Blizzard has locked people with hand issues from most roles

Community General Discussion
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My experience trying to find a spec I can play without pain and few options for people in similar situation.

With every expansion its getting harder to find something I can play, classes are getting faster and ability bloated hurting my hands. Ive spent at least a week trying to find something, but seems that most roles are impossible without pain and WoW is the only game doing this to me. In WotLK i can play about any class, here im trying to find a single spec. At this point it seems that this will be my last wow expansion if they dont change skill and talent system to something i can actually use.

First - pain is caused by having to spam too fast or doing more complex constant movements especially with modifiers. Rarely pressing modifiers is fine, but at certain activity level pain sets in and only gets worse. Seeing how issues i had in WotLK and now in WotLK classic are same I dont think its my hand thats getting worse.

Comfortable keybinds - 1~5 qerf, and even then it gets painful if i have to use all of them every few seconds.
6, t, g, shift + 1~5 qerf, for abilities that you generally dont use often.
100$ mmo mouse for a game i play few months a year and is bad for other games isnt a good option
id rather not use those macros that are often suggested as i do want to play the class
hold to cast was an awesome addition and helps a lot when it works.

I havent played all specs, but at this point i have tested most. DF has made it worse as the new talent tree punishes not taking active abilities and they are either mandatory or they are so much more powerful than passive options that passive isnt an option.

Tanks have always been on the fast side, even on wotlk paladin causes issues on longer chain runs and I wouldnt want to tank a raid on one. In Shadowlands paladin was torture, but I did play Vengeance for some time, at some points it got a bit uncomfortable but was manageable, in the end i decided not to tank anymore.

Havent healed before, but because of my hand issues i tried it in WotLK and it seemed nice and relaxing, but in DF healing seems to be much more complicated and expected to help with damage, so too many keybinds(dps+heal) = hand pain.

Melee dps are either too fast or too many binds that combined with constant movement kills my hands really fast, havoc and fury is a pain, from reading outlaw and ww seems to be as bad if not worse, ret and arms have too many abilities in rotation to find comfortable keybinds for all of them.

That leaves only ranged dps, but most have same issue of bloated rotations that simply have too many active abilities to bind all on keys i can use for longer time without hand issues. for example MM, often recommended for slower pace, at 60 is fine, but at 70 you have 3 mandatory active abilities steel trap, chakram and explosive, that are used often enough to need comfortable keybinds, but there are no more easily accessible ones.

In the end the only classes I can play seem to be frost mage and devastation, will test arcane, though it seems to have a few too many abilities.

I understand some people want to play fast and complex specs and Blizzard wants to add more abilities, but maybe add new specs for those abilities or give decent passive options for those who cant play them.

TL;DR - add decent passive alternatives to skills and make slower specs.

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Sounds like most of your problems come from you refusing to use the solutions provided.

Though I’d like a feature that lets us press and hold the next ability instead of trying to snipe the spell queue. From what I’ve seen people don’t even try to time it, they just spam the next button.

(yes, I know DF has the press and hold for repeating the same spell, I’m talking about using different ones as well as melee abilities)

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You can drag and drop spells onto this addon box and bind it to mouse scroll or any other key - could make things easier maybe?

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/rotacast#:~:text=RotaCast%20is%20a%20powerful%20and,simple%20as%20drag%20and%20drop!

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Mousewheel, mb5, shift+mb5/mb4 is comfortable for me. There are plenty of gaming mouses im stores and online made for this.

Which is mousewheel up, mousewheel down, shift+mwu, shift+mwd

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Thanks, but I dont want addon playing in my place, this seems to be similar to old one button castequence macros.

I want blizzard to increase variety of gameplay instead of a tool to get around bad design. i want to still press my buttons but a pace my hands can manage. I doubt im the only one who loved simpler times of smth like WotLK when game didnt require weakauras and gaming mice to play. There are many improvements in retail, Im not saying everything was better, but wow was more relaxing then.

Giving better alternative passive options at some 90% power of active abilities would make game better, with Demons bite/blades, fury annihilation, warlocks mayhem/havoc being great examples.

i have g502 but i prefer to use those 4 extra buttons with modifiers for mounts, movement abilities, buff etc. not rotation

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Have you tried demon hunter? it’s just really easy to play and it’s very strong. however simple compared to something like paladin. because here I press 3-4 keys most of the time.
Of course you have to brainlessly spam skills here.

wow is now as bad as embarrassing diablo3. where i have to bang on the keys like a robot senseless and brainless. but if you have written a macro, you can play this embarrassing game with your foot and just move the mouse…

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Trying Havoc is a reason im taking a break from wow for a few hours :grin:

I would love to play it but APM is too high, its tied with Fury for top classes i would love to play if not for my hand issues. Both APM and complex rotations with many buttons hurt.

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Or from blizzard’s lazy game design to not optimise their classes to modern standards without button bloat :wink:

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If you always use the same spells together then use a macro. If not, then it’s not bloating but choice and control.

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No, that makes zero sense. We have sometimes 2-3 different buttons for the same damage profile with both being builders/spenders. Some classes haven’t seen an update for years in that aspect. Think of stuff like fireball - Pyroblast - scorch. They all do the same thing with slightly different functions. It’s useless. Rogue is one of the worst offenders in that regard with lots of different finishers, that do almost the same thing, but it varies with stuff like procs or passives. Monk also has some inefficiencies with useless buttons. DK has almost the same abilities as in wotlk with many additions. It’s very stupidly designed sometimes.

