Whm Hotbars - help!

What abilities need to be on my main hotbar(s)? Which are abilites do you use the MOST? Which do you need quick access to for those "oh ___" moments?

As I'm leveling (slowly) I would like to form GOOD habits, so when I start raiding I don't have to make too many changes in the way I play the game. I would like to do some raid progression, but not necessarily the very top tier. Right now there are abilties I can bury because I don't use them often, but I expect I'll need later. For example: I almost never use raise, but I'm guesssing I will need to use that in battle later in the game? Obviously the abilities I use most need to be on my main hotbar, but I've also noticed things I don't use often, but need quickly accessible on demand (Potions).

I had to make use of a lot more of my abilities once I hit 50. For healing The ones I use most are cure,cure II, medica, shroud, regen, protect, stoneskin, divine seal and occasionally, raise. The two biggest mistakes I see are that the healer spams medica II, you really wont need it much and the enmity and mp cost are crazy! Regen is really useful but never cast it when there is a possibility that adds will spawn and always wait for tank to get hate first. If you get low on mp or are getting way too much hate pop shroud, it helps! Lastly, level up THM now, you will need swiftcast alot! If you are on gamepad like me I have 2 hotbars: one for healing, one for combat...works pretty well and gives me lots of space.

3 things factor in on how i place my spells:

1) Frequency of use
2) Cast Order
3) Criticality - is this a spell that i need to be able to trigger on a whim? If so then it would be allocated to something close to the front of the keyboard (don't think controllers have that problem)

If you're on keyboard, also consider keybinding the 4 horizontal like the following: Row 1 = 1,2,3,4 Row 2 = Ctrl-1, 2, 3, 4 Row 3 Shift-1,2,3,4 Row 4 Alt-1,2,3,4. Shift/Ctrl/Alt combinations are very flexible in this game you can link them with your mouse buttons as well. I have mousewheel button for sprint to dodge AOEs and ctrl mousewhee button for mount.

I'd suggest 2-5 or 3-6 over 1-4, due to ergonomics (4-5 are best for your strongest finger, the forefinger whilst utilising your WASD)

So once again: Frequency of use + Hand Ergonomics.

The abilities I use most is cure, cure II, regen, medica, medica II, stoneskin, esuna, and swiftcast. Those are all very important and you should have them on your main bar. Other very useful skills that I use frequently would be divine seal, eye for an eye, shroud of saints, virus, and cleric stance+attacks. You'll want to set benediction to a button you can hit very easily, cause that is your most important spell in "oh s**t" moments. Other than that, I don't really use anything else.

Repose is almost worthless, I sometimes use presence of mind for nuking with stone II, protect you usually only need to use once per dungeon, and raise would be nice to have right next to swift cast and medica II. I find the two spells I swift cast the most is raise and medica II, also since you can get rid of weakness with medica II, that's another good reason to have raise, swiftcast, and medica II together

I wrote this long, detailed post on WHM spells but damn the character limit!!! So I guess here they are in short:

Must haves:
Protect, Cure, Cure II, Regen, Medica, Medica II, Esuna, Shroud of Saints, Devine Seal, Raise, Benediction and Swiftcast.

Utility:
Thunder, Aero II, Aero, Cleric Stance, Presence of Mind, Stoneskin, Holy, Surecast, Virus, Eye for an Eye

Rarely or never use:
Stone, Stone II, Fluid Aura, Repose, Cure III

Honestly you use every single spell you're given. Some vary in how often they're used but having them all on your hot bars bound is almost a must. The only spells that's up to preference are the DPS spells. I have em because when I do AK, I always DPS as well (lol).

If you're on PC, set up additional keybinds on another (third) action bar. Keys I often use are `, Q, E, (or A/D if you're used to strafing with Q/E), R, F, G, V, Z, X. They should all be within easy reach from the WASD position. If you're comfortable using Ctrl/Alt modifiers you can toss those in as well.

A couple of those are prebound to something, but it's usually something pointless like 'sheathe weapon' or 'sit' and you can just rebind the function elsewhere if you really care that much.

If you have a gaming mouse with tons of buttons, it gets even easier to have your spells available at a moment's notice.

Using a gamepad here:

First hotbar adjusts accordingly, but consists of:

Shroud of Saints
Repose / Presence of Mind (depends on if Titan, Coil, speed running, usually its Presence of Mind)
Divine Seal
Raise

Stoneskin
Aero II macro (casts on the target of my target OR the target directly)
Medica

Regen
Esuna
Fluid Aura macro (same targeting as Aero II macro)
Cure

Cleric's Stance
Stone II macro
Aero macro
Cure

====

Holy is on a second bar along with Thunder, though the latter does not get used.
Virus and Surecast have not been reliably worked into my routine and I would like to unlock Eye for an Eye.


Third hotbar contains things like Protect, since I cast once and forget for 30 minutes. Medica is also there, since if I do consider an AoE, I usually factor in the need/want for Medica II's Regen effect. Cure III is also here, howe'er, the burst range is weak enough that it tends to be not so delicious to me.

I've considered throwing Raise and a duplicate Swiftcast on this bar for those in-combat raises.
Benediction and Limit Break are also here as if I do need them in emergency, I don't trigger them by mistake.

I intentionally left my OP open ended. I am on PS3. As a side note - I've played other MMOs on PC... and actually switched WASD to WERD, so I could use my pinky finger more, and reach more numbers. I think a lot of the same principles apply - certain button combinations are awkward just as certain keys are hard to reach.

I'm surprised how many people consider repose and fluid aura useless since it seems pretty good at low levels. Good to know! I'm also surprised people didn't include Potions and Sprint?????

http://i.imgur.com/LST7mp1.png

Somehow I have every skill on the bar and hotkey'd...

Keyboard though.

For fights like HM Titan, you want to get your AE heal close by and easily accessible.