Charge Time

Charge Time , sometimes abbreviated as CT, is the measure of time of how long certain abilities take to be performed. This game mechanic is often not named in-game and is a hidden stat.
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy IV series===
In the Complete Collection release, the charge time is indicated by the green bar overlapping the full yellow ATB bar when a character charges for a spell or ability. In the 3D versions, a red bar fills up over the full yellow ATB bar.
In the Easy Type version, the majority of spell casting times were shortened from their original casting time.
Charge time functions the same way in both Final Fantasy IV -Interlude- and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
===Final Fantasy VI===
When using Cyan's special command, the player must wait for a bar to charge. The longer the player charges, the better attack Cyan can execute. In the discontinued 2014 release, the player can choose the power of the attack outright and Cyan will charge it in the background allowing other attacks to be performed meanwhile.
===Final Fantasy VIII===
Summoning a Guardian Force takes a moment to charge. The better the compatibility between the summoner and the GF, the faster the charge will be. After the GF command has been selected, the chosen GF's HP replaces the summoner's, and any damage the character receives during the charge is attributed to the GF, not the summoner.
If the GF's HP is depleted to 0 during the charge period, the summon is cancelled. This can also be used for strategic advantage, to summon a GF before an opponent unleashes a strong attack, in order to sacrifice the GF to survive the attack.
===Final Fantasy X-2===
The regular Attack command requires no Charge Time, but using most other abilities does. After a character's ATB bar has filled and a new command is selected, a purple "wait" time-bar will replace the green ATB bar, signifying the attack is charging. Once the purple bar has filled, the character will execute the action.
Once executed, the character gets another turn immediately. Each ability has its own Charge Time, and the best skills have the longest waiting times. The Charge Time of specific skillsets can be shortened by using special equipment, mastering specific abilities with that purpose on the skillsets' respective jobs, and through Garment Grids.
Special dresspheres have Limit Break-like abilities that take full "charge" of the ATB gauge.
===Final Fantasy XI===
Ranged attacks, spells, Trust Magic, weapon skills, and using items all have a time during which they are being cast or readied before taking effect. Moving during this time, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, will interrupt the effect being cast or readied.
Ranged weapons' Delay stat determines the length of the readying time for a ranged attack. The effects of the Flurry spells reduce ranged weapon delay, and the Snapshot trait gives a chance of skipping this delay entirely. Delay varies considerably from weapon to weapon, but in general crossbows are the fastest, followed by bows, corsair guns such as hexaguns, long guns, and finally slowest of all cannons.
Spells have their own individual cast times which are reduced by the Fast Cast trait. Taking damage during this time has a chance to interrupt spells being cast unless they are Bard songs, with this Spell Interruption Rate being modified by equipment stats, status effects, merits, the amount of damage taken, and the character's skill level in the appropriate magic type. Casting time can be cut by using the Scholar stratagems Alacrity or Celerity. Casting time can also be removed entirely by the effects of the Red Mage job abilities Chainspell and Spontaneity. On the other hand, the effects of Addle and Pining Nocturne lengthen casting time, and the Manifestation and Accession stratagems double the casting time of the spell that they are applied to as a balancing cost to their effects.
Weapon skills have their own individual readying times which are usually quite short. However, if they are interrupted during this time, the TP used by the weapon skill will be lost for no effect. Weapon skill readying times are not shortened by any trait or effect. Monster TP-based abilities work like weapon skills, although some of them have quite long charge times.
Items have their own individual readying times which are not shortened by any trait or effect.
===Final Fantasy XII===
All actions have a Charge Time, which varies depending on the action. When a character performs an action, a bar next to their name in the battle menu fills up. After the bar has filled, the character will perform their action, whereupon the word "action" appears on the screen. An action's "action time" is always the same, but the Charge Time can be reduced via the Swiftness Augments purchased on the License Board, buffs like Haste, and setting the Battle Speed to the fastest.
Magnetize is a battle condition in the battle against Vinuskar in the Stilshrine of Miriam, and Ultima in the Great Crystal, where metallic equipment slow down the wearer, and even spells take longer to cast. If the party equip any swords, hammers, axes, and the like, they could take three times as long to dish out a single attack. Guns are unaffected.
Most stronger enemies, including bosses, have 0 Charge Time as a passive ability. Against these enemies the player is best setting the Battle Speed to the fastest, as playing with slow Battle Speeds only hurts the player. When wearing the Battle Harness, the character only counterattacks if they are attacked during the Charge Time stage, and countering halts the Charge Time bar for the duration of the counterattack.
