Guild Wars 2

I am still trying to get comfortable with a good position for my hands and some good hotkeys to make playing the game easier.

How do people use their hand/finger position in these type of games? eg is your middle index finger on the W? What changes are recommended for some of the default keys.
For example I use the middle mouse button for dodge and x for running.

Often though I’ll click with the mouse to use my skill bar and I know that is not efficient.
I am really struggling to get fluid gameplay and I know that takes practice but some hints would be appreciated.

Get used to using WASD, all character based PC games use this configuration, all FPS/RPG/MMO’s also use 1-0 as skill or weapon slots. The other keys depend on the game.

My advice is to stop using your mouse for skills as it will help you with other pc games as well.

I’m the only one I’ve heard of with this keybind:
D = forward
S = strafe left
F = strafe right
turning is done by holding right-click and moving the mouse
weapon skill 1 (auto-attack) is mouse button 3
QWER = weapon skill 2-5
ZXC = utility skills
1234 = profession skills
G = heal
A = elite
T = weapon swap
mouse button 4 = dodge
shift = interact / item pickup
space = jump
tab = target nearest enemy
control = show player/npc names
option = show the names of things you interact with / pickup

I would recommend at least getting rid of the turn left/right buttons and go with strafe. turning with mouse is FAR easier. the people who suck at jumping puzzles are those that don’t use their mouse to turn.
I decided to also get rid of moving backwards, because strafing is faster and still allows you to attack at the same time, and it frees up a key. then I moved all 3 to the home row because it’s harder to reach for W than it is to reach for S. then I moved it over to allow more keys to be within easy reach, and be able to use the dimple on the F key to quickly find where my hand goes without looking. it was a process.

I would bind dodge to a mouse button. Also, try to bind your keys so that you do not have to move your fingers that far to do the actions you want quickly. This typically means making the keys near wasd (or for me, qwe and camera rotate) actions in the game (preferably where you rest on the movement keys any actions that are usually done sequentially/simultaneously rarely are done by the same finger).

I use the arrow keys to move and the number pad for skills, but that’s probably only possible if you’re left-handed.

Since I am used to write with 10 fingers blind, WASD for movement is unfortunate. I remapped the important keys like this:

ESDF = movement (think WASD shifted one key to the right)
1-5 = skills 1-5
R = skill 6
TGB = skills 7,8,9
push middle mouse button = skill 10
tilt mouse wheel left = AoE loot (“pull stuff to you”)
tilt mouse wheel right = weapon swap (“push it away”)
mouse thumb buttons 1-4 = F1..F4 (I have a Logitech G700 with 4 thumb buttons. Perfect fit for the class mechanics skills)
V = interact
C = target nearest enemy
X = dodge
Q = toggle permanent run

By using ESDF you can position and fix your left hand with the tiny knob on the F, and that’s where the left hand is during the game: index finger always over the F. The right hand is always on the mouse.

Silmar Alech… not a single one of our keys are bound the same way :P (unless S and F for you are strafe and not turn? unclear), but I would say yours is the only other one I’ve seen that’s similar to mine :P skills revolve around movement keys, movement keys are shifted over, mouse carries half of the abilities you use all the time.
just wanted to point out that we are brothers from other mothers

Mystic: yes, S and F are of course strafe and not turn. Sorry that I didn’t mention this. So we have at least 2 keys in common: S and F. And you probably didn’t remap SPACE for jump like me as well.

I also developed my setup around the movement keys as starting point. You moved some skills very far away from their default positions and somewhat arbitrarily – I tried that, too, but that was not intuitive and I wasn’t able to memorize such kind of setup fast enough.

My custom setup was made with these requirements:
- movement MUST be ESDF due to myself being 10-finger-writer. I need and use D to go backwards.
- easy to remember, still somewhat resembling the default setup
- important functions more easy to reach. F1..F4 are too far away, so are 6..10
- move some functions to the mouse to allow precise movement with the left hand while being able to cast some functions with the right hand on the mouse at the same time as moving.

- it started with ESDF as core
- F1..F4 found their way to the 4 thumb buttons on my G700. This is a terrific choice, since I use them every few seconds as my main char is an elementalist
- the keys RTGB are a half circle right to ESDF, so I moved 6789 down to RTGB. Still easy to remember
- the elite skill is rarely used, but important. I found the middle mouse button for this. Usually, this button cannot be used for precise operations, because you lose some control over the mouse while you press it. Perfect fit for the elite skill. I use the Logitech Gaming software to map “0” to the middle mouse button.
- Interact is very important. V is a good place, easy to reach and next to the old default of F.
- from GW1, I am used to C giving the nearest enemy. Also a good choice for GW2.
- I often threw a conjured weapon away by accidentally hitting ^, which is next to 1. Weapon swap is ideal for a mouse wheel tilt function, so I remapped it from ^ to # and assigned # to mouse wheel tilt right with Logitech Gaming software.
- the freed ^ is good for opening the chat window as with GW1 and other games for the “console”, so I reassigned it to chat
- AoE loot is great, and mouse wheel tilt left seems a natural choice for it, because it is so easy to use during fights – neither impeding movement with the left hand, nor impeding camera movement with the right hand. So I mapped U in GW2 to AoE loot and mapped U to mouse wheel tilt left with Logitech Gaming software.

Interestingly, I found I am unable to press Z precisely and reliably, so I don’t use it. Not using A is somewhat wasted as well, but I didn’t found the right function for it. I tried some, but I often pressed A by accident, so I removed any functionality from it just like Z. I tried A for the hero or guild window, but popping this up during a fight due to an accidental hit was bad.

I can confuse you even more if I say that I don’t use a standard keyboard, but an ergonomic keyboard that is split in the midde. Until 2013 it was a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, since 2014 a Truly Ergonomic Keyboard.

If someone else tries a total remap, I say to you: try it and don’t give up. The first days with a new setup is horrible until you get used to it. I suggest you start with the default setup and think about the skills you could better place one by one. Develop your own setup one by one.

the biggest problem I have is that I can’t be pressing 2 keys and C (utility skill 3) at the same time. something about the keyboard and it won’t send the 3rd input if C is involved. So I can’t run forward, strafe left, and use utility 3 all at the same time. If I want to use utility 3, I’ve trained myself to only stafe and not forward for that moment. it’s a weird thing, and the C key seems to be the only spot I have problems with it. I can hold down like 6 other keys and they all work, but once I involve C, and it limits it to 2.
how often do you really use backwards? even when I had that bound, I found I never used it. or do you just have the layout like that because that’s how you’ve always had it, even if you don’t use back often?
I wonder if it’s possible to have something like D be forward, and shift-D be backward…

Not being able to press more than 2 keys at the same time is a limitation of some not so sophisticated keyboard. It’s called 2-key-rollover. The holy grail of gaming keyboards is n-key-rollover, which means every key can be pressed independently from each other. In reality, the USB protocol is limited to 6-key-rollover, which means you can press up to 6 keys simultaneously, as long as the keyboard supports it.
Gaming keyboards usually support 6-key-rollover, while cheap consumer keyboards usually only support 2 keys. You seem to have such a 2-key-rollover keyboard.

Regarding backwards: I use it often, although I know that strafing left/right allows faster movement while still attacking. It helps me keeping focus on the action. And it ensures that dodging is going backwards instead of the direction I moved previously. It often happened that I dodge forward into death instead of backwards. “Initializing” the dodge by moving a millimeter backwards to go backwards helps.