Phlug, how sensitive is the hidden thumb button? Do you find yourself accidentally pushing it when grasping the mouse? That's the one thing holding me back from buying it. Since we haven't got any at the local stores here I can try in person before buying it, I'm afraid its going to be too sensitive and will activate accidentally.

No, it is too insensitive if anything. It takes a fairly firm press to proc it.

Anyone have any experience with OCZ Technology - Neural Impulse Actuator? I ordered it and plan to put some time into getting it to work and I'm interested if anyone has any experiences with it.



WoW NIA journey: day 5 (update: days 6-8) - OCZ Forum

This is a limitation of Windows, afaik there is no way for it to recognize more than five different mouse buttons. What you can do using the Logitech software (I use a g5, but I assume it's the same/similar software) is go into the button configuration, change the dpi adjusting buttons to register as some unused keyboard button, create a mouseover macro, and bind it to that button.

For reference the Steelseries WoW mouse is pretty damn cheaply made. Skip it. Not worth the extra buttons.

After trying it out for awhile, I have to agree. Its very flimsy and feels like its going to fall apart easily. The thumb area buttons are extremely sensitive and toggle at the slightest touch, and placed in such a way that they are touched whenever the mouse is grasped. The main right and left buttons took a firm push to activate and then constantly felt like they were about to break off. The software is a pain in the butt to figure out how to configure well.

I tried sending it back but an RMA is required from the company first. It took 3 weeks to get a response to my request on their website for an RMA, and the response was to log onto the website and jump through a bunch of hoops. I gave up out of frustration and gave it to my son who rarely plays. That's $100 basically flushed down the toilet.

I am using this atm to get all my Logitech G5 mouse buttons bound: uberOptions

I have been using my Logitech G15 keyboard and my Microsoft Sidewinder mouse for about a year now and I must say I'm very satisfied about both of them. The LCD screen on the G15 along with the programmable buttons (3*6) are quite usefull, especially the buttons if you like to bind as much funtions as you can to a key instead of clicking.

The mouse is rather nice though, although I don't think it's a big upgrade from the Logitech MX Laser I was using before. It's got more buttons but the MX Laser was more ergonomic.
All in all I can highly recommend both of them for playing WoW.

I've had a mostly pleasant reaction to the Steelseries WoW mouse. I haven't had any issues with the buttons. Left and right click as usual. I know some folks report that the right side button is tough to reach, but I manage just fine. (Could be that my fingers are just long enough.) The left side thumb buttons take a little getting used to and I find I rest my thumb slightly differently now in order to accommodate the D-pad. In general, I grip the mouse a bit differently than I did my previous one (Logitech G5), so it's a bit odd at first. But in general I find it quite usable.

(I do know Steelseries had some quality concerns early on, so some of the first batch had problems. Steelseries has since said they've fixed the production problems and will replace any mice with the bad buttons.)

As far as the software, it is definitely a bit complicated. It's particularly annoying in that it can overwrite your keybindings in-game. Here's my stab at explaining it:

As has been mentioned, Windows only recognizes the usual mouse buttons, so the software translates the other buttons into keyboard buttons. So for WoW, the mouse software translates the buttons into standard WoW commands by defaulting those buttons to the standard keybindings for that command.

For example, WoW defaults the "Target Nearest Enemy" command to the TAB key. Press TAB and you'll target the nearest enemy. Now if you open up the mouse software and decided to set Button #10 to "Target Nearest Enemy" using the button config menu on the right. What effectively this does is translate the a press of Button #10 on the mouse to be a press of the TAB key on the keyboard, which WoW intereprets as Target Nearest Enemy.

Here's where things get tricky. In my particular case, I use Bartender, so I've got custom bars all over my screen. Suppose I want to use Button #10 to be key-bound to Toolbar #4, Position #7. In-game, all I have to do is open up Bartender's Keybinding mode and then click Button #10 while the mouse pointer is hovering over Toolbar #4, Position #7.

The problem is, WoW doesn't recognize a press of Button #10 as a press of Button #10, but instead as a press of the TAB key. So when I use the Bartender Keybinding mode, what I've told WoW is that now the TAB key = Toolbar #4, Position #7. Unfortunately, this means that the "Target Nearest Enemy" command loses its keybinding and so now I couldn't Tab-target things.

