Quote Originally Posted by Phenidate View Post
Why cant it just be that when we target a monster and hit enter OR double left click to engage auto attack (despite what state we are in).

The action is specific enough that you won't be engaging in combat by accident (you must target the monster and hit enter) and it continues to make use of the fact that the Enter key is our 'Interact Button'.

I figure it like this:
You are in passive. You target a monster and hit enter. Your character draws their weapon and goes into auto attack mode (if you are in range you'd start hitting it, if you are not facing it or are to far away you would need to reposition)
If you are in active mode it would continue to do exactly what it does now (you attack automatically as long as the conditions are met)

Its the first half of the above we are still missing. Add in the feature where it faces you towards your target when you hit enter or double left click and we're golden.

Now, as far as not wanting to add unnecessary buttons for combat... I'm sure adding a keybind with the sole purpose of rotating your character to face the monster was leagues and leagues easier to justify than a button that initiates auto attack without 3-4 key additional presses at worst.
Going off on your idea, how about if the "active/passive stance" button did two things. If the player is not targeting an attackable target, pressing the button will simply put the player in active stance, or back into passive stance from active stance.

If however the player is targeting an attackable target, the same button will now 1) put the player in active stance 2) lock on to the target 3) bring up the skill bar so that the player is ready to begin auto-attack. To be honest, I always thought the active/passive button was kind of useless since it really only saved the player a second or two between drawing his weapon and attacking. With this method the button essentially becomes your "auto-attack" button.