Its ffxiv combat really so slow and boring?

[RiyahArp]

Yes there's a learning curve, but it's a curve worth exploring, practicing, and mastering rather than begging for button consolidation.

it will happen anyways. Do you really think we're going to be able to add 5-10 more abilities next expansion to our current setups, on top of the expanded role slots? We're back to HW in which you can talk about practice all you like, that didn't overcome the skill floor issue. If they add any more abilities, stuff is going to need to be taken away, and combos can be pruned to a 1-1-2/3/4 with no issue.

If anything, the combos in this game solely exist because SE tied buffs and debuffs to each hit, not because hitting 6 buttons is better than one. And a lot of those debuffs are bad design; people have been annoyed at the piercing one for years for example. I don't see anyone here complaining much about missing maintaining 2-3 dots as a melee class, even in HW where AST and MCH started at base 30 for theirs, not base 15ish for many jobs. You could easily just tie the buffs/debuffs to last hit buttons, and remove bridging hits without much issue. Stuff like needing an enmity and non enmity combo could probably be tied more into the last hit or given alternate styles of play.

Something will have to change for 5.0, because if we go back to HW ability levels, but with SB's mobile bosses, we will all be in big trouble.