Need Help with Keybinds for Mage (Frost)

Classes Mage
1

I know keybinds really just depend on the player’s preference, but I’m just having trouble here.

On my frost mage, I find myself constantly switching around keybinds to make my rotation feel smooth and cater to my muscle memory. I play every class, and tend to keep the same type of spells on the same keybinds. Mage is the only class that I’ve had trouble with.

What keybinds are you guys using on your frost mages? What layout of spells on your action bar makes the rotation smooth? Would love to hear what other players’ preferences are on keybinds.

1 Like
2

I just use 1 and shift-1 for frostbolt/flurry then my 2 is ebonbolt and 3 icelance and 4 glacial spike and 5 orb. I think you maybe be overthinking the frost rotation a bit.

3

I use a mmo mouse called the Razer Naga chroma and it has 12 buttons for my thumb that are the same as keyboard 1 to = keys. I then use macros to combine multiple abilities into 1 key.

The location of abilities is dictated by how often I use it and how frequent/important that ability is and how easy it is to find it by muscle memory on the mouse without looking.

1 Like
4

I mostly try to stick to 1-6 plus some shift keys for my characters since that is what is comfortable for me. For context I generally stick to easy content and will ignore the meta if I don’t enjoy it.

1: Ice Lance
2: Frostbolt
3: Flurry
4: Blizzard
5: Counterspell
6: Blink

R: Ice Floes (replace with Glacial Spike and Shimmer if I were to follow the meta)

Shift-3: Frozen Orb
Shift-4: Comet Storm
Shift-5: Polymorph

Mouse-3: Ice Barrier (Freeze if I am using the water ele)
Mouse wheel down: mouseover macro for Spellsteal and Remove Curse

Most other abilities either aren’t mage specific or I click on with the mouse.

5

I tend to leave all classes at a 1-4, Alt+1-4, R for interrupts and mouse buttons with mods on a 5-button mouse. Sometimes go up to 5 or 6 if needed. The following setup feels very smooth for me, and having played this way for a few expacs, it’s hard to no play this way.

  1. Frostbolt; Alt= Frozen Orb.
  2. Flurry; Alt= Icy Veins.
  3. Ice Lance; Alt= Potion.
  4. Glacial Spike; Alt= Time Warp.
    Mouse 5- Pet Freeze(Water Jet if brought back); Shift= Shimmer; Alt= Blizzard.
    Mouse 4- Ice Barrier; Shift= Invisible; Alt= Ice Block.
6

I rebind 3 hotkeys to Mousewheel Up/Mousewheel down and the Mousewheel click.

I then add these macros to the hotkeys.

Mousewheel up =

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Flurry; Frostbolt

Mousewheel middle click =
Glacial Spike Spell (just the normal spell no macro)

Mousewheel down =

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Ebonbolt; Ice Lance

I use Q,E and R for commonly used dps spells not shown above and I use 1,2,3,4 for utility spells.

Doing this enables you to maintain contact with your movement keys and allows you to cast your instant spells while moving quite easily. This does have a learning curve, but once mastered you will be able to react a bit faster.

If you have a gaming mouse or are interested, I highly recommend the logitech G502. It doesn’t have the 12 binds on the side like the Naga, but it does have buttons near your thumb (3 near the thumb and easily reachable. The mouse-wheel also tilts left/right to five you 5 key-binds just from the mouse-wheel (Up,Down,Left,Right and Middle). Also 2 buttons left of the Mouse left click for extra binds.

Essentially I use the mousewheel and Q,E and R for DPS. Mousewheel Tilt left = Frozen Orb and Mousewheel tilt right = Blizzard.

You dont need the logitech mouse to use Mousewheel Up/Down/middleclick, but most mice dont have the Mousewheel Tilt left/right.

This is what I do and I use this with every class I play.

7

I think mine are:

1- Frost bolt
2- icicle
3- Ebonbolt or Comet Storm
4- Blizzard
5 - Flurry
6- Frozen Orb
7- Glacial Spike
8 - Shield
9- Counterspell
10- Blink
11 - Frost Nova
12- Pet Freeze

Mouse Wheel Click - Thermal Void
Shift+1 - Invisability
Shift+2 - Time Warp
Shift +3- Cold Snap
Shift+ 10 Ice Block

8

The easiest keybinds I have found for me have been
Q- frostbolt
E- ice lance
1-blizzard
2- flurry
3- ebonbolt
4- cometstorm
Shift Q- Frozen Orb
Shift E- Icy Veins
R- Glacial Spike
Shift 1- barrier
Shift 2- Ice block
Shift 3- Cold snap
Not all (obviously) but the major ones
I’m a 6/9 M progressed frost mage, and when i cared about M+ in legion i was 3600 IO score (not that any of this matters, but just threw it in here to make me at least a little credible compared to all of the non-sense spitters in these forums). I hope this helps!

