Guild Wars 2

Flute #9slot has a toggle between higher and lower octaves.
Flute Elite slot is a break

Harp #9slot = higher octave
Harp Elite slot = lower octave

After becoming familiar with the flute I found it kind of weird to go from the easy toggle to the two different keys for the same function.

My suggestion is to mirror the harp with the flute in a uniform fashion.

Harp #9slot would be a toggle leaving the elite blank or perhaps give it a new function.

The bell and the horn actually had that kind of controls (9 down, 0 up) even before the flute came out, so it’s actually the flute being out of line here.

However, the flute, compared to the other instruments, is one octave short – so the controls make sense. If you tried to apply that kind of controls to the other instruments (just one button to switch the octave) you would have no control over what octave you want to switch to (lower or upper octave).

I know exactly what you are talking about though. You have no idea how often I press the elite when using the flute trying to switch to the upper octave, especially when I played the bell or the harp before using the flute… It’s driving me nuts!

during your second binds column take 5-= as 1-8 and , and . as the octave switches. This way if you rest your fingers on the 1-8 (aka 5-=) and the thumbs on , and . you can hit each key immediately and easily.

Then, you can just go:
WASD move
E is combat skill 1
R is combat skill 2
F is combat skill 3
X is combat skill 4
C is combat skill 5
shift is dodge
Q is elite
Tab is heal
T is weapon switch
~ is costume brawl
2 3 and 4 are your utility skills
Z to talk to people like in a certain other mmo.

The class skills don’t always make sense using this keybind on each class, but you could move them around. I tend to switch the cclass binds around when I am on mesmer or ele (sorry). You can improvise with extra mouse buttons or similar I am sure.

as a guardian, I made Alt class skill 1 aka virtue of justice
1 is my secondary heal aka virtue of resolve

By doing this, I ensure in combat and in music I have each key at very easy access and the binding makes it feel more like a combat oriented game.

Not everyone will like these specific binds, but you get the idea… if you move the secondary binds over to the side starting with 5, it puts them so far out of normal wasd reach that you can have fun with them while not sacrificing ease of access in combat.

Rayti.6531:

The bell and the horn actually had that kind of controls (9 down, 0 up) even before the flute came out, so it’s actually the flute being out of line here.

However, the flute, compared to the other instruments, is one octave short – so the controls make sense. If you tried to apply that kind of controls to the other instruments (just one button to switch the octave) you would have no control over what octave you want to switch to (lower or upper octave).

I know exactly what you are talking about though. You have no idea how often I press the elite when using the flute trying to switch to the upper octave, especially when I played the bell or the harp before using the flute… It’s driving me nuts!

You are right, when I wrote this post hadn’t realized there were 3 octaves. Flowing in two directions with two buttons does seem more practical with 3 octaves.