Quote Originally Posted by Grimoire-M View Post
To be honest it's the one thing that differentiates DRG from the other melee DPS in terms of their GCD rotation in the first place. MNK has flexible combos based on their stances, NIN/SAM have different combo branches (though not by much), and DRG has longer, linear combos that eventually cross over one another . One is for buffs/debuffs, the other is filler. That is a part of their identity. Preserving it is worth the effort.
The one thing differentiating DRG from the other melee is that of their 3 possible Single-Target GCD actions (Debuff combo, Direct combo, and Heavy Thrust), 2 are 5-GCDs-long and 1 is 1 GCD-, rather than the typical spread of 2-to-3 GCDs per action. All but Monk has only 3 GCD decisions possible, their combos. On average, if rotation were not already fixed anyways, a DRG is able to make a decision every 3.67 GCDs. A NIN -- every 3 GCDs. A SAM -- every 2.67, plus whether to hold Iajutsu, making it arguably every GCD. A Monk -- every GCD. Those decisions will be mostly predetermined, but that is the core of DRG's "unique" play. DRG makes fewer GCD decisions. That's it. Similarly to SAM's Kenki and Sen banking--though in a way far less integral to microrotation--has a fair bit of timing flexibility in its Mirage Dive and (a bit less) in Gier/Nost usage as to sync to BfB and TA/BL/HC/FR/BV/CS/BH/EB/Cards, but that is what the long combos mean.

Do you actually feel anything from F&C crossing WT? They're very nearly identical abilities, differed only by name, animation, and a positional you'd already be set up for ((Back) CT to (Back) WT; (Any) FT to (Flank) F&C). It's just potency and maintenance, where you'd only actually need two hits of either per BotD of either to maintain eyes.

What merit there overwhelms the prospects, of, say, actually being able to go ID-VT-Db-F&C-WT-CT-ST-FT for entirely different reasons than one might go ID-ID-F&C-FT-Db-CT-WT (or any other n-factorial or greater choices over n GCDs) due to the synergies and situationally optimal combinations intrinsic to the effects embedded within the skills themselves?

Is it... the bloat? The ruttedness? What's the merit worth 1-22222-33333 for? I get the attraction to long combos, and would love to see that within the embedded effects, weighing the punctuation of a combo vs. its momentum, attempting to stretch it further and further while still fitting the modulars of your upcoming CDs, but when it's literally 5 presses for the same obvious but irrevocable decision... I can't see the attraction. I can't even call it uniquely stale, just... the stalest.