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25 commentsA lot has been written about why you should not keyboard turn (it’s too slow), and that you should keybind. I wrote about how PvP improves your raiding too. I’m going to skip that preamble and just talk briefly about keybinds.
Yesterday the little survey I did on myself included a snippet which Perditio commented on, saying he had the same binds! Spooky because they’re not the most obvious ones.
Movement
I move with ESDF. If you are still on WASD I recommend you spend the next month getting your muscle memory into ESDF instead; you gain QAZ as keybind options.
Take your time with keybind changes, you need muscle memory to set in before you move onto the next change. Do one thing at a time; this could take months. Movement keys particularly took me ages to get used to.
Rebind non-combat actions set by the default UI to shift or alt equivalents (alt is better since it’s usually an awkward key to use in an action binding). So you’d change ‘reply’ to be shift or alt R. Rebind ‘open all bags’ to alt-B, ‘open character panel’ to alt-c, ‘pvp panel’ to alt-h and so on.
Bindings
Binding rule:
Near your hand, bind actions which you hit very often or need to get to very quickly
Emergencies: Blood tap and ERW should be easy to get to, since you will use them for an emergency tank cooldown or a snap DnD.
I have shift-1 is blood tap, shift-2 is ERW (all rune reset).
Interrupts, must be easy to get to.
b is strangulate (interrupt), x is mind freeze (interrupt). If in unholy, ghoul stun is c, if I’m frost for PvP then hungering cold is c.
F2 is death grip (default UI has F1..5 as ‘target party member’, which I never needed even as a healer)
AOE
h is howling blast and z is DnD.
I have pestilence and blood boil in two sequential buttons (6 and 7), so I can flow from one to the next.
Horn of winter
if you’re using it to maximise your runic power (you should), it’ll be a button you can easily hit a lot. I have it bound to Q.
Logic and consistency
try to use the same key for the same purpose on all your talent specs (and ideally on all your different alts). So my interrupts are always c, b, and x, on any class. My bone shield/ vampiric blood is always F5 and IBF is F4. On a hunter, my deterrence (damage reducing) was shift-F4.
Voice comms
I use the side button on my mouse. I don’t think it should be keybound, since you’ll make it too hard to act and move and talk at the same time.
Taunt and targetting
I have taunt on t. I have assist target and retarget on G and shift-G.
Being able to move and act
I mentioned this in the survey, it’s my learning edge: moving and maintaining high threat at the same time. Make sure your bindings allow you to do this (ie. voice comms point). Keep the main threat and defence buttons right near your hands and you should move with your mouse when possible (doesn’t work well with moving backwards; some tanks have ‘backwards’ on a mouse button which is pretty cool, but confused me).
Comments please
Hopefully that’s enough to get some comments because really the readers get a lot from hearing how other tanks do their bindings.
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feels a bit better if you can think at wow like...
dude you are on a roll here but I use a ZSQD movement (french keyboard) same a WSQD anyways.
I use macro’d Modifiers with shift
E is my bloodstrike and when I hold shift It becomes Frost strike
The other keys are
A = cast sequence IT and then PS modifier = Dotspeading spell
F= Obliterate and modifier UA
Mouse 4 = Howling blast modifier Blood aoe
Mouse 5 = IBF (no modifier)
Mouse 6= DND, modifier Howling blast
Mouse 7 (push the scroll left) Dark command
Mouse 8 (push the scroll right) Death Grip
C= Ventrillo
Ihaven’t got my ERW or BT bound … Yet as I haven’t implimented them yet.
The interupts are also one key but can’t remember what one. I think V
This setup works kinda good only downside is that It is heavy reliant on a good mouse I’m using a Logitech MX 1000 atm cause my WoW mouse doesn’t work in Windows 7.
I’m thinking of trying that ESDF this weekend in Colli 10 ^^
Twitter: gravitydk
Oh Kenshi make sure you get lots of practice with ESDF firstly outside a raid or you’ll get a hernia. Run a 5-man at least and even just do some dailies to be familiar.
How do you strafe with those binds? (ie. move sideways)
I tried using ESDF for a while, and you’re right, it literally made me spaz out, I would be hitting random skills, or strafing when I wanted to move back. I gave up after about half an hour, convincing myself that I didn’t really need the extra keybinds.
As an aside, I have found that middle mouse press works well as a vent button, it allows your left hand to keep the rotation, and the first and third fingers can still manoeuvre the character with mouse clicks.
I use q and d to Strafe Why ?
Btw who needs a keyboard when you have
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=868&pageid=1
I prefere to stress test something
and nothing more fun that looking for IBF when tanking Anub ^^
Twitter: gravitydk
Just forgot you had a European keyboard
.
That is true it is a AZERTY keyboard
Twitter: hensleydk
Don´t you use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on your keyboard?
I use:
1 = Taunt
2 = Death Grip
3 = Horn of Winter
4 = Vampiric Blood
5 = Hysteria macro
etc…
Movement keys is traditional ASWD
All non-combat spells i put in oPie (love that addon). Which i trigger with the T
Rest:
Q = Heart Strike
E = DnD
F = Icy Touch
R = Plague Strike
(all in range of ASWD setup)
Shift-F = Death Strike
Shift-R = Chain of Ice
Shift-D = Mind Freeze
Shift-A = Pestilence
Shift-C = Blood Boil
B = Blood Tap
Defensive cooldowns:
V = Anti Magic Shell
X = Trinket
§ = IBF
Twitter: gravitydk
Of course I do
just they weren’t important for me to make the point in my post. 1 = IT, 2 = PS, 3 = oblit or DS (shift-3 is always DS), 4 = blood strike, 5 = RP dump.
