There are too many skills.

[sixti]

as an assassin u need like 8-9 skills for your rotation, fighting bosses which i think is pretty fair. well there are some-sort-of-useless skills but since i dont really need them i dont mind.

[MinorGoesSW]

I have no problem. l2p

[kevshootit]

I do like the variety, and I understand there is a healthy tension/balance between, button mashing a few keys requiring little skill and "you NEED to spend a lot of time remapping all of your keys AND a naga gamer mouse just to be able to have any fun."

 

thinking the current build of the game requires too much button watching does not necessarily mean that you don't have "skill" or that you want to "dumb" things down.

 

The key to life is finding a flexible happy medium. I just don't think BW has found it yet based on my experience

[Dabrixmgp]

yea i still dont see anywhere on my game box in the system requirements that a 14+ button mouse, a Logitech G19 keyboard, and a Belkin n52 are required to play and not suck.

[Ebiso]

As a Sniper I have something like 37 binds - none of which should be combined because I use them all differentlly. This is with a **** 2 button mouse and a non make keyboard, so I don't see how anyone with a decent mouse can have issues :S Edited January 12, 2012 by Ebiso

[Ebiso]

Since when does the number of abilities used = skill. If anything it makes you play worse because you have far too much stuff to juggle. Id rather use 3-4 skills and be super effective at what I do than use 12 and be mediocre because my DPS tanked when I forgot to use something.

 

Larger number of abilities does not equal skill. However someone who can play super effective with 30 keybinds is more skilled at the game than someone who can only play super effective with 4 keybinds. ..

[Hambunctious]

Some classes have waaaaaaaay more skills than others. I don't have enough action bar space for all of them on a shadow.

[Ricul]

Yeah i agree. Ok WoW also had too many skills but at least you were able to combine them in makros.

Like defensive cooldowns : You press one button and one cooldown goes off then it automaticaly switches to the next or resets when ready. The system right now doesn't really work for me. I mean not everyone got a razer naga.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Ricul

[raelimar]

Roll a Mercenary or a Sorcerer. Spec Arsenal or Madness hybrid. Spam Tracer Missle/Force Lightning.

 

Problem solved.

[Spifff]

For the most part, i like the fact there are a lot of skills. Being able to hit the correct ability at the correct time is what raises a good player above an average player. But there are a couple of things that really help this along. And of course things can go overboard.

 

As people have said SWTOR needs a moddable UI. Right now we don't want to have to stare at bars to know when an ability comes off cooldown for us to use. Especially abilities that have a long cooldown but can have it reset by taking damage or something. Ideally you want to use it right away but you don't know to do that unless you're staring at the bar.

 

To use WOW as an example, you could set it up to get visual or audio queues in any and every possible configurable way for whichever skills you wanted. Maybe you respond best to hearing a sound. Or maybe a big flashing see through icon in the middle of your screen. or maybe you liked having your ability bar in the middle of your screen. To each his own but we need the choice.

 

I'll reiterate that i dislike the useless skill bloat. An ability with a minute long cooldown that you can only use on stunned normal trash mobs (never on a boss, never in pvp, never on elite mobs, never on a non stunned trash mob) is more than useless.

[AgentMytho]

Way too many skills.

If my blaster had as many triggers as the number of differnt skills used to fire it I'd need 14 fingers to use it.

 

The shear number of similar abilites makes combat tedious not exciting. I have several attacks that are nearly identical but on differnt cooldown timers, just so the game can force me to click different buttons. Then on top of that a slew of situational abilites that I don't use 70% of the time.

 

A well designed and focused system really only needs 5-10 activated abilites. If you have to rotate through more than that, it is being artificially inflated.

 

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

what if you had ONE attack, in this case blaster, but you could modify its performance characteristics by dial up or down things like Range, Area of Effect, Damage, Energy consumption, activation time and cooldown. You could then save these profiles to a keybind.

 

How many differnt profiles do you think you would need to create an effective attack chain? Do you think it would be more fun to design your own attack profiles or try to work around the large number of pre-esting ones? Do you think there would be more or less variety in attacks characteristics of differnt players and characters?

 

(this is a mechanic simialr to CoX were you could add modifers to power that would increase damage or range or recharge rate, etc.)

[LyriaFrost]

Yes, i like Aion's system of combos. I also like RIFT's macro system where you can layer in a few abilities in the same macro and thus saving keybind space. Things like reactive abilities and short cooldown.

 

The problem with Rift's system was that it was soooo easily abused by certain classes (*cough* warriors *cough*) who could have a single macro with a dozen attacks on it. All the various reactionaries, positionals, etc. My warrior had about 5 buttons on her hotbar in pvp mode or pve grinding mode. A macro for my general dps'ing (which had about 10 different attacks in it), another macro for finishing moves, and a couple of other things I didn't need/use in melee all the time, or didn't use as often.

 

It was painfully easy.

 

That kind of macroing is bad for a game, IMO. It makes for lazy players (I freely admit I was INCREDIBLY lazy on my warrior, and I still usually ended most pvp matches with around a 7:1 kill:death ratio, or better) who just copy down macros and mash the button. And since the warrior in particular had multiple off-global instant attacks, you could generate crazy amounts of burst damage that way.

