This week, let’s look at our Keyboard Functions. We’re going to be looking at some of the different keyboard functions. We’ll cover the basic bindings, how to use macros, and some sweet tips at the end to help you optimize your play.
IMPORTANCE OF HOTKEYS
Before we start, let’s talk about why hotkeys are so important. There are two main reasons here; let’s begin with Speed. Using hotkeys will make you a better player because it’ll make you a faster player. You’ll be able to use your combos more and outplay your opponent more often. This allows you to improve your gameplay as a whole.
The second reason is Efficiency. League of Legends is a game all about optimizing your play. This means that gaining small advantages and being efficient in what you do is a great help. You will be able to improve your gameplay not only by being able to case your combo faster. You will be able to learn more about the map, and you can use hotkeys to gain every slight advantage you can.
THE BASICS
Let’s cover the basics before we get into the good stuff. The following are your standard hotkeys, with a quick explanation of what they do.
- ‘Q’, ‘W’, ‘E’, and ‘R’ are your bread and butter. These are your champion’s abilities. You can also hold the ‘Ctrl’ key and hit one of these to level it up during combat.
- You use ‘D’ and ‘F’ for your Summoner Spells.
- You use ‘1’–’7' for your item actives and trinkets.
- You use ‘B’ to start your Recall.
- Holding the ‘Tab’ key allows you to open your scoreboard.
Next, the following are less common hotkeys, and they are:
- ‘P’, which will open your store.
- Holding the ‘C’ key will open your champion info, where you can check your specific stats. Pressing the ‘C’ key will take you to your runes; press it again to cycle it back to your champion info.
- The ‘Esc’ key will take you to the settings menu where you can customize all your keybindings.
- ‘Z’ will expand your chat box to read more during the game.
- ‘S’ will make you stop precisely where you are and stop attacking.
- ‘H’ will make you hold your position and attack the nearest target.
- ‘A’ will make you attack the nearest target to your cursor or the one nearest to your champion. This will depend on your current settings, which you can toggle in the settings menu.
- ‘Y’ toggles the locked camera on or off.
- ‘Spacebar’ will center the camera back on your champion.
Finally, the following are hotkeys for your pings:
- You use ‘G’ or Alt+Click to make an alert ping.
- You use ‘V’ or Ctrl+Click for the caution ping.
- Hitting ‘G,’ then clicking and dragging your mouse, will open the smart ping menu. I can be more specific, but I’ll discuss those in another article.
MACROS
A lot of keyboards and mice nowadays have macro keys. Some keyboards/mice have too many macros, and you might need help figuring out what to do with them. With that in mind, it’s only fair that I mentioned some valuable things you can use them for.
- Champion Select
You can set your macros to type a message to your team with a hit of a button. This can give your team a friendly message or suggest bans.
- Timers
You can also use your macros to record timers in-game. You can time stuff like Summoner Spells and Wards. It would be best to have your timestamps turned on and your macro set to send a message. Then, you can use your macro key when the situation calls for it. You can then check your timestamp when they used it and calculate it from there.
- Self-Casting and Smart-Casting
By holding ‘Shift’ or ‘Alt’ and using an ability, you will either smart-cast or self-cast the ability. This can be very useful for clutch situations where you don’t have enough time to click. If you have a free macro key, you can set it to auto-self-cast an ability. For example, if you’re playing Morgana, you can activate your Black Shield yourself with one hit of a button.
[ ! ] WARNING WHEN USING MACROS
It would be best if you were very careful when using macros. They will deem it an unfair advantage in-game if you use them too much, and that’s a punishable offense for Riot. Using third-party scripts or using macros for full combos is NOT recommended. Doing so could get you banned, so I insist on being careful.
TIPS AND TRICKS
The Function Keys, or ‘F-keys’, are an excellent way to increase your map awareness. Pressing them will take you to a specific friendly champion’s camera to see what they’re doing. This can be great practice to see how the different lanes are doing if you’re a jungler or have idle time as a laner.
You can change your keybindings to put your champion’s laugh, joke, or taunt on an unused key that you can spam. It can be entertaining for you, but at the same time, it could get your enemies tilted. Use it at your discretion.
The tilde (`) key is rarely used but is super handy. This key is above your ‘Tab’ key, displaying a squiggly line. Whenever you press and hold this key, you can only target champions. This is a great way to auto-attack enemies or target enemies surrounded by minions. You can even use this when they’re hiding behind turrets, behind Dragon, or Baron Nashor.
That’s all for now! I hope you learned something from this article. Good luck on the Rift!
