I've done my best to group all of the
key binds by which of them is most
useful and by most useful I mean which
of them is easiest to hit while moving
because that's what determines how good
a key bind is your goal with key binds
is to make sure you are always able to
outmaneuver your opponent be that by
kiting effectively on hunter or
constantly getting behind your target on
a road or warrior so you can't be
parried now you accomplish this by
having key binds that allow you to have
your hands on the movement keys as much
as possible so obviously you want to put
your most important abilities on keys
that are closest to your hand now when
it comes to modifiers you should only be
using shift at first using shift as a
modifier allows you to effectively
double the amount of keybinds that you
have instead of just having one through
four you now have shift one through four
now don't get me wrong ctrl and alt are
great but they're hard to get used to so
start with just using shift I've been
playing since Burning Crusade and I
still only barely use control even in
arenas now I cannot stress this one
enough guys the best key binds at your
disposal are not on your keyboard at all
they are mouse button five and mouse
button for they're the easiest buttons
to hit while moving now this actually
includes shift mouse button 5 + shift
mouse button 4 because these also don't
interrupt your movement I place my most
spammed instant cast abilities like
sinister strike mortal strike or fire
blast on my mouse buttons the only time
you're gonna see me break from that is
when the ability has a cast time like
frost bolt you're never going to need to
press a movement key at the same time as
pressing frost bolt now following this
the next best key binds are going to be
scroll wheel up scroll wheel down and
again these shift modified versions and
you've probably guessed why it's because
it's easy to use them while moving this
is really what opens up the amount of
key vines that you have the one problem
with the mouse wheel though is if you
put an ability on it that you're going
to spam like sinister strike you can
give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome
very very quickly it's an excellent
place though for openers movement or set
up abilities like hunter's mark blink
cheap shot or even gouge
try to think of abilities that you need
to cast while moving but you're not
going to hit them very often that's what
you want to put on the mousewheel now
using something like shift scroll wheel
down for gouge might sound a little
crazy at first but give it a try
seriously it's way easier to use it
while moving then you would initially
think all right now we're moving on to
the actual keyboard these are buttons
that are still very easy to hit while
moving and are great for instant cast
abilities that don't fit on your mouse
but while these are the best key binds
located on your actual keyboard they
don't even come close to being as useful
as your mouse buttons now after this I
think that 2 3 4 and s are still easy to
hit
great for abilities with a low cooldown
think 30 seconds this is going to mean
stuff like finishers interrupts or CC
abilities now two in particular is very
good for abilities with a cast time
because normally the problem with two is
that while it's really easy to hit you
can't press W and two at the same time
to run forward this is because they both
use the same finger but this isn't a
problem when the ability that you put
there has a cast time after that it's
going to be G 1 X and Z still easy to
hit these but they're a bit farther away
so this is a good place for abilities
with a longer cooldown for example I
always place my ice block or bubble on
shift G it might seem weird to have one
this far down on the list but really it
isn't nearly as good of a key bind as
those in the tiers above it shift 1 in
particular can be very clunky to hit so
I tend to put my least important
offensive cooldown on shift 1 this is
the last tier of what I consider to be
usable
key binds these are good for spells you
almost never use but you still need a
key bind for them for that one time
you're gonna use them spells like scare
beasts expose armor or potions and
bandages are really good here some
people like to move over the keys es DF
instead of WASD this way they get access
to more keys but I'm not the biggest fan
of this setup because it makes it way
harder to hit the shift modifier which
you are going to be using a lot so I
don't recommend it if you're using this
guide with retail in mind and you're
wondering what should you be using in
arenas
a common setup would be one like this
you use qwe for movement and strafing
and that leaves you free to assign a s
and D to targeting arena one through
three this completely removes the
ability to keyboard turn or backpedal
which are both extremely bad in high-end
PvP this also allows you to assign
things like counter spell arena one
through three to shift a shift s and
shift D since they're no longer tied to
movement it's gonna give you a way
faster reaction time on your interrupts
but make sure you don't assign anything
to shift on the keys that you are going
to use for a movement in this case that
would be Q W and E those need to be
dedicated to only moving all right
before you go key binding anything you
need to organize your spell's on your
bars first if you notice I don't do what
a lot of other guides recommend where
they've got 1 through 5 on their bar and
then shift 1 through 5 right above it I
