The sheer number of buttons is just not fun

can anyone argue with this post , i cant.

Technically, it was just how the Mage class works overall regardless of spec choice.

Thats actually a GREAT post.


Do your man parts feel bigger now?

I assure you, they are not.

Then you spend your entire time staring at different bars....


I might agree with that if the game just started development in 2012, but it didn't. Much of the UI design was probably done several years ago.

If you feel that you have too many abilities to keep track of them all then simply don't. You're probably not going to use them all in a general situation anyway. Pick the ones you use most often and place them on whichever hotbar is convenient for you. Put the others on some other hotbar or simply disregard them altogether.

If you know you are going to be in a situation or situations where you'll need a different set of abilities that you normally don't use you can set up another hotbar with those abilities ahead of time.

Exactly. I don't see how the example allows one to focus on the action any more than what we already have.

Whenever I play a class that is new to me there is a period of time getting used to that class' combat style where I find myself focused more on the cooldown timers than what's going on around the character. Once I have unlocked a number of abilities and establish a decent general rotation I find that I have a feel for the cooldowns of the most used abilitites and I can focus more on the action and less on my hotbars.

Problem with TOR alot of the things you get is just pure crap.
Like blitz on the trooper only works on stunned npcs. Yeah right delete skill bye bye.
And other classes have some of the same things, these silly little buffs and skills on a 2.3 m cd etc.They should all have been passive skills triggered on other skills.Something tells me the devs have alot to learn when it comes to good gameplay.Skills like riposte on the JK what a joke.Actually something a tank is forced to use making the player staring at the ui for when one can use it.And some skills are better with some specs so some of the skills you dont even have to use.

I actually find it refreshing having to use all my keybinds. I mean...Whats fun about having macro's cutting all your skills in half? Heck, in Rift you could macro as many skills into 1 button as you wanted. I had a Rogue spec with 12 skills on 1 button...It was a 2 button rotation lmao.

1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-2

That's really fun yo!

Honestly though...Players that cannot cope with this many skills are the ones that stand in fire until they die and break CC's in controlled PvE environments. Having to manage ALL THEM SKILLS at once while actually watching your character and the environment is nearly impossible for some people.

I miss EQ2 with 12 hotbars with 12 slots each all full. Using about 45 individual skills for a single boss, probably about 30 of them constantly. Now I find on bosses depending on class your rotation is hardly ever greater than 3-4 skills + 2-3 situational skills, off procs and such. I attribute it to the GCD system and as long as they keep making games like that i cant see things getting complex again

Hey look, another glaring generalization that has nothing to do with the issue.

I want to watch the animations and enjoy the special effects so I must be a mouth breather with the reflexes of a banana slug. Anything else you want to say?

I chuckled at Banana slug...


but to add to the discourse.

I think All games essentially have too many abilities. By that I mean , more than you can hotkey.

So as others have stated , part of solving the problem is selecting what needs to be a quick reaction ability and so deserves a coveted keyboard slot.

Can add more abilities to the keyboard by introducing macros and clever use of cooldowns allowing you to stack multiple abilities in a single macro alla Rift and even WoW to some extent .

But not to the point where a complex assortment of abilities are then simplified into a few clicks among master keys.

Fine line we walk