One of the important things most people tend to overlook is their own key bindings. It’s very easy to get used to some terrible key bindings just like how it’s very easy to get addicted to smoking, both are bad habits and both are hard to change.

There are 2 KEY issues to consider when binding for Arena.

Key issue 1: Key spells/abilities interfering with movement.

Assuming you move normally with your fingers, A W D would be your primary movement keys (please avoid back pedaling with S). This requires your index, ring and middle finger doing most the work, leaving your pinky and thumb used for modifier keys (shift, ctrl, alt). Because the nature of the game, A and D are used the most during movement while spamming primary attacks. Which means your middle finger will be the one that’s free during combat - considering there are alternative ways for moving forward like auto-run or holding down both mouse buttons. If you play around with your middle finger a little bit, you’ll notice that in order to stay in “form” with A and D both under your ring and index finger, your middle finger can only comfortably reach 2 and 3. So how many of you still have your main attack bound to 1? Or age old-expired ability like Eviscerate still bound to 2? Well I too was in that situation not too long ago…

When Shiv was introduced the Rogue class, it was quite late in our Rogue career. Unlike Warriors whose been using Hamstring since level 8, Rogues didn’t have this spamability until 70! That means most of us(unless you were brilliant and planned way ahead) really didn’t have a place on our keyboard for it from the whole journey of 1-60, and 60-69. It’s no wonder some Rogues end up putting Shiv on an awkward binding like… Shift+E (that’s me!). Unfortunately, I was able to get used to this binding before heading for S1 Arena. It wasn’t until early S3 when Mattyo constantly barraged me with verbal harassment whenever I failed to stick on a Druid did I finally break this habit. Looking back, there would have been dozens of games we could have won, had my Shiv been a less of an interference with my movement (especially during Sprint). So the lesson? Bind your primary attack and snare to 2 and 3.

What about interrupts? Those are one of the most important key if not the most important for some classes. Now again we go back to our hand. Which finger has the highest dexterity and speed? The inventors of mouse have already answered this for us, your index finger is by far the fastest and most accurate in execution. Using this logic, it’s only smart to bind something as important as spell interrupt to your index finger. Make a small circle with your index finger at the default D position and you’ll notice the choices are E, R or F.

Key issue 2: The dreaded push-to-talk key (voice communication).

Ever had a teammate who cuts off during the battle while communicating game breaking information? It’s most likely that person is a victim of the push-to-talk key. Not only does this problem interferes with your game play, it could also cause someone to fail communicating effectively or even drop to a mute during key moments.

Although the best option is to create a hands free environment, this simply isn’t an option for the most of us. Too often are the push-to-talk key bound to restrict your abilities. Modifier keys such as shift, ctrl, alt all puts a huge restrain on your hand movement (hold one down yourself and try to move your hand around), and binding it to the middle mouse click can sometimes interfere with target selection or camera. If you kept yourself updated with modern computer ware, you should have 1 or 2 keys on your mouse placed nicely under your thumb. I have found them to be the most effective keys for voice communication as I can hold them down for long periods of time without fear of hindering or interrupt my game play.

Now I know most of you are already very used to as well as comfortable with your current key bindings, but if you want to take your competitive Arena gaming to the next level, your key bindings would be the first place to look at.

Tags: General · Articles

27 Responses to “Correct Key Bindings - Killing a Bad Habit”

1. Realitate Says:
   March 20th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

   My shiv is Shift + E too but there is no issue with interfering with movement keys… strafe left is ‘A’ and strafe right is ‘D’. I use Q and E for other abilities. My ‘2′ key is my primary atk. My ‘3′ key is KS. My kick key is ‘f’, and blind is shift ‘r’. So most of the stuff you write in this article, I have bound already. Except, my Push to talk key; it is left ctrl. yes i know, that is horrible, I can’t use the mouse (side) button cause vanish is already bound to it. I guess I could use Skype instead of vent…

2. Deadx Says:
   March 20th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

   another good read, I never started using shiv until s2 because I wasn’t really into the pvp scene but now, I have it on Mouse Button 4, and everything else is fine for me.

3. Winter Says:
   March 20th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

   Z X C V
   and Shift-(Z X C V) are all my instant attacks as they don’t require me to take my middle three fingers of their movement keys as you should always be moving with instant attacks (Mage). My interrupt is scroll forward. Cast spells that don’t require me to move are keys like Q and E. A nice big “Oh Shit” button is Tab (iceblock for mage, Divine shield for Pally).

4. Northwave Says:
   March 21st, 2008 at 1:53 am

   My main is a shaman and when i first rolled him like a year and a half ago i made my key bindings i just bound pretty much the whole damn keyboard because of how off all the spells i have. It works pretty well for him, all my quick reaction spells like grounding, es, etc. are easy to hit while more situational ones like FR are out of the way and pve spells like GoA are just clicked if i ever have to use it. I don’t feel i need to strafe on him, i have the 180 -> FR -> 180 out down perfectly if i need to kite.

