keybindings
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Landmark contest winners enshrined in game world
The vaunted Landmarks of Landmark Competition is over, and the player architects who out-designed the rest have secured a spot in special claims across the game world. These structures will be retained for and used when the game goes live. The contest winners' displays are one part of a modest-sized patch for Landmark that was released today. The patch also added customizable keybindings, Marketplace recommendations, and new craftable outfits that come in various colors (mmm... minty).
Warlords of Draenor: New UI introduced for keybinds
I've been messing around in the Warlords alpha, but I'm afraid I haven't gotten very far in actual gameplay, largely because I keep getting sucked into the UI and the subtle changes that have been made. The latest change is a small one, but incredibly welcome -- the keybinding interface has gotten a small revamp. Instead of scrolling through one very long list, keybinds have been broken up into sections, and players can simply choose which section they want to work with. Once you've chosen the appropriate section, functions are clearly labelled to choose from. Just click on the keybinding you want to change, and press the appropriate keys you want the function bound to -- the same as it functions right now. There aren't really any major changes in regards to the keys you can bind, it's the same list. The layout has simply been refined and rearranged into something that is much easier to look at, and easier to use. Given the customization capabilities of so many addons out there, this new layout may not be of use to everyone. But if you, like me, are sick of scrolling through a seemingly endless list of options in one small panel in order to keybind one function, your days of being irritated are almost over.
Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play my SWTOR class?
I understand what some Star Wars: The Old Republic players are seeking when they ask how I play my class. They want to play the game better! If they ask me, specifically, then they want to play a Marauder better. I like these guys, and I welcome any questions they have. The other kind of SWTOR player who asks how I play my class looks for the faults in my playstyle. Well, there are many of them, but that doesn't mean that some of my choices are completely bad. And like most players, I didn't learn how to play my class completely on my own. I am, like most of you, an amalgam of several different teachers. Today, I'd like to take a moment not to look at the specific ways I play a Marauder (although I might use the Marauder as an example) but to examine methods for learning and elicit tips from players who are damn good at playing MMOs.
Razer unveils redesigned Naga MMO mouse
Razer has just revealed the newest edition of its MMO-centric Naga gaming mouse. Changes to the peripheral range from big to small: the 12-key thumb grid is receiving mechanical keys that are easier to access and a slight redesign, the mouse wheel now features tilt-clicking, and the interchangeable body pieces of the Naga 2013 have been replaced by a one-size-fits-all design. Also new with this edition of the Naga is an in-game configuration tool that allows users to set keybindings to the device directly from the game of their choosing. The tech specs look like this: 19 programmable buttons, 8200 DPI 4G sensor, green LED backlighting, 7-foot braided cable, and 1000Hz ultrapolling. Perhaps most interesting: Razer is releasing both right-handed and left-handed versions of the new Naga. Our own Eliot Lefebvre is taking a run with the updated mouse and will be reporting his findings here once he's put it through its paces. [Source: Razer press release]
How to key-bind your retribution paladin
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions! There are few things more frustrating while playing video games than being unable to control your character properly. In select cases this can be due to some fault in the game itself, but more often than not it tends to be a hardware malfunction. I had an increasingly difficult time playing Halo 3 when I would whip my controller at the wall in a blind rage every time someone would counter-snipe me just when I found a particularly good perch. Recently though, my troubles have been with my mouse. My Logitech G500 has served me well for a few years but countless hours of furious clicking in games like Diablo III and Torchlight II have taken their toll. After some careful deliberation I decided to get the G500's older brother, the Logitech G600. I felt, playing as much WoW as I do these days, investing in a self-proclaimed "MMO mouse" would be sensible. When I got the mouse and unboxed it, however, I was not prepared for just how many buttons this thing has. I sat with my spellbook open trying to find the most reasonable arrangement of keybinds for longer than I care to admit. Eventually I settled on a group of binds that I'm slowly but surely getting accustomed to, though not before I "misclick" and toss a Hand of Protection on a hunter. This week I'd like to go over keybinds, discussing some general tips and going over two different schemes that I've used that hopefully some of you will find useful (unless you're left-handed, in which case I apologize that these tips may not be all that helpful for your sinister situation). If you have another setup you'd like to share, please do!
