Mouse Turners, How do you move? Honest confessions of a keyboard turner...

[Saregon]

Let's just get this out of the way, I'm a keyboard turner, always have been, and it must not hamper me too bad because I do pretty awesome in warzones. I can't help but keep thinking though how much more I could be melting faces as a mouse turner.

 

So, my question is, how are you moving your character as a mouse turner? Currently, I move forward, back, left, and right with the arrow keys, strafe with Q & E, tab target and use my number row for hotkeys (with shift and ctrl modifiers for extra skills). Are you moving by holding down both mouse buttons, or using WASD and mouse only to turn? Because I don't see how I could move with WASD and have enough fingers left for hotkeys (considering an entire hand's worth of fingers would be occupied by holding my mouse now for turning if I changed).

 

The main reason this is coming up is because I've been wanting to play a Balance Sage for quite awhile, but quit shorty after getting Force in Balance, because it's a "target area" skill, so I was constantly having to reach for my mouse to select where I wanted to lay down FiB and it got really annoying. So there you have it, hopefully now I can get some valuable feedback rather than trolls.

[KrittaB]

hold down right mouse button, use it to turn side to side. Hold down both buttons to move forward (or continue to use W like myself). Use A and D to strafe, and S to backpedal (though you never need to do this). Edited April 20, 2012 by KrittaB

[funkiestj]

you can't throw the huttball without a mouse either.

 

It kinda sucks that there is no way to do ranged AoEs with the keyboard but it is what it is.

 

I started out as a purely keyboard player (I naively thought the game designers would make the game playable this way) but switched to mouse when I learned the error of my ways.

 

I am a keybinding junkie who never has enough keys so I bought the Razer Naga mouse which has a 3x4 grid of thumb buttons that provide keys 1-12 (1 ... 9, 0, -, =) and, of course, great mouse resolution. This way I have the speed and flexibility of mouse turning and looking without losing 1/2 of my keybindings. It takes a while to get comfortable with the naga but it is worth it.

 

NOTE: you also can not play trooper / bounty hunter without the mouse as their best abilities are ranged AoE that require the mouse for targeting.

 

Now that I turn with the mouse and look up / down with it I wonder how I ever managed with both hands on the keyboard.

[ZeusThunder]

SWTOR has more buttons than any other MMO I've ever played, so I had to pick up a 12 side button gaming mouse to go along with my g13 keyboard.

I use one of the middle mouse buttons for strafing, and what the above poster said for other movement.

 

By the way, if you take the time too learn keyboard action and mouse move, you'll wonder why you never did this to begin with.

[hairlessOrphan]

Do you guys play shooters?

 

It's the best way to wean off keyboard turning and get used to looking around with the mouse.

 

At least, it was back in like 1998 when I first started using mouselook. That was, I think, Quake2? 3Wave CTF.

[RolyartNala]

So, my question is, how are you moving your character as a mouse turner?

I don't turn. I strafe while swiveling my mouse. It's a skill I picked up from first-person shooters, and it's much more precise and quick than turning. Admittedly, it took me months of practice to get good at it initially. All the same, I use A to strafe left, S to strafe right, and I invert the mouse so that pushing the mouse forward leans my facing down and pulling the mouse backward leans my facing up. By pressing A or S while simultaneously pushing my mouse to one side or the other, I maintain full run speed while instantly changing my heading. As I'm sure you've noticed, someone who is strafing can literally run rings around a keyboard turner faster than their toons can rotate.

[funkiestj]

also, for your left hand, unbind 'turn left' and 'turn right'. Some people also recommend unbinding 'backup'. I only have 3 movement keys on my left hand: forward, strafe left, strafe right.

[Lostpharoah]

Well I use a combination of both.. With the help of a G13 game pad..

The G13 has a mini thumb stick that ive mapped Forward, Back, Strafe left, Strafe right too. By doing this I can use the mouse to operate the camera and move if necessary (when I need to focus on key press's on the game pad) by holding down both the left and right mouse buttons.

Just relying on the mouse to move forces you to always run forward in the direction the camera is facing. Being a melee class, this is a serious draw back as I must be facing my target to engage combat actions. and being able to run backwards and strafe are major necessity's.

[Anzel]

I use a Belkin Nostromo n52 for my left hand (WASD) and a Razer SWTOR Mouse for my right hand (camera perspective and turning). I've been playing like this since the very first Nostromo n50. Works really really well... especially with all of the buttons on both devices mapped.

[Phunkmonkee]

Also a keyboard turner here... When I have tried to use the mouse to move, it feels ridiculously touchy / sensitive. I

 

I think console gaming has programed me that left hand is for movement, and right hand is for abilites / actions.

I find it difficult to switch between one method and the other when going from console to pc, and back

[hairlessOrphan]

Also (two-posting), to answer the OP's questions:

 

I have a 12-button mouse, too, but even without it I assign a thumb button to autorun. If you need a hotkey, it becomes second-nature to righthand autorun-lefthand hotkey-lefthand back to movement.

 

W forward, A and D to strafe, and I actually use my spacebar to back up (a holdover from my arena shooter days, when slamming on the brakes and reversing course was key). 1-6 and ZXCVB for hotkeys (each hotbar row has an unbound slot for out-of-combat stuff like quick travel). Q and E for prev/next target. R for assist, S for jump, F for uhhhh what the Hell does F do again...

