Keybindings?

[Medran]

Hey,

I am new to the site and been tanking for only a short while now prob less than a month... but since this is my alt and seemingly becoming my main quickly from a boomkin I am wondering how other people bind their keys because how I am doing mine is not working. As a boomkin I was actually able to bind everything to the num pad and use the mouse to move. Bad habit from playing too much quake back in the day... I know. I am looking to change this but i can't seem to bind as efficiently as I would like and was wondering how everyone else did... as I couldnt find more recent posts about this.

Also, any spec/gear advice would be appreciated
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Maelstrom&n=Medran

[Nikachelle]

Did you use your num pad with your left hand or your right hand?

I'm a keyboard turner/strafer that uses the numpad with alt and control keys to modify everything. The only time I ever use my mouse is something were I have to do an immediate about face that cannot be solved by strafing (such as Mimiron's shock blast) or if I'm running into a pack and marking things as I go.

My primary bindings are:

Numpad: 2 - Judgment
3 - Hammer of the Righteous
4 - Seal of Vengeance
5 - Shield Slam
6 - Holy Shield
7 - Righteous Defense
8 - Avenger's Shield
9 - Hand of Reckoning
0 - Bubble (This isn't a great choice as my hand as is ALWAYS resting on the zero key since the button is so massive. However, the only problem I've ever had bubbling midfight was in ZA.)

The only other one of importance is Consecration which is bound to control + numpad 8.

[Medran]

currently i use my mouse to turn with my right and then num pad with my left and its seeming to make kiting extremely difficult

[Corpsicle]

I bind movement to esdf (e - forward, d - backward, s -strafe left, f - strafe right). I then set up my most used keys to be numpad-like and close to minimize over extension. W and r get the most used spells, followed by Shift w and shift r. This simplifies keeping a rotation going while moving or kiting a boss. I put my secondary spells on a, shift a, q, shift q. I save things like V, 1, 2, 3, 4 for trinkets, cooldowns, etc. I use g and t for range abilities that I don't have to hit that often, since the movement isn't as 'natural' to me as w or r. I also put things on control + key that I use rarely and I make extensive use of macros.

Regardless of whether you go wasd or esdf for movement, get rid of 'look left' and 'look right'. Get the strafe keys that default to Q and E bound to your left and right buttons, it makes kiting and moving during the fight much easier. If you do decide to go esdf for movement, go now before you get stuck in a rut - it is harder at first, but if you are a touch typer it does become easier than wasd over time. For me, I have wrist problems and small hands - my current keybinding set up has helped tremendously to eliminate some pain I was getting.

[snoweagle]

mousemovement is great for making sure you're always facing where you need to be and in a timely manner...

what it's not so good at is backpedaling and strafing... (you cant do those properly just with mouse hand out of the box).

what i found quite useful for awhile before going n52 was binding backedal to a mousebutton allowing you steering and beckpedaling with just the mouse hand. (edit: if you have more buttons on the mouse available then the advantages also apply to strafing. Being able to strafe and steer with your entire other hand completely free is A Good Thing, however weird the setup may feel for the first few heroics)

a note on mobility:

strafing is important also for the reason that when strafing mobs will path predictively but when backpedalling they will trail your steps at your backpedal speed. the net result is that strafing both allows you to move faster while steering to allow 969, while at the same time allowing much faster boss repositioning if done right.

what does this mean for keybinding? make sure you can comfortably 969 while you're strafing while you're mouse steering, whatever your keybinds end up being.

another thing...

dont get discouraged after changing your keybinds. Think them through and tune them if you relly need to (dont confuse this with your hands just not having learned them yet) but remember, muscle memory can alway be rewritten but an inefficient key setup is always inefficient.

good luck and have fun with it!

[defeated]

Not sure if this will help or not, but here is the keybinds i currently roll with.

