Button Bloat: Data for discussion

[Renathras]

The conversation recently came up about WHM being the Job with the fewest buttons in the game. I didn't think this was true, and it wasn't when I did a count in ShB, so I decided to have a look through Jobs again and make a list.

Note that, in general, you will always have Job actions + Role actions +3 (Sprint, Limit Break, Potion [free slot for Mount when not in raid fights]) to get the Adjusted Total figure, which is why the AT is always 3 more than the Total.

Methodology is to take all Job actions, remove abilities that directly upgrade into other abilities (e.g. Stone -> Stone 2, Rage of Halone -> Royal Authority), and also not count any "This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar", since those don't actually take up a separate slot. While one can argue they are separate abilities and have separate use cases, for the purpose of this discussion, I'm limiting it to hotbar slots for the moment. Most context abilities are not generally complicated to use (e.g. Jolt II turning into Scorch then Resolution) or one version isn't used in typical gameplay (e.g. RDM's unenchanted weaponskills)

Note also, for whom it matters: A single crossbar set (controller) is 16 buttons. Two sets is 32 (can rapidly swap by tapping the right bumper). Conversely, for keyboard and mouse, grids are in sets of 10s (10/20/30/40)

It is possible I missed an ability or missed a button that has a context case where it isn't a separate button (or is), especially on the Jobs I play less of, but I went over each a couple of times and cross-referenced both the Traits (Upgrades X into Y) and noted the things tagged as actions that cannot be set to hotbars. If you see any in error, let me know.

This also doesn’t talk about the USE of such buttons (e.g. Scorch counts as a hotbar for the purpose of this argument, as does Repose), even if the use cases for them are low. Again, further discussion can occur related to such abilities, if desired. This is also not a discussion of difficulty to use or play, merely of number of actions that one has to slot and attempt to track and/or use.

One's individual definition of "bloat" will differ from person to person. This is merely an ability list as a starting point for discussion.

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Each role header lists a TL;DR of Jobs within the role from most to least abilities.

TANKS: PLD (37), DRK (36), GNB (35), WAR (32)

PLD
Job: 27
Role: 7
Total: 34
Adjusted Total: 37

WAR:
Job: 22
Role: 7
Total: 29
Adjusted Total: 32

DRK:
Job: 26
Role: 7
Total: 33
Adjusted Total: 36

GNB:
Job: 25
Role: 7
Total: 32
Adjusted Total: 35

HEALERS: SCH (36), AST (35), WHM = SGE (33)

WHM
Job: 24
Role: 6
Total: 30
Adjusted Total: 33

SCH
Job: 27
Role: 6
Total: 33
Adjusted Total: 36

AST
Job: 26
Role: 6
Total: 32
Adjusted Total: 35

SGE
Job: 24
Role: 6
Total: 30
Adjusted Total: 33

DPS:

MELEE: NIN (35), SAM (34), RPR (33), DRG (32), MNK (31)

MNK
Job: 22
Role: 6
Total: 28
Adjusted Total: 31

DRG
Job: 23
Role: 6
Total: 29
Adjusted Total: 32

NIN
Job: 26
Role: 6
Total: 32
Adjusted Total: 35

SAM
Job: 25
Role: 6
Total: 31
Adjusted Total: 34

RPR
Job: 24
Role: 6
Total: 30
Adjusted Total: 33

RANGED: BRD = DNC (32), MCH (30)

BRD
Job: 23
Role: 6
Total: 29
Adjusted Total: 32

MCH
Job: 21
Role: 6
Total: 27
Adjusted Total: 30

DNC
Job: 23
Role: 6
Total: 29
Adjusted Total: 32

CASTER: BLM (34), RDM (32), SMN (27)

BLM
Job: 26
Role: 5
Total: 31
Adjusted Total: 34

SMN
Job: 19
Role: 5
Total: 24
Adjusted Total: 27

RDM
Job: 24
Role: 5
Total: 29
Adjusted Total: 32

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Summary/TL;DR:

Least actions by role:
Tank: WAR (32)
Healer: WHM = SGE (33)
Melee: MNK (31)
Ranged: MCH (30)
Caster: SMN (27)

Most actions by role:
Tank: PLD (37)
Healer: SCH (36)
Melee: NIN (35)
Ranged: BRD = DNC (32)
Caster: BLM (34)

