Question about PC/Keyboard controls

[416to305]

Hi all,
I play on PS4 only as all healers but am buying a gaming PC and will be playing more on PC soon. I've always found it awkward in the few times I did a demo of ffxiv on my laptop mainly with doing actions. It's fairly straightforward to move with WASD and control the camera/targets with the mouse. What I have trouble with is the action keys, using 0,1,2,3 etc for Cure, Cure II and so on. I always have to look down to see them where as PS4 you only ever push 2 buttons, a trigger and a button never looking away from the screen. Holding ctrl plus one of them seems even harder, and mousing over one to click it seems slow. More people play on PC though so I'm obviously missing something, just wondering if you have any tips?

[Ashelia_Ferron]

Well if you don't end up getting used to it, you could just plug in your PS4 controller and keep playing that way

[Cassandaria]

as a dedicated pc player who also uses a controller from time to time, I can say that whatever is the most comfortable for you is where you should go. However, if you want to adjust to a keyboard, what I do is divide the keyboard up. I use the number keys 1-6 with my left hand, but the 7-9 is done with the mouse, this also provides me having two ways to activate.
The other option to keep in mind is that targeting on the pc is far more intuitive and you have many more party target options. Try going to a simple area with a party that'll help you adjust and try the targeting options. You can use the F keys to immediately target on your party list, select that member on the screen directly, select that member with the mouse in the party list, mouse over that party list if you want to use macros as well as using text commands if you like that instead. The adaptability is the real benefit, but the other suggestion I would have is to plan your heals to begin precasting.

[Februs]

I have a similar question, but in the reverse of the OP's. Sorry to steal your thunder, OP, but it's better than starting a new thread.

I just started healing recently, and so far party healing seems pretty straight forward with a controller... but Alliance healing seems impossible. I avoid PvP or 24 man raids as my healer because I feel gimpy by comparison to the PC players who can easily just click on whatever Alliance HP bar is low and cast a heal. Normally it's fine... until you're the last healer standing any everyone's begging you to rez/heal them. Opening the "virtual mouse" to heal is slow, clunky, locks your hotbar, and locks your camera (both of the last two being utterly stupid), so I don't find that's a good alternative.

So, my question is: Do any controller players know a better way of going about doing this? Or am I screwed in Alliances without a mouse and keyboard?

[Roxas_Andrade]

So, my question is: Do any controller players know a better way of going about doing this? Or am I screwed in Alliances without a mouse and keyboard?

If you use a PS4, you can just use the pad on the controller as a mouse. It's not as good as a mouse, but whatever.
If you're on a PS3 or usin a control with no pad on your PC, I don't know what to say. I played on PS3 a long time ago, but there wasn't alliance content back then and then I transferred to PS4...

[Ragology]

So, my question is: Do any controller players know a better way of going about doing this? Or am I screwed in Alliances without a mouse and keyboard?

Open the Character configuration menu, control settings, filters tab, then scroll down to "enable customization."

You can set up four targeting behaviors here, each activated by pressing L1+ a face button. You can use this to create filter just for alliance members. So in mid battle, activate the filter, get your heals off and then switch back to your regular filter with ease.

Oh hmm, I've just read that L1+ left/right will cycle through alliance members by default. See if that works too.

[VanilleFang]

Oh hmm, I've just read that L1+ left/right will cycle through alliance members by default. See if that works too.

It does. That's how I do it. But it's a pain in the butt.

[Februs]

Oh hmm, I've just read that L1+ left/right will cycle through alliance members by default. See if that works too.

Brilliant. Thank you very much. I will give this a try.

It does. That's how I do it. But it's a pain in the butt.

Probably, yes, but it can't be worse than the virtual mouse. Controller targeting will always be slower than a mouse, even within your own party. If I really wanted to up my healing game I'd plug in a mouse and keyboard... but that's a lot of work for just one job. I actually prefer the controller for my Dps/Tanks. So, I'm not willing to trade it for the sake of one job.

[whiskeybravo]

So, my question is: Do any controller players know a better way of going about doing this? Or am I screwed in Alliances without a mouse and keyboard?

It's better to ignore them xD

Seriously, though. One of my bigger problems with the controllers - targeting sucks.

If you don't want to use target scrolling (I only did this in a2s as driver) the only advice I can give is to customize the target filter so you can target everything. I have mine split so when weapon is drawn my target is limited to enemies, then with sheathed weapon I can target non-party members and other things. It still gets kinda annoying (cuz you draw your weapon when you go to cast, so that means you can only select one person at a time). But it's equally annoying to have to scroll through 1000 things to find the right enemy or whatever.. At the end of the day I just don't worry about alliance member lol

Also, you could hook a mouse up to the ps4 if you wanted. I have a wireless keyboard with a touchpad on it that works as mouse, though not well enough to use it other than random selections like the above and moving around abilities on my fancy hotbars

[Februs]

It's equally annoying to have to scroll through 1000 things to find the right enemy or whatever.

I actually prefer playing with a controller for my Tanks and Drg, because I like the ease of use buttons for my hotbar rotations.

Targeting does get a little iffy in tightly packed areas (like PvP, for example) but I usually get around this pretty well by circle jerking my targets. Your targeting should automatically target whatever is closest to the centre of your screen, so if you aim well with your screen (3rd person shooter experience can come in handy here) you usually get the target you want, or near enough that a quick rotate left or right will get you the one you wanted. Takes some practice. PvP trained my fingers to circle jerk through targets pretty quickly though.