There are quite a few factors involved calculating the actual Charge Time:
:Charge~Time = (\text{CT} \times \text{CS-MOD} + \text{RAN0.5}) \times \text{L-MOD} \times \text{B-MOD} \times \text{ST-MOD} \times \text{M-MOD}
:CT = Charge Time Factor (CT)
:CS-MOD = Character's Speed Modifier
:RAN0.5 = Random number between 0 and 0.5 (seconds)
:L-MOD = License "Swiftness" Modifier
:B-MOD = Battle Speed Modifier
:ST-MOD = status effect Modifier
:M-MOD = Metallic Modifier when magnetic field is active.
====Charge Time Factor (CT)====
All weapons and Technicks have a Charge Time Factor (CT). The Charge Time Factor is directly proportionate to the actual charge time, so the tables below can be used to compare the speed of different weapons or Technicks.
The Charge Time Factor for magick is always 30 in the original version, or 23 in the Zodiac versions, regardless of the spell being cast. Using items, performing Quickenings, and summoning Espers requires no Charge Time.
;Original
{|class="FFXII article-table" style="text-align:center"	
One-handed weapons 	One-handed weapons
Weapon 	CT
Danjuro 	21
Zwill Crossblade 	22
Platinum DaggerOrichalcum DirkAvenger	23
GladiusMain GaucheChopper 	24
Assassin's DaggerMage MasherDagger 	25
Axe 	29
Hammer 	32
Mace 	32
Measure 	32
Sword 	35
{|class="FFXII article-table" style="text-align:center"	
Defensive Technicks	Defensive Technicks
Technick 	CT
Libra 	10
First Aid 	15
Revive 	25
Charge 	40
Infuse 	40
;Zodiac
{|class="FFXII article-table" style="text-align:center"	
One-handed weapons	One-handed weapons
Weapon 	CT
Dagger 	21
Axe 	29
Mace 	30
Hammer 	32
Measure 	32
Sword 	32
Great Trango 	25
Mythril Sword 	30
Mythril Blade 	30
Kumbha 	31
{|class="FFXII article-table" style="text-align:center"	
Defensive Technicks	Defensive Technicks
Technick 	CT
Libra 	10
First Aid 	15
Revive 	25
Charge 	40
Infuse 	40
====Character's Speed Modifier (CS-MOD)====
Character's Speed Modifier is determined by the character's Speed stat. The effect on the actual Charge Time is only obvious when Speed is low (below 46) and the bonus diminishes as Speed increases. The highest possible Speed of 99 only makes charging 21% faster compared to the lowest possible Speed of 23.
====License "Swiftness" Modifier (L-MOD)====
Each "Swiftness" License results in a 12% reduction in the Swiftness Modifier (L-MOD) up to a total of 36% reduction when all three have been bought. This differs slightly from the in-game description, which states a "10%" reduction.
====Battle Speed Modifier (B-MOD)====
One can choose between six battle speeds.
Battle Speed	B-MOD
1 (Slowest) 	1/1.0 (100%)
2 	1/1.2 (83%)
3 	1/1.4 (71%)
4 	1/1.6 (63%)
5 	1/1.8 (56%)
6 (Fastest) 	1/2.0 (50%)
A fast Battle Speed (low B-MOD) reduces Charge Time while the Action Time stays the same. This means that setting the Battle Speed fast reduces the relative disadvantage of actions with long CTs, as the action stage stays the same. However, when the characters are fleeing, setting the Battle Speed to minimum makes the enemies get their turns slower, but the party will still keep running away at the same pace.
====Status Modifier (ST-MOD)====
Various status effectes affect the Charge Time speed. The effects stack.
Status 	ST-MOD
Berserk 	1/2.0 (50%)
Haste 	1/1.5 (67%)
Slow 	1/0.5 (200%)
Berserk + Haste 	1/3.0 (33%)
Berserk + Haste + Slow	1/2.0 (50%)
Berserk + Slow 	1/1.0 (100%)
Haste + Slow 	1/1.0 (100%)
Sleep 	Paused
Stop 	Paused
====Metallic Modifier====
The severity of the penalty is calculated using a modifier based on the total metal value of equipment worn by all party members.
===Final Fantasy XIV===
Various abilities have cast times, displayed on their descriptions. While charging an ability, players cannot move without canceling the cast. Originally, selecting the spell again would also cancel it, and using spells on a different class would incur an increase of roughly 50% on the cast time.
If a Disciple of Magic is targeted by an attack when casting a spell, there is a chance for it to be cancelled with no MP loss. Charging an ability may also be cancelled by losing line of sight to the target, or by being stunned, petrified, silenced, put to sleep, paralyzed, KO'd, or inflicted with various other debilitating status effects. Certain spells have no charge time and will go off instantly.
