Mouse and keyboard or controller and which kind of skill set up/bar etc?

[Kraniel]

I've never tried to use the controller so i can't say for sure, but i've heard it's actually quite good.

As for KBM, i have a "classic" gaming mouse with only 2 thumb buttons, so nothing too crazy. I use one thumb button to target, and the other to focus the target.

I have 3 hotbars with the following bindings :
1 2 3 4 5 q e r f c
With CTRL : 1 2 3 4 q e r f c
With ALT : 1 2 3 4 q e r f c
With LSHIFT : q e r f

Although i have to admit the game sometimes makes me wish i had a mouse with 10 thumb buttons, at least this setup allows me to move + use actions at the same time (once your muscle memory has worked out all your keybinds, it gets natural and you hit them automatically).
Try to keep things logical for your brain as well. For example, i know i use Swiftcast + Raise a lot as a healer, so i bound them to ALT+R and ALT+E, which allowed me to remember this specific combination pretty fast.

So yeah, if unlike me you have a super high-tech mouse, i would recommend using it to its fullest, because depending on the class you will have a ton of skills to manage when you're 80.
Also, don't use keybindings for stuff that you don't need in fights (like mounts, or buffs that are activated only once at the beginning of a dungeon).

Other players will probably have better advice to give, but i hope at least this gave you a bit of information to work with

[ScottDoom]

I have 3 hotbars with the following bindings :
1 2 3 4 5 q e r f c
With CTRL : 1 2 3 4 q e r f c
With ALT : 1 2 3 4 q e r f c
With MAJ : q e r f

Thanks for sharing this. Having hotbar keys assigned to the letters around W A S D makes sense. I am over here struggling to reach 7-9, especially with Ctrl.

I have two questions on your set up:
1. What is MAJ?
2. How do you quickly avoid AOEs without the use of Q / E as side-strafing?

[Kraniel]

Thanks for sharing this. Having hotbar keys assigned to the letters around W A S D makes sense. I am over here struggling to reach 7-9, especially with Ctrl.

I have two questions on your set up:
1. What is MAJ?
2. How do you quickly avoid AOEs without the use of Q / E as side-strafing?

Ah, my bad, it's the old french habit (MAJ means SHIFT in french, i edited my previous post). So what i'm actually using is the LSHIFT key (right on top of CTRL).

When you're walking/running, you can turn around by facing the direction of your choice with the camera (mouse), so i simply decided to rebind left/right strafing to A and D.

Unless you play only on the keyboard like kaynide, or use mouse click to move, i would definitely not recommend using anything above 5. I know it can take some getting used to, but once you have found your bindings, you'll be pretty much set for all your classes. After that it's just a matter of muscle memory.

[kaynide]

2. How do you quickly avoid AOEs without the use of Q / E as side-strafing?

I learned this the hard way at Brayflox (tanking the dragon), where my keys only allowed attacking OR moving.. after that, I learned that binding keys to the numpad allows my left hand to stay in WADS and the right hand on numpad to use abilities. With that setup I make it so I never “lock” on mobs, so I can just run out whatever direction.