How does combat work without a mouse?

so umm your abilities and totems that cast in the location of your mouse I just can't see how they would work with a controller at least not in a game where a split second and ur dead if you aren't killing the enemies can anyone explain the differences?

Also how do abilities where you hold the mouse button in to attack the enemy you mouse over repeatably work? You can't spam a button on a controller as fast as a computer can do the attacks with the mouse down so I assume you attack in the direction the character is facing but do you just hold in a button on the controller nonstop?

You can hold a button to continuously use it. Ex: You have molten strike bound to B, just hold B to keep spamming balls. Most abilities will make your character walk towards an enemy if they are out of range but still being targeted (their name will appear at the top center of your HUD). You do not notice this most of the time when you use your skills as intended (Ex melee skills you need to be close, so you would not try to attack from a mile away).

Totems are placed in the direction you are facing. The distance is determined by a "smart" location algorithm by default (somewhere between you and the nearest enemy). You can hold LT and place totem at max distance you are facing if you quick press. If you hold LT and your totem skill, you get a location circle you can move to place exactly where you want (note you can not move while doing this).

Totems can be a little bit tricky, but they're not really terribly difficult to deal with placing.

For channeled spells, all you have to do is hold down a button. For alternate skills, using a trigger to cycle to a second context menu for your buttons, it's fairly simple and intuitive.

The only issue is flasks, which require you to use the d-pad to access three of them. You can use two by pressing either the right or left bumper, but the others are accessed with the d-pad, which means moving your thumb off of one of the joysticks. Even so, it's not that bad.

The XBox Elite controller can be configured so that you could use its extra paddles, on the bottom of the controller, for flasks. Most reports praise it highly for this reason. But, it's not cheap. There is, supposedly, an add-on device for the Xbox controller that can also be used like this and it's much cheaper.

I would not, however, recommend playing hardcore characters on the Xbox unless you're absolutely sure of the toughness of your build. It's not solely due to the controller situation with flasks, it's that the game sometimes seems to overwhelm the Xbox right at the worst times, when lots of stuff is on the screen, and lag can sometimes result in you taking a lot more damage than you would have, otherwise.

Targeting specific mobs can be difficult, though. "Bestiary" just serves to highlight this problem. But, it's not gamebreaking.

The controller, however, gives you a great deal of control and gameplay is very fluid because of that. It's a game that, despite some setbacks, plays very well on console.

All in all, it's as good as the Diablo 3 port for console in playability, if not a better single-player game. Mutliplayer is a bit clunky, though, but I don't think the game is optimized well for multiplayer in any version.

Final Verdict: It's a valued addition to my console lineup and I enjoy it a great deal. If it was too difficult to play on console, I wouldn't be playing it.