BEST to WORST Keybinding Guide Tier List | World of Warcraft Dragonflight Keybinds 

I just started playing WoW a week ago and this video is solid GOLD for a newbie like me, thanks

I started playing WoW at release and for MMO's I ended up with SDFC (S and F is strafe not turn, mouse control direction always), qwerty and shift + qwerty, 123456 and shift + 123456. A is interact and G is mouse over interact. Ctrl is mouse over cast, Alt is self cast (Was doing well in PvP in the good old days, when druids was broken for most people, because they couldn't handle the run and gun playstyle. Being able to move, while shifting out of wild shape, to heal (couldn't do that without shifting back then) requires a lot of keys.) Alt/Ctrl/Shift + Space is another 3 keys, Ctrl+H was heartstone, though pally cowards needed it central for shield escape.

I appreciate this video so much, I've been inactive for a few years and just started back up so this was golden. Thanks

Razer Tartarus - 20 keybinds, + a thumbstick for WSAD - Then if I hold a side Mouse button down with my mouse-hand Thumb, (for either ctrl, alt, or shift) giving 20 more keybinds on the Tartarus. 40 binds is enough for all Classes in WoW. 2nd mouse button I use for Jump. The Tab target button is also located under the thumbstick for EZ tab target. Then there's circle button above it for getting on your mount. My keyboard is only used to open Map, inventory, group finder and Chat with

This video is HUGE for me as a new player. Thank you so much!

Just what I needed the most, watched a couple of your vids past week and swap to ESDF. I've been rolling myself off the map a bunch :D

While I may not duplicate your setup, this was an awesome eye opener for thinking outside of the box. Especially for people like me that typically don't.

I've bound Control to Caps Lock (and Caps Lock to Control) for years. My wrist thanks me and actually makes the Caps Lock button worth using.

great video. i played starcraft 2 for a few years and there was a similiar topic there. one idea was to move over to "O K L :" or in my case with a german keyboard "O K L Ö", there you have extra buttons for your thumb and its more ergonomical as you can tilt your keybord a bit. it sure feels strange at first but makes a hell of a difference

THANK YOU, this is so much better than anything I have seen, I was struggling w keybinds so bad and this setup is very comfortable! Former keyboard turner and mouse clicker is converted!

Wasd is fine, use your thumb for c-v-f. Also try binding shift+w/s. If you are not using your thumb you are missing a lot.

how's this for a hot take: rebind D (ESDF movement) away from back, use it for a spell. I did this back in BC and never looked back (though shift+D is back). I generally use it for the spammiest of my abilities. Also generally when I need to back up I tend to just strafe and rotate the camera anyway. Also: Backspace for Tier 2 emergency button. Big ol' button you can hit like a big red "Oh shit" button. usually use it for things like health funnel to heal my pet.

The reason that you need to zoom in and out is because in some situations the camera follow doesn’t work well. In M+ dungeons like Court of Stars and Temple of the Jade Serpent there are situations where zoomed out view will block your view by trees or whatever. It’s annoying because as a tank I usually liked a very zoomed out view but i need to zoom in on a few pulls depending on where I’m at.

I don't know how more people haven't made their Caps Lock be Control, it's so much better

So confusing, I know the channel from the curse of strad vids, and then this popped in my feed. Surreal.

The way you went in on us camera scroll wheel users 😂 I guess I just never thought about it but using a modifier + scroll to open up the scroll wheel for abilities makes so much sense

Just returning after 13 years this is great to help with all the new skills and the quicker pace. (Already killed a mouse wheel with the druid HOT spells)

You have to have the same hands and brain as me or something, because on wasd binds I have ALWAYS hated pressing 1 compared to pressing 2 or 3, but have never heard anyone else complain about it at all. I've also been wanting to swap to esdf binds for the longest time and finding your channel is going to be what makes me take the leap.

