Hammerdin plays like a caster anyway. I agree.
Being able to scroll wheel through your bound skills feels like enough for me. I dunno. Simple is better in some cases and for me, that’s more than enough.
It may be enough for some players, but having more options to allow players to customize the controls to their preferences is almost never a bad thing; especially when some are using external programs for themselves to achieve something that is not in the game natively.
I’m ok with a skill bar option. It’s effectively already in the game, but you have to plug in a controller for it to work so by extension to use this feature you need to buy 50+ usd of new hardware. It falls under the theme of UI/controls updates, which are fine unless you’re a total purist. Makes combat more fluid and doesn’t really have a downside. The key to most changes that they have to be stringent about is does it cause cascading effects on other systems or does it break the core gamplay? Really it doesn’t break the core because it’s again already in the game for certain ppl with additional hardware. I can see many players swapping to controllers if it remains controller only because in long hours of grinding you’re effectively removing unnecessary extra steps in order to cast your skills. This is actually one thing Diablo 3 got right, which I hate to admit.
People were already using this feature through macros on pc anyways. Removing the need for macros just puts everyone on the same level.
This is also a similar situation to item filters. Players will use them regardless of blizzard actually adding them to the stock version.
I’m hoping Blizzard realizes not just letting us use the bar for KB+M is a pointless and bad call sooner rather than later.
If they don’t do the right/obvious thing, a lot of people will use macros as a clumsy and annoying alternative to accomplish the same thing. Some might use controller emulators and re-map controller buttons to keyboard/mouse keys, but that has a lot of annoying issues. You’d need a toggle to be able to type with your keyboard and then swap the keys back to controller keys. You wouldn’t be able to use mouse movement in that system unless you were fine with having to constantly swap back between controller and KB+M UI (it auto swaps back if you press a keyboard key or mouse button seemingly). You can actually rebind WASD to controller joystick directions and move that way if you want. I’m not sure how well that works since I didn’t try it outside of town.
Maybe a bored programmer could cobble together a system with a controller emulator where clicking in various directions on the screen was intercepted and relayed a control stick movement in that direction instead. You’d need a toggle system again to be able to type or click though and it would be needlessly overly complicated compared to just letting us use a skill bar by default.
If they don’t just give us a built in KB+M skill bar system I guarantee you there will be a lot of people trying to cobble something together to get us as close as we can.
Having played on Xbox and PC, I must say that I really really enjoyed the feel of the controller for Diablo 2. The skill bar was amazing, hitting a button and having a skill go off, and having easy access to so many skills was great. Swapping auras, switching between zeal and vengeance on the fly… seamless. enjoyable.
Agreed, I was shocked how well the controller support was implemented. I personally wouldn’t mind having a skill bar just because switching skills using the function keys feels kind of awkward and always has.
100%. and it less efficient/immersive than hitting a key and seeing the spell go off. Pressing an F key and then having to click again to actually use it just… sucks.
No to action bar unless using a controller, Thanks.
It changes how the mechanics work. I don’t like it. I mean I might, but I don’t want it anyways.
CORE D2 for mouse and keyboard.
Controllers can have their action bar.
It does change the way mechanics work… but all you have to do to obtain that is use a controller.
So, they should make it an option for anyone, since it is a matter of preference and any mechanical advantage can be leveraged by anyone who wants to leverage it anyways. It should be an equal option based solely on preference and not tied to input type
It’s already in game via macros which you don’t seem to realize. You can achieve the exact same functionality just without a visual bar.
This is clearly a coveted feature. Most modern ARPGs of have one. In addition if something is not implemented similar to it, players will probably make their own with simple macros.
So, they should just implement it as a standard option and not make players jump through janky hoops.
Basically this. Otherwise anyone with slightly more knowledge of macros will just have an advantage anyways. If it’s a stock part of the game everyone is on a level playing field when it comes to pvp or pvm farming.