Mouse/Keyboard vs. Controller: Your Thoughts

[Zell]

Healing is easier using the keyboard and mouse.... Clicking on a name and clicking on an ability is faster than toggling the ability and then toggling the name.

Controller is awesome for crafting and gathering. It's also great for melee classes. However, I find myself being more efficient with a keyboard. If my scroller is on ability 7 and I need to get to ability 2, I need to toggle/scroll through the abilities. On keyboard, I just click on 2.

To each his own, and this is coming from someone who used a controller exclusively in FFXI and FFXIV. I switched to keyboard/mouse because healing was not efficient. I have room for both in my FFXIV life.

[Arcell]

Healing on the gamepad isn't hard if you set yourself up right. I'm not saying it's easier or better they using a mouse but it can still be quite efficient. Just set your default target so that you have easy access to any players you might need to heal. Personally I usually set myself as the main target because I am off the list. This way if I hit up I start at the bottom of the list, if I hit down I start at the top of the list. Using the D-pad to select names, I can get anywhere I need to on that player list quickly. If there's a situation where I'm going to be healing one person far more often than others, I set them as my main target. Given, I don't heal often but when I do I'm not deficient simply because I use a gamepad.

[Jinko]

You can set up your skills in a gamepad efficient way so that you have access to everything you need within a few button presses. I can't argue that it takes more presses to get there but I can get to almost any skill I need with gamepad in a second or less.

I also don't give two shits about maximizing my end-game DPS to the extent that you're talking about. Really doesn't matter to me. I'm going to play well with my gamepad and that's pretty much going to be it lol. I can do the things I need to and I can play well, that's what really matters to me. I can be "on the ball" and play very well with the gamepad.

If we're talking about super high-end elitist DPS races then yeah, I guess gamepad is inferior. Keyboard will always be a little faster sure, it will always have greater functionality. However outside of chat, there's nothing that requires a keyboard vs a gamepad.

Wow no need to be so defensive.. I see this thread is starting to turn for the worse.

Healing on the gamepad isn't hard if you set yourself up right. I'm not saying it's easier or better they using a mouse but it can still be quite efficient. Just set your default target so that you have easy access to any players you might need to heal. Personally I usually set myself as the main target because I am off the list. This way if I hit up I start at the bottom of the list, if I hit down I start at the top of the list. Using the D-pad to select names, I can get anywhere I need to on that player list quickly. If there's a situation where I'm going to be healing one person far more often than others, I set them as my main target. Given, I don't heal often but when I do I'm not deficient simply because I use a gamepad.

This is pretty interesting, I guess it depends how you heal, but a player who heals purely with controller only its quite a bit slower than someone who uses number keys and a mouse.

For example you have to scroll across your abilities and then scroll up and down the names.

On a mouse you can either select the skill and target the player (which is what I do) or turn off the subtargeting and select the player and press the skill.

Both of which are much faster, now you may say bleh who cares about that elitist nonsense well I don't think I'm elitist in the slightest, there is something to be said for efficiency though.

[Arcell]

This is pretty interesting, I guess it depends how you heal, but a player who heals purely with controller only its quite a bit slower than someone who uses number keys and a mouse.

For example you have to scroll across your abilities and then scroll up and down the names.

On a mouse you can either select the skill and target the player (which is what I do) or turn off the subtargeting and select the player and press the skill.

Both of which are much faster, now you may say bleh who cares about that elitist nonsense well I don't think I'm elitist in the slightest, there is something to be said for efficiency though.

I wouldn't say it's quite a bit slower. You can think ahead and queue up actions with subtargeting up. If you know you're going to need to heal someone soon you can hover around it for a second and wait. I grouped all of my heal/buff skills close together so I'd have easy access to all of them. The way I think with gamepads when setting up skills is vertical in addition to horizontal. D-pad up/down switches action bar rows so it's quite easy to get to the next row and if you set up your skills the right way you can get there with fewer button presses.

Again I guess it is slower but I wouldn't say by quite a bit. You can heal quickly if you set yourself up right and anticipate what you'll need to do within the next 10 seconds or so. Gamepads can do it well, it may just be very slightly slower. Hardly noticeable in my experience. Every time I've tried to play with KB/Mouse it's been a mess, can't stand it.

[Soukyuu]

Gamepad might be slower, but not to the degree it cripples the player if set up right, even the light shot shouldn't be a problem especially with you having 1-3 seconds time to select the next ability with all the animation lag. Of course if you're used to kb and waiting for the lag to finish, you will be slower on gamepad, because you're starting to navigate to your next skill too late.

The way my bars are set up, i only need to press one key to select my next ability if I, say, mess up a combo on MNK. Of course, there are times I need more seconds to adjust, but it's rarely critical.

About healing, so far I can't remember a case where someone died because of me being too slow on selecting the target, only when I misjudged who will need a heal next (resulting in a midcast death of the target).

tl;dr: gamepad requires you to concentrate more in hectic situations and is a potential handicap, but it doesn't cripple you per default.

[Merylstryfe]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but using a razor naga gaming mouse is amazing for this game. I bought one for 80 bucks and feel its totally worth the investment (works for any mmo and you can make profiles). The best thing, I have 2 buttons dedicated to cycling through action bars, and 10 buttons for all of my actions. Plus click healing is easier than a controller.

P.s. I played ffxi with a controller for 6 years and ffxiv for over a year before buying the mouse last month.
P.p.s . At least the game is decently designed for both inputs, unlike any other mmo.

[Dragon]

I use whatever I feel suits the situation best, whether it's keyboard-only, keyboard-mouse, or keyboard-controller.

[HyakuShiki1234]

I used a PS3 controller for most of the game but I recently moved to the keyboard and mouse - IMO, the KB/M is a much better setup solely for the easy of Linkshell chat. I haven't found the controls too bad, to be honest - they took some adjusting to but they aren't horrible, and mouse clicking on NPCs is quicker than scrolling through targets on the controller. Everything else is more or less the same, though.

[Vaer]

I see a lot of mention on "How do controller users type?" Well, one way of fixing it is using vent/mumble/w/e, voice chat. This goes for both control schemes though. When you stop to type with a keyboard, you still have to stop what you are doing. The transition is far easier if you are a keyboard user obviously. Voice chat works wonders.

I used keyboard on FFXI for about 6-7 years, and then tried a controller. I found it easier to heal entire alliances using the dpad to scroll through everyone than a keyboard as there aren't enough fkeys for 18 people. I found general targeting and general movement of a character at the same time harder with a gamepad, though.

With a keyboard, I could cycle targets and move at the same time easily. With a gamepad I have to reach for the dpad to cycle targets while using the analog at the same time and somehow rotate the camera with the other analog, on the keyboard I just have to hold down the direction keys on the numpad with my right hand, camera movement directional keys with the thumb of my right hand while using macros/the left tab with the other.

I've been using gamepad for FFXIV because for some reason they removed camera movement with the directional keys and that was annoying. (not sure if it works now after all the changes)

[Molly_Millions]

I played XI with a controller, which worked great. I never considered kb/mouse an option in that game. I started XIV using a controller, after a few weeks I bought a steel series merc keyboard and have never looked back. I had originally switched because targeting was absolutely atrocious prior to 1.18, and was able to create dual layered macro for targeting which still works way better than any of the targeting options SE has added since. (I created a /targetnpc macro that I can initiate with a single button press on my keyboard.)