Did you use ability hotkeys in 333?

[BMac]

In BB 333, we added the ability to bind hotkeys to abilities on each character's ability bar.  Are they useful?  Did you even figure out that this was an option?  Your feedback here.

 

 

Hotkeys are default QWERTY.  You bind them by pressing the key while mousing over an ability in the bar.

 

[PrimeHydra]

I didn't even know how to set them, and didn't want to look in the Options > Controls because I heard there was a bug in which keys, once bound, cannot be unbound. (Sounds like a prophecy out of Lord of the Rings.)

 

Including the bound key in the ability/spell tooltips, a la Knockdown (W), would be really helpful here. (If it's there I might have missed it.)

Edited October 29, 2014 by PrimeHydra

[Karkarov]

Hotkeys are always useful, a good step in the right direction I felt.

[wanderon]

Generally don't use hotkeys other than those provided for pause, select all, etc and have almost never made any changes or assigned something to a hot key myself but I think it's a good idea to have the capability.   

Edited October 29, 2014 by wanderon

[Sensuki]

I figured out there were there eventually, but that was only when I checked the options menu and saw the new binds available for them. Perhaps add a loading tip about them.

 

Haven't used them yet, because I assume they are bound to action slot numbers - each action bar is different for each character so hotkeys would not be uniform I don't think.

 

I use hotkeys in DotA 2 because it's required to act quickly and the hotkeys are uniform for each unit, in this game since action bars are dynamic and different for each character and not designed like the IE games, I think that makes them less useful IMO (although I definitely see their merit).

Edited October 29, 2014 by Sensuki

[Sensuki]

I just tried them ... you can add duplicates of the same ability to the action bar in some instances. I'll see if I can submit a bug report about it.

 

For anyone that's tried them here's how it works.

 

You have to mouse over the ability/spell you want to assign to a hotkey and then you press the hotkey to assign it - so you mouse over a spell, let's say Fireball, and you press Q. That will create a new action bar slot with the Fireball spell. To remove the slot, you mouse over the slot and press the hotkey button again (in this instance, Q) and it removes it.

 

Instructional video incoming.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Sensuki

[Sensuki]

[Skie Nightfall]

Well, never knew about it, but then again I didn't play much with the new build yet.

It seems pretty cool.

Just note, that R is for resting on default...

 

Small issue: if you already gave an ability a hotkey, say Q, you can't change it to another one, without pressing Q again to disable it. It should be able to bounce right into a new key in my opinion.

[Sensuki]

I think that's so you don't mis-assign keys. I think it's fine how it is.

[Rumsteak]

Can you assign a same shortcut depending on the selected character?

 

Like for my mage R would be fireball and for my rogue R would be something else.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Rumsteak

[Sensuki]

Yeah.

[Rumsteak]

Awesome! Way better than IE games. Can't way to play "no mouse style" with character selection shorcuts + abilities shortcuts.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Rumsteak

[Skie Nightfall]

I think that's so you don't mis-assign keys. I think it's fine how it is.

 

Makes sense.

[Labadal]

Voted "What are you talking about?" because I didn't even know that was in, but I will use them in the final release.

[Labadal]

I'm going to bump this just this one time.

[Cubiq]

Did you use ability hotkeys in 333?

Yes, bugged out and the keys stopped working.

[Fiebras]

I didnt register them.

I can see how they would be useful.

I would have to get used to them but I see myself just clicking the icons instead. Maybe.

 

Ill try to use them more often to see if they add anything. Its a nice addition regardless and can see it being useful in slow motion and real time even if it may end up making the combat feel like a mirco-intesive MOBA.

[Gairnulf]

I almost feel elitist to be one of 4 people who knew about the hotkeys and didn't use them

[Starwars]

Never knew they were in, but I am also unlikely to use them personally.

[Gfted1]

Awesome! Way better than IE games. Can't way to play "no mouse style" with character selection shorcuts + abilities shortcuts.

 

How will you move your party, interact with the environment, or target mooks?

[Guest 4ward]

telekinesis skill

[wanderon]

Voice commands?

[Hormalakh]

This was the one biggest feature I was looking forward to. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to play the beta much since my angry rant a while back (I've been burned too many times). When I did play, I couldn't figure it out.

 

I'll give more feedback when I get a chance to play with it. On the weekend or something.

[Hormalakh]

So having finally played with the hotkeys, I'd say they're better than nothing, but they weren't exactly what I was hoping to see. I would much rather have context sensitive hotkeys similar to how DotA2's work for invoker and some of the more complex heroes. I want to bind the same four keys to multiple spells based on the hierarchy of the button.

 

So for example, let's say my frimoire has these spells per level (with their associated hotkey):

 

level 1: chill fog (Q), minoletta's minor missles (W), slicken (E), fan of flames ®

level 2: combusting wounds (Q), ray of fire (W), rolling flame (E), necrotic lance®

level 3: noxious burst (Q).

 

I would set a hot key for each spell and I could set a hot key (same one) for the spell level to cast. So leve l1 is Q level 2 is W, level 3 is E.

 

If I want chill fog I would hit QQ. Minoletta's QW. Slicker QE.

If I want noxious burst then it would be EQ. Combusting wounds is WQ.

etc etc

 

This of course would be most useful to the multiple spells classes like druids, chanters, priests, wizards.

 

However I can see all classes having their abilities categorized into smaller subsections so that the control scheme can be used for all classes.

 

For example, fighter abilies or barbarian abilities can be categorized into per rest (Q), per encounter (W), etc etc.

 

Of course, if a player wants to just bind a single ability, they can do the same thing, by just picking that hotkey.

Context-sensitivity. Bugs galore if implemented and would take a good bit of time to get right.

 

But it seems like its too late for something like this design. One can still hope.

[Lephys]

I don't think it would be too tricky. If you can click it with a mouse (LvL X spell list), then you can execute the same code with a keypress. *shrug*