[Mssxwpn]

Source: Petninja What do you do when you have 5 mobs you are tanking and #6 comes out of nowhere and runs after your healer? Tab x 5 really fast and hope to god you don't overshoot your target and have to tab again? If you really didn't like having your hands each sharing the load of a job why not just bind all movement to a mouse and then do all keybinds on your left hand? Then you get the advantages of a mouse turner, and you still get your hand free for just keybinds. I'm not saying you're not a good tank, I've never run with you. Your method is plagued with unnecessary keypresses and substantial downtime compared to a mouse turner. This will ring true in any fight where mobs are coming from two directions, or if something doesn't quite go as planned.

These situations aren't as bad as they sound by any means. The algorithm for target selection when tabbing is sensitive to the direction you are facing. You simply step forward towards that mob (assuming you're facing your healer, otherwise turn towards the mob in question), press tab once and taunt. It takes a bit of practice to build an intuitive sense of which target "tab" will pick next, but once you have that, you rarely need to hit tab more than once for this or most situations.

Back before warriors had 30-yard taunts one of the very specific advantages I felt I got from my dual-wielded keyboard was being able to so quickly tab/intervene (macro)/taunt in a split second to address exactly that type of situation. Shattered Halls was the cruicible for this technique, and it worked great.

That said, there are occasionally situations where for whatever reason the tab algorithm breaks down a bit. Most noticable for me were the 2nd pull in Magister's Terrace (when tab would occasionally target the guys down below you) and if you're the Drake tank in 2 or 3 drake Obsidian Sanctum when the 2nd or 3rd drake lands (when the fire guys tend to be what gets targeted with a single tab). For these rare instances, I will actually move my hand back to the mouse and target something that way.

I should also mention since my original post, I tried out the traditional keybinding methods mentioned here, and immediately took to them in PvP and when Fury spec'd, but still didn't find them as effective for tanking after a week and full clear of Naxx/OS/Maly using it. Maybe with practice I would have. But I gave up. The only real advantage I felt I had was on stage 1 of Malygos trying to quickly locate the sparks when spawned.

The one thing I do think I might try though is seeing if I can't get 100% of my movement mapped onto my mouse (may require upgrading my mouse), because yea, the general premise behind what I did was separating out my movement from my actions to allow the action hand to operate on more of a rhythm. And if I can do that AND maintain camera mobility, that's even better!

[Dhalphir]

Source: Dayn I've noticed everyone here binds strafing keys, but I honestly can't remember the last time I used the strafe for anything outside PvP. Is there a use for strafing in tanking? Right now all my keyboard real estate is taken up by abilities. 1-6 with my threat generators that can be used in any stance, Q-Y with my stance bar, etc...

Yes.

If you tank Malygos, you should be strafing everywhere while kiting him.
If you aren't strafing, you're doing it wrong.

[reasonyousmile]

You know, I've found that a good percentage of the time the no-mouse method illustrated by Mssxwpn works really, really, really well. Everyone just SAYS "keyboard turning = bads", but they say it like it's religious, not like they've actually critically reviewed whether or not it's ever acceptable.

Yes, there are holes that no-mousing doesn't fill, but it does fill a need that mouse-turning can't: Simultaneous actions are sometimes better than fast-in-sequence actions.

With 2-hands on my keyboard, I can often do several things at the same time that a mouse-turner can only learn to do faster in sequence, which is not always necessary. (Think of it like a Pentium 4@3GHz vs. a Core2 Duo@1.7GHz.)

I can easily run after a mob and Heroic Throw/Taunt/Charge it without having to stop running to hit my keys. I can hold 2/3 mobs with my right, move them around with my left, and pick up a third/fourth with a modifier (like ALT-1 for my Heroic Throw) all simultaneously without freaking out.

It's not a FULL-TIME solution, because sometimes mouseturning is easier. That's why it's nice that the mouse is still there - you just move your arm a bit (during your GCD or something, 1.5s being good enough) and target said mob or turn around as needed. I mean, you DO have arms, y'know, you CAN use them, and they can move pretty fast unless you let them atrophy... (oh wait)

On my setup, I use an N52 Speedpad with the mouse on some occasions, and the all-keyboard setup on others. Learning to cramp your style for fashion's sake is stupid - expanding your style and learning lots of different ways to do things and the advantages/disadvantages thereof... is just better.

[Samshel]

I just wanted to ask, how do you turn 180° with a keyboard?
Cuz with mouse is instant turn, with the keyboard, well... Just wondering

[Argamasilla]

Mouse and the N52 covers just about everything I use regularly, and I can continue to move with the thumb pad (in a straight line) for the few moments I need to mouse over a less used ability.

I really only use the keyboard for chat now.

[Roana]

Source: Samshel I just wanted to ask, how do you turn 180° with a keyboard? Cuz with mouse is instant turn, with the keyboard, well... Just wondering

As I said before, you should practically never need to turn more than 90 degrees in PvE at a time.

