Quote Originally Posted by HyoMinPark View Post
Controllers have 8 cross hotbars of 16 buttons each. That’s effectively 128 button spaces for actions and shortcuts. Most jobs can fix everything comfortably onto 2 crossbars—both easily accessible via the L2+R2 / R2+L2 expanded crossbar with no cycling through the bars required. There’s only one or two that reach that 32-button cap (PLD and GNB come to mind). This isn’t even counting the additional 16 that the W crossbar adds. While the W cross could be a bit more responsive, implying that controller users are the ones hurting for hotbar space is incorrect. I’ve played this game on controller for over 5 years and never struggled with hotbar space.

It’s also possible for controller users to keybind actions to regular crossbars to either click or access via keyboard. I play on PC and use a hybrid setup of controller and keybinds. Excess buttons that aren’t used that often I have bound to my numpad to free up actions that are used more often (e.g., healer and tank LBs are on there; role actions such as Head Graze that have a 1 fight per tier use). All key shortcuts and gear set shortcuts are also set to regular hotbars (which I simply click to swap between). This is possible to do on console by buying a cheap Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse, and does not require an extremely expensive setup. You can also just use the DualShock touchpad to touch gearsets, though it’s not as quick.

Some jobs that were pruned going into ShB never had issues with hotbar real estate. The developers outright mentioned that some skills were removed simply because of difficulties in upkeep or to close the skill gap between less skilled players and more skilled players. Some skills were removed due to overpoweredness (AST Time Dilation and Royal Road come to mind), due to job changes (other AST card skills such as Spread), and just general reworks to jobs at a basic level (TP-restore Tactician; tank aggro combos). Some skills could absolutely be removed and/or upgraded through traits—but I don’t think everything needs consolidation.
128 button spaces? Holy crow that's a lot of buttons!