Keymapping for BS

[Monsturr114]

Hey guys. I searched the forums briefly and didn't really find what I was hoping to. So I am just wondering, what is a good keymapping for BS. I know that it mostly depends on what you are comfortable with. But I was hoping that ppl would be willing to give me idea's. My current keymapping rely's on the fact that my mouse has so many buttons. But I know not everyone has that many button's on their mouse. So I am just curious how ppl have their keymapping set up. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Lurvi]

WASD for movement, shift for sprint, space for jump
cameracontrol default on mouse 1 and 2

combo arrows UP and RIGHT on mouse, along with empowered renewal, makes combojumping and renewal-timing a lot better.

you want to be able to sprint + move always if there is possibility for it, so put combostarters for the thumb finger (buttons: F, G, C, V, B etc. if you reach them with ease) include shift +xxx variation on all these so you don't have to release sprint.

depending on how many buttons you have on mouse, you can have combostarters on mouse too. If I had the buttons on my mouse, I would try this.

then spells making for no possibility for movement, under the fingers on WASD (buttons: tilde key, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, R, T, X, Z)
instant spells (lycan bite + rune of resilience + stone hide) I would put on the mouse so you can move in any direction while casting

buttons Q and E (and V, which is my thumb restingposition) I'd put to something you need to be very consistent on hitting without any effort, like anti CC, and blue heal, I think, for minimal delay.

personally I don't like reaching for F1, F2, F3 because I have to change the position of my palm, which is not good at all.

for potions, get some AHK script and make a button push three buttons at once, I have this on mouse 3 (scroll button, and I've been really happy about it)

just some pointers, it's impossible to tell what is best for anyone.
all that movement stuff isn't so important if you just PvE, but there are times in PvE it can be handy aswell.

writing this post I realise I need to improve my keybinds further. it's scary, but always worth it.

[Monsturr114]

Thank you very much for the reply. I will try this out and see. What you have said makes a lot of sense. Right now I am using a Razer Naga Hex. So I have the 6 buttons on the side. But it is old and trashy and I am getting a new one that wont have all the buttons on it. So I just wanted to get ideas as BS has so many buttons to micro manage. But thanks again for the ideas.

[LunaticAsylumLA]

I need to unlock my Bear Shaman to check the keybindings. :-(

[Lurvi]

combo arrows UP and RIGHT on mouse, along with empowered renewal, makes combojumping and renewal-timing a lot better.

something I forgot to specify, renewal should be bound to another finger than the combo arrows,

like on my mouse I have only 5 extra buttons, where 3 small buttons (meant to change sensitivity, lol) are over and under the scrool wheel, and 2 bigger buttons on the side for the thumb (meant for back and forth in internet browsers etc.)

so middle finger on empowered renewal, and thumb on combo arrows.

anyways, that just how I made it for me.

[Khramps]

1 - Directional
2 - Directional
3 - Directional
4 - Crush Armor 4
5 - Feral Growel
6 - Ether Theft
7 - Manifestation of Spirit

Alt + 1 - Renewal
Alt + 2 - Blood Flow
Alt + 3 - Fierce Recovery
Alt + 4 - Internal Bleed 2
Alt + 5 - Hinder Movement/ Maul
Alt + 6 - Dash
Alt + 7 - Stamina Potion

B - Rune of Resiliance
Alt + B - Rune of Resistance

V - Shrewd Blow 6
Alt + V Ferocious Smack

C - Ursine Browl 4

X - Lyconthropic Bite
Alt +X - Manifestion of Sun

Z - Steadfast Faith
F - Ursine Crush (stun)
G- Grace of Nature
T - Ursine Rush (charge)

R - Manifestion of Forest
Alt + R - Manifestaion of Winter

E - Crush Armor 3
Alt + E - CC Break

Q - Booming Roar (silence)
Alt + Q - Rune of Agression

F1 - Health potion
F2 - Mana Potion
F3 - Manifestation of Regrowth
F4 - Rune of Grounding
F5 - Adrenaline Surge


Basically for all of my toons I keep things similar. Every Knockback is on the same key, same with a stun, a fear, CC break, Combos with the same CD time (slow death strike and Internal Bleed) on the same keys. It helps. Biggest problem is forgetting the directional attacks on different toons because you've been playing 1 so much. But I can imagaine every player with multiple alts does that.

[Wheya]

I only have a cheap 10 euro logitech keyboard and a logitech mouse with two extra buttons and a mouse wheel you also can switch to left and right. Everything works fine for me. I never would use a naga mouse or similar gear. I tried a naga mouse from a friend for a few days but I am faster on my keyboard than with my thumb on the side of a naga mouse messing around with lots of keys. Those two extra keys on my cheap mouse are nice, I admit. I just don't need more.

My key mapping is very strange for others. People say it could never work for them but you asked for new ideas so here it is.

My movement keys are Q, A, Y (should be QAZ on english keyboard layout, I am german).
Q is forward which I almost exclusively use for double taps. I usually move forward with mouse.
A is strafe right.
Y(Z) is backwards.
I can not strafe left because I have no keybinding for this on all of my chars! I don't need it.