Edited January 26, 2012 by LyriaFrost

[Superastro]

BW pls fix this

[EchoTwoOmega]

Depends on the class.

 

The vanguard/powertech have a nice small array of skills. I find managing bars with these really easy to do.

 

The Sorcerer/sage, mercenary/commando, operative/scoundrel I find to be alright where there is maybe 1 or 2 skills that have to get flung off to the side but it really does not impact how the class plays.

 

The guardian/Juggernaught suffer from some amount of ability bloat. you will have abilities spill of your 2 main bars across the bottom. Its not completly terrible but it really starts to feel clunky and cubersome to play.

 

The Marauder/Sentinel are by far the worst offenders. over 30 skills that have to go on the bars. It grossly spills off the upper and lower center bar and makes a huge mess. Its really challenging to try to keybind that many damn skills and make play feel really clunky/cumbersome.

 

( I have yet to play the assassin/shadow or gunslinger/sniper so not sure how they are on abilities)

 

 

But keep in mind you need to have your accessory skills up there too. ( medkits, stims, etc etc)

 

 

 

opinion:

Adding a 3rd bar across the bottom would really help. Personally I freeking HATE the side bars.

[Neliok]

Yes, i like Aion's system of combos. I also like RIFT's macro system where you can layer in a few abilities in the same macro and thus saving keybind space. Things like reactive abilities and short cooldown.

 

a few? lol no sir no with rift if you were a melee character you could bore yourself to tears by macro'ing all of your abilities into 1-4 buttons depending on the class (strait up dps button or combo point build combo point release AE combo point build AE combo point release) or as a mage you were still ****ed and had a 20 button rotation...rifts skill system was terrible and had more abilities than this game by a long shot

[Dormetheus]

In DDO Sorcs/Wiz players had 11+ hotbars for spells and equipment.

 

We just need more hotbars, and the ability to move the UI pieces.

 

Also, the buff/debuff icons need to be about 3-5x bigger.

[Jeargroth]

I am not asking for a complete removal of skills, but Depending on what class you play and your AC you can have all 4 hot bars filled with Buttons that you NEED. There are a TON of Situational abilities, and they get used once in a fight then your on to another then another and another and so on. You can't even set them for 12345... cause its not a rotation its a priority system.

 

We aren't asking for WoW Elemental Shaman where you clicked 2-3 buttons Max but we do want some ability to organize it. I too watch my tool bars for cooldowns more than I do the fights. Its annoying i am playing a game not a tool bar. If i wanted to play "Piano" would go out and buy one.

[Subparhero]

you've got to be kidding me.

This game really doesn't have that many abilities. I use 8 in EQ2 and i know ppl who use 10.

 

Is this just a wow thing, wanting to only use 1 or 2 hotbars in combat? Oversimplified is boring.

Lots of situational abilities on a priority system is much more fun and actually might take a little skill.

 

There are NOT too many abilities.

Just let us have more than 4 hotbars please, and let us move them around & resize. Thanks.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Subparhero

[Dormetheus]

I think it's a matter of "there are too many closely related skills/redundant skills". Which makes sense, because your AC might not even need some of your base class skills, though the other AC might.

[OGREmkV]

generally i agree. one of the quiet problems with having so many skills is that it gets to a point where the player spends more time watching their skillbar than actually watching the fight. I've been raidhealing end game content in WoW for years, and i gotta say: watching healthbars and cooldowns, and co-incidentally only seeing the battle animations out of your peripheral vision, really detracts from the cinematic visual experience of the fight. I feel like this is an aspect of mmo gaming that we can and should evolve away from.

 

i really liked the early levels of playing my assassin; i appreciated that the game didnt have a true auto-attack and the situational use of most of my attacks gave the battles a certain sense of kung-fu style timing. i was able to watch the fights unfold; you really feel like a bamf when you watch your character actually parry/deflect attacts via animation, rather than just getting a fly-text notification. now that my assassin has grown to lvl 33, my bars are almost completely full, i find that i use/need most of my skills and so am reluctant to trim my bars down, but i also am only barely able to watch the battle. that... well, frankly, isnt fun. epic glow-stick duels is what we like about starwars, right? let me watch the glowstick fight, then, and enjoy it. dont force me to dart back and forth all fight long between the skill bars, then checking to make sure i'm not standing in anything bad, then back to my skill bars just in time to catch my next important move as its cooldown finishes. let me see my character skillfully swordsmanshipping his way thru the fights like a hero.

 

in guildwars 1, there really was kindof an undersized skill bar; you used the same rotation for every fight. but i am looking forward to the slightly (only slightly) more strategic skillbar for guildwars 2. ten fighting buttons sounds just about right. =)

[Pyorrhea]

when resources are insufficient or you click on a melee attack that is on CD you end up doing a filler strike (auto attack) instead.

 

or you click on a melee

 

click on

 

This....

 

I don't agree with OP at all here, I have 36 keybinds bound. I do not use all of them at once, and some are optional and situational. Knowing when to use the right skill at the right time sets you appart from people who tunnel.

 

Macroing should not be the be all and end all. This would only dumb down the game in general if you could one button mash.

 

my 2c.