Ability Delay -- Character Responsiveness (This will make or break SW:TOR)

[Simsoon]

Hello ,

 

Just log in to the site and unsubb the game.

Then if thay have fixed it when your time is over you can go in and pay again.

I dont know yet if you will have a question why you unsubb but if we are we can write in "Ability Delay" in the field why we quit.

 

That will hopefully speed some things up or give us an post when thay think thay can fix this of if thay cant fix this.

In the same time we can give them a hint before and dont just quit and unsubb same day.

 

// Simson

 

I was able to write why I unsubscribed the game and I have 15 more days to play before I quit if thay dont give me some information.

[AlexRose]

I have allready ackownledged this problem and assisted by pointing out in which cases it happens for me but those that will go will go not because game is bad but because they just do better in old games like WOW or CS

 

And i always strive to be childish a bit since it makes mind more joyful and open to new ideas Thanks for compliments!

 

It is good to be open minded.

I just dont know how attributing people here a god complex makes your mind more joyful.

Edited January 3, 2012 by AlexRose

[roocey]

I came from LOTRO, no problems for me

 

Sucks to be a WoW player... I really really pray that ******** things like DPS meters and aggro meter doesnt make its way here like WoW

 

To all WoW players, quit whining... go back to play your WoW.

 

Someone mention a few beginning post saying rated 1 to 10...

 

1 being WoW

 

10 being LOTRO (for me its 8)

 

8 being SWTOR (9 for me )

 

Blatant fanboyism like this is absolutely pointless and serves no constructive purpose. I assume you merely copy & paste this post around the forum without actually reading the posts at hand. Personally, I am absolutely in love with this game, but would love it even more so if BioWare would fix this ability delay. I think you would find several of us sharing a similar opinion if you would actually read instead of defending your "precious game" against its supposed "haters".

 

Here's a hint: this thread has nothing to do with add-ons such as aggro monitors or DPS meters. It has to do with an actual in-game issue that a fairly large number of people are experiencing. I find it incredibly likely you simply do not notice this because you have never played an MMO with properly timed abilities. In the long-run players greatly prefer responsive abilities over perfectly synchronized abilities. The neat animation system seems cool now, but later on it will lose its flair and some of us will still be stuck with this unresponsiveness.

Edited January 3, 2012 by roocey

[ApesAmongUs]

The most dramatic place I see the delay is when I crit with a backstab. Normally, I'm just banging away at 2-3 attacks because there is a general haze of slowness, but since the backstab knocks so much health off at once, I get to see the delay graphically illustrated.

 

So, global refresh pops and I hit the attack. Then I hit it again half a second later. Then I proceed to Shiv. About that time, they guy falls over dead. Then I pull out my knife and play the backstab animation.

 

My timers and the damage mechanics and my animations are on three different timers that have little to do with one another.

[freddiez]

posting to rate thread...carry on

[DRLukasPHD]

I was able to write why I unsubscribed the game and I have 15 more days to play before I quit if thay dont give me some information.

 

Same thing, i just got irritated when BW response to the fact that my autoshot abillity triggers after the cooldown ends and i have to w8 basically another 1.5 sec for instatn abillity, was "it's part of the game design".

[Khoranth]

By some of the responses weve seen so far, I have come to the conclusion that bioware designed combat like this on purpose.

 

It sounds like bioware wants people to watch animations, then press the next button after their animation has ended, or up to .5 seconds earlier ( in the queue).

 

They want people to press ONE button, then at the end of the animation press another button ( just once).

 

So earlier (when what i thought were trolls) came and told us to adapt, and to not mash buttons, I now believe they were right. Bioware does not want fast-paced competitive play.

Bioware wants people to slowly, and thoughtfully watch animations, then press 1 button at a time.

 

So the real question is: why do they even have GCD timers or anything? or 'off-GCD' abilities? What bioware needs to do is remove the GCD timer, remove all off-GCD abilities, then make a informative post about the itnention of how they expect players to play the game.

 

I guarantee you people who come into this post and say they do not have any problems are people who just watch the animations and wait a while and slowly press buttons one at a time, and only after the characters animation fully ends.

