l2pvp: Keybindings
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This is the fourth post in a series of guides about PvP, which will hopefully help some of you newbies step outside your PvE bubble and tell you why mace stun sucks.
It’s the notorious topic, the eternal struggle between clickers and the rest (let’s call them pressers due to lack of terms). Many articles were published about keybinding, some good some bad, but most of them agree on one thing: binding your keys is the way to excel at this game.
There are a few things I’d like to point out:
- clickers will always tell you excuses why clicking is “OK” (just because you’re raiding Sunwell doesn’t mean you know it all)
- pressers will never tell you clicking is “OK” (it’s like buying a TV without a remote controller)
- you don’t want to be this guy (if you think the vid is “OK” you have some serious learning to do)
- binding your keys is not essential for PvE (but it will help you react faster in tight situations)
- never backpedal or you will face eternal damnation (it’s the typical hunter move: learn to jumpshot
- keyboard turning is bad (in 99.99% of cases you should use your mouse to turn, otherwise you’ll end up in a comic)
- it does not matter how fat your fingers are (I’m not trying to be funny, a friend of mine uses that excuse all the time; bind half of your keyboard to one spell if you must, but at least try it)
Three principles of successful keybinding:
- Start slowly: you don’t have to bind every single one of your abilities at once. It’s a learning process and will take some time to get used to (very little though). Start with binding a couple of spells you use the most, and slowly move on to other commonly used spells as soon as you get the hang of it.
- Speed: you should never bind abilities to keys which will take longer to press than click. Don’t use Ctrl+Alt+7 or something like that because it’s pointless and impossible to press with one hand.
- Efficiency: bind spells which you use most. If you’re just starting out, do not bind abilities like Water Elemental or Innervate which have longer cooldowns and aren’t too crucial. If you’re a raiding warlock, bind Shadowbolt, if you’re a PvP warrior bind Mortal Strike and Hamstring. You get the point. When you get used to it - even if it takes a week - start with other spells you commonly use: healing spells (lifebloom, prayer of mending, flash of light), CC (fear, polymorph, frost nova, psychic scream), main damaging abilities (hemorrhage, frostbolt, …).
Figure out which spells are important yourself, or check the few examples below for help:
- Interrupts - Kick, Pummel, Counterspell - you should not and must not ever miss with these spells. It’s absolutely crucial to use them at the right time in PvP, and can easily be the number one factor in winning or loosing arena matches.
- Immunities - Divine Shield or Ice Block - it’s imperative to use these abilities in the right moment.
- Goojfc - get out of jail free cards - similar to immunities, but still different: Nature’s Swiftness, Death Coil, Intimidating Shout, Blind.
- Snares - Hamstring, Shiv - like interrupts, these are the abilities which can easily tell you the skill level of a player.
- Trinket - yes, the trinket. The most important PvP item should have an accessible spot on your bars.
- Autorun - I got it on my mouse middle click.
You might not be using some of these spells often due to longer cooldowns, but when you do I bet you’re in a tight spot and every second counts.
What keys should you use
This image should give you some idea how to bind your keys (based on my setup more or less).
- W, S, A, D - standard keys for moving. Although some people use E-S-D-F, you don’t need to go down that road (although it is better in most cases, since you have more available keys to bind)
- Tab key - by default it is used to target nearest enemy, and I don’t recommend changing it. Sometimes you just can’t click on the player on the battlefield, or Proximo stops working; sometimes, it just more convenient.
- R - default key for replying to whispers. It’s really convenient and I never changed it.
- Green keys - the most accessible keys and most easy to start with.
- Yellow keys - less accessible but still close enough.
- Purple keys - targets party members (default setup)
- Shift, Control, Alt - marked with red color on the image. These are the modifier keys, and can be used in combination with other keys. For example, you could use “1″ for Frostbolt, and “Shift+1″ for Fireball.
How I bind
First of all, warlocks suck when it comes to binding. We have a lot of spells, most of them are used in PvP if you’re SL/SL spec, we also have pets to control and their spells, and of course, downranked spells (not for long though). Some classes have it easier, namely warriors, druids, rogues and shadowpriests due to stances (forms, stealth) - you can set your bars to change when you change a stance and have same binds for different abilities. For example, on my druid I have Mangle on “1″ when in Cat & Bear forms, in Tree I got Lifebloom, in stealth I got Pounce, in humanoid/moonkin form I have Wrath. If your class doesn’t have stances, you might not understand what I’m talking about, and in that case it doesn’t even matter.
