Dude you're a godsend. I'm so happy I found you so soon into my PC life. I'm doing this on every game that I can. Since I'm used to typing at an office my hands kept settling with my index on F and kept miss clicking and I was trying to train WASD but no longer haha
I'm just now starting WoW and I love your videos. I played the wrong way in the past and it greatly hindered my gameplay but I'm hoping this will resolve it. Thanks a ton!
Next level is to use ESDF, but put forward on D and backward on E. I know it sounds crazy but this change lets your index finger stay on your home row most of the time, and for me it was much more comfortable. It was surprisingly quick to swap the muscle memory.
It's smart to change your keybinds like that, i played wow WASD for 15 yrs and tried ESDF and it was hard to de-program my head from the old key binds, i'm lvl up and alt to get used to the new keybinds and soon ill master the new one instead of ESDF im using WERD
5:30 "But guess what helps with you shifting that focus to regravitate towards-? This F button has the- the- button on it! The little nipple there to touch and press!" We were experiencing great content together.. I was pressing F to pay my respects. I even had a little nipple there to touch and press. But she was playing another game. T_T Anyway, nice guide. I've been using ESDF in FPS games for a while but trying to adapt my MMO setup after 1000 hrs is a good bit more stressful (returning player lol). Nice to have someone go through the logic a bit.
Going to try this, as I've been typing for 40 years and my hands automatically go to the proper typing spots without even thinking about it. So it makes sense for my left index finger to be on the F key, it's natural.
I've been struggling with rotations and having more abilities at the ready since starting WoW. I don't have macros, not a tonne of buttons on my mouse, just a humble M&KB setup. I am, however, a touch typist, so resting on ESDF feels very natural for me. I have the feeling this is gonna fix my setup. Thank you for making this video, and here's to the grind!
Keychron 2 75% keyboard puts the function keys inline with the number keys so you can have 2 rows of keybinds above your movement keys. Also custom keybinds allow you to change where shift alt and tab are located on the keyboard making it so modifiers can be place in closer proximity to your kaybinds alowing the same key to have upwards of 4 binds.
Bro, the home keyboard position is a game changer. I've been using that ever since I started typing on a PC, and it just hit me that that's the real natural resting hand position, lol. Incredible.
I've tried to use ESDF a few times and have for a couple games over the years, but have been stuck with WASD for WoW for ages. Watching your video made me realize WHY I always struggle to switch and the reason I find it so uncomfortable. When I use WASD, I am leaving my hand on the keyboard like a normal keyboard which means W/S are controlled by my ring finger, not my middle. SO when I shift to ESDF I am muscle memory sliding my hand over putting my ring on E/S which makes reaching shift and everything else awkward as hell. Watching your hand use the middle finger made me feel like a complete moron. I don't even need to move my hand over, I can literally just change which fingers do what.... I feel like I've been lying to myself for the decade or so that I've been trying to change... Muscle Memory is hard to break... anyways, thanks for the video. Cheers!
I have never been able to figure out why more people don't use the ESDF. I went straight to that setup when I started computer gaming. It's just the natural resting position for typing anyway, so it just felt right and makes the most sense to me.
I think it was because games\game companies adopted wasd as the standard\default setting, but I agree that esdf should have become standard as it makes more sense😁
Amen to that. I like the bump they put on the 'F' key. I've doing ESDF for at least 15 years. I hate when mechanical keyboards customize WASD. I also like having 'A' mapped to auto attack, or I think I used it as 'dodge' in Guild Wars 2. Many years ago, I even used super glue gel to add additional bumps (a tall drop of gel that turns into a bump when it hardens) to some of my keys to make them easier to find by touch without looking. I know I added bumps to F5 and F9 for quick save/load in single player games as well as the '5' key on the top row.
bored and watching random esdf vids cus ive been using it for a year but if i had to assume its due to the stagger of normal 100 percent keyboards, wasd is closer to having the w above the s than the e above the d, granted i use a full on autist keyboard so its not something i have to worry about but
ESDW. Ring finger hits W to strafe right, S to strafe left. Middle finger hits E to go forward, D to go back. Index finger is completely free to rest on F and use it and other surrounding keys without interrupting movement. To clarify I haven’t made the switch to this scheme, I’ve just thought about it and it seems like the most optimized layout possible. It has all of the added benefits of ESDF but frees up a finger.
