Guild Wars 2

I’ve started playing an Ele and really enjoy it, but I have a lot of trouble managing the attunement buttons and skills with the default layout. Any recommendations on a more efficient key mapping?

For mah scepter ele:
fire attune: q
air attune: shift
water attune: left alt
earth attune: mouse button 3

utility skill 1: e
utility skill 2: mouse button 4 (lightning flash)
utility skill 3: r
dodge: space
jump: v
weapon swap: z (not that important)
healing: c (i use signet so not that important either)
elite: x

Froptimus.6741:

I’ve started playing an Ele and really enjoy it, but I have a lot of trouble managing the attunement buttons and skills with the default layout. Any recommendations on a more efficient key mapping?

F1= Fire Attune
F2= Water Attune
F3= Air Attune
F4= Earth Attune

1, 2, 3, 4, 5= Abilities, 1-5. [This is default]

Heal Skill= Mouse 3— Scroll Wheel click
Utility 1= E
Utility 2= V
Utility 3= X
Ultimate= C

Switch Weapon= Z
About Face= Tilde (~)

I do this:
wasd movement
12345 on weapon skills
q heal
ert utilities
y elite (hard to reach, but that’s good because I hate accidentally fatfingering elites)
zxvc the “f1-f4” skills
b dodge
f interact
g push to talk in TS, Mumble, whatever
ctrl+t target
ctrl+g take target
` weapon swap (irrelevant for ele)
forward side mouse button weapon slot #1
back side mouse button stow weapon
SHIFT look behind
Probably other stuff I can’t think of off the top of my head

I have a Redragon Perdition mouse so my keybinding looks like this:

movement: WASD
jump: space
dodge: mouse extra button on the top of the left button
weapon skills: E,R,Shift+E,Shift+R,Ctrl+Shift+R
look behind: Y
weapon swap: Q
interact: F
utilities: Shift+Space, Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+Shift+Space
Attunement swap: mouse button #7, #8, #9, #12 (you can use 1234…)
Elite: mouse button #6 (you can use V)
Heal: mouse button #10 (you can use N)
TeamSpeak: í (whatever button is between the left Shift and Y)
Emergency GTFO button: Ctrl+Alt+Del

with a utechsmart venus mouse (lovely thing really)

Movement: wasd (with strafe)
Dodge: e
Heal: r
turn about : q
air attunment: c
earth attunment: v
water attunment: shift
fire attunment: middle mouse click
Utility skills : maj, mouse button 1 & 2 (next to thumb)
look behind : g
Select enemy: mouse button 3
Draw/stow weapons: mouse button 10
elite: mouse button 4
swap weapons: mouse button 11

To be efficient you need to compress all combat keys as close as possible to WASD keys so u can move freely and cast your abilities at the same time.
1-fire
2-water
3-air
4-earth
run-w
strafe left-a
strafe right-d
dodge-s
weapon skill 1-left ctrl
weapon skill 2-q
weapon skill 3-e
weapon skill 4-v
weapon skill 5-b
heal skill-left shift
utility skill 1-z
utility skill 2-x
utility skill 3-c
elite skill-5
weapon swap-tab
next target enemy-r
move backwards-left alt

Your attunement will look like this
* * * * #
weapon skill will be like this
./ \,.
WASD is this
<^>
Heal and utilities
_ . . .
I’ve been using this since i started maining Ele 2 years ago.

Froptimus.6741:

I’ve started playing an Ele and really enjoy it, but I have a lot of trouble managing the attunement buttons and skills with the default layout. Any recommendations on a more efficient key mapping?

What mouse are you using?

Just copy-pasted this for you:
Hello!
There are two different keybinding methods:
First one is called “reach”: you use the ESDF for moving. You can easily press YAQW and RTG and SHIFT+RTG buttons. Easy combinations: 10
Second one is called “modifier”: you use your little finger to hold down SHIFT and/or the CTRL key. You can press Q, ERF, SHIFT+ERF, CTRL+ERF buttons. Easy combinations: 10
Also never forget: the easiest keystroke is the SPACE. So now I always have the SPACE+modifiers binded.

and this is the tread from the past:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Keyboard-layout/first#post4513868

