Blood Sport: A guide to PvP keybinding
by C. Christian Moore 
Feb 22nd 2011 at 7:00PM
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?
The above picture is how the hand rests on the keyboard when the majority of WoW players play the game -- index finger on the D key, middle finger on the W key, ring finger on the A key, with a "roaming pinky." Many first-person shooter enthusiasts are very familiar with this type of hand positioning.
Keyboard turning versus strafing
The red keys are what players normally use to move with (that is, movement keys). When you first download WoW, the arrow keys on the right hand side of your keyboard as well as the W, A, S, D, Q, and E keys move you around.
The Q and E keys are used for strafing (keeping your camera facing forward while your character moves left or right), while the A and D keys are used for turning (something your mouse is perfectly capable of).
Most high-rated PvPers use the A and D keys to strafe left and right respectively, leaving the Q and E keys for spammable attacks, heals, or often-used abilities. These two keybinds are of crucial importance, as they are located very close to your left hand and take very little time and effort to use.
If you are still using A and D to keyboard turn, I would highly recommend getting in the habit of strafing with them and using Q and E as ability keybinds. It feels a little weird at first, but by pressing in the right button of your mouse more often, it'll feel very natural in a short amount of time.
The S key debate
Some players keybind the S key to a spammable ability (or an ability that doesn't punish you for accidentally hitting it). Many PvPers consider "backpedaling" (using the S key to move backwards) to be a telltale sign of a noob; it is often considered inferior to strafing.
Personally, I still have my S key bound to backpedal. I find it can be helpful against classes that want to see your backside to get more damage off (Backstab, for example, can only be used from the rear). Backpedaling can also interrupt spells (so you can juke opponents) in a discreet way that doesn't expend another valuable keybind.
Whatever side of the debate you're on, it's not a giant deal. If you play a melee class and you never find yourself backpedaling, I would recommend trying out keybinding your S key to an often used ability with no detriment if you use it (don't pick an ability that is an important cooldown; S tends to be hit accidentally pretty often).
CAPS LOCK
Some players swear by using Caps Lock to talk on Ventrilo. Others go through some red tape to use it as a modifier similar to Shift or Control. Others (like myself) don't like checking TO SEE IF WE ARE YELLING ALL THE TIME, so we just leave it be. I've colored it brown because it's a debated keybind, much like the S key.
Green keys
I recommend keybinding spammable abilities (usually damage and heals) to the green keys. These keys (1, 2, 3, Q, E, and F for most players) are incredibly useful and easy to access while on the move. The hand does not have to travel far to hit any individual one of these keys -- spammable instant-cast abilities should be keybound to these keys.
For instance, Ice Lance is a fine keybind for a green key, while Frostbolt is not. If possible, spells with cast times should be placed elsewhere, as these green keys are prime real estate when you're moving around very quickly.
The space bar is a green key because it's actually very useful when combined with modifier keys like Shift, Control, or Alt. It's a very accessible keybind that most people only use for jumping around. It's particularly useful if you want to keybind certain abilities that you only get to use on a proc or when you're in a special stance or form. On my warlock, I've been using Shift + Space for my Immolation Aura keybind and Control + Space to Demon Leap.
I reserve yellow keys for important abilities that might not have cooldowns but aren't terribly relevant in high-pressure situations. Shadow Bolt, Searing Pain, and Curse of Tongues might fit the bill here nicely.
The abilities placed on yellow keys can also be used for incredibly important cooldowns that need to be quickly accessed in order to survive. On my warlock, I use Tab for Demonic Circle: Teleport and the R key for my Death Coil. I would hesitate putting survival cooldowns farther away from your hand because they can be so crucial in PvP.
Blue keys
We're starting to get pretty far away from the starting position of our WASD-based hand.
