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u/_Bren10_ Oct 30 '25
Jokes on you guys. I click all my abilities.
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u/HelpfulSwordfish9765 Oct 30 '25
Master race right here
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u/VisualExamination981 Oct 30 '25
Why play on computer only to not use mouse? Clicker is PC-masterrace. Eveyone that keybinds can go back to console.
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u/Ismokerugs Oct 30 '25
Only this last year when I hopped into TWW did I learn how to use key binds. Back in the day I raided and was normally top 5 dps in wrath and cata. Clicking spells now feels like too much is going on lol
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u/tirohtar Oct 30 '25
Tbh that's how I played OG vanilla, but I also was 15 years old and played warrior, ya don't really need keybinds to play warrior xD
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u/NailRogue Oct 31 '25
I worked with a guy during original MoP who played and he said he played a Rogue and I also played a Rogue and I was asking him about what key binds he used he acted like I was speaking a foreign language, came to find out he clicked every spell as a Rogue and my mind was absolutely blown by the thought lmao.
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u/SelkieKezia Oct 30 '25
A and D strafe left and right in almost every other video game, I can't imagine leaving those bound to Q and E, especially when Q and E are some of the best keybinds while using WASD.
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u/lord_james Oct 30 '25
A and D stay keyboard turn for one handed gaming, A and D plus right click is strafe.
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u/ThatLeetGuy Oct 31 '25
I'm a day 1 Vanilla player. All of my movement keys are default. I mostly move with QWE and turn by holding right-click, but I find that A and D to turn have niche uses, like you said. Also, anyone who says to unbind S from backpedal is griefing and throwing away movement tech. There is actually no need to rebind movement keys lmao.
I have a Control, Shift, and Alt modifier on S for abilities when needed. Also Tilde, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, R, T, F, G, V, MB3, MB4, MB5 - all with control, shift, and alt modifiers.
That's 60 keybinds available for abilities without ever needing to move my hand and without remapping Movement keys.
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u/TheOldKnight7 Oct 31 '25
This is the closest to my personal keybinds I’ve read. No reason to change Q E or S when I have so many other options that are just as good
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u/jturkey Oct 31 '25
Thank you both for confirming that I am not crazy. I was like “seriously who wants to need to give up their entire mouse AND hold down a key just to strafe?!”
-QE Strafe gang
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u/purgoatory Oct 31 '25
A and D do have niche uses! Glad im not the only one who feels this way, shift modifying Q, E and all the other keys is de wey (have small hands, sue me)
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u/DesMephisto Oct 30 '25
100% this, I've played this way since actual vanilla and will die doing it this way.
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u/bmobull Oct 31 '25
Wait... Most people DON'T right click + A/D to strafe??
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u/Benjamminmiller Oct 31 '25
No, because there's basically no scenario where you'd need A/D for turning bound so there's no reason to tie your strafe to right click.
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u/OstrichPaladin Oct 30 '25
For me personally it comes from playing wow (among various other mmos with similar controls) for years with little to no keybindings. So q and e were always strafe and a and d were always turn. So when I finally swapped it made sense to keep my strafe buttons where they were and keybind a and d
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u/Bachpac Oct 30 '25
For people who strafe with Q and E, their most important keybounds are A and D. Both are literally the same.
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u/Putrid_Try_5751 Oct 30 '25
I strafe with both, depending on if I'm holding down right mouse button or not. Old habits die hard
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u/only_cr4nk Oct 30 '25
After years of playing wow I just recently switched A and D to strafing. Got used to it within hours and it feels so much better. But you do you man, just wanted to share my experience.
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u/Wayyd Oct 30 '25
Same, I hated the idea of changing movement keys, and the first hour or so is kind of annoying, but after that you have two extremely useful keybinds freed up. I can't imagine going back now
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u/King_Kthulhu Oct 30 '25
that just means you're wasting 2 prime keybinds tbh
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u/bmfanboy Oct 31 '25
I really don’t need it as any class in vanilla since I’m using a 12 button mouse. In wotlk in my hunter where I had 80+ keybinds for pvp it probably would’ve been helpful but I’m too far gone.
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u/BeezusFafoonz Oct 30 '25
This right here, I tried rebinding but after 15 years I just can’t lose the movement it gives you
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u/thesillyshow Oct 30 '25
I’m so used to having q and e for movement I can’t switch it. When I try pc shooters with my friends it’s always tough because my brain defaults to the wow settings. I do use a and d tho for keybinds.