Now if you try to use the mouse software to bind Button #10 directly to Toolbar #4, Position #7, it gets messy because you have to figure out what WoW thinks your toolbar is called (Action Button? Self Action Button? Secondary Action Button?). If you're using custom toolbars, you probably have no idea.

Here's the solution I found works for me. For all of the non-standard mouse buttons, use the mouse software to set them to WoW commands you never use. (You might want to open up the Key Bindings menu in WoW to look for some keybindings you never use. For example, Target Pet defaults to SHIFT+F1 in WoW. I have never in my life used the SHIFT+F1 to target a pet, so I won't miss it if I use that keybinding for something else. So I use the mouse software to make Button #10 = Target Pet. If I then use the bar mod to assign Button #10 to Toolbar #4, Position #7, WoW translates the actual keybinding as being SHIFT+F1.

Moreover, once you change the mouse software settings, you don't have to do it again. So if you decided to reassign Button #10 to Toolbar #5, Position #2, you can do it in-game as usual and WoW just thinks you're reassigning what the SHIFT+F1 is keybound to.

So yes, definitely a bit of a hassle initially to set up, but not too onerous thereafter.

Although Logitech don't have a driver specifically for that mouse it will work absolutely fine on MacOSX. If you want to leverage further functions out of it use either SteerMouse TOP or http://www.usboverdrive.com
Both of these 3rd party drivers should give you access to the extra buttons not supported by the standard Mac driver. Both apps have a trial so you can see if everything works as intended.
As for the actual G9 itself, I've been using one at work all day every day for a year now, and I would say it's a pretty decent mouse. My main criticism of it is that it's a little heavy for my taste. For some reason it comes with extra weights so you can make it even heavier, should you fancy. This would make more sense if it was a lot lighter to begin with.

I use a Logitech G11 and a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0

They have served me well ^^

I have a Logitech G11 keyboard, which has a nice long keytravel that I like. I also have a Creative Spectre keyboard in case I want to switch to a lower-travel (more laptop-like) design. I've tried the external keyboard controller (an older Saitek some time ago), but I tend to type a lot in chat while playing (even while raiding), so the constant back and forth was annoying for me. I prefer to play in dim lighting, so the backlight was a definite boost. I try to keep my keybinds within natural reach of my fingers (as little stretch as possible), but I would like to have something more ergonomic than the QWERTY I've used since I was four.

I recently changed from a very basic GE dual-scroll 5-button mouse. That was an excellent bargain in the standard optical palm-mouse category. It served me VERY well with no issues, looked nice, and had a very ergonomic rubberized grip. My new mouse is the Creative Fatal1ty 2020 (the updated version). I'm a FPS player, so I needed something that would be very fast and precise more than I needed 10 buttons. It took about 4 hours to get accustomed to its odd shape and fingertip grip system, but now I can't imagine going back to my old one. It is much more precise and comfortable for long periods. Also, the weight system takes it from very light to cramp-inducing heavy, which will make it a better fit than the one-weight-for-all models. Since it is a basic 5-button design, I do not use their drivers - preferring to simply bind various actions to the buttons from within the WoW interface.

Most people find it ugly, but it is the best mouse I have ever put my hands on.

I recently bought the Steelseries WoW mouse (after it being back ordered; I ordered on Dec 5 and got it around Feb 5). As far as the mouse itself, I enjoyed using it for the most part. There were a few problems I had with it that were sorta small, and one very large problem (I'll get to that in a minute).

I loved having so many buttons at my disposal, I had just about all of them bound to different functions in Grid. The mouse seemed pretty solid, nothing seemed flimsy and the buttons were responsive.

One downside to it was that sometimes it seemed like the mouse was "laggy" or that the sensitivity was off, it would move very very slowly. This happened intermittently, and often fixed itself. Also, the profiling for buttons that you choose (or the ones that defaulted in the software) overrode my settings in game. For instance, if I had Mouse 4 bound to a trinket in game but to my mount in the software, it would use the software settings. Easy enough to fix, but irritating as I had to basically clear every button on the mouse in the profile except for right click/left click (and do this for every profile I made).

