Is there a reason why there are only 4 keys for spells and skills ? In previous games you had 1- 5 on your key board for powerful attacks with long cool downs now there appears to be just 1 on the board and three on the mouse M4 M5 and wheel. Is there something in the options settings that I am missing ?
You have 6 skills slots and you can map it whatever buttons you wantâŚ
I am still not sure what were you asking to be honest but I hope my answer makes it better
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WE really should have 8 keys I think. One of them reserved for basic and one of them for ultimate.
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Someone is bad at math, I see 6 on my screen.
I dont even use all of them so⌠I think its fine the way it is.
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OK 6 total, 5 on mouse plus 1 one key board, Thatâs still short 4. I canât waste what I have for a single spell or skill thatâs only worth a one shot in a boss fight due to a really long cool down. I donât see their purpose in game though I would like to use them in a boss fight but they are a waste of a key. I do fine if I stick to base skills so thatâs what I will continue to do. In earlier games you could use 2-7 ? for the cool spells or skills for their one big hit. But thanks for the answers, I appreciate it.
you mapped them that way, and what do you mean short 4? short 4 of what?
D3 had 6 skills like D4.
D2 had way more skills but was awkward to use, as in you had to press the key to select it and then click to use. (original, the remake changed it)
D1 was like D2 i think? in the use; but you got skills through books, been a long time, not 100% sure.
i would not mind more skillslots, expecially an ultimate slot, (those are neat but pretty much unusable in most builds), but to be honest:
itâs 1 skill + 5movement/support/utility right now, more slots would only increase the number of support skills.
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can we remap left click, so we have 6 buttons, PLUS a movement button ? frustrating to not have the left click button work without mousing over a target or holding shift down
On the original question: itâs primarily because the game is designed around console/controller.
Not at all awkward, thatâs what R, F, T, G, V, and B are for imo. Also, when switching auras for example, no follow-up click necessary. Very convenient for switching to Vigor, for example, back before Enigma flipped the whole table changed the whole meta. Still neat when slow-walking a friend through content.
Force move can help you here. I use this to my advantage as I still use mouse to move. I am just so used to it instead of keyboard. I put ice armor there on lefty and im happy if accidently casted here.
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Factually incorrect. Many games out there utilize way more than 6 hotkeys that are cross platform. This has nothing to do with it. Itâs about simplicity within Diablo games. D2 was testing the waters to see what would work, D3 made it even more simple, and now we have D4 and D:I to come after with limited hotkeys.
Balance is also focused around this aspect of the game. Adding the ability to have more skills on hotkeys would change things quite a bit at this point. Not saying it wouldnât be a welcome change, but it would take far more thought then âoh letâs add another hotkey to the barâ.
same with me but fire armor. i would like 6 buttons though, i did buy a WOW MMO mouse that has 12 thumb buttonsâŚ
Controllers still have 1 or 2 buttons left and then thereâs button combination inputs. Realistically itâs because Blizzard said so probably for design purposes and possibly for technical debt reasons.
âTechnical debtâ lends itself to controller-focus. Controller is simpler, keyboard can accommodate it, not vice versa.
â1 or 2 buttons leftâ and âunusedâ button combinations can still follow after this overarching decision. Not contra hypothesis, in other words. And the shape the game takes during development influences what gets used and what doesnât later on - but the overarching limitation (controller) can still be operating.
Plus, there are clues that taken together, support âprimarilyâ âdesigned around controllerâ. 
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Unpacking this hypothesis requires an essay, sorry. 
âPrimarilyâ and âdesigned aroundâ were the key phrases. That distinction alone can set a project apart from counterparts. It being a subjective connect-the-dots, then:
I think D4 was designed around controller, and itâs self-evident. Plenty of tell-tale signs, from object hitboxes, to the fact that quick-dumping items from inventory using Ctrl-click was only enabled in S4, one year after release. Lots of other clues, still in the game. The devs are obviously controller-biased.
D1, D2 only serve as contrast (someone here calls the right-button keymapping âclunkyâ) in that theyâre explicitly mouse+keyboard-biased. Their spell sets were much simpler than D3 (learned spells, not borrowed spells), and much much simpler than D4⌠so overall the trend has not been toward simplicity, but toward complexity.
Currently in D4, you can switch in âextraâ spells during combat, you just have to hit âSâ and manually drag the spell to the bar. Itâs the same functionality as in D2, but clunkier: itâs missing the ability to hotkey those âextraâ spells. Why is that?
Unlike in D2, where you decide your build, commit your skill points to 3-4 active branches (irreversible until end-of-life patch 1.13), and rely on your 2 mouse buttons to cast any of your unlocked abilities⌠in D3 you had all abilities unlocked, but committed to 6 during combat. D3 opened doors to complexity, so presumably it had to keep some of them shut during combat.
So why did D4 keep a vestige of D3âs 6-active-spell-limit, while not actually limiting the active spell number available during combat?
The only explanation that makes sense to me, is that a standardized, constrained input was always in their minds, guiding design. They didnât set out - as other games might have - to adapt full keyboard functionality to a future port; they designed the game to be played on controller. (My ongoing hypothesis is this was decided by budget constraints & an accelerated release date, streamlining development to service a simultaneous cross-platform launch.) It explains why they didnât reimagine the D4 UI to make full use of keyboard.
(The messy history of D3 development accommodates this hypothesis as extending to D3âs own design philosophy, but thatâs not necessary. E.g. the console port was obviously delayed by D3âs disastrous rollout; and Jay Wilsonâs persona was more than adequate to the task of omitting such a design principle from public statements. But either way, the D4 team is obviously controller-biased, and the spell-bar faux-limitation is one of the many manifestations of this.)
On my hypothesis, this would be a cart, not a horse. And spells can be switched out on the bar during combat⌠using the same approach as in D2 (click a hotkey), only this is the same hotkey every time (âSâ) and you then have to drag the spell down. A complicated task to transition from this D2-vestige-within-a-D3-vestige, to a hotkey-free-for-all? If so, why is the complication there to begin with?
Controller-in-the-brain is the simplest explanation.
Also, no itâs not complicated: it would be as simple as adding spell slots in the Options menu (with default key bindings, or none), and âfilling outâ the vestigial D2 functionality atop the vestigial D3 one, like so:
- âSâ brings up the spell panel (what D4 calls the Skill Assignment Flyout)
- Point to a spell
- Click the hotkey (after assigning it in menu)
- (Visual cue, such as highlights around action bar slots)
- Drag spell onto desired slot
- Repeat for other hotkey/spell combos
Not controller-friendly. Thus, not in the cards.
Go write a book no one is reading all of this.
What would be the purpose of writing a book, or why would it have a different effect? Youâre just making juvenile noises, like a farting sound, innit?