I've seen a few people ask, but what about the Templar change to Puncturing Strikes and its morphs?

From what I've seen over nearly 9 years playing this game, the original Puncturing Strikes and its morphs is an extremely favored skill in the game. Players love how it looks and feels to use, it's not like Dive on Warden where it's the only spammable the class has; players like the skill. It could be nerfed, and players would still use the skill despite nerfs because it is such a fun skill to use. Rather than changing the animation, the skill animation could be sped up to .8 seconds, and the damage could be reduced to compensate that. I don't think changing the animation of a player-favorite skill is something that should be done. It's something that should be done on skills where players absolutely hate the skill animation and how it feels to use;
players love Puncturing Strikes, how it looks, and how it feels to use. Nerfing the damage a bit won't change that.

An example of a skill players very much dislike is Warden's Dive skill and its morphs. It's slow and doesn't feel good to use, and after its nerf, it's pretty lack-luster now. THIS should be a skill worth looking at animation changes, not skills players adore.

A good example of a skill that was worth changing is Flurry and its morphs. I have not met many people that like flurry's original animation or how it felt to use. The new animation is a bit lacking, but the intent of changing the old one to something that feels better to use is good. And it does feel good to use now! Though it's a bit slow for the theme of a flurry of blows, and the animation is definitely either the light or heavy attack animation for dual wield, so the skill itself does deserve its own unique animation that follows the theme, or at worst a re-name. But otherwise, I like the intent here. It shows that the devs were listening to the players, a majority of whom did not like this skill and how it felt to use. It's not perfect. But it's better than it was.

Further, if you are going to revamp old skill animations, these animations should be better than the old animations. Time should be taken, unique 3D models and VFX should be made and used, and they should be overall visual upgrades in comparison to the old animation. From what I see on the new animation, it's stiff, the 3D model for the spear is a reused asset from the Nighthollow Staff, and the VFX boils down to just shimmering texture and a glowing light source.

I'm an animator, that's my job. I mainly animate for television and movies, but have done some work on games. The old animation was better, objectively. Exaggeration, anticipation, follow through, arcs, slow in and slow out... It used the principles of animation in a much better way than the new animation. See, the principles exist because without them, animation looks bad. A cartoon doesn't look like reality if you rotoscope exactly, it looks more alive if you exaggerate movements, squash and stretch beyond what a normal human can, etc.

Watch the new animation closely. The first two attacks are exactly the same with no variation in timing. There's no slow in or slow out, anticipation, squash or stretch, or exaggeration. It's just a straight forward animation, frame by frame. It feels stiff, like a robot is moving. The last jab is also slow. It pulls back at the same speed that it stabs, which does not look like a stab.

Here's how I'd fix the animation; for one, there would be variation in the first two strikes, which wouldn't be perfect stabs but have little arcs that the tip of the spear moves in to make it look alive and like an actual warrior is wielding the spear. The arms wouldn't move in perfect repetition. There would be a slight pause at the end of the pull back animation for the first two strikes, and the stab itself would launch forward faster. The body would also move back with the pull back, and arch forward when attacking. Not as much as the final attack, but the body would move a bit unlike the current animation. The second stab would not pull back as far as the first. They're two quick jabs, and pulling back that far both makes the timing of the animation slower, but also makes it look weird. The final attack would pull back similar to how it does, but the launch forward would be faster, and the spear would reach further. It would go in a straight line this time to contrast the arcs from the first two hits, as the arms themselves would be moving in arcs. The character would let go of the spear with their left hand towards the end of the animation to allow them to lunge forward even more than before, which would also give it a better explosive feeling.

That's how I'd fix it. Right now, it needs a complete rework, from the model used for the spear, to the VFX, to the animation.

ZoS, player skills are things we use every day. Spammables are skills we see over and over again, sometimes hundreds of times in a single fight. Please don't change the skills we love for the worst. I'm sure someone worked hard to make the new animation for Puncturing Strikes, but it's also obvious that corners were cut in order to do it quickly. Please don't cut corners when making animation for skills players use. I beg you.