Here was the BIG downside: the outer "plating" is aluminum (brushed, I think). As should be obvious to most people, this conducts electricity. I haven't cracked it apart to see, but apparently there is NO insulation inside the mouse protecting it from the aluminum shell. Touching the mouse, I often got a good static-electric shock. This would turn the mouse off for a few seconds (no response to clicks or movement and the lighting would turn off as well), then come back on. After this happening a few times, the clicks from the mouse would not register while using the software. Disabling the Steelseries software fixed this, but the other buttons would not work (i.e. mouse 5 would work and register in applications, but not mouse 4). It's obviously fried, and I'm sending it back for a refund. I actually liked the mouse despite the other downsides, and would have loved to keep using it (I am a button whore when it comes to mice). This problem, however, pretty much keeps me from ever being able to use it for any reasonable length of time (and I'm not going to ground myself every time I want to play WoW).

Now I'm trying to decide between a Logitech MX Revolution and a Razer Mamba. Has anyone use the MX Revolution successfully with Uberoptions? Has anyone tried the Mamba? I like having a lot of buttons (like I said, button whore), but the Mamba doesn't appear to have left-scroll and right-scroll on the middle mouse button which irks me.

Does anyone have the Logitech MX1100? I got mine yesterday and so far, I'm loving it as much as I did the 1000. My only issue is the "hidden" thumb button. Has anyone figured out how to remap it so it can be assigned a key in WoW? I've even tried using UberOptions, since Set Point sucks ass for reassigning keys, but so far it hasn't worked. I'm running both WoW and UberOptions/Set Point as administrator, which Vista seems to require, but still no go. Any help?

I've been using my MX518 for a couple of years now, and it still works like new.

Really, the only problem with this mouse is if your hand is big. Luckily (and sadly for some other things), my hands are small.

I've been using the Razer Diamondback Plasma for the last 2 years:



There is a key for the thumb as well as one for the little finger/ring finger on either side of the mouse. Those keys are 'rocking' keys, if you rock it forward it's a different key stroke from if you rock it back.

Effectively both the the thumb and the little/ring finger have 2 extra keys available for them.

I use the thumb one to control Ventrilo Push to Talk. The left one I use to trigger oPie (addon) for portals/buffs.

The only unfortunate thing is that WoW will not recognise the left and right buttons so I have mapped the left ones as + and - on the NumPad and then programmed + and - in oPie to trigger those portal/buff bars.

In any case, the thumb and ring/little finger button placements of the Diamondback make doing these tasks second nature and very very quick. I.e. I can continue DPS instants, while running, while calling out for things in vent (e.g. Lava Wall, Void Zone etc).

Yes, I know that, thank you. However, the problem is that the button is not being recognized by WoW, no matter what I remap the button to. WoW doesn't "see" the button at all.

Then your mouse or software is bugged. Works fine for me.

I bought an Apple Aluminium Keyboard and was amazed to discover a very annoying bug that after further checking showed up on every apple keyboard I tested (aluminium wireless, regular mac keyboard and a macbook keyboard) but it didn`t show up on any other keyboard (checked some really old / cheap keyboards).
The bug is that if you have pressed a key, any combination of shift with another key from that column will not register.
For example you can easily check this in notepad or any other app :
hold W and try to press shift+S or shift+X
hold Q and try to press shift+A or shift+Z
etc, etc.
I know we have a few mac users here and I`m wondering how they managed around this bug.
I love the keyboard, looks great, works even better and I would really hate to have to give up on it because of this.

These sort of keyblocks is present on any keyboard (afaik) and is a hardware issue. It's just that each keyboard (or manufactor) has blocks on other key combinations. There's no way around it except buying another keyboard. My Logitech Wave for example has a nasty block on A+D+3.

Here's a tool to check for such blocks: ftp://ftp.digitalgenesis.com/pub/keyscan/

I would gladly take any recommentations of keyboards with less or no blocks

I have to admit I did not try other key combinations on the different keyboards I tested.
I discovered this one since I use shift+a, shift+s, shift+d for pet controls (a=special, s=attack, d=follow).

On the topic of interfacing and hardware working synergistically:

My friend has some version of the Wolfking keyboard that he plays WoW and other games on and I was considering ordering one for myself. My only issue is that he has his UI arranged so that all his attacks/spells/etc. lined up in the bottom left part of his screen and there seems to be no thought put into the correlation between the placement of the spell on screen to the placement of the key on his Wolfking (though he does quite well regardless)

Here something like what I intend to purchase:


What I was hoping to do was find some sort of add-on that would allow me to arrange my spells in a pattern that matches up to a wolfking exactly. This means in a circular pattern. As far as I can tell, bartender and other similar add-ons cannot do this. Is there one that can? Am I wasting my time? Can bartender do this and I'm just missing something?