This is my little feedback on targeting and controls on both controller and kbm in this game after playing over 120 hours. I’ll start by saying that targeting in this game is pretty confusing. From my testing, when auto-lock option in the settings is on you start with the white circle auto target lock but can swap to manual or ‘hard’ (as I’ve seen someone call it, manual is what it’s called in the settings) lock that has red circle on your target. To swap target lock mode on controller you need to click on right stick, on kbm however you need to hold T which can be a bit inconvenient for some people. The hold/click difference is because these two target lock modes have different control behavior for kbm and controller. On controller the white circle target lock is placed on the nearest target and you can only change it by moving towards the other (left stick), while the red circle target lock allows you to choose target just by the movement of your right stick thus separating it from character’s movement. On kbm the white circle allows you to change targets just by hovering you mouse toward them while the red circle ‘hard locks’ you (thus the name, probably) on the target and you can only change it by hovering mouse onto another target and pressing T key. This inconsistency between controller and kbm kinda makes sense if you think about it. And the targeting is alright in my experience. Just don’t use the white circle auto-lock on controller, it updates too slow sometimes when enemies leap and teleport around. It’s also just bad if you have any ranged runes or attacks because you need to target backliners a lot of the time, they have ranged attacks and will annoy you otherwise. And you won’t use your right stick for anything but consumables selection which is a blunder imo. This behavior is not explained anywhere in the game at all, neither in the settings nor in any of the tutorials/compendium. You just have to test and taste it yourself. It would be helpful for new players to state the difference between these two modes somewhere in the settings or tutorials.
Now to my suggestion. We should be able to attack, cast and charge spells, hold block and just look in any chosen direction independently of our movement. It’s already possible to walk around a target while holding a shield, charging a spell and just facing it in general at all times unless you’re running. But it’s only possible with target lock. It makes it harder to block against two spaced out enemies. This also means that it’s much harder, near impossible, to hit two enemies with our AoE runes when these enemies stand farther than a radius of the AoE. There are only four exception – Thunderstrike, Hellfire, Glacial Spike and Pestilence. These rune’s description start with ‘Target an Area’. They also have a quick cast on key release behavior, just like charging runes but without any bonus for waiting. However, they also don’t have any target lock which helps casting it more accurately against multiple dispersed targets since it also pre-shows you the AoE! But you can only cast it right in front of your character (locked range) and you can only controll it by moving. If I’m not wrong, there are no other runes that can do this. Besides Armageddon but it has a very very weird behavior, probably bugged. It just locks to the target with target lock on or to the location in front of you when you press the key down and when you release it, the effect is applied to the locked target/location from wherever you are. You can literally lock onto the target dummy in Sacrament, hold the rune key, walk off dummy’s agro zone, release the key and deal no damage (because dummy’s invulnerable out of combat) but see the rune’s visuals from afar. Anyway, back to the topic. No other rune can be cast precisely without target lock and even these four follow only one input – movement. You can’t walk backwards as you can do while charging a spell or blocking in target lock and and cast them in front of you. You can’t cast it around you, closer or farther. I suggest all runes be set quick cast on key release behavior of runes like Hellfire and Pestilence (or better yet, allows us to configure it as normal cast, quick cast on key down and on key release for all runes with targeting, per specific rune or per rune slot), even for melee and projectile runes. And also add the AoE (circular, projectile width, sector of an AoE or in any other form like width plus sector in case of Fire Blast) plus range indicator. Allow us to control the target point for AoE or projectile, regardless of direction the character is walking, maybe even when running in case of some runes or weapons like bows. On kbm with target lock it could require holding left/right mouse button or any other assigned key, without target lock just hovering your mouse could be enough. And without the assigned key down use target lock or the direction character is facing (just like now). On controller use right stick movement or target lock when it is on and right stick is in neutral position, with no target lock and no right stick input – the direction character is facing.
I really hope we get some of this or everything and a bit more in the upcoming combat update or even sooner. I have no idea how hard it is to implement but most of these mechanics are already in the game (like the animation of walking backwards or sidewards and charging a cast, blocking), they’re just restricted to specific runes or control options.