During combat most of the time my ring finger is on key 'a'. Leaves middle and forefinger free for triggering combo starter or attack 'arrows' which I mapped on '3' for middle attack and '4' for right attack. I don't need any other attack directions on my bs (I don't use the Khitai SB combo). On other chars I use 2 for attack left, w for lower attack left and e for lower attack right. On my bs I use this 3 keys for empowered renewal, big heal and steadfast faith.

I never will understand how people can use WASD and 123QE. I would break my fingers if I would try to trigger an attack direction and move at the same time with the standard layout but I know a lot of people think my way of QAY(Z) and 234we is strange.
I like the idea to move the attack directions from keyboard to mouse but with my mouse I couldn't play any other melee than BS this way. So I will keep using 234we. Worked fine this way over the last years.

With ringfinger on key 'a' as 'base position' I use surrounding keys according to how easy the are reachable for combos and abilities sorted by importance.


Now take 5 seconds and try it out yourself while reading this post:

ringfinger on A for right strafe
thumb on x for sprint
middlefinger on 3 or 4 for attack

all 3 fingers at the same time on their base position. Very comfortable. Easy sprint and strafing and hitting at same time.

forefinger free for combo starters on 5,6,r,t,z(y),f,g,h
being a musician probably helps with some finger acrobatic

On all my chars F1 is charge, F2, F3, F4 are cc's, F5 is anti cc.
Esc is blue heal on bs.

I mapped everything. Numpad- is resting, Numpad+ is searching, F11 is getting down quick from horse. ä is opening my aa screen. Just a few examples...

Sometimes I use several keys for the very same ability. Not on BS but f.e. when I played reaver barb. It helps to have some keys next to each other for fast triggering a chain of commands. f.e.: uio jkl. 6 keys for stuff like combo starter on u, 4 dps abilities like haste, dance of death... on iojk and right attack on L at the end (beside my standard layout on 4 for right attack).
The only 2 examples that come to my mind for such a 'chain of commands' on bs is activating 3 pots and I always use rune of agression and lycantrophic bite together so I have the keybindings for this actions next to each other.

After reading Lurvi's post... I don't have any problems triggering empowered renewal on key 'E' with the same finger I trigger the combo finisher '3' or '4'. I actually think it is better this way because you always be sure not to mess it up in timing. One after the other.

[Lurvi]

yeah, it works if you keep them close for the finger to reach, I used it before aswell. it just it feels so much easier to have no hindrance in the timing of it. anyways very interesting post Wheya. can't say I understand right strafe only... it should hurt your movement bigtime! but good camerawork can do wonders.

yes, it's easy to map UP and RIGHT directions to any mouse with back and forth buttons for the thumb. for SB6 I do have DOWN-RIGHT on the keyboard, which is just a matter of getting used to, like all new keybinds.

the HoX also isn't hurt too bad by having a third direction on keyboard... I just can't combojump Burn to Death while strafing left. for DT though, I have struggled to find a solution, and I have the directional arrows on the keyboard, which honestally is why I don't like to PvP on that toon after enjoying the arrows on mouse. so maybe I should try something completely different for it, or get a new mouse... I know Ensifer moved his resting-position to RDFG or something over WASD to make more keys available. It's about finger size too. Don't think I could pull off what you have going there Wheya, and I have played classical guitar quite a bit.

[LunaticAsylumLA]

I only have a cheap 10 euro logitech keyboard and a logitech mouse with two extra buttons and a mouse wheel you also can switch to left and right.

Yeah, that is the best set-up. I used left and right buttons only on my mouse. The rest is on the keyboard. Clicking is only for potions.

[Corais]

the HoX also isn't hurt too bad by having a third direction on keyboard... I just can't combojump Burn to Death while strafing left. for DT though, I have struggled to find a solution, and I have the directional arrows on the keyboard, which honestally is why I don't like to PvP on that toon after enjoying the arrows on mouse. so maybe I should try something completely different for it, or get a new mouse...

Personally i have all combo directions on Mouse3, Mouse4 and Mouse5 and then modify them with SHIFT and CTRL. The reason that works is that you can bind 2 buttons to sprint in my case shift and ctrl. Hell i could bind ALT to sprint too, i could use this as modifier as well. Then bind your combostarters correspondingly e.g. BtD VI (Mid, UL, UR): Combostarter on Shift+Q steps on Shift+MouseX. Easy to execute while sprinting and jumping. Combos with lower direction steps have to go to ctrl now since shift is spent for upper directions already. So e.g. HS V or PoIF III (LL-Mid) starters is bound to Ctrl+E and steps go to ctrl+MouseX. Again execute while sprinting. Only drawback is you have a milisecond non sprint while switching your pinky from shift to ctrl. But you get twice the slots for combostarters while running.

And wheya if you sprint with your thumb on x, then how do you jump while sprinting? Or even combo jump?