QoL and reducing number of the buttons suggestion

[CidHeiral]

What would be the point of having a combo at all if it's just one button?

[Supersnow845]

1-2-3 being 1-1-1 is a non starter (ask the healers) but there is 100% justification for reducing redundant buttons to free up button space

Shoha and shoha 2 are the most discussed ones, fey blessing is another redundant button (to be honest half the total heal bloat could go), redundant non interactive DOT’s like sonic break and dark passenger the tanks are drowning in could go, classes like DRG that have long looping button intensive rotations could stand to lose some of their weaker oGCD’s (like spine shatter dive)

No class is really overly bloated in terms of how many actions can comfortable fit on either PC or controller (SCH is closest and it’s still like 5-10 buttons short of being truly bloated) but there is a lot of fat around the edges that can be trimmed

[Espon]

1, 2, 3 combos are just unnecessary bloat, there's no thought process to them and doesn't really add complexity. Bard is far more complex with having Burst Shot to hit multiple times, but it makes you pay attention because it might trigger the ability to use Refulgent Arrow. If I was to list the most engaging jobs, it would be Red Mage, Dancer, and Bard because they use RNG procs instead of just hitting the same string of buttons the entire fight.

I don't really care if the NPC quests are made more complex because you only do them once and then never again, so why make it more complicated than it is?

[Supersnow845]

1, 2, 3 combos are just unnecessary bloat, there's no thought process to them and doesn't really add complexity. Bard is far more complex with having Burst Shot to hit multiple times, but it makes you pay attention because it might trigger the ability to use Refulgent Arrow. If I was to list the most engaging jobs, it would be Red Mage, Dancer, and Bard because they use RNG procs instead of just hitting the same string of buttons the entire fight.

I don't really care if the NPC quests are made more complex because you only do them once and then never again, so why make it more complicated than it is?

The entire games complexity has been ripped out specifically because they want this to functionally be a single player FF game you can mod with your friends, are we really going to then say “who cares about how the story is designed” when it’s basically the last vestige of what the majority of the playerbase should collectively agree is well designed

[Fyrebrand]

I'm all for this. We NEED to reduce button bloat. I'm well beyond the number of keys I can press without looking down at the keyboard or else moving my left hand away from "home position." I have several abilities I basically just click on and don't assign a hotkey at all. And of course, controller players have a hard limit they can't go beyond. We can't get new skills every expansion and expect them to just magically "fit in" without some pruning to make room for them.

I know it doesn't work equally well for all jobs, as some have non-linear rotations. But I still think there's some potential to cut unnecessary hotbar real estate in many cases.

For example, Samurai's three combos. We don't need the final move in each combo to be it's own separate key. It can be the same "Finisher" key, but just change what the skill becomes depending on what stage of the combo you're on -- just like how your Iaijutsu changes to a different skill depending how many Sen you have built up. So, you would go:
1 --> Finisher
1 --> 2 --> Finisher
1 --> 3 --> Finisher

We've just cut two whole buttons from the hotbar, with no loss of utility or complexity. You gotta ask yourself, why was Kaiten removed when this option was on the table the whole time?

[Astrus]

1-2-3 being 1-1-1 is a non starter (ask the healers) but there is 100% justification for reducing redundant buttons to free up button space

Shoha and shoha 2 are the most discussed ones, fey blessing is another redundant button (to be honest half the total heal bloat could go), redundant non interactive DOT’s like sonic break and dark passenger the tanks are drowning in could go, classes like DRG that have long looping button intensive rotations could stand to lose some of their weaker oGCD’s (like spine shatter dive)

No class is really overly bloated in terms of how many actions can comfortable fit on either PC or controller (SCH is closest and it’s still like 5-10 buttons short of being truly bloated) but there is a lot of fat around the edges that can be trimmed

I pretty much expect this to happen each expansion now, SE seems to target everything fitting onto three hotbars ability wise so whenever we get a new ability that isn't a straight upgrade to an existing ability and thus doesn't need its own slot something else is prone to get pruned.
Aside from losing the affected ability's animation I'm completely fine with that, especially if it targets something that just doesn't add any meat to a rotation. Getting those "lost" animations as emotes or something like that would be nice.

In addition to the examples you've provided I expect Reaper's Shadow of Death and Whorl of Death to be prime candidates for pruning once the Job receives some more abilities, with Death's Design getting baked into the class (a simple potency increase, you generate gauge when something you're in combat with dies) as keeping the debuff up is neither challenging nor interesting.

[Supersnow845]

Controller players have 48 buttons, they aren’t remotely close to being at the edge of their potential, MKB is going to run into problems long before controller

[CidHeiral]

I'm well beyond the number of keys I can press without looking down at the keyboard or else moving my left hand away from "home position."

I am genuinely curious what your binds are then because you can easily get 36 binds directly around WASD, plus whatever buttons are on your mouse.

[Kuroka]

What really needs to go are all the "the same skill but one is aoe and the other isnt, but the aoe hits 800 on the first target anyways" skills. They nerfed my Abysal drain to the ground, chained it with long CD AND still linked it to the single target move (whos english name excapes me right now) which is just pointless... either make it one skill that switches depending on range, combo it to singe target and aoe attacks so its depending on what attack you last used, or just fuse it.

And id still rather have condensed combo buttons, like, keep 1-2-3 but make it so using 1 turns 1 to 4 and we can choose between 2-3-4 and so on. Actions can change depending on your combo, idk why they dont use that more...

[Gordita]

As someone who plays on controller and uses the expanded (double tap) controls for shared hotbars with mounts, menus, and consumables, I am 110% onboard with having a 1 button combo for the basic 123. Those extra hotbar spaces are the exact amount of space needed to make some jobs for on to two xhb. The way I look at it, is anything over 32 buttons is unplayable on controller. I've been unable to use double tap for combat since 5.3 because it causes immense pain in my hands after being stuck in trap parties for 20 hours trying to clear emerald extreme on crystal. (Transferred to aether shortly after and was able to clear in 1 pull with a random pug)
Pls reduce all job actions to a maximum total of 32. IDC how it's achieved.