Jak's Healer Academy: Keybinding and Optimization

For the first video in our Healer Academy series we're going over how to set up your keybinds when learning a new class! Next up we'll go over my UI and weakauras, if you have any questions or suggestions for future Academy videos let me know!
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[@Gilambesh]

This video helped me hugely! I have over time lost function in my hands over time and you gave me some new ideas about how to set things out to make life just a little better.

[@thomasshepard7891]

So excited to see you doing a series like this! I've seen so many people on the forums and elsewhere saying they want to try healing in SL and this will be the perfect thing to link them to!

[@thomasshepard7891]

Also clean your mouse pad XD

[@AutomaticJak]

Haha glad ya liked it!

[@TinMan354]

One important thing to consider as well is what combination of buttons you will be pressing at once or in close succession. For instance, if you have instant cast abilities that you will often be moving with or immediately after, then you should make sure that your fingers for moving are not the same ones that are hitting the ability. I use my extra mouse buttons for as many instants as possible, so that if I need to move, my left hand is free to move normally. Same idea with abilities off the GCD, make sure you can press them and continue your normal rotation unimpeded.

[@Carmina87]

Using an "MMO" mouse helps with binding/hand position as well. Being able to bind 1-12 (1-= keys) is awesome AND you can bind them to also use modifiers shift, ctrl, & alt.

[@alemagno11]

Awesome! (as always). Thanks so much my man!

[@rob5032]

That sassy finger snap at the beginning was dope.

[@iceboxsouljah]

Thanks alot for your great input on this. I personally try to be as effective as possible, that's different for everybody, because people having different hands and different habits of doing things. I asked you about keybinds months ago in your stream, thanks for keeping your promise. I couldn't sleep many nights because of this, trying to figure out what's the best keybinds especially for my Disc Priest. I could test it myself on the beta with the new abilities. I realised that's a bit different for me, because I am used to bind my 12 side buttons on my mouse (Corsair Scimitar) and it's extremely helpful. I also play other classes, and try to use the same utility skills on the same buttons for better muscle memory like (Movementskill, 3min CD's etc.). Maybe some of you are interested in this. I am using these keys on my keyboard and mouse (with explanation for their uses / MB = Mousebutton): (1) Power Word: Shield / (2) Penance / (3) Shadow Mend / (4) Smite (most used abilities) (R) Angelic Feather (always movement ability) (F) Purify (always Dispell or Interrupt as DD, they call me Lucky Luke) (T) Shinig Force (Knockup, Stun) (G) Desperate Prayer (Selfheal) (Y) Mindcontrol (Utility) (X) Mass Dispel (Utility) (C) Psychic Scream (C stands for Crowd Control) (V) Pain Suppression (Big Externals or Big Selfheal like Lay on Hands) (Shift +1) Shadowfiend (3 Min CD) (Shift + 2) Mindblast (Burst Button) (Shift + 3) Power Word: Barrier (3 Min CD) (Shift + 4) Covenant Ability (has mostly longer CD's) (Shift + R) Mind Sear (not used often) (Shift + F) Mind Soothe (Utility, not used often) (MB 1) Shadow Word: Pain / Purge the Wicked (quickly applied, used often) (MB 2) Shadow Word: Death (Burst Button) (MB 3) Schism (initiating Burst) (MB 4) Power Word: Solace (it fit's perfect when pressing Schism before) (MB 5) Power Word: Radiance (AoE Heal or Aoe Damage) (MB 6) Evangelism (extending Atonement, smooth to press after PW: R) (MB 7) Power Infusion (always Big Damage / Heal CD) (MB 8) Other Movement Ability (currently Venthyr Covenant Ability - Door of Shadows) (MB 9) Rapture (1-2min CD abilities) (MB 10) Dispel Magic (not used often) (MB 11) Fade (not used often) (MB 12) Leap of Faith (not used often) not binded: Shackle Undead, Holy Nova, Levitate, Power Word: Fortitude, Resurrection For me personally using the the Keys (2), (Shift + 2) and (Mousebutton 2) stands for burst healing or burst damage, it's fast to press and I can remember them quickly when I need to burst. Pressing (5) or (6) on my keyboard is uncomfortable for me. I use Mouseover Macros for most of the abilities, so I can target always an enemy to deal damage. This works for me best at the moment, maybe I will tweak it in the future, but for now I am happy with this setup. I think another important thing is to optimize your own Interface to your playstyle to be as effective as possible and have a low traveltime with your mouse.