A lot of PvPers use short, powerful cooldowns or abilities on 5, T, G, and V. Offensive cooldowns or abilities like Recklessness, Kill Shot, Execute, Drain Soul, and Shadowburn are perfect for these keybinds. Any closer to the hand and they would be taking up the space of something more valuable, but they are still close enough to pile on the pressure on the enemy team.
Purple keys
These keys are usually reserved for very long cooldowns (or keys that are not used very often in combat) that are not pressure-situation abilities. Examples would be Soul Harvest, Demonic Circle: Summon, an eat + drink macro, bandages, or a mount.
Keys beyond purple keys
So, in summary...
These keys are sometimes completely ignored, which is fine. They're pretty far away for most people and are generally a pretty giant pain to get to. However, these keys get much more accessible if you're used to using them for abilities or you play on a laptop that has the keys just slightly above your number keys.
I find that they're great for targeting teammates or opponents in arena (depending on what you want to bind them to).
New tips for using modifiers with keybindings
Next week, I want to discuss different ways to use modifiers and some lesser-known tips and tricks with keybinding. I also want to talk about the benefits of drastically altering your hand positioning, including lots of MS Paint diagrams, but that will have to wait -- I didn't know I could talk for so long about something that appears so simple! If you're looking for something more in-depth, stay tuned for next week.
Read PvP keybindings: ESDF and roaming index finger variants.
Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? We'll steer you to victory with the best arena addons and let you in on some rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets. If you're looking for the inside line on battlegrounds and world PvP, read The Art of War(craft).
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Dreyja Feb 22nd 2011 7:26PM
BLESS YOU MOORE! This is THE PvP guide I've needed for a long time. Now if I could combine this with an even elementary understanding of macros and I may actually get better at this game. ;)
/salute!
Dreyja Feb 22nd 2011 7:31PM
Now I have to figure out how to actually translate your color pattern to my G13. I hate the keyboard.
Baba Feb 22nd 2011 7:32PM
/cast [Spell Name] for basic stuff, if you have things like trinkets which don't use the GCD then you can tie them into a macro to use them both at one button press.
#showtooltip [Spell Name] displays the button icon and spell info of whatever spell you want
There's much more, but that's the basics. For example to change to Defensive Stance, equip my shield and hit Spell Reflect I do:
#showtooltip Spell Reflect
/cast Defensive Stance
/equipslot (no. of slot, have to look them up) [Shield Name]
/cast Spell Reflect
It requires two button presses, but since you just mash the same button twice it isn't too hard.
Arena Junkies or community role models (eg Swifty for warriors) will have reams of macros you can use :)
Dreyja Feb 22nd 2011 8:15PM
Thanks Baba. That does help even though I have looked into it before.
My crippling fear of CHANGE holds me back from really doing more with macros and my UI. I need to suck it up and just do it. :) I'd honestly pay someone to come and just modify the hell out of everything and I'd be forced to get used to it.
Thankee!
gamerunknown Feb 23rd 2011 5:34AM
It'd be a major disadvantage because 1. There is room for variation even among top rated players (Reckful uses Z and X for strafing for example) and 2. You may not understand why they bound certain abilities or their macros. My friend is a rank 4 glad (I think he may have gotten rank 2 after they removed titles for win-trading) and had a healer the same class as mine and let me jump around on it while he was away from keyboard. I found it far, far worse to heal than I normally would have: the only binding I got used to after half an hour of healing a 70 raid was flash heal, everything else was out of place and I didn't want to switch his abilities as it might throw a crucial arena match for him. He didn't have Grid, he used an addon for responding (I use "s" to respond to tells and r for holy nova) and he clicked his mount (I use z for a stopcasting and mount macro). Also, some of his macros were very complicated and I wouldn't be able to adapt to them unless I implemented them step by step.
