Key bindings are a bit intimidating - any advice?

[Krisco750]

Hey all,

I'm a complete newb to the multibox scene but I'm really interested. I am still tossing around whether or not I want to take the easier route and play a 5-shammy team or go with my Pally/Priest/3x Mage team. I'd prefer to have the latter, but I must say I'm a tad intimidated when trying to plan out how I'll bind my keys. I've played all these classes solo to 70 (with the exception of priest), so knowledge and mechanics isn't as much of an issue.

My plan is to handle the group like so: Main = Pally, Mages & Priest = support.

So I'm assuming what I'll be doing is picking up targets and what not with the paladin and using him to tank while I just call upon my backup slaves to toss out nukes and heals. In theory this sounds great, but I'm only at level 3 so far heh (spent a lot of time trying to figure out the basics, getting formations, follow macros, etc). Once I started trying to make sense of how I'd actually start to fill out my bars/macros my head started to hurt.

Right now I'm real simple, since I have no skills yet to speak of. I'm just walking up to mobs and auto-attacking with the pally and then I press "2" and boom, 3 fireballs = dead mob. However, I can see this getting complicated once I get further along. I guess my question to you vets out there is what kind of strategy do you use when planning out your keybindings? I'm so familiar with the "1-5 & alt 1-5 = main skills" mindset that I'm struggling with how to best lay things out.

As an example, I was going to set up my heal macros for the priest and I don't know where would be a good place to put them? I was thinking of having 1 button to heal each party member (until i get CoH) but if I need to get a heal off quick, having them far away form the 1-5 buttons would be a problem.

I have a G15 keyboard if that helps any. Hopefully my post made sense... brain's a bit fried as I've been up for way too many hours. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Nixi]

I ten boxed Kara and my head still hurts when it comes to bindings.

Basically get one main button setup that is your 'open fire' button that you spam over and over and put it someplace that is comfortable to mash. I use EDSF for movement so my pinky is really comfortable resting on 'A' and that is my 'open fire' button.

[note-don't copy/paste these macros, i'm writing them from memory not copying them from my game directory]

Button 1

Tank:
/castrandom holy shield, consecration(rank1),cleanse

DPS:
/cast [target=focustarget,exists,harm,nodead,nochanneling] Spell

Once your more comfortable using macros do a /castsequence instead so you use more abilities.

Priest:
/castrandom [target=focustargettarget,exists,help,nodead,nochan neling] Fear Ward,Prayer of Mending,Dispel Magic

Button 2

Then for most splash dmg my priest (or if i'm using shamans) just use their AOE heals.
/cast Prayer of Healing

Button 3
In raids I drive with my tank but i'm always moving my mouse over to my priest's screen to heal. I use:
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help,nodead,nochanneling] [target=focustargettarget,exists,nodead,help,nochan neling] Flash Heal

those 3 buttons should get you past 80% of the fights you'll face.

Enjoy!

[Sun]

yea my fire and forget is A...F for follow I bind those two on the last number bar...- and = place your assist macros on that spot for A and your follow macros on F
action bars...numbers
above that....F keys
to the right...alt F keys
inside Right BAR ...Shift F keys
far Right BAR........control + bottom row of keyboard

you can do just about anything your hearts desire from your keyboard using that keybindings...I am sure others have better setups..but I just tried to make mine as simple as possible.

lol...im sure the action bars have names on the keybind list but too lazy to look it up... ;(

[Syro]

Good stuff in here so far.

I'm working on a new thread and instructional video that'll contain exactly this stuff. Stay tuned! :p

[ElectronDF]

I use a Logitech G15 keyboard. I map the G keys to weird keys like CTRL-Numpad# and ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-A and so on, so I don't accidently hit them normally. Then I pass them to my alts and use Hotbar 8 that isn't used by anyone. I have about 3-4 places that I use for attack, heal, misc. Then I just make each attack macro to match that class or position. Same with heal and misc.

For example, my hunter has the option to off tank with his pet, so I put in a [combat] option on his attack, but send in pet first.
#showtooltip
/petattack [target=focus-target]
/castsequence [target=focus-target, combat] Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, !Auto Shot

My healer will bubble my tank during the pull (like .0001 secs before the tank gets to the mob), but also heal with increasing heals once in combat.
#showtooltip
/cast [target=tankname, nocombat] Power Word: Shield
/castsequence [target=focus-target-target, combat] reset=12 Renew, Flash Heal, Flash Heal, Power Word: Shield

So the idea is I only use about 3 keys normally, even when I do about 6 different actions.

