I use the default layout for the WASD controls. I can't ever see myself using the mouse to drag my FOV; it's too clumsy and slow. I think you micro better by being able to position/control your hero with the mouse and use the keyboard for camera controls.
@stink
Not sure if you are a new player or on a smurf, but if you want to really improve, you should change that habit ASAP (not saying I am anything great but WSAD camera is very very bad). I used to use WSAD as a crutch when i started and improved an insane amount after breaking it. The big issue with it is that during a teamfight when milliseconds mean the difference between winning and losing, your fingers will be tied up on the keyboard moving the camera, making your reaction time to use items and abilities SIGNIFICANTLY worse.
@caveman - whatsup dude? HG represent
I think having your items on F keys makes them too far from your normal hand position. Why not QWERDF abilities and ZXCV Space and mouse side button for items? Why have items on F keys when you can have them an inch away from ability keys? It allows for quicker reaction time having them closer. I have courier keybinds on the F keys (F1 select courier, F2 grab items from stash, F3 deliver, F4 speed. So you can just press F1, F2, F3 in rapid succession and then back to hero and thats it. items on the way), and control groups on numbers
my setup:
f1 hero
1 illusions/summons
2 hero + illusions/summons
item use:
7 8 9
4 5 6
legacy keys
optimal settings really matter when u are at the very top of ladder where minor things can really give u advantage over top notch enemy but i assume you are around 3600rating so only thing u should look into is camera speed besides that
look into sport psychology instead of keyboard/mouse layout it will help u much more and i can guarantee you even with default layout 4.9k is doable
ok my bad default keybind layout in dota 2 is trash i am using default one from hon
there is no 'optimal keys' there is just what you are comfortable with. Copying X players keys will not turn you into X player
arent there a few default options? I think anything can really work but having your keyboard hand tied up moving the camera is the one setting that I think makes a huge negative difference
no idea i refer to default layout that valve introduce together with 2nd part tutorial where wasd were recommended keys
Exactly what spirestoner said.
Taking my setup as example, its the default warcraft3/dota1 setup.
Some people hate legacy keys, and I agree with them. QWER is way easier, but I feel comfortable using legacy.
ctrl 1 for hero/allunit (but dominator) -if several unit, than my key for hero is F1
ctrl 2 for secondary unit
ctrl 3 for chick
ctrl 4 for chick
spell legacy
invetory legacy (789456)
Edit: i just love how sattelizer and me have the same shortcut :p
I use alt+qweasd for items (HoN default). Mouse for fov movement. 1-6 for unit binds
This setup keeps everything I need under my left hand so there aren't any big keyboard leaps (less misclicks for me this way)
@ Satellizer
Thanks for your input, Do you use your left hand to hit all your item uses?
@ -hunglikeputin
Yes hg represent indeed! :O
I like your idea of zxcv Space and thumb button for items. I don't use those so why didn't i think of that? Yes that would be much closer to my normal hand position! Derp on me!
@ Spirestoner
Oh I get that I'm not going to turn into player X, and I won't turn into them. I have found in the past that just some suggestions on keyboard layout has improved my gameplay. Try sticking with the thread I get if I eat my wheaties in the morning doesn't make me an olympic athlete? Jeez.
@ God among peasants
Yeah I have read into some and the basics I have tried this week are:
1. Do not play when I'm tired.
2. Be positive (helped with my 2x win last night even with trolls in team. Kept the rest of the random teammates from being caught in a chat war with the antagonist.)
3. Don't play when I'm full! (Goes with being tired)
4. Don't play when I've had a few drinks!
5. Don't play after a ton of exercise. (My arms feel like they are falling off some days so reaching those keys are tough!)
6. Eat better! (Working on it now, changing out to raw veggies/fruits)
These sound like silly no duh things but changing personal habits has improved my gameplay over the past week, and when to play and when not to play.
@-hg- HungLikePutin
I think anything can really work but having your MOUSE hand tied up moving the camera is the one setting that I think makes a huge negative difference
@Soultrap
I played first person shooters for years, competitively and casually, so moving the camera with my mouse is like breathing, I don't even notice. I wouldn't be able to play if I had to use my keyboard to do it, my keyboard hand is exclusively for abilities and items.
