Now possible to play WoW with a Console Controller

[Deleted]

Not really, no. I really dislike the Steam controller, and it has been gathering dust in my apartment since I finished making the mapping profile for it. To me it has terrible ergonomics, feels like a plastic children's toy and hardly provides any tactile feedback. I prefer traditional gamepads and personally use a DualShock 4. Development of ConsolePort was never focused around the Steam controller or the extra features that come with it.

While the DS4 is my second favorite gamepad, I tend to find it inadequate a lot because of it lacking the extra back buttons and the ability to easily make use of gyro and many hotkeys at once. On a Steam controller, I usually set a virtual 9 button numpad when you click the right pad (it's normally mouse movement), which is easily relatable to a normal hotkey bar UI, and every modifier multiplies the buttons from there. So all the important hotkeys can be used while gyro allows camera movement at the same time. Although that's not nearly the limit of Steam input, which could also use "sub-modifers" (double press, long press, etc) to multiply the amount of keybindings further.

I personally think the Steam controller without Consoleport can meet or exceed what a normal controller can do with it. In terms of raw performance in higher level content. I could only compare myself to other healers using Consoleport though, because I've only ever mained a healer since I started WoW. Do you have any logs or anything from anyone healing raids with a normal controller?

[MunkDev]

I personally think the Steam controller without Consoleport can meet or exceed what a normal controller can do with it. In terms of raw performance in higher level content. I could only compare myself to other healers using Consoleport though, because I've only ever mained a healer since I started WoW. Do you have any logs or anything from anyone healing raids with a normal controller?

No, and I wish you wouldn't make this into a contest. You've found a setup that's working for you, and that's great, but don't compare yourself to a solution that is designed to be plug and play and available for everyone (and support any type of controller). ConsolePort relies on its targeting systems rather than gyro or massively complex binding schemes, and like everything else it's a matter of practice makes perfect.

The tactile feedback I tend to include in my UX is based on a key principle that your eyes are not as fast as your fingers. While gyro healing is a cool technical feat, it's not something you can build particularly good muscle memory around because you're watching and adjusting to a moving cursor, instead of rapidly pressing a binding sequence.

I personally don't have the time to raid or play the game more than an hour or so a week. If you want to compare yourself, try the Proving Grounds healing challenge for the title (complete wave 30). That's the best comparison I can give you without an active sub and roughly 870 ilvl on my mistweaver monk.

youtu.be/ZSxDtGTci08
Note that in this video was my first day playing mistweaver and I had no idea you could drink every 10th wave.
I failed it once, evaluated my binding layout and moved casted spells to the D-pad (since I wouldn't be moving anyway) and that made it fairly easy.

[THEORACLE64]

Why would you want to though? It would be like playing baseball with a stick. There's literally no good reason imo.

[MunkDev]

Why would you want to though? It would be like playing baseball with a stick. There's literally no good reason imo.

Because it's fun. For me, anyway. For some, it's a necessity because of medical issues. Apox (whose name gets tossed around every now and then in regards to this playstyle) broke his neck and can't feel his hands, so the controller offered him a way to keep raiding mythic without constant fat-fingering.

[THEORACLE64]

Because it's fun. For me, anyway. For some, it's a necessity because of medical issues. Apox (whose name gets tossed around every now and then in regards to this playstyle) broke his neck and can't feel his hands, so the controller offered him a way to keep raiding mythic without constant fat-fingering.

I can't think of anything worse considering you're just playing the game how its not designed to be best played, but sure. I'm sure it can be useful to someone who has disabilities though.

[Deleted]

No, and I wish you wouldn't make this into a contest. You've found a setup that's working for you, and that's great, but don't compare yourself to a solution that is designed to be plug and play and available for everyone (and support any type of controller). ConsolePort relies on its targeting systems rather than gyro or massively complex binding schemes, and like everything else it's a matter of practice makes perfect.

The tactile feedback I tend to include in my UX is based on a key principle that your eyes are not as fast as your fingers. While gyro healing is a cool technical feat, it's not something you can build particularly good muscle memory around because you're watching and adjusting to a moving cursor, instead of rapidly pressing a binding sequence.

