Add the ability to use the keyboard to move instead of click to move
it works perfectly fine in diablo 3 and 4
it’s easy to bind your skills to your extra mouse buttons as desired
They probably never tried making it that way because this comes from StarCraft and the like.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say there are too many abilities for some heroes for that kind of control to not be a handicap.
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It works there because it is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GENRE.
Adding WASD to a MOBA game is an awful idea. Everyone would be forced to relearn how to move because of how much easier it is to micro with keys.
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Hi. Not really.
It would vary between hero to hero for which is slightly better but I imagine a VAST majority of people simply wouldn’t care and just pick the mode they like more.
kind of annoying they disabled playback on other sites on this one : s
Too be fair i do agree that WASD would be way better for the MOBA genre.
It’s more practical and convenient.
But i think at this point we are far too deep in the sauce of the game too be able to implement it, and if it was implemented it would have too be the default setting due too it being the easier of the two options too play.
But i think we are way far past the point of “Trying it” at this point.
WASD movement more or less completely disables stutter stepping which is necessary to progress above the medium rank in any moba. It is a gigantic handicap.
It also completely disables fast reaction based abilities or reactive abilities like cleanses that need the cursor to move rapidly to the correct target within 0,1 seconds.
I mean, WASD would be perfectly fine in PvE Brawls and AI mode. Anywhere else WASD is a disaster.
I’ve tried playing HotS on a PS5 controller as well. It was a disaster.
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Well yea it makes the game a ton easier, so it is convenient.
I think if a game needs to handicap their players controls just too balance the game, then that focuz is wrong.
At that point looking at other parts of a game too increase the skill gap would be needed.
But i also think HOTS is far too deep in it now too start developing new controls, i think at this point it would harm the community more than it would fix, and i think things like that needs to be there from the getgo.
The player base can often build around convenience like that.
But i do stil agree with the OP, it would be ATON better too have WASD controlls.
ANd i say this as someone who has been a high ranked player both in HOTS, League and Heroes of Middle Earth.
Microcontrol is 10x easier with gaming mouse than keys, Diablo 3 doesn’t rely on this
Anyone who wants to try it can still do it through, for example using Xpadder or reWASD. Just remap every mouse right click to a corresponding w, a, s or d key.
But playing some heroes would become a nightmare, like Valla or Samuro. Or even heroes who need very precise skillshots or vector targeting like Alarak or Kel’thuzad. I truly have no idea how anyone would ever play these heroes in a PvP environment using only keyboard inputs.
Hey if people WANT to adapt to it…
Personally, I don’t want to have to hold a key the entire time I’m moving in a direction. I like to click a location then check talents or the map while my character moves.
Separating the movement from the general ability aiming, only to then move the abilities on the mouse… I think a lot of HOTS players might already be using this.
How would you even cast abilities that require targeting with WASD movement?
If mouse is still a part of it, then hotkeys would have to go, cause humans don’t have 3 hands nor are their fingers long enough to jump between multiple keys with just 1 finger.
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You wouldn’t. WASD would completely break Chromie, KTZ, Li-Ming among others. The game isn’t meant to be played without a mouse cursor any more than Starcraft 2 is, which is the game engine HotS runs on.
Sure you can remap the right click to your keyboard if you really want to, but you would not be able to perform at all with many heroes even against AI opponents, let alone Bronze 5 humans.
People who suggest this probably only envision heroes with simplistic kits like Johanna or Uther. It would not work at all with a big portion of the hero roster.
(Which is also why SC2 is not on consoles and Diablo is)
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Exactly. WASD is for FPS, 3rd person and side-scrollers. No competent game designer would ever force a game that is played from a top-down perspective to use WASD cause it just doesn’t work.
On the topic of this, I don’t get the expectation with importing HotS to consoles just cause of the Xbox game pass (seen from various topics on forums and the subreddit). It simply doesn’t work. Their frameworks are too different.
MOBAs like SMITE 2 being on console works cause it’s a 3rd person game. HotS isn’t.
You wouldn’t aim skillshots using WASD though, that kind of takes away the point.
You ONLY move.
I think you missunderstand the OPs post.
This is not about preference. This is about one “mode” having an insane advantage over the other.
It does the complete opposite. Stutter stepping is much easier with WASD because you do not need to constantly move your mouse around the screen.
This makes no sense. It is like saying that FPS games handicap their players by forcing them to actually aim.
but its not an insane advantage.
It is, because you can do far more precise stutter stepping using a mouse (including rapid turns against fleeing opponents). Fast vector targeting with some heroes is also nearly impossible without a mouse. You don’t have 1-2 seconds in a teamfight to set up a Telekinesis or Arcane Orb distance using a keyboard. You need to do it in milliseconds.
It could be done casually, but there is a reason why you never, ever see anyone attempting anything like no mouse setups in tournaments. It’s like trying to run a marathon without a shoe on one foot.
PS. I do play WoW fully keyboard with keybinding because I no longer care about tryharding. Looting is the only pain in the butt, everything else is ok.
SC2 I would not even dare to attempt. Or HotS - even for only moving the hero. It’s just instinctively a bad idea, except for fun chilling in AI mode.
I think one of the biggest downsides of wasd movement is you are completely restricted to only 8 different directions which will be slowing you down the entire game. Like if a wasd player was chasing a mouse player, if the mouse player moved north north east, a keyboard player simply would not be able to move towards them in a straight line. You would have to zigzag towards them. if the two had the same move speed, which in hots, most heroes do, you’d never catch them.
You would also lose a bit of comfort. If you wanted to move across the whole map, you’d have to do that manually. Vikings and Illusion Master sam would become pretty awkward to play.
I’m not saying wasd movement would be a bad addition, I’m saying it would not be an objective upgrade over mouse movement.
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WC3 always had acceleration and unit turn speed properties. They had abandoned that thinking for SC2 and armies soon turned into pixel perfect stacked deathballs with perfect control and instant responsiveness, which would have a terrible impact on gameplay.
I’m sure that kind of movement wouldn’t translate well into hots. Like in TF2 you would probably soon have people min-maxing and trying to achieve null-movement (prevents your character from stopping when you press two opposite direction keys) for extra avantage.
Like ultrawide screens it is not a convenience but a clear advantage.