So I'd recommend changing things step by step, getting used to the new feel bit by bit. For example you could switch a few things to mouseover macros, especially if you download a nameplates addon. It depends on your class, but I find "#showtooltip /cast [target, harm, nodead] mouseover: shoot, shoot" to be useful on 6 classes, as it works with wands as well as physical ranged weapons. It will target the closest target that you're hovering your mouse over, then check whether it is neutral or worse in terms of standing, then will check if it is dead. If your mouse isn't hovering over an enemy, it will shoot at your current target. I use it for killing a totem or a critter without losing my current target. The modifier [focus] works in the same way but is a lot more difficult to find bindings for in my opinion. It is absolutely perfect for casters to get clutch ranged interrupts, CC or burst off, as in arena players will often line of sight or go on the defensive the instant they're targeted by an enemy caster, before they even get a spell off. The only issue is that sometimes you want to interrupt your current target and not your focus, so you'd need to essentially double your burst, CC and interrupt bindings for this to be effective (unless you don't already use the shift, ctrl and alt modifiers for other spells). You can use a macro /focus [target = mouseover] and kill a player you never even target for the duration of a match.
Then there's buffs which can be used on yourself or other players, which you can use /cast [target = player] to cast on yourself without losing your current target, very handy in priest vs. priest matches where you want to use fear ward when the priest is in about 9 yards away. Finally, there's another macro I use on all my classes (except warrior), which goes "/y Sapped!" it's perfect for PUG BGs and TB, as if you spam it often enough someone will usually check you out and maybe even DoT the rogue.
But I don't know everything about macros as I said, I had no clue how to use some of the gladiator's macros and a blood sport article about it would be appreciated.
Kz Feb 23rd 2011 10:57AM
I do extensive key bindings with a Logitech G510 keyboard. The G510 has 18 customizable G-keys to the left of the regular keyboard keys. What I do is align 3 vertical bars on the left side of my display to match the 3 vertical rows of G-keys. Then the keybindings are done so any ability can be dragged and dropped to the verticle bars, which automatically assigns abilities to the G-keys. Any ability shown above by Christian can be performed just by moving my left hand 2 inches to the left to the G-keys. I am not promoting the G510 keyboard, but just wanted to point out some alternative flexible key bindings for those wanting to explore further.
Wonk Feb 22nd 2011 7:26PM
All good stuff.. but what if you are left-handed like me?!
It's like I'm from another planet when it comes to keyboards and mice, all for right-handed, and if you find one for lefties it cost twice what the normal one would and still is lacking. (Razers left handed mouse has like 6 buttons total and cost more than the one with twice that amount).
Sorry if I strayed off-topic, but it's a shame to see all this good info and have be so useless to me.
Dadruidess Feb 22nd 2011 8:20PM
I'm not sure what you mean by this. I'm left-handed, but still use WASD to move / strafe (with my left hand) and my right hand to click and turn. How do you play?
No matter, I think this info can still be usefull to you, you just need to think about which keys are near whatever keys you use to move and keybind those, same rules apply:
Close keys will have instant casts, far away keys will be longer cooldowns, rarer usage etc.
Also, Razer has some ambidextrous mice (the lachesis) which shouldn't be too bad.
seanasaurus Feb 22nd 2011 9:37PM
Substitute A, W and D for J, I and L and go from there.
timmy Feb 22nd 2011 10:17PM
For leftys try TYHJ as the strafe and move keys then change CTRL and the windows key (easily done) so you have 2 modifiers easily available over your thumb. The "tetris block" style for movement is weird at first but totaly frees your index finger, assuming u use your ring finger for forward (Y). As for mice try find an ambidextrous gaming mouse with some extra side buttons, the old razer copperhead is good here, id love a naga or something for leftys but im not holding my breath.
Ofc you could just practice playing right handed and save money and hasel long run but thats not for me.
Varius Feb 22nd 2011 11:29PM
I'm a lefty, and I've always played using WASD with my left hand and the mouse with my right. I always assumed all lefties and righties all played the same way. Guess not?
Twill Feb 23rd 2011 3:50AM
Yea.. I'm a lefty. I like to use my ability to adapt to right handed-playing as a way to stoop down to the level of the masses and see what their feeble lives are like.
