TARGETTING KEYBINDS

FOCUS BINDS

Hey guys, what's up and welcome to another video. Hidden away in the keybinding settings of World of Warcraft are a selection of the most important binds for Arena, what's known as targeting keybinds.

Arena, Focus, and Party123. Today we're going to be exploring these, discussing which of them are important and why, going on a roll-by-roll basis, including a look at some of the different keybinds that pros use for these settings.

Okay, so to kick things off, we're going to start with the setting we deem the most important, and that's our focus frame. As you've probably seen in a few of our other videos, we love to stress the importance of a focus frame.

The main reason for this is because focus is essentially doubling not only your awareness, but also your ability to have control over the game. If you're an avid viewer, you probably already know this though, and thus have a focus frame of your own.

But are you truly maximizing it?

Well, if you're moving your mouse over to your arena frames and right-clicking to set a focus, or god forbid even worse, right-clicking the player's frame and setting a focus that way, then you're just putting yourself at such an inherent disadvantage, especially if you're not changing your focus throughout the game.

Every single class and role, healers included, if you want to play optimally, should be binding focus 1, 2, and 3. Don't worry too much about which keybinds to use just yet, as we'll get into that a little later.

But why binding focus is more important than anything else, asides from the already mentioned increased awareness and information you'll be gaining, is primarily for your ability to interrupt in crowd control, or just interact with enemies in general a lot quicker.

This means if you don't have binds to adjust your focus on the fly, you're going to be severely limiting how quickly you can play the game, and do the tasks that your class is required to complete inside of arena.

PARTY1/2 BINDS

Something else that specifically healers should have is their party frames bound. So party 1, 2, and yourself.

Let me just start by saying everybody has went through this in their WoW career, myself included, and that's having to take that plunge and committing to binding your party frames.

Especially if you're coming from a PvE background or you're just new to the healing role in general, clicking your frames or using an add-on like click or healbot can feel a lot more comfortable.

But trust us, you're undeniably handicapping yourself, and there's a reason you don't ever see top healers clicking their frames.

Having to continuously control your mouse and have it near one section of your screen indefinitely can hinder your ability to not only move correctly and simultaneously control your camera, but also limits your speed and reactions.

So if you're a healer and you don't have this bound already, do yourself a favor and take this as that push you needed. Trust us, you won't regret it.

ARENA TARGETING BINDS

Okay, so everybody needs the ability to change their focus, and just healers need their party frames and target self bound. But what about binds to target arena 1, 2, and 3?

Are these needed? Well, while this may cause controversy, we don't necessarily believe it's mandatory.

At least it's not going to give you anywhere near the advantage of having your party members or your focus targeting bound. Now don't get us wrong, you definitely can't argue that yes, it's absolutely more optimal to have 1, 2, 3 bound, but is it game breaking?

No. Many top players use a wide variety of ways to target enemies.

Some have arena 1, 2, 3 bound, some make use of tab to target the nearest player, and some players even just use their mouse to click targets.

The reason why we see this so commonly is that knowing where your mouse is during combat is a skillset you're required to be good at for wow arena, so you can quickly target things like totems.

Bearing that in mind, one thing we did notice with our research is that most pros who utilize arena 1, 2, and 3 to target their enemies are for the most part primarily playing casters or ranged dps.

This is more than likely due to the fact that they're not playing the game that they're playing, and it's not necessarily down to the fact tab is just way less reliable from range, not to mention casters generally like to swap between targets to apply debuffs a lot more commonly.

That being said, if you have the binds free for it, or just want to make your gameplay overall a lot more fluid, you should definitely incorporate arena 1, 2, 3 target binds into your arena play.

PARTY1/2 MACROS

Moving on, something we haven't touched on yet are targeting macros. These are not included inside of the settings, but are macros made to help aid in targeting or using abilities on players inside of Arena.

Starting off again with what we believe to be mandatory, which are party 1, 2, and player macros. These can and should be utilized by pretty much every class who needs to interact with their party members in any way.

