Customizing combo buttons

[LilimoLimomo]

I just wish I could merge my Dragoon AoE 3-button combo into one button

I don't have enough key real estate to comfortably slot all three buttons in so I always end up awkwardly clicking them when doing AoE combo, but if it was just one changing button, like from the estinien solo duty, I could probably make room for it somewhere.

Yeah, it feels genuinely silly that Dragoon has 10 distinct buttons for your GCD combo that you're constantly using. It could really use some consolidation.

One thing that has helped alleviate the issue for me — and might work for you if you have a reliable framerate and don't mind the shorter queue times — is to make macros that automatically change your hotbar when you press certain combo buttons. Using that technique, I've been able to fit all of Dragoon's combo actions into 4 buttons. I've got a video here that does a basic demonstration of how pressing each combo button dynamically adds and removes different weaponskills from the hotbar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZo2iWJDrs

The fundamental idea is that if you last pressed the 2nd skill of your single-target combo, there are only 4 possible combo skills you might want to press next:

• the 3rd skill in your single-target combo (you are continuing the combo)
• the 2nd skill in your single-target combo (because your first press missed due to range, phase change, etc)
• the 1st skill of the multi-target combo (because you are switching to fighting multiple targets)
• the 1st skill of the single-target combo (for those cases where it's been so long since you last pressed a combo skill that you need to start over)

In this situation, you will never need to use any of the other 6 combo skills because you haven't yet activated the skills that come before them. This means there are no negative repercussions for not including those skills on our crosshotbar at those times. And that's where the macros can help us: each time we press one of these macros, it not only activates a combo skill, but they also pastes the upcoming relevant skills to your main crosshotbar. They do this with the macro lines that look like "/crosshotbar copy DRG 3 DRG 1"; that means it's copying every button from DRG crosshotbar 3 and pasting them over DRG crosshotbar 1.

The 1st skills for both the single-target and multi-target combos are included on every crosshotbar, so there are really only 2 buttons that get changed with every paste. When I press "True Thrust", it pastes "Vorpal Thrust" and "Disembowel". If I then press "Vorpal Thrust", it pastes "Vorpal Thrust" and "Full Thrust". Pressing "Full Thrust" pastes "Full Thrust" and "Fang and Claw". Pressing "Fang and Claw" pastes "Fang and Claw" and "Wheeling Thrust". And pressing "Wheeling Thrust" at that point doesn't need to paste anything, because "True Thrust" is always on the crosshotbar. It works the same way for the other combo branch.

That's why I show 7 different crosshotbars at the end of the video (DRG 2-7 and AST 7); these are the crosshotbars that are being copied to the main crosshotbar (DRG 1) whenever a macro is pressed. Yes, you can actually use the crosshotbars from other jobs/classes like AST as storage for your crosshotbar configurations!

Also, if you're using a keyboard, the macros should be /hotbar instead of /crosshotbar.

There are both pros and cons to macros, so if you're interested in this technique but want to go in better informed, I've got a thread that goes over those pros and cons; give it a read and you'll be able to make an informed decision about whether the pros might be worth the cons in this specific situation. It's a long post, so I'll just link it: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-or-Lost-Casts

Anyway, until CBU3 decides to make their base UI more convenient to work with, I hope this gives you an option to consider.