[IKT]

Source: Roana As I said before, you should practically never need to turn more than 90 degrees in PvE at a time.

unless a mob comes at the raid from behind or you want to intervene to someone behind you to reduce threat or you enter the portal on .. you're a tank, I twist and turn and jump and move in every direction all the time.

run, jump, turn 180, shockwave, turn back 180 before landing, if you can do this you're doing it right.

[Metalzulu]

Personally, I've always bound everything to Q, E, R, V, X, Z, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Mainly because they are all right around where my fingers are. I use Control and Shift as modifiers.

On my warrior I put less used spells(Execute for example) on the number keys(1 through 5) Charge and intercept are both on the Q keys, because I like to have similar spells on the same keys, Shift+V for Hamstring on the warrior, Shift+V for frost trap on the hunter, Shift+V for Chains of Ice on the Death Knight, and so on.

On my shaman I use; 1, 4, X and the Shift key for 99% of my DPS spells. All of my healing spells are bound to my Z key on all of my characters. I just find it nice to know that they're right on hand in case I need them. I also have all my totems bound in ways that I know what key combination to hit when I need it. (V for grounding totem, Control+R for Cleansing, ect...) And my Enhancement spells are all near the movement keys, (E, R, 1, X, 4)

My rogue's combo point abilities are all near my movement keys, You should be able to strafe left and press E or R, or Right and press Q, as Bloodwraith stated, rotating with the keyboard is slow and can waste time. My finishing moves are always bound 1 to 5.

Source: IKT run, jump, turn 180, shockwave, turn back 180 before landing, if you can do this you're doing it right.

I do this on my pally with Righteous Shield or hammer of wrath/Righteousness all the time.


I've spent way too much time playing around with my key binding and placement of spells on my bars, so much so, that it only takes me about 10 minutes to set up my addons on a fresh install of the game, or to re-keybind the standard blizzard UI on patch day, so I can still function. And if I don't like how it feels to press a key to use an ability, I swap it with another ability, and repeat that until I find a balance. A friend of mine says that having Lightning Bolt on 1, Lava Burst on Shift+X, Flame shock on Shift+4 and Chain lightning on X is useless and wastes time, yet I can't function if I change them to the 1, 2, 3 and 4 keys.

Basically, bind the keys how you think you'll like them, and start putting spells on your bars in a way that you can get used to using them.

I stopped clicking after I hit level 20 and learned how to keybind the main actionbars.

[Sysmon]

Leftie here, using mouse left-handed and binding everything to the numeric pad.

When things get complicated, I abandon the mouse and use bindings on keys q-y, a-g and z-b in addition for things like strafing, target-of-target etc...

Works well in PvP, and well in PvE instancing.

S

[Stovan]

oohhh this is definately something I need to look at. I have some abilities bound but know I could (a) bind more and (b) bind better.... think I will look at rebinnding and practising on the dailies.....

[Sysmon]

It is actually awesome fun in PvP. Have a peep come at you, start a keyboard turn (you can almost see his shoulders relax and hear the sigh of relief). Then whip the mouse around and Mortal Strike him.

S

[Gwennell]

I'm a lefty too, holding the mouse in my left hand. I find I'm running out of keys on the right hand side of the keyboard. I'd love to invest in a gaming keyboard or gamepad but they don't make left handed versions. I'm forced to click at times because of that limitation.

[siubosn]

This is all great but can someone help me out as i'm ass backwards, I use the mouse w/ left hand and the arrow keys for movement with my right. As I suck at typing useing keys is really hard for me but I do want to be able to streamline my tanking w/ the use of more keys so im not constantly looking at the spellbars.
Any sujestions at this popint will be helpfull.
TY
Zephryus

[Bloodwraith]

I updated the OP to include a new spreadsheet that Pharaunmizz showed me. It was done by Tielc - Akama Horde (US). It has a modified spreadsheet that looks like a keyboard. It has icons for all prot warrior spells. I included a picture as well. Hope this helps those tanks that are working on setting up their keybinds .

[Karith]

Source: Nugat 1. I still find my eyes wandering down to the action bar to make sure my timing is in sync with the GCD. This causes me trouble when when there is a situational awareness check (void zones, checking for sparks, or even watching for a castbar on the mob I'm tanking for an interrupt). 2. Maintaining a solid rotation while moving. While moving, I usually have to let something slide. Sometimes I start to lag behind the GCD, sometimes I lay up off the Heroic Strike spam, and sometimes I'll let buffs/debuffs slide. 3. Reaction time. I think pretty quick on my feet, and I can't tell if I'm planning too far ahead, or if I just can't react to stimuli quick enough. For example. As soon as I hit a button (lets say Shield slam), I do a very fast evaluation (is revenge lit?), and I start spamming the appropriate "next button" before I'm even 1/4 through the GCD. Lets say I choose next button to be Devastate. While I'm spamming devastate, Revenge lights up, my reaction time isn't quite quick enough to catch that revenge before the GCD finishes, and I hit Devastate (so far, I'm a little behind on threat for selecting devastate when I theoretically could have revenged). I give myself a fraction of a second to curse my mistake, and start spamming revenge. This would be fine, if that devastate hadn't procced S&B, I don't get my audio cue's until at least half way through the GCD (default shield "clang" as well as a big "whoosh" from my proculas addon), and by the time my brain registers the "Shield Slam!", the GCD has already come and gone, and I've hit the revenge key instead of the Shield Slam. Do other warriors out there find themselves in a similar boat? or do you wait for the GCD to finish before you do your evaluation/button press? I find that after having 1 or 2 misses (pressing the wrong button), I tend to stop pre-emptive spamming, and pay more attention to the action bars (setting myself up to miss an environmental cue).

