What would you guys think about getting more Dynamic, "Combo" abilities?

[Sylve]

Some classes have multiple finishers for their combos. And then there's monk who has multiple choices for each step.

Also, while auto-combos might be no different against a training dummy where you can put your full focus on your rotation, I'd argue they do dumb things down in real fights. Whenever there's a major interruption such as having to dodge a mechanic more complex than a simple AoE, or having to pick up new targets, there's a good chance my mental state will be disrupted enough that I will accidentally start a new combo afterwards instead of continuing where I left off with the last one. And I think being able to make small mistakes like that makes the game more interesting. If perfection is too easy to achieve, I will become bored more quickly.

Which is why a custom setup would work better than trying to get SE to build a system that accounts for branching combos.
Essentially the ability to go into a menu, select weaponskills and place them into a sequence.

So i could choose to have one button that shifts from True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust and then a second button that starts with True Thrus and shifts to Disembowel and on to Chaos Thrust.

Let US figure out the path the button should take. I already do something similar with my Monk (since 2.0 even). Snap Punch and True Strike are bound onto one key while Twin Snakes and Demolish are bound into a second. If i could, I'd do it to Dragon Kick and Bootshine but they aren't mutually exclusive the way the others are.
It allows me to save 2 keybinds and since they're mutually exclusive skills, my rotation ends up as E 1 2 3 in varying order with oGCDs etc weaved as normal.

No, i don't raid or do any serious content on my Monk, despite generally being in love with the job since beta as I'm fully aware of the drawbacks that macros have. But i cannot stand not having those macros.
It would be nice if we had the ability to do things like that with other combos and mutually exclusive skills.

[Soge01]

I'd honestly like for the 1-2-3 combos and other similar abilities to be smashed down into one or more consecutive buttons. That way we can get more new abilities without worry over the hot bars being overwhelmed and the developers being forced to cut out more new skills because of bloat.

[tdb]

More hotbar space is a valid point. If combos get squished into a single button though, is there any reason for them to even be combos anymore? Just rework them so they give a stacking buff which increases the damage for that ability and at certain amount of stacks gives whatever benefits the last skill of the combo used to give.

[Sylve]

More hotbar space is a valid point. If combos get squished into a single button though, is there any reason for them to even be combos anymore? Just rework them so they give a stacking buff which increases the damage for that ability and at certain amount of stacks gives whatever benefits the last skill of the combo used to give.

The goal is to save keybinds, Not reduce the skill quantity. I'm not sure anyone would support that.

Using my DRG as an example, Just my main combo alone is bound to - Q E 1 2 3 7 8 9.
With the ability to customise a button for a skill sequence of my choice, i can take the Full Thrust combo sequence and place it on 1. Then take Chaos Thrust and place it on 2. It still requires 6 individual presses of buttons to perform the 6 required weaponskills. Fang and Wheeling would stay separate due to their alternating nature.
That would free up 4 keybinds, which i would use for Jump related skills. The complexity of the rotation is unchanged, The only change is which keybinds i pressed to arrive at the end of the rotation.

Were I using a controller, X + O would cover the entire basic Thrust combo chains while Square and Triangle covers Fang and Wheeling. This leaves the entire rest of the cross hotbar for weave skills and cooldowns.

But since such a system would be a choice per player, If you prefer having 3 separate keybinds for True > Vorpal > Full, You can. If I want to save some keybinds and make things more comfortable for myself, i can.
Neither method is an advantage over the other, Its just control preference.

[Arbaid]

I'd rather see more combos be less deterministic, so you have to react to what happens when you trigger a step, and make a choice about what to do next, rather than just metronomically hitting the same sequence of keys.

[Wolwosh]

I play on controller and jobs that have one combo I don't play anymore, like Dark Knight. Coming from early HW I already feel like everything got dumbed down WAY to much, if they do it more and every job becomes what you want it to be i'll stop playing..

[Sylve]

I play on controller and jobs that have one combo I don't play anymore, like Dark Knight. Coming from early HW I already feel like everything got dumbed down WAY to much, if they do it more and every job becomes what you want it to be i'll stop playing..

What i want is the option.

If you want to have 40 keybinds for 40 abilities, You do you.
I'd like the option to customise certain abilities to reduce the 40 keybinds to 30. Still 40 individual button presses to get through a full rotation, Just recycling keybinds for things that do not need to be separate.
I'll customise my buttons, You leave everything as is. Nothing changes for you. Game gets more comfortable for me to play. Win/Win.

Choice. Not unlike the freedom we have in customising our UI. Unless you'd like to try telling me that customising our UI away from the default also dumbs the game down.

[Awha]

Personally I want more skills added back into the game.

[Goji1639]

For a lot of the abilities in this game there's really no reason for them to be different buttons. That kind of bloat isn't complexity or challenge; it's just inconvenience for the sake of inconvenience.

It's like if they made opening character menu require you to press ctrl+alt+shift+c instead of just c. That's not more intricate, complex gameplay that really separates the men from the boys; it's just making something more inconvenient for no reason.

[PeppermintBrown]

I'd be fine with it. The current system isn't hard, or challenging as is. It just bloats your hot bars with more buttons than are necessary with a couple of exceptions like monk, where perfect balance lets you hit any combo for full effect so you need all the buttons.