This lesson will define hotkeys and go over those most commonly used in PvP. Some hotkeys such as Arm/Disarm and Dress will be discussed in more detail in other lessons. Hotkey: A key on your keyboard, mouse, or gaming peripheral that you can bind to memory to perform a specific action or macro by pressing specified key. There is no right or wrong order to set your keyboard or mouse up with when it comes to setting hotkeys. The most important thing is to make sure they are easily accessible and that you can memorize their location and hit them without looking! You will want to avoid setting up popular hotkeys to combinations that require you to hold Alt of Ctrl while hitting another key. The best setup is the simplest. Common General Hotkeys: These are the most common things hotkeyed other than spells by PvPers that are not template specific. Again, it doesn't matter what hotkey you bind them to, just so long as they are easily accessible and you can memorize their location and hit them without looking. Drink Strength Potion Drink Agility Potion Drink Heal Potion Drink Cure Potion Drink Refresh Potion Activate Explosion Potion (I don't suggest drinking this one) Last Target Target Self Clear Target Que All Names Resynchronize Client Toggle War/Peace Warrior Specific Hotkeys: These are additional hotkeys that warriors will use. Arm/Disarm Left Hand Arm/Disarm Right Hand Dress Undress Bandage Self Use Bandage Tank Mage Specific Hotkeys: These are additional hotkeys that tank mages will use. Arm/Disarm Left Hand Arm/Disarm Right Hand Dress Pure Mage Specific Hotkeys: These are additional hotkeys that pure mages will use. Toggle Stun (if applicable) Dress -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Magic Spells Magery consists of 64 spells at your disposal. Not all spells will be used in PvP so not all spells need to be hotkeyed. Some spells will be used but not frequently enough to need to hotkey, the icon can be dragged from the spellbook to the client screen for ease of access when needed. The following spells are the most common spells hotkeyed, feel free to customize your list. 1st Circle Clumsy Feeblemind Weaken Heal Magic Arrow 2nd Circle Agility Cunning Strength Cure Harm 3rd Circle Fireball Poison Teleport 4th Circle Greater Heal Lightning Recall 5th Circle Mind Blast Paralyze 6th Circle Dispel Energy Bolt Explosion 7th Circle Flame Strike Meteor Swarm 8th Circle None Spells that are good to have on your client desktop but not necessary to have hotkeyed are as follows: Reactive Armor Magic Trap Protection Bless Magic Lock Wall of Stone Arch Protection Dispel Field Magic Reflection Invisibility Reveal Energy Field Gate Travel Resurrection -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ProTips: Use the KISS method for setting hotkeys (Keep It Simple Stupid). try to avoid using any Alt + Key or Ctrl + Key hotkeys but if you run out of room then set things to those hotkeys that don't get used very often. When in combat and a thousand things are going on and your mind is trying to process it all in and make a split second decision, you don't need to be looking away from your screen to hit a hotkey. Use the F1-F12 Keys as your primary hotkeys. This will avoid you casting spells while typing and it is easy to find the right key without looking since they are sectioned in 3 groups of 4 keys. Running out of room to set hotkeys? Think about upgrading. Here are 3 items that I use to play UO with that allow me to have more keys at my disposal than I have a need for. the more hotkeys you can easily access, the better your chances are at success. While it is not necessary to have, the right tool for the job makes things so much easier. http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-keyboards-keypads/razer-nostromo http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g700s-rechargable-wireless-gaming-mouse http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g510s-lcd-gaming-keyboard When it comes to setting Last Target and Target Self hotkeys I suggest using the mousewheel. The method I prefer to use is MouseWheel Up for Last Target and MouseWheel Down for Target Self. In my mind it's like casting the spell either towards me or away from me and that makes it easy for me to remember. Group your Hotkeys in an order that makes sense to you. This means you may want to put common combo spells like Explosion / Energy Bolt side by side (i.e. F5=Explosion, F6=Energy Bolt) or put all your debuffs in a row. Once Again I cannot reiterate the importance that it does not matter what keys you use for hotkeys or what order you prefer them. That is totally up to each individual. But you must be able to memorize them and hit them without looking at the keyboard. Practice, practice, practice, practice, and when you've gotten good at being able to hit the correct hotkey without looking at it practice some more. You need it to become second nature to you so that you can hit the right hotkey without even thinking about it. In the heat of battle you will need all the brain cells you've got to think tactically, don't be trying to remember what key is what. When you have that "Oops" moment of hitting the wrong spell, that's when the screen gets dark.
Great idea for a guide (maybe move to the Guides forum?). I would disagree however with the two items above. I use the ALT key heavily - in fact, probably more hotkeys use it than don't. On my laptop keyboard, I keep my left hand thumb resting on the ALT key, which does two things... one is it allows me to easily access that key for hotkeys. More importantly though, it "anchors" my hand in place, so I don't have to move it very much to hit other keys. That's the reason that I don't like using the F keys, too. Your hand cannot cover F1 through F12 without moving. So you're often going to be looking at the keyboard or sliding your hand across to hit some keys, which makes you prone to errors. My hotkeys only use F1 through F5, numbers 1 through 6, QWERT, ASDFG, ZXCV, and only use the ALT key if any. I have a handful of non-combat hotkeys that use CTRL+ALT, but these are things I'll never need quick reactions for.
That may be the most unorthodox macro setup I've seen but then again let me refer to this... It it works for you, rock it!
Instead of having binds all over your alt keys, consider using the enable/disable hotkeys toggle with Razor. I use shift backspace for that. Then, I have my hotkeys all over... last target is mouse wheel up. target self is mouse wheel down 1 - drink heal shift 1 - drink refresh 2 - drink cure q - apply bandage a - mini heal/cure self shift a - heal/cure self r - toggle stun d - explosion s - energy bolt you see where im going!
Would that allow you to bind macros to Q, W, E, etc., hit the toggle, then press them to type without triggering the macros?
Clear Target que clears the target you've selected All names shows all of the names of players on your screen when ya press the hot key Resynchronize client is to resync your character in game. Sometimes it goes out of whack and you get stuck not being able to travel a certain direction. Press the key and it will resymc allowing you to be able to move freely any direction again Toggle war/peace is like pressing tab to go into war mode
