Hilkarus Action Bars

HilkarusActionBars

A one-handed gamepad-style action bar for World of Warcraft, designed for AZERTY keyboards and inspired by the layout of one-handed mechanical pads like the Redragon K585.

What it does

HilkarusActionBars replaces the bottom action bar with a compact 21-key pad that mirrors the physical layout of a left-hand gaming keyboard. Keys are arranged in staggered rows matching their real positions on the keyboard, so what you see on screen is exactly where your fingers rest.

² 1 2 3 4 5
   A Z E R T
    Q S D F G
     W X C V B

The Z/Q/S/D keys are rendered as directional chevrons with a small AZERTY label, and they intentionally do not override your movement bindings — you can still move freely while the pad shows you what your fingers are doing.

Core features

Modifier-aware spell slots. Every key holds three independent spell assignments: one for plain press, one for Shift+key, one for Alt+key. Labels and icons update live as you hold the modifier, so you always know what's about to fire. The Blizzard CVar ActionButtonUseKeyDown is enabled at runtime so the pressed-key visual state is fully native and reliable.

Context profiles. The pad automatically swaps its entire spell layout when your gameplay context changes. Druids get separate profiles for Bear, Cat, Travel, Moonkin, Tree, and Flight forms. A dedicated Skyriding profile activates when mounted on a dynamic-flight mount in a skyriding-capable zone. Each profile is fully independent — empty slots stay empty rather than falling back to your humanoid bar, so a Bear keypad shows only Bear abilities.

Drag-and-drop everything. Spells, items, and macros (named macros only — anonymous macros are rejected with a clear warning) can be assigned by dragging them straight from the spellbook, bag, or macro book onto the pad. Assignments are sticky-written to the currently active context profile, so dropping in Bear form populates your Bear profile, not your default one.

Native Blizzard ActionBar visuals. Cooldown sweeps, range/usability tints, proc glow flipbook animations, push state, highlight on hover — all rendered through the standard Blizzard atlas (UI-HUD-ActionBar-IconFrame-*) so the pad feels like a first-class part of the UI, not a third-party widget.

Macro intelligence. Macros support #showtooltip, dynamic icons that follow conditional [harm]/[help] casts, and live tooltip refresh while hovered. Cooldowns and proc glows route to the resolved spell, not the macro itself.

Settings panel. Native Interface Options panel with a key-size slider, a lock/unlock checkbox to prevent accidental drag, and a position reset button.

Slash commands. /hab show|hide|toggle|lock|reset|config|debug|profile|help — including /hab profile [current|list|switch <name>|clear <name>] for inspecting and managing context profiles, and /hab debug [clicks|bindings|context] for diagnostic logging.

Built for

• AZERTY keyboards (a QWERTY layout option may follow)
• One-handed gamepad users
• Druid mains and other shapeshifting classes (more class handlers planned: Rogue stealth, Priest shadowform, Warrior stances, Demon Hunter metamorphosis, Evoker soar)
• Mythic+ tanks and DPS who want a tightly clustered, repositioning-free input surface

Localization

UI strings localized in French and English. Stub files included for the eight other Blizzard-supported locales (deDE, esES, itIT, koKR, ptBR, ruRU, zhCN, zhTW), ready for community translations.

Author

Hilkarus, also the author of OverachieverReborn, NPCScan Reborn and AltInventory. Streams on twitch.tv/hilkarus.