What is best method to use key shortcuts for combat bar?

I have been trying to figure out how to use my number pad instead of using the other number keys for my hot keys. And i am not sure what everyone is talking about stacking. No clue or idea how to do that. I am so lost. I am just now figuring out how to build decks. LOL

 

Stacking as referred to above is when you use a random deck build, and you have more than one of the same glyph pop up. You can drag and drop those onto each other or press the R key (default) then press the glyph hot keys to stack them. ( For instance you have a skill that appears on hotkey 1, 3, 4, 8 you can either drag 8 to 4, then 4 to 3, then 3 to 1 and have a single use powered up version of your skill. (or press R 8,4 R 4,1) then by pressing hotkey 1 you will fire off said ability. This is also how you combo abilities that are acceptable combos.

 

I use Trust GTX166 mouse which has got 12 buttons on left side. Basically I have several spells set into the first five positions and I use the second five positions to supply spells to stack to the left group of five. I also have glyphs in the right group of five sorted out in queues per positions. Then I have a profile set on the mouse so that a button has got a macro assigned in the way after pressing the button a glyph on the corresponding position is automatically stacked on the appropriate position in the left group of five. I have one button on the mouse mapped to 'R' key so that I can cancel the stacking operation when it is not able to get finished (I press a wrong button, target glyph is thrown away while I'm activating the macro, ...). I have also five of side buttons of the mouse set to use spells set to left group of five.
It allows me swiftly to stack glyphs for more effective use of preferably used spells and to use them. I can still combine it with mouse right click use or manually click on a glyph as well.
It has pros and cons but so far I'm quite happy with it.

 

I tried various ways to handle this with my mouse (the absolutely gorgeous Roccat Nyth with configurable side buttons) but found it too inaccurate, mostly because I use a lot of mouselook when moving, especially in combat (also my fingertip grip does not really support such intensive sidebutton usage). My mouse side buttons are quite wonderful for other, less hectic situations. But not for combat.

My current setup:
The WASD+QE keys are used as usual for moving, and the R key for combining glyphs, as usual.

I have mapped eight glyphs to keys 1, 2, 3, z, x, c, v, b. I could in theory use the '4' and '5' keys as well, but I prefer having a couple of locked glyphs, and 4,5 are the most unwieldy of the bunch, so they are not used. I use mouse buttons for the fixed glyphs instead, because I want to commit glyph combining to muscle memory: if the keyboard had a mixture of locked and unlocked glyphs, it would complicate things and therefore make such learning harder.

The original mappings of z, x, c, v, b are mapped elsewhere or simply put behind CTRL- key combination. Actually I have put a lot of non-urgent things behind CTRL, because it minimizes accidental keypresses and is really not that unwieldy once it becomes a habit.

My mouse has mappings for moving back and forth with mouselook. In combat I use both mouse and WASD+QE for moving, often in combination. I have tried to train myself to never use the mouse for combat glyphs.

It works pretty well. I can both use and combine the glyphs in a relaxed way with just one hand, without having to look at the keyboard or even thinking about it too much.

What does not work so well is discarding the glyphs: using those #@$&##!! key combinations forces your fingers off the WASD keys, that is so unwieldy, error-prone and annoying that I have given up trying to do that, at all. I would much rather have a dedicated activation key for it as well, just like the 'R' key is used now for combining glyphs.

A shameless plug: In the R27 feedback forum there is a thread with a few suggestions to improve some aspects of the combat bar, including the ease of discarding the glyphs with keyboard. I'd appreciate commenting and liking it to improve dev visibility

 

Status report:

I've been using the Razer Chroma gamepad for over a week now, and I find it less easy to use than my regular keyboard. I'm sure I could optimize the key mapping, but the main problem I have is that my hand is too small for the smallest setting. I can't reach the top row of keys without completely removing my hand from the basic position, then I fumble to get my hand back in place. I realize that I will be able to do this more adeptly with practice, but on my keyboard the stretch isn't as far, so if I became more adept with the keyboard, it would be less of a strain than the gamepad is. It would really be worth using anyway if the double-click functionality would work.

I am not giving up yet - perhaps a static deck with only 4 mapped spells would work for me...

 

Well I'm sorry to hear your not thrilled, at this point, with the game pad you got. They are great tools, but they do have to be close to fitting your hands...you with the petite little fingers.

