WHM and Gamepad: how do you play?

I was wondering to read about how do other gamepad WHMs play and set their UI. I'm talking about the gamepad specific UI, so cross bars.

Clearly you need to use at least 2 of them, how do you swap between them? Which bars do you use? What do you put on your main bar and what on your secondary? Is there any spell you leave outside of the bars and keep just for solo play?

I'm sure more questions will raise, but for now that's it ;)

Generally you only need 1 as a WHM. The main reason for this is that you will only use certain spells in certain situations. I try & split my bars up. So I have one for PVE (Healing), one for PVE (DPS'ing) & one for PVP.
This means that I don't require switching to use a spell in the majority of instances.
Protective spells stoneskin & protect don't get high enough frequency of use so they could be put in an additional bar.

Generally I have, Shroud of saints, eye 4 eye, virus, Limit Break, Cure1, Cure 2, Cure 3, Regen, Medica 1, Medica 2, Benediction, Divine Seal, Presence of mind, Sprint, Swiftcast, Revive. On my Healing x-bar.

I have two hotbars for all my combat classes; for some, both are used constantly (DRG/WAR/PLD/SMN), others, only one is really used (BLM/WHM/SCH). For all classes, both bars are 'connected' with the R2+L2 "bar" for easier use

For WHM, my two bars are "Healing" and "DPS"

My healing bar has all my healing spells and buffs, as well as a <tt> Aero and Stone 2.

http://i.imgur.com/2WLH4Uu.png
Normally I'm a lot more zoomed out; this was just the only screenshot I could find quickly that had the bar, and I felt cropping it would raise some questions lol. Focus Target is right below where my target's target is displayed

My "DPS" bar has little-used healing spells (Raise), occasional buffs (Swiftcast/Surecast/Cleric Stance) DPS spells (non-<tt> Stone2 and Aero, Aero 2, Holy), and other random solo-play things. Since I have it set up to be used with L2+R2, its easy to access Swiftcast and Raise when I need them (which is about all I need from it when healing)

EDIT: Found an old screenshot with the secondary bar, but it has changed slightly

http://i.imgur.com/3TDjwwo.png

The L2 D-Pad has changed, no cure spells are on it currently (I've added my Unicorn mount and a macro for Searing Wind), Fluid Aura is a macro for FA + Mark "Ignore1" + Repose, and the Ballad icon on R2 is a macro to ask for Ballad.

I'm on PC and use a xbox 360 controller (I just find it a lot more fun). I use one whole bar (16 buttons) for healing and buffs and then the RT+LT bar (8 buttons) for DPS abilities and debuffs. (I have it setup so RT+LT and LT+RT activate the same bar).

On my RT, I have Cure, Cure II, Regen and Esuna on the letter buttons and then Medica, Medica II, Cure III and Divine Seal on the directional Pad. On my LT, I have Sprint, Stone Skin, Shroud of Saints and benediction on the letter buttons and then Swiftcast, Raise, presence of mind and Surecast on the Dpad. Finally, on the RT+LT, I have Aero, Aero II, Stone II and Virus (all targeted DPS spells/debuffs are on a <tt>/<t> macro) on the letter buttons and then Cleric Stance, Holy, Stone I and Blizzard II on the Dpad. I'll replace stone I with eye for an eye once I unlock it as I never use stone I any more.

Since i'm on PC, I also have some keybinds, so I have protect and LB on a couple of those.

As far as my UI goes, all I did was move the party list/enemy list closer to the center so I can easy see AOEs in my peripheral when I'm monitoring the group. I also always go into the party menu and change it to where the main tank is second on the list, the OT is third and the other healer is last. I stay focused on the MT and move the Dpad from there. If you do a set up like this every time, then moving the dpad to select party members becomes muscle memory.

That's about it I believe. :)

You're correct in that we need 2 hotbars.

But I use one for healing and one for dps. My healing hotbar does have Cleric Stance and Holy on it though, as it is often needed in a pinch. I also put things like protect and raise on my dps hotbar. And I have swiftcast on both.

I sort my party list so that the tank(s) is in the middle. This way, there's less clicks needed to get to everyone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Odd

I sort my party list so that the tank(s) is in the middle. This way, there's less clicks needed to get to everyone.

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The clicks are the same regardless. I put the MT second because I want to be able to heal myself very quickly.

Healer 1 (me)
Tank 1 (focus)
Tank 2
DPS 1
DPS 2
DPS 3
DPS 4
Healer 2

It takes no more than 4 clicks to get to anyone. If you had your tank at number 4, you still have a minimum of 4 clicks to get to the person farthest away and you'll need two additional to get back to yourself. It's really what you get used to more than anything else, but I never want to get into a situation where I need a heal and I'm having to waste additional time scrolling to myself. If I die, I can't heal anyone, haha.

I use 2 bars but they are identical except the first has Cure/Cure II and Stone II/ Aero II / Aero and the second has Medica / Medica II and Holy / Blizzard II. Essentially R1 on my WHM is my AOE toggle.

I have it arranged so R2/RT is offense and L2/LT is defense

I also use a single set of 8 actions while holding down both triggers which has all my "reactionary" skills that need to have quick access but won't be needed on the main bars like Raise, E4E, Shroud, etc.

And for the party list i put tanks on the bottom, I can get to them easily by hitting up.

So many different comments and playstyles! Thank you so much for sharing ;)
I've thought about using the "L2+R2" special bar. Atm I have cross bar #8 there (with menu shortcuts and stuff) and I'm comfortable with that, altough of course that's not really useful during fight, but you cannot set the "L2+R2" to change dynamically (like... link to #8 out of fight and #7 while fight). If you could it would be awesome.

