Combo Action Button

[Penthea]

Pvp combo action buttons work well in pvp because all the classes are drastically stripped down to a very basic level.

Classes are far more complex in pve. Not only would the combo action button dramatically reduce the amount of skill and knowledge needed to play some classes, they would be laughably simple compared to others who cannot benefit from this feature. This would cause severe imbalance. Nevermind how freaking dull it would be to spam one button so much.

There are other ways of reducing skill bloat that can benefit all classes instead of using a system that clearly favours a certain type of class and is completely irrelevant to others.

[Gemina]

Combos cannot and should not be consolidated in PvE. What you're talking about would change the PvE combat system entirely. I don't play a lot of jobs, but every single one I do weaves (sometimes double weaves) ogcds/instant abilities between the weaponskills required for their combos. And if even one job is impacted negatively, then the whole concept crashes and burns.

There is already a limit to the maximum number of skills the devs can implement and give us access to during PvE, and I am sure they are well aware of it. This is reduced greatly due to the game having players that use a controller. This basically gives the devs a maximum of 48 skills (excluding passive traits) to give players access to during combat, or 3 cross bars. The pet classes are an exception and use a 4th, and actually have room for additional skills on this bar if the devs wanted to go there.

There are simpler ways to reduce/prevent button bloat if this is your chief concern. For starters, some jobs have innate gcd skills that go unused because there is always a better gcd to use. Think Repose for WHM. I also believe the role skill system is either being revamped, or (hopefully) being done away with entirely. There are a lot of skills here that can just go away and we won't miss them. Several other skills were wrongfully taken away from their respective jobs, and you can probably expect jobs like AST and WHM to lose access to skills like Eye4Eye come 5.0.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

No, it wouldn't change anything, you'd still use two 5-step combos. Pressing True - Vorpal instead of Impulse - Disenbowel don't change anything about how many buttons you will use.

Apologies. I assumed you also wanted to delete Heavy Thrust because virtually every combo consolidation requests comes with that caveat, which would impact DRG in the manner I outlined. That being said, DRG simply doesn't have button bloat. I'd rather they not touch the combos as I like pressing more buttons than the same ones multiple times.

[Reynhart]

I don't play a lot of jobs, but every single one I do weaves (sometimes double weaves) ogcds/instant abilities between the weaponskills required for their combos.

Having several weapon skills on one button won't change anything about the number of GCD you will use, so weaving skills between them would still be the same.

Apologies.

No worries.

I assumed you also wanted to delete Heavy Thrust because virtually every combo consolidation requests comes with that caveat, which would impact DRG in the manner I outlined.

If I could, I wouldn't remove any skill. But, unless we use the consolidated combo system, it obviously won't reduce the button bloat. AFAIK, no first step has any bonus, so at least we could easily fuse all of them for every job.

[LastFireAce]

How about they don't touch DRG unless to buff it? I like the current stone rotation of drg... i love pressing so many bottom and yet no having this huge lag like NIN/MCH... my cup of tea.

[Alestorm]

I actually liked that rather than deleting skills like WoW does every expansion they've opted to making a more powerful version of an existing skill now. The only things I can see having an issue with ability bloat are DoH and DoL since you need all those skills as it stands now. Macros help, but shouldn't really be the long term fix.

[Sandpark]

Combos cannot and should not be consolidated in PvE. What you're talking about would change the PvE combat system entirely. I don't play a lot of jobs, but every single one I do weaves (sometimes double weaves) ogcds/instant abilities between the weaponskills required for their combos. And if even one job is impacted negatively, then the whole concept crashes and burns.

There is already a limit to the maximum number of skills the devs can implement and give us access to during PvE, and I am sure they are well aware of it. This is reduced greatly due to the game having players that use a controller. This basically gives the devs a maximum of 48 skills (excluding passive traits) to give players access to during combat, or 3 cross bars. The pet classes are an exception and use a 4th, and actually have room for additional skills on this bar if the devs wanted to go there.

