Guild Wars 2

(Ugh, it took two weeks but I’m finally able to log in to the forums.)

Hi, all. I wanted to know if people move using the mouse (hold both buttons down to move) or the keyboard.

Here’s my beef:
Guild Wars 2 wants you to participate in battles actively, almost like an action rpg where you have your hand on the keypad at all times for responsive dodging, maneuvering, and etc. Yet,

1. some default skill keys are far from the keyboard controls, forcing you to take your hand off the keyboard controls (makes sense since some classes have a total of 15 skill buttons)

2. the keyboard controls turn too slowly, and there is no way to change the turn speed (I’d like it personally to turn about four times faster, so that a slight tap is about 40 degrees)

3. if you use the mouse to turn, then you can’t strafe around targets, move in and out, and use all the skills at the same time, resulting in a brief moment of standing still while you fire off a skill

4. if you map out keys and use two hands on the keyboard, aside from the fact that it turns too slowly, you cannot use aoe ground skills quickly

5. there are no keyboard camera controls

I can’t seem to find a good middle ground. Anyone have suggestions on how you are set up?

To be honest, I’d be happy if there was a way to adjust the keyboard turn speed. That would alleviate most of the problems for me.

Hold right mouse button to aim look. Try rebinding some keys. I put dodge, weapon swap, #1 attack and heal skill on my mouse. Then the 4 other weapon skills are Q, E, R, T. Then my utilites are 1-4 and class skills are 5-8.

“Pro-tip” remap your slots skills to q,e,r,t,f (or any similar setup), change camera speed to your needs, disable autotargeting, stop autoattacking on target change, tick use free camera, disable double-tap to evade, tick promote skill target, fast-cast ground targeting and melee attack assist.

I use a combination of keyboard strafing and mouse facing.

Since I have tiny hands and short fingers, even on my mini keyboard I can only reach about 4 keys without taking my fingers off the strafing keys. I cannot reach CTRL, ALT or SHIFT, so modifiers are out as well.
My options are to completely remap every single key so I can put everything closer to the modifier keys, or just live with being a bit slower than some other people. I went with the second option because even if I could reach modifier keys, I’d have to do it with my pinky, and my pinky is rather weak and would quickly start to hurt. But maybe remapping is an option for you? With the use of modifier keys, you have a higher number of possible keybinds you can put in your fingers’ reach.

I use mouse to look around (hold right button) and WASD to move. Also have the second half of my slot skills bound to mouse.

I totally use my mouse for moving and I have one of the two side buttons (4 button mouse) set for my dodge. I think I’d die if I had to use my keyboard for movement. I use the keyboard to click skills.

As a side note: I have nerve damage in my left hand so I feel for Ten. I don’t have a problem playing, though.

smug.3895:

(Ugh, it took two weeks but I’m finally able to log in to the forums.)

Hi, all. I wanted to know if people move using the mouse (hold both buttons down to move) or the keyboard.

Here’s my beef:
Guild Wars 2 wants you to participate in battles actively, almost like an action rpg where you have your hand on the keypad at all times for responsive dodging, maneuvering, and etc. Yet,

1. some default skill keys are far from the keyboard controls, forcing you to take your hand off the keyboard controls (makes sense since some classes have a total of 15 skill buttons)

2. the keyboard controls turn too slowly, and there is no way to change the turn speed (I’d like it personally to turn about four times faster, so that a slight tap is about 40 degrees)

3. if you use the mouse to turn, then you can’t strafe around targets, move in and out, and use all the skills at the same time, resulting in a brief moment of standing still while you fire off a skill

4. if you map out keys and use two hands on the keyboard, aside from the fact that it turns too slowly, you cannot use aoe ground skills quickly

5. there are no keyboard camera controls

I can’t seem to find a good middle ground. Anyone have suggestions on how you are set up?

To be honest, I’d be happy if there was a way to adjust the keyboard turn speed. That would alleviate most of the problems for me.

1) Learn to steer your direction with the mouse (holding down r mouse button). You might find there’s something awkward about the default Y axis, if so reverse it. (I was weaned on Descent, so I’m used to the sense of “forward” meaning “down”, which gives a sense of 3-d-ness forward and backward. The default is “forward” meaning “up”, i.e. as if you’re painting straight onto the screen. Try both methods, see which suits.)

2) forget about the turn keys, and remap “strafe left” to A and “strafe right” to D (forward W and backwards S as usual). You are turning with your mouse and strafing (moving directly sidewise) with A and D. IOW, you are moving exactly as you would in an FPS except you’re holding the right mouse button down.

