On average how many hotkeys does a maxed lvl character find themselves using? In videos I have seen it seems like people have so many skills binded that one would get completely lost.  

Am i just seeing this wrong or whats going on.  If someone could inform me I would much appreciate it.

 

-Thanks

Originally posted by Kerms

On average how many hotkeys does a maxed lvl character find themselves using? In videos I have seen it seems like people have so many skills binded that one would get completely lost.  

Am i just seeing this wrong or whats going on.  If someone could inform me I would much appreciate it.

 

-Thanks

Macros.

It depends on the class really.  I tend to keep my "main" skills bound to 1-5 with shift 1-5 for 10 total key bindings that I use all the time.  I hate tab targeting so my right hand is always on my mouse.  I think Rogue is the simplest when it comes to number of skills you use regularly.  Depending on your specialization you can use as little as 4 keys.  I use ` for stealth, 1 for ambush/mutilate, 2 for garrote/dispatch, 3 for distraction/envenom, 4 for slice and dice.  That's pretty much all my skills I use for Assassination rogue.  There's a few that I use in certain situations.

Never played wow, but with other games that have lotsa buttons, they usually use macros, which is just a set button that makes several skills go off at their correct times.

So instead of a hack n slash 'press X to preform combo' its

press 1 to swing

press 2 to slash

press 3 to stab

press 4 to heal

and that turns into a macro. so same thing, weird process.

Originally posted by Kerms

On average how many hotkeys does a maxed lvl character find themselves using? In videos I have seen it seems like people have so many skills binded that one would get completely lost.  

Am i just seeing this wrong or whats going on.  If someone could inform me I would much appreciate it.

 

-Thanks

It depends on the class  But most fall in the following

4-5 Abilities that you will use on almost every fight, your main rotational buttons

2-4 abilities that are short cool-downs, like 30 seconds to one minute.  Typically you can ignore these on normal everyday quest mobs, but using these correctly are what seperates the really good players from the average players in dungeons and raids.

5 abilities that are very situational, kinda ´oh crap´ buttons.  These are your defensive cooldowns and CC, mainly used only for pvp or when something goes wrong in pve.

And another few buttons that are long-term buffs ( 1hr) 

PVP probably requires the most hotkeys simple because things are so unpredictable and you might need one of those first 15 abiltiies at any time.  

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Originally posted by Kerms

On average how many hotkeys does a maxed lvl character find themselves using? In videos I have seen it seems like people have so many skills binded that one would get completely lost.  

Am i just seeing this wrong or whats going on.  If someone could inform me I would much appreciate it.

 

-Thanks

I had Q,E,R,F,G,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, Shift 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Ctrl 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, middle mouse and caps lock. Ya, it is quite ridiculous but it made me really good, especially at games that have like 10 keybinds.

I've got room for 68 keybinds + movement keys.

...not using them all though. I'd say you'll do fine with about 20-25 hotkeys, after that the rest aren't really needed.

Getting lost with many keybinds isn't really that large a problem. It's a game you play for hundreds of hours, so you can take an hour to practise each new keybind. Also, when you play multiple games you can use same keys for similar skills. Eg. Z is always my key to escape crowd control, S has always some AoE ability, N is always my potion key, etc.

30-35 as long as you have super control...

Originally posted by Kerms

On average how many hotkeys does a maxed lvl character find themselves using? In videos I have seen it seems like people have so many skills binded that one would get completely lost.  

Am i just seeing this wrong or whats going on.  If someone could inform me I would much appreciate it.

 

-Thanks

 One. Macros and plugins do the rest.

lol on my ret/holy pally i have so many keybinds that there's only 6-7 empty hotbars, reason for me buying a razer naga xD.

Heres a SS from last night, I use all these skills regularly and have another  "stance bar" that is hidden unless i am in stealth and contains only abilitys that are useable while in stealth.

I always use default keys in all of my mmo's. I don't use macros either.

mid-cata I used 27 keybinds. but a great majority were very rare, circumstantial abilities.

 

I was a tank so things like 'hand of freedom' and 'hand of salvation' i very rarely needed but still needed quick access to.

 

effectively i'd tank with about 10-12. rest were circumstantial.

 

edit: standard UI and only targetting macros were used. nothing fancy.

I don't use macros.  I have a gamepad with 25+ buttons easily in reach of my fingers.  I keybind every ability I use in every MMO.  Oldschool?  Probably.  Hardcore challenge in a world of easy MMOs?  Definitely.