Skill clicking is not the key(board)

[Khisanth.2948]

9 minutes ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

How many professions do you have Keybinds setup for?  One of the issues I have run into is optimized keyboard layout for one build doesn’t always translate well to another profession build. Is there a way to have per character/per build keyboard layouts?  

Only need one set up for all professions and multiple builds of each. It is just mostly a matter of muscle memory. Depending on severity of changes and how much I am playing the character it takes me anywhere from 2 days to a week to adjust.

I did get rid of capslock and turned it into F5 so that is probably more more conveniently available key than most.

[Vayne.8563]

As a person who was once (many years ago) a clicker and also a keyboard turner instead of a mouse turner, I broke the habit probably about 12 years ago.  There are people who are very very good at clicking and can get an approximation of success by clicking but I seriously doubt they'll ever be top players. Which is fine. But people should be aware that clicking is more efficient than using a mouse to click skills, just as mouse turning is faster than keyboard turning, no matter how much you like it or think you can't change.

My gameplay improved immensely when I learned how to press keys instread of click and when I learned how to mouse turn instead of keyboard turning, back in Guild Wars 1 days.  It's objectively better. It doesn't mean anyone has to do it, but it does mean you may find harder content more difficult than it needs to be.  For me, and only me, it was worth the investment of learning to use my keybinds better, and also buying a gaming mouse. YMMV.

[Khisanth.2948]

6 minutes ago, Parasite.5389 said:

also, skill clicking a ground targetted skill, drops the target on your feet, this is incredibly useful if you're trying to drop wells on your party in group contents, especially for classes like Specter.

That is doable with any method. Just need to have the cursor over part of the UI

[Randulf.7614]

I’m a proficient skill clicker so throw me onto those metrics of yours

[Ashantara.8731]

3 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

I cringe a bit when I see a streamer or someone on youtube click skills potentially judging/reviewing the game. You kinda expect reviewer to know how to play.

The arrogance!

I'm mostly a clicker (except for movement, dodges, auto-attack, target swapping, and weapon swapping etc) and I am doing endgame content with ease (even CMs, or the Liadri 8-orbs achievement).

Just because you function differently doesn't mean everyone who clicks skills is a noob.
 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

I'm gonna click all my skills from now on and there is nothing you can do to stop me O_O

[Padrion.7382]

There are Games that work quite well with clicking, like world of Warcraft. After 10 minutes in GW2 I realised this is not one of them. It's like playing piano with your feet, really.

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 hours ago, Parasite.5389 said:

no... this IS your opinion

also, skill clicking a ground targetted skill, drops the target on your feet, this is incredibly useful if you're trying to drop wells on your party in group contents, especially for classes like Specter.

No, it's not an opinion. Keybinds are objectively faster than clicking.  You can do the same with keybinds in settings to drop where your cursor is located.

That's not a judgment call.  I don't care how you play and some clickers are better players than those who keybind.  But facts are facts.

[Silent.6137]

2 hours ago, Parasite.5389 said:

also, skill clicking a ground targetted skill, drops the target on your feet, this is incredibly useful if you're trying to drop wells on your party in group contents, especially for classes like Specter.

 

2 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

That is doable with any method. Just need to have the cursor over part of the UI

What Khisanth said. I just push cursor to the minimap (any UI will work: Chat panel, Options at top, Skill bar, Event Assistants, Squad UI, etc) and targets will always be at your feet.

[A Hamster.2580]

Skill clicking puts too much pressure on my right hand developing into wrist problems. Kudos to those that can do it in competitive content. But as you get older, I imagine you would want to balance the pressure evenly between both hands (assuming you have two functional hands).

[Silent.6137]

11 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

That's not a judgment call.  I don't care how you play and some clickers are better players than those who keybind.  But facts are facts.

Agreed. Moving cursor to selected weapon/utility skills and clicking involves 2 separate actions whereas using a keybind only uses 1 action.

