Ive been playing WOW wrong

Community General Discussion
1

So for past 14 or so w/e years since I stoped clicking my abilities, I thought I played wow correctly but have recently come to realize I have been playing it wrong. And I need some help / opinions.

I move my character holding down both buttons of my mouse. And my keybinds are the buttons 6 - backspace and the row underneath it including “[“and “]” and f8 button and mouse buttons 4 and 5. And I use the right CTRL with my thumb as a modifier.

Now what this means is I don’t use WASD which is what normal people use. And therefore strafing is not something I do regularly. Going into shadowlands I would like change this as I want to optimize my gameplay and get better. But i fear It might be a scary and frustrating process.

So I have 3 options.

  • continue playing the way I have been and just deal any negatives (including it being uncomfortable on my wrist)

  • keep everything the same and just add JKLI as movement keys so I can add strafing regularly to my gameplay but keep most other keybinds same so I don’t have to learn from scratch.

  • learn everything all over again and use a “normal” keybinds map with WASD (rebinding A and D to strafe obviously)and shift modifier with my pinky.

Obviously my biggest fear is if I commit to learn the new keybind map starting with the prepatch I won’t build muscle memeory and won’t be as good as I am now by Time castle Nathria launches.

1 Like
2

I move strictly with the mouse, using a Razer Naga with the 12-key thumbpad and 2 shoulder buttons. My Action keys are as follows:

` - Pull/Poly/Hex
1 - Movement ability, Purge, Grip
2 - Stun, Charge, Temp CC
3 - Interrupt, Silence
QWE - Primary Attacks
ASD - Finishing Moves, Heavy Attacks, Heals
Z - Taunt, Heavy Finisher, Power Move
X - AOE Stun
C - AOE Attack

Mouse:
Middle Mouse - Auto Run
1 - Trinket
4 - Essence Power
7 - Racial
258 - Offensive CDs
369 - Defensive CDs
10 - Strafe Left
11 - Backpedal
12 - Strafe Right
Shoulder 1 & 2 - Mounts

If you want to know exact layouts, I can post the class and spec too.

2 Likes
3

Foot pedals for strafing.

12 Likes
4

1-6 main attacks taunts and cc skills

7+ defensive and other cooldowns (which I click)

WASD to move

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5

1-5, QERFZXC + Shift and Alt modifiers for pretty much everything that gets used.

’ is the major action button where useable.

T is push-to-talk in Disc.

EDIT: WASD to move/strafe, obviously.

2 Likes
6

Wrist bracers are your friend.

1 Like
7

The very first thing that needs to be verified:

Are you using an MMO mouse?

I have the impression that you aren’t.

They have 12 buttons on the side so all your keybinds are done with one thumb for the most part. Many also have a third mouse key on top, which is used as the modified key.

With that set-up, WASD is for movement, and you place more rare things 1-5 for a press with your left hand. Everything else is done with your right hand on the MMO mouse.

2 Likes
8

Wait what? Really?

9

I put my hand on ESDF. I always have since I stopped being a clicker in TBC.

10

set autorun to R then use right mouse button to steer the character thats how i play

11

Roll your face from left to right, not right to left. Win.

5 Likes
12

where do people even get those habits. Are they not playing other games or something

2 Likes
13

Nice, never though of that…

14

Reckful also played this way, and he was arguably one of the best PvP players to exist so maybe they’re onto something?

15

If you’ve been playing that way for so long, I would recommend option 2:

You don’t have to have WASD for your movement keys-anywhere convenient will work.

And I personally just use WAD and the mouse to move.

I’m not sure how people get comfortable having all their keybinds on a mouse! That’s insane. For me, I make use of what 2-3 mouse buttons I have but it’s just for moving(in conjunction with WAD).

Anyways, yeah go w option 2 and find somewhere comfortable to put your movement keys and you’ll be fine. No need to relearn anything as there’s isn’t any “proper” way or any rules besides being comfortable and effective.

Good luck!

2 Likes
16

1-5 skills
wheel up-down - Finisher / AoE skill
A, D, F - Attack cds / burst / trinket
alt + 1-4 - taunt / interrupt / slow / stun
X - defensive CD

move on
Q W E - strafe left, front, strafe right
…S… - backpedal

17

You’re on PC, your control layout can be whatever you wan’t it to be :slight_smile:

18

mmo mouse dont work for my. hurts my thumb hitting those tiny buttons. Im using a logitech g502 hero

19

I’m on the Atari 2600 version of WoW.

2 Likes
20

I guess you play a dh :laughing: