Realistically, how many buttons do you need?

[FunkYeahDragons]

Depends on your job and what you do with it. I use 3 1/2 bars for Bard in PVP because I have a lot of little tricks (which I forget to use half the time). I can get by with about 2 on White Mage in casual endgame.

One suggestion is to use your mouse buttons and your most easily accessible keys for your combat abilities. Inventory doesn't really need to be on a hotbar, it can just be bound to a key like "I".

[Frost033]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Commands like inventory, map, character aren't on my hotbar, but they are bond to a key on my G13.

[FunkYeahDragons]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Commands like inventory, map, character aren't on my hotbar, but they are bond to a key on my G13.

My bad, then. I haven't played Gladiator and Paladin so I can't tell you much about the absolute necessities for endgame, but what feels like a lot of buttons at first might feel like less later. Especially as you find better ways of organizing them.