Some players in Beta reported delays when trying to Take Cover. I figured out a simple solution during my level 12 Gunslinger stream and shared it on the Smuggler forum on November 30. Given that forum threads from Beta are now gone, I wanted to make sure to document the solution here.
As you know, you can activate Take Cover and Take Cover in Place by:
- Putting the abilities on your Quickslot bar, or
- Using the keybinds in Preferences -> Keybinding -> Target
When triggering Cover via a Quickslot bar, there is sometimes a delay not related to the GCD before Cover activates. This unresponsiveness is crippling in PVP.
When this was happening for me at levels 10-12, I (incorrectly) assumed it was due to lag from my streaming. By level 12 I was getting frustrated with the lack of reliability for entering Cover, so I removed Cover from my Quickslot bar, set the keybinds, and *boom* Cover activated immediately in PVP.
This makes a monstrous difference. Even a slight delay in activating Cover can put you at a significant disadvantage, especially when an opposing melee is trying to charge/pull/interrupt you.
Many (most) Beta players are not aware of this simple solution, so please spread the word.
EDIT (2012/03/19): the issue with activating Cover from Quickslot bars seems to have been fixed, you don’t have the rely on the Keybinds.
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Yep, “F” is set automatically when you first start playing your character.
There are two keybind, Take Cover and Take Cover in Place.
Yes they are keybound by default, but you should re-bind to whatever keys make sense to you.
Remember what I wrote in my Guide to Strafing / Keybinding – don’t let the game tell you how to keybind :)
I found this issue frustrating in group pve. I assumed it was lag as well. I will definitely try out this solution!
Yeah, I noticed that during beta too. The quickslot cover ( set on “2” ) was laggy compared to the “F” one ( actual keybind by default, or “Mouse 3” ).
I always made sure it was bound to button 4 on my Logitech MX518 mouse. It made the cover system so fast that my brother actually said he hated me for making the IA look like fun over the BH.
The key f is already bound to cover. I used it and got same result as you. I removed the “first” one that you get….
Yeah this was the one reason I wasn’t liking the Smuggler/IA. I will try it out. Thanks for this Ed.
Taugrim the man with many tricks! :P
~ dryiggles
How about I thank you now? Thanks!
Great tip! thanks for posting.
Thanks Taugrim,
I originally started with an Imp Agent but was getting upset at this mechanic seemingly not working properly so I switched to the BH Merc. Thanks again for the pro tip.
Cannibaal_eredar
Cannibaal BH Merc Bodyguard
game saving difference right there. During beta i noticed the delay in pvp and was annoyed to say the least, thanks for the tip,
Cover should be bound on you mouse.
The 2 Cover keybinds should be bound to whatever is comfortable for the player.
While I knew about the issue and about binding fixing it myself, its awesome that you’re providing such detailed help Taugrim! Keep the awesome level going, thanks!
Okay, typing a second time, thanks comment system for killing my first post :)
Interesting info, Taugrim. Since i originally planned to play an Operative come launch (switched to Mercenary for better damage/heal hybrid possibilities), and i did not want to spoil the excellent story too much, i only played an Imperial Agent to 11 in the two beta weekends that i played. “F” is on my usual quickslot layout, and i did not want to switch it up, so i just unbound the two cover abilities and placed them on the quickslots.
Now, i felt the cover was rather clunky and unresponsive (in PVE, that is, i only did one Huttball match with the IA, now Sniper), so i wonder if that impression could have been avoided by binding them directly. I will find out eventually when i play an IA as an alt, i guess, if they didnt fix the problem until then.
Let me know if you notice any difference.
Awsome advice, thanks!
I wonder, should there really be a difference between the keybind and the quickslot… Is it just a bug that might get fixed?
There shouldn’t be a difference, and it’s probably a bug.
I had planned to roll smuggler from the start but was frustrated with the cover system which was so unresponsive so I was looking for anyway to play a smuggler without using cover. In the long run I knew that it would hamper me so thanks Taugrim for the help, I think I would have never noticed on my own, now I can play the class I was looking forward to.
Great advice, love the blog and the guides, keep up the good work.
I was thinking of binding them thumb button/pad on the Nostromo.
[…] (2011/12/13): make sure to read my article about activating Cover without a delay, if you’re seeing delays between the time you try to activate Cover and when it actually […]
Maybe this is a dumb question, but does moving around to the back of those in cover negate the damage mitigation?
I noticed this fairly immediately – basically when I went from “how in the world do they have keybinds set up” to “Liang’s Custom Keybind Solution”. I should have mentioned it on vent. :(
-Liang
[…] […]
Offtopic here but the Sniper is accually better the gunslinger, beacuse of the exposive probe combo difference & flash grenade.
However, I deleted the take cover ability on the bar and is using “F” for cover which is set as standard, however is that all that its takes or must I rebind it on a other key to make it work?
The difference in the cooldown for the AOE mez between the mirror classes was fixed in 1.1 or 1.1.1.
Taugrim, I was reading up on your keybinding guide and trying to feel my way around to make something better for my Gunslinger.. I was curious, what button(s) did you personally find comfortable for taking cover and/or taking cover in place? Did you change both of their bindings or just one of them? Thanks! :)
I bound Take Cover in Place to “E” since that is often used by me for the main high-use defensive ability.
Take Cover (the roll into Cover version) IIRC I mapped to “F”.
Taugrim I noticed on your latest gunslinger stream. you have remapped cover to your quickslot bar to z or that is what it appears like in the stream.IF that is the case then what is your main high-use defensive ability that you have mapped to E. Have the devs finally fixed this mechanic?
Yes, it seems like it’s been fixed.