Am I the only one who doesn't key bind?

[gulfv 4]

Hi,

Been playing for over a year now and have always found it easier to move with the keys and fight with my mouse; surely I can't be the only one?

Perhaps it's a throwback to playing with computers before the mouse was invented...lol

[Damien 1,514]

Does it mean that you are "clicking" your abilities when you need to cast them?

[Inwee 9]

Me too It is a bad habit I suppose, clicking the icons of your abilities ...but if you start out that way, it is very, very difficult to change it to keybindings! I started playing because of my boyfriend, and he is a clicker too! When my guildies talked ab out keybindings, I didn't even know what they talked about!

Every exp. with new abilities and lots of changes, I said to myself; now is the time to also start "pushing" and stop "clicking" - but as soon as things go tough/stressing - I click

Edited September 2, 2012 by Inwee

[Damian 26]

Me too. I can touch type but cannot use keybinds to move and cast. I tend to use cursor keys with left had and one or two keys around cursor keys, such as delete for interrupt and 0 for Target next. But that is far as it goes .

[Dementii 10]

It doesn't really matter how you play, as long as that's the way you play the most comfortable. It really only makes a difference at competative endgame raiding, where every 0,5% makes a difference. That's when players start to look at absolutely every aspect of the gameplay that can make them faster/hit harder etc. Even your connection or whether you use a cordless mouse or not starts to matter then.

It's a game, you should be enjoying playing it, and if that's by manually clicking every spell, so be it. You probably won't be scoring a world server first, but hey, maybe you don't care about that. ;-)

[Mac 0]

Depends on the class you play. As a healer you can just about get away with if you dont keybind but STILL use the mouse to move sometimes. But your still slow.

If your melee or tank you will suck.

If your in pvp you will COMPLETELY fail.

In short you have to keybind if you want to be any good. Every second counts,

Edited September 2, 2012 by Mac

[BoosGB 2]

Tbh, it's a very bad habit. You will never be as responsive as key binds if you're using mouse clicks..

Might be hard in the beginning, but really, just set up you key binds in the, for you, most logical/natural way. Then, just start practicing, you can always do the more forgiving lower lvl content if you feel overwhelmed or start panicking to learn and get comfortable. And then, start tweaking/perfecting your key binds setup.

But really, try it. It'll pay off hugely in the end!

[Bedle 11]

Hi guys,

I was a "clicker" when i started playing WoW several years back and it took me quite a lot to move to keybinds, but, tbh, its much, much easier to play with keybinds, here you are few reasons:

1) When your clicking, you have to looks at what spell are you clicking, taking off your eyes of the middle of screen. Its a short period of time, but in both PvE and specially PvP its a disadvantage.

2) When your clicking, you need to move your mouse from the middle of screen, which is again bad thing, not allowing you to be able to fast cycle trough targets. This issue does not affect PvE as much as PvP.

3) "Clicking" with your mouse and using "keybind" is two different things that game "register" in a different manner. "Clicking" cast/use spell/skill after mouse click release, while "keybinding" casts/use spell/skill on "key press". This doesnt give you possibility to "click and hold" mouse button, but it does cast your spells slightly slower than "keybind."

That being said, as a PvPer, you are in slight disposition from "keybinder" with equal skills as you.

Here is how i bind my skills, on left side is my bind key, on right default key on action bar:

q = 1

e = 2

r = 3

f = 4

g = 5

1 = 6

2 = 7

3 = 8

4 = 9

c = 0

v = -

b = =

Since R is for wisper i bind it on Shift + y

Since C is character Frame, i bind it on X, which is, by default "/sit"

Now, my complete action bar is macro-ed, giving me different spells on pressing Shift or Ctrl. If you look at this bluntly, it will look like i have 3 action bars binded under my fingers. Some of macroes are retroactive, they are changing them selfs depending on combat state and target.

