Combos

[Seraphor]

Hi, I want the PvP hotbar in the PvE hotbar. I want to push one button for each combo chain. Read the rest for in depth job change potential.
For example the DRG job combo goes something like:
True Thrust, Disembowel, Chaos Thrust, Wheeling Thrust, Fang and Claw, Raiden Thrust, Vorpal Thrust, Full Thrust, Fang and Claw, Wheeling Thrust.
Then Rinse repeat from Raiden Thrust.
So in buttons following the order respectively this can be 1-2-3-4-5-1-6-7-5-4

Instead we could have all these gcd's tied in 2 buttons. One for the Full Thrust combo and the other the Choas Thrust combo.
So in buttons this can be in 1: True Thrust, Disembowel, Chaos Thrust, Wheeling Thrust, Fang and Claw
and then in 2: Raiden Thrust, Vorpal Thrust, Full Thrust, Fang and Claw, Wheeling Thrust

There's a big problem with this due to three of those skills.

Disembowel bestows a damage up buff which you need to refresh before it runs out.
Chaos Thrust inflicts a DoT that you need to refresh AS it runs out.
Full Thrust is your highest potency GCD and you want to time Life Surge to use on this.

Three skills that you need to time properly, and keep track of when you're using in order to play optimally.
If these were all on one button you would need to watch your hotbars like a hawk and memorise the icons, or keep a mental count of every single GCD you use. Both of which are vastly inferior to the current feedback system, muscle memory.

This would make PvE rotations much more difficult, and take your focus away from the mechanics of the fight itself.
Current PvE content is about memorising your rotation to the point where you don't need to watch your hotbars, this would make that impossible, you would never be able to get those training wheels off, they would be a permanent feature.

Dragoon is actually the worst for this, with Samurai coming in a close second as it also has two buffs to maintain via the second combo skills.
Monk literally cannot have it's combos combined because Perfect Balance requires that you can hit any of them at any given time.
Ninja only has one additional branch and buff upkeep mechanic tied to it's GCD combo, it would still be a setback, but it probably wouldn't affect it all that much, but the issue with Ninja is that outside of burst windows, the GCD combo is all it has. Combing these would turn Ninja into 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2... outside of Trick/Mug windows, and that's just boring as Healers can attest.

Reaper... is actually the one job this could work for. It only has a 1-2-3 combo system, similar to the tanks, and the only difference between these three skills is the potency, and it has no GCD modulating skill to weave like DRG's Life Surge. So yes, Reaper could have it's combo consolidated. In fact the rest of it's kit is sufficiently involved that this wouldn't make the job too boring, at level 90 you have so many procs to spend that you're hardly ever actually using your 1-2-3, it makes up about 10-20% of your APM.

Physical ranged have unique combos, Bard and Dancer each have a proc system, and MCH is similar to Ninja in that outside of the burst spam window there's nothing else to do.
Casters don't have combos, besides Red Mages melee burst, and if you turn that into one button spam they're going to rage.
Tanks are a no go, similar to Ninja and Machinist, or Healers for that matter, the 1-2-3 is all they have going 80% of the time, plus it can sometimes be important to track GCD due so some having an MP or HP regen effect tied to them.

So there you have it. One job out of 15 could have it's combos consolidated.

There are some skills that could be combined, such as Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw, which cannot be used out of sequence anyway, or things like Ley Lines and Between the Lines, so there's definitely room for button pruning, just not on combos.