Top 5 Reasons to Not Use a Controller in FF14

Last time on Fist Full of Gil, I tried to play the game with an Xbox 360 controller. I ended up switching back to keyboard and mouse in disgust. Today, I’m going to go over the top 5 reasons to not use the controller.

5. I’m already used to keyboard and mouse. In order to become proficient at using a new control scheme, it takes roughly a week for me to get used to it if the change is minor. Going to a controller is anything but minor.

4. Hotbars are limited to 16 abilities at once. In order to use more than 16, use of a button to rotate hotbars is required. Unfortunately, I could only rotate the bars one way, and the last bar is system commands, so more time is wasted trying to get to the ability desired.

3. Everything takes more button presses. For example, to switch between friendly targets, use of the d-pad is required to cycle through targets. On keyboard and mouse, use of the F1 through F8 keys is enough to select targets.

2. Only 8 abilities at once are easily available to use on the move. It’s rather difficult to use the trigger and d-pad combination skills without contorting one’s hands.

1. It is impossible to move, control the camera, and hit abilities at the same time. I can do all these things at once using my keyboard and mouse. On a controller, only 2 of these are possible at once. This slows down ability cadence immensely. This alone makes using a controller in PvP completely not viable.

This week on Fist Full of Gil, I’ll continue the main story quest from where I left off before 2.1. So tune in to noobist.tv at 8PM Central time on Sunday and I’ll chat with everyone then.