Working out a good simple rotation?

[peteed]

I find it way too awkward to hit 6 onwards on my keyboard especially because it means moving my left hand off WADS making it impossible to move out of stuff quickly. As such most of the rotations on dulfy.net have too many abilities in them but most of them kinda rely on following the whole rotation to do much.

 

So yeah 6 onwards I end up having to click -_-

 

Not counting long CD's that i'd likely click anyway what would say a 5 button single target rotation for an arsenal merc be?

 

I know I won't do the best dmg but surely it's better to use less abilities and be able to move out of stuff to avoid death and use those few abilities well and easy than try using a few other abilities and die to the first aoe I can't move fram because my fingers aren't on the movement keys.

 

I also have carnage marauder but it has even more abilities so kinda gave up on it as a lost cause lol..

 

My sorc seems to only have like 6 abilities but 6th is lightning bolt and it ends up getting clicked my others are on CD alot so I end up using it more than the others but it's alot easier to remember a priority list if your bars are in the priority list order xD

[Ahrngrim]

Without buying extra 'Hardware, and more without a clue how to really reduce the numbers of abilities,

try using the Cursor Key or the mouse to move (left and right button at the same time).

[psandak]

A lightning sorc should only use five abilities regularly and a sixth at the start and rarely again (because other abilities refresh it)

1. Lightning bolt is your filler (the one you cast when all others are on CD)
   
2. Thundering Blast is cast on CD
   
3. Chaining Lightning on proc (instant cast)
   
4. Lightning Flash roughly on CD (to reduce cast time of Crushing Darkness)
   
5. Crushing Darkness is cast on CD
   
6. Affliction cast once and is refreshed by casting Crushing Darkness
   

 

I have listed the abilities in order of my keybinds

 

You only need three other slots for Polarity Shift (alacrity buff) , Recklessness (critical buff), and an adrenal and your full rotation is done (according to Dulfy). These three are on Alt+3,Alt+4,Alt+5.

 

Yes there are a handful of other situational abilities: Force Barrier, Static Barrier, Cloud Mind

 

And do what Ahrngrim suggests: mouse to move (left and right button at the same time)

[Erevan_Kindelar]

As Ahrngrim has said, pressing both mouse buttons at the same time will cause you to run forward, which frees up your left hand to roam across the keyboard. Also, in that mode, the mouse movement side-to-side controls the direction you run in and forward/back controls the pitch of the camera (above your head/behind you).

 

If that is too hard to get used to (I am not trying to be insulting here... some people find that a difficult control system to grasp), why not consider moving the movement keys from WASD to ESDF, RDFG or TFGH? Those options put your resting hand position closer to the center of the keyboard and open up a wider range of keys to use, depending on how large and dexterous your left hand is (no smutty jokes, please).

 

If those options are still not viable for you, then looking at some of the DPS classes would be my first suggestion - Imperial Agent - Sniper - Marksman (or the Republic equivalent, Smuggler - Gunslinger - Sharpshooter) has a relatively simple rotation that will get you up to decent DPS levels, and it only gets complicated if you start trying to Min-Max the class to get the last 10-15% DPS.

Alternatively, the healing classes (Sorcerer/Sage in particular) can have a relatively simple rotation, assuming that in a fight pretty much all you will do is heal. You will not be as effective as someone using the whole of their keyboard, but number keys 1-6, Q, E, R, F, G, \, Z, X, C, and V give you a total of 16 keys (14 if you want to use the Q and E keys for strafing) that you can press easily without leaving the relative safety of the WASD keys. That is more than adequate for most situations.

[realkashuX]

You could also try new keybindings... for example I am using 1-6, Mouse 3-5 (using a Steelseries Rival) + Q,E (never really used them for movement) and ^ (~ if you are using an american keyboard) that gives me exactly 12 keys for my main bar; for the 3 additional bars i use shift, alt and ctrl as modifiers.

[Halinalle]

Very easy rotation:

Lightning Sorcerer or Telekinetics Sage

Arsenal Mercenary or Gunnery Commando

 

Especially Arsenal/Gunnery has to be the easiest rotation in the game. In most basic version of rotation you only need 5 abilities. Of course you have a few other abilities to use like alacrity buff and resource wise very cheap DoT (Electro Net) but those have long cooldown or take quite a few GCDs to be used again.

 

I use keybindings that are very close to WASD.

