Action combat and interact key

At the end of the patch notes for today’s Dragonflight alpha build, you have 2 inconspicuous notes

  • Interact key - now you can interact with your target by pressing a key. This is a feature that existed in Allods Online all the way back in 2007 and it was amazing. Although it seems WoW’s version, according to the notes, will only allow you to interact with your target, so maybe it won’t be useful for gathering and interacting with world objects. Blizz! Please make it also interact with mining nodes, herbs, quest items on the floor, etc.

  • Action combat. This one perked my ears up. As the patch notes say, your abilities will be able to dynamically swap targets based on what you’re looking at, and you’re still able to lock a target in. This is exactly how action combat works in all MMOs with the exception of maybe New World. In TERA, Black Desert, Skyforge, etc. the action combat came down to a soft-“tab-targeting” system, where when you press a skill it will soft-target an enemy and go off. Depending on how well Blizzard implements this, it can be a game-changer. Literally. Old ways of playing will still be viable, but this sounds interesting.

2 Likes

Wanna know what this says to me? they’re gearing up to add a dedicated UI for controller support.
The games’ already got controller support, but it is a little clunky and you need an addon to properly make use of it.
These changes would absolutely enhance the use of a controller.

And before anyone hits me with the obligatory “Wow’s too complicated for a controller”, no, it really isn’t, the number of buttons is completely addressable, as other tab/target mmo’s have been doing it for years.

2 Likes

Yeah this looks like future controller support because either wise, the interact key is just right click, really.

1 Like

I think the interact key strongly hints at controller support for the future. Interacting is literally the biggest hurdle to playing with a controller.

As for controller interface - they should simply hire the ConsolePort addon developers. They didn’t just make a great addon, but the combat interface they made for WoW is the best console mmo interface I’ve seen. Between the ability to track all cooldowns on 1 (one) skill bar, which is amazing, and the ability to assign shortcuts to every single raid member so you can target them easily, that addon is miles above every other MMO console interface I’ve seen.

And WoW with a controller is really good. There are 2 bad parts - you need to click your target to interact with it, which is a problem… and you need to click explosions during explosive weeks, as well as things like shaman totems to destroy them. Those are literally the only 2 downsides to playing with a controller.

2 Likes

Yeah definitely, I briefly installed that just to see what it was like, it was genuinely really solid.
To go with this though, if this is indeed the thing they’re going for, I’d like them to enable an action camera like the addon Dynamic cam adds, I use it even when I’m playing with a keyboard and mouse, but that over the shoulder view while using a controller? it utterly changes your perspective on your view of the game world, I can’t express how much fun I had leveling a rogue through Duskwood using Consoleport and dynamic cam.

Whilst we’re at it, changing quest text to be in line with how the Immersion addon handles it would also be perfect for using a controller, if you don’t know it completely changes how quest text is delivered, making it seem like a chat bubble/conversation, it was game changing for me with my ADHD as I generally struggle reading quest text even though I want to.

This is just one thing though, if they continue adding things like this that would be great for using a controller, then I’ll be convinced of my idea that they’ll be doing a world revamp in 11.0 to coincide with the 20th anniversary, whilst also maybe even launching on consoles.

A lot of people seem in doubt, especially about the idea of the game on consoles, but it can absolutely work so long as they make the base game completely playable without addons, which is something they’re definitely striving towards I think.

1 Like

A lot of PC gamers have no idea how controllers even work. I tell them you can map more buttons on a controller than a keyboard has keys and they can’t comprehend it. They really can’t believe you can map 40 spells to be available for use at all times, as well as more than 40 items, buff skills, situational items, foods, mounts, etc. that you can’t just access with a button press. They also seem to think controllers are slow for turning (!?) and it really shows they haven’t played… any game on a controller since the Nintendo NES.

This isn’t even going into utilizing the PS4 controller’s touch pad or gyroscope, which also has a whole bunch of possibilities. Controllers are so versatile!

4 Likes

Yeah, like, it’s no secret on the forum at this point that I hop between Wow and a certain other MMO, and my god, one of my friends in that game plays on ps4, so doesn’t even have optimal performance that the game has for consoles, and yet he’s an absolute machine in Savage raids.

I think as well as adding native controller support this is definitely going in a direction of just generally making the game far more accessible, maybe even Xbox’s disability controller would work with it, which really would be absolutely massive in terms’ of the games appeal. Just look at that cool accessibility feature they added on the alpha today where you can ride along with your friend as a dragon whelp while they’re dragon riding!

Most people in the Wow community are so dismissive of any idea of hope or innovation for the game… but all of these things that they’re working towards, re-establishing core foundational systems, adding tons of accessibility, I’m not totally convinced this good streak will stick yet, it’ll probably be 6-8 months into Dragonflight before I’m fully convinced…But this is undeniably a turning point for the game, how it’s made and who it’s made for.

I’ll assume that the actions combat thing will mean that the most center positioned and closest mob on the camera view will become the target.

I’m all for more controller related additions being added into the game, I wouldn’t mind a change from keyboard and mouse but couldn’t get used it it when I tried it ages ago.

