The Daily Quest: 5x2
by Anne Stickney 
May 18th 2011 at 4:00PM
WoW Insider's on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative, and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
Every once in a while, someone posts something that generates a lot of interest in the blogosphere, resulting in a small waterfall of posts around the same topic. Today, we're going to look at posts regarding a topic suggested by our own Mat McCurley over on Twitter: How do you set up a UI for each class into five buttons, one modifier key and a middle mouse click? That's 11 buttons to play with and still have your character perform just as well as anyone else out there. The concept is an interesting one, and a group of bloggers decided to tackle the idea for themselves.
- Cynwise's Battlefield Manual discusses the 5x2 project and the potential for simplicity.
- Fel Concentration has some brainstorming regarding the project in regards to warlocks, addons and spell usage.
- Shiny Pally looks at the project from a paladin perspective.
- Authorized to Ramble tackles restoration and balance druids with the 5x2 system.
If you'd like to try your hand at the 5x2 challenge, be sure to mention any posts to Fel Concentration, who is keeping track of it all in one handy place!
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
brucek2 May 18th 2011 4:23PM
Always a great cause to help make the game as inclusive as possible. For those of us who don't know a lot about these issues, could you explain a little more about the type of disabilities this solution can help overcome? i.e., why is 5 the magic number? Does that need to include the movement/strafing keys? If the player is able to hit, for example, 1-5, what is preventing them from hitting q-w-e-r-t? (I'm assuming they're probably not using a full keyboard but some other device with 5 keys and just curious how this all works.)
Anyway thanks for bringing attention to a good cause.
Sterb May 18th 2011 6:36PM
I was curious about the same thing. The requirements seem thoroughly arbitrary and make me curious if that's really what disabled people are hoping for/need. Are these requirements a product of a study?
Quorniya May 18th 2011 4:27PM
This is an awesome sounding project and I'm glad that people are working on it.
That said, the resto druid setup doesn't include a way to cast healing touch, nourish or innervate, which are must-haves for any resto druid running dungeons or raids at level 85. I would go so far as to ditch the dedicated buttons for thorns, nature's grasp and probably even nature's swiftness in favor of HT, nourish and innervate.
Lizzie May 18th 2011 5:11PM
YIKES. Can't believe I forgot HT, Nourish and Innervate!
I'm updating my blog post accordingly. Thanks Quorniya for catching that!
Quorniya May 18th 2011 5:16PM
Happy to help! It's a really great project, and we resto druids gotta REPRESENT!
shomechely May 18th 2011 4:29PM
Or they could just play an Arcane Mage.
magicjamie May 18th 2011 4:35PM
Zing!
brian May 19th 2011 12:18AM
/StatlerandWaldorf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IVFaRTJmmY&feature=player_detailpage#t=7s
ukw May 18th 2011 4:58PM
It looks like 5x2+1 maybe not enough for many classes, and no one can play an arc mage for too long without getting bored.
One solution would be an addon that would cycle the binds to a select few keys. For example imagine that 1-4 are the primary spells you want, they would be bound to the 1-4 keys. To access spells 5-8 your would click another key once and now 5-8 would be bound to keys 1-4. That way a limitless amount of spells could be accessed through a combination of clicks of just 5 keys. The addon would build a stack of spells to cycle through, but would require some setup time pregame. To add some functionality the middle mouse click could default the stack back to spells 1-4 so you wouldn't have to cycle through the stack to get back to your primary casts.
Just an idea
Corath May 18th 2011 5:10PM
I love the fact that there are so many options in this game that allow accessibility. The flexibility of key bindings along with addons is awesome.
Newest post up at Corath's Blog (http://corath.wordpress.com), all about the new Premium Dungeon Finder.
http://corath.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/premium-dungeon-finder/
Enjoy!
Hollow Leviathan May 18th 2011 5:17PM
Posting a picture of twitter feels so awkward. There isn't a way to embed the tweet, or some other high tech web 2.0 wizardry? I love technology a bit too much, is what I'm saying.
TheBlob May 18th 2011 5:20PM
So I saw this, and immediately thought "I can help! I'll go do it for shamans!"
So I did it for all three shaman specs, and I discovered that shaman have a LOT of buttons, no matter the spec. I ended up with like 5-10 buttons each in the "Clickable" section. 11 buttons is not enough. That is a terrifying thought.
SaintStryfe May 18th 2011 5:36PM
Corrected Version:
The way I break it down: I have 3 types of buttons: Mashers, Procs and CDs.
Mashers are buttons you are using constantly – Stormstrike. Procs are used generally once but they’re your big hitting spells - Lightning bolt (used with 5 MW Procs). Then are the CDs, IE Feral Spirits.
