Reader question: How can I stop being a “clicker”?
Reader question time!
“I’m a shameful clicker but I can see the benefit in key bindings. I want to know from someone who is well versed how to go about key binding … how to change my mindset. I currently use WSAD for directional control, mouse for camera control and click those buttons furiously. My most common used spells with are bound to keys 1,2 and 3, but I’m mostly a clicker.
Can you give me some advice on how to swap to binding more of my abilities? How should I control my character?”
There are two basic options; you could either go “cold turkey”, bind all of your frequently used abilities, and learn them all at the same time; or, you could bind a few at a time, get to know them, then bind a few more.
Example of what my bars might look like in different stances.
Barkskin is always “2″, but 3, 4 and 5 change according to my form.
- Down: cancel all forms
- Shift Down: travel
- Ctrl Down: Tree
- Alt Down: Bear
- Up: kitty
- Shift Up: flight form
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I turn sometimes with the mouse, but I’m primarily WASD. I tried mouse-turning for a while, but I move my camera too much & click nameplates, which ended up with me auto-running into walls & bad things (facepull!).
I also use keybindings across toons. Since I use OPie a lot, shift+x is always quest items, shift+s is always professions, alt+e is the mount macro, etc. I also tend to bind my form-like or often-switched-similar-spells to my alt+(q,e,a,d) keys, since they’re near my WASD hand. Keybinding seems daunting at first, having to know everything, but after a while, it becomes almost instinctive which button does which.
Poneria´s last blog ..Nibuca pwns & other link love
I use keys to cast my more important spells & mouse to target people and move.
lissanna´s last blog ..The bigger picture: Balance Druids are better than we used to be
I’ve found that it depends very much on the character I play. My tree has all the heals keybound (or rather mousebound – Grid+Clique) and I couldn’t play otherwise. On my moonkin I just have keys 1-4 bound to Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Starfire, Wrath. On my mage I have similar keybinds for Arcane Barrage etc. On my fury warrior I click everything, I have no idea idea how I could keybind things and still be able to move around – I’ve tried to move with the mouse but, like Poneria said, I end up facing a wall or running the wrong way… My pally tank has her abilities keybound but I still click them; however, I haven’t raided on her yet, so that might change. When I’m healing on her I use Grid+Clique, with binds similar to my druid’s… though it’s not easy to equivalate
For example I have an ‘oshit’ ability on the mouse wheel (Swiftmend/Hand of Protection), a small heal on Shift+Left Click (Rejuv/insta-heal-I-forgot-the-name-of) etc.
I’m starting to think about getting a mouse with more buttons… mine’s a very basic one with 2 buttons + (broken) wheel and it’s becoming a pain: not enough binds available + sucky wheel making my tanks die.
Jen´s last blog ..How to manage a full-time job and WoW in 4 easy steps
Great tips!
I agree with them all, but the point that I would reinforce most is definitely draw up a sheet with all your new bindings. You may think you’ve thought it all out and planned so well that you won’t forget, but when you’re in the heat of a pull, lots of the time things fly right out of your head except for major and basic spells. When you could save the day with your Divine Intervention but you forgot what you bound it to and are just staring at your screen, helpless? Yeah… doesn’t feel good.
Make up something easy to glance at and set it next to your mouse or tape it above your monitor or somesuch. Eventually all the bindings (even if you have lots!) will become second nature.
Anea´s last blog ..Ponderings
I also do the pairing up of abilities, though mine are more based on cast time. For example Q is bound to Rejuv and Shift-Q is Lifebloom as they are both insta-cast that can be made on the move, where as R is Regrowth and Shift-R is Healing Touch, leaving E for Nourish in those times I need to spam it.
You have reminded me though I need to bind remove poison/curse, and that I need a mod that easily tells me when a party member has it. I’m never sure, and often waste mana casting them ‘just in case’.
James´s last blog ..Promises for 2010
(Back again :smile:) After dredging up my DK and dusting her off, I found myself having to figure out the spells and which key does what. As a result, I remembered some of my ways to learn keybindings as you go.
