Yeah you have to use AHK which is hyper annoying.
Theres some kind of glitch with the controller setup if you spam an action with Numlock it overwrites all manner of moving on the controller
I use AHK and just spam keys on a .4 second delay or something
Sorry, I’m a not so great with acronyms, AHK? What’s that mean?
I wanted to thank EHG for fixing the controller options that had previously busted my controller playing from Patch 0.7.7 or so. I can finally play the game with a controller again, and it’s wonderful.
My only gripe is that my controller mapping buttons tend to reset every few sessions or so and I have to input my controller mappings again. It would be nice to have a template or so that I can input all of my controller mappings, save onto the template, and not have to worry about it.
I am incredibly grateful for the recent controller update, as a standard mouse and keyboard is not a gaming option for me. Thanks for the update in the radial menu as well; it’s a solid reminder that improvements are being considered for gamepad users.
Right now I tend to have minor frustrations when a high value target is surrounded by many smaller mobs. Because the auto-target tries to choose not only what I’m facing towards, but also the closest target to me, a nearby mob can cause my character to pivot away from the boss/rare I need to hit and fire my long-distance shots at odd angles. I find myself getting much closer to high priority targets than my build is made for in order to make sure I can aim towards them accurately.
Chronicon uses a twin-stick control scheme, unusual for loot-driven ARPGs. Instead of trying to autotarget, an arrow appears when the right stick is held down, giving you a clear indicator of where you’ll be firing. While this may be a challenge to implement in isometric 3D, Mark of Kri implemented a similar visual using a thin beam of light as a pointer.
Excellent controller support is going to be a tough nut to crack, since different skills require different behaviors. Someone already mentioned autotarget is more a hindrance than a help for Teleport, and I agree since I tend to use it as an escape or repositioning tool. Single-target skills that affect enemies around the target will also be tricky because you’ll want to select a mob in the middle of a dense pack, not the mobs in front.
AutoHotkey, a program which allows scripts, keybinding options, and automatic button presses.
Thanks for explaining. I’ve actually been trying to create builds that don’t heavily rely on a need to autocast abilities (via the numlock method). For instance, I have a pretty solid earthquake shammy that is great with a controller. While he has 2 skills that autocast, they do so automatically (ice thorns, thorn totem).
If I’m playing something that needs defensive autocasts and they can’t be done without the numlock method, I just suck it up and use my mouse.
The shops, stash, and general inventory navigation is great to hear. I’ve been playing almost exclusively with a Xbox One controller since the patch dropped and it’s been fantastic. Only going mouse and keyboard for intense crafting or gambling sessions.
I’ve hit a couple bugs and snags with the auto targeting:
Smaller projectiles such as Hammer Throw will glance past small mobs, like voidtouched bats and not connect.
Lagon was untargetable with Smite nor did the Keel Idols proc Smite during the fight (unsure if this is necessarily controller related as I didn’t switch over to KB/M to double check).
And perhaps think about some solution for movement skills to have an auto target on/off toggle so they can be used for evading deadly attacks. Trying to use Teleport, Shield Rush, Leap, or Transplant to get out of danger has led me to various hilarious deaths like diving right into a volcanic orb, or eating Formosus’ spirit beam like a champ.
Still all in all a great improvement. It’s helping delay the carpal tunnel from setting in and keeping me glued to the game.
Some small comments from a new player, sporting a HC Life Drain Lich.
The auto-targeting works, but is perhaps a wee bit too generous? As it stands, I can usually just park myself and then proceed to mow down the entire field without aiming in the slightest. The wide targeting angle has also occasionally caused me to unexpectedly reap/transplant into boxes and similar debris. Not a big deal all said, and also perhaps more noticeable for my particular build (long-range, single-target) than many other builds, but I would personally consider narrowing the targeting angle very, very slightly.
On the flip-side, I’ve also sometimes found the control scheme too restrictive. Some mobs, such as the flayer sharks, are quite agile and have a tendency to jump around a lot. Though the exception rather than the norm, tracing these sorts of quick movements doesn’t feel good right now. I would maybe consider adding a bindable U-turn or something along those lines to allow for some additional movement flexibility.
Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the game played with a controller. There are obviously lots of bugs and issues left that still needs to be sorted out. The by far most egregious problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to pick up items simply by pressing a button. But given what you’ve shown so far I feel confident that you’re on the right track here.
Controller support is actually quite good now in combat, ive been using it the whole time ive played LE and its only gotten far better
However there is one thing that doesnt work properly - if you hold down the stick to move around and you press a key on your keyboard - your character will stop moving and you have to remove the stick to get the character moving again
This means you cant use numlockor autohotkey to auto spam spells for you - so you dont get the benefit PC players get from autocast
Might not seem a great deal but playing for long periods of time its just frustrating to keep repeatedly casting a buff or you can have it cast for you but then you have extremely clunky controller movement/attacking
This is the same issue I brought up earlier in the post actually. Unfortunately I don’ think it’ something EHG is going to change. If I recall, I actually read a while back on the forums that while autocast is a thing (with a keyboard) and the developers are aware of it. It’s not something they intended on players doing and they have no plans to implement further benefits towards that end. In other words, it’s basically a bug but it’s not one they will fix or look into further.
