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Uhmm.....
I think I haven't explained myself well enough:
Do you click the melee attacks on the Tray to use them or do you have any other key with a bind?
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I'm sorry, but you have two level 50s and several higher level toons, and STILL you CLICK your power-tray? hmmm.
I almost got annoyed when my newbie friend was doing this. Each power slot in the tray has the corresponding key number written on it. how hard can it be? 
Maybe the click-on-power works if your character is a Charles Xavier ripoff but without the powers, but for any Hero/Villain with a tad of self dignity, it's just s l o w.
Sorry for being a bit aggressive here, but lvling a couple 50's should teach you a good way to play, but obviously not. Makes you wonder really, what's the world coming to? 
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Erm, I've been playing since the second day of the US launch, and I still use my mouse to click on certain powers. I tend to arrange my 'critical' powers on the 1-5 keys and the slightly less important but still time-sensitive powers on the 1-5 slots of the second tray. I use the keyboard for those, but for almost everything else I use the mouse.
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Erm, I've been playing since the second day of the US launch, and I still use my mouse to click on certain powers. I tend to arrange my 'critical' powers on the 1-5 keys and the slightly less important but still time-sensitive powers on the 1-5 slots of the second tray. I use the keyboard for those, but for almost everything else I use the mouse.
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Of course you have to use the mouse -some-, because of the unimaginative way every MMO is laid out, and the demand from the playerbases for ever more powers/abilities. But not knowing the number keys has this funktion and have to ask about it on the boards is... well... I'll refrain from saying it.
I myself only use keys 1 through 6 and the alt 1-6 combination, but that's mainly because I have a split type keyboard and numbers 7-0 is about 5 meters away from my left-hand fingers.
And I'm not saying people who only click-activate powers are -bad- players. I'm saying they are ineffective. It's the difference between using a lorry to haul furniture as opposed to... say... a Ferrari. In the sports car you can go very very fast, but can only load one piece at a time, whereas in a lorry the whole load goes in one trip.
Sorry to the OP for my previous post, but there's nothing speaking FOR mouse clicking powers to activate them. Unless of course you like having to concentrate on both where you move your toon AND the exact position of your mouse pointer, for every time you want to execute a power. I know I pour out powers constantly in combat, and I keep moving -all the time-. I couldn't play even remotely as effectively if I hadn't made use of the number keys. And you want to be effective, right? Or am I the only one who wants to perform in a good way for my team? If I solo, it's a matter of survival; with a blapper's low hp, fumbling even once can mean faceplanting and a quick trip to heaven and then the hosp.
The more I consider this, the more I want to withdraw the apology made earlier in this post, because clicking every power not only can, but will in some cases, cause death to yourself or team-members.
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And I'm not saying people who only click-activate powers are -bad- players. I'm saying they are ineffective
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Damn! Almost 6 levels away from my 2nd 50 and I find out I've being doing it wrong all along. Oh well...
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clicking every power not only can, but will in some cases, cause death to yourself or team-members.
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I won't argue that using the keys can help *some* players in *some* situations, but I'm also quite sure that I've died (or my team-mates) more often from bad tactics or lack of strategy than from not clicking a power quickly enough
So I guess I'm happy with my Ferrari for now 
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
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But not knowing the number keys has this funktion and have to ask about it on the boards is... well... I'll refrain from saying it.
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It's rather strange you think he doesn't know that the keys do this.
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And I'm not saying people who only click-activate powers are -bad- players. I'm saying they are ineffective.
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Wow.
Now climb down off that high horse and mish with them. Chances are a lot of the players you mish with use the click rather than the press.
It's down to personal choice. Personally I happily levelled to 50 twice using the click method, and have never felt that the blame for any deaths on any team I was on could be attributed to my clicking instead of pressing keys.
The fact that animation time and recharge is so slow for most powers gives you ample time to choose a new target, reposition your mouse, click a button, then make some tea. The ability to only queue one attack after the currently executing one means it doesn't matter how quickly you can queue it up, it's still queued.
