[Bug] Quick Cast (Multiple Issues)

[TheTias-1192]

Meowrs

There appear to be multiple issues with quick cast as currently implemented. I will outline them below.

Issue #1: Character movement does not resume when a quick cast ability has been used even if the player is still holding down the left mouse button (LMB). The player must wait for the quick cast ability to fire off and for the UI to switch back to the ability originally present in the skill bar.

Issue #2: When using quick cast with an ability that has a cooldown once used, the cooldown is triggered regardless of whether or not the ability is successfully cast.

An example of this is if a player attemps to summon the Amazon’s Valkyrie, but is in a hit recovery animation (hit lock) and the ability does not get cast, the cooldown will still be activated, but for quick cast only . Casting via the traditional method of pressing the keybind to bring it up into the UI and trying again during the period where the cooldown prevents quick cast from working does allow the ability to be used.

Issue #3: When using a “static” ability that is turned on when switched to such as a Paladin’s aura, if a quick cast ability that is assigned to the same mouse button is used, the aura will deactivate during the use of said quick cast ability. This issue is not present if the quick cast ability is one that is associated with another mouse button or keyboard key.

An example of this is when I tested with Holy Bolt on my Paladin and assigned the keybind to F4 (primary keybind that is default for Legacy keybind mode) and used it while I had my Might aura (F3) assigned to my right mouse button (RMB). Because of the need to preserve both scroll wheel up/down functionality and still allow a quick cast use as implemented currently, a player must use the secondary keybind to associate an ability with quick cast.

Both Holy Bolt and Might were associated with the RMB. In this setup, using Holy Bolt interrupted the Might aura completely during use. If I held down the Holy Bolt quick cast key the Might aura was fully disabled and no longer affected my Paladin at all until the quick cast keybind for Holy Bolt was released and the Might aura was swapped back into the RMB on the skill bar UI.

This issue is not present if the quick cast keybind is associated with a different mouse button or solely to a keyboard key.

Suspected cause of all three issues: Quick Cast appears to utilize a method wherein the ability is literally swapped into the keyboard and mouse UI’s LMB or RMB if the quick cast key is associated to the respective mouse button and its own secondary keybind.

In the example in issue #3 my Holy Bolt was assigned to F3 on the RMB’s spellbind flyout so it would be available to the mouse scroll wheel up/down cycling system and its secondary keybind was set to X. But because the Might aura was also set to the RMB flyout, they both occupied the same space and the quick cast ability (Holy Bolt) was literally swapped into the RMB UI during use, taking the place of the Might aura entirely while it was in use.

This is obviously game breaking for not just any Paladin using auras, but it affects every class. The swap is also likely the culprit for issues #1 and #2 as it interrupts proper mouse input. You can still move the cursor, but button input is interrupted and ignored until the player releases and depresses the button again after the quick cast ability has been swapped out of the mouse button UI.

This is not how this system is expected to work. The problem here is that quck cast is injecting an ability into the mouse UI, breaking mouse functionality in the process when it should instead be merely firing off the ability without touching the UI or mouse functionality at all for the LMB and RMB.

The expected behaviour of quick cast is that it was supposed to work exactly like the controller UI’s separate button functionality. Instead, it interferes with mouse functionality at the most basic level due to how quick cast has to be set up.

The ideal fix for this is to not make quick cast interact with LMB or RMB at all. That is the entire point of quick cast - that it be used at any time in conjunction with the LMB and/or RMB. The easiest way to do this is to just use the controller UI layout onscreen when quick cast is enabled for a character and then use the suggestion below to allow full functionality. You’d need to also preserve scroll wheel cycling/assignment as well, but that’s a separate bug that is being fixed currently.

