An issue with keybindings

I imagine a lot of people that use keyboard have their abilities on the first hotbar bound to 1-=, the second hotbar ALT or CNTL 1-= and the third hotbar ALT or CNTRL 1-=, that in itself is fine.

However, for awhile now I could not figure out why I would occasionally keep dropping tank stance in the middle of a dungeon with predictable results... until today!

See I have a 10 button mouse, and I have some of the side buttons on the mouse bound to 1-6 from keyboard. My primary attack skills are bound to 1-5, my rampart is bound to alt-4 and my tank stance was bound to alt-1. Basically I can trigger attack skills with the mouse and abilities with the keyboard using my left hand.

However, rarely I would hit Alt-4 to turn on Rampart (or some other alt skill) and by chance hit 1 on the mouse to attack at the same time. In that fraction of a second where the alt key was being pressed I would accidently turn off tank stance too!

I have since moved tank stance way down the bar to Alt-0 so this doesn't happen again, but I thought it an amusing enough story to share and maybe help some of you who were triggering abilities by accident without understanding why.

Quote:

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I imagine a lot of people that use keyboard have their abilities on the first hotbar bound to 1-=

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Not me. Sure, I use the number buttons and with mods, but not for core buttons.

(Hotbar)
SHIFT+A
SHIFT+S
SHIFT+D
SHIFT+F
SHIFT+G
SHIFT+H
CTRL+A
CTRL+S
CTRL+D
Z
X
R

(Other Hotbar)
SHIFT+Q
SHIFT+W
SHIFT+E
SHIFT+R
SHIFT+T
CTRL+Q
CTRL+W
CTRL+E
G
C
V
T

(Side Hotbars)
(1-4 - No MOD) for utility buttons: like Sprint, Tank Mitigation, etc. Buttons you don't press as much as rotation buttons but you want easy access to on the fly.
(1-4 + SHIFT) for other important cooldowns you aren't spamming but press frequently enough that you want them nice and accessible.
(1-4 + CTRL) for Pet or Trust controls -- basically, buttons I won't be pressing overmuch but want easy access to. CTRL is a pinky button - much more awkward than SHIFT.

Aside from ALT+W (my Limit Break bind), I avoid the ALT key. It's easy to press with the thumb and you have easy access to it, but don't press it enough to warrant a more comfortable keybind.

This is to be expected in such a situation. Most macroing software doesn't register something like say "ctrl+1" as a singular instantaneous input but as the modifier then the key-value input, since the modifier is actually setting a state which needs to be in place for the alternate version of the "1" or whatever key-value to register as such. If you then hit another key at the same time as the macroed key, like say "3" at the same time, you can occasionally confuse the software by interrupting the modifier macro with the other keypress resulting in the software registering the modifier and the other key as the intended input. For example, press a key macroed with "ctrl+1" at the same time as the "3" key, you may just end up with "ctrl+3" being registered.
If you use such macros pretty extensively, the only way to truly avoid this potentially happening is to try to not mash multiple buttons at the same time.