DiabloFans

It's the thread that never ends... It goes on and on my friends...

Anywho, the freedom to cast spells or use skills without having to first use a hot key to assign the ability to a mouse button and then click the mouse button to actually use the skill or spell, should definitely allow for a wider range of skills to be used in a more rapid succession.

Blizzard has stated that you will be using more than just two skills at any given time in DIablo3, so allowing an easier and more intuitive way of using the abilities efficiently is definitely a welcome change. I imagine there might be situations in Diablo3 where using 3,4,5 different skills in a quick succession will be more than warranted.

I for one welcome our new spell casting action bar overlords!

Quote from "Dimebog" »

F5 and F6 are much further away than 5 and 6 if you are already used to nesting your small finger next to the Tab key or somewhere around there. And you will be needing the Tab key to swap skills now so that is convenient.

The only real difference is that now you can access the hotkeys with your mouse as well as your keyboard.

Well like I've been saying all along is that the skills you place on the hot bar will be instant cast when you actually hit the key and not require the player to click a mouse button to use the skill.

This to me at least is a huge improvement over the old press F1 to bind the skill to a mouse button and then click to cast. Now it's simply press 1-6 to use a skill while still retaining your original mouse bound skills. This should allow for a more varied combination of skills to be used more quickly than what was capable in the old system.

Quote from "goodguy8705" »

Why the fuck is this a sticky?

because it has been a huge topic of discussion on these forums as to just how skills would function in Diablo 3.

For a while people thought it would be just like Diablo2 where you use a key to set the skill to a mouse button and click to use that skill. However, as I had thought all along, the skills are actually instant cast from the hot-bar, thus allowing for faster and more diverse skill use on the fly.

Quote from "mefis" »

Oh the skill tree goes further than level 4? From what i heard whats shown is the whole tree

I believe it was mentioned that tier 5 was not shown... can someone back me up on this?

Looks like I just pwnd Dimebog lol!

Quote from "Dimebog" »

You obviously didn't understand a thing I said.


What is false? Can you click on a skill with your mouse while aiming or can't you??? Who cares if it brings a pool of skills you can assign to the hotkey. If you are mousing over the hotbar to select a skill, you can't also be mousing over a monster at the same time, given that skill casting from the hotbar is instantaneous.


No it's not! It's in relation to what I previously said. You can aim and use your keyboard at the same time, but if you select skills from your hotbar with your mouse, you cannot aim at the same time. There, I repeated it 3 times, hope it got through to your brain.

I never see him use the mouse to click on the hotbar in the gameplay video but there is a chance that you can click on the hotbar skills with your mouse and then aim and click again to use the skills. This seems absurdly inefficient but some people don't use key-binds for some reason.

I do think for gameplay reasons though the hotbar will be used to automatically use skills/cast spells without having to click with the mouse. Of course you could just play the game using the mouse, however I believe that using the keyboard and mouse will yield the best results. It wouldn't really make sense to have a hotbar, and not be able to just press those keys to use the skills instantly.

It seems like adding an extra step where you have to click a mouse button at actually use the skill would detract from the responsiveness of the combat. In D2 this method was acceptible because you were really only using 1 or 2 skills at any given time, but to use many different skills and the need in combat to use the skills in very quick succession would lend itself to an instant cast system, where you could aim with your mouse and use the skills in the hotbar instantly just by pressing the key.

I'm still sticking with the idea that the hotbar buttons can use skills immediately without the use of a mouse to do so. I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough.

On another note though there are a few things about the cursor I've been thinking about:

The cursor changes to a sword when over an enemy (maybe as well as a destructible environment item?) can someone check?

the cursor turns back to an arrow when not over an enemy (or destructible object)

the cursor turns to a sword when using a modifier key such as shift no matter where it is on the screen

the cursor, while a skill is being cast and during it's duration turns into a sword and stays that way until the duration of that skill has ended, or maybe this only happens during a skill like whirlwind where you are controling your character while in twirling death mode.

