I play with a Dualshock controller on PC. Honestly? This game was built from the ground up with consoles in mind, so the controller input is very smooth.
I personally made the switch because it was getting to the point where I couldn't play a DPS class for five minutes without my left hand cramping really badly. It was either drop FFXIV, or switch to controller if I wanted to prevent carpal tunnel.
I honestly wish I had made the switch sooner. I have smaller hands, so I actually started playing better having all the controls right there rather than stretching across a keyboard.
Once you enable the expanded hotbar controls (where you can double tap a trigger button to bring up a side bar) you really aren't hurting for button space. I haven't leveled a Summoner or Scholar yet, but so far I don't even have to use the second hotbar and rotate between them.
________________________________________________________________________________
Some General settings that might help you:
- Enable both Expanded Hold Controls and WXHB
For a detailed guide on how this works, I suggest Tasmin's Illustrated guide over on imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/ccUh6
You can get as customized as you want. So far I only use the WXHB to bring another set of face buttons rather than a full bar. But that might change once I dip into leveling SMN/SCH. You shouldn't have any hotkey issues if you take the time to set these things up.
- Primary skills go on hotbar one.
- Any skills that require you to move go on face buttons (x, square, triangle, o / x,a, b, y) So that you can move with the joystick and still cast/attack.
- Use normal KBM hotbars to set your cooldowns on. Not to click on them, but to help you monitor them.
- Think about how your job plays when you're setting things up.
For example: the way I have Red Mage set up is that my melee combo is on the crossbar dedicated to the expanded hold controls. So once I have 80/80 mana, I hold down L2 and R2, and my melee combo appears:
- Up directional button = Corps a Corps
- Triangle is the first step, O is the second, X is the the third
- Down directional button is the back flip out of there.
Square button is for the enchanted AoE, and Verholy and Verflare are on crossbar 1 (the main one) with the rest of my "magic".
And finally: just do yourself a favor and change the camera setting. I always get legacy and character based mixed up, but you want the setting that doesn't move the camera when your character moves. The one that's on by default has it so that your character slowly backpedals when you move backwards (which works fine for KBM). The other option won't do that: your character will turn around, without moving the camera, and run full speed towards the screen. More like a console game.