Thoughts of Samurai Changes

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Originally Posted by Kahnom

In paper, yes.
But in practice, It's not gonna work with PUG, with people who never done it before, might work with static but who knows.
Still looks stupid nonetheless.

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Are we talking optimization, or pugging?

Hypothetically if Samurai pulling was optimal, it wouldn't be the first time that an odd pull-habit was used. There were times back in StB where Bards built a sizable aggro lead for the tanks who would then voke off of them, which was possible because of abilities like Cover and TBN. That's all my point is.

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Originally Posted by SaberMaxwell

Are we talking optimization, or pugging?

Hypothetically if Samurai pulling was optimal, it wouldn't be the first time that an odd pull-habit was used. There were times back in StB where Bards built a sizable aggro lead for the tanks who would then voke off of them, which was possible because of abilities like Cover and TBN. That's all my point is.

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I can't say for Tank but for DPS, you don't need to make yourself look stupid to do high dps though.
If you do high numbers in the first place, your dps will be high regardless. Even without unmethodical stunts.
The point is " Is the potencies increased worth the trouble ? "
It's only 10 kenki in SAM case, not 50 kenki so it's not worth it for me.
but if the Tank I run with wants me to pull then I don't mind.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Is this accounting for potency-value-in-Kenki not generated over the Enpi GCD (and, of course, the bonus of Kaiten (Midare) potency-per-Kenki over Shinten and Iaijutsu's contribution to Shoha potency)?

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This doc (https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...HqQjslrwHd/pub) has the mathematical breakdowns.

It accounts for Kenki potency and Meditation potency, but it doesn't account for, as far as I'm aware, any possible rotational quirks introducing Yaten + Enpi into your rotation might cause (either positively or negatively). I'm not sure how relevant that would even be—in a vacuum—considering the increased rotational flexibility for SAM in Endwalker.

Even putting aside the enpi thing and assuming they "fix" it, I very much dislike the open eyes thing, one more thing to try and keep track of when the boss is going to attack raidwide for every raid. On the other hand if they get rid of the annoying looping rotation that'd be great. I really just miss Stormblood Samurai, that was perfection...

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Originally Posted by Taranok

I don't know why, but the devs seem hell bent on repeating this mistake, so showing them that it's a mistake by not even using it except in something like an ultimate fight that actually demands it would go a long way towards fixing the problem of unnecessary skill bloat.

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Even if I account for Merciful Eyes not being on my hotbar in the first place (good riddance to the most useless button in SAM's kit,) I can easily fit Hyosetsu + Shoha 2 + Ogi on my hotbars. Samurai doesn't have a button bloat problem, and it definitely doesn't have one bad enough to justify refusing to press damage buttons.

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Originally Posted by Arkdra

That said, I do agree with you that I am extremely tired of "new" abilities that are just aoe or st versions of pre-existing skills. It's lazy, and even as someone that likes button bloat, I find this kind of bloat to be tedious. They never should have made kyuten, Senei or shoha 2. Or Hyosetsu for that matter but it's uniquely bad on it's own.

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Never should have made kyuten, senei or shoha 2? Do you have a reason why, or are you just saying words? Kyuten is our AoE kenki dump the same way Shinten in our single target kenki dump. Senei is a better version of Guren for us to use in single target. Shoha 2 is an upgrade in AoE over Shoha. It would be more lazy to not add new abilities, as they come with new animations, sound effects and visual effects. Adding them sounds like a lot of effort for being lazy.

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Originally Posted by Naizakane

Even if I account for Merciful Eyes not being on my hotbar in the first place (good riddance to the most useless button in SAM's kit,) I can easily fit Hyosetsu + Shoha 2 + Ogi on my hotbars. Samurai doesn't have a button bloat problem, and it definitely doesn't have one bad enough to justify refusing to press damage buttons.



Never should have made kyuten, senei or shoha 2? Do you have a reason why, or are you just saying words? Kyuten is our AoE kenki dump the same way Shinten in our single target kenki dump. Senei is a better version of Guren for us to use in single target. Shoha 2 is an upgrade in AoE over Shoha. It would be more lazy to not add new abilities, as they come with new animations, sound effects and visual effects. Adding them sounds like a lot of effort for being lazy.