Unless they’ve made changes since I last tried I think Blizzard needs to make ground targetable abilities (like Blizzard etc) be able to placed on your target.

1 Like

That would certainly be nice, as a tank main I tend to have those things cast on myself using a macro, but obviously for DPS that’s abit less convenient really.

yeah I think that’s what it means, whichever enemy your character is facing is the target, not something I ever thought I’d see in Wow tbh, but it’s not unwelcome. However it does make complete and utter sense to have something like that with how Evoker is designed, and how I assume the other classes will be innovated on.

1 Like

I tried a controller playing a Mage and levelling a Survival Hunter, the Hunter was so much fun but the Mage annoyed me whenever I had to place Blizzard on a trash pack, having to play with camera angles was no fun.

1 Like

Yeah I can imagine, especially if you need to kite some enemies and blink away. Tanking with Vengeance DH wasn’t too bad tbh, it actually felt really nice using such a movement heavy class with a controller.

Come to think of it… I believe in the initial showcase for Dracthyr when the expansion was announced I’m pretty sure it looked like there was some kind of “lock on” feature in use, maybe that was some foreshadowing of things to come but we all ignored it :rofl:

1 Like

The way I dealt with it is that I used a macro to lock my cursor in the middle of the screen, a script that made it display a small reticule where my cursor is, and I just aimed at where I wanted to place things like Blizzard, or leap as a warrior. I used @cursor macros for everything.

2 Likes

That could be an option but I’d still prefer to be able to @target mobs with abilities like that.

2 Likes

Hello, controller Warrior here! Just thought I’d mention that, from a tiny YT video I spotted, the Interact function does indeed work on mining nodes and other objects - seemingly without the need to target! Just face the item and push the button \o/

It’s not a fantastic showcase, but I can’t find any others so far xD

This is imho the best addition for controller players so far. Clicking objects and NPCs is easily the biggest pain point when I play, even with ConsolePort locking my cursor to the center crosshair.
I really hope this feature loots as well, I resort to Engineering Loot-a-Rang on all of my toons atm, click looting is just that terrible xD

I wish I could find a showcase of the action targeting too (the other pain point haha), it sounds like it could be really good.

2 Likes

best edition even for KBM players I think, I’ll absolutely love just being able to click a button to mine a node infront of me rather than having to click it with my mouse, if it loots with an auto-loot option aswell that’ll be absolutely grand, again even for KBM.

I think a lot of players who’ve strictly only played WoW in the MMO genre seriously, seriously underestimate just how far we’ve come in terms of controller functionality with video games.
Like whenever someone so much as makes a suggestion of playing Wow with a controller they’re all like “never gonna happen I can’t bind 40+ keys to a control pad” without even giving it more than 5 seconds of thought :confused:

Oh indeed! I remember my kb+m days before my wrists got too bad to use them, and clicking was annoying for me even then, especially if the things were small. I’m curious as to whether it will ignore players or not - would make clicking overcrowded NPCs/raid feasts a whole lot easier if so :smiley:

Yes! I find that it doesn’t occur to them that you can reach 40 just by turning 2 buttons into Shift / Ctrl. I know a player how has an xBox Elite(?) controller (one with the back paddles?), and uses alt functionality as well for even more binds than most of my kb+m friends can reach comfortably.

1 Like

Yeah, tbh I really think that if the Microsoft acquisition of Actiblizz does fully go through then with these changes being implemented there’s a genuinely good chance of Wow being on Xbox and x-cloud streaming.
Again, the thought of that seems like blasphemy to most Wow players but it’s completely possible in my opinion.

Like what would be better than having 45 minutes until your next work meeting and you can just pull out your mobile phone with a controller shell on it and get some fishing done? It’d be great!

I do think with such a drastic shift in focus towards casual players and accessibility options we could see a very new kind of raid in this expansion, they’re usually terribly boring for casual players which is why we don’t do them, but with the core narrative always being linked to the raids, I think it’s safe to assume they want us to be interested in them.

1 Like

I imagine so, but probably quite a way in the future (and with some serious competition from the ‘other’ MMO). It does play differently, but even at high end it’s possible to play with a controller even now, though reticle spells and such do take a good amount of practice. (I am not the best example though haha)

Right now there’s the whole Steam Deck scene they can hit too; a good few people have appeared on the ConsolePort discord while they get WoW set up on them. It takes a bit of fiddling it seems, but it works nicely for casual play. And additions like these will make it even more appealing I think. The more people try, the more people will want features for it.

1 Like

Does the steamdeck have gyro sensors? Dragon riding with gyro control could be cool :rofl:

It says it has a “6-Axis IMU” so yup. Idk if WoW can use it, though I imagine Steam controller support can remap it, so maybe?
Sadly I’m still Q4 delievery for my deck so can’t test it myself xD
Would be very cool indeed!

It’s not mentioned in the OP but the new Hold to spam cast feature seems sweet too. Not so much for current/high end, where there’s limited times you want to spam the same spell (though still, holding can be better than spam-clicking for people with motor issues). But I think for farming old content it will be really nice.
Not sure if it works with instant abilities though - I just spam Whirlwind in old tmog runs.

1 Like