Quote Originally Posted by Foraet View Post
Gotta drop some abilities when you add some new ones in. I don't think dropping a potency modifier is a bad choice. I mean, it's kind of fun but certainly not very high on my list of interesting rotation mechanics. Not sure what they would have dropped instead. Maybe Ikishoten; never really found gauge shortcuts all that compelling. Or maybe Meikyo Shisui, it circumvents Sen Gauge building and I'm not a huge fan of anything that ignores the core of a job's identity. But they had to drop something, SAM is pushing three full bars.

But what do I know? I'm not a game designer.
They could've done literally anything to cut down on space without removing any of our existing kit. Look at all the feedback that came in before and after patch 6.1 dropped.

Senei and guren could be either combined or be made to transform Shinten and Kyuten under a certain status like WAR with Infuriate.

Shoha 1 and 2 could be combined or transform the Meditate button based on Meditation stacks, or they could transform Shinten/Kyuten when meditation is full.

Ogi and Kaeshi Namikiri should have been on Ikishoten from the start.

Tsubame doesn't need to be a button all to itself, Ogi Namikiri proves that and several other abilities in pve and pvp prove that a cooldown will still tick even with a secondary ability to proc on the same button when it transforms.

With so much space that could be made, your saying that the amount of space being taken on the hotbars is literally long debunked already.

Kaiten wasn't removed for hotbar space. It was done specifically to flatten the burst damage of SAM..... you know, that one thing that SAM has always been, a burst damage type. Unlike MNK which was always more of the steady stream of damage that builds up over the course of the fight due to the speed of it all.

But yes, the fact that NIN and PLD exist in the game and are already needing 3 bars since ShB being given more stuff is a sign that a different job needed trimming, naturally, who are we to think logically of what they could do with these?