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Dude my whole point is that aoe versions of single target skills are lazy design and add nothing to the job. Why do we have Kyuten when Shinten could have just been, "delivers an attack with 320 potency to 1 target and X% less to all other targets within range" to make the math work out to Kyuten damage. The extra button serves no valuable purpose other than being an extra separate button. Which is not necessarily bad, there is some value to that sort of thing. But not when you're adding buttons to an already bloated job. I redid my sam bar for EW after the Media tour and I've got like 1 free space left on my bars. We did not really need more buttons (other than ogi namakiri which I need for the joy it will bring me) and we especially didn't need something like shoha 2.

Your suggestion would have been lazier though, you'd only make one animation, one skill effect and one sound effect rather than two. Buttons like Kyuten exist because you can end up not having enough actions and feeling like you don't have much to do, and buttons like Senei exist because they're big damage buttons that you didn't have before. I'll also have 1 free slot on my three hotbars, as I'll be taking Leg Sweep off because it's not really doing anything. Shoha 2 is a welcome addition as well, it gives Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations rather than just pressing Shoha and accepting that there's no spender for AoE.

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Originally Posted by Naizakane

Shoha 2... gives Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations rather than just pressing Shoha and accepting that there's no spender for AoE.

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No, Shoha 2 doesn't. Having a Meditation spender that deals AoE damage does (at least, ostensibly).

Do you see the difference?

There is absolutely no need for twice as many buttons just to add the dry-as-dust mechanic of counting whether one's enemy is singular or plural.

There are no focus target damage requirements in this game significant enough to forfeit even 30+% total damage.
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But let's get back to that "ostensible" part. Your AoE is going to balanced either with or without Meditation stacks. If you have an AoE Meditation spender, you lose a bit of AoE ppm (in the form of potency-per-use) from somewhere else.

But not having that AoE Meditation spender means that you don't lose that bit of Kyuten/Oka/Mangentsu/HyosetsuGuren ppm, or you only face its cut of the budget proportionate to 1 in n (where n is your nominal "average pull size"), because it mostly falls outside of the domain of those AoE balance decisions.

As such, you get either free or disproportionately useful focus-target damage. If free, that's just gravy by which to make sure that last enemy doesn't die much later than the rest. If it takes some part of your budget, the ability to make up for the difference in the rate of crits and/or direct hits against the luckiest enemy in the enemy pack is still more than worth it for the pack's time-to-kill.

All an AoE-capable Shoha does is trade managing enemy health pools in AoE pulls for the slight preference not to spend Meditation stacks if there's a large AoE pull coming up before your next Meditation stack gained.

:: Personally, I'd prefer a middle-ground: 50% fall-off. Fewer SAMs would complain about being "nerfed" by Shoha in AoE when they're actually not, but I'd still actually have reason to manage on which targets I use it.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

No, Shoha 2 doesn't. Having a Meditation spender that deals AoE damage does (at least, ostensibly).

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So Shoha 2, the Meditation spender that deals AoE damage, does not give Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations, but a Meditation spender that deals AoE damage would give Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations. I don't really need to read the rest of your post if that's how you start off.

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Originally Posted by Naizakane

Your suggestion would have been lazier though, you'd only make one animation, one skill effect and one sound effect rather than two. Buttons like Kyuten exist because you can end up not having enough actions and feeling like you don't have much to do, and buttons like Senei exist because they're big damage buttons that you didn't have before. I'll also have 1 free slot on my three hotbars, as I'll be taking Leg Sweep off because it's not really doing anything. Shoha 2 is a welcome addition as well, it gives Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations rather than just pressing Shoha and accepting that there's no spender for AoE.

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-We're talking about mechanical laziness, the art teams work has no bearing. Art teams going to be making the same number of animations and sound effects regardless.

-I already said that the aoe alt skills exist to fill up up space on bars and be uninspired skill design to check off new expansion skill requirements. I also said that this can have value in some cases, but it doesn't for samurai. Samurai already has 35 buttons on their bars counting role actions in endwalker. If they got rid of these pointless aoe skills it would drop to 33 which is still in the top end of button bloated jobs.

-Again, like I already said, senei being big damage is meaningless. They coulda made Gurren do 1200 potency with damage dropoff to mimic gurrens aoe damage on other targets. This is just math to work out.

-shoha could have also been given the above treatment.

These buttons all suck. They aren't exciting. They don't force me to alter my play pattern or consider anything of value other than a binary of being in ST or AOE. It's button bloat. If this were, say, machinist, a job that has about 22 buttons all told, it would be whatever. Mch could probably use more buttons, even poorly designed ones like st/aoe splits. But samurai didn't.

