How many skills is too many?

[Lelila38]

There can be a lot of skills in those games and I wouldn't mind, my main problem with "too many" skills in FFxiv is that the battle system aims to make us use all of our skills, so we are required to have all of them on hotkeys. Especially with a controller this can get annoying at times, requiring a lot of trial and error to find a setup you're comfortable with. Personally I aim to have 2 hotbars for active play and a third for more supporting skills (aka skills you don't use all the time, for example those that you switch on at the start of battle then don't touch anymore), potions, food,...

Other games have shown a different approach, giving players a huge pool of skills to chose from and design their own build. This is especially attractive, since it encourages individual setups and makes people try out different things. Of course there are always skills that are considered as mandatory for certain classes, but in general you'd have more variety with that setup. As much as I'd like to see FFxiv go into that direction, I think it unlikely it's gonna happen.

[LalaRu]

I think the sweet point is a max of 24 skills, you can bind all of them to different letter key on keyboard, and using just two hotbars. If you need more, the system is more complicated than it can be, imho.

Right now, I just hope there will never be more need than three hotbars (36 buttons total) to get all skills at disposal.

Then, the change job system needs something simple, I actually had to bind each armor set to a slot of an hotbar, using three of them for all the jobs/crafting/gathering jobs we have. It is a waste and the only other option is do it manually passing thru' the caracter window, and that is quite an annoyance when you switch job often.

tl;dr:
more than 24 is too much, imo.

[Felis]

Then, the change job system needs something simple, I actually had to bind each armor set to a slot of an hotbar, using three of them for all the jobs/crafting/gathering jobs we have. It is a waste and the only other option is do it manually passing thru' the caracter window, and that is quite an annoyance when you switch job often.

Use on every character 3 slots for one class from each disciple (except the disciple of the current class)
Then fill up the other slots on DoW jobs with the other DoW jobs, on DoM jobs with other DoM jobs and so on.
Now you can switch to every class with just switching first to a class of the same disciple.

[LalaRu]

Use on every character 3 slots for one class from each disciple (except the disciple of the current class)
Then fill up the other slots on DoW jobs with the other DoW jobs, on DoM jobs with other DoM jobs and so on.
Now you can switch to every class with just switching first to a class of the same disciple.

Quite smart, will use just one hotbar instead of three
Just a little work to set it not shared, and fill it correctly for each job. Good hint.

[Atlas-04]

Using shift modifiers I can hit 24 different skills instantly on my game mousing plus the 1-5 keys and still use wasd just fine.

Honestly anymore than that is excessive, which is the case for some classes in FF14 when you include very useful cross class skills. I would be fine if they trimmed some skills to reduce the obvious bloat we have now. Curious what is coming with the combat update.

Of course don't take it to World of Warcraft levels where in the new expansion I couldn't even fill my hotbars, they took so many skills away.

[Aylis]

10 skills is prime for me, maybe 15 would be as high as I go. I find less skills more easy to manage which means more fluid game play and way more easier to set things to muscle memory. I like to keep watch on whats going on game action wise instead of navigating and focusing more on three to five loaded skill bars.

[Berethos]

Then, the change job system needs something simple, I actually had to bind each armor set to a slot of an hotbar, using three of them for all the jobs/crafting/gathering jobs we have. It is a waste and the only other option is do it manually passing thru' the caracter window, and that is quite an annoyance when you switch job often.

I ended up setting up a set of macros to hide/show hotbars, so now I essentially have one extra showing beyond the three I use for abilities, and on that one is buttons that bring up or tuck away the hotbars that have the various jobs/things I want to activate (even have one for emotes/minions, as well as the ability to hide/show the quest and objectives list). Took a while to set-up properly (and essentially requires having a gear set saved for each class on top of each job in my gear set list, though how many it requires changes based on how many you plan on hiding/showing), but works wonders for saving screen space.

Would be nice to have an easier to navigate/use job selection menu option though.

[Mycow8me]

If I have to toggle between 3 skill bars using a controller, that will probably be the point I can no longer play DPS. I might still be able to manage it on tank but the stance dancing may become more difficult. Healer would be ok.

I currently use bars 1 and 2 along with half of 8 for L+R. Tried using the L>R and R>L for a full extra bar set but I would mess up frequently and press the wrong one first so I'm sticking to only L+R for an extra half bar.

Not sure how many skills that is total but if it absolutely comes down to it, I'll end up combining certain skills with macros to conserve some space probably wherever possible. I just cant do keyboard on this game, which is strange cause I used keyboard on ffxi but it probably has something to do with how often you have to press buttons in comparison. Controller is more comfortable and manageable due to essential tremor.

Went ahead and counted, 2 full skill bars and a half on ps4 controller is 40 slots. Guess I can't handle any more than 40 but I like to add a mount and a potion slot in there so thats 2 that can be removed for skills if completely necessary.

[Pireco]

Wildstar has 8 skills any given time and its one of the most challenging mmos now, i dont think less skills = easyer , i think the way to go is making encounters longer, with more mechs and impossoble to skip, then we can talk about reducing skills, right now 24 skills including pvp ones is a good number.

[LalaRu]

On top of that, how many skill we really use when doing a duty? Our rotations will be.. 6-7 skills? Everything else, as said above, 99% are conditionals to press when rng tells us we can, but nothing to take account for a rotation and, imho, nothig that changes the numbers at the end of the duty.

I'm thinking to make a test and try doing duties with only one hotbar to see how much things will change. If all good, skill bloating confirmed. xD