Too Many Buttons, imo.

[inhanzt]

I've got 21 bounty hunter moves, and 14 Powertech moves; Add in a hot-key for the med-kit, speeder, and both relics, and that's 39 moves total. Considering that the game can only display 4, 12 button hot-bars, and one of those is your pet bar, there are legitimately 3 moves you'll never access without opening the abilities panel, not to mention the convenience of quick travel or stims on hot-bars.

 

This isn't a big deal, as I can find 3 moves I don't need and toss them (the two cylinders you don't use and shoulder slam come to mind). However, I do have a problem with the number of barely useful moves we're given. Examples include kolto overload, thermal sensor override, on the trail, should slam, flame burst, and missile blast.

 

All told, I have 26 keys bound to moves, and I still have to activate some moves by clicking. That's just not right. This issue could be remedied in part by macros being implemented, but barring that I'd like to see some moves combined. For example, vent heat and thermal sensor override should just be merged into one move, along with energy shield and kolto overload.

 

For Missile Blast and Flame Burst I think both moves are underwhelming and only use them situationally. Missile blast stops caps in pvp, and otherwise is not hot bar worthy. Flame burst is only used in the rare event that I'm at 0 heat and my good moves are on cool down for a few more seconds, though there's little difference between that and the standard blaster (blaster = proc chances on ion cylinder)

 

Sprint should just be passive for all classes, or shouldn't go away when you die. Shoulder slam should just not be there; everyone ignores it and i think we're doing fine without it.

 

As a tank specific change, I'd like to see oil slick rolled into something (maybe the aoe taunt) and made into a character buff instead of enemy debuff.

[Triforcedragon]

Learn to manage.

 

Really that is all I have to say, learn to manage.

 

Managing abilities and knowing when to use what is part of playing that class it is not looking up a a good macro and pressing that one all day long along with cooldowns.

 

If you want simplicity and 1 - 1 -1 -1 - 2 combos go play some class in an MMO which shall not be named here. I am glad there is so many abilities and so many abilities which are actually useful depending on the situation.

 

Only thing i can agree on is Shoulder Slam which really needs a change.

[Coiffio]

Or barring the a-hole comment above, just get yourself a nice mmo mouse or a programmable keyboard, or both if you can. Makes things a lot easier when you can relegate moves to the touch of a button.

[Triforcedragon]

Sorry if my comment sounds A-hole like, but I am liking the fact that we cant set up a macro which goes through our entire rotation for us, that we need to react to procs and situations instead of mindlessly spamming.

 

Again sorry.

[Bulwyf]

I agree with the OP. This isn't a macro issue as the other poster talked about. This is about simply having too many abilities for too few spots to put them.

[Triforcedragon]

I agree with the OP. This isn't a macro issue as the other poster talked about. This is about simply having too many abilities for too few spots to put them.

 

Then I misunderstood and appoligize again, sorry.

 

But I will repeat that I am having no trouble managing it.

[inhanzt]

Learn to manage.

 

Really that is all I have to say, learn to manage.

 

Managing abilities and knowing when to use what is part of playing that class it is not looking up a a good macro and pressing that one all day long along with cooldowns.

 

If you want simplicity and 1 - 1 -1 -1 - 2 combos go play some class in an MMO which shall not be named here. I am glad there is so many abilities and so many abilities which are actually useful depending on the situation.

 

Only thing i can agree on is Shoulder Slam which really needs a change.

 

I actually agree with the idea that rotational macros are lame, though equally lame is the game design that allows these to work.

 

When i say macros, I'm actually hoping for simultaneous use macros, where I'd use moves together that I never use separately. State dependent macros are good too, i.e. if stealth x if not y, though those wouldn't help this class. The point is reducing the buttons I have to bind, not removing rotations from the game.

 

However, above everything I'd rather just have fewer moves with more effect to them, which would essentially be macros made by bioware.

Edited January 8, 2012 by inhanzt

[chainsawsamurai]

For me it is a UI issue.

