Mostly a message to the Devs with some feedback.

First of all I want to say you guys are doing an amazing job. I'm having so much fun with the game. EW is phenomenal and the love, time, and effort you guys have put is evident while playing it. Thank you guys so much.

So let's talk about SAM and button bloat. I play on PS5 and use a controller and I love how this game lets me play like that. It's one of the reasons I chose this MMO to play. However some classes are absolutely stuffed with buttons and skills compared to others. SAM in particular is an example of this problem. The WXHB is generous in that it gives any class 32 spaces to work with but with SAM, if we include the role buttons, that's a total of 34, not including a potion for raiding purposes. The Third Eye changes were fantastic in reducing button bloat but it got replaced with Shoha II and Ogi in EW which didn't relieve the problem.

Here are some suggestion and feedback I have to address the issue:

- An easy QoL change I would love to see is for Ikishoten to turn into Ogi as long as the proc is there, similar to how Bunshin turns into Phantom Kamaitachi for the Ninja.

- You could give Tsubame-Gaeshi the same treatment, where the Iaijutsu button turns into Tsubame Gaeshi after execution with a proc like Tsubame ready. That removes one more button but it could be tricky implementing that given we have Tsubame stacks now but some classes may already have something similar.

- Taking inspiration from other classes is the Damage Falloff idea. Applying this to SAM, a thing we could do is combining Guren and Senei together, possibly turning it into a Senei/Guren with an AoE with full potency for the primary target and a % decrease for others. Since you get Guren at level 70, you can make it so it is single target Senei at that level instead (Senei has the better animation anyways and i think is a better lvl 70 capstone), and the level 72 becomes an upgrade which turns it into and cone/line AoE. (This has a nice side benefit of slightly buffing SAM for lvl 70 Ultimates, since other classes outshine it at that level).

- Piggybacking on this is giving Shoha the same treatment. While I love the animation of Shoha II, I will take a Shoha upgrade instead that lets it hit for an AoE with damage falloff for the purposes of reducing buttton bloat.

These are some ideas and feedback I have to address the current SAM. I love the class and I love how it plays but I wish I could utilize everything it has to offer. Thank you again Devs for your hard work with FFXIV! I want you guys to know that the players really appreciate and love you guys! Keep up the good work and may you always walk in the Light.