If you can get those cheatsheets that look like keyboards instead of just hand-writing or typing out the combinations, it’s particularly easy. Like you take the icon of the ability and put it on the key it’s bound to…
I use also Dominos as my bar mod, which can show what your keybinding is on the action bar button. Dominos also controls the opacity of the bar, which I like; you can use this to set an action bar full of buttons with keybinds in Bindpad, and then as you get used to what is what, you can slowly turn the opacity down until the bar is near or completely invisible. So it looks like you have a Keeva-esque UI with no action bars anywhere, but really, they’re all over your screen.
Poneria´s last blog ..Nibuca pwns & other link love 
I have one improvement for you, dear Tree Bark Jacket: Try so swap Regrowth and Nourish. At times, Nourish can also be an oh-shit button, and I believe it should be 5 whereas the Regrowth (a much more controlled spell, so to speak) should go to shift-5. I also used to have it the other way around, but Nourish is just important to cast it a millisecond earlier.
That’s what I did when I first got Nourish; but Regrowth was so ingrained that I couldn’t do it – it felt wrong.
Ya. My biggest problem trying out click-casting mods or macros was that it “felt wrong”, so I couldn’t do it. I healed for so long that my original Molten Core healing style hasn’t really evolved that much.
lissanna´s last blog ..The bigger picture: Balance Druids are better than we used to be
I found Arena as a quick way to ingrain new key binds into my head. It also worked as a nice testing ground to see if my fingers would get “caught up” while trying to do multiple things at once.
Also, I find my other characters have key binds that don’t really make sense. Like Stealth on my Rogue is “M”. Which is because I’m so used to “Shadoweld” on my Druid being bound to that key.
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I confess to being the “shameful clicker” in this article. Yes my name is Bloomindraal and I am I clicker … I vow to take on the steps outlined by Keeva and get on that wagon
I love my keybinds! and I learn’t bloody quick when I went feral as clickers just can’t keep up the feral kitty rotation like a keybinder. We tested this on XT a few weeks ago as there was a debate in guild chat on this very subject! so packing 4 ferals off we went. we are all around the 7k dps mark in our current gear (Not bad for off-spec
– allthough atm I am tank main / dps off because of guild but as soon as some more meatshields are recuited back to resto i go 
) 2 off us clicked and the other 2 used there standard binds and we ended up almost 500 – 1 k under not too mention having to look at what your clicking so your awareness is down (gogo ninja gravity bomb hehe)! But for resto this is bad as well. I use grid (using Keeva’s guide ofc) but don’t use clické or whatever its called, and using keybinds means I can focus on the health bars and watch for burnie stuff under me.
My advice is learn to keybind at all costs. hehe Bloom thats the first step to recovery and good luck
I know this comment probally makes no sense but It’s forst thing on a Monday at work
Cullie´s last blog ..Firefighter 10man!! 
Really useful post Keeva, thanks! I’m only ankle-deep in the key bindings water but really want to sit down and get it all sorted out. I play on a laptop with only the little trackpad though so movement is arrow key directed…
I’m a huge Nostromo fan and recommend one to anyone that wants to improve their response times.
Here is a brief Nostromo introduction if anyone is interested. http://rejuvo.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/controls-keybinds-and-macros-oh-my-part-1/
Virile´s last blog ..Bye Bye 18/0/53!
I love Grid + Clique. When I think back to the beginning of BC when I would manually pick a target and then select a heal, I shudder. I don’t know how my raids killed anything with me healing like that. Being able to heal everyone without actually targeting them saves so much time.
But it’s funny, as adamant as I am about using Clique for binding all my spells when I’m healing, I am still a straight-up clicker when playing as a dps or tank. I seem to have some sort of mental block when it comes to trying keybinds on my other characters.
Jasyla´s last blog ..Healing Assignments
I’m sure what I do is crazy unconventional. It works at least reasonably well even in raids on my hunter (except that kiting/jump shotting is a non-starter). I haven’t gotten past sub-80 5-mans on my Resto druid yet, so that remains to be seen.
I have a laptop, and no mouse. On the hunter, I move with the arrow keys and trigger shots with the number keys 1 – 5. I have my main shots mapped to the number keys and lots of ancillary stuff (FD, a targeting macro, MD) mapped to ctrl+number. So I run around using the arrows, and either click number or ctrl=# to do what I need to. I free-ride on the tank’s targeting using a focus target macro. I almost never need to use the track pad except to loot. Works fine.