[@eihples]

Cries in small lady hands, CRTL and 5 are unreachable basically :D

[@ellerian778]

same this made me cry hehe.

[@laxxboy20]

Something I do is use the pad of your palm, right underneath your pinky, to hit CTRL which leaves your fingers free to press CTRL + 1/2/3/4 etc. Maybe that would work?

[@eihples]

@@laxxboy20 That just presses the windows key as well :D

[@laxxboy20]

@@eihples odd, never had that issue. Ah well. Good luck :)

[@lilcurtis11]

Corsair Vengeance M95 MMO (or similar) are great if you haven't got the reach on the keyboard. All buttons are macro able for Vuhdo / Clique etc.

[@cinder_tube]

I feel validated having now learned I set up my healing keybinds and vuhdo same way Jak does lol I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series! Thanks for doing this. Been healing since MoP and I'm keen to see if there are ways I can improve what I'm doing and how I do them. Thanks Jak!

[@arturosteven1006]

you prolly dont give a shit but does any of you know of a method to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost the password. I would love any tips you can offer me

[@reeceandrew2349]

@Arturo Steven instablaster =)

[@arturosteven1006]

@Reece Andrew I really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@arturosteven1006]

@Reece Andrew It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I am so happy:D Thank you so much, you saved my account !

[@reeceandrew2349]

@Arturo Steven You are welcome :D

[@Yama_1291]

QWER. That’s where my fingers ended up after a few years of experimenting. WER are for move forward and strafe, no need for a backpedal key. Over all, this makes binding stuff to the letter rows underneath as well as the numbers above very natural as all you need to wrap your head around is how far you need to curl or extend a finger. That’s over 20 binds without even moving the hand, not counting mods. You can still reach shift and alt for some modifiers depending on your hand size but I moved shift to the mouse to have more freedom when binding them.

[@l0k]

Something similar, my movement ended up on QWE, but I couldn't drop backpedal. I end up with 20-ish keybinds but there's still stuff that isn't bound. Holy has too many buttons :(

[@richmondleonghoteck1868]

This definitely save my day as a beginner. Subbed.

[@AutomaticJak]

Glad to hear it!

[@Torisen13]

I have been a clicker since vanilla and have been trying to transition to keybinds but have struggled in figuring out how to start building it. I really liked the behind the monitor perspective, I have seen hundreds of UIs but that is pretty meaningless if you have no idea how the person is actually playing on the keyboard. This has given me a good starting point to figure it all out!

[@ckirk7317]

I use WASD and mouse for movement then attacks on ERTFG, dispell on Q then heals and utility on 1-6, shift1-6.

[@erwinvanvelzen5968]

Great guide mate!! dis helps me a lot. i wanne go alt healing in M+ in shadowlands

[@Draenal]

12 button mouse changes your way life. The only keys I have bound to action bars on my keyboard are Q, E, R which are used for interrupt, healthstone, and healthpot respectively

[@Noobbane01]

I personally hate binding 1-6, hard to hit, especially when moving. QERFC are all my important abilities, with E being the one I am likely to cast while moving. 1 for prepot, press only once/twice per pull

[@cartman19892]

yep i have also only qerfc, but all with 3 mods ctrl, shift and alt und also vuhdo for direct healspell

[@hugheszie]

Get yourself a corsair mmo mouse, i use all the numbers - but they all end up on my thumb.

[@rattz43]

I’m new back to WoW and was wondering what add ons you are running in this video. I really like your set up and was hoping to get something like it for my disc priest.

[@krystlepeterson4071]

Putting long CDs on the Function bar is genius! Definitely changing that tonight. Also, I am really looking forward to the add-on video. I have grievous, bursting and necrotic as well as tank cd’s showing on vuhdo on my main but cannot figure out how to get them loaded on my alts profiles. Is there any way you could address this? Thanks for the video!

[@oliverschumann3543]

Bar 1: q,e,r,f,1,2,3,4,5,t,g,v,mwd Bar 2: same but with shift Bar 3: same but with ctrl -keeping spam spells on qerf and mwd just feels great imo

[@PerfektStrike]

F - spamable cast Shift F- Spamable but limited cast Control F - conditional cast 1-2 either proc based abilities (mage) or dots for lock (agony corruption) R- 30-45 sec style cooldowns. Frozen Orb or Singularity. G is always a 30 sec defensive. Mage shield or warlock reflect. I relate to your keybinds

[@armedjester81]

I bought a mouse that has the keypad by my thumb. Greatest purchase I ever made. All the numbers are reachable by my thumb. Use my left hand for wasd and shift/ctrl/alt and right hand for casting. Works well for me.

