Taken from Serenity


First of all, let's discuss what Battle Mode is and what it means to you as a player, in both supportive and offensive situations.

Battle Mode is a special feature of the Ragnarok Online gaming client that allows you to escape the restrictions of the F1-F9 keys, and instead allows you to create up to 27 hotkeys, by splitting up the three hotkey bars into three rows of keys, while using alternative keys to that of F1-F9.

For Supportive roles, Battle Mode allows classes such as Priests, Sages and Bards, the opportunity to utilize their supportive skills more efficiently and effectively. Sometimes F1-F9 just aren't enough, especially in a party scenario. Heal, Blessing, Increase Agility, Impotio Manus, Lex Aterna, Lex Divina, Recovery, Turn Undead, Magnus Exorcimus, Decrease Agility, Aspercio, Angelus, Magnificat, Gloria, Cure ... It's very obvious that Priests have a lot of skills, and having to quickly switch through three different hotkey bars is.. well, it makes the job of supporting party members extremely difficult.

For Offensive roles, Battle Mode allows classes such as Wizards, Knights, Assassins and Hunters, to opportunity to utilize their offensive skills more efficiently and effectively. Again, just like with Priests, Wizards have a very wide range of skills. Storm Gust, Lord of Vermillion, Frost Diver, Meteor Storm, Cold Bolt, Fire Bolt, Thunder Bolt, Jupitel Thunder, Quagmire, Heaven's Drive, Earth Spike ... Do you see a repeating pattern here?

So, what do you do?

First off, type /battlemode or /bm, and press ENTER.

You'll note that your text field has become locked. This is to prevent your Battle Mode hotkeys from accidentally going into the text field.

So the keys you are using are:




simply put, the first few lines of letters from Q - O are the skills, healing items, equips, and others you hotkeyed in set 2 of f12 (hotkeys); the keys A - L are for set 3 of hotkeys and the keys Z - . (>) are for set 1 of the hotkeys

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- Section Three: Practicing Battle Mode
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Probably the biggest mistake players make after attempting to convert to the usage of battle mode is jumping straight into high-level battles right away thinking, "Woo! I'm going to be leet hax now that I'm playing more like a true pro!", and because of that, many people fail right away and think, "Battle Mode stinks.. screw that.", then return to the silly F1-F9. Trust me, I know- I thought Battle Mode was horrid at first, then after ten minutes of thinking about it, I fell in love with the concept behind it, and realized it'd take my playing to a whole new level.

So, what do I suggest?

Depending on your level, and of course the dificulty of monsters that you're comfortable "practicing" against (don't feel ashamed if this means practicing on Lunatics and Porings, or Zombies, Familiars and Skeletons in Payon Dungeon), go somewhere that you can concentrate. It does take a while to learn how to use battle mode, but fighting monsters that are easier for you to begin with makes the transition extremely easy as compared to running straight after an MVP your first time using Battle Mode.

Practice Makes Perfect!

I can't stress that enough, just practice, practice and practice some more! You'll eventually get the hang of it, and it'll definitely improve your playing ability over time.

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Tips and Tricks of
Battle Mode
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There's just a few tips and tricks I have that'll definitely help you out depending on your character build, classes, and the items you want to use.

- If you're playing in a WoE or PVP scenario, it's a great idea to hotkey different gears (elemental weapons, armors, headgears, accessories, etc). This is known as "swapping", and the use of Battle Mode makes it easier than ever before to perform quick changes in your gears! To utilize this, just simply drag and drop the icon from your inventory window to the hotkey location you wish to place it, just like when hotkeying skills!

- If you're trying to type to other players, and don't wish to turn battle mode off, press ENTER once before typing your message, and the text field will become re-enabled. After you send the message, it'll go back to normal Battle Mode state. It's annoying at first, but it helps when you're in a party fighting with others, that Battle Mode snaps right back into action after sending a line of text to your fellow players.

- Don't have support skills to heal yourself, or buff yourself with? Well, don't forget, you can drag useable items from your inventory such as potions and other healing type items, as well as spell scrolls (both offensive and supportive scrolls). Having a multitude of different potion types helps you to not waste your more potent potions for the instances you just wish to heal a little, instead of a lot.

- Frustrated that you "can't turn Battle Mode off"? Using the Macro Hotkey method, if you create a Macro for turning Battle Mode on, just simply re-use that Macro Hotkey to turn it back off!