The sheer number of buttons is just not fun

There really weren't enough abilities in that game, this game also has too many imo.

I don't think there can ever be enough abilities. As stated the set ones you use are there and that may be all you need. But, like in real life having other abilities is useful and nice in the fact that you even have them. Any option is better than no option even if trivial. It is good to experiment with them when running around exploring or doing lower level quests. You also never know when you will find an interesting combination that may perform as well as the standard set.

I'm not sure about PvP, but as far as questing is concerned I like the way the game is structured when it comes to button-pushing on my sniper. You have a choice between a few AoE and some select single target options for trash mobs, a wider range of abilities for strongs (or strong+standard), an even wider selection for elites and more or less the whole nine yards for bosses

Abilities are piling up like crazy though. I guess that since the game doesn't rely much on twitch reflex and aiming skill that it's a fair trade-off.

Honestly I just wish we could use the basic attack more often, just because it has an awesome animation system that I never get to see anymore.

The amount of buttons is fine... but there really needs to be a better way to keep track of procs than staring at my buff bar, that's what I spent most of my time doing. There was some developer video or interview where they said that's exactly what they didn't want to happen, I forget which one though.

Opinion, and based on your other remarks, I'm not convinced that you actually played it.

Impressive, considering that you only have 8 gem slots to mem stuff in. Not that you'd want all of that stuff at once, since you'd generally want either a healer loadout or a dps loadout.

my wizard, in groups, would usually use 2 buttons most fights.


and... hots for a druid?


Ok, I don't believe that you were a druid; Maybe you've just heard of druids.

If you were a druid, you quad kited and you didn't have to med 30 minutes between pulls. for my wizard (also quid kiting) I think it was 7-10 minutes between pulls.

In wow?
Spawn time in lower guk was ~ 28 minutes. I used to solo assassin/supplier camp on my CLERIC (generally a bad class for soloing, but good against undead: we had better nukes against undead in the 30s than a wizard did, more damage per mana).

I'd bind at the zone in, kill one DA and gate, and then run back, in order to break camp. The first spawn cycle, I'd kill the 3 in the assassin's room, and then at least one more. After that, I'd usually get in 6 or 7 mobs per spawn cycle (sometimes less if I actually got a named)

as i ended my time in that camp, I think i would clear ~10 mobs per cycle. 2 casts of my undead nuke for the greens (one big and one small), 2-3 for anything that was a blue con, 3-4 for a named. Hit myself with a Celestial heal, med for 2 minutes and I was on to the next mob.

people were complaining, because their lousy UI could only hold 6 skills (beside 1 trinket and 1 potion). you had easily the double amount of abilities, but couldnt fit it into the bar, because DCUO was a crappy console-port, made for playstation and gamepad.

back-to-topic:
i never thought that there are too many abilities, but i noticed that when playing my juggernaut, i was more looking at my bar and CDs, than the actual fight (except for screening whats going on).

I love my Juggy and all his different abilities. You want less button play on a console.

I don't think you understand what linear means. Skyrim is the exact opposite of linear gaming.

SWTOR is linear to some degree though, for sure.

The fact is that part of your problem is most likely down to an inefficient key bind set up.

In reality the number of easy access keybinds totals 18 for a WASD set up. That is more than enough easy to reach keys for your abilities. Anything which is on a long cool down, requires you to stand still or doesn't require split-second reaction times can be clickable.

For everything else you have:
1
2
3
alt+1
alt+2
alt+3
Q
E
Z
X
C
F1
alt+Q
alt+W
alt+E
alt+A
alt+S
alt+D

That's 18 abilities which can be triggered at a moments notice. Z, X and C require a bit of finger acrobatics which is why I don't recommend Alt+ for these since they would require you to take your fingers away from over the WASD.

I normally set up keybinds to relate to actions if they are on the WASD keys. Alt+W being an advancing ability such as Force Leap, Alt+S being a retreating ability or defensive ability like Saber Ward. If you then keep with this kind of mindset you can switch characters and maintain keybinds based upon purpose and it makes the transition easier.

For example, I mainly play Scoundral but I have a low level Shadow alt. However this idea of 'purpose' themed keybinds carries over. Q is the key for normal stealth, Alt+Q is the in-combat stealth trigger. Alt+W is Back Blast for my Scoundral but it is also Shadow Strike for my Shadow. F1 is always used for interupts.

Give this a go and you should find things become far less of a handful.