Picto Question: Ability replacement - Motif, Muse & White Paint

Firstly, I haven't played Picto any great amount, most for doing open-world stuff like fates.
So I'm hoping there's an answer that's obvious to those who've played Picto a lot more.

Secondly, is there a formal word for an ability that turns into another ability under certain circumstances?
If so, that word should be used in the title instead.


To the actual question:

It seems that Picto cannot cast Muse without the related Motif being cast first, and likewise cannot cast Motif when the related Muse is available to cast.

So why is Motif and Muse not one button/ability?
Cast Mofit, it becomes Muse. Cast Muse it goes back to being Mofit.


Likewise, stacking White Paint allows the casting of Holy in White.
When only White Stacks exist, Holy in White can be cast while Comet in Black cannot be cast.
Subtractive Palette converts a White Paint into a Black Paint.
When a Black Paint exists, Holy in White cannot be cast but Comet in Black can be cast.

Since it's one or the other and they both draw from the same resource, why is this not one button/ability?
Gain a Black Paint, Holy in White becomes Comet in Black. Cast Comet in Black and it goes back to being Holy in White.


Cheers.

Holy in white and comet in black could be combined but as for muses it’s mostly to do with CD tracking

For example if you fuse “draw creature” and “render creature” into one button then while you have a creature drawn then you can’t see the CD for the next creature part, this can lead to overcapping. The same is true for hammer muse as it has two charges

I guess you could technically combine “draw landscape” and “render landscape” then once you render it it changes to star prism but since the other two are seperate buttons you may as well leave all 3 as seperate buttons for consistency

This all comes back to the argument of "why isn't the entire rotation 1 button". They almost do that in the MSQ when playing as an NPC, or in PvP, since there's no time to setup your hotbar. It just feels more elaborate if you're pressing different buttons. It also actually gives you flexibility in fights, because sometimes you can cast and other times you cannot, so being able to choose non-casts when you need to move helps a lot.

My hotbar is essentially like this:

Hotbar 3: Limit Break, Food, Swiftcast, Pom Motif, Hammer Motif, Starry Sky Motif, Lucid Dreaming, Surecast, Star Prism
Hotbar 2: Fire II In Red, Blizzard II in Cyan, Tempera Coat, Mog of the Ages, Hammer Stamp, (Nothing)
Hotbar 1: Fire in Red, Blizzard in Red, Smudge, Living Muse, Steel Muse, Scenic Muse, (Nothing), Subtractive Pallette, Rainbow Drip, Holy in White, Comet in Black, Sprint

• Single target is on hotbar 1, AoE is on hotbar 2 in same places.
• The relevant Muses are directly below their respective Motifs.
• Everything lights up yellow when you are meant to use it except Motifs but you should try to always have them cast and look greyed out when possible, unless it's a buff window and you want to use your firepower first.
• Button 1 is what you do when nothing else is lit up yellow or if the buff is about to expire and reset the combo, or if you can't focus on other buttons due to mechanics. Can also press Subtractive Pallette to reset the combo buff.
• Ignore Holy in White entirely except for movement. Let it overcap. Use Comet in Black when available though.

Now of course, you can make things into 1 button using a macro, but most people will tell you that this is bad and shouldn't be done due to miniscule damage loss from it not queueing the actions. Nevertheless, if you really want to do it, you just make macros with a priority system:

Code:

---

/macroicon "Comet in Black"
/action "Comet in Black"
/action "Holy in White"

(This one will make combo tracking hard but still possible by checking status effects)
/macroicon "Blizzard in Cyan"
/action "Blizzard in Cyan"
/action "Fire in Red"

/macroicon "Blizzard II in Cyan"
/action "Blizzard II in Cyan"
/action "Fire II in Red"

---

If we do this with anything else it's problematic:

• Motifs have long cast times, whereas Muses have none. This will confuse pretty much everything and make cooldown tracking hard.
• Steel Muse is an ability. This means you press it while the "Spells" are on cooldown. For example, if you cast Fire in Red, you have 1 second where you're not casting but it's still on cooldown - that is when you can press Steel Muse to make Hammer Stamp available. If you delay your next spell to press it, it hurts your damage.
• If you macro Living Muse and Mog of Ages together, it's hard to see which of them are available to use.

The need to see recast timers for the motifs is really the only argument for why they need to be separate buttons, but this is easily fixed by just displaying the motif recasts on the muse buttons.

For Black/White and RGB/CMY there aren't any good arguments for them being separate sets of buttons.