On my same class groups, I have about 3 others since I usually do more things with them, other than just tank/spank. My shammies have the same 3 (attack, heal, misc), but also have 3 group things (chain attack, chain heal and misc2). My hunters have (stun attack, potion, misc2).

So hopefully you an use just a few keys to a lot of actions. Also if you make your macros more complex, you don't have to have seperate keys to do individual actions on each alt.

[Marathon]

Welcome to the Forums !!!

Yeah Keybind can be a bit intimidating. But the great thing about it is that it can be reset back to normal with just a click of the button. So play around with it and untill you find something that suits you. :thumbsup:

[Krisco750]

Wow - you guys rock! Thanks for the advice - I can't wait to get home and try to put some of this stuff in practice. Looking forward to that vid, Syro :)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I ten boxed Kara and my head still hurts when it comes to bindings.

Basically get one main button setup that is your 'open fire' button that you spam over and over and put it someplace that is comfortable to mash. I use EDSF for movement so my pinky is really comfortable resting on 'A' and that is my 'open fire' button.

[note-don't copy/paste these macros, i'm writing them from memory not copying them from my game directory]

Button 1

Tank:
/castrandom holy shield, consecration(rank1),cleanse

DPS:
/cast [target=focustarget,exists,harm,nodead,nochanneling] Spell

Once your more comfortable using macros do a /castsequence instead so you use more abilities.

Priest:
/castrandom [target=focustargettarget,exists,help,nodead,nochan neling] Fear Ward,Prayer of Mending,Dispel Magic

Button 2

Then for most splash dmg my priest (or if i'm using shamans) just use their AOE heals.
/cast Prayer of Healing

Button 3
In raids I drive with my tank but i'm always moving my mouse over to my priest's screen to heal. I use:
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help,nodead,nochanneling] [target=focustargettarget,exists,nodead,help,nochan neling] Flash Heal

those 3 buttons should get you past 80% of the fights you'll face.

Enjoy!This is a good start. I adopt a similar strategy.

Main attack button:
Pally = shield and /startattack Priest = PoMending/dispel/etc. DPS = /castsequence DPS rotation macroBuff button = just /castsequence it out so that you press it a few times and everyone self buffs/group buffs/whatever.
CC button = round robin sheep if on my mages; round robin fear/deathcoil on my locks; round robin earthbind totems on my shams
Heal main button = everyone that can heal casts a fast heal on my main (for druids/locks, I castsequence a renew or regrowth, followed by a fast-cast normal heal)
Heal target button = this one is my fall-through macro (focustarget, focustargettarget, targettarget, target, player; in that order)
Instant/burst attack button = this one casts my burst "DIE RIGHT NOW!" macros (e.g.: earthshock on my shams, fireblast on my mages, etc.)
Snare button = frost shock or something similar that prevents enemies from running away from me http://www.l00py.net/phpbb/images/smiles/sly.gif
Purge/debuff button = purges and/or dispels and/or applies debuffs to my target

Teh rest is tweaks to fit your playstyle. GL!

[daviddoran]

I do something similar. I just click cast with my tank, Trinity bars is nice for this, I made a 16 button 4x4 hotbar for all my tanking skills, (which I plan on separately keybinding later, maybe the numpad...) and use the regular hotbars for the alts. My healer is a pally, so I just have 1 button I mash, DPS attacking the main's target, and the healer, casting at the main's target's target, so he heals whoever has aggro. Works well enough, and I just mouse over to healbot if I want to do something more complex. I was thinking about setting up 10 buttons (I REALLY need an xkeys...) 5 for small heals by party member, and 5 for big heals by party member, with stopcasting macros, etc. Raid healing, not sure how i'm gonna do it, other than the main FoL spam button.

I used to be a pally healer, and it really is just whack-a-mole, spamming the same button, occasionally healing someone else for splash damage. I really didn't need to do much else, as I was always in kara runs with fairly well geared folk, who just wanted badges/having fun.

I have warlocks, so it's pretty easy to have a one button cast sequence mashing button for primary DPS. I still need to put a few spells on separate bars, so I can do all my instant DoTs on multiple targets before going all out on the main target. (Pally tank makes this easy as he never loses aggro with consecration on.)