Here is example of my shaman active macro:

#showtooltip

/cast [nocombat, dead, help] Ancestral Spirit; [mod:shift, help] Chain Heal; [help, nodead] Greater Healing Wave; [nomod, harm] Lightning Bolt; [mod:shift, harm] Chain Lightning; [@player] Greater Healing Wave;

Now, this one is a good one, lemme explain what it does, its doing several things, depending on your combat state, target and button pressed, this one is my baby lol.

Now, if your targeting dead party/raid target and your out of combat you will cast ress, if you are in combat and friendly target is alive you will cast Greater healing wave, by holding shift and targeting friendly you will cast Chain Heal, otherwise, if target is hostile you will cast Lightning Bold, holding shift chain lightning, if you have no target it will cast on you Greater healing wave. Best used with 5stacks of MW.

I love clean and micro UIs that are leaving my screen wide clean, so, by doing all this, i have all spells that i need in every situation binded/macroed in one spell bar.

As i said, if you look at this bluntly, all this looks confusing and to much, it will look like i have 3 action bars binded under my fingers, but when you look at keyboard usage, it will look like this:

Red = action buttons,

Blue = movement keys,

Green = Modifier buttons for macros.

So, as you can see, i have all buttons under my fingers.

Im not here to brag or anything, i wanted to explain disadvantage of "clicking" over "binding" and added some info on macros. I value both, clicker and binder since im not so much "hard-core" and only thing that is matter is to have fun and enjoy playing this game.

It was really hard for me to switch form clicking to binding, but i would like to suggest you to try it, start from simple things like moving second part of num row around your fingers, when you get it right and find best binding combo that suites you, it will boost your skills and improve your overall enjoyment in game.

[taarna23 6]

I keep my most-used/needed skills on my 1-=(12) bar and use a Razer Naga mouse with 12 buttons at my thumb. To be truthful, when I didn't have it, I was a keybind/clicker, but either way was bad for me, I had to either look at my keyboard to position my fingers right or look at my skills to click one. I was lost when I had to send it back for warranty stuff.

I complained during that time in LFR that I'm doing terrible damage because my normal gaming mouse is gone, and one person laughed and said they use a laptop touchpad and clicking (not sure I believe them...) and that not having my mouse shouldn't be an excuse. I just told them that they should imagine suddenly having to change to a desktop computer and go raiding. They shut up.

Ultimately it comes down to what you are the most comfortable with. I didn't even know this mouse would make that big an impact in my playing until I had it. I got it because I decided I am going to get something built for gamers, because I just had two logitech mice have their scroll wheel button die within a month of each other (and one was a warranty replacement). Once you find what works good for you, go with it, and honestly, don't tell other people what will and will not work for them. If that guy I talked to really used touchpad and clicking and did well with it, all the power to him. I wouldn't be able to do it. I can barely fly using a touchpad. If you keybind, if you click, if you combine the two, just do what you do. If it doesn't feel right, play with it until you find something that does.

/soapbox

[Rautx 7]

I used to be what some might call a clicker back in the days when I started playing WoW.

After I started WoW again one and a half year ago I started using keybins when I found a great guild for me to get better, since then I have only used direct keybinds, with my healer too. It's much quicker if you can remember every spell you got and what bind do you use for it. I can look at my screen and tell if something is on cooldown and move out of bad things as fast as possible when I remember everything i got binded and don't have to use my mouse for nothing but movement (right click and w or a and d is only keys i use to move, without forgetting space for flying mounts and jumping.

[Bedle 11]

I didn't even know this mouse would make that big an impact in my playing until I had it. I got it because I decided I am going to get something built for gamers, because I just had two logitech mice have their scroll wheel button die within a month of each other (and one was a warranty replacement).

Heh, same here mate, i had Logitech g500 and g5 and on both of them my mouse click just died, i havent even used it that much tbh, buth it died.

I got Naga too, for same reason as you did, wanted to treat my self with some gaming stuff.