 

So bioware has 2 choices in my opinion, admit that they really want slow paced, turn based combat, and inform the playerbase combat is working as intended, or they need to totally re-work their combat engine to be responsive the the GCD timer, and off GCD abilities need to work correclty.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Khoranth

[Xcore]

I'm not a huge fan of official forums generally and tend to shy away from posting on them too often. This thread, however, I felt was certainly worthy of a post (my first on swtor.com, in fact) and five stars because I agree with the OP that this is a (the?) fundamental issue that needs to be addressed to ensure the long-term success of this game.

 

I won't go into my "gaming credentials" or anything - in MMO terms I guess I'm the upper end of average, nothing more. At heart I'm a raider, a theorycrafter, a lover of min/maxing and this game just needs a few tweaks (not saying they wouldn't be large technological undertakings, I don't know and don't mean to belittle any effort that would be needed) to make it perfect.

 

Of all the things that need to be added (combat log, etc) to give SW:TOR a sustainable endgame, I genuinely believe this is the highest priority. Ultimately in a competitive environment, be it PvP or PvE races to boss kills, playability has to trump visual flair.

 

I'll give a specific example. I'm currently playing a Sith Marauder (level 30) and one of the skills I was most excited about was an off-GCD strike that could proc whenever I avoided damage. It sounded like a cool way to add a variable to my rotation while soloing. Thing is, it more often than not won't allow me to cast it until the end of a GCD, making it a net DPS loss rather than the gain it should be. It went from hotkey 3, to 6, to Shift+E... it's just unusable, which is a shame. Occasionally it will let me use it mid-GCD but typically only when using my spammable rage-builder which has a short and unfancy animation attached to it.

 

I'm sure all of what I've said has been said already many times (I'll be honest, I've not read all four threads) but it moved me enough to say something and to rate. I really, genuinely, want SW:TOR to succeed - I want to be able to play its endgame instead of WoW's and to give the same amount of thought into min/maxing and raiding at the highest we can. Right now it just feels a bit messy to be able to perform anything that requires precision - and bosses that require precision are the bosses that keep people raiding, frankly. They're the ones people practice for and read up on and start community discussions about and race to kill first, etc. If every boss in WoW had as wide a margin for error as, say, Lootship, people wouldn't take it nearly as seriously. And if you want to maintain subs past all the awesome story content, people taking endgame seriously is a must.

 

Sorry for the rambling post. Seems I had more to say on the subject than I initially thought!

 

Thank you for posting and sharing, don't be afraid to share your gaming and MMO experience, it gives a good idea about who you are etc. It's only terribles who generally reply negatively to this kind of stuff. I also am not the kind of person to post that much on forums so I know where you're coming from.

 

Thanks for your input.

[Gurkburkenen]

Its not a "Bug".

 

 

This is how they made the game. But now if they want to keep subscribers playing the game, then they have to change it so that WE control the spell, not the animation as someone said in a post before.

[Radagastimus]

Oddly enough the problems i have described on my smuggler do not seem to happen today at all. Everything works without delay altho some combos look bit clucky since they have animations shorter than GCD and make char to stand for small moment between abilities.

 

It does not end there. I changed to my consular and it was working perfectly last i played it week ago but today it had terrible ability lags and delays in every action including sheath/unsheath weapon. I changed back to smuggler to see if problem is present there as well but it was stilll good to play.

 

Both were at Coruscant at that time and i tried doing same areas so it should not make difference in that part. Odd it was but gonna goback to play and see if it still is well on smuggler.

 

In the matter of some of HC players.. I just know some of WOW and CS HC players especially from my times on CS and they sadly just go back to that old garbage since they cant compete well enough with new game mechanics. If i know 10-15 of these kind of people more or less the number in large scale MMO must be some 10k player more or less. These are the absolute reason why EVE will never grow and evolve to more vibrant and better game with more to do and there is no lose for us who like to play for game if this kind of people just stay where they are. They do not adress issue at hand or try to give feedback on when it happens. many just say they unsubbed and will not come back even if issues are dixed.

 

I do want this game to succeed and be great and it will be if we keep our subs active and help making the game better by threads like this one

[DRLukasPHD]

By some of the responses weve seen so far, I have come to the conclusion that bioware designed combat like this on purpose.

 

It sounds like bioware wants people to watch animations, then press the next button after their animation has ended, or up to .5 seconds earlier ( in the queue).

 

They want people to press ONE button, then at the end of the animation press another button ( just once).

 

So earlier (when what i thought were trolls) came and told us to adapt, and to not mash buttons, I now believe they were right. Bioware does not want fast-paced competitive play.

Bioware wants people to slowly, and thoughtfully watch animations, then press 1 button at a time.

