WHM and Gamepad: how do you play?

[Monsalvato]

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

[Philology]

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.

[PArcher]

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.


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



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.

[Versiroth]

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.

[Odd]

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.

[Versiroth]

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.

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.

[Estellios]

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.

[Monsalvato]

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.

[Monsalvato]

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?

[Estellios]

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.