Guild Wars 2

So I know people change the default control schema, but how? What set up for controls and options do you serious players use, and why is it better than the defaults? Thanks!

An awful lot of it comes down to personal taste or habit. The defaults are generally fine.

Personally, I rebind ESDF to forward, backward, and strafe left/right. Then QWRTV to the five weapon skills, and 1-5 to the utility skills. This puts everything within easy reach of my left hand, so I never need to move it in order to activate something.

I am, however, considering using SDF and X or C for the movement set, allowing QWERT for weapon skills…

Helseth has a video on his youtube channel. But basically it’s a long winded way of saying “make sure you can reach every single key you need without moving your hand out of place.” You can’t do fast combos if you need to move your hand.

Don’t forget you can use key combos as well, for example “shift-R” or etc.

The only important thing is that it works for you – that you can remember where the keys are and reach them when you need them. How you do that is entirely up to you.

I’m left-handed so I put all the combat skills, plus other things like weapon swap, take target, next target and F1-4 onto the number pad. Then because it’s my right hand on the keyboard I can put my thumb on the number pad to move (although unless I need to strafe I tend to hold down both mouse buttons to move).

I find that much easier because the number pad keys are all in rows, and it’s a smaller group with space around it so it’s easy for me to keep track of where my hand is without looking.

Other things I’ve heard of people doing include:

• Moving the movement keys (W,A,S,D by default) over one row and putting skills and things in a ring around them.
• Using 1-5 and Shift+1-5 so you don’t need to move your hand as much.
• Using a gaming mouse with about 12 buttons on the side so you can do more stuff with 1 hand.
• Using a gamepad which has a small number of keys and a thumbstick so you can do more stuff with 1 hand.

If you want to consider either of the last two I strongly recommend finding somewhere you can try them out before buying. Even if you can’t actually play just holding it can affect your decision on which one to buy. I thought I knew exactly which mouse I wanted until I tried it in a shop and found there was an uncomfortable ridge under my hand (right-handed mouse, the joys of being a lefty gamer). I ended up getting one I’d initially ruled out because lots of people said you need big hands for it, but it’s fine for me because I have my hand sitting on top instead of resting my wrist on the mat like you’re supposed to.

I have set up mine fairly simple:
q (F1), e (heal), r/t/y (skills) and g (elite). Normal wasd for control otherwise.

Problem is classes with lots of F keys, bleh.

+1 to personal taste

I use WASD for movement, strafe left and right. Weapon and F skills at default. Heal, and dodge on mouse side buttons. Utilty 1 on mouse middle (usually stunbreak) utilty 2 and 3 on Q and E, elite skill on X. Misc other keybinds on Z, C, R, T with modifiers (about face, stow weapon, toggle walk, call target, take target)

You might also invest in a Razr or other style mouse that has additional buttons you can bind. That really helped my play to easily reach my number keys cause they’re on my mouse.

Ah, it took me a while to figure out how to change the keys myself. Go to options (the cog in the top-left corner), select mouse options and double-click the keys you want to change. All you have to do is select which keys you want in place of the default. (Not sure if this is what you wanted… you probably figured this part out already.) I went AFK for, like, 20-25 mins to figure out which keys would be best for my gameplay, haha. I’m not sure if my suggestions will help you because your gameplay is likely to be different from my own. But, take or leave my suggestions upon your leisure. Also, I main Ranger, so I’ve discovered that my current setup works the best for me.

I leave all of the UI keys at default. M for Map, H for Hero, I for Inventory, F to Interact, etc.

WASD for movement, but instead of AD for turning, I use it to strafe. Very useful! I kind of bummed that suggestion off of better players, haha. QE to turn. Space bar to jump. Double tap to dodge and roll (works with WASD and QE, woot), but I use Caps Lock as an emergency dodge.

Since my mouse isn’t as easily accessible to me (using a laptop and often lying on my chest to play), I use my number pad for weapon and utility skills. 1, 2, 3, 0, and (.) for weapon skills. 4, 5, and 6 for utility skills. (+) for elite skill. 7, 8, 9, and (/) for mechanical skills (above weapon skills).

MISC: R to Swap Weapons, (*) to Swap Pets, and U to Walk (useful for getting across thin bars on jumping puzzles XD).

