Combo Action Button

[Rowde]

Combos don't need to be reduced to single buttons, but actions that have specific conditions, or paired actions that are mutually exclusive, should be merged.

The following could be consolidated into single buttons:

Hide → Trick Attack (conditional)

This one won't work since TA can be used after Suiton, but Suiton doesn't apply Hide. Suiton let's you use TA without Hide.


I do like this train of thought because this "conditional" change of abilities is already utilized in PvE, but only by a handful of jobs.

The buttons for WAR's Fell Cleave/Inner Beast and Steel Cyclone/Decimation automatically changed depending on what Stance they're in.

DRG's Geirskogul automatically changes to Nastrond when LotD is activated.

RDM Enhanced versions of melee change automatically when enough mana is stored.

SMN Ruin II changes automatically when the proc is activated.

[Rongway]

The following could be consolidated into single buttons:

Hide → Trick Attack (conditional)

This one won't work since TA can be used after Suiton, but Suiton doesn't apply Hide. Suiton let's you use TA without Hide.

Sure, but also, Hide can't be used in combat, so I think it would be okay to change the Hide Button to Trick Attack whether under the affect of Hide or Suiton.

The cases where you can currently do Suiton-> (EndCombat) -> Hide to reset Jutsu timer -> Trick Attack are limited to extremely close trash pulls, so replacing the Hide button with Trick Attack while Suiton is active wouldn't affect raids at all.

[Brightamethyst]

Combos don't need to be reduced to single buttons, but actions that have specific conditions, or paired actions that are mutually exclusive, should be merged.

The following could be consolidated into single buttons:

*List*

Agreed. While in generally they really need to consolidate, if not outright delete a number of skills, this would be a great start. It's honestly baffling than some of those listed don't already work that way. The system is already in place and working for some conditional or mutually exclusive skills. Why not just do it for all of them?

[Sylve]

Actually, it would. Not only will it miss align buffs due to pressing less buttons, this makes it impossible for Dragoon to double weave. Simply put, it would be a significant impact on the job. Not to mention, this turns it into an off-shot of Ninja. The whole point of Dragoon is a simplistic but long combo sequence. Combining half its combo together defeats that purpose.

As for the topic itself. No.

The combo consolidation reduces every job effected by it to essentially spamming a single button more often than not. While it may seem subtle, I much prefer having to press different buttons for each combo. Furthermore, it's actually more likely to fat finger your abilities as you wouldn't be able to rely on muscle memory. All in all, not only does Dragoon not have a button bloat issue at the moment. We simply don't need a bunch of new abilities anyway. I would much prefer they focus on the jobs dying off than try to shoehorn in new abilities to ones who don't need them just to say "look at the new shiny".

So give it as an option. When I have to use both Shift and Alt as modifiers because I ran out of buttons on my keyboard/mouse, There are too many skills taking up too many slots.


Dragoon would stand to benefit a whole lot, at least for me. Currently playing my DRG is:
8 9 0 E
1 2 3 Q

This doesn't include the various buffs and single use skills like BotD, Heavy Thrust and the various jumps.
But being able to condense those 8 keybinds into 2 would be a bloody godsend.
The only mechanical change for players is that Impulse Drive becomes Disembowel when used. At the top with Wheeling Thrust + Fang and Claw, it need only change the other combo path button to the appropriate skill. 8 Skills, 2 keybinds.
But I see no reason that would stop you from using oGCDs like Jumps etc between weaponskills if it essentially just replaced Impulse Drive with Disembowel etc. Same with Doomspike and Sonic Thrust, I will NEVER use Sonic without first using Doomspike, so let me press ` ` instead of ` S+`
The only change would be that I pressed 22221 instead of 8 9 0 E Q, which frees up keybinds for other skills.

Does the pvp Combo button reset the chain if you don't press it 4 times in sequence? If it does, that's horrible and can piss right off. That's not what I'd like to see. I just want to see the next step in the chain replace the preceding skill for the duration we currently have for the Combo Action to be lit up since the preceeding skill is NEVER used while the followup skill is lit up. I'd still need 8 button presses, just not 8 hotkeys.


For something like Paladin, where there are branches,
Example, If I used Fast Blade and then Riot Strike intending to use Royal Authority, but needed to refresh Goring Blade instead, id set 3 combo paths onto 1, 2 and 3. 1 Would be a full Fast -> Halone combo, 2 would be Fast -> Goring and 3 would be Fast -> Royal Authority.
Then, in the example above, I would hit 3 3 2, since the combo path leading to Goring is updated to Goring Blade once Riot Strike is used from Combo path 3. I would have the exact same options as I do presently to take a different branch at the end of the path, just with fewer keybinds.

[Hercub]

A trend I've noticed whenever we start to near a new expansion is hot bar bloat. It's something I've noticed to be a problem with some classes right now as they've allowed all ten Role Actions to be utilized at once. We have a solution already in the game and I'm not entirely sure why it hasn't been extended to regular game play. I am referring to the Combo button we have access to while in PvP. If that was added to regular game play it would make things a lot cleaner for our hot bars. Looking at Dragoon for example, you would reduce 8 buttons to 2. Paladin and a number of other jobs would reduce 6-7 buttons down to 3. No more would we (maybe it's just me) fat finger our Red Mage enchanted combo if those three buttons were neatly sorted into one! Is there any chance we could see this added to regular game play by the time Shadowbringers rolls in? Sometime after? Does anyone else think this would be great? If not, please elaborate why you think otherwise. Thanks for your time reading this!

