Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I’m looking to hear from some solid thieves as to how you have your key bindings setup. I’m trying to remove any tendencies in my technique (like always strafing left while hitting SB #2, etc) to be a bit more unpredictable in WvW/PvP.

A few possible questions:

1) Do you have back up on a key @ all? I know a lot of folks, myself included, just took it off the bar because you can spin and run faster than backing up.

2) Where’s your dodge key? Dodge is such a huge part of our game that it’s one of the most important keys we could bind. It should be on a key that’s reachable regardless of which direction you are strafing/moving or which skill/utility you are using.

3) Heavy on mouse buttons for skills or utilities? (Razer Naga or equiv.)

4) Key to move forward? Or do you use both mouse buttons to free up a finger on the left hand?

5) Anything else that’s “obvious” to a veteran player (especially a pvper) but might be missed by us noobs.

Also looking for a critique of my current setup:

Q – heal
W – skill 1 (spam autoattack)
E – skill 2
X – skill 3 (very easy to hit flanking strike/pistol whip or evade with SB)
C – skill 5
Z – skill 4
S – run forward (rarely used as I usually press both mouse buttons to run)
R – Autorun
A – Turn left
D – Turn right

Utilities are 1,2,3, with 4 on elite
F1 – Steal
Pickup – left shift
Alt – Nearest Target
Ctrl – Show stuff
Space – Jump
Clear target – mousewheel
Dodge – Thumb mouse button ( I think it’s 5 on my mouse )

So I centered the mapping around being able to repeatedly auto attack while moving in any direction, including forward via the both mouse buttons way.

Any critique? I don’t have the about face button mapped, nor can I find a good spot for it. I’m not exactly happy with where dodge is at either, as sometimes my thumb isn’t quick enough and/or smashing dodge screws up my movement w/ the mouse.

Thanks in advance!

1. Just left it on. Never bothered to turn it off.
2. My dodge key is space bar. I find it very easy to use and strongly encourage it.
3. I don’t have any special gaming equipment so no, every keybind is on the keyboard.
4. Use mouse to turn and to move.
5. Looks fine. Only thing I would recommend is having dodge on space bar and jump on shift.

X = 1
Y =2
B = 3
A = 4
Lt+X = 6
Lt+Y = 7
Lt+B = 8
Lt+A = 9
Rt+X = F1
Rt+Y = 0
Rt+A = 5

w

I come from a competitive fps background.

Every mmo I move the strafe keys to a&d and use q&e for heals and OMG die buttons.
For any other special attack I always use tab&spacebar, in gw2 that’s my elite. Z/x/c are the rest of my key binds. Having everything grouped on the left side of the keyboard lets me have a fps feel.

I also use my direction keys to dodge so I still have s bind.

W – forward
A/D – Strafe
S – Backup. For in-town, and whatnot. Sometimes I have a sammich in my right hand, kitten it.
Mousewheel Click – Dodge
R – Heal
Q – Ut 1
E – Ut 2
X – Ut 3
V – Elite
C – Target closest
Z – Steal (for alts that have more than 1 class skill, they get relegated to Shift+2-4)
F – F
Tab – Target next
Ctrl – VOIP

No need for turning keys, that’s what the mouse is for. This keeps everything withing reach. Granted, if I mained Mesmers or Engineers, I’d probably have to rethink the class skill buttons.

I kept all my utilities the same, but moved f1-4 onto z-v (this is also helpful for elementalist) because I’m on a laptop and my f keys aren’t very useful.
I have dodge on mouse, as well as jump (for convenience).

Changing your utilities is probably a good idea, but I don’t have a problem with it because I’m used to RTS games.

Sorry I’m late to the party!
On my thief I typically move using just the mouse with the middle mouse button for auto run. As a previous League of Legends player I’m used to using QWE and R for attacks so I bonded the 1-4 abilities there. I keep my 5th skill on D with steal on F so I can quickly use the Cloak and Dagger/steal combo. I have my utilities on 1-4 and my elite skill on v just because. I also use my pinky to either hit caps lock to switch between enemies, tab to interact, or shift to jump, and keep my thumb on the space bar for dodging or slide over to alt to talk to my homies in Team Speak.
The only downside that I’ve found with this set up is that jumping puzzles are crazy hard with mouse only movement (especially with my awful internet.)

I use this on all my characters, but I find it to be really nice on Thief.

1) I do, but I don’t use it, I should probably move dodge there, but don’t feel like relearning it.

2) Dodge is currently at V, I found that to be a convenient place to have it.

3) I have a Razer Naga, and that is where most of my keys are. My 1-5 are on the side, and my F1 and F3 are on the top. (From my Ele, and I’ve just gotten used to it)

4) I use the standard W.

5) So, it goes like this for me, 1-5 on mouse, 6-0 as my 1-5 on my keyboard. F2 is F1 and F4 is F2. And F1 is now Mouse 5, F3 is now Mouse 4.

But, I gave my friend a setup that was like yours. Except Q was heal, E was Elite, and ZXC where his 7-9 abilties.

- Raigue

q,e,r,f utilities and elite
mouse #4 (side button) – dodge
mouse #5 (side button)- deselect target
ctrl – sheathe weapon
z – look backwards
scroll wheel button – AoE pick up items
shift – select

1) Do you have back up on a key @ all? I know a lot of folks, myself included, just took it off the bar because you can spin and run faster than backing up.
2) Where’s your dodge key? Dodge is such a huge part of our game that it’s one of the most important keys we could bind. It should be on a key that’s reachable regardless of which direction you are strafing/moving or which skill/utility you are using.
3) Heavy on mouse buttons for skills or utilities? (Razer Naga or equiv.)
4) Key to move forward? Or do you use both mouse buttons to free up a finger on the left hand?
5) Anything else that’s “obvious” to a veteran player (especially a pvper) but might be missed by us noobs.

1. yes, it’s very useful
2. mouse #4
3. mouse only got 2 extra buttons, i use both
4. yes i use w to move forward
5. keys like look backwards, deselect, and sheathe are not used by new players but very useful.

1) I have a “back up” key, but I was actually thinking of turning it into my turnabout key because I hardly use it.

2) My dodge key is E. I had it as “double-tap on movement keys” for the better part of a year, but it kept messing me up on jumping puzzles and would sometimes cause deaths if the double-tap took too long, or the second tap wasn’t registered.

I found that having keys bound for strafing is almost entirely pointless, since strafing isn’t really needed in GW2 and you can do it without having a specific key bound for it.

3) I use my mouse for my heal, utilities, and elite skill.

4) I almost always use W.

5) I usually have at least one utility on multiple characters that does the same basic thing, like clearing conditions. Put this skill in the same spot on your bar for all characters. This way it’s easier to swap between professions, and you can survive a close call even if you forget which character you’re on.