Turning with mouse vs Keyboard - MB perspective

[Owltoid]

Ah, the age old debate that usually has one clear winner. I used to be a keyboard turner (played since release). When I finally started getting serious about PvP (season 1-2 of arena) I went through the painstaking process of relearning to play using the mouse to turn. For solo PvP it is the clear winner.

I'm currently debating going through the painful process and relearning to be a keyboard turner for multiboxing.

Why?

Click to heal, different click to tell a different slave to do something else, clicking on an enemy portrait (in arena for example) so have the slaves cast something specific at that target, etc. I'm starting to wonder if I can get a ton more mileage out of having my mouse free from turning and just losing the two easy to access keybinds, "a" and "d" (which are currently keybound to certain spells since I use the mouse to turn). Using HKN and defined key clicking areas I feel like I could control my slaves actions a ton more, but I need to not rely on the mouse for my movement.

Let me repeat myself... I know mouse turning is the best way if you're playing one toon. The question is, what is the best way if you're multiboxing?

[Rocky Rhode]

Get one.....

Razer announces the Naga MMO mouse

[Freddie]

Using HKN and defined key clicking areas...

This is a bit of a tangent to the thread but just wanted to mention, over the last few days, HotkeyNet gained a much easier way to do this. The new feature is called "buttons." With one simple command you create a button. With another you assign a hotkey to it. That's the whole thing.

Sorry for interrupting your thread.

[Zzyzxx71]

I agree - I'm a hardware junky and cannot for the life of me imagine how having a miniature numberpad under my thumb would be effective...

Of course I have to bring back the old standby picture whenever people ask about movement via mouse...

Go go MX Revolution...

[Owltoid]

This is a bit of a tangent to the thread but just wanted to mention, over the last few days, HotkeyNet gained a much easier way to do this. The new feature is called "buttons." With one simple command you create a button. With another you assign a hotkey to it. That's the whole thing.

Sorry for interrupting your thread.

Wow, this is great news! I'll definitely check it out. There are about 15 things I want to upgrade in my playstyle, and HKN is responsible for the majority. Now if I could just find the time to actually play...

[Gadzooks]

Ah, the age old debate that usually has one clear winner. I used to be a keyboard turner (played since release). When I finally started getting serious about PvP (season 1-2 of arena) I went through the painstaking process of relearning to play using the mouse to turn. For solo PvP it is the clear winner.

I'm currently debating going through the painful process and relearning to be a keyboard turner for multiboxing.

Why?

Click to heal, different click to tell a different slave to do something else, clicking on an enemy portrait (in arena for example) so have the slaves cast something specific at that target, etc. I'm starting to wonder if I can get a ton more mileage out of having my mouse free from turning and just losing the two easy to access keybinds, "a" and "d" (which are currently keybound to certain spells since I use the mouse to turn). Using HKN and defined key clicking areas I feel like I could control my slaves actions a ton more, but I need to not rely on the mouse for my movement.

Let me repeat myself... I know mouse turning is the best way if you're playing one toon. The question is, what is the best way if you're multiboxing?

For me, mouse turning is still the way to go - all of my slaves are controlled by either /follow, /interact with target, or /assist. I have the strafe keys rebound to sidestep to get a formation, everything else is on a keybind. I don't mouse click anything during a fight, outside of fights I have things like portals and ressing and things like that I can tab to the window to click.

Here's what I do:

Run up, get where I want my casters. Hit "q" to get a formation, they break follow. If needed, I manually place slaves.

Pally then runs to her position, throws shield, commence firing on 1 (everyone is on a /click macro). She is free to kite the mob, keep aggro, move it away if it has a nasty AOE or whirl attack - and I can keep up the dps by pressing 1 the whole time I'm moving. If I lose aggro, I can snap back and get it. Very few fights now, it seems to me, are ones where you can pick a spot and stay there the whole time - Moorabi in DK, maybe. Places like Halls of Stone, standing still is death.

If the mob and I move far enough away, or I lose LOS for the casters due to terrain, hit "f" for follow, they reform, I position them, hit q, off we go again. If there are adds I need to pick up, I need the fastest reaction time to get them before they eat my priest's face. I often need to spam heals while moving around, too.

It's just better for positioning the mob, especially bosses - like in UK, you want to keep the final boss's back to your slaves as much as possible, so you have to kite the guy to do it. With all that I'm doing now with my tank, mouse steering just isn't going to cut it, the reaction time is just too low - if I need to get out of the way, the s l o w keyboard turning means I'm gonna get critted or dotted or slammed.

If your main is a caster, I guess you could keyboard turn, I just can't imagine boss fights without the ability to move - and move fast, especially later on in the game when you have a mob or a boss bouncing around on aggro, and trying to pick it up mouse turning, or with the AOE effects the game throws at you.

Your slaves should not be mouse clicking. You should set your keybinds so you can use your keyboard hand to do everything, while your mouse controls your main/tank.

Very much my opinion, your results may vary.

[Owltoid]

While I agree with your comments from a PvE perspective, Gadzooks, I'm not sure the same holds true in PvP. Sorry, I wasn't very specific in my original post that I'm mostly concentrating on PvP.

I'm thinking about rolling a lock team and it would be nice to just be able to click on enemy portraits (in arena) and have all locks put a DoT on that target depending on which mouse button was clicked. Same thing with healing. While in PvE I use my numberpad for healing, that takes away my turning ability since I currently turn using the mouse... so it's currently a choice between stopping to heal or moving away. if I had keyboard turning back on then I could use the mouse to click on portraits to send heals while turning with the keyboard (mainly talking about druid HoTs).

[Otlecs]

what is the best way if you're multiboxing?

I'm not really sure why people feel the need to tie themselves exclusively to one particular method.

Both when boxing and soloing (my main is a raid healer) I swap fairly smoothly between the methods as needed. You can't strafe on the mouse, for a start, and if you're trying to pick up a target with the mouse but need to keep moving, you're going to struggle if you're only used to mouse movement.

The "best", then, is to be proficient at both, whether for PvE or PvP

[wowphreak]

Hmmm I use the mouse to turn around but the keyboard to move, got use to this from quake/cs.
using the keyboard to move forward/back and to strafe left and right then use the mouse to turn.

But I like to switch that to having the mouse to do all the movement

hmmm have to look into MX Revolution or something similar.

[Naysayer]

I'm not really sure why people feel the need to tie themselves exclusively to one particular method.

Both when boxing and soloing (my main is a raid healer) I swap fairly smoothly between the methods as needed. You can't strafe on the mouse, for a start, and if you're trying to pick up a target with the mouse but need to keep moving, you're going to struggle if you're only used to mouse movement.

The "best", then, is to be proficient at both, whether for PvE or PvP

^^this



I use both. You need to be able to turn your alt's during a cast imo.