On screen now, you'll see how these macros look. So we got one for party 1, one for party 2, and one for yourself if it's required.

For the example, we're using a priest's dispel ability, Purify. But you'll want this same macro replicated for any hybrid activity.

So for instance, warriors have intervene, retribution paladins have their blessings, hunters with pet sac, shadow priests with shield swap and grip, and the list goes on. Essentially anything you'll need to be pressing on the fly and don't want to lose your target to do so.

This way you'll be able to use your utility at the press of a button. It's not just unique to hybrid damage dealers though.

Healers should also be incorporating this into their gameplay. Yes, party 1, 2, and player macros are not included in the list, but they are.

So you should also have the ability to dispel yourself and your two party members at the press of a single key.

Much like how damage dealers don't want to drop their target in order to use utility, healers ideally don't want to have to be healing one target, swap to another party member to dispel them, and then swap back.

You're using three keystrokes and losing your target in the process instead of just that one button press you'd be getting with a targeted dispel macro. Remember, it's just all about optimization.

So think about your target class. What's your target class's kit?

And what utility you'll need to be using.

ARENA123 MACROS

The other form of macro we wanted to touch on is Arena 1-2-3 macros. This is where you bind offensive abilities to specific targets.

For example, a mage can have Arena 1-2-3 polymorph and counterspell macros. So what are the benefits of this?

Well, obviously, much like the utility we just spoke about, the strength in this is that you're able to use spells directly onto the arena target. This is undeniably an incredibly effective tool for streamlining your gameplay and making it a lot easier to crowd control the right target quicker.

But is it needed? Honestly, no.

If you had to pick between having these macros and just the ability to change your focus, you should just stick with focus macros.

Although there are definitely some huge benefits to having specifically crowd control and especially interrupts bound to arena macros, it's honestly nothing that can't be done reliably with your focus frame while also gaining more information.

But sure, if you've got the binds for it and want to incorporate spells like interrupts or your spammable crowd control, it will definitely make your gameplay even more optimal for your target. But if you're just starting out and you're just starting to get into the game, you should definitely consider buying the bind.

It's a great tool to have when you're just starting out and you're just starting to get into the game. Alongside the ability to change your focus with a bind, but we're just being realistic here.

Not everybody has unlimited binds they feel comfortable using.

KEYBIND TIPS

Okay then, so the next step is to decide on which keybinds to use for your new targeting optimization. Before we do so, we must stress there is no right or wrong choice here.

You just need to be able to be comfortable in changing your target, focus, or party member while simultaneously using your abilities and moving around. One example of this would be using Alt combined with Z to target your party member and then pressing 4 to heal them.

Take a second and try and do this on your keyboard. You can press it at a stretch, but in doing so you're incapable of pressing WASD, so you can't move around.

So before you decide on any binds, experiment and decide what fits you personally and allows for the rest of your binds. Something we see a lot of pro healers using for party 1, 2, and self binds is to utilize their mouse wheel.

Having mouse scroll up for party 1, mouses scroll down for party 2, and then clicking in the center of the mouse wheel to target themselves. But you can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX.

You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX. You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX.

You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX. ZX, or ZX, or ZX.

You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX. You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX.

You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX. You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX.

ZX, or ZX. You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX.

You can also utilize either ASD, ZX, or ZX. Then you can also add modifiers on top of that.

Just remember to be sure you can press the modifier and the key while moving and using abilities. It's definitely a lot easier when deciding on your targeting binds to have them horizontally in a row, but we've seen some very strange combinations so really anything can work.

F1, F2, and F3 on your keyboard if they're not spaced too far upwards can also be good binds for targeting teammates or changing focus, especially if you're already utilizing some of the more common binds for your abilities.

And then if you've been the lucky winner of a Swifty giveaway at some point over the years, you may find yourself with the MMO gaming mouse. Now you're lucky as this is almost cheating as you open up an extra 12 binds so you can do 1, 2, 3, or 4, 5, 6, or just whatever feels good and easy to press.

Remember though guys, there is no wrong or right choices when it comes to picking your binds. Whatever works for you.