Auto casting for Enchant Weapon is officially approved though. But with point investment in a node on the skill tree. I think that is correct way to handle this problem - if you want auto-casting then you have to spend some valuable skill points for that.
2 Likes
They never disapproved about the option to use mulock. I think Sarno said if they make skills useable or best used with autocast it’s their fault because the skills miss a little something.
I don’t see that as a fault . There should be some skill that are auras in LE. And that is normal. Flame Ward for example can be a permanent aura. I don’t think it is bad.
It’s one of those things where the devs want more interactive abilities, they stated this many times, that you actively choose to use an ability at certain times for x reasons verses designing something that is brainless where you can just put it on a automatic trigger every time the cd is back up. There are some abilities like this in the game maybe they will be adjusted in the future where auto casting will seem less useful. Sarno (hope I’m remembering this correctly) did mentioned how that was more a design flaw and how they tolerate numlock auto casting but isn’t something that they are trilled that players use.
I feel that could be good. You spend one point in the skill tree and the spell auto-casts, and maybe two points and the spell becomes an aura where it’s possible
You don’t use the term abuse if you don’t disapprove of something.
Since this game is heavily designed in picking 5 abilities and specializing in them carefully, having abilities on your bar which are not active is exactly what the devs said they don’t want. Hence why things like fire shield and ice ward were removed in mage and spellblade a while ago. Don’t know this for a fact but I think it’s also the reason we didn’t see anything happening with sentinel stances because these also don’t fit the games philosophy (maybe they will be removed later?) The devs said they really want to stay away from things that you just toggle on and off (like auras and things like auto casting set ups). Promoting this kind of system will result in things like having 4 auras and just pressing one attack button. That would be less engaging gameplay.
We aren’t.
The Num Lock functionality being referenced is not something we plan to devote resources to attempting to detect & punish players for using while the game is primarily offline. This decision will be reviewed when people are playing server-side characters.
3 Likes
I’m not sure I agree about the whole notion that using autocast results in less engaging gameplay. I’m not sure I want to be overly engaged with having to repeatedly toggle things like, for example, the primalist’s wolves and their “howl” or the acolyte’s wandering spirits. There are many other things that keep me engaged in gameplay. I don’t need to be overly engaged.
1 Like
Exactly my thoughts. How’d repeatedly pressing a button give a more engaging gameplay? Again I don’t see anything criminal in having couple of skills for a class that acts like auras or have an option in their skill tree to make them recast itself.
Or provide an option - if you take an autocast node then it comes with some drawbacks like -1 sec duration or something else
How is interacting with only 1 key more engaging then interacting with 5? That is the point. I rather have my bar filled with things like: meteor (dps), black hole (utility), flame ward (dcd), teleport(movement) then just meteor and 4 auto casting or toggled auras.
I have to add my voice to those arguing for “more is not necessarily more”. I definitely enjoy having multiple active skills on my hotbar that I have to weave together but at the same time I don’t see why having one unique passive skill per class would somehow reduce the fun or engagement. That argument seems very spurious.
Pushing more buttons doesn’t necessarily equal more fun. I’ve always enjoyed having a passive or two that’s unique to each specific class that adds a bit more flavour without detracting from the overall gameplay. If the devs don’t like them though, that’s entirely their prerogative. It’s their game after all. 
Just one thought from my side. Is there a problem with catering to players who enjoy both options and thus ensuring retention of both groups? Just require multiple skill points to switch an active skill to passive and reduce its effectiveness while that’s the case. That way players who want to push Arena to the max and min-max every last point of DPS and defence will go full active and those who don’t mind sub-par performance (compared to the “full” skill) are able to juggle their balance of active and passive to match their preference. That ensures the competitive guys don’t lose any kind of edge to those wanting less button-mashing. Just a thought.
2 Likes
Pushing more buttons doesn’t necessarily equal more fun.
That is what I was implying. When it comes to button-mashing in my opinion there is no difference between the speed in which you press 1 five times and press 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. But when it comes to complexity in game play and encouraging playing making meaningful choices, I would want to build a hotkey bar with options to engage my environment in unique ways verse only having 1 active ability and the rest are just buffs to said active ability.
1 Like
I feel like autocast skills vs active skills is really a personal preference thing with no one correct answer and as such it comes down to the dev’s vision for their game. If EHG want LE to be ‘the game without autocast skills’ then that’s what it’ll be and players will either be ok with that or they won’t play. Personally having to juggle multiple active skills is something I avoided in other ARPGs but is really growing on me as a playstyle in LE which I think has a lot to do with how the skills are designed and balanced. I’ll be interested to see whether some of the skills that currently make a lot of sense as autocast skills (e.g. wandering spirits) get tweaked to make them more active.
1 Like
if eg doesn’t want to encourage or support autocasting then perhaps they shouldn’t design the skills that make it easy to do. Example: Low cooldown instant cast abilities like maelstrom, tornado, warcry, when specced into a certain way with their skill nodes.
Oh, I agree with you entirely. I just think there’s some benefits to allowing for multiple playstyles by making the passive options less effective. Like I said though, the devs have a vision for the game and they have every right to implement it as they see fit. They’ve done a brilliant job so far so I think the end result will be fun whichever way they go. 
Don’t get me wrong I would be a happy panda if they just say “num Lock isn’t allowed” or make it unusable then again you took only a small bit of text down there because the whole thing looks a bit different but everyone can read this for themselfs. To me it looks like “Don’t cry me a river if numlock function is crashing your game!”.
The less I look at my cooldowns the more I’m able to look at animation, avoid voidzones, go sightseeing and so on and so forth. On top of it it’s easier to fa… watch family friendlyy films while playing.
As a last thought on it without thinking to deeply: Why don’t you forbid to bind numkeys in the controller scheme?
Holy Aura? I think auras can work fine in LE because there’s an active/inactive component to holy Aura. I don’t think they’re against Aura types skills I think they just want to find a way to not make them not JUST turn on and forget it.