The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
On Keyboard Turning
by Vonya
Sorry about there not being a post yesterday. I had one of my Crazy Brain Headaches and had a doctor’s note.
That aside, I need to sit some of you down and give you a serious heart to heart. No, it’s not about that orc you’ve been seeing (you’re breaking your mother’s heart, you know) or about just how much you’ve been drinking lately (have you considered finding an MP5 counselor?).
No, this is about one of the most fundamental aspects of Warcraft.
How you move.
Now, I don’t want to be a Negative Nancy about this, but if you’re still using the keyboard to turn, you are possibly not performing to your utmost.
Wait, wait, sit back down. This is an intervention, not an argument.
You see, your friends and guildmates have been worried about you. It seems you’re always the last person to move out of the way when an AOE happens, you find it nearly impossible to both heal and avoid bombs on the dragonhawk fight, and you get hit by every single orb Lootreaver throws at you.
At first, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Ninety-five percent of the time, you do fine. But that other five percent, you’re just a hair too slow in your reaction time when moving away from things, and it seems like you take even longer to get back into position and begin casting again.
I don’t want this to seem like an accusation…but you use your keyboard to turn, don’t you?
I know, I know, most players do. It’s not something you should be ashamed of, until it starts affecting the people around you.
And we’ve noticed. We love you, and we want you to become the best healer you can possibly be.
And that means shaving seconds off of your reaction time.
Just hear me out, and give it a shot. At first, what I suggest may sound bizarre or seem uncomfortable. But I promise, it will cut your reaction time in half or better on fights where you need to be in motion. And I gotta tell you, Blizz really seems to like the complex movement fights.
Try using your MOUSE to move, instead of the keyboard keys. Your hand is already on your mouse in order to cast spells, right? So why should your hand leave the mouse, find the right keys to move, move, and then go BACK to the mouse before you can cast again?
That’s so much wasted time!
If you have the standard two-mouse button mouse (left and right click), moving in-game is as easy as holding down both of them at a time. Your character moves forward. If you gently move the mouse from side to side, you’ll see your character’s path move from side to side as well.
Now let go of the buttons. Holding down JUST THE RIGHT button, you’ll see that you can move the camera independantly. This allows you to turn around quickly - just hold the right mouse button, swiftly reposition the camera, and then hold down both buttons. BAM, you’re running in the opposite direction immediately, and your hands never left your mouse. That means you can continue to cast instant-cast heals, or mix running and healing without your hand ever leaving the mouse.
It takes some practice, I’m not going to lie to you. But once you get your hand OFF the keyboard and keep it on your mouse, you’ll find that you’re no longer the last person to move, and that you’re no longer the first to die on encounters that require swift reaction times.
And since you’re a healer, your targets will appreciate you being able to move AND HEAL at the same time.
Don’t be that healer. Don’t be the person who refuses to acknowledge that they have a problem. That they can quit anytime.
We love you. We just want you to stop wiping us on easy fights.
<3
September 10th, 2008
Another “trick” that might not come into play quite as much for healers…
When I’m bashing way at Prince on my rogue, I’ll hold down the LEFT button and rotate my view (NOT my toon) so that I’m directly lined up with the marked “Infernal watcher.” That way I’m all prepped and ready to go. As soon as enfeeble hits, I just RIGHT click (holding down both buttons). That results in an immediate 180 “run awwaaayy”. Can do the same on Murmur, and I’m sure there are other fights that I haven’t seen where it could be useful.
I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t mouse-turn..
September 10th, 2008
Wait, why on Azeroth would anyone use their mouse hand to manipulate the keyboard? IOW, they can move forward, back, strafe, etc by using their other hand (the left hand for righties).
BTW, I’m in no way arguing against your overall point, but if someone is taking their hand off of their mouse to turn their toon, they’ve got even bigger problems.
September 10th, 2008
“but if someone is taking their hand off of their mouse to turn their toon, they’ve got even bigger problems.”
Sadly it happens.
September 10th, 2008
“move forward, back, strafe”
This is my problem with pure mouse turning. I’d like to free up the “qweasd” keys for more keybinds (I like Matticus et al setup), but especially when I’m tanking, I need those other keys for setting up/maneuvering mobs … Same with the “circle strafe.” Know any other alternatives?
September 10th, 2008
@kLog
I use an N52 for all keybindings. In fact, I never touch the keyboard save to type in guild chat, using the mouse to move and mouse-look and the N52 directional pad for strafing.