 

So the real question is: why do they even have GCD timers or anything? or 'off-GCD' abilities? What bioware needs to do is remove the GCD timer, remove all off-GCD abilities, then make a informative post about the itnention of how they expect players to play the game.

 

I guarantee you people who come into this post and say they do not have any problems are people who just watch the animations and wait a while and slowly press buttons one at a time, and only after the characters animation fully ends.

 

So bioware has 2 choices in my opinion, admit that they really want slow paced, turn based combat, and inform the playerbase combat is working as intended, or they need to totally re-work their combat engine to be responsive the the GCD timer, and off GCD abilities need to work correclty.

 

If this was the only problem, but right now the combat for me is this

SWTOR

Activating autoshot 0.0s

Mob aggroed 0.0s

GCD finished 1.5s

Animation starts to play 1.6s

Damadge delivered 1.8s

Animation ends 2.6 s

 

As u can see, the problem for me is the abillity delay not only makes 1.5 s attack into 2.6 s attack, it also makes GCD finish faster than i can use next abillity, and u know what is the purpose of GCD? to tell u WHEN u can use next abillity. So even without button mashing i am unable to play.

 

but maybe this sceneario is what bioware is talking about

 

Saber duel Jedi vs sith

 

J Hey sith

S: Yeah ?

J Ima attack u in 1.5 sec , w8 for it, w8 for it... NOW!!

Edited January 3, 2012 by DRLukasPHD

[MMDI]

This is a very constructive thread. Thanks to the many excellent contributors. I'm sure BioWare will do great things with this information.

[asbalana]

I agree with this. Trooper is even more broken than all from this point of view.

 

 

Actually, I am finding the problems about the same on my JC and SI as on my Trooper. The problems are noticable on the trooper because they are vulnerable casters and if you can't chain damage dealing with your knock backs and freezes or if you start with mortar on multiple mobs and can't switch quickly to other damage spells you are toast. The trooper also has a problem that in long fights or against multiple mobs, you can run out of ammo real quick and not even be able to fire off all of your attacks but one. So the ammo / resource management together with the casting delays and misfires make the class difficult to play at times. But the issues are (to me) the same in the other classes that I play.

 

Funny, it was so bad on Sunday that the game was almost unplayable and yesterday the problems were there but much less. Go figure.

 

Anyway bump for hope that this gets fixed.

[ChampionChains]

Right now this is really my only issue with SWTOR. And this is a big one. I love all aspects of MMOs and have played all on the market dating back to EQ around, what...'97? Concerning this issue, WoW was definitely at the head of the pack. Controls were tighter and more responsive than any other MMO (this isn't Blizzard fanboyism, just a technical fact). I'm really loving SWTOR and this one issue is the only thing frustrating me.

 

Specifically I play a Immortal specced Jugg and spend my time split between all aspects of the game. Whether I'm soloing, tanking or pvping, due to being a tank and not having the damage output of other classes/specs, I rely heavily on interrupts and controlling the mobs/player opponents I'm engaged with. This is where the problem of slow/unresponsive/glitchy controls really multiplies and becomes incredibly frustrating.

 

Example: Many times, when I'm trying to cast an instant interrupt/stun, nothing happens. And they're not missing or being avoided due to DRs as the GCD triggers but the ability doesn't go on cooldown, it's just like I never triggered the ability. I was under the impression that maybe defensive animations were preventing my abilities from being used as it's most noticible when my Jugg is deflecting blows. But that's just my own speculation.

 

In pvp, interrupts and cc make or break the match. Many times, I've cast Force Choke and the animation channels through it's 3sec duration but the ability never triggers. Same with Ravage, channels and plays the entire animation, but there's no damage and the abilitys cooldown is not triggered. I've found that often if I click and hold the key for 1-2 seconds, the ability will trigger. But waiting 1-2 seconds for an ability to go off is unacceptable. MMOs are a very competative genre of gaming and 1-2 seconds of delay is gamebraking (when it does only delay as opposed to just being 100% unresponsive).

 

I really enjoy this game, but the lack of tight, responsive controls is incredibly frustrating.

[xPheno]

As a long-time World of Warcraft player myself, and I don't like comparing this game to WoW, I would have to say one of the biggest reasons I continued playing that game for so long is it's fluidity of combat. It was a reason I often overlooked but is blatantly clear when switching games. When I started playing this game I noticed it felt very rigid compared to WoW, and I even mentioned it to my friend who does not own the game, yet from the videos he has watched he would agree with me.