Twitter: Hebespunk
I gots me one of these for playing Warcraft:
).
http://www.mydigitallife.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/wolfking-premiers-warrior-xxtreme-20071119054501818-000.jpg
Space bar is tab through enemies
, and . are DG and Taunt
F is Mind Freeze
Tab is jump (always used my little finger for jump, though it is fun seeing ppl using my computer and not knowing where jump is
K to 9 is PEWPEW (With 3, 4, 5 being my most used abilities).
I still click cooldowns though :O
Twitter: gravitydk
omfg that’s an insane keyboard; do you need a 2nd keyboard in order to type anything into guild chat?
Heh, I use wolfking too!
Jump is the ’space’ bar – a thumb press, and b is my Horn of Winter/water shield etc.
For text, I do have a regular keyboard just above it that I move my hands to. Both are plugged in.
Twitter: gravitydk
Figured you’d need a normal keyboard, /g with that wolfking would be very hard.
that is indeed an insane keyboard
but like my classleader always tells me.
What ever gets the job done right and flawless is an upgrade
Twitter: Hebespunk
I’ve stopped typing
Nah, seriously its still a QWERTY keyboard in essence, its just half a keyboard on top of the other half of the keyboard (well… the right hand circle is anyways).
Its not easy to type, but we’re a full time vent guild, so its only ridiculous comments i now type out.
The left hand circle is where the action’s at though! Its so much more natural using keybindings with a circular shaped slant to the 0-9 buttons – i’m never stretching or reaching for a button (so i’m never too far away, nor confused on the way back to where WASD are).
Twitter: gphreak
I use the default WASD to move/strafe.
The main threat moves are all on my mouse: 3 = DS, 4 = PS, 5 = HS, 6 = IT (small button above the mouse wheel)
1 = Taunt, 2 = Death Grip, 3 = Blood Boil, 4 = Health Stone, Q = Mind freeze, E = Rune strike (although macrod, I prefer to have it available and very much near me)
I use SHIFT and CTRL to modify each key mentioned below for other all other abilities (e.g. CTRL + Middle button = DnD).
While not 100% certain that this is optimal it works quite well for me and I have had no other idea to get all the different abilites near WASD.
I was thinking about getting a Belkin N52te, but I’m not really sure if that would work as as advertised. Moving with a thumbs d-stick seems like a good idea, though – I’ve always been a big fan of console controllers.
I approve this product and/or service!
Currently I’m using a Wolfking keyboard, so my bindings are very different.
I also bought Razer’s Naga but am still not comfortable with it.
The most important thing is to have a set of keybinds that means you never have to click important buttons and you can respond quickly and appropriately to every situation.
One or two other comments: pvp can make you better, but some of the habits you may develop and keys you’ll bind may be different than for pve, so be careful to not mess up your muscle memory. Second, I try to keybind the same or similar abilities across specs and even classes (my Icebound Fortitude and AMS are on my mouse wheel. Up is AMS for every spec. My cloak of shadows on my rogue is also up on the wheel).
here’s another guide on doing keybindings: http://pvpwiki.wikidot.com/keybinds
it includes an excel spreadsheet that you can print out to show your layout. my biggest problem with keybindings is remembering where everything is.
A huge thank you to both the original poster and everyone who commented. I’m ashamed to say that up until about an hour ago, I triggered all my skills in combat by mouse-clicking the icon on my action bar. Sure, I knew it was slower that way, but I don’t consider myself a “hardcore” player, and have never been much into pvp, so I didn’t think it was much of an issue.
Read the posts here, decided to give it a shot, changed my movement keys from WASD to ESDF to give me a wider reach, shuffled my skills on my bars around a bit so they made tactile (as opposed to visual) sense, and after about 10 mins running around org to get used to the new feel, jumped right into AB. After one battleground, I’m a convert. No longer am I losing sight of a target as I glance down at my bars to click a spell. No longer am I having to rely on keyboard turning in combat because my mouse is busy. Even though I was still slowed by the unfamiliar interface and having to think about where my skills were, my dps output for that BG was nearly twice what I had been pulling before. Once I get used to this, I think I may actually ENJOY pvp. You guys have rescued me from a pit of noob. Many thanks.
Twitter: gravitydk
Awesome!
sounds good to me, although after using WASD config for 20 years I think its going to be difficult to change that up, in fact I almost don’t even want to try… As far as keybindings go, absolutely required!
I thought it would too (been plaing either WOW, LOTRO, and Oblivion with WASD for about 4 years) but it only took me about 5 minutes to get used to the new configuration. The spacing of the keys is the same. The only tactile difference I found is that on my keyboard there is a little nub on the F key (intended to help you find the home row while touch-typing). This has proven to be an asset, as it gives me immediate confirmation that my fingers have returned to the movement keys after shifting my hand to reach some of the casting keys.