The stock UI is perfectly fine when it comes to binding keys. Other things like buff/debuff timers could obviously use an add-on to make it more centralized but you don't need to see most of your abilities anyway so where the default UI puts your buttons is fine.
Yes, everyone should stop clicking. Clicking is not so much about pressing your buttons faster, it's mostly about freeing up your mouse for movement which is infinitely more accurate, specific and responsive than your keys. There is simply no competition. Yes, if you've played the game for a while and got used to clicking you might perform slightly worse the first few days, but any decent gamer should get keybinds down in less than a week and never look back. I managed to get my girlfriend into WoW less than a year ago, she stopped after 2 months or so but when she started I told her to keybind and she did fine. She pretty much played no games at all which required any form of quick response, she pretty much played some puzzle games and that's it. If she can do it, a person who's been playing WoW for years has absolutely no excuse to keep clicking.
If you click, you choose to be bad. It's that simple. It's just as stupid as not doing your sockets and enchants properly, or doing an improper rotation for example (actually, it's way more stupid than that). Keybinding is basic stuff people.
It is an arrogant assumption that a clicker is "handicapping" themselves.
Let someone use the method which gives them the best performance they can manage.
Some people don't have the dexterity to keybind well.
Yes keybinding offers a potential higher skill cap, but a higher potential does not instantly translate into better results when you are not at the high end.
Keybinding your rotations may be a no-brainer. But what happens when you NEED to use a spell that you rarely ever use, is situational, and you may have keybound it back when you did your keybinds some 8+ months ago?
"Quick Mr. Warlock! We need you to use your Enslave Demon spell!"
ehm.. which key was that.. was it.. M? Oops summoned a Doomguard.
With clicking, memorize the picture of a button and you'll never have a mistake such as that, and being a priest healer where I often have to use Guardian Spirit, Leap of Faith or Void Shift stuff like that will ruin the raid if you use the wrong one.
I'm trying not to sound prejudiced or anything but I can't really understand why people choose to click, I've used one keybind setup or another in every game I've ever played. I don't get super complicated with keybinds but I just can't imagine playing any kind of 3D game with just the mouse.
Honestly each play-style is fine as long as you are able to maneuver without dying while using your abilities within your GCD. If you can click abilities and move while changing targets within 1-1.5 seconds then you will be just fine. I won't disagree that key binding can be more efficient, but as said previously in the thread for some people it is not.
I tend to think of it as playing any other game on the computer:
FPS: Mouse is for targeting/shooting/aiming, keyboard is for movement, jumping, specials (grenades etc), crouching, prone-ing, score checking, etc etc etc.
RTS: Mouse is for unit selection, unit targeting and world interaction, and while it can be used for unit production and such, it is FAR superior to memorise the binds for unit production and simply use the mouse as a world pointer.
You then extend this to WoW, where you leave the mouse free to interact with the world and for aiming/targeting, and your keyboard handles the rest. Clicking abilities regularly adds extra work to a device which is not usually used in such a way in other games.
I actually use my computer in general in a similar way as well, I click as little as possible and bind as much as possible.
Not possible. Combination key presses are completely beyond my abilities. I can only type with 2 fingers and I have to look at the keyboard even then to keep from missing the correct key. My keybinds are on X,C,V,B,N,F, and G with Feign Death on 2 and situational macros on 1. Even then, I often wind up pressing the wrong key. Clicking on the other stuff like Glaive Toss, Bestial Wrath, Rapid Fire, Stampede, or Dire Beast sometimes results in losing the target because of clicking an open area by mistake. I also occasionally will somehow get my cursor in the chat box and be pressing keys to no avail. My basic rotation for Kill Command, Arcane Shot, and Cobra Shot is in a cast sequence macro on the C key and actually manages my focus very well without having to think about it. Kill Command also goes off almost perfectly every time too. The fact that I can play that way and still achieve DPS results within 80% of the perfect fight numbers given by femaledwarf.com and always be in the top 5 damage dealers in LFR is good enough for me. It has to be because I can't do any better.
During Vanilla and most of BC, I clicked everything. I still do not use the directional keys and do all my steering and movement with the mouse. Actually, in any kind of game, I only use the W and D keys to move and always steer with the mouse. Strafing is something I rarely even attempt.
In my computer use outside of games, the only key I use is the Windows key and only by itself with no combinations. I do not like keyboard shortcuts and don't use them.
