Keybinding

Source : http://www.aionsource.com/forum/general-guides/20612-how-effectively-use-keybinds.html

great post, i think i read it in the war forums as well i to am trying to fix my keybindings as per the post in the chanter forums, but i have found that traditional wasd or even esdf like you recommend i use in war is not flexible enough for aion pvp combat. since we need to have wings, no wings, raise and fall bound to 4 extra keys within easy reach of your standard movement keys.

so i have gone back to wasd for movement, q/e for wings, r/f for raise/fall with space used for the standard jump/glide.
now i have found that doing this i can use shift and alt for modifier keys to expand my keyboard and by moving none insta cast abilites over to the right of my keyboard since i can't move anyway i have about 10 unmodified keys to play with, or 30 with modifers and could make it 13/39 with a little finger/thumb stretching for 6yhb on the outer arc for skills that are not constantly spammed. i'm still having problems finding a comfortable way to do this while still changing chants though, hence the post on the chanter forums.

what do you think to this set up and how will you be modifying your own keybinds for the
flight mechanics in aion?
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Munken
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Character: Munken
Class: Ranger
Legion: Looking still
Race: Asmodians

You only need the one action button to open and close wings , plus myself personally , i only use ascend on my mouse button and if i need to drop i either close my wings then glide or just aim down and fly(since im using my mouse to fly anyways)
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basically i do everything just like i've said in the guide... i have all the flying actions bound to my mouse.. so the keyboard is used pretty much the same way it was in WAR... if you don't have a mouse with a ton of buttons though it could be a lot more difficult for you.... and like munken said, you can use just one button to toggle wings on or off, which helps a bunch.

I'm really not fond of this guide's recommendations. It is important to have at least one direction you can move towards at all times regardless of what abilities you are using, and mapping hotkeys to left of the rest position prevents that.

I wrote a hotkey guide for Warhammer Alliance quite some time ago. The message still applies, so I will repost it here to both further my personal agenda and guide those who need proper assistance.

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In any game, using the right control scheme is of great importance. A great control scheme can make movement and using skills on the fly a very fluid process, while lackluster keybindings can do quite the opposite. It can take between days to months to get used to a good set of keybinds, so I feel now is the best time to help you out; leveling with the right controls in WAR will make the learning process that much easier.

This guide mainly caters to those who are right-hand computer users. Those who use the mouse in the left hand will have to pay special attention to the concepts I will talk about and flip/reverse/mirror them as necessary.



Basics:
The basics of any good control scheme layout are usually easy to remember. Lateral movement such as strafing and moving forward/backwards is centered around WSAD (or EDSF depending on preference), while turning and other camera adjustment methods are left to the mouse.

Many FPS games use a WSAD/mouse combo because it allows both fluid movement and accurate shots. While accuracy won't be as important due to the nature of attacking in MMOs, facing your opponents is still key to success. This is especially true for WAR, where RvR is the main focus and directional AoE attacks are common for each class.

WSAD is ideal for a couple reasons. For example, it has easy access to all three modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, and Alt) which at times must be used if you wish to map every single ability to your keyboard. Clicking skills in an MMO (while somewhat acceptable for PvE-centric games) can slow your reaction times and limit combat mobility. I strongly recommend that you map every skill your class has to a key (e.g. 4) or key combo (e.g. Shift+3, Ctrl+R) so that you can stay mobile and avoid clicking skills altogether.

Furthermore, a large cluster of keys are to the right of your WSAD rest position. This means that you won't need more than your index finger to access any of your skills, which allows each finger to have a more streamlined role assignment.



Your fingers should mainly be focused on the following actions:
Pinky: Modifiers. Shift and Ctrl.
Ring: Movement. Mainly strafing left. (A)
Middle: Movement. Mainly moving forward. (W)
Index: Hotkeys.
Thumb: Spacebar and Alt.



Keybinding your Attacks:
Many MMOs today use unorthodox default keybinds when attack hotkeys are concerned. WoW, for example, expects you to reach all the way to 9, 0, - and = to use some of your attacks. This is quite frankly the wrong thing to do in almost every scenario. Fortunately, there are two areas where attacks should be bound.

The first area is what I like to call the Dead Zone, which is comprised of the keys that are directly above, below, or to the left of your WSAD rest position. Examples include ~, 1, Q and Z. While it is completely acceptable to map abilities to these buttons, it is strongly recommended that these keys are used only for abilities with either extremely long cooldowns or functions that are mostly used out of combat. This is because Dead Zone keys cannot be pressed using the index finger.