Interesting guide! I'll use things from this for sure. I won't be switching to ESDF though for a simple and slightly stupid reason: QWERTZ Type 1 Keyboard Layouts (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, other european Nations...) have a button for < and > next to the "y" key that sits where the z key is on US keyboards. That makes left-shift rather small, because it uses about 40% of the shift size and reduces the shift-key significantly in size. If I move to ESDF my Left-Shift-Modifiers become cumbersome and I use them all the time for mouse-based healing. So I don't switch, because I'd have to get a specific "Type 2" Keyboard, which is not a widely used standard. :)

Struggle with Shift anything. I have very large hands and I smother the shift key and have to cramp my hand into a claw to make it small enough to use shift. So…. I use a mouse button as shift. Easy done in a windows 11. I use 1,2,3,4 which I can reach easily. F,E,V. Two extra mouse buttons and a third extra mouse button as shift. Mouse wheel button same as you. Whatever class I am it’s the spell interrupt button. It’s not possible to shift click the mouse buttons. (For me at least) but shift clicking all the keyboard buttons using the mouse/shift rebind gives me 7 extra binds giving me a total of 19 binds. Always have two fingers minimum on my wasd movement so I never lose my bearings.and accidentally find I’ve started f to move right… that used to happen all the time when I used normal keyboard shift. My hand had to adapt so much to access it I’d completely lose my whole hand position on the keyboard.

I've been using ESDF since WOTLK first came out forever ago, and everyone I knew that I told thought it was so unusual! But it really is the best way to reach a wider variety of keys comfortably. Glad someone else pointed this out!

Once I played with my friend and we wanted to try arenas. We were getting our ass kicked and then I found out he had not even one key bind.

i've been playin wow for more that 10 years. THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. specially using Caps instead of ctrl or alt? OH MY GOD. i know i'm gonna have a stroke changing my habit BUT IT'S GOSH DARN IMPORTANT.

This is so cool!!!! God I want to try ESDF

I like the idea of ESDF. But WASD allows you easy access to the alt modifier with your thumb and being able to hit alt+1-5, alt+QWERTY, and alt+asdf is HUGE

ESDF is honestly genius !!! I've been using SZXC but will def switch to ESDF

I used an orbweaver for years but now I have and Azeron Cyborg. Haven't used a keyboard in a long time.

My Special Tips: - Shift Space: Its perfect for Skills like Backjump, Waterwalk, Slow Fall, etc. - Shift Mouse Left Main Button. Everyone talks only about side buttons or mouswheel, but the true hero is the mousebutton number 1. (I dont recommand right button because its making alot of fails).

Nostromo and naga. I gots lotsa buttons and I use the crap out of all of them. My entire ability suite is on my right hand, all my utility/ modifiers/ targeting/ movement keys are on my left.

Ive been using a naga pro with my blood DK and even set my 2 of action bar in a 3x4 pattern to match the buttons on my mouse, 1-12 then ctrl+1-12. Might experiment more now im getting used to my setup.

As a WASD user I might give it a go but I still think ESDF is wrong. For WASD I have easy access to the following keys 1234QERF but also SHIFT and CTRL with my pinkie and ALT and SPACE with my thumb. That is 3 modifier keys which essentially triples my total amount of keybinds. In the end i don't even need that many because I have a mouse with many side buttons that are really useful.

I've always bound CTRL and ALT to mouse 1&2. Makes it super easy to use a modified keybind for any key you can reach comfortably.

I used to play wow, but… it’s been over a decade. I just bought it a week ago and cannot figure out keybinds. I’m doing your method but if you have a keybind layout for an arcane mage, that would greatly be appreciated 😊

having had my vanish bound to F for so many years, it's incredibly hard to shake that, but the keybind was too good for it :F

I am no longer a filthy clicker thanks to this video. I have always known I was at a huge disadvantage because I played back in 2008 and 2009. Finally returned and I decided to commit to Keybinds. We shall see how it goes!

I started doing shift alt crtl spacebar stuff and it's a game changer for me tbh :D

Great video ! I've been an ESDF guy for as long as I can remember, and for people not doing it, I greatly recommend. Regarding the capslock key, I definitely agree that this should be redefined to something else. I've gone a different path though, as I made it a left-control key, which opens up waaaay more binds, meaning that I can macro many more specific things. For instance mousewheel up is my interrupt, and control mousewheel up is my focus interrupt. Keep up the good work!

