Guild Wars 2

This post was inspired by the most recent mesmer podcast, where Grimms talks about his bindings and mentions that he has strafe on R and W, to which Pyro seems very surprised. Turns out Grimm meant to say A and D, but my strafes actually are on R and W, and I find it to be far superior.

I’ve played around with my keybindings quite a bit, and since we tend to use our profession skills quite often, I find them even more important. So I thought I’d share what I’ve come up with, and maybe it could help some aspiring mesmers improve their play a little by making it easier to maneuver.

So without further ado, here is my setup, and I’ll explain a few things in more detail at the bottom:

Movement:
E: Forward
W: Strafe left
R: Strafe right
Dodge: Q
Auto Run: Mouse Button 4 and/or the Up arrow key

Skills Note: I just bought the Razr Hex last week, so I’ll put in my setup with this here, but I’ll also add what I used BEFORE the Hex in italics
Weapon Skill 1: 5 (Seems very odd, but I’ll explain, I promise) – Was 1 before the Hex
Weapon Skill 2: Mouse button 2 – Was 2 before the Hex
Weapon Skill 3: Mouse button 3 – Was 3 before the Hex
Weapon Skill 4: Mouse button 4 – Was 4 before the Hex
Weapon Skill 5: Mouse button 5 – Was 5 before the Hex
Heal: Mouse button 6 – Was 6 before the Hex
Utility 1: A
Utility 2: S
Utility 3: F
Elite: G
Profession Skill 1: 1 – Was Alt+1 before the Hex
Profession Skill 2: 2 – Was Alt+2 before the Hex
Profession Skill 3: 3 – Was Alt+3 before the Hex
Profession Skill 4: 4 – Was Alt+4 before the Hex

Miscellaneous
Use/Search: T
Call Target: C
Take Target: Mouse Button 3 – Was V before the Hex
Weapon Swap: `
Next Target: Tab
Push to Talk: Mouse button 1 – Was pressing scroll wheel before the Hex
Inventory: B
Map: M
Friend Panel: Y
WvW: U
Guild: I
Trading Post: O

Obviously the most glaring difference from most is the shift of the movement keys over one, and the fact that my strafing keys are right next to the move forward key. I found that the resting position for my hand feels much more natural on three side-by-side buttons, than it does resting on W, A, and D. This has saved me a lot of discomfort in the long run, and I highly recommend anyone to give it a shot. In addition, shifting over one key gives me a lot more buttons I can reach comfortably, whereas before my pinky seemed to be going to waste.

The other obvious oddity is the placement of the Weapon Skill 1. Right now I have it placed on 5 just because I don’t really have another place for it. I originally didn’t have it mapped at all, since I can just auto attack by double clicking someone. However, I not only found this difficult to unlearn, but whenever I use something like a ram or when I’m in a downed state, I need to push that skill quite often. If anyone has a suggestion for a better place to put this skill please let me know!

Anyway, that’s my whole setup. Hopefully it helps some people out in their quest to find the perfect keybinds, but I thought this might be helpful to a lot of people, especially mesmers

Lawls im a weirdo and use the standard ANET set up for moving and num pad for all my skills. The mouse is a stationary mouse track ball that I control with my pinky

My 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 have been moved to my G600 (g9 through to g13). G14 is weapon swap.

Keyboard 1 is now heal. Keyboard 2, 3, Q and E utilities. Z elite. With double tap of directional keys to dodge.

Shatters unchanged.

May not be the best setup but allows me to play without moving my hand at all

I use trewq for skills and numbers for profs, asd for moving forward+strafes. However while touch typing means these are easy to use as a single tap I am struggling with the double-taps for rolling so something needs to change. Considering using fd for strafe instead but unsure lol. I know how hard it is to get used to change of binding.
Unfortunately I do have a razor naga languishing in it’s box cos I just couldn’t get used to thumbing skills. shakes head@self.

One of your Mesmerized Caster’s Setups:

kylia.4813:

One of your Mesmerized Caster’s Setups:

Holy cow those buttons seem really spread out! You can put them literally wherever you want and you spread them all over the place? Haha

Zumi.6384:

I found that the resting position for my hand feels much more natural on three side-by-side buttons, than it does resting on W, A, and D. This has saved me a lot of discomfort in the long run, and I highly recommend anyone to give it a shot.

I came to the same conclusion, except I didn’t move over as you did.

My keybinds are:

1, 2, 3, 4, R are weapon abilities

Q – left strafe; W – forward; E – right strafe

A – dodge; S – back; D – dodge

Shift + 1-4 – Shatters

Heal + utilities are Mouse 4-7

Elite is Mouse 3

im enjoying 12 button mouse. took a sec to get used to but i think spreading the skills out over 2 hands helps me be alittle quicker.

I actually got a G13 specifically for GW2 and my gameplay really improved.

Mister Mustard.7203:

I came to the same conclusion, except I didn’t move over as you did.

My keybinds are:

1, 2, 3, 4, R are weapon abilities

Q – left strafe; W – forward; E – right strafe

A – dodge; S – back; D – dodge

Shift + 1-4 – Shatters

Heal + utilities are Mouse 4-7

Elite is Mouse 3

Wait, you have dodge bound to two different keys? Any reason for that?

Zumi.6384:

Wait, you have dodge bound to two different keys? Any reason for that?

