Any improvements to ease-of-access of skills?

[Forerunner]

Could you please expand on that? I would think that a game pad with the limited amount of inputs from the buttons available would make things even more restricted? How is the action bar handled via a gamepad? Do you have to cycle left/right through them to use or something as you fight?

Movement is handled with the left analogue stick, and moving through menus with the direction pad. The faster you press, the quicker your cursor moves. If you've played video games for 20 years with a controller like I have, it gets quite intuitive.