How To: Keybind

[aikouka]

A few thoughts on this...

1) I was a bit disappointed not to see one of the better reasons not to click every ability on your bar, and that is that regardless of how fast you can click, you cannot possibly use a targeted AoE as quickly as a keybinder. It's simply not possible when a person using binds can have their mouse already in position before pressing the actual ability. I will also note that because of the GCD, in a lot of situations, clicking can be just as fast as pressing binds (mouse or keyboard). I actually used to click in my early days of vanilla, and I was just as fast as anyone else and even PVP'd (including interrupts, blinds, saps, etc) with it. The situations that usually caused a problem with clicking were, as I mentioned, targeted AoE.

2) You should include that it is usually helpful to keep certain types of abilities constant between characters. For example, on all of my characters, if they have an interrupt, it goes on '5'. If they have an offensive magic dispelling capability, it goes on Shift+'5'. Defensive dispelling is assigned to shift + left click via Clique.

Keybinding is a very personal thing... some people simply have certain keys they prefer to use and others would never want to use them. I have a friend that binds to the F# keys, which I would never want to, because I prefer not leaving my comfy little WASD area . In my case, I prefer not rebinding 'Q' and 'E', simply because sometimes I actually use the turning when I'm using my right hand for drinking or whatever. Although, I definitely recommend rebinding 'A' and 'D' to strafe... for the longest time, I used to leave them as turn (used 'Q' and 'E' for strafe) and then went back to playing some FPS games... yeah, that didn't go over so well .

[jakobud]

Esdf > wasd

[Calamorn]

Esdf > wasd

Thats a very subjective thing. Like I stated, binding is different for all players and finding what feels good for you is always going to be what is best. I personally don't care for Esdf because I have large hands. I use my pinky to hit modifiers, because of that, I wouldn't be able to hit alt+anything without removing access to my S key. I find movement rather important. I know another person who had hands too small to hit modifiers with ESDF.

Finding what is comfortable for yourself is always going to be the best.

@aikouka
This is really meant for people who haven't started keybinding at all. I'd offer the advise that you could keep similar binds on similar buttons, but there are a few reasons I didn't bring this up. First is simply, keeping important abilities close and lesser ones farther away is going to take precedence. And with different classes, the number of "important" buttons is going to change. Sometimes this forces me to break that rule. Second is that, that is something that tends to happen out of reflex when people go to bind on other toons. I can't recall a person I've met who has keybound things on their main and not thought about putting similar abilities on similar buttons.

@Tadkins.
You would have noticed when UH was talking about this hitting frontpage mmochamp, if you werent a filthy horde!

[Cakka]

Thats a very subjective thing. Like I stated, binding is different for all players and finding what feels good for you is always going to be what is best. I personally don't care for Esdf because I have large hands. I use my pinky to hit modifiers, because of that, I wouldn't be able to hit alt+anything without removing access to my S key. I find movement rather important. I know another person who had hands too small to hit modifiers with ESDF.

I have no idea how large hands stop you from using ESDF, if anything it should make it more comfortable than WASD. Anyway I personally have middle sized hands and my left pinky hovers just above Shift and Ctrl when using ESDF. Yes using ESDF is going take little getting used to, but I personally got used to it in hours rather than days or weeks, and in the end it will give you lot more room to bind abilities.

Good guide overall though, just think you should mention ESDF there too as there are very clear benefits to it compared to WASD.

[WarNpeace]

Good thread, everyone!

[Mattsaque]

Thanks, I'm going to be trying this out. Been playing WoW for a long time and never really thought of doing this for some reason, binding keys to default WoW ones...guess I don't like changing things up that I've had bound to a certain key for a long long time.

[zaraki]

Thats awesome thanks ive been a keyboard turner since i started cause thats how my friends to taught me, and ive been to confused to keybind but this will help me heaps.

[EverdayMJ]

all helpful tips so far, keep em coming!