I have a Logitech G700 mouse, which has 4 thumb buttons. Best keys for the 4 attunements. So it goes like this:

f1..f1: g700 mouse thumb buttons 1..4
skills 1..5: 1..5
skills 6-9: r, t, g, b
skill 10: press mouse wheel
navigation: e, s, d, f (s and f are in fact strafe left/right, not turn left/right)
weapon swap/throw away bundle: tilt mouse wheel right (“push away”)
AoE loot: tilt mouse wheel left (“pull it to me”)
dodge: x
interact: v
open chat: ^
target: w
call target: alt-w
get nearest target: c
run: q

Z = Fire Attune
X = Water Attune
C = Air Attune
V = Earth Attune
Heal = Q
Utility 1= E
Utility 2= R
Utility 3= T
Elite = mouse 5
Switch Weapon= ~
Dodge = Mouse 3 (wheel)

F1= Fire Attune
F2= Water Attune
F3= Air Attune
F4= Earth Attune

1, 2, 3, 4, 5= Abilities, 1-5. [This is default]

Heal Skill= Mouse 4— Mouse Button click
Utility 1= Shift + 1
Utility 2= Shift + 2
Utility 3= Shift + 3
Ultimate= Mouse 3 – Scroll Wheel click

Dodge= Mouse 5 – Mouse Button click
About Face= X
Closest enemy target= C
Open Inventory= Mouse 6 – Mouse Button click

Wow thanks everyone for the responses! Looks like I have a lot of layouts to try.

Pepsi.8907:

with a utechsmart venus mouse (lovely thing really)

Movement: wasd (with strafe)
Dodge: e
Heal: r
turn about : q
air attunment: c
earth attunment: v
water attunment: shift
fire attunment: middle mouse click
Utility skills : maj, mouse button 1 & 2 (next to thumb)
look behind : g
Select enemy: mouse button 3
Draw/stow weapons: mouse button 10
elite: mouse button 4
swap weapons: mouse button 11

I’m just using a regular 5-button mouse now, but I was looking into the Venus. Looks to have nice functionality for the price.

Skills 1-5 are bound to keys 1-5
Skills 6-10 are bound to F1 to F5
Attunement swap is Shift+1 – Shift+ 4

Basically just figure out what works best for your fingers :S
I like having things in rows because it is easier for me to comprehend.

standard ps/2 keyboard without any fluff or flashy stuff

esdf>wasd
skills are bound to only 1 button for max APM. gotta spam autoattack fast and hard.

Froptimus.6741:

Wow thanks everyone for the responses! Looks like I have a lot of layouts to try.

Pepsi.8907:

with a utechsmart venus mouse (lovely thing really)

Movement: wasd (with strafe)
Dodge: e
Heal: r
turn about : q
air attunment: c
earth attunment: v
water attunment: shift
fire attunment: middle mouse click
Utility skills : maj, mouse button 1 & 2 (next to thumb)
look behind : g
Select enemy: mouse button 3
Draw/stow weapons: mouse button 10
elite: mouse button 4
swap weapons: mouse button 11

I’m just using a regular 5-button mouse now, but I was looking into the Venus. Looks to have nice functionality for the price.

I had the G700 you mentionned before switching for venus
I don’t regret it the slightest. I will miss the click that made me able to just swing my middle scroll almost as long as I wished it to XP and the buttons are a bit hard to push compared to my previous mouse
But once I’ve adjusted I don’t think I’ll go back, it truly is an awesome mouse if you use a palm grip, though it is not for small hands, but neither is the g700 so you should be safe.
Do the move, you’ll be glad. I know I am.

I use a Nostromo keypad (I have an older one but there’s a picture of the latest at http://assets.razerzone.com/eeimages/products/59/razer-nostromo-gallery-1.png) and I bind attunements to the D-pad on the thumb:

………. Air
Water …… Fire
……… Earth

I like that it creates a positional mnemonic (air is up, earth is down, fire is forward/offensive, water is backward/defensive), and it makes switching attunements quickly very easy, even while moving and dodging.

Movement is standard WASD style on that keypad, and skills are on the right thumb using a Logitech G600 mouse (which I highly recommend).

I use I,A,B,L to move
H,A,X,O,R for my 1-5 skills
Right mouse for heal
P,F,G for my utilities
Backspace for my Elite
Middle mouse for dodge roll

I hope this helps
Also my bindings may seem a bit odd but I have a gaming mouse which helps