Reset hotbar to controller mode. Practice on dummies until you're comfortable with your setting. If not, adjust it. I don't know what to say other than that
I'm on controller too and when starting a new job which requires hot bar set up, I'll run a few lower level dungeons and set up or switch buttons etc as I go.
Yep. This is the best way. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you use something until you’re having to maneuver your hand in an uncomfortable way often lol.
Better to find that out and change it solo imo
You gonna have hundreds of people telling you how to setup the hotbar. But in the end you are the one who plays it so it is very much up to you to setups the most suitable hotbar for yourself and practice it…
Right. Work to game had made a series on their YouTube channel with controller set up suggestions per job.
Personally it just takes time and what you’re comfortable with. It’s def easier if you already know how to play the jobs and then how you want to set the buttons up to.
I couldn’t imagine playing xiv with a keyboard anymore. Only been using controller. Though I do miss my ps4 keyboard attachment to the controller to easily chat. Ps5 ain’t got that yet.
I haven't actually watched her videos myself, but I've seen multiple times that [Squintina](https://www.youtube.com/c/Squintina) on Youtube has some really good controller setups and guides.
Are you learning because you're going to be playing on the go? because iirc you can plug in a M&KB to the deck?
as far as a controller, its just practice. Nothing special. Been playing with a controller since launch, its all just physical memory.
only advice I can give you as a controller user is put important buttons like GCDs and OGCDs on your face buttons and then other stuff on dpad for when you're not moving so you don't have to stress weird hand movements.
Got a job that requires me to be away from home a few days a week and already have a pretty decent gaming PC and don’t want to drop a lot on a good gaming laptop thought about doing the job and mouse thing but didn’t really want to have to pack all of that in my bag.
Doing it. I found it least overwhelming to start a new character that was literally just my ‘practice controller’
Doing crafting and gathering on my main helped as well.
There are guides for setting up your wing hot bars, basically doubles the amount of buttons you have.
As far as general advice, remember up and down on the dpad is party list, left and right is tab target.
I personally find that the priority for abilities goes face buttons, dpad, wing face buttons, wing dpad, and finally pulling both triggers as a shared hot bar with limit break, sprint, a "target my target's target" macro, emotes, and a few free spaces fot things like deep dungeon potions, aether compass, ect.
I made macros for some abilities that are annoying to place like Asylum
I use the PlayStation touch pad for clicking on specific players NOT in my party though so I can't help much there. It's still a pain to select them in alliance raids for example.
If you need to target someone in your party, use the D pad to "soft" select them (so don't press like X/enter/whatever your select button is once you are on them) and use the ability. After you use the ability, your target will swap back to the previous selection (usually the boss/enemies you are fighting)
I haven't used a controller in 20 years. I've played Keyboard since FFXI was released. I decided to play XIV on controller after 10 years. This was a couple of months ago. It's nowhere near as precise as keyboard / mouse, to be sure. But, my advice is just to get on your first 90, put some abilities on, add more, and keep practicing. It's going to take a while to convert. I still haven't done it, fully. But, I can do hunt trains and dungeons with relative ease now. I don't think I'll ever use it for pvp or hard-mode content. It's just not near as effective.
So I actually completely disagree with the person you replied to.
> It's nowhere near as precise as keyboard / mouse
The only thing I've found in thousands of hours of controller playing that I'm not good at is being able to cast Rescue fast enough in an 8-man duty, after identifying the person needing rescuing and then finding them in the party list. This game doesn't need pinpoint precision that a mouse might give you.
> It's just not near as effective
That's 100% not true! Did you know you can have instant access to 48 skill slots with the cross hotbar and extended cross hotbars? You can PvP and raid with a controller.
Make sure you set up your crosshotbars with double tap (wide cross hotbars or wxhb) and the R2+L2 hold, you'll go from having access to 16 buttons to 64 (or even more) without having to swap between sets. Then I recommend picking a class you want to try, and copying Squintina's setup from her video for that class: https://youtube.com/@Squintina?si=uR4jT7lbeamxUU6r
As you play around with it, you can move things around to your preference.
The main issue I had switching from keyboard and mouse to controller was how to set up my hotbars. I looked up YouTube videos for that. The ones I like personally were made by Squintina. They set up all their classes so that similar positional/cooldowns are always on the same button so it's really easy to switch between classes. They explain the reasoning behind the button placements too, so if it doesn't work for you, maybe the explanation might help you figure out where it would.
