Guild Wars 2

I play games fairly casually. Can I be average at this game doing that, or should i not even bother? I am totally serious here, when I quit playing mmos several years ago all the mods and keybindings were just starting to totally take over the game, i have the itch again…sooo whatcha think,yay or nay?

You can do both those.

I would heavily advise against it, but for super casual activities its an option available to you if you’re more comfortable using it.

Because of the nature of GW2 being very action-oriented, I sincerely suggest learning your way away from it.

In the game I played previously, I did the same as you, OP, but that was because players had 30+ skills to manage and there were also six movement keys while left/right click both had functionality and none of these could be changed in the options.

It might feel weird at first, and you might even do worse, but the move to using keybinds makes gameplay so much more fluid and makes you perform so much better with an action-heavy system once you get used to it.

Change A and D from turn left/right to strafe left/right. Your movements will make a lot more sense, and turning your head with your mouse will quickly become second nature. I also highly recommend binding action camera to a key. Action camera is amazing for classes like thief where you need to be close to hit something. Also it has the added benefit of being able to shoot in a general area in pvp. Which allows you to still try and shoot someone in stealth or have them run into your shots if they’re not in range yet. I have action camera set to down arrow.

So I’m normally not in action camera since my main is a staff ele, but it can be extremely handy.

Have you tried using something other than a traditional keyboard and mouse?

I play all my games with a MMO mouse and Orbweaver, which makes the reaching my keybinds much easier.

I’ve also seen threads where others have configured GW2 to work on a gamepad.

You definitely can do that and you’ll be fine in most open-world maps. I strongly recommend making sure dodge is bound to a button you can find easily because that will help a lot too – if you find yourself standing in a red circle or about to be hit with a big attack you can move quickly out the way. I also recommend using equipment with some toughness or vitality because that will increase the amount of damage you can survive and therefore reduce your need to keep moving or kill things quickly.

You might struggle in other areas of the game, especially things like Fractals and PvP. I think the hardest thing might actually be jumping puzzles, I can’t imagine how you’d do some of them with keyboard turning. But in general, yes it’ll work.

But don’t get too attached to the idea that it’s your only option because there are lots of different ways to control this game (remember all the controls can be moved to any key on the keyboard and if you have a mouse with extra buttons you can move them there as well) and although the default layout might make the keyboard not an option you might well find there’s one that does work for you.

When I started playing GW2 even keyboard turning felt strange to me because it had been ages since I played a PC game without click-to-move. And I never did get the hang of the default keyboard layout. But I re-mapped all my skills and various other buttons (weapon swap, dodge, switch target etc.) to the number pad and that made a huge difference.

I use the mouse to move most of the time: if you hold down both mouse buttons your character will run forward and turn in whatever direction you turn the mouse. (If I need to strafe I use the arrow keys.) And then the number pad for my skills – I find it much easier to keep track of where my hand is and therefore hit the right buttons. I’ve actually started using it in other games now.

I do suggest binding strafe to A and D (disabling rotate) and just using the right click + hold for camera rotation. I also highly suggest binding dodge, as Danikat mentions above, to a more prominent button (I think the game defaults this to C or something?). I moved mine to the Left Shift.

I used to be the same way, if you work at it you can change it around, I can’t imagine playing as a keyboard turner again.

This game requires some twitchy reactions, I’ve got my dodge hotkeyed to the side of my mouse which makes movement easier when you use the mouse to move.

rotag.5921:

I play games fairly casually. Can I be average at this game doing that, or should i not even bother? I am totally serious here, when I quit playing mmos several years ago all the mods and keybindings were just starting to totally take over the game, i have the itch again…sooo whatcha think,yay or nay?

This seems like a rather arbitrary limitation. You know you can simply bind strafe left/right to whatever you currently use for turn left/right and unbind turn/left right entirely, right? It would take you a few seconds to do this and I can’t see why you’d ever miss it? To each their own, though.

As for UI mods, this is the game for you! It has that pretty much on lockdown compared to games like WoW which encourage UI modding to the extreme.

You can definitely be “average” doing that. “Average” in GW2 is quite a low standard. You’ll probably die in all the expansion zones, and you won’t be able to do high level fractals or raids, but if you just want to do map exploration, world bosses and personal story, keyboard turn, mouse click, spam 1, faceroll, do whatever your average mind can conceive.

Also don’t forget to turn on “melee attack assist” and “autotarget” options.

Serious question here, as I’ve not looked at my settings in … years now, but was there ever or is there currently an option to toggle mouse-look mode?

Something along the lines of: “press [KEY] to make the mouse act as if right-click is always depressed.”

I could see that being really useful for people who find it difficult to adapt or have health issues that make holding down mouse buttons a pain. Likewise this could be a nice way for the OP to slowly break into things without feeling trapped one way or the other.

(Or we could finally get proper controller support, not like that’ll ever happen~)

fluffdragon.1523:

Serious question here, as I’ve not looked at my settings in … years now, but was there ever or is there currently an option to toggle mouse-look mode?

Something along the lines of: “press [KEY] to make the mouse act as if right-click is always depressed.”

