Hotbars and Actions

*This guide is OBSOLETE as of Stormblood release, in June 2017, because there is no more “Cross Class Action” and they implemented a new system called Roles. So you select the skills/spells from role list in a similar way with this.*

Sorry, had to split this entry into a new one because it’s long and has so many screenshots.

Now let’s talk about Hotbars and Actions (Abilities/Skills/Spells).

You can put many things in your Hotbar for fast access or execution. Now, let’s see what you can do about your hotbar and skills and spells.

(See my messy Hotbars HAHAHAHA)

First, open your Actions & Traits menu by using shortcut button, P. Or open it manually from main menu => Character => Actions & Traits.

In the left pane, select “Actions” for active skills. It will list your currect class/job skills, arranged chronologically by level.

Usually, when you newly level up and learn/acquire a new spell or skill, the spell/skill will automatically appear on the next available slot on Hotbar 1. But if your Hotbar 1 is full, it may or may not show up on Hotbar 2. If it does not appear, you have to manually put it on the hot bar in order to able to use the spell/skill.

Also, if you don’t like where the skill was automatically assigned, you can “Unlock” your hotbar arrangement and rearrange the spells/skills as you like by dragging and dropping it. To unlock your Hotbar buttons, click on the lock (padlock) icon on the right of your Hotbar 1.

Next, let’s explore your additional abilities. These are sometimes called “Cross-class skills” and it can only be acquired by leveling up other class/job. Once you learn the skill or spell from other class, when you come back to play your main class, you can “steal” or “borrow” some spells/skills from other class.

Select “Additional” category on the left pane of your Actions & Traits menu. You will have to drag and drop the ability from this window onto your Hotbar.

For example, I have Swiftcast ability and have it selected in my Additional ability menu, but didn’t have it on my Hotbar. So I click on it and hold the mouse button…..and then drag it to the desired spot on my Hotbar.

To remove the spell/skill from your hotbar, to make an empty slot again, you can either drag the skill and throw it away outside of the hotbar area (make sure the Hotbar is unlocked) or you can right click on the spell/skill and choose “remove” on the menu that appears.

Oh, but if your “Additional” ability menu is empty, you have to select the class you want to borrow it from. Here, in the pic below, you can see that at level 20, we’re allowed to choose 4 cross-class abilities. To choose a skill/spell, you have to select the check box to make it appear below.

When you select other class in the menu on the left, it will show available abilities from the other class. Here, in the example, I select ACN (Arcanist) abilities and enabled Eye for an Eye skill.

I can now drag “Eye for am Eye” from Additional abilities window onto my Hotbar.

Oh, and after this, if I want to change to enable other spells/skills instead, I can uncheck the box of “Eye for an Eye” to make the slot empty again. The skill on my Hotbar will become dim (grey out) and can no longer be used, until I reselect it again.

One interesting thing about Cross-class skills is that when you’re under the effect of Level Sync (like, going into a dungeon that’s lower level than you, or participate in a FATE at lower level than you) the Additional Abilities available slots will be limited (capped down).

See that I had unlocked 4 slots for Additional Abilities, up to level 40. But now I am level 20, so the system only allowed me to use 2 cross-class skills, showing 4/2 beside the Level Sync status symbol. The ones in the slots of higher level are disabled (greyed out, or dimmed).

When inside the dungeon, if you have no enmity (no aggro, meaning not fighting or did not do anything to help the party member who’s fighting) you can rearrange (change order) of Additional Abilities to make you able to access the skills/spells that you need more than the others.

Please note, though, that swapping Cross-class skills inside a dungeon has the same effect as changing class/job outside of Sanctuary area, most of your abilities will become “used” and need to wait for the recast cooldown timer.

Here, for example, if you enter the dungeon with abilities arranged in this order, you cannot cast Protect for your party. You can rearrange the order by drag and drop, to exchange spots of the abilities.

EXTRA: if you’re a healer and you want to help the party DPS (shooting offensive spells at enemies) and you want to stay on Cleric Stance, you can use the Cross-Class skill swapping trick to enable Cleric Stance, use it, and stay in Cleric Stance, then swap other spells or skill to be enabled instead. Or if you know the party will finish the dungeon within 30 minutes (before Protect wears off), you can also use Protect on the party, and then swap Additional skills, putting Protect spell away and selecting other spells instead, too.