Mithlas asks:
Do you need to use your keyboard to execute your skills to be a good gamer? I for one use my mouse for everything except moving around in the world (A W D S and the space bar) and for selecting nearby mobs or items. Is this typical or do those that are really serious use key commands?
As worded, No, you don’t HAVE to use your keyboard to execute skills to be a GOOD (or even great or amazing) gamer.
However, when I received this question, I asked for it to be made into a poll, and a poll it was! So, what I’d like to do to go over the poll results, throw in some things that I know from having been around different types of players and try to discern some pros and cons for each style.
Breaking Down the Results
So to make it interesting, let’s break the results down as if people had to choose one or the other, mouse or keyboard. We’ll give the “a mix favoring X” to it’s corresponding side and we’ll split “An even mix” right down the middle. Doing this we find that 52% use keyboard (or at least mostly) and 48% use mouse( or at least mostly).
So what we have here is virtually a tie. In reading the comments to the poll you’ll find that, for some people, what they use varies dependent on the type of mouse and keyboard setups they have or in some cases, what class they are currently playing. I strongly encourage anyone interested in this topic to read the comments on that poll if you haven’t already.
It seems that in cases where someone has either a gaming keyboard -OR- a gaming mouse, they’re going to favor the gaming-oriented hardware due to the added functionalities. In cases where a player has both, it’s just as much a toss up as when someone has neither.
Ok… So Which is Better?
Truth be told, it really depends on you… whatever is easier/more comfortable for you to use is going to generally be better for you, personally. However, I’ll give a quick breakdown of pros and cons to mouse and keyboard skill execution and movement
Keyboard Pros
Faster Skill Execution- While the game will still process your skills at it’s own pace, if you’ve got a good hotkey setup and a practiced hand you’ll be able to ready your skills faster than anyone using exclusively a mouse. Keyboard skill-use also makes mouse movement more viable.- Less Staring at the Skill Bars- If you know your hotkey setup and your hand knows your keyboard you won’t need to look at the keyboard or your skill bars in order to do what you need to do, leaving you free to watch the action closer or enjoy the graphical art all around you.
Keyboard Cons
- “Boxy” or Jagged Movement Patterns- If you move with your keyboard exclusively you’ll find yourself taking turns at sharp angles and moving in a jagged pattern while turning. This isn’t a big deal unless you’re really into LOTRO’s PvMP. Good PvPer’s know how to move circles around “keyboard turners” and will beat you most time by making themselves difficult to hit by always being at your side or back.
- Less “Twitch” Control- Of similar nature to the movement patter issue. If you’re a keyboard mover and you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you need to move into a different spot, particularly a narrow one, you’ll generally have a harder time or be slower navigating to it than a similarly skilled mouse mover.
Mouse Pros
More Precise Movements- If you use a mouse as your primary way to move you’ll find that you’re able to navigate with greater precision, being able to easily move in curves rather than jagged and “Boxy” patterns.- Less Memory Dependent- Using your mouse to execute skills negates the need to learn, both physically and mentally, where your skills are on your keyboard. As long as you know what the icon looks like, you can handle skill use with the mouse, very user friendly
Mouse Cons
- Slower Skill Use- using a mouse you have to move over a larger area to get to your skills and this, in turn, will make you a little slower in getting them activated, however, it is still very easy to be faster than the game at processing normal speed skills, any skills that are “Fast” or “immediate” will likely cause you to lose some skill-use potential due to the slower speed. While a con, this doesn’t make you a worse player especially if you strategically place commonly used skills near your faster skills.
- “All I see are buttons!”- Using the mouse you execute skills, you’re going to spend a lot of time staring at your skill bars since it’s a lot harder to get a solid physical memory of your skill rotation since your mouse’s pointer position is something that doesn’t lend itself to consistency.
In Conclusion
While how you choose to execute skills and move won’t make you a bad/good/great/terrible player there are some things to be learned in terms of the potential of the different methods. The “best” method, if you piece together the pros and cons of each is to use your keyboard for skill execution and your mouse for moving. However, where comfort in using is an issue, whatever works best for you personally is fine. If you’re a serious player and don’t already own a gaming keyboard or mouse and are interested in finding a nice setup you can read the comments of the poll for some great suggestions or take a look at my personal suggestions of:
This article is part of the “Ask Elborigorn” series, where I encourage CSTM readers to send questions to me at: elborigorn@casualstrolltomordor.com . I then will answer the question either with an entire article or as part of a multi-question weekly article.
