Keybinding tips? Too many abilities, too few keys

[Deleted]

I'm a balance druid and I have a lot of spells, but even my feral abilities have keybinds. Just be smart with binding.
- You can use WASD for binding with shift, crtl or alt. For example my Rejuvenation is shift+S and my Remove Corruption is ctrl+W. I can still move perfectly with WASD since left mouse button + right mouse button = running like you were using W.When I hit my Remove Curse I automatically switch to double mouse click.
- Alt button feels unconfortable for most of the combinations, but there is a free program called sharp keys that can switch buttons on your keyboard. I switched Caps Lock with Left Alt. Now its quite usable with everything.
- I turn with mouse so I don't need keyboard turning. A and D is set to strafe instead of Q and E.

My list that is confortable to push:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, Q, E, R, T, F, Y, X, C, V
With shift: 1, 2, 3, 4, Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F, X, C
With alt: 1, 2, 3, 4, Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F
With ctrl: Q, E, R, A, S, D, F, X, C
And since I have hungarian keyboard I have short left shift and one extra button there: Í and I also use it as shift Í. 51 bind with Í, or 49 if you have english keyboard.
Have a mouse with 2 extra side buttons. It gives you a lot of extra possibilities. Middle button, Side button 1, Side button 2, all these can be combined with all 3 modifies or used alone. 12 bind on mouse alone.

Of course I don't use all of these. But if necessary, even without Í it would be enough for 61 abilities. No class has that much active abilities counting in trinkets, health stone, potion, etc..

[Deleted]

Let's see, my keybinds on my huntard:

~. Stampede
1. Arcane Shot
2. Cobra Shot
3. Serpent Sting
4. aMoC/Dire Beast (depeding on talent choice)

Shift-1. Ice Trap
Shift-2. Snake Trap
Shift-3. Explosive Trap
Shift-4. Freezing Trap

Q - Kill Command/Explosive Shot
E - Glaive Toss/Barrage
Z - Rapid Fire
X - Scatter Shot
C - Multi-Shot
V - Bestial Wrath/Black Arrow
F - Mend Pet
G - Pet attack

Shift-Q - Summon most used pet
Shift-E - Dismiss Pet

Ctrl-Q - Camouflage
Ctrl-E - healthstones

Shift-Spacebar - Disengage
Ctrl-Spacebar - Feign Death

M3 (middle mouse button) - Kill Shot
Ctrl-M3 - Deterrence
Shift-M3 - cancelaura HoP+Deterrence
Alt-M3 - Master's Call

Shift-mousewheel down - Aspect of the Cheetah
Shift-mousewheel up - Aspect of the (Iron) Hawk
Ctrl-mousewheen down - Aspect of the Pack

Razer Naga buttons:
01. Binding Shot/Wyvern Sting/Intimidation
02. Silencing Shot
03. Tranquilizing Shot
04. Widow Venom
05. Flare
06. Distracting Shot
07. Virmin's Bite
08. Misdirection mouseover macro
09.
10. Mount 1 (gathering)
11. Mount 2 (walking)
12. Mount 3 (flying)

[Nihilan]

I admit that I'm kinda surprised to see so few people that bind their pet commands. Personally, as BM i am frequently micromanaging him and find the button binds invaluable. If there is anything, literally anything that i might want to click at some point in a fight, it receives a button bind.

[Deleted]

For fire:

1 - Fireball
2 - Pyroblast
3 - Scorch
4 - Mage Bomb
5 - Gift of the Naaru
6 - Cone of Cold
7 - Frost Nova
F1 - Combustion
F2 - Inferno Blast
F3 - Mirror Image
F5 - Time Warp
R - Ice Barrier / Temporal Shield
F - Ice Block
(Razer Naga Buttons now)
1 - Blink
2 - Presence of Mind
3 - Evocation
4 - Alter Time Macro
5 - Arcane Explosion
6 - Ring of Frost
7 - Potion
8 - Mana Gem
'-' - Mark with Skull
0 - Health Stone

Alt+1 - Conjure Food
Alt+2 - Conjure Mana Gem
Alt+3 - Counterspell
Alt+4 (Dangerous) - Polymorph


There are probably more, can't remember off of the top of my head.

