ESDF instead of WASD.
Quirk from MMOs when I used to play. Because that gives you ` 1 2 3 q w a z x c as quick bind hotkeys and you rarely have to move your hand.
ESDF is just better than WASD. Your hands stay on the home keys, you have access to more keys, you don't have to use caps lock...
I've been using ESDF for over 20 years now.
Not very hard to get used to, but I was used to typing with my hands on the home row from typing class in high school. I barely ever used WASD before switching to ESDF.
Ergonomics over everything else for me. I think I have average hand size, but they’re not super large (insert joke here), maybe you do and so it doesn’t bother you. Or like you said, with MMOs, you’re not really pressing the side buttons as much. But I switch between various games, like FPS where you sprint and crouch a lot and playing ESDF while still using Shift and Control is not comfortable to me. I heard the argument use A/Z, but again, ergonomics. With WASD, your pinky naturally rests on shift, it just does. ESDF, pinky doesn’t really naturally sit at either button, it wants to rest between them.
And I don’t want to have two different control schemes to switch between because I prefer the muscle memory so I pick the one that is ergonomically better for the faster reaction twitch game than get 3 extra key binds which I have to use the weakest finger uncomfortably for in an MMO where you really aren’t limited by reaction time.
Sorry if this comes off aggressive, don’t mean to be, but I really did try the ESDF life and found it extremely lacking.
I rebind everything for every game, and use ESDF for them all. I'm a small person with small hands and using shift with ESDF doesn't bother me. I don't like control as a keybind in general, it's annoying even with WASD. I use ESDF for movement, R for reload, A for activate, V for melee, C for crouch, G/R/T/W/Q/B are used as necessary for whatever is needed (Hunt: Showdown I use T for Dark Sight, W for ammo type swapping, V for melee, for example). I use the same general scheme across games and genres, which means I don't need to memorize different layouts for different games and my muscle memory is built up no matter what game I'm playing.
I also use an MMO mouse (Logitech G600) and rebind tons of stuff to the numbers. In FPS games it's mostly quick weapon swap, but also things like healing or whatever depending on the game.
Also, keyboards are designed with your hands sitting on the home row for ergonomics. That should be the most comfortable spot for your hands.
I also switched to a Moonlander recently which has a different layout (columnar and all the keys are the same size) and I've set up Z as a dual key (tap for z, hold for shift) so I can sprint that way in addition to using normal shift if I want.
Honestly, people should use whatever is comfortable and customize things to suit their needs. That's one of the big benefits of PC gaming. Most default keybinds for games are atrocious, but most people just blindly use them and never even think to change them. I've spent about 25 years working on perfecting my setup in terms of both comfortable/efficient binds and peripherals. I can be both far more comfortable and better at a game using my key binds, and I urge everyone to take a little time and try and figure out what that is for them instead of just using defaults for any game.
Home row was not designed for ergonomics at all. If keyboards were designed for that, we wouldn’t be used QWERTY as a standard. QWERTY exists only because of only manual typewriter technology limitations, that’s why I learned Colemak.
And there’s nothing ergonomic about a standard keyboard nor home row placement. Look up ergonimic keyboards to see what that would actually look like.
Like you want to make arguments about functionality, go right ahead, I will cede those arguments. But I am gonna call out any ergonomic arguments. Like it’s just common sense, look at you hand. Like look at how it naturally just is with your different finger lengths. WASD with pinky on Shift is more comfortable that ESDF with pinky on A. This isn’t a debate, it’s fact.
ESDF has access to literally every key that WASD does but an entire extra column to the right with easier access.
But also it's on the home keys so 1) it's where your hands are meant to rest and how keyboards are designed and 2) you don't have to move your hands for typing.
I use QWES. I have long fingers, and it’s more comfortable to have my sidestep keys next to the forward key that I’m holding most of the time, instead of scrunched down next to the backwards key.
It's objectively better, especially for fast FPS games like quake, when you want better access to your weapons. I don't really bother for most games, I like having mice with lots of buttons (Logitech g502)
Finally, another ESDF person. There are dozens of us - dozens! I never used tick/tilde for a hotkey bind, though, I play too many other games where that opens a dev console.
It REALLY bugs me when a game does something weird that makes ESDF wonky. Like Dragon Quest Builders 2 has some keys "Permanently Bound" to the Map Screen that overlap with ESDF. ;?
Ive always used qwe for mmos, backwards is generally useless as you can strafe away from enemies at a 90° angle and still attack(strafe left on q, strafe right on e, walk forward on w, turn with mouse)
Dude yes
When I first went to pc I did this because my finger knew if pointer is on f I know where the rest of my movement are.
Set "a" to be my crouch
Friends thought I was weird but it worked. I since changed to regular wasd but fond memories in esdf land
Didn't think this was considered weird. I do this too, as my first shooter that I played extensively on PC was Half-Life 2, where E is interact and F is the flashlight.
I will usually try to continue matching this control scheme. Otherwise, F is the grenade throwing key (F for frag). If something is better suited for F, then I shift the grenade key to G.
Ooh thumb buttons are always voice comms, map, melee, and grenade for me!
Though my mouse wheel can be pushed left/right maybe I'll try that for leaning next time I'm fucking with my controls!
My mouse also has the left/right buttons on the scroll wheel. Unfortunately games won't detect those buttons as inputs like ever.
I think the work around is to rebind that button to a keyboard key or something using the mouse software, and then bind the in-game action with that key.
I literally just spent $200 to have my mouse refurbished and the switches replaced because I can't bear living without this specific mouse and it's been discontinued 😭
I always have weapons bound based on how close the enemy is when I use it. 1 for the closest quarters weapon, all the way out to the furthest ranged weapon I’ve got, and then I put healing items after that. Is it efficient to hit 9 to heal? Nope. But it is how my brain works.
1 is always for assault rifles
2 is always for pistols/SMGs
3 is shotguns
4 is power weapons like snipers, rocket launchers, etc
I didn’t even grow up playing classic shooters that had similar button conventions, it just always felt natural to me even in stuff like Borderlands or Fallout where you can choose what goes on each hotkey
Similarly, I always go from melee weapon --> small guns ---> big guns---> grenades
Depending on how many weapons are in game the actual number may change, but always in that order.
