The targeting discussion in the "How is EJ doing in Naxx" thread got me thinking about how inefficient my current setup is for my Belkin N52 gamepad. Specifically relating to all the alt+ and shift+ functions.

When I first started playing my rogue I wasn't very serious about it, and specifically limited my key binds to thinks I used regularly in 5 mans - so the 15 (or so) keys were fine for me. Now that I PvP on occasion, and raid a few days a week, there is quite a bit more functionality I'd like to eek out of my investment.

Has anyone come up with creative applications for their N52's? The easiest way, I believe, to derive more benefit from it would be to change my movement keys from the directional pad, back to a WASD configuration (and use the directionals as alt+ and shift+, etc), but I literally have over 100 days /played using it the way I'd initially set it up.

Alternatively, if you guys think this is a better question for UI & Macro's, I'll run off in that direction.

you could do what i do...shift WASD to ESDF

This gives you q , w, r, t, y, a ,g, h, and 1-6 to keybind in a fairly comfortable position.

also for heavy melee, i suggest a double handed approach. using your "wasd" as movement, and the keypad bound to the numbers as the dpsin hand. Helps switch things up to take the stress off your left hand.

i actually found that the single biggest change to my effectiveness in terms of bindings, etc, was getting an 8 button logitech gaming mouse. i use wasd movement, and i'm able to bind lots of time-sensitive abilities to my mouse so i can keep more things on the easily accessible numbers on my action bars. i can easily reach 1-6, and have abilities bound to q, e, z, v, and `, along with alt-# and mouse buttons. there are pretty much zero abilities i use regularly (that i need to use in a timely fashion) that aren't bound to one of these keys.

I use DAB with 4 rows of 10 keys each.

I have from left to right 1 2 3 4 r f v c x z (which if you notice, is roughly a semi-circle with WASD at the center)

and from first row to last: no modifier, alt, ctrl, shift

I have DAB switch pages corresponding to different categories (eg: hunter switching to page 2 when closer than autoshot, and page 1 when autoshot is usable).

I find this strikes a good balance between ease of remembering and ease of use. There are naturally easier kay presses than others, but I tend to use them for the common abilities. This has the side benefit of working on all of the keyboards I come across, since I've played WOW on about 5-6 different keyboards.

My mouse is a microsoft 5 button mouse, of which I only use left and right, and the middle mouse button as my PTT vent key.

I play with two hands on the keyboard 90% of the time, binding actions to the numpad (0123456789/.) and meta-numpad, with cooldowns on the keys accessible to my left hand (movement on qweasd). Vent is on ~, with private binds (class, raidlead, people I like to annoy) on the arrow keys.

Yeah, it's not ideal for PvP, but I really don't PvP a ton.

I always hit my goddamn Windows key. Time to pry that sucker out.

I also tried using the ESDF movement keys and while very nice for going from movement to typing, it put a pretty big strain on my hand especially since I use shift a lot.

Out of curiousity, is there a way to have a mouse button act as a shift key? E.g., binding a key to mouse4 + 1.

Some good advice in here already. For reference, the mouse I use is the logitech mx1000:
http://images.gfx.no/16/16793/mx1000.jpg

Which, while it looks like you could get away with binding a lot of its' buttons, only 3 function in WoW. I guess the others are "windows only" functions. And yes, I've tried using logitechs' software, eliminating the windows binds, then going into my WoW interface > key binds to see what they are... they don't work :(

Two changes that I think I'll make this evening are bind my mouse scroll wheel 'button' as PTT (used to be stealth, but I have a mashable stealth macro now), and changing one of the working buttons on the mouse to either shift or alt to give me access to (maybe): bombs, pots, mount, 'get naked' itemrack, health pots/tubers/self bandage - basically all the secondary stuff which I currently need to click.

I'll probably figure it all out for the rogue, try to apply it to my warlock and have to redo everything though.

You can bind buttons 1-5 in WoW, and for the rest you can bind to keys in the mouse software. I have every button and wheel tilt do something in WoW.

So true!
I cant believe why so many people stick to the WASD configuration when ESDF is clearly superior.

i think it would be far too hard for me to retrain my muscle memory to hit different keys at this point. adding/changing a hotkey here and there is one thing, but completely remapping all of my buttons after over a year and a half is like learning a new language. :-P

Its hard at start of course. But I believe its better to suffer a week or so of pressing the wrong keys than to endure the rest of your life(!!) with an inferior keyset :>

Well, to be honest, I only spent about 10 minutes bouncing between the logitech software, and the game key binds to see if the game recognized all the keys on the mouse. Seeing as how you got it to work, I'll go DL and RTFM tonight to see if I can get it to work. Thanks for lettin me know it *can* work though.

The thing that immediately comes to mind is the mouse wheel tilt left or right being shift / alt.

It doesnt appear that many others use the Belkin/Nostromo N52 though, huh? I honestly figured quite a few people would be commenting on that.

That is true i suppose but I have never been a fan of having to use shift and control to acess more keys.
My setup comes from Quake where you needed to hit all weaponkeys fast but there was never any real need to use quite as many keys as you have to in wow.

you have to bind the mouse keys in the software to normal keyboard buttons, and then hotkey those buttons directly.

RDFG, all heals on the mouse ( logitech mx500 ), the rest around RDFG

my hands are weird though

i cannot fathom effectively moving without using my mouse. maybe it's because i'm a hunter, but keyboard turning feels so awkward and alien to me.

and yeah, i use a lot of shifting and ctrl-# keys. even alt-# seems like it would be harder from esdf because you have to move your thumb more to hit it.

I use a program called Logigamer to rebind some of the mouse buttons to key strokes, like one button (just under my scroll wheel) I bound to H, which is my Overpower/mocking blow button or my Purge button depending on character.

The reason I like Logigamer more than just changing the buttons is that you can make profiles and easily switch between them also can you can tweak some sensitivity things if you want to incorporate that with the profile. Pretty nice tool for FPS'rs too.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/7a67/

36 keys within 2 rows of WASD with a perfect vent key (and a key to lock it "on") as well as a spacebar that your thumb naturally hovers over.
Both the wife and I love ours.

Wow that is really a very cool keyboard. :) If I didn't have a laptop I might try it out.

I use a Microsoft Strategic Commander. Nicest controller I've ever had. You put your left hand on it. 4x6=24 main buttons at your fingertips plus movement control like a mouse. Too bad they don't make them anymore but you can find them in bargain bins these days. I think Logitech makes an updated version of it but its ugly as hell.

Sorry to rebump this one, but I was wondering if anyone (specifically other hunters) had experimented with a controller i.e. like an xbox control pad type affair?

With 8 easy to reach buttons and 2 trigger buttons which I was hoping to map to alt & shift, that gives you 24 actions easily within reach.

A little mod action to auto shift combat bars depending on range, and I would think that would let me operate pretty well in a raid environment, and would also make kiting things quite literally 100 times easier.

If you do go with the XBox controller, I believe there was a mod specifically designed for that setup a patch or two ago. I know certain functionality (having to do with including movement in a macro or somesuch, it was the same patch as the spellstopcasting needing a hardware event) was taken out that made it smoother, so you'd have to check into it.

I recommend DAB heavily for range-based bars. There's a sectino for Bar Control, and I have IsActionUsable(Auto-Shot); change to page 1, otherwise change to page 2. It's very simple.