FFXIV Dragoon Controller and Macro Guide

30 Nov 2018
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Hello and welcome to my Dragoon Controller Guide. In this guide, I go into a lot of detail in the video above but here below, I wanted to focus in on just my cross-hotbar layout. The skills that I use, and how I arranged them on the Cross Hotbar (XHB). This guide is here as a recommendation, a jumping off point if you will (pun intended), to hopefully help you become more comfortable with the controller itself while playing the mighty Dragoon.

What’s up with that Top Hotbar?

So the first thing you should notice from the screenshot above is that there is a hotbar that runs across the screen. This hotbar is used to communicate cool-downs and other information to me at all times. Some skills are hidden behind the Extended Cross Hotbar (EXHB) and others in a Macro or two. So you won’t be clicking on these skills, if you want to see how I have it set up you can check out the video, but the skills are listed here left to right:

  1. Second Wind (cross-role ability)
  2. Bloodbath (cross-role ability)
  3. Invigorate (cross-role ability)
  4. True North (cross-role ability)
  5. Blood of the Dragon
  6. Dragon Sight
  7. Battle Litany
  8. Dragonfire Dive
  9. Spineshatter Dive
  10. Jump

Cross Hotbar Left Side

When I set up my left and right Cross Hotbars, I tend to group weapon skills and abilities by the ease of use, when needing to move around. So I prioritize ABXY for movement and the Up/Down/Left/Right for when I don’t need to move.

Here is the order of abilities, from left to right:

Left: Mirage Dive
Up: Sonic Thrust
Down: Geirskogul
Right: Doom Spike
X: Wheeling Thrust
Y: Chaos Thrust
A: Impulse Drive
B: Disembowel

Cross Hotbar Right Side

When I set up my left and right Cross Hotbars, I tend to group weapon skills and abilities by the ease of use, when needing to move around. So I prioritize ABXY for movement and the Up/Down/Left/Right for when I don’t need to move.

Here is the order of abilities, from left to right:

Left: Dragonfire Dive
Up: Blood of the Dragon
Down: Battle Litany
Right: Jump
X: Fang and Claw
Y: Full Thrust
A: True Thrust
B: Vorpal Thrust

Double Cross Hotbar (WXHB) Left and Right

I use the WXHB to store abilities that are meant to redirect back to the main XHB, these abilities are triggered via a double tap of the left or right trigger. Then from here, they use the ABXY face buttons execute the ability.

We’ll start with the left WXHB first:

X: Goad (Cross-role ability)
Y: Elusive Jump
A: Crutch (Cross-role ability)
B: Arm’s Length (Cross-role ability)

And on the right WXHB:

X: Life Surge
Y: Blood for Blood (Cross-role ability)
A: Feint (Cross-role ability)
B: Heavy Thrust

The final hotbar, the extended cross hotbar (EXHB)

The extended cross hotbar is hidden by default, to access it, you’ll need to press and hold down the left trigger followed by the right trigger and hold it down as well. There are two EXHB, one for the left and right, and in the video, I go into more detail about all these features.

But let’s start with EXHB 1:

Left: True North (Cross-role ability)
Up: Blood Wind (Macro of Bloodbath and Second Wind)
Down: Diversion (Cross-role ability)
Right: Spineshatter Dive
X: Dragon Sight (macro to select the nearest target)
Y: Invigorate (Cross-role ability)
A: Leg Sweep (Cross-role ability)
B: Piercing Talon

Finally the last hotbar is a shared hotbar that I have for all jobs. Here is where I have my targeting macros and limit break.

Here’s the breakdown:

Left: Target Macro #2
Up: Target Macro #1
Down: Countdown Macro
Right: Limit Break
X: Wonderous Tales
Y: Sprint
A: Twintania (mount)
B: SDS Fenrir (mount)

And that’s my cross-hotbar setup for the Dragoon! Let me know what you think in the comments below! :)