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TIP FOR USING KEYBOARD COMMANDS IN SPELLCASTING
Insert
prev. spell bar |
Home |
PageUp
Next spell bar |
Delete
Prev. spell |
Cast spell
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PageDn
Next spell |
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The first thing to grasp is that the visual keyboard templates out there, the ones I have seen, are wrong. Things have changed in-game, and the templates have not always been revised. This is particularly true for magic and all spellcasting.
- The spellcasting keys are the group of six found above the arrow keys. They are in two rows, one row above the other. Top row, left to right: Insert, Home, Page Up. Bottom row: Delete, End, Page Down. Got it? Ok.
- The "Insert" and "Page Up" keys (top left and right) select the next or the previous spell bar when you are in spellcasting mode. (Remember, each player has 5 possible spell banks) So, pushing "Page Up" repeatedly might take you from spell bar 3 to 4 to 5 and then to 1, 2 and 3 again. Pressing the "Insert" key would take you from 3 to 2 to 1 to 5 to 4 and then to 3. Get it?
- The top center key, "Home" does not have a spellcasting function. In combat it selects the most recent attacker.
- The bottom left and right keys in the group, "Delete" and "Page Down," move the selection to the left or right along the spells on a selected spell bar. The spells are circular, so moving to the right of the last spell takes you to the first, and so forth.
- The "End" key, (bottom row, middle) acts as the "fire" or "shoot" key.
ADDENDUM ON EDIT: Wryan of
Solclaim, a 4 school mage, wrote Maggie about two additional pairs of keyboard commands. I'd forgotten to mention them because I never got in the habit of using them. They are: 1) the CTRL key combined with either Insert or PageUp, which moves directly to the first or last spell bar, respectively. 2) The CTRL key combined with either Delete or PageDwn, which moves to either the first or last spell, respectively, on the active spell bar.
The last combination is quite useful, because you can "jump" to a grouping of spells at the start or end of a bar. Over time, some of my spell bars have come to have a LOT of spells, much more than when I began, so I'm grateful to Wryan
for reminding me about these cool additional commands.
**** Using these various keyboard shortcuts greatly speeds up the process of casting spells. But it will help a LOT if you arrange your spell bars, and the spells on them, in logical groupings. Try to put spells that are used together -- such as Life protection spells -- next to one another. Put logical groups of spells on separate spell bars or at one end or the other of bars.
For example, on my third spell bar I have grouped all protective buffs. Mana renewal or replacement buffs are grouped on spell bar #2. I have piercing pro, blade pro, bludgeon pro, fire pro, lightning pro, acid pro and cold pro all side by side. To give myself a complete set of life (level 6) buffs I would hit these keys: End, Page Down, End, Page Down, End, Page Down, End, Page Down, End, Page Down, End, Page Down, End.
If I needed more mana, I would press "Insert" (move to spell bar #2) then "Delete" (move one space left, from "Revitalize 6" to "Stamina to Mana 6") then "End" (cast Stamina to
Mana 6) then Page Down (move one place right, to "Revitalize") then End (cast Revitalize.) To continue the buff sequence I would press "Page Up" (select the next spell bar, in this case bar #3) then press "Page Down (move right one space) and End (cast that spell) and so forth.
GOOD NEWS: spell bars will "remember" the position of the last-used spell for as long as the play session lasts. This helps a lot when, for example, you need to interrupt a buffing cycle to replenish mana. When you return to the buffing spell bar the highlight will be on the same spell it was on before you switched spell bars.
When you arrange your spells this way and use the keyboard, spells can be cast very quickly, with few mistakes. When it's time to Imperil or cast other vulnerability spells the same procedures are used. Spells are grouped together if they are likely to be used together. All vulnerability spells share space on the same spell bar. All buffs to others share a spell bar, and so forth. Do you use an Item Magic sequence to buff your weapon, and another to buff your armor? Group them side by side and use the keyboard to switch among spell bars, select individual spells and cast.
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