Lightning Rod + Shield Charge Bind!

I'm not good with binds at all, so can someone help me out?

I want to bind my TAB key so that when I press it it activates the cursor to use Lightning Rod or Shield Charge, whichever one is up. For example, I hit tab, then click a spot on the ground and it activates Lightning Rod first. If I press it again it will activate Shield Charge. If I press it while both powers are up, it should activate Lightning Rod first. I don't expect the power to activate just the cursor to show up so I can click the spot.

Can anyone help me out? I know it sounds kind of confusing...

What you are asking is difficult. There is a way, but it requires making text files. Head to the guides section to learn more about that (I have never bothered with that).

However, you could do something very similar with your chord keys (shift/alt/control).

If memory serves me right, I did this for lighning Rod:

/bind ctrl+Lbutton powexec_name "Lightning Rod".

you could then do:
/bind shift+Lbutton powexec_name "Shield Charge"

Note: it's either Lbutton or Lclick. I don't remember.

Wouldn't something like:

/bind shift+Lbutton "powexec_name Lightning Rod$$powexec_name Shield Charge"

approximate the switching behavior that the OP is looking for? It wouldn't be prefect, since its not aware of the state of either power so it would just be cycling through them, but it would get them both in one bind. The syntax is probably off somehow, as my binds never seem to work on teh first go.

No. It will always skip Lightning Rod and activate Shield Charge. When utilizing two of the same commands in a bind, it reads the first (left most) command, then sees another one so disregards the previous one, and continues until there is none left and activates the last of the multiple commands (right most). (This is why people mistakenly say that binds are read right to left.)

Unless there are other restrictions (like CJ and SJ can't be used at the same time, so activating one automatically turns the other one off...so you CAN "powexec CJ$$powexec SJ" [note: shorthand, not valid bind syntax])

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Good catch. CJ and SJ was exactly what I was thinking of. I never knew how it was parsed, just that it worked. Thanks for explaining that.

[ QUOTE ]
When utilizing two of the same commands in a bind, it reads the first (left most) command, then sees another one so disregards the previous one, and continues until there is none left and activates the last of the multiple commands (right most).

[/ QUOTE ]Quibble: That's not technically correct. The bind parser is dumb, and just executes everything in order from left to right. pow_exec_name (and similar commands) queue the power you've selected to fire as soon as you're able to use it; but if you queue one power when you already have another queued, the first is dequeued. (ie: You can only have one queued power at a time)

So, all of the pow_exec_name calls get executed. But due to the way queued powers work, only the last one actually activates. It gets a little more complicated when involving toggles:
- powexecname on a toggle that's on just toggles it off without queueing it
- powexectoggleon does nothing if the toggle is already on
- powexectoggleoff does nothing if the toggle is already off, or toggles it off without queueing it if it's one

So, if you've got 2 or more toggles with pow_exec_name in a bind, the last two such toggles will switch each time you use the bind (if neither is on, the last will turn on; if both are on, both will turn off). If you've got 2 or more toggles with pow_exec_toggle_on, they'll toggle on in reverse order each time you use the bind. If you've got 2 or more toggles with pow_exec_toggle_off, they'll all shut off at once.

This can be accomplished with a couple simple text files.
Make a folder called keybinds in your primary directory, and put a text file in there with the following line

Shift+lbutton "powexec_name Shield Charge$bindloadfile c:\keybinds\Lightning.txt"

Name that file Shield.txt

Then make a second file with the following text
Shift+lbutton "powexec_name Lightning Rod$bindloadfile c:\keybinds\Shield.txt"

name that one lightning.txt

Then load one of them in game by typing
bindloadfile c:\\keybinds\shiled.txt

From then on, holding down shift and clicking somewhere will activate one of the two powers, and will also load the next keybinding, making it so that holding shift and clicking somewhere else fires that power.
The only problem is that if you try to use a power before it's recharged, it'll set you up to use the second power. This isn't an issue, if your powers recharge at similar speeds. I can't speak to that.

Personally, I think the more elegant solution is to have Shift+lbutton fire off one of them, and ctrl+lbutton fire off the other, so you've got more control over which you're using.

I'm realizing that you have certain expectations regarding a range indicator, showing where you can and can't get to.
That's a whole other ball game. I can't help you on that one.