I could see that being really useful for people who find it difficult to adapt or have health issues that make holding down mouse buttons a pain. Likewise this could be a nice way for the OP to slowly break into things without feeling trapped one way or the other.

(Or we could finally get proper controller support, not like that’ll ever happen~)

Yes, there is a mode called “action camera”, where you move the camera simply by moving the mouse, the cursor is locked in the middle of the screen, and all skills you cast will cast on your cursor. You can set a custom hotkey to toggle this mode on and off. Unfortunately though, this prevents skill clicking, as your cursor is locked in the middle of your screen. You could use the hotkey to toggle it off whenever you want to click a skill, but then you might as well just keybind your skills directly.

As people mentioned above, try different keyboard and mouse.

I used to play other MMOs both hands on keyboard quite some time ago and switched once i got new keyboard and mouse.

This is what I’ve found to suite me most for GW2:
https://www.bcgroup-online.com/upload/b/32596-logitech-logitech-g103-gaming-keyboard.jpg
https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/08/8-18-2011gaming-mouse-g300-red-glamour-image-lg.jpg

You’ll never be good with that style, and you will almost certainly have a hard time with a lot of the content, but sure I guess you can do it.

no way I could play this game without strafe and mouse look

fluffdragon.1523:

Serious question here, as I’ve not looked at my settings in … years now, but was there ever or is there currently an option to toggle mouse-look mode?

Something along the lines of: “press [KEY] to make the mouse act as if right-click is always depressed.”

I could see that being really useful for people who find it difficult to adapt or have health issues that make holding down mouse buttons a pain. Likewise this could be a nice way for the OP to slowly break into things without feeling trapped one way or the other.

(Or we could finally get proper controller support, not like that’ll ever happen~)

Enable Action Camera. That said, because it’s basically permanently-pressed, tab-targeting is no longer a thing; you need to aim via the camera.

onevstheworld.2419:

Have you tried using something other than a traditional keyboard and mouse?

I play all my games with a MMO mouse and Orbweaver, which makes the reaching my keybinds much easier.

this!^

i clicked my way through the majority of my WoW experience before i bought a speedpad (mine is a nostromo n52te) and it is so much better now!

you have a D-pad under your thumb and you can bind 4 buttons to it and there is another button above and another below, that is 6 buttons right under your thumb.

if this thing broke i’d honestly be screwed when it comes to playing GW2!
i’m no contortionist when it comes to keyboard keybinds so i highly and thoroughly recommend getting a speedpad

Liewec.2896:

onevstheworld.2419:

Have you tried using something other than a traditional keyboard and mouse?

I play all my games with a MMO mouse and Orbweaver, which makes the reaching my keybinds much easier.

this!^

i clicked my way through the majority of my WoW experience before i bought a speedpad (mine is a nostromo n52te) and it is so much better now!

you have a D-pad under your thumb and you can bind 4 buttons to it and there is another button above and another below, that is 6 buttons right under your thumb.

if this thing broke i’d honestly be screwed when it comes to playing GW2!
i’m no contortionist when it comes to keyboard keybinds so i highly and thoroughly recommend getting a speedpad

I also use a Nostromo and Naga
12 buttons at my thumb tip for action binds, another 14 on the other side for skills with a thumbstick for mobility.

I play with a laptop, so that was my predominate method for a long time- it was just easier. I play WvW mostly (PvE when not in there) so I adapted quickly to using mouse scrolling more often. It was kind of a necessity for fast camera movement/ fast maneuvering in general. I still have strafe left/right bound to WASD though and mix the two at times, so you don’t have to go cold turkey or anything.

DeceiverX.8361:

I do suggest binding strafe to A and D (disabling rotate) and just using the right click + hold for camera rotation. I also highly suggest binding dodge, as Danikat mentions above, to a more prominent button (I think the game defaults this to C or something?). I moved mine to the Left Shift.

This is how I do it but my problem with it is that it’s very easy for me to lose track of where the mouse cursor is on the screen so when it comes time for placing AoEs they’re all over the place.

Use action camera and bind A,D to strafe, like suggested by some already. Best way to play hands down.

Curo.2483:

fluffdragon.1523:

Serious question here, as I’ve not looked at my settings in … years now, but was there ever or is there currently an option to toggle mouse-look mode?

Something along the lines of: “press [KEY] to make the mouse act as if right-click is always depressed.”

I could see that being really useful for people who find it difficult to adapt or have health issues that make holding down mouse buttons a pain. Likewise this could be a nice way for the OP to slowly break into things without feeling trapped one way or the other.

(Or we could finally get proper controller support, not like that’ll ever happen~)

Yes, there is a mode called “action camera”, where you move the camera simply by moving the mouse, the cursor is locked in the middle of the screen, and all skills you cast will cast on your cursor. You can set a custom hotkey to toggle this mode on and off. Unfortunately though, this prevents skill clicking, as your cursor is locked in the middle of your screen. You could use the hotkey to toggle it off whenever you want to click a skill, but then you might as well just keybind your skills directly.

… how did I completely forget about this? Thank you for reminding me.