User:Wrin/Keybinds

Overview

This page is dedicated to providing a list of standardized MMO Keybinds for use in Guild Wars 2. While keybinds can be a very personal choice based on your periphials, your reach, and your personal needs, starting from a more standardized layout and tweaking it to your preference is the best method to find your ideal keybinds. The layouts below are proven to be effective over a wide audience and keep usability and ergonomics in mind.

Each layout described below lists the required equipment to use it. In some cases, modifiers are used, but no-modifier setups are also included.

Using Standardized Layouts

The goals of using standardized keybind layouts are as follows:

• Reach critical keybinds quickly and comfortably.
• Create an ergonomic approach to ensure minimal wrist and tendon strain.
• Create an easy-to-memorize keybind pattern to reduce cognitive load.

While you may be fine playing using your personal keybinds, swapping over to a standardized setup will be better for your health and gameplay in the long term.

It typically takes the average player 5-15 hours of gameplay to fully incorporate a new set of keybinds. You will not see success in your first few hours of gameplay; this doesn't mean the keybinds will not work for you, it just takes time to retrain muscle memory.

One method of practice is to open notepad and slowly hit your keybinds starting from your "home" position (In this case, Home is WASD or ESDF, depending on the setup). Do this slowly at first and increase speed incrementally until you can hit all listed keybinds very comfortably. Once you've accomplished this, take them in-game and fight easy enemies until you become comfortable enough to defeat them without effort. You can continue this trend all the way into harder content.

A Note From the Author

These keybinds are meant for you to apply small tweaks to them to fit personal taste and needs. Use these as a standard starter and make SMALL adjustments as needed. For example, I use a layout very similar to the Shift Standard layout below, but I do have my Heal skill bound to Caps Lock and I use Shift + R as a secondary bind for Profession Skill 5, as my 5 key is sometimes hard to reach.

Also, these keybinds assume a standard QWERTY keyboard layout. If yours is different, consult the Keybind Visualizer below instead of referencing the wiki tables.

MMO Mice

MMO mice are mice that feature several "side buttons". These can be popular choices for gamers to make keybinds easier, but I personally do not recommend them. There is currently a lack of studies regarding the ergonomics of MMO mice, though there is growing suspicion that they may be much worse for wrist health than typical "standard" gaming mice. Guild Wars 2 functions fully with only 29 keys bound, which includes tab, space, and movement keys. This is significantly less than many other MMOs, such as World of Warcraft which requires upwards of 50 keys bound for most classes.

Mouse Weight

Mouse weight is something to consider when choosing a good mouse, and there is some evidence that lighter mice are better for wrist health. Ultimately, your mouse weight is a highly subjective decision, but it is strongly recommended to use a mouse on the lighter side, which can be difficult to find in an MMO mouse.

Skill Clicking

Skill Clicking involves using the mouse cursor to click-to-activate skills on your hotbar. This is a relatively common strategy in games like Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, which both feature many long-cooldown, infrequently-used abilities. Due to the much faster speed of combat and the lack of long-cooldown, infrequent-use abilities in Guild Wars 2, it is never recommended to click skills. Doing so will result in slower rotations, poor cooldown management, and a more troubled experience than simply learning basic keybinds.

Modifiers

A modifier key can often be used to turn one key into two keybinds. For example, a player might have <1> as <Weapon Skill 1> and <Shift+1> as <Profession Skill 1>. These are a very useful tool to help eliminate issues with reach and are commonly used in MMO Keybind Layouts. However, they have several myths and misunderstandings surrounding them that must be addressed:

1. Modifiers are slower than no-modifier.

This is a common misunderstanding that holds a shred of truth. Pressing Shift + 1 on your keyboard is indeed slower than pressing just 1; this can be measured and holds true at all levels of play. However, this can be mitigated fully by binding the modifier key to a side button on a mouse. The vast majority of mice come with an M4 and M5 button and those are typically able to be rebound. When done in this way, the speed of Modifier vs No Modifier is identical.

