How do you press your abilities?

[Eurhetemec]

A recent thread on carpal tunnel got me wondering about how other people press their keys.

Do you spam your keys constantly (for me that'd be hitting the key about 6,7 or maybe 8 times) every GCD or do you only start to hit the key when the GCD is nearly finished (so 2 or maybe even 1 key press just as the spell is coming up)

I spam my keys because it feels more optimal and without doing so the game feels strangely slow. Hitting nothing for a few seconds and picking precisely when to tap a key feels weird.

You?

Edit: I suppose I should clarify I'm talking about in PvE.

A mix for me. Muscle-memory tells me when to do a lot of things - I always clip the cast of my mount for example by starting to move before it finishes on-screen, for example.

Even if you spam hard you should not get carpal tunnel unless your playing area is not set up correctly. If you begin to feel the symptoms of it (one of the best earlier indicators being numbness in fingertips and so on, even if the actual problem ends up being in the wrist), you seriously need to take a hard look at the chair, table, keyboard, mouse and so on, and particularly how you're sitting at them. If, like a lot of players, you're slumped/hunched (you see this in some streamers, even), playing at a table that's just at "whatever" height, and your mouse/keyboard just positioned in a way that "seems to fit", you're are BEGGING for carpal tunnel. Begging for it.

There's tons of online guides to this stuff, and for 90% of people, following the same instructions as working at an office typing all day, you'll prevent any chance of carpal tunnel as well as back problems (i.e. right posture, right desk and monitor height, right size of mouse, with a proper grip, arms at your sides not splayed out and so on). There are some people who may need to do more, due to predispositions (genetic or injury-based), or because they're playing such lengthy hours or whatever. Really helps if you take breaks, too - doesn't really have to be 15 ever 45, but at least 5 every hour or so is good, even if you just a walk a little circuit round your room or the like.

I say this because I've had and fixed both carpal tunnel and back problems from computer usage, and I've seen friends and co-workers who have failed to fix either, because they ignored this kind of thing, and just used bullshit "treatments" they found on the internet or painkillers or whatever, and some of them have ended up with permanent problems.

[Linri]

i spam certain skills

other stuff i wait cause its proc based, or requires other skills

[Accendor]

I have been doing mostly Mythic+ this expansion, and because it is quite fast per se, adding to that the constant need of moving for avoiding damage and for maximazing AOE, i have not had this feeling with my monk.
The thing is i play all the classes DPS, not all the specs though, and i do not remember any of them feeling slow gameplay, although some bosses in raiding, yeah some stacking phases were not as fast paced, even some bosses in Mythic+ were a bit more slow gameplay, but gameplay wise this has to be the most interesting exp i have played in terms of constantly doing things while DPSing.

Funny, with my Monk I had the exact opposite. It felt vety slow, with long waiting times and nothing to press or waiting for a channel to finish. It actually was the reason why I stopped playing him.

[Terranoise]

I always try to take it easy, but I always end up doing this:



Except for the bleeding to death, losing body parts and stuff.
Dat nasty.

LOL I'm on the same boat, especially for PvP. My hands start to hurt and I get extremely bored for long raid bosses. That's why I don't raid, among other reasons. I should try to slow down my impetus for my health's good :P

[Wrecktangle]

I use the AHK script that spams the key when you hold it. No RSI for me ty.

Same here. Got RSI in WotLK, wrote the macro, and have never looked back. It's fucking glorious.

I use it in FF14 too, works like a charm.

I had no idea that was possible. It sounds like something that would be against the rules, but it's probably not.

Could be, don't know or care. Used it since 2010 in WoW, and since like 2014 in FF14 and never been banned from either.

[DarkAmbient]

I play classes/specs with low APM: BM hunter, affliction lock, and assassin rogue. It's easy not to spam with the hunter and lock, but I really have to stop myself spamming abilities on my rogue for some reason.

[Necomis]

Press when cooldown is done.

[shaunika123]

I spam everything constantly whilst AD ADing all the time with the occasional jumping around.

yeah, I play a rogue.

[Venarissa]

I wait until the half second window before the GCD is up where you can queue your next ability.

I like trying to time it though, and it's fun when you can kind of get into a rhythm with it.

[callipygoustp]

Usually with my finger. Usually.

[Azelas]

I put "a mix" because basically as a melee dps I spam (honestly playing melee class with Haste you HAVE to spam) while when I play casters I tend to be more "relaxed" on my casting.

[Arenis]

If you don't want to spam, and want to avoid AHK macro's (they are bannable), play with the '/console SpellQueueWindow 400' cvar. The number represents how many milliseconds before the GCD is over, you can queue up another skill. No need to spam.