The worst of the worst class in that regard is obviousely feral druid though

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yeah they leave redundant old abilities while adding more new ones, either add new spec with new abilities or remove old ones

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Then…pick one of each and ignore the rest.

Did I just solve the million dollar problem?

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what about casters?.. some fo the more hardcasting classes tend to spam a awful lot less.

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As someone who had to stop playing fury due to hand pain but has no issues playing windwalker, I am curious to know where you have been reading about monks.

If you want to avoid having hand pain then maybe it is time to spread your rotation across both hands and stick some of your rotational abilities on your mouse. Or switch to using a gamepad, invest in some foot pedals, etc.

Such as?

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I’ve had severe hand cramp problems with WoW recently as well. It’s not new, but it keeps getting worse like you say.

Here are a few silly tricks:

  1. Use caps and s as keybinds
  2. frequently pressed spells should never use a modifier
  3. keep re-arranging binds until it no longer hurts. Ignore logic, just move it.
  4. if you spam one button a lot give it multiple binds.

Non-binding tricks:

  1. buy an ambidextrous mouse for work and use your left hand
  2. take frequent breaks. Don’t try to eg do world quests between M+
  3. keep your mouse in front of your keyboard, not on its side, unless you need high precision. This is good for work or dailies etc.

Of course it shouldn’t have to be like this. I can play Classic for 10 hours with no ill effects. But still, you can try to fix it a little.

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Reverse Harm, chi wave, vivify are 3 healing spells, that do the same thing.
Spinning crane kick, Fists of Fury, Bonedust brew, WDP, chi burst, white tiger statue all do a very similar thing. There’s no need to have this many aoe abilities.
Then you have like 4-5 defensives, that also do similar things, and seem unnecessary, or they could be summarized into some passives and 1-2 actives. There are more inefficiencies, but I think that’s enough for the start.
Now imagine the one class, that has to micro manage pets the most except maybe BM hunter, has one of the biggest amounts of useless keybind bloat (warlock).

Like, why the f did the devs introduce evokers, when they have classes with pre 2009 stone age dinosaur game philosophy

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they are generally easier on hands, with devastation and frost being best so far, but others have issue with ability bloat and/or use pets/summons, that i just personally dislike, but are an option for others with hand issues

I havent played monk recently, but many forum/reddit threads said that WW monk is much faster in DF and it does have a lot of abilities, that generally mean pain for me, but may try it

about mouse binds ive tried parts of rotation on mouse, it doesnt work for me, can use for taunts, ranged pulls, blinks, charges, shields etc. but not active rotation

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As someone has mentioned a foot-pedal maybe useful, you can make one from an old keyboard.
I struggled with using modifier keys, so I got an old keyboard, removed all the keys except for the left Ctrl key and the right Shift key and plugged it into a spare USB port. It has been a big help for me, although it’s more of a Toe-pedal rather than Foot-pedal!

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I also have hand issues that prevent me from approaching games the way most people do. Some games I simply cannot play.

I don’t think you’re going to find the solution you want from Blizzard because frankly they’re not going to change how the game works for such a tiny amount of people, especially when most players are happy with how the game is. Certainly they’re not going to be considering this any time soon given DF is the first successful expansion in a very long time.

You’re going to have to find solutions yourself, be that with add-ons, keyboards, mouse, pedals, and non-medicated pain management (I assume you’re already on medication) such as a tens machine, supports and splints. Also having a good chair and desk can go a very long way.

You may also need to face the fact that you may not be able to play the way you want. I have had to. I used to be a hardcore raider and I loved it. But now there is no way I can put in the hours nor trust my hands to be able to move the way I need them to. Not going to lie, coming to terms with that was awful and there are still moments when I’m so angry with my body for being the way it is. But I have since learned to better manage my expectations so now I can accept that while I would love to be great again, being merely adequate is perfectly okay.

I completely changed the way I play since my hands became very bad. My keybinds from back when I did hardcore raiding are completely different to now. What I have essentially done is make keybinds that require as little finger movement as possible, and let my hand that is using the mouse do movement a lot to give my keybind hand a break (if you press both mouse buttons you can move and steer with the mouse). I also cannot bind everything. It is impossible. So I click things I don’t use very often whether they have a super long cd, or have a very niche use. Adjusting to playing a new way took a very long time to get used to and to get it right. There was a tremendous amount of trial and error.

I cannot use a gaming mouse or a normal mouse. I use a vertical mouse. It’s a type of ergonomic mouse that for me is the difference between being able to game and not game at all. Mine has two extra buttons. They’re actually pretty cheap. You can get a decent one for £10 to £25 on Amazon. Anker have wireless and wired models.

I’m sorry I cannot help you aside from showing that you’re not alone, and that I presented the harsh reality that what you want from the game isn’t going to happen. But that’s just how it is sometimes when you have physical limitations. You either come up with creative solutions to make things work, or accept you have to do less or drop the activity altogether. It sucks. I hope you find a way to make your game experience much better.

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I believe there are quite a few people who would enjoy simpler gameplay, classic showed it, beginners, people who simply want to chill or hate certain abilities, who want to spend time chatting with friends/family instead of mastering complex rotations.

My hands are quite good compared to what You describe, I only get issues with long and active WoW sessions and in skill training sessions with motorcycle, where I have to use heavy clutch a lot. Since stretching fingers does help, my problem might be be from computer use, not something more serious.

In some reddit thread I saw Razer Tartarus/logitech g13 mentioned as a suggestion, seems to be much more comfortable, for me it isnt worth it as I play wow a month or 2 a year, but maybe it can help You.

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