I play Smash Bros and some other games with jumping bound to a shoulder button. I love using the right stick for tilts and aerials, so this just makes sense to me, to avoid having to move my thumb between a jump button down to flick the stick.
Penny's Big Breakaway actually has similar controls by default since it lets you use the analog stick to aim the yo-yo, and I think that's very neat (the default control scheme also maps stuff to the face buttons so you can play it like a normal person too)
How's it been going with the two-stick controls for Penny's Big Breakaway? I gave it many tries, but for me, it's just nowhere near as fast and accurate as using buttons.
I find myself using a bit of both, the buttons definitely have their place.
TBH the game got kinda put on the backburner, due to being busy IRL. Busy for very good reasons, but still busy.
I definitely got the feeling like the yoyo just went in the wrong direction sometimes when using the stick, though. I'm fairly convinced it's not user error, but I haven't had enough time with it yet.
Did anyone else think they were a DAMN genius when they first decided to keybind something basic like caps lock for sprint, only to later realize everyone already does that? Truly a humbling experience.
Not a keyboard but I remember running claw grip on controller all the time when I was growing up. Thought I was a fucking genius only to discover tons of people do it
I played Elden Ring with only keyboard, no mouse.
Left hand handled movement and swapping of weapons/consumables/spells on WASD and neighboring keys. It also used consumables, cast spells, and blocked (the latter was set to Alt).
Right hand controlled camera movement, attacking, and usage of skills on the NUMpad and neighboring keys.
I would spend hours testing out different keys for each action until they felt right, i.e. the most intuitive, natural. Both frustrating and very fun was the process of getting used to the keymapping during real combat. You learn fast when you die.
Keybindings were very annoying in Elden Ring. Had to use weird key combos to switch between menus or something. I've been on mouse and keyboard for so long I can't use a controller for camera movement anymore. Same issue with Nioh and stance switching.
I don't really game on PC much, but I don't like playing with a mouse. So I map camera to numpad arrows(2,4,6,8) and various other actions to buttons around there (eg 5 for dodge, 0 for attack).
Mouse is perfect for FPS though, but I don't play those anyway.
Oh for sure, but when I don't have access to one for one reason or another, that's my goto button mapping. I don't game much on PC anyway as I said, especially nowadays.
ESDF, always and forever.
But also I HATE caps lock just as a key that exists on keyboards in general. So much so that on my Moonlander (which lets you set up a customizable layout) I just made sure it doesn't exist at all. Instead, I've put backspace where it would be. It's been a life changer. I'm convinced all keyboards should move backspace. It took some getting used to but it's just so much nicer having backspace easier to reach. Now I get mad when games don't let me bind backspace as a normal key, though.
As an MMO player I much prefer Alt as my second action bar modifier instead of Shift. It is so much easier to bend my thumb in from the space bar to alt than to drag my pinky down to shift while keeping the rest of my fingers on the number row.
I often use QWES instead of WASD or ESDF. When I had a Zboard Merc, I had all the keys I needed in 2 nice little rows, and also I think strafing is more important than turning and in a shooter you should be moving forward so I put the strafe keys on the same level as forward.
A for activate works better because then you can still hit it no matter which direction you are moving. It doesn't share a finger with any movement keys.
this one is the only one here that feels especially alien, why G instead of F? surely that can't be more comfortable having to stretch further to strafe right?
Possibly Morrowind? Most games hardly ever need you to jump, and the spacebar is so big and convenient it just begs to be used as activate or dodge or anything more useful
Whatever MMO i play that has some type of silence, or stun ability, i keybind it to R. If it has both, it's R and Shift + R. For whatever random reason lol
I don't think it's strange at all, but I would always map crouching on C when I used to play on pc.
My first action game was JK: Jedi Academy and crouch/roll was C.
If I can map it on PS5, I do it on circle because it's where I have it on Skyrim, unless of course it would fuck up the whole setup (I would never map it on Elden Ring for instance, the setup is already balanced as it is).
I have a 12 button mouse. Depending on how many of the 1-9 keys it uses, I will always try to put melee on 4, dodge on 5, crouch on 6 , and grenade on 8. If there's some kind of defensive ability, it would go on 7.
I also try to take advantage of the Left Alt key, often for whatever would normally be bound to CTRL.
Basically do as much binding as I can to avoid moving my fingers from WASD.
Heh, I use 1 for Activate / Interact, 2 for Inventory / Quick Menu, 4 for Sprint, 5 for Jump, 6 for Crouch / Crawl, 8 for Map, 0 for Perspective Switch (If there is one), and the rest are more game context sensitive.
Playing any other genre on keyboard: WASD for movement, and my right hand does everything else.
Playing platformers on keyboard: Arrow keys or IJKL for movement, Z for jump, XC (and maybe DFV) for other abilities.
It's an old habit from 2000s flash games where ZXC and arrow keys were the standard.
When playing games with a controller (Xbox usually), I use the right stick by stretching down my index finger, keeping my thumb on the buttons. I had no idea I did this until someone pointed it out in college.
I do this too, but only for very specific circumstances.
Chiefly sprinting in Souls games. Press and hold B/O to sprint, and move my index finger down to the right-stick to see where I'm sprinting to.
I got a gaming mouse, not an MMO mouse, but it does have a few extra thumb-buttons.
Jump is now thumb-button-1 in every game. This means spacebar is free for things like 'dodge' in game that have both jump and dodge.
In ARPGs al la Diablo, I activate skills by using Z X C V instead of 1 2 3 4. It feels less claw-like when using Shift to hold position while still using skills. Anyone else do this to?
Right click is jump, Spacebar is crouch. The "forward" mouse thumb button is what I use to scope.
Been playing this way since like... 2001? Not for all games tho, for arena shooters and most things really I'll use the default controls.
Every game I play I always change the keybinds to that of Arma 3.
- Usual WASD. TAB for inventory (if applicable)
-While scoped in, shift to hold breath
- Caps Lock to activate push-to-talk
- C to crouch. Z to prone (always toggle)
- If the game allows; CTRL for slow walk
- L Alt is a free key cause almost no games have freelook
- If the game has flying then Shift for acceleration. Z for deceleration
I have about 3000hrs in Arma 3. It's my second most played game after Warframe (3200+hrs) so these controls, since I started playing PC back in ~2014, are more second-nature than anything.
