There is a simple way to answer this really. Most people start off as clickers, i did way back when I first started playing and yes I did reasonably well. However as with all things I evolved my play style to a better one and that was key-binding. There is a reason the best players in the world (on any game) use key binds, it is faster and it does eventually become much easier.

I can't imagine playing any game now without key binding all my abilities and i doubt I could play any game as well without them. There is no reason to not learn to key bind, at first it may feel odd or strange but when you get used to it you will look back like I do and think "did I really used to do that!"

The GCD mechanic is the only reason people can justify clicking at higher levels of play, and even then it's inferior.

I had been of the opinion for a long time that an MMO mouse was largely a gimmick, and I never found the ergonomics of the Razer Naga comfortable.

When Logitech released the G600, I decided to give it a try, and now you'd have to pry the thing out of my cold, dead hand.

The difference in efficacy between clicking and keybinds is massive. The difference in efficacy between purely keyboard binds and a hybrid between keyboard and mouse binds is equally so.

Elitist-sounding or not, I can't stress enough how worthwhile picking up an MMO mouse is for any serious PVE or PVP player. Paying to play? Certainly. Worth it if you have the disposable income and want to maximize your efficiency? Absolutely.

Retraining muscle memory is an annoyance, but it takes little enough time and the end result is so worth it.

Any time I see this I always think of Taurgrim's guide for keybinding. Only uses a standard mouse and standard keyboard.

http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/

This is a great place to start if you want to learn and the nice thing is that this setup will work for most every class with a couple of tweaks.

I'm not there yet because I'm still playing casual content to blow off steam but one day I'm going to force the issue and see if I can really up my game.

I have no idea just on Nightmare Pilgrim how someone can hit their 7th skill on their hotkey bar AND get back to their interrupt in time to stop a 1 second with lag Gore.

 

I myself am a little bit strange as I actually moved my movement keys from wasd to esdf since I can hit A with my pinky while strafing and casting other stuff.

There are few (if any) PURE 100% clickers. Most "clickers" are hybrids that use a few of the generic key binds (ie.1-5) but in large part click most skills. With the very customizable inter face you can locate skills in places that make them very easy to click quickly.

For Healing, key binding is the single most effective way of increasing your healing effectiveness. Unless you are able to move your mouse like a South Korean playing Starcraft, key binding is much more effective. You can get away with clicking in hard mode flashpoints, but you will have problems in the tougher operations like HM TFB and NiM EC

Bull crap. I'm a commando healer and heal on HM end game ops. Most of my heals are channeled which gives PLENTY of time to click on next op frame or skill. Kolto bomb is located near middle of UI so it is ready for placement. There are some skills I let bind but ALL my heals I usually click. To unilaterally state that you can't be an effective healer at a high level of play is simply ignorant and arrogant. The bottom line is that it goes back to reflexes, muscle memory and down right skill regardless of the style of play. Any long time clicker who plays endgame ops will tell you that the global cooldown is plenty of time to get your mouse anywhere you need by the time the GC is off.

I both click AND keybind depending on my toon and what i'm used to. I find this arguement absurd that people have the audacity to say that THEIR way is better when they don't play at a high level of the other method.

This is like watching rednecks argue over which brand of pick-up is better, it's PREFERANCE.

If you like keybinding, fine, if you don't fine. In the end it's about player skill ... There are excellent keybinders, there are excellent clickers. Go with what you prefer and are the best at.

All top dps in the rankings use key bidnings look at ec nim top dps world rankings list , all key binders see a pattern .... same with healers ......

Akopra (one of the top DPS in the World) uses a few clics for some spells.

Epic Fail, try again.

Akopra (one of the top DPS in the World) uses a few clics for some spells.

 

Epic Fail, try again.

A few clicks, which would imply they use a hybrid method and the majority of abilities are keybound.

Epic Fail, try again.

A few clicks, which would imply they use a hybrid method and the majority of abilities are keybound.

 

Epic Fail, try again.

Read again

All top dps in the rankings use key bidnings look at ec nim top dps world rankings list , all key binders see a pattern .... same with healers ......

He implies that EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in World ranking only use keybinds, I said that many players use an hybrid system (than he CLICKS SOMETIMES).

Epic fail, do'nt try again.

