PS3/Controller users

Kajidourden

Quick preface of this.  At the risk of sounding exclusionary....I'm really only speaking to the people who have level 50 jobs and used either the PS3 or a controller setup on their PC...there's a reason for that.

In one of Yoshi-P's latest blogs he addressed the issue of using a ps3/controller.  Now, this part is the reason I'm speaking more to those of us with level 50 jobs.  

Did you find that the amount of skills on your job alone, let alone the cross-class skills, were simply too much for the Cross Hot-Bar to handle?

Now....keep in mind this was all brand new to me in phase 3, but I actually found it a bit difficult to navigate/fully utilize all of my skills using it.  Again, this might come from a simple lack of experience with the system, particularly after playing ffxi and 1.23 for so long where the setup was completely different.  So with that said I'm looking for others input as to their experience utlizing this system.  The good, the bad, the ugly...let's hear it.

Edit:  Also, this could be attributed to an overwhelm factor.  If you were to start playing a class from level 1 for instance....perhaps by the time you reach that point (level 50) it would be no problem.  I must say that starting fresh on a PUG I had no issues, but that class I only got to level 22.

EMP_ThatSoHarsh

I have only had an issue with input lag. Dont have a character that high of a level where I could incorporate a large skillset to test your concern. 

Draucant

I played around with my LVL 50 MNK and WAR. It can be overwhelming at first, but once you get used to where you place your skills it helps a lot. Some things that I did to help my self was making macros with skills that I use together. 

A macro I used for WAR went like this:

/ac "Convelscence" <me>

/ac "Second Wind" <me>

Normally you put a "/wait sec" in between but I found it easier and faster to just set it up without the /wait. You can just hit the macro over and over until each skill goes off.  And it will go off in order. I also found it easy to put combos in macros, but not the whole combo. For WAR I had this one:

/ac "Heavy Swing" <t>

/wait 2

/ac "Maim" <t>

What this does is allow me to put an extra skill/macro on my cross hotbar and once it goes off I can either do Butcher's Block, Storm's Eye or Storm's Wrath. 

Now, even though the GCD is 2.5, "/wait 2" works because it gets put in a que. 

Also, if you don't like the idea of macros, I found out that if you have 2 cross hotbars just by pressing RB(360), not holding, it switches between the 2 sets. This will give you an extra 16 slots with just one press. What I did to keep track of those skills on the 2nd set and for macro skill(because it doesn't show the CD) was enable a couple regular hotbars and place those skills on them.

 

Hopefully this helps and is not confusing XD

Xiaoki

You can assign 32 abilities to a controller.

A level 50 Class has 17 abilities. A level 50 Job will add 5 abilities to that for a total of 22 abilities.

A Job can only take cross class abilities from 2 specific Classes.

Classes have 5 cross class abilities.

Which means you will have a total of 32 abilities as a level 50 Job Class.

The only thing I didnt like about using a controller was that it was awkward at first using abilities assigned to the d-pad.

Kajidourden

Perhaps I should have specificed/explained more.  I wasn't the number of actions that I had an issue with, the controls just felt....awkward.  I have a second hgotbar set up with the abilities I wanted, relatively where I wanted them.  The issue was that I had no idea what was on that second hotbar until I switched to it.  And since i almost never see that hotbar...I would frequently hit the wrong thing.  Perhaps just some more experience with it will help.

Alberel

Originally posted by Kajidourden
Perhaps I should have specificed/explained more.  I wasn't the number of actions that I had an issue with, the controls just felt....awkward.  I have a second hgotbar set up with the abilities I wanted, relatively where I wanted them.  The issue was that I had no idea what was on that second hotbar until I switched to it.  And since i almost never see that hotbar...I would frequently hit the wrong thing.  Perhaps just some more experience with it will help.

Surely that's just a case of practice and learning like you say?

When a PC player starts out with keybinds it can sometimes take a while to learn them but eventually they won't even be looking at the hotbar... I don't see how the controller is any different in this regard.

ElRenmazuo

For me someone who play majority of games with a gamepad its second nature and keyboard and mouse always felt more awkward to me, especially moving with wasd.  So for people who normally use k/m of course gamepad will feel more awkward til u play with it enough.