My Preferred WHM Hotbar Layout(Mac/PC)

This is my preference for my WHM hotbar. For this, I have somewhat smaller hands, and I use a trackpad for a mouse.

https://twitter.com/CryBloodwing/sta...16383040364544


I have 3 horizontal bars and one vertical. For the vertical one, I put non combat abilities, like mounts, emotes, teleport, return, dig, etc.

On Row 3(top row) I put the spells that have long cool-downs, are not used much or have a relation to the one below. For example, the three in the first column, from top to bottom are Assize, Holy, Stone. These are my main three DPS abilities. Stone is the most used, so I have assigned that to a number key. The two above have longer cooldowns so I am able to take a few seconds to click them with my mouse.

Next on the bottom row, I put Cure 1 and Cure 2. Both are used very often and 2 and 3 are very easy numbers to press when using WASD to move.

I alway put Swiftcast next to Rez/Raise since this combo is pretty important.

In general, I put most used skills and combos on bottom row. Middle row is less used. Top row is long cooldowns. Going left to right, the skills on the far right are used way less than the others. So the bottom left is most used skills. Top right is skills I almost never use, or stay active until used again(like stances, summoning, etc). Column spells that are similar or have same effects. Most used on bottom, less used on top.

I'll be honest, I've never understood how people play MMOs on a keyboard without a MMO mouse.

My healer layout, SCH bars: https://imgur.com/a/3uIGy

Primary hot bars on the right are arranged as 4 4x3 grids, to map with the buttons on the side of my G600, and are from top to bottom; no modifier (healing), Shift (pet), Shift+Alt (Aetherflow), Alt (DPS). Lucid and Surecast ended up in the Aetherflow section mostly because I didn't have a better place to put them, and Lucid close to Aetherflow itself makes sense to me. Should I need them, Esuna goes next to Succor, Eye for an Eye goes between Adlo and Deployment Tactics, and Rescue goes next to Excog. Fey Wind is on it's own down at the bottom because the only time I ever really use Selene is in my opener, so using a macro to swap pet skills in didn't seem worth it.

Hotbar along the bottom brings up various utility things in 3 4x3 hotbars positioned above it. Macros, teleport, mount, food, gearsets, etc. Crossbar is for quick access to marks and waymarks, but I forgot to make sure it was on the correct bar before taking the screenshots. WXHB peices on the left are for tracking CDs/procs all in one place, with Aetherflow/Fairy Gauge/buffs/debuffs all in the same place. 2x6 hotbar between party list and target HP bar is completely unbound, click only. Tiny 12x1 hotbar above the party list with the crystal-icon macros is for hiding various UI elements.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riyshn

I'll be honest, I've never understood how people play MMOs on a keyboard without a MMO mouse.

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Honestly...it is just getting so used to being able to move a mouse quickly to the right area without looking lol. I am used to movement without thinking about it that well due to DDR.

Here is mine :cool:
https://imgur.com/a/m4Xz1

I made my UI as minimalist as possible without restricting functionality, both for improved situational awareness and because I stream/record raids. I only have 3 ability hotbars; the top, larger bar generally holds the ones with the CDs I track most closely. Character movement is mostly on my mouse buttons. My keybinds probably are not feasible for a majority of people as I have rather large hands ("piano fingers", as my grandmother used to say) to enable binds like Shift+6 and Shift+B, though that works both ways as I'm not capable of using Alt as a modifier key.

https://imgur.com/a/o8DXe

https://imgur.com/BYg3FAR.jpg
(The job/class bars are bound to a show/hide macro.)

I also have a smaller hand. With my ring finger on "A", I have to stretch my palm to reach "6", so I don't have anything on my hotbar bound to the "6" column and beyond.

shift+1234qerfzxcv
1234qerfzxcv
alt+1234qerfzxcv

Those are the keys I use, with various combinations. Those markers are kind of a legacy of tanking since 2.0, I just never got to remove them even though I rarely ever use those markers now.

As to the layout, since I'm a hotkey person, it matters more to me that the more frequently used keys are the most accessible. So Q2ERFZXC are the most frequently used stuff. As a result, I almost never look at my hotbars during combat, and that's why I have the skills I need to watch all placed in another hotbar just under the simple mode gauge.

I used to have the "watch-bar" vertically just to the left of my character model, but the simple mode gauges are all horizontal so I'm trying out this layout. This also looks more elegant than having a vertical bar sticking out there like that.

Although this also means I now have to watch both sides (party list and watch-bar) and I'm not sure I'm liking that. I dearly miss PowerAuras from WoW. FFXIV is lightyears behind in terms of UI design, functionality and usability, but anyways.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riyshn

I'll be honest, I've never understood how people play MMOs on a keyboard without a MMO mouse.

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Hotkeys. I have 3 rows of twelve all hotkeyed 1 thru =, with the top two rows modified with Shift+ then Alt+. On the left side I have 3 rows of 4 which have emotes, /gpose, teleport, return, etc.. which I access via a mouse click. It's not hard to use at all once you get it set up. Honestly, a gaming mouse would just confuse me.

Now, I like Zfz's setup and I can see how that would work well. In addition, you can find other ways to set up your hotkeys by Google. WoW, in particular, has some great guides.

However, I find thinking in terms of 1 thru = more natural for me. It's not the most efficient way but it's intuitive. As usual, there is no right way to set up your action bars, only ways which work for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riyshn

I'll be honest, I've never understood how people play MMOs on a keyboard without a MMO mouse.
.

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It was like the dark ages before MMO mice. I didn't get one until somewhere during the Lunch King era of WoW. Before that, I used a click casting mod to help. Before those came out, I did it the 'ol fashion way of using both hands on the keyboard and use hotkeys to target players and heal. I wore the keyboard turner tag with pride.

Here's a photo of my setup. I run at 3840x1080, so I have plenty of room for UI. The group window is above the two hotkey grids on the left and the enemy target info is in the default area next to the buffs.
https://i.imgur.com/IjeVKrd.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riyshn

I'll be honest, I've never understood how people play MMOs on a keyboard without a MMO mouse.

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By using the keyboard. You can easily hit 20 or so hotbar buttons without looking or using the mouse, the only hard part is if you want to use them while also moving. That can be dealt with most of the time by having the ones that you'll want to use on the move in places that can be used while moving.