Rebinding

You know, I really thought, this was the time. That things were different now. Certainly, it is the longest / closest to release I’ve ever gotten without even a shred of interest in returning. Until the past week or so, there wasn’t even a shred of doubt in my mind about whether I would be playing at launch or not. I wasn’t. The cajoling and inquiring was to no effect. My heart was stone and my mind made up.

Right up until… Well; it wasn’t.

I couldn’t tell you what exactly flipped the switch for me. I think rather than a moment of epiphany that perhaps I wouldn’t mind being back again after all, it was the slow growth of a seed planted in over fertile soil.

Whatever the case may be, I am going to main Monk Mistweaver for Dragonflight.

… Probably …

Mistweaving doesn’t seem to be an amazing place right now. Sort of OK for raiding but the bottom of the pile for Mythic+. Sure, tuning can and will continue to happen up to and even beyond launch, but it certainly isn’t a particularly auspicious start. Worse, Evoker — which I’m sure will be inescapable as everyone everywhere plays one — has joined the same tier token as Monk¹.

What I do know, is I’ll be healing. I went Mage for Showlands, as a rather conscious effort to get me to do something different. Maining DPS for raid was certainly that, as I’ve played either Tank or Heals in main raids for… forever, really. Last time I even had a serious alt-raid DPS ‘main’ was back in Wrath, the first time it rolled around. But I’ve done that now, and have the itch to heal again. Our raid has a Pally and an Evoker already on the healing roster, so I’m counting those two as out. The main contender in my thinking right now is going back to Resto Druid. They’re in a strong spot, as they so often are, and create a nice bridge in healer capability between the other two.

But… I’ve done Druid a lot. I have over 100 days of /played time… And… This isn’t even my original druid. And the Mistweaver playstyle seems fun!

Although picking up and playing Mistweaver has forced my hand into something I haven’t done in years: Substantially update my keybinds!

With the new talent system, and various abilities previously from the various Borrowed Powers, in combination with previously spec-aligned skills being open to use, there are a lot more useful keys to find a spot that you’re probably going to want easy access to.

My Previous Keybinds

Near the end of Burning Crusade, I shifted my movement keybinds to ESDF. Still the classic WASD format, just shifted to the right one position.

The reason for this was access to more keys, with my main high-demand abilities being bound to AQWRTG and Shift+AQWRTG.

Alongside those, I had my basic attacks on Mousewheel-Up/Down and my movement ability on Mouse3 (Middle Click).

And… That was mostly it. I had cleanse/decurse type abilities on Mouse4 and Discord Push-to-Talk on Mouse5. In theory numbers 2-6 also worked, but I almost never used them. Outside of 4-5, it was often more convenient to just click them. But given I typically only had long cooldowns here on these it didn’t matter too much.

My New Keybinds

So almost everything said above is still the case, but I added on a bunch more.

Joining the previous binds, I’ve added:

• Shift+Mousewheel-Up/Down — These binds expand my attack range of binds out further, necessary for Monk which gets a not insignificant amount of healing through use of melee abilities. My Chi-ji spirit bind is possibly a bit out of place there, but in the current talent build, I’ve taken the option to have it on a 1-minute cooldown and thematically it associates to the other Mousewheel attacks. Also of note: Shift+Mousewheel used to be my camera zoom, but I’ve changed that now to Alt+MW.
• Mouse4, Mouse5 and Shift+Mouse3, 4 and 5 — I tend not to use push-to-talk anymore, usually open mic and the mute as/when needed, so this frees up one of my side buttons. Why I didn’t have Shift-Mouse3 previously though… I don’t know. And also I’m still going to need to find a place for Cleanse/Decurse. It’s reasonably likely I’ll end up putting it back on M5 and then shifting my interrupt/stun abilities accordingly. TBC though.
• Ctrl+AQWRTG — Some of these (e.g., Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Q) are somewhat awkward to hit rapidly, at least so far. I’m sure they’ll become more natural with time, but even so, they’re certainly not binds you want to use for things you’re going to use frequently. I have various cooldowns or lesser-used abilities up here, but nonetheless ones I’d still prefer not to click.
• H, M — Health and Mana accordingly. It’s going to take me a loooong time to stop accidentally hitting ‘M’ for Map though. so keeping potions off these keys until I’ve trained myself out of that a little more. Hah.

I haven’t set Ctrl+MouseWheel/Mouse3, 4, 5 as yet. But I may yet do so, perhaps to solve the lack of a home for Decurse. Plus! I’m going to want to bind combat buff potions, and on-use trinkets. (Although I have my current on-use trinket on Ctrl-G at the moment).

It was my monk which drove me to create the additional binds, but they’ve proven equally useful for my other characters too, e.g.:

Given these are mostly extensions of what I already had, they already feel quite natural to use. But… I do hope we don’t end up with too many more abilities. Haha. Not really sure where else I’ll go after these (and the Ctrl-Mouse options)!

Oh.. Shift-Space is something I hear is used by some. I haven’t really found a good natural fit for it yet though. Feels like it should be some form of Oh-Shi! button though. Hmm.

Inform: (As this post mentions or talks about an Activision Blizzard product, or the company)

While I have chosen to break my self-imposed exile from Activision-Blizzard titles, I still feel it important to acknowledge the troubled status of the company, so you can make your own decision.

Activision Blizzard has become subject to multiple sexual-harassment lawsuits. Of note, in particular, is that it has been alleged that Bobby Kotick (current CEO) has not only been aware of, but also attempted to suppress word of, such incidents — even going so far as to intervene to keep a perpetrator hired with the company.

Even so, support for a long-term boycott was never clear cut, even amongst those affected.

1. And Rogue, and Warrior.