How To Bind And Use Skills in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 has no shortage of skills and spells, but to keep things from turning into a World of Warcraft keyboard face-roll, you’re only allowed six skills in the hotbar. So you need to make those choices count and you also would want to know how to bind skills so that the game doesn’t do it for you suboptimally. Here’s how to bind and use skills in Diablo 4 regardless of the Season.

[Updated on August 24, 2024 – Added more details to the guide, along with controller instructions]

Know Which Skills are Active and Passive

The good news is that despite the numerous skills in Diablo 4, you don’t exactly have to equip all of them in the skill hotbar or skill bar. You only have to put the active skills or the ones you need to use actively (press).

Active skills in Diablo 4 all have the same indication in all classes’ skill trees: their icons are square. Anything with a circular icon is just a way to supplement your stats or your active skills. You’ll want to first choose your active skills (six of them) by allocating your skill points. Once you have them, you can finally bind them to the hotbar.

How to Bind Skills in Diablo 4

By default, the game will put any active skill you’ve picked on the skill hotbar. But you might find this far from ideal depending on your hand or finger position. That’s why I recommend customizing it yourself.

Here’s how for the keyboard and mouse setup:

1. By default, the game will assign the Skill Assignment Flyout to the letter ‘S,’ so press it to bring up all your available skills.
2. Click, hold, and drag the skills that aren’t greyed out. Then drag them to the hotbar. It’s up to you which slot.
3. I recommend putting them depending on your preferred skill rotation or sequence. For example, Necromancers would ideally cast Corpse Tendrils before Corpse Explosion. So you would want them in that order.
4. Put your Core skill either on the LMB or RMB slot for easier spamming.

Now, some items in Diablo 4 will grant you certain skills that you didn’t pick in the Skill Tree. Those skills will also appear in your skill assignment flyout. You don’t have to put them in the skill hotbar if you don’t want to use them. Just don’t be confused with their presence.

Additionally, there’s a different button layout for controllers, so here’s a separate step-by-step if you’re using a controller:

1. Press ‘start‘ or ‘menu‘ on the controller to bring up the Inventory.
2. Press RB/R1 to navigate to the Skill Tree.
3. While viewing the Skill Tree, press the Left Analog Stick to bring up the Skill Assignment Flyout.
4. On the Skill Assignment Flyout, select a skill using the Left Analog Stick and press A/X to highlight a skill.
5. Press A/X again to assign it to the hotbar, select the hotbar slot using the Left Analog Stick, and press A/X again to place the skill in that slot.

Again, take note of the rotation for your build. You can also change the keybinding through the Controls section of the Main Menu.