Playing an MMO with a controller

[DarkChild]

I only use Keyboard and Mouse for Sim City 4 and Civilization 5. Everything else gets the controller. The PS4 Dualshock controller is the best I have ever layed my hands on. I've even tried the various Xbox controllers in the past.

I can't imagine trying to play FF14 with keyboard and mouse. I'm so glad it allows for controller use otherwise I wouldn't have tried it! There is a reason why this game is my first MMO and the controller is that reason.

[Izsha]

I think FFXIV has a very good controller scheme but it will never be as good as mouse & keyboard.

this game needs at least 3 action bars to play your job to its full potential.

targeting with a controller is no match to mouse & keyboard as well.

That's really only true for pet jobs because of the large number of extra actions maneuvering pets and activating 2 to 3 pets unique abilities.

If your not a pet job (to many buttons) or a healer (player selecting for actions), then controller easily matches or bests keyboard/mouse combinations. You can play every job save the above with 2 hotbars, 32 buttons easily and that includes redundant actions on each bar. (I duplicate basic spam actions like heavy shot or primary combo on both bars so I can continue rotation while toggling hotbars to access more abilities).

It's all preference in the end mostly. I was a console gamer growing up, 1st real mmo was xi on ps2 with controller. Migrated to PC, now play 14 controllered. My coil statics from t1 to t13 have had a mix of kb/mouse, kb only, and controller users. There was never some discrepancy between us. They all work if you have half a brain to create a logical setup for your actions.

But controllers forever win the comfort award. Sit back. Relax. You don't have to be upright ergonomically correct at a desk. Most of us do that at work. Relax at home with a controller in whatever position you want.

[Vurtney]

The keyboard-mouse mode need a lot of keybinds customization. For example, my left hand covers 48 key-binds without having to move its position

I've been using the same keybind setup over a decade now. I have around 35 on my left hand which i can manage.

The basic keybind layout doesn't really work on any mmo. It needs to be tailored to work for each player and this is what many players don't do.

I cringe everytime i see someone use number keys for actions that need fast reaction times.

To each his own i guess.

[Rufalus]

I've been using controller so long now that I could never stop doing it this way, but targetting can be a big problem. When you have 72-players in PvP, it takes like 10 minutes to toggle over to the target I want to attack. Targetting difficulty can cause problems.

[Ayrie]

I played for a long time on KB+Mouse until Titan Hard was clobbering faces for a very long time, with a little support from Twintania. Once I crossed those two I realized quick movement and reaction was something that this game absolutely required and that's when I tried a controller. Once I made the swap it was so hard to swap back, as movement on the keyboard and mouse just seemed clunky and difficult (try auto-facing when using a skill on the KB vs controller, especially as a bard or tank on the move).

Only downfall I've noticed is immediately available actions. With ctrl+alt and 1 thru = on the keyboard you have almost 40 abilities on demand. That's a lot of bumping r1 to swap tabs right quick. I did go out and get a razer tartarus to help extend my access to keys and that has been a dream. When I want to dps as a healer now I can easily use the keys on the tartarus to click on cleric stance and sling my spells, then bump cleric stance off and go back to the controller for my heals and movement.

It has seriously increased my a game.

Edit: also, having a single vertical bar to track things like cooldowns and a macro with them all on it (no wait) has been great for me, too. Especially as a bard with 6 dps cooldowns or whatever. I hit the button 6 times to fire them all, or hit it once if I know one is off cooldown and ready to fire (looking at you, internal release). Pretty nifty. Macros definitely help the controller, too. Mashing Straight Shot + Bloodletter + Misery's End into one button helps me get the most out of the crossbar while not sacrificing critical abilities on demand.

[Arkenne]

For a few MMO I've played with Keyboard/mouse, its not too hard... but personally the character movement always felt so restricting.
Controller makes it much more free.
Altho I have to admit that most of the time keeping track of your cooldowns can be an issue since you will always have at most 16 buttons on view on the screen with the sole crosshotbar, so keyboard wins on that, as well as moving through menus, but I like the fact that I can hide EVERYTHING thanks to that too...

If you get used enough to the controller you can even play with the whole HUD hidden for a while and admire all the cool skill's light effects in a way you cant while staring at skills cooling down.
Since I play on PC with an Xbox controller, I think I can enjoy both features in a sense.

I would love that the camera spinning could be increased a 10 times fold tho...

[AreeyaJaidee]

I use keyboard w/ naga mouse. WASD movement, cycle enemy targets left or right with Q and E while ctrl, alt, and shift w/ numpad on mouse (shift+alt+1-8 for party member selection) . Once I got used to this setup it felt more reactive and precise than game pad.

[AlexionSkylark]

After getting used to it, I don't ever want to play with a Keyboard/Mouse Again.

[Lexia]

I mainly use controller but I also have keyboard command also since i have my stuff mixed. All my stuff I use often are on my controller cross bar and stuff I don't use often or less often are on my keyboard hot bar so I don't have to cycle cross bars.

[Kosmos992k]

In all honesty, I think a controller is faster and more flexible for a game such as this. I have immediate access to32 possible skills, instant analogue movement control, and no utterly unnatural backpedaling. I've read posts by keyboard mouse players who time and again dismiss the controller as less precise and too slow for skills. Utter garbage. This game does not require the precision of a sniper in an online shooter - which works very well on a controller BTW. and with GCD, I can hit heaven knows how many buttons in the standard GCD time. I can be switching enemy targets or party member, moving to a better location to avoid an AoE and then hit my chosen skill, even if it's on my secondary crossbar and still have time left over to wait for the casting time before moving again.Controller based movement is more fluid, natural and responsive than keyboard/mouse - IMHO.

With regard to the poster that mentioned not having enough skills available and having to spam R1, you can set an extended crossbar configuration to enable secondary Crossbar pages on each side of the controller, so a combination of R2-L2 allows you to have up to 32 commands instantly, rather than the normal 16. If I hold R2, and press-hold L2 I get a 3rd cross bar, and if I hold L2 then press and hold R2, I get a 4th, this is over and above the crossbars already configured on L2 and R2 themselves.

I think FFXIV has a very good controller scheme but it will never be as good as mouse & keyboard.**snip**
targeting with a controller is no match to mouse & keyboard as well.

Targeting is easy, as someone mentioned press L1 and the up/down controlls on the d-pad and you cycle through your enemy list, or press L1 or R1 during combat to cycle through them, use the up/down buttons to cycle through the party list, and left/right to cycle through targets on your current target filter setting. Trust me as a Paladin, when you finally figure out the ease of targeting with a controller you can split your rotation over 3 or more enemies if you must without a problem. And as a healer you can quickly pick an alternate party member to the one you keep targeted (tank) to receive a heal or other spell. Controller targeting is at least as easy and accurate as mouse keyboard. I'd contend that it's possibly quicker and easier to play on a controller than on mouse/keyboard.