There is room in the UI to expand the width of the KB/M UI bar to equal the width of the controller UI bar. Then you could move the mini icon bar into the middle and have it be a flyout that is activated by a click like original game, mve teh stamina bar to the top of where it is now, make it thinner, and put 4-6 slightly smaller quick cast keybinds icon slots in there. Then you could use the area just above the top of the current UI layout to show the other quick cast keybinds (also made smaller than the current “visible keybind bar” users can enable in the options. You would also need to add a third row into the Controls UI pane with checkmarks alongside each of the skill keybinds that users could tick off to enable quick cast (or just rename the secondary keybind to quick cast keybind).

In any case, quick cast needs to be made to never touch the mouse UI at all and to not interrupt LMB/RMB functionality when used.

[Perusoe-1251]

@TheTias-1192

Issue #1: Character movement does not resume when a quick cast ability has been used even if the player is still holding down the left mouse button (LMB). The player must wait for the quick cast ability to fire off and for the UI to switch back to the ability originally present in the skill bar.

This is not a bug. D3 supports “Chording”. D2:R does not. And D2 never did.

More information here (Post includes a link to a Community Manager response):

Can't change paladin aura while attacking with quick cast enabled

Games like D3 support, what I call, “Chording”. This is where you can press several keys at once, including mouse buttons. For example, you can Shift+Left Click to attack monsters. Without releasing the key(s) or button(s), you can then Right-Click for a second attack or buff. When you release the right mouse button, you continue to Shift-Left Click your attack. And finally, when you release the Shift key, you begin moving again. D2:LoD and D2:R has never supported Chording… unfortunately. (I w…

Other than that…   Nice documentation!  

[soboro-11375]

@TheTias-1192

Issue #1: Character movement does not resume when a quick cast ability has been used even if the player is still holding down the left mouse button (LMB). The player must wait for the quick cast ability to fire off and for the UI to switch back to the ability originally present in the skill bar.

If this is not a bug but a specification, then Quickcast is garbage.

[TheTias-1192]

@Perusoe-1251

This is not a bug. D3 supports “Chording”. D2:R does not. And D2 never did.

This isn’t chording. You can hold down LMB, use RMB for an ability and you’ll still move afterward without having to press the LMB again. This is a bug.

@Perusoe-1251

More information here (Post includes a link to a Community Manager response):

We’re not talking about force move, we’re talking about simple LMB. And neither force move nor quick cast are operating as would be expected. It literally works differently than every other game that has either or both. It will not be well received if left in this state.

[pighair-3778]

One more thing. When a quick cast button is hold, other inputs are ignored. I use all combat skills on LMB and all auras+Holy Shield on RMB but I cannot change aura while casting some combat skill. I can turn on Redemption while casting Hammer, or I can turn on Vigor while running quickly using Change. But with quick cast, I should stop casting to change aura.

[mchn-2744]

I think I’ve encountered another bug - I’ve bound a Necro curse to “Shift + LETTER”. When I use it multiple times with quick cast, the character often gets stuck casting said curse, and I can’t move until I press the same “Shift + LETTER” again.

[TheTias-1192]

Make sure you have Windows’ sticky keys turned off. Pressing anything with Shift multiple times rapidly will trigger it if it isn’t turned off.

[mchn-2744]

@TheTias-1192

Make sure you have Windows’ sticky keys turned off. Pressing anything with Shift multiple times rapidly will trigger it if it isn’t turned off.

I’ve checked - they are off.

Also, I’m not clicking Shift multiple times - just simply holding the “Shift + LETTER” for a second or two.

I’ll create another thread for this not to get lost.

[SneakyTouchy-1110]

I’ve been running into another bug a lot while playing assassin and barbarian.

For whatever reason, even though I have WW set to right click, it sometimes gets replaced with hork.

I am also seeing a lot of cases where whatever I have set to m1 or m2 for martial arts assassin, they get randomly changed to other skills I use.

This I suspect has something to do with latency and spamming skills in rapid succession. Whatever skill I am using gets applied as if quick cast is very briefly turned off. Instead of using the skill, it just gets set as an m1/m2 cast.

