Was watching my nephew play some today and never knew people used the mouse so much. This started why not use both hands on the keyboard vs that mouser style? This is just for MMo style not FPS. My playstyle has always been two hands on keyboard with mapped keys to spells and all other things Assist key, Multi bind, buff this or that. Hit R for nearest target. Personally I think the mouser style has to have a delay to find what im trying to hit. Not saying the learning curve is friendly to the brain to recall everything mapped out. Now he has me interest in one of them fancy mice.. the 18 or something buttons. Got one for Black friday Wonder if this will improve any LoS issues I had in the past..idk. Anyhow care people share pros and cons on different styles.. wonder if there is someone playing touch screen or voice.. /cast 3 to Az eh Dont think anyone would use thumb roller ball.. maybe not And how much would what class or role defines what is best for the user? Tx for sharing
How the heck would you mem individual spells, or click things without a mouse, or cast targetted AoEs?
Atvar - I love the mouse, but there are a lot of things you can do with the keyboard. At least once a year, go through the Keys command and look at what is possible to assign a keystroke to. Did you know that you can assign a key to bring up the key ring window automatically? It can also be helpful to unassign (highlight and press escape to get rid of a key command) key commands that you don't use (like I never mess with cameras so I use all those key commands for other things). If you don't have at least 4 hotkey bars with assigned key commands, consider it. Mem spells -> /memspellset xxx in a macro Use centerscreen -> U and placing items in keyed hotkey bars lets you move away from clicking. ...but I got nothin' for the target ring aes...but hopefully someone else does. Ptah - as far as your question, when in combat, I generally stick just to the keyboard. Pretty much everything has been setup to use key commands. I only use the mouse when I need a rarely used aa or something similar. Outside of combat, I'm pretty much 50/50 since I'm usually typing in general or guild and if I try to go just by keyboard, my messages tend to get garbled. I'm not sure that helps much. I do notice my son (12 now and has played sparingly since age 6) is very mouse driven, even after trying to get him to use the keyboard more. But he only plays like 3 times a month or so.
It is generally standard practice to not use the mouse as much as possible in a lot of video games. If like I, you have 100 hotkeys made.. not really an option. It is true though that most things should be done with the keyboard.
The mouse is great for changing your viewing angle and zooming back and forth between 1st and 3rd person. I'm not sure how you always knows what's around you if you just use a keyboard. Maybe I'm missing something.. but yeah for actually casting spells, etc a mouse is pretty bad. I just use it for things that aren't used constantly.
I try to eliminate the use of the mouse as much as possible. I have two gaming mice with the buttons on the side and cant stand them. I have tried to use them but the buttons are so damn small so unless you have little fingers I don't know how anyone can use them. As far as people commenting about changing your view I have that on keys also for combat purposes. Hit one button and it pans to an overhead view so I know my sk is positioned correctly. Once positioned I can hit another button and it takes me back to my normal view. Spell casting is simple as long as you group similar spells to one keybind and have them go off in order of longest reuse time first and shortest reuse time last. Add other short use combat abilities to keybinds also and it removes the need mostly for any mouse use during combat. I mostly use my mouse when out of combat for clicking on chat boxes and such. You can even open doors without a mouse by pressing U which I did not know until recently. If you are someone who must use a mouse I would suggest using a wired mouse as they typically have less delay between mouse and computer from what I have seen. Also if you play on larger screens (I play from a 32" and 48" TV) trying to move a mouse around certainly is much slower as you have to physically move across a larger area. About the only combat things I don't have on a keybind are rare use combat clickie items but my mouse is usually hovered in this general area just in case. I started working towards ditching the mouse about 5 years ago and I can honestly say the difference is night and day. I am a firm believer in trying to remove as much mouse use as possible in a game like this.
I have been a mouse/keyboarder since EQ came out, and I played on the Zeks. This is mainly, though, for movement, as we use to "joust" in PvP back in the day, and being able to turn and maneuver was key to winning a fight. Over the years, I have learned how to do use both together pretty efficiently. Being a rogue, I do a lot of maneuvering, travelling, etc., so I still find the mouse highly useful for movement around the EQ world.
I use both the keyboard & mouse. Playing in third-person, left-click (hold) lets you move your view around. Right-click will orient you to whichever view you've landed on. I may have those backwards though, it's been a while since I've thought about it. Clicking both enables movement. Comes in handy when you're fighting a bunch of mobs in a bunch of spots - you can pan around without moving your orientation to find your next mob, then move to it quickly. Honestly, my setup has evolved over the years from add-ons that didn't really have a spot. I just made a new bar for one new thing and thought "well, I can click that every 5 minutes"... and then another gets added. And another. And the next thing I know, I have a bar that is just for clicking, and I'm too used to it to try to learn to keyboard those specific ones.
