Combo Action Button

[Sigma-Astra]

You still don't seem to be understanding the premise here. That or you're grossly exaggerating.

A skill rework is something like what was done to Shake it Off. That takes time, because new mechanics are being generated. Had Shake it Off borrowed everything directly from Divine Veil, that already wouldn't be the case. Changing potencies, likewise, requires no development time in itself, but the repercussions of the change will take balance to plan around, which can then be significant depending on whether the change caused is enough to warrant the adjustment being given in the first place.

A consolidation simply attaches a conditional-ID, already a templated structure since 3.1 or 3.2. It requires no more time in its process adjusting the potency, but it has absolutely zero balance impact, and therefore requires no further testing of consequences.

Reworking an ability, be it by new mechanics or simply adjusting any one factor such as potency or range or cast time, takes objectively more time than consolidating two mutually exclusive skills.

To you, it seems like a flip of a switch, in reality, this game is still using legacy spaghetti coding, that said, it probably should be an easy endeavor....but, I don't trust this dev team to draw a straight line.

[Shurrikhan]

To you, it seems like a flip of a switch, in reality, this game is still using legacy spaghetti coding, that said, it probably should be an easy endeavor....but, I don't trust this dev team to draw a straight line.

But they've already drawn it. It's done. As done as any split-damage stack mechanic we've seen since ARR. As done as a %max HP-scaling shield. Perhaps they were difficult to create at first, but that creation is complete, and can now be copied from directly. Blizzard IV <> Fire IV is not fundamentally different from Fell Cleave <> Inner Beast. They are each made mutually exclusive based on the existence of a given buff.

[Reynhart]

I'd love to know your definition of the word "change" because fusing two buttons on separate slots and onto a single slot is exactly the literal definition of the word "change".

One definition is easy. What you can already do by using a macro is not a change. Because yes, if macros didn't have the issue of not queuing properly, you could already do the ability switch from Fire IV to Blizz IV, combo step to the next combo step or Blood Weapon to Blood Price...
Before they did it for Fell Cleave/Inner Beast and Decimate/Steel Cyclone, that's what my WAR Stances macros were created for...

[Divinewindx]

Stop, if you want WoW combat, go play WoW.

[Deceptus]

Stop, if you want WoW combat, go play WoW.

Wow doesn't have combat action style buttons. You might be thinking of Guild Wars / Guild Wars 2

[NocturniaUzuki]

I'll just throw in that there ARE reasons to intentionally mess up combos. Maybe you need to adjust your timing for applying a debuff, so you recast the first ability of the combo to waste a GCD. Maybe you want to intentionally land the final hit of a combo at a later time to burst something reliably.

Arguably, one should be able to map out a fight to at least cast a more effective non-comboed skill to delay by 1 GCD, but if you're having to adapt to something on the fly, having the control available to make mistakes in order to adjust your combo timing is very important.

There are circumstances where one needs to do something fast or in a certain order - averaged DPS be damned. Like if you're solo-breaking gaols on Synced TitanEX as a DRK in a 3-player party. You don't want to start on your first tier combo attack. If for some reason your combo got out of sync earlier, you need to adjust it. Maybe that means repeating an attack once. It may be an overall DPS loss, but it's better than failing the gaol break and wiping the run.

That's just an example from my own gameplay, but the main point is that if you ever get off-sync with your rotation, it may be better to repeat an attack than to continue indefinitely with a terribly out-of-sync rotation.

[Shurrikhan]

Stop, if you want WoW combat, go play WoW.

Do any of these "go back to WoW" guys even know what WoW is?

It's like every concept mentioned that someone doesn't like has to have come from WoW, when in fact WoW has next to none of them...

[Orbus]

I do believe skill button consolidation should only be done where it makes good sense to (why are the tank and dps stances still separate skills?!?) instead of trying to consolidate everything with even vaguely related skill chains.
That said, dragoon having eight buttons dedicated to basic gcd rotational skills seems a liiiiiittle unnecessary.

Paladin especially would benefit from merging skill effects.
I can't even fit all their skills on my controller without having to change crossbars in combat.
Seriously? 32 buttons isn't enough?

[Sandpark]

What real estate are we reducing it for though? What other skill or ability are you going to put into that empty space? You're not using several abilities already. Instead of consolidating abilities that have worked fine on their own, we should be focusing on lackluster abilities that do absolutely nothing yet they're there like Freeze.

As for finger gymnastics, your finger isn't really jumping around too much if you've been smart and placed Fire IV and Blizzard IV on the first hotbar and practically almost next to each other. If you put Blizzard IV on a second hotbar, I'd have to wonder if you enjoy making your life difficult for no real purpose.

Any new skills that get added until now and XIV shutdown.

Any movement required besides up and down is jumping around regardless of how smart you place skills.
Economy of motion.
If your finger has to travel 1 inch to the right, that is slower than staying still, 2 inches slower, 3 inches slower.

Why is WASD the defacto standard and not WLFV?
Economy of motion.
A standard keyboard could have 40 numbers keys from left to right.
Why are there only 10 number keys and a plus minus?
Economy of motion.
Why do single keyboard keys have multiple functions versus one each?
Economy of motion.

A forward thinking developer sees things ahead of time and plans accordingly rather than just waiting until something breaks and then tries to rush and get it fixed. Just because bloat is no issue now for some, does not mean it never will.

[Seraphor]

Why is WASD the defacto standard and not WLFV?
Economy of motion.
A standard keyboard could have 40 numbers keys from left to right.
Why are there only 10 number keys and a plus minus?
Economy of motion.
Why do single keyboard keys have multiple functions versus one each?
Economy of motion.

I think there's a little more than just 'econony of motion' when it cones to not implementing these insane ideas.

Why aren't keyboards 50 feet long and made of cheese?
Don't tell me it's econony of motion.