Attacking on the Run: Strafing
Strafing for us gaming folk is basically moving sideways. In the case of WoW, it’s moving sideways at a full run speed. In the standard Blizzard setup, it’s your Q (strafe left) and your E (strafe right) keys and if you’ve never touched these (or heaven forbid, unmapped them) then it’s time to start.
Strafing 101: Side-to-Side
One of the best examples in the game currently of where sideways movement is useful is the Sartharion fight. If you’re tanking Sartharion himself or tanking a Drake either way, you really shouldn’t be turning then moving forward then turning back to hitting your target when you need to dodge a flame wall. It’s simply faster to hit that strafe key to get into the gap in the flame wall not to mention it keeps the mob in front of you. (although don’t get me wrong, I know those drakes can fly around all ridiculous at times) It’s also very useful for avoiding sparks when tanking Malygos in phase 1 or when moving Heigen from zone to zone.
Strafing 102: Backing up
Now, a lot of tanks know the sideways trick, but less used is the practice of using Strafe to back up. It’s done by turning yourself sideways while tanking a mob and using strafe to run away from the mob. It’s useful because it’s faster than backing up and unlike turning around and running, it allows you to still attack the mob. This makes it ideal for moving mobs around while keeping your threat up. So whether you’re just positioning Gluth at the start of the fight or dealing with constantly moving the ever annoying, Grobbulus, you should give it a shot.
A word of caution: Always consider the boss’ damage potential. If healers aren’t used to you strafing to back up mobs, you can very quickly out range their heals and end up going Splat.
Caution isn’t Cause to Quit
When you’re initially learning to Strafe backwards, it can be overwhelming and your threat can suffer. That doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly useful and far superior to the alternative techniques in a given situation once you master it. So, don’t let the word of caution deter you, you aren’t being “safer” by backing up instead of strafing backwards… you’re just being slower. (some situations you’ll be better off moving slow and some you’ll be better off moving fast)
I’ll fully admit that this is a very awkward technique. It requires you to have a good handle on your camera movement and more to the point, it requires you to have a strong awareness of your surroundings. Once you get used to it though, you’ll find that you won’t just be strafing backwards at times when you use to back up at a snail’s pace, but you’ll also find that you’ll just be strafing more in general.
Give it a try!
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:40 am
Mapping Strafe Left/Right to ‘A’ and ‘D’ helps a ton, turning with keys is way too slow, small thing I learned pvping.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 am
I’ve bound my strafe left and right to the side buttons of my mouse. I’ve found it to be absolutely essential on the Malygos fight.
With one hand I’m slamming a max threat generation and with the other I manage to move malygos fast and comfortably so the spark always flies over the raid. I couldn’t have done this without strafing. Backpedalling in this situation is just a bit too slow.
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marklar reply on March 23, 2009 12:30 pm:
i agree. learning to strafe on this fight turns phase 1 into easy mode.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
I come from an FPS background so I am pretty used to strafing in general. In fact, I switched my A and D keys to strafe left and right instead of turning. I just use my mouse to turn, so why would I need to keyboard turn? It frees up 2 more keys to use on more useful things.
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Veneretio reply on March 23, 2009 9:50 am:
Ya, personally I still use Q and E, but I’ve also got A and D mapped to other abilities and let my mouse do the turning as well.
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Cleaved reply on March 24, 2009 10:05 am:
I think making A and D as strafe, would make it harder to reach what you had mapped to Q and E as well as 1, 2, 3, 4 (if you use those binds). So if you use Q and E to strafe, 1, 2, 3, 4 as binds for abilities and keep A and D for abilities, its a stretch up, and a stretch down. Would also lead to less mis-keying if you tend to “fat-finger” buttons, Since you won’t hit Q or E in reaching for 1 and 3, or vice versa. Everyone’s keyboard is the same… but also a tad bit different. My keyboard has HUGE spacing between keys, when compared to my g/f’s keyboard. So I mis-key more on hers as a result. Setup what works best for your individual setup and habits.
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Cleaved reply on March 24, 2009 10:06 am:
Edit:
I suppose it only matters WHILE strafing. Whereas Q and E would make sense for the other 90% of fights.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
For better or worse, when tanking aoe pulls–which is anything 3+ thank you very much WotLK–I strafe/turn, keeping myself facing the center of what I consider to be the “fish ball” (you know, like on the Discovery Channel). Doin this helps me keep an eye out for pats and loose mobs and seems to help tab target find me a fresh devastate rather than pinging back and forth between the same two mobs. Plus its more fun than standing still.
