How do YOU organize YOUR hotbar?

[Barrio505]

No this is not about how to configure your hot bar, instead I just want some insight on how you as a player of this awesome game choose to layout your stuff on the hotbar.

I myself am a battlemage in one game and at the moment fill hot bar 1 with skills/spells and hot bar 2 with potions and scrolls.

So far I have found that it is nice to fill hot bar 1 with close range skills to the left of the hot bar and distance based one seperated by one blank slot (easier on the eyes) then buffs and at the end a bedroll.

Hot bar 2 is organized by health and armors potions on the left, resistances and miscellaneous in the middle and scrolls on the right (all with a blank slot dividing them)

Now I am not too far in the game yet and don't know if I will ever end up using all 5 hot bars but may anyhow.

I had thought about separating by "school" but found it slightly annoys me. Just curious what you all have tried and maybe I can use your suggestions or at least take a bit from each persons experience. Thanks to all!

[Gin-chan]

Use the small bags u get/find and fill them separately with potions/scrolls/arrows then place the bags on the hot bar slots. Now the items only use 3 slots max if your guy is a marksman instead of needing whole hit bars XD

[Gin-chan]

As for skills since I rarely go for more than 2 schools for each character the most I've used is 2 full hot bars for the skill slots. And yeah I usually organise them according to school with the latest learned skills on the left.

[Gregorovitch]

I arrange all my main skills and abilities on hotbar 5 and my main consumables and scrolls etc on hotbar 4. This leaves hot bar 1 and 2 to get filled up with incidental stuff I happen to pick up and a reminder to insert any new main skills/spells I get to hotbar 5.

[Barrio505]

Originally posted by Eleventh Doctor:

I had not thought about using bags on the hot bar, thank you very much for that insight!

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

That is a good way to do it instead of just turning off the auto hot bar on pick up, thanks!

[w.f.schepel]

Everything you carry around can be easily accessed through the inventory, you don't need it in the hotbar. At least, I don't.

Otherwise, I tend to organize my hotbar in the following manner.

Perks and skills I regularly use outside combat to the left: bedroll, spirit vision, source vampirism, relocation spells, etc.

Then most useful/most used combat spells. Chicken spell, clear mind, shackles of pain, summons, etc. (Depends on the character, really.)

Most games I keep switching things around because I generally have more spells and abilities than my characters can memorize. I always tend to opt for suboptimal hybrid builds that rely on summons and tricks. The game is just more fun that way for me, and no reason not to, it works perfectly fine on tactician. However, as things progress, I keep switching arounds spells and abilities, so my hotbars get rearranged all the time.

[Qiox]

From Left to Right:

Melee Range Skills (Single Target then Multi Target)
Long Range Skills (Multi Target then Single Target)
Movement Skills (On Enemies, then on Friendly/Self)
Debuff Skills
Buff Skills
Items
Last, Rightmost slot is always Bedroll.

[Kodaxmax]

first bar is: dmg>surfaces>movement>healing>combat items

2nd bar: is for things like bedrolls or teleporter pyrimids and crafting stuff or precombat buffs

[Sacrilige!]

i usually organize it based on spell tree (pyro grouped together, geo grouped etc) with unique skills and items either placed on the 2nd hot bar or all the way at the end) i then usualy subdivided the groups based on if they are a buff/debuff or damage.

[CantStopTheComf]

1st bar: DMG spells grouped by elements on the left, spells from items and stuff like ghost vision etc. on the right
2ns bar: Support spells grouped by elements on the left

[Viola]

Much like my life.. only I can understand the pattern.. and even that is fifty fifty sometimes..much like when trying to find something in my room, my friends are like.. "Hurry up and find your skill!" lol

[Unrapper]

press k and then you can drag and drop things where you want

[Barrio505]

Thank you everyone for sharing your styles and tips, I have learned much from all of you!
I personally have found that my decisions on arrangment vary naturally as the game progresses.

I know there are more ideas and tips out there so feel free to continue sharing, it is very helpful to myself and others that greatly enjoy this game.

Thanks!

[ProfessorBAG]

I use most of the hotbars and sort them by skill type because i usually spec into enough classes to fill all of them or 3 of them at least half way.

The 5th bar is bedroll, pyramid,delay turn, flee and source skills

Sometimes hotbar 4 is empty if i dont have enough skills to fill it.

And sometimes i'll fill two skill types in one hotbar witha gap in the middle seperating them if i can.

[Dixon Sider]

i seperate mine by skills. all fire skills including racial and gear bonus skills, then all aero, so on and so fourth

[Emerald Unicorn]

Originally posted by w.f.schepel:

Everything you carry around can be easily accessed through the inventory, you don't need it in the hotbar. At least, I don't.

I do lol. I tend to forget to use items if they aren't visible on my hotbar. I have retried and re-loaded fights before remembering "Hey, I have a few grenades or scrolls or arrows I could use!" lol

As for my ability layout, OP... I don't really have a set way. Each character/playthrough is different. I have years of history with MMOs and I have a gaming mouse with the "1" - "=" buttons on the side of it. But basically I find myself attempting to hit certain buttons for abilities (even if it isn't assigned to that spot) out of some kind of instinct. So I play around that. I just move abilities to where they feel natural for my thumb to press when I think of that ability. The lesser used abilities then get filled in around those, and as I start using them in their locations my thumb starts to see their position as natural, as well lol.

This has definitely come back to bite me in the ass, though, later in the game when I get two main abilities on a hotbar and think I am activating one but accidentally activating another... I actually got my team wiped by attempting to activate Encourage but did some AoE poison move that got too close to some fire and exploded. Took me a moment to realize the mistake I had made as I watched two allies die in the flames. :3