Thoughts on the removal of skills

[Shurrikhan]

The "bard backflip" is still ingame - it just doesnt deal damage anymore, so you're only using it to dodge now, not as part of your damage-dealing rotation.

A backflip requires... flipping. Repelling Shot does not flip. Wide Volley, alone, did. Wide Volley has been removed. So he is correct.

[StriderShinryu]

For me it's really less about the number of skills or skills being removed as much as it is about the identity and feel of the class staying the same. I barely touched healers before ShB (and still don't do much with them now) but I really do miss the old DRK. So much so that I levelled it to 70 and then just sort of stalled out because I was enjoying Paladin so much more. DRK may or may not be a functionally better class now than it was but it just doesn't feel like it used to in concept or execution. That hurts much more than any number of skills having been removed.

[Rasikko]

All these changes though are the result of them listening to some of the players.

[Shurrikhan]

All these changes though are the result of them listening to some of the players.

Except, at least as often as not, those changes come from somewhere between gross misunderstanding, haphazardness, or malicious compliance.

"The TK rotation provides too much damage and overly punishing to high ping players." --> *Remove it entirely, by cutting a third of Monk's wind-up speed, the lack of which they will feel even more dearly due to further additions.*

"Pet AI and controls are unbearably sluggish." --> *Remove pets except as auto-turrets, and yet retain most of their delay issues.*

"Blood of the Dragon duration is too difficult to manage." --> *Remove BotD interplay and BotD's depth as a capstone ability, further reduce DRG SkS value, but retain all BotD's ideosyncratic issues and leave it difficult to maintain between distant pulls in dungeons.*

"We rarely get to use The Forbidden Chakra (since it's really just a ranged skill and occasional modular)." --> *Break its value as a ranged skill and modular, replacing it with passive RNG damage that's likely to overcap or require clipping.*

Etc., etc.

[linay]

I would like it if all the action and role abilities fit in 32 slots (including 2 reserved for limit break and duty action 1). (Ok, can add another 16 slots if for AOE, just keep single target to 32, though preferable if everything fits in 32.)

Other than that, any change will just have to be evaluated as it happens, whether it be a good change or a bad change. I'm not going to worry before that. If I like the change, I'll play the job. If I don't, I'll try to adjust or just not play the job.

[dinnertime]

How they handle job changes has always been questionable, especially with Shadowbringers. It's normal to be concerned.

It really boggles my mind how they just outright removed Bard's support aspect in 5.0. Removed support abilities from a job that's known for its support. This alone should make people doubt the design philosophy of the devs.

Not to mention healers getting more healing kits to their already under-utilized healing kit and in exchange, they watered down the offensive skills. I can't wait to get *more* healing spells in 6.0!
The only healer that really benefitted from this the most was AST because its healing capabilities were minimal and sub-par compared to the other two anyway.

Summoner is probably a big offender when it comes to job changes. It's the only job I know that drastically changed in play style about 7 times since its debut. At this point it proves they don't exactly know what to do with the damn job.

[Spiriel_Basanda]

I've always hated ability prune waves, no matter the MMO. They tend to dumb down classes far too much.

I still want Lead Shot back. Lead Shot had a cool animation to it and I liked having a dot, but uh..........you know, Lead Shot took up a slot on your hot bar. Can't have that. I'm still slightly miffed that they picked Spread Shot over Grenado Shot for the AoE attack. I much prefer the circle AoEs over the cone AoEs. And Blank Shot? It went from fun ability, to an almost useless ability because it no longer did damage, to gone. I really don't like the removal of Dismantle. It might not have been super useful in the grand scheme of things, but I really felt good using it correctly. I do want the Reload/Quick Reload animations back as emotes. I'm okay with not having that silly RNG "combo" the job used to have, but I did like those animations a lot. Goodbye Bishop. Sleep well, sweet prince. I can no longer put Bishop on an FC mate that wasn't paying attention and blow them up with Bishop Overload.

I have not so fond memories of when Blizzard decided it was a good idea to remove Blood Death Knight's Heart Strike so the only ability you could use Blood runes on was Blood Boil. Using an AoE on ST because it was literally your only option for that resource was awful and didn't feel good, but dear god, having buttons is a bad thing! So having an almost useless resource on bosses is preferred to having buttons. The decision to force Frost Death Knight's to dual wield instead of being able to choose between dual wielding and a fat 2H weapon sucked. I still can't believe they got rid of Army of the Dead from Death Knights that weren't Unholy. Such an iconic ability dumped into the trash can. Getting rid of Warrior's Gladiator Stance. Probably my favorite Warrior spec, but Blizzard has a bad history with sub specs, so it's gone.

Can you tell what my job/class is in both games? heh

So uh.........yeah, I don't like hearing the words "Ability Prune". It tends to translate into a lesser play experience.

[Kyriss]

I wonder if it would help if some skills were combo'd and then the original
skill was chained. You know like in PvP you use 1 skill, and that
skill changes into a next potential combo? That would be nice.
Sorry if I'm miss-explaining :x

My thoughts exactly! You never use combo skills outside of the combo so why does each one need its own space on the action bar? This would free up quite a lot of space for new and unique abilities to be added.

[EnigmaticDodo]

I'd be fine if they got rid of continuation and instead just turned the corresponding ability into the next attack assuming you had the hypothetical continuation trait. It feels unnecessary, kinda like how play exists for AST, when I'm pretty sure you just used the ability that drew the card on your target to use it back in the day. Could also do this with Jump->Mirage Dive. Probably more abilities that this could apply to, but this is what I got off the top of my head.

Pretty sure that what Im saying has already been said many a time, but I'm ok with ability 'removal' if it just gets consolidated like this.

Edit: I'm, however, NOT ok with making combos function how they do in PvP.

[Saix027]

My thoughts exactly! You never use combo skills outside of the combo so why does each one need its own space on the action bar? This would free up quite a lot of space for new and unique abilities to be added.

Because people are against it, apperently pressing three different buttons in order is more skill then pressing the same one three times.
And yes this is what people say to this idea, people not want PvP combos becaus its "less skill".