Posts like the one I've quoted are annoying because for some reason the poster thinks his/her way is best, with no good reasons. The reasons you've listed aren't valid for everyone, maybe it's just that you lack the hand-eye coordination to make clicking work well? Hmm, that might come across too blunt, but I am unsure how to soften it.
Sigh. I'll stick to clicking, with certain binds for special occasions, and be happy. I hope you're happy with your button mashing methods, and that everyone can live happily together without trying to specify how the game SHOULD be played to the others. If clicking was so bad, I'm sure Cryptic wouldn't have added it in.
Shrug. Each to their own.
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I'm sorry, but you have two level 50s and several higher level toons, and STILL you CLICK your power-tray? hmmm.
I almost got annoyed when my newbie friend was doing this. Each power slot in the tray has the corresponding key number written on it. how hard can it be?
Maybe the click-on-power works if your character is a Charles Xavier ripoff but without the powers, but for any Hero/Villain with a tad of self dignity, it's just s l o w.
Sorry for being a bit aggressive here, but lvling a couple 50's should teach you a good way to play, but obviously not. Makes you wonder really, what's the world coming to?
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Erm, excuse me, but I have a level 50, am working on my second and I click the tray for almost every one of my attack powers!
Surely it's whatever works for the person? We all play differently, heck, I never use the WASD configuration, tried it on this game and others and I hate it, the keys never fall in quite the right way for me.
I use the arrow keys for movement and my attack powers in the tray. My only real difference comes with my travel powers and a ew others, which is all controlled by my extra mouse buttons. I have a Logitech MX510 mouse which has 5 extra buttons on it, all of which are programmable. So on Coin, for instance, I have Fly and Hover on my two extra thumb buttons for instant access, Superspeed is on another button, as is the Map and the last button is currently set to nothing yet, until I figure out what I wanna use it for, although i might set up a bind for SG/Global chat now
On White Racer though, I have things slightly different, mainly cos I haven't taken the Flight powers yet, so the thumb buttons are set fot saying things like "ready!" in team chat and the such like.
But I still click on the tray for my attacks, I have them set in an order I like, with Build Up and Aim first, followed by ranged powers and melee powers on the next tray. , for instance.
Works for me
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
I've been playing for yonks and usually use the mouse to click on powers (unless for some reason I'm playing one handed, as often happens when the cat "helps"), since i'm using the keys to move. Since I always have the next power queued anyway the time is the same.
I can't believe you are so clumsy with the mouse that you can't use it as fast as the keyboard!!!111!!!
I really should do something about this signature.
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unless for some reason I'm playing one handed
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It's down to personal choice. Personally I happily levelled to 50 twice using the click method,
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Have you even tried using the number keyes?
And EVERYTING isn't down to personal preferance. I remember way back in the day, when mouselook was introduced in FPS games. For a couple months there were huuuge discussions about what was best between keyboard look and mouse look, and a surprisingly large number of people kept saying "It's all a matter of opinion and personal preferance". But still -everyone- "converted" to mouse look within the year.
I think the reason ppl got the Mouse Look feature so quick was due to Computer Parties (or whatever it's called in english), where ppl with different play styles actually meet and observe each other, and adapt the more efficient play style.
But using wasd + the numbers buttons IS more efficient than using arrow buttons and clicking the power-slots. And I don't just say this because it's the way I play, it's because I've tried most MMORPG games, and I've tried most play-styles, and this is without a doubt the fastest way to play under the current GUI setup (that's used in every single mmo game out there, with the dubious exception of EvE Online, but that's a completely different game in any case)
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unless for some reason I'm playing one handed
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Pressing keys is no more or less efficient than clicking powers. When you consider that all attacks have an animation time, you are queueing up the next attack whether clicking or pressing so the next attack will activate instantly with either method. The attacks are not instant so either method works equally as well.
