It would have been awesome if the game could have gotten some native gamepad support. We can almost achieve it with the help of an add-on.
However there is still one important feature that is missing to make everything flow nicely, and that is a slight adjustment to movement options. Namely the ability to toggle “always move forward” which is about making your character always look in the direction you move without manually turning with the camera, like if you move forward your character looks forward, move backwards and the character automatically turns an looks towards the player/camera.
This would remove the need to always have to turn your camera in the direction you want to move without having to suffer a movement penalty, which in turn will most likely kill you in most high end pve situation, not to mention that it would erase a gameplay nuisance in general.
Obviously keyboard and mouse is still the superior option for optimal gameplay, however sometimes you just want to sit back or lay down while enjoying the game in a more casual fashion without the need of being glued to the screen.
And finally it would also open the possibility of providing the game to consoles, which in turn would greatly increase the potential players.
there are too many spells for a controller.
If it got released on console it would have to still be as optimal to use a controller as a keyboard and mouse.
Meaning that out spells would be very limited.
Classes seems to have on aeverege either 4 or 5 buttons in their core rotation and then there are 1-3 buttons that are combat buffs with the rest being utility.
You can set buttons to toggle various “skill sets” which quickly bumps the potential possible buttons to well, whatever size a player finds reasonable.
In ffxiv it would be press/hold R2 or L2 or both depending on your setup and if you would want triangle1,2,3. Example, hold R2 to T1, Hold L2 for T2, Hold both for T3, click R1 to switch T1 and T2 with T4 and T5.
So without using the trigger buttons they buttons are setup for interacting with the environment, hold R2 and you will be able to use the skills assigned to the buttons so you can easily do a,x,y,x,y,up in order without much hassle. Need to use more buttons? Just hold in L2 instead. It’s surprisingly smooth once tried out.
I have raided back in Antorus with a controller for a while. It was fun, we were overgeared, my guild mates laughed, we had a blast. A controller has enough buttons for the rotation of a guardian druid. However it is a massive drawback. Like if you want to quest alone it is fine, but join an m+ and you will be cussed and reported immedietly. It is vastly inferior and we don’t need to encourage the playerbase to use it.