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[Sigma-Astra]

Maybe an actually functional version of that Freeze spell you keep insulting people for possibly having on their bars?

Well, it's not so much of an insult as it's just common sense to not put something on your hotbar that fundamentally has no use or reason to be there in the first place. But, thanks for regurgitating again what I already said in the following paragraphs of my previous response, so I'm not entirely sure why your passive aggressive snippet above was even necessary. Any person who actually mains BLM competitively or smart would not have it on their bar, the same can be said for people who main Monk and their grievances with the ability One Ilm Punch.

So, we should fix spells the spells that currently make space an non-issue (because, to take your advice, just don't bind them), but not also make space for them after doing so, despite it costing absolutely nothing to make that space?

You can have both, you realize? You can have functional abilities and a non-redundant button-space. They are not mutually exclusive.

We should fix the spells that we have problems with first, then after doing so, we can re-evaluate if we still need the additional space since BLM has no button bloat at the moment to speak of like Seraphor had said earlier.

The higher number of skills we might receive in Shadowbringers or the following expansion if button bloat is less of an issue...

And addressing both of your complaints in one shot, we don't know what or how many skills we may be getting, if they even feel like adding new abilities with the next expansion, so why are we jumping the gun and getting paranoid about something that's still a year or so away. I can see focusing on the jobs that absolutely might need some skill pruning now, but we don't really need to waste additional time on jobs that haven't reached that threshold yet either.

Reduce the bloat on jobs that may already have it, and then focus on re-working skills that are useless now, so they're not still useless when the next expansion rolls around and we're left at square one still.

Just because some jobs may need it, doesn't mean we need to suddenly enforce the policy on all jobs at once.

[Reynhart]

And addressing both of your complaints in one shot, we don't know what or how many skills we may be getting, if they even feel like adding new abilities with the next expansion, so why are we jumping the gun and getting paranoid about something that's still a year or so away.

Because they already said that button bloat was a reason for why they didn't add as many skills in SB than in HW. And that it's better to suggest a solution when there is still time to implement it before it could cause a real problem.
And especially since it doesn't require any change in the skills themselves, making it easier to do than reworking "useless" skills.

[Sigma-Astra]

Because they already said that button bloat was a reason for why they didn't add as many skills in SB than in HW. And that it's better to suggest a solution when there is still time to implement it before it could cause a real problem.
And especially since it doesn't require any change in the skills themselves, making it easier to do than reworking "useless" skills.

And guess what also causes jobs to feel like they have too many abilities already? Having useless skills that sit there collecting dust because you don't use them in place of other skills more favorable of using. The only jobs in desperate need of real estate is SCH, PLD, and potentially NIN.

Furthermore, if you think it doesn't require any change in the skills themselves and that it'll just perfectly mesh well, you're sadly mistaken. They'll still be reworking those skills, it'll still require time and testing to make sure they do what they're suppose to do either way. So, one method is no more easier than the other in that regard.

Consolidating one skill with another still qualifies as a change. It'll still require the devs to re-work an ability and make sure it functions accordingly either way.

[Reynhart]

And guess what also causes jobs to feel like they have too many abilities already?

I see you still confuse "too many abilities" with "too little slots". I thought I made the difference clear pages ago...

They'll still be reworking those skills, it'll still require time and testing to make sure they do what they're suppose to do either way. So, one method is no more easier than the other in that regard.

No, replacing Fire IV by Blizzard IV when you have Umbral Ice is not reworking Blizzard IV. Fusing combos on a single slot is not reworking the skill themselves. Replacing Blood Weapon by Blood Price when Grit is active is not reworking those skills.

[Sigma-Astra]

I see you still confuse "too many abilities" with "too little slots". I thought I made the difference clear pages ago...

No, replacing Fire IV by Blizzard IV when you have Umbral Ice is not reworking Blizzard IV. Fusing combos on a single slot is not reworking the skill themselves. Replacing Blood Weapon by Blood Price when Grit is active is not reworking those skills.