Hi ive been playing for 17 years, high arena, high tier raiding and I have never thought of this. I tip my hat to you sir, my hands are pretty thick and I've never been able to use control, I slid that bad boy over to the F key and oh boy that control key is gonna get abused
I’ve been doing this since gaming on a PC was a thing. WASD never made sense to me, always felt like my Fingers are smashed together. Glad to see I’m not the only crazy one 😅
I can do one better... The keyboard shouldnt be used at all for movement! Once I got the Razer Naga Pro with the 6 button Attachment, I have never looked back. Took over a decade to figure this out. Both primary buttons is move forward, mousewheel left is strafe left, mousewheel right is strafe right, pushing down on the mousewheel is backpedal. I then use my side buttons as follows, upper front is for the fly up, front lower is for flying down, center top is for catching the fish (bobber) and center bottom is for initiating fishing, rear top is for selecting/getting off and on the mount and rear bottom is for selecting a ground mount or for the Yak. No movement keys on the keyboard means more for combat and other operations. Hope this helps someone!
most important video ever in history of wow or mmos in general^^ ... thanks so much! ... and as you said, the typical hand position is already in place for these keybindings ... also the palm control "modifier/hack" is also priceless!
the only minor drawback I found now while using this kind of positioning is having a non-us layout, because e.g. on Germany layouts the left shift is not as big as yours, so you have to spread your hand a little bit more, especially if you hav not the biggest hands ... but with glove size of 9 I am still able to reach it without problem, but it does not "rest easy, or nevertheless there" ... the pro is, we got there a "" button, wich gives us an extra option here ... but it is hard to get used to new keybinds, especially if you used the old ones for years^^
I used ESDF for a while in pc gaming ... until one day I moved to Europe, it doesn't work any more :( the shift button is very difference here compare to the US keyboard
As a touch typist I've only ever used ESDF. I never understood why anyone would use WASD. ALT and CTRL are still wonky to use with WASD, and you lose all those other keys. As well as how strange it is to swap between control/typing in games that require frequent text chats between buddies/team/general. All game companies should have a default key setup for both (or drop WASD and get everyone on board the clearly superior keybind solution hehe).
Also split keyboards are not designed for WASD as they are designed for typing. By using ESDF, you're in the correct typing position and it can double as a gaming keypad. The only downside is every game has WASD by default and re-binding is a pain, especially with games with more key binds. If you play one game, this is totally worth the investment, but sometimes I won't play a game because I don't feel like putting in the time to rebind. I wish gaming companies has alt binding profiles.
i usually dont comment but DAMN DUDE! you blew my fucking mind with this! its gonna be hard but im gonna retrain my brain. wasnt looking for you video but im glad i watched!
Dude, it wasn't an easy change, even after a week muscle memory kept reverting back to the old layout. Glad I made the change, more easy accessible buttons rather than using modifiers buttons
when I first played wow, i researched the game and came across with this idea and ran with it, I often wondered if it was actually a good thing to do, or if I made the game harder, because nobody else seemed to do it.
Thanks for the video. I quit WoW because I was unable to play the game after I switched to ESDF from WASD. But the good news is now I spend more time with my family. It appeared I have a daughter and it's fun playing with her. My wife is very happy and smiling again after my erection has come back. Thanks, you saved my family!
That was very interesting. I shall definitely consider rebinding my keys. I have a Razr Naga mouse so I use my right thumb for pressing the numbers instead of the keyboard.
ESDF makes sense, but ALT gives you more options without having to rewire anything Regardless of WASD or ESDF, I'm implementing all your other suggestions, they are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!
You're blowing my mind right now...and challenging 30 years of muscle memory. There's just too much logic in this not to try it though. I'm going to give it try!
i will do this for some games, but there is games like minecraft i dont need too many keybinds so i use alt as 3rd person so there is a drawback and its not a fast-paced game, but i will do this for some games, thank you!