It had huge impact to my gamepay, it was hard as hell to get used to it, but now, i wonder how did i lived without Naga so far. Razer was aware what they are doing by releasing Naga, and i can say its a good hit, not just for WoW, but for all MMORPGs.

Your ultimate Razer combo would be Naga+Anansi for MMOs :)

[Stoove 347]

I think that key-binding is useful for players who want a bit of an edge in responsiveness. It's certainly not mandatory (some of the best players I know insist on using almost none) but it can certainly make life easier. For instance; I have all my healing cooldowns bound to Shift+[letter]:

F - Spirit Link Totem

R - Spiritwalker's Grace

T - Mana Tide

G - Healing Tide

Y - Trinkey

Space - Elemental Mastery

I also have the following unmodified binds for general use; R, F, Tab, Space, Mouse 4, Mouse 5. Some of those other keys have Shift, Ctrl, and other modifiers.

What it means is that every time I need to drop a cooldown, I don't even have to stop looking at my healing frames / the fight to do it. That makes a hell of a difference for me =3

[gulfv 4]

Right,

Thanks for all of the advice. I am now going to try and level an alt, and do it by key binding.

I am thinking of a tanking Pally, so will let you know how it goes and whether I change over my other characters.

Just one more question, and I feel like a noob asking this; I notice from Bedles post that he has movement bound to his keyboard, along with his other spells. What does he use his mouse for? I presume it is to use lesser used spells that are not on keys and to look around, but am willing to be educated.

Cheers

Gulfv

[MadMonk 154]

Just one more question, and I feel like a noob asking this; I notice from Bedles post that he has movement bound to his keyboard, along with his other spells. What does he use his mouse for? I presume it is to use lesser used spells that are not on keys and to look around, but am willing to be educated.

I guess he uses his mouse to look around (left-click + drag) and to steer (right-click + drag). He has no other way to steer his character since his A and D button are for strafing. Steering this way also allows you to turn around much faster than with keys.

And probably some spells that are used very little, like lets say water walking or path of frost or something like that.

[Bedle 11]

Just one more question, and I feel like a noob asking this; I notice from Bedles post that he has movement bound to his keyboard, along with his other spells. What does he use his mouse for? I presume it is to use lesser used spells that are not on keys and to look around, but am willing to be educated.

Cheers

Gulfv

I guess he uses his mouse to look around (left-click + drag) and to steer (right-click + drag). He has no other way to steer his character since his A and D button are for strafing. Steering this way also allows you to turn around much faster than with keys.

And probably some spells that are used very little, like lets say water walking or path of frost or something like that.

Im sorry, i didnt explained my movement bindigs to the end. And no, you are not noob, a way to progress forward and learn is to ask a question. I support that.

As MadMonk said, yes, i use A and D for strafe left and right.

So:

W - forward

S - Backpedal - im trying to find new usage for S, since i want to bindoff backpedal.

A - Strafe left

D - strafe rifgt

A/D + holding right mouse button and dragging allows me to strafe left or right but keeping my focus on middle of screen.

To put it bluntly, i use mouse only to look around, strafe-look and to interact with NPCs.

So, its not change at all looking at your mouse usage, but only change is that by using A/D i strafe instead of turn around using A/D.

This is crucial for Tanks, since tanks at any point should not face off the mobs that are doing damage. Keep all mobs in front of you, if someone hits you from your back.. that will hurt a lot.

So, as a prot warr.. i can have a pack of mobs that i pullend in "tanking ball" in front of my self, but i see another mob that is spawning and going for healer (this is default mob behavior in dungeons and raids - any newly spawned mob, if not aggroed will go for healer) i can toss shockwave on a mobs in front of me, holding right mouse click and fastly moving my mouse it will face me with that mob, Intervene/charge/safeguard him, tossing a rend to get aggro maybe even overpower/devastateand giving me enought time to Heroic Leap back in the stunned "tanking ball." After that, i will strafe-turn around ball welcoming new mob (the one that i rended) and tossing Thunder Clap to spread that rend.

