Transitioning From PS4 To PC: Any Tips?

[Jkap_Goat]

I play on PC and I use a ps4 controller, I found out a mouse is easier to click on other players who are not in your party who needs healing and messing with the UI

[tdb]

I done this last week and decided to stick to controller. Muscle memory and what I’m used to. Didn’t like hotbars on screen like pc has. Didn’t feel right lol

Uh, doesn't PS4 have a hotbar on the screen too? It's just a different shape and instead of having multiple bars visible at once you choose which one is active. You can do that with the PC-style hotbars too btw - by default it's bound to shift+number keys. It's probably more awkward than the controller variant though.

[DumdogsWorld]

There isn't much difference - Square Enix did a REALLY good job of making both versions of the game essentially the same. You can use a USB mouse and keyboard with the PS4 version (even ones with remapping support, as long as they use onboard memory) and controllers with the PC version.

If you just want to play on PC hardware but don't want to ditch the controller, then keep in mind that even though Wal-mart and Target want you to believe that wired PS4 controllers don't exist, they actually do. If you want to avoid the headaches that wireless controllers sometimes cause people on PC, get a USB PS4 controller.

If you want to use a mouse and keyboard, however, I would recommend that you get a serious MMO mouse. It is by no means a requirement, but having to switch back and forth between WASD and ability keys can be frustrating for many people (like myself).

[Mhiro]

Like a lot of people said, unless you really want to transition to mouse/KB, just continue in controller mode. Personally for me, controller movement is a lot easier since the movement while adjusting the camera is something I'm way used to even after 10+ years on FFXI mouse/KB. Hell I've managed to play a fully functional SCH/SMN since 2013 before the button bloat was addressed using just a controller.

Tl;dr: use what your second nature is most comfortable with unless you want to learn more.

[ChaoticCrimson]

Thanks for all the input so far! I admit, I'm rather surprised so many of you vouched for the controllers but it is nice to know that they do actually hold up compared to the KBM controls. I'll still at least give it a try and see how things go, and if it turns out I still favor the controller then at least getting that mouse isn't a total bust either (got that on sale too and I've been wanting to replace the crappy mouse I'm currently using anyway. The extra utility could still be useful for something else). It's also good to know I can apparently sync some of my configurations over from the PS4.

[Lily_Skye]

turn legacy type on

[Arrhin]

I play this game with a regular FPS mouse and use keyboard Shift and Alt modifiers in addition to ZXCVB. An MMO mouse is not necessary. Although if you are very used to DualShock 4 controller, you can just stick with it on PC. A few of my friends are really good players even with game pad, so do not feel pressured to change if it is more intuitive to you.

I feel the only disadvantage to game pad these days is the slow look speed and the inability to instantly zoom in and out. This is just from watching other ppl play (my S.O). Literally makes me feel claustrophobic. My S.O on the other hand has tried my character on my PC and they hate it, "Too twitchy!". To be clear they have zero issues "keeping up" there's some real advantages to gamepad party targeting when flinging squishy healies around

[tdb]

It's also slightly slower to select abilities from other than the active hotbar using a controller since you have to press two button combinations (first to switch hotbars, then to select the ability) compared to a keyboard with enough buttons to bind two or three hotbars worth of shortcuts. This can somewhat be mitigated by arranging abilities in logical sets. For instance on DPS and tank classes I typically have single target and AoE hotbars, on healers I have a damage-oriented hotbar and pure heals hotbar. Selecting targets also takes a few more button presses on controller compared to keyboard. I can raid with either, but I feel that on keyboard I can react to unexpected situations a little bit faster.

[reiichi]

It's also slightly slower to select abilities from other than the active hotbar using a controller since you have to press two button combinations (first to switch hotbars, then to select the ability) compared to a keyboard with enough buttons to bind two or three hotbars worth of shortcuts. This can somewhat be mitigated by arranging abilities in logical sets. For instance on DPS and tank classes I typically have single target and AoE hotbars, on healers I have a damage-oriented hotbar and pure heals hotbar. Selecting targets also takes a few more button presses on controller compared to keyboard. I can raid with either, but I feel that on keyboard I can react to unexpected situations a little bit faster.

You can also use the wide and expanded crossbars to mitigate this. One has you use both tiggers and the other has you double tap a trigger. It adds another 2 full crossbars worth of icons so you don't need to swap hotbars.

[AnimaAnimus]

The best thing about KB is the keybinds!

As someone who doesn't use WASD to move around in xiv and only uses the mouse, I have the first 6 actions on my second hotbars set to QWERTY. For me its faster and easier than ctrl or alt and it fits all the actions I commonly use in combat.
So for instance on whm, healing is on 1,2,3,etc and dps are Q,W,E,etc. Makes bouncing between them super easy. RDM my basic magic and physical rotations are 1,2,3,etc and my aoes are Q,W,E,etc

F-keys I have set to mounts and sprint. F1 sprint, F2 Legacy Chocobo F3 Kirin and so on...

I also keybound everything I use even semi regularly and changed others to more comfortable positions. Even have a key to mute my game, which I used more often than I ever thought I would. Every key on my numpad is even bound to something, from switching jobs to deciding which UI elements are displayed at any given time. I love that with 1 click 80% of my UI disappears.

Just go all out, there is no limit to KB usage. I honestly have no idea how anyone plays some of these games on a controller, its so restrictive. RDR2....massively better with a KB for instance. FFXIV I could not imagine the nightmare a controller would be with as many buttons as I use.