Hotkey Arrangment ? Questions from a new Swashie

[Springgan7]

<DIV>Dear fellow swashies :   After my newbie questions about choosing ranger or swashie, I tried both and was really impressed by Swashie in every aspect. Question is, with so many CA that can do so much, how do you arrange your Hot Bar ? Any one can share your secret ? Currently I dragged 3 bars , and I am only using one at lv 6. But with higher level, there will much much more CA to use, and I believe most of them will be very useful. Can you guys give me some advice ?   And by the way, when can I get that great hat  ? really looking foreward to it. </DIV>

[Luk]

I use 9 open hotbars, and have everything I need<ul><li>all my CA's</li><li>Macros</li><li>power items</li><li>weapons for switching</li><li>evac and calls</li><li>fishbone <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></li><li>my variety of hats depending on my mood and what colour I wanna wear</li></ul>I could probably sort it out and drop maybe 1 or 2 hot bars, but I am used to the way things are set up and know where to find everything.<div></div>

[Xanoth]

<P>well my main is a SK, but i started up a swashy on PVP after my first character in eq2 being a swashy but was retired at 23... something i always wanted to go back to.</P> <P> </P> <P>i'd advise you keep two things in mind:</P> <OL> <LI>Heroic Opertunities</LI> <LI>Positional Attacks</LI></OL> <P>i'll briefly cover #1 for the basics, as i dont know how much you know... i dont mean to sound patronising if it comes accross that way...</P> <P>all abilities have secondary symbols on them in green (scouts are green for HO's, fighters blue, mages red, priests yellow/gold). these symbols are : coin, blade, cloak, mask.</P> <P>most of your abilities will have these, and they all reflec your HO's. for solo HOs you only use coin and blade. for group, to join you use the coin, and all 3 of the others can feature.</P> <P>its best to bunch your abilities together relating to these symbols, they generaly cover similar abilitiy types. buffs often being the mast, melee attacks being the blade, back stabs being the cloak and debuffs being the coin.  it jsut really helps sorting them in this way when you try to finish group HO's on time.</P> <P> </P> <P>positional attacks really speak for themselves, you want your sneak attack next to your sneak. and you want all your flanking and back attack abilities grouped together. you want your buffs grouped together, your stances next to each other, your short duration temporary buffs grouped together.</P> <P> </P> <P>hope this helps <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Krontak]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Licit wrote:<BR>I use 9 open hotbars, and have everything I need<BR><BR> <UL> <LI>all my CA's</LI> <LI>Macros</LI> <LI>power items</LI> <LI>weapons for switching</LI> <LI>evac and calls</LI> <LI>fishbone <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></LI> <LI>my variety of hats depending on my mood and what colour I wanna wear</LI></UL>I could probably sort it out and drop maybe 1 or 2 hot bars, but I am used to the way things are set up and know where to find everything.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>weapons for switching <-------   Didn't realize you could create hotkeys to equip weapons in specific slots!  Can you unequip the items into certain bags too or do they just drop into the first available space?  I always used the drag and drop method of equiping other weapons.  heh.  I'll fiddle around with this a bit.  Question though, is there one place I can go to find out all the different commands and thier syntax..ie  /equip /unequip and whatnot?  Thanks.</P> <P>I thought I had a lot with 7 hotkeys.  Nice to see someone with more!<BR></P>

[Zygwen]

I have 4 hotbars, plus I flip one hot bar to access all my evac/gate abilities. 1. Combat arts 2. Combat art over flow 3. Short duration buffs/track/master strikes + stealth 4. Buffs + item clickys <div></div>

[Xanoth]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Krontak wrote:<BR> <BR> <P>weapons for switching <-------   Didn't realize you could create hotkeys to equip weapons in specific slots!  Can you unequip the items into certain bags too or do they just drop into the first available space?  I always used the drag and drop method of equiping other weapons.  heh.  I'll fiddle around with this a bit.  Question though, is there one place I can go to find out all the different commands and thier syntax..ie  /equip /unequip and whatnot?  Thanks.</P> <P>I thought I had a lot with 7 hotkeys.  Nice to see someone with more!<BR></P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>they go in the first available space.</P> <P>/unequip secondary </P> <P>/unequip primary</P> <P>to remove items, to equip them, best way is to just drag the item to your hatbar from your inventory and click it that way. i dont know how /equip works in all honesty.<BR></P>