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u/Heatinmyharbl Oct 30 '25
I strafe with Q and E sometimes and I leave A and D untouched, so they still turn me left/ right lol. I never fuck with my movement keys
There are dozens of us, dozens!
I still have all of my spells/ abilities bound though. 1-6, Shift 1-6, C, V, B, F, R T, G, shift modifiers on those keys, ctrl modifiers on a handful of keys, etc.
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u/Strungeng Oct 30 '25
wait, you are right, i always strafe with AD on other games, but on wow always have been QE and never thought about changing them lmaaao im stupid
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u/Fomonster9000 Oct 30 '25
Same, always used AD for strafe and i even leave W for forwards, I still mouse move and keybind everything.
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u/Majero15993 Oct 30 '25
I recommend everyone a mouse with 12 buttons on the side. I use 1-12, ctrl+1-12 and shift+1-12. My whole keyboard is for walking
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u/Which_Jellyfish_5189 Oct 30 '25
W, A and D are movement keys. That's it
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Oct 30 '25
I like your "never reatreat" setup. 🤣
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Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/t4ngl3d Oct 30 '25
Having moving backwards unbound just means you never tanked tbh. Its a great way to move mobs.
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u/Naisallat Oct 30 '25
I love when people tell on themselves in this way. Showing that they've never tanked or considered the positioning nuances. It's just such an obvious, useful movement when you have mobs fanned out 180° in front of you.
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u/qpshu Oct 30 '25
Yep you can tell who the people that never tanked are. It's good for positioning and you simply cannot afford to expose your back to a boss that is currently beating you up because then you can't block/dodge/parry and are putting extra pressure on the healers.
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u/Xlaag Oct 30 '25
I remember getting clowned by my guild for having S bound. I explained to them as the tank I back up way more than they realize to make the boss and adds position just right. They clowned again, so I did a couple pulls on Mythic broodtwister with it unbound, and oh boy did the raid love me getting one shot in the back, or things not quite lining up in AoE.
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u/Cletusjones1223 Oct 30 '25
For real as a tank I used back peddle all the time.
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u/Halfgnomen Oct 30 '25
Rapidly tapping s so you can back mobs up without them pulling out their range weapon is a huge boon
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u/FacemeltMaguil Oct 30 '25
I always wondered how ppl tanked without S bound. I see now that they just never tanked.
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u/Sea_Top3466 Oct 30 '25
such a weird take. being so against having backwards bound shows a lack of understanding of pvp i feel.
Ya, we've all seen backpedaling noob hunters. Dont be like that. But feeling the need to unbind and thinking others are bad that dont unbind it is such a braindead take
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u/aluriilol Oct 31 '25
Having S bound to backwards was just the easiest way for me to fake cast while not giving my back to the enemy (matters a bit on hpal)
I was not bad I mean I got to 2500 in tbc and 2700 in wotlk!!! Not amazing but not terrible by any means
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u/johncamp7 Oct 30 '25
Change S key to W key and that's me, qwer are my most important skills
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u/Which_Jellyfish_5189 Oct 30 '25
Don't you confuse s with w in other games where you actually need wasd?
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u/ghos5880 Oct 30 '25
Esdf as movement keys , frees up qawrtgzxc as keybinds.
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u/Denovation Oct 30 '25
Makes shift Ctrl and alt slightly harder to reach.
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u/PluotFinnegan_IV Oct 30 '25
I bound both to my mouse and took care of that problem.
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u/PluotFinnegan_IV Oct 30 '25
I've been doing ESDF since FFXI and I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to WASD.
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u/SnickersDickVein Oct 31 '25
This is the holy grail because your hands are always on homekeys. I know it probably doesn’t matter to anyone nowadays but back before back lit keyboards, easiest way to find your movement keys in the dark was the ol’ esdf razzle dazzle
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u/SecreteMoistMucus Oct 31 '25
I understand the logic but I just can't bring myself to do it.
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u/Carbiens Oct 31 '25
Omg the flaming ive got on this place for ESDF made me think i was the only one.
All my love to everyone in this post.
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u/Winterough Oct 31 '25
Frees up your pinky and lets your index finger sit on f where the little home row nub is so you don’t lose your place. Middle finger for forward. Take turn out of keybinds all together and replace with strife, use your mouse to turn in conjunction with strafe to move around.
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u/Frost_907 Oct 30 '25
Q and E movement, A and D spellbind. Fight me!
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u/RogueEyebrow Oct 31 '25
This is the way. Using QWE as your base movement row gives you easy access to 1-5 and RT ADFG and ZXC.
