Diving into Lost Ark can be an overwhelming experience, but don’t be surprised if the first thing you find yourself wondering is “How do I change these mouse controls as fast as possible?”
Lost Ark’s mouse controls are…strange. The game’s basic mouse controls require you to attack with the left mouse button and move/interact with the right mouse button, which is a configuration we see in some MOBA titles but is also one that will feel odd to anybody expecting the ARPG to play like Diablo.
In a perfect world, there would be a way to mimic Diablo’s mouse controls in Lost Ark (which is basically a way to say that you’d be able to let the left mouse button do most of the work), but that is sadly not the case. If you’re interested, though, there is a way to tweak the game’s mouse controls just slightly.
Here’s how you can change the basic mouse settings in Lost Ark:
- Hit the Escape key while playing the game to open the Setting menu.
- In Settings, choose the Hotkeys section on the left.
- Next, select the “Basic Controls” option.
Once you’re there, you’ll notice that the actual mouse controls are locked, which means that you can’t simply swap them or tell the game what you want them to do. While that’s obviously a bit of a problem, you are able to check the box next to “Attack With Right Click” to swap the mouse controls so that left click now moves you around and right-click performs attacks. It’s not exactly the Diablo-like configuration that people are looking for, but it does help cut down on those instances where your temptation to move your character by holding down the left mouse button results in doing the completely wrong thing.
If you want to go a little deeper than that, it’s also possible to change your cursor size and color in order to make it a little easier to tell where you’re currently looking. To do that, you just need to follow these steps:
- Open the Settings menu and navigate to the Accessibility section.
- There, open the “Control Accessibility” menu.
- You should see options that will allow you to change your mouse cursor color and size until they are closer to your preferences.
I tend to prefer a slightly smaller mouse cursor that won’t get in the way, but you’re definitely going to have to experiment with this setting a bit based on your class and preferences. For instance, some magic-based classes produce an array of visual effects in the middle of combat that can make it very difficult to spot your cursor if it’s a certain size or color.
You’re also able to alter Lost Ark’s keybinds pretty much however you’d like, so if you’re able to change the keyboard settings in a way that makes it feel comfortable to rely on the keyboard more than the mouse, you’ll probably be able to use those options to achieve something closer to your ideal experience.
Many players already seem to prefer the “Left click to move/Right click to attack set-up,” and I will say that arrangement does seem to make it a little easier to transition from other ARPGs to Lost Ark. Ultimately, though, you are going to have to get used to the fact that this game is kind of a strange beast and doesn’t really operate the way that you might expect it to.