Question about tool bar management

[Fitz_Monkey]

Now that I am getting my Sorc up in levels and I have a pile of spells to choose from I find myself switching from bar to bar a fair amount in combat to click the needed spell. Sometimes it seems I am wasting valuable time doing this when I could be helping out the group.

Is there a faster or more efficient way to get to my spells w/o having to hit the + or - keys? I have my offensive spells and my buff spell on separate bars but now I have more offensive spells than I can fit on one bar. I also want to have quicker access to my offensive scrolls which have been relegated to a third bar now.

I have 2 tool bars set up on my HUD but I still have to TAB and click to use the second bar which doesn't really speed things up at all. Is there a key stroke I can use to get to either bar? On another game I played I could use Shift + F key to use the alternate bar but that doesn't seem to work here.

Any help would be much appreciated

Fitz

[Laprion]

Now that I am getting my Sorc up in levels and I have a pile of spells to choose from I find myself switching from bar to bar a fair amount in combat to click the needed spell. Sometimes it seems I am wasting valuable time doing this when I could be helping out the group.

Is there a faster or more efficient way to get to my spells w/o having to hit the + or - keys? I have my offensive spells and my buff spell on separate bars but now I have more offensive spells than I can fit on one bar. I also want to have quicker access to my offensive scrolls which have been relegated to a third bar now.

I have 2 tool bars set up on my HUD but I still have to TAB and click to use the second bar which doesn't really speed things up at all. Is there a key stroke I can use to get to either bar? On another game I played I could use Shift + F key to use the alternate bar but that doesn't seem to work here.

Any help would be much appreciated

Fitz

well u can have more than 2 undock and CTRL+(num) changes the hotkey bar select so CTRL+4 would be bar 4

[jkm]

toolbars (http://www.ouportal.com/Portals/0/ScreenShot00032.jpg)

this is how i run stuff on my sorc. i don't have near the toolbar issues that i have on my battlemage :o

[Rilen]

Is there a faster or more efficient way to get to my spells w/o having to hit the + or - keys? I

In my opinion, the default keymapping in DDO leaves much to be desired. I chose to re-map just about everything so I could access slots on my toolbars via single 'hotkeys'.

Here is a link that shows how my toolbars are layed out on Celana:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/mmoguildsites_gallery/img13706.jpg

Take a look at the letter or symbol in the top right of each icon in a
given toolbar slot. It'll tell you if I mapped that slot to a key or not.
Where you see a number, it is set to the default.

Basically, (and whats not obvious from the screen shot) is that I use my left hand for basic movement, targetting and most frequently used
casts. I use my right hand for steering (w/ mouse), crowd control, damage and healing. Anything I cant cover with hotkeys is typically something I wont use very often while moving. Also of note is that I use a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, so if you are familiar with that layout and look at what keys I've mapped to toolbar slots, you'll see I group similar casts/items together so they are easily reachable - and I take advantage of the physical split in the middle of the keyboard to seperate the groups visually.

Examples:

Offensive:
~, D,F,T,G - Common casts (ScorchRay, Pk, Finger, Stone and Dance)
H,J,K - my preferred CCs (Hypno, Hold Monster, Suggestion)
Y,U,I,O,P - common buffs & Raise (Blur, GH, MassPE, Stoneskin & Raise)
-,=,BkSPACE - damage group 1 (fireball, ice sphere, firewall)
[,],\ - damage overflow and debuff (cone, exhaustion, enervate)

Healing:
NUMPAD(ENTER) heal me (cure serious pot)
NUMPAD(+) cure serious wand
NUMPAD(-) cure serious/critical scroll
NUMPAD(*) heal scroll
(note, the above makes a backwards L on my keyboard and I can
take my hand off the mouse and cycle through those keys for heals)

Movement/Action:
Q forward
A left turn/strafe (depending on mouselook mode)
S right turn/strafe (depdning on mouselook mode)
BKSPACE (reverse)
TAB jump
L-ALT block/tumble
CAPSLOCK walk
L-SHIFT mouselook/freemove
F5 use targeting item/pickup
Left Mouse click Interact
Right Mouse Clock physical atk

Targets:
Z,X,C,V,B Players 1-5
F1 me
W closest mob
E next mob
R previous mob

Focus Items (basically, I'm always in one of four modes):
Arrow UP (defensive: Spell Pen and Mith Shield)
Arrow DOWN (max penetration: Spell Pen, Transmut/Illusion focus)
Arrow LEFT (max fire: Sup Potency and Sup Fire Lore)
Arrow RIGHT (max cold: Sup Potency and Sup Ice Lore)

etc, etc.

Anyway, the point of my reply was hotkeys. I dont like to mouseclick the toolbars unless I have to and I feel that the more I can do by moving one finger a little to the right or left, the better.

As a rule, on all my toons, I run with 10 tool bars. Each tool bar has the same general "theme" of what goes there if you will .. so I dont have to think about where to find something everytime I change toons.

For example, my tool bars are 2 groups of 5, one group left, one group right. All of my elemental resists (be they spells, pots, wands, whatever) always live on the bottom 2 rightside toolbars.. my primary usage boot, feather fall boot and sneak are always N,M and the comma key. My cures for various debuffs and negative effects are always the 3rd toolbar on the right. etc,etc.


Just my .02, and while not all inclusive, hope it gives you some ideas and is somewhat helpful.

-Rilen

[VonBek]

Each tool bar has the same general "theme" of what goes there if you will .. so I dont have to think about where to find something everytime I change toons.

I have a similar principle in my tool bars. It pays for itself.