Main bar 1 (12 slots): § (tilde on US keyboard, left from 1), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3, Alt+4, X, +

Main bar 2 (12 slots): Q, E, R, T, F, G, V

Utilities bar (12 slots): Alt+Q, Alt+W, Alt+E, Alt+A, Alt+S, Alt+D, Shift+Q, Shift+W, Shift+E, Shift+A, Shift+S, Shift+D

Non-combat bar (12 slots): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (all on keypad)

Random stuff bar (12 slots): no keybindings

Priority transport bar (12 slots): no keybindings

[peteed]

A lightning sorc should only use five abilities regularly and a sixth at the start and rarely again (because other abilities refresh it)

1. Lightning bolt is your filler (the one you cast when all others are on CD)
   
2. Thundering Blast is cast on CD
   
3. Chaining Lightning on proc (instant cast)
   
4. Lightning Flash roughly on CD (to reduce cast time of Crushing Darkness)
   
5. Crushing Darkness is cast on CD
   
6. Affliction cast once and is refreshed by casting Crushing Darkness
   

 

I have listed the abilities in order of my keybinds

 

You only need three other slots for Polarity Shift (alacrity buff) , Recklessness (critical buff), and an adrenal and your full rotation is done (according to Dulfy). These three are on Alt+3,Alt+4,Alt+5.

 

Yes there are a handful of other situational abilities: Force Barrier, Static Barrier, Cloud Mind

 

And do what Ahrngrim suggests: mouse to move (left and right button at the same time)

 

Ok my affliction doesn't get refreshed, my sorc is only 48 so that'd likely be why.

 

Very easy rotation:

Lightning Sorcerer or Telekinetics Sage

Arsenal Mercenary or Gunnery Commando

 

Especially Arsenal/Gunnery has to be the easiest rotation in the game. In most basic version of rotation you only need 5 abilities. Of course you have a few other abilities to use like alacrity buff and resource wise very cheap DoT (Electro Net) but those have long cooldown or take quite a few GCDs to be used again.

 

I use keybindings that are very close to WASD.

Main bar 1 (12 slots): § (tilde on US keyboard, left from 1), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3, Alt+4, X, +

Main bar 2 (12 slots): Q, E, R, T, F, G, V

Utilities bar (12 slots): Alt+Q, Alt+W, Alt+E, Alt+A, Alt+S, Alt+D, Shift+Q, Shift+W, Shift+E, Shift+A, Shift+S, Shift+D

Non-combat bar (12 slots): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (all on keypad)

Random stuff bar (12 slots): no keybindings

Priority transport bar (12 slots): no keybindings

 

Dulfy doesn't have a 5 button one but, it's more like 7 and before that list comes into play they have an opener listing for the first like 30 secs of a fight that's even more complex.

Edited July 31, 2016 by peteed

[Halinalle]

Ok my affliction doesn't get refreshed, my sorc is only 48 so that'd likely be why.

 

That's because you get it at level 60. It's not just Crushing Darkness that will refresh it but also Chain Lightning will do the same. So basically you will never have to refresh it yourself if you don't have to change target.

 

Dulfy doesn't have a 5 button one but, it's more like 7 and before that list comes into play they have an opener listing for the first like 30 secs of a fight that's even more complex.

 

This is very basic: 4 buttons (you can do this rotation after level 40)

I even stop to think what to press next because those other abilities are so tempting.

SM ops geared with three 204 armorings.

 

Funny part is: that's 4,4k dps with my current gear. SM ops only require something like 2,5k dps per damage dealer.

Exact parse from that video: http://parsely.io/parser/view/193897

 

Unless you're doing HM/NiM operations you don't have to look too much into it. Those guides are aimed at players who do HM/NiM content. You can take some points here and there but don't think those are ultimate guides for new player.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Halinalle

[JediQuaker]

I know I won't do the best dmg but surely it's better to use less abilities and be able to move out of stuff to avoid death and use those few abilities well and easy than try using a few other abilities and die to the first aoe I can't move fram because my fingers aren't on the movement keys.

I agree. You'll find that the rotations on Dulfy's and other places are designed to get the absolute maximum dps as possible. You'll also find that getting the absolute possible dps in most cases makes very little difference, except in extreme cases like NM OPs. For most cases, doing less than optimum dps only means a few extra seconds of time to complete a battle, or task.

You need to find yourself some people to play with who are not so "leet" that minor differences matter to them.

Edited July 31, 2016 by JediQuaker