Combo Consolidation: How long before we see it in PVE?

[Driavna]

I am against this idea. I'm from wow and like others I had experience "consolidation". It is one thing to consolidate a FEW buttons, but not at the cost of the jobs identity. Wow is so brain dead now that players are seriously unhappy with the gutting of their classes for the sake of "it's easier now". Make a Macro, that is what they are for.

What you experienced was an ability prune, not consolidation. Also, at WoW the gap of a bad player vs an average player vs a really good player is still abysmal. And from my own experience, since is extremely easy to track a random guy performance, players that complain are either bad or average.

[Reaperking386]

We are only on the SECOND expansion. We are already getting consolidation. Will have to wait a little bit to see whats gone. If memory is right we are getting 10 more levels and will have the same amount of skills we do now. Unless we are getting zero new skills, we have consolidation. Moving combos to one button means you keep skills don't lose them.Contrary to what at least a portion of this forum thinks. 36 is not the sweet spot for the amount of skills a player has to keep track of. 24 might be pushing it. The game needs to be balanced around the amount of movement you are expected to do during fights plus skills keep track of and maintain a min dps. While some people are quick to say that bad dps don't care. Other factors come into play.

The only thing I see that I would even consider is reducing combos by 1 ability and that is the second combo ability (filler), but that is it. Having the sense of choosing the 3rd ability is important for making the critical choice that branches out. Dark Knight example: Hard Slash > A. Power Slash(Do I need eminity?) B. soul Eater (Do I need dps and HP?) C. Delirium (Do I need intel Debuff or or Dps?). These options is what makes it or breaks it for players and I like that idea of choice when I am playing. I also want to point out that 10 more levels does not mean we are going to be picking up 5 more abilities. Eventually they could reduce it down to one ability for an expansion or do something new entirely.

[Moonlite]

The only thing I see that I would even consider is reducing combos by 1 ability and that is the second combo ability (filler), but that is it. Having the sense of choosing the 3rd ability is important for making the critical choice that branches out. Dark Knight example: Hard Slash > A. Power Slash(Do I need eminity?) B. soul Eater (Do I need dps and HP?) C. Delirium (Do I need intel Debuff or or Dps?). These options is what makes it or breaks it for players and I like that idea of choice when I am playing.

That is fine but that doesn't address the core issue of to many skills. If we were at max at the end of 3.0 that they felt to take some out. Is that they cycle every expansion we are going to remove skills to get new skills?

[Reaperking386]

That is fine but that doesn't address the core issue of to many skills. If we were at max at the end of 3.0 that they felt to take some out. Is that they cycle every expansion we are going to remove skills to get new skills?

Eventually they could reduce it down to one grand ability for an expansion or do something new entirely. They do not have to add a new ability every two levels so long as players are happy with the class they have and the leveling quality experience they are getting.

[Moonlite]

Eventually they could reduce it down to one grand ability for an expansion or do something new entirely. They do not have to add a new ability every two levels so long as players are happy with the class they have and the leveling quality experience they are getting.

That is a choice and they would have to weigh it out with the other options. Not a dev but the choices I see are One skill added per expansion, bloat to hell, remove skills, or consolidate combos. The reason I prefer consolidate is it is closest to current system with out remove. The one skill in theory feels like you are taking away 4 skills, even though you never had them to begin with.

[Reaperking386]

That is a choice and they would have to weigh it out with the other options. Not a dev but the choices I see are One skill added per expansion, bloat to hell, remove skills, or consolidate combos. The reason I prefer consolidate is it is closest to current system with out remove. The one skill in theory feels like you are taking away 4 skills, even though you never had them to begin with.

I can live with out some abilities, but removing an entire combo and implementing them into 1 button defeats the purpose of a combo. I like combos because they seem complex and have branches to choose from, but once you remove them and consolidate them into one ability they lose their meaning. I'm not saying anymore that consolidation won't happen, but we need to be careful on what we are consolidating and what comes out of it. As a pessimist in this discussion I can see that when I get 4 new abilities I am not excited since I am already dreading on what 4 abilities I already have that I may lose because of this.

[Kuroneko_Jutah]

The only thing I see that I would even consider is reducing combos by 1 ability and that is the second combo ability (filler), but that is it. Having the sense of choosing the 3rd ability is important for making the critical choice that branches out. Dark Knight example: Hard Slash > A. Power Slash(Do I need eminity?) B. soul Eater (Do I need dps and HP?) C. Delirium (Do I need intel Debuff or or Dps?). These options is what makes it or breaks it for players and I like that idea of choice when I am playing. I also want to point out that 10 more levels does not mean we are going to be picking up 5 more abilities. Eventually they could reduce it down to one ability for an expansion or do something new entirely.

You... do remember that Siphon Strike returns our MP, yes? I often hit Dark Arts before Siphon Strike to return the MP immediately before using Soul Eater.

Having said that, rolling Siphon Strike into Spinning Slash would be a smart idea and stop forcing us to choose between an enmity combo and returning some MP.

[Kethic]

I've heard it said the interesting part of a game is making meaningful decisions. When it comes to abilities, you've got What skill, When to use it, and character Position while using it.

If a skill must be used in a sequence to be effective, that removes the What part of the decision. I see no problem with simplifying the interface to allow more interesting decisions regarding the When and the Position choices.

[Knahli]

I might be alone in this but I like it the way it is now? I am notorious for typos so you'd think I'd be ripe to complain but honestly I am happy the way it is. I like there being consequences for me making a mistake. It's not like many classes are difficult to begin with so I see no harm in mistakes being capable of being made for reasons outside of a simple lack of knowledge or understanding. That, or if you manage to get overwhelmed in any given moment and forget where you left off.

[Ayerinn]

SE,like all other MMO companies, tend to emulate each other to varying degrees...so, my guess is like other games this combo change for PvP is going to act as a "test" for PvE. If proven popular/successful - I would expect to see this implemented in 5.0 for PvE...