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Originally Posted by Naizakane

So Shoha 2, the Meditation spender that deals AoE damage, does not give Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations, but a Meditation spender that deals AoE damage would give Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE situations. I don't really need to read the rest of your post if that's how you start off.

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Having a second Meditation-spending button with does not, itself, give your Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE.

Having a Meditation button (whether or not it be the only button） which contributes to your AoE damage (ostensibly) gives your Meditation stacks a proper use in AoE.

You're conflating button-count with function. They're not the same thing.

The only thing that the second button adds, in terms of gameplay, is that you count whether your enemy is singular or plural... and it comes at cost to a deeper mechanic (enemy HP management / compensatory focus damage) at that.

Shoha 2 as a separate button (rather than a trait) is not worth the added real-estate it takes up.

SAM already plays well and it just seems better to me.
However part of me is also disappointed that it's more of the same instead of something a bit more new.

It's not bad or anything it's good, but just not super interesting.

I would love to see that Ikishoten turns into the Ogi Namikiri combo after the activation, so I won't need an additional button for Ogi Namikiri. :cool:

If they could make that change, that would be perfect! :D

So, it looks like the new ice AoE, Fuko, isn't adding an extra step to the rotation for no reason. It actually replaces Fuga instead, so we'll have 3 circle AoEs instead of a cone plus 2 circles.

Job upgrades for those who want to take a look:

https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/samurai/

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

So, it looks like the new ice AoE, Fuko, isn't adding an extra step to the rotation for no reason. It actually replaces Fuga instead, so we'll have 3 circle AoEs instead of a cone plus 2 circles.

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According to the updated job guide, there is no Ice AoE. Fuko does not grant Setsu nor any other Sen. It just increases Fuga's potency by 20.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

According to the updated job guide, there is no Ice AoE. Fuko does not grant Setsu nor any other Sen. It just increases Fuga's potency by 20.

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Yes, I'm aware. I said it's a Fuga replacement. It's the ice-based aoe we saw from the trailer graphics-wise. I never said it grant's a Sen. People were originally thinking it was going to just be another AoE step with more button bloat. At least we won't have to aim the cone anymore.

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

At least we won't have to aim the cone anymore.

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That and moving back and forth to position between Fuga and Mangetsu/Oka was... literally the only thing keeping AoE spam interesting for me.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

That and moving back and forth to position between Fuga and Mangetsu/Oka was... literally the only thing keeping AoE spam interesting for me.

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You're not losing a whole lot then. I would even wager the QoL gained for players who despise having to do this is greater than the engagement lost from no longer having to do it lv86 onwards.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

You're not losing a whole lot then. I would even wager the QoL gained for players who despise having to do this is greater than the engagement lost from no longer having to do it lv86 onwards.

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So the value of losing engagement to those who don't like doing things is greater than the value of engagement lost to those who do? Hrmm. Even if that were the case, I'm not sure that's a design principle we should be favoring.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

So the value of losing engagement to those who don't like doing things is greater than the value of engagement lost to those who do? Hrmm. Even if that were the case, I'm not sure that's a design principle we should be favoring.

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You realize you're making a pretty big deal out of something very minor, correct? The negative impact of this change is quite literally next to nothing, and will likely just translate to less damage lost over the long term across the playerbase.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

You realize you're making a pretty big deal out of something very minor, correct? The negative impact of this change is quite literally next to nothing, and will likely just translate to less damage lost over the long term across the playerbase.

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Present considerations unique to AoE:

• Remember that combos are only 2 steps long.
• Position radial AoE at center of mob pack.
• Position conal AoE at edge of mob pack
• Aim conal AoE to an enemy who will center the cone around the mob pack.
• Be sure to be positioned within the hitboxes of any enemies at the base of the cone. You will aim at a more distant enemy, but you can still strike any enemies whose hitboxes are intersected by any space between the center and 'frontal' edge of yours.
• Target-swap in order not to lose auto-attack uptime even when casting Tenka on enemies out of range to maximize its coverage.
• Use large mobs(' hitboxes as cone base) to minimize distance that most be moved between optimizing conal and radial AoE.
• Predict tank positioning as not to let more distant centering Tenka targets move out of cone. (Generally, be around 90 degrees from tank, on the side they're more likely to dodge to, such that they cleave you but also don't run mobs through and past Tenka, especially before lv74, or outrange Tenka).