Balrok, Orc Warrior
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March 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
I will definitely try this when tanking Grobbulus and Gluth next time. Though I might have to kite a devilsaur to Orgrimmar first as test.
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Steele reply on March 23, 2009 10:02 am:
yup that was the first thing to do when i started playing wow.. A & D strafing so it feels like the game i played before wow. this is a natural thing to me, thats also the way i run around in the wow-world, always strafing left-forward for 2 seconds, then right-forward for two seconds to see whats going on without unlocking the camera from behind the char. this is pretty necessary when you can be found in battlegrounds from time to time.
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Steele reply on March 23, 2009 10:03 am:
err got carried away.. i wanted to say that you shouldnt strafe grobbulus or you will be too fast.. moving backwards in slow-mode (on my keyboard hitting slash) is already too fast if you dont stop once in a while.
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Veneretio reply on March 23, 2009 10:17 am:
I’m not a fan of the constant move strat so I usually tanking him in place… move him quick to the next spot… tank him in place… move him quick to the next spot.
Bokur reply on March 25, 2009 3:19 am:
I’m with Vene on this one, constant move is probably fine, if you’re heavy on ranged dps, but my melee group would lynch me if I didn’t stop every so often.
Chet reply on March 25, 2009 8:04 am:
yeah, it really depends on the group. Personally I think as a tank it’s easier to just hit ‘/’ and walk backwards almost constantly and all but forget about it, but for melee groups, you’ll get much better DPS if you run and stop, and in that vase, the faster the better.
Steele reply on March 26, 2009 1:27 am:
yeah we had a rogue announce it in the beginning and i would stop too untill he shouts, but things got a little easy and yes we are heavy on ranged (finally! took me a while to make all those melees feel bad about themselves (we used to have 2 rogues in our 10-man guild group)).
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 am
I pretty well strafe everywhere I go unless I’m doing a lot of overland travel, and even then I always strafe to move around obstacles rather than turning. I also frequently rotate my camera while I’m running to keep an eye on my surroundings (PvP server, better safe than sorry).
Another thing worth noting, since you didn’t spell it out, is that strafing also allows you to continue to block just like when you’re backing up. You pointed out being able to attack which is a very nice feature as well, but being able to block can also have an impact on whether or not your name is entered into the Splat book.
That’s coming from a Paladin’s perspective rather than a warrior (since I’ve never played one), but I’m sure it’s just as important for them as it is for us.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I like the above folks use A and D for strafe for all my characters. I have no need to turn with anything but the mouse.
Q and E are perfect for taunt and Shieldslam macro. Or on my mage Blink/Frostnova. Or on my priest, Scream and Fade.
I thought I would try click to move some on my warrior. I couldnt get used to it. I think only one MMO I clicked to move and that was Shadowbane a few years ago.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I unbound my strafe keys (heaven forbid). BUT if you hold rightclick on the mouse and run your normal turn keys…this also strafes
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Chet reply on March 24, 2009 11:08 am:
This is a good point, however I rarely see the point in even having keyboard turn keys mapped. The only time I really use them is if I’m setting up a guild bosskill photo and I accidentally turn myself around, then I can keyboard turn without changing my camera angle.
But if you can find a use for keyboard turning for anything, this is another good way to give you more free keybinds
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March 24th, 2009 at 2:15 am
I don’t have strafe keys bound, but I strafe by holding the right mouse button and using the turn keys. This means I still have the ability to turn with one hand if it is ever needed.
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March 24th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Coming from an FPS background I should have known better than to leave A&D as turning keys, but I did, and eventually they became a crutch when mousework for multi-mob tanking got too busy. I managed to correct this after taking an extended break from the game - A&D have been restored to strafe duty.
The indirect advantage of setting A&D to strafe and freeing up Q&E for other abilities is clustering more key abilities closer in and reducing the distance you need to reach across the keyboard - 9 out of 10 RSI sufferers endorse this technique
(I made that last bit up but you get the drift).
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March 24th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Backup strafing has been quite useful to me, especially in the very begining of the Anub’Rekahn encounter. Allows me to continue blocking and attacking as I move into position to start running away from the insect swarm, and the same time kiting him away from the center.
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March 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Backup strafing is also very useful in Four Horsemen when you’re switching Thane and Rivendare; I don’t like turning my back to either and strafing it means I can move fast (marks, meteor) while retaining full avoidance.
Strafing is pretty much mandatory in EoE, but it’s not the place to learn it.
