The release of Diablo 2 Resurrected is just around the corner, and many fans are eagerly waiting to play the old game with new graphics. However, one problem still concerns part of the community: hotkeys for skills.
What is the problem? In the remaster of Diablo 2, the abilities of your classes can be assigned hotkeys. On PC, these are the F1-F12 keys, which allow you to use up to 12 different abilities.
The function is quite simple:
- You open the options and set any key as a hotkey for a skill
- You access the skills in your bar (mouse button over action keys)
- Hover the mouse over a skill and press the key to which the skill should be bound
Why is there a problem? This way, you bind a skill to a key, but do not use it. Instead, you equip it and then have to activate it with the left or right mouse button.
The system is from an older time and is now outdated. In more modern ARPGs like Diablo 3, an ability activates as soon as you press the corresponding key. In Resurrected, this will not be the case: there, you assign a skill to the right mouse button via the F key and then activate it.
PlayStation and Xbox provide the solution
How is the problem fixed? Diablo 2 Resurrected fortunately offers additional control options. Since the game will also be playable on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, controllers can also be used for controls – even on PC.
Once you use a controller, the interface changes. Instead of two active skills at the bottom of the screen, you have 6 to choose from. You can call up a second bar with one of the trigger buttons, allowing you to use a total of 12 skills.
Unlike with mouse and keyboard, the skills on the controller are used directly. You do not first assign them to an activation key. You use potions via the D-pad.
Controllers can also be connected to the PC.
Purists who only play with mouse and keyboard, however, have to prepare for cumbersome inputs. For console players, this is probably the only real advantage. Because they miss the probably most important feature of Diablo 2, the lobby.
Is there an alternative? In a Q&A in May, the development team stated that the activation of skills should remain as it is for now. Whether something will change at release or afterwards remains to be seen – so there is no real alternative.
However, the devs are even toying with the idea of adopting a system from Diablo 3. So it is possible that there will also be improvements in the controls.
What do you think about the matter? Would you like the team to orient more towards modern ARPGs and revise outdated systems like the controls? Or are you one of the hardcore fans for whom selecting and activating skills is part of the fun? Either way, not everything has remained the same in the remaster:
