PvP for dummies, part 1: Keybinding.

I've always wanted to make a PvP guide; I enjoy helping people because I've always found it satisfying. Also, I cry inside every time I see a mage back-pedalling and spamming ice lance, if you're one of those... Or any other class who does the same spamming instants: This guide is for you. The more advanced PvPers might want to skip this but, you might find there's something you didn't know that I include, if you really want to be the best, I'd advise reading through this anyway.

Part 1: Keybinding.

Possibly the most important thing you can do, it gives you a MASSIVE edge over people who don't keybind. I'll start off by explaining what keybinding is, and then explain the why and finally, the how.

What keybinding is:
Using your keys to press skills instead of clicking them with your mouse.

Why you will want to use keybinding:

If you've ever seen a clicker when you keybind, you'd understand completely how much of an upperhand you have over him/her. I can literally drive circles around clickers and kill fully geared ones with almost max hp left on blue geared alts. Simply because they can't turn to keep up with me and press their skills slowly.

Here's the intellectual reason why:

Using keybinds speeds up your skill usage, it means you can spam the buttons during the global cooldown so it presses it as soon as it's over, the way button pressing works is that your skills are 'queued', so if you spam the button, it will press it as soon as the global is over, once it's recognised the input. It doesn't automatically press it though if you do spam, that's why you keep spamming it until it recognises it. Another reason to keybind (and the most important reason in pvp, also VERY useful in pve) is so you can watch the screen rather than looking at what you need to press next. This is really great for not standing in the fire, as I mentioned; for PvE. What this allows you to do in PvP is focus on what the other player is doing and realise when they're blowing cooldowns and what position they're in so you can CC them or damage them, accordingly.

My reasoning behind keybinding is this: You could type all your skills with /cast frostbolt (as an example) in the chat box but that's just lunacy, it would take ages and you couldn't move very easily while doing it. So, you put your spells on your action bar for easy access. When you're clicking, you can't move with your mouse, only your keyboard keys (WASD and arrow keys), this means you can only move a certain speed and in certain directions at any one time. It also means you're slower to press your skills. But, when you're keybinding, you can turn with your mouse and flip around as fast as you want, while pressing skills so much faster. Another argument is this (for you trolls out there): You can cut your food with a fork and... It works but, why not use a knife?

Now that's over with, I'll explain actually HOW to do it:

Press escape to open up your menu, click key bindings and scroll down to the bit that will usually say 1 2 3 4 5 6, etc. these are your default binds to your action bar. You can also set up the action bars above your main action bar and to the right and side by looking for the 'multi-action bars.

The best keybinds:
These are the ones closest to your movement base (that is WASD), though you will be using your mouse to turn your character (by holding right click) and moving forward (by holding both mouse buttons simultaneously). These are usually: R, F, Z, X, C, V, G, T, A and D then the number keys 1-6 (some people can only reach 1-5, some can reach 1-7, don't worry if you can or can't) you can also hold shift, alt and ctrl as MODIFIER keys. This allows you to use any key you want (including movement base keys) in conjunction with them. You must hold down modifiers to use the key combo you set (e.g. C-F, you would hold ctrl and press F to activate that skill). Try to place your cooldowns just above your main action bar and bind them accordingly, that way they'll all be in 1 place to watch them and can glance at your main action bar occasionally while checking them. Another really good tip is to use ESDF as your movement base; this frees up WQA and allows you use more keys further to the right.

Strafing:
This is a little less important but I find it useful, Q and E are the default strafing keys, you can use this on a hunter to kite and still face the target while moving away, also with most ranged classes. Some people change it do A and D, mostly to get them out of the habit of using the arrow keys to turn, I personally use Q and E and binded A and D so I got used to it even faster (no movement = me un-associating those keys with movement) but binding to A and D is arguably better as it means you can reach keys like V, B and G easier along with putting your hand closer to modifiers (for people with short pinkies and thumbs! )
Any method is fine, as long as you only use forward, left strafe and right strafe for movement. Using the 's' key to backpedal is just silly; you could turn around with your mouse instead and run faster. Get out of this habit NOW! I binded S to stop casting so I can 'fake cast' people better in PvP (this will be explained in later guides), I advice doing the same or binding it to a skill.

More good binds are the function keys (1-5) if you can reach them! : )

I'll include a screenshot of my very basic UI with my many keybinds (I got like 50 overall...) when I'm not at work!
I hope this guide helped you become a better player in PvP and also PvE (you might not believe me but with keybinds it'll boost your dps by 1-2k and improve your movement and ability to not stand in shit on the floor, immensely.)
I'll do the 2nd part (UI) sometime next week!

-Zax

Two things..

Zax wrote:You can cut your food with a fork and... It works but, why not use a knife?

Because knife is for old woman and children who dont have the skills to use a fork! Or a spoon

Zax wrote: some people can only reach 1-5, some can reach 1-7, don't worry if you can or can't

Zax wrote: binding to A and D is arguably better as it means you can reach keys like V, B and G easier along with putting your hand closer to modifiers (for people with short pinkies and thumbs!

Not my fault I got my mothers meatballsfingers tho. And most guys gets happy when I use both hands!

Great guide tho! Only bad thing is that you're too cute. Stop that. Otherwise, very good

Glad you liked the guide. If I missed anything out, please feel free to include it as a reply. Feedback is also greatly appreciated! Except about me being cute (and or sexy), I just can't help that.

I have kinda forgot the strafing keys, might be helpful on my hunter even in pve tbh they're more "sucky keys" I accidently push when Im confused atm