Yes, we can hold shift. No, it’s not good. No, it’s not intuitive. No, it’s not fluid. No, it doesn’t matter if “that’s how it’s always been.”
Other ARPGs have it as an option for each skill. Other ARPGs have it as an option for each slot. Other ARPGs have it as an ability to toggle it versus holding it. I don’t understand the complete disconnect here. People genuinely think needing to press two keys to properly activate one attack without moving is good design?
Assuming you’re using Move / Interact / Attack on LMB [Thankfully we now have the option to just have it be Move / interact], in order to cast a radial skill in the middle of the enemies, you need to LMB to get in the middle of the group, release LMB before pressing shift [otherwise you’ll basic attack / LMB], then press RMB to use your skill, then release shift before pressing LMB [otherwise you’ll basic attack], then resume holding LMB to continue moving. Rinse and repeat for every single group of mobs in the dungeon.
In an APRG with modern controls, you would simply hold LMB to get in the middle of a group of enemies, and press RMB, and then you would automatically keep moving afterwards. The same results with far, far, far less keystrokes. This is not an issue of “Oh you just want it easy because low-skill”; “skillful gameplay” should not be how well you can navigate terrible interfacing and input choices. This is a deliberate choice by Blizzard and I’ve yet to see a good reason for making it not a per-slot, or per-skill, or toggleable option.
It would make combat more responsive, the controls tighter, and obviously it would alleviate the discomfort that people that suffer from repetitive strain injuries or carpal tunnel have, from constantly having to do 3x the amount of keystrokes to achieve the same result that modernized ARPGs have been able to accomplish with a much more friendly input system.
The whole point about certain skills that are centered on the player, such as radial explosions, or radial flurry, is that players want to be in the middle of a group of enemies and be able to control when those skills activate versus having to click on a singular mob to do an AOE attack or the inconvenience of having to tap shift and release between every skill activation.
Furthermore, the option to move/interact with one input still forces players to attack, so holding shift all the time isn’t an option either, which only reinforces the issue. If you unassign LMB to avoid this issue, holding shift+LMB no longer automatically moves, so that doesn’t work. All of these issues would be resolved by simply having an option to cast the skill without moving.
Having it as an option allows people who like holding shift to do so, and allows people who like casting skills without moving to do so. I simply don’t see why it cannot exist as a global toggle or per-skill/slot option. It would make high level play feel so much more fluid and was something I didn’t like about D3 as well.
Apologies for the wall of text, but genuinely it’s always been one of the most annoying things about D3 and D4 so far, I would like them to move away from these archaic and unfriendly systems a bit more.