On the druid, I’m doing something similar, but it may get me in trouble when I try to raid. Again, I move with the arrow keys using my right hand. With my left hand I have mouseover macros bound to the number keys, and stuff like innervate, remove poison and stuff on the function keys right above them.
In combat I move my right hand from the arrows to the track pad, and use that to navigate among my healing frames (I use VuhDo), using my left hand to trigger the mouseover macros..
Works pretty good so far, but I do have a concern that I’m gonna hit a wall in a raid. We shall see; if need be I could probably hook up a mouse and switch to a combination of WASD and mouse moving and using click casting in VuhDo.
@Jarnow
I applaud you for using the track mouse on a laptop. I did that for a while when my USB mouse died. I had to stop when aiming in a siege engine for Flame Leviathan became too painful on my thumb for holding down the right mouse button while moving on the pad.
On the flip side, I have a tablet PC, so sometimes I’ll pick up the pen and do things that way! (Usually when moving thing from bag to mail to AH or whatever.)
Poneria´s last blog ..Theorycrafting Spree/Rage
Good post, very informative for those who still ‘click’.
I keybind, have been since vanilla, making the transition to ‘click-casting’ has proven difficult. Keybinds work for me and are innate enough that I don’t think my reaction time suffers. I do use Vuhdo and bind SomeVeryUsefulSpell (depending on which toon I’m playing) to the right button though.
Anyway, main point – I’d always thought that ‘keyboard turners’ were just that – those that used the ‘turn left/right’ binds on the keyboard, NOT those who simply move with the keyboard (ESDF is my bind of choice). Those are the only 4 I use for movement on the keyboard, plus the mouse for camera movement (and I do have/use the run toggle on my mouse).
It’s worked well for me, I *seem* to react/relocate fast enough.
I’m just a bit paranoid now, that I’m ‘doing it wrong’.
It’s not necessarily “wrong” to use your keyboard. I turn with my keyboard, and back pedal, if my mouse is busy healing – but ONLY if moving in that way will not put my life in danger.
In situations where I have to move fast – eg out of fire – I will quickly use my mouse to turn, and then run.
I only use my keyboard for moving if it doesn’t hinder my healing and/or endanger myself.
Confession: I never strafe. I’ve tried, but just can’t seem to get used to it. It’s something I should do, because it’s much faster to sidestep in a lot of situations.. but in all my career I just haven’t managed to get it to click for me. A lot of people say to change strafe to A & D, but I still find I need those for movement. Perhaps it’s time to rethink and try again
There’s always room to improve
Keeva´s last blog ..Reader question: How can I stop being a “clicker”? 
@Keeva
I learned to strafe by beartanking Malygos during phase 1. Trying to keep his claws on the outer rim and his tail in the center. Also I used a little strafing beartanking Sarth and getting in the break in the flamewall without totally spazzing out the ranged. I’ve only used strafing while tanking though, or if I get gravity bomb in XT (strafe out, bomb blows, strafe in). The only *must have* strafing moment I can think of is Icehowl before I learned to position myself so it doesn’t suck as much running into pillars.
Poneria´s last blog ..Theorycrafting Spree/Rage
Personally, I use Bartender for all my binding needs. The main reason is its ability to page more than just the main bar. That is, the bar changes when you change stance or form. It almost completely negates the need for complicated macros. Dominos also has this functionality, but I find Bartender is a lot easier to set up. Bartender also has a few addons (ButtonFacade I think its called) that allow you to use custom skins for the buttons, for those looking for a pretty UI.
Also, about binding forms to the mousewheel is a great idea. Something I find useful still, that might be a good idea to bind to that instead of just the normal form, is the old powershift macros. Like /cast !Cat Form. It doesn’t give you a boost of energy anymore, but it will still break snares and roots without shifting you out of cat form. Works for all forms, just put a “!” in front of the spell name. Its amazing for tanking, as it allows you to break out without getting squashed by the boss. It will reset your rage, however.
And for those trying to break your keyboard turning habits. Pick up a fist person shooter type game. Any game. It will break you of that habit very quickly.
[...] I was originally planning to address, but Keeva over on Tree Bark Jacket recently discussed the importance of keybinding including a section on movement. She makes the point that mouse turning is superior to keyboard [...]
