Has Anyone Gone From 600+ Hours of Controller to KB/M

Hi all,

Not so much a new player question as it is a returning one.

I've played on and off since ARR and have exclusively used a controller on PC, with about 600 hours played exclusively with controller. I've played all three roles with a lot of success in all but the most challenging content and while targeting can be a bit tricky, specifically in raids with healing, it never bothered me too much and has felt natural.

I took a year and a half break after finishing the 5.0 story, and have been playing a ton of WoW and other MMOs during that where I couldn't use a controller and settled into my MMO Mouse/Keyboard combo. Now that I'm back on FFXIV, I jumped in on a controller, and while muscle memory is still there and it still feels cozy, I can't help but wonder if I'd be much more efficient if I took the time to learn the game on my Razer Naga and keyboard and forced myself off the controller.

Any experience with this?

Yeah I played 1.0 on a controller.
Swapped to a KB/M with ARR. However to make this easier I picked up a g600 MMO mouse.
Sadly now I can barely play without it, don't ask me to hit my actual keyboard hotkeys, it's all muscle memory to the mouse now lol.

Now your concern is that you want to get "more efficient" by ditching your controller but in what way?
Many endgame players use a controller, even the high parsing ones we won't talk about. While I no longer personally use one, I don't see the problem with it. SE actually did a very good job optimizing the controls for it so you aren't really left out.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Now your concern is that you want to get "more efficient" by ditching your controller but in what way?
Many endgame players use a controller, even the high parsing ones we won't talk about. While I no longer personally use one, I don't see the problem with it. SE actually did a very good job optimizing the controls for it so you aren't really left out.

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I guess the only thing I'd truly like to be better at is party and alliance targeting. In four man content it feels ... okay as a healer, but in Raids and especially extreme trials, it feels like more luck than skill that I target the right party member at the right moment and hit the right skill. It's like I'm putting more cognitive thought into navigating the party tabs to the members to get the heals, ands sometimes I mess up mechanics.

There's like 10 ways to target someone.
Just clicking on them or their name in the party/alliance list is a good start.
Your function keys default to your party selection like XI was.

Many healers tend to move all their UI elements in as they're more important than other class mains needs.
You'll find your groove, just keep at it.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

There's like 10 ways to target someone.
Just clicking on them or their name in the party/alliance list is a good start.

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Right, which is why I'm thinking maybe getting off controller and transitioning to KB/M might be better in the long run, especially if I wanted to move in ExSavage content as a healer.

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Originally Posted by Kearion

, especially if I wanted to move in ExSavage content as a healer.

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Unnecessary.
I'd possibly argue that KB/M is borderline required for healers... in PVP, but controllers work perfectly well for healing in Savage. And outside of sometimes flubbing the odd rescue I've never felt hampered by it.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Unnecessary.
I'd possibly argue that KB/M is borderline required for healers... in PVP, but controllers work perfectly well for healing in Savage. And outside of sometimes flubbing the odd rescue I've never felt hampered by it.

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Fair enough! I think I just have an odd amount of anxiety about that one off flubbed rescue I know I’m going to pull eventually that results in a wipe.

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Originally Posted by Kearion

Fair enough! I think I just have an odd amount of anxiety about that one off flubbed rescue I know I’m going to pull eventually that results in a wipe.

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You know what else will result in wipes?
The learning curve of unlearning one control scheme and learning another. One that isn't objectively better, simply different.
If you are enthusiastic about learning KB/M go for it.
Good luck and power to you.
But don't feel pressured to. This is a "you do you" kind of situation.

I play other MMOs with KB/M, but I always return to a controller with FFXIV, even I took 1 year breaks, the muscle memory is still there, but I grew up in FFXIV with controller, so I just don't feel like re-learning with KB/M.

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

I play other MMOs with KB/M, but I always return to a controller with FFXIV, even I took 1 year breaks, the muscle memory is still there, but I grew up in FFXIV with controller, so I just don't feel like re-learning with KB/M.

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Same! This last week I forced myself to sit down with an MMO mouse and KB and give it a fair shake. Last night I went back to controller. Don't get me wrong, it felt fine, and being able to target with a pointer was a godsend for Alliance content, but FFXIV just feels SO GOOD on a controller. It felt like a different game with KB/M and I missed it. Also call me crazy, but some classes just feel better on a controller. It's much easier for me to double weave on my SMN using the gamepad.

its completely up to you.

ffxiv actually feels a lot better on controller.

personally though i am going to stay on my kb for my pc because i like being able to master the use of kb + chatting + multitasking on ffxiv.

if you truly wish to learn kb, my only advice is to make it easier for yourself and completely customize your keys. if you are struggling to use 3 hotbars efficiently then you need to solve that asap. for e.g. my hotbars dont use any keys that are too far out of reach. i never lift my hands away from wasd movement. some friends use rdfg movement instead, but i hate that keymap myself.

My first time with FFXIV was playing all the content with a controller (PS4). It's totally doable and the game was really designed for that, but for a few days I started testing the game on my laptop using Keyboard and Mouse, and I feel faster when targeting, it's more precise and practical in some way. The "Cycle" thing for targeting with a controller is what bothers me now when I can compare both ways. I always feel that "small delay"when cycling to a target with a controller and with a mouse it's just a matter of clicking on it.