[@AutomaticJak]

Very nice!

[@TrickysBen]

Great video, I actually got rid of my keyboard turn altogether- hadn't even thought about that. Nonetheless- this video is proof that if you are serious about your MMOs, just get a damn numpad mouse already...

[@Devonellah]

Awesome insight here Jak! :) It would be cool to see a Vuhdo Tutorial for how you have it configured :)

[@acane71]

Thanks for sharing your information - do you have a video on how to best play a disc?

[@AutomaticJak]

Yep many. All recent on my channel

[@toychristopher]

I use an xkeys custom keyboard. I put alt, Ctrl, shift, and space bar under my left thumb. Then I have wasd like normal but the number keys in two rows (1-6, then 7-0) right above it. The xkeys keyboard is kind of expensive but it's really nice. I have 32 keys where I don't have to reach at all.

[@blackbeautyinside]

love the content! Would you also share some of your macros you might be using? How do you use penance , diffrent keybinds for when healing and or damaging?

[@AutomaticJak]

Offensive Penance is 6, defensive penance is middle mouse button

[@Damexca]

Great guide as always. Where do you bind spells that you use while moving?

[@AutomaticJak]

Usually into easy to cast one button binds. 5 for purge, 6 for penance, things like that

[@minine6508]

This setup is crazy to me,,, I only use 1,2, and 3 for some abilities while all my other abilities are mapped to all the buttons around wasd (q, shift q, e, shift e, f, shift f, etc),, I’ll try it out!!

[@PerfektStrike]

I'm not crazy!!!

[@CosmicGeckoBR]

I only have half my left hand, so I can't use shift, alt and ctrl + button to assign spell, it's to chaotic to use mid fights. What I ended up doing was to assign 2 spells to every slot, one on mouseover and one on no mouseover, so it halves the amounts of buttons needed. Keeping long cd spells a bit further away. usually on F1-4. But really what saved me was clique.

[@tdpark]

just what I needed, thank you

[@anduril2002]

Question for you what is your opinion on game controllers such as n52 or Tartarus 2

[@EloquentTroll]

How do you rate Healbot as an addon? It's doing the same thing for me that voodoo is doing for you, but I haven't tried any other addons for the purpose. I'm trying to work on this trait, but I am by default the kind of person that will pick up a thing to do a thing and just adapt to the crappy parts, to the point where I go blind to the crappy parts. I'm using Healbot, Gathermate2, Raider.IO, Mr Fish, Pawn, Recount, and DBM

[@mattward5010]

I here i'll blow your mind what if you change the r to a action bar key as well as f and c. Reply can be set to j or k

[@Diskhate]

in order to free as many "easy to access keys" like Q,E,R,1,2,3 etc, i try to map abilities-spells that require a cast time using SHIFT as modifier. My entire "castable" rotation on Discpriest is mostly made of spells that use SHIFT (with the exceptions of Penance and Shadow covenant): SHIFT+A=mindgames SHIFT+S=smite SHIFT+D=mindblast SHIFT+R=PWradiance

[@lilcurtis11]

overall this is a great tutorial. I am looking forward to new keybinding and refreshing UI etc. in prepatch more than anything else :-)

[@AutomaticJak]

Glad it was helpful!

[@r_c1048]

Can you share your thoughts please? - The one issue i have with binding L click and R click. What if i need to quickly heal myself? If my SMend is bound to R click I will need to hover my frames to heal myself instead of using a mouseover @player mod macro bound to a key that will auto self cast myself if im not targeting / hovering over another player.

[@AutomaticJak]

To counter this I set up my vuhdo frames to always have myself in the same spot every time so I can instinctively move my hand to the correct position in order to heal myself

[@r_c1048]

@@AutomaticJak Thanks Jak :)

[@whitebritishproud7483]

Whats addon - moves the description curse over to top right corner?