I am a hybrid due to the simple fact that I happen to have a physical handicap that causes cramping and lack of reach in my left hand. I have been playing MMOs for more than a decade (EQ1, EQ2, SWG, WoW, and SWTOR). in SWTOR (like other games) I bind 1-6 to abilities I use all the time, shift and alt 1-6 that I use less often but still consistently, and while the rest of my abilities do have keybind options I typically click them for the fact that it is faster than reaching across the keyboard.

I have tried switching WASDQE from moving to keybinds (so I could only move with the mouse, with A&D for strafe) and found it TOO WEIRD!

I have tried shifting WASDQE to ESDFWR to get QAZ on keybinds...again TOO WEIRD! (My pinky and ring fingers do not work well enough on my left hand).

In WoW and SWTOR when I do participate in PvP I hold my own, rarely the best in numbers but I get the job done (usually top three). In PvE, I did the hardcore raiding thing in EQ1 (six nights a week, four to five hours a night, resulting in frequent server first, occasional world first in downing content) and stopped when I started playing WoW.

In SWTOR, I have cleared HM EV and KP and SM EC. I can and have gone months without doing any raiding, and I am OK with that. My point is that you cannot judge a person's competence by what he/she has done in game; just because someone has not cleared NiM TFB does not mean his ability usage system is bad. I have received many compliments and guild/raid invitations based on my performance in PuG OPs, I am just unwilling to dedicate the time anymore...I have occupation and social obligations in real life that I did not have a decade ago.

If you can really clear nightmare mode content without keybinding every single key then I'm looking forward to hitting 50.

I come from playing in top 100 US guilds in wow where everyone is functionally undergeared due to the fact that the first hundred or so kills of a boss happen in the first weekly lockout, and we therefore have to overperform to kill the bosses. If you DON'T keybind every in-combat spell you have, you're gonna have a bad time.

If clickers get by in this game then I'm not expecting much trouble in raiding in this game.

If you can really clear nightmare mode content without keybinding every single key then I'm looking forward to hitting 50.

I have outed myself with two groups I play with to being a clicker in this thread. Before reading it here they had no clue I healed clicking. One of the other healers swears I am just trolling in this thread because they don't want to admit that a hybrid keybind clicker outperforms them in HPS and AMP. I will say they are better healers than me, I would have never been able to get to the level in content without their advice and suggestions, but now I more than pull my weight in any operations even if I don't do it the "our way only" way.

I am going to start playing more a pure keybind player. Still going to hybrid it in progression, because I am better at that now, but I will do other ops, dailies and HMFP as a pure keybind until I get extremely comfortable with it again. Then I will do 5 weeks of pure keybind progression and compare it to the previous 5 weeks of hybrid and play the one that give me the greatest HPS and AMP. I am not worried about movement or speed because I already use keybinds for all that stuff, so pure keybinds will do nothing for that in my case.

if you are a melee class, i have an exercise for you.

Train on the dummy.

Maintain a perfect rotation while turning around the target dummy. Do never stop execpt for a cast (telek throw, master strike, ravage) otherwise, be always in movement.

If you can maintain your DPS, you are ready for operation.

All good stuff in here very helpful. After reading them all at length, what sticks out the most for me is the gaming mouse. Ive checked on the Naga's and Logitech's. Seems like this may b somthing I could learn but more importantly b comfortable/ effective with.

Being a newb I wasnt aware of the deep seated feelings on both side's of this coin. I respect all who chimed in and thankz for keepin it civil.

Now next question is how 2 use right mouse button to rotate and move character forward at the same time. Ive tried binding forward(w) onto mouse right click. Dosent seem to work. Is this the correct idea on mouse movement or im yet confused again. In other words do i keep W(or any bind) as forward and just turn with mouse right click?

Thx again

ps- I think maybe alot of my issue is not havin any typing skill (hunt and peck). Im a Telco Lineman/ Splicer so if I could type with a Klein Wrench or a 3 Pound Hammer things would b much simplified LOL.

Sorry but I forgot 2 ask what and where is this Training Dummy that keeps being mentioned?

You can unlock both an Operations Training dummy and a Warzone Training Dummy for your ship through the legacy system.

The training dummies are basically unkillable manaquins that you can beat on forever.

