[Voiager]

Hey guys. First time poster and long time reader here.

I'm leveling a warrior for the first time and I've started to notice a problem growing the higher level I become: Too many abilities! My action bars are crowded and, between stance switching, getting kinda difficult to use in any kind of effective way. I use the blizzard action bars. I've tried all the bar mods and I just prefer blizz. No headache on patch day.

Are there any tips to be given on managing and organizing my action bars, hot keys, and macros to be more efficient and just overall kick more @$$ without so much dancing around the keyboard? Should I suck it up and use bar mods?

This is for a Protection Warrior of level ~58ish.

Thanks in advance.

[Grawr]

Ditch some of the Blizzard key bindings - Z, X, F and G are all well within reach and the ones I use. Use a key modifier - Shift, Ctrl, Alt. (Eg I have Shift + 1 as Charge, Shift + 2 as Shoot, Shift + F as Shockwave etc). Use the Tilde ( ~ ) key! And I also use F1/F2/F3 to switch stances. I know a lot of people use Q and E or rearrang their movement keys, but I'm far too used to using them by now.

[blackhand]

An easy one is to use your mouse scroll wheel for your stances, scroll up, down, and press.

[Armstrong]

I use macros to stack multiple abilities on one button combined with either shift or ctrl. For example, one macro that I have on the 1 key does Taunt by default, shift-1 is Charge and Ctrl-1 is Mocking Blow. Another: 3 is Heroic Strike, Shift-3 is Cleave. Etc.

I also have the mouse wheel set to scroll between the six action bars (ctrl-mouse wheel is camera zoom). With a bit of practice and as long as you have a mouse that lets you feel the increments as you turn the wheel, you can go to any bar very quickly and accurately without ever looking at your bars at all.

[Bloodwraith]

Use WASD as your movement base. Keybind around it using: 12345`qertfg and spread out from there if you need more. Use Shift, Control, and Alt as modifiers.

for stance switching, I combine them in macros to reduce keybind space. For example I have this macro for intercept:

#showtooltip Intercept
/cast Berserker Stance
/cast Intercept

This funtions as my berserker stance button if I'm in another stance and as my intercept button when I'm in berserker stance. Having this bound in a single macro helps reduce the time it takes to react to a situation when it presents itself because you don't have to spam multiple keys to effectively stance switch and cast the spell.

[downset]

hello,

also first post here, i used to have the same problem

1.
use a bar mod, once you do you will wonder how you did without i used both bartender4 and dominos and liked both, i use bartender4 now, not sure why i think i like the setup and config better

2.
positioning the bars in the same position as the keys you use helps alot to make hand/eye coordination and memory easier, you are watching you're bars for cool downs anyway, it helps if what you see is the same layout as what you press i even made the holes for WASD

i used the same WASD to steer plus keys around to put spells as the previous poster, and that work really well, also unbind turning and use AD to strafe instead

3.
also i found if i only put the things i use alot or need fast (rotation + panic buttons + whatever you use alot) on keybind and use a couple of other bars to put things i just klik with the mouse works better for me than to try and put everything on keybind, for me its almost impossible to press keys as far away as 9 or P and get my hand fast enough to the standard position to keep hitting my rotation

4 (option that costs money).
i got a Belkin n52te, i use that (the d-pad) to steer and the keypad for my spells and its absolutely brilliant, the position of your wrist is great and the keys are a lot easier to find blind than on a big keyboard

[downset]

one more thing about the problems on patch day:
bartender has been updated just before the patch goes live every time, and i have had no problems

also if you use a program like Wowmatrix updates are easy and stress free

[Bodasafa]

The easy answer is become a click player like me. I use the number pad for a few actions and the rest gets clicked.

7 - Strafe Left
8 - Move Forward
9 - Strafe right
4 - Move Left
6 - Move Right
2 - Move Back
3 - Push to talk on vent
.(del) - Tab Closest Enemy Target
0(ins) - Target Previous Enemy Target
+(plus) - Jump/Rise Vertically on flying mount.
-(minus) - autorun
*(star/multiply) - Target Self

It works for me.