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January 28, 2011 at 10:14 am
And then there is the option of using something like a Logitech G13 pad (or Nostromo N52, or Saitek Cyborg) for your left hand while using the mouse with your right… use the mouse to turn, thumb stick on the G13 for forward/back/strafe, and still have 4 fingers free to execute skills while moving
I’ve been using those sorts of devices for years and if you’re a heavy enough MMO gamer to get used to them, they’re very nice.
January 28, 2011 at 10:16 am
Great article; thanks! I’m curious, though, if you would consider the Razer Naga the best of both worlds. I have one, and it allows me to have the benefits of the mouse and the keyboard without the cons (no slower skill use, instant muscle-memory). After using it, it would be hard to go back. Your thoughts?
Again, thanks for the great article!
January 28, 2011 at 10:20 am
I’ll be honest in saying i’m not familiar with that product if you’d like to link it or tell us more about it, that’d be welcomed
January 28, 2011 at 10:23 am
Sure thing:
http://www.amazon.com/Razer-Naga-Laser-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B002MPPRPO
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H552sxrsL._AA1000_.jpg
It’s a mouse, but it has all the buttons corresponding to your skills where your thumb goes. Takes awhile to get used to it, but once you do– holy cow! I can practically play LOTRO 1-handed, and have better reflex times than a keyboarder (since my thumb can move more quickly than you can press the “1″ key on your keyboard). A great piece of hardware, in my opinion.
January 29, 2011 at 7:49 am
Speaking of, the naga is on sellout.woot today: http://deals.woot.com/sellout
January 28, 2011 at 10:27 am
It’s a mouse with 12 Buttons on the side of it, to be used by your thumb. Reliability of this product is suspect at best. I get by in PvMP using minimal mouse turning by creative uses of strafe and turn at the same time, although I’ve been relying more and more on the mouse for movement recently.
January 28, 2011 at 10:29 am
No disrespect intended, but why would you say that the reliability is suspect? I’ve had mine since around April, I believe, and have never had a problem. The reviews on Amazon seem pretty uniformly pleasant. Is there something I’ve been missing?
January 28, 2011 at 6:34 pm
The two people I’ve known to use it have only got between 6 and 12 months out of them. From what I’ve read on other review sites: ie newegg, the durability of the product is questioned, even though from what I’ve read and what my friends have reported it’s a really great device otherwise. If it’s working for you, then great! Maybe some people are just harder on their gear than others.
January 28, 2011 at 10:17 am
Holy craps that stuff’s exspensive, any suggestions on cheaper gear for those of us monetarily challenged?
January 28, 2011 at 10:22 am
There are cheaper options out there I’m sure and tbh you can do just fine with a standard keyboard and mouse as well. Gaming setups just give you a few more options. if spending extra on a gaming keyboard/mouse isn’t an option it’s probably easier to perfect using standard things imo. I did it fine for years. Gaming setups make it easier but they’re not the be-all-end-all.
January 28, 2011 at 10:18 am
I didn’t understand why you brought movement into it, I mean, do someone only use their keyboard for moving?
I use the keyboard to use my skills exactly for the purpose to use the mouse for moving and spinning the camera. It helps you stay away from the poo!
January 28, 2011 at 10:19 am
Some do use exclusively keyboard to move yes.
January 28, 2011 at 10:30 am
Like me! Which is probably why I die so easily in the ‘Moors. (and typically lose any spars I’m foolish enough to accept.)
It’s really not a problem, though, unless I head into the PvP realm. I haven’t tried moving with a mouse, but as I’m one of the people who use the mouse exclusively for activating my skills… Well, you see how mouse movement might be a problem for me.
It definitely seems like there are more cons for doing it my way, but it’s the way I’m comfortable with. I’ll admit that staring at my skill bars is a distinct disadvantage, but I really don’t want to tackle trying to memorize where every skill is and I would think juggling back and forth between keyboard and mouse would be even less ideal than sticking with one or the other. (But I really don’t know, as I haven’t tried it.)
