__THISRES__57258.jpg)
Battlemode Guide
The Basics
-What is Battlemode?
Battlemode is a shortcut to access your extra skills, equipments, or consumables much quicker to make PVP / BG / WoE much more efficient. The use of Battlemode aims to improve your PVP capabilities and is what separates the novices from the Pros and can be the difference between life or death out in the PVP world.
-Interface
[]Hotkeys
Hotkeys are a set of shortcut keys to allow you use the skills, consumables, or change equipment which you have assigned to a particular key by simply pressing it. Your default hotkeys are the F1-F9 keys. To access your “Hotkey bar” press F12 and you will see the following.
This is your “1st Hotkey bar” indicated by the 1 on the right. You are given a total of 9 “boxes” in where you decide which skills, equipments or consumables should be placed where by simply dragging the item inside the box. Going in order you will see that the F1-F9 keys correspond to the order of the boxes from left to right.
Note: The extra 2 boxes on the side are also hotkeys, but are only accessible by double clicking inside the box rather then pressing a key. If you press F12 and you’re missing these boxes, go to your RO folder, run the Setup.exe, increase the size of your resolution, go in the game press F12 drag it down to the center and you may put back your default resolution if you don’t like the big screen.
When you first started RO, you probably only got used to just using your default F1-F9 keys. However, with the many number of skills and items in the game you may find to want more “Hotkey bars”. This is accomplished by repeatedly pressing the F12 key, or holding and dragging down the diagonals on your 1st Hotkey bar to reveal 3 extra rows, each labeled with a corresponding number.
However, these extra Hotkey bars have no “key” assigned to them, meaning you would have to manually assign which keys would correspond to which box of each Hotkey bar.
First press Esc, and select “BM/Shortcut Settings”
You will see your default settings have the FKeys assigned to the 1st Hotkey bar. Hotkey 1-1, means it is the 1st bar, 1st box, while 1-5, means the 1st bar, 5th box. Likewise Hotkey 4-4, would mean the 4th bar, 4th box etc.
The most optimal way to assign your hotkeys is as followed. Make sure “Enable Battlemode” is checked and press “OK” after assigning new keys.
You are free to assign these whichever way pleases you, HOWEVER, use common sense.
D T P Q M J B Y G, is a bad 2nd Hotkey bar setup.
Rather keep it nice and flowing with subsequent letters based on the format of your keyboard.
Q W E R T Y U I O, much nicer and easier.
The following image should help clear things up in what this will do. Having assigned these “keys” to these Hotkey bars, you will be able to access the skills, equipments and consumables by merely pressing the key which corresponds to the position it belongs. While the two outside boxes are used by double clicking them.
To be able to use these keys you would have to enter into “Battlemode”
Congratulations! You are now able to use more skills, consumables, and change equipment faster than opening your inventory and manually clicking on those items.
Tips and Tricks
With your newly assigned and accessible hotkeys, you’re probably now thinking
“How do I set up my skills, consumables and equipments?”
Truth is, choosing the most effective and comfortable configuration of your Hotkeys is completely up to YOU. Everyone has different configurations and you most likely might not like it the way your friend might have his or her hotkeys set up. So how to start?
Tip #1 “Grouping”
I refer to grouping as placing similar like items/skills right next to each other, to provide an easier, efficient and organized way to remember where and what you placed on your hotkeys. Group similar like things like Undead and Holy Scrolls right next to each other, garments, shields, armors, etc.
Take my following old Hotkey bars from two of my classes, Royal Guard and Super Novice.
Grouping is clearly shown in both Hotkey bars, shown by the colors.
The red in both indicates Offensive like skills
The purple indicates body Armor.
The dark red indicates Garments.
The light blue indicates Buffs / Support like skills.
You can see from the other different colors where my weapons, shields and wings on RG were both grouped, while the accessories, hats and consumables were also grouped on my Super Novice. You will notice that some skills/equipments weren’t exactly “grouped” with the possible category they may belong in. This is just due to the way I felt most comfortable with the position they were in. Setting and thinking of how to set your hotkeys once again, is completely up to YOU.
Tip #2 Have a consistent similar configuration throughout your classes.
Having the same types of skills or items in the same location will help you remember what types of skills/ item go where. As shown in both my Hotkey bars, my Buffs/Support skills and Garments are almost in the exact same location while my Attack based skills tend to lean towards the 1st Hotkey bar and to the right. I got accustomed to doing this; therefore it is about the same configuration for almost all my classes.
Tip #3 Think of a mnemonic to help you remember.
A mnemonic is way to help you remember something with a method you can come up with.
For example, you will see that I have the equipment “Poring Ring” in the same position for both Hotkeys, which happens to be the Hotkey “Y”. My way of remembering that pressing Y = Poring Ring is by thinking to my self, “Y U SO FAST?!” (Meme Reference)
Other examples from my RG skill bar,
Pressing X = “Cross Shield”, hence X represents “crossing”
Pressing U.K.O = To equip U= “Golden Wings”, K = “Tao Gunka Valk”, O = “Feather Valk Helm”. Reason for this was because equipping these was my “Full Zerk Sac Damage Set”; therefore it was my intention to do as much damage to “Knock U Out” or “U Knocked Out”
Others examples
On my Sura, I used to have D = Dragon Combo, F = Fallen Empire, G= Gate of Hell, R = Rising Dragon. It was convenient at the time since Dragon and Fallen were combos you stringed, and they are right next to each other on keyboard so it was easy to remember.
For Armors
Pressing D = “Deviant” Garment (This is consistent with the positions I have my Garments in)
Pressing G = “Ghost” Armor
Pressing H = “High Risk Tao” Armor
Pressing C = “Cranial” Shield, or “Chakra”
Etc.
While some ways of remembering may seem cheesy or corny, finding a way to set up your hotkeys depends on what makes you most comfortable and easy to remember.
Tip #4 Use your hotkeys wisely. HOTKEY ONLY WHAT YOU NEED !
This is referring to the amount of skills, or items you place on your hotkeys. Note that depending on the player, not everyone may find the need to fill up their entire Hotkey bars, however you should hotkey what is needed. Only hotkey the items or skills that you actually use. If you’re finding that some skills or items are not being used, then it probably shouldn’t be hotkeyed.
Tip #5 If you’re completely new to Battlemode, start small and practice.
You are not forced to fill up your whole hotkeys, so start small. The easiest way to start is with just shield, garment, armor equipments and then practice. Go into PVP or BG and analyze your surroundings. If you see a Wizard coming towards you simply adapt to the equipments you need to best fight against the Wizard, ie switch to Maya or GTB, and Spiritual Tunic.
Closing Statement
Battlemode was made to improve you PVP experience. It allows for much quicker and efficient use of your skills, and items to enhance your reflexes and adapt to the PVP environment to ensure the best way to survive. If you want to improve, then look no further and begin with learning how to use Battlemode.