I'm a relatively new player, but you are presenting a valid concern. Completely valid. I'm not very techi but I believe there are things like Macros in this game. I don't know how to use them at all, but that might be the solution. So, can anyone explain macros? Please explain like we are five.

I, myself, am concerned because I already have six hot bars running and all the skills are valuable. Thanks to anyone who replies.

[Ilan]

Combo buttons for PvE? No thanks. I wouldn't even work for classes where the combo forks up at a certain point and it would make PvE as boring as the PvP got after they trashed it down for the sakes of people who don't really know the classes they play.

[Rongway]

I'm a relatively new player, but you are presenting a valid concern. Completely valid. I'm not very techi but I believe there are things like Macros in this game. I don't know how to use them at all, but that might be the solution. So, can anyone explain macros? Please explain like we are five.

I, myself, am concerned because I already have six hot bars running and all the skills are valuable. Thanks to anyone who replies.

Macros shouldn't be used for most combat for several reasons.

• They slow you down because they block the action queue system. Unmacroed actions can be pressed up to a second in advance, and will execute when the current action is finished. Macros must be activated after the current action finishes.
• They slow you down because waits can only be whole seconds. If you try to wait partial seconds, the system rounds to a whole number. If your GCD is 2.1s long, you have to use a <wait.3> to make a macro execute actions in sequence. This means you'll only take 70% as many actions as you could. This is a huge loss.
• If a sequence is interrupted, you need the next action somewhere on your bar anyway, since you can't start from the middle of a macro.

The exceptions are macros targeting secondary targets for buffs, heals, and raises, which allow you to do things like raise "whoever is dead" without specifically targeting them, or quickly manashifting a healer without changing targets; and macros for ground target AoEs, which will center them on the designated target and are faster than pressing the button, placing the cursor, then pressing the button again.


tl;dr: don't use macros for combat actions.

[Hercub]

Macros shouldn't be used for most combat for several reasons.

• They slow you down because they block the action queue system. Unmacroed actions can be pressed up to a second in advance, and will execute when the current action is finished. Macros must be activated after the current action finishes.
• They slow you down because waits can only be whole seconds. If you try to wait partial seconds, the system rounds to a whole number. If your GCD is 2.1s long, you have to use a <wait.3> to make a macro execute actions in sequence. This means you'll only take 70% as many actions as you could. This is a huge loss.
• If a sequence is interrupted, you need the next action somewhere on your bar anyway, since you can't start from the middle of a macro.

The exceptions are macros targeting secondary targets for buffs, heals, and raises, which allow you to do things like raise "whoever is dead" without specifically targeting them, or quickly manashifting a healer without changing targets; and macros for ground target AoEs, which will center them on the designated target and are faster than pressing the button, placing the cursor, then pressing the button again.


tl;dr: don't use macros for combat actions.

Perfect, macros are not for Combat but may be appropriate for Healers? I think this is really important for all of us that are just getting into things like WHM. I've only played DPS in this game, but I'm starting to explore Healer.

Can you or anyone else recommend links to sites explaining How Macros Work and How to Create them not just for Healers but for other appropriate situations. I'm starting as WHM, but I've always wanted to try Astrologian and I fear that particular Job cannot be done without Macros. This is for anyone who has ever been confused by the Astrologian class.

Thanks!

[Nora_of_Mira]

All I know, is that this would be a nightmare for Samurai. The way I have my abilities on my hotbar are from left to right to flow with the combo (i assume most people do this). Not only does it make sense, but it allows me look down and know WHERE i am in my combo for those moments in fights where I have to focus on a mechanic or something.

consolidating this crap would basically mean relearning this entire job, especially factoring in Hagakure and Meikyo.

[Seraphor]

Perfect, macros are not for Combat but may be appropriate for Healers? I think this is really important for all of us that are just getting into things like WHM. I've only played DPS in this game, but I'm starting to explore Healer.

Can you or anyone else recommend links to sites explaining How Macros Work and How to Create them not just for Healers but for other appropriate situations. I'm starting as WHM, but I've always wanted to try Astrologian and I fear that particular Job cannot be done without Macros. This is for anyone who has ever been confused by the Astrologian class.

Thanks!

Dont have a site to hand, but the best and simplest macros for trainee healers are probably the target of target macros for DPS spells.
This allows you to keep the Tank as your primary target for unencumbered healing.

/micon "spell name"
/macroerror off
/t "spell name"
/tt "spell name"

This means if you target an enemy you will hit that enemy, and if you target an ally you will hit that ally's target.
The only exception is if your targetted ally is also targetting an ally, then it will fail, but generally your tank is always targetting the boss.

Being a healer, your dps spells arent your top priority, and they don't combo so that dont need to worry about GCD clipping or anything like that. You'll also only be dpsing when you're not to stressed, so you wouldnt typically be queuing up DPS spells anyway, and even if you were, you'd probably waste as much time changing targets anyway.