In case you’re wondering, the addon is Bongos, and one of the best features is you can simply Shift+click and drag the spell icons wherever you want. I got fond of the Bongos long ago, and I love how I can quickly rearrange bars depending on what spells I currently need (if I’m in arenas, battlegrounds, instances…).
As you can probably see on the image, 1-6 are binded, as well as “Shift+1-6″ and “Ctrl+1-6″. I almost never use “Shift+7″ or binds like that, but it’s there since I must have everything binded because: a) I’m not normal b) maybe I’m drinking or smoking atm and c) in case my mouse battery runs low (hey it happened!).
- Q - Life Tap
- Shift + Q - lower rank Life Tap
- E - Spell Lock
- X - Curse of Exhaustion
- C - Death Coil (also “5″)
- F - Devour Magic
- Shift + T - Curse of Tongues
- Ctrl + D - Drain Soul (rank 1)
- H - Howl of Terror
- Tilde (the one next to “1″ and below ESC) - push to talk/mute
- T & Y - ground and flying mount
There’s also a number of other abilities and macros, like summon Felhunter/Voidwalker with Fel Domination as “Alt + F/W”, trinkets on “Shift + E/Q” and a few more.
Also, don’t forget the mouse.
- Wheel Up - pet attack
- Wheel Down - pet follow
- Middle Click - autorun
- Mouse 4 - Wand
- Mouse 5 - Banish
I’m pretty sure I forgot a few since I haven’t logged on my lock in like a month, but I’m hoping this gives you a bit of insight on how I worked this out. Again, it’s not the best keybinding setup you can have, but I never could quite figure it out on lock. As I said, it’s much easier for some other classes which have nearly worthless spells in certain specs, or can’t even use them unless they are in certain stance.
How you bind
…is up to you. Remember to do it one step at a time, don’t rush things and try to bind twenty keys at once or you will fail. It’s helpful to bind certain keys to a letter which reminds you of the spell: I have “C” for Death Coil, “G” for Nature’s Grasp, “H” for Hibernate/Howl of Terror. Once you get used to keybinds you will never look back, I promise you that.
Keep in mind
Anyone can bind their keys. It does not matter what class or spec you play, you will benefit from it a lot. Arenas and PvP in general are all about movement: a stationary target it usually the dead one. You need to be able to move and cast in the same time. Yes, there are addons such as Healbot which work fine in both arena and raids but you will suffer from tunnel vision. A hunter who can’t jumpshot or a mage who can’t cast Frost Nova while moving is a dead one. Always turn your character using a mouse, and never backpedal. Binding your abilities alone will not make your ratings skyrocket, but is the fourth step.
In case you missed my previous steps, part one talks about resilience, part two about getting gear, and part three is still trying to teach you how to properly use your medallion. I originally planned to write a 3-part l2pvp guide series, but I realized it’s hard to talk about one thing without mentioning the other. The fifth part will most likely be the final one, and will attempt to teach you probably the most valuable lesson I learned. It can’t be done by all classes, but all need to be aware of it. It’s something you can really put into practice, and will surely help you beat a few classes much easier. If you want to get notified when it’s posted, you’re welcome to subscribe to the RSS feed. If there’s a certain topic you feel would fit in this series, tell me all about it (well not all, leave something for me) in the comments below.
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Freakin fantastic post! I bind a few keys but have always put it off waiting for a guide that would show me a better way then just trail and error.
I suppose its pretty dang lazy of me but its true. Wanted to read a guide on it rather then experiment. Thanks for the post. And the keyboard layout is a perfect illustration.
To tell you the truth, ever since writing the first guide in this series I was thinking how it’s dumb to write about such obvious things everyone knows about. It looks it turned out quite the contrary, these posts got the most feedback so far (one even got a spotlight on wowinsider).
When writing this one I felt it was the king of unwanted guides. I’m really glad it helped you, hopefully you’re not the only one.
Great guide, i just recently started using key bindings on my hunter in arena and its made a big difference….. only thing is that i can press ctrl+alt+7 at the same time with one hand its just not very effective
Is there a way to keybind macros?
Also you show Bongos but is this also where you assign your keybinds or are you using the default UI system?
Thanks you for the post.