[savvasp]

Finally a decent guide

[Deleted]

Just thought I'd update this for you with a lefty perspective if you don't mind
I have tried keybinds pretty much across the board. Starting with:
Movement keys/Numpad - nice, but it's difficult to move and attack/dps effectively, also there's a lack of modifiers, so unless you play a class with 10 or so attacks, you'll find it difficult, a caster MAY be able to get away with it, but a melee certainly wouldn't.
WASD - I then moved on to wasd, and it was pretty sweet, however as I'm using the right hand on the left side of the keyboard, I was finding all the work was being done by my Pinky, and left me in quite a bit of pain after a serious gaming session, so I swapped over to:
IJKL - I actually use OKL;, as it makes the modifiers/tabbing easier, so the picture will reflect that. This is essentially the left handed 'WASD' it is almost a straight up mirror of ESDF, however there are more keybinds. The only downside to this imo is the fact that the 'Tab - #' key may seem out of reach, but it's quite easy to adapt to, and your pinky will learn to instinctively hit it.
Anyway, here's a Lefty version of your picture.

Keyboard setup irl As you can see, the OKL; keys are red.
And my personal keybinds:
OKL; - Movement
8 - Icy Touch
9 - Plague Strike
0 - Heart Strike
- - Chains of Ice
/ - Dancing Rune Weapon
i - Outbreak
u - Anti Magic Shell
p - Vampiric Blood
[ - Icebound Fortitude
' - Death & Decay
m - Death Grip
, - Blood Tap
j - Dark Command
h - Mind Freeze
Mouse Wheel Up - Rune Strike
Mouse Wheel Down - Death Strike
Shift & Mouse Wheel Up - Strangulate
Shift & Mouse Wheel Down - Raise Dead & Death Pact macro,
Middle Mouse Button - Horn of Winter(lolwat.. why is this on such an important bind)
Mouse Button 4 - Blood Boil
Mouse Button 5 - Pestillence
Shift & Mouse Button 4 - Raise Ally(Battle Res)
Shift & Mouse Button 5 - Empower Rune Weapon
Control & Mouse Wheel Up - Mount
F1-F8 - Raid Markings(pretty irrelevant as it's doable out of combat, but thought i'd throw it in too).
I also have all the 'menu' key's bound on the left side of the keyboard(1-4, q-t, a-g)

As you can see, I literally have everything in reach, without needing to take my hand off the movement keys, the only abilitiy which i need to stretch my fingers for is my interrupt, but that is mainly down to the fact that I usually run with competent players, so they take the interrupts, meaning I haven't specced into improving them, and only really use them if my group is either: dead(unlikely) or out of range.

[rahkarn]

oh wow, I have been looking for this for a long time. I'm definatly going to bookmark this... if i can figure out how to bookmark

[Deleted]

recommend using

` 1 2 3 4 5
shift + ` 1 2 3 4 5 R F G
crtl + ` 1 2 3 4 5 R F G

that should cover all your important PvE abilities if you've got big hands and use Q and E to strafe. Also means that you don't need to change any default binds for simple tasks like your chat or menu pop up binds.

[Iron Dome]

Thank you thank you thank you

[Devils]

pretty nice guide i love using mouse i have a razer naga tho it takes a while to get used to its amazing my performance of play is so much better now.

[Deleted]

What comes to binding the TS/Vent/Mumble button, I've tried many.
Now it's on my <, and it's actually pretty easy to use while you're jamming your 1,2,3,4,5 etc.

[Calamorn]

What comes to binding the TS/Vent/Mumble button, I've tried many.
Now it's on my <, and it's actually pretty easy to use while you're jamming your 1,2,3,4,5 etc.

The reason I dont like doing that is because I either have to take my hand off of my mouse, which I hate doing as melee because I'm always moving, or I have to bring my thumb up off of my space bar, which makes everything else feel awkward. But as I've said before, if it feels good, do it. Whats good for one hand may not be for another.

[Deleted]

Everyone with his personal binds, Q, E, SHIFT , CTRL , T, G, C , V, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and ` are the most accesible keys for any bind.

[Wosted]

I use a couple of macros to bind my keys. Use these macro's replacing the KEYWORD with your settings. Put your new macro on your toolbar and click it to bind to the spell/macro to your key.

--Bind Spell--
/run SetBindingSpell("KEY", "SPELL") 
/run SaveBindings(2)


--Bind Macro--
/run SetBindingMacro("KEY", "MACRONAME")
/run SaveBindings(2)

[Ultimoorc]

Currently contemplating making the change from Clicking to Keybinding, although i do feel i am playing well with clicking, want to see if i can make any improvements. Some useful ideas here, suppose the only way to find out is the bite the bullet and go for it.

[Deleted]

this was really helpvul