September 10th, 2008
Hotkeys are there for a reason. Clicking is not acceptable. The only reason your hand should touch your mouse is to loot and adjust your camera…which is already at maximum zoom out. Left hand on QWEASD, right hand roaming between hotkeys that aren’t easily reached by the left.
Movement should not be a problem.
September 10th, 2008
I’m a tried and true die hard FPS guy. My movement keys will always be WASD. I tend to rely on creative combinations involving Ctrl, Shift, alt and WASD. As a healer, my mouse is always moving. Except I’m not using the mouse to move. I use the mouse to target the various players in my raid and it’s not a practical setup for me to use the same device to move.
September 10th, 2008
I woefully posted about this in my own blog, but once you’ve used the keyboard to turn for years, it’s hard to get rid of that habit. I am my guild’s MT, and really want to wean myself off the habit. Out of combat, I only use the mouse to move these days, but in the heat of combat, my hand will inevitably wander to the arrow keys or the keys I strafe with.
People have suggested hardcore measures, like unbinding the arrow keys which frankly scares me a bit.
September 10th, 2008
Bravo Vorya, Bravo! And BOO!
As a pvper, I personally love fighting against Keyboard turners. I take it as a matter of pride to make sure they are constantly holding one of the arrow keys!
September 10th, 2008
I agree with Matticus, my mouse is used for pretty much everything but movement. One thing I have found that is nice about healing versus damage spells, you dont have to be facing the target. You can turn your back to a fight and still heal. I have not tried Johns idea posted above, but it had merit. In fights that I know you have to move away rapidly in, I just either face away from the fight and max zoom out, or stand perpendicular to the fight and strafe away as needed. You run just as fast strafing as you do running forward. If you are the type that likes ot watch the fight or feels you need to see it, turn your camera without changing your facing and you can still run as the situation deems necessary.
September 10th, 2008
I’m with Ard, I always wondered what people where talking about when they mentioned keyboard turners. My anticipation level spiked reading Ego’s post, then to learn that this was about folks moving hand from mouse to keyboard and back again, ahhhh…
I move with the keyboard, FPS style, sometimes adding momentum via the mouse, and seemingly continuously holding down the right mouse button (mostly anyhow).
This brings up another topic: how do people heal their raids? I use Healbot, which works well with FPS style movement (personal flavor: QWES). However, there are some spells I can’t cast while moving - or doing so would force me to stop focusing on the game to think about how - the double button press run feature can surely help.
Thanks for posting on this important topic Ego!
September 10th, 2008
I use both the mouse and keyboard for movement. I do not turn with my keyboard though, my mouse is doing that part. I always have one hand on my Nostromo and one on my mouse. All the spells I use regularly in combat are on my Nostromo. I even position my spells based off what I use most and instant cast need to be on buttons that I can hit easily while moving. I do occasionally move solely with my mouse, but that is only when going a long distance. I tap my auto run (mouse button 4) and just steer with the mouse.
Now I actually have the majority of healing spells bound to my mouse buttons. Which I like even better than having them keybound. I find that the mouse bound healing makes me even faster at switching from target to target in a raid. Anyhow I’m quite happy with the way I have my mouse and Nostromo set up. I respond very quickly and move with ease. This is what works for me.
September 10th, 2008
For clarity, “the double button press run feature can surely help” by freeing up my ‘other’ hand to mash hot-keys.
September 10th, 2008
I use an N52 for pretty much everything and my mouse for selecting players, looting, etc. When I do move using the mouse, it’s really quite an odd sensation. To me, it feels as if I’m moving the landscape and my character is running in place. Moving with directional keys feels more natural to me and makes it look like my character is actually moving (vs. running in place).
“Double button press,” sounds awkward to me. Does it mean you always hold down two buttons when you are moving? Or do you just press them at the same time once, like the auto run button? If it’s the former, I think my fingers would cramp up when I’m flying across zones. Or maybe you use the auto run button when crossing long distances?
I’m sure players who move by lifting their hand off the mouse and to the keyboard are equally frustrated… especially if they are raid healers! They might not know any alternatives to their current method. It took me a ridiculously long time until I figured out how to properly dive into water. Maybe all they need is a kind whisper inquiring about how they move.
It’s a little bit like the players who don’t know about the quest scrolling option. It’s quite obvious they don’t have it on/off (can’t remember which setting makes it scroll) when they are standing there waiting for the quest text to finish writing in their log. They are very appreciative of being informed about the option.