One thing I always take into consideration is instant vs cast time spells. I always bind my instant spells such that I can press any of my movement keys while triggering the spell or ability. So none of my instant cast spells require a modifier (unless I really don’t use them that often) and I can strafe or change running direction while casting, eve with a mouseover macro (although that takes practice).
Also, I use a Nostromo and would highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you are new to keybindings. Because you never have to move your hands to find keys it makes it a lot easier to keep your eyes on the action. The same principles I described above apply to any alternative control devices.
I’m still unclear on the keyboard ‘turning’ thing. Whether *moving/running* with the keyboard (forward, very liberal use of strafing, very rarely using ‘move backwards’) while using the mouse to positon onesself is considered ‘keyboard turning’. ‘Turn left/right’ is unbound.
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+1 fan of Bartender.
Also, there is a Windows ‘hack’ that you can find via Google to swap your caps lock key and control key, to make it easier to reach the control if you want to use that as a modifier. Especially useful if you have smaller hands. It requires a registry edit, so use at your own risk.
I have a confession. I click my mirror images, invis and iceblock… ie: all my agro dumping spells…
I think I trust my healers/tanks too much ><
however all dps stuff is bound to my keys/mouse
Dracor´s last blog ..Good news, everyone! 
As for keybinding choices, I do much the same thing with similar abilities across different characters, and binding things to keys that “make sense” to me so I can easily remember them.
When I first started playing, and was learning not to be a zomgbadclicker, I knew the only way I’d remember what keys to press would be if the keybinding made sense to me. Sometimes even now if I find myself hitting the wrong button consistently I’ll switch my keybinds around to follow what I’m doing instinctively.
So since I was playing my druid when I was learning to keybind, I picked “I” for Innervate. That’s since become my instinctive “OMG I NEED MANA” button – on my Resto Shaman, “I” is Mana Tide; on my priest, “I” is Shadowfiend; on my mage, “I” is Evocate. Once I get around to leveling my pally again, I’m sure I’ll use “I” for Divine Plea. The only different character is my warlock, where I bound Lifetap to something I can hit more easily more often since there’s no cooldown.
I also use the same keybinds for my “OH CRAP” button on all my characters – Ice Block, NS/HT on my resto druid, NS/HW on my resto shaman, Desperate Prayer, etc.
As for the keyboard/mouse movement thing, well, I have a lot to say about that. Methinks that’ll turn into a rant. Time to put that on my own site.
Phew. I just read this whole post and all the comments! I have a lot to learn, despite being a veteran since the freakin’ release of this game. I am a clicker, and I have known for a long time that it needs to change.
So thanks for providing this public service.
I second the usefulness of doing away with caps lock, but rather than swap it with ctrl, just ditch it for good. It’s a useless feature, IMHO, but worst of all is the adjustment period, which might vary from one use of the keyboard to another. You might like using the former caps lock key for ctrl commands in WoW, but when you get back to your other business, you may find yourself doing new caps-lock C and new caps lock V for cut & paste, causing annoyance.
It is found here (and probably some other places)
http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/disable_caps_lock/
I’m always looking for better ways to handle my layout – I like you’re explanation of how you choose your spell placement. I am now rethinking some of mine.
A suggestion for those just learning to keybind. If you are already using a mod for your action bars, consider making all the ability bars visible while you are learning your keybinds/macros. You can shrink them to save on real estate – keep them just large enough that when you waver for a second – was it F or G? – you can quickly glance & see.
Second – about strafing. That has become my “get out of crap” move of choice now. I use Grid/Clique, so sometimes I need to mouse-cast & key-move, and turning with keys instead of mouse is sooooo slow.
Looking at actual fights, I realized that most of the time I don’t need to move very much – just enough get out of D&D or avoid a missile, or running towards the tank if healer-aggro an add.
Strafing instead of turning & running actually takes less time for me, it keeps me pointed forwards so I can still see my targets, I never turn my back to a mob, AND I only need 2 keys for moving (one for ahead, one with modifier for strafe L/R). I suggest every healer learn to do it.
In fights where you know adds will spawn on you, you can even place your toon sideways to start with, so you’re strafing towards the tank without getting dazed from hits from behind.
Cheers,
Kriyet