FFXIV

• There's no sale on the subscription. It's a flat monthly fee. Considering the time sink that it is for many players (And maybe for you as well at some point!) I'd say it's a fair price. After Stormblood you'll still need to buy the later expansions, and I think those might sometimes go on sale?
• As far as I'm aware, there's no significant difference between any races. Play what you like, dress how you want. All the classes are fun to play and powerful in their own way.
• Macros can be useful for many things, even with controllers! You don't put in key combinations and instead put in actual spell and action names, so they work on PC and console.

Have fun, it's a great community. You've got a long and wonderful experience ahead of you. A Realm Reborn can be a bit of a slog (It's not as bad as it used to be, they've removed a number of Main Story Quests to help), but the payoff at the end of the base game is worth it.

The subscription does not go on sale. It's the same 15 shekels a month it always has been.

Races are entirely cosmetic. Classes are balanced enough that the content can be cleared using any combination of appropriate roles, although some obviously stand above others. Certain DPS classes are balanced around their raid impact (dancer, ninja), so their personal numbers are less impressive.

Controller use is 100% viable and designed for. The game is playable on consoles, so they made controller usability a priority. Macros can be used with a controller, but I personally never saw a need for them. You'll want a keyboard of some sort to type the macro script, and after that it gives you a button to map like any of your skill buttons.

You can save a few bucks by getting the entry subscription instead, which is only $12.99 a month. There’s little reason to have multiple characters since a single character can be every class, and you can run old content as much as you want to get their unique drops, if you want.

Does the subscription ever go on sale?

The base game / expansions do, but I've never seen a sale on subscriptions (though there are free login campaigns, which are usually like 4 days long). The good thing is: the free trial is a ton of content, especially since Stormblood was added to it. Also, I find there's plenty of time to unsub and not miss much between patches if you do catch up, like right now myself and my friends aren't subbed while waiting for the next event or content drop.

Are the classes/races decently balanced?

No racial differences in this game. Class wise, playing regular content (not savage/extreme/static raiding), everything is completely viable and no one will have an issue with people playing any class. The main thing to watch out for is doing your class quests to have all skills (top left of the default HUD shows current main story quest and right under it current class quest) and when a class hits 30, it unlocks a questline to change into another class and you must do that and upgrade your class, that would be the only reason anyone would be upset xD

I saw a menu option for macros, and I'd assume that's keyboard-only?

I think macros can be used on controller as well. I can't speak to controller too much, as I don't use it, but I know people say it works fairly well. All I know is it's called "cross" in the menus so things like cross hotbars are for controllers. Macro wise I'm not sure macros are used too much. I have plenty of crafting / gathering / changing classes macros, but people tend to not use them for combat actions as they have a slight delay compared to firing off actions manually.

About the sub, I want to add that once you start paying for it the free trial ends. You will not be able to log in even for the free trial content after you paid once (if you let the sub run out).

Most people sub for a few months then wait for new content. There are often 1-2 free weeks a year that welcomes back players and don't require a sub to play.

If you are on playstation you actually don't need Plus to play the game, just an FFXIV sub.

Classes are pretty balanced till the extreme trials and "endgame". Item level usually goes up with each expansion making previous content less difficult. At that point the differences are still pretty small between classes and rely more on knowing each fight and your rotations.

As far as I know, races have no impact on gameplay

Macros are wonderful and can work with a controller. I play on the PS4 and use the built-in on screen keyboard to enter in commands.

I've made it through Stormblood without any issues with a controller. In Heavensward you'll want to start using the option to double tap the shoulder buttons to add more actions on your hotbar. DPS can be rough on a controller but as a Tank (DRK) I was fine.

The best tip I have is do daily roulettes. The EXP and money are worth it. Also, if you're on GOBLIN people tend to sell old gear for cheap on the boards.