What I do to compensate is play autocast heavy builds with M&K and then create builds that aren’t reliant on that concept with my controller. While a lot of builds benefit from some sort of autocast (multiple for some), it’s possible to make good builds without them. There are workarounds for it anyway. Some classes can have a skill autocast by speccing passive points, or from Idols. It’s not quite the same, but it works well enough.
An update as ive only been playing Rogue since release and only a controller but damn it feels really good, ive played a Bladedancer to 80 and Marksman to 45 or so and tested basically all the skills and auto targeting for ranged especially on the Marksman is really accurate and you can ‘stutter step’ by say holding attack and analog stick left while the enemy is to your right and you will shoot-step-shoot-step meaning you are likely to dodge any projectiles
Theres only one issue with channeling skills like Flurry when mid channel you cannot turn around and have to stop attacking and reposition, everything else feels good though
Also the main reason Rogue feels so good to play as well as there is no abilities I need to autocast/spam to have a buff, unless you count Dark Quiver but you can get it to autoproc anyway
I have been enjoying this game with my xbox one controller and I am at level 50. Now All of a sudden the game is not recognising my controller although steam sees it. What do I do?
*reinstalled the game and it worked. I copied game files to somewhere else. Uninstalled and moved the files back but it still downloaded 5.9 gbs.
I would really love it if we could get a fix/option for the Movement skill aim issue mentioned multiple times in this thread.
The Movement Skill Aim issue is where your movement skills will teleport you into the enemy instead of the direction you are pressing the left analog stick in. Often gets you in really sticky situations and there’s just nothing you can do about it. It really hurts the experience.
There’s other things that I think can be improved on controller but the movement skill issue gets you killed and overall just hurts the gameplay experience an exorbitant amount.
Hi, very minor but it could be cool to have an option to disable the auto-switch of UI to controllers/mouse interface.
It’s in every game and it’s annoying when you are using a stick and a mouse in same time (with devices that are mimicking a controller stick with other button you can configure like an Azeron).
When playing like this the interface constantly switch from one type to another. I bet a simple toggle (on by default) in the option menu could not harm a lot…
Thanks 
I hope that somedays you guys will implement shards auto pickup or at least make it possible using a controller.
I hate it when I’m in combat but often had to stop and using my mouse to pick up shards.
Ì usually play these games using a mouse and keyboard combination but as it seems that Last Epoch is very suitable for playing with a controller because of it’s action buttons for skills and actions. So I would like to play LE with a controller as well. For example another game I play a lot is a 2D ARPG called Hero Siege, in that game the controller support works very well, atleast for me that is. So this message is to gather just few notes and perhaps suggestions also for the gamepad/controller support. Based on my experiences. My background outside games is a professional software developer/designer for 30+ years and I have quite a bit of experience in UX (User experience design) in many platforms. And like all (well most) of us, we aim to get the best experience in Last Epoch as much as we can. <3
I tested playing LE with XBox One controller on PC Windows 10 platform today and currently some things about the controller support feels bit awkward. Mainly the biggest issue for me is the fact that the right stick moves the mouse pointer and you need the mouse pointer for many activities such as applying skills, collecting loot, accessing inventory items etc. And you need to either use the mouse or right controller stick to move the mouse pointer, more on this later in this message. Yet with controller activated you still need the keyboard to access certain stuff at the same time. Combination this feels quite clunky and awkward at best.
Moving around with the left stick is ok, bit clumsy at the moment but works. Attacking things is not quite so ok atm. Especially when you set skills to quick action buttons which require the mouse pointer target. This does not go well with the controller.
Is it possible to have a controller mode where we could use the right stick for attacking towards the direction where you push the stick to.
Also a key/button bind for ‘Loot nearest object’ so this could be either bound to a keyboard or to a controller button → This way you wouldn’t have to move the mouse pointer to the loot if you are using controller. This could be a selectable action for the A-keybind (left mouse button). E.g. an action which would do in this order: Loot → Attack to the facing direction of the player. Looting should of course obey the loot filter rules set by the player behind the curtains, so loot only visible loot in the order of loot nearest first.
With keyboard/mouse you can select a skill and action type for every quick slot easily by clicking on them and selecting a skill/action from a given popup. How do you do this without a mouse using the controller only?
Another thing is that when a UI window (e.g. the inventory) is open, instead of moving the mouse pointer with right stick focus next focus-able element in the opened window, in case of an inventory, focus focus next item in the inventory to the direction you pushed the right stick to. Moving the mouse pointer with a controller in an ARPG does not work well in my opinion.
Also, the default action bar button bind for A (in Xbox controller) does not work unless you move the mouse pointer. If I have for example the button action to go to target and smash a breakable object, it does nothing if there’s nothing under the mouse pointer. Make it possible to do the default (or selected skill) attack to the direction you are facing.
So to sum up:
My goal here is to minimize the need to use the mouse pointer as action target, instead use the controller to access UI elements. Check the game Hero Siege for it’s controller support if you want a pointer.