[@AutomaticJak]

Elvui. Let’s you set your tooltip to wherever you like

[@l0k]

I can't do ctrl or alt binds, it's too uncomfortable for me and my old creaky hands, F-keys are out of the question, and pretty much can only do shift binds. Tried with ctrl and alt for years and hands ended up hurting at the end of raid. Bad times x-x. Settled on moving strafe to Q and E, and am using 1234FR for healing spells, cps. lock will be for shield. s+1, s+2 are holy words, s+3 will be pwr infusion, s+4 is g. spirit, AD, s+A, s+D for DPS where the shift spells are either longer duration or CD. I'm already using s+W for feathers, can probably add s+Q and s+E for the new spells, but I find myself running out of keybind space. There's quite a few things I have to mouse click like pots, healthstones, desperate prayer because I simply ran out of buttons I can reach without my hands protesting at the end of the night.

[@terriblegamers2213]

I may have the weirdest binds I've seen from people. But been mythic raiding and arena pvp for years now. Situation abilities: 1-5 Main abilities: q-t (where my resting pos is) Util/stun/etc: a-g Movement:x-b (where my thumb sits) Buffs on mouse buttons

[@anders8461]

Key 1-7, QERTFG, F1--F5 plus shift1-4 and shift FG. It works for me after i based my keybind after my friend's.

[@nichster080]

I love how you call out helping ppl with hand issues. I a little nub of a left index finger and all it can do is movment key, any tips?

[@AutomaticJak]

all my tips are in this video!

[@ilyska1977]

I'm curious how you heal people who are not in your party if all of your targeted heals are bound to vuhdo clicks binds? The reason I ask is because for example in arena, if you're clicking vuhdo for heals, you'll probably never get high rating, since so much of your mouse usage is locked into healing with clicks.

[@PerfektStrike]

I suck at healing. Tried the mouse 1-3 for party shift 1-3 for enemy. For pvp I just started bringing party frames close so I can click target. Now I use 1-3 on mouse for silence enemy 1-3 Shift variation for fear. Control variation for stun or whatever.

[@synception944]

I'm so surprised that you don't use a +14 button mouse. I don't move my left hand almost at all, just the modifiers and wasd, my right hand is very comfortable in doing all the work. minimal hand movement to cast any ability I have. I feel it frees me up to focus on the fight mechanics instead of if I'm stretching enough to hit 6.

[@johkentty]

Which mouse is that?

[@tili_]

shift+right click for Power Word: Shield?

[@AutomaticJak]

Yea that plus Q being Shadowfiend are some of my less optimal binds

[@Johnjohnthejohn]

I move with mouse and only use numpad keys as holy priest. I can reach like 15 buttons without moving my hand at all. Looking to get a 15 button mouse soon

[@617k3vingaming]

I always wondered why it seems no one binds the tilde key "~"

[@Narsisa70]

Thats my push to talk for discord

[@justinriley7193]

As a person that can't use their left hand effectively due to disability I rely a lot on clique and frames for my healing, it's hard to bind all my abilities and move around the dungeon effectively without dying but my guild understands that I'm not in perfect working order.

[@DavidStrate]

and this is why I'm thankful for Vuhdo...

[@Wardaman619]

I've been healing for 2 expansions now with mouseover macros. Is it a big difference to the mouse keybinds and do you gain something or is it just personal preference?

[@PerfektStrike]

I'm a weirdo. I use: F , Shift F, Cntrl F, R, Shift R, T, shift T, G, Shift G, V, Shift V, 1, 2, 3, 4, Shift 1-4, mouse 1-5, Shift Mouse 1-5, Cntrl 1-5, Tilde, Shift Tilde F, R, 1-4 And variations are my primary offensives Tilde is Cooldowns Middle mouse is Mount Scroll up movement (sprints) Scroll down Shift scroll up - will of forsaken or similar Shift scroll down- pvp trinket Control up or down for pet controls G is my Shield or Reflect. Idk. Doesn't sound practical but its a tight and effective use of multiple keybinds for my small fat fingers.

[@ShepShep93]

It is kinda crazy how much a Naga spoils you. I've been playing with one for so long that keybinds are so easy haha.

[@andytrujillo3984]

I was thinking the same thing. I use a Corsair Scimitar that has a total of 20 buttons (same as the razer naga). I can’t see myself playing without it since I am so used to having my cooldowns, ah and xmog mounts and defensives/movement keys.

