I fumble through it. I wish it was just another hot bar and we could tie it to ctrl + 1-5 or something. Occasionally I'll make the effort to swap between dps pots and resource pots but mostly I just load up a tri potion and keep it selected.

In PvE I don't think you lose much by using only one type of potion during a fight. PvP's a different story with how useful detection pots can be. I believe there are add-ons available that allow you use different potions in combat without having to access the Q-wheel but I'm not entirely sure those comply with the ToS.
I've been able to handle swapping with the Q-Wheel by keeping it simple with only 3 potions slotted in the up, left, right positions. Once you do several hot swaps in combat you get used to the time it takes for the Q-wheel and what not. Then you get hit with a lag spike and the whole thing goes ka-blaam.

What I do is to put the critical potions (magicka, health, stamina, in PVE at least...) in the up, left, right and/or down positions of the wheel.

Then, with some practice and very crude mouse movement is enough to select the correct one (just press Q and move the mouse left) even while in combat.

I know is not ideal, but is the best I've found with the standard UI.

The other option is to use the quick slot addon that lets you bind a shortcut key to each wheel position... you'd still need to press Q to use, but the slot change is done by pressing your selected key.

EDIT: Heh... I remembered that I rebound my quick-slot key from the default It's not C by default, but Q

EDIT2: Each slots can have different potions in PvE vs PvP

EDIT3: Ninja-ed by @jluceyub17_ESO above We do the same

It's a side effect of having an interface built to work with consoles obviously, right now there is nothing we can really do about it.

Definitely not just you, Morna! I play on the go on a gaming laptop and rarely have a mouse with me. Let me tell you, using the Q wheel with a trackpad is hands down the only thing I struggle with mouse vs. no mouse. If it's an important fight I just can't afford to stumble around with the Q wheel so I have to add my potion selection to my strategy.

MornaBaine wrote: »

Huh... here I was thinking it was just me and that I'd get a bunch of people telling me there was some artful trick to it that I had just been missing. But turns out it really does suck as much as I thought it did! Well, that's something I guess.

No, I just hope that the potion I want is qued up when I press the Q Button. And, if I have to change the potion during a battle, well, I might as well be digging my grave at that point. I don't always choose what I want, I have picked empty potion slots I don't know how many times. So, I use one potion until I am out of battle and can pull up the quickwheel to slot a different one without worrying about my group or a mob. By which time I don't need another potion.

Should have made the 6 to 0 keys, or even better the number pad keys the Quickslots. We could assign to those and then use them from there.

As it stands right now, this is a game that I can only use one potion in.

guybrushtb16_ESO wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

guybrushtb16_ESO wrote: »

It's a side effect of having an interface built to work with consoles obviously, right now there is nothing we can really do about it.

I'm surprised more people have not complained about this frankly.

They did at first, but back then, the fanboism was so prevalent that it got quickly swept under the rug as being a "more immersive interface", along with multiple other shortcoming of the interface that are so very clearly related to consoles in one way or another.

I didn't really notice myself until I started actually studying Alchemy and realizing how much I was being forced to miss out on.

guybrushtb16_ESO wrote: »

the fanboism was so prevalent that it got quickly swept under the rug as being a "more immersive interface", along with multiple other shortcoming of the interface that are so very clearly related to consoles in one way or another.

The UI is undoubtedly more immersive, and it is also more intuitive. However, the Q wheel is neither of those things.

For PvE, I will make H/M/S, H/M/SC or H/S/WC potions depending on the character.

I vendor all potions I get from drops, as they are not as useful as the ones I make myself.

I also use GreyMind's addon and have the more important slots slotted to my 8 to - keys so I can quickly switch if I need to.

I've thought about how to make quick slot wheel better, but I am not sure how that would work, as many of the main keys are already being used for other stuff.

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

Basic answer: The Q-wheel is one of the very worst aspects of the GUI.

Okay; cue the fanbois and shils.

Bluntly, the Q-wheel sucks donkey ***. It is the absolutely, totally and completely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, worst; stupidest; most horrible interface I've ever seen for use of potions / buffs / life-saving "Oh, ***!" measures set up for player use.

It MUST be; I can see of no other reason for it; set up specifically to cater to consoles. No halfway intelligent PC-game designer would ever do anything that absolutely, totally amd completely stupid. Not even a quarter-way; one-eighth-way; or one-sxteenth-way designer would have implemented something that stupid and dysfunctional.

And I thought I-I- felt kind of strongly about this issue! LOL Still, I have to completely agree.

I dont use the 'wheel' either. In fact, as it stands, I do not use any option other than health potions. I dont find magika or stamina ones very useful relative to the difficulty of using them. (If I have to hunt for even a second or two on the wheel the point of using the potion is lost)

Nestor wrote: »

Valen_Byte wrote: »

I hate consoles for this reason. shotty interface....ect...all because of consoles.

It is not catering to the consoles.

Thing is, there is no reason that they can't have a Q-Wheel for the Consoles and assign the Numpad numbers (or whatever) to quickslots for the PC.

No reason at all. The entire interface would look the same to the player no matter what platform they are on except for this one facet.

So, this is not catering to the consoles, it's just someone on the development team really likes a wheel thing. It is actually more programing for the PC to make this happen as you have to make an interactive graphic to pull it off.

I will have to disagree with you on this one. I have seen this so many times I cant even begin to count. Consoles are also why we only have 5 skill slots....there are only so many buttons on a controller. Anyone who has been a gamer for more that 20 yrs has seen a clear progression towards pc games being dumbed down so that they can be ported to console.

It's a terrible thing and it's not even that responsive. Sometimes I have to hit it a couple times to use the potions. It would be awesome if they made the F keys slotted for quick slot items.

Valen_Byte wrote: »

I will have to disagree with you on this one. I have seen this so many times I cant even begin to count. Consoles are also why we only have 5 skill slots....there are only so many buttons on a controller. Anyone who has been a gamer for more that 20 yrs has seen a clear progression towards pc games being dumbed down so that they can be ported to console.

Where is it written that the console version has to have the same UI as the PC version or vice versa? And this whole dumbing things down argument goes out the window as todays consoles are X86 machines with dedicated OS's, so there is no reason to make a game different because it will be on that platform, other than the UI. And, that does not need to be the same. At all really.

Morrowind had differences with regards to Quickslots. The console version did not have any QS, but the PC did. No one was screaming for anything. The UI's were similar but the PC was much better with direct access to the specific window you needed and you could resize the windows and place them where you wanted them to be. Actually, I have yet to see a RPG game with a better UI than Morrowind has, PC or Console.

The 5 slots is more of a design choice than anything else. It makes one think about the skills they are going to use for the situation coming up. This game is not WOW and we don't need to have the scads of quickslots and skill keys that game has. But, this aspect is a discussion for another thread.

Without addons I have found no issues. Swaping to a new pot on my wheel has never effected my gameplay in mid battle. Are people having a majority of issues upon the actual swap?