Maybe a mouse with the side buttons might be better for smaller hands. I tried one with my big ole fat fingers, and they were too small, my 10 year old grandson now uses it. You can get a really cheap one on ebay or amazon and if it works for ya, then you could get an american made prime piece of equipment to replace it.

As to key mapping, mine has changed a number of times...I use the G13, keys are setup kinda like this:

1.....2.....3.....4......5.....6......7
8....9....10....11....12....13....14
.....15....16...17.....18...19
............20...21.....22
.....................................x Joystick
...........................................xx

from the bottom up
xx is arm wep
x is teamspeak
joystick is used in combat
I play with the first 5 glyphs locked

for my Axer
Key-----------Battle Bar or action
20 ...............sets off 1 (str of earth) then 5 (inner str) (thought about setting this on a timer to refire they keys)
21 ................is auto shot on and off
22 ...............is tab to locate enemy
15 and 19 ....are Jump
16 ...............sets off 2 which is heal
17 ...............sets off 3 which is obsidian arrow (my pull)
18 ..............sets off 4 which is Root

(This part needs to get better)
8 and 14...... are "R" to combine glyphs
9-13 are .......5 rotating bludgeon glyphs

And 90% of this is different if I'm using my archer

Hope this gives you a few ideas.

 

I would agree with this, but with quite a few reservations:

How using the mouse side buttons works in practice (in combat) depends a lot on the way mouse is generally used. A couple of guidelines based on my own experiences:

• The grip matters a lot: If you use a palm grip, yes, perhaps you might consider using the gazillion side buttons approach in combat. If you use a claw grip, perhaps not, but maybe worth a try. If you use a "true" fingertip grip, just forget it.
• Do you use mouselook for moving in combat? Then forget the claw grip as well. If using a palm grip, as above but with some additional reservations.

To my knowledge, the Nyth is the only MMO mouse currently on the market that has had the sense to rethink the "one size fits all" approach, by making the side buttons totally removable and configurable. Therefore it is also the only MMO mouse that I personally could even consider using, because a lot of fixed buttons on the side rules out the fingertip grip in most cases. The Nyth would have room for 12 side buttons but I have put in only six, and placed them optimally for my hand. I love it, and hope that the competitors take note, because an MMO mouse is not such a bad idea once the buttons are fully configurable, not only in software but also physically.

So MMO mouses are not equal at all, therefore I have doubts about the approach of trying it out with a cheaper mouse, it might possibly give a misleading impression.

 

Map the thumb button for movement(ASDW) and your xperience/control will improve. You can control your character with just one finger in combination with mouse.

 

I use a steam controller, and while my setup is constantly in the refinement process, I can play the game with it just fine. The only things I can't do efficiently are:

-Targeting, but this is an artifact of the cycle target button function just not working well, no fault of the controller.
-Inventory Management (which, honestly, the inventory UI is pretty awful. I should be able to double-click to equip).
-Manage skills, but this is due to the arrows next to skills being very, very tiny.
-Type (this doesn't bother me 'cause I don't talk to people anyway).

Actual combat, exploring, looting, interacting with world objects, and so forth function just fine.

 

Kara, try putting the same glyph in 1-2 (the most common), then another glyph in 3-4, and so on (not locked). So long as you don't use too many glyphs (I do not) and have enough of the glyphs that you do use then the thumb mouse button for comboing and stacking is easy and you get used to knowing where everything else is for muscle memory.

 

I will try to make a deck organized like that (the one I am using now is not working very well). How do I use the thumb mouse button for comboing and stacking?

 

Has or does anyone use a Zboard keyboard. Mine is a Merc zboard. Was wondering if it is gonna be compatable to use in Sota.

 

You just re-map the combo button from the R key to right mouse button in controls.

 

I think your best option would be to use some form of a shift so that you can use the same keys for multiple things. For example, you press WASD to move and other keys around those for targeting, etc, but if you are holding down the right mouse button those keys do something else. You could also make some of your slots exclusive to one glypgh to greatly reduce the number of key combinations that you need. If slot 1 can only be spell x, than all stacking of spell x can start with hotkey 1.

Also, I like game pads, but for anyone using Windows that doesn't mind investing a little bit of time on research, autohotkey is a great free resource. It's a very simple language that is designed with this sort of thing in mind, and with it you can map keys and make simple scripts in seconds.