One piece of advice: think about your endgame controller layout early on. Skills get automatically added to the hotbar as they unlock, but they’re nowhere near an optimal order for level 80 play. If you put them where you’re going to want them eventually, you start to get the muscle memory from the start.
I (badly) main DRG, which has a complex 24-skill double-weave rotation for “optimal” endgame play. My hotbars have been essentially fixed since halfway through Heavensward (ignoring changes to the class in the intervening years), so my rotation is almost entirely on autopilot these days. I’ve rearranged other classes occasionally, and I go through a very rough period trying to remember what buttons to press when.
Because you want to go through the job again or because you wanted to switch jobs? Because you can switch jobs just be equipping the weapon for that class. You may already know all that but wanted to mention it just in case, lots of new people jumping in and I can’t remember where everyone’s experience level is. :)
Any yeah, gamepad is by far my preferred way to play on PC. The setup takes a bit to get used to but it is the gold standard for handling MMO hotbars with a controller. I much prefer how they do it over other games that rely on limited as lots and weapon swaps.
Finally popped back in because of the free return time they’re doing at the moment. After about four hours I sort of remembered what I was doing again. Summoner has had a bunch of changes that are just not mentioned anywhere, some of which I didn’t realize until I was told on Discord - e.g. pets not having health or tanking for you anymore. I did notice Titan-Egi didn’t seem to be pulling aggro but I had no idea why not and I wasn’t exactly struggling anyway. Was probably 2 hours and a primal fight in before I realized Aetherflow was now for Scholars and there was a different Aetherflow skill for Summoners, or that pets now had charge-based activatable abilities, or that a bunch of stuff on my bar was no longer functional or in the game.
Also suddenly I can fly, which I’m not complaining about. Some of the mounts I have are particularly hilarious as flying mounts - e.g. my Santa bear.
I did choose a job I haven’t ever spent much time with but mostly it was to go thru the tutorial stuff with it focused on doing things with the controller instead of keyboard/mouse. Not sure how long I’ll play this char before going back to my main, but we’ll see. I figure I can learn controller buttons easier using only the few actions you have at the beginning of the game and work my way up. I could probably do something similar with my main by switching jobs to something totally new. But for now I’ll just stick with the new elf chick I made.
I keep trying to make a new character on the Mydgard server but it never pops up with the xp boost (and prob won’t).
Did my first beast tribe quest today. Been unlocking them before moving onto the main story. The Kobolds really tugged at my heart strings, so I feel like I wanna help 'em. The only downside I see in these is that they’re not in the “recommendations” or the duty finder, so I could easily forget to do them.
Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to map ~48 buttons to a standard xbox-style controller in FFXIV. Doing this in a sane way that you can then use across all jobs (ie., all jobs have sprint on one combo, an aoe on one combo, etc.) is… for friendly YouTubers to show you that have already done the hard work. But it works, and is pretty amazing. Not how I personally ended up choosing to play though.
Also I dunno about y’all’s server, but on mine there are always at least a few people dancing at the entrance to the Aethernet plaza in Ul’dah, and today there are almost a dozen of them as a bard behind them plays “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton. It’s really a lovely sight.
Apparently it was Abba Day on my server. Standing at the market board in Limsa Liminsa (or whatever) there was a group that went thru ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Fernando’, ‘Knowing me, knowing you’. Good times
Once you unlock BRD you also unlock the ability to perform music. As they’ve been fleshing out the feature they’ve been adding more and more instruments - the latest being that custom Stratocaster that’s getting a limited physical run. As to how they’re doing it in-game, they’re using a third party tool to read in a MIDI file and hit the inputs for them. Technically against TOS though not a case that warrants punishment IMO. Some of the more elaborate groups will have multiple performers all synced up and able to play some real elaborate works - I’ve gone to an in-game concert before that ran through two hours of music from Persona 3, 4, and 5 with choreographed movement as well. Really amazing stuff.
One of the advantages of having a game that’s spanned 3 console generations is the developers have been very thoughtful about control design to the point that controller and KB+M are equally functional and valid ways of playing, even at the highest difficulties of content.
This guide is a great starting point for thinking about cross hotbar setup:
I made the decision to play with controller on PC when I first started and it’s been a great experience - as well as making the transition to mainly playing on PS5 seamless.
It’s coming quicker than I expected. I’m already back to my main and it’s about 2/3 pretty intuitive once I get the buttons arranged. Bouncing back between some screens (maps for instance) is kinda a pain, but it sure feels like this is the optimum way to play. Glad I asked finally.
