Keyboard Skills: Key-binding as an alt option to current control format?

I have to say I much prefer the PoE way of doing it, my left hand is already at the qwery and 1-5 buttons so that's pretty normal. I find the way PoE does it is very intuitive as it is and is very similar to other games which require between 1-10 hot keys.

The biggest complaint I had about Diablo II was the way you couldn't directly hotkey your skills but instead had to waste the additional step of then clicking the mouse (really more like two steps since you would have to switch it back to your 'main' mouse skill when you were done). As a result I rarely ever used more than two skills with possibly a buff that I would switch to long enough to cast once every few minutes when not in harm's way.

If they changed it to the Diablo setup it would add an unnecessary step that I can't see the benefit of implementing. They could also make the casting more complicated by requiring you to click the mouse key boxes and manually switch the spell each time you cast...

But the success of a game is about appealing to the largest number of people possible, and if they could find a way to make the Diablo style an option for those who would prefer it, I'd be all for it. So long as the rest of us have the option of playing it with the simpler interface it currently has.

I got total opposite feelings about this.

In D2 I used like 8 or 10 active skills (that need aiming) on some builds.
In PoE I don't use more than 4 and all them are binded to mouse buttons (2 skills on thumb buttons).
On hotkeys I use only selfbuffs they don't need any aiming.

Mapping skills to mouse buttons is best way to provide possiblity to use wide arrange of skills fast and in the same time allow player to aim precisely.
After all in all FPS it's done like that, players are not firing various weapons with various keybinds and only aim with mouse.

Let's hope this doesn't catch on in other pc programs... Can you imagine if to type in this forum you had to hit each key once to bind it to the mouse, then click the mouse to put the letter on the screen? :p

So, those of you who prefer having skills used directly from the keyboard: what do you use your rmb for?

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promenad wrote:

So, those of you who prefer having skills used directly from the keyboard: what do you use your rmb for?

For most used attack skill duh??
My LMB= normal attack/frenzy ,RMB = split arrow ,MMB = poison arrow.
Those are 3 spam-like-hell attacks that i use mostly in game.
Rest of skills like raise spectre (meatbags ftw),phase run ,town portal, detonate dead etc. is on QWERT.

That's the thing though, the D2 format changes the meta-game; it abandons the notion that the most easily controlled toggle (right mouse button) is reserved for a single most used skill, instead every skill in a character's arsenal can be unleashed there.

The control format that most ARPGs use nowadays is a hybrid between mouse-toggling and keyboard-toggling, while movement stays mouse-toggled (for most isometric games at least).

What D2 offered was full-on mouse control, with the keyboard only there to switch between skills and drink potions. You never have to worry about which skill should be most used (should I use cleave / sweep / ground slam? Now I can use all three skills in succession and still be able to quickly switch to magical spells which I can also quickly fire in succession).

This is the type of control that can introduce the frenzied combat that can potentially make the game much more fun.

I think the biggest problem is that you cant lock on an enemy with a keyboard-bound skill, like you can with a mouse-bound one.

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shadowtwin wrote:

Let's hope this doesn't catch on in other pc programs...

trying to be funny, eh?
I gave plenty of examples.
Besides PC arpgs all first person view games use that system).
Aside of games afaik CAD and 3D rendering soft also works like that.
Pretty much every soft on pc that requires extensive operating via mouse + keyboard works like that.
You are mapping (selecting) action by key bind or key combination than you are aiming and executing it by mouse.
You could try it by yourself in paint...
MS Word doesn't use it because it's designed to be operated mainly/only by keyboard.
But PoE is not MS word or some fkin excel.

I know mimicking everything what blizz is doing might be trendy, but blizz changed system for clear purpose.
To get same steering on pc and on consoles.
That's why great working system (examples above) got changed. Not because using skills from keyboard but aiming them by mouse (other hand) is better. It's not. It's retarded.
But that's how gamepad works.
Does PoE is aimed at consoles also?
Do you play on pad in PoE?

We have better tools so we need appropriate steering system to use them to the fullest.
Current one is limiting player's control by requiring both hands to execute action that should be and could be done single-handedly.
That's why it's bad.

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jerg wrote:

That's the thing though, the D2 format changes the meta-game; it abandons the notion that the most easily controlled toggle (right mouse button) is reserved for a single most used skill, instead every skill in a character's arsenal can be unleashed there.

The control format that most ARPGs use nowadays is a hybrid between mouse-toggling and keyboard-toggling, while movement stays mouse-toggled (for most isometric games at least).

What D2 offered was full-on mouse control, with the keyboard only there to switch between skills and drink potions. You never have to worry about which skill should be most used (should I use cleave / sweep / ground slam? Now I can use all three skills in succession and still be able to quickly switch to magical spells which I can also quickly fire in succession).

This is the type of control that can introduce the frenzied combat that can potentially make the game much more fun.

You know your argument dont make any sense for me. Not even small sense.

There is NO REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO SYSTEMS ,expect with the one you suggest ,you need to click 1 more time.

So you waste time on one click ,100 spells swaps = 100clicks wasted.
If you waste time then how you can call it more frienzed or dynamic??

In both systems you need to pick spell with QWER or 1-10 ,just that in POE its automaticly casted after pick. You need in both version aim with mouse while doing it.

So you just suggest to add something that simply add more clicks to do the same thing that it does now ??

@mms
You can lock ,locking targets is on mouse cursor ,you dont need to click anything to highligh enemy.
The diffrence is only how you cast the skill ,instead of pressing mouse button you press QWERT.

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ness wrote:

We have better tools so we need appropriate steering system to use them to the fullest.
Current one is limiting player's control by requiring both hands to execute action that should be and could be done single-handedly.
That's why it's bad.

You CANT control diablo single hand ,because you need to do exactly same thing as in POE ,press the darn 1-10 ,QWER ,f1-f10 or whatever to pick the spell you wanna cast.

Unless you press them by hammering the keyboard with your head.