Did Stormblood fix abilty bloat? What is your opinion?

[Theodric]

To an extent, yes.

I wish it were more like PvP in regards to combo attacks sharing a slot as that would free up a lot of space.

[Kosmos992k]

Personally I would say no.

As a paladin, I still got about 2 1/2 bars of skills that I use and I don't even want to think about what the other classes are.

I use 3 bars for Paladin. One is DPS focused and one is tank focused, the third consists of things that are not used in a rotation. I put the third bar on the expanded 'back' cross bar accessed through the L2/R2 combinations, and the other two bars switch in and out depending on the Oath. so I macro'd my Shield and Sword Oath skills with a crossbar switch. It has taken a little getting used to, but so far I like it. I also placed the DPS bar on set 3 so I can switch to it dynamically by pressing R1+X if I want holy Spirit or Goring or Royal while I'm tanking. It's a work in progress still, but so far I like it.

It did take me a week to get sued to the new PLD, for a while it all felt kind of off. Now I am back to being comfortable.

[Sylvina]

Ability bloat is still bad, so we will absolutely need more pruning/combining in the future.

[Dauntess]

They should have just left most the abilities alone and focused on making different types of content. Running content that setup exactly the same is getting stale.

[JunseiKei]

*Thinks.*

I could say how they did not remove ability bloating, but to those people I say this: You are not looking at the large picture. Most people are looking at what they have now, and not what they would have had if the bloat fixing had not happened, plus the new skills and abilities gained. We gained new skills while keeping around the same amount of buttons. That is literally not getting bloated.

[XiXiQ]

Ninja wasn't a huge change, lost 5 and gained 3, so I wouldn't say the button bloat was addressed much. My main disappointment is the final skill, it's far too tied to your latency. I watched a few videos, all going full speed, no blackout time (PC by the look of it), yet do it on my PS4 and it's just.... ugh.

[Catwho]

I've been experimenting with having certain hotbars pop on and off when needed via macro commands. For example, during an 8-man where I need to see as much of the screen as possible, I declutter my UI and remove all of my non essential hotbars. During crafting, I have a special hotbar with all my crafting macros.

SMN/SCH is the hottest mess of all my hotbars. I have pet controls keybound to my shift keys because I actively avoid touching the mouse during battle game play (I have wrist issues and extended mouse usage is painful.)

Of all the skills on SCH/SMN, I miss Sustain and Miasma II the most. Miasma II was our best quick damage AOE for blowing things away during certain fights, and sustain was essential for not having to stop and heal Eos on SCH or ask your healers to keep an eye on your pet on SMN.

[Priya]

*Thinks.*

I could say how they did not remove ability bloating, but to those people I say this: You are not looking at the large picture. Most people are looking at what they have now, and not what they would have had if the bloat fixing had not happened, plus the new skills and abilities gained. We gained new skills while keeping around the same amount of buttons. That is literally not getting bloated.

The problem is more so that there were already too many necessary keybinds in HW. Sure the problem didn't get worse, but it didn't get better either and it should have.

[Pondera]

Ability bloat is still bad, so we will absolutely need more pruning/combining in the future.

It is comments like this that make me worry for the fate of this game. There are many in my FC that are beside themselves over the loss of tools that they used constantly. Eye for an Eye is a complete joke, and, even if you didn't use Raging Strikes to do the optimal amount of damage as a black mage, I did. If you wish to not use your class to its greatest potential and use all the tools given to you, that's fine, and I will not judge you. So long as we pass DPS checks, your healing keeps everyone alive, and your tanking holds the adds' attention, we're dandy. However, your call for class pruning would not allow me the same courtesy and detracts from my ability to enjoy the game. I came here BECAUSE it was complicated. Should you not find it to your liking, there is always Blizzard's legion expansion. I would suggest you play that instead.

[Xairos]

Also try thinking about the next expansion and if Square Enix said "no new abilities in order to avoid bloat", the forums (actually the community as well) would explode.