Adapting and Working Around Inconsistent Inputs

I'm relatively new to the game (900hrs) and my patience regarding inconsistent inputs has run thin. This isn't to report: instead, does anyone have any strategies/workarounds to deal with inconsistent inputs?

I'm running a Vaal skill on X/A and L2+X/A so I can spam both to active the skill. The lone face button works, but can accidentally interact with objects, whereas chording with the trigger takes 3-6 attempts for the skill to finally pop. I also keep the Vaal skill on X/A to keep the graphic on the UI to know when it's ready, it would be nice to be able to pin this info on screen. My dash on L2+Circle also is inconsistent. Roughly 1 in 20 inputs don't register during my gameplay which is actually quite frustrating.

My gameplay is basically to retreat until there are no objects around to activate the Vaal skill and then continue as normal but this has left me feeling like I'm devoting time and money to a scam. Is there like a well known bug I'm not aware of??

Edit: Binding to Trigger + leftmost face button works! thanks

Edit2: nevermind, also bugged. moving on to a differnt company :/

It's not ideal, but the best plan is to leave the main "interact" button (X on PS5) empty of skills. This leaves you 11 keybinds to use, which is more than enough for most builds, especially now that Auras and whatnot don't need to be reactivated after death.

Also, not to "blame the victim", but if your skill isn't activating when using the triggers, there's probably a reason for that. Either you're not pushing the triggers in far enough, or there's a reason the skill can't activate. If it's a cooldown skill, it could have been on cooldown. Or you could be short of whatever resource that skills needs (mana/life/rage/souls, etc).

Edit: There's also the possibility that you are canceling the skill after it *does* initiate. For skills with slow animations (big/slow attacks, long cast time spells, etc), many of them can be canceled if you initiate another action after pushing the button but before the skill actually fires.

There's a lot of UI problems with this game, and the "interact" button issues are real, but I have never had it not acknowledge my skill button presses.


As an aside from all this, putting your movement skill on a trigger combo seems rather weird. I've never met another player that does that. Most of use either Triangle or Circle (on PS5, equiv. on XBox) for that. Your movement skill is the single most important button in the game. Yes, more important than your main damage skill.