Blizzard's gamepad guide of 3 November shows how to play World of Warcraft: Forever with a controller. Forever is a new version of World of Warcraft, and it launches on 4 November. The guide covers switching to the gamepad, the buttons, four action bars in three sets for 84 slots, and a few shortcuts. Here's the short version.

Which controllers work

Forever supports all XInput-compatible controllers, Blizzard says. XInput is a standard for how controllers talk to games. The game shows Xbox and PlayStation button icons, to help you recognise the controls. Blizzard uses Xbox button names in its guide, and so do we below.

One small touch: on a controller with supported lighting, the light turns red for a Horde character and blue for an Alliance one. Horde and Alliance are the game's factions, the sides a character belongs to.

How to switch it on

1. Press Escape to open the Game Menu.
2. Pick Options.
3. Under Gameplay, choose Gamepad.

That moves you off keyboard and mouse. The same Gamepad settings let you adjust the camera, the action bars, targeting, raid targeting and two settings named HUD Modifier and Frame Focus Style. The HUD is the game's heads-up display, the bars and buttons drawn over the game screen. Action bars hold your spells and abilities. Raid is the game's word for a large group of players playing together.

The buttons

Button	What it does
Left stick	Moves your character
Right stick	Moves the camera
Left bumper (LB)	Picks a friendly target
Right bumper (RB)	Picks an enemy target
X	Interact
A	Jump
B	Back
Y	Inspect
Hold the left trigger (LT), the right trigger (RT) or both	Switches to another action bar until you let go
Menu button	Opens the Main Menu
View button (marked with overlapping squares)	Listed as Change Focus Frame
Hold LB + RB, move the right stick	Zooms the camera in and out

X, A, B and Y also have spell functions, Blizzard says. A legend in the top-left corner of the screen shows what you can press, and it grows when some actions open more options. Most screens also have a footer showing the options for that panel. Not every screen has one yet.

Four bars, three sets, 84 slots

The gamepad HUD shows four action bars. They share the same button layout, but each can hold different spells. Hold LT, RT or both triggers to switch bars, and let go to get back to your default bar.

Blizzard gives an example for a Mage, one of the game's classes, the kinds of character you play. One direction button could carry four spells:

• Up: Polymorph (Sheep)
• LT + Up: Fireball
• RT + Up: Frostbolt
• LT + RT + Up: Blizzard, the Mage spell, not the company

Those are examples, not fixed bindings. Put whatever you use there.

You also get three action bar sets. Hold LB + RB and press left or right on the D-pad, the cross-shaped direction pad, to swap sets. Each set holds four bars with 28 slots between them, so the three sets give you 84 slots for spells and abilities. Blizzard suggests separate sets for combat, utility abilities or things you use a lot.

Shortcuts

Hold both shoulder buttons, LB + RB, then press:

Then press	You get
B	Your backpack
Up	The quest tracker
Down	Chat
Y	Your buffs, the helpful effects on your character

The same things are in the main radial menu, a round menu. Typing in chat still needs a keyboard.

Compared: the 2 November notes and the 3 November guide

Blizzard's notes and its guide, dated a day apart, describe gamepad play in different words. The development notes dated 2 November came first, and the guide, dated 3 November, followed. The guide calls the support a beta, which means a test state with more work to come.

Question	2 November notes	3 November guide
How finished is it?	"has entered a complete functional state"	"remains in a functional beta", with more work planned
Where do you set it up?	"Edit Mode and the Options menu" (Edit Mode is one of the game's settings screens)	Options, then Gamepad under Gameplay
Do you still need a keyboard?	Doesn't say; says all major gameplay and core screens can be played on a controller	Yes, for typing in chat; no keyboard at all is the longer-term aim
Some things only one of them has	"LB + RB + Face Down" selects your Focus Target (Face Down is the bottom face button, A on Xbox, by our reading)	Controller lighting by faction, and the three bar sets

Our reading: the two don't clash. The notes say the main things all work on a controller now. The guide's "beta" covers what's still rough, like screens with no button footer yet. If you play on a pad, expect it to work at launch and to keep getting smoother. For the rest of those notes, see our 2 November notes piece. For launch times and how to get in, see our release-date piece.