Console port addon

Guides UI and Macro
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in my bleeding edge insanity i have been scratching my head on and off for a good year and a half or so, getting WoW to work comfortably with an xbox controller.

it’s not like trying to get action bars to work with a key pad. Key pads are simple, the buttons closest to my index and middle finger get the most common spells, with stuns and interrupts off to the side but still easily accessible. Shields and other cool downs are farther away off to the sides, but still present.

But playing wow on a controller is… ugh. But I shan’t give up hope just yet.
Do any of you use console port? If so, do you mind sharing some tips on how to set up the buttons? What spells do you have assigned to which buttons?

my main challenge is in trying to figure out how to get my rotations going for each spec. But then I have to make sure I have other buttons dedicated to basic things like jumping.

so for the time being i’m kinda winging it with having A (X for playstation) be the jumping button, and then, for example, X (square for playstation) be a generic attack ability (like Heart Strike in my case, blood dk).

I’ve seen a million guides already for how to get it to work, but now i just need a guide for how to map it for each spec in a way that feels natural.

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Not a chance. Not legally.

I’ve got more than 30 keys bound to my abilities in different combinations plus alt, control, and shift keys.

WoW is not a console game and unless Blizzard does something monstrously stupid to it, it will never be.

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Bellular made a fantastic guide on it. It’s definitely possible. I’m really just looking for advise for which buttons get which spells. If I can actually get the keybinds set up properly then I can give a fair assesment as to whether or not I want to keep it or switch back to my orbweaver.

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You can probably find a really good guide for almost anything, but that doesn’t make it a good idea or practical or desirable.

Case in point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDvSPQ7megQ (not for the faint of heart)

My spellbook has more than 40 active abilities in it.

There is absolutely no way you’re going to play without nerfing your ability choices and/or severely impacting your reaction times.

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that’s not really answering the question but thank you for explaining that having fewer buttons makes the game less efficient.

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Actually, it IS answering the question. The answer is: No.

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come on, man. i’m not trying to debate which is superior.

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It can’t be done, not at a level that will allow for even remotely acceptable play.

It can’t be done, not at a level that will allow for even remotely acceptable play.

Caveat to both: If you plan to run some cheat software that’ll remap the values sent by the buttons on the fly, you could probably do it right up until Blizzard catches you at it and bans your account.

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great to have a discussion about an addon you’re clearly very familiar with, lol

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Dude, it’s pretty simple math.

Unless you plan to dump about 80% of your abilities behind some complex (and time consuming) interface that might not be in accord with the TOU, you’re never going to fit any sort of serious WoW play on a console controller.

Yes, you can probably cobble something together well enough to make an impressive Youtube video, but you’re not going to be able to do more than bare minimums of your rotation and nothing else tactical at all.

That isn’t an addon issue.

That’s a math issue.

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Does anyone else want to chime in?

For the sake of not hurting anyone’s ego, we can agree that playing with a controller is bad. In fact, we can agree it’s the worst thing in the world and it should never be done under any circumstances.

So, assuming you were limited to a 4 button action bar, with all other abilities that we can maybe fit if at all hidden behind shift and alt modifiers, what would your 4 main buttons be? Stuns and interrupts? Heals? Panic-mode macros?

Anyone who actually uses the addon and knows what they’re talking about feel free to share how you set it up your way.

This is also valid for anyone who uses a minimalist elvui setup where most of their action bars are either hidden or removed completely.

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Could macro all/most of your rotation with GSE to a single button without violating ToU.

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“Rotation” doesn’t mean “everything you need to do tactically” - it means “those things you do when you don’t have something else you need to do.”

You’re still never going to be able to play meaningfully with a controller.

You can’t meaningfully communicate with party members.

You aren’t going to be able to put place markers if needed and asked.

You aren’t going to be able to indicate when you need or can offer help.

You’re going to be able to whap on things, a bit, with your four buttons, but that’s it.