[@shuwunt]

Vuhdo is amazing, I'd like to see a video on adding buffs/debuff trackers on player nameplates as im healing them. For example, some debuffs don't pop up on vudo and i'm on the hook for dispelling them, or at least knowing who they're on, i'd like to see how to add them to my vuhdo frames.

[@Adellund]

Unsure how exactly but I believe you can make bouqets (see: grid themes) to colourize your frames based on dispellable debuffs whether it is a disease, curse, curse or simply a magic debuff.

[@jackelhuevo2133]

Vuhdo has two options for debuffs: blacklisting or whitelisting. Blacklisting shows all debuffs by default and you decide which ones you do not want to show via a blacklist. Whitelisting is the opposite: you show no debuffs except the ones you add manually. With respect to specific buff types, on the colors tab you can decide if the healthbars and/or the names should be of a specific color when under a debuff that is a curse or a poison for instance. Also, on that whitelist I mentioned before, you can customize individually debuffs in particular so that they show a “glow” on the player frame for very important debuffs as an example

[@tjestelle4886]

Plea? Been awhile since you updated this character? 😄

[@AutomaticJak]

Rip Plea

[@turtlelovesturtlepie]

Oh man this is such an opinionated topic that I won't get too much into it. However, if you are like me, and hate hitting control or alt, you can use autohotkey to turn your capslock key into another control or alt key and not have to reach so far. That unlocked a whole additional bar for myself.

[@logik99]

There’s always something to gain from watching random educational vids..... I never use F keys. Easy place for big cds, nice!

[@wedelxecho]

How do you not play with a game pad man o0o

[@eihples]

Copied from the thread cause someone with small or very large hands or disabillity might find it usefull: I was mainly joking about this being impossible with my small lady hands but since this got some attention from everybody, they way I "solved" my problem was to change my two mouse side buttons to CTRL and ALT in the mouse config sotfware when WoW is running. That way I can still use 1-5 in conjuction with SHIFT, CTRL and ALT. I found that's a better use of mouse real estate. I also have a button below the scrollwheel which I use for the self feather macro to give myself a speed boost since I normaly use mouse for turning anyway so mentally I relate it to movement. X, C, V and B are also reboud to stuff you need in emergencies like self protection CDs or dispel (or taunt on tank classes) since that's easily reachable with thumb. Bags isn't something that you need an ergonomically optimal button for so that is somewhere on the numpad. I also use macros to clump stuff like for example: a spammable heal and a spammable dmg into one mouseovermacro. You can save up some space if you use the same button to do both damage and heal for example (I think I have smite and flash heal in one macro bound to 1). Stuff like mass rez I don't even have bound on the keyboard but rather on the sidebar cause that you can only cast in downtime anyway, doesn't warrant a button

[@xCrayveNx]

No one considering using the button left of 1 (german layout it's circumnflex ^)? i'm using it for quite a while for def cooldowns (i.e. life cocoon) because it's hard to miss that button in the corner of the keyboard ;) for me it's also ok to reach with ctrl and shift for spells that are important but don't are used regular. with ^ 1 2 3 4 5 q e (with ctrl / shift modifiers) and F1 F2 F3 F4 i got enough spells in reach atm

[@archivedsimsstuff8975]

That’s the one I use for Purge the wicked/glaive toss/disengage! I like that button

[@mwsakura]

Q E 1 2 3 4 5 R F Z X C M4 M5 + shift for all of them. Hopefully I don't need any more keys than that, because my hands suck :(

[@Mokii_15]

Razer naga is all you need lol

[@Berthier90]

Yep Vuhdoo is a godsend i use it since wrath and it never dissapointed me

[@Jaeno311]

If you don't have a razer naga, you are wrong. It's perfect. 1-12 then alt+1-12. So simple

[@AutomaticJak]

No 😡

[@Jaeno311]

@@AutomaticJak You complicated the hell out of that...

[@AutomaticJak]

J Shroud I mean that’s just your opinion man. I literally referenced a naga type mouse in the video but I explained my preferences and where they came from.

[@Aurora-wo2hm]

I'm late but I think new players can have this DO NOT COPY ANYONES KEYBINDS (For example: If Jak's shadowfiend is on Q don't put yours on Q ETC.)

[@TJR123]

Sorry but WASD is incorrect. The "Dream" is QWE!!! Life is hard when ring finger and pointer and nearly same length as middle finger.

[@Daco22188]

lul

[@mattward5010]

no one ever knows what button 6 is

[@chrysy7861]

I’m a clicker