3) Find a tree somewhere safe

4) Use the tree to learn circle strafing and dodging with this method (remap dodge to middle mouse button, disable double-tapping to dodge). Circle strafing means facing an object while you turn around it, and it means combining the mouse steering with little nudges on the strafe keys (the “opposite” strafe key from the direction you’re turning in). It will take a couple of days, practice for an hour, leave it for a few hours, practice for an hour, leave it for a few hours, and the next day do the same. By then it should become second nature. It’s important to take breaks, and it’s important to do it the second day too. (This is general good advice for learning some new dexterity trick or memorizing anything.)

5) Find some neutral mobs and practice circle strafing and dodging around them, as they move around grazing or whatever.

6) Remap the 1-3/1-4 keys to something like: 2-4/2-5, then remap the other keys (utilities) to keys like Q, E, R, G, Z, X, C, V, B – find something that’s appropriate. It takes a bit of time to experiment. Generally you want frequently-used abilities on Mouse button 4, top row numbers 2-4 and Q, E and R, then less used abilities on the lower extra keys. If you have a mouse with lots of buttons, use them. I find 1 and 6-0 are usually too awkward to use in heated combat. But YMMV, find something that’s right for you (some people can be accurate with their ring finger for 1 and 2).

7) Practice with neutral easy mobs again, circle strafing but this time adding your attacks. Start with a simple rotation, build up to your usual rotation.

8) Profit!

I used to be a keyboard turner and icon clicker. The difference between that and going “pro” with mouse steering, keypressing and circle strafing is night and day. For a couple of days time out and investment in learning the new method, you will now have a new level of ease of play and game mastery that you wouldn’t have believed possible in the keyboard turning days, and it’s a transferable skill to other games and MMOs. Promise!

I have a Razer Naga all my skills are on the mouse and to move i use the right mouse button for camera and W,A,S,D for moving and dodge

I play Guild Wars 2 with a controller, so maybe I’ve got a fresh/unique perspective on this.

More specifically, I play with a DualShock 3 (PS3 controller) wired to my laptop with a 10-foot USB cable. Laptop is hooked up to 40-inch living room TV.

It works really well. Movement and camera control feel natural on the left and right analog sticks, while all of my weapon skills and slot skills are accessed with a face button (X, O, Triangle, Square). Pressing L1 or R1 (left bumper, right bumper) swaps the function of the face buttons to open up more skills. Holding L1 and R1 do the same thing for the D-pad, which contains everything from switching enemy targets to bringing up the Hero panel to turning 180 degrees.

It’s insanely comfortable. Only tradeoffs are no chatting (I have to get up and go to my laptop if its really necessary), and navigating menus/crafting is a bit slower. Totally worth it though, imho.

Razer Nostromo + Razer Naga = I practically play this game like an FPS. A key to toggle mouselook would be a dream come true.

DusK.3849:

Razer Nostromo + Razer Naga = I practically play this game like an FPS. A key to toggle mouselook would be a dream come true.

This. Razer Naga = problem solved.

Seems my post got misread (something aggressively fierce in Hux’ case).

I’m not disabled and didn’t claim to be. I simply have small hands and weak fingers. I feel it would be disrespectful to people with actual disabilities to not clear this up.
I also don’t actually have any problems playing. Shockingly, I’m not remotely interested in being competitive. However, the fact that my layout makes me slower than some other people is relevant to the OP’s question.

The OP expressed their trouble with the controls and asked how we did it. I answered their question (how I do it) together with explaining why I do it that way.

BTW OP, if you want to try out new controls in a safe environment, there are training dummies, stationary, moving and even underwater, on the Isle of the Mists. Plus you have all your skills available there, so you can test out all your AOEs and arcs and whatever else targeting styles there are.

I rebind A and D to strafing and turn using the mouse.

I also use an n52te, so all my movement is controlled by my thumb. This leaves my other fingers free for skill keybinds, weapon swapping etc, and means that strafing while using skills is easy.

If I need more keybinds than is available on the n52te, then I use key modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, Shift). The modifiers are bound to my mouse buttons 4, 5 and 6.

Game default settings are always very poorly thought out. I never use them.

I just use WASD mainly for strafing and directional dodging, all other movement is handled with the mouse / double button click for forward movement. I run a signet build so I don’t need to reach for skills 7-9, and 0 is my flora artillery unit. So I pretty much run with default setup.

I’ll give you my set up. Maybe it’ll help.

First off, I use a Logitech G9x mouse where I can bind 9 actions to. My hands are also rather small so I try to keep everything bound to a button on the mouse or next to movement keys.

A = Strafe left
S = Backwards
D = Strafe right
Right mouse button = Forward

I steer with the mouse. Because forward is on the mouse and strafing on the KB I’m able to control my character rather easily. This leaves my index finger and thumb on my mouse hand and my thumb and pinky on my left hand free to hit the key sequence for whatever ability I want to use.