Most of the nuance of our AoE spam was quite strictly because of having those switches between conal and radial AoEs. We retain that partially with Tenka, but that's it; the frequency of that engagement has gone 4 in 5 GCDs to 1 in 5.

Is it a small change? Yes. Is it a bad one? Imo, also yes. And it most definitely perpetuates design concepts I think are damaging to the game.

For context:

Imo, good "QoL" changes: Ten Chi Jin changes; Gnashing Fang combo consolidation (you literally could just swipe your finger over the keys for all three and queue the next usable one); removal of BotD (at least since it stopped having any impact in combat -- i.e., Shadowbringers), etc.
Imo, "QoL" changes arguably good or bad: Buffs from Oka/Mangetsu (assuming accordant rebalance), Enochian being basically just removed rather than turned into a gameplay-affecting trait (wherein losing AF or UI drops progress towards next Foul/Xeno), etc.
Imo, bad "QoL" changes: Shadowfang being turned from a rotational element into Sonic Break v2, then removed; this change to Fuga; etc.

Huh, didn't notice before, but Senei and Guren only cost 25 kenki now.

Samurai feels great tbh. I thought we would have less kenki but with Hissatsu being 25 kenki instead of 50 and third eye granting 10 kenki It doesn't feel like I'm missing 3 less Shintens. the added flexibility of double tsubame makes it a lot less punishing on messing up which is nice. I have not gotten double meikyo or ogi but it'll probably make the experience even better! Samurai feels like it only got better going into end walker which nice compared to some other jobs. It might not feel as great to optimize but we'll see when raids drop.

SAM got a lot of QoL this expansion and I like that, reminds me of the old SAM in SB again.
I’m only level 83 but I will look forward to get to max level.

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Originally Posted by Kahnom

reminds me of the old SAM in SB again.

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So... when your Sen-cleanse was on a 40s CD, Oka/Mangetsu granted no buffs, and Shifu/Jinpu were only 30s durations?

right now the sam feel nice, but i have a few concern for make it great...
they are called tenka goken and hissatsu: guren. with endwalker we did get a lot of QoL for our AoE, oka and mangetsu giving buff, mumyo shoha for use our charge in aoe phase, and Fuko making our whole combo a 360 degree.
sadly like said tenka goken is not the case, you need to target something for deal a charged aoe in cone if your target die, you need to retarget another and recharge tenka goken. ii must'nt be the only one that had his target die while charging a tenka goken... and let's be honest the target system of ff14 is far to be the best around. but i digress, the trouble is we was aoe with the combo and we need to move from the group for use efficiently tenka goken.

and outside the charge time for tenka we can say the same for guren...

sadly i don't see any change coming before the next expansion... but well at least all the other change did make our cycle more stable and fluid.

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Originally Posted by silentwindfr

right now the sam feel nice, but i have a few concern for make it great...

sadly... we need to move from the group for use efficiently tenka goken....

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When "great" just really means "obliges less gameplay." /sigh

The only change I want to Tenka and Guren is the same change I want for all targeted AoEs -- to make it follow character facing instead of requiring a target.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

When "great" just really means "obliges less gameplay." /sigh

The only change I want to Tenka and Guren is the same change I want for all targeted AoEs -- to make it follow character facing instead of requiring a target.

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it's not less gameplay, it's make it more fluid... it's different. with fugo you can go in middle of the melee and the time you spend to replace yourself for get an efficient tenka goken or simply for target the right target is painfull.
plus one important point to note a lot of large enemy make tenka goken simply miss the pack... since it's range is 8 yalm when the combo have a 5 yalms, but since it's circle it's actually covering 10 yalms.
for make simple even if your combo can hit everyone it's not said that tenka goken will do the same.

it's tedious and often handicap the sam when other dps don't have this part to move, don't forget that tenka goken have a charging time where we don't move... making use loose double time, since we need to move in position, then wait that tenka goken charge up and goes. when we had fuka it wasn't a trouble since we was already placing ourself for fuka... but with fugo we don't need to place ourself... making all the situation around tenka and guren uselessly more complicate than needed.

and if you did notice i have said that it's probably something that will not come out before next expac... and honestly right now at this time, what can they add to the samurai?
only a few skill need change or to be look at:
- higanbana, because it don't use tsubame and honestly even if in terms of dps it's welcome i still fail to see it point, since samurai try to slash thing, not make them bleed. don't get me wrong i understand that it did bring diversity to the cycle, but maybe they need to look into it for make it more engaging more than force us to use 3 gcd for add diversity.
- tenka goken (like guren),i have already explained my thought about it
- mokuso, i feel this skill need a bit of flavor...often when the fight allows us to use it we barely need it... i dunno what to do with it for make it more relevant... because right now it feel like a niche skill.