3 skills to improve your Arena performance
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. One thing I'm asked fairly regularly is the following: What can I do to improve in Arena? My usual response is a slew of questions. First, how much resilience do you have? I've spoken about this in past articles, so I won't harp on about it here. The second question is simply do you practice? Again, as I've mentioned, practice makes perfect. That is really the most important thing you can do to make yourself a better player in the Arena, so take every opportunity. Even on my healers, I generally fly around on my non-PvP realm with PvP switched on. I'm not going to be able to kill anyone of my own level, but I might get some practice surviving! But this week I'm looking to be a little more specific for you, and we're going to talk about some skills or gameplay styles or whatever you'd prefer to call them. If you can incorporate them into your gameplay, chances are you'll improve in Arena. Obviously, in order to incorporate them, what are you going to need to do? Practice, of course! So, what first? Let's talk movement. Movement in PvP is much more subjective and situational than in PvE. It's not just a case of getting out of bad; positioning and movement can win and lose battles. If you're being chopped up by a paladin with a big sword, you want to be moving away; if you're being zapped by casters, you want to do your best to be using line of sight to your advantage.
The Light and How to Swing It: Keybinding to streamline your tanking
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. Last week, I touched on how to evaluate your tanking performance via logs. One of the major points of that column was to check out your efficiency with Crusader Strike, also known as the heartbeat of the protection paladin rotation. One of the best ways to improve yourself in that aspect of tanking (along with a host of other aspects) is through the generous use of keybinding. It's an age-old debate -- clickers vs. keybinders -- but in the end, keybinding is probably the most momentous step you can take to bring your A-game to a boss fight. Adopting this tecnique will pay major dividends to your rotational efficiency, survivability, and response times.
Behind the Mask: The Art of War, tanking edition
Recently, my girlfriend told me that Behind the Mask hasn't had enough "fun" articles lately. What is "fun," anyway? And why is my girlfriend nerdy enough to actually understand what CON and PRE are? She doesn't even play Champions Online! However, I did promise this week I'd do an article on CO tanking techniques. It'll include very little on specific powers and more on how to use those specific powers. I had a video guide planned, but my project file got corrupted. Hopefully the information presented here is enough for you to get a good idea of what to do. One key element of of my techniques is that they are heavily geared toward a character with Acrobatics. If you do not have Acrobatics, you are at a massive disadvantage compared to a tank who does. In-battle mobility is extremely important for a tank!
Blood Sport: How to make a new character for PvP, part 3
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Please check out the last two articles on how to make a new character for PvP, part 1 and part 2. Those articles discuss trying to narrow down which class is right for you before you play it at 85. We all have that friend who levels an alt up to max level expecting to play on it forever and ever, only to abandon it two weeks later. Don't be that guy! This week, we'll be discussing the most efficient and arguably logical ways of bringing you up to speed on a new character. Keybinds, leveling strategy, and gearing up are important aspects of any class and three of the major traps new altoholics can fall into, especially for PvP.
Blood Sport: A guide to PvP keybinding
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Listening Music: Radiohead's The King of Limbs. How could I not post a brand new album from the greatest band on earth? Many (if not most) high-caliber PvPers will speak poorly of players who click in arena or battlegrounds. Keybinds are a tool that many newer players do not take advantage of -- much to their detriment, since keybindings allow the PvPer to keep the focus where it belongs: on the battle at hand. However, even seasoned gladiators can improve their keybinds by changing the specific keybinds of individual abilities. I have my own personal way of assigning keybinds to class abilities that I want to share with you today. Don't worry, I have lots of color-coordinated pictures via the magical wonders of Microsoft Paint. Want a taste?
