Good classes for console players

[Daydreamer]

Howdy,

I started playing about 3 weeks ago and am having a blast so far. I chose to try out summoner first but I'm worried that since I'm on ps4 I'll have problems later on. I was a hunter in WoW and I know that good players of pet classes require good management of pets and pet placement, and well...I'm having a lot of trouble with this via console. Also I can see the 16 button main hotbar being very limiting later on, and using multiple hot bar configurations in the heat of battle seems like it would just cause me to press the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Basically, does anyone have any tips or tricks to make this easier? Or can someone recommend classes that work well for console players as opposed to PC? Or should I really just practice more? I'm worried practicing more and even getting it down would still put me a step behind a PC summoner of the same skill level.

[blowfin]

Character Settings -> Crossbar Settings
-> Toggle mode
-> Expanded hold controls

Will go a long way to avoiding having your hands tied in knots.

[Silenka]

I play with controller on PC and main SMN. It's not too bad honestly. I don't know if it's all the same with PS4 vs PC controls, but if so, there are some things you can do to make your life easier:

I personally do not use expanded hold controls. For cross hotbar, I have controls set to Hold. Under Sharing, I have hotbar 8 shared between all jobs which has my global commands such as mount, teleport, return etc. I just leave it enabled all the time for sprint and mount, but if you really want it out of the way during battle you can always disable it under Set selection > enable customization for when weapon is sheathed / drawn.

I have 2 full xbars for SMN, which only gives me 3 sets to flip through using R2 so it's really not bad at all. I'm never late on anything as long as I'm paying attention.

For targeting, "Enable target cycling" under Character config > control settings > filters is amazingly useful. I have L1+triangle set to target PCs and NPCs only for healing purposes and L1+circle set to target enemies only. L1 + square reverts back to targeting all.

Honestly as a controller user I don't feel any slower than the kb users I've met, but I had a beast of a time setting it up just right to something useful that I was able to get accustomed to so I feel your pain. The schematics are a bit twisty but they will do the job for you in the end. Rest assured that it is totally feasible to play a good SMN with a controller. Then again, I haven't done any big endgame stuff like CT or Coil yet, so I may not be doing on controller all the crazy top-tier elitist dpsing some others around here do XD I have no doubts that I could learn to do it efficiently using controller schematics, however - it's customizable enough.

[Berabouman]

I play on the PC with a controller and I've never had any problems so far with any of my classes. I have PLD, MNK and BLM at all 50 with no issues. With careful use of macros and the expanded hotbars you shouldn't experience any difficulties.

[The Stig]

PLD works great for consoles.
In dungeons you have a max of 6 buttons if you're feeling lazy
1-2-3 combo
Shield Lob for Pulling
Flash/Circle of Scorn for AOE hate

Make sure Shield Oath is on (another button) though
And if you need to use your cooldowns your healer sucks

But, if you die because you never used your cooldowns, no one's gonna really notice. So... you can get away with not using them.

Yes I am promoting bad/lazy play, but in general no one will complain if you keep hate

I play on PC with PS2 controller, with the exception of WHM and SCH, I play all my classes with a controller. For WHM and SCH, my left hand is on the controller for movement and also accessing the D-keys for my basic spells and my right hand is on the mouse.

I've got a guide in progress that I'm working on purely to give ideas on how one can play on a controller, I'll post it here Soon™

[Elcura]

For WHM and SCH, my left hand is on the controller for movement and also accessing the D-keys for my basic spells and my right hand is on the mouse.

I've got a guide in progress that I'm working on purely to give ideas on how one can play on a controller, I'll post it here Soon™

Do not do this.

I play every job on controller. Just set your bars up right, use macros to consolidate space and help sub-targets and you'll be fine. The only job I need to use the L2<>R2 is SCH, otherwise I can fit everything on 2 bars.

[The Stig]

Ah the guide doesn't include how I play WHM/SCH lol, it's not explainable lol and nor do I encourage people to do so. It's purely preference/comfort reasons and is a combo of button pushing and clicking. The guide is just a simple aid to give people ideas on what they could do with their bars, especially Vita players.

[Seigfried]

Ah the guide doesn't include how I play WHM/SCH lol, it's not explainable lol and nor do I encourage people to do so. It's purely preference/comfort reasons and is a combo of button pushing and clicking. The guide is just a simple aid to give people ideas on what they could do with their bars, especially Vita players.

Would be interested to read it, make sure you put that out there when it's done.

[Taint]

BRD,PLD,DRG,BLM are all extremely controller friendly.

