Quote Originally Posted by swornabsent View Post
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.