One thing I screw up sometimes is clicking to move toward Radiant fountain but I hit the minimap and take off running to the Dire fountain. But I heard they added a feature to swap minimap to the other side, just haven't done it yet.
@soultrap. lol what. prob a troll post, but i hate to have people see this and take your advice. I dont wanna be that guy to say this, but have never seen a single top player using they keyboard hand to move the camera.
Say you are orb walking with any spell, but lets just use enchantress's imp. and you use R. To move the camera while orb walking and chasing any enemy hero, you would be forced to either take your finger off of R to move the camera, or to move your hand to other keys opening you up to misclicks. Say you were in a team fight in a mobile situation, you would have your fingers on say W and D to follow the fight, and you would either have to move the camera or use a spell/item. Being a former idiot who used WSAD i can say from personal experience that it caused me to accidentally use spells/items, or have to wait until moving the camera before using it.
This really isnt even debatable
Artemis - I have also accidentally clicked the minimap many many times while running towards the bottom left of the screen, causing my hero to turn around and die to chasing heroes. Does anyone know of a way to avoid this?
edit: I double click the hero portrait during creep block
@-hg- HungLikePutin
How it can force me to take my finger off of R? I don't know your hand design, but I have 5 fingers on it. Btw, ultimate is on F key by default and F key is really different from other keys, so you can't miss it.
Meanwhile, moving your mouse to the side of the screen and back to the enemy hero opening you up to miss the target.
^ what about H for stopping?
1 - hero
2 - bird
skills:
w e r t (3 4)
items:
s d f
x c v
p2t: y
attack: a
hold: h
glyph: i
scoreboard: `
missing: z
chat wheel: p
I think that's it.
I rebound stop to Caps Lock. I don't use it all that much any way.
I feel like I have no trouble at all orb walking with WASD camera controls. Like that one guy said, I have five fingers on my left hand. I'm typically using the middle three for camera/ability micro.
Also, I'm not constantly shifting the camera during fights--a short finger depress burst is enough to set the camera and then ready myself for abilities.
As for my experience, I'm definitely not a smurf but I don't play pub matches too often. The reason? Bad experiences with players that I don't even feel have a basic understanding of Dota 2 mechanics. It's frustrating as fuck solo queuing (pro-tip: don't do it) and getting ass reamed by a 4 or 5 man stack. It's a pretty rare experience to get an evenly matched game. When you do, and the match goes 50+ minutes with several momentum swings, it's so thrilling. I don't care if I win or lose in competitive matches, but lopsided victories or defeats just don't bring any joy.
Plus I can't say I have one hero that I would main all the time. There are so many things about this game that you only learn with time and player reinforcement. I play a ton of co-op bot matches to level my account, but also gain practical experience in terms of laning (denying/last hitting against the AI is invaluable). The AI doesn't really practice advanced mechanics like deliberately drawing creep aggro to shift the lane equilibrium towards your tower, among other things.
I also really like theorycrafting and testing my builds in matches without being a huge detriment to my team.
What are some of the disadvantages for my skill growth in playing bot matches? Aside from the things I mention above, player also tend to bot abuse which can ruin everything you hope to accomplish when testing a new hero or two.
Lastly, I'm pretty horrible at counter-picking heroes even though I have pretty good experience playing with most of them.
@Soultrap
If you use F, you have to move your finger to D to move, so you cant move camera and use ult at the same time unless you shift your hand ... Maybe you have your hand one set of keys to the right.
that was just an example. it will make a much bigger negative impact during teamfights when you need split second reflexes. Having to split your use of those fingers to both move the camera and use actives will cause delay and suboptimal timing for using spells and items.
moving your mouse onto the target is pretty basic honestly, and if you cant do that you are likely struggling to animation cancel or even target abilities in the first place. It is something easily learned and should be second nature for most players after just a bit of practice.
