Thank you for this. As a PS4 player who is just nearing 20 as an Arcanist, seeing my first hotter fill up has made me worry about how to set up hotbars and stuff, but this gave me at least somewhere to start.
Oh, if you are leveling ARC to be a SMN I can lend you a hand. I play on PC with PS4 pad and this configuration is confy as hell and also very fast for all the micro-management you have to do.
Pro tip: DON'T.USE.PET.BARS. Bind your pet skills into your bars.
Main Bar (main DOT skills, ruin and Important stuff like Swifcast or Aetherflow)
L2+R2 (pet micromanagement and 2 pet buffs)
R2+L2 (Important stuff that you use in puntual moments like pet skills, ruin3, bahamut trance and Enkindle)
L2 (secondary bar or "I dunno where to put this". Skills rarelly used as Raise, Absorb, Limit Break and the summons)
Fast R2 doubletap
Fast L2 doubletap (very usefull for the Emergency Sprint)
If you play with pad you will notice that some skills are harder to use because it requires you to target a friendly target while you are DPSing an enemy, the Macro System is your friend. For example you can use Eye for an Eye (a buff for the tank) while you are attacking the boss with this macro:
/macroicon "Eye for an Eye"
/ac "Eye for an eye" <t> ---> 1 t
---> Do it to my target.
/ac "Eye for an eye" <tt> ---> 2t ---->
Do it to the target of my target.
/wait 1
/p Eye for an Eye on <tt> -------> This part will make the macro to write that on the party chat so the healers know you just used it so they will wait for use their own buff.
Somebody died and you want to insta-resurrect him but pressing 2 skills is so hard? Swifcast+Resurrection macro
/macroicon "Resurrection"
/ac "Swiftcast"
/ac "Resurrection"
/wait 1
/p Resurrecting <t> <se.2> ------> se.2 --->
the macro will make a sound all the party will hear so everybody knows this person is coming back to life and other healers won't waste time on trying to resurrect him.
Also for Pet users (and playing with pad) this macro is
A MUST. It swaps your pet skills automatically on your hotbars when you summon it.
For example when I summon Garuda:
/macroicon "Wind Blade" pet
/ac "Summon"
/chotbar pet "Contagion" 3 LAU
/chotbar pet "Shockwave" 3 LAR
/chotbar pet "Aerial Slash" 3 LAD
/hotbar pet "Contagion" 4 1
/hotbar pet "Shockwave" 4 2
/hotbar pet "Aerial Slash" 4 3
When I summon Ifrit
/macroicon "Summon III"
/ac "Summon III"
/chotbar pet "Radiant Shield" 3 LAU
/chotbar pet "Crimson Cyclone" 3 LAR
/chotbar pet "Flaming Crush" 3 LAD
/hotbar pet "Radiant Shield" 4 1
/hotbar pet "Crimson Cyclone" 4 2
/hotbar pet "Flaming Crush" 4 3
And Titan
/macroicon "Earthen Ward" pet
/ac "Summon II"
/chotbar pet "Earthen Ward" 3 LAU
/chotbar pet "Landslide" 3 LAR
/chotbar pet "Mountain buster" 3 LAD
/hotbar pet "Earthen Ward" 4 1
/hotbar pet "Landslide" 4 2
/hotbar pet "Mountain buster" 4 3
I copyed it from reddit (a long lost thread) and LAU, LAR and LAD meant Left for L; U,R and D were "Up, down, Right" on the D-pad and don't remember what the A was. The num code was for the same but to add those skills on the little bars at the Right (I use them to keep control of the CD's time and not having to be pressing L2+R2 every 5 seconds to check out when are they ready).
Hope I helped you a bit with your Arcanist