[adamflanagan]

heres my UI with a bit of explanation:<img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y15/oseska/UI.jpg">1st row is basically all my damage CAs plus an assist macro and a ...master's sinister strike macro.2nd row is HO starter, non-damage debuffs (well... except the damage from lung puncture), ranged attacks, AEs and stealths3rd row is deaggro, taunt and short duration buffs4th row is permanent buffs, potion and weapons to switch around5th row is all the other stuffplease note I am currently 58 with 18/19 AAs so I am missing en garde, 2 CAs from the str line and presumeable some more "useable" items.<div></div>

[Carna]

Get a mouse with extra buttons and map them to CTRL and ALT. I also map my middle button to my HO trigger. *shrug* I'm a HO generating fool <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Kharadr]

I am extremely interested to know how to make a macro which automatically uses the right Sinister Strike for a given creature <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[SageGaspar]

You really need at least four hotbars, probably five to fit everything you'll use regularly onto one screen. <a href="http://people.alfred.edu/%7Ejek3/EQ2/resists.jpg" target=_blank>Here is an SS that includes my hotbars</a>. Just ignore all the open boxes, it was just demonstrating my nuts resist gear organization system <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Really this is a very personal thing though, so however you get comfortable doing it should be fine. I know I can whip up that master strike macro and I'm sure there's better ways for me to arrange the keys but after I started placing them in a semi-coherent pattern, after 70 levels and more it's hard to break the habit <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I'd recommend thinking about changing your setup every ten levels or so, at 58 you can pretty much be confident in setting them however you want them, only AA skills and one new CA to worry about after that. I guess a mastery attack too, but those hardly count (might as well cycle some back into the ol' knowledge book for all the use they get).The one thing I did that I really like that I came up with, though, is the little mini-clicky box on the bottom right of the main corner of the screen. You really want manastone, evade, and shadow slip on hotkeys that are easy for you to get to, I have them on numbers 3-4-5. Those are things you're going to want to have access to pretty much always. Sneak and Track I put on there as well just for convenience and I get a lot of use out of both. Other stuff in there are clickies like hex dolls, and if I scroll it down to page 6 I get all my poisons arrayed out nicely.The other basic tenets are that (a) I grouped the most common backstabs together semi-close to cheap shot, (b) the two AEs are together, (c) the temp buffs I use most often are together (Perfect ... whatever-the-hell and Inspiration, hehe) but a little out of the way so that I don't accidentally click on them, (d) permabuffs and buffs I tend to toggle are grouped together, (e) crap I don't want to click on accidentally (yell for help and evac) are waaaaay on the other side of the screen. Also I have autoattack bound to the Q key and assist bound to the E key (I move with WASD) so that eliminates two hotkeys that otherwise I'd be using really frequently.<div></div>

[adamflanagan]

<div><blockquote><hr>Kharadrim wrote:I am extremely interested to know how to make a macro which automatically uses the right Sinister Strike for a given creature <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div><hr></blockquote><b>: ; usea Skeleton Master's Sinister Strike ; usea Giant Master's Sinister Strike...</b>that is basically it. just list all of your master strikes. usea is short for useability but with eq2s clever auto-complete thing usea works fine as it is the only command that starts "usea". when you click the button the correct strike will activate and you will get a few lines of spam saying XXX Master's Sinister strike cannot be used on that creature. you can put one of the strikes on your hotbar as well to see the refresh timer as they are all linked, however i just guess and use it every 2-3 fights as it has a 2 min refresh timer.</div>

[Iseabeil]

<DIV>I got some stuff that are in illogical places, like HoS not with other ranged attacks and such, but for me it has worked out best that way in long run..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><IMG src="http://www.ladiesempire.com/miepsui.jpg"></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1: Miscellanous #1 with autoattacks, yell, calls, track etc. Usefull stuff that isnt used in any big amounts. (got autoattack keyed to sidebutton on mouse)</DIV> <DIV>2: Misc #2 with charmslot, mounts, my main raiding bag (switches for weapon armour etc) and my old unequip all slot I havent gotten rid of yet :p</DIV> <DIV>3: General utility and some oddities that slipped in as there was room, debuffs, invises etc.</DIV> <DIV>4: DPS bar :p majority of all damage CA's</DIV> <DIV>5: Buff bar. All long time buffs and stuff I want to avoid using by misstake in fights.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Slot 3 and 4 are of course the main ones to be used in most combat situations so having them in middle of all makes for somewhat easier access to the other ones when I do need them (im a mouse fighter, pretty much never use keyboard besides navigating). Its far from optimal, but it works well enough for me to make me avoid changing it :p</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>(and yes, gold bath makes marvel to ratonga fur, it gets all nice and shiny *grins)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[OpethPA]