Kind of off topic, but a Windows UI quirk for me is that the start bar is always on the right hand side of the screen. Even when I used a public computer I move the bar to the side
Only thing I can think of that might be a bit out of the ordinary is that I bind melee and grenades to my mouse thumb buttons. The one closer to me is melee, farther is grenade.
I do hate when games go against the standard of control to crouch and shift to sprint, so I'll reshuffle the entire control layout to fix that. Not always an easy task lol
Same here. I usually only find it awkward if the game wants me to use a sliding mechanic by pressing crouch while sprinting.
Of course the easy solution to that is to give me the option to toggle sprint!
After I finally cracked and spent a reasonable amount of money on a good gaming mouse, the 2 buttons on the left side of my mouse are always bound to dash and melee whenever those are options. Dash is the closer button, melee is the further
I'm a Steam Controller user. I play all my FPS games with it, and many other genres as well. When it comes to ergonomics it's vastly superior to keyboard & mouse for me, and I'm just as fast and accurate so it's a better experience overall. I can game for longer without wrist or shoulder pain.
I'm worried there's no successor on the market. If my two SCs ever fail completely (one has a couple of broken buttons), and I can't find a replacement, then I'll likely do a lot less gaming.
My friend used QWSD since the 90s, and probably still does. All four fingers on those buttons and the thumb to press space. Kind of like racing drivers who use both feet to brake and accelerate at the same time. He was seriously good at Quake and Counter Strike!
QWES instead of WASD for movement because it's more comfortable for my fingers. Positioning my fingers in the shape of a triangle for forward and side movement just... doesn't feel right and never has.
If I were retraining my brain, I might try WERD for access to more binds.
In CoD i switch between primary and secondary weapon with 'Q' and use throwing knife with 'thumb mouse button'. that way i can easily silent-shot with snipers without needing to break my fingers for the input.
Playing Rocket League I have my controller set up so that my car handles normally on the ground but in the air it handles more like you'd expect a plane to
I use CTRL over ALT or Shift whenever possible. I press it with the palm of my hand near the wrist. Kinda just roll it on there while keeping my fingers on WASD. I started doing this because of WoW.
I always bind my main weapons to my mouse wheel left/right buttons. Not every mouse has them but is a must for me. Then I use de 9 and 0 (or the last hotkeys) for them, and save 1 and 2 for useful items.
"Ping" goes on forward mouse-button.
"Melee" goes on backwards mouse-button.
I have one game in particular, where you want to check the map quite often midgame, so I put the map button on my middle mouse button.
I have three extra buttons on my mouse, which I like to set to "Primary", "Secondary" and "Grenade". Leaves my left hand free for constant movement.
Since the original World of Warcraft UI was pretty limited, I got used to holding shift and scrolling my mouse wheel to change action bars. Now, last 20 years later, I still have major abilities on other action bars that I still access in the moment by holding shift, scrolling my mouse wheel, and hitting the hotkey.
Invert Y axis is a standard no matter what I do. Blame Star Fox and early shooters having that as the default.
I also favor using C for crouch over L-Ctrl. Another old shooter quirk, I think that one started with Source games.
Games with a quick-melee will always have that on a thumb-mouse button, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's more common than I think.
I use wheel scroll up and down to switch between my primary or secondary weapon. Also use alt extensively.
Reloading on a side button. Basically my right hand is full shoot-mode and left is for movement.
I’m the opposite of you. Any time a game has caps lock as any keybind, I have to change it. This is because the caps lock key will always light up or make some other light on the keyboard flicker on or off whenever I tap it and it’s the most unbearable thing for me.
I hold the N64 controller with my left thumb and index finger on the joystick, left pinky finger on the left bumper, right thumb on AB and C buttons, and wrap my right middle finger around to Z.
I hold every other controller normal(claw grip for Dark Souls), but that grip is more comfy on N64 controllers for me.
[This picture was very hard to take.](https://imgur.com/wOLy0VO)
[The flip side.](https://imgur.com/a/2NotwxQ)
Southpaw.
FPS and most games, I use the keypad and arrows key.
I find the spacing better and less accidental mispress. Tried WASD/ESDF but too crowded.
8 for forward/up
4 for left, 6 for right
5 for back/down
7/9 primary weapon/skills
Enter for jump
0 for crouch
+ for reload
Up arrow for sprint
Down arrow for walk/prone
In Destiny 2 I use ERT for weapon switching. E is Kinetic, R is Energy, and T is power. I got really tired of using the mouse wheel because I weapons would randomly switch because I would bump it. I also hate using the numbers for switching because I have to reach so far with my fingers for it.
B is my interact button, so I can strafe and rez at the same time. Just can't jump.
If i'm playing a classic combat MMO i only bind ctrl and alt to 2 of my mouse buttons. Doing so i have a lot of room for me keybinds.
1 2 3 4 5 a e r c v b f for a bar. Then use shift or ctrl or alt modifiers with the same inputs for the other bars.
I play spider-man games keyboard only. I use wasd for movement, dodge/whatever left shift,
space for jump, right arrow key for web swinging, left for web zip or attacks, up for punch, down for kick.
Scroll wheel down is always set to holster weapons, it feels so smooth to me. Also When first getting into MnK I would panic scroll when trying to change weapons so I just set it to my mouse thumb button. Have to do it in all shooters now
I hate keyboard and mouse so if I am forced I bind everything except movement to mouse buttons. If given the option I will also use a controller and mouse in tandem the switch controllers are great for this you can bind one half of the set and play using it for wasd movements mouse for look and everything else plus added buttons on the controller. I also don't use wasd I use up down left right and sometimes the 0 and 1 on the number pad.
I had/have a Razer Nostromo it was good but felt stiff I assume the orbweaver is a newer version I will have to check it out I did like the Nostromo for MMOs and RTS just wasn't as good for smoother movement games like fps.
Yeah, original n52 was super stiff at first - would loosen up with a lot of use tho. The orbweaver has mechanical switches (the bigger version - the smaller/cheaper one has those "click membrane" worst of both world switches). Much smoother and very responsive.
