Multiple teams/classes. How to set up a consistent system?

[Owltoid]

The goal is to come up with a list of buttons so that I/we can have an organized layout that will work for whatever combination of toons we play with.

Please let me know what you think it a must have. The goal is to have as few buttons as possible that are as flexible as possible. For example, a general DPS button is probably vital. If I could set up all my DPS toons to have their main castsequence and then use that button to broadcast it to all, I now have a nice universal button so that I know if I'm playing all hunters, a mix of locks and rogues, etc, that I can spam that button and they will do their main DPS sequence.

Perhaps another example is a burst damage button. This is where I would put all my cooldown buttons for finishing someone off (maybe for a moonkin it would be moonfire while a warlock it would be shadow burn).

A poor example would be a force of nature (moonkin treant) button. This button would have no meaning to my mages or death knights. However, instead, I could have a summon temporary pet button, which would include moonkin's treants, mage's water elemental, etc. This button may not have any meaning to pallys since they don't have a temporary pet to summon, but at least I know that if anyone in my current team has a temporary pet to summon, when I hit that button the appropriate spell will be cast.

Which buttons can you think of that would help with a universal keyconfiguration so that when I load in any combination of my toons that I don't have to change my style much?

Summarized examples:
General DPS (broadcasts a button that maps to different castsequences for different DPS classes)
Burst DPS (for example a moonkins moonfire or a warlock's shadow burn)
Summon temporary pet (moonkin's treants or mage's water elemental)
....?

Please note that this is not a discussion of how to accomplish this using whatever key broadcasting method you use. ISBoxer had made it extremely easy to mix and match different toons and keep all the macros in order. This is purely just a discussion on how to keep your play style and key bindings consistent no matter which toons you are currently playing.

[Svpernova09]

Do yourself a favor and map out all your keys in a spreadsheet, so you can see what toon is doing what on what key. This is what I did For my first team, and whenever I move a toon in and out, or play a different team, I use this a guide on how to setup action bars, granted this is a bit dated since I've moved to doing as much ISBoxer macros as I can so I don't have to be dependent on in game keybindings or action bar layouts.

http://www.halosrealm.com/images/KeyBinds1.jpg
http://www.halosrealm.com/images/KeyBinds2.jpg

[Multibocks]

Holy shit svper that is way in depth. I'm a little more general than that, so not as effective as svper, but it's good enough. Basically:

1. Single target dps button (also for group healer it throws heals to tank at a rate you need to determine)
2. AoE dps button (also tanking sequence & healer stuff)
3. Group single targets medium/short duration buffs(water shield, inner fire, etc)
4. All offensive CDs button (avenging wrath, trinkets, etc)
5. Tank CDs
6. Group defensive CDs and AoE healing
7. Group buffs
F1-F5: Single target heals

that's a pretty basic setup and how most of my teams operate. That way they keep the same hotkeys and I can keep a generalized playstyle so I don't have to think too much when I log a team in that I haven't used in a while. Not as effective as svper's setup, but it will work for 90% of WoW.

Edit: unfortunately I hardcode my heals so when I'm asked to join a MB raid I don't do so well as I can only heal my team with a little splash over from AoE heals. Guess that's the price of laziness =|

[Redbeard]

Using click I generally have 4 buttons I press and then click to heal with the mouse.

1 = taunt on tank detaunt on those who have it
2 = round robin stun / bash / whatever they have that fits here
4 = single target dps
5 = AOE dps

But im pretty terrible.

[Asuka]

1 - Daily quests item useage + marking target on tank
2 - Healing/DPS click/castsequence macros with assist
3 - Binding Heal, Chain Heal tank, no cooldown dps skill like incinerate, steady shot, lightning bolt, arcane blast, etc.
4 - Prayer of healing, Chain Heal self, no cooldown dps skill same as 3
5 - When more healing is needed button so, Lesser Healing Wave, Flash heal, no cooldown dps same as 3

Shift 2 - Totems, Aspect of Dragonhawk, Life Tap.
Alt N - Follow with aspect of viper on the hunter and water shield on the shamans added to the macro
Alt M - Land mounts
Alt A - My Little Sparkling Pony flyer
Ctrl C - Bronze Drake
Ctrl Z - Mage food or store bought water
Shift = - First buff key: Inner Focus, Earth Living weapon, Molten Armor to mage, Fel Armor to lock, Seal of Crusader to pally, Thorns to druid tank, etc.
= - Second buff key: Divine Spirit to priest, Focus Magic to another dps for mages, Water Shield for shamans, Single target Paw for the druid, etc.