I personally don't have the time to raid or play the game more than an hour or so a week. If you want to compare yourself, try the Proving Grounds healing challenge for the title (complete wave 30). That's the best comparison I can give you without an active sub and roughly 870 ilvl on my mistweaver monk.

youtu.be/ZSxDtGTci08
Note that in this video was my first day playing mistweaver and I had no idea you could drink every 10th wave.
I failed it once, evaluated my binding layout and moved casted spells to the D-pad (since I wouldn't be moving anyway) and that made it fairly easy.

I wouldn't call my setup all that complicated, although it wasn't plug and play. I think there is plenty of muscle memory to develop for your own custom settings, including ones that make use of gyro. I'm just suggesting that there is more value to the Steam controller (and Steam input) than you give it credit for. I'm quite intrigued though by Consoleport's raid healing frames and I'd like to see how they perform when healing ~20+ man heroic raids, rather than simple 5 man groups.

I don't have an active sub anymore either D:

I can't think of anything worse considering you're just playing the game how its not designed to be best played, but sure. I'm sure it can be useful to someone who has disabilities though.

Software like Consoleport and Steam input go a long way to making games play on input devices that they weren't meant for. With Steam Input and Consoleport's healing raid frames, you could probably heal lfr raids with a SNES controller lol.

[S7orm]

If you can play Overwatch using bananas and copper wires, I'm sure you can play WoW with a controller. You shouldn't, but you can

[MunkDev]

I can't think of anything worse considering you're just playing the game how its not designed to be best played, but sure. I'm sure it can be useful to someone who has disabilities though.

Gameplay quality is about more than min-maxing everything. A controller essentially turns the experience into a new game. That's the reason I started developing it anyway. I tinkered with it in MoP to make leveling more interesting, and turned my findings into an addon in WoD due to the content drought. At that point it was a very rudimentary setup which only provided automated camera locking and bindings.

[Deleted]

ye. 5-8 buttons for every class is so fun!

You never played an mmo on console did you? You can map way more than that and sorry to inform but most rotatios are already 4 to 5 buttons. Geez...

[Dmitro]

You never played an mmo on console did you? You can map way more than that and sorry to inform but most rotatios are already 4 to 5 buttons. Geez...

I doubt I can play arena above 1700 with xbox, in pve maybe, all you need is to do your dps rotation and run out of fire sometimes

[Deleted]

I doubt I can play arena above 1700 with xbox, in pve maybe, all you need is to do your dps rotation and run out of fire sometimes

Sometimes it's just about being creative with bindings, or even making separate pvp bindings. I can imagine a scenario where you use most of your pvp bindings on your triggers and bumpers, so you can use them whilst still being able to control the camera with the right stick. Could make use of left and right analog stick clicks as modifiers to multiply the amount of keybindings, and also use Steam to multiply further by using double, long, and release press keybindings.

[THEORACLE64]

Gameplay quality is about more than min-maxing everything. A controller essentially turns the experience into a new game. That's the reason I started developing it anyway. I tinkered with it in MoP to make leveling more interesting, and turned my findings into an addon in WoD due to the content drought. At that point it was a very rudimentary setup which only provided automated camera locking and bindings.

I mean hey, do what you want. It just seems very ineffective considering it's something the game will never fully support.

[Deleted]

I mean hey, do what you want. It just seems very ineffective considering it's something the game will never fully support.

It's unfortunate that there isn't more evidence of controllers being used to good effect, because people just keep repeating this and things like "there isn't enough buttons" constantly.

[Deleted]

I doubt I can play arena above 1700 with xbox, in pve maybe, all you need is to do your dps rotation and run out of fire sometimes

With PC players? No, that is not the intention. But, you can map above 30 button combination on a gamepad so theres no lack of buttons.

My wish was for it to be a pristine server kind of thing with gamepad controls and UI, like Tera is doing on console.