Many monsters also have abilities that need time to charge up, as shown by a smaller gauge filling up near the monster's HP gauge. If these gauges are flashing, the ability can be interrupted by either stunning them or using an interrupt skill such as Interject.
===Final Fantasy Tactics===
All battle units and most spells and abilities have a Charge Time that determines when the battle units reach their active turn or the time it takes for a command ability to commence. Direct attack and other skills do not require charging time. Speed stat determines how fast the CT gauge fills. For instance, when there are two battle units, unit A has the Speed of 10 and B's is 5, unit A requires 100 ÷ 10 = 10 units of timespan to fill the CT gauge, while B requires 20 units, so A will act earlier than B and can act twice between B's active turns.
After the unit takes a turn, its CT will be decremented depending on whether it has moved and/or acted. A unit that both moved and acted has its CT reduced by 100; a unit that moved or acted, but did not do both, has its CT reduced by 80; a unit that did not move or act will have its CT reduced by 60. In any event, the leftover CT caps at 60, and the unit's CT gauge will begin charging anew.
While initiating the command ability that requires charging, an independent and hidden CT gauge will start charging based on the Speed of the ability itself. Except for Jump, the Speed of the ability user, as well as under the status effect Haste or Slow has no effect on the charging speed of the ability. Stop halts the charging of the ability until the effect wears off.
If the Speed of the ability is lower than the user's so that the ability is not commenced before the user reaches its next active turn, player will need to choose "Wait" to continue charging, otherwise initiating another command will cancel the previous charging ability. Except for performing Jump attack, charging an ability will make the user unable to dodge and take roughly 50% extra damage from physical attacks.
Certain spells, such as Haste, increase a unit's Speed, thus fulfilling the CT gauge earlier, while other spells, like Quick, instantly fill up a character's CT gauge. The support ability Short Charge cuts CT of all magicks significantly. There is also the dummied out ability called CT 0 that removes the charge time from every ability. This ability appears more to be a debug tool than an ability intended to be in the game.
CT is also a special command ability of Arithmetician, which allows the character to target magick based on the units' current CT gauge. This is useful to target most (if not all) of the units in the battlefield with Magick.
=== Final Fantasy Tactics Advance ===
Charge Time has been greatly modified from the first game. No abilities have charge time, and how turn order is determined is slightly altered.
Each tick, a unit's personal CT counter increases by their Speed (doubled under Haste, halved [rounded down] when under Slow). When a unit's CT reaches or exceeds 1000, they can take their turn, while at the same time lowering all other units' CT by the excess, storing it as a "reserve" value. If multiple units exceed 1000 CT, then the unit with the highest value takes their turn.
After the unit's turn is taken, their CT is lowered to 500, lowered by 300 CT if they acted or 200 CT if they moved. The next tick, the "reserve" CT is added to everyone in addition to their normal CT gain. If this causes a unit's CT to reach or exceed 1000, then they take their turn, and the reserve process starts again. The revamped CT system both works as a more neutral tiebreaker (as the original game's CT system favored player units in case of a tie) and works to balance turns more, especially between units with similar Speed.
====Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift====
CT represents where in the Turn Order the unit is. Haste will decrease the time between turns, whereas Slow will increase it. Units with higher Speed will have more frequent turns, while units with lower Speed will have less frequent turns.
Certain enemy abilities, such as Illua's Time Blade ability and the Lamia's Slap, have the special effect "CT 0", which will completely drain the target's CT, placing them at the bottom of the turn order.
===Final Fantasy Type-0===
There are no separate -ra/-ga spells and charge time represents focusing magic from level one to two and three by holding the relevant button while also evading attacks as necessary. Some higher-tier magic, such as the elemental-ROK and ROK-II and defensive magic, like Cure and Protect, require an initial charge time before the level one magic can be cast. Cast time can be reduced in the Altocrystarium by spending accrued phantoma, usually with the effect of increasing MP cost.
Some unique character abilities have a start up time before they hit during which they are vulnerable to enemy attacks. In some cases, an auto-ability can be purchased using AP that prevents flinching during the skill.
===Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light===
When using magic tomes, the ability takes longer to execute the more powerful it is ranked.
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Most actions have a charge time before the action is executed. Charge times vary between ability types, with Celerity, Thief, and some Ninja abilities having shorter charge times while Full Charge and 5★ Witch abilities having longer charge times. Some abilities, such as Defend or Quick Hit, have a charge time of 0.01 seconds and thus execute instantly when selected.
Certain abilities, Soul Breaks, and Legend Materia reduce or eliminate the charge time for some or all actions, either for a fixed period of time or for a fixed number of actions after the effect is granted.
==Citations==
Category:Battle elements
Category:Recurring stats
Category:Recurring status effects