Sometimes when someone asks a question about what shoes to wear to keep their feet from hurting, the answer, seemingly unresponsive but completely correct, is “Wear thick socks.”

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I’ve tried to organize a set of macro commands last night but it’ll require more background work on my part to figure out what would make sense for my particular scenario. I eventually figured out how to get opie to work as an item on my action bar, but so far i have found that it works a little bit differently that way.

When opie is on your action bar, it’s a toggle. So it unfortunately doesn’t work as a press-and-hold, which is what i’d prefer in this case. Still exploring and experimenting. Will try to share whatever it is I learn.

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Maybe I’m making an incorrect assumption but I don’t think the intent of this system is for high end or even group play. You can easily run around as a filthy casual with sub-optimal performance and still quest etc.

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that’s the idea. i’m surprised that no one really understood what i was trying to ask despite repeating myself over and over again. i’m not looking for the perfect scenario, i’m just looking to see what would make sense as far as keybinds are concerned.

I won’t be doing 180 flips in the air in a BG, using any goblin gliders, potions, or trinkets. That’s not what I’m after. If you think that’s what i’m after, let me reiterate for the final time: It’s not.

I’m only focused on immersion, for this specific situation. I can swap between the two styles at will, if people were actually willing to give some suggestions and not ignore everything for the sake of their own confirmation bias. Yes, I know it’s inferior. I know it’s not ideal. Can we all move past this point?

When I’m questing in nazjatar, exploring mechagone, etc. i’d love to just have a way to hide the bulk of my UI without rendering the game “completely” useless. Console port is just one way to do it.

Since tauren are so helpful I decided to spend a good 6 hours or so of raw trial and error. Here’s what I’ve contemplated thus far:

General functionality:

Realistically I can have more than 4 buttons. X, Y, A, and B are just the 4 that feels most natural. The other 4 are the directional arrows. These feel more awkward to have as part of my main set of abilities. (the spells that are actually required of you to attack an enemy in some way). So, this has led me to experiment with having the directional buttons dedicated to utilitarian functions. This would be, for example, more ideal for things like mounts, warlock / hunter pets, druid stances, etc.

-------.::.:: The main buttons: ::.::.-------

On my controller, this would be X, Y, A, and B. For all intents and purposes, let us treat these as being the same, interchangeable buttons as those on the playstation controller, that being square, circle, X, and triangle.

The main buttons are going to be the spells that you immediately need. Since interrupts can be some what of a twitch mechanic, it may help to have your available interrupt on the Y (triangle) button. It’s the top-most, so it will be less accessable, but is fine since it’s dependent on the situation. You want it immediately accessable, but it’s not part of your core rotation.

Jump could be placed on the A (X) button, but it can also work on the right trigger. Which is most ideal, I have not figured out yet.

  • If jump is A (X for playstation) the right trigger can be used as a key modifier.
  • If jump is right trigger, the key modifer should be placed on right bumper instead. This will give you one more ability to work with, seeing as you can only do 4.

Left Bumper and Left Trigger do not feel natural as jumping buttons. I’m not sure if this is a right-handed or left-handed thing, but it feels more organic to have those as additional modifiers.

-------.::.:: The Directional Buttons: ::.::.-------

These should be treated as more utilitarian than relying on the bulk of your abilities. Using modifiers like shift and alt can help expand your arsenal. Since these are utilitarian, it doesn’t matter as much which ones take priority (that is to say, which spells / ablilites to use that don’t require a modifier first).

These can include speed increases, and in my case, Death Grip.
I haven’t gone as indepth as I would like just yet, but if I had to speculate, I would think that other things like warlock summon, fel cookie, Lust, Bubble, druid forms, stances, etc. are all acceptable.

  • Again, it’s hard to know for certain what would feel more natural. I think you could get away with some cooldowns being on this set, but is probably best to have it be an exception rather than the rule. Your main abilities should probably stick to the X, Y, A, and B side.

