Excessive keybinds. Time for major pruning of abilities

Classes Mage
1

As a frost mage, here is a list of all the keybinds I use. For those of you who say “you don’t need to choose everything,” please tell me which of these abilities I can remove from my toolbars. I do both PvP and PvE. Sure, I do not need all of these abilities for PvE, but PvP requires everything. Here are all my keybinds:

01 - Dragon’s breath:
02 - Cone of cold:
03 - Blink:
04 - Counterspell:
05 - Slow:
06 - Ice lance:
07 - Polymorph
08 - Spell steal:
09 - Frost bolt:
10 - Frozen orb:
11 - Comet Storm / Ice nova:
12 - Flurry:

(Middle Mouse 1) – Frost nova:
(Middle Mouse 2) – Blast wave:
(Middle Mouse 4) – Ice barrier:

(Shift 01) – Glacial spike:
(Shift 02) – Displacement:
(Shift 03) – Alter time:
(Shift 04) – Ring of frost:
(Shift 05) – Ring of fire:
(Shift 06) – OFFENSE: swifty macro with Ray of frost
(Shift 07) – Racial:
(Shift 08) – PvP trinket:
(Shift 09) – DEFENSE:
(Shift 10) – Ice block:
(Shift 11) – Invisibility:
(Shift 12) – Mirror image:

(Alt 01) – Slowfall
(Alt 02) –
(Alt 03) – Shifting power
(Alt 04) –
(Alt 05) – Water Elemental ability
(Alt 06) – Remove curse
(Alt 07) –
(Alt 08) –
(Alt 09) –
(Alt 10) – Cold Snap

(CTRL 01) – focus macro 1
(CTRL 02) – focus macro 2
(CTRL 03) – focus macro 3
(CTRL 04) – focus macro 4
(CTRL 05) – focus macro 5
(CTRL 06) – focus macro 6
(CTRL 07) –
(CTRL 08) –
(CTRL 09) –
(CTRL 10) –
(CTRL 11) – mount 1
(CTRL 12) – mount 2

30 Likes
2

If I can’t comfortably play it without going further than shift modifiers I just won’t play it.

Just not worth the effort at that point to me and I don’t know why people would punish themselves if they don’t like it.

18 Likes
3

Why can’t you combine some of these with macros?
/cast [mod:Ctrl] Cone of Cold; [mod:Shift] Dragon’s Breath; Polymorph

or something like that.

4 Likes
4

I use a Naga Trinity for the side buttons. You use Glacial Spike with a modifier?! That would drive me crazy.

I use the mouse buttons for instant abilities: Flurry, Ice Lance, Frost Shield, Trinket, I use a ALT modifier for the mouse buttons for defensive and CC spells. The binds count as NUM pad keys. Thats 14 binds in total on the mouse.

  1. Frostbolt
  2. Frost Orb
  3. RoF
  4. @cursor Blizz
    E. Glacial Spike
    Q. Interrupt for all classes
    R. Icy Veins(2min cd for all classes)
    F. Frost Nova
    `. Invis

There’s more. I agree with you. I only PVE so I don’t have slow and a couple other things bound.

I never thought about using Comet Storm and FN on the same bind. Do you use a cast sequence for it?

1 Like
5

old woman voice

“I’ve never in my nineteen years of World of Warcraft have used keybinds (except to look for rares) and I’m happy I never did get into that nonsense.”

waves cane around

25 Likes
6

I support your idea of prunning PVP abilities. Plunderstom seems like a good model going forward. 6 PVP abilities for everyone!

4 Likes
7

That doesn’t change the amount of keybinds though?

Frost Mage in PVP is incredibly excessive. This is WoW class design at it’s worst (if you think bloat is bad, which I do). This is also the concern some Hunters are trying to express with BM going into TWW, especially with Dark Ranger. It’s not hard, but it’s pointlessly short-CD heavy.

5 Likes
8

Yea, it’s not easy, but what abilities on my 1 to 12 standard keybinds would you replace? All of them seem important to me and are on shorter cooldowns.

9

Hard to say since you PVP a lot. I find my setup to be pretty easy. One sec, I’m going to link you a video.

10

I think I’d put slow or poly on a modifier to fit spike in. They are important but they are things you can go to a modifier for.

2 Likes
11

I was thinking of replacing the middle mouse button 4 (Ice barrier) with the glacial spike. Seems like the most practical thing because the mouse button doesn’t require any modifiers.

12

Check this video out. This guy is full of solid info. I feel like your key binds can be more comfortable. That being said it’s tough as a mage without mouse side buttons. You want Glacial Spike in a very comfortable spot so you can blink while casting it. My GS is bound to E and Blink is set to a mouse side button. With 4 pc you want to always cast GS the moment it’s up. Try to set it up so you cast Flurry before hand for the Winters Chill debuff on the target. Casting Flurry and setting up a GS and ROF after is the goal for PVE. Not completely necessary but very nice DPS.

https://youtu.be/4bCzBstqlF0?si=Pgfr5omCQmFo7iT3

13

At least for PvE I don’t feel like mages have a ton of abilities at all.

I have like 8 open keybinds on my mage compared to my Mistweaver and I don’t feel like I have a ton on him either.

1 Like
14

For M+ and Raid I have approx 25 keybinds. Without them I would be clicking mid fight. This is without focus/target modifiers since I haven’t needed to use them in a while.

My BM hunter has…6-7? It’s crazy to me that it has so few compared to my Frost Mage.

*I’m mistaken. It’s about 20.

1 Like
15

currently restoration druid is in terrible need of pruning.

key mod macros for keybinds are fine and all but they get real complicated when you have to have mouse over capabilities for health bars.

5 Likes
16

Then you’re doing something wrong I just swapped to my BM and counted, I have 20 spells I would actively use through a raid encounter bound lol (excluding trinkets which could be an additional 2)

4 Likes
17

I don’t play a Hunter but I have a hard time imagining they only use 6-7 keybinds lol.

I haven’t countered mine, I just know I have a bunch of empty slots on my UI when I’m on my mage with no ability to place there.

2 Likes
18

Maybe it’s a case of not min/maxing on my BM. I don’t see how you possibly have 20 keybinds on a BM hunter though.

**Okay cool, I underestimated. I just logged on real quick. I have 13-14. So yea…about 20. I wasn’t thinking straight :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
19

BM does only require a few really. I’m pretty sure I have more than 6-7 on mine but he definitely has extra space unlike my monk, priest, and rogue.

5 Likes
20

There are 2 types of spells/abilites. 1) I need to press it quickly in combat. 2) I can press at my leasure with my mouse.

Number 1 needs to be kept pruned. Number 2 can grow as much as it likes.

9 Likes