January 28, 2011 at 10:34 am
Do you play a melee class in the moors? if so the amount of skills you typically use or use the most is going to be relatively small, put those on your 1,2,3,…0,-,= bar and use your mouse to move (hold down both mouse buttons and move mouse to turn) use 1 through = to activate those common skills. Gotta give it a good trial because even if it’ll end up getting comfortable for you it will be very uncomfortable for a bit. I too used to be an exclusive keyboard mover and mouse skill clicker.
January 28, 2011 at 10:40 am
I play a hunter, but I still realize that I need to be able to turn faster. I’m also leveling a Captain (he’s up to lvl 56) and a lowbie guardian and I’m finding the slow turn speed to be an obstacle. I’ll certainly give that a try!
Thanks!
January 28, 2011 at 11:49 am
Forgot that the Q/E (or A/D) keys can be used to turn your character. I’ve used it for strafing for so long that I forgot that there is a possibility to use only the keyboard.
But as you’ve said, it’s more about what one prefers. I think that using the strong parts of both at the same time it’s the best way to go. It’ll take some time getting used to it, but I think the final result is really worth it.
January 28, 2011 at 10:27 am
I’m primarily a keyboard user in combat, but I just got a new gaming mouse that has just blown me away. It’s the Logitech G700 and I replaced an older MS Wireless Explorer2 with. Lotro doesn’t recognize all the buttons, but with the Logitech software you can map them to keyboard buttons. With that I’m able to keep my hands on my mouse for movement and with a click of a button I can mount, use items, where previously I had to move my hands to the keyboard and the transition obviously took time.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104377&cm_re=g700-_-26-104-377-_-Product
January 28, 2011 at 10:34 am
This leaves out something rather important. I move with my mouse but use my keyboard and hotkeys for everything else. Using the keyboard that way even makes it easier to use the mouse for movement.
January 28, 2011 at 1:23 pm
it’s not left out, you just have to read between the lines a bit.. the pros and cons of each point to that being a better solution.
January 28, 2011 at 10:58 am
I mainly use the keyboard for my skill executions and movement some of the time. I’ve learned to use my mouse for movement in the moors though. One thing that tends trip up keyboard only players is the conjunction pinwheel. When I am fighting I almost lose track of my mouse cursor which causes a panic attack when there is a conduction up. I was able to map the conjunction choices to the up/down/left/right arrows that corresponds to each color’s position on the wheel. Since that change, I am johnny-on-the-spot with fellowship manuever executions!
January 28, 2011 at 11:00 am
I know a lot of people who’ve mapped those to those exact keys… excellent tip. Thanks Moramoth!
January 28, 2011 at 11:13 am
For movement, I do a combination of mouse and keyboard. Strafing with forward and backward motion using keyboard, and the directional changes with the mouse. I then Map my mouse buttons in coloration with keyboard strokes within my left hands reach. A mouse with 3 additional buttons (as apposed to just left and right click) allows for a combination of “Button 3″ through “Button 5″ and the attack combination referenced within that specific toolbar. This is done by mapping Shift, Alt and CTR to the buttons on your mouse. This gives you up to 45 quickslot options while still have full movement ability.
Although this works extremely efficiently, using multiple characters forces a higher level of memorization to effectively know where each attack is without looking.
This setup works best on classes that are more mobile in combat, mainly melee classes.
January 28, 2011 at 1:44 pm
oo! i never thought to map my extra buttons to shift ctrl and alt.
I too use my mouse for movement.
WSAD for forward back strafe and mouse for turning.
The only skills i use the keyboard to hit are the ones i have on 1-6, the rest i click.. including any of the shift, ctrl, alt combos.
I’m going to test out remapping my shift and alt keys to my 2 thumb buttons to give me more quick firing skills. Thanks!
January 28, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Awesome post, I never thought to use hot keys for CJ’s. I’ll also be checking out that Razer mouse
Hopefully my thumb cooperates, those buttons look a little small.
I’m a keyboard mover, mouse clicker. I may have to look over some dif hotkey setups.