The second area is the Sweet Spot, which starts at the keys to the right of WSAD and ends at the keys that your index finger can reach when fully extended. The Sweet Spot is roughly the shape of an arc or triangle and is extremely easy to access on the fly. Depending on hand size, the Sweet Spot can either fit every ability onto a hotkey or only a majority. The rest will have to be mapped in the Dead Zone or require use of modifiers.

Common keys that are in the Sweet Spot are 4, R, F and V. While I will suggest my personal keymapping below, it is important that you map your 12 hotkeys to buttons that YOU have the easiest time pressing on the fly.

In WoW and WAR, I use the following hotkeys for my abilities:
2, 3, 4, 5. E, R, T. F, G. X, C, V.

Obviously 12 buttons won't be enough for any class, so modifier keys will need to be brought in. With proper usage of Shift, Ctrl and Alt, these 12 keys can be stretched to have 48 different functions, which is often more than enough to work with.

Modifiers, while necessary, should always be avoided if possible. Pressing 4 will always be faster than pressing Shift+4 or Ctrl+4, and Alt+4 is often even slower. In severe cases, you may have to double-up modifiers. Using Shift+Ctrl+4 for an ability is, to be blunt, extremely uncomfortable, and it will limit mobility if it needs to be used in combat. As such, try to map skills like out-of-combat buffs on modifier-heavy keybinds, and only as a last resort.

After you've taken care of learning the basic controls and mapping your abilities to hotkeys, the last thing to do is to squeeze menus into the remaining keys. You should probably put the more important menus like Inventory, Map and Quest Log in any extra Dead Zone buttons you hven't used. Otherwise, you'll have to put those menus on Function keys (F1, F3, etc) or on keys to the right of the Sweet Spot.



Although the core of the guide is through, there is one final thing to touch on: equipment and peripherals. A more advanced mouse is likely to have multiple side-buttons which will be easy to access, and would be ideal for keybinds or even modifiers. Make good use of them.

I hope you found some of this information useful.

Clavier : http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/xkpro.php

Excellent tips given, actually I'm pretty sure OP's post (or something very much like it) was what prompted me to jump to EDSF in the first place back during the WAR beta.

If I might make another suggestion, echoing a portion of Ravenkah's post, use your mouse buttons; just about every high performance mouse out there nowadays has at least one, usually more. The single biggest disadvantage folks are citing (other than "it just doesn't feel right") is that EDSF doesn't give you easy access to your modifiers. Meanwhile, your right thumb is sitting there doing... nothing. So, you guessed it, set modifiers to your thumb buttons. I use an MX518 and have mine set to Ctrl and Alt.

This opens up your left hand to shift over to EDSF (which I've learned to prefer due to it letting your left hand rest on the natural home row of the keyboard - always useful when typing things in a hurry). Additionally, it frees up your little finger - if you have at least 2 thumb buttons on your mouse, you should almost never have to use your little finger to press a modifier in combat. This finger has access to ~, 1, Tab, Q, CAPS, A, and Z, as well as the Shift modifier should you need it (and the Ctrl/Alt versions of all of them!), all of which can be bound to combat skills or any other game-related functions (think targetting, wings toggle, fly up/down, switch weapon/gear, toggle rest, etc).

With this setup, you can bind combat skills to 4/5/R/T/G/V/Tab/CAPS/Q/W/A/Z, plus the Ctrl and Alt modifiers, without ever breaking movement or ever reaching to hit a button. As if by some gift of the keyboard gods, this coincides perfectly with the number of hotkeys on the hotbar, giving you quick and easy access to 3 hotbars full of skills you can use on the fly. If for some unholy reason you need to have access to 58 actions on the fly, you can do that too through prodigious use of Shift, 6, Y, H, and B. Lesser used skills, or ones requiring that you stand still, can also be bound to ~/1/2/3/X/C, or hell, even Alt/Ctrl/Shift + EDSF if you're feeling fancy.

The lovely thing about this whole setup is the sheer amount of personalization it offers, now that you aren't deadlocked into needing to use your left hand for modifiers. I personally have my Tab button (usually toggling through enemies) rebound to the A button, since my little finger naturally rests on it now - this gives me quicker reaction times when caught off guard, and keep me from having to mouse target a moving enemy. Nearest Enemy, Nearest Friendly, Assist Target, etc can all be bound to the Q, A, or Z buttons especially (plus modifiers) to make it that much easier to do very quick targeting. Savvy healers can also use these extra buttons to select party members on the fly instead of the hard-to-reach function keys (or just use 1-6 plus modifiers if in an alliance, making sure to switch up other bindings accordingly).

Honestly, this setup is way too good for me to think about switching back. I've even started changing the controls in shooters to EDSF to compensate (with reload on A, wink wink). And to think, all you needed was some exercise for that right thumb. If you don't have a mouse with a couple extra programmable buttons, you may wanna think about picking one up.