Using camera on keys will simply harm your reaction time, ability to move the camera and use multiple spells and items in rapid succession. Having used it myself, and taken the time to break the habit, it makes a HUGE difference. It will only help your play. If you dont want to take the time and effort to improve your play in a very basic and easy way, or are too stubborn to realize that you are gimping yourself with these settings, then so be it. Enjoy being gimped.
Honestly I am just trying to convey that I was in the same boat, didnt want to make the effort to fix the habit, but i did. and it made a massive difference. It will help your play, I can 100% promise that. Good luck regardless, but I seriously hope you realize the issues it inevitably has been and will continue to create for you - and make the change at some point
I should also add that I play on a 4:3 monitor. The FOV is much different than playing on a 16:9 or even 16:10 monitor. You don't have enough information on screen so quick panning in the cardinal directions is critical.
I might reconsider if I ever upgrade my monitor.
I undestand why that may seem like a reason to use keyboard panning, but I am fairly sure it will still help massive amounts in terms of reaction time, rapid item and ability use, etc. You dont see a single top player using keyboard pan (obv its partially from dota 1 settings, but if it wasnt sub-optimal, we would see it). Again, having been there myself, and made the change (i was used to it in under 2 days, despite some bad misclicks for a few games) - I couldnt possibly imagine going back to it, and I hate myself for not sacking up and fixing the habit sooner. So many failed and delayed abilities and misplays that could have been avoided
Forgot to mention this part of it - opening up the WSAD keys to item, ability, and stop/a-move binds is almost as important of a reason to use mouse-panning. Having to bind your items to keys further from the spells and such certainly hurts your ability to react quickly (especially when you are already using your hand to move the camera). And for heroes with more than 4 abilities, no matter what binds you use now, they are probably less optimal than what you can have without WSAD bound to camera.
I think that's a point taken on the bit about heroes with more than 4 abilities. I tend not to play them very well.
Inventory 1 - Side mouse button
Inventory 2 - Side mouse button
Inventory 3 - Spacebar
Inventory 4 - 5
Inventory 5 - T
Inventory 6 - G
A - Attack
S - Stop
Tab - Switch between controlled units
That's all you really need. I would say the things that have improved my gameplay the most was switching my most commonly used inventory slot to space bar. While your fingers are on "qwer" for the spells, your thumb is naturally going to be resting right on the spacebar anyways. I usually assign this for phase boots or bottle or something else I am constantly clicking throughout the game. The other thing is getting a mouse with programmable keys. I have a razer imperator with two side buttons I use for my first two item slots. This is extremely convenient for blink dagger, BKB, force staff, etc or any other items that rely heavily on precise timing.
You got to just find what is easiest for you to use. I would suggest having a strategy in picking what you want your keys to be. You want to be able to quickly press the keys without looking and without having to really move your hand a whole lot to do so. Also, check out the some of the autoexec.cfg files people have created for Dota 2. I have turned on camera bindings for the runes and tuned on the range finder in mine. I just google searched it and messed around with some of the options until I had what I liked. This can also be very helpful.
I think very few decent players use keyboard actually, for the reasons I have said above as well as habit from other games. The same reasons apply in those other moba's as well though. Just two in this thread so far to whom I was trying to convey the clear reasons why it is a bad way to set up your keybinds.
I definitely use mouse pan though...
There is no reason you shouldn't be, especially when you can customize your mouse acceleration (if you have a half decent mouse) and change panning settings within an autoexec.cfg script. If you haven't checked it out and you are still using the keyboard in that regard you definitely should. I guarantee it will improve your gameplay.
^ Aggred. I wasnt directing that at you, though. Was talking to soultrap. It is 100% obvious that mouse pan is better and using keyboard to pan is just plain bad. sry but its true. Similar to all bad habits, there is nothing stopping you from fixing it but yourself (stinko i think you can still mouse pan with your monitor size, hope you try it out)
1=Main char.
2=Illusion #1
3=Illusion #2
4=Illusion #3
5=Illusion #4
6=Courier
How do you bind each Illusion to a key ?
