WoW Forever fits 84 ability slots on a controller. Keep a keyboard nearby
Blizzard’s beta gamepad support uses triggers to expose more spells, while typing in chat still needs a keyboard.
World of Warcraft: Forever is making room for players who would rather hold a controller than sit over a keyboard. Blizzard’s gamepad guide describes the feature as a beta, with further refinements planned. A fully keyboard-free experience is a longer-term goal; typing in chat still requires one nearby.
To enable it, open Options, choose Gameplay, then Gamepad. Blizzard specifies XInput-compatible controllers and provides Xbox and PlayStation button icons. Those icons should not be mistaken for a blanket compatibility promise for every controller.
The answer to fitting so many spells on a pad is layers. Holding either trigger, or both, reveals another action bar; releasing them returns to the default. Holding both bumpers and pressing left or right on the directional pad switches among three sets. Each set contains 28 slots, for 84 altogether.
The appeal is easy to picture from Xbox Wire’s earlier account: its writer tried the alpha controls on a Windows PC connected to a television, bringing Warcraft to the sofa. The same writer also got it running on an ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, but described that handheld setup as unsupported and needing its touchscreen and onscreen keyboard to reach the controller toggle. Blizzard’s newer guide now uses the beta label; that earlier experiment remains an account of PC play, rather than a console launch.