   My other char is a rogue and i’m getting decent enough gear right now to start having fun in the arena. Since i’m used to my shammy i have keyboard layed out pretty much the same way. I still use only mouse turning and have no strafes bound. 1 is stealth and then all my stealth moves are bound to the number keys. when i’m out of stealth i have my trinkets and spec spells like AR or Prep and healthstone if im with a lock. Q is auto W is evis E is R is shiv T is SS or hemo and y is kick.
   with out going thru the rest of my spells they are all laid out in the next 2 rows under, A-G and Z-N. I dont use any modifiers on my rogue either.

   Didn’t mean for such a long post but any feed back on using strafe instead of only mouse turning and if you think your guy’s style of keybinding would be more efficient would be awesome

5. Celimos Says:
   March 21st, 2008 at 3:08 am

   Since we rarely backpedal i use ASD instead of AWD for movement, it frees W for the main spam attack and if you hold your hand a bit higher over the keyboard your middle finger can easily reach WE and 23. For the push-to-talk i use the keypad minus, kinda awkward but i can use my right hand thumb and still use my mouse decently yet it’s probably a bad habit.

   One good keybinding i’ve read is moving the left hand one key to the right so you end up using SDF for movement, that way your pinky still has access to the modifiers but it now easily have access to Q and A (and maybe Z). Plus you can use the mark on the F key to always be sure your index is resting on the right key, i guess a missclick already happened to all of us.

6. quidnunc Says:
   March 21st, 2008 at 5:49 am

   there are lots of good ways to bind, some probably better or worse depending on your hands

   for example, thumb doesn’t necessarily need to be for jump. the left, right, and down buttons on my mouse scrollwheel were a little too unreliable for separate functions so I bound all three to jump (typically push the button in the same direction the mouse is moving), freeing up my thumb to press many buttons above space, and reuse space. space or buttons accessible to the thumb near space are kind of nice because the other fingers don’t need to leave the movement keys

   the side buttons on mice are also good for frequently used stuff, though not so much for spells that will be spammed (hard to press the button fast while maintaining effective camera control)

   most important with binding is matching your spells to the most efficient buttons. movement and access to abilities will be hindered if it’s difficult to get to a button, due to poor positioning or hidden under a control key (shift, alt, ctrl). the first day should be about comparing alternative binds before practicing to set the mental map

   other random ideas that might help are to bind autorun to an easy to access key, that way movement fingers are a little more free to use instants depending on the circumstances

7. quidnunc Says:
   March 21st, 2008 at 6:04 am

   “any feed back on using strafe instead of only mouse turning”

   not sure if I understand what you’re asking, but imo, turn keys should be rebound to strafe since you already use the mouse to turn. the best possible movement is mouse+strafe

   if you need to use turn when channeling/casting without moving the camera you can use a modifier on the keys bound to strafe (just make sure it’s a lesser used modifier). keyboard turning will be rarely desirable so you don’t want it taking up good keys

8. Ive Says:
   March 21st, 2008 at 6:55 am

   I have been using ESDF movement instead of WASD for a long time and I think it works great. You can reach all your modifiers(except left control, which I just bound to one of my mouse buttons) and 3 exra buttons. Also, to comment on what has been said about primary attacks being set to 23(or 34 with my setup) I find it’s actually more comfortable to set them to W and R, where they can be reached by two fingers at any one time(although W is harder for me than R). I just think it gives you a little more flexibility in movement.

9. Edyfie Says:
   March 21st, 2008 at 7:19 am

   I copied happyminti a long time ago and use the thumb buttons on the mouse as strafe left and strafe right. That way my left hand is largely unencumbered by movement and I free up highly accessible keys for much-used abilities.

10. Infekted Says:
    March 21st, 2008 at 9:51 am

    I’ve bound my vent key to “Z” since its next, shift I can roll my pinky to press it. I also use my thumb to press “B, V, and C.”

11. Whocares Says:
    March 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am

    Kinda low on worthwhile content to write about, huh?

12. Your Mom Says:
    March 21st, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Personally, I move exclusively with my mouse. I binded middle to strafe right, one of the side buttons to strafe left (other is push to talk). Left and right at the same time to move forward, right to steer in conjunction with strafes.

    It’s so hands-down superior in speed and accuracy I’m surprised anybody would keyboard move outside if targeting. Seems kinda silly to try to use the keyboard in conjunction with the mouse, when you can do it all through the mouse.