I, for one, click ALL of my powers since I find it allows me freer movement, i.e. fingers never leave the wasd keys, whereas I felt hindered by the number keys, especially considering the greater number of attacks I have that would make never using clciking highly impractical.
This argument, however, on a scale of one to stupid, comes in at: Van Helsing.
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And EVERYTING isn't down to personal preferance.
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No, you're right, everything isn't down to personal preference, but in this particular instance, with this particular subject, I'm afraid it IS down to personal preference!
I've tried it your way, I tried it with WASD keys and the numbers across the top, and I didn't like it. The keys felt unnatural under my hand, the way the keyboard has the W key slightly to the left of the keys under it, meant i ket hitting the E key to go forward, which meant I died.
also, using the number keys above it meant having to stop moving, if only for a fraction of a second to use an attack, again, something I didn't like.
The way I have my setup running atm, I can play very happily thank you, and I would never presume to tell anyone else how to play the game either, whether it be to tell someone what keyboard settings they should or how to play their toons or whatever, cos in the end, it's down to THEIR personal preference
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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I'm sorry, but you have two level 50s and several higher level toons
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Firstly...Do you know something we don't about toons higher than 50?
Secondly..I'm a casual player..I don't post often and this debate deserves a wider audience than amongst blasters.
And as such, this is how I play and it works for me and, so far, no-one has kicked me from a team or refused to team with me as a result
1st tray...any offences which can be used by pressing appropriate numer 1 to 0
2nd tray...any travel/defences/toggles using mouse clicks
3rd tray...any accolades/temp powers using mouse clicks
Overall, this works very well for me.
To Quote Coin_
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but in this particular instance, with this particular subject, I'm afraid it IS down to personal preference!
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Sorry for being a bit aggressive here, but lvling a couple 50's should teach you a good way to play, but obviously not. Makes you wonder really, what's the world coming to?
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I have 2 level 50s and numerous alts at all levels. I click everything and have never done any different. If you think I don't play this game as well as you because of that, you're sadly mistaken.
Jupiter is slow looking into his notebook, but he always looks.
The [b]Retribution[/b] is coming.
[url="http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j19/Valens_ii/"]Some of my toons[/url]
Okay, so I realize the optimum method might not be working for people with no apparent dexterity in their fingers. I'll stop now, because this discussion is just as stalemate as the one for and gainst mouse-look. 
To bubble_bug, you didn't think I meant several higher -than 50- level toons? hmm?
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I click everything and have never done any different. If you think I don't play this game as well as you because of that, you're sadly mistaken.
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I'm not saying I -am- a better player than you, because I'm not saying I got it down to a science. Again, how do you KNOW that? I just might. I don't know, and you don't either.
In any case, I was talking of game method, not players.
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I'm not saying I -am- a better player than you, because I'm not saying I got it down to a science. Again, how do you KNOW that? I just might. I don't know, and you don't either.
In any case, I was talking of game method, not players.
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Sorry to the OP for my previous post, but there's nothing speaking FOR mouse clicking powers to activate them. Unless of course you like having to concentrate on both where you move your toon AND the exact position of your mouse pointer, for every time you want to execute a power. I know I pour out powers constantly in combat, and I keep moving -all the time-. I couldn't play even remotely as effectively if I hadn't made use of the number keys. And you want to be effective, right? Or am I the only one who wants to perform in a good way for my team? If I solo, it's a matter of survival; with a blapper's low hp, fumbling even once can mean faceplanting and a quick trip to heaven and then the hosp.
The more I consider this, the more I want to withdraw the apology made earlier in this post, because clicking every power not only can, but will in some cases, cause death to yourself or team-members.
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But you're telling me I'm going to cause death to my team-mates which would make me a bad player..
Maybe you're just not good enough at the game to play without key-binds?
Jupiter is slow looking into his notebook, but he always looks.
The [b]Retribution[/b] is coming.