[Azortharion]

For fire:

1 - Fireball
2 - Pyroblast
3 - Scorch
4 - Mage Bomb
5 - Gift of the Naaru
6 - Cone of Cold
7 - Frost Nova
F1 - Combustion
F2 - Inferno Blast
F3 - Mirror Image
F5 - Time Warp
R - Ice Barrier / Temporal Shield
F - Ice Block
(Razer Naga Buttons now)
1 - Blink
2 - Presence of Mind
3 - Evocation
4 - Alter Time Macro
5 - Arcane Explosion
6 - Ring of Frost
7 - Potion
8 - Mana Gem
'-' - Mark with Skull
0 - Health Stone

Alt+1 - Conjure Food
Alt+2 - Conjure Mana Gem
Alt+3 - Counterspell
Alt+4 (Dangerous) - Polymorph


There are probably more, can't remember off of the top of my head.

Dis be hunter forums.

[Jeremypwnz]

I admit that I'm kinda surprised to see so few people that bind their pet commands. Personally, as BM i am frequently micromanaging him and find the button binds invaluable. If there is anything, literally anything that i might want to click at some point in a fight, it receives a button bind.

I leave my pet binds as default Ctrl1-3 for the basic control. Many other people likely do the same but fail to mention (like I did).

[Deleted]

I play WASD, so I have 12 keybinds to use:

There's your 13th.

Use modifiers (Shift, Ctrl, Alt).

Don't forget the key to the left of "1".

F1 to 4 can be used for situational things like Dismiss Pet.

[Invrlose]

What's so hard about this? There's shift, ctrl and alt key mods as well.

My setup:
1. Glaive
2. Sting
3. Black arrow
4. Explosive
5. Cobra
6. Arcane
G. Kill
E. Explosive trap
Q. Dire beast
Shift1. Trap launcher toggle
Shift+2. Tranq
Shift3. Deter
Shift4. Feign
V. Interrupt
Alt1. Rapid fire
Alt2. Crow
Alt3. Stampede
Z. Misdirect
Shift to: pet attack
CtrlF: hunters mark

Just use common sense and use shift, alt, and ctrl modifiers.

[Nihilan]

I leave my pet binds as default Ctrl1-3 for the basic control. Many other people likely do the same but fail to mention (like I did).

To be honest, I've been running my custom UIs for so long i had completely forgotten that they are bound by default. I don't even know what the games actual UI is capable of nowadays.

[Azortharion]

ESDF master race.

[Artorius]

With a normal mouse you can already bind 6 things with the scrolls, press middle and the same with shift on... 2 lateral buttons and you're at 10.
If you can use both ctrl and shift then... Well... 15 binds with the mouse alone...

Anyway, RTFGXCVBN are very easy to tap using 2 fingers only (yes, use your fucking thumb) and then you'll still have from ' to 5 or 6 depending on the size of your hand.

And you easily shift everything. Around 50 easily keybindings without using neither ctrl or alt...

[Mashugana]

What's so hard about this? There's shift, ctrl and alt key mods as well. [snip] Just use common sense and use shift, alt, and ctrl modifiers.

The problem is that I am a klutz. If I were a Dungeons and Dragons character I would have a Dex score of 3. Every time I try to use Shift-Alt-Ctrl and then another key I get the WoW equivalent of a D&D Critical Miss and my Hunter does some dance emote and dies horribly.

I honestly do not know how you youngsters can use your pinkies and thumbs to quickly and efficiently hit modified keys while still strafing, running, and moving. I pretty much have to stop, look at my keyboard, press ALT, contort my hand, stretch to the E, and then either pop a brain aneurysm or watch my own pet eat my Hunter in frustration and embarrassment.

I think I just need to develop muscle memory. I am going to bind Shift-E, Shift-F, and Shift-C for now and try that out. Those seem to be easiest for my hand. Maybe in a year or two I'll get the hang of it.

