Any improvements to ease-of-access of skills?

[Forerunner]

Oh I've been a gamer all my life, just never tried playing an MMO with something other than a keyboard/mouse so it seems a little odd to even consider it. Something akin to thinking of playing a fighting game with a keyboard. Anywho, I will look more into this potential avenue of controlling my character. Thanks.

Will pretty much any PC gamepad with the basic PS or Xbox layout work?

Yeah, the FFXIV config has a decent interface for assigning buttons. I use a xbox 360 for windows pad, works great.

I played FFXI for 5 years on xbox, couldn't think of any other way to play.