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Chet reply on March 24, 2009 11:10 am:
I’ll have to try this next time I do the Four Horsemen. I’ll admit I’ve just been turning my back and letting the healers pick up my slack. It’s lazy, and I need to quit it, so this will be a good place to practice before I get into EoE (just had our guild’s first Naxx10 clear last week. We’re not a serious raiding guild obviously)
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Uthamog reply on March 25, 2009 9:20 am:
Will try it too.
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March 24th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Question about keybinds… if you bind Strafe to Q and E, or A and D… and you position the Camera with the Right Mouse Button while strafing… if you have things bound to Q and E (if A and D is Strafe) or A and D (if Q and E is Strafe), it would be hard to hit one or the other depending on the direction you go, eh?
If you strafe Left with A and have an ability bound to Q… its very hard to hit A and Q at the same time, no? I suppose if A and D are strafe, hitting Q means bending your Middle Finger slightly sideways to hit Q while Strafing using your Pinky on A.
Just curious how many people setup their binds with this strafing setup. I’ve always just used Q and E and hit my usual binds, but as I like to learn new things… was curious how everyone with Q and E or A and D bound to Strafe… setup their other binds around those buttons.
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Chet reply on March 24, 2009 1:12 pm:
not speaking form experience as I haven’t unbound my turn keys yet, it seems like if you left your strafe keys on Q and E, then hitting A and D would be as easy as straightening your 2nd knuckle (and hitting the key about at your 1st knuckle. The problem would be keeping up your 1234 type rotation while strafing. If you have most of your keybinds already though, without A and D, this can be a problem and a solution, if you simply macro A and/or D to something like SS/Rev/Dev/Dev and make the other one maybe SS for S&B procs or something. It isn’t ideal, but it might be a nice way to at least keep some kind of rotation going without having to mouseclick while strafing, since the number keys are a bit harder to reach (though they are reachable, so this might just be wasted space, given practice)
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Cleaved reply on March 24, 2009 1:43 pm:
I think I’m going to stick with my current setup for the time being. I see this as being a minor improvement over my current setup, and not worth re-learning some key reaching. I do see your point though, and it may be useful in the future, perhaps I’ll mess around with it in pugs
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March 26th, 2009 at 4:02 am
I like having the default turn and strafe binds. Usually when I’m moving anywhere, I’m using right-mouse-button camera aiming anyways, and it doesn’t matter which I use. However, it’s often handy for rotating a boss in place, by holding turn one way and strafe the other. I find that when I do this with the right mouse button method, they are much more likely to shift out of position for some reason.
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Chet reply on March 26, 2009 11:36 am:
interesting. One of my biggest annoyances right now is having to reposition about 5 times to get the mob where I want it in relation to the group, thanks to blizz thinking they can read my mind and have the mob react faster lol. I’ll move to turn him, and he’ll just move right with me. If this helps, I might have to test this.
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March 27th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
A little technique I use quite a bit is jumping while strafing. If you’re quick, you can take your fingers off your movement buttons to hit other things while in the air. This is how I reply to poorly timed whispers in raids >.
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March 27th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
thx best thread ever
just a new side of movement that I implement in what ever I do
3drakes atm - just so much faster to avoid firewall
and positioning the 3 drakes
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March 27th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
The strafing backing up is so useful against heigan in doing the dance IMHO. However, I always have trouble having heigan stick to me. I have to “overshoot a bit” then reposition near the center of the lava bursts during the dance.
When we do Gluth, I tell my healers to trail right behind me since I backwards strafe all the way to the door.
As for grobb, I usually wait till I see that green flash to move back (the sign that he took a poison dump). I usually move back far enough that the poison dump grobb takes doesn’t affect dps or healers laying down their injections. Is there a better way to do that? I’ve seen tanks just speed through in their lap of grobbs room and some tanks just take their merry time as a healer.
Great informative post vene. Thx!
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March 28th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I really can’t believe this required a post. Strafing has been absolutely essiential to me since I first started playing WoW, and don’t know how I could do without it.
For anyone not using it, you have to give it a try. Like Vene said, I could imagine it’s akward if this is the first time you’ve tried using it, but once mastered, it will really up your tanking game.
Guess all those years of playing Counter-Strike payed off in WoW.
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March 31st, 2009 at 12:56 am
My advice, learn both, keyboard strafing and mouse strafing. During the Thaddius fight i find keyboard strafing isnt the best option in circling the mob while keeping him stationary.
Personally i find mouse strafing more my style in wow, eventhough i spend years playing unreal.
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