right now for 2 expac the sam did barely change, most of the change was quality of life more than adding true new mechanic that add to the jobs, some will say that tsubame did add stuff or shoha but did the jobs really did change with this two thing? it's only did make the sam feel more complete....
the question is what can they add with the next one... we already have the job with the most button used. and the one i did talk about are usefull (exept mokuso) then scrap them is kinda hard. do we will get one more expac of minimal change? more than less gameplay, i'm more worried to get more of the same gameplay.

but honestly the sam is good, i have a blast with it. i'm even surprise that ogi is something that don't replace the iaijutsu... and the sam is not the only jobs like this, the rdm have the same trouble... and the most the fun it's the two jobs added together that have the same trouble.
i'm for more gameplay, more tool to be used... but if they want to add more tool, they need to make our tool more fluid and smooth. mekyo and tsubame with two charge are a good way to do it. change tenka goken and guren another one. maybe like you said to remove the need of target someone, yes. we are here for talk and share our mind about it. i don't say my is more relevant or more just than your, just give my piece of mind. whatever they decide if it work i'm for it.

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Originally Posted by silentwindfr

it's not less gameplay, it's make it more fluid... it's different.

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It's literally less. You've gone from obliged movement to... nothing.

By your logic, positionals have no gameplay element.

Again, I'm all for all targeted AoEs being changed to instead use the character's or camera's facing, since that'd be less finicky and more intuitive, but that does not necessitate that every AoE in the game is turned into a radial AoE. I prefer the obliged movement brought by having a mix of AoEs.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

So... when your Sen-cleanse was on a 40s CD, Oka/Mangetsu granted no buffs, and Shifu/Jinpu were only 30s durations?

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I mean the flow of gameplay.
If you pkay SAM long enough, you'll get what I mean.

It's me or Namikiri SFX from job trailer was a bait ? lol

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

It's literally less. You've gone from obliged movement to... nothing.

By your logic, positionals have no gameplay element.

Again, I'm all for all targeted AoEs being changed to instead use the character's or camera's facing, since that'd be less finicky and more intuitive, but that does not necessitate that every AoE in the game is turned into a radial AoE. I prefer the obliged movement brought by having a mix of AoEs.

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don't start me on positional, i have a quite hard take on it. but i see what what you means. however what i means is i wish they add more to the sam and for this they will need to change stuff for get more room. i don't want to see a third expac with minimal change. i want to have the feeling that with expansion our character become stronger... because let's face it. with endwalker, outside namikiri.... our cycle didn't change. we simply did get more room for mess up or have different speed attack... what is nice, but not game changer. even namikiri is simply an overpowered iaijutsu that don't use our iaijutsu sen system.

another point i want to clarify... what you call more gameplay i call it tedious, because you either go full radial or full cone, here we get 4 radial (3 combo skill and mumyo shoha) and 3 cone attack (guren, tenka and namikiri) but 2 of this skill have long cd, and namikiri is more a solo target skill with his -75% potency after the first target. (that is 300 potency in aoe after all).... but i digress, your main rotation will be 3 radial, then position yourself (while the tank move enemy because he avoid aoe) unleash tenka, repeat 3 time before add a mumyo.

and in fight where tank move a lot, the number of time where tenka can hit more than 3 target (especially if a few big target in inside the pack) is not that often. and we don't talk if the target die while your charge tenka and stuff like this.

and don' think i want less gameplay i want more tool and diversity... and for this they need to smooth this part for get us new toy to play with.

because right now, sam is one of the jobs with the most button to use... and if they want to add anything else... they either take some our skill or smooth part for make it more fluid...

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Originally Posted by silentwindfr

what you call more gameplay i call it tedious

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Then I have to wonder how narrow a range of change would be acceptable to you as an addition to SAM...

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and we don't talk if the target die while your charge tenka and stuff like this.

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I'm sorry, but that's straight up a matter of you lacking practice with conal AoEs and casts, then. You should never be targeting an enemy that will die before you can complete the cast. That's the same logic as with literally any other cast. And you absolutely can preposition Tenka sufficiently to deal with ADHD tanks.

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because right now, sam is one of the jobs with the most button to use... and if they want to add anything else... they either take some our skill or smooth part for make it more fluid...