 

I've got my two bottom center bars full. I am accustomed to using my side bars only for things that I can click without stressing out about it (Speeders, 1h buff stims, Rearm and Reload, Fast Travel, etc).

 

So this game only gives you 24 hotbar slots which are centrally located. I've already filled them up and have 3 overflow on the bottom of my right hotbar. I've got hotkeys for everything and manage it all fine, I just wish I had room for more than 24 slots all clumped together at the bottom.

[CLASSlFlED]

For me it is a UI issue.

 

I've got my two bottom center bars full. I am accustomed to using my side bars only for things that I can click without stressing out about it (Speeders, 1h buff stims, Rearm and Reload, Fast Travel, etc).

 

So this game only gives you 24 hotbar slots which are centrally located. I've already filled them up and have 3 overflow on the bottom of my right hotbar. I've got hotkeys for everything and manage it all fine, I just wish I had room for more than 24 slots all clumped together at the bottom.

 

 

 

This really, i'd love the option to be able to position & resize our hotbars.. that's really all i want, i can more than make the UI work with what's given, i just need to be able to place it where i want it to be.

[Nigawatts]

You will not be using half those abilities in PvE. PVP yes you better get used to using your whole arsenal, but really I'm pretty sure that in AP anything besides FB->FT is a DPS loss.

[Stormstruckk]

To many buttons? I'm 50 and I have between 6-8 free spots depending on if i'm in a pvp spec, pve tank spec, or pve dps spec. The trick is to go down the list and see what ones you don't use at all. You can free up one spot all together by not having all three gas cylinders on your bars. Unless your speced into bursting flame in the pyro tree or your speced into pyro as your main spec theirs no reason to have combustible gas cylinder on your bar, if you are pyro then theirs no reason to use high energy. Unless your always using ion gas theirs no reason to have guard.

 

As far as the companion bar goes, you won't need one for pvp unless your in a group smaller then 4 doing world pvp and thats only if your companion is the one being used. you won't need one for raids or level 50 flash points either. Plus that bar can easily be accessed by using the keybind that opens and closes it.

 

For the button combinations, no. Thermal sensor and vent heat should not be used as one button sorry. Vent heat is to vent heat. Thermal sensor can be used for heat free burst or heat free openers. If i'm pyro spec my insiderary missile costs 25 Heat. To help with pvp burst and easing into a pve rotation on bosses I like having the option of it cost 0 heat with out having to waste my 1.5-2 minute cd. Energy shield and kolto overload are fine. Why would I wanna waste a 2 minute 25% damage reduction if all I need is a hot to keep me alive long enough to get toped off by a healer or till i can use my recharge and reload? Oil slick is fine, it's called a defensive cooldown.

 

My suggestion is get your self a multi button mouse, if you don't wanna buy one then the second alternative is to practice using keybinds. that use the alt, shift, and ctrl key.

[Darkholynova]

I've had some degree of complication while trying to fit all my important abilities onto bars and key binding them to my mouse and keyboard.

 

As a shield tech I have to make sure I can easily reach not only my standard damage rotation abilities for single and multiple targets, but also be able to quickly react with defensive cooldowns/relic as well as two taunts, grapple, charge, oil slick, stun, guard, medkits, and stun remover.

 

It can be a bit much, but I think when I hit 50 and fine tune my tanking rotations I'll remove some abilities that aren't cutting it from my bars. I agree that combining my defensive CDs into one macro would help a lot.

 

Also, a lot of hate towards shoulder slam from the OP. I don't understand why you'd think it's useless. As a shield tech trying to solo quests I find it's one of the harder hitting moves I have. Just a bit disappointing that it can't be used on gold star mobs or players, no clue what the reasoning behind that is...

[Sardeya]

I don't really have any problems managing at all. I mean, just keybind a layout and get used to it. I actually agree with the person above stating "Learn to manage", because that's exactly what the issue is. He's not bashing anyone, he's simply making a correct statement.

