Hot keys

[Strum Lighthelm]

I was never really a mage when I played uo in the past. I liked doing the bard thing and would only hot key a couple of keys for my spells. I could just ask dakkon who played a mage tamer what he hot keyed but I want to know what everyone thinks as well.  My question is to you all, What are the must have spells/type ( necro,magery,spell weaving) and what is the key local.  Just trying to get an idea of how to lay out my hot keys and what spells to have in them.  Right now I have 1 thru 5 and its e-bolt 1/ flame strike 2/ blade spirits 3/ greater heal 4/ recall 5.  it works for me but not a power combo or at least I think its not.  If you all have any ideas please let me know.

[Scratch]

I haven't played UO in about 10 years, but I have played a lot of video games in that time and I think hot keys are very important to becoming a good player. I wrote up a very good guide for WoW but I can't find it so I'll just go over the basics.

First thing I do with any game is set my movement keys to ESDF instead of the usual WASD setup. This gives your fingers access to 4 more hot keys on the left side (QWAZ) and "Shift" and "Ctrl" are still easily accessible with your pinky. Since UO doesnt require the keyboard for movement, we can use all the keys for hot keys. First thing you want to do is setup your most used skills/spells to the closest keys (being ESDF). Then you can setup other hot keys around those. I usually put my second most used skills/spells on the WA4RTG buttons and the third most used spells, I setup "Shift" + ESDF,WA4RTG. That gives you 20 total hot keys for use and you still have available 235QZXCVB that are pretty close to your hand if you need extras. For stuff I dont use that often like commands (Vendor Sell, I wish to secure this, ETC.), I use CTRL + the keys.

I know that sounds like a lot of work, but once you get used to it, it'll make your gaming so much smoother. Heres some tips to help you get started.

Use Razor to setup your keys. If you play multiple toons, you can setup different profiles.

Start out small. Take 4 or 5 spells you use a lot, set them to hotkeys and use them until you have the movements and keys memorized. Then add 4 or 5 more until you have those memorized and so on until all the hotkeys are setup that you want to use. If you play a lot of games, it will take you a bit to get used to using ESDF instead of WASD.

Use you mouse wheel/buttons. Scroll up/down, middle click, etc. A lot of people forget to use these. I usually use my mouse for targeting functions like Target Hostile, Last Target and Target Self.

Use Razor default hotkeys. You can find some useful stuff in the Razor hotkey section, like Bandage Self, Heal Self, Disarm, Dismount. It will save you the trouble of making the macros yourself.

Make a "Clear Target Queue" Macro. This is a must have key if your using targeting keys or any looping macros. It will clear your target if you need to switch targets and it will end any macro thats playing. What you do is first set a hot key for "Clear Target Queue". Set it to an out of the way key ( I use the END key). Go into Razor macros and record pressing that key once. Go back to hot keys and set that macro to a hot key (I use middle click). Use the hot key before switching targets or if you want to end the current macro thats playing.

Set a key for "Enable/Disable Razor Hotkeys". You can find it at the very top of the Razor Hot Key section. Anytime you need to chat or use commands like [mystats, hit this key to disable hotkeys.



Thats all I can think of for now. If you have any questions, you can hit me up in game on Scratch or Bite De Morte.

[Scratch]

Heres some if the keys I use. I basically just copied someone's setup I found on some forums.

` - activate binds

escape - recall macro

2- greater heal
3 - cure
4 - heal
5 - poison
6 - paralyze
7 - teleport

w - weaken
e - Arm primary weapon
r - Arm secondary weapon
shift t - Set new last target
wheel down - Attack last
a - magic arrow
s - lightning
d - fireball
shift f - hide
f - ebolt
g - explo
q - flamestrike
t - lightning strike
F1 - reactive armor
F2 - magic reflect
F3 - Magic Trap
F4 - Bless
F5 - Protection
F6 - Magic Lock
shift d - invis self
h - reveal
b - dispel
v - provoke
c - discord
shift s - all stay
shift d - all stop
shift x - all guard me
shift c - all follow me
shift v - all kill
shift 1 - chug heal
shift 2 - chug cure
shift F1 - chug strength
shift F2 - chug refresh
shift F3 - chug refresh
shift F4 - toss explo

I'm still changing them around some, but it gives you a basic idea.

[Strum Lighthelm]

Wow...   thats great stuff and yes alot to take in at once.. :shock:  I will try the 4 button and get good at it then add 4 more buttons. I want to get a rythem with my hot keys so I don't look like a chicken with its head cut off running around. Scratch thanks a ton for taking the time to help with this topic and I will put in use what you have told me.  I also hope that anyone that has had this question and never asked gits the oppertunity to see this. If anyone else has any thing to add on what they do that helps please post.  Thanks again scratch.

   Later,
  Strum

[Strum Lighthelm]

lol....  Get    NOT GIT..   lol   sorry thanks,  Strum