It’s just what felt most comfortable for me, as I’m usually strafing with Q or E. If I’m holding down E, it’s easier to press A, and similarly with Q and D. I started off with it only bound to A, but being occasionally awkward, I changed it.

I don’t have a fancy mouse and only made minor changes to the default.

W: forward
A: strafe left
S: back
D: strafe right
V: dodge

Tab: weapon swap
1: weapon 1
2: weapon 2
3: weapon 3
4: weapon 4
5: weapon 5
Q: heal
E: utility 1
R: utility 2
F: utility 3
Caps Lock: elite
F1: profession 1
F2: profession 2
F3: profession 3
F4: profession 4
`: interact (revive/execute)

I’m using an FPSGun (I won it in a raffle; don’t judge me) with the following setup:

Movement:
E: Forward
S: Strafe left
D: Backpedal (rarely used; perhaps I should eliminate it)
F: Strafe right
C: About face
Mouse back-button: Dodge

Skills:
1-5: 1-5
Q: Heal
A: Utility 1
Z: Utility 2
X: Utility 3
W: Elite
F1-4: Profession skills

Other:
`: Weapon swap
R: Interact
V: Target nearest enemy
Tab: Step through targets
Mouse scroll-click: Take called target
Mouse forward button: Push to talk on Mumble

hmm most of you have strafe but no back. what are the real benefits of that. i dont have any strafe but i do have back. i strafe using mouse and left/right…

The problem with backpedaling is that it is the slowest form of movement, and you can get a similar effect (moving away from your enemy while being able to attack them) just by strafing at an angle away from them.

As for why I use strafe and not turning with keys, it’s because I turn with the mouse much faster and with more control than I’ve ever gotten with the keyboard keys. So, I removed it as an option and put my interact/elite skills where the strafe keys used to be.

kylia.4813:

One of your Mesmerized Caster’s Setups:

Ok that looks amazing. :o

And interesting movement keys OP, I’ve never really thought of having forward/left/right all on the same row.

Anyway, pretty simple for me although I am using the combat mod so have weapon skills bound to the mouse buttons. I believe this is a very compact setup which makes it easy to access skills and remain mobile.

WASD – forward, strafe left, back, strafe right.
Q – heal
E – mind wrack

F – Toggle combat mod on/off (a minor annoyance is having to type capital “F” in chat all the time)
R – Autorun

Leftclick – skill #1
Rightclick – skill #2
Shift + leftclick – skill 3
Shift + rightclick – skill #4
Front thumb button – skill #5
Back thumb button – lock target
Middle mouse button AND scroll down – swap weapon
Scroll up – dodge (underwater)
Shift + scroll up – zoom in
Shift + scroll down – zoom out

Shift + E – utility #1
Shift + R – utility #2
Shift + front thumb button – utility #3
Shift + F – elite

1 – CoF
2 – Map
3 – Diversion
4 – Distortion

Spacebar – dodge (land), swim up (underwater)
Shift + spacebar – swim down
Left ctrl – jump (in caps lock position, so just next to A)
Tab – use
Z – stow weapon

One thing I’m not happy with yet is dodging underwater. Shift + spacebar and spacebar is very natural for swim up/down, but it messes up my dodge key, so I have to use the mousewheel.

Standard keyboard layout (no macro buttons) + Razer Deathadder (2 side buttons):

WASD – standard movement
Right click + AD for strafing, never used separate buttons for this.
Shift – dodge
Space – jump
C – swap weapon
Middle Mousewheel Button – use

Q – weapon 1
E – weapon 2
R – weapon 3
F – weapon 4
G – weapon 5

Ctrl macrod to Deathadder side button.
Ctrl + Q – heal
Ctrl + E – utility 1
Ctrl + R – utility 2
Ctrl + F – utility 3
Ctrl + G – elite

1234 – shatters – should work out something for this
V – class specific skill – V and 1 both for Mind Wrack (I play Thief too, and V is just more comforatble)

Y+Z – highlight enemy + allied names – macrod for the other side button on Deathadder

Stop using your keyboards, game as our great 8 bit forefathers intended, D-Pads!

Razer (Belkin) Nostromo game pad, a bunch of programmable keys and a directional pad to help movement. Couple this with a mouse that has programmable keys also and you’ll only have to mess with your keyboard when you want to talk to your guildies.

Or make your own with this.

Great thread!

I have 4.5 L80 chars although mesmer is my current favorite.

I use a Naga with my thumb on the 1 button and use a few of the surround ones.

Naga 1 = dodge
Naga 2 = F2 confusion
Naga 4 = F4 distortion

W = forward
A = strafe left
D = strafe right
Q = F1 mind w rack
E = util 8
R = util 9
Z = util 7
C = util 6 heal

One of the oddest keybind changes that took a while to adjust to but was worth it:

Shift = jump
Space = 1 (auto attack off)

Space is just so good for spamming and is just wasted on jump that gets hardly used. After accidentally walking off a ton of jumping puzzles, SHIFT is finally ingrained into muscle memory!

BTW, using a daskeyboard.

Bloodgruve.6038:

Stop using your keyboards, game as our great 8 bit forefathers intended, D-Pads!
<snip>

I wouldn’t give up my Noppoo choc mini for any game pad.

kylia.4813:

One of your Mesmerized Caster’s Setups:

I knew being a left-handed Aussie made you “special” … but Jesus Christ kylia ;-)