2 Likes
9

2 is for main casting ability 1 and 3 for special procs

Q is always a defensive

E is always a trinket

R is always an interrupt

The rest can be whatever

1 Like
10

I find it’s helpful to think about abilities conceptually.
Once you’ve played enough classes, you begin to notice some big commonalities no matter what DPS spec you are playing:

-There’s a spell that is weak, but commonly used

-There’s a spell that you press only when X is true

-There’s a big DPS spell you do every 2-5 minutes depending on the CD

-There’s spells that are designed to be used for multi-target

-There are dots, buffs, and debuffs

-There are spells that proc

It is very hard to find something that doesn’t belong in one of the above categories, and that’s not even getting into CCs or immunities, which also have commonalities.

When I hotkey things, I have one for the filler spells, another for the big CD, another for the procs, another for the spell I press when X is true.

For example, I have fire blast and flurry in the same place because both are pressed in reaction to something. Similarly, combustion and icy veins are in the same place.

Once you develop a system like this, you’ll have muscle memory for not only a spec but all classes because you’ll just naturally go for a certain button when a particular event happens.

12

Been playing a mage (my only main ever) since I’ve started, which was right before the launch of TBC. These are second nature to me, what works for me might not for you. I mainly PvP so I strafe with A and D, even if you don’t PvP change strafe to A and D now and lose the keyboard turning, start turning with your mouse+right click.

My keybinds are setup for efficiency (to me). My number bar is mostly damage, with my index finger being the main actuator for the abilities I use 95% of the time to either damage, burst, or to stay alive.

I’m saying this because it isn’t a good idea to bind Icy Veins to “F” and frozen orb to “Q” when you’ll be doing those in succession usually.

I also don’t use shift modifier on the left side of where my fingers sit on WASD unless it’s
A. An ability that has a longer CD and/or is situational (such as Comet Storm and Blizzard)
B. Not important to my life or dps (such as Ice Block)

I can comfortably hit shift 1, 2, and Q because those fingers are extended out to hit the keys. I would never bind Ice Block to shift z because I would have to curl my fingers in hit the buttons.

s = shift

1 - Blink — s1 - Comet Storm
2 - Ice Nova — s2 - Flurry
3 - Frostbolt — s3 - Ray of Frost
4 - Ice Lance — s4 - Pet Nova
5 - Frost Nova — s5 - Cone of Cold
Q - Covenant — sQ - 2nd Covenant
E - Counterspell — sE - Counterspell focus
R - Icy Veins — sR - Frozen Orb
T - PvP Trinket — sT - Racial Ability
F - Ice Barrier — sF - Alter Time
Z - Remove Curse
C - Ice Block — sC - Cold Snap (I hit C with my index finger)
V - Polymorph — sV - Polymorph focus (I hit V with my thumb)

I have a lot more that I haven’t put here because I PvP, it’s mainly macros to specific arena frames. Also the other misc like food, healthstone, and mount. You’ll figure those out on your own (I use the F keys above the number row for these F1, F2, F3 etc)

Feel free to start small, but in my opinion you should focus your main abilities around your index finger. So maybe start with 1, 2, 3, 4, Q, E, R, and F + shift on all of those.

1 Like
13

I like having my spammable on E. In this case it would be frostbolt.

14

This. I’d like to add. I have my bars set up to mirror the mouse buttons. 3 buttons, 4 rows. Then on the left I have my keyboard bars, 5 buttons, 4 rows.

Try something like this. Visualizing it will help. I also group my aoe/st spells in the same row.

I just bought the Naga a few days before SL and it’s so much better, and after reaching 60, I’ve already developed the muscle memory.

15

Like you said it’s basically just trial and error until you find what works with you but you obviously want a good starting point. I feel my binds are a bit different. I don’t have S bound to walk back and strafe is A D with W Forward. That leaves QESRFT for abilities, G for interrupt. E is your spammer, RF are your next most important spells, Q is the spell I use on all characters while moving, T is a common spell but not super critical. Then I find 12345 to spells with longer cooldowns and 1234 commonly used. With shift 123. F1-2-3-4 for less used spells or longer cooldowns like 2 minutes or so and buffs. Mouse wheel back and forward are blizzard and frozen orb and mostly AoE spells on all classes. C is shields and shift-c is ice block, V is health pots and shift V stones all defensives around that area. X is my frost nova and slows on all characters. Z is spellsteal macro with remove curse macro mouseover. I’ve got a 12 side button mouse as well so you can learn to bind things on there like I have my mounts bound up on there, blink and movement spells on there, mouse over macros, alter time, polymorph.

Make macros and combine spells and mouseover and target interrupts and help/ harm macros it will help a lot. Also cast at cursor macros for spells like blizzard or meteor, flamestrike any spells which require extra click to cast saves you some time if you prefer that.