How many skills is too many?

[Shurrikhan]

GW2 is a distinctly different game. Its depth of combat comes from skills paired with constant movement; FFXIV doesn't have this attribute. If we had only 10 abilities in FFXIV, the game would be incredibly boring.

While true, shouldn't that point out how little FFXIV has going on underneath its skill arsenals to actually make them interesting. Is that not a more important place to start?

Chaos Thrust and True Thrust, as combos, would be boring and devoid of any semblance of skill. That's why they aren't two buttons. Lengthening the combo requires players to maintain proper positioning whilst dodging ground AoE attacks and engaging attacks; a single button for a combo would either not involve this balancing act, or would be too rigid.

How is there any difference apart from button count (bloat) in an entirely GCD-locked game between a 3-part skill auto-activating its next step within the same decision on the following GCD vs. you queuing each of three parts for, effectively, the same skill (same decision) each with a different key? There is no difference in length. There is no difference in positioning. One is simply automatically "macroed" for you as to spare you a total of 4 (6 as of HW) keys. You still have to reposition, very rapidly in the case of F&C/WT, before each GCD refreshes.

Cleric's Stance also can't just 'change our hotbar' because sometimes, WHMs DO heal whilst in Cleric's Stance. It's not ideal, but every so often, something bad happens right after Cleric's Stance is brought up. At that point, it's better to toss off a weak heal than none at all (or Benediction if need be).

That's certainly the case, but no system has ever been developed or refused over nonessentials. Even now, I hear as many claims as point out its weak-heal necessity that Cleric Stance ought either to be punishing enough to be a real concern, or removed outright as to save Conjurers/Healers that key-space. Unless the difference between 0% healing potency and 30% healing potency over the 5-second window would prevent the use of Cleric Stance entirely, then the ability to toss out weak heals is not worth the button count. That said, as the two arsenal sets that would otherwise be separated are far from even, and neither half would have nearly the key count of an unsplit arsenal class (e.g. any DPS or tank), truly splitting the keys into an offensive and curative set would feel... off, to say the least. Moreover, we may yet see Cleric Stance become something unique to Conjurer, that may or may not (effectively) be a mere set-toggle, while Scholar and Astrologian each take on their own stance mechanic, if any.