4.4: Role Action slots increased to 10. Thoughts?

[Kurando]

It will nice because it means players get to utilize any left over abilities much more, of course it'll be optional but the fact it will give the space to use them is nice. The BRD that forgot to change Peloton for Pallisade or the casters/melee that didn't take Surecast/Arm's Length. Hell even some of the new players don't realise that Lucid recovers MP so they avoid taking it thinking it only effects emnity. In all, it offers more experimentation but it's definitely not a long term solution.

[Rowde]

I've been using the Hold R2 + L2 or Hold L2 + R2 since forever... that's not new.

The more recent addition was the double tap and hold R2 or L2... which I also use.
I have relatively quick access to 2 1/2 bars this way.

[CorbinDallas]

Button bloat, don't make me laugh. Even with 10 slots, literally no role will utilise more than 6, except maybe healer with Protect/Esuna. Most role skills are still complete garbage.

Just look at ranged physical, are you really going to take all 4 forms of CC even though all but one are completely useless in any sort of party content? No, you'll stick to refresh/tactician/pallisade/silence as your core four, and maybe if you're feeling fruity bring peloton along for dungeons.

Just because you can take 10 doesn't mean you should. People barely use the good role actions as it is right now and opt to take pointless fluff that they have no need for, looking at almost everyone in O5S not taking surecast/arms length and instead holding on to crap like goad and mana shift. Or healers packing esuna even though I can count literally 0 instances from 4.2 onwards where it's a necessity.

[REPROBEAN_CHILD]

iicr, the reason why a lot of skills were cut from 4.0 and why skills like Shroud of Saints were added to the cross role list was to "cut down on bloat" and "make less buttons to press." Wouldn't adding an additional 5 more buttons invalidate that reasoning? Even if you don't have to use all 10 skills, they will be added to the META in some shape or form, potentially changing all of the current job guides.

This feels somewhat inconvenient for players who use controllers, especially PS4 players. We don't need more button bloat. PLD, for example, has way too many skills on a controller when it reaches 70. Adding five more to that would be ridiculous. I only see healers needing an additional skill, because of the issue of adding Protect to macros to then removing it for other skills. But they would need at least just one more slot, not another five.

I'm also not sure how will this effect dungeons, trials, and raiding. Some players say the casual content is too easy with little challenge. Adding more skills could have players facestomp everything faster than they currently are.

[Aster_E]

You have Divine Benison, which is better. Stoneskin had horrendous MP cost and you wouldn't use it more often than Benison anyway.

Stoneskin II across the full party before a pull and having it last for a few minutes if need be. Reapplying Stoneskin on multiple party members before raidwide damage, whether by ARR numbers when it blocked 20% of max HP or the HW rate of 10% (though that point was pretty crap), and not waiting 24-30 seconds for a single instant cast or effect that was only 15 seconds. MP management not really being a problem unless you're over-using certain abilities when you don't need to. Yes, Benison is nice on the go for single target mitigation, but it would be nice to mitigate more people before a fight begins or raid damage goes out, again.

Also again, at least two mobs (including that Whm mob I spoke of earlier) in HoH, current content, pour salt in our half-healed wounds by casting Stoneskin. At that point Yoshi is just hanging the ability over our heads and saying "Hey, remember this ability? You want it? Please look forward to it?"

[Azper]

I'm in the minority here it seems, but I'm happy with the change. As a healer, it was a pain having to swap stuff out all the time. "Who's bringing Protect for this fight? Do I need Esuna for this one? Oh crap I forgot to swap in my Surecast. *flies off platform*"

[Bourne_Endeavor]

i dislike it, as a DRK i dont have space for more skills but on the other hand i will have a good use of awarenes and anticipation, its just to much, as a gamepad player having to use 2 or more extra skills on any job i already have full will complicate my life a lot, i guess i can use the new R/L2+ hold R/L2 shorcut for this but it will be pretty anoying, role skills should die already.

If they die, then the effects get put back on abilities we already have and we see DPS refusing to hold onto their silences or stuns due to it being a damage loss. There's a reason Ninja's are never the ones expected to hold Jugulate. Meanwhile, True North, Bloodbath and the like would all be redistributed to those jobs anyway. So you wouldn't be saving any hotbar space.

[HyoMinPark]

Also again, at least two mobs (including that Whm mob I spoke of earlier) in HoH, current content, pour salt in our half-healed wounds by casting Stoneskin. At that point Yoshi is just hanging the ability over our heads and saying "Hey, remember this ability? You want it? Please look forward to it?"

I mean, there are Archer NPCs that still use Hawk’s Eye. But I doubt they’d ever give us back an ability that would give us the equivalent of almost 2 Grade 1 Infusions in DEX gain. Because then people would just complain about BRD being “OP”. I mean, I wouldn’t complain, but...

[Aster_E]

I'm in the minority here it seems, but I'm happy with the change. As a healer, it was a pain having to swap stuff out all the time. "Who's bringing Protect for this fight? Do I need Esuna for this one? Oh crap I forgot to swap in my Surecast. *flies off platform*"

Like I stated before, having six slots instead of five would have been fine and done enough with this. Also would have been fine if Esuna (and the Sch and Ast equivalents) were cemented as part of the classes/jobs, at low levels, thus freeing up that fifth slot for healers alone. Esuna, Protect, Lucid, and Swiftcast are all used so often, and every few raids, it seems, call for Surecast so it gets bothersome (putting it kindly) to have to swap it out. That leaves out the other abilities with their situational uses, plus Break. Having a free slot is good for that.

I don't like having to swap things in or out, myself, and kinda wish for something like XIII's paradigm shift where we can swap between sets with ease, but it's by no means the worst thing. The worst thing is poor design that forces people to choose tools that should be permanent anyway, and leave out optional tools you could do with or without every so often.

[Aster_E]

I mean, there are Archer NPCs that still use Hawk’s Eye. But I doubt they’d ever give us back an ability that would give us the equivalent of almost 2 Grade 1 Infusions in DEX gain. Because then people would just complain about BRD being “OP”. I mean, I wouldn’t complain, but...

Eh... I half agree. I liked the dps boost of Hawk's Eye, sure, but the accuracy boost was nice too. It would have been good to still have, such as against the Accuracy Down debuff* some mobs have or the Blind effect in PotD/HoH. Necessary? No. But certainly nice.

* That's to say nothing of Warden's Paeon, and whether or not it was on cooldown to remove such an affliction.