Posted by iTZKooPA on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 - 16 Comments
Tags: effective playing, healing discussion, keybindings, optimizing your skills, priest healing, spell rotations
I’ve been playing my priest a lot more often these days. No matter which spec she’s in, I use far more keys, far more frequently, than on my rogue. Solidsamm doesn’t go much farther than 6 on the keyboard, with ctrl+1-6 and Q and E joining the fun during certain situations. Sagart , either in healing spec or DPS spec, is equipped with more rotational spells than her rogue counterpart, and just as many situational skills.
Due to the switch in playtime I’ve taken a hard look at my keyboard layout in an attempt to optimize my left hand’s ability to handle everything Solidsagart should be throwing out. Solidsagart has remapped Q and E (strafing is now A+D, the former turning keys) to handy spells just like Solidsamm. She’s also followed his example with the upper main bar, linking them to 1-0 with ctrl as the modifier. Shift 1-= (handles 12 things total) has turned in to the right pair of bars, something Solidsamm rarely ventures too, and Autobar provides her with a collection of collapsible bars right above the main bars, which also happens to be directly below her on-screen avatar.
I’ll continue to refine her layout as I participate in more heroic healing roles, but I would love input from seasoned healers (her DPS spec is currently fairly optimized). Meaning, what should I make sure I have quick and easy access to, and which spells are more situational? Allow me to answer the obvious question - I’m using the cookie cutter Holy raid (AoE) healer build.
I feel that Solidsamm’s layout is incredibly fine-tuned, enabling me to pull off ~5k DPS in gear that averages an ilvl of a pitiful 207. If you feel like you could be producing more and have already asked others for help with spell rotation, spec and macros, then a look at your keyboard should be next on your list. Heck, for many people, switching between mouse-clicking and keyboard-clicking is a giant leap in effectiveness. A highly optimized keyboard layout will only help that much more.
I’ve been able to use a pretty basic keyboard throughout my DPSing career, but I’m thinking the lack of a left-handed overload may hamper my healing abilities. Do most healers out there do it with a basic keyboard, or are you rocking a G15 with a G9 in the right?
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By groingrabber on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
seventeeeenth!
By Cloudbearer on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Most healers are using Clique! And they’re not using they’re keyboards at all…
By Rooster on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
My discipline priest uses healbot
By ellandi on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
grid and clique are most of what i use as a resto shaman,
i assume a priest or druid uses more keybinds then i do,
my standard pve keys are 1-4 and A and D and R
rest is on a standard 5 button mouse…
macros sometimes are key as well…
By Rogue4Life on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
say, what kind of rotation are you running with Solidsamm? I finally picked up some new daggers, but it doesn’t seem to be doing near what my combat swords was pulling off. The daggers are much better then the swords so I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong.
any pointers would be appreciative. guess I have been stuck with swords for so long the daggers seem foreign. I really want to put them to use, but won’t if I can’t get them to match my sword spec. I am using a 51/13/7 build fairly cookie cutter as I understand.
Thanks!
By Dan on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
On my healer I use Healbot for the simple spells: Flash heal, renew, greater heal, cure disease, mass disspell and targetting.
I use my keyboard for Prayer of healing, prayer of mending, and circle of healing, plus the situational spells Hymm of Hope and that other one I can’t seem to remember off the top of my head right now.
When I am dpsing, I only use the 1-7 keys……..that’s all I need.
On the other hand I have a ton more mapped on my hunters bar, especially when using my pvp spec/ set up.
By mirlotus on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
shadow priest FTW!!!
By Fabrizi on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
i’m a holy palidin, and to draw an aproximate comparison, using healbot seems to be nearly the same for us and priests. although priests can do more about healing groups.
By Azurienatei on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 5:26 pm
As shammy healer, I use Decursive. But I’ve thought of switching. I also use an ordinary, standard issue keyboard, making the need to click on any buttons other than 1, 2, and 3 (the odds drop totems, the 2 button is my Chain Heal) very inconvenient.
By Pegraath on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Healbot, a G15 (though unused on my healer). Though I have picked up Grid (yet to use it in anger) to have a look.
Autobar rocks big time.
By Conxcore on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
As a main spec healer for over a year now I’ve tried about every possible setup whether it be bindings, UI, you name it.
No matter what I do I always seem revert to the old school method of KeyPress+FrameClick
Don’t ask why, I don’t know either. It’s just what I’m comfortable with. And I always perform best with the default UI. I just can’t seem to take the time to get used to something I haven’t looked at almost everyday for the past 3 years haha!
By Alayea on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
The only healing addon I use is Grid, nothing else. No macro, no spells bound to a key… I just use the numbers for the spells on the action bar and the mouse for everything else.
By Raethos on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
No tips for healing, but I will add that I’ve never been able to get used to keybinding. I click every spell with the mouse, and I’m proud of it!
By Phanttas on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 am
I’ve also fairly recently got my priest to 80. I use Healbot, thinking might change to grid/clique see which I prefer, but I then bind keys to certain situation spells.
The ones I think of off the top of my head:- Wand, fade, Desperate prayer, Hymn of hope, Hymn of mending, shadow fiend.
Most other spells (in a raid environment at least) can be clicked. Raid buffs, food, flasks etc. Shadow spells or fear and stuff probably need to be bound for PvP, but I don’t do much so don’t really know.
By Josh(the Original one) on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I am rocking the g9 and i have a better logitech keyboard than that
By Noric on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I heal with both a Holy Paladin and a Holy Priest. I also use Healbot for both. I find it more efficient than keybindings though I have healed that way in the past, or when Healbot is crashing due to an update.