Will they maintain AP cost for native abilities?

[northernsky]

So in this scenario it's simply UI's action bar that is the limiting factor. That may not be a bad thing. Plus the capability to use macros for skills that exceed the capacity of the action bars mitigates that limitation somewhat, I think.

I agree but from the developers point of view, I remember reading that the point of the action bar was to eliminate the need of macros for quick actions, as opposed to the drop-down menu from XI.

So I'm not sure if they would consider relying on macros for extra abilities. I'm not sure how they could fit so many abilities on the action bar and keep it efficient, considering that it was stated that there were plans to make all the actions slots visible at the same time, compared to the current toggle between 1,2 and 3.

[Sorel]

I agree but from the developers point of view, I remember reading that the point of the action bar was to eliminate the need of macros for quick actions, as opposed to the drop-down menu from XI.

So I'm not sure if they would consider relying on macros for extra abilities. I'm not sure how they could fit so many abilities on the action bar and keep it efficient, considering that it was stated that there were plans to make all the actions slots visible at the same time, compared to the current toggle between 1,2 and 3.

Well I guess it would all depend on the context of the action as well as the role the character is playing.

A DD may keep his one-shot damaging abilities on his action bars, while his special scenario abilities (e.g. Raise, Cure) or special combos (e.g. Poison --> Skull Sunder) on a macro.

Meanwhile a Tank may keep Cure on his action bar, while keeping the Second Wind --> Sacrifice combo in his macros.

But one of the problems I see with that, though, is that if it's not on the action bar, you won't see it's cooldown timer.

[northernsky]

This makes me think that the action bar and the "list of use-able abilities" could be 2 different things.

Right now it's the same, i-e you can not use an ability that is not on your action bar. But if they make all innate abilities useable, plus a short list of cross-class abilities of your choice (same way that Blue mage would choose its spells), then from those 2 groups you could customize your own action bar.

That said, we would need a way to access all those different abilities that do not fit the action bar during a fight. Maybe an action-bar slot could be a drop-down menu for the remaining, use-able abilities that do not fit the bar.

You still have access to these abilities in fight but you keep the convenience of the action bar only for your top 30 abilities/spells. I think this would be mostly useful for mages for which spells quickly fill up the bar.