Ive always been a clicker and a default UI guy. I am also a solo shuffle healer for my sins. The last few weeks ive made a real effort to learn to keybind and install the correct addons because I desperately wanted the elite evoker set this season but realistically i need way more practice.
Ive followed guides and watched videos to set up my addons to where i am happy (although setting this up for multiple classes and specs has been a drag).
Ive got weakauras set up but its just more clutter on my screen that i need to keep track of.
Ive set up key binds for all my healers and ive practiced on dummies.
So feeling like i had it down i jumped into a bg (just a normal non rated one) and boy did i feel like a noob. I was all over the place i couldnt get used to mouse over healing, i couldnt keep my eye on my positioning and i have a total of 34 keybinds and i keep getting lost and mashing the wrong keys. I found strafing a pain and i often just ran into enemies. I eventually got flamed in chat and i straight up quit.
Now i am extremely disheartened and overwhelmed. Tonight when i logged on it felt more like a chore than fun so i just logged out and played another game.
I dont think ill ever be able to get this down theres just so much on the screen. I hid the weakauras and just showed my action bars and i spent more time looking at those than when i did clicking. How am i ever going to track cooldown and drs in arena if i can function normally lol.
Can anyone offer advice. I feel like i should quiet the game before i sicken myself.
As a lazy person I didnt read the entire post but also as a very lazy person let me tell you that for 15 years (2,2 k casual gamin) i can tell you this:
Yes, keybindings and UI updating is extremely annoying in the begining, once you get the hang of it its just another day tweaking your UI while sippin’ coffee.
Sometimes i even find it fun to program macros. Can you freaking believe it ?
So doing keybinds and macros is not so scary just do it- otherwise you risk being like me 15 years struggle doing everything the hard way instead of chilling your way to the top.
Try to approach keybinds logically:
which are your movement keys: AWD OR QWE (advice: unbind S and just put something neat there, you dont need to backpaddle unless you’re a rogue)
Next: comfortable arena targeting or /focus macros (or both) for me I use mouse scroll for arena1 (up) arena2 (down) arena 3 (scroll press in).
I also use ctrl + scroll up down and in for other /focus actions for when im in battlegrounds and i need to /focus mouseover somebody or nail the simplest /focus on my target that im about to change yet i’d like to keep track of.
Next step is to look at your spells and have a good grasp on which abilities you want fast reaction to. This is quite subjective yet theres some common logic/sense to it:
make sure you bind your Interrupt and CC spells on a fast and easy to reach keys depending which movement key style you choose these keys are QERTFGVB.
another epic thing to do is : buy an multibutton mouse and keybind 3 nonglobal cds on it + arena123 interrupt to it.
Another advice is:
use more modifier key macros and phisically remove your windows key to have access to alt - i use alt mostly for selfhealing or some minor stuff but ana extra modifier keybind is an extra modifier keybind.
Alright so this has probably been a lot to take in, now how do you do all of this:
make a plan. like actually sit down with yourself and nail down each keybinds and why it is in this possition.
put 3 new keybinds every 3 days.
once you get used to these keybinds look for flaws in this build - some flaws are there to stay, after all you’re not a squid. However keybinds 95% of the time can be improved further.
Improve keybinds
reapeat.
This process will take you from a month up to 5-6 months.
But it will be worth it and you will bare the fruit of your accomplishments.
As a bonus all of this stress on the brain is actually healthy for you cognitive and motor skills so try to enjoy the process.
As for the addons just start with Diminish Bigdebuffs and maybe SArena or Gladius.
You have had many months to improve and get comfortable with key binds and your UI. Why are you only starting now that the season is basically over? At your skill level you won’t be able to brute-force 1.800, especially as a healer.
Can anyone offer advice. I feel like i should quiet the game before i sicken myself.
My advice is that you should try to improve step by step. You have been playing the game for many years, yet you have refused to adjust your gameplay to current standards (clicking & default UI). If I were in your shoes, I would forget about the elite set for now and prepare for the next season.
As it was mentioned before add a lil bit every time, first short cd skills last long cd skills ( thats how I did )
Addons same, add them slowly once you get use to 1 addon, add next one.
But yes, all those addons, keybinds,macros are just annoying and a lot just quit pvp after they find out about extra keybinds and addons ect.