Absolutely. Simply drag the icon from the macros window to your bars (you probably already did that even if you click) and bind it just like any other spell or ability.
I assign the keybinds in Bongos since it’s totally noob-friendly: click on the Bongos icon on the minimap, select “Bindings” tab in the window that pops, and simply move your mouse over any spell on your bars and press a key to which you’d like it binded to. Takes 5 times longer to write this than do it ingame, really.
Pretty much all action bar addons have some sort of support for bindings, but I mentioned Bongos since I personally use it for over a year and love it.
It has great support for stances, you can lock your icons so you don’t accidentally drag them away from the bars, you can fully customize the size of the bars, scaling, position, etc.
I forgot to link it in the post so here it is if you want to download.
Absolutely brilliant, Horns.
I must say, I LOVE keybinds. I remember when I first started playing WoW, I was a clicker. I’m glad I’ve come so far. I’m never turning back.
Personally i dont use keybindings MUCH, but dont get me wrong. I still use macros and some keybinding but im a dam neat freak and if i clump all of my spells in one little corner instead of the way they are right now id go crazy FAST! Personally im gonna use bartender when i get my account running again(taking a break for a little while, DAAAMN SCHOOOOOL!) LIke this guide and will use some of the advice but i think my way is fine =P.
I have my most used keys on 1 to =, then click the rest of my spells on my actionbars. Works great for me since im a warlock and just spam sbolt in raids(WANT WRATH TO HIT SO I CAN BE DEMONOLOGY AGAIN! I MISS MY FELGUARD!!!)
I send Aurdon’s comment.
Most posts I have seen on this topic are “here’s mine, love or lump it”.
This one has it all!
GJ
I find it fascinating that you label z,x,c as easily accessible and 5,t,g,v as less accessible.
For me it’s quite the difference, I can hardly use z,x - but r,f,v and even g are some of my most-used abilites, maybe I just have bigger hands
Binding is this btw:
r - Autorun / Autorun
f - Cloak of Shadows / Drain Life
v - Shiv / Fear
g - Slice and Dice / Death Coil
How can you survive without Q & E for strafe? Don’t you ever find yourself wanting to move left or right (at full forward running speed) without changing facing? I can’t count on my fingers the number of raid bosses where survivability or DPS (you have to trade one for the other otherwise) is enhanced by strafe.
Mouse turning can’t come close in those situations (Yes, mouse turning is indispensable in other situations). You essentially get two instant, flawless 90 degree turns for free with the strafe buttons. Plus your mouse is still free to move the camera around.
Duh.. That should have said “isn’t enhanced by strafe”…. In other words, black hole, rain of chaos, volcano, etc…. Hit strafe. You’re out of it faster than your mouse-turning comrades.
Of course, I’m now realizing that you probably use A & D for strafe…. I still have those mapped to turning though. I do still keyboard turn when I’m being lazy and out farming. Nice to give my mousing hand a rest now and then.
@Armagon
I don’t have big hands yet still bind keys up to “J”. Some I forget to list, and some others are so ridiculous I’ll just confuse people if I list that. I even have binds on numpad (potions, food, and a couple of R1 spells).
I guess I should of been more clear about this in the post: this is in no way a rule or the best setup you can have. It’s just an example of how it works for me, and everyone should modify it according to their own needs. Take it as a guideline of some sort on where to start.
“5, T, G, V” are in fact easily accessible as you said yourself, but when writing this I had in mind players without any binds whatsoever, and I still stand by the fact you should take it slowly, therefore I mentioned the “green keys” as easily accessible and a good place to start.
As for “Z,X,C”, I works for me fine but I understand why it might take a bit more practice than F, G, V, … By combining autorun (middle mouse click for me, easy) or even clicking both mouse buttons, you can easily run without the need for your left hand.
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@Ivan256
You answered your own questions; I believe I mentioned keyboard turning is bad
However, you can also strafe by clicking your right mouse button and holding “W” and “A/D”, which I don’t think is that bad either. It doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as it works.
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On another note, I talked to a clicker friend a couple of days ago in hopes of convincing him (again) to try and bind some spells, and realized a horrible fact: he uses his index finger to move (”W” - move forward) - that alone makes it almost impossible to have any decent bindings. If there’s someone else out there doing the same thing, that is the first thing you should learn to do, ALWAYS press “W” with your middle finger.
