Old Control Style

Community General Discussion
1

when i logged in the game asked me to choose a control type. i guess i chose the wrong one because the way i control my character has changed. any idea how to change it back?

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2

wondering this too

3

I did a google on what games use A D as move forward keys . THERE IS NON but blizz seems like .

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4

Same thing happened to me. I donā€™t even think I chose one, I just escaped out of it, and it set it to Modern. Unfortunately I donā€™t think thereā€™s any preset you can choose in the options to automatically toggle between Legacy and Modern, you have to set the keybindings manually. But the setting is per-character, so if you just log onto another character and make sure to choose Legacy (or Modern, if you flipped it the other way), you can then see what the keybindings are.

I think what you need to do to get Legacy back is set:

  • Turn Left: Left Arrow / A
  • Turn Right: Right Arrow / D
  • Strafe Left: Q
  • Strafe Right: E
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5

You just need to rebind your move right and left keys, so A and D.

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6

For some reason Q/E and A/D have been switch.

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7

lol at the people self-reporting for being keyboard turners XD

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8

Manually change your keybinds for movement. Turning and strafing got flipped.
For the Legacy movement option, youā€™ll want turning on A/D and strafing on Q/E.

With that said however: mouse turning will always be far superior and faster. If you got to take the time to keyboard turn your way out of something doing high damage, youā€™re likely already dead. If you absolutely need to strafe, simply set turning to your preference of A/D or Q/E. Hold in right click on your mouse and the function instantly changes to strafing. That allows you two additional keybinds for other stuff such as a defensive skill, your healing potions, etc.

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9

The gameā€™s tutorial from the moment it launched in 2004 TELLS you to keyboard turn.

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10

Iā€™m not sure who in their right mind thought we needed a popup to change controls on accounts thatā€™ve had their binds set for years. Save this for new accounts.

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11

The pop up is telling you they changed it

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12

Yes. I am implying itā€™s dumb itā€™s been changed at all on accounts that arenā€™t new.

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13

Thereā€™s a pop-up that tells you itā€™s changed, but nothing obvious on how to change it back.

At this point itā€™s a matter of muscle memory, and do you want to re-train yourself? Some people donā€™t.

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Called ā€œsettingsā€ take a peek at them

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Thank you very much!! :smiling_cat_with_heart_eyes:

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Think back to the very first time you played a game on the PC. I promise you that using the mouse for movement was far from an intuitive experience for you. A good tutorial should ALWAYS take a first time player and/or PC gamer into account, especially as folks coming over from console gaming are going to be more familiar with buttons. WASD and the arrow keys line up with the standard control pad, so thatā€™s easier for them to wrap their minds around than ā€œHold in the mouse buttons and use the mouse to turn.ā€

WASD is intended to be merely training wheels, or for use in accessibility situations (disabled player, quick session on a laptop with no mouse, etc.)

Kick off the training wheels. Takes a little time and practice, but I promise anyone still keyboard turning in 2025 that within a week itā€™ll start to improve your reaction times. Once you get used to the movement change, you can start experimenting with using the newly freed keys for additional keybinds (which once again will make you a much better player in terms of being able to react quickly)

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17

Just having turning bound doesnā€™t mean everyone is using it. Iā€™ve always left it that way but certainly do not ever keyboard turn, not unless Iā€™m idling and just bored. But I also donā€™t like binding anything else to A/D either, so Iā€™ve just left it there. I really doubt many people keyboard turn anymore, but many people have just left turn keys bound since they started.

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18

I use mouse movement and still didnā€™t want my binds messed with. Youā€™re missing the forest for the trees

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19

i remember getting roasted in the 5 man ZA heroic during cata for being a keyboard turner. i went ahead and changed my controls after we finished and havenā€™t looked back

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20

But the thing is why is blizz trying to change W S A D from what every other game out there uses . Its kind of a standard setting .

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