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There is no absolute need to add buttons to add interactions. Nor would the reduction to gameplay you're asking for reduce SAM's button count.

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Originally Posted by Noraiga

It's me or Namikiri SFX from job trailer was a bait ? lol

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Nah. My screen still shakes a bit when used and it feels good.

As for the AoE stuff, I'm still constantly dodging enemy aoes even with the new circular aoe, so it's not like AoE is anymore boring. On the contrary, weaving two charges of Meikyo/Tsubame, Ogi, Kyuten, Guren and Goken keeps it very busy.

Get SAM to lvl 87 yesterday and Fuko feels good.
I can hit more Targets and even more kenki generated.
I love this.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Then I have to wonder how narrow a range of change would be acceptable to you as an addition to SAM...


I'm sorry, but that's straight up a matter of you lacking practice with conal AoEs and casts, then. You should never be targeting an enemy that will die before you can complete the cast. That's the same logic as with literally any other cast. And you absolutely can preposition Tenka sufficiently to deal with ADHD tanks.


There is no absolute need to add buttons to add interactions. Nor would the reduction to gameplay you're asking for reduce SAM's button count.

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While I have agreed with most of what you say, to pretend that positionals are some sort of deep mechanic that had complexity is like trying to tell me that putting orange caps on the orange bottles and blue caps on the blue ones is similarly complex and stimulating. Positionals are, by their nature, a veiled attempt at difficulty and more a "Are you paying attnetion?" check. This is not difficult. This is very inherently a chore and to call it gameplay would be akin to calling moving to the left the same. Technically, you'd be correct, but let's be real.

This is mostly the only bit that miffed me considering that, if this notion is rejected, suddenly someone has a narrow view of what could be added to SAM, which is honestly pretty... well, narrow-minded.

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Originally Posted by BrokentoothMarch

This is very inherently a chore and to call it gameplay would be akin to calling moving to the left the same. Technically, you'd be correct, but let's be real.

This is mostly the only bit that miffed me considering that, if this notion is rejected, suddenly someone has a narrow view of what could be added to SAM, which is honestly pretty... well, narrow-minded.

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Then what of Savage raiding, 90+% of which is "move to X at time Y"? Mere chore? Just get rid of it all those mechanics, too? If preemptive movement is so "tedious" as to be considered gameplay only by the thinnest technicality... what is there to do among the endgame?

But let's say we follow your line of reasoning and reject any and all mechanics that required paired consideration without requiring additional button counts. No more cast times. No more positionals. Done. Is that not a narrower span of gameplay than before such was excluded?

If a job had several or so paths of development available to it previously, but you sought to constrain that to just a few because the remainder didn't meet your personal definition of "worthwhile gameplay", have you not set a narrower view of what could be added to SAM?

Haven’t reached 90 yet but I have to say, I really wish we got condensed combos like GNB’s Gnashing Fang. I have issues with fine-motor dexterity because I have cerebral palsy. Would make it a lot easier for me to manage actual fight mechanics if I didn’t feel like I was fighting my own hotbars during combat. There’s a lot of abilities in SAM’s kit that feel like they could be traits or otherwise condensed combos rather than every single skill needing its own separate keybind.

I’m a huge fan of the AoE QoL changes though. Being able to apply our speed/damage buffs using the AoE rotation is such a simple yet tremendously rewarding change. Having them fall off during gaps in dungeon mob density and then needing to start up half the single-target rotation to reapply them was the worst feeling in the world.

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Originally Posted by Theodric_Thorne

Haven’t reached 90 yet but I have to say, I really wish we got condensed combos like GNB’s Gnashing Fang. I have issues with fine-motor dexterity because I have cerebral palsy. Would make it a lot easier for me to manage actual fight mechanics if I didn’t feel like I was fighting my own hotbars during combat.

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If you're not streaming nor screenshotting your UI, there may or may not be mods meant to deal with exactly that (and reduce button bloat in the process).

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

If you're not streaming nor screenshotting your UI, there may or may not be mods meant to deal with exactly that (and reduce button bloat in the process).

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A disabled gamer should not have to violate ToS to make the game more accessible. Yet every time I see this concern brought up, I see responses suggesting that expanding PvP-style combos into PvE would single-handedly destroy the entire game. Why is it that arbitrarily hitting more buttons is somehow considered objectively more fun than hitting a smaller selection of buttons multiple times?