If we’re limiting ourselves to 5 buttons, then we’d focus I think on the Mashers and the Procs, leave the CDs on your bar. I would suggest we go with:
1-Stormstrike
2-CastSquence Macro: Unleash Elements, Flame Shock, Earth Shock, Earth Shock (this is a minor DPS loss, but I find it frees up my attention so much I’m willing to take that minor hit, and the DPS is compensated by longer periods alive and less mistakes)
3-Lightning Bolt (For 5 MSW Procs)
4-Call of the Elements (Drops a set of Four Totems)
5 – Player’s Choice – (this is changeable – some times I’ll drop Hex there if I’m doing a 5 man where CC is needed, On Cho’gall for instance I’ll drop a second totem set, Call fo the Ancestors to slow adds, and generally I ‘ll run with Magma totem and Fire Nova for faster AoE)
S1-Lava Lash
S2-Wind Shear (Interrupt)
S3-Chain Lightning (or, if you prefer, a heal like Greater Healing Wave)
S4-Totemic Recall (removes your totems)
S5 – Player’s Choice
So basically, 1 is Direct Strikes, 2 is Shocks, 3 are Bolts, 4 is totems and 5 are player’s choice.
It does hinge on a Macro but i like this setup overall.
Castanea May 18th 2011 5:22PM
Is it just me totally failing to grasp the concept but couldn't you get 12 buttons with a modifier + middle click added to the mix?
I'm pretty sure I got that at least..
Not a big difference I know, but 1 more button is always nice.
Kaille May 18th 2011 5:40PM
I'm all for people setting up simple, logical ways to play, but can someone explain the connection between any disability and these minimal sets of keys?
I have put a lot of thought into optimizing my setup for how my own hands work, but this strikes me as people doing something under arbitrary constraints, and the process is probably good for people thinking about their spell importance and whatnot, but the results aren't actually useful for anyone.
Unless there's something I'm missing. In which case I hope someone explains it.
Kaille May 18th 2011 6:14PM
ETA: I also think that if we knew what the problem we were trying to solve was, we could come up with more creative/better solutions to it.
Zoey May 18th 2011 6:35PM
I don't know all the possibilities, but I had a friend with carpal tunnel and arthritis and excessive movement of the arms and wrists was quite painful for her. Being able to rest her hand on the same set of keys would have been a great boon for her.
Kaille May 18th 2011 7:06PM
So then the constraint should be not moving wrists or arms.
Under that constraint:
1. get a trackball for movement and pointing. (If it has five buttons, you can bind middle mouse to jump and buttons 4 and 5 to strafe.)
2. remap modifiers so that the caps lock is control and whatever modifier is just to the left of the space bar is alt, which you can hit with your thumb.
Then you have two modifiers that you can use with asdfg, plus you can hit the spacebar or control-spacebar. This is 17 spells.
Unless I'm misunderstanding ability to reach with any of these fingers to hit multiple keys with one finger. If someone couldn't do that, the best solution would to be move the hand a key to the left; you'd lose the spacebar and have two possible modifiers on asd; this is only 9 keys but I think the best one could do without moving fingers for anything but hitting keys they were resting on.
In neither case regarding whether one can move fingers to the side is 5x2 the actual constraint.
Meatdraw May 19th 2011 12:19AM
Something like this is of great interest to me, and more so to some of my guildies.
I work with young men with Muscular Dystrophy, and I have turned about 4 of them onto playing WoW, where a few of them had abandoned playing games altogether due to lack of muscle response.
One guy i play with manages to hold his own in raids, using nothing more than a Logitech G500 mouse and his 2 remaining functioning fingers (nope, no keyboard), but they are always looking for ways to make playing easier.
Ultimately, I think most set ups for persons with disabilities playing MMO type games are usually going to differ from person to person. Working on a project like this will setup a standard that will give other people something to work off of and inspire their own system.
adyuaa May 18th 2011 8:28PM
I must confess, I don't use Shred. I'm a tree-bear, so when I find myself catting around I've tried to make things easier to remember and execute. I'm not sure which ability would be best for a middle mouse key, but paring it down to my top 11:
Faerie Fire
Mangle
Rake
Rip
Savage Roar
/castsequence Tiger's Fury, Berserk, Tiger's Fury, Tiger's Fury, etc
Skull Bash
Swipe
/castsequence Barkskin, Survival Instincts, Barkskin, Barkskin etc
Rebirth
Mark of the Wild
A Shredder would probably put Mark in a clickable place or create a Rip/Savage Roar castsequence.