Don't like? It's fine. It was my idea for me and maybe the devs and others who are interested to see. Don't bother me anymore. I don't need anyones aproval for it. You don't have to be interested in it.

[Whatever Dude]

God I hate Bellular and his dumb clickbait videos.

[Dmitro]

This is not how PVE works I'm afraid

this is how non mythic raiding works, sorry to tell you

run out/soak/stack every 10-15 secs if needed (sometimes not even needed) / do your 3-4 button rotation.

[Deleted]

God I hate Bellular and his dumb clickbait videos.

Well for sure he does a poor job of showing the value of a controller in "real" content.

[MunkDev]

Well for sure he does a poor job of showing the value of a controller in "real" content.

While I do like the publicity that Bellular gives my addons, when he's talking about ConsolePort he has a tendency to smear it with his own experience and downplay the capabilities of the playstyle. He has fairly limited experience, which I can immediately tell from how he approached his binding placements and the somewhat jerky camera control. As soon as he utters his opinion, it seemingly becomes fact to the majority of viewers, and then repeated over and over again on every WoW forum in existence.

This is how it goes for most people who feature the addon in a video; they found it, tried it, liked it, and decided it was interesting enough to make a video about it. At that point they are still beginners, and since it's essentially like starting WoW from scratch, it takes a long time to master.

Most people don't aspire to master it though, and that's completely fine. It's a niche that suits levelling and casual content best. For those who do master it though, it becomes frustrating to fight the hordes of naysayers, which is why I almost never post on these threads. I suggest you do the same, to keep your sanity.

[Alvito]

ConsolePort only has two modifiers. It's not like FFXIV where you page between 8 bars or whatever the number is. It's not more complicated than what you describe yourself to be doing. You shouldn't talk about this stuff if you have no experience with it.

There are only so many buttons on a paddle and you can only do so many combos with that number until they become so absurd it isn't something that most or anybody is doing. You aren't easily putting 30 to 70 keybindings on a console controller and using them. Take your own advice and go brush up on your math.

- - - Updated - - -

Well for sure he does a poor job of showing the value of a controller in "real" content.

That isn't the point of it, it is a way to play the game in a much different format while leveling, which is what he says several times. It isn't meant to be done in a raid setting or something like that. If you are raiding a controller is a poor choice, sure it might work to some degree. You end up having to do more to get less than you would with a keyboard and mouse though.

[MunkDev]

There are only so many buttons on a paddle and you can only do so many combos with that number until they become so absurd it isn't something that most or anybody is doing. You aren't easily putting 30 to 70 keybindings on a console controller and using them. Take your own advice and go brush up on your math.

Yes, I am. I've been doing it for a long time and it's really not that complicated.

You're pressing three buttons at most. That's not very hard to do with 10 fingers. Combos are not absurd at all, it's no harder than pressing shift+ctrl+1 on your keyboard. Edge key bindings are shifted to the hardest combos to press, but there are no classes that require you to put any combat abilities on there. You reserve the three button combos for other, less immediate things.

Here's some math for ya since you wanted me to do it:
A PS4 controller has 17 buttons including sticks. Two of the shoulder buttons are reserved for modifiers. Two modifiers yield 4 states. (15 * (2^2)) = 60
15 of these bindings require 3 buttons to execute, the rest require 1 <= x < 3. Even if you didn't use the double modified state, you have 45 bindings.

Three action bars have a total of 36 bindings to map, so even if you didn't use the double modifier bindings you still have 9 bindings left over for things like targeting, camera zoom, and opening UI panels. If you insist on mapping all 5 action bars (5*12 = 60) you could still fit that on a controller, but you wouldn't be left with any bindings for anything else.

Now, is it hard to press Ctrl+V or Ctrl+C to post your bandwagon nonsense? Is it hard to press Shift+A to mark your entire comment and delete it? Is it hard to remember where these commands are on your keyboard? It's not harder than that to press LB + X on an Xbox controller.

Assume you're using a regular mouse and keyboard to play the game and you're right handed, how many buttons can you easily reach with your left hand in combat? You can't count the ones you use to move your character. Is it really that different?