Diablo III: Elective Mode

So I just learned about one of the features in Diablo III that I wished I had known about 20 levels ago. It's called Elective Mode, and this quick and dirty run-down will tell you all about it and why you want it.

What is Elective Mode?

By default, Elective Mode is an option in the game that is turned off. It's recommended to turn this on when you get a chance.

Elective mode allows the player to place multiple skills from the same category to their key bindings.

How do I turn Elective Mode on? Once you join a game, simply hit ESC > Options > Gameplay > toggle on Elective Mode.

What does Elective Mode allow you to do?

By default, the attack buttons in Diablo 3 are bound to the following: Left mouse button, right mouse button, and the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys on the keyboard.

The skills in Diablo 3 fall into six categories. These categories vary by class, but every class has six. E.g., The Wizard's six categories are: Primary, Secondary, Defensive, Force, Conjuration, and Mastery.

With elective mode off, a wizards Primary skill must be bound to the left mouse button, a Secondary skill must be bound to the right mouse button, a Defensive skill skill must be bound to the 1 key, a force skill must be bound to the 2 key, a Conjuration skill must be bound to the 3 key, and a Mastery skill must be bound to the 4 key.

By extension, it means the player can only use one skill from each category when selecting which six skills to use. Once they choose a Primary skill, that is the only Primary skill they can use until they switch it out with another Primary skill.

With Elective Mode on, the player is allowed to place multiple skills from the same category on their key bindings. A player could use four Primary skills if they so desired.

With a basic Ice Wizard build with Elective Mode turned on, the player can select both two Defensive and two Force skills. With Elective Mode off, this would not be possible since the player would be forbidden from using multiple skills from the same category.

tl;dr: Leaving Elective Mode off will limit your skill choice combinations, and by extension, customization. It is highly recommended that you turn it on as soon as possible.

Just one thing I'll add and that is that with elective mode off, you may accidentally drag buttons off of your action bar in the heat of combat, and there doesn't appear to be any way to lock down the buttons while Elective Mode is on. However, you can turn elective mode off once you've configured your skills on your action bar and they will lock in place. When you want to change skills again, just toggle Elective Mode again from the gameplay options menu.