Combining some buttons into one

[AmiBeau]

I remember during the beta for ARR they actually HAD the combo buttons turn into the next one in the chain.. It was actually very nice.. Dunno why they got rid of it.

[Limonia]

So you want oGCDs to be combined but not the GCD stuff? Arguing for 1 side of the coin but not the other is odd. Why would you ever use a combo action out of combo order? Its actually MORE of needless bloat that leylines and in between is.

To be honest, personally I'm not totally against combining combos as well, if it leads to better gameplay overall. But I know that a lot of players rather have the system we have now. It would be a major change, while combining like a handful of oGCDs overall across all jobs would just reduce a little button bloat and make space for new actions.

Other than that, we already have multiple threads about the combo topic. I actually created this one to discuss something else here, that's why I said in my OP it's not about the combos, because I knew people would confuse them. ^^

I think it that if they ever plan on merging combos though, the ideal way would be to make it optional.

[ErryK]

I remember during the beta for ARR they actually HAD the combo buttons turn into the next one in the chain.. It was actually very nice.. Dunno why they got rid of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOVawV_D9n4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrHbLiU8IRM

According to these, it was never the case.

[Seraphor]

If you want to know what spamming the same button for your entire DPS combo feels like, go ask the healers.

This is problematic for branching combo's, because you need to know what place in the combo you are currently at, in order to keep mental track of your buffs, debuffs and gauge accumulation.
By having it all on one button, you are forced to watch your hotbars continuously, and can no longer rely on muscle memory.

Also, there are some jobs it simply wouldn't work for, such as Monk, whose Perfect Balance opens up all combo moves to be used in any order you like.
Ninja would go down from 4 to 2. So that only saves you 2 buttons, but you want to know what part of the combo you're in for Bunshin/TA windows.
Samurai would still require at least 3 different buttons for it's combos, so it's not saving much space.
Dragoon could theoretically go down from 8 to 4. But again, as you will want to weave Life Surge in before True Thrust, this will make it much more difficult to keep track of.
Dancer will at most shave off 1 button in it's basic 1-2 combo, as the rest are procs that you can hold.
Bard doesn't need this at all.
Machinist... might actually be a job this could work for. You don't ideally weave anything in before Clean Shot as you want to use those on Drill/Anchor instead, and the basic 1-2-3 combo doesn't give you anything besides continuous gauge, the only hurdle here is keeping track of that 10 battery gauge from Clean Shot. But this may still result in the job being 'too simple'.
This sort of 'simplified gameplay' will go hand in hand with 'simplified jobs' and people don't want their jobs being simplified anymore. It's not merely a QoL change.

There is a place for this however, GNB has it in Continuation, and I'd be all for another new job that features this mechanic, if it worked for that job.
But if you apply it to existing jobs, you'll get as much backlash as the healers are giving right now.

[Kokonji]

Theoretically you could do it yourself (combining the skill in one button) via macro... although, it will add some macro clunkiness here and there...

as smn, i have mixed feeling about this things,
on one side, less button bloat is good thing to an extent,
but on the other side, i just don't want to "accidentally" end my DWT phase because Deathflare is the same button as DWT (as I tend to mash the button when trying to activate them until I need to push other button -- yes, even if it's full gcd button mash... )

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edit:
fun things about macro is, someone (Larryzaur if you know him) actually do a full rotation of smn using only 3 buttons macro: https://twitter.com/Larryzaur/status...37422235926528
yeah, i know it's for meme, but still... (all smn skill button reduced to only 3 macros, is still included in the range of possibility of reducing button bloat by dev, right ? ) .-.

[SpiralMask]

haven't kept up on the thread so far, but I'm in full support of anything that can slim down the existing button amount while preserving the current skills (so that more can be added going forward without needing to gut every class and redo their whole combat structure and leveling experience again)

[Seraphor]

Theoretically you could do it yourself (combining the skill in one button) via macro... although, it will add some macro clunkiness here and there...

I'm not sure how, because in all cases except Monk, all combo skills are on the GCD and can all be used when the GCD has completed.
If you macro combo skills 1, 2 and 3 to one button, then whatever skill is first in the list, is the skill that macro will use. You'll just be spamming 1 over and over.
And of course as I state above, Monk is the one job this unequivocally cannot work for.

[SpiralMask]

I'm not sure how, because in all cases except Monk, all combo skills are on the GCD and can all be used when the GCD has completed.
If you macro combo skills 1, 2 and 3 to one button, then whatever skill is first in the list, is the skill that macro will use. You'll just be spamming 1 over and over.
And of course as I state above, Monk is the one job this unequivocally cannot work for.

at least for SMN, having dreadwyrm macro-swap to deathflare and back is safe enough given their longer cooldown and single use (and being on the ogcd), but the demi's and their finishers wouldnt work since you should be using the finisher twice during their duration. i'm sure there's a few other corner-cases that could work (requiescat -> confitieor?), but they're be jsut that--corner cases

[Kokonji]

I'm not sure how, because in all cases except Monk, all combo skills are on the GCD and can all be used when the GCD has completed.
If you macro combo skills 1, 2 and 3 to one button, then whatever skill is first in the list, is the skill that macro will use. You'll just be spamming 1 over and over.
And of course as I state above, Monk is the one job this unequivocally cannot work for.

Oh, yea, i mean for some ogcd that tied to each other (like when we press this ogcd button, it will activate the skill, the button goes on cooldown, and make another button active when the first skill is still on effect - or something like that) to an extent
so... it seems macroing full blown combo is not possible right away I guess... especially if it have branching combos everywhere...

[SpiralMask]

Oh, yea, i mean for some ogcd that tied to each other (like when we press this ogcd button, it will activate the skill, the button goes on cooldown, and make another button active when the first skill is still on effect - or something like that) to an extent
so... it seems macroing full blown combo is not possible right away I guess... especially if it have branching combos everywhere...

it's possible to group all the "flank" and "rear" monk 1-2-3's onto one button each, and just alternate them as appropriate while you go through your combo, but that'd be rather clunky and a bit tough to explain to the player the sort of back-and-forth you go through (especially with dragon kick, the "flank" starter being obtained at level 50)