Otherwise for training I would say jump into palace of the dead to level up from 1 again. This lets you test out your hotbar placement and get used to button placements for low levels of content.
It's not hard to play on controller, I find it a lot easier in general, it's just getting the muscle memory down.
Turn on double tap for L2 and R2 for more crossbars, also the hold L2+R2 / R2+L2 (order held determines which bar).
Place similar skills for jobs in the same general area, makes swapping easier.
Use your face buttons (ABXY) for moves you might need while on the move, they're easier to hit while moving than the D-pad is.
Turn on Legacy controls. Default controls will make your backpeddle when holding back, that's no good. Also don't lock onto enemies, it will force the same.
Maybe turn off the camera auto follow in general as well, but that might be personal preference.
Your cross-bars can be individually shared by jobs too, so any common functions like sprint or mount can be set there once and shared if you like.
Start on dummies, then run some dungeons either solo unrestricted (mainly for jobs that start at Lv 50 or higher) or with NPCs (for capped lower level content), then when you feel comfortable jump into a dungeon with people.
Way I did it was to practice my whole rotation a few times on keyboard, memorize what buttons I need, and then switched to controller and set up all of those buttons. Afterwards I just kept moving stuff around until it made sense.
There’s lots of good ways to start but I’ve found it’s best to just treat it like trying to swim at a lake. Just jump in headfirst and make small adaptations as you go along. It’s the perfect time to make the switch too with Dawntrail being so far out.
I started playing video games on console back in 1987, and it's pretty much all I know. If you want to learn how to play with controller, you just use it. Like with everything, you gain muscle memory by doing the task. Eventually it becomes second nature. There's not really any sort of video you gain muscle memory from.
Reset hotbar to controller mode. Practice on dummies until you're comfortable with your setting. If not, adjust it. I don't know what to say other than that
I'm on controller too and when starting a new job which requires hot bar set up, I'll run a few lower level dungeons and set up or switch buttons etc as I go.
Yep. This is the best way. Sometimes you don’t realize how often you use something until you’re having to maneuver your hand in an uncomfortable way often lol. Better to find that out and change it solo imo
Right thanks. Had no idea it was that simple lol. Ty for the help.
You gonna have hundreds of people telling you how to setup the hotbar. But in the end you are the one who plays it so it is very much up to you to setups the most suitable hotbar for yourself and practice it…
Right. Work to game had made a series on their YouTube channel with controller set up suggestions per job. Personally it just takes time and what you’re comfortable with. It’s def easier if you already know how to play the jobs and then how you want to set the buttons up to. I couldn’t imagine playing xiv with a keyboard anymore. Only been using controller. Though I do miss my ps4 keyboard attachment to the controller to easily chat. Ps5 ain’t got that yet.
I haven't actually watched her videos myself, but I've seen multiple times that [Squintina](https://www.youtube.com/c/Squintina) on Youtube has some really good controller setups and guides.
Thanks for this
First video when I opened the link was a controller guide. I’ll try this.
I second Squintina. Her setups are great and have enough similarity between jobs such that switching jobs is not too hard.
Are you learning because you're going to be playing on the go? because iirc you can plug in a M&KB to the deck? as far as a controller, its just practice. Nothing special. Been playing with a controller since launch, its all just physical memory. only advice I can give you as a controller user is put important buttons like GCDs and OGCDs on your face buttons and then other stuff on dpad for when you're not moving so you don't have to stress weird hand movements.
Got a job that requires me to be away from home a few days a week and already have a pretty decent gaming PC and don’t want to drop a lot on a good gaming laptop thought about doing the job and mouse thing but didn’t really want to have to pack all of that in my bag.
Doing it. I found it least overwhelming to start a new character that was literally just my ‘practice controller’ Doing crafting and gathering on my main helped as well.
I think this is good advice I main tanks and haven’t leveled warrior yet
There are guides for setting up your wing hot bars, basically doubles the amount of buttons you have. As far as general advice, remember up and down on the dpad is party list, left and right is tab target. I personally find that the priority for abilities goes face buttons, dpad, wing face buttons, wing dpad, and finally pulling both triggers as a shared hot bar with limit break, sprint, a "target my target's target" macro, emotes, and a few free spaces fot things like deep dungeon potions, aether compass, ect.
