I'm sorry to say, but there's not going to be any "learning of the timing", because you can cast it as you run. So essentially people are going to just mash the button a million times over while they run. And without FC it's going to be sloooooow as hell. Animal Form being interrupt-able, without FC is far too easy to disrupt. Especially considering most of the time someone gets dismounted, it's going to be against several people. Anyone decent will cast low circle/use a fast weapon (with fireball) and easily keep someone from getting form off. If you don't believe me, actually test it.
I pointed out the weaknesses, and I kill people before they can form, or even after they have formed, all of the time. Animal Form is *NOT* a get out of jail free card. If you dismount someone with a group, they CAN'T remount for a good 10 seconds or so. More than enough time for a small group to get a quick dump off. If you can't kill someone before they have animal formed, you need to consider the possibility that you are just a bad player/group. Even once they do form, it is like fighting a person who can't do anything but chug/heal stone. If you follow that person (which is just as easy as following someone mounted), eventually they are going to un-form to attempt to remount. When considering whether or not Animal Form is overpowered, consider how many people use animal form, and consider how many people *still* dismount regardless. You have people who commit whole templates just for the sake of dismounting. When you look at how often dismounts occur, you might wonder why anyone even bothers to play a template -without- Ninja. The reason? Animal Form is very much beatable. As a matter of fact, now with the Animal Form, you're going to have EVEN MORE people looking to dismount on a regular basis
And in regards to the DCI Nerf/HLD Buff, HLD is not "pretty much uselees." I'd say at LEAST half of mages don't actually have 70 dci. If you actually ask people, and count their DCI, most people have 60-70, while some run with even less than 60 and get facerolled. Only maybe a third of all mage suits actually have 70 dci. If it really was THAT easy, every mage would have 70. I know I would on all of my characters, although unfortunately, i usually have to settle for 60-65. And there's a reason mages stack so much dci in comparison to the other classes. Do you want to know why? Because mage spells are *INTERRUPTABLE.* See that's the one major advantage the other classes have over mages. The damage output of Throwers/Dexxers is so much higher than mages, simply because mages are *interruptable*. Sure, you might actually miss a mage with 70 dci 2-3 hits in a row, but that mage is only going to get two big spells off in that time -tops. When you actually ARE hitting them (especially with hit fireball), there's VERY little that a mage can actually do.
If you were take a thrower/dexxer (lets abbreviate to TD), and a mage, and have them duel. Lets take away the possibility of potions, being that mages and TD can both use them. Now of course the TD wont hit the mage every time, but then again, every time he does, the mage will be interrupted if casting, and maybe even after if hit fireball hits. The mage will do damage when the TD misses, and the TD will do damage when he doesn't miss. If the mage wants to heal, he needs to stop casting offensive spells, to cast defensive spells, and he's probably going to have to, because if he keeps doing offensive damage, his health is going to get low faster than the TD, because the TD (assuming he has another way of healing) CAN heal while he's doing damage... and lets be honest, MOST classes that aren't mages have at least one other way of healing other than pots. The TD has an advantage (even excluding pots) defensively because like I said, the TD can DISRUPT the mage while the TD heals himself. Overall, if you were to add up the total damage done and healed over the course of the fight, the mage is going to do a LOT less than the TD. (Excluding Stealthers, their primary defense in the field are smokebombs and a ton of running) The TD is SUPPOSED to miss a few hits to allow the mage to do damage. As it stands, a mage is at a -MAJOR- disadvantage with anything less than 70 dci. -If you Nerf DCI, or buff HLD and make it where the thrower/dexxer/stealther can hit the mage more often than they ALREADY can, it is severely going to nerf mages harder than *ANY* other nerf in this publish-. Don't believe me? Try rolling a mage with 55 dci right now and see how you get wtfacerolled by ANY decent dexxer/thrower/stealther in the game. As the game stands, your DCI will drop to about the same amount with 55 dci as to where it's going to drop at 70 dci after the update (about 30 dci). If TDS hit mages even more than they do know, it is going to limit the mages casting window even MORE, severely hampering their total Damage and Healing output. But just because 70 DCI might not be too difficult to get, doesn't necessarily mean that it "unbalances" pvp.
Throwers/dexxers/stealthers have an advantage in the example that I gave, and in the field it's even worse. In the field Throwers/Dexxers/and Stealthers can all do damage while running, as well as heal while running, where as mages can not (excluding pots which other classes have as well). Of course mages have the ranged advantage that throwers have, but then again, they need to stop to cast, so that advantage is nullified (especially by abilities like dismount, death strike, nerve strike). Now of course every class has it's perks, for example throwers make for good dismounters, stealthers have deathstrike and nerve strike, and mages have things like fields and other spells; But I'm excluding all of that and comparing the classes at the fundamental manner in which they fight.
Btw, I doubt that a mage having parry alone is going to mean that you miss them 6-7 times in a row on a regular basis. And besides, just because one class might be very difficult for you to hit, does not mean that the dci of EVERY class should be severely nerfed.