[url="http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j19/Valens_ii/"]Some of my toons[/url]
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But you're telling me I'm going to cause death to my team-mates which would make me a bad player..
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If I am a healing type defender (ie empath), and someone gets hit hard by a boss, and ends up with 10% health, I look away from the actual battle, to look at the power-tray to position my mouse-pointer on the appropriate button then click the mouse. The likelyhood that this blapper (because you know it is one) is dying in the time that takes, is pretty big. but compare that to moving one finger 2cm to directly execute the heal on the correct team member. because of using the keyboard to execute the heal, I've been able to select the correct member with the mouse through the team tab. I could even have selected the team member with the F keys (but like I said, I haven't got this down to a science.) This is all because in a game as fast as CoH 1/10th of a second counts.
And the ingenious part is that you don't have to use ONLY the w finger to press the numbers, you can use the ring finger, or index-finger or in some rare cases your THUMB. It's the most flexible system you can use with a keyboard and mouse combination.
And for a Blapper, it's especially important to be quick. (at least for an en/en blapper, because of their knockback, you ALWAYS have to be on the move.)
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Maybe you're just not good enough at the game to play without key-binds?
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I thought of that, and it made me think of my friends that (still) use the "point and click" method. These are experienced gamers, also in MMORPG, but still I'm amazed at how slow and inefficient they are. And this is people who has spent most their lives in front of a mouse and keyboard.
*sigh* I think I'm able to stop arguing, but who am I kidding?
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Maybe you're just not good enough at the game to play without key-binds?
[/ QUOTE ] loooool
can u imagine me playing without binds, i would never hit anything or type anyhing : /
may i remind u that i play witout amouse, and turnspeed at 600 odd % is pretty vital, as is a follow bind (default to most ppl), my GUI bonds save my social life, as i have to talk to sg, sg global, coalition and arena on a daily basis, and i can tell u that clicking is NOT the way forward here, as for the powers, i click when i play on a PC as i struggle to adapt my playstyle, i use INS and DEL to look and on a PC keyboard they arent where i like them, although i am in prime position to use the f keys as a third power tray, i use ctrl+# by default, but keep rarer powers here, the2 most common ones are ctrl+1/2 for aid self and hasten, and ctrl 5/6 is taunt and intimidate one of which is rare and bound, the other is rare and an overkill mez i use.
anyways, each to their own, i have 2 ex house mates who play clicky, while i play binds and numbers, we have seen eachother play and i wouldnt say any1 was less efficient tbh, the thing i suffer on is pvp melee, follow doesnt get me as close as in pve so there is more skill involved where a mouse would help, but meh, i can cope ok
now stop arguing kiddies, and i have 8 lvl 50s isnt an argument heres one tho, i have over 3k hours logged, ooo the burn and ive been mostly AWOL for like 2 months
plight
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Uhmm.....
I think I haven't explained myself well enough:
Do you click the melee attacks on the Tray to use them or do you have any other key with a bind?
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I'm sorry, but you have two level 50s and several higher level toons, and STILL you CLICK your power-tray? hmmm.
I almost got annoyed when my newbie friend was doing this. Each power slot in the tray has the corresponding key number written on it. how hard can it be?
Maybe the click-on-power works if your character is a Charles Xavier ripoff but without the powers, but for any Hero/Villain with a tad of self dignity, it's just s l o w.
Sorry for being a bit aggressive here, but lvling a couple 50's should teach you a good way to play, but obviously not. Makes you wonder really, what's the world coming to?
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Thank you for showing me how [censored] player I am. From now on I will surely look you up if I need l33t advices how to play. Please teach me, because I'm still pushing those buttons.
Fighting l33t since 1974
Don't "lol"! Laugh!
Sanity Inc
@8Qbit
Lets all calm down here before Bridger comes and says that.
Everybody has right to play this game like they want except for abusing others.
Whether to click or press is down to personal preference. And that - as they say - is that.