 

I think of it this way; Keybind abilitys you use A LOT close by, and memorize them. I have my skills bound to Q, E, F, G, V, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, F1, F2, F3, F4, Mouse 5, Mouse 6, Mouse 3 and shift/alt modifiers on most of them. Actually, it's mostly shift-modifiers.

 

You can also use shift-modifiers on buttons currently in use by other things, for example my inventory, character and crew skill windows are bound to X, C and Z respectively, but I have some abilities on Shift + C, Shift + X and Shift + Z.

 

Once you play around a while you'll get used to it. If you plan on clicking on your skills, just bunch them up as good as you can, close to each other based on how often you plan on using said skill.

 

I have no problems either. ^^

[inhanzt]

To many buttons? I'm 50 and I have between 6-8 free spots depending on if i'm in a pvp spec, pve tank spec, or pve dps spec. The trick is to go down the list and see what ones you don't use at all. You can free up one spot all together by not having all three gas cylinders on your bars. Unless your speced into bursting flame in the pyro tree or your speced into pyro as your main spec theirs no reason to have combustible gas cylinder on your bar, if you are pyro then theirs no reason to use high energy. Unless your always using ion gas theirs no reason to have guard.

 

As far as the companion bar goes, you won't need one for pvp unless your in a group smaller then 4 doing world pvp and thats only if your companion is the one being used. you won't need one for raids or level 50 flash points either. Plus that bar can easily be accessed by using the keybind that opens and closes it.

 

For the button combinations, no. Thermal sensor and vent heat should not be used as one button sorry. Vent heat is to vent heat. Thermal sensor can be used for heat free burst or heat free openers. If i'm pyro spec my insiderary missile costs 25 Heat. To help with pvp burst and easing into a pve rotation on bosses I like having the option of it cost 0 heat with out having to waste my 1.5-2 minute cd. Energy shield and kolto overload are fine. Why would I wanna waste a 2 minute 25% damage reduction if all I need is a hot to keep me alive long enough to get toped off by a healer or till i can use my recharge and reload? Oil slick is fine, it's called a defensive cooldown.

 

My suggestion is get your self a multi button mouse, if you don't wanna buy one then the second alternative is to practice using keybinds. that use the alt, shift, and ctrl key.

 

"heat free openers" is wasting some of the move; you're losing out on 2-10 heat from natural venting. during the GCD of the move you used. Never using guard is wasting some of the class. kolto overload is not fine. You don't have 26 moves bound without some mulit-key keybinds.

Edited January 9, 2012 by inhanzt

[Sardeya]

As a reference, I'm adding a screenshot of my keybinds!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/screenshot2012010914141.jpg/

[Syrak]

This is referred to as "skill bloat" and was one of the things I wish they hadn't "borrowed" from Warcraft.

 

They could reduce every class by 20% and reach a decent number. The shoulder slam type abilities should be gone, the "click me" relics and "hit harder for 10 secs" abilities should be gone.

 

Instead they should allow positioning and timing be more important rather than having an octopus for a hand.

[Kanojo]

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q114/woot_019/Aion0107.jpg

 

Yes, all of those hotkeys were used regularly. The classes in this game don't have that many skills.

[Vidrak]

Flame Burst is useless? That would depend on your spec ... sorry. Missile Blast is useless? You know you can instantly kill basically any solo mob with missile blast followed by a shoulder charge?

 

Your entire complaint is basically just "the UI sucks balls", which I agree with. As far as abilities being useless or not, it depends on your spec. Just because you can't use certain abilities effectively doesn't mean they are useless.

[Stormstruckk]

heat free openers is wasting some of the move. Never using guard is wasting some of the class. kolto overload is not fine. You dont have 26 moves bound keybinds.