2. Modifiers are harder to play than no-modifiers

This is generally incorrect, but with a caveat. Non-modifier layouts typically require exceptional reach, which can be a severe limitation in some cases or outright impossible in others. Modifiers shift this physical difficulty to a cognitive difficulty; rather than needing to reach, a player now needs to memorize which modifier does what. This can create an especially high difficulty floor if using multiple-modifier setups, such as an alt-shift-control setup. There are many mnemonic devices (functional assignment) and visual tricks (hotbar arrangement) to mitigate the extra cognitive load of multi-modifier setups, but it is a fact that mutli-modifier setups are more difficult to learn than no-modifier or single-modifier setups. However, Guild Wars 2 requires very few binds, and it is recommended to only use one modifier.

There is no difference in cognitive difficulty between a single-modifier setup and a no-modifier setup once one has passed beyond the small initial learning curve that all change brings. Muscle memory is a core component of developing skill in games, and should be exercised here as well.

Movement and Positions

Certain keybinds, like "Y", may require a user to change the way they move on the keyboard. For example, WASD rest position typically looks like this:

• W: Middle Finger
• A: Ring Finger
• D: Index Finger
• S: Clear

This is referred to as the "Home" Position in WASD layouts. Your fingers should generally rest here, providing quick access to movement and local keybinds such as Q, E, etc. From this position, you reach with certain fingers to hit specific buttons. For instance, Ring Finger to 1 or 2, Index Finger to 3, 4, or 5, Middle Finger to X, and so on. The goal is to always have at least one or two fingers available for movement, and these are generally the first three fingers.

However, far-reaching keybinds such as Y may demand different positions. For example, a user that wants to quickly tap Y can fully remove their hand from the home position and tap Y, using Mouse 1 + Mouse 2 to control their character. If practiced and done with enough speed, this movement may take as little as 0.1 seconds, making the risk of being caught with no or poor movement low.

Another option in this situation is to change positions. Rather than completely losing character movement, controlling movement with the Pinky and Ring Finger can ensure that the user can still respond to critical movement prompts, such as AOEs. In this example, the user would shift from the Home Position to Pinky on A and Ring Finger on E, with the Index Finger hitting Y.

There are many positions such as this, and learning them will be the key to success in certain keybind layouts. Position swapping is especially prevalent in keybind layouts that do not use modifiers or an MMO mouse. For this reason, if you struggle learning new keyboard positions, it may be a good idea to use a modifier layout such as Shift Standard below, or to use an MMO mouse.

A Note on Function Keys

Function Keys (F1+) are included as part of Guild Wars 2's default keybinds. It is perfectly acceptable to continue to use these; however, their distance from the home position on most keyboards is drastic enough to make them considerably more difficult to use than simply hitting more local keys. They are not included in most layouts, however they make excellent keybinds for Mounts or Menus.

Keybind Visualizer

This is a simple google docs spreadsheet that allows you to better visualize your keybinds. Wrin's Guild Wars 2 Keybind Visualizer

Layout: Standard

• Special Equipment Needed: None
• Modifiers Used: None

This layout is a very basic, standard MMO layout that works universally across most MMOs and does very well in Guild Wars 2. The Standard layout includes no modifiers and a simplified system for Profession Skill binds on the bottom row. The Standard binds are generally easy to hit, though hitting binds such as Y or B may require the user to learn new positions and include extra practice in order to hit binds such as Special Action or Profession 5. Profession 6 and 7 are included, but are rarely used.

Function	Bind
Weapon Swap	~
Weapon Skill 1	1
Weapon Skill 2	2
Weapon Skill 3	3
Weapon Skill 4	4
Weapon Skill 5	5
Heal Skill	Q
Utility Skill 1	E
Utility Skill 2	R
Utility Skill 3	T
Elite Skill	G
Profession Skill 1	Z
Profession Skill 2	X
Profession Skill 3	C
Profession Skill 4	V
Profession Skill 5	B
Profession Skill 6	N*
Profession Skill 7	M*
Dodge	M3
Special Action Key	Y
Interact	F
Inventory	Alt
Priority Secondary	Caps Lock
Cycle Target	Tab

• Note - N and M can be very hard to reach, however these profession skills are not typically used in most situations. If you find yourself using these profession skills a lot, consider moving these keybinds to something more comfortable, such as Alt and Control or Function Keys.
• Note - Caps Lock is an ideal bind for keybinds with critical importance but infrequent use, due to its ease of access via the pinky finger. This makes it a great secondary bind for Heal or even Weapon Swap. However, as a consequence, you will have to manage your caps when typing, which can be frustrating. It was not included as a default bind for this reason.

