Overwhelmed with skills/Keys, Please Help!

[Paradox Reaper.7249]

for me this is an epic setupesdf for movementm5, w, q, t,r for attacksa is heal, z x c are utility, tab is eliteg is interact1,2,3,4,5 are profession skills.shift for dodgeand there aren't many keys at all.

[Lady Vanithy.6495]

@Paradox Reaper.7249 said:for me this is an epic setupesdf for movementm5, w, q, t,r for attacksa is heal, z x c are utility, tab is eliteg is interact1,2,3,4,5 are profession skills.shift for dodgeand there aren't many keys at all.

Get out of my head! This is almost my exact key setup. I moved all my movement keys years ago because small hands = short range and this freed up more keybinds.

[Paradox Reaper.7249]

this was inspired from commontate> @Lady Vanithy.6495 said:

@Paradox Reaper.7249 said:for me this is an epic setupesdf for movementm5, w, q, t,r for attacksa is heal, z x c are utility, tab is eliteg is interact1,2,3,4,5 are profession skills.shift for dodgeand there aren't many keys at all.

Get out of my head! This is almost my exact key setup. I moved all my movement keys years ago because small hands = short range and this freed up more keybinds.

[Paradox Reaper.7249]

and that setup is kinda betterbut esdf is weird as opposed to wasd

[Siodhachan.7235]

For the Elementalist I Don't use any of the number key for skills.I use Keys 1-4 to Switch Elements.wasd for movementQ Is for EliteE For HealThe Skills are a big change from most peoples SuggestionsR,F,C are your first three skills.Shift F and Shift C are you last two Skills.the Utility Skills are on T,G, and VDoing it this way your only using your pointer finger and its easy to reach all the keyswithout moving you hand away from the wasd keys.If you have a mouse with extra buttons, you can put things like mounts, special actions and I have the action camera, dodge and Targeting on there as well.

[Leo.3428]

@PowderedToastMan.6354 - As many said, elementalist is unforgiving - but so much fun once things start to sink in. Whenever you get back to the game and you feel overwhelmed, how about visiting lower level maps or the PvP training golems and taking your time to test your slot skills? When struggling to survive outnumbered it's easy to lose it and hit all the wrong keys - I know I do - so it's a good thing to practice slowly and put things together. Also, it's OK not to fully understand every skill you have equipped right off the bat, learning bit by bit on the fly is great too; that's what the 1-to-80 progression is made for, I believe.

[Mreddieeddie.8172]

Maybe a bit late for me to join this conversation, but I googled until I found this topic here on the forum because I sufferd the same issues and probably can help someone in the future with sharing my experiences in the game... :-) 

After reading through all the good suggestions and experimenting for my self a bit this week I came to the following button setup that feels very clean and intoitive (to me at least). I play Elementalist (tempest) + Revenant characters which both use quite a lot of buttons in a pretty fast pace. Therefore I waned to get rid of the 6 - 0 and f1 - f4 buttons but also wanted to incorporate a f5 + special action button for future sakes, and lastley I wanted to keep some of the basic setup buttons liek F to ineract and the x to mount button because I already have the muscle memmory for them atm.

After reading the setup above and doing some tweaks which made a bit more scence to the way I felt I like to play this is what I came up with sofar:  

1 to 5 for the normal attacks
shift 4 + 5 for utility 3 and 4
Mouse button 4 + 5 for Healing and Utility 1 
Mouse 3 (scroll wheel pressed) for Elite skill
I changed the f1 to 4 > into > E (f1) Shift E (f4) R (f2) Shift R (f3) --- Last is because of paying elementalist and I wanted to have E being Fire and Earth into 1 because to my brain that made a bit more scense :-)
Also had bound Shift 2 and Shift 3 to the regular 4 and 5 attacks, this creates on Elementalist(Staff) a very fluid effect of dropping 2AoE first and then 5AoE prety quick as a follow up (or vice versa) which felt prety neat to me when figuring that out. 

I even got the point where I was only using 123 + ER + WASD + SHIFT for the whole left side of the skillbar So I had all my Healing and Utiliy + Elite on my mouse (you need a mouse with a scrollbar pressable button and 2 extra buttons on the side, but i think those are hopefully better and cheaper to come by then the more expensive MMORPG Mouses).

Don't know if this will be the button layout i stick to but it felt like a little eureka moment and gives me the joy back to strat playing on my elementalist again (because I gave it up and started the Rev. in the hope it would be easier, which is is some cases but not in pressing a lot less buttons perse).

Hope this helps/inspires to explore some other options for playing! Because Ele's are awesome but if you just started playing the game for a few months like me not being used to the MMO genre there quite difficult to learn! Good luck and have fun!