It doesn't even hinder me to be honest. Unless it was sarcasm, I'm getting sleepy.
here my video on Coil Of Bahamut using only Gamepad (white mage)
Binding Coil Of Bahamut Turn 1 HD 1080p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqUvh9CCSjY
Binding Coil Of Bahamut Turn 2 HD 1080
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqhOP0e05Vk
Binding Coil Of Bahamut Turn 4 HD 1080p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2CAzauzo-8
(I don't know how to answer that question.)
Guys, Evangela screwed up, we know that. Posting witty replies gets redundant after one or two posts.
I'm still getting used to SCH at 34 and I have been trying to use "place" on my gamepad, but it's really awkward to target (since it moves your camera at the same time). I've used the same system with BLM lbs but since using "place" is so frequent, I was wondering if there was a way that other SCHs on gamepads deal with this. Thank you!
There is, you can also switch to virtual mouse mode (l1+r3) and place the circle with the right stick. This leaves you immobile and unable to quickly switch back to gamepad mode should you suddenly have to move though. All I can say is give it some time, it will become your second nature. I usually have my camera pre-positioned so that I can quickly place a Sacred Soil around a tank, this becomes important around titan HM.
edit: I think I read somewhere they considered allowing to place the circle with a mouse, however that would be PC only, so they don't want that. They are currently unhappy with the way the placement is done on gamepad and are looking for a way to improve it
I use a gamepad, I have in every MMO I've played that offers gamepad support since FFXI. I say this so you can't argue that I'm blindly hating gamepads. Keyboard and mouse is just more effective for healing than a gamepad. When you have you change target between 8 party members on a second by second basis, gamepad is just slower than a mouse. I'm not trying to say that gamepad can't work just fine as the game was designed with it in mind, but it's still slower to switch targets than a mouse. I love it as a DD. You can probably do longer rotations, such as Dragoon, with less effort than with a keyboard as all your actions are compacted to a few button combinations, but DD aren't constantly switching targets. As a tank, you only really switch targets when you are fighting three or four monsters and the R2+R1/L1 target switching is very handy in that situation.
I like how you only have to highlight something to cast a skill on it.
Up/down for party members, left/right for monsters. If a person in the last party slot needs healing, you can just press up two times, heal, and you never lose your current target.
On the keyboard you'd have to press F8, cast, then F2 again (back to tank) just to heal a person. The physical distance between F8 and F1 is huge.
Also, between the CTRL/ALT keys and the numbers, there's a lot of space. Using Alt + 7 for example is quite a chore. While on controller there's no physical distance to travel. You have 16 skills under your thumbs. 16 more in a mere R1 press.
Personally, I've never got used to playing on a Keyboard. Even with one and half years of WoW, I adapted to FFXIV's controller scheme and I think it's almost perfect.
I'm on turn 5 in coils as a pld tank with a controller, not sure if you were looking for WAR specifically but if not, I'll be happy to upload my UI when I get home.