Not only do I have 9 keys on the mouse that I can bind I also use those buttons on the mouse along with the Shift and Alt key on the KB for more bindings – 27 potentially.

So for instance – mouse 4 (thumb button) is bound to interact / loot. Shift + mouse 4 is bound to my 2nd ability. Alt + mouse 4 is bound to my second signet.

Takes a bit to get used to but works well for me.

Like some of the others on this thread, I use a combination of mouse and keyboard for my movement. Unlike others, tho, my years of MMO gaming has lead to an unusual arrangement that I play with, which is first and foremost to remap all keys as needed to my numerical keypad (which is then tilted at an angle so I can comfortably reach the keys with the left hand). It’s an odd arrangement, I’ll admit, but it’s one I’ve found works well for me.

And yes, getting the hand of good circle strafing is important. I was about to describe how I do it, much like the previous poster had. Unfortunately, when I started explicitly thinking about what buttons I press when and what mouse movements, etc, I realized I’m not sure how I do it, honestly. It’s just gotten so second-nature i just do it reflexively, I guess. ;-D

The only thing I have an issue with is having to use ground target skills but still having to move around and kite at the same time.

Can be really annoying. It’d be nice if grabbing the camera with your RMB would show a little reticle where your mouse is so you always know where your ground targets will aim even when screen-grabbing and moving.

Shortbow Thieves, Staff Necro’s, and Grenade Engineer’s I think can relate with this.

Campana.9216:

I rebind A and D to strafing and turn using the mouse.

I also use an n52te, so all my movement is controlled by my thumb. This leaves my other fingers free for skill keybinds, weapon swapping etc, and means that strafing while using skills is easy.

If I need more keybinds than is available on the n52te, then I use key modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, Shift). The modifiers are bound to my mouse buttons 4, 5 and 6.

Game default settings are always very poorly thought out. I never use them.

I also use a n52te in my setup, but a bit differently. I use mouse + right button for steering/look. Normal WASD setup for movement on the n52te, but remapped A+D for strafing. On the n52te, I use the d-pad (removed analog stick) for the 1-4 skills. This means I can circle-strafe and use my thumb for 1-4, simultaneously. The 5-10 skills are on the n52te keys in a logical order around the WASD keys. I dodge with a side mouse button, and my middle mouse button is my Shift modifer (which is used in conjunction with 1-4 for my F1, etc. style attacks.)

I also have weapon-swap, auto-run, targeting, call target, take target, walk toggle, inventory, map, hero panel, WvW, mail, guild, BLTP, and social on the n52te. With just one modifier (Shift in my case), you can do a lot with this little gem of a gaming keypad.

This may seem like a very odd setup to many, but I have used it (usually in a very similar format) in all the (many) MMO’s I’ve played. Always with great success.

My 0.02 copper.

Smug

3. if you use the mouse to turn, then you can’t strafe around targets, move in and out, and use all the skills at the same time, resulting in a brief moment of standing still while you fire off a skill

You can mouse turn and strafe, skill use is a bit tricky but keep in mind thief is the only profession that has spammable skills, and even then you cant spam it continously.

Here is what i do:

-middle finger on W
-ring finger on A
-middle finger moves to S if need to back up slightly
-index finger on D
-use ring finger to hit keys ~ (tilde), 1 and 2
-use index finger to hit 3, 4 and 5

Now use your ring finger to strafe left with the A key AND at the same time use your index finger to hit 3, 4 and 5.

Now use your index finger to strafe right with the D key AND at the same time use your ring finger to hit 1 and 2.

You are just strafing left and right at this point. BUT now try this, while doing any of the above click and hold the right mouse button. While holding the RMB move the mouse left and right while your left hand is strafing and attacking. That is how you circle strafe while attacking.

From there you can bind the skills on hotbar 6-0 to ALT 1 thru ALT 5, or any of the unused keys around WASD. Or you can mouseclick them, but this is usually a bad idea if you use the skills for emergencies or you pvp a lot.

Razer Naga: Primary skill, plus dodge (V) are on the mouse. As are skills 8 -0, as they are the hardest to reach with the left hand when in combat and the keys I’m most likely to miss-press (“No, no, no! I wanted teleport, not the Wurm!”)

Logitech G-19 gaming keyboard: Combat skills 1 -7, WASD for dodging in combat, for regular movement out.

Key binding: X for sheath/draw weapon, Z to reverse the camera angle (to “look behind” me) and groups of “G keys” are assigned to the “F functions”, so I can just swat in that general direction without looking and and still hit the right key.

Turn using the mouse.

Mouse + keyboard with a lot of keys rebound to make them useful and efficient.