Culling and restructuring skills to make room for 5.0 abilities

[Shurrikhan]

If the leaks about Blue Mage turn out accurate, it's supposed to be a melee support DPS similar to Ninja. So... fingers crossed.

That's my hope as well. Though, I also hope that it has more varied and versatile means of support than just Enmity (SS/SW) and Damage (TA).

[Dualgunner]

That's my hope as well. Though, I also hope that it has more varied and versatile means of support than just Enmity (SS/SW) and Damage (TA).

I'd hope that whatever support it gets could equal out to those, at least, and not be something like verraise.

[Arkdra]

What I want to happen: No new abilities for samurai at all. I think the kit is perfect in terms of what it does and how it plays and I can't imagine anything new added that wouldn't just be pointless bloat (group utility would be good bloat though). What I would prefer is a series of traits that files off some of the trickier parts of the rotation so mediocre players can get a better handle on it. I.e. I want them to cut the sen cost of hagakure and remove the kenki costs on gyoten and yaten since these skills all don't make obvious sense (as in you are a fresh samurai just reading the tooltips for the first time) how good/bad they are.

What I think will happen: PvP 1 button combos will make the transition to PvE, freeing up space for 4 new abilities. One of them will be some weak but appreciated group utility and the other 3 will be more damage abilities that I can't imagine how they fit into the rotation but are probably going to be boring things like a mini-gurren, another 3rd eye triggered ability, and maybe a defensive cooldown.

Joke option: I want an ATE during meditate where it shows an arrow and if I push the arrow it gives bonus kenki and then shows another arrow for more kenki and so on and so on until meditate ends.

[Jonnycbad]

Not to derail but I can see BLU being a Scouting DPS. We just got a Casting and Striking DPS last expansion, so makes sense that BLU would be Scouting, especially if it's a support melee. Blue Magic would scale off of Dexterity (like Ninjutsu) and they would have their own equivalent of Trick Attack and Enmity manipulation to make them roughly on par as NIN.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

WWhat I think will happen: PvP 1 button combos will make the transition to PvE, freeing up space for 4 new abilities. One of them will be some weak but appreciated group utility and the other 3 will be more damage abilities that I can't imagine how they fit into the rotation but are probably going to be boring things like a mini-gurren, another 3rd eye triggered ability, and maybe a defensive cooldown.

Yoshida has stated outright in his recent interviews the one button combos will not be transitioning over to PvE. And thank god for that.

[Kabooa]

Yoshida has stated outright in his recent interviews the one button combos will not be transitioning over to PvE. And thank god for that.

Yeah, because 123 is much more interesting than 111

[Shurrikhan]

Yoshida has stated outright in his recent interviews the one button combos will not be transitioning over to PvE. And thank god for that.

Right, I do so love using 5 different buttons to perform the same, single separable action on DRG...

I'd be cheering if our weaponskills were finally open to different sequences and situationals, but I cannot for the life of me understand how hitting 12345 or 67895 for Actions 1 and 2, respectively, is somehow better design than pressing 1 for as many GCDs as Action 1 takes, and 2 for as many GCDs as Action 2 takes.

[Grimoire-M]

Right, I do so love using 5 different buttons to perform the same, single separable action on DRG...

I'd be cheering if our weaponskills were finally open to different sequences and situationals, but I cannot for the life of me understand how hitting 12345 or 67895 for Actions 1 and 2, respectively, is somehow better design than pressing 1 for as many GCDs as Action 1 takes, and 2 for as many GCDs as Action 2 takes.

To be honest it's the one thing that differentiates DRG from the other melee DPS in terms of their GCD rotation in the first place. MNK has flexible combos based on their stances, NIN/SAM have different combo branches (though not by much), and DRG has longer, linear combos that eventually cross over one another . One is for buffs/debuffs, the other is filler. That is a part of their identity. Preserving it is worth the effort. Plus if SE did go the route of consolidating the combo buttons down, it wouldn't hurt anyone to have the whole buff combo on 2 and the filler on 1, with Fang and Claw/Wheeling Thrust replacing both buttons once they're reached.

[Mansion]

Actually, I'd like some kind of option similar to choosing between the big artsy (sometimes unreadable) job gauge and the simplified version. Then you'd tick that option if you want the compressed display of combos (based on pvp but not necessarily the same), or ignore it if you prefer the 1 - 2 - 3 (-4) buttons display.
I guess it would still need some refinements, as some combos are not always so linear but I guess this could help.

[Shurrikhan]

To be honest it's the one thing that differentiates DRG from the other melee DPS in terms of their GCD rotation in the first place. MNK has flexible combos based on their stances, NIN/SAM have different combo branches (though not by much), and DRG has longer, linear combos that eventually cross over one another . One is for buffs/debuffs, the other is filler. That is a part of their identity. Preserving it is worth the effort.

The one thing differentiating DRG from the other melee is that of their 3 possible Single-Target GCD actions (Debuff combo, Direct combo, and Heavy Thrust), 2 are 5-GCDs-long and 1 is 1 GCD-, rather than the typical spread of 2-to-3 GCDs per action. All but Monk has only 3 GCD decisions possible, their combos. On average, if rotation were not already fixed anyways, a DRG is able to make a decision every 3.67 GCDs. A NIN -- every 3 GCDs. A SAM -- every 2.67, plus whether to hold Iajutsu, making it arguably every GCD. A Monk -- every GCD. Those decisions will be mostly predetermined, but that is the core of DRG's "unique" play. DRG makes fewer GCD decisions. That's it. Similarly to SAM's Kenki and Sen banking--though in a way far less integral to microrotation--has a fair bit of timing flexibility in its Mirage Dive and (a bit less) in Gier/Nost usage as to sync to BfB and TA/BL/HC/FR/BV/CS/BH/EB/Cards, but that is what the long combos mean.

Do you actually feel anything from F&C crossing WT? They're very nearly identical abilities, differed only by name, animation, and a positional you'd already be set up for ((Back) CT to (Back) WT; (Any) FT to (Flank) F&C). It's just potency and maintenance, where you'd only actually need two hits of either per BotD of either to maintain eyes.

What merit there overwhelms the prospects, of, say, actually being able to go ID-VT-Db-F&C-WT-CT-ST-FT for entirely different reasons than one might go ID-ID-F&C-FT-Db-CT-WT (or any other n-factorial or greater choices over n GCDs) due to the synergies and situationally optimal combinations intrinsic to the effects embedded within the skills themselves?

Is it... the bloat? The ruttedness? What's the merit worth 1-22222-33333 for? I get the attraction to long combos, and would love to see that within the embedded effects, weighing the punctuation of a combo vs. its momentum, attempting to stretch it further and further while still fitting the modulars of your upcoming CDs, but when it's literally 5 presses for the same obvious but irrevocable decision... I can't see the attraction. I can't even call it uniquely stale, just... the stalest.