Tuesday, August 7, 2012

My Hunter Keybinds


  Keybinds and macros set a foundation for executing a solid rotation, effective cooldown management, pet control, and CC usage. Without effective keybinds, abilities fall out of use. Without macros, actions become slow and cumbersome.

  I suspect most players keybinds are somewhat organic, in the sense that they add abilities as they level almost haphazardly. That can lead to very disorganized keybinds. A new expansion is a great time to reorganize keybinds purposefully. Innovating one's setup, especially after a year or more of playing one particular way, can be a daunting task, but I have occasionally made fundamental changes to my keybinds, and have found that it's like rearranging furniture, in that the new keybinds quickly become the new normal.


Rotation


  A good place to start is with your core rotation. I always put my highest priority ability on 1, so I can be sure to keep it on cooldown. I put second highest priority and/or resource dump abilities on 2, and filler abilities (typically most used) on 3. Special abilities, buffs or procced abilities I put on F1, and short term cooldowns (i.e. Synapse Springs, Bestial Wrath) on F2. I put Serpent Sting on ` since it's fire and forget nature leaves it mostly unused except at the start, and if it drops. On other characters, it's my 10 second interrupt, or some other quickly needed ability. I put Kill Shot on 4, since I want it in easy reach, Tranq Shot on 5, since it also needs to be reached easily, but not as often, and Widow Venom on 6, since it is my least used shot, but very important to have bound. Hunter's Mark is on 7 since I hardly ever have to click it in combat. Multi-Shot seems a bit isolated on T, but it's where I put Volley years ago, so it's forever been my AoE button.


Cooldowns


  Cooldowns, both defensive and offensive, follow out from the short term cooldowns along the Function keys, Stoneform on F3, Deterrence on F4, Rapid Fire on F5. My Call of the Wild and Rapid Fire macros along with my potion are in the top right corner where they are easy to click.

Movement/CC


  Movement abilities I have clustered around WASD, and on my Mousewheel (MW). My Scatter-Trap macro is on Q, which is easy to spam. Disengage is on E, so that I can easily Jump-Disengage. Master's Call is on Shift+E for either a quick getaway (usually followed by a Disengage) or a mouseover for a teammate. Silencing Shot is on R, which is where I put most spec-unique abilities. Feign Death has always been on F, and Trinket on Shift+F. Shift+3 is where I have one of my pet macros that is usually Web, but sometimes Snatch, Intimidation, or Charge. MW Up is where I put Concussive shot, so that I can use it while kiting with Jump+Shot. A second Steady/Cobra macro that puts me into Fox is on MW Down, so that I can continue firing while moving. I have my Trap array on Shift+MW Up and Down and Ctrl+ MW Up and Down. Supporting my Traps is Shift+Spacebar, which turns on Trap Launcher. Ctrl+Spacebar is my parachute, since you never know.

Pet Management


  Roar of Sacrifice and Intervene follow out from Master's Call on Shift+R and Shift+T. I've always had a plain Mend Pet on G, and my Mend Pet macro on Shift+G. Shift+1 is Move To, Shift+2 is /petattack and Dash/Dive macro, Shift+3 is pet CC, and Shift+4 is my /petpassive macro. I keep Call Pet 1-5 on Shift+Z, Shift+X, Shift+C, Ctrl+Z, and Ctrl+X. Ctrl+C is Dismiss Pet, rounding out that block of abilities.

Miscellaneous


  I have my Aspect bar on the top left, and my Pet bar on top for visual monitoring. Down the middle of my bars I have a few miscellaneous abilities I like to keep on hand. On right, there's two armor sets, my full PvP set and a PvP set mixed with 2 piece T13 and a PvE weapon. Below them are my professions, since I like having those easy to reach. On the bottom right is the Best Button Ever: a macro of /macro with a screaming bunny icon. On the bottom left is my /focus macro.

I'll put up my macros later, time to play.

2 comments:

  1. I appreciate this one. :) I've been thinking about reworking mine for months now, I even wrote a post ages ago! But it's intimidating and not tempting. However, I'd better start soon if I wanna get used to new setup before MOP. (Changing from keyboard to Razer Nostromo.)

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    1. Fancy!

      I find it easiest to empty the bars completely, then replace abilities one at a time starting with the ones that have to stay in the same place (For me, Kill Shot and Tranq have to be 4 and 5, Multi on T, Stoneform on F3, Disengage on E). Some abilities float around for a while on my bars before settling down, i.e., deterrence used to be Shift+F, then R, before I put it next to Stoneform (a real facepalm moment for me. It just makes so much sense in retrospect).

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