Dr. Rekisu or: How I Learned to Start Strafing and Walk with QWES

11:28 PM - Fodder: prayer of healing is bound to D T_T
11:29 PM - redbeanpork: how do you move without wasd?
11:29 PM - Fodder: i move with qwes
11:29 PM - redbeanpork: YOU'RE SO WEIRD
11:29 PM - Fodder: i only have left and right strafe
11:29 PM - Fodder: and forward and backward

The last time I played WoW (as in, the time before now), was during Mists of Pandaria, and the number of spells I had on my characters at that point was pretty ridiculous. I could probably have been a bit more efficient if I used a few of them more often, but I just really couldn't be bothered because I had run out of keybinds. MrMan5.5 and Olek both kept talking about how they rebound left and right turn, because they just needed strafe, and only dirty keyboard turners use the keyboard to turn (for the non-WoW players, keyboard turning is incredibly slow compared to mouse-turning). My argument was that sometimes I need to click on someone to heal, and I don't have time to turn with my mouse - so I had WASD for movement and turning, and Q and E for strafing. I think that was a fairly weak argument, so in the end, I caved and rebound my keys.

EXCEPT, I found out yesterday that I did it wrong. MrMan5.5 insists that what he said was that I should rebind A and D to left and right strafe, respectively, but what I heard was that I should rebind A and D to spells, giving myself an additional 4 keybinds (A, D shift+A, shift+D). So ever since then, I have been using QWES to move.

However, I've been thinking about it, and I feel justified in my accidental rebinding. See the evidence below (finally, a use for the customisable coloured lights on my keyboard):

This is my current keybind setup. 1234 are my most commonly used spells, with 5 being a somewhat common spell (it's a bit of a reach for me). QWES are for movement. A and D are for my next most commonly used spells. RTY are for my long cooldown spells. FG are for my rarely used, but will need to use quickly if I do need to use them spells (e.g. silence, leap of faith), ZXC are my mostly PvP long cooldown spells (WotF and trinket).

As you can see, this is where my hand would sit when using QWES for movement. I can comfortably move forward and strafe left and right, and my most commonly used keys (1234) are close, and my next most commonly pressed keys (AD) are also close.

However, when I have WASD, assuming A and D would now be Q and E, I am further away from my most commonly pressed keys (1234).

That, and the fact that playing DotA means I'm starting to get used to a resting position of QWER, so moving with QWES doesn't feel all that weird anymore. Plus - it took me weeks to get used to walking with QWES, and I only did it because Olek and MrMan5.5 kept saying it was what everyone did (or at least that's what I thought they said - but it seems that I may have misheard). I don't care how silly it looks, it's what I'm comfortable with now so I'm sticking with it!