Interact with target keybind gets you past players atop NPCs
Have you been frustrated with all of the dragons and mammoths sitting atop your vendors and quest NPCs? If you're like every other WoW player in history, the answer to that question is yes. It happens in every content patch and in every expansion. Every crucial NPC is completely obscured. Luckily, back in patch 3.1, Blizzard added the ability to set an "Interact With Target" keybind, which few players seem to know about. To set this keybind, bring up World of Warcraft's main Options menu (hitting Escape will bring it up), go to the Key Bindings menu, scroll down to Targeting Functions, and you should be able to find the option easily. You can also set an Interact With Mouseover key bind if you so choose. If you've never customized your key bindings before, be careful about the key you choose to bind to these functions. You don't want to overwrite other crucial keybinds accidentally. Once your Interact With Target key is set, you no longer need to worry about crowds or mammoths. Just /target who you want to interact with and hit the appropriate key. It will bring up the dialogue prompt, and you're set. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
The Art of War(craft): Keybinding your way to winning form
Zach only has one key bound on his keyboard: the I WIN button. Welcome to WoW Insider's weekly PvP column, The Art of War(craft), focusing on good, old-fashioned PvP. Last week, we discussed a few pointers on how to continue your winning ways on the battlefield. We talked about how your machine and connection will help give you a competitive edge, and we also briefly touched on how other playstyle improvements such as macros and keybindings will contribute to your game. Keybinding, quite simply, is using your keyboard keys (or mouse buttons) to activate your spells and abilities, as opposed to clicking on them with your cursor. If there is any bad habit at all that you need to break, it's clicking. It's an even graver gaming sin than keyboard turning. In fact, learning how to keybind can effectively prevent you from keyboard turning. By default, the game has set the W, A, S, D keys as forward, turn left, backward and turn right, respectively. Keyboard turning means you use the A and D keys (or any keyboard keys set to rotate) to change direction. You can easily remedy this by unbinding the A and D keys and binding them to the strafe buttons instead. Head on to the game menu by pressing the Esc key (instead of clicking on the computer icon on your bar -- isn't that much faster?) and going to the Key Bindings section. You'll see that World of Warcraft actually allows for two different sets of keys or instructions for movement and other game commands. In most cases, you'll only really need one set.
Wasteland Diaries: Take a hint
In the past, I've written guides to help new Fallen Earth players. Most of the information I put in these guides is common knowledge. I have compiled a list of things one should know about playing Fallen Earth, whether one is a brand new clone or a grizzled veteran of the wastes. This guide is different because it isn't really a guide at all, just a compilation of advice. Most of this stuff may not help you, but I can assure you, at least one of these bits of wisdom will be of use to you. Essentially, I have compiled a list of useful hints, tips and tricks that I think every player should know. Some of them might evoke a facepalm from the veterans, and some might make life easier for a new player, but you will learn something. So without any further ado, proceed past the cut and prepare to be enlightened.
Behind the Mask: First look at pet update
Two weeks ago, we looked at some basic needed changes for Champions Online's pet masters. The first pet patch has finally hit the test server, and quite a bit of what was suggested happened. My prediction that the devs would do something completely different and strange has held true, and anyone familiar with most of the previous pet powers is likely to be thrown for a loop. In this issue of Behind the Mask, we take a look at the new face of pets, including their new energy and rank up mechanics. All of the stuff thus far is in a wide state of flux, so while I will make little comments on where the balance is right now, we can expect that to change quite a bit in the coming weeks.
The Light and How to Swing It: How to keybind your holy paladin
Every Sunday, Chase Christian of The Light and How to Swing It invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. This week, we discuss the proper way to set up keybindings for your holy paladin. I was in a raid a few nights ago with a newer holy paladin healing alongside me. We were fighting Blood Queen Lana'thel, and a friendly shadow priest blessed me with a Fear Ward. As soon as the AoE fear phase came, I was immediately pressing my Cleanse macro to save the healers. I managed to dispel 3 of the fears in 4 seconds, including the other paladin. After the fight, he asked me how I was able to click on his unit frame and click Cleanse before the fear was over. He had no idea that you could cast a spell on someone without them targeted. I've talked about holy paladin addons before, and touched on the importance of using mouseovers to minimize your reaction times. It's true that addons can improve your performance and that they're important in squeezing every last drop of healing out of your paladin. However, there's something even more basic that needs to be in place first-- keybindings. No matter how fast a player is at clicking, it's simply impossible have the same reaction times as a player who is using their keyboard to activate their abilities. In addition, having your spells bound to the keyboard will make your addons and macros even more potent, as you'll be able to combine the two for the optimum healing setup.
The magical alchemy of mouseovers plus a Razer Naga
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Healers have one of the more ambiguous roles in the World of Warcraft. DPS players mostly thrive by topping the damage meters, using the most optimal rotations, glyphs, etc. Tanks enjoy a form of tunnel vision where their task is ever so straightforward and clear. A healer, however, must keep watch on a whole group of individuals, react to their choices and keep the game itself from defeating them. The worst kind of healer will select one, two or possibly three go-to spells to spam often and early. This player will use healing meters as a measure of success and frequently use them to lay the blame on others when things don't work out. The best kind of healer uses a wide array of abilities at exactly the time required. He conserves mana, keeps everyone alive and even contributes to the raid's overall DPS when possible. The best kind of healer isn't simply the reason you lived; rather, they're the reason things went smoothly. Many healers rely on mods as they strive for this goal. Healbot, for example, creates a special frame for click-casting. It assigns certain spells to certain mouse buttons by default, making healing a breeze. The chief limitation of Healbot, however, is the link to physical buttons on a mouse and the lack of native support for more than five of them. Without keyboard mods, a Healbot healer is restricted to no more than five heals that are ready at a moment's notice. This player will also need a fair bit of practice to get beyond the defaults of "left click, little heal; right click, big heal." Memory plays a role, as Healbot does little to notify you visually of which keys do which action, especially once you've sized the bars down to the point that you can view the entire raid.