Now, this is far from correct, but its situation that firstly come on my mind.

Again, as i said dont orientate by my bindings, i learned them and i have no issues with them. Start from simple binds. use num row 1-6 even 1-7 and bind the rest, more crucial spells around your fingers. When time passes and your learn your binds and see improvement, you will bind more and more by your self.

Only downside when you are using keybinds is... when you change your keyboard.

Btw, GZ on Pala tanking, they are really versatile and they have great cooldowns. I hope that you will have fun playing it on end level as i do. Tbh.. hardest thing when you are playing pala is.. to actually hit that max level..

Edited September 3, 2012 by Bedle

[Mitchelan10 1]

Mac,

Posted 02 September 2012 - 11:02 AM

Depends on the class you play. As a healer you can just about get away with if you dont keybind but STILL use the mouse to move sometimes. But your still slow.

If your melee or tank you will suck.

If your in pvp you will COMPLETELY fail.

In short you have to keybind if you want to be any good. Every second counts,

I would just like to say, this is ridiculous. I understand that using keybinds is a bit better and maybe a bit faster, but it does not make you bad or say you will fail if you dont use them. I have been playing for about 4 yrs now and i have never used keybinds. I am the number prot pally on my server and I have maybe two things keybinded and thats only for hour of twilight. I pull more dps than most ppl i know and again i do not use keybinds. So if keybinds are for you than so be it, if they arent then dont use them. It will not make you bad or fail if you dont.

Mitchelan

[nookog 0]

some good some bad advice

this is how i went from clicking to full on keybinding ( like 6 years ago)

Unbind asd. Useless movement keybinds, use the mouse to move

if you have a gaming mouse with at least 2 buttons you can get plenty of keybinds using that and a modifer key.

use 1-4 with modifiers if that helps, use z, shift e, and shift q for interuppts. condense similar cooldowns that you end up using together into macros that activate all of them. Did i mention unbind asd? you should never be keyboard turning and back pedaling. and start on a lower level.

you can slide a bit in pve, but in pvp its required, and you cant get to a min max dps level without keybinds. You can tank and heal beter, and you will eventually start seeing and improvment in reaction time as well. Dont listen to the guys who tell you not to do it, you will become a better player after some agony.

Edited September 5, 2012 by nookog

[Onceahunter 1]

I've been flipping back and forth between using my number row and mouse clicking for all of my time playing. Upon reading this I decided to give Bedle's binding method a try (albeit adapted to a BM hunter). I've never felt such an ease and flow in my rotation. It feels very natural and moving key to key through my rotation is so smooth.

Backed 100%.

[Stasis 36]

I bind 100% of my movement to my mouse. Auto-run to a side button, and strafe left/right and jump to my tilt wheel. Movement feels really organic and intuitive. I'm able to move like a ballerina with just my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers :)

This then frees up my left hand to fight with. I simply bind my rotation to `,1,2,3,4,5,6, with e, r, t in easy reach to my left index finger. And F1-4 for utility cooldowns; DPS and defensive cooldowns are on the mouse; interrupt on Space. I use the Clique addon with Grid for heals and dispels etc. Generally means my left hand's fingers just rest on the 1-4 keys with my thumb on space, and generally only have to move my pinky and index fingers.

Advantage being that I don't need to move my fighting hand, it just sits in the same position from pull to loot.

I certainly haven't ever needed to use modifiers, or any extra keys for combat/healing/tanking.

[Stoove 347]

To clear one thing up on the "making you better" front;

Using the mouse to turn and look around only (AKA not clicking your frequently used buttons) really does make you better at avoiding fire. It speeds up your turns so much that you're going to take significantly (think a factor of 2 or 3) less damage that way.