September 10th, 2008
Ohhhhhh… I know I’m a keyboard turner, but never understood how to turn with the mouse!!! Thanks for posting the “how”. Time for me to get practicing!
September 10th, 2008
The way I see it there is a time and a place where both methods have advantages. Excluding general out-of-combat movement, I believe the following holds true:
For the majority of PVP, and generally all melee DPS, mouse turning is definitely the way to go. It is much faster, and keeps you far, far more mobile than poking at the buttons on your keyboard. Because there is no character clipping, strafing is not a serious consideration. For anyone who likes/needs to be in melee range, you can run THROUGH your target and turn into attacking position behind your target faster with a mouse than with a keyboard.
For the PVE ranged dps, healers and tanks, other considerations warrant use of the keyboard:
- “Turning without moving” is best done with your keyboard. If your target starts wandering from your 12 o’clock to 9 o’clock position (because some fool warlock couldn’t control his threat) and you want to turn to the left to get the target in front of you again, you don’t want to use mouse turning because you’ll go running forward, bringing the enemy into the 7, 8 or 9 o’clock position and exposing your back.
- Strafing is best done with the keyboard. If I want to turn while strafing, it works best (for me at least) to use the keyboard to do so because I prefer to keep my camera pointed at my target. I do this soloing all the time.
- Juggling multiple targets (for example a healer with multiple healing assignments) often requires that you have your mouse cursor ready for targeting ALL OF THE TIME. If you’re trying to roll lifebloom on two off-tanks, plus patch up a hurting DPS, cure poison on the MT because the priest can’t do it, and trying to run to an area out of the impending AOE damage, you’re going to blow your assignments if your mouse cursor (and buttons) are too busy with turning mechanics*.
Finally: FAIL FOR ANYONE WHO USES THE ARROW KEYS. EPIC FAIL FOR ANYONE WHO USES THE ARROW KEYS WITH THEIR MOUSE HAND. What the heck was that about?!?
* Or you have insane APM skills and should probably be playing Starcraft.
September 10th, 2008
Dear Ego,
As a resto druid, my mouse hand is rather busy on grid/clique. I can keep HoT stacks on tanks and raid heal all click-casting. This leaves my left hand free to move me out of the fire. You bet I’m mouse running from Solarian, finding my spot among Akil’zon’s bombs, and other raid-wiping issues but otherwise, I’m keyboard turning with one hand and cranking out heals on every GCD with the other.
September 10th, 2008
@Everyone
Great replies. This is a good example of how everyone does things just a little bit differently and what works for one may not work for all.
And yes, someone moving with their mouse hand on the arrows and clicking spells with the mouse hand. It happened it was sad.
September 10th, 2008
@Kwane
Stop trying to write replies as you run instances, it makes your grammar even worse.
September 10th, 2008
Wait… wait… people… use the mouse… to CAST SPELLS?!
But seriously… I am a keybindings girl. I use my mouse to target raid members with one hand and my keyboard to cast with the other. And I have NO MOUSEOVER MACROS- the GCD is quite enough time to actually CLICK on my next target, and with Quartz I have no problem queueing up the next heal to cast as efficiently as possible. I hold my own quite well with the Clique-using, mouse-having priests in my T6/Sunwell guild.
And here’s another wrinkle: I play on a Macbook Pro. Sitting on my couch. Next to my husband, who has an identical rig. So there is no external mouse (nowhere to put it), just a trackpad, and the trackpad only has one button (and no number pad, just the long keyboard row for casting). So I can *only* use my keyboard to move. And for the record, we have never, ever had a persistent problem getting out of the fire or whatever. I’ve just had to compensate with extra time and attention paid to my surroundings.
September 11th, 2008
@tomatosauce (no idea how to do the fancy color thingies)
You’re the first person I’ve ever met who heals anything like I do. Although I hook up an optic mouse to my MacBook (sometimes I use it on the side of my thigh, if I can’t find a flat surface), the only healing addons I use are VisualHeal and a thinned-out version of Quartz. Click on the healee, hit the heal key. I’ve only healed into SSC, but it’s gratifying to hear that my approach can work at higher tiers too. I use my mouse to look around and aim myself, but never to actually move; left-clicks are for targets only, and the few oh-no spells I haven’t bound.
Ah, the number of well-meaning people who want me to whack-a-mole.
September 11th, 2008
I have a Logitech G5 mouse, and the software that comes with it let me set up some interesting binds.
