Riot Games has silently dropped a huge change to League of Legends’ control scheme, which could completely revolutionise the game which has been out for almost 16 years.
As revealed by British content creator Skin Spotlights, there is now an option to set up WASD movement in the game on the PBE server.
In this mode, of course, players will use the W, S, A, and D keys to move up, down, left, and right like on the d-pad of a console controller. Whether controllers will become a legitimate option for the game now still remains to be seen.
You’ll use your mouse to aim and auto-attack, plus Skin Spotlights confirmed you can still click to move while in the mode.
This update could be massive for attracting more players to the game as very few popular modern games use click-to-move nowadays.
This simpler control scheme would lift one of the many barriers new players have to overcome when learning to play LoL.
Riot is clearly trying to tackle the new-player experience, an issue that has long plagued the game, after recently adding the 10-minute Brawl game mode to LoL with simplified gameplay to help newbies pick up the basics.
Of course, any big change brings concern and the primary fear with WASD is that playing ADCs will become too easy and skill gap will close between players.
WASD controllers will make it much easier to dodge skillshots while kiting and shooting back, which could be a huge buff for Ezreal, Zeri and other similar champions.
Meanwhile, others were delighted at the possibilities for accessibility with Twitter user Cam Com saying:
“(This is) super huge for accessibility, I used to have to play with one hand due to nerve issues, and joined a server with others with similar conditions (many more people than most realise). More rebindability control is always super appreciated.”
Meanwhile, Reddit user SpearmintFlower summed up the LoL community’s mixed feelings on WASD quite nicely: “Wow. I think this would be the biggest change in League’s history to be honest.
“Completely alters how new players will interact with the game. Personally think it’s a cool idea, even with the risk of it falling flat this will help new players onboarding so much. It’s just so late for a change like this in a game like LoL’s lifecycle, where you have an established base that has spent 10+ years with the old system.”
However, there is also a theory that this may not be coming to game in full but is actually for a new game mode.
In this same PBE cycle, Skin Spotlights datamined information which suggests a new game mode called “Monarch” is coming.
The mode appears to accommodate 18 players playing as premade duos or 24 players playing together in premade trios in a free-for-all format.
LoL previously featured WASD controls in Swarm, a PvE game mode where players tried to survive waves of enemies.
It’s possible that Monarch will do the same by adding WASD controls exclusive to the mode which many are theorising could be an online battle royale very similar to upcoming esports title Supervive, which is developed by former Rioters.
How will WASD controls work in League of Legends?
The setting, titled “Modern Controls WASD Movement” under the hotkeys settings, allows for d-pad style movement using the WASD keys, though clicking to move will still work too.
The mouse will also still be used for basic attacks and for aiming abilities.
In this mode, Q and W for abilities are replaced by MB2 (middle mouse button) and Shift.
It also replaces D with the space bar being used for one of the player’s Summoner Spells, likely best used for Flash.
And this mode changes how the Flash Summoner Spell works with three separate options: Cursor, WASD with Cursor enhanced, and WASD with Cursor Fallback, though it’s unclear what each of these changes.
It also features a toggle for Smart Cast to automatically shoot in the direction your champion is facing.
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