I play on PC with a controller but can play those 3 jobs at a top level without touching my keyboard. SCH,WHM,WAR,SMN I always end up using my keyboard in some fashion. (I don't play MNK)

[OWS_Tonx]

I legit never had a problem playing with the hotbar. I have every button of every line memorized and each class I actively play ranges from 2-3 bars. Just make sure you don't share bars or if you do have a share bar for sprint/emotes/mounts/etc use like bar 8 or something that you would never fill up to. It just takes getting used to I suppose

[Ksandra]

I play sch main. I think the "hardest" controller jobs are the pet classes because of getting used to the pet bar and placing the pets everywhere. While it was a bit of a learning curve, it's become so second nature to me now it's completely a non issue.

However, I must say healing people outside of your party in an alliance setup can be a pain in the ass with the controller. So if you plan on doing frontlines a lot and don't want the headache, don't choose healing.

[Daydreamer]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

The L2+R2 button bar is a lifesaver. I didn't even know this existed. An extra 8 buttons will probably be all I need so I'll probably map both combinations to the same thing so it doesn't matter what order I hit them.

Also the L1 targeting thing is awesome. I was wondering why I couldn't target people that were not in my party and helping me on fates. Now i know why.

[Fleur.C]

I play summoner and white mage with a controller on ps4. It required figuring out how to setup my cross hot bars just right. I have a heal cross bar and a harm cross bar. They toggle via a macro that simply toggles cleric stance and then switches to the 'other' hotbar.

The macro that is on the heal crossbar looks like:
Title of the macro: "Attack Hotbar"
/macroicon "Cleric Stance"
/ac "Cleric Stance" <me>
/chotbar 5

The macro on the harm crossbar is nearly the same - except /chotbar 4

My preferences are set to have crossbars 4 and 5 active all the time - this gets me a quick swap between them without cleric stance.

I also have the common commands on hotbar 8 - so L1->R1 gets half of them and R1->L1 gets the other half - so choco summoning and such are all there.

It does take a while to figure out exactly what actions should go where. I have a couple of common buttons - like cure and Stoneskin are on both harm and heal bars in the same spots.

Once you get the controls setup for how you play then using a controller works wonderfully. I tried a keyboard and wow - that did not go well at all for me.

This is my first mmo and I started with ps3 - so I got used to controller actions and working on my setup just took time to get it right for me.

There are long discussion threads on the lodestone about HUD set ups and cross hotbar configurations and why people set them up as they do... I found them useful to learn what could help me.

[Cutriss]

However, I must say healing people outside of your party in an alliance setup can be a pain in the ass with the controller. So if you plan on doing frontlines a lot and don't want the headache, don't choose healing.

Oh good, I'm not just retarded then. I had a RL friend over a couple of weeks ago that we were bringing into XIV, so I got on the PS3 and went to heal him during some fighting and FATEs (stayed outside PT). Healing him was fairly easy, but healing randoms was a chore. Couldn't figure out/remember how to change targeting modes, and the targeting kept reverting to Other, and then if I dropped target, 2 seconds later it'd go to All.

[Ratatapa]

I play sch main. I think the "hardest" controller jobs are the pet classes because of getting used to the pet bar and placing the pets everywhere. While it was a bit of a learning curve, it's become so second nature to me now it's completely a non issue.

However, I must say healing people outside of your party in an alliance setup can be a pain in the ass with the controller. So if you plan on doing frontlines a lot and don't want the headache, don't choose healing.

Fuck healing other PT, let their healers work!

[Daydreamer]

Does anyone happen to have a good website for macro basics? Like I see the macros people are typing and can figure out kinda what they do in general but the parts of them (like /ac) make no sense to me since I don't know what it stands for.

[ArchDizzle]

Does anyone happen to have a good website for macro basics? Like I see the macros people are typing and can figure out kinda what they do in general but the parts of them (like /ac) make no sense to me since I don't know what it stands for.

/ac is action

So
/ac "Jump" <t>

same thing if you played XI for like /ws /ja etc

[Cutriss]

/ac is action

So
/ac "Provoke" <t>

same thing if you played XI for like /ws /ja etc

I hereby propose that we never use "Provoke" and "XI" in the same post again unless that post is talking about how it's not the same as in XI.

I'm sure you spend enough time as it is straightening that shit out.

[Ratatapa]

I hereby propose that we never use "Provoke" and "XI" in the same post again unless that post is talking about how it's not the same as in XI.

I'm sure you spend enough time as it is straightening that shit out.

Unless i missed your point, he never said voke was the same in XIV and XI

[Elcura]

Unless i missed your point

Ya think