As to gaming mice, you don't need anything particularly special, but the more buttons then the more options you have. I went with the Roccat Kova + which only has 2 thumb buttons (on both sides in case you are a lefty!). However, after testing a load of mice this was the most comfortable for me, plus the programmable LEDs within it are nice! I'm kinda sad in that I like to colour match my PC peripherals!

Sorry but I forgot 2 ask what and where is this Training Dummy that keeps being mentioned?

i just bought the one on the ship because the lag on the fleet at peak hours was really annoying while practicing rotation.

This.

The most important part of being good at endgame pve is knowing your class.

inb4 all of the elitist keybinders.

Knowing your class helps you be decent in general.

Now next question is how 2 use right mouse button to rotate and move character forward at the same time. Ive tried binding forward(w) onto mouse right click. Dosent seem to work. Is this the correct idea on mouse movement or im yet confused again. In other words do i keep W(or any bind) as forward and just turn with mouse right click?

Thx again

No special bindings are required to mouse turn. All the required bindings to do so are already configured as part of the default settings. The idea is you click and hold RMB to lock your characters facing direction to your mouse. Pressing forward works as per normal, but you can control the direction you are facing now with the mouse while RMB is held down.

Another effect of holding RMB down is the turn left and turn right keys turn into strafe keys. All movement is still handled by your WASD keys (or as I'd suggest, moving WASD right one key to be ESDF as it gives more room to bind convenient abilities to the left of your movement keys).

The only set up you need to make once you get used to using RMB to control your facing direction is to actually bind your extra abilities to vacant keys. There's a bit of science and a bit of art to this. Consider how time sensitive an ability is and how often you will need to activate it. Things like interrupt abilities get pride of place on my keyboard. They need to be activated very quickly, and they get used often. I personally use G, right next to my index finger. Abilities that are off the GCD and become available as procs are also usually good candidates to get prime location binds, for example on my Juggernaut, retaliation gets bound to my R (this is usually reply, I move that to N).

As well as how an ability is bound, where it's bound is important too. Group like abilities with like, keep important abilities such as procs, DPS/defensive cooldowns and other frequently used abilities that have cooldowns that need monitoring close to your sight line. I have 4 or 5 of the most important cooldowns on a separate short bar right above my own health bar to keep an eye on them better.

Keybinding is quicker and safer. Just like someone said, when you are clicking you will have to: move your mouse, then your cursor would get to the ability, then you have to click it. Before that, you need to move your eyes to the ability = losing a valuable part of the screen. That might look fast, but not as fast as pressing the buttons .

I think keybinding is crucial for healers. You already need to click on raid frames to heal people. You need to react fast. Some bosses can bring your tank to 20% of hp easily. It is much faster to press the button (since you will know by heart that, lets say, D - innervate) than to move your cursor and click the ability.

After this I would say tanks: at least bind taunts and defensive abilities. As a healer, it is easy for me to say which one of my tanks is clicking. The one that is not, will react much faster if his HP somehow goes fast to 10%. He/she will pop Shroud, Ward instantly.

Then we have dpsers. I love to say that every mistake DPSer does, healer is there to fix. This can sound a little mean. Your eyes are on your abilities and you can easily miss the red circle and get the hit, where the person pressing buttons would have his/her eyes all the time on 80% of the screen and be able to see potential danger.

If you are having problems with binding, start with 2-3 abilities. After you get used on those, bind some more. After couple of weeks you will ask yourself how could you ever click : >.

Try to run around a little spamming those buttons. Try to do some simple quests while using those abilities.

Oh, I forgot to add how am I doing it.

My abilities are on the left part of my keyboard.

Some of combinations: A, S, D, F, Q, W, E, C, X, Z (or Y on some keybaords). After that I have 1, 2, 3, 4. Since I needed more I took all of those and combined with SHIFT: S+A, S+B ... S+4.

I am moving my character using my mouse. I hold both buttons down which allows my character to move forward. When I need to spin my camera, I just press left button and spin. This is the awesome tactic for 'kiting' in PvP and also has amazing use in PvE when you need to run and pull someone (if things go bad in TFB : seconds boss): You run forward holding both mouse buttons down, jump and spin camera while in air and press the button for pull.

That is how I do it. That is my way. There are better ways.