Animation Canceling on Console & Custom Button Assignments (PS4)

HeathenDeacon · June 2015

Just curious how well anyone is doing with animation canceling on console, and what custom button assignments to help with it on ps4 anyone is using.
( I know the d-pad being in a different spot on xbox and the fact they cant re-bind the controller like ps4 changes things for those players )

Personally i had some real issues right away trying most of the basic cancels including light attack weaving with the way the controls are setup on ps4.
Coming from years of a very smooth anni-canceling experience with a controller playing DCUO on ps3 i thought it would be alot easier than it has turned out to be.
It turned out though that since that game had a target lock mechanic, canceling in ESO has been an entirely different beast.
Most importantly though i've been wanting to nail something down and stick to it before my muscle memory becomes to hard to overcome.

Some of the major issues i've had include bar swap on left dpad, especially on ps4, was absolutely a no go for me. No way i could pull my thumb that far left to cancel with. Especially having to take my thumb off the left stick and basically standing in place completely vulnerable.
Also, i found right trigger to light attack very hard to follow up with my thumb to cancel with the r1, square, triangle and circle skill attacks.

Without getting into all the different test bindings i did, i'll tell you the few minor adjustments i've ended up sticking to:

-Most importantly i've found switching bar swap to r3 is a huge improvement.
That put stealth/crouch on left d-pad though, which for ps4 is still a pain. so then i flipped that over to right dpad so my thumb could slide off the stick to go into stealth when needed. Its not perfect, but its a big improvement for me so far.

- The only other change ive stuck with is flipping my r2 and l2.
this might be more of a personal preference since DCUO had block on the r1, however i have found my attempts at light attack weaving have a vastly improved success rate when i can trigger l2 with my left index and follow up everything except the skill on l1 with my right thumb and index.
Also i've found dodge rolling, and dodge canceling, much easier for me when using R2 +x instead of L2 + x.

Anyway, i'd love to hear anyone's thoughts that has been working on these issues as well.
thanks.

DIENASTY9 · June 2015

How in the world are you changing controls on ps4? Am i stupid?

Ephany · June 2015

You can't change the controls on the ps4.
Animation clipping is easy enough though. At least with the Templar Healer I'm using.
I used to play DCUO also and it takes some time to get used to a new control scheme, but stick at it. You'll be fine.
Sometimes I still try to pop a Boon of Souls shield out of habbit in those "oh crap" moments :P

Jbugz97 · June 2015

im having same problem with xbox i really want them to swtitch the weapon swap button for us

Soul_of_Odin · June 2015

You can change the control scheme in the PS4 system settings. It's under the Accessibility section in the system menu.

Reb · June 2015

Swapping R3 and left pad is the only thing iv done ..and its much much better for weapon swapping

Ace_of_Destiny · June 2015

1. I can't believe PS4 users still don't know about the "button assignment" options that the last update added. Glad the OP does. Maybe this post will "open some eyes". I am getting tired of telling people about it...in fact...I don't bother most of the time anymore.

2. If you are on XBone, or just need a better option, try ChronusMax(sp?). I have heard it allows you to remap every bottun on the controller, and even more. I have pretty bad arthritis in my hands, and have contemplated trying one. I just don't have the spare $70 right now.

Adam_Chattaway · June 2015

What is animation canceling and I've heard people say it ruins the game and is exploiting, why would anyone want to do this?

A5ko · June 2015

Doing fine with it on Xbox One as my Sorcerer.

Able to weave in Light/Med/Heavy attacks with most things pretty easily.

Adam_Chattaway · June 2015

A5ko wrote: »

Doing fine with it on Xbox One as my Sorcerer.

Able to weave in Light/Med/Heavy attacks with most things pretty easily.

Why would you want to exploit?

A5ko · June 2015

Adam_Chattaway wrote: »

A5ko wrote: »

Doing fine with it on Xbox One as my Sorcerer.

Able to weave in Light/Med/Heavy attacks with most things pretty easily.

Why would you want to exploit?

Weaving has existed for many many years, over many different games.

Just because some cannot manage it, doesn't make it an exploit.

Hiero_Glyph · June 2015

Personally I moved weapon swap to R3, stealth to down on the d-pad, and camera to left on the d-pad. So far it works like a charm. Pro Tip: Enable the accessibility options for you quick menu so you can enable or disable the key bindings at any time.