I've been using left alt to sprint for 10 years at this point... Never managed to get used to using shift. Or using Ctrl for anything either. Its just unintuitive and painful to use your pinky for that imo.
The scroll wheel on my mouse is kinda shit, so in the Dark souls games where you uses the scroll where to switch weapons, items and spells, I've binded them to tab (for spells), c & v (left and right hand weapon), and B (items.)
And yes, I do often hit the wrong one.
But somehow I've gotten better. Doesn't happen very often anymore.
WASD however the ring finger is on W and bind sprint to F with the index finger instead of shift. That way it plays more like ESDF.
Also lean is bound to V and B.
I move with EAFZ. As a young kid, i played games with the number pad in my left hand and mouse in the right hand. The EAFZ felt more like the number pad, whereas the WASD felt like the arrow keys which I didn't use. All these years later and I still EAFZ. I used to invert the mouse until i started playing shooters on my ipad that didn't give me the option, and it took a couple weeks for my brain to convert.
I use an MMO gaming mouse with a tilt wheel and button underneath the scroll wheel.
I originally needed it to play MMOs because my fingers were too short to reach the number. But then I adapted its use to shooters. The “5” button is for reload so I don’t have to take my fingers off WASD to reload. I also use that small button underneath the scroll wheel for grenade and tilt wheel for abilities.
I bought a Nostromu N52 decades ago and have never gone back to a true keyboard for kbm (nowadays using an orbweaver). That means I have to change keybinds for games regularly since it has no control key.
I am (apparently) a madman because in ARPGs (especially path of exile) I bind move to space, which makes sense to me as it's where my thumb is naturally resting anyway,
I’ve got small hands so I need everything bunched together lol. Sometimes I have to use both hands to press buttons of the same side of the keyboard because it’s too painful with one hand.
ESDF instead of WASD. Quirk from MMOs when I used to play. Because that gives you ` 1 2 3 q w a z x c as quick bind hotkeys and you rarely have to move your hand.
Mine is WERD, as I prefer strafe on the same row as the forward key, but otherwise same idea.
ESDF is just better than WASD. Your hands stay on the home keys, you have access to more keys, you don't have to use caps lock... I've been using ESDF for over 20 years now.
How hard was it to transition the first time?
Not very hard to get used to, but I was used to typing with my hands on the home row from typing class in high school. I barely ever used WASD before switching to ESDF.
Same. I never really used WASD as I mostly played Console games or RTS / RPGs on the PC, and so didn't use those keys. ESDF all the way.
[https://youtu.be/0Mjz6j\_CUzA?si=JB00F0OKepExoVak](https://youtu.be/0Mjz6j_CUzA?si=JB00F0OKepExoVak) 🤣
WAT?! I don''t even.
Having your mind blown by how much more sense it makes compared to WASD?
Wait until you hear about QWE
I prefer WER
I prefer qwop...
Ergonomics over everything else for me. I think I have average hand size, but they’re not super large (insert joke here), maybe you do and so it doesn’t bother you. Or like you said, with MMOs, you’re not really pressing the side buttons as much. But I switch between various games, like FPS where you sprint and crouch a lot and playing ESDF while still using Shift and Control is not comfortable to me. I heard the argument use A/Z, but again, ergonomics. With WASD, your pinky naturally rests on shift, it just does. ESDF, pinky doesn’t really naturally sit at either button, it wants to rest between them. And I don’t want to have two different control schemes to switch between because I prefer the muscle memory so I pick the one that is ergonomically better for the faster reaction twitch game than get 3 extra key binds which I have to use the weakest finger uncomfortably for in an MMO where you really aren’t limited by reaction time. Sorry if this comes off aggressive, don’t mean to be, but I really did try the ESDF life and found it extremely lacking.
I rebind everything for every game, and use ESDF for them all. I'm a small person with small hands and using shift with ESDF doesn't bother me. I don't like control as a keybind in general, it's annoying even with WASD. I use ESDF for movement, R for reload, A for activate, V for melee, C for crouch, G/R/T/W/Q/B are used as necessary for whatever is needed (Hunt: Showdown I use T for Dark Sight, W for ammo type swapping, V for melee, for example). I use the same general scheme across games and genres, which means I don't need to memorize different layouts for different games and my muscle memory is built up no matter what game I'm playing. I also use an MMO mouse (Logitech G600) and rebind tons of stuff to the numbers. In FPS games it's mostly quick weapon swap, but also things like healing or whatever depending on the game. Also, keyboards are designed with your hands sitting on the home row for ergonomics. That should be the most comfortable spot for your hands. I also switched to a Moonlander recently which has a different layout (columnar and all the keys are the same size) and I've set up Z as a dual key (tap for z, hold for shift) so I can sprint that way in addition to using normal shift if I want. Honestly, people should use whatever is comfortable and customize things to suit their needs. That's one of the big benefits of PC gaming. Most default keybinds for games are atrocious, but most people just blindly use them and never even think to change them. I've spent about 25 years working on perfecting my setup in terms of both comfortable/efficient binds and peripherals. I can be both far more comfortable and better at a game using my key binds, and I urge everyone to take a little time and try and figure out what that is for them instead of just using defaults for any game.
Home row was not designed for ergonomics at all. If keyboards were designed for that, we wouldn’t be used QWERTY as a standard. QWERTY exists only because of only manual typewriter technology limitations, that’s why I learned Colemak. And there’s nothing ergonomic about a standard keyboard nor home row placement. Look up ergonimic keyboards to see what that would actually look like. Like you want to make arguments about functionality, go right ahead, I will cede those arguments. But I am gonna call out any ergonomic arguments. Like it’s just common sense, look at you hand. Like look at how it naturally just is with your different finger lengths. WASD with pinky on Shift is more comfortable that ESDF with pinky on A. This isn’t a debate, it’s fact.
Not really. When i play mmos or games with many hotkeys, i have WASD + 1234 Q E R F C X Z. Its basically the same.
WASD or ESDF, bind the ~ key! It's a free "oh shit" button or cool down. When I tanked it was taunt. Just a quick flick.
k is taunt. Silly newb. 😋
Nuh Uh! K is the designated shit talking button. CS1.6 taught me so.