Last edited by Dch48; 2013-10-09 at 03:27 AM.
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I'd be willing to learn how to keybind for my Warlock and Warrior tank, but clicking comes so natural from HealBot that it'd be tough to get in to. Any tips? Which spells should be bound to which buttons? which ones shouldnt be bound etc.?
In you Pve you may not be able to see the difference because well........its pve but ive been a clicker for years and now a complete keybinder with a naga. And boy o boy o boy I used to sound just like alot of people in this thread. But now im a at least 40-50% better player now. I really hope people see this thread because I used to be worried about it and not sure if I wanted to spend the time the time switching....And then once I stared to switch you are going to be complete garbage. Just set all ur spells and dont look back you will be surprised how fast your brain will pick it up. Hope this helps someone
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I guess the tanks in your guild weren't that good then, if you are a clicker you play with a handicap and that's a fact so will you play worse than if you have keybinds. On heavy movement fights you can't move as good as someone who have keybinds, and you can't react as fast as someone who have keybinds.
In my opinion you should keybind every single spell, put all your spells on your bars and start keybinding, most common binds if you play with WASD are 1-6, shift1-6, ctrl1-6, F1-F4, Alt1-6 QERADF. And you should use strafe instead of turning.
Vanguard made a good guide: http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/477...d-vanguards-7/
Last edited by xrayEU; 2013-10-09 at 04:55 AM.
Friend of mine is a successful Heroic raider who clicks, and I've never been able to comprehend how or why.
Then again, I've used binds for 9 years and he's done the opposite. Maybe it's that.
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Part of the reason is that Battlegrounds are like ducks.
I click and love it keybinding just feels like playing the piano and just not my thing.
Activate it with ease and keep on fighting? Honestly never had a problem like the hypothetical one you describe. Though beyond the singular example of Enslave Demon (Ctrl+E, by the way), I can't think of any other ability I wouldn't use for several months on end.
While I won't ever jump on the bandwagon of clicker bashing, it'd take more than a contrived example to convince me that clicking is actually better. Good enough? Yes. Better? Never.
Got atleast 25-30 keybinds if not more, only click things like summon/healthstone portal thing
Could probaly draw my actionbar and hotkeys if you woke me at 2 am
Thankfully my RL will never kick me from the group, even if I start clicking with my legs. Like I said, I'm one of the people carrying the raid. I never move witht he mouse though (aside of moving the camera ofc), that's what W A S D are for, so I'm not a 100% clicker, and like I said when I heal on alt runs and such, I use keybinds. Our hunter is also a clicker, and he tops the charts on some fights and on all fights he's near the top.
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Haha, for me its the opposite, coming from he GoldenEye/Perfect Dark era on the N64, I never understood how people claimed Mouse + Keyboard are better suited for FPS games. After years of playing FPS games (And getting sick of the genre altogether), I came to the conclusion both methods are equally comfortable for me, though I do understand how for multiplayer deathmatches a mouse would be way more precise and faster than an analog stick on a console controller.
Rank Amateurs the Lot of You.
I had a lightning hub surgically implanted into my cerebral cortex. I jack that puppy into my computer and I game at the speed of thought.
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One thing I have found that helps is using the same keybind across different characters for similar abilities e.g. On all my characters, an interrupt ability is on one of my mouse thumb buttons, damage reduction ability (e.g. Deterrence, Shield Wall) on Shift-T, Burst of speed (Worgen racial sprint, heroic leap, PW:S (talented for speed boost) on Shift-E.
It is absolutely true what others say that setting keybinds will take maybe 30 mins to an hour to get used to when you have to remind yourself what the keybind was but eventually it'll become 2nd nature and you'll be glad you did it.
I main as a Hunter and on dark shamans, if I've found myself on the wrong side of a badly placed wall, it's not unusual for me to use engi belt, run, jump, turn 180, hit disengage & deterrence, turn 180, land & continue running. This wouldn't be possible with clicking. There are many more examples that could be given.
On Ji-Kun HC I used to take 4-5 stacks as DK rather easily while our Prot Warr (who's not a clicker, and a very good player) was getting huge spikes and couldn't take more than 2 or 3 at most. I also contribute quite a bit of dps (less than before due to vengence nerf, but still on the top 5 mostly on our 10m group). I never missed using a cd on time, that has never been the issue for me. The issue for me remains simple - spread targeting/taunting on big AoE fights (Horridon is still the best example).