I have 4 extra buttons on my mouse that i use for items/courier abilities
Other than that everything is on default. Im just used to having my hand on QWER and ZXCV because i play alot of FPS and GW2 and some RTS
*RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNER*
Q - 1st Item
W - 2nd Item
E -3rd Item
R - 4rd Item
Mouse Button 1 - 5th Item
Mouse Button 2 - 6th Item
A - Attack
S - 1st Skill
D - 2nd Skill
F - 3rd Skill
G - Ultimate Skill
C - Ext #1 Skill
V - Ext #2 Skill
**SPACE - Hold / Stop
** -> Good For Pudge to Fake Hooks
1 - Main Hero
2 - Illusion / Forge Spirit
*RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNER*
IMO It's very flexible, especially for playing INVOKER.
I took awhile to get use to these keys.
Nice setup NaZuNa,
Why would you say it is for beginners? And what would you change as you become more advanced?
3, 4, Space, Z, X, C for items
1 for Hero, and summons of any type.
2 for pure summons.
Shift click portrait for naga illusions. Minimap and boxing for PL illusions as it's just as fast and more accurate.
idk if anyone cares but il tell mine anyway
legacy for skills obviouslee
q w spacebar for first 3 item slots
1 2 3 for other 3 item slots
4 for mass of units 5 for units + hero (splitting out with 6 7 8 if got more than that)
got scoreboard as f2 hero f1 courier delivers items with f3 f4 opens up shop
and thats about it
5 - 1st Item
Space - 2nd Item
Mouse Wheel Up - 3rd Item
Mouse Wheel Down - 4rd Item
Mouse Button 1 - 5th Item
Mouse Button 2 - 6th Item
A - Attack
E - 1st Skill
R - 2nd Skill
T - 3rd Skill
B - Ultimate Skill
D - Ext #1 Skill
F - Ext #2 Skill
G - Shop
4 - Skill Learn.
F1 - Main Hero
F2 - Courier (F3+F4)
There's more...
Q W E R D F for hero spells.
1 2 3 4 5 6 for items.
` to select courier.
F1 to select hero.
Backspace for fortification.
Space for scoreboard.
Tab to cycle around controlled units.
This is the best possible setup. If you are not using this you are doing something wrong.
if i use skill to enemy why need 4-5 klik to use it and if i use blink dagger 1 always back to fountain not move, can you help me guys
I have the razer naga mouse so it is no problem to use wasd for camera controls as i can bind 1-6 of the buttons on the left side of my mouse to abilities then have zxcvbn for items q for deny and f for stop i want to change so i could play dota with any mouse but i feel that edge scrolling is way too hard and makes it so i have less control over my hero and a way slower reaction time.
ok
Q,W,E,R, - skillz, usually u need only 4
1 - select hero
2 - select chick
3 - deliver stuff
4 - fast chick
F11 - disconnect, very usefull
Mouse 4 , Mouse 5 , Space - items, who needs more than 3 active items anyway
all that beginner needs
I use AZERTY keyboard so scale ..
AZER skills
XC other skills
1,2,3 ; top items
Q,S,D ; Bottom items
W : bring courier
T,G,6,Y : Control groups
F : Control unit (I have to use this A LOT since my favorite hero is Lone Druid so it had to be close)
4: Stop attack animation
V: Shop
H: Back up (this is a MUST for Pubs especially when most of them are russians )
TAB : Level up
Space : Hero
F1: Hero
F2: Courier
F3: Voice chat
F4: Open shop (but I don't really use it)
Space: Quick buy
QWERDF: Abilities
345: Top Items
ZXC: Bottom Items
1: Control group 1
2: Control group 2
A: Attack
B: "Get back!"
G: Chat wheel
H: Hold position
S: Stop
T: Learn stats
V: Scoreboard
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Hi,
I am curious from the higher performers that I read on here of what you guys set your keyboards on using items/skills and camera views.
Here is my current setup:
Unit selection:
1=Main char.
2=Illusion #1
3=Illusion #2
4=Illusion #3
5=Illusion #4
6=Courier
Item use:
Thumb mouse button= top left item box (use for phase boots or frequently used item)
F1-F5 for rest of items
Spell Use:
QWER
Camera use:
I use mouse to drag camera view around. Does anyone use the arrows on the keyboard instead?
Thank you,