Guild Wars 2

In many videos I have viewed in the past via youtube, many of the people use the classic WASD keys for movement. Still many others have F1, F2, and F3 profession skills and 6, 789, 0 keys as heal, utility, and elite skills respectively (been awhile since I have seen the classic key mapping so I might be wrong here). I believe this to be very hindering to gameplay, and here is why:

> Using the F1 keys is an unnecessary reach for your fingers, and this game requires quick reactions to many factors.
> Same goes for the 6, 789, and 0 keys. This game requires skillful use of the dodge ability. To have your keys mapped so far away takes your concentration away from the game.
> Clickers (people who use their mouse to use utility/ profession abilities) should be frowned upon. If you are one of these people, I encourage you to commit to a new key mapping you are comfortable with.
> By switching to ESDF you have 3 buttons to the left of your movement keys. This is incredibly helpful for saving you time and energy. Now you can use those keys for heal, utility, dodge etc. There are of course many other setups but ESDF will be the easiest transition.

I guarantee that switching up your key mapping will vastly improve your gameplay experience. Especially elementalists. I can’t imagine using the F1 keys for attunement swapping, dear god save me now. Here is an example of what my mapping is:

ESDF keys for movement
1-5 still weapon skills
Q is heal
WRT are utility skills
6 is elite
G to interact
A is weapon swap
BVCX are profession skills
Shift to look behind

Most of the UI hotkeys you can flatout remove because there is no need to clutter your mapping when they are readily accessible at the top left of your screen. Keys that you use often such as inventory and trading post are good to keep and switch around. I still use double-tap to dodge but I’m too lazy to fit it in to my setup.
Well I hope I at least convinced one person to try the change, if you are that one person then your feedback is much appreciated here. Lets convert as many as we can together before we go up in flames!

I play on The Xbox360 Controller. ^-^

Here is a 30 second video on me using it for combat:

I cannot play the game on keyboard & Mouse, however, I do enjoy playing it on the Xbox360 controller

I think the best way to play GW2 is the way you enjoy playing it.
And everybody has their own layouts when it comes to that.

I use the Razer Orbweaver. Attunement switch is easy when using the thumbstick to do it, because I never jump and attunement switch at the same time anyway.

Btw keyboard users, he’s right.

Personally I think the important part is simply to make people aware that you can re-bind any key (and add ones that don’t have a default binding) and that the default set-up is unlikely to be the best choice.

Everyone seems to have their own favourite layout and what works for one person is unusable for someone else.

For example I’m left-handed so most suggested layouts would be very awkward for me. I use the number pad for my skills and F1-4, weapon swap and take target/next target, my thumb on the arrow keys to move (with strafe left/right instead of turn) and I have dodge and F on my mouse.

But for anyone right-handed it would be impossible to reach both the number pad and arrow keys so that wouldn’t work. (Also I’m on my mums Mac right now and I think it would be really uncomfortable with this keyboard.)

If you are new to the game or are having performance issues, I encourage you to try a new key binding setup. It will be wierd at first but you will feel the results quickly.

I highly suggest getting an MMO mouse such as the razer naga. Having the 12 extra buttons at your thumb is outstanding on guildwars 2 , as now i can preform all those actions while moving.
I bind the 1-10 to the 12 button thumb grid, then move the f1-f4 down to the 1-4 keys.

its a big of an expensive way to do it, but i love my naga and simply will not play mmos without it.

I find the extra buttons are useful in games like battlefield as well, again being able to reload, change weapons, stances etc without having to move away from wads.