<P>I have a vertical setup for my hotbar. </P> <P>I want to see as much of the game as I can so at any one time their is only 1 hotbar displayed on the screen. </P> <P>Shift + 1 - 10 cycles through the other hotbars. </P> <P>Bar 1 is my primary attack bar with sneak, all my positional attacks, main attacks and mez/stop mele skill.</P> <P>Bar 2 is debuffs, AOE</P> <P>Bar 3 is buffs misc</P> <P>Bar 4 is potions, useable items, item switching and so on. </P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P>For the life of me I do not understand why people would want to play with 4 or 5 bars open , it just clutters the screen so much. </P>

[Keldo]

<img src="http://thehgl.com/keldo/hotbars.png">Mine look like this, I try to center the things I use most near the middle (end of left bars, start of right bars).Like most everyone else, I have clickies and misc on 1 bar, buffs on another, then 2 bars for attacks.Bar 1 is normal attacks in the order I use em - Def debuff, Swipe, Mit debuffs, DPS debuffs, then straight damage.<div></div>

[Foolsfolly]

Most people just stick them in the first available slot as they get their skills, and then tend to leave them there as that's where they are used to them being.Personally, I have all my single-target attacks in bank1, with the backstabs first followed by everything else, in order of refresh speed.Second bank is made up of aoe attacks, temporary buffs, and debuffs which don't do damage.Third bank is made up of permenant buffs, clicky items, and fun spells.All the rest are my tradeskill banks.<div></div>

[m0ya]

<P>Here is my set up :</P> <P>http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/chienchat/CA.jpg</P> <P>The 2 hotbars on the left are for hearts/shard, macros, group invis, evac, mounts, etc.</P> <P>The 2 hotbars on the right are for my buffs, assist macro and poison/potions.</P> <P>The 3 in the middle are all my CA's. (The book is a macro to cast Double-Cross and Constrain). The 2 weap is to switch easily to cast Boot Dagger.</P> <P>The vertical hotbard is macro for Traumatic swipe for the AE, my snare, items like Termal Shocker and Volatile Fluid, I put guild lvl 50 item in the 2 last slot if needed.</P> <P>I will need to do a macro for my Master Strike!! hehe</P> <P> </P> <P>EDIT : How come the stupid picture isn't showing up?! lol</P> <P> </P> <P>-Nightmist-</P><p>Message Edited by m0ya on <span class=date_text>06-13-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:35 PM</span>

[Dragonfly28]

got 6 hotbars atm but prolly gonna make another with some more macro's <img src="http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Epeterdzo/sc.jpg"> got some assist  undress and mastrike macro's atm. for this fight i swapped the heart and shard with traumatic swipe and torporous strike as those were not wanted here :p And the icons speak for themselves i think <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <span>Onaupu LynxL70 Swashbuckler/ L66 TailorUnitySplitpaw</span> <div></div>

[SageGaspar]

You were just trying to show off your spine sheath, admit it <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> /cry<div></div>

[BigbyWo]

<div><blockquote><hr>m0ya wrote:<div></div> <div></div> <p>Here is my set up :</p> <p>http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/chienchat/CA.jpg</p> <p>The 2 hotbars on the left are for hearts/shard, macros, group invis, evac, mounts, etc.</p> <p>The 2 hotbars on the right are for my buffs, assist macro and poison/potions.</p> <p>The 3 in the middle are all my CA's. (The book is a macro to cast Double-Cross and Constrain). The 2 weap is to switch easily to cast Boot Dagger.</p> <p>The vertical hotbard is macro for Traumatic swipe for the AE, my snare, items like Termal Shocker and Volatile Fluid, I put guild lvl 50 item in the 2 last slot if needed.</p> <p>I will need to do a macro for my Master Strike!! hehe</p> <p>EDIT : How come the stupid picture isn't showing up?! lol</p> <p>-Nightmist-</p><p>Message Edited by m0ya on <span class="date_text">06-13-2006</span> <span class="time_text">09:35 PM</span></p><hr></blockquote>Here you go M0ya...<img src="http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/chienchat/CA.jpg"></div>

[Dragonfly28]

<blockquote><hr>SageGaspar wrote:You were just trying to show off your spine sheath, admit it <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> /cry<div></div><hr></blockquote>lol, sad thing is that i didnt get it <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Ran out of dkp while bidding for it, stupid monk got it <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <span>Onaupu LynxL70 Swashbuckler/ L66 TailorUnitySplitpaw</span>

[m0ya]

<P> </P> <P>Thx <SPAN><FONT color=#ffffff>BigbyWolf!</FONT></SPAN></P>