[OnourisofRavencrest]

If you are going to use the blizz ui it seemed easier to me to have all your non-modified abilities on one action bar (i.e. 1,2,3...) with the bar above it being the same keys with modifiers (i.e. shift1, shift2, shift3...).

You can also use [modifier:shift] macros. For instance I use /cast [modifier:shift] Shield Bash; Spell reflect (or something like that I'll edit with the exact macro later). It frees up an action bar slot If you do this though, you'll want a mod like dotimers or ghost pulse so you can see when the ability is ready to be used again.

All of the keybinds I use keep your hand in the same general area, so no dancing all the way across the keyboard required.

Tilde - Macro for stance dance retaliation
Shift+Tilde - Macro for stance dance recklessness
1 - Shock Wave
Shift+1 - Charge
Alt+1 - Commanding Shout
2 - Shield Slam
Shift+2 - Intervene
Alt+2 - Battle Shout
3 - Revenge (with HS macro'd to it)
Shift+3 - Berserker Rage
Alt+3 - Demoralizing Shout
4 - Devastate
Shift+4 - Blood rage
Alt+4 - Intimidating Shout
5 - Thunderclap
R - Shield Bash
Shift+R - Spell Reflect
F - Concussive Blow
Shift+F - Assist
C - Disarm
T - Taunt
Shift+T - Mocking Blow
G - Shield Block
Shift+G - Trinket of some sort
Mouse Wheel up - Heroic Strike
Mouse Wheel Down - Cleave
Mouse Button 3 - Mount
Mouse Button 4 - Auto run
Mouse Button 5 - Every Man for Himself

To be honest, I am a keybinder/clicker in transition and my best advice would be to never let yourself click. I used keybindings on my druid starting out at level 1 and at the time I stopped playing him (46?) it had gotten to the point that I had the buttons shrunk so small on my screen that I could barely tell what the abilities were, but then again I didn't really need to see them. On my warrior, however, I didn't start messing around with keybinds until level 70 and the process has been nothing but frustrating. Having the ability to click around your screen vice never letting your mouse stray far from your action bars is simply amazing.

[Kazeyonoma]

Source: Bodasafa The easy answer is become a click player like me. I use the number pad for a few actions and the rest gets clicked. 7 - Strafe Left 8 - Move Forward 9 - Strafe right 4 - Move Left 6 - Move Right 2 - Move Back 3 - Push to talk on vent .(del) - Tab Closest Enemy Target 0(ins) - Target Previous Enemy Target +(plus) - Jump/Rise Vertically on flying mount. -(minus) - autorun *(star/multiply) - Target Self It works for me.

I would NOT recommend this. Every high end warrior in both PvE and PvP suggests that you keybind every core ability and work it into muscle memory, it takes a little bit to get used to, but clicking will definitely hold back your ability to be a great tank or pvp'er. Cider has said it numerous times in his podcasts, Xav has said it helps keep your skills on CD better, and Kazaganthi has said that to become a "PvP Monster" you need to keybind your abilities.

Do what ever is most comfortable to you sure, but if you absolutely want to become the best. Keybind.

and use different modifiers, i use 1-0 (where 7-0 aren't as commonly used skills but still bound), alt+ 1-0, ctrl+ 1-6. That alone provides me the majority of the abilities I need. I also use z x v.

[rameds]

i configured my 1-= for others keys...
but i need more... i want use shift+1 for other keys

how i do that??????

[Bloodwraith]

I don't suggest clicking either. It is an all around slower method of casting spells. In PvP you'll notice a huge difference once you gets used to your keybinds. I used to be good but now I'm way better. In PvE you'll be more efficient if you don't click.

[Kazeyonoma]

rameds, if you use Bartender4 it's extremely easy, just type /kb

that'll bring up a small window and you basically just hover your mouse over your hotkeys and press the button you want bound. when you're done, click the close button in the popped up window.

If you don't use bartender4, you can always go to your keybindings options by pressing esc and Key Bindings, then find the row you want bound (bottom left, bottom right, right side, right side 2) and just manually add them and make sure you hit Okay! at the end or it wont get saved!

[Bloodwraith]

I love the /kb feature. It's very useful

[rameds]

ty for help guys