To address your issues, I had the same problems, and while I'm still working on fixing some of them, what I've done so far might be of use.

1 and 3. I've found one particular addon to be really helpful so that I don't have to be watching my action bar or buffs to know when things like Sword and Board are up - Mik's Scrolling Battle Text. I know it's linked around here somewhere, but you can search for it on Curse. You can set up where it notifies you, and about what, so I'm still watching more or less the middle of the screen for my timing and when things are up. I also tend not to "spam" buttons, I calculate and have tempo'ed out the GCD such that I don't need to look to see when I can push something again. Occasionally I'm just a fraction off and must hit something again, but I'd say 95% of the time I'm accurate.

2. The first thing to go for me if I have to be moving is Heroic Strike. I've bound it and Cleave to my mouse wheel, and as such it's more difficult at the moment for me to have both mouse buttons pressed to move, and be scrolling my mouse wheel simultaneously. Now, I'm also still in the process of training myself to mouse-turn, so once I get that down to an art, I might be able to re-incorporate HS into turns and movement.

I've also found Satrina's Digits addon very useful, so that I don't have to keep looking up to see how much rage I have and evaluate if I can afford to use HS or not. I'm looking forward to trying out 2.0 and pulling down my target's health and mana as well. The biggest problem I have is if I'm having to watch enemy cast bar - I need to play around with my UI a bit more until I can get their cast bar somewhere closer to the middle of the screen.

My problem is that I have a desktop which is fantastic, but I travel a lot and must use a laptop which can't handle more than a few small addons for raiding, so I have to almost reteach myself whenever I get home.

That being said, I hope you find this helpful.

[Dolomyte]

Ive been using the num pad for my paladin tanking rotation since I began raiding with him. The obvious downfalls: distance to shift/cntrl, having to reposistion my hand for the move keys, if I hit 'num lock' accidently it will normally end in a wipe.

Ive looked but have yet to find any recommended setups for lefties similar to the OP right handed setup. Ive tried some lefty setups on the letter keys with little success. Any links or personal setups anyone can recommend?

[Karith]

Ok, so I was trying new things all night tonight, and came across one major problem. This may be easily solved for some of you, but for me this is a major issue of contention at the moment, and I think is why it's so hard for me to train myself to mouse-move: walking backward. I find I do it a fair bit, especially in fights like Hodir. I don't have a spare mouse button I could re-keybind (as I have only a standard mouse), and I don't relish the idea of having to 180 turn, run leaving my back to a boss and making me miss a GCD, and 180 turn back once I'm where I want to be. And if I mouse-turn 90 degrees and strafe, that leaves me with the similar problem of: strafing.

At this point, I'm completely open to suggestions. I can't fully play around with fixing my keybindings until I can get this worked out.

Thanks.

[Bloodwraith]

Source: Karith Ok, so I was trying new things all night tonight, and came across one major problem. This may be easily solved for some of you, but for me this is a major issue of contention at the moment, and I think is why it's so hard for me to train myself to mouse-move: walking backward. I find I do it a fair bit, especially in fights like Hodir. I don't have a spare mouse button I could re-keybind (as I have only a standard mouse), and I don't relish the idea of having to 180 turn, run leaving my back to a boss and making me miss a GCD, and 180 turn back once I'm where I want to be. And if I mouse-turn 90 degrees and strafe, that leaves me with the similar problem of: strafing. At this point, I'm completely open to suggestions. I can't fully play around with fixing my keybindings until I can get this worked out. Thanks.

If you use WASD like I outlined in the guide back is bound to S.

[Kazeyonoma]

Yeah, I have every ability keybound (except potions) but I still use WASD to do back up or to move forward if i'm using my mouse to camera control. It takes a lot more movement of my lefthand to keep up because I use Alt, and CTRL modifiers, but in the end it works for me too. I've never had a movement fight issue after I got used to this.

[Karith]

Source: Bloodwraith If you use WASD like I outlined in the guide back is bound to S.

So keep strafe and back to keystrokes, just turn and move with the mouse? That makes a lot more sense then, I must have just misunderstood.
The transition won't be nearly as bad as I feared then. Thanks!