WoW Rookie: Effective movement and camera use
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide. Does your numbskull pet always seem to come between you and the object of your affectionate (or not-so-affectionate) clicking? How can you get turned around and react more effectively when something smacks you from behind while you're drinking up? Wouldn't it be nice to see something besides your own rear end? And speaking of which, is it your camera angle or do you think your character been putting on a few extra pounds? What you need, my friends, is better movement and camera controls. As the challenges and skill level ratchets up over the levels, clunkier styles of viewing your game field and moving your character may eventually cause you to fall behind the performance curve. Our advice: Find out what the best practices are, and then try them out sooner rather than later. Let's face it, changing the way you see and move around the game world can be completely disorienting. You feel as if you're starting all over again, just learning the controls. (Bottom line: It's true. You are.) But the payoff is more efficient, more effective play that ultimately makes your character more enjoyable to play.
SteelSeries WoW mouse gets new functionality
Long after its initial release, which saw the mouse come under fire for its dubious EULA-breaking built-in functionality, WoWVault at IGN reports that the Steelseries World of Warcraft mouse has received a functional upgrade in that players can now "bind all 15 buttons without leaving the game." Patch 3.2.2 introduced a new interface for the mouse, which allows for the creation and customization of macros and key bindings from within the game, and assigned to different character profiles. The game now recognizes the mouse buttons as completely new and unique buttons, adding more buttons to augment players' normal keyboard buttons. This should make the mouse completely usable out of the box for all players without fear of breaking the game's end-user policies, as opposed to how it was when it first shipped as it took advantage of disallowed automated and timed scripts. The Steelseries website notes that players can "achieve faster response time(s) by customizing (their) mouse setup in-game and thereby removing a layer of software." It was this "layer of software" outside the game that delivered commands to the mouse and conflicted with the game's policies. So fear not, players! The Steelseries WoW mouse is now completely EULA-compliant! I mean, it still kind of looks like a robotic turtle, but at least it won't get you banned from the game anymore.
[1.Local]: In which He-Man and Eddie get pwned
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.Sometimes it's the smallest details that people grow attached to. Take, for instance, this note that came in on the news tip line from a dejected reader named Brian. Brian and his compatriots are lamenting a dearly departed Battlemaster - one who seemed strangely reminiscent of a certain Eternian prince.Subject: Adam Eternum is MISSINGSome time around patch 3.2, all the Battlemasters in Shattrath were changed. Gone is Adam Eternum, with his smashing magical loincloth and Gnome sidekick.Instead we have, as a royally ticked-off guildie puts it (after having downed several stiff drinks in despair), "Shome Draenei hussy ... hic!" My guild here on Ysera, at least, has gone into mourning.Oh where, oh where has Prince Adam has gone? Find out what else readers have been mourning or celebrating this week - plus peek at an internal WoW.com team e-mail in which Hunter columnist Eddie Carrington gets soundly pwned - after the break.
Keybindings and how to change them
Xella has a great post over at WoW LJ about keybindings, and it got me thinking. I play with what I thought was the "standard" way -- with the left hand sitting on the home fingers of Shift, A, W, D, and the spacebar, and then jumping up to the 1-6 (or further down the number line if necessary, though truth be told, I usually mouse-click those when I have the time to do so) to hit various abilities. But xella does it very differently -- she maps her fingers to the top abilities keys, using only her ring finger for movement. I would probably never have come up with that on my own (my habits come directly from FPS games, where the 1-6 keys are mostly for weapon switching, something you don't do quite as often as casting abilities), but it does make a lot of sense, even if xella says her ring finger, with all of those movement motions, is getting somewhat worn out.And then she hits on something else I've been dealing with lately, too: changing what you've got. Setting up your keybinds is one thing, but actually changing them can be tougher.