    By doing this, in addition to getting much better movement, you also free up your hand for keybindings. Personally, I use 1-6 and QWERTY, with alt, shift, and cntrl on them since its easily accessible with my left hand.

13. Satellite Says:
    March 21st, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Go play an FPS if you want to learn how to use buttons…

14. Elimp Says:
    March 21st, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    I just want to point out that there is a big difference in camerausage if you are a training or trained class. I realice that a rogue can use left and right mouse for movement, while spamming 2. But as a healer (druid) I try to look at whoever chasing me, my teamates and where im going, while using one of my two main “on the run” spells (yes lifebloom and travelform).

    I can’t move forward with my two mousebuttons so using 2 as a mainspell, no thanks.

    Ziss: You’re right, I myself uses auto-run a lot so I usually don’t hold the 2 mouse buttons. On my Druid, travel form is bound to Q and lifebloom is bound to F, so yeah…

15. dagnabber Says:
    March 21st, 2008 at 4:33 pm

    mine are kinda jacked up but it does work for me

    i tried using shift but i kept missing it and would use the non modified button instead

    i have stealth as mm up, mm down is mount, first thumb is auto run, 2nd is blind

    i tried only moving with the move so i could keybind more but that didnt work me

    forward is F, back is V, strafe is D and G, no turning buttons and i put shiv at T, throw/deadly throw at R, E is slicendice

    B is hemo/cheapshot, H is evis/garrote, A is gouge, S is kick,
    W is ealth pot, Q is a healtstone macro, i could go on but the most important one to bind is 5 to trinket

    i do like the idea of using the thumb buttons as strafe, hhmmm

16. Inkind Says:
    March 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    My biggest problem is the push-to-talk. Right now it’s bound to my left alt, which is out of the way during casual play, but when things get hectic and I have to tab target, you can imagine what might happen… I could alt-tab out =/

    I’ve never met anyone (myself included) who can get Vent set up well enough to use the voice sensitivity options so that we don’t hear loud breathing all the time, so we all use push-to-talk. Being an affliction lock I have way too many other important keybindings set up already to replace one

17. Your Mom Says:
    March 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    Side mouse buttons. If you don’t have them, do yourself a favor and get a mouse with them.

18. Zhonya Says:
    March 23rd, 2008 at 12:30 am

    How the hell do people still keyboard turn. I only use my mouse to move and have W bound to autorun.

19. kirdie Says:
    March 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 am

    This was interesting but unfortunately not very applicable for a left - hander. Is there any one who is left handed and can give me tipps for my key bindings? I currently use WASD with my right hand at the moment, alt/strg as modifiers, yxcvbnm,.- and 1234… for my spells with q,e,r,h for my main spells and f for target switching, g for fokus and tab/caps/t/z/u (+shift)for targetting group (enemy) members. Is there a better method for me?

20. dagnabber Says:
    March 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 am

    wait, what?

    u use wasd with your Right hand?

    i would think u could use the numpad for all the keybindings and mousepad to move

    anything would seem better than playing with your arms crossed over

21. Saizo Says:
    March 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 am

    “It’s no wonder some Rogues end up putting Shiv on an awkward binding like… Shift+E”

    Wow, and I honestly thought I was the only one rofl…

    I still have alaways been able to stay on top of shivs and don’t really find the binding awkward for some reason.

    Oh, and for some really strange reason, I find it easier to spam main attack with it bound to 1, unlike most people who use 2, and it never got in the way of my rogues’ footwork.

22. Inkind Says:
    March 23rd, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    I have eight buttons on my mouse, including 2 on the side… do yourself a favor and assume a little intelligence on a stranger’s part.

    Anyway, I changed push-to-talk to caps lock and it works fine.

23. Marbac Says:
    March 30th, 2008 at 2:15 am

    best idea ever is to move with sefd instead of awds. This leaves a ton of keys on left.it takes time to get comfortable with it though..

24. Nea Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 12:41 am

    I always have my interrupt on my middle mouse button (=clicking the scroll wheel), it’s pretty good for reacting quickly.

    And oh, I don’t use push-to-talk in the Arena, I have to speak freely without worrying about a button. Vent and Team Speak have sensitivity options for voice activation.

25. Toward moving efficiently « I’d Rather Be Wowing! Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    […] moving efficiently I was reading this article, which basically highlight the need for a good keybinding, mostly for PVP purpose. That got me […]

26. lordjeremiahs Says:
    April 12th, 2008 at 7:52 am

    uhmm.. i have a question. i’m using the keybindings without addons but I don’t play in my house and thus playing in an internet cafe.. so everytime i log in, i have to remap my controls again. Is there a way to save a keybinding to my character or have a downloadable file that will save all your controls?

27. cafe world cheating Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    The information presented is top notch. I’ve been doing some research on the topic and this post answered several questions.

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