Lot of holes in my setup, however it works for what I'm doing atm moment, stomping mudholes in farmable heroics.:o

[Owltoid]

I like where this thread is going :) Lots of good suggestions and description of current playstyle so far. I'll take a look at Svper's things when I'm at home and they hopefully don't show up as red x.

[thefunk]

Does anyone use repeater regions instead of keys? I've got the BottomLeftMultibar repeated for all buffs/non-targetable spells and AOE as well which frees up a LOT of my keys (although I really only have 2 DPS keys anyway and 1 turbo boost (heroism)).

I also use a key for setview 2 on all char and finally removed IwT & click to move from my tank's DPS rotation, which is great but I have to pay attention to which way he's facing. Mooning that big dragon isn't going to get a huge amount of threat, although might piss him off a bit...

[Ualaa]

I use 1 through =, which are mostly FTL Assist Keys.
1 is my DPS, consistently across teams.

I use Shift A through Shift ; (home row) for assorted (similar but team specific) functions.
And Shift F1 through Shift F10 for other (consistent across all teams) stuff.

For example:


Feral Druids
1 - Click Castsequence
2 - Ravage/Shred or Lacerate
3 - Swipe
4 - Faerie Fire
5 - Rip/Hurricane
6 - Set as Focus (Round-Robin)
7 - Rebirth (Round-Robin)
8 - Feral Charge
9 - Survival Instincts
0 - Self Heal/Frenzied Regen
- - Sprint
= - Tiger's Fury/Enrage

Sh_A - Bear Form
Sh_S - Aquatic Form
Sh_D - Cat Form
Sh_F - Cyclone on Focus
Sh_G - Flight Form/Travel Form
Sh_J - Single MotW Buff
Sh_K - Single Thorns Buff
Sh_L - Endless Healing Potion
Sh_; - Barkskin
BK SPC - Berserk

Sh_F2 - Enter/Leave Battleground
Sh_F3 - Non-combat Rez
Sh_F4 - Self Thorns
Sh_F5 - Flying Mount
Sh_F6 - Group MotW
Sh_F7 - Cat Form - Prowl (Also Thumb Button 2)
Sh_F8 - Bandage (Self)
Sh_F9 - Eat Food
Sh_F0 - Ground Mount


*Edit*
Still tinkering around with hotkeys.
Have some keys, which are mouse clicked, which FTL assist then Rejuv or Lifebloom a target.

Thinking of moving Barkskin and Endless Healing Potions to Repeater Region (Clique) heals.

Will want the Self Heal.... Regrowth, Stop Casting, NoStance:3 - Cat Form, as a Repeater Region heal, so I can direct the heal, instead of everyone healing themself.
Currently Repeater Regions pass to Cats but not Bears, so can have Cats heal whoever needs it, while that toon stays in Bear form.

[thefunk]

The only downside of repeater regions when using modifier keys is that you are temporarily stopping your DPS when pressing ctrl (or any modifier) -> left mouse button before resuming. Well I am in any case.

Especially in intensive healing fights and with a tree, I'm regularly playing twister with the keyboard with shift LMB for rejuv, ctrl LMB for regrowth etc... I think i may go to using repeater regions for light healing only and cleansing and macro heavy healing to numpad.

[Slats]

Movement:
WASD: Active Slot Stafe LeftRight/Forward/Backward
Arrow Keys: Move non-active characters. Strafe Left/Right/Forward/Backward
Space: All Jump
Num0: Spread Out Non-Active Characters
NumDel Follow active character.

