Combining some buttons into one

[Morningstar1337]

With regards to summoner, I do think some simplicityis required and therefore that condensing all 6 buttons into one would have the effect of confusing everyone. I'd rather the Trances be one button, the Demi summons be a single button, the Enkidle attacks be one button (or hell be folded intot he original Enkindle ability) and the other demo buttons be 1 each, and that condensing everything into a single button would be like condensing the combos into a button but more convoluted.

[Shougun]

Maybe they can let people assign singular buttons to their bar manually but the game automates assigning the smart buttons (simple upfront but personal preference made available).

Like for dancer you can assign the dance moves if you wanted, rather than the smart buttons SE provides. Smart buttons being different than macros in that they're SE made and should carry the full features of being a button (like pre-loading).

I'd be more worried about collapsing if it collapses most of the job's activity, like bringing BLM ley lines into one button doesn't really make the job any less engaging but changing a job that is 80% combos into one or two buttons.. . . lol.

Of course if they bring down the button count they can consider other spells too, like if they brought down the combos into single buttons but then made those two button slots saved (assuming a 1 2 3 combo) into two more combos that interlink, you might have started something interesting (yet a bit complicated). 1 1 1, 2 2 2 (of course) but also 1 2 1, 2 1 2, etc. Have to be careful with factorial like math though... could easily make it super complicated lol. But it does allow a lot more spells.

Not looking for them to collapse every single thing possible 'just because' but certainly if they can make it feel smother and less finger spider without making it feel like 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 I would personally be okay with that.

[Yue_Amariyo]

to be frank i wish they make cure 1 into cure 2, and remove the freecure trait. I heard horror stories from my fc mates about people in level 50-80 content cure 1 spamming to proc free cure.

Im also of the opinion that more is not better, nor less= dumb-down. playing your job/role shouldn't be the difficulty or challenge, the content you play in should be where the challenge is. The dark souls games were/are considered pretty hardcore. Incidentally, the combat system is ultra basic, the boss fights, and game zones are where the challenge lies.

[Esmoire]

Love shout to Paladin for having a button you press once a minute to enable another button you can only use after pressing that button. Maybe have Req put Confiteor on a 2 sec CD or something to prevent you from accidentally mashing it, and have those share buttons. One is an ability and the other is a spell so there's some infrastructural problems they probably need to resolve first.

[Lubu_Mykono]

The PvE combos should be one set of buttons like PvP already. Easiest way of reducing button bloat.

[jazo]

gonna half copy/paste my viewpoint here,

yes to combo merge, and some other funcional ones on single buttons, give space for more interesting skills and could give us something more interesting

Usually jobs have 2 combo variations, damage plus or buff/debuff, those usually require 1 button to start and 2 paths of 2 more skills, 5 total for 2 combos, so cut it to 2 button slots would actually help not having to look at your hotbar constantly.

it would benefit low level players as the combos are not 3 step ones, only 1 or 2 steps, would not have to rethink where to put all the buttons as the combo increase on level, and we might get 4 step combos or a new finisher skill button that changes on combo or change current finishers on number of extra steps, anyway is less bloat and more time you can actually focus your eyes on the field.

Thats the direct benefit of reduce numer of actuak buttons to get more shiny new ones

Just an idea of how can less buttons can open new posibilities on playstyle

They could make the new finisher skill more potent depending on combo step count as today and maybe up to 45 and after finisher delay the gcd a little, so the rotations could be more flexible as how many "auto combo" skills to use before finisher and use the increased delay(1 or 2 secs at most) of finisher to use more ogcd skills

some 1,2,3~4 combos could be fast to input (like ninja jutsus or dancer steps) and the flair close to make up for the time saved

knowing when to cut the combo before the finish skill would feel like playing a fighting game (LP,LP,LP,SK ), somefinishers could change effect on number of combo steps. Less wasted build ups if boss jumps off.

Sure, most jobs would keep the actual 2~ sec button presses but still would have more space for new stuff

Getting repetitives combos into a single button is not as they would not add more stuff so you can still have to manage multiple buttons for more rotation variety and adaptability

Sorry if this reads chopped, some similar argument was on another thread

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.