Wizard keybinds?

[NatarajCA]

Hello,

A newcomer to DDO, I recently rolled a wizard on Orien. I'm trying to strike a balance between catching up on this forum's signature threads (Wizard's handbook, "Please, New Wizards") and getting in game to test and try things out. I've looked at some character builds (and their critiques), and have settled on a human pure wizard, with an emphasis on party play (ie, more support / less nuking / no solo).

While playing another MMO I quickly appreciated the value of keybinds over frenetic icon clicking. I'm happy enough to create a non-modified/Shift/Ctrl/Alt key chart for my spells and actions, but if I don't have to reinvent the wheel ... has anyone already done this? :)

Cheers,

Nat

[Goldeneye]

As a wizard you will have a crazy number of spells that need to find homes on hotbars.

I prefer to use

1->9 for most common spells
Ctrl+ 1->9 (items, pots, scrolls)
Shift+ 1->9 (for crowd control spells)
Alt+ 1->9 (for damage spells)
then I just use the mouse and frantically hitting icons for buffing



...very easy to bind via options menu. It's placing your spells on the correct hot-keyed slots that's the trouble.
EDIT: I actually use 1->0... but wrote 9 so it would be less confusing

[NatarajCA]

Thanks for this - confirms I'm on the right track. And really, my keybinds are going to change as different spells become available during level progression.

Nat

[Shishizaru]

Another thing you can think about (if you really want to work on your keybinds) is remapping ALL your keys. The key (no pun intended) is to make a comfortable layout for you.

For example, look at the movement keys. WASD is the default for a lot of games. I don't, however, know anyone who naturally puts their fingers on WASD. Moreover, being crammed on the left side of the keyboard means you have less keys within your reach for binds. Say you moved from WASD to ESDF. This opens up a whole bunch of keys you previously did not have access to. I don't find either WASD or ESDF to be comfortable, but at least it's an "improvement."

If you can find a layout that is both natural (i.e. comfortable) AND has lots of neighbors, that'd be the ideal.

As far as changing as you get new spells, I try to slot similar spells onto the same keys. For example, if I originally had a ray type spell bound to my "R" key, I'd like to replace it with a stronger ray type offensive spell. I certainly agree with Goldeneye on the buffs. Clicking those frantically is rarely a problem, as you usually only buff between/before fights. Save your keys for things you need on the fly.

[NatarajCA]

Shishizaru - Yes, it will be a complete remapping. Going back to my FPS days, I used WERD for movement, and the circle of keys immediately surrounding for weapon changes. So, available for non-movement are

`123456
TAB Q T Y
A S F G
Z X C V B
SPACE

...and the mouse buttons and wheel. With shift/ctrl/alt modifiers, theoretically I have more than 100 binds to work with. Of course I won't use them all, but rather make sensible (& memorable!) arrangements as you and Goldeneye both suggested.

ie, buffs don't need to be on prime real estate (unmodified keys), damage spells and healing pots do since their use is more time-sensitive.

I'll look around in other threads for information on how best to use metas. eg, situational contexts will sometimes determine whether to meta a spell. So, bind a ray to one key (eg, unmodified "1"), with different meta recipe combos of the same spell bound to shift/ctrl/alt "1" - probably don't need 3 hot keybinds, but you get the idea.

Thanks for the help,

Nat

[oweieie]

Am I the only one that uses ASDF instead of something like ASDW? It's faster and more comfortable.