Five Keybinds To Improve Your Lifespan In World vs. World

Optimizing your keybinds to be faster and more effective is one of the easiest ways to gain an advantage in virtually any competitive game, yet most people don't pay their default keybinds a second though. In this video, we cover some of the most impactful keybinds that you can use in World vs. World, as well as some examples of what I currently use for them. This is by no means comprehensive, and I look forward to seeing what people think I missed in the comments. If you've read this far, here's a fun fact: for about the first six months of my WvW career, I was a double tap to dodge Andy. I'm fully recovered, and now the sky is the limit.
-- Socials:
Streams @ twitch.tv/sheffplaysgames
VoDs @ / @sheffplaysgamesvods
Discord @ / discord
-- Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Dodge
01:45 About Face
02:36 Personal Target
03:52 Stunbreaks
04:56 Instant Clears
05:59 Outro
-- Credits
Thanks to Blindside for the inspiration to talk about this topic. You can find them here: / @shadowfall_tv
-- Music Credits
Departure by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/track/w52xsf
Celestia by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-yt
Creative Commons - Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported - CC BY-ND 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/0n24dv
Simplicit Nights by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons - Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported - CC BY-ND 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/track/6rooqi

[@fieragames]

Thanks for the video, sharing this with my guild. We have gotten many newer players lately who may not know all that you covered intuitively. ( The amount of times i've had to tell my squad not to wait for me to say to "dodge" to dodge for instance )

[@sheffplaysgames]

Good to hear! I've got a few more ideas in the oven for this series, hope you all find them useful as well.

[@marinamorton]

Really useful, thanks :) Clear info in a concise format.

[@AmandaBarany23]

Soooo helpful! Love the editing style

[@sheffplaysgames]

Thank you! I really wanted to try and push my editing skills with this one, and I'm glad that it's so well received.

[@michaelburke4048]

Saving this to refer to later. Thank you for this.

[@sheffplaysgames]

I've got at least two more coming that should be just as helpful -- one for installing and configuring ArcDPS, and one for graphics and camera settings. Open to other ideas as well!

[@mandodelorian4668]

I had no idea about the Personal Target thing, that's going to be super useful for me, actually. Thanks!

[@sheffplaysgames]

It's a relatively recent change. I want to say that it came out in the same patch where they changed Firebrand's profession mechanics? But I could be wrong.

[@gailbrookhart1777]

Very helpful video. Hope to see more if you have the inclination to make them. Really like your presentation style and the amount of depth without excessive length. I've felt like improved keybinds were a good next step in improving my play. I am reluctant to take the plunge because (a) I am not eager to have an unpredictable "wonky time" window when I've lost the skill I had and the new skills haven't firmed up yet (the only cure for that is to just do it!) and (b) I wasn't able to really decide what would be a better key that I could rely on for the long haul because I sure didn't want to to drop my current skill, try a new key and find that it wasn't a good test and then have to try more keys until one works. Your suggestions have helped a lot there. Also good that you gave just 5 high value suggestions. Another concern I had was that it would be way too easy to try to change too many keybinds at once and melt my brain. An ability that I would like to see addressed more deeply is how to be highly effective with ground targeting a skill while I'm moving. Movement + place target + trigger the skill feels like I need three hands. I've subscribed so you will automatically have an audience of one if you cover that. I suspect that is another keybind issue but I'm not the expert. :)

[@sheffplaysgames]

There's two more in the pipeline -- one for camera and graphics settings, and one for setting up and configuring ArcDPS. Balance patches are just a busy time, so those updates have taken priority. But eventually. The scripts exist, just need to find the time to make them. The hardest part of adapting to new binds is just building the muscle memory. Best to take the plunge early, try it out for a bit, see if it works (and more importantly -- figure out what *doesn't* work). For ground targeting and movement...I didn't want the suggestion to be "buy a gaming mouse", but it really is the best option. There's very few buttons available that you can press while still operating WASD effectively. If you look at my Necromancer footage closely (really, really closely) you'll notice that I can't move to the right and cast wells at the same time, because D conflicts with C and V, which are my wells binds. But there's not a great solution, besides having 9 buttons on your mouse or whatever. If you come up with something, let me know. :)

[@sevengrey2408]

nicely done! please consider a tutorial on build swap keybinds (one of the things I love in gw2)

[@sheffplaysgames]

This is a superb idea, and I'll make sure it gets into the next one for sure!

