Switching between Players(healing)!

I am new to monking and am wondering if some people have any tips when in battle on switching between players quickly? I just use the mouse now and click on the player , then click on the skill. I know I could just choose the skill by number, but was wondering if there was a way to press a button and go through the players?

You can do this, by binding the keys. Though mouse is considered by many to be the best way of switching between players. As it generally allows for you you to kite (run away) more easily. Simply using the numbers helps a good bit, by this I mean for choosing the skills.

Here's another thread about this; look at point #2 of the original poster and the responses. Hope it helps. Basically I think you should try both binding and mousing and see which suits you better. Personally I find mousing to be more effective; others will disagree. Using your own style will ultimately let you play at your best, not someone else's. Good luck!

Most effective way IMO is to use the mouse to click on those little red bars, while you use the left hand to click the number of the skill you want to use. This is easy for a Spike Heal monk, Just make the 5 energy heals all in finger reach. (orision, word of healing, etheral light) Boon is a little more difficult and will take more practice. Just learn your skills and where your fingers are at all times.

I would suggest actually designing your interface in such a way that benefits your monking.

Here is mine.(well an old one)



The upkeep and party bar are close together as are the weapon switches.

This helps with dealing with e-denial and migraine mesmers etc efficiently as I can do all those things in the same area with my mouse.

You can probably guess I have been playing active prot in HA and so the skills 1-4 are my most used. Prot spirit isnt spammable but its on number two in case i need to use it quickly.

Sam

Very well done.

Brother Gilburt

i agree that the mouse is probably the easiest, however ive never felt the need to change my interface other then getting rid of the new popups on factions, but i see no problem witht he mouse, it helps you with kiting, i just use the numbers for my skills.

i agree dag on switch around ur screen but w/e its ur way...id do have to say urs looks a little clusted

I have my skill bar up against my party window (vertical). This means if you are using your mouse to activate skills (5-8 in particular) your mouse does not have far to go. However, there is another method I recommend which takes much getting used to, but I believe the payoff in speed is worth the week you'll spend floundering.

Set skills 5-8 as Q,W,E, and R. Set weapon sets 1-4 as A,S,D,F. That way you never have to reach very far to activate anything. This requires you use the mouse to move, which also takes some getting used to. Try it out, you might hate it, you might love it.

Other than changing the size of the chat log, i haven't touched the original defaults. It may be because i'm use to them, but having the effects bar out of the way is alot better than having it dead centre of your view, the chances are you'll get distracted more by the sudden flashing of hexes/enchantments than anything. Things like the Compass/Radar need to be out of the way imo.

It is possible to set the numbers to correspond to your party members. But it means that if you accidently press the wrong button then use a skill, your healing the wrong person, as oppose to healing the right person with the wrong skill.

Quote:

I rely heavily on my mouse when monking, and as the default interface stands that means a lot of "Real Estate" I would have to traverse to select a player and then click on a skill. So I edited my interface in the following fashion (since I am at work I can not actually post a pic - sorry).

I made my skill bar vertical and then I placed it on the right side of the screen, just left of the party display (health bars). So I have Rof/Mending/Gaurdian right next to the 4 party (For TA) player list; while the rest of my skills are of course towards the bottom, CoP Divne Boon, MoR...

This has translated into quick reaction time, since the distance between skills and players to select is less than an inch apart now. I also moved effects to the upper center portion of my screen, because like Pah01 stated you need to know what is being casted on you at all times.

I use the 10-key (number pad to the far right on keyboard) for selecting players and the number pad across the top for skills. skills 1-4 are my most commonly used. While I do sometimes fumble and heal the wrong person, I find this way much more comfortable for me (as opposed to mousing). I also use the standard AWSD for walking (instead of mousing).

To each his own.

The only issue that i've ever had with binding people to the numerical key pad, is that kiting becomes more akward. Hell by moving the party box closer and using the top number keys for skill selection you pretty much get the best of both worlds.

I have the party box and skill bar in the default locations and select party members with the mouse by using the lifebars and cast using number keys. I move with WASD.

To you who map skills to letters, how do you move? I use all 9 of the movement/camera keys (QWEASDZXC).

Finally, when moving and casting with your left hand, I find it very important to order your skills with the most used from 1-4. Five through eight require me to move my whole hand. Heck, I usually just click 6-8, it's easier than looking down, pressing, repositioning my hand. That's where I have my Aegis, rez, maintained enchants, etc. Nothing I'm going to be casting on the fly.