Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
Just playing devil's advocate here...
1) They don't fill anything. If they didn't exist, your whole other rotation would just be moved one step ahead without any consequences.

Static DoT durations, that are applied by no combo actions, are a MASSIVE problem with skillspeed. These DoTs always want to be applied at the same time, while Skillspeed alters the timewindow when you can even apply DoTs signficantly. You either negate the effect created by skillspeed, or you flat out delay the DoT to be applied in the next soonest window possible after it dropped.

"Apply me in the next possible window" is neither called compromise nor decision. It's just a simple limitation, and not a good one at that.

For DRG - the skillspeed cap is exclusively created by Heavy Thrust and Phlebo and their static duration.

A combo system, static durations of DoTs and rotational buffs, and faster rotations created by skillspeed just don't work together.

2) Given the encounter design, that's hardly happening at all. The vast majority of fights are strictly single-target. Therefore this decision is limited to phase changes or boss is about to die.
In the grand scheme of things, it's just a decision you have to make too rarely with extremely little impact on damage done to even be worth considering, especially given the current philosophy of "mechanics over damage"

It's questionable (or open for discussion) if something that happens so rarely is worth keeping around, giving other issues tied to it.

3) Enmity hasn't been an issue since forever - so removing them might actually make it slightly more of an existing concept.

4) How often do you get long lived AoE phases? How often do you have to burn down adds as fast as possible? At what number of targets is the AoE flat out superior damage/tp wise?
Asking it simpler: How much of a gain over conventional AoE is "multi-dotting", both damage wise and in TP.

For a dragoon you have: Phlebo vs. Doomspike vs. Heavy Thrust/Ring of Thorns. One combination of these only exists for the sake of keeping heavy thrust up...
You also have additional AoE possibilities with Dragonfire Dive and Geirskogul.

If we're talking about reassessment of abilities - and in this case AoE capabilities - you have to decide the necessity of DoTs on the remaining toolkit.
If you remove Phlebo and, Ring of Thorns and some other abilities, how likely can the remaining toolkit be changed to create similar/better AoE options?

For example: Geirgskogul doesn't train Blood if it hits x targets, and has no cooldown. Doomspike reduces CD of Dragonfire Dive by x sec per target hit.
There are quite a few possilibites to enhance AoE gameplay via passives or altering existing buttons. You don't need 50 buttons for every situation.

FFXIV has too many buttons on cooldown, and too little passive/reactive effects for all actions. Which brings us to...
Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
The only complexity any combo carries is due entirely to the windows caused by the player's DoTs and buffs.
Then the problem lies in the remaining rotation. If a 24 sec upkeep damage buff and DoT are the only things that add only complexity to your rotation, while the vast majority of buttons you press do not, then there is a major issue with those buttons.

Now let's take those last bits, e.g. Ruin III. Ruin II does not deal any more damage than Ruin I.
What i was saying is that whatever place Ruin III filled in the rotation can easily be distributed between Ruin I and Ruin II - for the exact gameplay, or even more decision making.

Right now you have:
Ruin I - mana saving filler
Ruin II - mana saving on the move filler
Ruin III - DWT filler, and excess mana stand still filler

In my opinion, this is splitting benefits too much. There is absolutely no tradeoff for having a movement filler. SMN is a DoT/Pet Class, the vast majority of damage is already dealt when you move. Yet your filler also can deal close to full damage when movement? Or you could ask: Why does Ruin I exist, if i have Ruin II?

Ruin I - Low mana filler and DWT filler - aka your filler
Ruin II - High damage filler for excess mana, and movement filler.

By doing this, you actually add slightly more complexity to the class. Do i want more damage now, or do i have to move soon, and use the mana then. It adds slightly more complexity for the skilled players, but given how little of a SMNs total damage the filler actually is, the impact for your casual players (which likely won't mana consume Ruin III or even RUIN II on movement), is non existent.

And now to combos:
Let's keep in mind how many actual actions we have. If you never choose not to complete a combo, then the only actual action you have is the finisher for that combo. That "combo" is no different from Fracture, Heavy Thrust, or Phlebotomize, except that it takes an additional 2 to 3 GCDs to go off.

... and why it is unnecessary to remove non-combo abilities to combat button bloat given that combos themselves are the prime example of button bloat.
Then that's might be an underlying issue with the combo system of certain classes/jobs.

1-2-3 and 4-5-6 comboes are the most restrictive, and lock you in the first node. In DRG it's even worse, because you get 1-2-3-4, and 5-6-7-4. As long as you don't cancel combos, they can be reduced to one button.
That works perfectly for DRG, it works questionably for NIN, and for Monks, you group actions differently, but they can still be reduced down to 3.

Monk - Three buttons, rotating through stance. (1) Bootshine, (2) Dragon Kick, (3) AotD > (1) True Strike, (2) Twin Snakes, (3) 1IP > (1) Snap Punch, (2) Demolish, (3) Rockbreaker, player-rearrangeable.
Monk is actually pretty bad off,.

Bootshine, True Strike and Snap Punch could easily be merged into one "damage" button with upgraded tooltip: "Opo bonus: Crit, Raptor Bonus: 170 Rear Potency, Couerl Bonus: Greased Lightning and 170 Flank Potency".
Dragon Kick, Twin Snakes and Demolish could be merged into one buff/debuff button with upgraded tooltip: "Opo bonus: Blunt resistance, Raptor Bonus: Twin Snakes, Couerl Bonus: Greased LT and Demolish".
AoTD, Rockbreaker, could be merged into one AoE button, just like bootshine and friends.

Monk - even right now - is effectively 3 keybindings, that is spread across 8 abilities. Aside of animations, there is no reason for all of them to exist, and then you'd better be off to tie animations to stances, or auto swap the buttons on stance change for convenience sake. But 8 keybinds what is effectively 3 keybinds, that's simple put, bad game design.

For all no-button-spammer (as in: do not press a button while on the GCD), you easily could create three button monk with macros.

Still - Touch of Death is useless to Monks. You multi-dot Demolish for more damage, while keeping Greased/Twin Snakes at the same time.