So what's changed

Mors-Subita

I bought ARR at release, but didn't subscribe at the end of the free month.

While I loved the crafting, I found the combat to be too slow and clunky.

What has changed in terms of combat? Are the GCDs the same? Things sharing GCD, etc?

finefluff

Yea it's still the same. The gcd is 2.5s, but every class has some abilities off gcd. You can also slightly reduce the gcd with the skill speed stat. They tweaked the animation time on some abilities to make them faster, most notably the dragoon's jump ability.

gessekai332

try playing as a monk on king moogle extreme and tell me that you feel the game is slow and clunky. 

Tracho12

Do you still have to group to advance the story?

kaiser3282

Originally posted by gessekai332
try playing as a monk on king moogle extreme and tell me that you feel the game is slow and clunky. 

Or a 600+ crit Bard with nonstop River of Blood procs and maintaining your DPS while also being the main person dealing with fight mechanics in several coil fights like Renauds in T7, or tethers and brainjacks in T8.

finefluff

Originally posted by Tracho12
Do you still have to group to advance the story?

Yes, you have to fight through some dungeons and primal battles for the story. They are like the main event lol.