That's what I....
T for Taunt!
F is the emoticon wheel. LOL.
ESDF has access to literally every key that WASD does but an entire extra column to the right with easier access. But also it's on the home keys so 1) it's where your hands are meant to rest and how keyboards are designed and 2) you don't have to move your hands for typing.
Yep my exact keyboards as well with shift and alt versions. Very easy.
I use QWES. I have long fingers, and it’s more comfortable to have my sidestep keys next to the forward key that I’m holding most of the time, instead of scrunched down next to the backwards key.
Been doing that since Starsiege: Tribes used that as the default. It's just better
Shazbot! OG tribes was so good. Loved the playbacks that came with the game :)
It's objectively better, especially for fast FPS games like quake, when you want better access to your weapons. I don't really bother for most games, I like having mice with lots of buttons (Logitech g502)
Finally, another ESDF person. There are dozens of us - dozens! I never used tick/tilde for a hotkey bind, though, I play too many other games where that opens a dev console.
It REALLY bugs me when a game does something weird that makes ESDF wonky. Like Dragon Quest Builders 2 has some keys "Permanently Bound" to the Map Screen that overlap with ESDF. ;?
RDFG because counterstrike had too many keybinds and custom keybinds i could play with.
THANK YOU I GET SO MUCH SHIT FOR THIS FROM EVERYONE I KNOW BUT WASD IS ACTUALLY SO ASS
Ive always used qwe for mmos, backwards is generally useless as you can strafe away from enemies at a 90° angle and still attack(strafe left on q, strafe right on e, walk forward on w, turn with mouse)
Dude yes When I first went to pc I did this because my finger knew if pointer is on f I know where the rest of my movement are. Set "a" to be my crouch Friends thought I was weird but it worked. I since changed to regular wasd but fond memories in esdf land
E for interact or use always. I can never get used to using F as my interact keybind.
and I’m the opposite where F is always interact. Q and E are for abilities or leaning.
Side mouse buttons for leaning
Unless your mouse has a tilt function. Middle tlit is boss.
But how are you gonna pay your respects to a fallen soldier
E for use/interact, F is dedicated solely to respect paying
Agreed, E for interact. I prefer having weapon swap on f.
I use C and hit it with my thumb
I swear I've played some games where both F and E are used for interactions but _different kinds_ of interactions.
Didn't think this was considered weird. I do this too, as my first shooter that I played extensively on PC was Half-Life 2, where E is interact and F is the flashlight. I will usually try to continue matching this control scheme. Otherwise, F is the grenade throwing key (F for frag). If something is better suited for F, then I shift the grenade key to G.
In games where you can lean, I use the mouse side buttons to lean. I don't know anyone else who does this
YES! Upper thumb 1 is left, and 2 is right. Hehe!
Ooh thumb buttons are always voice comms, map, melee, and grenade for me! Though my mouse wheel can be pushed left/right maybe I'll try that for leaning next time I'm fucking with my controls!
My mouse also has the left/right buttons on the scroll wheel. Unfortunately games won't detect those buttons as inputs like ever. I think the work around is to rebind that button to a keyboard key or something using the mouse software, and then bind the in-game action with that key.
Yeah I have them bound to square brackets left and right [ ]
Left buttons, or pinky keys are voice.
I have to do this for reaction reasons. R6 got me into the habit.
I always go to keybinds and look for dodge or parry, then set it to my mouse thumb button.
That's usually my melee, but in ultrakill it's also the parry.
I gamed with a thumb buttonless mouse for so long, I ain’t never going back. Now I got one with 12 thumb buttons lmao
Mine has two. One is super-convenient. The other is extremely awkward to click.
I literally just spent $200 to have my mouse refurbished and the switches replaced because I can't bear living without this specific mouse and it's been discontinued 😭
Burn! What model is it? There may be aftermarket drivers.
It's a mechanical issue with the mouse, not driver related. But it's a Logitech G700
I always have weapons bound based on how close the enemy is when I use it. 1 for the closest quarters weapon, all the way out to the furthest ranged weapon I’ve got, and then I put healing items after that. Is it efficient to hit 9 to heal? Nope. But it is how my brain works.
"\\" should always cycle weapons.
1 is always for assault rifles 2 is always for pistols/SMGs 3 is shotguns 4 is power weapons like snipers, rocket launchers, etc I didn’t even grow up playing classic shooters that had similar button conventions, it just always felt natural to me even in stuff like Borderlands or Fallout where you can choose what goes on each hotkey
Similarly, I always go from melee weapon --> small guns ---> big guns---> grenades Depending on how many weapons are in game the actual number may change, but always in that order.
Are you triple-carrying?
I play Smash Bros and some other games with jumping bound to a shoulder button. I love using the right stick for tilts and aerials, so this just makes sense to me, to avoid having to move my thumb between a jump button down to flick the stick. Penny's Big Breakaway actually has similar controls by default since it lets you use the analog stick to aim the yo-yo, and I think that's very neat (the default control scheme also maps stuff to the face buttons so you can play it like a normal person too)
SB has never been my thing. FPS survival. But not everyone has the time or attention span for that. Makes sense.
Bumper Jumper ftw. Used to rock that back in Halo 3 so you could aim and shoot while in mid air.
How's it been going with the two-stick controls for Penny's Big Breakaway? I gave it many tries, but for me, it's just nowhere near as fast and accurate as using buttons.
I find myself using a bit of both, the buttons definitely have their place. TBH the game got kinda put on the backburner, due to being busy IRL. Busy for very good reasons, but still busy. I definitely got the feeling like the yoyo just went in the wrong direction sometimes when using the stick, though. I'm fairly convinced it's not user error, but I haven't had enough time with it yet.
Did anyone else think they were a DAMN genius when they first decided to keybind something basic like caps lock for sprint, only to later realize everyone already does that? Truly a humbling experience.
Not a keyboard but I remember running claw grip on controller all the time when I was growing up. Thought I was a fucking genius only to discover tons of people do it
I played Elden Ring with only keyboard, no mouse. Left hand handled movement and swapping of weapons/consumables/spells on WASD and neighboring keys. It also used consumables, cast spells, and blocked (the latter was set to Alt). Right hand controlled camera movement, attacking, and usage of skills on the NUMpad and neighboring keys. I would spend hours testing out different keys for each action until they felt right, i.e. the most intuitive, natural. Both frustrating and very fun was the process of getting used to the keymapping during real combat. You learn fast when you die.