Thanks again to everyone - this has been an awesome discussion. I did not know forums could be polite and helpful in 2014. Miracles never cease

[Deleted]

I think I just need to develop muscle memory. I am going to bind Shift-E, Shift-F, and Shift-C for now and try that out. Those seem to be easiest for my hand. Maybe in a year or two I'll get the hang of it.

This is precisely the right approach. It's like martial arts. You learn new moves one by one. You use 3-4 new keybinds 1000 times and you have it in muscle memory, then you learn your next 3-4 binds and so you progress til you are in control of 80+ bindings. You can practice this not only in wow but all games and even at your workplace. Using binds with photoshop /programming made me much faster and it benefited back to gaming by getting used to more obscure bindings.

When you're done you wont even think about keybinds, you just think i want scatter-trap on focus 2 and the hand moves without thought.

[hareu]

get comftorable using key modifiers (shift ctrl alt)

personally I use shift and I use it with 1-5, e,r,t,q. shift just seemes the easiest for me to use and I'm used to it now anyways, also naga helps a ton.

[Daagar]

ESDF master race.

I've tried this a few times, and it just never works. Which isn't intuitive, especially as a touch-typist - those are the homerow keys! How could it not work?! But I find that it puts the ctrl and alt keys uncomfortably out of reach without moving the hand off the homerow (making casting while moving a pain - not good for hunters!), whereas with WASD that isn't necessary. It also might simply be something that is too heavily ingrained, having used WSAD since we all discovered circle-strafing in DOOM.

[Illana]

I've tried this a few times, and it just never works. Which isn't intuitive, especially as a touch-typist - those are the homerow keys! How could it not work?! But I find that it puts the ctrl and alt keys uncomfortably out of reach without moving the hand off the homerow (making casting while moving a pain - not good for hunters!), whereas with WASD that isn't necessary. It also might simply be something that is too heavily ingrained, having used WSAD since we all discovered circle-strafing in DOOM.

makes modifier keys harder to reach and only gives you a few more keys.

Imo esdf isn't as good as some people like to think it is.

- - - Updated - - -

The problem is that I am a klutz. If I were a Dungeons and Dragons character I would have a Dex score of 3. Every time I try to use Shift-Alt-Ctrl and then another key I get the WoW equivalent of a D&D Critical Miss and my Hunter does some dance emote and dies horribly.

I honestly do not know how you youngsters can use your pinkies and thumbs to quickly and efficiently hit modified keys while still strafing, running, and moving. I pretty much have to stop, look at my keyboard, press ALT, contort my hand, stretch to the E, and then either pop a brain aneurysm or watch my own pet eat my Hunter in frustration and embarrassment.

I think I just need to develop muscle memory. I am going to bind Shift-E, Shift-F, and Shift-C for now and try that out. Those seem to be easiest for my hand. Maybe in a year or two I'll get the hang of it.

Thanks again to everyone - this has been an awesome discussion. I did not know forums could be polite and helpful in 2014. Miracles never cease

I play the cello so my left hand is used to moving about on it's own

[chupoptero]

I am surprised, I think I havent seen anyone in this thread using the mouse thumb buttons as shift/control/alt modifiers.

Many years ago, during vanilla, I came up with the idea of using ESDF to have more keybinds close to my movement keys, so I rebound the 1st bar buttons to 123456 AQW RTG. Actually, it was not my own idea, but it came from a clanmate from another game, a FPS, who always said how much he loved using ESDF for the extra buttons around AND the bump on the F key that helped him notice if his hand was in the right position by tactile feel alone, reducing the chances of mistakes without the need of looking at the keyboard. In a fast paced game, looking at your keyboard for a split second might often be the difference between life and death.

Unfortunately, even back then 12 abilites werent nearly enough, so I decided to use my mouse thumb butons (by default the typical back and forward for browsing) as shift and control modifiers. So my 2nd bar is Shift (mouse thumb button back) + 123456 AQW RTG and my third bar uses the mouse thumb button forward as control modifier.