I'd love to know your definition of the word "change" because fusing two buttons on separate slots and onto a single slot is exactly the literal definition of the word "change". You are changing the way two things used to be into something else. When you're messing with the coding of two individual abilities that function under a third ability (Enochain) while they have to pay attention towards a timer like Umbral Ice and Astral Fire, you still have to re-work the coding and make sure the finalized ability, your single button, functions in the same way that the previous two buttons did.

Now, I don't know whether or not that would be an easy and quick fix, I'm not a game designer or coder, neither are you. But, what you want still requires them to tweak and re-work how certain abilities function with each other fluidly so we don't get an error where Blizzard IV isn't turning into Fire IV when it should be.

[Reynhart]

I'd love to know your definition of the word "change" because fusing two buttons on separate slots and onto a single slot is exactly the literal definition of the word "change".

One definition is easy. What you can already do by using a macro is not a change. Because yes, if macros didn't have the issue of not queuing properly, you could already do the ability switch from Fire IV to Blizz IV, combo step to the next combo step or Blood Weapon to Blood Price...
Before they did it for Fell Cleave/Inner Beast and Decimate/Steel Cyclone, that's what my WAR Stances macros were created for...

[Shurrikhan]

Furthermore, if you think it doesn't require any change in the skills themselves and that it'll just perfectly mesh well, you're sadly mistaken. They'll still be reworking those skills, it'll still require time and testing to make sure they do what they're suppose to do either way. So, one method is no more easier than the other in that regard.

You still don't seem to be understanding the premise here. That or you're grossly exaggerating.

A skill rework is something like what was done to Shake it Off. That takes time, because new mechanics are being generated. Had Shake it Off borrowed everything directly from Divine Veil, that already wouldn't be the case. Changing potencies, likewise, requires no development time in itself, but the repercussions of the change will take balance to plan around, which can then be significant depending on whether the change caused is enough to warrant the adjustment being given in the first place.

A consolidation simply attaches a conditional-ID, already a templated structure since 3.1 or 3.2. It requires no more time in its process adjusting the potency, but it has absolutely zero balance impact, and therefore requires no further testing of consequences.

Reworking an ability, be it by new mechanics or simply adjusting any one factor such as potency or range or cast time, takes objectively more time than consolidating two mutually exclusive skills.

[Sigma-Astra]

You still don't seem to be understanding the premise here. That or you're grossly exaggerating.

A skill rework is something like what was done to Shake it Off. That takes time, because new mechanics are being generated. Had Shake it Off borrowed everything directly from Divine Veil, that already wouldn't be the case. Changing potencies, likewise, requires no development time in itself, but the repercussions of the change will take balance to plan around, which can then be significant depending on whether the change caused is enough to warrant the adjustment being given in the first place.

A consolidation simply attaches a conditional-ID, already a templated structure since 3.1 or 3.2. It requires no more time in its process adjusting the potency, but it has absolutely zero balance impact, and therefore requires no further testing of consequences.

Reworking an ability, be it by new mechanics or simply adjusting any one factor such as potency or range or cast time, takes objectively more time than consolidating two mutually exclusive skills.

To you, it seems like a flip of a switch, in reality, this game is still using legacy spaghetti coding, that said, it probably should be an easy endeavor....but, I don't trust this dev team to draw a straight line.

[Shurrikhan]

To you, it seems like a flip of a switch, in reality, this game is still using legacy spaghetti coding, that said, it probably should be an easy endeavor....but, I don't trust this dev team to draw a straight line.

But they've already drawn it. It's done. As done as any split-damage stack mechanic we've seen since ARR. As done as a %max HP-scaling shield. Perhaps they were difficult to create at first, but that creation is complete, and can now be copied from directly. Blizzard IV <> Fire IV is not fundamentally different from Fell Cleave <> Inner Beast. They are each made mutually exclusive based on the existence of a given buff.