User:Dacromir/Keybinds

Why?

GW2 is my first game where I keybind. I used to be a keyboard turner, but I'm finally forcing myself to change. So I started looking up keybind layouts. However, none of them really seemed right for me. One thing that has always bugged me about was having fingers devoted to both moving and skills. The standard setup most use is WASD with skills bound around that. That, and every other keybind setup I've found has at least one finger that is used both for movement and for a skill

To me, this is unacceptable. If you're using your ring finger to strafe left and you need to hit a skill with your ring finger, you're in trouble. I'd imagine that the experienced players can get around this by either being incredibly fast or planning their movement so that never happens. However, no matter how well you can work around the problem, it's still not ideal. After some experimentation, here's what I came up with to solve that problem.

Universal Keybinds

These keybinds apply to all variants. The rest of the keybinds vary depending on which class the setup was designed for.

Your fingers rest on [S]/[D]/[F]/[G].

Movement

• Left strafe: [D]
• Right strafe: [F]
• Forward: [M1 + M2]
• Forward: [R]
• Backwards: [V]

Your middle and ring finger are in charge of strafing, and that's all they'll do in combat. You should be using mouselook ([M2]), so you can hold [M1] to move forward. [R] should only be used if you're aiming a ground-target skill with your mouse but you need to keep running forward. [V] Should rarely (if ever) be used, because we all know that backpedaling = death. I use [V] almost exclusively on jumping puzzles.

Weapon Skills

• Weapon 1: [G]
• Weapon 2: [B]
• Weapon 3: [H]
• Weapon 4: [N]
• Weapon 5: [J]

Your weapon skills are all hit with your first finger. Since you can't use two weapon skills at once, this avoids causing a conflict. [J] is a bit of a reach, but you get used to it. On most sets, the fifth skill is used the least anyways.

Basic Controls

• Dodge: [S]
• Interact: [E]
• Character Panel: [C]
• Draw/Sheathe weapon: [3]
• Inventory: [4]
• Capture Video: [`]
• Call Target: [Shift] + [G]

Your pinky rests on dodge so that you can hit it without thinking. Interact uses your ring finger, but you rarely have to interact in combat and I thought it was okay for that to conflict with strafe. Your character panel is somewhere that's somewhat awkward (at least for me), but still close to your hand. The keybinds on the top row are things you should rarely have to hit in combat, so it's okay that you have to stretch a bit and/or move your hand to get to them.

Variant 1

This setup works best for Thieves, Warriors, and Necromancers. It uses only a single profession skill keybind, and has a weapon swap keybind.

Skills

• Heal: [Y]
• Utility 1: [A]
• Utility 2: [Z]
• Utility 3: [X]
• Elite: [W]
• Profession: [Q]

Your heal skill is also hit with your first finger. Your elite and utility skills are hit with your pinky. This can create a slight conflict with dodge, but since you can't cast while dodging I almost never find this to be an issue.

Other Controls

• Switch Weapons: [T]
• Map: [U]
• Scoreboard [6]

Weapon swapping uses the first finger. This keybind setup relies on having an agile and fast first finger, which is true for most people. Your map is also in a location that's easy to reach with your first finger, because that's one of the few UI commands you might need in combat.

Variant 2

This variant works best for Elementalists and Engineers. It has four profession skills but no weapon swapping.

Skills

• Heal: [W]
• Utility 1: [T]
• Utility 2: [Y]
• Utility 3: [U]
• Elite: [5]
• Profession Skill 1: [Q]
• Profession Skill 2: [A]
• Profession Skill 3: [Z]
• Profession Skill 4: [X]

This puts all of the weapon and utility skills on the first finger. This frees up the pinky for profession skills. This is especially good for Elementalists, who need to be able to rapidly swap attunements.

Other Controls

• Map: [6]
• Scoreboard: [7]

These were squeezed in using whatever space was left over.