 

I kept comparing this game to Aion when it first came out a couple years ago, and little did I realize it was because of how different the combat felt, but I can say now that even Aion's combat was slightly smoother than SW:ToR. I just imagine what this game would be like if it had the fluid and crisp style of combat that WoW has... it would just be the most amazing game I've ever played. But when it comes to this problem I have the misfortune of playing a Sniper, a class that bears the brunt of this drawback. Aside from the bugs, this game is otherwise perfect in my eyes.

 

Now I'm not sure what it would take for Bioware to get this game on that kind of level, but I'm assuming it would take a hell of a lot of work and resources. I think most of us here will confidently say if the combat could be put on the level of WoW, despite the costs or time involved to do it, it would be extremely worth it. Something like this can keep players coming back to the game, and new players would feel very comfortable with it.

Edited January 3, 2012 by xPheno

[Khoranth]

If this was the only problem, but right now the combat for me is this

SWTOR WOW

Activating autoshot 0.0s Activating autoshot 0.0 s

Mob aggroed 0.0s Mob aggroed 0.0 s

GCD finished 1.5s Animation starts to play 0.0 s

Animation starts to play 1.6s Damadge delivered 0.0 s

Damadge delivered 1.8s GCD finished 1.5 s

Animation ends 2.6 s Animation ends or is clipped 1.5 s

 

As u can see, the problem for me is the abillity delay not only makes 1.5 s attack into 2.6 s attack, it also makes GCD finish faster than i can use next abillity, and u know what is the purpose of GCD? to tell u WHEN u can use next abillity. So even without button mashing i am unable to play.

 

but maybe this sceneario is what bioware is talking about

 

Saber duel Jedi vs sith

 

J Hey sith

S: Yeah ?

J Ima attack u in 1.5 sec , w8 for it, w8 for it... NOW!!

 

well my sage has an allegedly instant ability called force wave, but force wave has a 2-3 second animation and the effect does not happen until after animation, and the animation drags on beyond the GCD so i cannot use another ability, even though the GCD says i can.

 

I honestly think combat is working as intended, and the problem is the GCD and off-GCD abilities. Bioware needs to just be honest and admit they want turn based, slow paced combat, where players press ONE button, watch animation , queue up another.

 

I think the unresponsiveness and lagginess is working as intended, it is a punishment for trying to play fast-paced and trying to play using the GCD timer instead of animations. Bioware wants to re-train players to ignore the GCD, never press more then ONE button per action, and play off animations instead.

 

Bioware needs to come out and be honest and make a statement.

[DDNitz]

This issue is really starting to kill my gameplay. I feel like I am fighting the game itself and not the npcs.

[Vindor]

Oddly enough the problems i have described on my smuggler do not seem to happen today at all. Everything works without delay altho some combos look bit clucky since they have animations shorter than GCD and make char to stand for small moment between abilities.

 

It does not end there. I changed to my consular and it was working perfectly last i played it week ago but today it had terrible ability lags and delays in every action including sheath/unsheath weapon. I changed back to smuggler to see if problem is present there as well but it was stilll good to play.

 

Both were at Coruscant at that time and i tried doing same areas so it should not make difference in that part. Odd it was but gonna goback to play and see if it still is well on smuggler.

 

 

Yes this is very weird, someday i constantly bug, some other day its almost fine. Weird

[Xcore]

well my sage has an allegedly instant ability called force wave, but force wave has a 2-3 second animation and the effect does not happen until after animation, and the animation drags on beyond the GCD so i cannot use another ability, even though the GCD says i can.

 

I honestly think combat is working as intended, and the problem is the GCD and off-GCD abilities. Bioware needs to just be honest and admit they want turn based, slow paced combat, where players press ONE button, watch animation , queue up another.

 

I think the unresponsiveness and lagginess is working as intended, it is a punishment for trying to play fast-paced and trying to play using the GCD timer instead of animations. Bioware wants to re-train players to ignore the GCD, never press more then ONE button per action, and play off animations instead.

 

Bioware needs to come out and be honest and make a statement.

 

Honesty and Bioware should probably not be said in the same sentence anymore. I have lost my faith in them in every single way.

 

As I've said before, all I see is Indifference and Incompetence. The inability to communicate properly with their playerbase on serious topics and concerns showcases their inability to run an MMO, it is not wise to invest time and money here.

