Please stop inserting unbranching combos in new jobs

[Valence]

This has been a trend more and more whether it is with new jobs like RPR, or reworked jobs like MCH (please bring back ammo, you had literally no reason to remove reloads), and a lot of tanks.

The whole points of basic combos as far as I understood it has always been to have at least one or two branches to pick from after the first skill. Else you'd just be better served by replacing them with a single pvp like button for all that matters. Why do we even bother with combos if that's just always pressing the 3 same buttons in succession?

This is just depressing to think about.

[UkcsAlias]

The whole points of basic combos as far as I understood it has always been to have at least one or two branches to pick from after the first skill. Else you'd just be better served by replacing them with a single pvp like button for all that matters. Why do we even bother with combos if that's just always pressing the 3 same buttons in succession?

A lot of msq duties already showed that condensing a 3 button combo into 1 button can be done, without breaking the combo effect in it.

And tbh, for some jobs it would be a decent feature to exist, while still enabling chaining. We can even improve it so it becomes a lot more complex:
1 gets the 123 combo as we know (lets call these A,B,C)
button 2 gets a chain action for B and C, upon using B, this ability changes to D (and disables C -> which becomes A again), and the same with C (which turns this to E)
button 3 gets chains for both C, D and E (F,G,H).

Condensing a normaly 5 button chain into 3 buttons.

And for some jobs which basicly follow a 123 for single target, aeo, debuff in 3 seperate chains (using 9 buttons in total), this enables a lot of condensing without realy changing a lot in result.

---

This could even work for a 2 button combo:
You start with A and B on btn 1 and 2. Upon using A, they change do C and D, and upon using B (or D), they change back to A and B. And upon using C, it changes to E and F, which both take it back to A and B again.
I think healers would benefit a lot from such mechanic to get their dps chaining a bit more interesting. As for debuffs/buffs just having a dot isnt the only thing that can be done. The healer can also boost themselve in these systems. ACE would then be the highest DPS, While B for example applies a % based damage boost, and D applies a boost towards healing output, and F adds some sort of stack which upon the next E cast is used for additional damage.

Button condensing is powerful, but we will need a basic numbers of buttons for it though, hence the 123 combo we have now is good to keep for that. But as now we can still put everything on 3 hotbars, condensing isnt needed yet, condensed buttons are after all a lot harder to read when new to the job.

[Rongway]

A lot of msq duties already showed that condensing a 3 button combo into 1 button can be done

The MSQ duties use single button combos because you can't expect every player who plays through the MSQ to know how to play every single job so that they can finish the story. For real jobs, the devs expect players to know enough basics not to press buttons out of order.

[UkcsAlias]

The MSQ duties use single button combos because you can't expect every player who plays through the MSQ to know how to play every single job so that they can finish the story. For real jobs, the devs expect players to know enough basics not to press buttons out of order.

Most duties barely even use 5 buttons. With a 123 that would be 7 buttons. That should be easily managable on its own.

But that wasnt my statement anyway, I only said that it shows it CAN be done. Not that it should. And that it can enables some flexibility in the combo systems for jobs. And its not even that strange anyway to have, note that dancer already has 8 double purpose buttons (normal use, and dancing). For dancer they even can combo into each other.

Double purpose buttons are a very efficient way of compacting abilities, and can themselve also feature more. And some jobs would definitely benefit from some of these features.

[Tint]

Why do we even bother with combos if that's just always pressing the 3 same buttons in succession?

This is just depressing to think about.

[Kabooa]

Put Glare on three different buttons, and just push them in 123 order.

You simulate the amazing gameplay of 123 and really stick it to us other players who just aren't good enough to do that.

[Valence]

A lot of msq duties already showed that condensing a 3 button combo into 1 button can be done, without breaking the combo effect in it.

And tbh, for some jobs it would be a decent feature to exist, while still enabling chaining. We can even improve it so it becomes a lot more complex:
1 gets the 123 combo as we know (lets call these A,B,C)
button 2 gets a chain action for B and C, upon using B, this ability changes to D (and disables C -> which becomes A again), and the same with C (which turns this to E)
button 3 gets chains for both C, D and E (F,G,H).

Condensing a normaly 5 button chain into 3 buttons.

And for some jobs which basicly follow a 123 for single target, aeo, debuff in 3 seperate chains (using 9 buttons in total), this enables a lot of condensing without realy changing a lot in result.

---

This could even work for a 2 button combo:
You start with A and B on btn 1 and 2. Upon using A, they change do C and D, and upon using B (or D), they change back to A and B. And upon using C, it changes to E and F, which both take it back to A and B again.
I think healers would benefit a lot from such mechanic to get their dps chaining a bit more interesting. As for debuffs/buffs just having a dot isnt the only thing that can be done. The healer can also boost themselve in these systems. ACE would then be the highest DPS, While B for example applies a % based damage boost, and D applies a boost towards healing output, and F adds some sort of stack which upon the next E cast is used for additional damage.

Button condensing is powerful, but we will need a basic numbers of buttons for it though, hence the 123 combo we have now is good to keep for that. But as now we can still put everything on 3 hotbars, condensing isnt needed yet, condensed buttons are after all a lot harder to read when new to the job.

But... I never asked for condensing combo buttons like in pvp...

[Valence]

That's beyond depressing bruh

[Semirhage]

123 combos aren't gameplay. Squash them into one button and keep the animations if you must. Replace the other two with skills that make you decide something.

The fact that Square is allergic to increasing complexity should be no barrier to demanding it. It beats pretending that static 123 combos are thrilling gameplay worthy of defense.

[Erinellza]

I understand that some people would like 1-2-3 combos to be 1 button, but I prefer having 3 different buttons for them. I'd be very sad if it were changed. To make everyone happy, let us choose how combos work at the control settings!