if your playing a sentinel, you absolutely need to use keybinds, its a high skill demanding class, some other classes don't demand as much.

Set your A and D keys to strafe left and strafe right, and hold down right mouse to turn ur character. Next, bind 1-5, q, e, r, t, f, g, along with shift q shift e shift 1,2,3 et.. get used to those and expand as needed.

Even if you don't care about preforming better in PvP, learning to use keybinds is still something worth getting used to. It doesn't take long time to get used to, and once you have done this, there's no going back, it simply is so much easier and quicker.

At the moment because of how un-polished the BG's clicking is no disadvantage. Once the PvP gets polished and no ms response time the binders have going to have an advantage.

At the moment because of how un-polished the BG's clicking is no disadvantage. Once the PvP gets polished and no ms response time the binders are going to have an advantage.

Set your A and D keys to strafe left and strafe right, and hold down right mouse to turn ur character. Next, bind 1-5, q, e, r, t, f, g, along with shift q shift e shift 1,2,3 et.. get used to those and expand as needed.

i'm afraid to say I have no advice for you, but i do feel your pain and am in the same boat. I promised myself that when I rolled my tor toon I would try from the ground floor to handle mobs with a new non click method rather than a point click method. I'm not their yet but am taking my time then we'll see if the playing field gets leveled a little bit in pvp. Since i can afford it i did go out to fry's and buy a razer naga mouse and also the anansi keyboard. So far i have barely been able to figure them out and am going to have to enlist the aid of my daughter to help me, smile... i'll see you in the bg

This post may be a repeat, but I don't feel like reading 14 pages. My biggest problem with mouse turning is that I have trouble targeting party and raid members to heal and do other things with. How do I do this without clicking on their raid icon? Is there a way, or is this maybe a problem I'm just having? Any advice would be appreciated.

I have the Razer Nostromo and have set up a profile for SWTOR. But no matter what I try, some of the Nostromo keys are mapping to different KB keys, even though the configurator says my SWTOR profile is loaded and most of the binded keys work. Has anyone seen this problem and know of a workaround? The affected keys (6, 10-14) don't have any second keybinds attached to them either.

 

Thanks in advance for help

I made it about 6 pages in I believe, so I'm not sure if this got covered. This is my first prolonged venture into an MMO, so I'm pretty well starting from scratch. I did some looking and tried a few things out and this is what has worked for me so far.

 

I remapped movement to SDFE. Someone else had mentioned this somewhere and I thought it was a good idea. F has the tab on it to help me quickly find the key if I somehow move my hand off the spot. Today when I log on I'm going to remap D to be forward movement so I can free up E for another quickslot. The will give me 1-6, QWERTAGHZXCVBN all for quickslots. I had to move a few things to the other side, U for character, I for inventory, J for crew skills.

 

The hardest part for me was to remember where I remapped all my windows. So J is for jobs, I is obviously inventory, but since the only time I ever open my character window is when I'm equipping, UI helped me remember that. I'm still working on movement, but having the keybinds so close to my hand's resting place is working very well for me.

Dont go out and buy a nostromo or anything like that until you've tried and mastered keybinds and mouseturning.

 

Baby steps people.

 

A Nostromo or Razer mouse/keyboard are great - but they are a dramatic extension of the concept that you are trying to dip your toe into here.

 

Honestly I find a Razer Naga INFINITELY easier than good old fashioned keybinding. Just imo. Was a clicker forever. Tried to switch to keybinding. Couldn't do it. Got the Naga? Saved my pvp life. For reals.

Lots of good points made in this thread. I am trying to find a config that works well for me atm, so this was really helpful!

One of the best reasons not to click in pvp is situational awareness. Once you get used to your keybinds and they become second nature for you, you will never have to take your eyes off of what's going on in the world. In pvp that awareness is crucial. You need to see everything. You need to see the beginning of a cast, what's coming up beside and behind you, etc.

First do not use numbers past 5 or 6 as farther than that will force your hand to move which you do not want.

 

Also bind some abilities to every letters around WASD. If you need to strafe just hold right click on your mouse and use A and D.

 

I have Q, E, R, T, F, G, H, Z, X, C, V all binded to different abilities, all those letters are right next to your WASD which make them very easy to reach. I also start binding those same letters with ALT if i need more binds, like ALT+Q or ALT+E etc...

 

Now if you still have trouble moving while pressing your keys, try practicing spamming some of those keybinds while moving, sometime you will have to quickly switch fingers while moving in order to start spamming another ability.

 

Example: try to move in circle while holding right mouse click and turning with mouse and also strafing, all at the same time. Then start spamming some of your main spells, and once u got it down start doing the same thing but implement your abilitiies rotation.

 

It will take some practice but eventually you'll get good at it.

 

Hope it helps!

The only advice I will give you, as others have provided you with wealth of information, is to unbind your "S" key from moving backwards and bind it to a skill.

 

Unbind your "space" key from jumping and bind it to a skill that you need instant access to. If you need to jump, bind it to a separate button that you wouldn't otherwise use frequently.