 

My mood in regards to this topic and Bioware has changes dramatically over the course of 4 unanswered threads on a serious subject. The response in thread 2, page 123 was very lacking and only suggestive of a follow-up shortly thereafter. Which never came, total indifference or incompetence.

[xPheno]

well my sage has an allegedly instant ability called force wave, but force wave has a 2-3 second animation and the effect does not happen until after animation, and the animation drags on beyond the GCD so i cannot use another ability, even though the GCD says i can.

 

I honestly think combat is working as intended, and the problem is the GCD and off-GCD abilities. Bioware needs to just be honest and admit they want turn based, slow paced combat, where players press ONE button, watch animation , queue up another.

 

I think the unresponsiveness and lagginess is working as intended, it is a punishment for trying to play fast-paced and trying to play using the GCD timer instead of animations. Bioware wants to re-train players to ignore the GCD, never press more then ONE button per action, and play off animations instead.

 

Bioware needs to come out and be honest and make a statement.

 

You could be right. Maybe Bioware intends for the combat to feel a bit more old school or rigid. But when you throw your hat into the MMO market these days, you will have to end up comparing your game to the most successful ones, and inevitably pulling ideas from them (we all know Bioware has done this in a lot of aspects with SW:ToR). And one of the reasons WoW is so successful is because of how easy it is to have control over your avatar, or character.

 

These days new players don't want stiff and restrictive combat mechanics, they want smooth and comfortable, fluid, seamless, easy to move around and use your abilities when you want to.

[Simsoon]

Oddly enough the problems i have described on my smuggler do not seem to happen today at all. Everything works without delay altho some combos look bit clucky since they have animations shorter than GCD and make char to stand for small moment between abilities.

 

It does not end there. I changed to my consular and it was working perfectly last i played it week ago but today it had terrible ability lags and delays in every action including sheath/unsheath weapon. I changed back to smuggler to see if problem is present there as well but it was stilll good to play.

 

Both were at Coruscant at that time and i tried doing same areas so it should not make difference in that part. Odd it was but gonna goback to play and see if it still is well on smuggler.

 

In the matter of some of HC players.. I just know some of WOW and CS HC players especially from my times on CS and they sadly just go back to that old garbage since they cant compete well enough with new game mechanics. If i know 10-15 of these kind of people more or less the number in large scale MMO must be some 10k player more or less. These are the absolute reason why EVE will never grow and evolve to more vibrant and better game with more to do and there is no lose for us who like to play for game if this kind of people just stay where they are. They do not adress issue at hand or try to give feedback on when it happens. many just say they unsubbed and will not come back even if issues are dixed.

 

I do want this game to succeed and be great and it will be if we keep our subs active and help making the game better by threads like this one

 

I want the game to succeed to, but I want information about when thay can fix this.

I like to support companys to but you want to have some information about when you get something for that support and not just put in 15€ 2 month and after that thay say we can not fix this.

For me information about the team who work with this may be enought, do thay have a "Task Force" team for this and a work meeting every day in the morning or are thay just waiting for a better time to work with this.

 

Maby thay want the game to be this way and then we are all just extra money for them the month we are paying !

I love PVP and only play PVP .

 

Anyway I love this game just fix this and it will be a success for sure !

Edited January 3, 2012 by Simsoon

[asbalana]

By some of the responses weve seen so far, I have come to the conclusion that bioware designed combat like this on purpose.

 

It sounds like bioware wants people to watch animations, then press the next button after their animation has ended, or up to .5 seconds earlier ( in the queue).

 

They want people to press ONE button, then at the end of the animation press another button ( just once).

 

So earlier (when what i thought were trolls) came and told us to adapt, and to not mash buttons, I now believe they were right. Bioware does not want fast-paced competitive play.

Bioware wants people to slowly, and thoughtfully watch animations, then press 1 button at a time.

 

So the real question is: why do they even have GCD timers or anything? or 'off-GCD' abilities? What bioware needs to do is remove the GCD timer, remove all off-GCD abilities, then make a informative post about the itnention of how they expect players to play the game.

 

I guarantee you people who come into this post and say they do not have any problems are people who just watch the animations and wait a while and slowly press buttons one at a time, and only after the characters animation fully ends.

