I am a game pad user (mainly because I mostly play on PS3 as it's easier for me). I played FFXI for years also using a game pad. The only challenge with a gamepad is larger party sizes where it's not so quick to use up and down to scroll away from your focus target. Am not high enough yet for this content yet so will have to see! But my thought was to have shortcuts to the 6th, 12th, 18th member perhaps. So far I haven't been held back at all using cross bars and pad but will be interesting to see how adaptable this is with larger groups. I may need to switch back to PC yet!