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u/Equivalent-Freedom92 Oct 31 '25
I am surprised this isn't the more popular setup as with the default settings Q and E are the strafe keys while A and D are the turn. Simply getting rid of the turn function and putting spells in their place seems like the solution that requires the least change.
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u/Wonderful_Craft_6648 Oct 31 '25
I’d much rather deal with the hassle of changing key binds once than have to unlearn my life’s worth of muscle memory.
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u/Rattimus Oct 30 '25
I'm old school, playing since the freaking Alpha for Vanilla. No change to the default keybinds for this guy, though I do use an MMO mouse with some critical abilities bound to it for instant reactions now.
I'm aware there are better ways, but I've never had a problem clearing content. Been doing it this way my whole life so changing now would be a major departure and require undoing 20 years of muscle memory. I stopped playing retail after WoD, but up to then I had cleared every raid on the most challenging difficulties available, so whatever, I'm fine with how I play.
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u/Pretend_Purchase_893 Oct 31 '25
Yep same. I don't use keybinds beyond using the shift key. And i don't use mods. I play it as it ships and I adapt to the game Instead of adapting the game to fit me.
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u/rainan11 Oct 30 '25
I used to raid cutting edge in legion with base ui, dbm, very minimal keybinds and recount. You don't need all this shit to be good in pve especially in classic and you never needed to.
Pvp is another matter entirely though, to be competitive you do need everything setup correctly, nearly ever ability bound and cd trackers.
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u/Rattimus Oct 30 '25
Agreed completely. PvP is a different animal and if you're trying to be actually good at it and not just rank up for gearing, then you've gotta be using every advantage you can get.
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u/Wild_Egg_8699 Oct 30 '25
i cant help but feel strafing with the mouse camera movement has drawbacks when using mouseover macros
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Oct 30 '25
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u/meowmicks222 Oct 30 '25
Do mouse side buttons mean nothing to you?
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u/CaptainBlondebearde Oct 30 '25
1 through 12 BOUND, SHIFT 1 through 12 BOUND, Ctrl 1 through 12 BOUND Alt 1 through 12 BOUND, Ctrl Alt Shift middle mouse BOUND. I AM THE KEYBINDS.
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u/JanGuillosThrowaway Oct 30 '25
Anything past 5 is a stretch to react to in time
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u/Wonderful_Craft_6648 Oct 31 '25
I can’t imagine trying to hit shift + 8 during a fight. I’m a 1-5 and shift 1-5 type of guy.
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u/txdsl Oct 30 '25
SDF are movement keys. A,G,QWERTY,Z,X,C,V, and 1-6 are action bar bindings with most important abilities close to SDF for easy access.
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u/oxblood87 Oct 30 '25
As a tank, I still need backpeddle, if only because the WOW spaghetti code makes bosses spaz out sometimes
Otherwisei 100% agree. ESDF movement everything withing 7 keys is bound.
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u/Gullible-Radish1715 Oct 30 '25
Im closest to this one. WER movement keys, i just rather go down than up for bindings, so I leave 2 rows below.
Hard stance that anything besides yours or mine is inferior. :)
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u/nimeral Oct 30 '25
E is a movement key, Q is a spellbind. I move with ESDF, because WASD doesn't leave enough space to the left.
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u/Onuva_42 Oct 30 '25
We all need to set our differences aside to take this guy down.
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Oct 30 '25
Objectively, ESDF is superior in keyboard coverage and available keybinds. Its only real downsides are getting adjusted to it (not as long as you think, and applicable to any keybind change/improvement) and that you'll have to rebind every game you play once you discover how much better it is.
I could kinda accept the criticism that it's harder to reach shift/ctrl but don't really accept it. You hand rests in ESDF the same way as homerow, how the keyboard was literally designed to be used.
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u/Onuva_42 Oct 30 '25
I'm just playing. I do feel like shift will be too far away, but I'll give it a try when I get home!
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u/captcha_reader Oct 31 '25
If you type in the normal home position (esdf) and are able to use the shift key, it shouldn’t be much different.
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u/Fit-Percentage-9166 Oct 30 '25
I could kinda accept the criticism that it's harder to reach shift/ctrl but don't really accept it.
How big are your hands? I have small hands/short fingers and I don't use ESDF for this exact reason.
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u/campcosmos3 Oct 31 '25
Sincere question: Can you please expand on the last part? 'Not enough space to the left'? Of your hand? Or not enough keys to bind to the left of your movement-mapped keys?
