FFXIV - Using a controller cross hotbar without a controller? BUT WHY?
Have you ever wondered how to use a controller cross hotbar with a mouse and keyboard in FFXIV (without using a controller) ? NO???
Well I'm gonna tell you anyway! The guide no one has ever asked for is right here!
I'm planning a whole series on FF14 controller play. But you can also follow me on twitch and ask me questions directly at:
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/squintina
Twitter at / thesquintina
=== TRANSCRIPT (sort of, I deviated a little bit from the script) ===
Hi everyone. Today I'm going to show how to use a cross hotbar on mouse and keyboard. Specifically this will be made using a MMO mouse with 12 buttons.
First make sure you have the crossbar enabled by going to Character Config, Hotbar settings, and Cross.
Then we head over to Keybinds and go to Gamepad.
We're going to put the the mmo mouse buttons on the "d-pad" and "face" buttons.
Here's a little diagram of how it's being configured.
We don't really need to map Start or Select as you can use mouse clicking for those. Same with targeting.
L3 and R3 are optional but if you used them for macros, you can certainly map them to the 6th and 12th buttons.
Please note that I'm assuming a default "controller" set up. If you already have controller settings and you don't wish to change them, you maybe have to map the L1,L2,R1,and R2 differently from me.
Now the crossbar modifiers, which I'm using L2 and R2 for, should be keys your keyboard hand can easily and comfortably access even if you had to move your character. This will differ based on your hand size. As a person who still shops for gloves in the kids' section, I can reach A, R and Space comfortably while still using W for movement, so those would be my best candidates.
T will be used for direct crossbar switching. Personally in battle I don't use this as I use WXHB and extended exclusively for combat, so I wouldn't need this to be mapped, but others do.
Just look at the diagram if that all sounds confusing as I do mark the finger names as well.
I'm going to use R and Space for my Left and Right modifiers, using the ring finger and thumb, thus leaving my pinky and middle finger for any sideways dodging on A,Q,E, or D.
I could also rebind jump to another key or one of the mouse buttons I'm not using, but it's not necessary as it's already covered by by one of the current buttons.
This means that my keyboard hand would be used exclusively for movement and modifiers while my mouse hand would be used for the action buttons
Now you may be wondering WHY would someone do this? What on earth could possibly be the benefit of any of this?
Well the first reason is that it's hilarious. Imagine if you're streaming your gameplay and people assume you're on controller because they see the cross bars and then you blow their minds that actually you're using mouse and keyboard on a cross bar just because you can.
The other, far more practical, reason would be for controller players whose controllers died or are acting faulty. If they have the equipment and will to do such a set up until a replacement controller arrives, it can be an easier switch than using regular hotbars. Switching to a more authentic mouse and keyboard set up would mean both learning new muscle memory as well as new hotbars and action placements, Eye memory remains intact and only new muscle memory has to be learned - making it a little easier if they did have to do some emergency mouse clicking.