Issues on Controller

Wanted to try using controller input but i can't do anything without the chat box opening for some reason.

I can't assign skills to any buttons because no matter what menu is open pressing A will open the chat box and take priority, i figured out how to close it but when i press A again it always opens back up.

Pressing the start button to open the pause menu(menu that has exit game) only keeps it open when i have it held, so i have to change the way im holding the controller just to access options. If i spam press the start button i can trick the game into leaving the pause menu available 50% of the time.

Controller input is straight up unplayable for me atm if i cant even bind any skills to buttons.

Edit: Downloaded the steam version and have no issues on controller with it. Might be something wrong with my standalone client version. I will reinstall it later and update the post.

You press Select (the two squares on the Xbox controller or the left center button). Once you open that, use LB and RB to toggle through the tabs up top. Go to Skills. Go down to an open box and it says 'Press X to open Bindings Menu'. Then you can assign any button to anything you want.

Yes i know how to get to the menu, my issue is that when I am on that screen I cannot select what slot i want to place a skill in. I press A to select the skill slot to bind a new skill in, and the chat opens up.

I know how to bind skills, this isn't my first time using controller, my issue is that pressing A, no matter what other menu is open, immediately opens the chat.

When i close the chat window popup I am still at the same screen as before, with the exact same issue.

To piggy-back on this thread, I'd like to call out that we are unable to bind L3 and R3 on DualSense controllers on PC, and that the "interact with environment" defaults to the X button. This causes issues when binding abilities to the X button where looting/opening chests will take priority; in my case preventing me from using the dodge ability.

Hey, I have the same problem both in the version of the game installed on the computer and the version of the game on GeForce NOW, but in the version of the game from STEAM everything works as it should. Has anyone found a solution for this?

I figured this out, after hours of messing around. The reason the "A" button is opening the chat window is because Windows thinks you are hitting the "Enter" key. Windows sees the controller as a mouse and keyboard with static binds that can't be changed. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't provide any way to disable this. However, Steam can be used to "block" Windows from receiving these inputs while the game is running. There are 2 options:

1. Use the Steam version.
2. Add the native POE2 launcher to your Steam Library as a non-Steam game and launch through Steam.

The Steam version crashed every time before I could even play, so I switched to the native launcher. The native launcher would let me play, but then I ran into this issue. I am now using work around #2 and it's working spectacularly. As for the Steam controller setup, I have it set to "Use default settings".

I hope this helps someone.