Combat:
F: TPS/DPS Click Sequence. (uses all trinkets and racials also)
~: Avenger's Shield
E: Taunt (Tank) Purge (Shaman)
Q: Consecration
G7: Mana Tide (PvE Spec)
G8: All Elemental Thunderfury
G9: Blood Lust on RR
G10: All Fire Elemental
G11: PvE Totems (in PvE Spec) PvP Totems (in PvP spec)
G12: AoE Totems (All Tremor, All Grounding, All Magma, 4x Cleansing)
Mouse10: Fire Nova (All Elemental)

Healing: (PvE Spec Shaman 1 is Resto)
Mouse 5: Riptide (HoT)
Mouse 4: Chain Heal (AoE)
Left Click: Lesser Healing Wave: (Small Heal)
Right Click: Healing Wave: (Big Heal)
Scroll Wheel Up: Earth Shield (Shielding)
Scroll Wheel Down: Cleanse Spirit (Dispell)

The rest of my keys are setup for how I would normally play any of the characters as a single character.
F1-F4 being defensive tanking abilities or racials or PvP Trinkets depending on the spec I am in.
1-6 being standard attacks
Q being any instant aoe I have, shift q being any other type of aoe (like holy wrath)
E being taunt, Shift E being a secondary taunt.
~ being an instant ability like avengers or ele mastery/lvb combo
middle mouse is always my mount
etc

I think my healing translates well to priests and shamans and paladins but would need work for a druid. I use Vuhdo for healing frames and when I'm single boxing I use /vuhdo toggle/ and hide the frames. I use grid for my raid frames.

I will be working on mymixed team soon (DK/Priest/Mage/Warlock/Druid) once my Priest hits 80 - so this setup will get fleshed out some more, but this is the general idea of what I use now.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I have mine in excell also ... I have 13 keys that trigger everyone and then click action bars with like 18 different commands for each class. Ill be posting some classes other then my Pal on my website soon.

You can see my Pal bar at the top of my website the 10 on the left and charbag, rez and bb/exit are keybound and sent to all 36 guys at the same time.

http://samdeathwalker.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=69&d=1274756765&cmps=1

The other 19 I have to click on individualy, which I can in 2-4 seconds on any of my 36 (i.e. i can get to any of the 36 screens in 2-4 seconds and then play that guy while the other 35 do nothing lol).

PalShamanMageWarlockDKPriestRoguePullShieldRangeST AOETAOE (Rain of Fire)TAOE (DD)TAOE (MS)DodgeBuff (Ev)PullSpellFreedomMoveSCCPAOEstn (Blast Wave)CCPAOEstn (shadowfury)PetTaunt (dc)XTAOEfear (PS)PoMendPAOE (FoN)CC Human (Sap)PAOELayHandAOE3 (cl)PurgePAOESpellStealConflagrate (ImmDeb)DetectInvisDeath GripPaleHorseHoly NovaPoFortSpeed (SP)Detect TrapsDPSHamInvlnDPSSingSpeedBuffDPSSing (Fireball)InvlnImmolate (Dot)ARMBuff Chains IceBoneShieldMassDispellFearWardPreparationDisarm TrapENDHamDEFShieldDPSBigDEFBuffDPSBig (Pyrobast)ARMBuff (Ice Armor)DPSBig (sf)EyeoKIcy TouchCorpseExHEALTaoe (coh)ArmBuf (IF)DistractStealthSTUNHamHEALFstThunderStormHEAL1 EvocDEFBuff (Ice Barrier)Chaos BoltRitoSumDeath CoilAddRunesHEALBigSeeTarEyeShadowStepVanishDPSShi eldHEALBigWarStompHEAL3 (ch)Living BombINTBuff (Dalaran Brilliance)FearShardRune StrikeDEFBuffStunHEAL3 (DH)XSTUN (KS)NoBreak (SD)UndeadStaBuffToWHEALBuffInvisibility CounterSpellPAOEfearSeedoCScourge StrikeSTABuff (HoW)HEALSelf (DP)XMoveSlow (DT)XSTUNSealFireNovaBlinkCurseofTBlood StrikeShadowFiendLockpickingCleanseCure ToxinsRemCurseResistDBAnti-Magic ZoneCure DiseaseX

Its from the excell file I dont have time to format it

[Iceorbz]

I have mine in excell also ... I have 13 keys that trigger everyone and then click action bars with like 18 different commands for each class. Ill be posting some classes other then my Pal on my website soon.

