If you are already good at vanilla Quake - that is already 80% of the work done!

As for the runes, first make sure you have your hook bound to a key-I'm assuming you do but just checking again Then, you should either visit the runes site and read what each rune does, or connect to the server when its empty maybe and play with each rune and see what it does.

To get the most out of RuneQuake, you have to use each rune at the approx right time and place For example (and there are many), a lot of people, place deathspots by teleports so unsuspecting players walk into them Alternatively, you can also ice spots around corners or crucial items, such as the Rocket Launcher or Armors... and have a more stealthy approach.

I dont like camping too much because its detrimental for everybody (not fun) - and the one doing it too (your score will be quite low) but what I do is sometimes quickly patrol an area, like go and come back quickly... see whats different. Any players around or are all the items picked up that I might need a bit later, so that I'm fully stacked and armored? (to withstand any possible fights) etc.. you know things like that

A good combination of play is stealth mixed with some action maybe. For example, in some sections of the level you can be more cautious and walk more slowly and use some defense.... while in others you can pick up the pace and move more quicker to engage in some quick fragging with the enemies present around the local area

Lastly, dont forget that you can create your own style or play how you want - just be creative and non predictable (like dont be in the same spots twice lol), things like that. A lot players make the mistake to go get their packs after they died that they dropped and in that instance, the enemy will pick it up or has already picked it up and will frag you again (since you are running around naked with no guns or armor).

What Im saying is just a scratch on the surface and by no means a complete technique or whatever. Furthermore, you can also learn by experience (playing) or perhaps watching others better than you when you have the time (observing)... or a mix of both, whatever you want

Maybe his helped,
-G

Ah regarding your scrollwheel problem you can try to bind the weapons around your movement keys (wasd maybe, if you use that) so that you are not vulnerable to attacks while selecting weapons on the mousewheel as you are taking your pointer finger off the attack button(so you cant presently defend yourself)-assuming you use MOUSE1 for +attack like many do.

Reguarding the scrollwheel, what I do to handle that is using a three-fingered approach on my mouse. One for attack, one for weap-switch, and the last for the hook. It works alright, but I find myself getting mixed up on it, and I have to pause to switch sometimes. It just seems that my three fingers don't like to work together most of the time. I also have my rune use and delete keys way out of reach, so I am wanting to change those keys to Q and E.

Although I don't use them, Rune Quake has quickfire attacks for all weapons. For example, you bind your mousewheelbutton to +sattack6, and then you can be firing grenades when you press the button, and go back to your previous weapon when you let go.

I already have key q bound to rune-delete and e to rune-use- those are definitely important!

Knowing each rune obviously helps, but you also should be able to tell what rune your opponent has (when possible) and react accordingly.

A 3 button mouse is awesome to have! I actually forgot those exist lol, I might seek one in the future myself

Your problem is even simpler in this case, that extra mouse button means a lot!-believe it or not

Ok so we got M1 for attack, M2 for hook maybe, and M3 for RL maybe - the most important weapon in the game. Dont put the runes on important keys, remember its more important to pull out your weapons and shoot quicker than fumble around on runes functions while you are being attacked! lol That pause that you make can be fatal in game, so that must be fixed

So.... I think you should put GL, LG somewhere around that WASD keys, like maybe Z or X or whatever.... put the runes on R, F, or V... they are a little out of reach but like I said most importantly is that you can weap switch fast to get a frag or defend yourself. And you still have a lot of free keys left to assign other weapons to, Q,E,C, SHIFT-where your pinky rests... and CTRL maybe

I was meaning to do this for a while, and this thread reminded me of it, so I updated my Rune Quake rune guide: link.

My writing isn't superb, and it hasn't been proofread, but it really should list every single effect of every rune. Some aren't even worth knowing (Super Blue Stuff traps last 45 seconds; tornado emits team colors in teamplay mode), and some are too situational to matter (Phasing Rune will teleport you if you use it while in lava; you can't receive fall damage while holding the Rune of Flight), but maybe you're missing some things.

Gem likes death spots

My general keybinds are as follows:

W = move forward
S = move back
A = strafe left
D = strafe right
Q = lightning gun
E = rocket launcher
F = hook
G = rune use
C = rune delete
Mouse 1 = fire
Mouse 2 = jump

Dunno why, but when I started playing Quake I never liked the space bar for jump. Now when I play Overwatch I use the space bar for jump... I may have to modify my Quake config...

Also, because of my background in playing 3wav CTF I never liked the +hook bind. I always preferred to use the "axe hook" by pressing 1 twice. I still press 1 twice when playing RuneQuake right now. This in conjunction with mouse 2 as jump could be one of the "restrictions" of my skill level. I think those two things may slow me down compared to some other elite Runequakers.

I have a similar setup, but i use the arrow keys to move.
rune use X to use, and delete rune is bound to the Q key.
My hook use 1 twice.

Mouse 2 for jump? you guys are crazy. Mouse2 is for hook!