Games

Massive League of Legends gameplay change as WASD control scheme is introduced

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In a potential shift, League of Legends could introduce a new control scheme using the WASD keys, aiming to appeal more to novice gamers.

Approaching two decades old, League of Legends is recognized as a timeless multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game. Traditionally, its control system aligns with other classic MOBAs such as DoTA. But, a potential shift could be on the horizon, as League of Legends may introduce an alternate control scheme: WASD.

WASD controls in LoL

As an enthusiastic follower, I stumbled upon some exciting news courtesy of dataminer SkinSpotlights – they’ve unearthed a new feature in League of Legends! It seems we may soon have the option to switch to WASD movement, as they shared several snapshots showcasing the updated keybinding options.

In simpler terms, the initial setup is referred to as “Traditional Input” or “Classic Controls.” Here, you click the right mouse button for movement and utilize the keys Q, W, E, R for casting your abilities. The second option, labeled as “Advanced Movement” or “Modern Controls,” uses the keys W, A, S, D for character navigation along with the same ability-casting keys.

Skills are now linked to the Right-Click, Shift, E, R keys, whereas your initial summoner spell is relocated to the Space key.

Additionally, there’s a setting named “Flash Handling Type.” It offers three selections: Cursor, WASD with Cursor Enhanced, and WASD with Cursor Fallback. SkinSpotlights expressed uncertainty about their functions. It appears that this setting will determine the impact of cursor position and WASD keypresses on Flash’s direction and range. Several game abilities mimic Flash (Hexflash, Ezreal E – Arcane Shift, Kassadin R – Riftwalk), but it remains unclear whether this setting will influence those abilities as well.

In the second snapshot, you’ll notice that each directional command is duplicated, strangely. It seems that there are keybindings for both “Select an Object” and “Interact with an Object,” which are assigned to left-clicks. Further details about these functions will be discussed in the following section.

1) In simple terms, Auto Attacks can also be triggered by left-clicking. The third screenshot reveals toggles within Advanced Keybinding Options. Unfortunately, we’re unsure where the auto attack movement is assigned if the first toggle is turned off, but Q could potentially work as an alternative. For Riven players, the concept of “instant cast spells using the character’s direction” might be familiar.

In simpler terms, skills that can be used instantly, such as many basic attacks, will be performed based on the direction your champion is currently facing. Riven’s Q – Broken Wings operates this way, even under the traditional control setting, meaning she will dash in the direction she is facing if you are not specifically targeting an enemy unit with your mouse.

Is WASD coming to Summoner’s Rift?

At present, we haven’t discovered any alternative methods for this innovative control system elsewhere. However, in League of Legends, during the Swarm game mode, they used a WASD movement scheme. This might suggest that it was a trial phase leading up to its potential integration into the main game at a later date.

The proposed rationale behind this feature is to draw in new gamers. However, the general response towards this extra feature has been predominantly negative.

Naayil, a content creator and streamer, posted: “Who will inform riot that the control system isn’t what’s keeping people from starting to play League of Legends?” I suspect children on Roblox won’t appreciate it as they are accustomed to moving with WASD keys.

It’s worth mentioning that this is just one alternative, not a compulsory adjustment. However, it may cause some difficulty because techniques such as stutter-stepping, which require significant manual effort when using a mouse, will become much simpler with the WASD setup.

At the moment I’m writing this, the feature isn’t accessible on our Public Beta Environment (PBE) server. In other words, if it were to be implemented in the game, it wouldn’t be part of the next update, patch 25.11.

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2025-05-15 06:41

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