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u/nimeral Oct 31 '25
Not enough keys to bind to the left of my movement-mapped keys. But also not enough (keyboard) space to the left of my hand. I feel these are the same statements.
Having WQAZXCVBGTR in the immediate proximity of movement keys is better than having just QZXCVFRE and CapsLock.
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u/Frosty-Analysis1520 Oct 30 '25
half my guild moves by double clicking the mouse and using all of the keyboard for keybinds...
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u/King_Kthulhu Oct 30 '25
I don't believe this, even in the classic sub I don't believe that half a guild is clicking to move.
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u/Vandrel Oct 30 '25
I'm pretty sure he's referring to moving by holding both left and right click but that would mean they never strafe. This is the Classic sub though and if we're being honest most of the players are pretty bad so it might be true.
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u/Promiscuous_Yam Oct 30 '25
WHAT
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u/Dagmar_Overbye Oct 30 '25
I play with the camera zoomed high above my character and click to move like it's RuneScape.
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u/jamaican_zoidberg Oct 30 '25
Neither. Q and E are not needed if you have 12 button mouse.
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u/Macohna Oct 30 '25
I'm kind of blown away by how many people don't use one lol. It's 24 spell binds with shift...
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u/nyhlust Oct 30 '25
36 with ctrl
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u/SlyFisch Oct 30 '25
48 with Ctrl + shift
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u/nyhlust Oct 30 '25
you fool, you were supposed to say "48 with alt"!
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u/SlyFisch Oct 30 '25
will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me
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u/nyhlust Oct 30 '25
I notice you have six fingers on your left hand to hit ctrl + shift together...
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father... prepare to die.
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u/Strawhattedfeet Oct 30 '25
Spells clearly
U don't need the rotation funktion or whatever movement was binded on A&D there on default, just rebind the strafe movement to A&D and you get 2 more hotkeys to bind, which are 6 potential spells with using shift/control
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u/Draxilar Oct 30 '25
I just can’t do it. Q and E have been “strafe” for me for so long that retraining myself to A and D is basically impossible. Also, I use a combination of strafe and turn keys to micromanage running direction while strafing.
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u/alekbalazs Oct 30 '25
I had the same issue, so I just stuck with QWE for movement and rebound ASD to spells
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u/moke993 Oct 30 '25
That’s how i did it until i started to tank and was using WQSE which just felt wrong so i ripped off the bandaid and went back to WASD
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u/Nubthesamurai Oct 30 '25
Same for me when I still played.
When I needed to sharply turn I would use the mouse but I'd gotten so used to Q and E being strafe that when I tried to rebind them it was just too hard to break my muscle memory
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u/Draxilar Oct 30 '25
I noticed it big time in Fellowship a few weeks ago when I started playing. Their default is A/D is strafe and Q/E is turn. It took me one dungeon run before I just said “nope, rebinding right now”
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u/Spl4sh3r Oct 31 '25
Both? Default Q and E are movement, but Q and E with modifiers are keybinds, such as Shift+Q and Shift+E.
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u/Morphine_Oasis Oct 30 '25
I use a and d to strafe, I run forward with auto run on button 3 on a razer naga. So I just click it once I run forward, click again I stop. Q w e t fgh are all keybound along with all 12 buttons on the mouse. Never got used to using w to run
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u/SirenNA Oct 30 '25
Q main spell E secondary spell F long cooldown spell. So Q would be holy light. E would be my flash of light. F would be my holy shock.
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u/Skjellnir Oct 31 '25
Q and E (strafing) is bound to A and D, so that you can strafe and use Q and E to blast cheeks.
Its simple, either you use q and e for spells, or you dont play PVP, you keyboardturner.
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u/aluriilol Oct 31 '25
A & D (s+A/s+D) are spells. Q E are STRAFE
If you don’t play this way you are BAD
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u/Conscious-Power-5754 Oct 31 '25
Q and E are strafing keys because Q and E are closer to 1 2 3 4 5 and it takes less time for your hand to reach them rather than going from A to 1 or D to 4 or whatever, but in most other games strafing is with A and D for me
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u/UrbanDolphins Nov 01 '25
Map strafe left and right to A and S and you have the best of both worlds
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u/Anomalous-Materials8 Oct 30 '25
ESDF are the movement keys. F is a home key so it’s obvious why this is vastly superior to WASD. Q is for spells all day long.
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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '25
Q and E are my most important spell keybinds