Just recently got my minstrel to 61 and I’m going to start grouping up more. I’ve been thinking of putting my heals on the 1,2,3 row because it seems hard sometimes to find that fellow when you need him, click on them and then go back to click the heal. Can’t imagine trying to help out the other group in a raid. I’m wasting a lot of time dragging my mouse back and forth.
One thing I usually always have mapped to my mouse is auto run(numlock) so that I can mine while reading or watching tv lol
January 28, 2011 at 1:31 pm
I’ve actually done something neat with the “G” keys (macro keys) on my g15.. I’ve set them so that g1 will target myself and cast either bolster courage or words of courage (depending if i’m on my captain or minstrel, skills need to be bound to the same hotkey). g2 targets the person at the top of my fellow list and casts the heal, g3 targets the second in the list, so on and so forth onto g6 targetting the last in the list and healing them. Two actions in one button, speeds my healing reaction time significantly, sadly though I’ve not found a good way to macro healing outside of my own fellowship.
January 28, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Jamz, I keep a Vertical Hotbar on the left side of the screen, right next to my fellowship information with all of my healing skills on it. That way it is easy to click on Target and mouse over to Heal Skill right next to it to Heal. Maybe not the most effective, but it works.
January 28, 2011 at 2:07 pm
That’s a good tip Thurley!
Lots of good stuff in this discussion/comments section. love it.
February 15, 2011 at 10:13 pm
I do this as well. Also works well on my Hunter for the single-target poison cure and my LM for power pushing.
I’ve even set it up so that, while in a 12-man, the hotbar is down the middle of the two fellowship panels so that it’s easily in reach even with the extra numbers.
January 28, 2011 at 12:58 pm
I actually play on a laptop most of the time, so I am forced to use the Keyboard for navigation. This helps to explain why I am always falling off the bridges in GS and Rivendale (hate that city). When I have a major gaming session, I will hook up a mouse and full size keyboard, but I can’t get used to mouse navigation. Thanks for this article, I finally understand why I have such a hard time keeping up with my group while navigating winding stairways. Obviously most are using Mouse navigation which definately improves their mobility.
It is good enough for me, and I expect to get creamed in the Moors.
January 28, 2011 at 1:21 pm
The mapping arrow keys to CJs is a great idea. Why didn’t I think of that? I hate it when I waste time wiggling my mouse around trying to find where the darn cursor went.
And hey, that’s my keyboard in the picture!
January 28, 2011 at 1:21 pm
When I use the up/down/left/right keys for conjunctions I still have to use the mouse if I am not on the target and the bullseye pops up. Is there a way to bind a key to automatically select the conj’d target? I can sometimes get away with tabbing through them but if we are doing dawn of the deep or something it a pain. I swear, the cursor is way too small at 1920×1200, they need to scale it or have an in game cursor finder!
January 28, 2011 at 1:27 pm
yes there is Mora! and I think most bind that function to the number 0 on the numpad since it’s right next to the arrows. The name of the function to map there is “fellowship skill assist”
January 28, 2011 at 1:46 pm
I think Elb missed a big part of the picture here, and that is to use both the keyboard and the mouse… one hand on each.
I use WASD along with the mouse for movement, and use my left-hand for hot keyed skills… 1 through 6 and F1 – F5. I tend to put my most used skills in those slots and anything left over, I use my mouse to activate.
Sort of a hybrid method… still get the speed of keyboard activation, with the advantages of mouse movement.
January 28, 2011 at 1:51 pm
It’s not missed I simply didn’t blatantly state it. it’s inherent in the nature of the pros and cons of each thing. I don’t always like to hit people in the face with things.
January 28, 2011 at 2:19 pm
My main is a Captain so that would work well Elb and matching that with what you set up Thurley, will pick things up too.
I guess for Raids I could put my heals in between the 2 groups and help with speed in that situation as well.
Thanks guys!
Oh I do also have my interupts on my champ and Captain mapped to a button on the side of my mouse. Since I did this I dont remember missing my time to clobber or “give em the ole boot” when it mattered.
January 28, 2011 at 2:24 pm
side mouse buttons are great for fast reaction skills like interrupts. Brilliant idea
January 31, 2011 at 9:41 am
I do this as well. I have a spot (quickslot bar 5, last position), that I set aside as my back button. On each character, I put whatever skill I’m going to be using the most there – for my mini It’s almost always bolster courage, on my lm, it’s either Blinding flash (mez), or wound cure. Right now, on my burg it’s stealth, but will probably swap to subtle stab once I start grouping more.
