Flow chart for DS4 controller interface?

Based on player advice, I'm switching from the m/kb to the PS4 (DS4 actually) controller. It's pretty confusing. Is there a flowchart of controller inputs? I seem to go from targeting one enemy after the other to suddenly finding myself locked on ME :). If I do target an enemy I keep losing him as soon as I start moving. Also buttons seem to change almost randomly. Tried searching YouTube and the web but not much there. Pretty layouts but not much into guts of button binding. What to leave default vs what button set ups are ok to change.
Any documentation or detailed assistance would be REALLY appreciated. Not so interested in nice HUD setups as in depth binding. Thanks!!!

Default settings for simple targeting on a controller are:

—Left/Right D-pad targets enemies.
—Up/Down D-pad targets self or any party members.

When you soft-target a mob (the simple circle rotating on top of the model, no visible target line or target arrow), you have to lock on to it—usually by hitting X or using a skill on it so that you will not lose your target. You cannot attack when soft-targeting a mob (or heal, as the heals will just target you instead of a party member). It sounds like your losing of a target is because you have it soft-targeted.

If you mean your hotbar buttons are changing, that could be because you are cycling through them: default hotbar cycling control is R1.


I know there are custom settings that you can do, but I’ve always left them on default and I’ve made it work. Any custom settings that you would want will have to be whatever you find comfortable for you—much like Mouse+Keyboard keybinds. There is no universal setting for custom controls, so it will probably take a lot of playing around with different binds for you to find which one ultimately feels best for you.

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Originally Posted by Greykemp

Based on player advice, I'm switching from the m/kb to the PS4 (DS4 actually) controller. It's pretty confusing. Is there a flowchart of controller inputs?

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Controller settings are a bit complex. Depending what your settings are set as, you can have very different effects for various button combos etc. The reason there's no flowchart is that there's no one right way to set up your controller options/combos. There are basics such as pressing "X" button to target nearest target-able thing based on your current target rule, pressing "O" to exit/descend(flying/swimming), pressing "triangle" to jump/ascend(flying/swimming), pressing "square" to bring up map. And then there's the up/down arrows to cycle through party members, and the left/right arrows to cycle through all target-able things based on your current target rule, and L1+(up/down) to cycle through emnity list.

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I seem to go from targeting one enemy after the other to suddenly finding myself locked on ME :).

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You may have hit up/down and ended up targeting yourself.

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If I do target an enemy I keep losing him as soon as I start moving.

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If you have "lock-on to target" enabled, moving out of view or to a certain distance will disengage target and deselect them.

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Also buttons seem to change almost randomly.

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L1 act like "modifier" keys in that they alter what your buttons do.

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Tried searching YouTube and the web but not much there. Pretty layouts but not much into guts of button binding. What to leave default vs what button set ups are ok to change.
Any documentation or detailed assistance would be REALLY appreciated. Not so interested in nice HUD setups as in depth binding. Thanks!!!

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There isn't really isn't too much in terms of changing button binding, but you can modify how targeting works and how your L2/R2 keys work for quick access to expanded/other cross-hotbar.

Up/Down - cycle through party members
Left/Right - target things in front of you according to current targeting filter (see below)
L1+Up/Down - cycle through enemy list
L1+Left/Right - cycle through alliance list
L1+X/O/Triangle/Square - select targeting filter (see below)

All of these start as a soft target. To make them a hard target, select them as above, then press X to confirm the choice. If you have something soft-targeted when you use a skill, it will perform that one skill on the soft target, but then switch your target back to whatever is hard targeted. (It's useful to use that way for a healer who wants to attack an enemy while keeping the tank targeted for healing, or a DPS who wants to send a support buf to a teammate while keeping their enemy targeted for attacks. The rest of the time, just get used to confirming your target selection choice with X.) It's worth practicing a bit on your own in an area with low level enemies where there's little else going on so you can see what's happening with the target before trying to get used to it in a dungeon.

Targeting filter:
check one or the other (but not both) of the boxes:
Character Configuration -> Control Settings -> Filters -> Enable Target Cycling
or
Character Configuration -> Control Settings -> Filters -> Enable Customization

The first lets you configure two settings according to whether your weapon is drawn or sheathed. Or the second lets you configure up to four settings you can alternate between manually by pressing L1 + one of the right-side face buttons. (I'd recommend the four manually controlled filters, as it's more versatile, but maybe someone who only plays tank or DPS can do ok with the drawn/sheathed pattern.) Then, for each filter, there's a collection of checkboxes for whether to include players, NPCs, claimed enemies, unclaimed enemies, pets, and so on.

Once you have customized filters, of either type, the left and right controller buttons will cycle only between targets matching your current filter. (If your current filter is one of the named presets like "Friends" "Enemies" or "All", the filter name is shown just above your character's HP Bar to remind you what it's currently on. Otherwise it displays as "Custom".)

Most of the time, I leave my target filter on "Enemies" mode, but I sometimes change it to "All" in town where I may want to inspect someone's cool looking gear or something. When I'm playing healer and running open world FATEs or hunts, I'll use "Friends" mode to target other players not in my party, but I prefer the Up/Down to select party members, so in dungeons, I keep the left/right set to "Enemies" mode since the only friendly players are my party.

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Originally Posted by Yui_Tenshi

There are basics such as pressing "X" button to target nearest target-able thing based on your current target rule

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The X doesn't use your targeting filter. It uses its own built in set of priorities. I know NPCs and objects are prioritized above players (which is useful if a quest giver or summoning bell is surrounded by people — just hit X and get the right thing). And mobs seem to be prioritized at the same tier as objects (which is kind of annoying when playing botanist or miner, and it keeps selecting a nearby creature instead of the gathering node I'm heading for). But it will select the nearest player if nothing else is around.

It's only the left/right button cycling that uses your selected targeting filter.

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Originally Posted by Yui_Tenshi

There isn't really isn't too much in terms of changing button binding, but you can modify how targeting works and how your L2/R2 keys work for quick access to expanded/other cross-hotbar.

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You can also configure L3 and R3 (pressing the analog sticks). I don't remember what the initial defaults are, but I remember I removed the default action for R3 because I had too much tendency to press it accidentally by gripping the controller too tight when I got excited. (My current setup has L3 draw/sheathe my weapon —which I still do accidentally sometimes— and R3 does nothing.)