New to keyboard - set up tips?

[Huskell]

I would suggest to first change the keybinds, the one I use go like this:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, E, R, F, G, X, (`)

The (`) KB is good to use for stances.

I use 3 bars for skills and items, one uses ctrl and the other uses shift. One important note is that I keep a second stance in ctrl + ` and chocobo/run (macro) in shift + `.

The normal bar I use for active skills, the ctrl bar I use for dependent skills, combos or CDs, and the shift bar I use for pots, and misc. The shift bar is shared.

There's also several bars to the side, 2 of them is to change GS, the other I use for macros, the macro one have alt keybinds for it. These are shared.

The important thing to do is trying to make all your classes look similar and also the second bar. For example, on warrior I use 4 to overpower, and use ctrl + 4 to Holmgang (similar skills, and Holmgang is dependent of wrath, so it's at the ctrl bar), same thing with AOEs, DOTs... Everything has a place, and I try to keep a pattern between every class. For example, for me: 1, 2 and 3 are main combos or skills. 4 and R are AOEs. 5 is a stun or disable, etc...

[Rongway]

On all my tanks, all my the abilities can fit onto a 4x6 arrangement plus the six keys typically used for text navigation. 1-6 and alt1-alt6 are attacks/GCDs, while sh1-sh6 and altsh1-altsh6 are cooldowns and dots (if applicable). On the text navigation keys, I have INS-TemperedWill, DEL-Sprint(justincase), HM-Cover, PU-SwordOath, PD-ShieldOath.

Xenosan suggested Legacy movement; I concur. If you find yourself having any movement or camera related issues at all, the solution 99% of the time is to set Legacy on. I also like to have the arrow keys mapped to move forward/back/left/right. W/S are move forward/back, A/D turn camera, Q/E move left/right. Take care that you know the difference between move left/right and stafe left/right; strafing will cause you to back pedal and move left/right won't.

I use 3 bars for skills and items, one uses ctrl and the other uses shift

I would recommend using CTRL only if doing two handed chords. If there's a mouse involved, CTRL is a bad idea as it is not in a good spot for single handed chording via thumb cross under or pinky movement.



With two handed chording, the position is left thumb on alt, right thumb on ctrl or shift, left fingers on arrow keys ready to reach for the text nav cluster.

[Huskell]

I would recommend using CTRL only if doing two handed chords.

Thanks, but I like this KB, I'm used to it since I use this for nearly all MMOs I have played in the recent decade. I also use mouse to move most of the time, so it won't get in the way.

[White_Devil]

for my classes, I like to set it up so first row is attacks that lead to combos, then binds or dots and whatever else I can fit (ranged/aggro if tank)
Second row has CDs and stances
Third row is whatever else couldn't fit and fourth is for PVP

It would also help if you bound the third row to shift, like second row being default ctrl

[Rongway]

Let's call the difficulty of pressing a key lg(D/W + 1) where D is the distance of your finger from the target key and W is the size of the target key (Fitts's Law).

So if we're talking strictly about a one handed keyboard setup, CTRL is not a good modifier because

• if you use your thumb, it's a difficult key to hit because you have to cross under your entire palm, which will have the side effect of moving your index finger away from 4-5-6, making them harder to hit as well.
• if you use your pinky, shift is closer to resting position and larger than ctrl, and will be easier to press. With shift, the remaining fingers will not have to reach as far to hit their assigned keys.

If we allow a two handed setup, the right hand over the arrow keys places the thumb over right control for PTT; index finger on shift and in range of left arrow, ins, del; and pinky on num0 for quick interaction with mechanical objects. Having movement bound to both QWES and arrow keys will mean that if one hand is busy doing complex chords and scales, the other hand will quickly be able to execute dodges.

A bit of chord complexity isn't something to avoid if it reduces the distance your fingers need to move. alt-shift-3 is easier to hit than 7 any day, especially when those three keys just happen to be the resting positions for the three fingers involved.



Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post...set your two Face Target binds to something simple for each hand, like [`] and [\] so you can keep your target in front of you without having to wait for the GCD.