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Hello guys,
obvious newb reporting in..
Title is pretty much the question im asking from more experienced healers: is healing doable with PS4 pad, or am i gimping myself too much using it?
I´ve been on couple of MMO´s before, and im familiar with pro´s of keybinding/mouse, but atm it doesnt feel too bad, and actually feels refreshing comparing to previous games.
So, do you think one can be effective healer with pad, or should i just plug my keyboard/mouse?
The pad seems a little unresponsive to me, so if you're comfortable with using a kb/mouse that's probably the better option of the two.
However I heal perfectly fine using the d-pad, so that's more than doable as well.
I played all night yesterday and had no issues at all. Grant it, it took me a bit to get used to the PS4 controller again, since I have not touched it for a while. Other than that, not problems. Ran a good many dungeons, hests, couple trials and what not. Healed just the same as my PS3.
You can easily be an effective healer with the Crossbar/Controller set up :). If I can offer any advice, let me know.
Healing is very doable. Been healing on ps3 since launch and it was a little weird at first. Now i really enjoy the dpad. I love playing on PS4!
The only thing that is difficult to do on controller with default settings is heal people outside of your party while in FATEs, which is far from the end of the world. You can get around it anyway by making a macro with the line /target <tt> and hitting that while targeting an enemy will swap you over to their current target. You can also customize your target filters in the config menu so you can target players with left and right on the D-pad by hitting a button combination.
Healing other players is very simple when you are actually in a party, as you just have to hit up and down to cycle through the party list. You can sort the party list too so you can put stuff like tanks at the top or bottom so they are easier to get to.
I've been healing using a controller since beta. It takes some getting used to, but it's perfectly fine. I would recommend setting the controller mode to either Hold (the default) or Mixed for best results, and experiment with Legacy camera settings, which helps mitigate the fact that you can't strafe with a controller, but can cause your character to turn in unexpected ways if you don't turn off auto-face (facing isn't needed for healing anyway).
Once you get used to it it's fine. A lot of people who try to say it's a terrible option typically don't try it long enough to adjust. I do prefer the PC's interface over the controller, but both are very usable as a White Mage.
I heal without problems using controller though I still use F1 - F8 on keyboard to select targets.
Healing for me has been quite fun on the PS4 controller. It is all about how you configure your settings. I've used the game-pad's touchpad feature to help select player targets. I've done so by putting the mouse sensitivity setting all the way up so my fingers don't have to move very far. In FATEs, this is helpful seeing as players from a distance get lost in the fray so i find it easier to manually select them as opposed to the D-pad selection. Then on the cross bar i've placed all my healing spells on the L2 side so that I can use my left thumb on the d-bad to heal and my right thumb to select targets. It works great for me.
In parties, I find my AOE spam heals to be more effective in tight spots, but a good healer keeps on top of things by using the party list feature to monitor player health. I use the d-pad's left and right buttons to switch between enemy targets and the up and down directions to switch between player targets.
Again, all in how you want to play. Spend a good amount of time finding the control scheme for you.
You now have the option to sort your pt members automatically with tanks appearing first (I believe it is /sortparty, but I could be mistaken). Since you use the D-pad to select between PT members, this is really helpful as you have to scroll less. I'd recommend setting your most used spells to R2+face buttons and L2+face buttons, as you have to take your thumb off of the analog stick in order to use anything from the D-pad. For example, my setup for WHM is:
R2 + square = Cure I
R2 + triangle = Cure II
R2 + circle = Cure III
R2 + cross = Regen
My L2 buttons are AoE's such as Medica, Medica II. I have all of my abilities (not spells) such as Shroud of Saints set to the D-pad buttons. I only use the 2nd set of buttons for abilities that I use rarely or at specific points such as Protect and my DPS spells. I also don't macro anything. This is what works best for me, but maybe not for you. You might want to play with a few combinations till you find the layout that you can best register to muscle-memory. I have only ever played healer on a controller, and the advantage we have over M&K users is movement on the analog stick is incredibly smooth and allows for easier Regen or Swiftcast + Medica II while running.
I hope this helps, good luck :)