[Saahh]

Right click turning, but most of the time, its strafing or a combo of both. I replace turn left and turn right with strafes. With mouse turning, running forward you can mouse look 180, activate a spell and return to forward in the span of a jump. Great for snaring followers without slowing down.

[lValiantl]

Yall are weird lol....

 

Unbind Q and E and use them for skills... Constantly hold down rightclick and pressing a and d while holding mouse still with right click held will make your character strafe left with a and right with d.

Simple...

 

And as for not enough key bindings, I get along playing my marauder with 1-4 bonded alt and shift modifiers

 

' x q e r f c middle mouse button and my 2 side mouse buttons with alt and shift modifiers.

 

You will have to change your interface bindings to something eles.

 

Sorry for the bad spelling, I'm posting this from my smartphone

Edited April 20, 2012 by lValiantl

[Felioats]

I hold the right mouse button to turn, as others have said.

 

Unlike most others, I have autorun bound to R so I can move forward without having to move my hands or stop what I'm doing. Yes, this unbinds "reply to tell/whisper," but I deal with it .

 

You'll quickly learn to round corners by holding the right mouse button to look around it and strafing with A or D.

[Felioats]

And don't let the haters get you down. I played Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, a shooter, as a keyboard turner and aimer. I got good enough to go into team matches 3 on 1 and come out with a 5:1 kill ratio.

[BayneD]

Yup, just like others have said...

 

1.) Set A and D keys to strafe, rather than turn.

 

2.) Hold the right mouse button down and move the mouse side to side.

[Raximillian]

Unbind Q and E, I use them to change my hotbar (Q - offensive skill hotbar, E - healing skill hotbar). I have A and D as strafe, and autorun with my middle mouse button. So I can run, and activate skills, and look behind me (and now target behind me with the camera change), all at the same time.

[Saregon]

Very nice replies actually, I'm surprised, I thought this would have been trollbait. Thanks for the feedback, pretty much confirmed what I thought I knew about mouse turning. I'm gonna have a lot of keybinding to redo and get used to, but I'm sure it'll be well worth it in the long run.

[Stugotz]

hold down right mouse button, use it to turn side to side. Hold down both buttons to move forward (or continue to use W like myself). Use A and D to strafe, and S to backpedal (though you never need to do this).

 

Same here.

[hairlessOrphan]

Very nice replies actually, I'm surprised, I thought this would have been trollbait. Thanks for the feedback, pretty much confirmed what I thought I knew about mouse turning. I'm gonna have a lot of keybinding to redo and get used to, but I'm sure it'll be well worth it in the long run.

 

As a pro-tip, if you're worried about not having enough fingers for keybinds:

 

Put the instant interrupts and reactionary or proc-dependent skills on hotkeys you can reach without stopping movement (either mouse buttons or whatever you can reach with your thumb).

 

Put your castables and channels on hotkeys that would impede movement (1234, usually).

 

That way hotkeys don't get in the way of moving unless you weren't going to move anyway.

[Felioats]

Also bind your stunbreaker to your middle mouse button. It's not a button you want to be fumbling for.

[hairlessOrphan]

Also bind your stunbreaker to your middle mouse button. It's not a button you want to be fumbling for.

 

I have a USB steering wheel, and I bound stunbreaker to the gas pedal. When I get CC'd I throw a hissyfit and stomp my foot until I can move again.

 

(kidding, but now i might do it)

[NinjaApacHe]

I play with an Xbox 360 joypsd mapped with Pinnacle Game Profiler., on the desk i have a nostromo and my g800 mouse too.

[Xeres-]

First you hold down the right mouse button and move your mouse to the left and right which then turns your character in that direction. Also the speed you move the mouse left and right also determines the speed your character turns.

 

As far as WSAD goes - I don't use W for forward. I hold down both mouse buttons to do that. S is backwards - A and D I map to strafe left and right respectively. As a melee character it's important for me to be facing my target always as I move so a combination of strafing and moving the mouse in the opposite direction you're strafing will allow you to move in a circular pattern while facing your target the whole time.

 

Back when I first started learning playing FPS games online (Quake) one of the things to help us newbies was learning how to circle-strafe. Basically we'd find something on the map to strafe circles around in both directions while keeping the target in the middle of our crosshair. It took a little time to get used to but worth it.

 

As far as keybinds go, I use a mouse with 6 buttons on it. Each of those buttons are bound to an ability. Also shift + the same 6 buttons are bound to other abilities. Alt + those same 6 buttons are bound to different abilities also. I'm able to hit the shift key with my left pinky and alt key with my left thumb rather easily. The result is 18 abilities bound without really having to move my hand off the A, S and D keys. It works for me.

 

My advice to you is, if you really want to learn to do this, get used to the movement first. It'll take practice but once you get it you'll love it. Everything after that will fall into place because you'll figure out something that works well for you.

[Felioats]

I have a USB steering wheel, and I bound stunbreaker to the gas pedal. When I get CC'd I throw a hissyfit and stomp my foot until I can move again.

 

(kidding, but now i might do it)

 

 

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