You can see my Pal bar at the top of my website the 10 on the left and 3 others are keybound the rest I click by individual.

PalShamanMageWarlockDKPriestRoguePullShieldRangeST AOETAOE (Rain of Fire)TAOE (DD)TAOE (MS)DodgeBuff (Ev)PullSpellFreedomMoveSCCPAOEstn (Blast Wave)CCPAOEstn (shadowfury)PetTaunt (dc)XTAOEfear (PS)PoMendPAOE (FoN)CC Human (Sap)PAOELayHandAOE3 (cl)PurgePAOESpellStealConflagrate (ImmDeb)DetectInvisDeath GripPaleHorseHoly NovaPoFortSpeed (SP)Detect TrapsDPSHamInvlnDPSSingSpeedBuffDPSSing (Fireball)InvlnImmolate (Dot)ARMBuff Chains IceBoneShieldMassDispellFearWardPreparationDisarm TrapENDHamDEFShieldDPSBigDEFBuffDPSBig (Pyrobast)ARMBuff (Ice Armor)DPSBig (sf)EyeoKIcy TouchCorpseExHEALTaoe (coh)ArmBuf (IF)DistractStealthSTUNHamHEALFstThunderStormHEAL1 EvocDEFBuff (Ice Barrier)Chaos BoltRitoSumDeath CoilAddRunesHEALBigSeeTarEyeShadowStepVanishDPSShi eldHEALBigWarStompHEAL3 (ch)Living BombINTBuff (Dalaran Brilliance)FearShardRune StrikeDEFBuffStunHEAL3 (DH)XSTUN (KS)NoBreak (SD)UndeadStaBuffToWHEALBuffInvisibility CounterSpellPAOEfearSeedoCScourge StrikeSTABuff (HoW)HEALSelf (DP)XMoveSlow (DT)XSTUNSealFireNovaBlinkCurseofTBlood StrikeShadowFiendLockpickingCleanseCure ToxinsRemCurseResistDBAnti-Magic ZoneCure DiseaseX

omg wall of text crit

[Katla]

My basic keys are these:

WASD = movement, Q = Attack, E = Follow / Assist, F = CC, G = Secondary Attack Button, H = Ground Target (AoE), G4 = IWT (Shops, Looting, Quest givers etc), B = Buff, NumPad + = Special Attack (FX Dancing Rune Weapon on my DKs).

There are other keys too ofcourse, but these are the very basic ones.

Katla

Edit: Hmmm, why doesn't it show that I use IS Boxer / Innerspace below my picture? Fix pls :D

[ElectronDF]

I have a Logitech G15 and LOVE it. I orginally made 3 macros and that is pretty much it. One for attack, one for heal and one for misc. I used 3 keys off the 4billion of the G15 for pretty much like a year. I added a few more, like mount, flying, eating (don't use it though), alts move forward, alts move back, accept all (wish I had learned to use that earlier), etc.

Then on each alts I just make a macro for attack (pretty much a castsequence), and put it on the bar that is mapped to the attack key. Then I pretty much hit only 1 key for any groups to attack. 1 key, 5 macros per group and bam, no thinking, no remembering, nothing. Just stuff blows up. Same with healing. Mostly for misc is pet classes send pets only (no attacking until in combat).

Everyone else makes things so complicated. But maybe that is why they move faster through progression than me. I just like to keep things simple and have fun. Maybe that is why I want to make my layout/playstyle simpler. One thing that I would not go without is my G15. You can pick anything that is close to it, but having keys that you can alway hit, no matter which group you are on is too nice.

For extra info, I have put in Leave Battleground on a key so everyone can leave the battleground at once. (/script LeaveBattlefield()---if I remember correctly) And leave group. It helps a lot with WG (leaving raid and forming my group back together). (/script LeaveParty() ) If I have those wrong, sorry, remembering from work.