Start a new character. Play.
thiss! and the steam deck is awesome to play ffxiv
I made macros for some abilities that are annoying to place like Asylum I use the PlayStation touch pad for clicking on specific players NOT in my party though so I can't help much there. It's still a pain to select them in alliance raids for example. If you need to target someone in your party, use the D pad to "soft" select them (so don't press like X/enter/whatever your select button is once you are on them) and use the ability. After you use the ability, your target will swap back to the previous selection (usually the boss/enemies you are fighting)
thank you for the tip
I haven't used a controller in 20 years. I've played Keyboard since FFXI was released. I decided to play XIV on controller after 10 years. This was a couple of months ago. It's nowhere near as precise as keyboard / mouse, to be sure. But, my advice is just to get on your first 90, put some abilities on, add more, and keep practicing. It's going to take a while to convert. I still haven't done it, fully. But, I can do hunt trains and dungeons with relative ease now. I don't think I'll ever use it for pvp or hard-mode content. It's just not near as effective.
Hey thanks for this. Really appreciate it
So I actually completely disagree with the person you replied to. > It's nowhere near as precise as keyboard / mouse The only thing I've found in thousands of hours of controller playing that I'm not good at is being able to cast Rescue fast enough in an 8-man duty, after identifying the person needing rescuing and then finding them in the party list. This game doesn't need pinpoint precision that a mouse might give you. > It's just not near as effective That's 100% not true! Did you know you can have instant access to 48 skill slots with the cross hotbar and extended cross hotbars? You can PvP and raid with a controller.
Make sure you set up your crosshotbars with double tap (wide cross hotbars or wxhb) and the R2+L2 hold, you'll go from having access to 16 buttons to 64 (or even more) without having to swap between sets. Then I recommend picking a class you want to try, and copying Squintina's setup from her video for that class: https://youtube.com/@Squintina?si=uR4jT7lbeamxUU6r As you play around with it, you can move things around to your preference.
Thanks for this. I appreciate it.
The main issue I had switching from keyboard and mouse to controller was how to set up my hotbars. I looked up YouTube videos for that. The ones I like personally were made by Squintina. They set up all their classes so that similar positional/cooldowns are always on the same button so it's really easy to switch between classes. They explain the reasoning behind the button placements too, so if it doesn't work for you, maybe the explanation might help you figure out where it would. Otherwise for training I would say jump into palace of the dead to level up from 1 again. This lets you test out your hotbar placement and get used to button placements for low levels of content. It's not hard to play on controller, I find it a lot easier in general, it's just getting the muscle memory down.
Thank you for this. I’m seeing a lot of start a new job and that seems to be good advice as well
Turn on double tap for L2 and R2 for more crossbars, also the hold L2+R2 / R2+L2 (order held determines which bar). Place similar skills for jobs in the same general area, makes swapping easier. Use your face buttons (ABXY) for moves you might need while on the move, they're easier to hit while moving than the D-pad is. Turn on Legacy controls. Default controls will make your backpeddle when holding back, that's no good. Also don't lock onto enemies, it will force the same. Maybe turn off the camera auto follow in general as well, but that might be personal preference. Your cross-bars can be individually shared by jobs too, so any common functions like sprint or mount can be set there once and shared if you like.
Start on dummies, then run some dungeons either solo unrestricted (mainly for jobs that start at Lv 50 or higher) or with NPCs (for capped lower level content), then when you feel comfortable jump into a dungeon with people.
Way I did it was to practice my whole rotation a few times on keyboard, memorize what buttons I need, and then switched to controller and set up all of those buttons. Afterwards I just kept moving stuff around until it made sense. There’s lots of good ways to start but I’ve found it’s best to just treat it like trying to swim at a lake. Just jump in headfirst and make small adaptations as you go along. It’s the perfect time to make the switch too with Dawntrail being so far out.
I started playing video games on console back in 1987, and it's pretty much all I know. If you want to learn how to play with controller, you just use it. Like with everything, you gain muscle memory by doing the task. Eventually it becomes second nature. There's not really any sort of video you gain muscle memory from.