Quote Originally Posted by UkcsAlias View Post
Thats where condensing can be powerful. Here a simplistic example while not going for full variety:
123 is the default as we know it. Nothing even changes here. But as alternative combos you can have 132, 122 and 133. The 2nd button you pressed decides what the 2 and 3 button will be at the final step. Giving 4 potential branches to pick from.
But we can take it further, as we can also make double pressing the 1 cause a diffirent branch, and this then means a combo like 113 can exist. This is obviously a bit less clean, but effective.
Whilst the hypothetical is fine, what you then have to do is give each one a reason to exist. Why should I do 123 over 132 for example. Without duplicating, you have 6 possibilities (123, 132, 213, 231, 312, 321) and each one needs to have a reason to exist. So, let's try. One is going to be a pure damage, one a DoT, one a damage buff, maybe a debuff...maybe an oGCD makes one stronger, maybe go the Monk route and have one combo make the damage one stronger (in the same way DK makes BS stronger).

But now we have the issue of fitting it into a clean rotational loop. You have 18 GCDs, at 2.5 seconds, you get 24. Hm, maybe we have it so the combos proc a 4th GCD that changes based on what comes before. That gives an extra 6 GCDs making a clean 1 minute loop. Add some oGCDs here and there and voila, here is the baseline for every job if you want to do away with combos and have something more free flowing. But, wouldn't that make every job feel the same? Why yes it would.

And therein lies the problem. It would be fine for a single job, but you couldn't make all jobs do it, in the same way Monk has something different (you 'combo' your forms, you just choose which GCD to use in said form) but you wouldn't make EVERY job follow that framework otherwise, every job would be the same.

As to the topic at hand, I have no problems if they want to condense the buttons, just make it an option for people to turn on if they want to and no, just because they combine the buttons doesn't necessarily mean they will add something else to replace it.