know this doesn't look as pretty but
there is a good reason for it
you want to keep things close together
based on what they actually do for
example all of my offensive abilities go
right here and my defensives go over
here this way whenever I'm about to die
I can look in one spot and immediately
see all of my options in general I try
to keep offensive abilities in front of
my hand defensives to the right of my
hand and set up abilities below my hand
this is just what makes the most sense
to my brain you don't have to use this
but it is a pretty good setup you've
probably also noticed that I don't use Q
and E that's because I use them for
movement look I need to be able to
keyboard turn when I'm playing with one
handle right I I mean these Doritos
aren't gonna eat themselves right it's a
really good idea though to try to think
of each key bind as being for a specific
type of ability this is gonna help a lot
when you create more than one character
for example if I keep buying scattershot
2/4 on my hunter it's also gonna be
blind to my rogue sheep on my mage or
fear on my warlock pretty simple stuff
you've probably heard that before
alright let's show an actual example
this is what I use on my rope you'll see
that all the instants are on my mouse
buttons it's really nice having backstab
here because it makes it really easy to
get behind my target the rest of my
openers cheap shot and garrote are on my
mouse wheel because I'm also using them
all moving but I don't hit
them that often so it's not going to
cause any problems for my hand all of my
finishers are on one and two offensives
are on are my interrupts always goes on
three crowd control on four defensives
on F you get the idea if you want to
keep looking you can pause the video
right here but rogues don't have that
many key binds so let's take a look at a
class with a few more spells once again
all of my instance are on the mouse
buttons mouse wheel up is Hunter's mark
which while it's not a stun it's always
the first thing I'm going to hit when I
get into a fight very similar to stuns
being the first thing you hit on a rogue
and instead of finishers all of my
abilities that have a cast time go on
one and two hunters don't have an
interrupt but keeping my feign death on
shift 3 really helps because it can work
just like an interrupt against casters
everything else here is just about
lining up abilities that function the
same as the ones on my rogue if they
don't line up perfectly I try to think
of what abilities I would use in the
same situation on both characters I want
to show one more example I haven't
started a mage yet but when I do I drink
that I mean this is probably what it's
going to look like if you're hoping to
see my setup for any of the other
classes or maybe even a class from
battle for Azeroth just ask in the
comments so I'll do my best to answer I
played almost every class in retail
except for death Knights and screw those
guys
all right now let's get into how to
actually do your key binds the first
step is going to be unkind everything
that you're not going to use there are a
lot of default key binds and while that
are very easy to hit on accident that
you need to take care of so you're gonna
start by getting rid of move and steer
on the metal mouse button it's the same
as hitting both the left and right mouse
buttons at the same time so it's
pointless to have a key bind for it I
also recommend getting rid of numpad 0
for jump
I then uncombined almost everything in
chat except for of course open chat on
enter and push talk and then in action
bar I uncombined everything that comes
after 5 and yes you unfortunately have
to do this one at a time it's really
boring and tedious I know but it's worth
it I also know it feels like you might
need some of these and you're wondering
why are we getting rid of all of them
but trust me you really don't want to
hit these on accident if you do want to
keep buying something specific in here
though such as your pet abilities or
your warrior stances with the special
action bar you can do that but often
it's better to handle this with a macro
instead and then place it on your bars
now all of the changes we're making
right now are going to be the defaults
for your entire account it's really
important that you don't hit character
specific key bindings until you're done
with at least setting up your main
character you only want to have to do
this once all right jump into targeting
and uncombined everything except for
target nearest enemy I might get some
flack for this one but seriously it's
very unlikely that you are going to use
any of these key binds all that having
them does is give you a chance to hit
them on accident and get yourself killed
now a lot of arena players in retail do
use target self and target party member
one through four usually they'll bind
this to something like scroll wheel and
the middle mouse button but if you're
playing classic which doesn't have any
arenas you don't need to worry about
this if you're one of those weirdos that
likes to toggle your health bars on and
off all the time like seriously why you
can set it something right now like zero
you can also set up a key bind for
assist target it's not super necessary
but that one is pretty useful now it's
time to set
the basic key binds that you are going
to share between all of your characters
first up is gonna be--start autorun not
toggle auto run but start auto run i
like to put this on tab but a lot of you