-------.::.:: Class-Specific: ::.::.-------

Unfortunately I’ve only had a chance to experiment with blood DK so far.
A is going to be your main ability. If you could only pick one ability to mash over and over again without worrying about resource expenditure, it should be this.

In my case, that is Heart Strike. (Or Jump, if that’s what you decided on, but I don’t know which is better just yet).

X is going to be another single-target ability. What it specifically should be I don’t know, but is probably less of a priority. So far I’ve tried having this be my single target resource expenditure. In my case: Death Strike.

B is to the opposite side. Again, what it should be is left to be determined, but Blood Boil seems to work.

Y is on top. I can either have this as Death and Decay (my AoE), or my interrupt.
I haven’t decided on which feels most organic. But I think that having your interrupt behind one easy to access modifier won’t be the end of the world. As long as you can train yourself to press two buttons at the same time without thinking.

All major resource expenditure, DPS cooldowns, such as anti-magic shell, bonestorm, gorefiend’s grasp, etc. are burried in modifiers, which is what I would deem acceptable.

-------.::.:: Healers: ::.::.-------

Upon writing this shoddy attempt at a “guide” i’ve had a speculative epiphany.

A healer’s main role is to heal. So that means their UI should focus more on healing abilities. Damaging spells and abilities can (and maybe should) be burried under modifiers. Same goes with other roles and hybridization.

Your role comes first and foremost when deciding how to organize all this.

TL;DR
this is what I’ve unpacked so far. There might be a better way of doing it, please share if you use this addon.

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Have you considered using game pedals to act a mod keys (shift, ctrl, alt)? This would give you more flexibility in what controller keys you map. Ehiztari, while I have been fairly impressed with your posts up till now, you really should realize that you have stated your opinion, and if it is not accepted, then move on to another post. Plus, while there may be 40 active abilities, not everyone is used in a raid/dungeon, world questing etc… That is simple math.

My .02 copper…

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Thank you.

Yup, although it’s more than “opinion” in that I’ve given verifiable facts to back it up and the OP agrees with them as far as I can see.

Old habit. I spent 30 years as an IT consultant and most of that time was trying to tell people that what they wanted to do was a bad idea, would cost them money in the long run, would damage their business, or otherwise hurt them and that they were paying me not to make the impossible possible, to but give them the news that it wasn’t. I see someone wanting to do something that’s just a terrible idea, my gut reaction is to try to talk them out of it. I can be dogged in doing so.

That’s not math, that’s process. If you’re going to have to reconfigure your UI every time you swap between raid/dungeon/arena/battleground/scenario/vehicle use/puzzles/group PVE/solo PVE in order to make this work, that’s a LOT of “this is a really bad idea.”

<grin>

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You mean like disabling console port in the options menu, reverts all changes I’ve made to the UI with one click?

Yes, that’s so much work. Thank you for your wisdom, IT guy.

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I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for years. I generally play with a couple of friends on voice or just solo questing so it’s not a big deal losing access to text chat etc.

The way I’d do it is using the four ABXY buttons for the bulk of my abilities combined with 3 out of the 4 shoulder buttons to replace shift/ctrl/alt. You could probably mess around with macros to combine modifiers so LT+A, RT+A, LT+RT+A and so on. Use the 4th shoulder button for interrupts maybe (not that I’d play anything requiring a lot of interrupts with this setup :wink: )
Sticks for movement and camera, press left stick in to jump. Dpad up to mount, L and R for targeting, down to use a random toy or something.

Honestly I think the most challenging thing would be dealing with menus. Maybe you could set it up so holding the three shoulder buttons turns the right stick into a mouse cursor and the 4th shoulder button works as a left click but you’d probably need to use external software for that and just hope Blizzard doesn’t notice.
Obviously wouldn’t be optimal but trying to play WoW optimally on a gamepad is a fool’s errand. It’s not like this would ever fully replace a mouse and keyboard for 100% of the game’s content but it’d be more than enough for just messing around with friends.