I randomly started playing on ESDF cuz my W switch wasn't working and I thought I was the only one until this came to my suggestion and I can agree that ESDF feels a bit weird at first but it's much better I binded jump throw on A which is way easier than I used to bind a little far or in a awkward position
The only reason to do it imo is to be able to reach 6,T,G,B better. You should already have Q, and Z bound as well as tilde if your keyboard has it (mine does not.)
I love this concept and like to give it a try. but then I noticed that the german layout has a shift key that is has half size of the english layout -.- shift+R can not be reached without leaving ESDF :(
Been an EDSF'er since Tribes back in the 90's, and it's stuck with me ever since (along with gaming on a fingertip trackball with mouse inversion)! Even Gabe Newell of Valve himself has stated in countless interviews that he prefers EDSF over WASD, and always rebinds in every game he plays. Always hated that WASD became a "standard" thanks to Half-Life accidentally making it the default layout due to devs testing out Thresh's Quake II keybinds and leaving it in the final build that shipped. RDFG is another good layout, coined by WoW gamers back in '07.
In my early years of gaming I used esdf because it felt much more natural. Then I gave in to pressure and changed because using wasd 'was the right way'. haha I guess there is a good lesson here for me because I always hated wasd.
To get extra buttons you dont need to do such effort, you just need to press the ctrl button with the top end corner of your left palm, just underneeth the falanx of your fingers. this way you can reach 1234 easily after you position your palm over the ctrl button and bam, 5to6 more buttons (probably six because 6 is not reachable ahaha
I have a question, In one of your previous videos you talked about your camera and how you have set keybinds for it to use scroll wheel up and down for other things. My question is how did you do it? I go into the keybinds in game set keybind for camera view 5 and it doesn't zoom out anywhere near what i can actually scroll out to.
I just deleted all my keybinds and followed Bellular's spreadsheet - and adjusting a little to my liking. But I still feel it's a bit messy. I like to have a logical approach e.g. CTRL modifiers for defensiven or so. But then I leave better keybinds available that don't suit the "logical approach". I'd love some help haha
What happens if you need to move forward and strafe aroudn a target at the sime time? And Id say going from strafe left to strafe right is not snappy enough for me. Interesting set up for sure though
@@DungeonCoachGaming It is extremely easy. You can mouse move and tilt at the same time. Probably an "I've been doing it for years" thing so to me it feels far more responsive than keyboarding. Just to make it more interesting I bind every skill to `12345qwert resting my fingers on 1234 and thumb on alt =) Very comfortable and massive ability to bind just about everything. BTW, thanks so much for your other tutorials. Returning after a bit and getting back up to speed with some of your addon walkthroughs has been a godsend.
I tried both, even old, school from the 80's (IJKL), and WASD is still the main go to. IN wow I am NOT a clicker. I only use my mouse to move. also have it set for pet auto attack and auto run. but that is it, with my WSAD I can hit all my skills 1,2,3,4,5 with my same hand, and they are also programed to ctrl+1,2,3,4,5 very simple, and if I need to, which I rarely do, I can do alt-1,2,3,4,5 and this can be done while my right hand it moving as needed. simple. I've seen people click their skills, and Im like how much time do you loose moving your mouse over a skill and try to move - and worse yet, they are prob directional key movers too OUCH!!
I have never been a big computer gamer, as I always played on a console, so getting used to the keyboard was extremely difficult. I decided to buy an Azeron keyboard, which was probably the best decision I have ever made.
I never used tab targeting. I've always clicked the specific target I'm going for or used the new keybind that auto targets the closest enemy. This has been my method for years since I've been tanking.
I lose access to Control, Shift, and Alt, q and many other keys or else I have to stretch and bend in extremly hurtfull uncomfotable ways to reach those keys. What works for your hands does not apply to every single persons hands. So no I am not wrong. You just have your personal preference and so do I.
Personal preferences are things like 'favorite color' or 'favorite song'. This isn't about preferences. It's about efficiency. Keep in mind that every time you use a modifier, you're having to use TWO fingers to use ONE ability. If you're using all three modifiers in your configuration (Control, Shift, and Alt), you're pressing twice as many keys to do many things. So, the more abilities you can use by pressing only ONE button, the more efficient your keyboard layout is. Cheers!