[TheTias-1192]

@SneakyTouchy-1110

This I suspect has something to do with latency and spamming skills in rapid succession. Whatever skill I am using gets applied as if quick cast is very briefly turned off. Instead of using the skill, it just gets set as an m1/m2 cast.

This is a bug that stems from how quick cast works as it injects its assigned skill into the LMB/RMB slot when activated. This is counter to literally every other bloody game on the planet where keybinds just activate themselves, they don’t inject themselves into the UI. This is why those of us asking for keybinds like this wanted the D3 style UI, not this bastardization that causes more problems than it fixes.

I’m really hoping that this version of quick cast/keybinds is just a placeholder for a better, less intrusive version.

FWIW, you can trigger a similar effect by casting a skill assigned to quick cast that is on your skill tree after you have resurrected in town. The Amazon’s Valkyrie is a great example. During normal play you’ve got say, Guided Arrow as LMB and Multiple Arrow as RMB. When you die and resurrect, both are still in their respective UI slots. However, if you cast Valkyrie with Quick Cast, that skill will replace the skill previously assigned in the UI via the regular F-key/NumKey bindings [u]and will remain there even after you pick up your body and regain your equipment[/b]. The only way to fix this is to cycle to the keybind for the skill manually via the mouse scroll wheel since pressing the same skill’s keybind will just act like quick cast and it goes away after you let go of the keybind. This is why this version of quick cast sucks so badly and needs to be replaced.

[KingKratom-1253]

Issue 1, agreed. The other issues also seem to make sense but I haven’t gotten a sample for myself. But Issue 1 is what I came here to report so I +1 this for sure.

Quick cast won’t be useful for many/most attacks until this is fixed. Bowzon, hammerdin, and I would imagine sorc using glacial spike or other no-cast-delay skills, and probably many other skills too - for mobility you’d be better off using the old system. Because you can use Shift to stop-knock-and-trot without ever letting go of your mouse button. If that were never the case, I’d agree with some people talking about this being deliberate. But given the advantages (take a bowzon for example in PVP) that one gains by being able to stick-n-move, flicking shots as they run, I mean it was a staple maneuver of bow-pvp as anyone can tell you. I’m sure most zon PVP’ers bound many of their attacks to left button just so they could tap shift to clap one in the enemy’s direction while continuing to evade enemy fire. Not only is having to click to move again after your attack awkward, but it can really multiply the amount of clicks you’re doing with your pointer which isn’t good for you. And I began feeling the added clicks quickly after trying quick cast out for bowzon. Diablo 1 caused repetitive motion pain/injury for me, had to stop playing at some point. I highly doubt this is intended behavior. I see people speculating about technical limitations.

Just No.

This could be remedied in many different ways.

[KingKratom-1253]

@TheTias-1192

Issue #1: Character movement does not resume when a quick cast ability has been used even if the player is still holding down the left mouse button (LMB). The player must wait for the quick cast ability to fire off and for the UI to switch back to the ability originally present in the skill bar.

Also, wonder how many people are noticing (maybe justo n the 2.4 PTR) that while holding left click on a single enemy, now once the enemy dies, you automatically take off running in the direction your mouse cursor is pointed. I can see how this could be convenient in some circumstances. But most of the time it causes unintentional movements, which often runs me into the direction of danger. It was so irksome that I had to just begin holding shift whenever I was attacking because if you didn’t let loose the left mouse button just before the enemy fell dead, you’d start running.

[TheTias-1192]

@KingKratom-1253

Also, wonder how many people are noticing (maybe justo n the 2.4 PTR) that while holding left click on a single enemy, now once the enemy dies, you automatically take off running in the direction your mouse cursor is pointed. I can see how this could be convenient in some circumstances. But most of the time it causes unintentional movements, which often runs me into the direction of danger. It was so irksome that I had to just begin holding shift whenever I was attacking because if you didn’t let loose the left mouse button just before the enemy fell dead, you’d start running.

This is likely a byproduct of this fix:

Fixed an issue where a channel ability would stop casting if you were directly targeting an enemy with your mouse prior to casting and that enemy died