Auto Combo Buttons in PvE

[Skivvy]

You are suggesting that, but many people are already doing that via bots. Just zoom into frontline sometime >.>

Bots are not relevant to the conversation, neither is some sarcastic remark claiming people just want someone to play the game for them.

[Shihen]

It will probably happen eventually for linear combo paths. It was decent when there were fewer abilities and difficulty had to come from somewhere, but most difficulty now comes from buff/dot uptime management, proper oGCD weaving, and mechanics of the encounter itself.

It'll still get the usual cries of 'oh no this will ruin the game', 'I'm unsubbing', and 'we're becoming the game which most not be named', but in truth most classes would barely feel the change because almost every combo in the game branches. PLD for example: Savage Blade and RoH become a single button. That's pretty much it. Fast Blade combos into 2 different abilities so you can't make that a single button. Same with Riot Blade. It's basically just a QoL change to reduce hotbar clutter, but people will still dig their nails into their armchairs about how gamebreakingly bad it's going to be because the benefit of the change isn't immediately obvious.

[Freyt]

Pressing 1 2 3 is NOT more difficult than pressing 1 1 1.... which is exactly why I support this. Why should you have three slots on your hotbar assigned to "Basic Attack"? Having a combo is nice because animations, but other than that I don't see why we can't have a single skill with the average potency of the whole combo. Why don't they make more gcd's that aren't part of a combo, like Yoshida's favorite, Black Mage.

[Catsby]

I would like to see auto combo functionality in PvE. Combos dictated by the game aren't my idea of engaging combat design. At the very least it would free up a bunch of hotbar space.

[dinnertime]

They'll have to do it at some point since there will be more and more skills coming until the game reaches the level 99 capacity.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

The issues with hotbar space were never that major for me, and I even play on a controller. I had 3 for battle (1 just for PvP skills), 1 for emotes, 1 for gearsets to change quickly between jobs, and I made hotbar 7 my "I use these on every job" hotbar (Return, Teleport, Sprint, etc.) #8 by default was the "system" hotbar, and I left it that way, but never used it. I didn't even use the WXHB.

Then there's all the standard hotbars, including the vertical ones.

I ran very few macros, at the worst, buffs I used together every time, and for MCH/BRD had my finishers (Heartbreak/Misery's End) on a macro with my "1" attack. With melee jobs, I often had room left over on hotbar 2. My PvP hotbar had duplicate skills from the first two for quick access. I didn't NEED an emote hotbar, nor a gearset one.

Where are people having all this trouble with hotbars?

[Skivvy]

Where are people having all this trouble with hotbars?

The issue isn't the fact that we don't have enough hotbar space, because we do, it's more that there is skill bloat and hotbar clutter. There are plenty of skills that could be condensed to a single hotbar button vs. taking up 3 individual spots.

I'd much rather have difficulty come in the form of knowing when to weave in an oGCD skill, or how to deal with the actual in-game mechanics vs. 'difficulty' coming from the dance your fingers have to do in order to fire off skills.

[Shihen]

Where are people having all this trouble with hotbars?

It's more about inefficiency, really. Like having a sort of messy room. It's not totally messy, there's still room for other stuff, but why have the clutter there at all if it can be cleaned up? It's still possible to bring more stuff into the room now, but eventually it will fill up and something will have to be done. Just take care of it now before you have to put off new furniture because the room needs to be re-organized first.

There just isn't a reason to have ability A on one button and ability B on another button, when B is the only GCD you want to press after A. Weaving oGCDs will still exist, branching combos will still exist, and people will still screw up both of them. All it does is consolidate the very few abilities that have no business being separate in the first place.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

I played Heavensward MCH and still had no issues. And if I recall, Wildfire rotations were enough to deter many from playing it.

I don't know enough about the casters perhaps to say it may or may not be an issue for them, but I really didn't feel like there was much in the way of skill bloat at all. If it wasn't useful/used frequently, I just didn't have it on my bar.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Of the 9 buttons/skills used in PvP, MCH can unfortunately be played competently with 3 of them alone.

Again, it's not a bad idea to consolidate some things, but I don't feel it's necessary for PvE at all. I don't even feel like it was necessary for PvP which is far more dynamic.