Like many meeces today, it has a side-to-side scroll wheel, which I bound to “strafe left” and “strafe right”. It also has 2 buttons behind the scroll wheel, one of which is bound to “walk backwards”. So I can have complete control over my characters movement without using the keyboard at all.
It should be stated that fast reactions are even more important when you play in the more latency challenged parts of the world. When the internet is swallowing 5-600ms of your reaction time, you have to move that much faster just to make it out alive.
September 11th, 2008
Pfft. Mouse turning. Some of us are old. As in like so totally old you like totally wouldn’t believe. We have slow reflexes. We LIKE having slow reflexes. If we had fast reflexes we’d be teenagers, and really annoying. If we had fast reflexes we’d be able to PvP without shame and embarassment, and that would never do. If we had fast reflexes we’d turn so fast our brittle bones would snap.
We feel that being old, being slow, being hopeless and being pathetic is part of who we are. It is part of our inner core. It is not something to give away lightly.
So we say Pfft to your mouse turning.
September 11th, 2008
@Aericha I will say that I found the addition of Grid, and whatever healer addon there is for Grid (which would give you the same info as VisualHeal), to be invaluable for my mouseless style of play, because I can make the unit frame small enough that I don’t have to move the mouse as far to target people.
So that’s nice- not everyone likes Grid or has the patience for its configuration, but it might be worth a shot if you’re using a trackpad in raids.
September 11th, 2008
@Matt
I do exactly the same thing… my mouse will click my targets and I keyboard bind the spells. And on the behalf of me being slower to get out of aoe and stuff, thats rarely the case. The only time it has hurt me is on fights where you cant turn as quick…
I guess it is all about skill, just cause your a mouse turner doesnt make you pro. I havent killed every boss up to felmyst (bar hydross… stupid resist sets :P) by being a noob.
September 11th, 2008
Great discussion here.
For me, it depends on the character I am playing.
Healers need to maximize HPS. For me this means click casting on unit frames which means the mouse is not available for movement. Fortunately, a healer has the ability to cast heals to targets “behind their backs” and this combines well with click casting on unit frames. My off hand is now free and can be placed on the arrow keys which allows me to move immediately when needed. Compared to a mouse mover my movement won’t be as precise and my turning radius is larger. A trade off easily justified to maximize HPS.
DPS classes need to be able to move, turn and position quickly in order to maximize DPS. There is no question that mouse movements are much better than keyboard keys. For all my DPS alts I use the mouse to move and turn. All my skills and abilities are bound to keys easily within reach of my left hand, even the QWEASD keys.
I encourage everyone to try both movement methods and pick the one that allows you to maximize the character you’re currently playing.
September 11th, 2008
Pretty much all my healing spell is target=mouseover. Therefore, using mouse to move isn’t really an ideal setup. With N52, using the hatch as my WASD, I can move and cast instant spell at any target by moving my mouse either over the frame or the actual target. Every spell is hotkeyed including my offensive spell.
However, I do use my mouse to change direction when I’m running either trying to save the tank or trying to escape the wipe.
September 11th, 2008
I have the joy of playing and raiding on a healing druid, a fire mage, a shadow priest and a hunter.
Sorry but no way in hell am I going to be able to remember all the key bindings between toons to use something like the N52. Not to mention most of those dont allow you to have multiple keyboard configurations without restarts. I really really want to get one though but I can’t seem to settle on an alt that I play non-stop.
I probably fall under they hybrid keyboard turner … With so many classes that I actively raid with I use the arrow keys for general movement with some mouse work thrown in when speed is a necessity. Being ranged allows this to work, its probably not something I can get away with on a melee based class.
And I love nothing more than an ego post that starts as a spark and turns into a nuclear explosion
September 11th, 2008
lolz. It is pretty funny that a post about keyboard turning gets a massive response
September 12th, 2008
I can turn with my keyboard as melee and outdps people that are turning with their mice.
September 30th, 2008
I might be called a hybrid keyboard turner…I mouse turn if I need to respond to something but if im just running to the next mob, I’ll save my wrist from unneeded wear and tear.
Click frames..unless your a shaman, get rid of them. Priest benefit from having a slew of spell types at their beck and call.. and click frames limits you, in this case more ways then one. It limits you from mouse turning during fights, and mice have a few less buttons then a keyboard. I have ONE spell that I use a mouse over (for targeting, activating is still done by a key bind), CoH. This is so I can quickly target from one group to the next with no need for clicking. All other heals are standered keybinds, with PoM being one of my extra mouse keys so I can throw on me or another during spell combos or while running.