I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[ForsakenRoe]

We aren't playing Vanilla WoW. AOE doesn't happen in most boss encounters (or is VERY short and adds are often where your AOE rotation is only marginally beneficial, if even beneficial at all), and MOST of the AOE rotations (not all, but most) are just budget "we have single target at home" versions of the single target rotations.

You misunderstand I think. What I mean is, when we were back in SB, BLMs used Foul, a decidedly AOE skill, in single target too, because the damage was high enough to be a valuable part of the rotation. In terms of Kenki>Potency efficiency, Guren (line aoe) was the best efficiency ratio by far. We didn't 'need' a single target version of Guren that shared a CD. We didn't 'need' a singletarget version of Foul, we already had something that was used in singletarget, and happened to be useful in AOE too. Adding 'skill, but ST version' or 'skill, but AOE version' is the lowest hanging fruit for potential expansion additions. Like, if they added 'Misery but it's single target' for WHM. Okay, we use Misery IN singletarget as it is, and it's designed to be damage neutral, so what's the point? I was honestly expecting BRD to get 'Apex Arrow but it's ST' and thankfully they instead got Blast Arrow as a followup move, rather than a ST version, but last expansion they got Shadowbite as an AOE version of Sidewinder instead of, idk, making Sidewinder AOE with damage falloff. And now Shadowbite's reworked to be the AOE equivalent of Refulgent, but without using the same proc so it's harder to flow between ST and AOE (which is something they specifically wanted designwise re: DRG and DNC procs being shared between ST and AOE), which leaves Sidewinder as this very odd singletarget OGCD that's just... there. No interplay in the kit, no AOE functionality, just... do damage to one mob

RDM is actually a good example of them course correcting on this stuff. You couldn't use the cool flashy finishing moves, one of the main draws of the job, if you were AOEing. Instead, your AOE was Moulinet spam. I mentioned to FC members in SHB an idea of 'what if the melee combo gives one stack of 'Aetherial Acceleration' per step, and Moulinet does too, and the finishers cost 3 stacks? That way you'd be able to use the finishers in AOE too!' I'm not sure what a Mana Stack is or why it's named that way but evidently me and SE were on the same wavelength (for once). Same with MNK and the Beast Chakra, you can generate nadi using AOE skills, and the Blitz's are AOE themselves. Locking the player out of 'the cool job thematic skills' because of 'well the skill is ST and you are AOEing' or vice versa is just a feelsbad for the player, and should be avoided. Like, imagine SMNs being told 'sorry, you can't actually use the Ifrit 1-2 combo in AOE, it's single target only' and 'sorry, Garuda Slipstream is AOE so you can't use it on raidbosses'. Imagine Ogi Namakiri is only good for AOE. Imagine Primal Rend, Double Down, Confiteor, Shadowbringer don't get used on raid fight rotations, because they're AOE and their potencies are scaled in such a way that means they're not worth using over the 123 of their respective jobs

edit: after rereading, I'll also clarify that I am 'ok i guess' with Despair on BLM as a skill, I don't play BLM like ever so it wouldn't affect me either way. But I think it'd have been cooler to instead find a way to make Flare useable in singletarget, rather than adding a skill that is 'Flare, but singletarget', since Flare is such an iconic FF skill and all

[ty_taurus]

Like, if they added 'Misery but it's single target' for WHM. Okay, we use Misery IN singletarget as it is, and it's designed to be damage neutral, so what's the point?

Funny enough, I was like 60% confident that EW was going to have "Afflatus Agony" which would've been equivalent to a 1200 potency Misery during Shadowbringers while Misery would've stayed at 900 potency. Better in AoE, but Agony would be your single target neutral. Not that I wanted that outcome, but it is a very common solution they reach for when they don't really want to make big changes but they still want to add something new and shiny. It's also weird how you get cases like Foul and Xenoglossy where we start with a perfectly fine attack that just happens to be AoE and then we get a stronger single target version, but then you have examples like Shoha and Shoha II where you start with a powerful single target attack and then they add a weaker AoE version that you rarely ever use in fights that matter.

There are nearly no circumstances where swapping between AoE and single target attacks has any sort of interesting or meaningful decision-making that warrants having entirely divorced AoE buttons rather than just baking AoE into single target gameplay.

[ForsakenRoe]

There are nearly no circumstances where swapping between AoE and single target attacks has any sort of interesting or meaningful decision-making that warrants having entirely divorced AoE buttons rather than just baking AoE into single target gameplay.

Right, which is why all the pruning of stuff keeps getting on my nerves so much. Like as an example, look at NIN or RPR. We've got 3 gauge spenders for each, Gluttony/Bloodstalk/GrimSwathe for RPR, and Bunshin/Hellfrog/Bhava for NIN. There's no reason really for NIN to even have Bhava, when they could theoretically just have Hellfrog do double damage to the primary target. But at the same time, the Gauge is so hollow and bland in terms of what it's useful for atm, removing ANYthing from it would have catastrophic ramifications. If we look back to SHB, the Fairy gauge for SCH had Blessing (10 gauge cost, 60s CD) and Union (basically super-embrace, 10 per tick). Now they removed Blessing, it's just the Union gauge. Might as well remove the bloody thing. Which is the issue we now see with SAM thanks to Kaiten's removal. You don't need to worry about holding gauge for Kaiten because it's gone now. You don't need to worry about holding gauge for Senei/Guren because Ikishoten is also 2min CD and gives twice as much as their cost. So the only 'thought' is 'don't overcap, dump in buffs'