Button mashing madness

After a(nother) brief hiatus from gaming, which I took to prepare for my wedding - which is this Saturday, I resubbed my SOE station account. I am tinkering with EQ2 again, trying to get the "feel" back for my Paladin. I usually go through this stage when I come back to a game I have not played in a while.

For EQ, it's fairly easy. You have a ton of spells and abilities, but you can only have a handful "ready" at a time. In most other MMOs, you are only limited by the the amount of hotbars you can have open at a time.

Coming back to WoW was always a pain for me, because while there aren't a tremendous amount of spells and abilities, there are enough. I spend a few moments reviewing what the character has and then plot out what direction I want to take him - my main is a Shaman, so I have to decide on Melee, Caster or Healer.

Coming back to EQ2 however usually results in my popping open 3-5 hotbars and staring blankly at them for a few moments. This is exactly what happened this weekend when I logged into Din. One bar is mainly my offensive combat arts. Another is Healing/support buffs. Another is AoE and taunts. Yet another has some other buffs and some misc stuff. So I finally figure out where I had things last time I played and I set out for adventure.

I start fighting and then I remember one of my biggest issues with EQ2 - the massive number of abilities you use in a fight. On Din, I think I use, in every fight, 6-7 single target damage abilities. 2-3 AoE damage abilites, 2-3 different taunts - which I have to use to complete my Heroic Opportunities. Then I have my Ward and my Heals. It really makes WoW's 2-3 button fights seem like child's play. That being said, EQ2 is more like a faceroll.

I noticed the same pattern on my alts that I played with this weekend. By level 10, I had the equivalent of one full hotbar, with spells and abilities I use in almost every fight.

What possessed EQ2's developers to create a combat system with spells and abilities tuned this way is beyond me. Quality over quantity my friends. I would much rather have 2-3 direct damage abilities, 2 AoE and 2 taunts.

Right now, I have ~4500hp. By this measure, I assume the mobs I am fighting have around the same amount, +/- 1000 or so. I have 3-4 abilities that, when executed, deal all of about 200 damage - along with this I have one "big" attack that hits for 800-1000 and has a reasonably long refresh - I can use it maybe once per fight. My freaking auto-attack hits for about that much. Why not give me my 2-3 abilities that do ~500 each?

It seems like all classes are like this, with some having even MORE buttons to mash in a fight. In my opinion this is just overkill, and the only reason for this seems to be that SOE was attempting to show that EQ2 offered "depth" with the amount of spells and abilities. All they have accomplished with this is a very annoying click/buttonmash fest

What are your experiences in EQ2 with this facet of the game? Does you class require massive amounts of buttons and hotkeys for each fight?