Pallmor · June 2015

Ace-2112 wrote: »

1. I can't believe PS4 users still don't know about the "button assignment" options that the last update added. Glad the OP does. Maybe this post will "open some eyes". I am getting tired of telling people about it...in fact...I don't bother most of the time anymore.

I just checked the last update patch notes and don't see anything about any such changes. If you're talking about the ability to change button assignments on the PS4 itself, then yes you can do that (that's always been there AFAIK). But this screws up every other game and app on the system. It's an incredibly kludgy solution at best.

LadyDestiny · June 2015

Xbox same problem. I hate, hate, HATE where the weapon swap is on the left d-pad. I wonder if they even tested this out first. My fingers can't bend or react that fast trying to get out of the way and switch weapons. Very inconvenient setup. I would switch my crouch and weapon swap around if I could...:(

Dagoth_Rac · June 2015

Adam_Chattaway wrote: »

A5ko wrote: »

Doing fine with it on Xbox One as my Sorcerer.

Able to weave in Light/Med/Heavy attacks with most things pretty easily.

Why would you want to exploit?

It is not an exploit. Light attacks are an instant damage ability. But they have a non-instant animation that is basically just cosmetic fluff to make it look cool. So when you go straight from a light attack into a skill, you are simply bypassing the graphical fluff and letting an instant damage ability actually be an instant damage ability.

If the game had no animations, casual players would find normal gameplay kind of dull and bare. But at the same time, you do not want to make high intensity combat in endgame PvE and PvP be too clunky and awkward. So you have animations in the game, but allow some of them to be cancelled by higher priority skills and actions. It is a compromise between immersion and responsiveness.

If animation cancelling basic attacks is an exploit, then so is hitting the button repeatedly to bypass the Bethesda/Zenimax/Havok splash screens at the beginning of the game! Imagine trying to time it so you see each of those splash screens for as brief a time as possible before moving on to the next one. That is all basic attack animation cancelling is.

Gandrhulf_Harbard · June 2015

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

If animation cancelling basic attacks is an exploit, then so is hitting the button repeatedly to bypass the Bethesda/Zenimax/Havok splash screens at the beginning of the game! .

Does anybody actually see those anymore?

They can be turned off permanently in the .ini.

I hit ESO.exe and immediately I am at login screen.

All The Best

DivinityDay · June 2015

Ephany wrote: »

You can't change the controls on the ps4.
Animation clipping is easy enough though. At least with the Templar Healer I'm using.
I used to play DCUO also and it takes some time to get used to a new control scheme, but stick at it. You'll be fine.
Sometimes I still try to pop a Boon of Souls shield out of habbit in those "oh crap" moments :P

DCUO Clipping, ah the memories. I played for 3 years and came to ESO last year. Welcome home! Btw, the raids are fun here

allyoudpsesarebad · June 2015

i came from dcuo as well t4 to t5 days were good weapon mastery started the downfall of that game. But i cant say ive had any problems animation canceling or as i know it clipping on ps4.

AceTheDazed · June 2015

Yup i came from dcuo swell...im playing a sorc and ive gotten use to ALMOST all the controls but the weapon swap is just insane...i had to switch it asap. the way i switched is in settings and accesibility btw. that was the only way i could find

Hiero_Glyph · June 2015

Pallmor wrote: »

I just checked the last update patch notes and don't see anything about any such changes. If you're talking about the ability to change button assignments on the PS4 itself, then yes you can do that (that's always been there AFAIK). But this screws up every other game and app on the system. It's an incredibly kludgy solution at best.

Actually the button remapping was added this spring (firmware v2.50). Also, you can add the accessibility options to the quick menu (hold the PS button for 2 seconds) and toggle the button remapping on or off in very quickly. Sadly, it is a feature that most don't fully understand (as demonstrated by the replies in this thread) but it can vastly improve your gaming experience when games don't provide enough controller customization options.

p_tsakirisb16_ESO · June 2015

Adam_Chattaway wrote: »

What is animation canceling and I've heard people say it ruins the game and is exploiting, why would anyone want to do this?

Indeed ruins the game. A trip to (PC) Cyrodiil, will make you just leave the game. Too many macro users, and while I can do it (dead easy to assign a keyboard macro) I do not see the point. I have no inferiority problems with my real life to be honest.

Let them ruin the game. In the mean time went back to DAOC, and having fun PVPing there, where it requires proper skill and not cheating.

HeathenDeacon · June 2015

thanks to the insightful responses.

