Guild Wars 2

So…. I’m a keyboard turner. This was my first mmo and pc game period and didn’t understand how to play, so I got into the habit of playing whilst not using my mouse very much (I usually place it in the middle of the screen and play w/ right hand on number keys for my 10 skills). Next thing I know, I’ve got 1500 hours into the game and gotten to a point where my skill doesn’t seem to progress past a certain point. I’m starting to realize that if I want to get good enough to solo arah paths, I’m going to have to learn to use my mouse.

I guess I’m asking how to do this. Yes, I know I’m a cleverly disguised newb, but I’m really willing to learn. I tried looking for youtube videos on how to play mmos, but the videos weren’t helpful in the slightest.

Thank you in advance!!

I used to click skills before I started playing this game. I bought a mouse with buttons, a Naga, and I use my thumb for all the skills while my left hand uses the QWES keys for movement and strafing. The mouse I use for directional movement, holding down the right click while using QWES. So I run forward using W while steering using the mouse, swinging it around to point it in the direction I wish to go. Strafing is essentially the same. Holding down Q or E while using the mouse for direction. 

This setup allows me to quickly hit any skill with just my thumb while continuously running and strafing. The dodge button I put on my mouse scroll button as a click. My index finger naturally rests there and it’s easy to click it without any other movement, my jump key I put on the space bar as my left thumb rests there easily. 

I put the F1 thru F4 keys on C, V, B, N as my thumb is close to those and putting them there means I don’t have to take my hand off the movement keys. 

if you ever played first player shooters, then wasd+mouse should be very intuitive, if not, then uhm, its probably similar to learning to walk or eat with a fork goodluck

I think it’s mainly a matter of practice.

You will most likely want your main hand on the mouse controlling the camera, and your other hand on the keyboard for your skills. Then all the other actions can be divided up between them on extra mouse buttons if you have them or surrounding keys on the keyboard if not.

You have two options for moving:
1) Use the mouse. If you hold down both mouse buttons your character will run forwards and turn in whatever direction you move the mouse. This is good for general exploring and easy combat but generally not precise enough for things like moving between red circles or doing jumping puzzles.
2) Using the keyboard for forward, back, and strafe left/right. Similar to the one above you turn by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse. This gives you more precise control but can be annoying when going long distances, you will definitely want to make use of auto-run. Obviously if you do this you’ll need to make sure the movement keys are within easy reach of the skill keys.

The alternative is to buy an MMO mouse, the ones with about 12 buttons on the side and use that for both movement and skills, but they can be expensive and IMO it’s not necessary.

I play with a RAT 7 (not a rpg mouse) with two buttons on the side and i use the middle mouse click as well. Idk if this will help you but my skills 1-5 are bound to those numbers as there easy for my hand to reach in a moments notice. My heal is bound to “e” my “oh kitten” utility is “Q” and my elite sits on “Z”. I prefer to have my utilities very close to my movment hand, however i see allot of people doing the opposite as well ( utilities 1-5 and weap skills around “wasd” hand". My mouse skills are things like about face (180 turn) call target and i think the other is a utility as well.

there are several videos and keyboard layouts that you can find on google and youtube that really helped me learn to move with my mouse. it didnt happen over night so dont feel like you wont “get it” if you still feel the impulse to click. habits like that are very hard to break. I think it took me over a month for it to feel “normal”

What helped me alot was remapping A-D, or Q-E (whichever you prefer) to be your strafe keys, with no way to turn with your keyboard any longer you are forced to adjust how you play and how you move. keeping your class skills on 1-5 is fine but having utilities mapped to keys close to your movement hand is important. I would practice learning to move with your mouse and playing with key bindings that feel comfortable to you before investing in an expensive gaming mouse.

these are 2 of the guides I used:

http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/

good luck, its not as hard as it seems

The most important thing is that you need to avoid going back to your old habbits. Thats what makes it harder than it needs to be.

Its very likely that you will be able figure it out within a few days … if you stick to it. Within a week or two youll find that your old playstyle is actually harder to pull off than regular mouseturning.

First thing is unbind your keyboard turning and walking back keys. Just have forward and strafe (w= forward, strafe can be q and e still or move it to a and d if you wish, choice is yours. If you move it to a and d, it will be somewhat like a fps game for movement). Then just keep playing, using you mouse for turning and the like.

Your actually in a good situation, as most people start off as a clicker (clicking skills etc), but you are already used to using your keyboard more. So yep, just keep playing with the mouse and you will pick it up, surprisingly it doesnt take that long to get into it.

(if for whatever reason my keybinds make no sense, its because I use a steelseries merc so it has a gamepad/board built into it)