This way I have 36 abilities at my fingertips without the need of twisting my fingers, lifting my hands from their default keyboard/mouse position or looking at the keyboard: Its all about improving reaction times, and it certainly helped surviving stuff/increasing performance. It is also a lazy man's dream, minimal movement with maximum performance... And if there is something I truly am, that is LAZY.

These days, with modern mices, its common to find more than 2 thumb buttons (my logitech g602 has 6) so I could easily add yet another bar using the alt modifier... But I cant be bothered, 36 abilites are more than enough for the classes I play. I dont mind displaying an extra bar and manually clicking it for things that get used while not in combat, or abilities whose reaction time is not crucial while fighting.

[Bitethe]

Shift q e r t f g

Shift to 12345, easy to macro with your pinky as the clicker

[Nnug]

1 - AS
2 - CS
3 - SS
4 - KC
5 - Multi Shot
Q - Focus Fire
E - Disengage
T - Fervor/DB
F - Killshot
B - Dash (pet)
` - Hunter's Mark
Shift 1 - Deterrence
Shift 2 - Glaive
Shift 3 - Countershot
Shift 4 - Det cancel macro
Shift 5 - Healthstone
Shift Q - Worgen Speed
Shift E - Rocket Boots
Shift T - Rapid Fire
Shift F - Gloves
Shift G - BW
Shift C - Potion
Shift R - Rabid
Shift x - Pet ability (hero etc.)
Shift ` - Frost Trap
Control 1 - Ice Trap
Control 2 - MD
Control 3 - Revive Pet
Control 4 - Flare
Control 5 - Dismiss Pet
Control Q - Tranq
Control E - Summon pet
Control R - Glider
Control X - Feign
Control C - Binding Shot
Control F - Stampede
F1 - Widow Venom
F2 - Camo
Mouse Wheel up - Pet attack
Mouse Wheel down - Pet Follow + assist
Mouse button 1 - Masters call
Mouse Button 2 - Concussive
Mouse Button 3 - Auto max zoom macro
Mouse Button 4 - Push to talk

[DingDongKing]

I have F1 to F12 bound on my Naga, so yeah.

F1 - Crusader Strike
F2 - Judgment
F3 - Templar's Verdict
F4 - Hammer of the Righteous
F5 - Divine Storm
F6 - Exorcism
F7 - Word of Glory
F8 - Guardian of Ancient Kings
F9 - Inquisition
F10 - Hammer of Wrath
F11 - Avenging Wrath/Synapse Springs/Potion of Mogu Power Macro.
F12 - Rebuke

Shift + F1 - CC Breaker (For PVP)
Shift + F2 - Execution Sentence
Shift + F3 - Devotion Aura
Shift + F4 - Speed of Light
Shift + F5 - Kork'ron War Wolf
Shift + F6 - Blessing of Kings
Shift + F7 - Red Wind Rider
Shift + F8 - Flash of Light
Shift + F9 - Blessing of Might
Shift + F10 - Healthstone
Shift + F11 - Emancipate
Shift + F12 - Lay on Hands

1 - Hand of Protection
2 - Hand of Sacrifice
3 - Hand of Freedom
4 - Hand of Salvation
5 - Life Spirit
6 - Water Spirit (?)
7 - Flask of Winter's Bite
8 - Disenchant
9 - Pandaren Noodle Soup
10 - Bag of Enigma Seeds
11 - Crystal of Insanity
12 - Book of the Ages

Shift + 1 - Focus Hand of Protection
Shift + 2 - Focus Hand of Sacrifice
Shift + 3 - Focus Hand of Freedom

Q - Arcane Torrent
E - Fist of Justice
R - Turn Evil
T - Cleanse
F - Synapse Springs
G - Blinding Light
Z - Divine Shield
X - Divine Protection
C - Seal of Truth
V - Seal of Righteousness
B - Redemption

Shift + T - Focus Cleanse

Bored, so I made a Paladin one for myself to see in the future.