----

There may be those who are more comfortable playing when they can see what is clicked rather than rely on and remembering what keys are bound to which actions.

[Randulf.7614]

1 minute ago, Silent.6137 said:

Agreed. Moving cursor to selected weapon/utility skills and clicking involves 2 separate actions whereas using a keybind only uses 1 action.

----

There may be those who are more comfortable playing when they can see what is clicked rather than rely on and remembering what keys are bound to which actions.

It’s a learning thing. Sure, I could keybind more, but I’d have to retrain my fingers and my brain out of twenty of years of clicking habits. I really can’t be bothered to interrupt my limited gaming time to spend months growing a new habit and get used to new keybinds to do what I’m already doing at a fraction of a second faster.

The gain isn’t noticeable enough for me to bother with compared to say the jump from keyboard to mouse turning which is a game changer (like moving from controller to mouse in fps and just… realising)

Whilst sometimes I’ll use skill number keys or F keys in hybrid to clicking, I could never fully convert - esp at my age. It’s not going to make the game any better for me personally.

Next you guys will tell me I shouldn’t be double tapping a direction to dodge 😉😉

[Lamont.5973]

Just throwing this out there.  This topic began by discussion streamer using mouse clicks.  They may be doing that intentionally while streaming in order to make it a bit clearer to the watcher which skills are being used and when.  Yes, it slows gameplay but that can be an advantage when watching a video and trying to follow the sequence on screen

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I'm a weird one myself.  I have a hybrid style where I both mouse-click some skills (usually the F buttons) and have keybinds for the others.  I've been doing this a lot for mesmers lately, because the restoration of distortion means years of muscle memory are now obsolete.  I'll also mouse my skills when I'm forced into an elaborate movement that requires constant button presses, or if my cat pins one of my arms down in a way that makes the keyboard inaccessible.  Ill also play the game mouse-only if I have a bad fibro trip that day.

It took quite awhile to learn this.  Back when I played City of Heroes, I used the mouse exclusively for skills, because those skills had longer animations, cooldowns, and fixed accuracy/area checks.  There "dodge" was a stat, not a button to press.  

[T G.7496]

Usually all that's necessary in this game is a quick roll of the face over keyboard.

But thanks for reminding me that I can click skills.

To return the favour, holding both mouse buttons to run makes it easier to drink your coffee.

[Randulf.7614]

5 hours ago, T G.7496 said:

Usually all that's necessary in this game is a quick roll of the face over keyboard.

But thanks for reminding me that I can click skills.

To return the favour, holding both mouse buttons to run makes it easier to drink your coffee.

Even better, keybind auto run, free both hands and have a cookie too!

Edited October 28, 2022 by Randulf.7614

[Moradorin.6217]

21 hours ago, kaese.8765 said:

I've noticed while watching streams people are clicking their skills instead of using keybinds. Those people looked very overwhelmed in endgame content (fractals, raids, strikes). In my opinion skill clicking is very ineffective because you lose a lot reactive capabilities. So how common is skill clicking?

Yes for some, no for others. It depends on the player the bindings they are conditioned to use, the players vision and physical capabilities are also factors as well as equipment. I am a clicker (w mouse on skills) some of the time, and I also have keybinds on my RPG mouse for heal, elite, SAK, attack, change target, target nearest, and 2-4 + 7-9 and various bindings for mounts, etc. I use bindings allot, but on some builds (ground targeting comes to mind) I always do a combination of the 2. Also some times if I can spare the hand I like to use the mouse to time things because when I hit a keystroke I find I cannot rely on it (or mouse I guess kinda) and some times have to hit they key a few times before the skill action happens. Furthermore, I can easily picture other players like myself who are used to moving a mouse around quickly all day and feel comfortable with that or people who cannot manpipulate fingers to keybindings as fast as they can move a cursor to a screen box and click or what ever.  Im not gona try to assert which is fastest over all because that isnt really what matters. What matters is what works for each person. It never hurts tho to offer to show people a way you like better to see if maybe they will too. However, I wouldn't assume that means its best for everyone.