There are simpler ways to reduce/prevent button bloat if this is your chief concern. For starters, some jobs have innate gcd skills that go unused because there is always a better gcd to use. Think Repose for WHM. I also believe the role skill system is either being revamped, or (hopefully) being done away with entirely. There are a lot of skills here that can just go away and we won't miss them. Several other skills were wrongfully taken away from their respective jobs, and you can probably expect jobs like AST and WHM to lose access to skills like Eye4Eye come 5.0.

If a weave or double weave is really good or mandatory, wouldn't that mean it should become part of a combo aka the core of your rotation and not a may be good or useless to use ogcd?

Are you saying the server or platform can't handle a big amount of skills or the controller can't?
The XIV hotbar interface can support 256 skills on controller. But just because it can, does not mean a user wants to cycle through all those skills in real time combat. ESO only has 12 active skills per class during combat. Twelve is too small, 256 is too large.

Look at it this way. What happens if SE wants to add a third, fourth, fifth or sixth combo string later on to jobs whose core combos already consist of 3 or more hotbar slots?
Those slots double each string when not consolidated, if the amount of skills stay the same. Each skill is fighting for real estate space. If combo skills dominate the space, there is less room for unique buffs/debuffs,control skills, ogcd skills, and less room for skill modifiers.

So the simpler way is to strip skills from the game rather than revise those less useful ones to be better? Consolidating skills streamlines and condenses but never removes options, omitting skills streamlines and removes options.

I agree with Reynhart saying that having multiple WS on one button would not change weaving much.

[Rongway]

Combos don't need to be reduced to single buttons, but actions that have specific conditions, or paired actions that are mutually exclusive, should be merged.

The following could be consolidated into single buttons:

Ley Lines → Between The Lines (conditional)
Blizzard IV → Fire IV (mutually exclusive) or Enochian → Blizzard IV (conditional)
Dreadwyrm Trance → Deathflare (conditional)
Summon Bahamut → Enkindle Bahamut (conditional)
Wind Blade → Burning Strike → Rock Buster (mutually exclusive) [note: pet basic]
Shockwave → Crimson Cyclone → Landslide (mutually exclusive) [note: pet interrupt]
Aerial Slash → Flaming Crush → Mountain Buster (mutually exclusive) [note: pet AoE]
Contagion → Radiant Shield → Earthen Ward (mutually exclusive) [note: pet support]
Eos Pet Actions → Selene Pet Actions (mutually exclusive)
The Wanderer's Minuet → Pitch Perfect (conditional)
Gauss Barrel → Barrel Stabilizer (conditional)
Jump → Mirage Dive (semiconditional)
Fang and Claw → Wheeling Thrust (mutually exclusive)
Hide → Trick Attack (conditional)
Third Eye → Merciful Eyes (conditional)

There might be some I missed.

Jolt II → Impact would be nice, but the arguments that can be made for it are the same arguments that can be made for consolidating skillchains into single buttons, so it doesn't really belong in the list.

[Freyt]

There's not much reason for Blood Weapon and Blood Price to be on separate hotbar slots. I've encountered a number of healers who use Medica II as if it was Medica. Having traits at the proper levels that merely enhance Medica into being more like Medica II wouldn't change much, I don't think. There's no reason for Diurnal and Nocturnal Sect to be on separate hotbar slots. It seems possible for Jump and Spineshatter Dive to simply turn into Mirage Dive when they're used respectively, also letting you use Mirage Dive twice in a row if you use them quickly. I'm not sure why Remove Barrel needs to exist at all. I think Quick Reload could be reworked into something else. Scathe could be done away with completely by making Fire I and Blizz I instant cast with reduced potency. If ever there were a case for a Combo Action Button it would be Red Mage's melee skills. Tether is just Tri-Disaster/Bind all over again before it was ever reworked into something useful, and except weaker than that ever was.

[Beckett]

Combos cannot and should not be consolidated in PvE. What you're talking about would change the PvE combat system entirely. I don't play a lot of jobs, but every single one I do weaves (sometimes double weaves) ogcds/instant abilities between the weaponskills required for their combos.

What's the difference between
pressing 1, double weaving my ogcds, then pressing 2
or
pressing 1, double weaving my ogcds, then pressing 1 again?