Yeah, definately calm down
And by the by, i've been playing this game since European Beta and i still click powers as i find it's fast. But that's personal choice.
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Yeah, definately calm down
And by the by, i've been playing this game since European Beta and i still click powers as i find it's fast. But that's personal choice.
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I've been slowly moving from only mouse to one hand on mouse and one hand on keyboard. I use mouse to look and the keyboard for powers and motion. All my characters have similar key binds. I only think it is faster because I find it less confusing. I think the major cause of slow reactions in this game is the long rooting animation times rather than control method.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
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Okay, so I realize the optimum method might not be working for people with no apparent dexterity in their fingers.
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And clicking powers without looking 10 seconds for where they are may not work for people with no eye-hand coordination..
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But you're telling me I'm going to cause death to my team-mates which would make me a bad player..
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If I am a healing type defender (ie empath), and someone gets hit hard by a boss, and ends up with 10% health, I look away from the actual battle, to look at the power-tray to position my mouse-pointer on the appropriate button then click the mouse. The likelyhood that this blapper (because you know it is one) is dying in the time that takes, is pretty big. but compare that to moving one finger 2cm to directly execute the heal on the correct team member. because of using the keyboard to execute the heal, I've been able to select the correct member with the mouse through the team tab. I could even have selected the team member with the F keys (but like I said, I haven't got this down to a science.) This is all because in a game as fast as CoH 1/10th of a second counts.
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We come back to the point that you don't know where to put the mouse to activate your powers..
If you know where to put it WITHOUT looking away from the battle(as I'm sure LOADS of people out there can do)then you have no problem, but you're so uber and l33t that you know that for sure...
You only cannot do it...
I was just asking others how they have their kb set up for this sort of things, I never wanted someone to tell me to go read the manual or tell me that he's elite because he mash buttons because he can't click his powers without lookin at them for 15 seconds to find out where they are and what do they do..
Anyway, thanks to all other people who replied and gave me their tips.
I'm so sad that useless flamers who thinks they're better than others still lurks this forums..
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If you use 1,2,3,4, then how can you move at the same time? Maybe its just me that cant press 3 buttons at the same time with my left hand.
How can you press foward (w) and F2 at the same time? Maybe my hand is just too small.
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Im able to move about, jump around, and attack at the same time, even if the keys are like F2 i can do it, its all about finding the right hand posture
What is this talk about looking away from the fight. Do you guys know when BU is ready?
I play a regen scrapper. I have 2 heals and build up. I need to know when they are ready to be used. If I get toggle dropped, I need to know what toggle Im missing.
I pretty much have to look at the power tray most of the time anyway.
A Paragon Defender
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Uhmm.....
I think I haven't explained myself well enough:
Do you click the melee attacks on the Tray to use them or do you have any other key with a bind?
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I'm sorry, but you have two level 50s and several higher level toons, and STILL you CLICK your power-tray? hmmm.
I almost got annoyed when my newbie friend was doing this. Each power slot in the tray has the corresponding key number written on it. how hard can it be?
Maybe the click-on-power works if your character is a Charles Xavier ripoff but without the powers, but for any Hero/Villain with a tad of self dignity, it's just s l o w.
Sorry for being a bit aggressive here, but lvling a couple 50's should teach you a good way to play, but obviously not. Makes you wonder really, what's the world coming to?
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a tad judgemental me thinks? that playing with numbers is the "right" way to play... Jiaozy and I have been playing together for months, you ask me who I want on my team and I garuntee that he will be on the top 8 every time as either his troller or his tank. He is one of the best players I have come across in game. I have one level 50 (AR/Dev, just about the hardest blaster since ED kicked in), with my second blaster I have a record of 9 wins and 3 defeats in the arena against other players (but then I've only had the toon 3 weeks) I have got to level 29 in 55 hours through hard playing, often soloing or Task forcing, no powerlevelling, but because I click I am a bad player? dude I seriously think you need to rethink that post as insulting aggressive and rude.