How you can become a Gladiator: Keybindings Part I

If you follow all the steps in my guide and your rating does not go up I will personally log on your account and get you 2500 rating.

Every spell you ever use in arena should be keybound. Do not click anything!

Using keybindings in PvP is like knowing how to ride a bicycle in Tour de France. It’s something that everyone does and if you don’t you look like an idiot. As Iain Banks put it, "One hundred idiots make idiotic plans and carry them out. All but one justly fail. The hundredth idiot, whose plan succeeded through pure luck, is immediately convinced he's a genius." What happens in World of Warcraft is that we can not fail; everyone succeeds in some way (welfare PvP epics come because we pay the monthly fee). So everyone is convinced that what they do is right and there is something else holding them back. This is why key bindings are the most difficult thing to convince people to use, because people are unwilling to change the way they’ve been playing for the last few years.

What is a keybinding?

A keybinding is a shortcut exclusively pressed by your left hand on the keyboard to make your character do something, fast. People that are left handed might need to figure things out themselves.

The point of a good keybinding is that you reflexively and very quickly are able to accomplish an action. No one is a special flower that does not need to use keybindings.

In this guide I will assume everyone uses the WASD setup to move their character.

This is how you should position your fingers.


The keybindings you should keep are: Tab, 1 2 3 4 5 W S and [Space]. Everything else will be changed. This guide is focused on people who haven’t used keybindings before.

Keybind focus target.

First, one must rebind strafing. Strafing makes your character move in one direction (left or right).

To change keybindings, you press the Esc key, click on Key Bindings in the menu that appears in the middle of the screen, and scroll down through the various different abilities. The function of the ability is described on the left side, and the two boxes in line with the description are the two possible keybindings. To assign a new keybinding you click on the left box and press the keybinding you wish to assign. Click Okay after you’re done changing things.

Keybindings do not stop you from being able to type in chat.

Locate strafe right and left. The default keybinds should be Q and E. Rebind those to A and D. The point of this is to make sure you never keyboard turn and free up valuable space.

The next task the most daunting task you will ever have to do if you do not use keybindings. You will have to assign a keybinding to every one of your abilities that you will ever use in combat (And many that you should have been using). And you will stop clicking on things and learn to control your character only with one hand.

The purpose of good keybindings is that they are instantaneously accessible.

There are two ways to go about getting keybindings, and this depends on whether you use the default action bar interface or not. I recommend everyone gets a mod like Bartender3, which is a custom action bar mod.

The first thing you want to do is take every spell off your action bar. The next thing you want to do is to think about which abilities you will need to use the most. Literally, every ability you’ve ever used in the middle of combat (And some that you should have been using but you never have) should be keybound.

Keybind your PvP trinket.

I would suggest to keybind all abilities you have. The only things you don’t have to keybind are things like mage portals. You will have around 20-30 abilities keybound. You might think you do not have enough space on your keyboard but there is.

Here are the available buttons, Green squares are buttons you can keybind normally and blue circles are a combination with shift.


Now, all you have to do is physically go to the keybind screen and keybind your abilities. You should keybind things that are very clutch (Like kick, intercept, earthshock) to easily accessible keys. Practice with your rest position with your hand. Spells you cast often should be keybound somewhere easy so you’re not cramping your hand.

Every player that was not using keybinds was about 200 rating lower then he could have been were he using keybinds.

To make you learn your keybindings download a mod like Bartender3 and hide the bars. I have my bars hidden and only show important cooldowns. If you hide your bars you will have no other way to play other then with keybindings.

Specific tips: Keybind abilities with similar functions close by. For example, if you’re a warlock and you keybound fear to F, keybind Howl of Terror to Shift + F. Keybind abilities you use in succession to rows of keys: For example as a warlock you might keybind Corruption, Siphon, Agony and Immolate to Z X C and V, or ` 1 2 3. If you hit the wrong spell by accident you will still do something good.

Remember that your mouse is the best tool for camera control and turning. Healers, remember that targeting your party can be done via keybinds (Default is the F keys). Make sure to unbind shift + scroll wheel from switching around your action bars. Cleansers make sure to remember to bind character specific cleanse macros.

Table of contents
I: Introduction
II: Know your character
III: Keybinds Part I
IV: Paying attention
V: Communicating
VI: Morale
VII: Class specifics