so many high-regarded RPGs

As far as how it works: if you’re on the PC, you play with mouse and keyboard and “you don’t want any of that console crap” so you set aside the controller, then it’s setup not totally dissimilar to an MMO. You’ve got an ability bar across the bottom of the screen that will work with the number keys -- you can map abilities onto that. You can have spells on your right mouse button and your weapon on your left mouse button. You can use the scrollwheel to quickly switch between different weapons, like how a lot of first-person shooters tend to work on the PC.

And obviously you can bind all your keys. There’s a couple of specific things you can’t bind, like the Escape key is always backing out of menus -- we don’t let you rebind that -- but as a general rule, you can rebind whatever you want. Whether you want WASD or arrow keys or whatever else.

The other interesting thing about it is that if you prefer the console controls: if you plug in an Xbox 360 controller and you start fiddling with it, the game will instantly and automatically switch to that and the UI will change -- you’ll have a console-style UI. Then if you’re like “no, screw that”, sit that down and start moving the mouse, it’ll instantly switch back to the PC UI and you can do that whenever you want, you don’t have to change any options or anything, it just works.

Really, depending on the kind of build that you have, I might recommend one or the other. If you’re playing a pure melee warrior, personally I prefer the controller, because you get that rumble and tactile feel. If I’m playing a pure mage with a whole lot of active abilities, then I prefer the mouse and keyboard, because you’ve got a larger number of abilities you have instant access to.

So depending on your build and what you’re used to: if you like the controller; if you don’t like mouse and keyboard, you might want to go one way or the other. And obviously the PC can just look better than the consoles because it’s a PC!