Only benefit of having legacy keys is imo the fact that you can put items in QWER. But for some heroes still use QWER like Invoker so that's not possible either. I honestly don't think legacy are any better than QWER.
Legacy is theoretically better for your fingers in the long run because it uses a larger spread of keys. QWER is much more key-efficient and lets you hotkey alot of additional commands alot more easier.
sano, it's not ofc but imagine yourself in Dota-1 playing Mirana. Instead of QWER you got TREW, and no way you can change it (maybe you can in customkeys.txt file, but this is another story). It will be funny fails in missclicks, won't it? So do I,
conversely in Dota 2.
for QWER
U can easily play micro heroes, as u don't need 10 fingers to micro each meepo clone/creep/etc.
And all heroes would have similar hot keys, so u would find it easier to play a new or different hero.
Like fore TA, the hot keys are something like, R,D,something,T,C, which is awkward unlike the simple QWER.
While using QWER, u can easily lvl up any lvl, like while playing BH, u need to press O then J, I got lvl up as "4" and I would just press 4>W, thus less waste of time.
How to get used to it?
Don't play public during the transition from Legacy to QWER, u might have MANY miss clicks, like using Shaman's Serpant Wards instead of Ether Shock, which would cause a lot of frustration to u and to ur team m8s. So, instead of that, try playing vs bots, and keep playing that way until u feel u got comfortable to QWER, if u didn't, then start playing some games vs bots with Legacy hot keys, because the attempt to change to QWER might have disrupted ur old Legacy hot keys a bit.
Items it is an good argument for QWER. In Dota 1 I changed item hotkeys in CustomKeys programm for every time I play Rubick, SF and Invoker (cause I usually use Q, Z, X for items) and in Dota 2, as well (settings). But it is pretty annoying, many people would agree with that. I tired already :< It would be nice to bind all items to their constant keys and never change it in future.
Allright, I made my desition. I'm going to retrain for QWER. It will be god damn hard for me, especially for the some few heroes, but I'll do it! Beware, bots! I'm comming for you ;)
Thanks everyone for the responce and separately thank MapzOr² for the detailed responce.
legacy key are mind key, don't know if you noticed, but for example, w is most of time kind of escape with side effect, r t are usually aiming skill etc...
for invoker it's same shit, you don't mind at the position of your spell if you legacy.
On the other hand, the main advantage of qwer is about inventory, as you don't have to cross whole keyboard.
As letter most of time have meaning in themselves, legacy is faster reaction -doesn't mean you'll go faster !-
qwer is for reducing the time for your finger.
Personnaly, I never liked qwer, as after 1-2 hour it is hurting my hand to have my finger always in same position, and actually not even natural position, awer or awef would be much more natural.
And ofc, I played dota with legacy :)
You can change you keys to anything, so if you feel more confy with awef, why not use that? :D I have my fingers on asdf, Im studying programming, and also typed a lot lot more than played wasd games, so its most confortable for me, anywhere else it feels weird. I use QWER for spells, and Tab+Y are my binds atm for extra 2 spells, but dont play any heroes with more than 4 right now. I have my items on the other keys around XCVSD and Space, target myself with F, have stop on mouse extra button, hold on alt+mouseclick, attack on A, courier and other stuff on (alt+) mouse buttons, quick buys on G and T, shop on CapsLock, voice chat on H and chatwheel on B. This random shit is better for me than using anything else, but I dont think its a really effective way to play doto... Whatever. Just saying, if you would feel better with just some adjustments, why not? :D I know from playing WoW, its easy to make your mind learn new binds fast, just have to play some practice with bots, like 2-3 games enough. Also if you forget, use a post-it on the frame of your monitor :D
i played cod so i set spells to W A S D C (a deny)
items like cod also Q was smoke granade, E flashbang, 4 radar, Space jump, middle mouse knife ggwp
Advantages of QWER:
- You don't need to know the keys for every spell. (only for new players)
- A lot of unused keys which you can bind for items and other things.
- It's easy to control leaver/shared heroes.
- You can play Rubick. :D
Disadvantages:
- Higher chance to missclick when panicking? :D
And QWER is not easier, it's the same when you get used to it. It might be easier for some people because you can bind additional keys but it's not easier by itself. A mouse with keys on the sides solves the problem for me.
QWER is better but it's not really a big deal and it's definitely not worth the torture.
im moving the camera with WASD. so im using q-mouse4-mouse5-space :DD :DDDDD
items z-x-c-v-b-n
I played dota1 since 2006 too and I had a hard time changing to dota2, yet I applied it a bit differently with E for 1st skill and W D R for 2nd 3rd and ultimate respectively.
There are some heroes that I changed back to Legacy like Invoker and SF for example.
Btw, I play on laptop so QWER grants me access to more item shortcuts.