Just started playing again after 12+ years. Great stuff here. I only PvP and play affli main - there’s a lot of spells. I got a 16 button mouse and moved all my movement to mouse (click moves, strafe left is button 1, strafe right is button 2, auto run 3). Movement buttons are actually PL;’O] on my keyboard. Gives me a ton of space on my keyboard. Still refining it all but don’t want to limit my toolkit because of movement requirements on the keyboard.

Very good and clear video! One question remains after watching, why isn't the thumb used to press keybinds? It makes reaching bottom tier 4 and tier 5 binds much easier as it just sits on the spacebar

I can't use my left hand well like you can due to a bad injury when I was a kid. I have to use my mouse buttons for my keybinds.

Out of Fight i use WASD. Infight i only use WS or left/rightclick to move. i dont strafe, its faster with the mouse to get in place than WASD. So i can use my abilities 1to5, shift 1to5, cmd 1to5 :) Since i use autotarget, its more comfortable to move infight

Where I get stuck is deciding if it’s better to prioritize keybinding instant/reactive abilities to the mouse buttons since they seem to be easier when you’re on the move (kiting) and leaving the hardcasted/channeled spells to the tier 1/2 buttons on the keyboard. I find it’s very comfortable to have hardcasted spells on the mouse as well but obviously since you have to stay still when casting it makes more sense to leave them on the keyboard. Thoughts?

Just want to THANK YOU for this video and the beginner video. I've been playing since vanilla and still consider myself a below average player. I started out as a clicker and until I saw your video a few days ago, that's what I've been all this time. I decided to give keybinding a try and after a few days of frustration (it's hard to teach a new dog new tricks) I'm finally getting it. Using keys for spells is easy, getting the movement thing down is a work in progress but even that is getting better. Moving fingers over one key to ESDF is life-changing! Again, thank you so much and keep up the good work. You're fantastic!

I have all movement keys bound to my 16-button mouse where all I have to do is twitch my thumb, but it never even occurred to me to change my left hand home position. I'm gonna be revamping like everything tomorrow.

This kinda breaks down on my european keyboard D: I have the | key to the left of Z so it's a longer stretch for me to hit shift. So hitting shift + all "green" buttons for wasd gives me more options easier than the esdf variant. I really wanted to love it because it made so much sense. Binding caps is a good shout though!

I mean I use 1-5, Shift 1-5, CTRL 1-5 and like two mouse buttons and middle click…Shift mouse buttons, CTRL mouse buttons and it’s way easier than your method because we already know where shift and CTRL from typing. Your method was so random I’d lose my spot on the keyboard

I think my hands are too small for ESDF. Like there is no way I can even reach 1,Q, A, Shift and Ctrl effectively with my pinky, without moving my hand (and even arm) way more then WASD

I started playing WoW a week ago, I use a half keyboard with the two mouse button on the side that are assigned to shift and ctrl, I think with the E, S, D, F. there is a space between the space bar I think I will use P, V, B with my thumb and R, T, G with my index

Do you really need to walk backwards button (D) when you can strafe backwards? And what was that mod to mark adds with icons? Thanks

Good god, it's gotten to the point people are tier ranking these thing? Clicked through nearly 20 years of healing this damn game, wasd to move. Don't use mods, or other third party "soft" addons. Just pay attention and actually learn to play the game instead of automating everything to oblivion. Have never had an issue finding groups, or successfully completing content. Not a worlds first pro or anything of the sort but can comfortably complete mythics before the next raid tier arrives and place high on meters. Knowing fights, having the muscle memory, and knowing your class inside and out will always out preform players trying to compensate through addons, keybindings, and whatever flavor of the month trend is currently chased. Neither can it teach split second decision making for choosing the proper heal, at the proper place, at the proper time. If you don't like keybinds, don't use em, and don't feel bad not using them. Most of these players have become horribly dependant on them, to the point when patches break them- they can't play competently anymore without their support.