But seriously, just use it like right-handed people. Its designed that way. Sucks, but the truth.
Baba Feb 22nd 2011 7:27PM
One useful trick that I've developed is to use Bartender or another bar mod to position your abilities in an exact copy of your keyboard (using the keybinds listed above). That way, I can be looking at my screen and, without looking at my hands, know where my fingers have to move in order to hit another spell.
As you become uber leet, you generally do away with most of the bars and memorise the keybinds, but I've found this to be really helpful.
CaryEverett Feb 23rd 2011 10:27AM
I do the same thing, and I find it extremely helpful in general. I've never really had to stare at my bars, nor at my hands or anything of the sort. But when I'm playing completely blind, I have a tendency to transpose my hands on the keyboard a lot.
Having that visual, even small and crammed down at the bottom of my screen, let's something in far back subconscious part of my mind go "Oh yeah that ability is three keys to the right of that last button you pressed. Go hit it with great accuracy!"
Raginghobo Feb 22nd 2011 7:34PM
I've always found keybinds a bit tricky, 1-2-3-4 are easy enough for spell i use often but lately (as a mage) I've been trying to get the hang of using R for blink T for silence and X for Iceblock. It never occured to me to swap out A & D as I've never really used them before, thanks for the tip.
What type of keybindings do other frostmages use?
Badger Feb 23rd 2011 4:47AM
I've played mages for so long that a lot of these are burned into my muscle memory by now. Have rebound stafe to A and D.
Q - Frost Nova
E - Blink
Shift E - Goblin Racial Rocket Jump
F - Cone of Cold
Shift F - Pet Freeze
R - Counter Spell (reply is bound to Shift R)
1 - Ice Lance
2 - Frostfire bolt
3 - Frostbolt (always used 3 for my main nuke, whatever spell caster I'm playing)
4 - Deep Freeze
5 - Polymorph
6 - Arcane Explosion (for spamming to get stealthers)
Other key bindings are close to there and are more down to individual playstyle. I like to keep Ice Barrier, Icy Veins and Ice Block near by.
NeedsOfTheMany Feb 23rd 2011 2:24PM
Love Badger's post, anyone have similar suggestions for warriors (arms/fury)
Curious where my proc attacks are bound in comparison to others?
Ems Mar 1st 2011 8:50PM
For me, arms looks like (mod abilities in brackets)
~ charge
1-colossus smash
2-over power (disarm macro)
3-mortal strike (victory rush)
4-rend (throw down)
5-pummel (spell reflect macro)
Q - heroic strike (cleave)
E - berserker rage (sweeping strikes)
T - bladestorm (intimidating shout)
Y - trinket (inner rage)
F - hamstring (thunder clap)
G - battle shout (commanding)
H - dps trinket
F1 - shield wall
F2 - enraged regen
F3 - deadly calm
F4 - shattering throw
Mousewheel up - next stance macro ( battle -> d -> zerker)
Mousewheel down - prev stance macro (zerker->d->battle)
Mousewheel click - piercing howl (demo shout)
Side mouse - heroic throw (engineering gloves)
Side mouse2- intervene focus macro (intervene target)
orlis Feb 22nd 2011 7:40PM
Lovely guide, but I would have thought the Razer Naga might have gotten an honorable mention. This wonderful mouse can and is used by many as a substitute for many keybinds. I, however, use it as an addition to keybind any purple, pink or orange buttons (plus vent+mount) which I have found hard and annoying to use.
I don't want to take anything away from the value of learning these keybinds, just as any serious WoW PvPer ought to, but then those serious enough should also consider this wonderful MMO mouse.
Dreyja Feb 22nd 2011 8:16PM
Yah, the naga is a huge help even for hopeless n00bs like myself. I'm not using it to it's full potential to ANY extent but it's already stepped my game up considerably. :)