Ability button dot crawl meaning?

Certain abilities on the on the hotbar get a surround of crawling dots. What does it mean?

On my pugilist, the dots reflect the current form, and thus, the best abilities to use in that form.

On my rogue, I thought they highlighted the combo actions to use, but they appear in reverse of the combo order.
Example: Gust Slash tooltip says Spinning Edge is the combo action, but when I hit GS, it lights up Aeolian Edge, whose combo is GS
If I hit SE, then it lights up GS, exactly the reverse order of the combo actions.

Maybe I have the Combo Action tooltip wrong?
If the GS combo action is SE, does that mean hit GS first, then SE, or does it mean that SE amplifies the damage of GS?

The dotted line means the ability is ready to use at full potency, if two of them are lit up its up to you to decide the best one to use at that time

It sounds like you're talking about the combo/proc highlight. You'll get the dotted border when a combo is available (use the first attack, the next in the series lights up). The dotted border will also highlight when you gain a proc (special effect) for certain spells or abilities, such as Black Mage or Machinist.

You are reading the tooltips wrong. For instance, where Aeolian Edge says "Combo Action: Gust Slash", it means that Gust Slash will open a combo for Aeolian Edge, and the resulting damage is listed below IF Gust Slash is used first (to give it the dotted highlight). In this example, your combo would be Spinning Edge > Gust Slash > Aeolian Edge.

They literally combo in the order that you learn them.

Thanks. I searched all over, and the only thing I could find about combo actions was articles on how to macro them, and nothing about what the tooltips actually meant.
And,another item if anyone can answer. I ran a dungeon yesterday, and Aeolian Edge was greyed out the whole time. Couldn't use it at all.
Now that I think of it, the dungeon was level 24, so perhaps I was level synced to it, and lost any abilities that came later?

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Originally Posted by SamSmoot

Thanks. I searched all over, and the only thing I could find about combo actions was articles on how to macro them, and nothing about what the tooltips actually meant.
And,another item if anyone can answer. I ran a dungeon yesterday, and Aeolian Edge was greyed out the whole time. Couldn't use it at all.
Now that I think of it, the dungeon was level 24, so perhaps I was level synced to it, and lost any abilities that came later?

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Yeah, you level synced and lost access to it.

Right. Each dungeon has a maximum level it will sync you to, and if youre higher then that you lose access to your more advanced techniques. Your gear is also scaled down(though you end up at the high part of the scale for having higher level gear), but this isnt as noticable until higher levels. And yeah, Darkstride nailed the combo explanation. Welcome to the game!