My keyboard/mouse usage for my six-box team has gotten ridiculous over the years. I use I S boxer and try to minimize the need to tab to different characters to utilize them. Between my keyboard and the ~35 buttons on my G600 I have over 50 keys bound to just hotbar buttons on the six characters. My shaman is probably the worst, from memory I've got a keys for: Malo button Multi-cast 2 spam macros Light Burns Heavy Burns Turgur's Tigir's A button for his 4 DoT's 4 buttons to target ETW #1-4 so I can specify who to hit Button to cast Union of Spirits on the tank Button to cast Ferocious Growth on the tank Button to cast Alliance on the tank Button for Horn of Unity Button for CoP clicky Anyway, my general approach is to use keyboard as much as possible, especially for basic targeting and activating abilities. The mouse is reserved for movement, UI interaction and advanced targeting.
There is absolutely no debate to be had... mouse turning and camera panning is the superior movement method. Spells/abilities/macros bound to keyboard hotkeys is the superior "action" method. Can you get by with keyboard turning and clicking abilities and the like? In a game as slow/simple as EQ...sorta. Would you see a measurable improvement in your positioning, reaction time, accuracy, performance in general if you switched to hotkeys+mouse movement? Absolutely. Just depends I guess, are you ok with sucking?
Going from quake 2 to EQ, mouse and keyboard style, you are at a disadvantage using keyboard only, as third person mouse look you have much quicker reaction to situations.
I play in first person, hate 3rd. I use mouse and keyboard at the same time. Mouse in the right hand used to change viewing angle while running fighting etc. Mouse used for hotkeys and UI buttons. If I need to see more of a 3rd person temporarily, I just use mouse scroll to move my view directly behind my character. Sometimes use mouse for selecting targets, when not having to use assist button or raid assist buttons. Mouse is set so I can hold left button down and pan and it will not spring back to level or center when I left go of button. Left hand controls movement. I use the 4 arrow keys on the keyboard for this. I do only directional movement with left hand. Looking up or panning my vision I use left mouse button. If you want to move straight left while facing something, you can do this with mouse and your arrow keys. I am a rogue, I am ambidextrous. Once you get used to using two hands at the same time doing different things, stuff happens pretty efficiently. I do not have a gaming mouse or keyboard.
My right hand never leaves the mouse, it's gotten to the point where I use one of the extra mouse buttons to open my mic and the other to target nearest npc. My left jumps all over the keyboard between the atrow keys to strafe when needed and the number keys on the left side for spam skills, with my thumb resting on G in case I need to mend quickly (or FD/fade with those bound to the keys next to it). I don't have any discs bound to a key despite the fact I should, I click everything separately.
I disagree with this strongly as far as positioning your toon. You can hotkey camera angles which is way faster than moving your hand from a keyboard to a mouse, your brain telling your shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers to do an action and not to mention the reaction time of the mouse itself. I play in first person, pull and once mobs come to camp I hit one button next to my combat keys that I hit which pans to overhead view giving me a full view of mobs around me so I can position myself if needed. I have another hotkey next to it which switches me back to first person view. My brain is only telling my finger and maybe a small amount of wrist action to perform this task. Add a hotkey for target/cycle through nearest npc and a mouse becomes irrelevant for camera angles during combat. If you understand basic human A&P and in game hotkeys you will understand that the use of a mouse is way slower than keyboard use in any fashion where the keyboard can replace the mouse.
So this morning my nephew talked me into buying a corsair scimitar pro mouse. Good god these buttons are small, 17 programmable small buttons. Feels like I will be setting up keys on the mouse that were set up on keyboard. Only 6th the size.. fat fingers eck. I will give it atleast a week. I dont think I shared im playing 100% 3rd person.. heavy extended window.. I love it. Ya i use the mouse for spell mem. Hope this is a win and not a toss against the wall like ps2 controllers.
Sure, you can move camera angles around pretty quick with the keyboard, but you can't position your toon with precision with the keyboard as quickly as you can with mouse/keyboard setup. As a rogue, however, positioning is everything. If I were a caster, standing in one spot, sure, it wouldn't matter. But I have to be on the move, have to adjust to the tank positioning the mob, have to pull at times, etc. So, using the mouse for movement and positioning is key, regardless of how many joints the signal has to go through to get it done. I usually hold both mouse keys down to move forward/turn, and use that in conjunction with A or D to strafe left/right, with S to move backwards. I hold right mouse down to quickly turn around, look around, etc. I do use hotkeys, but combine between using they keyboard and mouse-clicking, depending on which hotbar they hotkey is on. You just get use to it. And having played 20+ years in MMOs, mainly melee classes, I have gotten use to mouse/keyboard for moving around and such. Everyone has their play style
Fat fingers can be partially solved if you're willing to skip some buttons to start with until you get used to pressing them. Just assign buttons on the edges and leave some buttons that do nothing between them.