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Also, I do encourage all of you to post your own setups, that’s what comments are for. Don’t just tell me why my binds are bad, tell me why yours are better. I’ll be the happiest cow in all of Mulgore if you tell me how to improve my binds, honestly.
While I don’t do arenas, I do BGs occasionally. In either case, I do all movement with my mouse. I have a Logitech MX Revolution, and the scroll wheel left/right tilt works great for strafing.
Some people use the scroll wheel for autorun & reverse; I’m not that coordinated.
However, the advantage is I have WASD available for keybinds. I use 1-6, A-H, Z-N. On my hunter, I also use F1-F5 (although with my Logitech G15 kbd, the F5 is a bit awkward).
Great post; hopefully, more people will discover the joy of alternate keybinds!
I’ve played around with keybinds a little bit, but as a PvE focused Moonkin there isn’t a whole lot I need. I have almost every thing I need assigned to my main bar of 1 through =, and the majority of the ones I need are between 1-6, The only thing I have off my main bar are self healing macros in T and Y.
Anyway, I do dis agree with one thing you have said here, and the difference is probably PvP vs PvE. You have indicated taht Q and E are good keybinds. From a PvE perspective I don’t want to overwrite the strafing binds.
Strafing is the quickes way to get out of the fire while still facing the boss and being able to cast.
Anyway, just my two cents. Good post.
Howdy,
Great article, defenitely helped me understand the keybinding system better.
I have been considered switching my current system for a more traditional keybinding system, such as this but I have one reservation. Currently I use my 10 keys for my attacks/spells and my insert, home, page up/down keys for totem macros/heroism/trinkets and my directional arrows (which means that yes, I am a keyboard turner but im not a clicker) for movement. The advantage that I see to my system is that I can move and attack simultaneously whereas (as I see it) your system as the attacks/movements are done with the same hand, liimiting this. Too many ppl that, I am sure know more than I about this use the system you have just described.
So what is the piece of the puzzle I am missing?
shift+space = best pvp trinket binding ever
Had that for a while, but sometimes I’d unintentionally trigger it while casting another spell (with shift as modifier) and jumping at the same time.
I use keybinds very heavily in all of my different alts. One of the biggest things I try to do is keep the same type of spell on the same key (i.e kick, bash/pummel, Earth shock all on F).
Here goes my set-up on my Rogue, doing this at work and its difficult to remember what keys are where, its such a habit now that I don’t even think about keys.
C - Slice and Dice
X - Evasion
Z - Sprint
F - Kick
F (In Stealth) - Garotte
V - Macro for Mouse over Blind
Shift V - Current Target Blind
R - Gouge
Shift R - Reply
Q - Deadly Throw
Shift Q - Shiv
E- Kidney Shot
T - Vanish
G - Cloak of Shadows
Shift Spacebar - PVP Trinket
Mouse Wheel Up - Shadowstep
Mouse Wheel Down - Stealth
Mouse Wheel Down (In Stealth) - Premeditation
Mouse Thumb Forward - Hemo
Mouse Thumb Forward (In stealth) - Cheap Shot
Mouse Thumb Back - Eviscerate/Rupture
Mouse Thumb Back (In stealth) - Sap
1 - Haste Trinket
2 - AP Trinket
3 - Health Pot
4 - Bandage
Shift 4 - Macro Blind/Bandage
Y - Open all bags
H - Character Screen
~ - Autorun
Wow, that was harder to remember then I thought it was going to be. I’m sure I missed something, but…
Hope that helps someone.
I find the best keybindings to be all number pad ones. 15 keys all together and symmetrically aligned, and pressed with the often-times dominant right hand. Of course, the biggest downside with this is that your right hand is not on the mouse, and you are keyboard turning with your left hand on WASD.
I’ve switched for weeks at a time to being a mouse turner, and I always found myself totally lost and disoriented when my mouse changed my view to be towards the ground or the sky, making me unable to even run after others in PVP. Is there a setting to make it so that mouse movements don’t effect your camera and only turn your character?
Thanks for this, like others said, i have a few things bined to keys, but was waiting for a guide to really show me the ins and outs. I’m not even a ‘Lock and this will improve my gameplay considerably, i’m sure! Thanks!
@asdf1234
You can attack and move in the same time with W,A,S,D just as easily as with your setup. Frankly, I don’t see the difference, except yours is pretty unorthodox.