[Cuks.8241]

17 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

The arrogance!

I'm mostly a clicker (except for movement, dodges, auto-attack, target swapping, and weapon swapping etc) and I am doing endgame content with ease (even CMs, or the Liadri 8-orbs achievement).

Just because you function differently doesn't mean everyone who clicks skills is a noob.
 

Well you should have read my second paragraph where I stated that some players get very proficient with clicking. Someone being very good at the game (clearing hard content) and clicking is actually most likely highly skilled. It is in a way gimping yourself. I would definitely recommend to that player that immediately switches to full binds and enables fast skill release if he is interested in improvement. You would probably get used to it very fast and your potential would increase dramatically. It really just takes a couple of hours of self discipline. 

Still I wouldnt watch someone playing a game unless he is very good at it. But this is not so much aimed at gw2 which I never watch anyway but at more competitive games.

Also when I talk about being skilled or good at the game I mean pvp. Pve doesnt matter that much since its scripted, learning patterns. The required response times are much slower and since its scripted your eyes dont need to be on the action all the time and responding. Or better said you can learn, predict what will happen next. Something you can never do in pvp with nearly as much accuracy.

In the end I dont really care how anyone plays and how skilled he is and its also a casual mmo which is already not a competitive genre. 

But I would say that getting used to binds is not only about being fast and skilled. Its also more fun and engaging to play. You can keep your eyes much more on the action and less on the bars. You need much less input effort so you can either relax more or invest that extra attention to something else.

 

[Rauderi.8706]

20 hours ago, Lamont.5973 said:

This topic began by discussion streamer using mouse clicks.  

 

Gonna be fair here. The topic started by someone not minding one's own business. 

[Cynder.2509]

On 10/27/2022 at 8:09 PM, kaese.8765 said:

I've noticed while watching streams people are clicking their skills instead of using keybinds. Those people looked very overwhelmed in endgame content (fractals, raids, strikes). In my opinion skill clicking is very ineffective because you lose a lot reactive capabilities. So how common is skill clicking?

I did that a lot before I got a mouse with 12 side buttons because I have a motoric disability taht easily causes painful cramping with my hands and it was much faster and less pain inducing for me back then. 
Before that I only could play like maybe 30 minutes before needing to rest my hands when playing "normally". The pain was just too great for me and I also lost a lot of time looking at the keyboard trying to figure out the right keys as I also have a problem with hand eye coordination unfortunately. 

[Ariurotl.3718]

When I get into a sticky situation in the game, I'm not sure my being paralyzed in fear would benefit much from keybinds.

[Silent.6137]

On 10/27/2022 at 6:13 PM, Randulf.7614 said:

Next you guys will tell me I shouldn’t be double tapping a direction to dodge 😉😉

You shouldn't be double-tapping a direction to dodge! 😁

Actually BlishHUD has a module that enable keybinding for dodge-jump. Just a single key and done.

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Silent.6137

[Randulf.7614]

1 minute ago, Silent.6137 said:

You shouldn't be double-tapping a direction to dodge! 😁

Actually BlishHud jas a module that enable keybinding for dodge-jump. Just a single key and done.

 

 

I have a great multi-key bind for dodge jump. W, W, Spacebar.

Perfect!

[Labjax.2465]

My understanding of it is on average, keybinds tend to raise the skill floor, to put it one way, compared to if everybody is clicking, the gap will be bigger. It's def not black and white though. Like I've known people who can do just as well or better than other skilled players and click. Meanwhile, I have a hand tremor that gets worse under stress, so I need keybinds to play skillfully.

[robertthebard.8150]

21 hours ago, T G.7496 said:

Usually all that's necessary in this game is a quick roll of the face over keyboard.

But thanks for reminding me that I can click skills.

To return the favour, holding both mouse buttons to run makes it easier to drink your coffee.

Truth.  I use both mouse buttons to run for that exact reason.  🤣