 

You should not be bunny hopping around in SWTOR while trying to fight people anyway. This is not CS 1.5 and unbinding "S" from moving backwards teaches you not to back paddle.

Sorry if some of this has been said already, but here are a few tips for moving and using abilities at the same time:

 

You can move forward by pressing both mouse buttons, freeing your other hand for hotkeys.

 

You only usually move with one or two keys pressed at any given time. Use your other fingers for hotkeys. For example, my middle finger is usually moving my character forward or back, and it's my other fingers doing most of the hotkeying including my thumb and pinky.

 

-Additionally you can bind abilities which require you to be stationary like channeled abilities to keys near your primary movement keys, thus your finger will be on one or the other, not both.

 

Being left handed, I use the numpad since it's a nice, straight bank of keys with lots of handy keys nearby. My middle finger drives, (num 5 and 2) and my index finger hits the 6 keys next to the numpad (insert, delete etc) for primary abilities. Thus, I can still have most mobility and also fire abilities with one hand. Other keys around the numpad are used for the other binds. The one downside is not very easy access to shift and ctrl modifiers.

 

Consider making separate hotkey bars for pvp and pve as your ability use may be different.

 

Also, don't be afraid to keep shifting your hotkeys around until you find something that works and is comfortable. Sometimes a new ability makes me shuffle my whole hotkey setup. Eventually, you'll prioritize the abilities you need and assign them to the easiest to reach keys and move down the priority list until you feel that you can access what you need in a pinch.

 

Lastly, I still have a few abilities which I click, like long duration buffs or rarely used abilities, so don't think you need to bind everything to win.

 

Good luck, and you are making the right decision becoming a hotkeyer!

 

-IG

they are very important if you want to be faster than other players.

If you feel comfortable clicking and keep it competitive then stick with it.

Recently moved from clicker to key binds, I've chosen a path I find a little easier to adapt to and that is use a Razer mouse with 12 buttons on side (it gives almost a gamepad feel), I use these 12 buttons for skills and modify with the shift key, I also use Q, E and F, I may expand on this as required but currently works, I can continue to move and get skills off with ease. Basic set-up W= Up A = Strafe Left, S= Down, D=Strafe Right, F= Interrupt, Q= Break CC E= Knock Back (will adjust as I get more skills and become more familiar with it)

 

By no means was I a bad player, in my circle of raider/pvpers I was considered one of the best, but there is always room for improvement, I was reluctant at one point to say I would improve if I changed but I have and am happy to admit it.

 

Clicking was an overhang from FPS and I had trouble letting it go I guess as it was what I was used to.

 

This is the style of mouse (also comes with software to adjust keys)

http://www.efreudenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Razer-mouse.jpg

 

These can be grabbed around the $60 to $80 mark at amazon.

Edited January 5, 2012 by CountVlad

If you feel comfortable clicking and keep it competitive then stick with it.

 

Contradiction.

I've actually discovered that I end up using a sort of hybrid of both. Although I NEVER turn with the keyboard, I find myself still using the clicker for about 50% of my skills, (usually the one's with longer cooldowns). This keeps my hand primarily centered over the strafing keys, (and the forward key) and I only end up using about 5 key bindings (1-5). I certainly won't claim elite status in pvp, but I've never had troubles navigating a complex battlefield, and am still able to whip off those skills as fast as theoretically possible! Yes, reflexes are important in a mmo, but certainly not as crucial as one might find in a fps or rts.

Generally speaking, if you click your abilities, you cannot:

 

- Click an ability

- Move

- Fast turning

- Pan your camera

- Select a target

 

All at the same time.

 

Not that you can with keybinds actually, but you only have to sacrifice 1 of those 5 at any given time. With ability clicking, you have to sacrifice 2-3.

 

Pretty much the bottom line. Also, you cannot click OGCD abilities as fast as you can press them ... ever.

 

 

On the topic of keyboard-turning, everyone should keyboard turn while their mouse is occupied with selecting a new target or with panning the camera. For example, when you are running to a heal buff in Huttball, you should be panning your camera to monitor the enemy's position and movement. You cannot mouse-turn while doing this. So you should be keyboard-turning to the heal buff.

 

I kind of giggle when people say they do not have turn left/right bound. That means they don't pan much.

The only advice I will give you, as others have provided you with wealth of information, is to unbind your "S" key from moving backwards and bind it to a skill.

 

Unbind your "space" key from jumping and bind it to a skill that you need instant access to. If you need to jump, bind it to a separate button that you wouldn't otherwise use frequently.

 

You should not be bunny hopping around in SWTOR while trying to fight people anyway. This is not CS 1.5 and unbinding "S" from moving backwards teaches you not to back paddle.

 

Agreed, I use esf personally. d is bound to a skill. If you do not have back peddle mapped you will quickly learn not to use it.

Subscribed. Good information for someone who has needed to fully come over from the clicker-side for sometime.

Is it possible to click with this game? can I click on a mob/player and with the mouse click attack or heal it?