Job action combos one button

[Vencio]

Do you think we will see the day where our rotation for combos will be just one button instead of 3-4? I think it would be a blessing and cut down on the hotbar bloat that we are getting for skills. What are your opinions on it?

I actually support this!!

ESO has it & its pretty pragmatic/straightforward rather than have your screen be flooded with so much stuff; takes away immersion,

Simple, the better,

I vote this as a yes

[Shurrikhan]

I hate the idea of single button combos.

BUT what I think could be done and would be fairly helpful to kill (some) button bloat on jobs would be an AoE stance.

Or, just let skills that appear to cleave... cleave. If I were to pick any few random skills from our ST GCD combo actions -- Storm's Eye, Aeolian Edge, Syphon Strike, Chaos Thrust, etc. -- probably one at most would appear not to cleave nearby enemies on the way to its focus target.

At present, AoE itself is very poorly utilized in this game, especially since Shadowbringers. Our AoE skills replace, rather than complement, all else. That is wasteful.

Rather than distinct AoE combos, give us a reason to use things like those AoEs even in ST combat. Perhaps even give back physical dps a reason to have a generic resource gauge (MP now) and have those skills instead function as nukes and utility (a "full AoE" that chains from prior, smaller-scale damage being just one such form of that utility, alongside reach, range, armor break, etc.).

Imagine Doom Spike, for instance, being able to set-distance dash-cleave, at decreasing damage to each further enemy struck (as to tunable as not be too costly for the occasional escape through the boss even while still having significant AoE value).
Imagine Sonic Thrust being a sort of nuke skill charged by previous among DRG's faster/flurry-esque hits, or Coerthan Tempest actually having something to do with its 'spirit dragon' animations.

Those would then offer something of value in any setting atop being far more fun in general. Suddenly we far more meaningful GCD options, greater kit depth, and no waste. Yes, that doesn't make room for throwing in more fire-and-forget CDs or shallow AoE | ST oGCD spender choices, but is that even a negative?

[Raikai]

From this week's interview:

- For example, for jobs that are difficult on controller, the number of buttons will be reduced via new settings for action substitutes.

I really wondered if that meant more button consolidation like Draw + Play being one button, or some of the 1-2-3 combos being consolidated like PVP's... but I thought the wording "settings" was just some rough translation, and someone familiar with the language pointed that it really meant settings.

The only thing I can think of this is if they made this consolidation an optional settings feature... Which tbh it would be interesting, as people claiming that button consolidation would dumb down things could keep as it is currently.

[Demetri_Delethorn]

I think button bloat is just artificial difficulty. As a controller user, I'm excited to see what they have in store.

[Silver-Strider]

I think button bloat is just artificial difficulty. As a controller user, I'm excited to see what they have in store.

As a controller user, I prefer interesting jobs with actual thought needed to master rather than jobs being dumbed down just for the sake of it.

[Divinewindx]

I beg, please no.

[Rehayem]

I come from a game where multiple skills have a chain skill followed right after (Aion). If they want to decrease button bloat, that's one way to do it, but also gives room for more skills to be implemented, otherwise looking at the direction they're going on now, gonna feel like skills will be obtainable every 10-15 levels going from 7.0 forward. I think adding chain reaction like in PvP mode is a better solution, rather than removing skills altogether.

[24spencer]

It's adorable that you guys think they're actually going to add something to replace the 1-2-3 when they merge the combos, because if they made this change they would merge the combos and replace the missing buttons with nothing, like they always do.