As a PS4/PS5 user how will you manage so many new skills on a controller?

[Mesarthim]

My answer is: Use WXHB. I have up to 64 easily accessible buttons without swapping to a specific bar. You can set it to whatever but I have:

Bar 1: Most common attacks and oGCDs with no extra input to use
Bar 2: Accessed by tapping R1, and back to Bar 1 with another tap (Limit break and misc skills like fairy summon are here, accidental limit breaks are impossible).
Bar 3: Accessed by holding both triggers at the same time depending on which gets pressed first (I limit it to one side so I don't need to think and waste time, 56 buttons total due to this).
Bar 4: Accessed by double tapping

If anyone ever says controller users are running out of buttons you're doing something wrong. Just takes a bit of thinking and practice to fully utilize but I doubt keyboard and mouse is any different in that regard.

[Breakbeat]

Managing skills doesn't seem like an issue to me, given the easy access to so many hotbars, etc.

What I've never been able to get onboard with is the horrible (in my case, anyway) accuracy of camera and character movement compared to a mouse and keyboard setup. On a mouse/keyboard, you could give me a 2-pixel by 2-pixel square, and I could target and click on it in two seconds flat. Give me something fifty times as big (100x100) but with a controller and it'll take me ten times longer to hit it.

Maybe not much of an issue in this game, but it's why I shy away from controllers. And I have been trying to get onboard with them since the first dual-analog-stick controllers came out in the mid-nineties.

/shrug

[Naria]

This seems like a personal preference issue? I use KB in some games and MMOs but in FFXIV I find playing this game with a controller much smoother than when I've used kb/(MMO) mouse. There are only a few things I prefer the mouse for and 95% of that is out of combat so I just put my controller down and use my mouse--mostly for inventory management and targeting in crowds or raising in Bozja/Eureka, as soon as something is on an enemy/party/alliance list it is easy to target them even with a controller. The only thing I've really felt like I would prefer mouse for might be last minute uses of Rescue.

If you prefer mouse and KB then use that, correct me if I am wrong it works just fine on playstation, just click Keyboard and mouse under character config.

I don't have a problem managing all of my abilities, some jobs actually have less now than they use to, and some of the new abilities in the expansion will be upgrades to existing ones.

Edit:
Yes, you can kb/m on PS4/5
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/uiguide/faq/

[SaberMaxwell]

I play controller on PC, and my answer is: I use the expanded crossbar controls (l2+r2 and r2+l2) for easy access to 32+ abilities which is more than enough. If I need more there's the W bar (l2+l2 and r2+r2) for even more, but I opt to not use that because I'm the kinda person who would press the trigger once thinking o pressed it twice and misfiring something lol.

[SilverObi]

I'll manage the same way I've been since ARR: quite easily as the game is designed from the ground up to work comfortably with a controller.

[Yhisa]

Pretty easily tbh , u just need to know how to edit the crossbar to make things easier

As many people pointed out in this discussion

L2 = 8 buttons
R2 = 8 buttons

In cross bar settings u can add more inputs with these commands but u must enable it for it to work, this will turn Ur cross bar 8 into Ur "back buttons"

L2 + R2 = 8 buttons
R2 + L2 = 8 buttons

U can also use R3 and L3 for macros , for example I have sprint macro to L3 and Focus target on R3

U can also set up your cross bar to only switch between 2 bars when Ur weapon is unsheathed which u can make it switch from cross bar 1 (single target rotation) and when u press R1 it will switch to crossbar 2 (Aoe rotation)

Like for example why would u need Aoe skills for single target rotation? That's just bloat, so u make 2 bars

Crossbar 1 single target rotation
Crossbar 2 Aoe rotation

And just swap back and forth between the two base on how many infront of u

Been around for 8 years and done near legit all content (prepping for endwalker for the past month now)

[Gameovers]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-efoy0-alY8

Does this help?

[DiaDeem]

I'm on PC, but have always played with controller. I have two active cross-bars. in Character Customization, in Hotbar Settings, in Custom I have "Enable customization for when weapon is drawn", so I only cycle through the two hotbars while fighting. That's usually enough for most of my classes. Interestingly, SCH (which is my main) completely filled both my bars, so I moved Selene/Eos to a separate Hotbar that I can click with the mouse (or virtual mouse) when I'm not in combat. I'm probably going to move the LB to that Hotbar as well cause I just don't have space for the new two SCH buttons we know we'll get. I'm still going to be short of one button, so I may macro something like my Swiftcast Res, which I'm trying to avoid so I may look for something else.

Other than SCH though, the two-bars have (and are still enough) for my other jobs. Having the single tap between two bars makes gameplay rather nice.

[Nestama]

I play with both controller and keyboard like an insane person and have been since ARR :T

For example,

[Sigiria]

I've been playing with a controller on PC and never had trouble with finding my actions even with the most charged jobs.

Kinda like that:


My tanks are the only one I use R2+L2 for defensive skills, more out of habit as I could squeeze them on the main bars even with PLD


Things I use often are on the main bar, aoe rotation and less used skills are on the double tap.
Your rotation being mostly the same and the other skills being used only every now and then, once you're used to your setup you can get to everything without even thinking.
Movement on the other end changes for every fight, to me having a joystick to move precisely is way more convenient than a keyboard.