Not gonna lie, I was judging pretty hard when you said ESDF but honestly... it makes sense. I dont think i'll use it since I use an MMO mouse so I dont need a lot of binds but still.

there are so many videos like this one, and they all say different things, I think a person should play around with the key binds and see what works for them.

On my side mouse key I have (Shift) couse I play very different I move with (Q-W-E) but I try to see other play styles couse are usefull.

ESDF makes so much sense, but I don't only play WoW - and not all games you can customize movement. If the whole industry moved over, then I would too!

Some completely unsolicited advice: If you are a caster (or a MM Hunter I guess) it's best to have instant casts on Tier 1 and spells with cast times on the numbered Tier 2 keys (so 3, 4 and 5 in an ESDF world, or 2, 3 and 4 in WASD world). Spells with cast times (outside of a select few) requires you to stop moving anyway, so it's okay to use those keys for those. Also, unbind your "back" key, even as a Tank it's not needed, with mouse control and strafe you can get yourself in any position you want and you open up another T1 key bind.

Can we have a gameplay vide with a small cam window to show your hands and mouse movement playing to showcase these.. great video BTW :D

Actually I'm an SDF guy, D is move forward, shift D is backtrack. E is another tier 1 key.

I have roll on mouse wheel forward and used to have stun middle. The amount of times I rolled away from the enemy casting a group killer 😂😂😂 I changed it after many fails lol

My left arms pinky is stubborn, it wont listen to me, been trying to do ESDF for a week now, it won't adjust. whenever i use my pinky or ring finger (left) my middle fingers is always off the E.

Isn't it easier to move by holding both mouse buttons?

Good video! But I'd take the B key to Tier 2 and add the N key cause its easy to fast press for me when thumb is placed on the Space

hey you didnt mention your pvp targeting buttons. extremely important

thank you for the wasd look. I can't change from wasd, I feel like that would ruin every other game for me :)

This is an excellent video for people who use the mouse on the right side of the keyboard. Not for me.

The A,S,D is why I never played on the Keyboard . I bought a keypad so my movement keys are in the middle .

Hey man, great video. Please can I ask, what addon/weak aura are you using at 12:10 for the raid marker ring please?

I've been playing WASD on WoW for almost 20 years. I don't think I can change lol

I have been playing this game on & off since 2004 & I m obsessed with keybinds & mice bindings and what works for me is binding my attacks some utility & movement to the mouse & all utility to the keyboard. For my mouse bindings I use scroll up & down, right & left scroll, middle mouse & the side buttons for all my attacks. I have heard people call binding attacks to the mouse as FPS style. The mice I have used over the years was a Logitech m302>g500>g502>g604. For the keyboard I use ‘WASD’ and use shift>control >alt modifiers with ‘ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Q E R T F G Z X C V keys. These might not be the optimal bindings but they work for me and it works well when playing & switching from multiple class & spec with easy. I don’t think there is a wrong way to bind, it’s just depends on the person and prioritizing their abilities base on which bindings you are using is the important take away from this video.

I got disengage on S! also there is a regedit script somewhere to bind caps lock to F13

I feel alone, I move my character with the mouse, not with the keyboard...

What mouse will allow me to click middle mouse button without unintentionally scrolling up/down?

Great video. As a healer or tank, what keybinds do you assign to target party members?

Any tips from and for left-handed people who have to use their right hand for keyboard?

I use a Latin American keyboard, and they usually have a smaller shift key but has an extra button to the left of z. ESDF sounds atrocious bc of it because the shift modifier is too far away, at the same time I am impressed by the fact you have a pack pedal button that can be another A tier bind.

so am i the weird one i move my char with the mouse only got 2 button and those are for strafing and my w is bound to auto run witch in turns frees up a few keys

The G502 mouse is the real GOAT for WoW keybinds.

Which keybinds go to what bars????

What if you do all movement with your mouse and mouse keys? I am a healer so that is not for me.

In one video you use F for strafe right and in another video you have F in your action bar??

The only thing you didn't cover is how to keybind in the game.