Quote from "FingolfinGR" »

very true but none took the time to think about it.

but except that system (push the button, target, click) there are also instant cast spells from left and right mouse buttons.

Well I took the time to realize this, but I don't think this is how it will work in D3

Hi there!

There is a whole thread about this where Dimebog and I got at it toe to toe... He insists that you must hit the key bind then click to cast, while I think it's the other way. You just hit the key on the hotbar to cast instantly and aim with your mouse.

Quote from "Dimebog" »

No, that's just for the two skills mapped for the right mouse button. He cycles through them with the Tab key. The skills that are mapped on the hotbar turn the cursor to a sword (but only when the cursor is hovering over monsters). I watched the video countless times and I don't have 1% of a doubt that this is exactly how it works.

Yeah, you have the skills mapped to the right mouse button like in D2 and you can change them with the tab key, scroll wheel etc... you also can have a skill that is mapped to your left mouse button like in D2, however from the video it also looks like you can just use the key-binds to use skills straight from the hot bar instantly without clicking the left mouse. Of course while using a skill that attacks an enemy the cursor will change to a sword if the cursor is over an enemy but that does not mean he's pressing the hotbar button which then selects that skill, then targets the enemy, and then left clicks on that enemy to cast.

It would make much more sense to be able to just use, in this case, the 1-4 keys on the keyboard to use the skills instantly based on where your mouse cursor is. If that skill attacks an enemy then the of course pressing that key while the cursor is over an enemy will turn it into a sword.

Blizzard has said that you can play the game only with the mouse and I believe that's true, however I'm sure that they recognize the potential of using skills directly from key-binds.

I understand exactly how you think the system works based on D2, but I think it makes much more sense to use the key-binds to instantly use skills instead of just assigning the spell to your left mouse button and then having to click on the enemy you have selected to use that skill.

My big reasoning behind this is simple. In D2 the hotbar allowed you to chug potions using just the keys. I believe that in D3 this hotbar will retain this functionality and allow you to use skills by simply pressing the button.

Quote from "Dimebog" »

Nope. He hits the hotkey, the arrow changes to a sword, several moments later he clicks mouse to execute. End of story.

Watch the video again... there are many instances of him hovering the mouse over mobs and using different skills without the mouse cursor turning into a sword, and it appears as though the skills he is using in many instances are not bound to a mouse button but instead a hot-key on his keyboard and are being cast without a mouse click.

Quote from "Dimebog" »

No. In the gameplay trailer you can see that the cursor turns to a sword before he uses a hotkeyed attack and then he makes up his mind in which direciton to Leap etc. You didn't even read the original post? The whole point I was making was about how you have to hit the button > aim > click to execute.

I think its more like aim > click on the target > hit the button to execute.

It also seems like you can just aim > hit the button to execute without actually having to click on the mob... probably with a modifier key like the shift key in D2. Anyway my point is that in the video he's obviously aiming and then hitting the 1-4 keys to use skills instantly, as there are many cases where he's not clicking on mobs to use the skills.

This video is exactly why I like the colors. Just watching the first min of this makes you realize how drab and visually uninteresting this game would be with a desaturated environment.

Quote from "Dimebog" »

It doesn't use the skill automatically - you need to aim and click after pressing a hotkey. At least how it is now, but I don't see a reason they would change it.

I'm not talking about how it is now in D2... judging from the gameplay video, skills can be used automatically with the press of the key-bind.

I can see why they would want to change it. It allows the player to chain skills together more more efficiently and quickly than the old system.

Quote from "Tumnayar" »

This was one of the most FUN aspects of Diablo 2, so that's just shit to remove it for Diablo 3.

Fun for Diablo2 /= fun for Diablo3. Just because you liked something in Diablo2 does not mean it would work well in Diablo3, people seem to forget that this is not Diablo2 or Diablo2.5 but a completely redesigned Diablo game.