Point-and-click movement has been a staple of “Diablo-like” action-rpgs since the 90s. However I recently found out that I enjoyed them more when playing with a controller like they were a top-down twin-stick shooter, starting with Lost Ark. I don’t know about “more precise”, but it feels more natural to handle the positioning with direct control instead of pointing towards the destination.

gamepad or bust

Personally, I do think that WASD is more precise than point-and-click. When I am playing Diablo (point-and-click movement), I have a hard time getting my character positioned correctly to avoid AoEs that are telegraphed on the ground. When I am playing Factorio (WASD movement), I have never had any problems getting my character where I want him to be.

I think it depends on the person and what they want out of the control scheme.

I play Baldur’s Gate 3 with my partner. She swears by a controller, I swear by mouse and keyboard, and we both have differing reasons for it. She feels her movement is more precise, but she loses precision on interacting with items in the world. I have less precise movement that I have to be more considerate of the games pathing AI just walking me through traps or fire or whatever, but I have very precise interaction with the environment when it comes to clicking on items and so forth.

I think point and click has a much steeper difficulty curve, so p&c can reach higher levels of accuracy, it’s easier to reach mid levels of accuracy with wasd.

There is a (now basically dead) game that I had high hopes for, called Omega Strikers. Top down moba air-hockey blend. Tons of high octane fun.

It had both an option for wasd and traditional moba control. The consensus by /theydidthemath type folks was that clicking in non wasd axis directions meant you can get certain movements ever-so-slightly quicker since you move along a straight line instead of using whatever two lines that you need to get to that spot. Now it is a question of it it actually mattered but that was true.

The midle way would be an analog stick.

I don’t think that wasd or even analog can be called more precise either, they require you to stop the movement input precisely on the spot you want, where as with clicking you just point and click…

The advantage that ESDF movement has (boo, WASD uses the wrong keys), is that you can stop movement by just not pushing any keys or buttons. With mouse-based movement there’s rarely a “stop movement” button, you just have to click close to where you already are.

But, the bigger difference is that you can dedicate one hand to movement and the other hand to aiming. This is key when you’re playing a ranged attacker. With a melee attacker clicking on an enemy is fine because you want to both attack it and move in that direction. But, if you want to stay away from the enemies and attack them from long range, a mouse-based movement system combined with a mouse-based aiming system means you’re clicking on one side of the screen to aim and the opposite side to move. That’s inefficient and imprecise.

ESDF movement does have its drawbacks though. The biggest drawback is that you can only move at one speed. That’s especially bad for certain scenarios, like escort-type missions where you want to move at the same speed as whatever you’re escorting, or stealth games / activities where the slower you move the more stealthy you are. But. for those, the mouse isn’t any better. What’s better is a joystick / thumbstick. With those you can move the stick very slightly to move very slowly.

Often I think the best of both worlds would be a mouse for aiming and a thumbstick for movement.