Heroic Strike

[duvar]

What method does everyone who is able to get a Heroic Strike on >2/3 of their attacks use to make this efficient? I have my keys bound like this:


1 - Devastate
2 - Shield Slam
3 - Revenge
4 - Shield Block
5 - Heroic Strike

and I find that not only is it difficult for me to press Heroic Strike every 1.7 seconds (since 1 and 5 are kinda far apart) in addition to keeping a steady rotation on all my other abilities, but that sometimes I hit Heroic Strike too quickly and I actually unqueue it.

Is there a /script command that will queue heroic strike if it is not already queued, and do nothing if it is already queued? That would fix at least one of the problems.

I've also tried binding Heroic Strike to my mouse wheel button, but that doesn't work for me as I feel very awkward having offensive abilities being initiated by both my right and left hands at the same time.

[Crimsonstorm]

I use:

1-Shield Block
2-Heroic Strike
3-Devastate
4-Revenge
5-Shield Slam

WIth the heroic strike and devsatate keys together, its easy to hit 2 of them at once, queueing heroic and using devastate.

SO I can do:

1+2+3
2+3
2+4
2+5
repeat

Do always heroic, shield block every 6, and use the threat rotation.

[Rampart]

I would suggest experimenting with new key bindings. In all honesty, the default aren't the most efficient way. For example, move the movement keys over to ESDF and then start binding skills around those. Like A for Revenge and G for Devastate. R could be Shield Slam and W could be Heroic. And then I would use Z for Shield Block.

[Denik]

I know clicking is generally considered bad form, but for me, I have Heroic strike and Cleave bound to keys 5 and 6 and use one hand for those, I use my mouse to cycle through my instant attacks.

[ebs2002]

I have:
1: Taunt (rarely used)
2: Shield Block
3: Shield Slam
4: Revenge
5: Devastate
6: Heroic Strike

I keep my Ring finger on 3, middle finger on 4, and pointer on 5. I queue my HSes and Shield Blocks between GCD keypresses using my pointer and ring fingers respectively: 2-3-6-4-6-5-62-5-6. It's rough sometimes doing devastate shield block and heroic strike at the same time for me, but Omen shows me spiking at 1500 tps and consistently above 900 in Kara (I'm Kara/Badge geared, 27 expertise, 104 hit, 500'ish SBV in my threat gear)

[Kavtor]

I've got HS on a thumb key on my mouse, which keeps it pretty easy to hit independent of the GCD cycle.

[mattdeeze]

Yes. if you have a gaming mouse. the thumb buttons are the way to go. I keep Heroic Strike and Shield Block on my mouse and only focus on my regular threat rotation and debuffs with my left hand.

[loquatious]

I've changed my Zoom in and out buttons to CtrL+ Scroll Wheel, and i'm going to bind Heroic strike to scroll wheel up.

[Traigos]

One thing I have found helpful is to have a macro that casts a regular threat move, but ques up a heroic strike when shift is held down. That way I can use my normal threat rotation during moderate rage situations and simply hold down shift when I need to maximize threat and/or dump rage.

For example:

/cast devastate
/stopcasting
/cast [modifer: shift] heroic strike
/cast [modifer: shift] shield block

/cast shield slam
/stopcasting
/cast [modifer: shift] heroic strike
/cast [modifer: shift] shield block

/cast revenge
/stopcasting
/cast [modifer: shift] heroic strike
/cast [modifer: shift] shield block

I realize you were asking about exact bindings. I use a nostromo n52 gaming pad and have the primary threat move tied to the center row of buttons and use the thumb pad for movement. Being a raid leader, it is sometimes nescesary to split my attention between tanking and other responsibilities. For those times, I can roll my finger's left to right and produce "decent" threat. While this allows for a certain amount of automation, for threat sensitive fights I can micromanage the threat rotation.

[Scargoth]

What method does everyone who is able to get a Heroic Strike on >2/3 of their attacks use to make this efficient? I have my keys bound like this:


1 - Devastate
2 - Shield Slam
3 - Revenge
4 - Shield Block
5 - Heroic Strike

and I find that not only is it difficult for me to press Heroic Strike every 1.7 seconds (since 1 and 5 are kinda far apart) in addition to keeping a steady rotation on all my other abilities, but that sometimes I hit Heroic Strike too quickly and I actually unqueue it.

Is there a /script command that will queue heroic strike if it is not already queued, and do nothing if it is already queued? That would fix at least one of the problems.

I've also tried binding Heroic Strike to my mouse wheel button, but that doesn't work for me as I feel very awkward having offensive abilities being initiated by both my right and left hands at the same time.