Jobs which fall at or under 32:
SMN (27), MCH (30), MNK (31), WAR = DRG = BRD = DNC = RDM (32)

Jobs which are at or above 33:
PLD (37), DRK = SCH (36), GNB = AST = NIN (35), SAM = BLM (34), WHM = SGE = RPR (33)

Average: 33.105
Mode: 32 (5 cases)

NOTE: The Healer role has no members at 32 or below. All other roles have at least one member that is 32 or less. The Ranged (physical) role has no Jobs above 32, and is the only role that does not. There are a total of 8 Jobs with fewer actions and abilities than WHM, and two tied with it, SGE and RPR. There are only 8 Jobs with more actions than it, SAM and BLM with only 1 more, GNB/AST/NIN with only 2 more, DRK/SCH with only 3 more, and PLD with 4 more. SCH is both the most actions healer and tied with DRK for second most actions in the game, with only 1 Job, PLD, having more, meaning 16 Jobs have fewer. AST is second, in a three way tie for most buttons, and has 13 Jobs with fewer and 3 with more.

[Sebazy]

One thing to not overlook is how extremely niche quite a few actions within the healer kit are.

You'll find many who won't have Cure 1 on their bars anymore. Repose not being bound may even be in the majority at this point, it's nigh useless outside the job quest and very specific content at this point. Rescue is another that personally I think is an underrated tool, but many view it in a far less positive light.

Does warrior have anything that's as niche as these three? A newer casual might say Arms Length, but then that opens up Sure Cast as another skippable ability for the healers (which it isn't!).

Another thing to consider is that healers may feel like they have fewer buttons because so much of their time is funnelled into pressing a select few.

[SaberMaxwell]

A good thing to keep in mind as well in conversation about button bloat is "how many buttons can one comfortably reach?"

Personally speaking I keep mounts and miscellaneous things on non-combat crossbars (the default crossbar called when I sheathe my weapon) that are cross-mapped to every job.

I also have sprint mapped to my L3 button. So on controller I have access to 8 face buttons with four modifiers: L2, R2, L2+R2 and R2+L2. 32 easy access buttons dedicated to any job I desire. I also have it set so I can tap r1 to swap to an entirely different crossbar, giving me access to 16 more buttons for 48, though some feel more at home with R2+R2 and L2+L2 giving +4 buttons each for 40.

With that said comfort is key; of the 8 face buttons, only 4 can be reached comfortably while also being able to move due to the left thumb managing both the stick and the d-pad. All 8 *can* be reached with flexible hands (the Monster Hunter Claw) but even that can make precise movement difficult. So a controller player is smart to put frequently used actions on ABXY over the d-pad.

So even on controller there's still room for more, especially considering what Sebazy said in useless or niche abilities just straight up not being bound at all. Should we push to hit that limit? I'd argue no, but also that we're far enough from that limit that its fine as-is.

[Duskane]

[AnotherPerson]

Healers feel like they have fewer buttons because most are redundant or have a very specific niche use-case that isn't applicable in most cases to see general use. The amount of total skills that you actually use as you level up feels less than other roles that actually benefit from gaining more skills and see those skills being used more commonly. This is why those buttons create the feeling of button bloat. They simply have been replaced with better versions but the amount of skills you actively engage on using doesn't feel like it increases as much as other jobs.

The primary thing to note for WHM is that a lot of skills with a priority all have only one focus - [immediate healing], which only further excerbates WHM's problem more than your other healers in particular {Cure I / Cure II/Cure III/Medica all fighting Afflatus Solace / Afflatus Rapture}. This is what causes WHM's functionally different buttons to result in mostly oGCDs.

As a result, my HUD usually just looks at the essentials of what has a cooldown -- and most of that is just oGCDs. In terms of oGCDs, WHM has the least number of functionally distinct healing buttons of all healers since a good chunk is in GCDs -- which is affected by a priority system (Cure I/II/III & Medica a.k.a. [4 buttons] can all be replaced with a Afflatus Solace/Plenary Indulgence + Rapture combo, and that's usually more than enough due to how fast lilies generate). SGE's redundant buttons have been modified with Eukrasia (Diagnosis/Prognosis) so they are streamlined to serve a purpose. Funnily enough, while prognosis and diagnosis would be invalidated with addersgall healing, due to shields having a relatively large cd on barrier healers, Eukrasian Prognosis and Eukrasian Diagnosis can see more general use due to having a secondary effect of shields "increasing total maximum HP" in contrast to WHM's Cure I/II & Medica counterparts and a third use for generating Toxikon in some very niche uses. Since they also share the same hotkey as their non-eukrasian counterparts, ultimately every skill is maximized to be functionally different.

