Auto-attack

[Naqaj]

Tell me again how I'm supposed to select skills again? 1:1 on a keyboard 2+:1 on a gamepad.

Oh i've set up my action bar wrong, so anything thats not in the first/last 3 slots in bars 1 2 and 3 become null and void?
Create macros for the things that are just too far away to reach with a gamepad?

SO how am i playing wrong when clearly you're doing it right?

Look DDR plays like this:
up down left right left right down down up right left down

FFXIV plays like this (keyboard):
1 1 2 3 up 3 2 1 down 2 3 down 1 2 3 up 1 2 3 (changing rows all skills in first 3 slots)
or like this (gamepad):
1 1 right 2 right 3 up 3 left 2 left 1 down right 2 right 3 down left left 1 right 2 right 3 up left left 1 right 2 right 3 (changing rows all skills in first 3 slots)

Am i not supposed to press buttons for attacks? What happens when I run low on TP after i use 2 or 3 skills? press the button for my TP building attacks? No? What am I doing wrong?

You're not doing anything wrong. Have you considered the problem might actually be the UI and not the combat itself? Acessing 30 skills by scrolling up and down some bars is a terrible solution for gamepad users, and leads to all the problems you're describing.
There's a nice thread about this in the UI section, we'd love to hear from you.
edit: scratch that, you're the one who started it -_-°

Question for those Against Auto Attack:

MMO needs communication & cooperation with other humans that needs language either writen or spoken. Currently we cant type effectively because we have to be constantly pressing buttons to attack. Also the UI is pretty much $hit for chatting. How will people communicate in battle? Just dont communicate? SE adds Voice Chat system? Create a Gambit System like FFXII? Slow the combat down like it was in Alpha?

Most of this coordination happens before the fight. In a fight, there's very little need for long words. Anything that happens is communicated by visual cues, or by a good UI. The number of valid choices you as a player can make is very limited in any given situation. If I play a healer, I don't need someone to tell me to heal the tank, I see his HP bar for that, and I see when the mob does his "I'm gonna hurt you bad" animation so I know to frontload a big heal.
If someone wants to start a BR, i need my UI to tell me, not someone spamming BRBRBRBRBR in chat.

If the situation is so unexpected or desperate that you really REALLY must talk to your group, than having your auto-attack deliver 2 puny blows whily you type certainly won't make much of a difference.
Also, having a more responsive chat window wouldn't hurt in that situation either.