Tips/Hints at how best to play RDM

[skyidot]

The best advice I can give is to start in Palace of the Dead at level 1, unbinding everything and rebinding it on the HUD where you feel fit. Jumping into a class with the majority of the abilities unlocked is just overwhelming. Especially jumping from a tank.

[Phaerius]

I think the issue that I have is that my mouse I use only has two side buttons currently and I've preset one of them to Auto-Run instead of R. So what I need is a better mouse with more side buttons? :P

I only have two side buttons. *shrug*

[Rongway]

The best advice I can give is to start in Palace of the Dead at level 1, unbinding everything and rebinding it on the HUD where you feel fit. Jumping into a class with the majority of the abilities unlocked is just overwhelming. Especially jumping from a tank.

I must respectfully disagree with this advice. Learning a rotation a few buttons at a time will promote development of habits that fit an incomplete action set, rather than a complete panoply.



Some general tips:
Corps-a-corps, Displacement, and Surecast should be near your Sprint button, as they are all movement-related abilities.

Veraero, Verstone, and Verholy are all white spells, and should be the same key, with different modifiers.
Verthunder, Verfire, and Verflare are all black spells, and should be the same key, with different modifiers.
Modifiers should apply to spells by purpose: Verstone/Verfire (the Verfastspells), Veraero/Verthunder (the Verslowspells), and Verholy/Verflare (the Verfinishers).
Ex... 3:Verstone; 4:Verfire; a3:Veraero; a4:Verthunder; s3:Verholy; s4:Verflare.

Jolt and Impact should be the key before or after your white and black spells, and should have modifiers that match Jolt with the Verfastspells, and Impact with the Verslowspells. Arguments could be made for the reverse.

If you happen to play with a mouse, you might find it helpful to macro mouseovers for Vercure, Verraise, and party-related role abilities to things like middleClick:Vercure, a.sh.MiddleClick:Verraise, sh.MiddleClick:ManaShift.


Sample bars (you'll need to make some modifications to accommodate a three bar setup)

[Fortune_Cookie]

Some general tips:
Corps-a-corps, Displacement, and Surecast should be near your Sprint button, as they are all movement-related abilities.

Veraero, Verstone, and Verholy are all white spells, and should be the same key, with different modifiers.
Verthunder, Verfire, and Verflare are all black spells, and should be the same key, with different modifiers.
Modifiers should apply to spells by purpose: Verstone/Verfire (the Verfastspells), Veraero/Verthunder (the Verslowspells), and Verholy/Verflare (the Verfinishers).
Ex... 3:Verstone; 4:Verfire; a3:Veraero; a4:Verthunder; s3:Verholy; s4:Verflare.

Jolt and Impact should be the key before or after your white and black spells, and should have modifiers that match Jolt with the Verfastspells, and Impact with the Verslowspells. Arguments could be made for the reverse.

Agree that you should build your keybinds around a complete action set. RDM is simple enough as it is.

I wouldn't be quite so prescriptive about keybinds however. Everyone has their own preferences, depending on what peripherals they use, reach of their fingers etc.

A couple of more general suggestions:

- Your weaponskills will only ever be used in sequence; reflect that in your binds.
- RDM has great mobility and the dualcast feature promotes stutter stepping to reposition in anticipation of mechanics. Make sure Veraero, Verthunder and your oGCDs are bound in a way that doesn't interfere with controlling movement. (If you have an mmo mouse, that could be a good place.)
- On that note, you'll be weaving oGCDs after your instants: consider finger movement across the keyboard. The sequence of Jolt -> Veraero/thunder -> Fleche -> Impact (for ex) ideally shouldn't take your fingers to China and back.

As for the HuD, same principles as for all other jobs: track what you need to know near the centre of the screen. Banish everything you don't need in combat to the sides.

FWIW here's my levelling HuD for RDM.