Layout: Shift Standard

• Special Equipment Needed: A mouse with at least one side button (M4 and/or M5)
• Modifiers Used: Shift or Control, bound to Mouse 4 or Mouse 5.

This layout offers a standardized layout that utilizes a shift modifier bound to a side-oriented mouse button, ensuring that it is easy to reach. It offers the advantage of condensing critical binds into a more local configuration, reducing the need to reach to further buttons such as T or B.

Function	Bind
Weapon Swap	~
Weapon Skill 1	1
Weapon Skill 2	2
Weapon Skill 3	3
Weapon Skill 4	4
Weapon Skill 5	5
Heal Skill	Shift + Q
Utility Skill 1	Q
Utility Skill 2	E
Utility Skill 3	R
Elite Skill	Shift + E
Profession Skill 1	Shift + 1
Profession Skill 2	Shift + 2
Profession Skill 3	Shift + 3
Profession Skill 4	Shift + 4
Profession Skill 5	Shift + 5
Profession Skill 6	V
Profession Skill 7	Shift + V
Dodge	M3 OR M5
Special Action Key	Z
Interact	F
Inventory	G
Priority Secondary	Caps Lock
Cycle Target	Tab

Layout: Adjusted Default

• Special Equipment Needed: None
• Modifiers Used: None

This layout keeps binds very close to the base or default option, including using the default F-Keys as profession skill binds. While this can be a poor layout for some, for many people this layout his highly functional and makes learning the binds simple.

Function	Bind
Weapon Swap	~
Weapon Skill 1	1
Weapon Skill 2	2
Weapon Skill 3	3
Weapon Skill 4	4
Weapon Skill 5	5
Heal Skill	Q
Utility Skill 1	E
Utility Skill 2	R
Utility Skill 3	X
Elite Skill	C
Profession Skill 1	F1
Profession Skill 2	F2
Profession Skill 3	F3
Profession Skill 4	F4
Profession Skill 5	F5
Profession Skill 6	F6
Profession Skill 7	F7
Dodge	M3 OR M5
Special Action Key	Z
Interact	F
Inventory	G
Priority Secondary	Caps Lock, T, V
Cycle Target	Tab

Layout: ESDF

• Special Equipment Needed: None
• Modifiers Used: None

The ESDF layout is a unique approach to binds that frees up many binds on the left side of the hand for use. It does this by moving our default movement skills from WASD to ESDF - a configuration that is functionally similar. This includes the benefit of the "F" Home Key (note the ridge on your F key) becoming an index anchor, allowing easier navigation of the keyboard. In addition, five new binds are created with this method, though some standard binds become more inaccessible. This is a bit of an advanced layout, but one that offers unique benefits over other possible layouts.

Function	Bind
Weapon Swap	CAPS LOCK OR 1
Weapon Skill 1	2
Weapon Skill 2	3
Weapon Skill 3	4
Weapon Skill 4	5
Weapon Skill 5	6
Heal Skill	Q
Utility Skill 1	W
Utility Skill 2	R
Utility Skill 3	T
Elite Skill	A
Profession Skill 1	Z
Profession Skill 2	X
Profession Skill 3	C
Profession Skill 4	V
Profession Skill 5	B
Profession Skill 6	N
Profession Skill 7	M
Dodge	M3 OR M5
Special Action Key	1 OR ~
Interact	G
Inventory	H
Priority Secondary
Cycle Target	Tab

Upcoming Changes

This guide is still incomplete. More layouts will be added soon, which can be found in the Keybind Visualizer.