I'm using a Phoenix Striker, she's now at lvl 78. Normally I hot key Pheonix Strike, Claws of Thunder, Fists of Fire and Blades of Ice on F1-F4 respectively, and on F6 Dragon Claw for my finisher.
I've read on a guide that "Phoenix strike works well with Fists of Fire, but not with Claws of Thunder. Wondering what hotkeys & combos other use.
I also (when I remember) use death sentry on the bodies for extra effect, but often forget in the heat of things. Recently just added Mind Blast to make her even more effective when hordes come in
Using QWERT and sometimes Y and ASDF and sometimes G for your skill hotkeys, makes the game one thousand times easier.
I usually use QWERT for passives of precast type spells like BO, Holy Shield, Auras, Valkry, Frozen Armor etc(I do use E for Blizzard though). Then ASDF and possibly G I usually use for attack skills and more frequently used skills. It depends on how many skills I want hotkeys for, some characters it's good to have a lot of spells hotkeyed, even if you don't use them that much.
I always use A as attack early on as a new character when you are using basic attack frequently, but always have A as teleport once, or if, I obtain teleport on a character.
You have to move things around to do this, but there is an easy solution that I use.
First of setting the Space Bar as your 'show items' button, instead of Alt, is probably the most important. You can put your thumb on space all day if you want and never have to bother searching for the Alt key. This one is as helpful as changing the skills from the hard to find F1,F2,etc keys, to the letters that your hand is already naturally resting on.
The rest:
quest log from Q to L
swap weapons from W to V
toggle run/walk from R to X
skill tree from S to K
show portraits should be Z
character screen should be C
The last couple might already be standard, I forgot. But I think that covers the switches you would need to make. This allows your left hand to be on the standard keyboard position, index finger on F and pinky on A, with your thumb on the Space Bar. Your right hand runs the mouse, while your left hand is already positioned on, or next to, any hotkeys you might need to change to and they are letters anyone should already be used to finding in an instant. Your thumb is already on the Space Bar, so you'll be able to check the ground constantly without moving. The buttons you switched around like weapon swap, skill tree, run/walk and others you'll have to remember and get used to, but they aren't so important as skills that you need to be able to constantly swap to, to fight effectively. The potions stay at 1-4 and shouldn't be difficult to find.
This might feel weird for you for a little while, but it doesn't take long at all to get used to and once you do, you'll wonder how you ever played the game using the F1, F2, F3, F4, etc keys and alt for 'show items on ground'.