Path of Exile 2 is one of the best ARPGs you can play right now and the fact that it is still on Early Access is an impressive feat in it of itself. Both console and PC versions have been smashing it in player counts and hours played and a huge contributor to that is in how good the moment-to-moment gameplay feels. There are 2 main inputs you can use to play through the entire game and both of them have valid points to say which is the best one. But in case you needed a bit more help in deciding in whether or not Path of Exile 2 should be played with a mouse and keyboard or controller, we got you.
It’s easy to say that an ARPG should be played with a mouse and keyboard only since the genre made its name through the PC platform. But with various console ports of franchises like Diablo coming over the years, it has since become a revelation that these types of games play extraordinarily well on a controller. And it’s no different with Path of Exile 2.
Path of Exile 2 on controller
While a controller lacks the complexity and wide array of customization choices a mouse and keyboard offer, it makes up for it with buttery smooth simplicity. Path of Exile 2 offers full gamepad support on day one which is always fantastic.
Path of Exile 2 on controller plays out like a twin-stick shooter. The left stick controls movement and the right stick determines where your character is facing, and the face and trigger buttons are tied to your different attacks and abilities.
Despite how engaging the combat, challenge, and loot grind is, at the end of the day, PoE2 is an extremely relaxing game that’s just perfect to sit back and relax, listen to a podcast or watch a video to. Or just take in the gorgeous atmosphere and fantastic soundtrack. Grinding Gear Games did a lot to smoothen out how PoE2 controls on a gamepad compared to the first game and it has made all the difference.
Movement is key in an ARPG with mobs and boss attacks coming at you at every direction. As of the moment, you also can’t clip through enemies so once they corner you, it’s bad news. I noticed that playing on a gamepad significantly improves my spacing and control of where I need and want to go. But it does eliminate some of the precision in targeting that I usually am comfortable with in mouse and keyboard. Nevertheless, you can never go wrong with using a gamepad for a full playthrough of Path of Exile 2.
Path of Exile 2 on mouse and keyboard
Some would say it is the definitive way to play a game like this. ARPGs were initially made just for PC. There’s not much to say about this one since we all know how a standard click control method works on an ARPG but Path of Exile 2 has another option for mouse and keyboard, and it has since become the only way I will ever want to play an ARPG. Here comes WASD controls.
Using WASD to move like a standard third person action game while using the mouse to point at which direction your character faces feel so much more natural and smoother here. Attacks and abilities can be interchanged from right, left, and middle mouse buttons, and 1-5 keys. Dodging is tied to spacebar. Health and mana potions are tied to Q and E.
You’ll feel like you have much more direct control of your character and it is a bit more responsive than the typical click controls. Having a direct control on where you’re facing to target attacks while being able to move and dodge in another direction is an absolute game changer and has saved me from reloading a checkpoint multiple times in the many fantastic boss fights the game has. It’s the precision and a more direct sense of input that really does it for me.
Both mouse and keyboard and controller work like a dream with Path of Exile 2. Just try both and you’ll find yourself favoring one over the other depending on what you’re using at the time.