 

Heat free openers can be a deciding factor of if you win a duel in pvp. You can't use guard if your not in ion gas cylinder so no point for it to be on your bars if all you do is dps in one of the other two cylinders. I never said kolto overload was fine, all I said was that it's not worth putting with arguably one of the best defensive cooldowns in the game that you don't have to spec into when all I need is a small hot. As far as my keybinds go are you really gonna tell me how many keybinds I HAVE? In my dps spec the only thing not on my bars is shoulderslam, and combustible gas cylinder. So With all my buttons I still have 6 free spots in dps, and 4 in tanking, and thats with 4 grenades, medpacks, adrenals and the pass button for huttball.

[Rabbitofdoom]

I got 3 button programable mouse all my trinkets/adrenals/etc bound to one mouse button since they dont share or affect gcd and if i dont need them all at once i am not in a situation when i cant afford to click it manualy, one is bound to death from above and one to quell. Rest occupies QEZXCv 1234 and 567 for abilites i dont use that much. Edited January 9, 2012 by Rabbitofdoom

[DarrkLore]

I've got 21 bounty hunter moves, and 14 Powertech moves; Add in a hot-key for the med-kit, speeder, and both relics, and that's 39 moves total. Considering that the game can only display 4, 12 button hot-bars, and one of those is your pet bar, there are legitimately 3 moves you'll never access without opening the abilities panel, not to mention the convenience of quick travel or stims on hot-bars.

 

Just wanted to make a quick correction... you 4 hot bars do NOT include your pet bar. Your companion has a whole bar of their own.

 

Personally, I haven't had any issues with the amount of abilities I have. I'm only using 3 out of 4 of the hotbars right now and only the main bar is completely full, the other two still have room. And I even have my quick travel, med packs, and stims on my hotbars. I'm only at lvl 30 right now so I still have more abilities to get, but the number of new abilities you get per level has been dropping the higher you go so I can't see myself having a big problem with it. There are a couple of moves that I've dropped from my hot bars because I don't use them (missile blast) or I got something new to use instead.

 

As for the quick travel and especially the stims you don't really need them on your hot bars. The Hot bars are there for the things you use frequently so you don't have to call up an annoying menu every 20 seconds to execute it. If you can only use something once every 20 mins or especially every 60 minutes, it's not gonna kill you to take it off your hot bar.

[AnAcuteAngle]

go play some class in an MMO which shall not be named here.

 

+10 to this guy.

[triangulate]

You just need to learn to prioritise.

 

Im only a lvl26 Ptech so i cant speek 100% for this class but the principles are the same depending on what you are doing.

 

On my 50 Operative:

I mainly PvP, so i have my CC break and PB CC very close to hand. Next come my attacks, again they are prioritised in how much heat/energy they use to the damage they perform.

There are some attacks that i have totaly removed from my action bar because i choose other slightly lower DPS moves but that dont leave me overheated or energy starved.

Its about what works for you.

 

Ptech has slightly more keybinds than Operative because of the taunts etc.

Edited January 9, 2012 by triangulate

[Cryonax]

Playing as a BH is the reason I have been begging for Macros, there are so many skills which have long cooldowns, or are very situational (like shoulder slam) and I would love to be able to free up some space on my bars for my bombs (cybertech here) without having to toss abilitites.

[inhanzt]

Flame Burst is useless? That would depend on your spec ... sorry. Missile Blast is useless? You know you can instantly kill basically any solo mob with missile blast followed by a shoulder charge?

 

Your entire complaint is basically just "the UI sucks balls", which I agree with. As far as abilities being useless or not, it depends on your spec. Just because you can't use certain abilities effectively doesn't mean they are useless.

 

I know Flame burst and missile blast aren't useless, and that's part of the complaint. If a move is shoulder slam useless it just goes off the hot-bar; it's that simple. If a move is barely useful, I try to keep it around and use it, which causes problems when I run out of good keybinds and GUI locations.

 

I would very much enjoy a situation in which missile blast is for spec X, and because I'm spec Y I should never use it. For me personally, missile blast is just there to interrupt caps in pvp, because ion cylinder procs are better single target and the aoe damage is negligible.

 

BTW, tips for killing solo mobs don't really make a move useful.

Edited January 9, 2012 by inhanzt