If I got this right, you’re using one hand to move and the other to attack. I believe the missing piece of the puzzle is you should always have one hand on your mouse and use it to target, turn and even move when necessary (by holding both L and R mouse buttons). By turning with a mouse, you only need one (middle) finger on “W” and the rest can be used to cast spells.
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@Zinelia
Thanks for sharing, I’m sure it will help someone. I should try to get used to Shift+R for reply like you, “R” is too good to pass.
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@Eddie
By holding a right mouse button, your character and camera should both move - I believe that’s with default settings. If you camera moves along with your mouse movement, check the game settings perhaps you changed something.
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@Corey
No guide will ever tell you all the ins and outs about keybinding. As I already said, it’s just a starter guide to show you how me and others worked this out so you have some sort of an idea how it should work in the end. You just have to be persistent and patient and figure out how it works best for you. You won’t turn back once you get used to it for sure.
So I have a question about keybinds I’ve been sitting on for a long time.
The system I’ve used since I first ran out of the 1 thru = keys revolves around my mouse’s scroll wheel. So I’ve got:
Shift + Middle Mouse Click = Blink
Shift + Mouse Wheel Up = Blast Wave
Shift + Mouse Wheel Down = Arcane Explosion
Alt + MMC = Counterspell
Alt + MWU = Dragon’s Breath
Alt + MWD = Invisibility
Ctrl + MMC = Fire Blast
and so on using every combination of Shift, Alt, Ctrl, Shift+Alt, Shift+Ctrl, Ctrl+Alt, Ctrl+Alt+Shift, plus MMC, MWU, MWD. It allw for a total of 21 binds, and with that plus the 1-5 keys (and 6 thru = for rarely used spells) there’s almost nothing I have to click. Plus I get to keep stuff like C for character pane, V for nameplates, et cetera. What I really like about this setup is that it’s blazing fast, no single bind is “farther” away than any other (though Shift+Ctrl+Alt is the province of stuff like Arcane Torrent and my mount), and there’s no better way to spam an ability for immediate use than to spin the mouse wheel like crazy (never miss a shatter combo: Alt+Shift+MWU for Ice Lance means that as the Frostbolt nears completion, holt Alt+Shift and push your mouse wheel up and it’s guaranteed to go off as soon as it possibly could have).
While this setup has worked neatly for me leveling and I kick respectable amounts of ass in BGs, I’m wondering if it will severely limit me in max level PvP. Are there any tricksy movement+ability combinations that can’t be pulled off due to the need to hold (rather than tap) Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or some combinations thereof? (besides the Jump Shot, I can pull that off …)
Been looking around for something like this. Always valuable to read about others strategies. It felt kind of good to see that I was on the right track.
One thing confuses me though. Binding to your mouse wheel. I feel that I NEED that for controlling the camera.
Is it some clever setting I have missed?
Are the arenas better designed than dungeons? (I mostly PvE)
Am I just to anal about always scrolling out to the max?
Any thoughts/guesses on this would be apriciated.
You can turn the camera by holding your left mouse button, but I guess you’re referring to zooming in/out - it’s rarely necessary in my opinion, so I have it on numpad “+” and “-”
yes I was talking about zoom.
Guess I have to play around with the settings to get a camera setting that actually works because right now I do need the zoom function. I never bothered with that before, I just thought this was how it was for everyone… =)
Well I guess it shows that no matter how much time you invested in the game or what you’ve been able to achieve, you still might have overlooked some of the basics. Thanks for clarifying this to me
I’ve always been a big key binding freak. Even when I just started WoW I binded things like Q & E and other nice keys. The keys you use are not that much different from what I use at the moment. Hope this helps some resto druids out here.
On my druid (resto) cow form
1/5 - Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Abolish Poison, Remover Curse and lower ranked Regrowth
Ctrl+1/5 - Stance changing/Form changing
Shift+1/4 - Entangling roots, Cyclone, Hibernate and Innervate
Q/E - Healing Touch and Regrowth
Shift+Q/E - Nature’s Swiftness
Ctrl+Q/E - Natures Grasp and Barkskin
A/S - Changed this to strafe, I always use my mouse to make turns.
Shift+A/S/D - Moonfire, War Stomp, Fearie Fire
F/G = First and second trinket
Don’t know if any of you have the same feeling but I find my middlemouse button quite annoying/hard to push.