January 28, 2011 at 2:54 pm
I use both my mouse and keyboard, I tend to use hotkeys and G-keys while in group combat (instances) and just my mouse for general solo questing.
I have hotkeys set up on my mouse as well and I am running some plugins that make life easier too.
Here’s my setup
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/4956 for my keyboard.
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/mice/devices/7244 for my mouse.
With the VLC and the G-19 plugin I can also watch Lotr on my LCD screen on the keyboard while mining etc =D
January 28, 2011 at 3:33 pm
So, from reading this I’m gathering that I have been doing things the wrong way — or at least the inefficient way. I use WASD to move and the mouse for all of my skills. I have tried to maneuver with the mouse and, quite frankly, I can’t do it. I feel like I’m drunk (even when I’m not
). Although yes, moving with the keyboard does make things like stairs and bridges tricky. Anyway, since I’m not likely to go all-mouse — is there a good link to something that tells you how to map specific skills onto keyboard keys? I play on a laptop, so my key availability is limited.
January 28, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Dan, LOTRO makes it very easy. Just go into options and select keyboard layout.
You will want to scroll down to where you see the Hotbars (I don’t have it open, so I forget the terminonolgy). The first bar is preset to 1,2,3,4, etc. The second is set to Shift 1, 2, 3, etc. The third CTRL 123, and then Alt 123, but you can reassign any Hotbar or other skill to any key you want. Just click on the skil or hotbar that you want to change, and then the next key you hit will be changed to that. The defaults are pretty good. I always change the Auto Run, becuase that is set to a NumLock key which is not easy to do on a Laptop. Play around with the key settings to find one that fits for you.
January 28, 2011 at 5:44 pm
So, since this is a hardware related article, i would like to ask the elb
what graphic card i should buy for 1080p,8xaa and all at ultra settings.
I cant play lotro anymore with medium graphics, my 3850 is too slow to enjoy this game and roleplaying is not possible, since i have alot of the options disabled[distance draw etc..]
Thanks in advance.
6850/6870/6950 or GTX560 ?
January 28, 2011 at 8:31 pm
hmmm… I could seek this info out.. or hopefully someone with a similar setip and a capable card will speak up and let you know. I’ll keep an eye out for now
January 28, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Keyboard for hunters ftw! I love only using 6 buttons most of the time.
January 29, 2011 at 4:44 am
I found it difficult to use control key combinations (ctrl-1, ctrl-2 etc) whereas alt and shift combinations were much easier. It was just too much of a stretch to use my left hand’s little pinky, so I remapped the left windows key to ctrl. No I can use alt and control with me left hand’s thumb, and only shift for the left hand
January 29, 2011 at 8:34 pm
I use am a heavy mouse user for my skills. I have reorganized the skills on both my mains in order to make this as easy as possible. Putting groups of skills near each other and the most common skills or quick reaction skills, like on defeats, in the middle.
I highly recommend the Logitech G5 mouse. I have tried a few others, even the Rat 7. I found them much less accurate when making very small movements from button to button on my skill bar. The rat 7 was actually unusable for me.
I recommend the N52 game pad for the left hand. I use this for the basic move keys and vent speak, select nearest, next, auto run, etc. I then switch to the keyboard for typing.
I use the thumb button on the mouse to attack. So i can hit my pinky on my left hand to select nearest and then the thumb on the mouse to immediately engage the nearest target.
January 29, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Just to me clear i use the mouse with right button to turn around quickly, and center button to look around me, I don’t generally use the keys to move, other than go forward or back.
January 30, 2011 at 10:53 am
A nice follow up to the poll before!
I’m a combination user, favoring mouse over keyboard. As a champ, I have my main Fervour building skills on the most accessible hotkeys (1-3) which I can easily get from my keyboard. My mouse hits the other skills. In addition, for movement, I use the w-a-s-d and steer with my mouse.
January 31, 2011 at 5:56 am
http://theperegrine.com/product/ ‘Nuf said… i gots one!