PLD Advice - Skill bloating?

[x_zenith]

So, I recently returned to the game after not playing since late HW, and joined an FC full of tanks so I decided to run dps to 70 first.

That's done. I'm working on my PLD now, which I main'd in most of HW.

There seems to be.. a LOT of skills. Much more than my WAR is subjected to, simply because certain abilities become one ability or another depending on stance.

If I consider role abilities, general skills, GLD and PLD skills as well, I actually have MORE than 36 buttons. This.. seems like a bit much. Are there any less-than-useful abilities that I won't really miss by not having them on my bars? My paladin is 69 now, and if I include sprint but DON'T include the stances and even the final level 70 ability. my 36 slots are already full. I could do more.. I just really don't want to. 36 buttons is already a pretty tedious amount of screen real estate.

Suggestions? What can I remove? For argument's sake, I already have a gaming mouse & keyboard and even with a total of 16 buttons on my mouse, it's still pretty tedious.

[Orbus]

I was actually having trouble with this when I maxed out the pld class.
I use a controller with a setup that effectively gives me 32 buttons without having to manually swap to another crossbar and it's still not enough.
I've tried to limit the cross role abilities to stuff I might actually use in any given scenario including dropping low kick in favor of just opting for shield bash, but there's only so much fat you can cut before you're left with either dropping essential skills or being forced to manually swap crossbars mid combat.

It's unbelievable that they still haven't merged shield oath and sword oath into one button.

[Nedkel]

It's unbelievable that they still haven't merged shield oath and sword oath into one button.

Try out this one

/macroicon "sword oath"
/ac "sword oath"
/ac "shield oath"

The icon doesnt change only, but it works the same way. You cant change the order of them to this if you like, i prefer the shield one.

/macroicon "shield oath"
/ac "shield oath"
/ac "sword oath"

[Orbus]

Try out this one



The icon doesnt change only, but it works the same way. You cant change the order of them to this if you like, i prefer the shield one.

On paper one might think this works, but because of the way the game does things this doesn't work because every other use of it will briefly turn off your stance completely which wipes out your gauge.
The first for example, if you're already in sword using this button will turn off sword and then turn on shield, wiping out the gauge.

[Nedkel]

On paper one might think this works, but because of the way the game does things this doesn't work because every other use of it will briefly turn off your stance completely which wipes out your gauge.
The first for example, if you're already in sword using this button will turn off sword and then turn on shield, wiping out the gauge.

Oh thats the thing i havent in mind, but ye you lose gauge so i think this macro is useless.
Dont use it.

[Terkhev]

PLD sure has more skills on bars than other tanks. I think it's like 3rd or 4th most filled bar for me. But tbh outside of role actions, I wouldn't want to lose any, they are all useful. Ok, Shield Bash isn't anymore. Stances could be merged tho.

I was actually having trouble with this when I maxed out the pld class.
I use a controller with a setup that effectively gives me 32 buttons without having to manually swap to another crossbar and it's still not enough.
I've tried to limit the cross role abilities to stuff I might actually use in any given scenario including dropping low kick in favor of just opting for shield bash, but there's only so much fat you can cut before you're left with either dropping essential skills or being forced to manually swap crossbars mid combat.

It's unbelievable that they still haven't merged shield oath and sword oath into one button.

Set it to 48 slots (I guess you don't use double clicks?) instead. No point trying to squeeze everything in 32 when like half of jobs need more anyway. I never manually switched hotbars since I started playing, even as a SCH, but it sounds like real pain.

[Nedkel]

You could merge the deffensive cooldown into one button with the macro.
That will save a lot of space.

[x_zenith]

Could you think of any REALLY efficient way to do that though?
Personally, I see multiple cooldowns with different durations, different downtimes, and different effectiveness so wouldn't that be bad in a lot of situations where a healer makes one too many an 'oops' and dies, or has an unfortunate disconnect?

I'm not saying it's not possible btw, I'm simply stating I don't know how to make that macro and NOT lose the effectiveness of each defensive utility

[Nedkel]

Could you think of any REALLY efficient way to do that though?
Personally, I see multiple cooldowns with different durations, different downtimes, and different effectiveness so wouldn't that be bad in a lot of situations where a healer makes one too many an 'oops' and dies, or has an unfortunate disconnect?

I'm not saying it's not possible btw, I'm simply stating I don't know how to make that macro and NOT lose the effectiveness of each defensive utility

You could merge in the order you wish to be executed. With each button press of the macro it will execute one action from the list, so for example you press once you activate convalescence, then second time you activate sentinel and so on.
You could also merge few others like Circle of scorn with total eclipse, that way the first one will be circle of scorn and then after next button press eclipse will go.
You could also merge spirits withing with any GCD ability you want, or requiescat with holy spirit.
I have them, its easy.

My deffensive cd macro is this :

/macroicon "sentinel"
/ac "sentinel"
/ac "rampart"
/ac "bulwark"
/ac "convalescence"
/ac "anticipation"

You could edit it if you want, from top to down each button press will activate one CD after another.
You could put sentinel after rampart or convalescence, whatever you like.

The other one spirit withing i have with fast blade

/macroicon "spirits within"
/ac "spirits within"
/ac "fast blade"

So using fast blade will activate the CD skill first, but i have to press it again to do fast blade, you could put any GCD in the place of fast blade you want.

As for AOE abilities, it looks for me like that

/macroicon "circle of scorn"
/ac "circle of scorn"
/ac "total eclipse"

You press once you activate CoS, pressing again will use eclipse until CoS will be up.

Same you could do with requiescat and holy spirit (i dont use it personally, but maybe i will set it up later)

/macroicon "requiescat"
/ac "requiescat"
/ac "holy spirit"

With those macro you save about 6 buttons.

/macroicon ""
Is a command that will show you the skill you want to be shown on the macro button.

This is how it looks like for me, i have no problem with button bloat at all and i am playing on ps4 pad.



I just set up the separate action bar for CD's just for the sake of knowing their cooldowns.

[Campi]

macros for everything

My heart is bleeding when I see this x.x
Pls don't do this

With requiecast + HS macro you dont miss the fifth HS hit enchanced by the buff. It doesnt matter if your HS will deal damage after the buff is gone, damage is increased at the time you press the button. If you would press HS 1 sec before the buff will wear off and your character will cast the spell after the buff is finished, you still will get the bonus damage boost for that spell. I have just tested it, I had never miss the bonus for fifth spell with my macro.

You will clipp your gcd with this macro, which is a higher Dmg loss, than missing the last HS in the Req-Buff.
Anyway it's easy to get all 5 HS in the Buff. Just press Req when the GCD is ~3/4 finished