 

So bioware has 2 choices in my opinion, admit that they really want slow paced, turn based combat, and inform the playerbase combat is working as intended, or they need to totally re-work their combat engine to be responsive the the GCD timer, and off GCD abilities need to work correclty.

 

If the game is truly designed as you describe, how many subs will be lost in the first six months? If they informed players that combat is working as intended how many players will be lost in the first month?

 

In the end you can love the story (I do), the exploring (I do), and every aspect of the game (I do), but an mmo is at it's core about completing quests, doing dailies, running flashpoiints and operations, and pvp against other players. That is combat. If the combat was not designed or intended to be dynamic, effective, and enjoyable I am not sure who will want to play in the long run. MMOs are designed (as this one was) to promote group play. You interact with other players all of the time, but you group for combat. If combat is not satisfying or functional then players will not group.

 

I am fighting multiple mobs and elites all of the time. Is the idea to give me tough fights without the ability to do them? Is the design that when I get jumped by four mobs, that I should enjoy watching my animations while I am beaten into a bloody stump? When I fight a tough elite am I supposed to sit back and watch the neat animations of casts that decide that they will actually fire as the thing drop kicks me from one end of the tunnel to the other?

 

If the game is working as intended, it will stop working due to lack of subs.

[Khoranth]

Honesty and Bioware should probably not be said in the same sentence anymore. I have lost my faith in them in every single way.

 

As I've said before, all I see is Indifference and Incompetence. The inability to communicate properly with their playerbase on serious topics and concerns showcases their inability to run an MMO, it is not wise to invest time and money here.

 

My mood in regards to this topic and Bioware has changes dramatically over the course of 4 unanswered threads on a serious subject. The response in thread 2, page 123 was very lacking and only suggestive of a follow-up shortly thereafter. Which never came, total indifference or incompetence.

 

Well I now honestly believe combat is working as intended, and the people telling us to adapt all along were right.

 

Bioware needs to remove the GCD and off GCD abilities and just make it clear that they intend for slow-paced , turn based combat.

 

I actually would not have a problem with this, as long as the PVE is balanced around slow paced use of abilities, with low movement. More of an old school, traditional RPG, where you just need to correctly play your class and have good gear to down content.

 

Of course, they may as well delete all PVP from the game, or declare it as a side-joke, with even less priority than space combat.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Khoranth

[Khoranth]

If the game is truly designed as you describe, how many subs will be lost in the first six months? If they informed players that combat is working as intended how many players will be lost in the first month?

 

In the end you can love the story (I do), the exploring (I do), and every aspect of the game (I do), but an mmo is at it's core about completing quests, doing dailies, running flashpoiints and operations, and pvp against other players. That is combat. If the combat was not designed or intended to be dynamic, effective, and enjoyable I am not sure who will want to play in the long run. MMOs are designed (as this one was) to promote group play. You interact with other players all of the time, but you group for combat. If combat is not satisfying or functional then players will not group.

 

I am fighting multiple mobs and elites all of the time. Is the idea to give me tough fights without the ability to do them? Is the design that when I get jumped by four mobs, that I should enjoy watching my animations while I am beaten into a bloody stump? When I fight a tough elite am I supposed to sit back and watch the neat animations of casts that decide that they will actually fire as the thing drop kicks me from one end of the tunnel to the other?

 

If the game is working as intended, it will stop working due to lack of subs.

 

I think bioware's intention is to have a slow paced, story based old-school RPG.

 

I think that if a player can forget PVP exists and never do it, and the PVE content is balanced around the slow, animation watching combat, then The game could be enjoyable, for some.

 

Bioware just needs to make a statement that this is the intention of the game and combat, and delete the GCD timer and delete Off-gcd abilities.

[Rafe_Sendron]

On my smuggler, aimed shot says it takes 2.5 seconds to activate. The reality is usually closer to 6-8 seconds. The blue cast bar that counts up to 2.5 "seconds" actually takes closer to 5 seconds. Then, even though my toon has been aiming for all that time, he still takes another second or so to re-crouch and re-aim his pistols and actually fire and have the damage register. So, that adds up to a supposed 2.5 second skill taking closer to 7 or 8 seconds. That's assuming you can even get it off while behind cover. I don't even bother with rolling to cover anymore. It either rolls me right into the mobs, out of sight of them, or some of my abilities don't work from behind cover anymore...aimed shot being one of them. Most other skills follow this pattern as well. It's annoying, but we live with it. It makes being a healer downright awful sometimes.