[Dooz]

I use ISBoxer and Jamba. For Hardware I'm using a N52 and a Razer Naga. I don't use the keyboard for much anymore. With everyone in vent, theres no need to type in guild or party chats. On the N52 I have the keys set up like this:

http://members.cox.net/robbysurfs/N52setup.jpg

So the middle row is "1,2,3.4." Kind of like a keyboard has a "home row." This way it's just a small reach in either direction from the "Home Row." I have the alt key set to my push button, and ctrl, tab, shift on the 3 buttons in the first column. I set my "Naga Bars" up in a grid fashion, and have bound each button so they resemble my keys on each device. So I have a "no modifier" bar, an "alt" bar, and a "shift" bar. I use the ctrl function for my pets. Each grid has 4 columns and 3 rows. So my bars look something like this:

8 7 6 5
1 2 3 4
9 0 / i

a8 a7 a6 a5
a1 a2 a3 a4
a9 a0 a/ ai

s8 s7 s6 s5
s1 s2 s3 s4
s9 s0 s/ si

I have a grid set up for my naga as well. I use the numpad keys on my Naga. I don't cast any spells in combat with the naga. I do have my "Big" button tied to the Naga as well as my totem macros, jamba items, spread macros, summon pets, soulstones... etc. This bar looks like this:

n1 n2 n3
n4 n5 n6
n7 n8 n9
n0 n- n+

I do have some Naga keys tied to alt but those I use for click healing (vuhdo).

Whether I'm playing solo or boxing, every toon has this exact setup. When I play multiple classes together i.e. mage, lock, sham, druid... for PvE, I've found that dps click macros are the only sure way to keep each toon in its rotation. I have a dps click for trash, and a dps click for bosses (dps1, dps2). The boss dps key involves my cooldowns (trinkets, fire elementals... etc).

For PvP I have instants tied together, and I try to put AOE's together as well as cc's like sheep, hex, fear (on round robin). For the most part I have spells that are similar in cast time bound to the same key. Some examples of this are when I run my lock and mage together I'll have cone of cold, and shadowflame tied to the same key; when I run my shammies with my druid, I'll put my knockbacks on the same key (on round robin). Sometimes I have to give a spell its own key.

In the end, it's the virtual representation on the action bars of my keys on my game pad and mouse that keeps me sane.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I'm very similar to others, in that I have a few basic keys that cover all teams with similar actions, and then I have the rest just wherever.

1-6 = heals based on [@party1], etc. so I'm always healing/decursing the right toon based on the party bars.
V = normal DPS spam
G = oh shit DPS spam
H = major offensive cooldown stacking
Y = major defensive cooldown stacking
Z = round-robin CC
X = alternate CC or other offensive specialty spell
C = mass AoE _OR_ round-robin AoE CC (depending on team)
Q = trinket or other anti-CC
R = cleanse/purge/etc.
W = IWT
B = daily quest items, quest mounts, etc.
E = move forward on main toon, /follow on slaves
D/F/A/S = left right strafe/backward/sit
SHIFT+G = long-cooldown or proc-based offensive moves
SHIFT+R = long-cooldown or specialty defensive moves and AoE oh-shit taunts
SHIFT+V = targeted AoE (rain of fire, blizzard, bombs, targeted dailies, etc.)
J/alt+J = mount/dismount
CTRL+= = hearth/LFGTeleport()
-/= = drink/eat
NUMPAD keys = specialty macros, like the mounted setup for the last boss in Occulus.

You can ignore the specific keys (mine are all based around my left hand always being on the home row by default) and just worry about the classes of abilities. With a bit of knowledge of macro writing (tons of examples already) you can stack a lot of things on a few keys to make them easily accessible. Some things you'll want on single/dedicated keys because you don't want to have to think as much about them, such as healing your party. Sure, fancy schmancy clickboxes mean you don't have to spend the time doing macros but I prefer doing that sort of thing with a more reliable keystroke. It's all about putting the important stuff on keys you are comfortable with accessing in the heat of battle without as much conscious distraction.