Path of Exile 2 is a game jammed to the gills with a nearly paralysing amount of choices to make, but one of the most meaningful was the third one I made, right after I created and named my character. As you start the game’s tutorial it asks you to choose your movement type, a choice between the standard ARPG-style mouse control and shiny new WASD controls.
I’ve tried both, but after settling on WASD, I’m here to implore you to try it for yourself. It’s one of Path of Exile 2’s best innovations, and driving my heroes around using the keyboard makes it feel like more of a spectacle, especially when you factor in the dodge roll on spacebar. I feel more connected to my character than I ever have in an ARPG before.
While I’ve long been a fan of these sorts of games, ever since I used to watch my best friend’s older brother playing Diablo for the first time, it’s often felt a little sterile. Even as particle effects spray across the screen and every monster for miles gets melted down into loot and experience points, the experience is pure power fantasy, but I never found it particularly thrilling.
Tooling around with WASD is so transformative that I’m quietly furious at the time I’ve spent so much time playing games like Diablo and Titan Quest steering my characters around by holding the left mouse button down like a chump.
It isn’t the only game out there with direct control: console versions of several ARPGs let you steer characters around with analogue sticks and Diablo 4 has added WASD control as a post-launch patch. But Path of Exile 2’s WASD control scheme feels baked in to the game, a perfect fit for the more delicate fights. It’s easier to die in Path of Exile 2 than most ARPGs and I appreciate being able to move in one direction while spamming skills in another, letting me cover my own retreat with giant fireballs or perhaps even just a frag grenade.
The twitchy movement WASD gives you access to also feels like the only way to dodge the charge attacks from some of the more terrifying bosses like Balbala the Traitor or Count Geonor, both of which hurl projectile attacks around like they’re going out of fashion. Having a little bit of extra control to dodge these skillshots feels invaluable.
Later, you’re thrown into your first ascendancy trial, which feels nearly impossible to get through without careful movement and judicious use of your dodge roll. Here, you’re judged not on how much life you have but on your honor, so every thing that hits you feels like a more permanent mark. Despite the monsters being more lethal than other games, there’s still the same amount of them, so expect to be mashing your spacebar a whole lot to dodge.
I’ve been levelling two characters in tandem, and both get different things out of the movement. My Mercenary fires huge penetrating crossbow bolts that will punch through a chain of enemies but requires careful manipulation to get my opponents in line. My Sorcerer/Stormweaver fires ice damage off in every direction but is so squishy she’s kept alive by just her energy shield and smart movement, so I play her as much more avoidant.
Both are characters that are much more fun for this direct control, and because I’m moving with WASD, my mouse is free to drop spells in every direction. Honestly, it’s kind of making me wish for a MOBA with this sort of movement, although I recognise that’s just because I’m one of the few people still torturing myself playing a MOBA in 2024.
Ultimately this precise control makes me feel more connected to my squishy Stormweaver, and this is probably why I can’t stop playing PoE2 right now, even when other games are begging for my time in the end of year rush. If you’re playing PoE2, and you should be, then you should playing it with your keyboard, it elevates it far beyond most of the other entries in the genre.