Hey there, greetings.
I like strong openings, so I’d like to start by saying that combat in ToS terrible. Alright, we got that out of the way. What? I’m coming out too strong? Okay let’s rephrase: as some other random forum user once said in all his wisdom, “monsters that run are not fun nor hard game content, they’re just annoying”. And yes, I am annoyed right now.
I would like to clarify that this thread isn’t meant for specific class discussion, but the combat system in the game as a whole in its most basic features. I understand that sometimes it’s impossible to separate class mechanics from these basic combat features but let’s keep it to a minimum. Nevertheless, I hope people can contribute and voice their own opinions.
Many of the things I’ll write about have already been mentioned in other threads, and some are very, very old feedback, but since I haven’t seen many changes it doesn’t hurt to refresh the memory.
The first point is targeting in ToS. Melee classes usually don’t have a problem with this, but ranged classes do. I saw this piece of feedback all the way back in a topic from the first closed beta, but it got lost in time: consider please adding settings for different kinds of priority for targeting, like prioritizing from the nearest targets or from the farther ones. I know, I know, ranged classes often want to use the mouse, but this is a much needed QoL addition for people who know the mouse controls were half-assedly implemented in the game back in 2014 after Korean uproar because IMC explicitly said they would never ever implement mouse as an option (which they were force to do in the end). The target circle that indicates which of the 50 monsters on your screen you’re actually targeting often disappears under the floor, and this obviously doesn’t help. Again, I know this is not much of a problem for melee classes, AoE beasts, mouse and gamepad users, but is it really that much to ask? I mean, when your target gets stuck in one of the party’s Pyromancer’s fireballs you know something’s ■■■■■■ up.
Second, the now classic “monsters who run away mid-combat make me want to stab someone in the kidneys”. Contrary to popular belief, not only melee classes find this extremely annoying, and while Archers may have a better time dealing with it, it’s still a demonstration of not knowing what genuine challenge is. Monsters run away randomly (sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t, but we’re too young and detached to care), even in dungeons, for no apparent reason. See, the problem isn’t that monsters run away, it’s that it isn’t integrated in an intelligent way and just serves to interrupt the flow of combat unnecessarily. I’d like to say more about the lack of intelligent design in ToS and counter-intuitiveness but others have said enough and much better.
Knockbacks also fall in this same error. They don’t serve any real purpose other than to disrupt the player and make them angry, because let’s not fool ourselves, more often than not what’s coming right after a knockback is… another knockback, in an endless, unavoidable chain.
Avoid? Yeah, that’s a nice word every person that plays games is familiar with, and it leads us to my last complaint, which has also been mentioned by other people: hitboxes for attacks are bullshit. Simple as that. I can’t help but be reminded of the “abnormally large” hitbox of the Snipe skill which was fixed thankfully. I just killed Demon Lord Zaura and it’s incredible how that boss fight alone manages to combine all these points perfectly. Good thing we have Oracles with Forecast, right? Well, Oracles are always welcome (no they aren’t who am I kidding) but they can’t fix two things: a ■■■■■■ up hitbox that doesn’t match an attack’s visual indication and the fact that even if you step out of the attack indicator, chances are it will still hit you.
I will mention animations, because if you weren’t able to step outside that attack circle of whatever boss you’re fighing, I’m willing to bet it was thanks to being stuck in your long-ass animation for whatever you were doing. I won’t discuss this since much has been said in other threads after the change to animation cancelling, but I’d still like to let everyone know that yes, animations need to be revisited because what people want is fluid combat, because that’s what makes it fun, and if it isn’t fluid it’s most likely that the root of the problem are the animations.
Thanks for reading to this point, I hope you can share your opinions. I always see people discussing these things separately in many threads, but I think it’s important to put it all together and see how everything contributes to a miserable experience. 