Allowing a sort of hybrid controller style would be lovely. I noticed most of wrist and finger pain comes from holding down left click for extended periods of time.
Currently in Last Epoch, moving the mouse will disrupt controller mode and vice versa. I’d appreciate if it would install allow both inputs to be active at the same time, to let me move with an analog stick and do menu stuff with my mouse at times.
It’s very nitpicky, since I just have to wait a second or two for it to fix itself, but I figure it may be very easy to implement so I may as well speak up about it.
I’m having a great time otherwise, 20 hours in with no sort of hand pain at all!
Being able to spam a button to pick up items around me would be wonderful, though. And auto-pickup on shards would be really great (considering you can already send them to a stash anyway).
Modifier buttons would be nice, in the same way holding down select/share brings up a radial menu, maybe you can have a shoulder button bring up a radial menu of active skills?
I’m playing through steam with a DS4, by the way!
While using the Elemental Nova skill with the The Ashen Crown helmet the nova stays on the original aiming position and does not move with your left joystick (on Xbox controller at least).
Can this be changed so that channelling skills their direction will also be influenced by moving the left joystyick? This way I can try playing with controller to limit hurting my right hand, which tends to hurt after hours of playing with mouse and keyboard.
Hello. I’ve played up to the endgame in LE right now (that is, I finished the Lagon fight), and I can confirm just about everything that Xanaki said was true. To point out examples:
Mainly the biggest issue for me is the fact that the right stick moves the mouse pointer and you need the mouse pointer for many activities such as applying skills, collecting loot, accessing inventory items etc.
You can’t pick stuff up, you can’t interact with items, you can’t even change zones, unless you pick up the mouse and use the pointer. Path of Exile on console’s able to rebind everything to the controller; they have a specialized cursor for using stash and inventory, it moves square by square but it works well. They also auto-target items, interactibles and enemies for you when using controller.
For me, as of the current patch (or rather, the last one I played, I noticed there was an update recently and I forgot to keep track of version numbers, last I played was 4/3/21), the “best” way to get auto targeting to work is to play the game in windowed mode and move the cursor outside said window. It doesn’t always work, but I’ve had more success actually targeting what I want my character to attack, instead of the direction of the cursor, or in some cases…Just whiffing my attacks entirely and not hitting anything period. To compare, I used to put my cursor on top of my character to mitigate random targeting, and sometimes my Lightning Blast (my main skill) would…Not go anywhere. No bolt, it just fizzles out. And having to reposition the cursor midfight is rather annoying.
Is it possible to have a controller mode where we could use the right stick for attacking towards the direction where you push the stick to.
PoE on Xbone/PS4 does this to an extent, you don’t need to use it all the time but if you need to highlight a specific thing to pick up, you can nudge the cursor over an item, or point at specific enemy to target. The auto targeting and loot pickup for PoE works marvelously though. You should really look at this bit:
Also a key/button bind for ‘Loot nearest object’ so this could be either bound to a keyboard or to a controller button → This way you wouldn’t have to move the mouse pointer to the loot if you are using controller. This could be a selectable action for the A-keybind (left mouse button). E.g. an action which would do in this order: Loot → Attack to the facing direction of the player. Looting should of course obey the loot filter rules set by the player behind the curtains, so loot only visible loot in the order of loot nearest first.
…And have a non-overlapping button bind for picking stuff up/interacting/etc. Again, console!PoE does this with the A button on Xbone (Cross/X on PS4) and allows you to pick up items with said button regardless of if the button has a skill/action on it or not.
With keyboard/mouse you can select a skill and action type for every quick slot easily by clicking on them and selecting a skill/action from a given popup. How do you do this without a mouse using the controller only?
Console!PoE solves this by letting you click the right stick to enter binding mode. Then you point the right stick at the skill you wanna change, press A (or Cross), and it brings up a list of skills you can assign. It takes some getting used to, but it works.
Another thing to consider when it comes to UI: console!PoE, when you open the equipment screen, allows you to page through the various menus by pressing the triggers, kinda like how you can scroll through menus in JRPGs and other games. They had to do this because trying to menu while moving your character would be difficult to do with a controller. So maybe consider a “controller mode” that triggers when you press a button on the controller, which does the following:
Can this be changed so that channelling skills their direction will also be influenced by moving the left joystyick?
Also, this. As it stands, when you channel a skill, you cannot reposition your character, period with the controller alone. You cannot rotate your character using the left stick, which you’d think would be the first control you’d think of (again, having played PoE for console and used aimable channeling skills), but no, it’s still stick to the mouse cursor and the right stick. I can’t use Disintegrate now because of this issue, and that skill looks really good for bossing and big single targets. Please fix this.
Hopefully we can keep this thread going, and visible. We got about 7 months until LE releases, which I hope is enough time to do all the coding necessary for controller UX support, because it’d really be awkward if we released, and the controller support only works half the time. ^_^; Thanks for reading!
Great write up! Pretty much agree with everything said. Hopefully the devs try to implement as much of this as possible.