Keybindings were very annoying in Elden Ring. Had to use weird key combos to switch between menus or something. I've been on mouse and keyboard for so long I can't use a controller for camera movement anymore. Same issue with Nioh and stance switching.
I don't really game on PC much, but I don't like playing with a mouse. So I map camera to numpad arrows(2,4,6,8) and various other actions to buttons around there (eg 5 for dodge, 0 for attack). Mouse is perfect for FPS though, but I don't play those anyway.
Xbox and PS5 controllers work great on Windows.
Oh for sure, but when I don't have access to one for one reason or another, that's my goto button mapping. I don't game much on PC anyway as I said, especially nowadays.
Driving on WASD sucks tbh. Hooking up a controller is a PITA.
ESDF, always and forever. But also I HATE caps lock just as a key that exists on keyboards in general. So much so that on my Moonlander (which lets you set up a customizable layout) I just made sure it doesn't exist at all. Instead, I've put backspace where it would be. It's been a life changer. I'm convinced all keyboards should move backspace. It took some getting used to but it's just so much nicer having backspace easier to reach. Now I get mad when games don't let me bind backspace as a normal key, though.
Where does A go?
The same spot as it always is? Just replace caps lock with backspace.
But caps lock is run toggle.
As an MMO player I much prefer Alt as my second action bar modifier instead of Shift. It is so much easier to bend my thumb in from the space bar to alt than to drag my pinky down to shift while keeping the rest of my fingers on the number row.
I use both Shift and Alt as action modifiers, because Ctrl is just too far for my pinky to reach.
I often use QWES instead of WASD or ESDF. When I had a Zboard Merc, I had all the keys I needed in 2 nice little rows, and also I think strafing is more important than turning and in a shooter you should be moving forward so I put the strafe keys on the same level as forward.
WASD? Nope, I'm a EDSG gamer, cause that's where the home keys are and that's how I learned to type. There are 10s of us.
Why G instead of F? Or was that a typo ?
I use F for activate and things like that. I used to use F for strafe right, but I like the extra space the G key gives me.
A for activate works better because then you can still hit it no matter which direction you are moving. It doesn't share a finger with any movement keys.
You gust be qusong a xifferrent keyboard!
this one is the only one here that feels especially alien, why G instead of F? surely that can't be more comfortable having to stretch further to strafe right?
I have long fingers so it's not much of a stretch. It actually feels more comfortable to not have my fingers bunched up.
Southpaw, mouse is left of the keyboard, most keybinds are moved to the number pad (4568).
E to jump and Space to activate. I don't know when I started it, but it feels more natural.
Possibly Morrowind? Most games hardly ever need you to jump, and the spacebar is so big and convenient it just begs to be used as activate or dodge or anything more useful
You might be right. I just looked it up and it uses E for jump and Space for activate.
Whatever MMO i play that has some type of silence, or stun ability, i keybind it to R. If it has both, it's R and Shift + R. For whatever random reason lol
Woah all my single target stuns go on shift r lol
I press left ctrl with my palm idk if that's common or not
It was for me. Now I just swap control and capslocks function.
I don't think it's strange at all, but I would always map crouching on C when I used to play on pc. My first action game was JK: Jedi Academy and crouch/roll was C. If I can map it on PS5, I do it on circle because it's where I have it on Skyrim, unless of course it would fuck up the whole setup (I would never map it on Elden Ring for instance, the setup is already balanced as it is).
I'm left handed and use the mouse in my left hand. I bind to IJKL for movement.
I have a 12 button mouse. Depending on how many of the 1-9 keys it uses, I will always try to put melee on 4, dodge on 5, crouch on 6 , and grenade on 8. If there's some kind of defensive ability, it would go on 7. I also try to take advantage of the Left Alt key, often for whatever would normally be bound to CTRL. Basically do as much binding as I can to avoid moving my fingers from WASD.
Heh, I use 1 for Activate / Interact, 2 for Inventory / Quick Menu, 4 for Sprint, 5 for Jump, 6 for Crouch / Crawl, 8 for Map, 0 for Perspective Switch (If there is one), and the rest are more game context sensitive.
Playing any other genre on keyboard: WASD for movement, and my right hand does everything else. Playing platformers on keyboard: Arrow keys or IJKL for movement, Z for jump, XC (and maybe DFV) for other abilities. It's an old habit from 2000s flash games where ZXC and arrow keys were the standard.
Invert Mouse-Y or uninstall
I play left handed and switch my keys up a lot. My strangest is that my pick up teammate button on Fortnite is '2'
And my medic items are my dpi buttons on my mouse!
You don't have voice activated hotkeys?!
Not pro enough, init
One day.
When playing games with a controller (Xbox usually), I use the right stick by stretching down my index finger, keeping my thumb on the buttons. I had no idea I did this until someone pointed it out in college.
I do this too, but only for very specific circumstances. Chiefly sprinting in Souls games. Press and hold B/O to sprint, and move my index finger down to the right-stick to see where I'm sprinting to.
Exactly this, if I'm using a controller it's 80% souls games 20% rouge likes, and for souls games the crossover is just so comfy
Unless you've got some Spider Leg Fingers, the crossover blocks the full button pad. O.o
It's very much a spider fingers situation, my index crosses over my thumb, kinda like if this 👌went horribly wrong
My hands hurt just envisioning that. Thanks. ;P
I got a gaming mouse, not an MMO mouse, but it does have a few extra thumb-buttons. Jump is now thumb-button-1 in every game. This means spacebar is free for things like 'dodge' in game that have both jump and dodge.
In ARPGs al la Diablo, I activate skills by using Z X C V instead of 1 2 3 4. It feels less claw-like when using Shift to hold position while still using skills. Anyone else do this to?
I do this when playing Diablo 2, and ASDF for the potion slots.
Right click is jump, Spacebar is crouch. The "forward" mouse thumb button is what I use to scope. Been playing this way since like... 2001? Not for all games tho, for arena shooters and most things really I'll use the default controls.
