» Click no more (how to set up your key bindings)

Click no more (how to set up your key bindings)

Tuesday,April 22nd, 2008

Are you a clicker and a keyboard turner? (Someone who uses their mouse to click abilities and the keyboard to turn their character)

Or do you bind all your abilities to keyboard shortcuts so you can push them quickly in the heat of the battle, and use your mouse to turn and look?

Being a clicker and/or keyboard turner is viewed as being a noob by many players. Now, I’m no elitist and I’m not gonna do like Athene and slap you and call you a b*tch if you do (go ahead, youtube him) , but there are some advantages to key bindings.

In some cases you might get away with being a clicker, for example some raid encounters for some classes involve little more than repeatedly using one ability.

But if something unexpected happens you’ll be slow to react. And don’t even try to PvP without proper key bindings.

If you take my advice, you’ll be using the mouse to turn and look, and your keyboard to use abilities. It may feel awkward at first, but you’ll quickly get used to it.

You can have 2 key binds for each ability, but 1 is plenty. No need to have 2.

Here are some things I suggest you do in the Key Bindings screen:

Unbind Move and Steer
Unbind turn left and turn right. You’ll be doing it with your mouse.
Toggle Autorun: Bind this somewhere. I have it on my mouse.
Strafe left: Bind to A
Strafe right: Bind to D

The default 1-10 buttons and the single action bar won’t cut it, either. We need better keys that are easier to reach, and we need more as well.

Here are some I suggest:

Q	E	R	F	C	X	§	1
2	3	4	5	Alt-§	Alt-1	Alt-2	Alt-Q
Alt-E	Alt-R	Alt-F	Alt-C	Alt-X	Shift-3	Shift-Q	Shift-E
Shift-R	Shift-F	Shift-C	Shift-X	Ctrl-Q	Ctrl-E	Ctrl-R	Ctrl-F
< (next to shift, at least on my Swedish keyboard lol)

The above are my suggestions for 33 keys you can bind. That should be enough in most cases. You’ll notice that I have skipped many obvious ones like Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2 etc. The reason is I find those hard to reach with one hand, but if you have bigger hands go ahead and use them ;-) Also, don’t forget your extra mouse buttons if you have those.

The shortcuts I have are right around the WASD buttons so you can in many cases move and use your abilities at the same time.

If you want to use the above, you gotta move some default key bindings (my suggestions below):

Sit/Move Down: Z
Sheath/Unsheath Weapon: Shift-Z
Chat reply: T
Show Enemy Name Plates: Alt-V
Toggle Character Pane: V
Toggle ActionBar Lock Ctrl-T
Assist Target: Wherever you want.

Once you have decided some keys you want to use for your abilities, go into the Key Bindings screen and start binding them to appropriate action bars.

I have made this easier for you with the picture below:

To see all the bars, you need to configure your ActionBars setting as shown in the pic. Hint: I bind Toggle ActionBar Lock to Ctrl-T.

Now you should easily be able to go into the key bindings screen and define some key binds. Once done, open your spellbook and drag your most used abilities into the defined slots and start pushing buttons instead of clicking!

Hints:

It’s best to keep your instant casts where you can reach them with your index or ring finger so you can keep holding W with your middle finger to run.
Use the easiest shortcuts for your most used abilities.
You don’t have to bind everything. It’s perfectly fine to click rarely used abilities.
Remember, you can always hit "Default" if you screw up :-)

Posted by Martin Malmberg |4:12 pm |

HELPED ALOT M8 :D

you are the best :D

Comment by ryan-61 — April 22, 2008 @ 5:45 pm
very interesting, I don’t click my abilitys but i do find i get out manovouvered in pvp so this should help, Cheers

Comment by Greg — April 22, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
Any bar-addon that you recomend?

I’ve been using CTBar mod, because I can resize the action right bars to fit in my screen.

Another question: Can I bind a key to a specific spell, without puttin’ into the bar?

Comment by Anonymous — April 22, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
A question:
Can I bind a key to a spell, without putting it into the action bar?

Comment by Animage — April 22, 2008 @ 6:40 pm
#3
I’m not using any bar mod atm. I already have so many addons so I try to stick to the crucial ones, and I find the built-in bars are enough for me.

#4 I don’t think so. Maybe with some addon though.

Comment by Martin Malmberg — April 22, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
very nice
thank you

Comment by zell — April 22, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
maybe it’s a good idea to walk with mouse (press left and right mouse button) while being in combat and than place your attacks on the numpad?

I don’t know or it’s possible!

and another idea maybe, if possible you could place some attacks on numpad with numlock on and some with numlock off!

Comment by azkhanerus — April 22, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
I love your tips and most I can pretty well follow, as I ama noob and just learning all the tips and tricks for WOW. My problem is I don’t understand all the game lingo and have to guess what is ment by some of it. Its there somewhere that shows exactly how to key bind?
thanks for all your help

Comment by Lindalee — April 22, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
#8 Lindalee,

I figured someone would ask, and the way you do it is by pressing escape in-game and then clicking Key Bindings in the menu. Simple.

Comment by Martin Malmberg — April 22, 2008 @ 9:39 pm
#7 azkhanerus

You could do that. But it’s not my preferred way as there aren’t enough keys for me to press around the numpad.

Comment by Martin Malmberg — April 22, 2008 @ 9:41 pm
I am definitely going to try this out. I have heard it is so much better to use, but am afraid for some reason to get away from clicking.
One note though, wth is that § symbol? Is it dollar sign, ~, `, not really too sure about that one. S maybe? Hope to become a pusher before too long and bask in the glory of l33tness! Thanks again.

Comment by Scammich — April 22, 2008 @ 11:57 pm
How do Martin. Grand bit of info that you have aplied .. though i confes to being a mixture of a clicker and a pusher. Keep the tips comeing mate and hope to see you soon on line some time. Andrew

Comment by Galdra — April 23, 2008 @ 1:36 am
#11 Scammich,

The § symbol on my keyboard is the button left of 1.

#12 Andrew,

Nice to hear from you mate. Hope you’re doing well. see you around!

Comment by Martin Malmberg — April 23, 2008 @ 6:35 am
Thanks for this useful info..I’m already using bongos & it’s great..but I’d like to learn more in using factory bindings instead off add-on’s, so it doesn’t slow down my computer as it is now. When I go PVP BG or Arena..all add ons are OFF except Bongos..which really helps a whole lot with computer performance…thanks !!!

Comment by Goodwin — April 23, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
Regarding the question: “Can I bind a key to a spell, without putting it into the action bar?”

There’s a new script command ‘SetBindingSpell()’ that lets you do this. For instance:
/script SetBindingSpell(”SHIFT-E”, “Curse of the Elements”)

here’s two links for more info:
http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft_API#Binding_Functions
http://12.129.242.24/thread.html;jsessionid=E4FE3BB212D0CE34E43C51C537F63F3E?topicId=106575248&sid=1&pageNo=3

Comment by TheWiggin — April 24, 2008 @ 11:01 pm