If you have trouble with toggling HS off with accidental clicks, there's an interface option that may help you.

Interface Options-->ActionBars-->Secure Ability Toggle

If you check that box then HS will stay queued up and you can mash it as often as you want. It will stay queued until it goes off, or until you lose your target (i.e. hit ESC).

Here's my main action bar:
1. Attack
2. Taunt
3. Shield Slam -- pinky
4. Devastate -- ring finger
5. Shield Block
6. Revenge -- middle finger
7. Heroic Strike -- index finger
8. Shield Bash
9. Commanding Shout
10. Demoralizing Shout
11. Blood Rage
12. Cleave

With this setup I have my 5 main skills directly under my fingertips (with the middle finger doing double duty on Shield Block and Revenge). Two more important "snap-action" keys are to the left (taunt) and right (shield bash). All other skills are on separate action bars nearby and I use my mouse to activate them, most notably Thunder Clap which I keep off my main bar to prevent accidental CC breaking if I get fat fingers mashing keys.

[duvar]

If you have trouble with toggling HS off with accidental clicks, there's an interface option that may help you.

Interface Options-->ActionBars-->Secure Ability Toggle

If you check that box then HS will stay queued up and you can mash it as often as you want. It will stay queued until it goes off, or until you lose your target (i.e. hit ESC).

This is great, never knew about this! I might play around with Bindings tonight. I don't want to do a major keybinding shift because for the most part I think mine are pretty efficient, and they are massively different than the default, I just only mentioned the ones that happen to be similar to the default. I think I'll try binding Heroic Strike to caps lock. Sounds odd, but my movement keys are QWES, when my ring middle and index finger are on QWE, my pinky finger is already naturally at rest on caps lock.

Might also try the thumb button, although I currently use that for Battle Stance. I use wheel up for defensive, wheel down for berserker, and thumb button for battle stance. Was easier for me this way than just having wheel up and wheel down be "next" and "previous" stances, because sometimes in the heat of battle I'm not precise enough and over-roll, skipping the stance I actually want to go to. I rarely switch to battle stance anyway though, so putting that on the pinky mouse button might make more sense since that one is a bit more awkward to press.


Also, is there a UI addon that changes the icon for queued heroic strike more than the default? When I queue heroic strike the icon only gets a very faint outline, and being partially colorblind I can see it, but it doesn't really stand out at me. I'd almost want a glowing yellow outline or something that really stands out when an ability is queued / not queued.

[North]

is there a UI addon that changes the icon for queued heroic strike more than the default?

Bongos gives a pretty thick (default: green) line to the queued attack - if you're not red/green blind it might help? I think it's also bright so might work regardless. Haven't tried to change the default colour but it might require digging into the source...

@Scargoth: awesome pro-tip about the sticky queues - didn't know that either. Will try it out after work 8P

[njalil]

I made macros for my Devastate, Revenge and Shield Slam buttons that look similar to this:

/cast Revenge
/cast Shield Block

On my main action bar I have 3, 4, 5 and 6 as Dev, Rev, SS, SB respectively. On my secondary action bar (Shift +MouseWheel Down) I have 3, 4 and 5 replaced with macros of the same actions. I'm very new to tanking (my tank being my alt) and another warrior friend of mine recommended this to me.

In regular 5 mans or when I'm rage starved I use my primary action bar. In 10 man boss fights I use my secondary action bar and switch back and forth using Shift+MWDown/Up all the time.

Personally I am very new to tanking. None of you mention using something like this and I was wondering whether there was something that I overlooked in this being a suitable approach. If there is, I'd love to know.

Thanks in advance!

[Danach]

1: Taunt
2: Shield Slam
3: Revenge
4: Devastate
5: Demo Shout
f: Shield block
r: Heroic Strike
g: Thunderclap
ctrl-d: Shield Bash
ctrl-f: Spell Reflect

[Wraze]

E: Devastate
R: Shield Slam
Q: Revenge
1: Shield Block
2: Heroic Strike
3: Thunderclap
F: Taunt
Mouse thumb: Cleave
Mouse wheel left: Shield Bash
Mouse wheel right: Spell Reflect

[brain9h]

2 - SS
3 - Revenge
4 - Devastate
C - Heroic Strike (index finger, always)

With this setup you can walk backwards while generating full threat, very good. Middle finger in S (backwards), ring finger does 2344, index finger queues HS.

[Nilya]

I use one of my secondary mouse buttons for heroic strike and just mash it if I see my rage over 40. My instant threat generators and shield block are keyed within four keys of another and are easy to hit. The binds are:

4) Devastate
5) Shield Slam
6) Shield Block
7) Revenge