while your GCD is still on cooldown, the game will queue that action to be pressed on the exact frame your GCD resets. This means you can anticipate your next move, press it early, and it will execute with zero downtime.

While the time saved from skill queuing seems pretty marginal- with about an 18 frame difference between the two combos above- the difference can add up over the course of a several-minute fight. This particularly matters in endgame content where sometimes the best way to keep your team alive is to just kill your enemies as quickly as possible, especially for bosses that have enrage timers.

Weaving

While you're waiting for your GCD to reset, you're not just a sitting duck. Every class has instant abilities that can be used off global cooldown, which we call oGCDs. These abilities can be used while your GCD timer is still ticking, and the process of doing so is what we call weaving.

Weaving is particularly useful in endgame where every second counts. Instead of waiting for your GCD to end before casting an ability, just press it while the GCD timer is ticking, then go straight into your next GCD when the timer resets. This increases DPS by, once again, preventing downtime between weaponskills.

Many classes have openers or rotations that require a weave. Black Mage's level 90 opener requires weaving Triplecast, Amplifier, Ley Lines, and Manafont between your initial Thunder III/Fire IV casts. Sage's kit is designed for you to cast your major oGCD addersgall heals between GCD Dosis casts to supplement Kardia heals. Gunbreaker's main combo relies on popping No Mercy every 60 seconds and weaving as many damaging abilities as possible in the buff's 20 second window.

This game is much, much more than just standing around and pressing a button every two and a half seconds. The sooner you get a hang on weaving, the more fluid combat will feel and the better of a player you'll be.

It is important to note that you should never have to do more than a double weave between your GCDs. In fact, triple weaving is highly frowned upon because it usually takes longer than the GCD timer does to reset, resulting in a DPS loss. The Balance FFXIV maintains a list of openers for each class which tells you which single or double weaves you'll need to do in your combo and when. Following their guides closely should help you weave as optimally as possible.

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Slidecasting

This one goes out to all of my fellow casters out there. I know you know it sucks to essentially be locked in place whenever you're doing damage, but what if I told you that you could move while casting some of your spells? And you can do it without having to use an instant cast buff like Swiftcast, Doublecast, or Triplecast? Introducing slidecasting, your new best friend.

For all casters, there is a few-frame window at the end of every cast where you're allowed to move and the cast is still guaranteed to still go off. The easiest way to tell when your slidecast window starts is by putting an emote somewhere on your HUD. During the start of your cast, the emote will be greyed out, but once it returns to normal, you're free to slide.

With enough practice, you might even be able to just know the timing and not require an emote on your screen to tell you when your window opens.

Now instead of just tanking every AoE and making your healer hate you, you get to gamble on whether or not you'll be able to slide out before the telegraph goes off. You're welcome!