Actually I'm a bit bad on that front. Since I'm a healer but I also like to have my utility buttons keybound, I use Vuh'do to macro heals into clicking on the target frames (with key modifiers, eg: Shift+Click = Chain Heal). This means that I spend a lot of my time clicking. HOWEVER, this is compensated by the fact that I use two control schemes; the turn keys if the movement is non-urgent and the mouse if it's urgent. That way I can still use my mouse to heal even if I need to be moving a bit. Alternatively, if movement is urgent then saving your ass becomes priority; you won't want to be healing then, so I use the mouse for turning instead of healing.

Sounds complicated? Yeah, it's a nightmare to get used to. Works for me though!

[Bedle 11]

I've been flipping back and forth between using my number row and mouse clicking for all of my time playing. Upon reading this I decided to give Bedle's binding method a try (albeit adapted to a BM hunter). I've never felt such an ease and flow in my rotation. It feels very natural and moving key to key through my rotation is so smooth.

Backed 100%.

<3 Heh, its good to hear that you manage to get use to it, and i really hope that you will have fun with it. :D

[Soulrider 0]

I dont use any keybinds, but I really want to learn. Since I am only leveling right now its probably going to be smart to start now lol. Also my rotation as a affliction lock is not that hard, I should be able to learn pretty fast. If anyone has a good way to keybind for an Affliction lock I would love some advice!

[Vladamyr 169]

I would highly recommend keybinding. I was a clicker till late wrath and then found the error of my ways. It was irritating for a couple of days tops but if you force yourself to do it, it won't take long for you to become adept at keybinding and you'll never go back.

I use the same general keybind setup for every character and find that consistency between characters helps a ton. I use Healbot for all healing and utility spells I would cast on raid members. Find the keys that are easiest for you to press and apply the most used abilities (in your rotations) to those keybinds and work out from there.

The following is for dps primarily. I vary up the keys a bit for my role. The general rule is F,R,E,4 are the most spammable keys for me.

AWSD for movement and AD is strafe only. I mouse turn and target sometimes holding down both buttons to run if need be to free up the other hand.

F,R,E and Shift - F,R,E are my primary abilities. With 4 being my primary proc ability and Shift - 4 being my primary cooldown.

V and Shift-V are my defensive cooldowns. Z is typically a self heal or big Defensive cooldown. C and Shift-C are AOE based abilities.

Q,T,1,2 are for further utility or less used abilities. G is for mount.

Shift-Left Mouse Button is always my interrupt, Ctrl-LMB is my arcane torrent. Shift-RMB is is CC, Ctrl-RMB is for other CC or Utility effects.

Middle Mouse button is for taunts, Shift-MMB is for Utility and Mouse button 4 is for movement oriented abilities (Charge, blink, etc...)

Edited September 6, 2012 by Vladamyr

[Onceahunter 1]

<3 Heh, its good to hear that you manage to get use to it, and i really hope that you will have fun with it.

It's taken some time on the hunter but I believe it's only because I've played it as my main for so long. I'm also levelling an Enh. Shaman and with having so few abilities at the moment and I can't emphasise enough how easy it's been to adapt to.

My guild did DS last night and I was much lower for DPS than usual but it's partially due to me trying out MM, BM and Surv. on the 5.0.4 changes and not having decided or worked specifically with a spec. It was really easy to get on the dummy but I under-estimated the hazards of adapting to new movement methods and bindings in a raid environment and it got messy.

I may strip down some of my hunter's bars so I just have my bare minimum abilities to get used to on some daily quests and gradually add back some attacks and cooldowns and run through some 5-man heroics (less pressure and generally less hazards) before next week's raid.

Again though, if I can reach the comfort point on my hunter that I've already achieved on my Shammy (I credit the practical experience gained through questing) it will vastly improve my raiding.

[gulfv 4]

Thanks for all the replies...

I have set up my guadian Druid level 76, with a similar keybind to Bedle's, and it feels quite natural on npc's so far.

I haven't had the guts to try it in a dungeon yet, lol, but hopefully I wil this weekend with some guildies, they're much more forgiving!

Gulfv