Unfortunately, you won't see much of a need or use for Eukrasian Prognosis and Eukrasian Diagnosis in most casual content either since oGCDs also replace GCD healing and the damage is generally low enough to not need a secondary effect of barriers. Even the third effect of purposely applying Eukrasian barriers is pretty excessive due to how underwhelming the addersting gauge is. That being said though, these skills still do feel different enough due to having a secondary and tertiary purpose that other skills can't really replicate even accounting for a priority system, unlike WHM's 4 GCDs.

[AmiableApkallu]

Note also, for whom it matters: A single crossbar set (controller) is 16 buttons. Two sets is 32 (can rapidly swap by tapping the right bumper). Conversely, for keyboard and mouse, grids are in sets of 10s (10/20/30/40).

For keyboard, the grids are in sets of 12, so three hotbars for a total of 36 slots covers almost every job by your methodology.

[Supersnow845]

^and controller cross hotbars have 48 not 32

[ForsakenRoe]

If the perception of WHM is that it has the least buttons in the game, but the data shows that it actually has middle of the pack numbers...

Surely the issue is that WHM 'feels' like it has the least, due to how much redundancy is in the kit? Cure 1, Medica 1, Regen to an extent, half the role actions, can all be removed from the hotbars and you'd never notice in 99% of the game, I think that's the real issue for the class

Other healers, it's kinda the same deal in some regards. I'd say SCH is the one that bucks the trend, as the only thing I can come up with for consolidation that doesn't lose some of the 'versatility' of the class is making Physick upgrade into Adlo. SGE would be atrocious without Eukrasia, but at the same time, it's only used on three buttons.

[IceBlueNinja]

Ast is honestly the only one atm I feel with the button bloat really crazy that 2 full bars is not enough, it really needs a third bar. Sage honestly am good I even have room for the pepsis garbage skill that I never use with a 10 foot pole. Since ew has a few doom that you can esuna, I have space for it on whm/sage/sch but with ast nope cant find no room for it lol, I mean I do confess I kept dirunal/noct sect icons because it reminds of what ast use to be like but I dont play ast in ew anyways lol.

[LilimoLimomo]

This is going to be subjective.

I feel like button bloat is an ongoing problem in the game. As a controller user, it's kind of a bummer to have so many buttons that need mapping in a space that really isn't made to conveniently accommodate them all.

I think it would be fine if each button did something worthwhile enough to justify their status of occupying a button, but in many cases this isn't the case. For example, a 30-second cooldown oGCD that just does damage. Is that genuinely a compelling enough addition to my kit to be worth button real estate in this economy?

In addition, there are so many combos that could just be a single button. Most 1-2-3 combos take up 3 times the space they need to. And then there are "soft-combos", like how you can't cast Paladin's Confiteor unless you first cast Requiescat...meaning they could just be the same button. There's unnecessary sprawl here.

I wasn't surprised to see that SMN had the lowest amount of buttons, because SMN's recent rework takes advantage of a lot of the consolidation techniques that could benefit all classes. It uses context-sensitive buttons to map 2 or 3 different moves to a very small amount of buttons, meaning it's a class with a lot of functionality but with a fraction of the bloat. And even SMN improve, as Energy Drain and Fester should most definitely be the same button (if not removed entirely because it's just 3 oGCD damage per minute which I would say is not worth a button).

Healers have it a bit harder when it comes to button bloat, because rather than having a predictable rotation of damaging moves, their job (supposedly) is to have a toolkit they can use to react to situations by providing the flavor of aid that's needed. So there's less ability to compact buttons, at least with healers as they are now. But I think that Sage's "mode toggle" button shows a possible example of how multiple functionalities might be mapped onto single buttons, though it would certainly require some reworks, and whether that would be worth the change is debatable.