#0 - Oct. 22, 2010, 10:26 p.m.
Let us direct character movements with WASD keys. Our hand has to sit in that spot anyway just to cast spells, why not give it something more important to do too? Plus it's probably better anyway.
Long version
With all the combos and dynamic action, and especially now that team based PvP is in the game, I feel like adding the option to move your character with wasd keys (emphasis on optional) would be a welcome one. Not just in pvp either (though it would certainly shine in that environment) but in regular creep-smashing gameplay as well.
With the current system, one hand will be dedicated to pressing your spells and abilities, while your other hand will be there to both target and move. As an example, pretend you're playing any ranged class. A melee class would serve the example too, but it would illustrate it better with a ranged one.
For this example, you want to retreat out of melee range from an enemy who's getting too close, but you also want to target them and maybe fire off a few abilities at the same time. Movement and targeting, your mouse is responsible for both of these simultaneously. The part of you that wants to retreat a few steps is telling your mouse to move in the opposite direction of the enemy, but the part of you that wants to attack the monster is telling your mouse to go the other direction.
Assuming you don't choose to just run without attacking, or stand your ground and get hit, your only option is to wildly swing your mouse back and forth. Click your mouse way at the edge of the screen so your character gives you enough time while running to come back and target. We've all done it, and it does work, but it seems like an unnecessary pain.
The alternative would be to simply hold down a direction key, leaving your mouse free to easily target in front, behind, to the side, or wherever. Top down wasd control has seen a great deal of success in games like alien swarm, crimsonland, and others. I feel that not even allowing players the option to at least choose for themselves if they want it or not in diablo 3 would be a huge waste.
On top of all this, it's not exactly going to be a huge change for players as far as where you set your hands anyway. Your abilities are going to be the number keys, and you'll want a finger near tab in case you want to swap out your right click ability. Set your fingers so that you can conveniently click tab and your number keys, and then notice how little adjustment you'd have to make to accomodate wasd movement.
Classes like the barbarian and monk might not get as much out of this; as melee characters they can only really attack effectively in the same general direction that they're moving, because moving away would put them outside of melee range. However, ranged classes would really shine if given the opportunity to move and cast without restrictions.
Edit -
I'm getting a little tired of people who've never seen a system like this in action who firmly believe that it's somehow impossible to control a top-down game using your keyboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vk0EvxoGDc
Here's a clip from Bloodline Champions. It's a top down game featuring skill bars and an optional wasd movement system. The clip I picked features a ranged class to illustrate how powerful a ranged class can be when it can move in any direction without untargeting their enemy. But more than that, I'm trying to illustrate that a system like this would work just fine for this game.