Omg ur palm is hitting Ctrl? I think you may want to buy a palm rest before you get RSI and have to go through pain and medical expense, no joke My poor man's "ergo" setup is silly, my adjustable standing desk became a glorified monitor stand, my too-expensive chair kind of sucks so I got some cheap supportive cushions that help. I just want to sit at a good height/angle, have the keyboard close to my lap and very easy to reach, and look straight ahead to see the monitor: harder to achieve than you may expect if you're on a budget. But so worth it. You know it's all about being comfortable if you're gonna play one game for 100s of hours.
It didn't take too long. You probably have a short attention span. Maybe take a break from the 'swipe-swipe-swipe' content and watch videos that are at least an hour long. Just a friendly ribbing from someone who's digging deeply into the effects of social media on human attention span.
this is really unefficient and not an option for me. my pink can not reach the left ctrl anymore. and the left shift becomes uncomfortable. the pink and ringringer are the slowest reaction fingers. for pvp I want the most optimal fastest reaction speed of my middle and index. so the pink barely moves. I use strafe left during pvp most of the time. with the ring finger. thats its job. changing to esdf will loose me ctrl 1234rfcvbqe and make shift+1234rfcvbqe slower. and gives me qaz as slow reaction pink and ring finger. thats a very horrible shitty trade off. final thoughts on your WASD is wrong...: well sir your ESDF is a horrible idea that makes me a slug with less buttons.
When you shift one button to the right to use ESDF, you don't keep your other keybindings where they were when using WASD -- you shift them one button to the right also: 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 3, etc. So, no, you don't 'lose' anything. You bring it along with you. Your muscle memory will do everything it used to do, in the same relative proportions that it used to use. The only way that the problem you describe is a 'problem' is if you have to look at the keyboard and you're thinking '1' instead of just using the same finger to now press '2'. So, no trade-off. What your comment reveals is that you didn't think very much about the situation before leaving your comment.
Noob. IJKL all the way! More pinkie keys AND thumb keys (Including easier access to an Alt key modifier) AND more room for the mouse, as you can slide the keyboard over to the left.
1:34 its sad when u see a guy that dedicate a lot of his life to keybinds but is cognitive not intelligent enough to see the whole picture and look outside the box. the nr1 key factor how int. is messured is exactly this point. modern 20 usd dollar keyboards have al solved this shift problems . as en example im right now writing on my razer blackwidow v3 pro newest generation. the sift key is a little bit bigger then a normal keybind like A. you can find these kind of keyboards even 10years ago. 2:04 if you have a modern keyboard u cant press tab very easly anymore cuz its also a short nearly normal sized key. sure you could now make use of moral relativism and say: hey guys this vid is still naiiiice because not everybody has this time of keyboard. sure, but you could also say: guys invest 100 dollars into a new keyboard and the best part is u dont have to spend 1 month to build new muscle memory for this esdf trick. it saves time energy and even money. obsolet vid. 4:05 boom Zeee i have now zee how about boom modern keyboard have short shifts and have actually 1 more key then conventional keyboards put there in. boom ? 4:20 over dramatic hyperbolic claim with closed eyes: its a no brainer why peeeeeeeeeeeeps not switchn. now you know. 5:06 is this boy serious?? 1 dolla razer grip tape and make it where u want. or pull out the good to go button ....and dont lie u know where asdf is -.- 7:09 not your brain the only key ur muscle memory can find are the niped esd f key xD all others he cant find remember xD ? also i forgot to notice remember when he talked about the key left of one ? the shaped s key or how its called. he knew that this key is good for wasd. its an excellent prio 1 key. he just put it fast of with: i have....my hearthstone there xxxxxxD OMEGALUL
Sorry, I respect your opinion but that is all that it is. Not everyone's hands are the same shape and that's what makes this video wrong. IF we all had your hands and fingers, then you might have a point. But, we dont. When I move my fingers to ESDF my pinky falls right off the shift key to the Z key. On top of 40 years plus of finger training, I would argue that whatever you can do with ESDF, I can do just as well with WASD.
DUDE TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT CTRL BINDING LOL, you giain "Q A Z" but you lose A LOT MORE for not being able to click ctrl confortly. Just poor analysis. bye
actually...esdf is wrong... should be esdw because same as E and D you can't move forward and backward at the same time... well... same with left and right.. left is S and right is W... come on man.