I do not touch my number keys… too much of a hassle to try and switch between movement and weapon skills.

I understand that my suggestions may seem a bit unorthodox. Or maybe VERY unorthodox. But, hey, take some time to select the keys that are best for you. It may be easier to place all of commands on your left hand and leave your right hand free for your mouse. I use my mouse just for the camera and interacting with things since it’s easier for me that way.

And I also use Shift to Heal. Useful, since I have two of them, haha.

Fluffball.8307:

Helseth …[says,] “make sure you can reach every single key you need without moving your hand out of place.” You can’t do fast combos if you need to move your hand.

Don’t forget you can use key combos as well, for example “shift-R” or etc.

Most concise phrasing I’ve seen of the basic advice.

Also consider finding a comfortable mouse and/or keyboard and/or left-hand keypad (e.g. Logitech’s G13) — they give you access to a lot more options for “without moving your hand out of place.”

Then you need to try out various combinations to find what works for you, where “try out” means give it at least 2-10 hours over more than a day or two; it takes time for your hands to ‘remember’ (heck, I change games and find myself hitting the ‘wrong’ keys). Some people love WASD; some hate it. You won’t know which group you’re in until you’ve tried both.

Had a Nostomo Gamepad.. upgraded to a Razer Orbweaver.. awesome piece of gamepad hardware…

I use ESDF for movement rather than WASD, which frees up two keys within easy reach on the left of my movement keys. I find the function keys are too far away for my tastes, so I move these down into easy-to-reach keys like QWRT. 1-5 are fine where they are. A, V, C, and G are also conveniently located (your mileage may vary) and I can easily apply shift in combination with any of these keys, although I prefer to use shift+R and/or shift+T. But it all comes down to personal preference.

General rule of thumb: All keybinds should be within easy reach without having to move your hand away from your movement keys. This is the quickest and most comfortable way to play.

I can’t remember how I’ve changed my controls from default, but my utility skills are Shift+1-5.

So I like the idea of using shift 1-5 for the utlity skills, and I will definitely look into remapping some of them. Lots of good suggestions. I did think about getting one of the game pads (the thing that has a thumbstick and about 16-20 buttons for your non mouse hand). What about the other options in the game menu like ground targeting, directional dodging, and the other things that aren’’t just what key to use for what command?

I’ve read debate about the targetting, and I know the double tap to dodge should be turned off when doing any kind of jumping (which is sad cuz I’m gonna have to relearn dodging). I’m sure there are other things as well.

I like the fast cast with range indicator ground targetting, and lock ground target at maximum range. After some practice its quicker to hold a button down, line up the target and let it up to activate the skill. Again it is down to personal preference.

Double tap to evade seems like a good idea but makes it too easy to accidentally waste your dodges or to go in the wrong direction; I find a dedicated dodge button overall easier to use, since just a single key press can be pressed faster and more reliably than a double tap; provided it is also in a location that you don’t need to use your movement key fingers for.

No One.3716:

I like the fast cast with range indicator ground targetting, and lock ground target at maximum range. After some practice its quicker to hold a button down, line up the target and let it up to activate the skill. Again it is down to personal preference.

Double tap to evade seems like a good idea but makes it too easy to accidentally waste your dodges or to go in the wrong direction; I find a dedicated dodge button overall easier to use, since just a single key press can be pressed faster and more reliably than a double tap; provided it is also in a location that you don’t need to use your movement key fingers for.

Yah, with ESDF movement, and A for dodge, it’s easy for manage. Never found myself fumbling for the dodge button, and I stopped rolling off jumping puzzles so often.

This may be a stupid question, but does the dedicated dodge button allow for dodging in different directions, or is it always dodging back (not to either side or forward)?

It does, with no directional input you still roll backwards; while moving forward or strafing to the side you roll in those directions.

I think one thing people will agree is to remove strafe from q and e and put it in the “turn right/left” place, wherever you want. Also to disable double tap to dodge.

Rest is really dependent on your taste and set up. All of my options/menus (guild, pvp, inventory, hero pannels) are on the num pad. My skills remained on 1-4, my ele attunment are scatterec (shift, c, v, middle mouse button) my heal is on r and the rest of my skills are on my mouse. I have dodge mapped to e and about face to q. Autorun on tab, etc.