League of Legends will change forever in the upcoming months, with the developers Riot Games announcing that WASD movement will be coming to the game. This isn’t a surprise to many, as the change was highly speculated for weeks ahead of the most recent Dev Update.
Since its inception, League of Legends has always operated under the point and click controls with Q, W, E, and R being the primary controls for the champions abilities, and the mouse controlling the direction the champion needs to move in.
Image Credit: Riot Games
Now, there’s a new control method in town: WASD. This isn’t a reinventing of the wheel moment for competitive video games. Many competitive titles, including Call of Duty and Fortnite, both offer WASD movement along with controller capabilities. But rarely have top down, tactical style games (outside of mobile titles) used anything WASD-like.
And while evidence suggests that one movement is optimal over the other, Riot’s bold intentions are to ensure that the traditional movement, and the WASD movement, can coincide with one another simultaneously without one having an overwhelming advantage over the other.
Let’s explore how we got to this point and how we believe WASD will change League of Legends forever.
While a definitive reasoning wasn’t given by Riot for adding WASD controls, it seems likely that the game is aiming to capture the sentiments of a wider player base, as well as make more coherence between mobile titles like Wild Rift.
Riot from the jump has made it clear of their beliefs that WASD movement and Point and Click movement can coincide. However, with how intricate players can be now with the movement system, especially ADC’s, it’s hard to see players ever returning to the traditional movement system.
Take controllers in FPS titles, with paddles added to the back for enhanced gameplay, standard controllers simply cannot keep up with the capabilities that a custom controller can bring. So much so that Microsoft and Sony has implemented these design features to their Xbox and PlayStation controllers.
Many fear that the WASD movement will completely take over the game, in a recent Reddit thread, fan sentiment furthers the claim that this could not have the impact that Riot was hoping for. It may exceed what Riot is hoping to be a balanced movement system that sees both the WASD and the Point and Click be used. One Redditor said “WASD movement frees up your mouse and allows simultaneous aiming and movement. Which to say the least is completely insane.”
If you’re an ADC, or pilot champions with high movement such as Yasuo or a Yone, WASD is the only movement you should be using going forward. In the past, ADC’s have had to alternate between movement and ability usage, you can’t do both at the same time as you have to micromanage each click to ensure you’re in the correct position. With WASD movement, you are freeing yourself up for more precise movement, kiting will never feel better than what it will be with the new movement system.
If you thought the general playerbase mastering it was enough, just wait until professional players get their hands on WASD. Can you imagine the likes of Ruler and Gumayusi using the new movement? They will be unmatched versus a player who opts for using the standard controls. In professional play, expect almost every ADC to adapt to the new movement system.
League of Legends content creator Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera had the opportunity to test out the new WASD movement and believes the new movement system is overpowered.
“The whole idea of WASD controls and what makes them so overpowered is that you can perfectly kite in a teamfight. If you have a very high attack speed, you can keep your mouse over them, right-click them, and move with WASD.”
Not all positions will benefit from WASD movement; however, the former professional player turned streamer indicated a problem caused by the design of Summoners Rift.
For those who are newer to the game, Summoner’s Rift isn’t actually coded on a flat surface; the map is slanted, with the movement clicks working around the design. Dom, however, indicates that WASD movement could not be the best option for junglers. Dom explains:
“Jungling is actually horrible with WASD controls. I got to run a couple of clears, Oner ran some clears as well. And between me and Oner, we couldn’t clear faster than like 3:40, and this was maybe through three or four tests. But as a Jungler it’s super f*cking weird to try and clear with WASD controls because your camps are top left to bottom right. So when you go through Mid lane, you have to walk in a zig-zag to try and get to the other side of your jungle.”
Ultimately, WASD controls will exceed what Riot is hoping for. Perhaps not immediately, but as League of Legends champions evolve with the new movement system in mind, players are going to be forced into it one way or another. I don’t think the old system will last; it will have a slow, painful death as the new system takes over.
Riot hasn’t given a hard reason for the addition, but they overall believe it will improve quality of life and accessibility for the game.
Will you still be able to use mouse and click in League of Legends. WASD isn’t fully replacing the original way of movement.
Early testing seems to suggest that WASD is far superior to point and click in almost every circumstance. While edge cases for individual champions and roles exist, the level of control and freedom that WASD gives you seems unmatched in LoL. It could be a case where Marksmen and Mages use WASD and Junglers use point and click.