& it would be nice to leave any arguing over the validity of canceling to its own topic.
i'm sure its already been argued over by the pc players here many moons ago just as it is in every other game.
that was not my intention.
rather it is nice to hear about the different setups people on console are using since we are so very limited with our controls.

i'd REALLY love to see Zos at least add a preset with the weapon swap on r3, which i think would help alot of players.
i even have friends that dont like swapping in combat at all b/c of the default setup.

DivinityDay · July 2015

allyoudpsesarebad wrote: »

i came from dcuo as well t4 to t5 days were good weapon mastery started the downfall of that game. But i cant say ive had any problems animation canceling or as i know it clipping on ps4.

Oh i was there for WM, by that time I had 198sp so i was fine with the way they changed trees and all that (I left after Halls Of Power I). WM just made players robots, sort of like a choreography at sorts. What I like about ESO is that the only cookie cutter way to a build is the gear. You really have to follow certain gear formats for certain roles to be effective here. Otherwise, I can dps however I want and not look the same as the next sorc dpsing next to me.

allyoudpsesarebad · July 2015

skill points werent the problem they just started making the game to easy. i really like eso but i need text chat im vr 14 and havent done a dungeon im just pvpn and bout to get emperor plz zos give me a text chat.

DivinityDay · July 2015

allyoudpsesarebad wrote: »

skill points werent the problem they just started making the game to easy. i really like eso but i need text chat im vr 14 and havent done a dungeon im just pvpn and bout to get emperor plz zos give me a text chat.

Ya, I understand how not having text chat can be such a prob. I'm on PC so i'm lucky. Which do you think is harder, DCUO clipping before WM (think of Hardlight when it was amazing) or ESO animation cancelling?

Personally, I feel both are the same. After awhile its easy, if anything ESO's little animation cancelling is easier.

Dagoth_Rac · July 2015

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

Adam_Chattaway wrote: »

What is animation canceling and I've heard people say it ruins the game and is exploiting, why would anyone want to do this?

Indeed ruins the game. A trip to (PC) Cyrodiil, will make you just leave the game. Too many macro users, and while I can do it (dead easy to assign a keyboard macro) I do not see the point. I have no inferiority problems with my real life to be honest.

Let them ruin the game. In the mean time went back to DAOC, and having fun PVPing there, where it requires proper skill and not cheating.

Macros are not the same thing as animation cancelling! A macro is a small program that does the work for you. It is cheating and is against the terms and conditions of the game. Animation canceling is simply manually timing your attacks to bypass the graphical bells and whistles that are placed over the underlying combat mechanics. Animation canceling is like knowing when to throw a fastball and when to throw a change up and getting the speed and timing right. Macros are like bringing a pitching machine out to the mound.

allyoudpsesarebad · July 2015

eso is easier paradox wave days with phase dodge clipping on ps3 was hard to execute hardlight was easy mode power.ram whip fan repeat

DivinityDay · July 2015

allyoudpsesarebad wrote: »

eso is easier paradox wave days with phase dodge clipping on ps3 was hard to execute hardlight was easy mode power.ram whip fan repeat

That made me smile remembering pre nerf DOX. There is a raid here that I have completed thanks to amazing ppl I play with which is Sanctum Ophidia and that doesnt even hold a candle to pre nerf DOX.

Sorry for all the DCUO talk ppl, sometimes I get home sick. I played it since Christmas 2011-2014 Novemberish.

Varicite · July 2015

Man, so much mis-information in this thread regarding animation cancelling, I don't even know where to begin..

Fortunately there are least a couple souls here who seem to actually know what they're talking about.

Averya_Teira · July 2015

A5ko wrote: »

Doing fine with it on Xbox One as my Sorcerer.

Able to weave in Light/Med/Heavy attacks with most things pretty easily.

Am I stupid... ? What's a med(ium?) attack in ESO ??

DIENASTY9 · July 2015

Pallmor wrote: »

Ace-2112 wrote: »

1. I can't believe PS4 users still don't know about the "button assignment" options that the last update added. Glad the OP does. Maybe this post will "open some eyes". I am getting tired of telling people about it...in fact...I don't bother most of the time anymore.

I just checked the last update patch notes and don't see anything about any such changes. If you're talking about the ability to change button assignments on the PS4 itself, then yes you can do that (that's always been there AFAIK). But this screws up every other game and app on the system. It's an incredibly kludgy solution at best.

this. i knew about the damn settings one, but then you go and screw around for ten minute trying to turn the thing off after.