Q=Shield of Righteousness
E=Hammer of the Righteous (may we have some righteous spells huh, kinda cheesy ><)
F=Avengers Shield
Z=Righteous Defense
C=Divine Plea+arcane Torrent Macro.
R=Holy Wrath (man this should work on everything, ghetto shockwave ftw)
X=Healthstone+Healthpot
Mouse Wheel Up=Holy Shield
Mouse Wheel Down=Judgement of light or wisdom. (Highly dependent on whether its a 10/25 man or 5 man and/or other pallies)
Shift C=Sacred Shield
Shift Mouse button 4 (the one defaulted to auto run)=Divine Protection (aka Bubble wall)
Shift Q=Hand of Reckoning
Shift F=Hammer of Justice
Shift E=Trinkets (currently Heart of iron and Juggernaut's vitality, i use both to help like a mini CD)
Shift R=Hand of Freedom
Shift X=Lay on Hands
Shift 2= Divine Shield/Divine Sacrifice macro (push once for bubble, twice for raid wall)
1=10 minute Blessing of Sanctuary
2=Cleanse

Other abilities like Hand of Salvation and Hand of Protection (BoP) are bound to my clique for easy grid usage among a few other abilities like Righteous Defense, its amazing to be able to taunt from someone on grid if you see them with aggro. XP
3=Avenging Wrath

[Anglachel]

0 - Judgement of whatever
. - Holy shield
1 - Part 1 of my "969" rotation
2 - Part 2 of my "969" rotation
3 - Hand of Reckoning
4 - HoProtection
5 - HoSalvation
6 - Divine Protection
7 - Cleanse
8 - Flash of Light
9 - Holy Light
+ - Divine Plea

I spam 1/2 constantly during a fight. my ring finger is on #3, with quick jumps up to the 456 row of 'oh shit' buttons', 789 are quick access for my heals.

[defeated]

I don't understand how many of you play with the number pad above your keys, while moving etc etc, it just seems so awkward to me.

[Snake-Aes]

I don't understand how many of you play with the number pad above your keys, while moving etc etc, it just seems so awkward to me.

And it just seems natural to me. QWES is for walking/straing, turning comes from the mouse. '12345, being immediatelly close to these, take the main abilities. 6,7,8, and 9 take the rarely used stuff. = goes to the mouse so it's always in use too. A and D are bound to other buttons for more bindings, as are mousewheel movements UP and DOWN(on my pally, they are Hands of salvation/sacrifice, and on my dk, blood tap/empower runeweapon)

The funny consequence is that my left hand is always looking like i'm flipping the bird to someone while I strafe.

[æ]

If I use the mouse to turn, how will I click on holy shield?

[defeated]

I don't understand how many of you play with the number pad above your keys, while moving etc etc, it just seems so awkward to me.

And it just seems natural to me. QWES is for walking/straing, turning comes from the mouse. '12345, being immediatelly close to these, take the main abilities. 6,7,8, and 9 take the rarely used stuff. = goes to the mouse so it's always in use too. A and D are bound to other buttons for more bindings, as are mousewheel movements UP and DOWN(on my pally, they are Hands of salvation/sacrifice, and on my dk, blood tap/empower runeweapon)

The funny consequence is that my left hand is always looking like i'm flipping the bird to someone while I strafe.

HAHAHAH, well i left A and D the same but i use mouse plus them to strafe, when i am lazy (not raiding) i keyboard turn and love it, but when raiding i play like a pro, idk i just don't see myself easily being able to hit any button past 3 like 456 etc with my left hand, or could possibly move my hand and hit a button accidentally, idk it just seems weird to me.

[Arcand]

I don't understand how many of you play with the number pad above your keys, while moving etc etc, it just seems so awkward to me.

It's just like piano. Do you find it awkward reaching up to hit the black keys?

[defeated]

I don't understand how many of you play with the number pad above your keys, while moving etc etc, it just seems so awkward to me.

It's just like piano. Do you find it awkward reaching up to hit the black keys?

I don't play piano. XP

But if i did, it wouldn't feel right to me, i am so used to using the keys near my hands instead of stretching to use something thats already right there. =D

[Amaranthea]

If I use the mouse to turn, how will I click on holy shield?

Seriously though: turn with the mouse and hotkey / macro every commonly used ability. Use Shift / Control modifiers if you run out of keys (which you will).

[Khayne]

No one else dances action bars with shift+numbers?

i got my most used skills in every bar from 1-6, and just change bar, hit skill, change bar, hit skill (ofc my most often used things are in bar 1 and q, e & r buttons but still).

For example, pressing shift-3 (go action bar 3), 3 is much more natural to me than say, hit 7 if i'm moving at same time.