Does FF14 have a button bloat problem?

[Gothicshark]

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Simple Answer NO.

Long Answer: Still no but with more words.

The game is designed to be played on a Playstation, as such they have a hard cap on Buttons per class. This means we also get more passives as we level and many high end abilities replace lower abilities or have switches that change them during play.
You comparing this game to WOW which has a very different design policy and gameplay shows a serious lack of understanding of how to play FFXIV. I would go back watch videos on how to play RDM and Summoner as you do not seem to get the gameplay or job.

As to WOW Warlock vs Summoner, not even close. You are doing the same dumb assumption people have been doing for years, Summoner is nothing like Warlock, never has been, never will be. It's a pet class with a Dot is the only thing close. Warlock is three different trees. Affliction Curse and Dots, Demonology you wanted pets here's an Army, Destruction you wanted to yell explosion so here is a bigger boom. The only Job similar to Warlock in FFXIV is Black Mage, and it is only at an aesthetics level if you played Destruction. Demo Warlock is not like any gameplay in FFXIV, and Affliction is also an unseen play type. And when you look at the history of these classes in WOW and the Jobs in Final Fantasy you see why they are nothing similar, Every Job in FFXIV so far is based on past Jobs from previous games, Reaper is going to be the first New Job in FFXIV. Final Fantasy Jobs are loosely based in stereotypes from Early Dungeon and Dragons filtered through a uniquely Japanese perspective. While Warcraft copied a Table Top game called Warhammer and tried to integrate their classes based on ideas from American Dark Fantasy.

Also if you found Sub Rogue to be too complex, I feel for you, as that class/spec wasn't that hard, My 3rd main (and 1st character in2005) in WOW was a Sub Rogue. Although I preferred Warlock until I came to FFXIV in 2015.

If you want a suggestion how to optimize and simplify your gameplay, grab a controller, and set the game up with the Cross Hotbar. You'll find it fairly simple even Ninja is easy on a Controller.

Also because I use a Keypad and Gaming Mouse, I have found that I have the opposite issue, not enough Buttons. ESP since I use macros to optimize my Hotbars in a way I like Best.

See: https://i.imgur.com/QoQzMbW.jpg for how I do my UI, it's not aimed for clean btw, it's aimed for uniquely me.

Basically I find your comparison of WOW to FFXIV wrong, and I feel you are complaining about the wrong issues when it comes to abilities. Personally I want to see White mage low level healing abilities integrated better for high end, It's a waste to of abilities to essentially have to ignore abilities after specific levels because they are inefficient gameplay after specific points.


Edit:
Additional UI:
Red Mage: https://i.imgur.com/z8SwjC1.jpg
Summoner: https://i.imgur.com/Z5ZUHZm.jpg
White Mage: https://i.imgur.com/4DHwoIF.jpg
Paladin: https://i.imgur.com/vwxHNFr.jpg
Ninja: https://i.imgur.com/93p5jkY.jpg

DPS UI explained: https://i.imgur.com/Cnr6Vnx.jpg I do Healer and Tank jobs differently, but uniformly different. Also Ninja has the Ninjutsu on the AOE part as it works better that way for me.