[@sheffplaysgames]

I've taken what people suggested in the comments, and put it here, in a pin, for your convenience. -- Build swap keybinds (under templates, all the way at the bottom). This lets you swap between different equipment and build specializations while out of combat. Credit to Sevengrey. -- About Face needs the "Free Camera" setting enabled under General Options -> Camera in order to really work well. We're going to cover this soon, but Krizalio noted it here as well. -- Zikk also notes (from Discord) that you can "About Face" without actually keybinding About Face. If you turn your camera with left mouse, you can right click (while holding left click) to turn your character to the direction your camera is pointing. Video example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2KydKCMhbd5mZY

[@Feanturo]

I really wish at some point we get to customize your personal target visuals, to create even better visibility.

[@sheffplaysgames]

It would be really nice, even if it was just a color change.

[@bossdemon]

Good dialog but needs more Bullyfoot.

[@sheffplaysgames]

I had Bullyfoot dialogue for the Berserker Skill Combo video, but then I had the shelve the whole thing because they're changing Arc Divider next week. I'll find a way to work him in soon, don't worry. :)

[@GerebosG]

It counts a lot who wears the Tag,not every Comm is a good comm ;)

[@sheffplaysgames]

No, but I think every commander can become good with a bit of practice and effort.

[@Krizalio]

About face much better with free camera and holding left mouse. So you can rotate you movement without rotating camera and always keep eyes on enemy

[@sheffplaysgames]

Agreed, but that's a setting, not a keybind. We'll cover that soon. I'm just waiting for the update to drop that allows us to control ground fields, because that will also be something to include. :)

[@vidaliver1447]

2:15 Good old mantra visuals :3

[@sheffplaysgames]

It's just like Counting Crows said, man. You don't know what you got 'till its gone. I was laughing at that clip when I was editing, because my first thought was "you can't use this clip, you didn't even charge your mantras, come on."

[@Cenzurat]

Get a logitech g600 and you can keybind whatever you want, however you want it, in fact you can bind your whole rotation if its a simple class, or openers and combos, if its a complex one :P I didn't do that yet, but eventually I might, cause I don't wanna get arthritis when playing mirage/chrono or ele specs :P Its not the best mmo mouse anymore but, its cheap cause its been around for years and it has the most functions out of all of em. Its on the heavy and big side so not good for Asura's. PS. : u can use macros like this in gw2, as long as they aren't complex ones you'd use to bot, also its not really needed but eh its also not worth the effort if you can get one and you're doing an instance for the 500th time

[@sheffplaysgames]

I have two keybinds that I'd really love to have on a mouse -- my wells on Necromancer are C/V, which makes it difficult to strafe right and bomb at the same time, and my elite utility is on G, which is a bit of a reach when it needs to be fast (like my elite mantra stunbreak on Firebrand). One of these days I'll actually get a gaming mouse that has extra buttons, but for now I'm just making do. :(

[@Cenzurat]

@@sheffplaysgames if you do get one, the mouse click switches are prone to oxidizing, if you don't use em for months (mine started doing it after a year but now i got the mouse for like 8 years already and it still lives and is in perfect order) . If they start double clicking or being hard to click, they are prolly not broken and the switches need just a cleanup. Most of the time you don't even need to open it up, just use the mouse and click more intensely for a bit :P. Other mice, might not have this problem, idk cause most people don't stop using their pc for months on end like me and atmospheric conditions also play a part. But I dunno of any other mmo mouse that lasts this long.

[@Kiljoy_]

I do the same with healing button as stun break. All my heals are keyboard to Q key

[@sheffplaysgames]

Q is a great one. That's my F1 profession mechanic...which is nice for some classes (Scourge, Vindicator) but pretty middling for others (Firebrand, Tempest).

[@Kiljoy_]

That why I like Q for healing EVERY class has healing skill (including mounts) and it's easy to hit and important for everyone 😊 I liked the idea of shoulder mouse dodge, I still use double tap

[@freedomvoice4u]

kill that looooooud music

[@sheffplaysgames]

I can try and turn it down a bit in the next one. Sorry!