Keep in mind I'm still just level 45 so I've never done hard fights yet, but for the dungeons I often find myself using attack spells too. Well not on tough bosses maybe, but on trash and easy boss I use dots, sleeps and sometimes the occasional stone II as well.
That's why I didn't split into a "healer bar + dps bar" model.
My main crossbar is almost full atm, and I don't have Benediction, MedicaII and AeroII yet... or additional skills from other classes.

Also I noticed nobody uses stoneskin midfight. Is it because at high levels it's unefficient? At my current level and pretty much since I got it at 36 I tend to use it a lot during fights, when I don't have to heal of course. In a precautionary way to prevent AoE damage and pretty much whenever it's down and I don't have to heal, I tend to reapply Stoneskin on DDs and myself. I reapply it on the tank only between pulls of course.
Does the situation drastically change at high levels? So far it proved pretty effective to me despite the long cast times.


Also, is cure III any useful at all? I haven't read the range, but it seems to me its range is very very very small? Compared to Medica I at least, which has a pretty big range.



Which of the WHM/CNJ actions you rarely/barely use?

Cure III is a lot more useful now that they slightly increased the AoE range. There are several fights endgame where you have to group up tightly for one reason or another (Titan and Twintania come to mind) and Cure III is extremely potent at healing in those situations.

Stoneskin isn't often used mid-fight later on because it's slow and MP inefficient, but it is crucial in some fights when you are anticipating a big hit that is usually telegraphed like Titan's Mountain Buster. It's nice to throw it up whenever Swiftcast is up, though.

I'm a PS3 player. My UI is pretty much default (with some things shrunk or moved further to the edge of the screen). I use two main cross bars with a fairly organized setup. R2 face buttons on bar 1 has stone, stone 2, aero, and stance. Dpad with protect, repose, water, and SoS. L2 face cures and sprint (yes, sprint. I dislike swapping bars to sprint lol). Dpad SS, esuna, regen and divine seal. 2nd bar has other useful things like swiftcast and whatnot spread how I like it. Medicas and Holy are on L2 face. Couple screenshots below are a bit old and were taken at different times just to clarify, the 2nd was accidental trying to open the menu and setting auto run in CT lol. Also I think I was screwing around with it at the time of the 2nd one, aero 2 is usually where that stance is lol.

I used to just R1 tap to swap, but I got used to switching by holding the button and hitting a button to switch after I made a marking bar with some useful stuff for tanking. On all of my classes I have similar setups too, main stuff on the face and less used stuff on the dpad.
http://i.imgur.com/mIk1JMp.png
http://i.imgur.com/FGP5kux.png

Oh and I sometimes SS mid fight. It's not super efficient in most cases, in fact it's generally not good to do mid fight because of it's MP cost, but at times it can be a life saver. Say a DPS eats a hit but you can't really take your focus off the tank for whatever reason (constant big damage due to being lesser geared). Swiftcast, SS the DPS and pop a regen (keep in mind that that swiftcast eats a timely raise, hope you have a SMN with you lol). As long as the person doesn't eat another big attack they'll be fine. It's situational, certainly not recommended for repeated use in fights like Titan HM, but you learn when it will be useful over time spent healing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Estellios

Stoneskin isn't often used mid-fight later on because it's slow and MP inefficient, but it is crucial in some fights when you are anticipating a big hit that is usually telegraphed like Titan's Mountain Buster. It's nice to throw it up whenever Swiftcast is up, though.

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I'm fairly new to lvl 50 healing, just finished Titan up last night, but one use that I found is if you have to raise someone in Titan (HM). Their HP is often dipped to a point where they have a rough time surviving Tumult and through no fault of their own, they just can't stay up. If you can toss a stoneskin on them while weak, it may help them survive the next Tumult.

I will toss stoneskin up on people if I have a moment, I agree it does help with the random damage tossed out.

-I use stoneskin A LOT midfight. I often go for 100% uptime on myself and the other healer. I know it's inefficient, but I also know I'll stand in the wrong place eventually.
-I rarely use cleric stance.
-Protect is rarely needed midfight.
-I don't have eye for an eye - I didn't like acn.
-I do like cure III when it's half cost to cast and melee need some light healing.

My main 16 cover my most encounters:
Cure I
Cure II
Cure III
Medica II (divine seal macro?)
Benediction
Esuna
Stoneskin
Sprint
Stone II
Aero
Regen
Shroud of saints
Holy
Raise (switcast/PoM macro)
Virus
Divine seal

The other 16?
Protect
Cleric Stance
Medica
Presence of Mind
Sprint (yes it’s on both)
Stone I
X-ether
Echo drops
Fluid Aura
Repose

Maybe switcast, and surecast??? IDK – they’re macro’d into other abilities.

My hotbar is highly customizable where i have 2 when out of battle, and 2 that can only be activated while weapon is drawn. That being said, I'm able to fit all Skills special to that class on One and a Half Hotbars. This includes WHM

I use 1 hot bar set normally, then Access to a 2nd Hotbar by Holding L2+R2. L2->R2, and R2-L2 can summon 2 different Half Hotbars. I have 1 half hotbar set to both, in case i ever accidentally use R2L2 over L2R2. which can happen a lot.

As far as organization, my stuff is all over the place and only to be understood by me due to habits and tendencies lol.

my L2 R2 hotbar normally consists of "Oh Sh@# lets get it done!" such as Benediction, Swiftcast, Medica II and a "Need MP macro" for WHM.