New to Console (Controller questions)

After years of playing games on my laptop, I now have an Xbox One. I'm getting used to playing with a controller so there are some things I like and some I don't.

1. From what I understand you can't re-map the buttons for POE. Are there any controllers that allow you to do that or would GGG have to make that part of the game?

2. Right now, the controller uses "A" to pick items up, but also to use portals. It's annoying to have the Stone of Passage in Ava's Temple drop in proximity to the Portal and not be able to pick it up, instead getting portalled out. Is there any way around this? Any trick someone's using (besides hoping the Stone doesn't land near the portal!)

3. Are any of you using higher-end controllers that you like better than the standard controller? Is there something about them that makes playing POE easier or better?

Thanks for any feedback!

1) Yes, custom controllers that allow you to say 'A' does 'B'. The game doesn't allow you this option currently.

2) No, that is one of the challenges and most frustrating parts. With PC you can see easier where your mouse is, with console you must rely on the on screen indicator of what that button will do. Sometimes even if that shows it will loot, it will not. But it will show you what object, you're targeting non monster. (NPC, Portal, Loot) Those will have your button indicator on them, but if there is a monster around and you see their name on your screen then whatever ability is on that skill will take priority.

I tried having NO skill assigned to that key in hopes of it always looting when pressed, unfortunately, if a monster is targeted it will always attempt to use that skill even if one is not present.

I've made another post outlining this issue for GGG about buttons being double assigned or confusing and how the functions need to be different. I hope for a day where we have the option to change this to NPC's being one button and ground loot being another, but for now we must deal with moving slower while around the portals.

3) Haven't tried any aftermarket options personally. I'd imagine, the flasks is where you'd see the most benefit as taking your thumb off the joystick that moves you is dangerous at times. But I've gotten faster at rolling my thumb across the D-pad and back to the stick as I've played. Gotta pick the times to do it, but that's part of the challenge I suppose.

The other nice thing may be to have the loot button and the joystick that moves around what you can interact with, to not need the same thumb. Like moving your 'A' button to something that's on your left trigger finger side. Haven't made the plunge yet, but I'd rather pay GGG to allow me to remap my buttons within the game than I would pay for a controller.

That's great info, thanks. I appreciate it.

Yeah, GGG allowing us to re-map the buttons would go a long way to my commitment to this game. I'm pretty bad at being able to trigger the left bumper button while in the thick of things. It's become a useless button for me limiting me to basically 4 flasks.

With limited keys, we should be able to map all keys as we want - not have any that are system defined.

And - I know all games want the "one keystroke = one action", but that went away years ago on a PC with programmable keyboards/mice, so not allowing us to bind same keys (flasks I am talking about you) hurts the console players.

I bought the XBOX elite controller just so I could map things a bit - but not enough choice is a real problem.

But I truly don't believe anyone at GGG plays the game on console because there are so many console-specific issues that fail to get addressed.

Thanks for the info. What kind of things are you doing on the Elite that you aren't able to do on the standard controller? Is it just more available buttons so you don't need to use the triggers?