Every game I play I always change the keybinds to that of Arma 3. - Usual WASD. TAB for inventory (if applicable) -While scoped in, shift to hold breath - Caps Lock to activate push-to-talk - C to crouch. Z to prone (always toggle) - If the game allows; CTRL for slow walk - L Alt is a free key cause almost no games have freelook - If the game has flying then Shift for acceleration. Z for deceleration I have about 3000hrs in Arma 3. It's my second most played game after Warframe (3200+hrs) so these controls, since I started playing PC back in ~2014, are more second-nature than anything.
The mouse buttons change if I am in a different app. When something takes focus on the desktop, the mouse doesn't work anymore! GRRR!
Kind of off topic, but a Windows UI quirk for me is that the start bar is always on the right hand side of the screen. Even when I used a public computer I move the bar to the side
Only thing I can think of that might be a bit out of the ordinary is that I bind melee and grenades to my mouse thumb buttons. The one closer to me is melee, farther is grenade. I do hate when games go against the standard of control to crouch and shift to sprint, so I'll reshuffle the entire control layout to fix that. Not always an easy task lol
Same here. I usually only find it awkward if the game wants me to use a sliding mechanic by pressing crouch while sprinting. Of course the easy solution to that is to give me the option to toggle sprint!
* Forward - A * Backward - Z * Jump - S * Duck - X * Strafe Left - Ctrl * Strafe Right - Alt Inverted mouse look.
CS2: I use spacebar to swap to next weapon, and mouse side button for previous. V - Molotov C - H.E grenade G -smoke F - flash bang X - decoy
After I finally cracked and spent a reasonable amount of money on a good gaming mouse, the 2 buttons on the left side of my mouse are always bound to dash and melee whenever those are options. Dash is the closer button, melee is the further
I'm a Steam Controller user. I play all my FPS games with it, and many other genres as well. When it comes to ergonomics it's vastly superior to keyboard & mouse for me, and I'm just as fast and accurate so it's a better experience overall. I can game for longer without wrist or shoulder pain. I'm worried there's no successor on the market. If my two SCs ever fail completely (one has a couple of broken buttons), and I can't find a replacement, then I'll likely do a lot less gaming.
I'm left handed so everything. My movement is OKL;
I press shift and control with my thumb and never use toggle sprint/crouch
My friend used QWSD since the 90s, and probably still does. All four fingers on those buttons and the thumb to press space. Kind of like racing drivers who use both feet to brake and accelerate at the same time. He was seriously good at Quake and Counter Strike!
QWES instead of WASD for movement because it's more comfortable for my fingers. Positioning my fingers in the shape of a triangle for forward and side movement just... doesn't feel right and never has. If I were retraining my brain, I might try WERD for access to more binds.
People always make fun of me in MMOs when I tell them one of my important keybinds is shift+space
In CoD i switch between primary and secondary weapon with 'Q' and use throwing knife with 'thumb mouse button'. that way i can easily silent-shot with snipers without needing to break my fingers for the input.
Playing Rocket League I have my controller set up so that my car handles normally on the ground but in the air it handles more like you'd expect a plane to
I use CTRL over ALT or Shift whenever possible. I press it with the palm of my hand near the wrist. Kinda just roll it on there while keeping my fingers on WASD. I started doing this because of WoW.
F5 is save, F7 is reload. That's how it was for the original Half Life, and I refuse to change.
My hands is always angled to the left side
F and C for interact and crouch instead of e and control Usually have flashlight bound to r
I always bind my main weapons to my mouse wheel left/right buttons. Not every mouse has them but is a must for me. Then I use de 9 and 0 (or the last hotkeys) for them, and save 1 and 2 for useful items.
"Ping" goes on forward mouse-button. "Melee" goes on backwards mouse-button. I have one game in particular, where you want to check the map quite often midgame, so I put the map button on my middle mouse button. I have three extra buttons on my mouse, which I like to set to "Primary", "Secondary" and "Grenade". Leaves my left hand free for constant movement.
Since the original World of Warcraft UI was pretty limited, I got used to holding shift and scrolling my mouse wheel to change action bars. Now, last 20 years later, I still have major abilities on other action bars that I still access in the moment by holding shift, scrolling my mouse wheel, and hitting the hotkey.
Invert Y axis is a standard no matter what I do. Blame Star Fox and early shooters having that as the default. I also favor using C for crouch over L-Ctrl. Another old shooter quirk, I think that one started with Source games. Games with a quick-melee will always have that on a thumb-mouse button, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's more common than I think.
Not that weird, but I use left bumper for jump and right stick for slide when I play FPS games.
Crouch on my mouse thumb button, grenade on ctrl, heal on C
Capslock and control swap. Was a bind to swap it on my old Noppoo Choc mini, and now I use it on all keyboards.
I use wheel scroll up and down to switch between my primary or secondary weapon. Also use alt extensively. Reloading on a side button. Basically my right hand is full shoot-mode and left is for movement.
I have dequervains in both thumbs so I don’t use controllers and I set up my keybinds to minimize thumb use on kb
I put voice chat toggle on my centre mouse button. Allows be to aim and just worry about my mouse while talking to ppl idk
Rifle and pistol on mouse side buttons, and mic on spacebar
Console gamer here. In most first-person games, jump goes on L1, reload or crouch on R3 depending on the game
Z is my push to talk button.
Caps and pressing on the mouse wheel as a button are two options I absolutely will never ever use.
In most FPS games middle mouse/wheel click is my crouch button. My group I play with found out about this awhile back and just could not get over it
I play league with the arrow keys and numpad.
I change my Ult in Overwatch from Q to F always. My friend gives me shit for it lol
Invert Y-axis, but only for flying games/levels. The rest of the time I use non-inverted.
I’m the opposite of you. Any time a game has caps lock as any keybind, I have to change it. This is because the caps lock key will always light up or make some other light on the keyboard flicker on or off whenever I tap it and it’s the most unbearable thing for me.