Most people who use legacy don't want to change to QWER because they think it will take a long time to get used to it, and I can tell it's a big myth. I was a Dota 1 player from 2009 to 2011, used legacy in Dota 2 until start of 2013 and when I decided to change it took me less than 3 days to get in shape. It's VERY easy, really. And misclicking is way too rare.
lol It's so easy to get used to it, even now when I go to wc3 I remember all of the hotkeys heroes used to have and still do, after a few days of playing wc3 I need to get used to qwer, but it takes two games max, since you press qwer for a whole hour and your hand starts to remember the positions, same with legacy, also I like legacy a bit more since the hand is in a way more comfortable position.
well... i use legacy keys and well i do it because im used to it! since i use almsot all my keys from a to h and q to z its hard to assign hotkeys for item slots... i decided to stop relying in stop (s) and then assigned q,s and 3 as hotkeys for action items. (and i just dont play heroes like invoker, rubick and jakiro that mess up my keys)
@sano you ask for advantage... only advantage i can give you is that sf razes match perfectly with the other hotkeys and the same with sand king! well there are others too... but u could say its because each skill is baed on the name of the skill like blinK, burrowstrikE, Requiem of souls, raZe... just subconcious actually...from my exp its also easier to go shift actionlike this too...AAAAAAAAAND dont forget! blink/mobility abilities dont always end up in the same KEy (q,w,e,r) like the qop blink (w), riki blink (q), magina blink (q), mirana leap (e) or abilities like stun burrowstrike (q), storm hammer (q), arrow (w), lina stun (w), fissure(q), unstable concotion(w) so since u dont rly follow every hero u might get confused or act slower when using skills
qwer being better is a myth. you suck at mapping if you can't find hotkeys for everything you need with legacy. only heroes that are objectively better/easier to play are invoker and rubick.
QWER + 
for me
1-6 serve as inventory. 10-12 I use as missing calls (though sadly i don't think it triggers the audio when used with a hotkey)
currently using f2 for courier select, space for hero select, A deny, S for stop C all unit select, and V for minion select. However I think i really need to switch to 1-4 for minion selecting so i can start practicing chen.
I find it annoying that I haven't found a propr "stop and Hold" command yet. I know some exist out there but I haven't found one i like.
Also wish i could create a hotkey to turn auto-attack on and off. some heroes need it, and some heroes need it off.
invoker isn't objectively better/easier without legacy, and i cann't tell for rubick, but mb i agree without you for now on it, since there's some bug with legacy rubbick, which are very annoying.
For all other heroes, i cann't agree more with help, and i think that moving omnislash hotkey from "n" to "e" is icefrog biggest mistake since i play dota (i started ~6.48b)
I know a lot of people have item hotkeys that overlap with some legacy hotkeys. I guess it could be quite annoying to keep changing your item hotkeys and perhaps your reaction time would be affected as well. If you manage to avoid that then I do not think there is a big advantage (if any) to use QWER over legacy.
QWER is much better. How often do you hit v instead of c for many heroes in Dota 1 and found out why ur spell didn't go off?
Also helps when u play on another player or account. Only advantage I can see with custom keys is say items such as force staff and blink. Since all your fingers already resting on the home keys it should be easier.
Another thing is have you played on another player who has custom keys? they are like Q, R, Y, Z, V space and ctrl?
it's all over the place and you have a high chance of missing keys.
Sorry for bringing old tread back, but what keys are not being used in legacy by any hero?
nobody use WASD?
WASD is pretty good in my opinion for literally 99% of heroes.
except tinker or hero (usually invoker) with multiple active items.
I recently started to try tinker but it seemed to find WASD too ineffective for tinker/invoker with multiple active items
so I changed my key bind and started to try
normal qwer df with a attack s deny
with zxc item with altered t g space key as bottom 3 item keys.
camera 70speed
looks like it'll take me lot more matches to be adjusted
but I find new key bind is much better and effective than old WASD for being able to utilize more active items easily as possible.
o boy item key bind for WASD is so horrible ZXCVBN LOL
I'm not even sure how they expect you to hit VBN while fighting.
in my opinion, what you are used to is best but if you want to improve normal qwer is much better and efficient
although you have to consider you'll play much below your current play because you are not familiar with new keys.
before changing my key I kept forgetting to use few active items in team fight if you had 4-5 active items in lategame.
now it's so gud
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(Sorry for poor English)
I have been playing Dota Allstars since 2006, and only about half-year in Dota 2.
Certainly, I use Legacy hotkeys, but people say that QWER is much more comfortable if you get use to it.
Is it true?
And if it is, how to old player like me should get use to it in most easiest way? One thought about it will be nessesary to press Q for SK stun instead of familiar E - just drives me crazy.
In general, does this change from Legacy to QWER worth these torments?