C,V,B,&N are green tier if you use your thumb yw

I challenge you to make a keybinding list ofr lefties!

Very informative video. I'm currently trying the esdf method of moving but I am struggling a little bit with the fact that I'm german and german keyboards have another button between what would be z and shift (nevermind the fact that z and y are switched but that doesnt matter) so I'm struggling to extend my pinky far enough to press down shift consistently. But who knows, maybe it's just a thing of getting used to it.

What is a good gaming mouse to use? I have been using a 4 button mouse but I would like to try a good mouse with more buttons. I'm gonna try the ESDF, I am an old school WOW gamer but I have never been good at PVP and I think a better key bind set up and mouse will help. Thanks for the video's! I'm really enjoying them. They have been very helpful.

is that an addon for the ring of markers or an in-game feature?

What if I am a mouse mover, is button moving better?

I stopped playing in 2007, I can't remember why, but your keyboard setup is pretty similar to how I had mine. I only kept strafing and used mouse clicking to move. Thanks for the refresher. (Bought a steam deck and got sucked back into wow)

For you, I will change and start using WSAD after 18 years of hardcore playing FPS, racing games, RPG,... You are correct for using ESDF in every possible way, it is kinda and eye opener for me

With ESDF movement keys, I use the C, V, B, and sometimes N buttons with my thumb. V and B are quite accessible, with C and N being less so. Use your thumb! it's also quite dexterous!

I am so thankful to have found your channel. An American WoW player who speaks intelligibly, clearly, and fluently. God bless you! Can't wait to watch more of your content.

so i decided to key bind using your tiers and set it up in such a way that the action bars k physically look like my keyboard, which resulted in dragon riding controls bound to Z,X,C,V instead of the normal 1,2,3,4 I'm used to LMAO

wow , why the ESDF thought never came to my mind? simple but very effective. Gonna def try. opens up the keyboard nicely, solves lot of issues with WASD setup. but gonna take some time to get used to though for sure.

Easier to get an external gamepad such as a Razer Tartarus. I actually use a VERY aged Logitech G13. They aren't made anymore sadly but they offer many more buttons than the Tartarus so I'm trying to use it until it dies. I have two shift keys on my mouse (alt & ctrl) which I use also.

Just wanna highlight something, about using yout thumb, u can slide it under your hand and make the lower row-keys a little bit easy, its comfortable for me (used to it from different game: DotA2) so it might be tier 2 keys... and thx for the VD

Yeah I think keybinds are completely subjective. Because what works for one sometimes doesn't work for someone else. Because like how you said how when you move your hand to the wasd and you can't use your pinky, you can just keep your hand in the same spot and use different fingers. So it's still like you are typing. I personally have only w, a and s bound and no backpedal and yes you can hit z using this way as well. I use cds on the mouse wheel. I have personally tried for about 5 months with a multi button mouse and just cannot get used to using one because I cannot feel the buttons so I switched to a 3 button mouse and made my modifiers, shift, alt and control, on those. May be weird for you, and seem like bottom tier, but it has what I have made work, for me. With this method I can easily reach 6, Y, H and B. All in all I think both if it works for you then it is best, for you. There are some bizarre methods out there that world first raiders use and they parse at the top consistently. Could they potentially get better? Maybe. But if it works and they have gotten results why would you change. If it's not broke don't fix it kind of thing. But all and all, I think that objectively, if you are keybinding you are ahead of the game. Because those adamant clickers need Jesus lol

Nice videp How can i get your mount?

If you have the mouse with the 12 buttons is there a reason to do the key binds like this or you just use your mouse buttons for abilities?

Personally, I've been using QWE for movement and all the same old buttons for every other binds. I am very surprised nobody is mentioning that combo.

I hate keybinding, but it really makes or breaks the entire game experience for me. I switched to ESDF in Legion and I can never go back. IMO having the index on F feels more natural if you’re a touch typer. I do zoom in and out a lot, so I use mouse wheel with CTRL or ALT modifier. Except CTRL/ALT is bound to a mouse button.

in my eyes u get not the recognition u deserve.. u are a freggin bossssss