I’m still working on Path of Exile 2, the new ARPG that aims to solidify the series as a champion of the genre and pose a significant threat to Diablo.

And if you’re coming from Diablo, there’s a certain aspect of the game that might hinder you if you’re too familiar with old Diablo systems. It took me a few hours to realize that my early decision was wrong, but it’s never too late to change.

I’m talking about WASD control versus mouse point-and-click. And boy, is WASD ever the right answer.

For a long time I used point and click because that’s just how Diablo works at the beginning, so I figured after a thousand hours in Diablo 3 and 4 I should just keep doing it. It didn’t go well and I got advice that WASD was better. And now I’m giving you the same advice because it’s better.

It may depend on your class how much of an impact this has, but I’ve found it to be extremely helpful, especially for my ranged ranger, as it allows you to move and shoot farther instead of stopping more often using point-and-click, where you have to stop pretty often leaves you dead in Path of Exile’s one-shot boss fights.

This dramatically changed the boss fights I was stuck with, and while you still need the gear and build and whatnot, it absolutely makes it easier to dodge attacks more generally, with more freedom of movement without being led around by the cursor. These are Dark Souls ARPG bosses where timing and learning their movesets is much more important than in Diablo, and without difficulty options you won’t usually just over-farm to chase them out of existence and ignoring mechanics.

I think point-and-click works for Diablo, but Path of Exile is a more methodical game that doesn’t have a whole lot of movement technology built into the characters, meaning that simply walking and rolling is a big part of avoiding damage , and that’s the case, WASD is definitely the better option for this. You may have to get used to where your skill buttons end up after this and not the QWERTY bar, but it really doesn’t take long.

I understand why Path of Exile 2 might be frustrating for many players, but if you’re coming straight from Diablo, I would definitely switch to this control scheme, which will make the game feel better. The rest is up to you.

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