Lesson 1: Battle Mode

Part 1: Getting Started
Part 2: Casual Battle Mode
Part 3: PvP/WoE Battle Mode

Part 1: Getting Started
The command for battle mode is /bm and this is a guide on how to start using /bm, and eventually allow yourself to take your game to the next level. For starters, type /bm every time you log onto RO and use spacebar to talk. Try to think of it as starting a new sentence after every period, you need a space in there, don't ya? ;) Now that you have /bm on, lets get started!
BM works like your F1-F9 keys, except you are able to put Bar 1, 2 AND 3 onto your whole keyboard, which means you can access more skills conveniently. (How many times have you wished you hotkeyed a spell for a certain dungeon through F1-9 but you didn't and a sticky situation arises and Jesus saves the day? =P) Now, Bar 2 is your top bar of your keyboard, basically Q-O. Bar 3 is A-L and Bar 1 is Z-> (If you have NO clue wtf i'm sayin, its all gud, take a look at the screenie below)

This is all you need to start you off in BM. To get used to BM and use it effectively, it's always a good thing to turn on BM every time you log onto RO.

How BM should be used is completely up to you, however I do have suggestions for casual BM and PVP/WoE BM keys. Read on to find out!! :P

Part 2: Casual Battle Mode
BM, for casual hunting and alternative slaves are used for inexperienced BM users. Basically you key everything within the first 6 keys of each bar, and probably key consumable items that wear off after a long time or you don't wanna hit by accident (bfly wing, aspd potions, frenzy, preserve for example). This way, a player can organize their keys and use 18+ keys instead of 9, with some hard to reach. ;) Below is a few screenies with casual BM in use. (Note that i just threw some on fast and some placements of skills might be uncomfortable, thus not making sense, but its an example) =)

Bar 2, therefore the top bar. It has Falcon Assault, Blitz Beat, Shart Shooting and Detecting. Note that awakening pot is placed at the end for reasons stated above.

Bar 3, the middle bar. DS, attention concentrate, true sight, wind walk and ankle snare. Bfly wing is at the end.

Bar 1, the lower bar has arrow switching, fly wings and SP. at the end is a skill not used in battle but there for convenience, making arrows.

Yes, you can play it with a full keyed keyboard as more hotkeys are needed, this is a basic layout of how to use bm in a casual way because your hand cannot constantly reach for a key on the other side of the keyboard and be able to precisely use a skill you may want to use if your hand needed to go back, which is the only flaw of having "casual bm keys", and also the flaw that will fuck you over in PvP/WoE. Now we shall move on to the real "juice" of the guide. ;)

Part 3: PvP/WoE Battle Mode
I just "named" this PvP/WoE Battle Mode, but in reality, this is just the BM for your character where every key makes you feel comfortable, and you're "set" with these keys for life. Seldom would you ever need to change keys, and you'd probably only change 1 or 2 for the items you're carrying for a different situations. What's the difference between this BM and casual BM? This BM is for maximizing your character's efficiency, and I can only show how it's done on my High Priest for now, because sadly, he's the only character that's any close to a "BM completion". Once you've played with BM for a while, you'll end up spending half an hour to make a new BM layout like this. Each character's BM may be played different, but it will all fall into the same sort of "format". So without anymore loaft, the secret to my Priest's success shall be revealed!

First up... Keyboard Layout.
Red - Active Battle Skills
Blue - Emergency Skills
Green - Active Supporting Skills
*NOTE* - each different class would name their 3 different areas differently because of different uses.

You got no fuckin clue what I'm talkin about right? No problem. Here are my Priest's skills.
Now we shall fit the skills into the Red/Blue/Green and get it sorted, and I'll explain why things are put the way they are to make this my "close to perfect" BM.


As you can see, the last column of Red is the first column of Blue, and the last column of Blue is the first column of Green. Can you see where this is getting at? With your pinky on Q, reaching Y would still be within reasonable comfort range. I would like for you to take another look at the skills.


So, let's think back on "casual BM play". Lets look at bar 2, which starts at Q. Any of our hands can easily reach keys 1-6. In that case, it means our hands can start from the beginning of Red and be able to reach key 1 of the Green area. Since Red is my active battle keys, my hand should be there most of the time. When buffs run out, my index finger will hit Y, and move down 1 key at a time to U, I for the bless, agi and assump. I might add in O which is impositio manus to boost damage. In the Red area, you can see a glove, hide, ruwach, safety wall, 2 armours (actually i'm wearing a silk robe as well and SAME ARMOURS WILL FIT IN THE SAME HOTKEY, THUS NIMBLE/HIDING GLOVE SWITCH), cure, res, lex divina, lex aeterna, recovery, and turn undead (which, in PvP, is a skill I would not have and switch to holy light instead. Against ED armour users, I can still own them with a res). Now we move on to the Blue area which are the "emergency keys". In the middle of the blue area you see pneuma, heal, and decrease agi. These 3 skills are often used and can save lives, and that's why they're in the very middle of 9 keys to separate them. Its in the range of my index finger to use them all the time, and when the case of me needing to use them as I'm buffing, my pinky finger can STILL hit all 3 in the middle, which makes those keys (T, G, and B) extremely useful. You may ask why I've included the blue area in the red and green areas. The answer is also the same, which is to hit safety wall, res, and holy light with my pinky if my hand is over on the other side. Finally, we have our "Active Buff/Support" Green area keys. Same thing applies here about the first keys reaching the Blue area because Bless removes curses of all kinds, and is able to be hit with the index finger while your hand is still in Red area. Aspersio is for people hitting the emp, or people trying to hit me if i'm wearing angeling armour and pvm purposes. Kyrie 1 is for removing assumptio. The rest of the Green keys are there for general uses. Teleport and warp portal is at the end of bar 1 because that way, I can hit enter after hitting tele right away when the box pops up.

To sum everything here up, use T, G, and B as your separators to divide your keyboard into 3 parts. This is just an explanation of how to play a Priest in BM, while if you were playing other classes you can, and will, find the Red, Blue, Green areas to divide up your keyboard really handy. I hope I helped the people that has problems with BM, and I hope the people that already use BM learned something new.

Jesus out.