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

[PlushyprincessMusa]

This is all kinda news to me.
You would be surprised with how many of my PC friends have told me "Wow! How can you even play this game with a controller? There's so many buttons to press....Jesus" XD

Some have even tried to play with a controller and they think it's the dumbest way to play and not enough slots etc etc.

I've seen the PC layouts and I can see why they feel this way. They literally have access to everything. Like they have a giant cross hotbar so to speak.

We on PS4 don't have that luxury. Ive watched tutorials, ive done everything to increase my slots but nothing feel "right". It feels clunky and just not good to play.

For example on ps4 the only TRUE way to increase your slots is to simply make a brand new cross hotbar set. We have a total of 8 cross hot bars, but let's be real here its an absolute chore going past 2.

Imagine playing a savage raid and having to cycle through say 3-4 cross hotbars just to find your skills for each situation?

I can only comfortably play with 2 cross hot bars only because number 2 is simply one button press away (R1). Anything past 2 and its basically a nightmare haha and just not fun to play at all.

Honestly its all about orgainzing into themes

Main single target and things you use often on bar 1
Aoe on 2nd (can throw in others)
3rd cross bar for things you rarely use. Or things that u pop that stays out ie summons,stances, etc and long cd moves
The switch on 4 with lb,sprint etc and that covers all abilitys on any job easily.
Best if all since they on different crossbars you can easily move over based on your combat situation (i can do this in my sleep and never get one wrong)
I think many ppl rather see it all at once but i dont it gets all clutter like that.
We have a total of 12 crossbars we can swap to in miliseconds and move freely with controller. I dont even use the full first 2 bars

[Unholychinchilla]

This is all kinda news to me.
You would be surprised with how many of my PC friends have told me "Wow! How can you even play this game with a controller? There's so many buttons to press....Jesus" XD

Some have even tried to play with a controller and they think it's the dumbest way to play and not enough slots etc etc.

I've seen the PC layouts and I can see why they feel this way. They literally have access to everything. Like they have a giant cross hotbar so to speak.

We on PS4 don't have that luxury. Ive watched tutorials, ive done everything to increase my slots but nothing feel "right". It feels clunky and just not good to play.

For example on ps4 the only TRUE way to increase your slots is to simply make a brand new cross hotbar set. We have a total of 8 cross hot bars, but let's be real here its an absolute chore going past 2.

Imagine playing a savage raid and having to cycle through say 3-4 cross hotbars just to find your skills for each situation?

I can only comfortably play with 2 cross hot bars only because number 2 is simply one button press away (R1). Anything past 2 and its basically a nightmare haha and just not fun to play at all.

Are you using Expanded and WXHB hotbars because with those I never need to properly switch hot bars in combat.

I use set 1 for my most basic abilities, set 8 is tied to expanded hot bar so is accessed with both triggers in either order depending in which half I want and half of set 7 is accessed by double tapping a trigger. That's 40 buttons pretty easily accessed once you muscle memory gets used to it.

Then I just have hotbars 2 to 6 shared and for out of combat stuff.

Controller isn't going to suit everyone mind but I feel a lot of the perception of Controller being difficult is not knowing how to use it to its fullest.

[DiasFlacOg]

Are you using Expanded and WXHB hotbars because with those I never need to properly switch hot bars in combat.

I use set 1 for my most basic abilities, set 8 is tied to expanded hot bar so is accessed with both triggers in either order depending in which half I want and half of set 7 is accessed by double tapping a trigger. That's 40 buttons pretty easily accessed once you muscle memory gets used to it.

Then I just have hotbars 2 to 6 shared and for out of combat stuff.

Controller isn't going to suit everyone mind but I feel a lot of the perception of Controller being difficult is not knowing how to use it to its fullest.

Yup, ive tested all the methods, they just don't feel "right"

The only thing that feels "right" to me is simply having two cross hotbars (1 and 2) and just switching between both with R1 (one simple button press). This gives me easy access to 32 skills which is enough for my main jobs for sure.

I basically taught myself to quickly hit R1 to access my other skills (the ones in cross hotbar 2) and quickly hit R1 to access my other skills (on cross hot bar 1).

The main issue with having more than 2 cross hot bars is simply that when you want o return to cross hot bar 1 from say 2 it wont go to 1 with one R1 button press instead it goes to 3 you basically have to tell yourself to press R1 twice to get back to 1.

lastly it's probably just a "me" problem since this is my first MMO game and used to the "console experience" . Also, it's not really a "problem" since I learned to play with two cross hot bars (1 and 2 as mention before).

I was just a bit worried since I was thinking "maybe I won't be able to play endwalker since I won't have enough slots on my two cross bars for the new skills.

[Evos]

I mean as many have mentioned, it's clear some of the issue is simply not knowing the controller settings (which is highly customizable). The fact that people say it's hard to fit skills comfortably shows they don't use what is available to them fully. You can set in combat/out of combat "crossbars," sheath settings. You can have general emotes as the default hotbar when tap R1. You can have your hotbar 1 become the default after tapping R1 by "unsharing" the hotbars. This means manual R1+ circle brings up set 2 but hitting R1 takes you back to your main "hotbar 1" everytime. There is a setting to cycle through your hotbars which seems helpful until you can't get back to the specific one.

Conclusion, explore the settings. Because if you can't say you fully understand what's available to you, how can you say something is truly wrong or difficult. The less you know the less choices you have. Unless of course you subjectively dont like the choices you have. Which is totally fair.

[Bsrking5]

Lol, what? I have 2 cross bars for combat, with extra space for the max of like 2 actions we are getting. Not worried at all. I mean, yes i do have 6 but thats for other stuff like common emotes, macros, mounts, repair, return, aether compass, job changes. But i have it not to cycle to those with main hand out.

[Steelbreaker25]

I don't want to have to remember to use defensive buffs. :/

There is absolutely no appeal to me at all in being given one.

It doesn't even seem like a red mage thing.

You've got Addle, right?

[Mikey_R]

Alot of whether you are comfortable with one control scheme over another is also going to be about how you grew up. For me personally, I grew up playing games on consoles for basically my entire life, so a controller (specifically a PS controller) just feels natural to use. However, while I do use a computer regularly for general use, I rarely used one to play games, so using a keyboard and mouse for me is odd. Could I possibly get used to KB+M? yes, probably, but I enjoy using a controller more, so I'm going to stick with it.

[Iscah]

You've got Addle, right?

Have it, yes.

Remember to use it, no.

[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