This is a guest post by Hafengrim.

I started using keybindings from Day 1, Level 1. My first character was a Priest and he started with Lesser Heal and Smite. I quickly realized that I could right-click on a mob to attack, so I removed the Attack button from my bar and rearranged my spells so that my Lesser Heal was on "1" and my Smite was on "2". As I learned new spells and spell ranks, I would try and organize them so that when I switched action bar pages, they would be in similar positions and I could hit the same number for my HoTs, fast heals, nuke heals, DoTs, etc.

As I leveled, gaining more spells than my default UI could handle, I had a tumultuous string of love affairs with different action bar addons. Expansions came and went, leaving various addons broken and my UI in shambles, and I realized that I was only using the addons to bind my spells and abilities to specific keys. That’s when I discovered Spellbinder.

Spellbinder

Download Spellbinder

It’s an ugly Ace2 addon (according to the author), but it’s simplicity is beautiful. It has an understandable dropdown-box interface, can bind items and macros, and pops up a confirmation dialog if you are about to overwrite an already existing keybinding. Which is useful in case you accidentally bind the Esc key to your mount and lose access to the main game menu. It used to be perfect, but unfortunately it has not kept up with the new dual-spec feature introduced by Blizzard. The lack of configurable profiles means that if you switch between one set of talents and gear to another, your bindings won’t apply.

Pros:

• simple dropdown based interface
• confirmation dialog prevents accidental overwriting of keybindscan bind items and macros

Cons:

• no profiles
• no dual-spec support

Assessment:

Perfect for anyone who is leveling or doesn’t bother with multiple talent specs.

mBindings

Download mBindings

I briefly experimented with mbindings. It’s got robust profile support and you can bind more than just items, spells, and macros. However, there are too many frustrating usability problems to make it a perfect solution. The complete lack of instructions combined with the poor error-checking and user-proofing mean even the most hearty of UI geeks will quickly get frustrated with the addon.

Pros:

• very easy to bind anything to any key
• robust profile system

Cons:

• very easy to accidentally overwrite important bindings
• only first two keybindings are displayed in the addon–additional bindings can be set but won’t be displayed
• no error checking or user-proofing
• complete lack of instructions, directions, help, explanationsmenu unintuitive

Assessment:

Even if you had the patience to take great advantage of what the addon offers, you’re better off using another option that can do the same thing with less hassle.

qUserKey

Download qUserKey

The author has put a lot of effort into qUserKey and it shows. In addition to a robust feature set, the author has provided the code necessary for other addon authors to extend qUserKey by adding their own custom bindings and buttons. Also, unique to qUserKey is the ability auto-detect all your spells, mounts, critters, and consumables. There’s no need to type them in, select them from a menu, or drag/drop them in place. Just click on the appropriate spell or ability and hit the key and you’re done. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to mistakenly bind keys or overwrite previous bindings. There aren’t any profile options, so switching between specs can be problematic.

Pros:

• intuitive interface
• auto-detects anything that can be keybound
• easy to bind spells, abilities, macros
• also adds the ability to bind mounts, critters, and consumables in your inventory–will scan your character and inventory to add add’l options to the keybinding screen
• (caution: it uses macros in order to bind mounts and critters, so it will quickly consume macro slots if you get too bind-happy)
• addon author has provided code for other addon authors to add their own custom binding buttons specific to their addons

Cons:

• easy to mistakenly bind keys or overwrite previous bindings, there’s no "Set Bind" confirmation
• "reset all data" only empties the interface screen of scanned spells, abilities, etc… it doesn’t reset keybindings
• no profile options

Assessment:

A very good option with lots of potential. It just needs some more time to reach that potential.

Bindpad

Download Bindpad

BindPad is what I currently use. It is the first addon I install after a reset and the first addon I configure. I heart it. It’s got all of the benefits, plus more, of any alternative option and none of the drawbacks. In fact, the only drawback is the limited number of bindings available: 126 per character, plus an additional 42 that are shared across all characters on a particular server. Binding abilities is straightforward–drag and drop from the spellbook, inventory, or macro page, click the dropped icon and hit the key you would like to bind. The confirmation dialog prevents accidentally overwriting important binds. One feature that sets it far apart from other keybinding addons is the ability to have 3 separate profiles per character (actually increasing the number of potential bindings from 126 to 378, so perhaps it’s not such a drawback after all). With the recent addition of the default Equipment Manager, switching from one spec to another takes less time than summoning a mount.

Pros:

• spell icon based interface
• can create and bind macros within bindpad (allowing for more macros than normal)
• can share binds and macros between characters
• can have up to three separate binding profiles per character
• confirmation dialog prevents accidental overwriting of keybinds
• easy to bind anything–drag/drop functionality

Cons:

• I’d really have to stretch to come up with something that’s actually negative.

Assessment:

Until something else comes along that can improve upon it, there’s no reason not to use BindPad for your keybinding addon.