are gonna be using that for targeting so
use something convenient like tilde
because you are going to be using this
one a lot I'd also recommend setting a
key bind force it sheath weapon toggle
run walk and follow target I like to use
my now empty key binds between six and
zero for most of these now a lot of
players at this point would recommend
that you unkind Q&E and rekey bind
strafe to a and D now this is sound
advice because it frees up Q and E for
your abilities but don't feel like you
have to do this now I hate to make a
recommendation like this but if you're
gonna get into World of Warcraft you're
gonna need a mouse with at least two
mouse buttons you could go all out with
something like the Razer Naga which has
the 12 buttons but two buttons is more
than enough in fact having more than two
is probably worse because the buttons
are smaller but if that's what you like
it's not gonna kill you
if you don't have a mouse with extra
mouse buttons though freeing up the key
binds q e and maybe even s is very
important for you in particular because
otherwise you are not going to have
enough keys also contrary to popular
belief back peddling is pretty useful at
least in PvE when you're positioning
mobs while tanking they can paths really
weirdly if you strafe instead of
backpedaling and it's important that you
never show your back to a mob that's
hitting you or you're not going to be
able to parry their attacks
backpedaling lets you guarantee that
that never happens and it's really
useful on any character while leveling
at least if you're playing a class that
has parry if you really want to use s
for an ability though you can always sit
back pedal to a less important key bind
that's further away kind of weird though
I don't know I can't stand it
I recommend setting B to open all bags
instead of just your backpack very
convenient character pain I recommend
changing to something else because C is
a very useful key bind I like to use K
because character starts with K I also
like to keep mind Oh two friends paint
specifically because otherwise it's
going to open up to whatever tab you had
opened the last time under social which
is annoying when you're in a raid trust
me for a quick reference this is the
setup that I use for my interface the
last key bind we need to change is the
one that we're going to use for zooming
in and out mouse wheel is just way too
useful so keep it really simple here
just change these two control mouse
wheel up and down instead all right now
you're free to set up your key binds
however you'd like in action bar and
multi action bar hopefully by now you've
got a good idea of the setup that you'd
like to use I recommend just looking at
the tier list starting at the top and
making your way down putting your most
important skills in first testing those
out and seeing if you like them I like
to use the empty spots on my default
action bar for the mouse buttons and X
and then I go into multi action bar and
I use this setup whenever I start a new
character also make sure that you have
all of your action bars showing in the
settings alright you're pretty much
ready to go but here's a couple tips for
new players if you're completely new to
key binds take it slow key bind a few
spells at a time learn how to use those
and then do a couple more just start
with the ones on your mouse or the ones
closest to your hand you don't have to
do everything all at once if you're a
clicker
first off I'm proud of you acceptance is
the first step second don't worry about
forcing yourself to stop clicking right
away just set up a few key binds and
you'll be very surprised at just how
fast you start using them instead
because every time you go to click with
your mouse you're getting a visual
reminder that you could have just hit
the key bind instead choosing where to
put your key binds as a balance between
what spells do I hit most often and what
spells do I need to hit as quickly as
possible a good example I don't
recommend putting ice block on a button
that's super far away just because you
don't hit it very often
put very important long cooldown spells
on a shift modifier this makes it so
you're far less likely to waste them on
accident
I have preparation on shift V for my
rogue even though I have nothing
important key bound to V just because I
kept hitting it on accident for all the
rules I'm giving you about T binds I
break almost all of them myself if
you've got a key bind that you really
like and you're super used to it just
keep it if it makes sense to you that is
all that matters if you absolutely need
more key binds dip into using ctrl or
even alt as a modifier as well they're a
bit awkward to hit while moving but they
can be very nice for things that you're
going to hit while standing still I
would start with ctrl R ctrl F or maybe
alt one alt two and alt three you can
experiment yourself and see which key
combinations are the easiest to hit
without needing to move your hand but
those are a very good place to start you
can also keep on spacebar to use an
ability as well if you are truly
desperate alright guys I hope this video
was useful to you it took me a stupid
long time to make it and I can't believe
you made it all the way through thank
you so much for watching don't forget to
subscribe guys and if you'd like to
support me and the content I make you
can do that on patreon I'm working on
more videos right now and I really
appreciate everyone that has supported
me these last couple months oh and I'm
working on warrior macros
