THE MOUSE IS FOR TURNING or "I'M ALMOST UPON YOU, ROGUE!"

     "Oh no!" you say, "Math is haaaard! I don't want to crunch a bunch of numbers to play a game!" Alright, alright, today we won't talk about how you have to do math (even though you do.) Today and next time we'll work on improving your reaction time by properly controlling your character.
 
    How do you move your avatar? Do you turn with your keyboard or your mouse? If you use your keyboard, is it arrow keys or WASD? If you use WASD, are Q and E the strafe keys? You can argue there's no "right" way to be good at the game, but there is a slower and a faster way to turn. If you refuse to follow my lead on anything else control-related, at least try this experiment:
 
    Agro a monster and let him attack your back. Toggle auto-attack on and use your keyboard to turn in place until you attack him. A second or two, right? Put your back to him again, hold the right mouse button and flick the mouse once, hard, to the right or left. Less then half a second later, you're smacking him. Illustrated in practical, combat terms: Keyboard-turning is noticeably slower than mouse-turning. If you paid attention, you also noticed that when you keyboard-turn, your character looks over his shoulder. Skilled players recognize this as a tell-tale sign of noobery. They look for a quick whip-around and immediate response.
 
    So, you must mouse-turn. Happily, most default key-bindings have holding the right mouse button set to turn your avatar.
 
    How do you manage the rest of your movement: back and forth, and strafing? Try putting your free hand on the arrow keys. Since you have to hold the mouse to turn, you're suddenly very uncomfortable, so I guess the arrow keys are dead to you. It's good old WASD for moving, and the first-person-shooter gods are pleased. But wait, Q and E are your strafe keys, and you can still keyboard-turn with A and D.

    In one fell swoop, we will literally make it impossible for you to return to this nasty habit. Open your key bindings and set A to strafe left and D to strafe right. Do not assign any keys to turning. Try to move without the mouse. I'll wait. Now try your keyboard and mouse together. Turn in place or while walking backwards. Strafe around something in a semicircle. I'm sure you've noticed this is how the elite PvP players circle each other.

    Congratulations! You are cured of keyboard-turning forever. Never again will a raider covered in epic gear snicker at your shuffling feet, or a ganker see your turned head as a come-hither-and-do-me-from-behind glance. You sit comfortably at your computer and can respond to anything with a flick of the wrist.

    And because you strafe with A and D, Q and E are open for some of your most important keybinds. Which sets up our next lesson: supplementing your effortless character control with hair-trigger ability response.