New Player - General / Controller / MNK / WHM Questions

[swornabsent]

Hello! I am a brand new player and have some newbie questions.

I'm playing on console with a controller, which I thought would be a problem but really has not been. I started with Monk just because I thought it was cool, and I think that's worked out well for controller play because it's really easy to move around for positionals and mash skill buttons. Then when my level outpaced the MSQ I started a White Mage, and between Road, Armoury, and rest bonuses I was able to cruise both jobs past 50 with just the MSQ. I wanted a healer rather than a tank because I'm scared of tanking until I know the dungeons better, and I chose WHM because it seemed like it has less going on than other healers, i.e. easier to play well with a controller.

So first I have some community / etiquette questions. As a new player that hasn't seen everything yet, I can feel the other party members waiting for me to finish watching the cutscenes And being on a controller, I can't easily explain to the party that I'm new and a) sorry for making you wait through the cutscene and b) I am ignorant of any special things I should know about this instance, like where to stand when and etc. I've only died once as MNK and have not had any player deaths yet as WHM but I also know I'm definitely getting things wrong sometimes. So is there a good way to communicate that? Like is it worth making a macro to say "Hey I'm new and using a controller" or something? Everyone I've encountered has been super chill, I'm just assuming that pretty much everybody I group with assumes that everyone knows all the things, and I'm just wanting to extend a courtesy.

I've watched several guides and read the articles on this site, but still have a couple mechanical questions. As Monk I have the level 50 Dragon Kick, but it's really annoying when I sync level down below 50 for a FATE or instance and then I have to either remember to only use Bootshine (and I'm not great at remembering) or remap the hotbar with a duplicate Bootshine just to keep my forms right. I thought about making a macro that falls back to Bootshine, like

/action "Dragon Kick"
/action "Bootshine"
/macroicon "Dragon Kick"

so that I don't have to do anything different if I am sync'ed below 50. However I also see a bunch of people saying not to use macros. Why is that? And any advice on another way to solve for this inconvenience?

Similarly on WHM, I'd like to have a single button to toggle back and forth between the primary tank and the main assist that the tank is targeting, so that I can quickly throw some DPS out when the tank is healthy and switch back right away. I thought I'd be able to do this using /target <tt>, but either I get a syntactical message about the macro not being right or just nothing happens (target does not change). Is this possible / what am I doing wrong?


Thanks!

[Iscah]

As a controller player, get yourself a keyboard. Any USB keyboard can be connected to the PS4.

If you're really worried about making people wait for you, you can run dungeons with the duty support NPCs available outside the dungeon. The level 24 and 41 (and eventually 77) dungeons are the only ones with cutscenes that matter though, besides some level 50 ones where everybody is forced to watch cutscenes every time and can't skip.

[SeiyaSoiya]

you don't need to communicate much in dungeons since the vast majority of players you will play with are just doing their dailies while helping you, they have done that thousands of times and know that dungeons are braindead and impossible to fail.

using macros to do your abilities is a bad idea because it builds a bad habit, you end up with gaps of time doing nothing, because your cooldown is 2.5 seconds whereas macros can only execute at every second, meaning you lose 0.5 seconds of uptime between abilities

yes level sync completely disables abilities, you can't even macro them, you must learn to live with level syncing until very far into the future when you will not need to do synced content (once you level every job to max level)

targetting allies on a controller is very messy and hard because you rely on multiple presses of the dpad to cycle between targets, it's a disadvantage of the controller, but you must find ways around it. don't worry about it for now, you can be slow

[AmiableApkallu]

I've only died once as MNK and have not had any player deaths yet as WHM but I also know I'm definitely getting things wrong sometimes. So is there a good way to communicate that? Like is it worth making a macro to say "Hey I'm new and using a controller" or something?

As a keyboard + mouse player, I would certainly be understanding of someone who used a macro to say, at the start, something along the lines of, "Sorry, I (am new and) don't have a keyboard. I am reading the chat and trying to follow your advice."

[Jeeqbit]

I'm playing on console with a controller, which I thought would be a problem but really has not been.

They worked extremely hard to make controller play on par with keyboard/mouse. To the point some people raid with a controller.

As a new player that hasn't seen everything yet, I can feel the other party members waiting for me to finish watching the cutscenes

At the start of a duty, the others cannot start until you finish the cutscene. I promise they are used to it because roulettes match them with people who queue directly for duties, and usually new players queue directly for duties, so they almost always get matched with someone watching cutscenes. They are so used to it that if they didn't like it, they wouldn't be there in the first place.

There are not long cutscenes in most duties. It's very rare, but a few of them have a long one before the last boss. Don't worry about it.

You can tick a setting to skip the playback of previously viewed cutscenes in the Character Configuration settings.

I can't easily explain to the party that I'm new

The sprout icon does this already. No need. It's obvious.

sorry for making you wait through the cutscene

Don't be sorry for going through a game mechanic. Most people will hope you are enjoying the story anyway, and be glad that you are experiencing what they did.

I am ignorant of any special things I should know about this instance, like where to stand when and etc.

Any duties required for the Main Story Quest are easy. You might die if you haven't watched a video guide or studied the mechanics, but it doesn't matter. A veteran player there will usually just rez you and continue. If the party all dies, they will usually get it on the second attempt and learn from the experience.

If you ask, someone might explain any important mechanics to you, but it really doesn't matter if they don't. Even if you die as the only person with a resurrect, there are a lot of dungeon battles that a tank can solo without a healer.

As Monk I have the level 50 Dragon Kick, but it's really annoying when I sync level down below 50 for a FATE or instance and then I have to either remember to only use Bootshine (and I'm not great at remembering) or remap the hotbar with a duplicate Bootshine just to keep my forms right.

Unfortunately, this is just what it's like to sync down. You have to remember (or re-learn) the lower level rotations. The good news is there are many classes where the rotation doesn't change significantly, if at all.

I thought about making a macro that falls back to Bootshine

Many people recommend against GCD macros because the actions don't queue, but it's a good idea, and I have used similar ones in the past, especially when I was new. Over time, I just got used to the game more and organized my hotbar and controls differently so that I could do it without macros.

Similarly on WHM, I'd like to have a single button to toggle back and forth between the primary tank and the main assist that the tank is targeting

You could have the macro cure the target of the enemy, which should be the main tank.

/autofacetarget off
/action "Cure" <t>
/action "Cure" <tt>
/action "Cure"
/autofacetarget on

It'll try to heal target (in case it's a player). If target is an enemy, it'll try to heal the enemy's target (which should be a friend such as the main tank). If that doesn't work, it will just heal whatever it can (usually yourself).

It disables autofacetarget while casting, so that it doesn't turn you around suddenly. You do not need to face a target for heals, only for attacks.