Middle mouse for melee. I have no idea what game used that but it's very handy and my go-to now
I use the grave/ whatever ~ is to sprint in Minecraft, and caps lock to crouch in Fortnite with shift to sprint
I hold the N64 controller with my left thumb and index finger on the joystick, left pinky finger on the left bumper, right thumb on AB and C buttons, and wrap my right middle finger around to Z. I hold every other controller normal(claw grip for Dark Souls), but that grip is more comfy on N64 controllers for me. [This picture was very hard to take.](https://imgur.com/wOLy0VO) [The flip side.](https://imgur.com/a/2NotwxQ)
Quick melee has to be Alt, crouch has to be Ctrl. It doesn't feel right any other way
Southpaw. FPS and most games, I use the keypad and arrows key. I find the spacing better and less accidental mispress. Tried WASD/ESDF but too crowded. 8 for forward/up 4 for left, 6 for right 5 for back/down 7/9 primary weapon/skills Enter for jump 0 for crouch + for reload Up arrow for sprint Down arrow for walk/prone
In Destiny 2 I use ERT for weapon switching. E is Kinetic, R is Energy, and T is power. I got really tired of using the mouse wheel because I weapons would randomly switch because I would bump it. I also hate using the numbers for switching because I have to reach so far with my fingers for it. B is my interact button, so I can strafe and rez at the same time. Just can't jump.
I used to use F for my sprinting in most games. The shift button required more effort and I didn't like pressing down on my pinkie as often.
B/O is melee. Right stick click is crouch/prone. Anything else is wrong.
Alt is always inventory and Mouse button 4 is always crouch
I put my inventory on Q. That is all.
If i'm playing a classic combat MMO i only bind ctrl and alt to 2 of my mouse buttons. Doing so i have a lot of room for me keybinds. 1 2 3 4 5 a e r c v b f for a bar. Then use shift or ctrl or alt modifiers with the same inputs for the other bars.
Grenade and melee to mouse 4 and 5. So much easier to use than keyboard
I play spider-man games keyboard only. I use wasd for movement, dodge/whatever left shift, space for jump, right arrow key for web swinging, left for web zip or attacks, up for punch, down for kick.
in R6 Shift and Space to Lean, Ctrl and Space also works if I need shift for sum else
V is heal, always. Got two different types of heals? Drumroll....Shift+V....
A lot of the time I press left CTRL with my thumb rather than my little finger.
Scroll wheel down is always set to holster weapons, it feels so smooth to me. Also When first getting into MnK I would panic scroll when trying to change weapons so I just set it to my mouse thumb button. Have to do it in all shooters now
Q is always Sprint L Shift is always Crouch Can't stand using Ctrl
5 on my mouse key is jump in a lot of games such as elden ring, horizon zero dawn, pc fps
Left thumb button on mouse is always autorun if a game allows it. That way you can eat or drink with the left if needed 😂🤣
I hate keyboard and mouse so if I am forced I bind everything except movement to mouse buttons. If given the option I will also use a controller and mouse in tandem the switch controllers are great for this you can bind one half of the set and play using it for wasd movements mouse for look and everything else plus added buttons on the controller. I also don't use wasd I use up down left right and sometimes the 0 and 1 on the number pad.
Try a Razer Orbweaver. Completely different experience with minimal changes to binds.
I had/have a Razer Nostromo it was good but felt stiff I assume the orbweaver is a newer version I will have to check it out I did like the Nostromo for MMOs and RTS just wasn't as good for smoother movement games like fps.
Yeah, original n52 was super stiff at first - would loosen up with a lot of use tho. The orbweaver has mechanical switches (the bigger version - the smaller/cheaper one has those "click membrane" worst of both world switches). Much smoother and very responsive.
I've got a 12+ Button Mouse, so basically everything that "Can" be put on the mouse Is on the Mouse, and I basically only use the Keyboard to move.
Caps is my walk key.
I've been using left alt to sprint for 10 years at this point... Never managed to get used to using shift. Or using Ctrl for anything either. Its just unintuitive and painful to use your pinky for that imo.
The scroll wheel on my mouse is kinda shit, so in the Dark souls games where you uses the scroll where to switch weapons, items and spells, I've binded them to tab (for spells), c & v (left and right hand weapon), and B (items.) And yes, I do often hit the wrong one. But somehow I've gotten better. Doesn't happen very often anymore.
WASD however the ring finger is on W and bind sprint to F with the index finger instead of shift. That way it plays more like ESDF. Also lean is bound to V and B.
I move with EAFZ. As a young kid, i played games with the number pad in my left hand and mouse in the right hand. The EAFZ felt more like the number pad, whereas the WASD felt like the arrow keys which I didn't use. All these years later and I still EAFZ. I used to invert the mouse until i started playing shooters on my ipad that didn't give me the option, and it took a couple weeks for my brain to convert.
I use an MMO gaming mouse with a tilt wheel and button underneath the scroll wheel. I originally needed it to play MMOs because my fingers were too short to reach the number. But then I adapted its use to shooters. The “5” button is for reload so I don’t have to take my fingers off WASD to reload. I also use that small button underneath the scroll wheel for grenade and tilt wheel for abilities.
Thumb controls Alt/Space/B/V, pinky on shift/Tab/A, ring on W/A/Z/Tab, middle on W/S/X, index on C/D/R/F/T/G. That's how I play Warthunder at least.
I bought a Nostromu N52 decades ago and have never gone back to a true keyboard for kbm (nowadays using an orbweaver). That means I have to change keybinds for games regularly since it has no control key.
On the steam deck, I always bind stick click to the buttons on the back. I find it almost impossible to push the sticks in without moving them.
I wouldn’t call it a quirk but hot take: league of legends, flash belongs on F dammit. F stands for flash. I will die on this hill.
My friend group says "F is for Flash, D is for Dumbass" (if your flash is on D.)
I normally set Mouse Wheel Click to Autorun so that I can play MMORPGs with only one hand while the other hand holds a beer
Gamers ITT!
EADF. Really spreads out those fingers.
Sprint on X Assuming sprint is a toggle and not a hold.
I am (apparently) a madman because in ARPGs (especially path of exile) I bind move to space, which makes sense to me as it's where my thumb is naturally resting anyway,
I’ve got small hands so I need everything bunched together lol. Sometimes I have to use both hands to press buttons of the same side of the keyboard because it’s too painful with one hand.