Guild Wars 2

Particularly in Elementalist discussion, there are a lot of people stating that the Razer Naga makes it a lot easier to play Guild Wars 2. Not having to stretch my fingers so far definitely sounds like a boon. I just looked at a photo of one, and the buttons seem kind of small.

I have fat, clumsy fingers. How do the buttons on the Razer Naga compare to a non-smart mobile phone? I am older than the mobile phone generation, so I never got into texting and struggle to use those things. Trying to imagine using my mobile phone on its side, it seems like something I would have trouble with. Would it be worth my while getting one of these, or are they for people with greater manual dexterity. I rolled a `10’ on my dexterity check: do I pass?

Personally, don’t. It’s a waste of hard-earned money. If the keys are too far out, try to change the keybindings to somewhere close.

Or, do what I sometimes do when – I point my mouse to the skill. There are ways to overcome the keys being too far from your left hand, try those first before you buy a gaming mouse or a gaming keyboard.

Also, once you get used to it, you’ll find it hard to play without it. In the long-run it will become a disadvantage not carrying it with you.

With movement being so critical to combat in GW2, I think the Naga is fantastic. I only use the keyboard to strafe, move forward heal and dodge (and the interact option). All abilities are on the Naga. But in the case of the elementalist, you’d still need to key one the attunement swaps.

I have large hands and can use all 12 buttons very well. With that and having the middle mouse button bound to target nearest enemy (as a melee warrior) I can move and attack very well.

I agree with Shael, I don’t think it is worth buying just for Guild Wars 2, just change your layout of commands, you’ll figure a strategic way to suit your needs. I use an old Logitech mouse without any issues in game-play, but overall it is your personal choice.

I’m using a standard Logitech modern mouse. I find it just fine. If you need more room to keybind, change wasd to esdf. You’ll get 2 more keybinds.

No sir, the best way to move and cast abilities still relies on good hotkey mapping coupled with some muscle memory. My main binds include

Q, e, r, f, shift+r (elite)
Shift 1-4

I don’t have strafe buttons, I hold the right mouse button down while running with WAS, or run with both mouse buttons depressed

Imho the most important thing about a mouse is it being comfortable for you. And well it really should have 5 buttons otherwise it’s not a proper mouse :P But if you like to offload some more functions to your mouse I think you should be able to also do things like shift + mouse 4? Haven’t tried it myself yet but I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to. Don’t let others tell you it isn’t worth the investment btw, that’s only something you yourself can decide. (well unless everyone who actually used it would say it’s a crappy mouse ofcourse)

The naga is really amazing, but it might take a bit of work for someone without a dexterous thumb. Having larger fingers isn’t a problem because the buttons take effort to push, without being excessive.

I personally couldn’t imagine playing an mmo without a naga, so I’d recommend it if you’re prepared to take a week or so to be comfortable with it.

A high quality mouse is great, all the buttons…. IDK bout that seems a bit overkill.

If you have the cash, i strongly recomend Nostromus + Naga. It’s a great confort for your fingers after long hours playing.

If you have keybinds that do everything you want well on your current setup, there is no reason to bother getting a mouse with more buttons. But if you struggle getting keybinds set up in a way you like, more buttons on a mouse will help a lot.

If you’re not great with thumb dexterity, you might consider a G600 instead of a Naga. You’ll get two extra buttons by pushing the mouse wheel left and right and a pinky button compared to the 17 button Nagas. I also like the concave thumb buttons over convex on Nagas, but that’s obviously personal preference.

My main reason for using a mouse with 20 buttons is so I can have keys that I accidentally hit bound to the same ability as the button I mean to hit, and so I don’t have to rely on shift/ctrl/alt modifiers as heavily. I can fit all my keybinds on a 3 button mouse + keyboard, but I’m just more error prone on that setup.

I’d try alternate keybinds first. Especially if your keyboard has a gap between the number keys and the function keys – it will make a huge different for you to remap those, especially. You just have to find what’s comfortable for you.

I’ve heard people cite ~20 hours as a “normal” learning curve for those mice. So if you get one, just be prepared to be not-very-good using it for a while, especially if you think it might be difficult for you.

GW2 doesn’t ask as much of you as some other MMOs. I was considering getting one when I was playing both WoW and GW2, but now that it’s just GW2 it doesn’t seem that important any more.

I don’t think that you need exactly Naga magnitude mouse but having some thumb buttons is a real improvement. After all gw2 has so few buttons that you cannot even fill a whole Naga. Nagas are designed for “standard” MMO that has easily over 20 buttons you need to bind.

I like using logitech mx500/mx518 series mouses with two thumb buttons.

If you have the cash, then yes.
You will not regret it one bit.
It will take you at most 5 minutes to get used to the thumb buttons.
It great for all MMO’s – i have used it in 3 so far and it works wonders in all.
The extra mobility it brings is worth it alone. People may think they are mobile now (as i did) but never having to move your fingers from the movement keys is a huge advantage.
In the other MMO’s i can use 48 key binds using ctrl, shift and alt modifiers with the thumb keys, including the keys with no modifier. This is with my little finger or thumb of my left hand.
You also have the extra finger buttons for targetting, weapon swaps etc.
Remember that you can bind your F keys to shift+1 etc for attunements or whatever they are called.
You’ll be fine without one but I would be willing to bet you’ll be better with one.
p.s. i also have large fat hands and the thumb keys are fine – they also suply button trainers (little pad type things) you can stick on them to make the separate keys more obvious.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, F1-4 are awful to reach on my keyboard. I have to take the hand away from everything else (WASD, etc) to press them… or have unnaturally long fingers :P

I did not know I could use Shift+xxx for binds. I have put 6-0 on Shift+1-5 and F1-4 on Shift+QWER. This should be a little easier to reach. I checked, and you can also do Shift+mouse, which will add some more options. I will spend some time trying this out to see how I go.

My buddy has a Razer Naga and swears by it. He did not regret it at all. He is a peck and hunt typer so he has trouble typing beyond 25 wpm, therefore, he isn’t exactly the dexterous type in mmos and fps games (why he wanted to play controller over mouse in counterstrike is beyond me!).

I would also get a razer mousepad if you have cash to shell. They have great products imo.

I have heard many great reviews for the Logitech G600 and tried it out myself, it’s perfect for MMOs! The most important feature of gaming mice for me is comfort! comfort! comfort! IMO it’s more comfortable and better built than the Razer Naga. Logitech also has a great RMA service.

If you’re getting a mouse pad too, get the Steelseries Qck best mouse pads!

Atm I’m using the Razer Deathadder for FPS, MOBA, and MMOs. It only has 2 extra keys but it fits perfect in my hand with full control of every button. Will think about picking up a G600 when the Deathadder stops working.

If you buy one get a Logitech G600 and not one of those low quality Razer things where you pay for (non existing) bragging rights instead of actual functionality.

I’d have to agree that having a decent mouse with a couple of handy thumb buttons will go a long way. Mostly things that need to be bound are extra keys that are used frequently, but can’t be comfortably mapped to the movement side of the keyboard.

As a caveat for people looking at a Logitech G700, you’ll have to configure most of the extra buttons through SetPoint as keystrokes, preferably under a specific profile for each game, as the extra buttons above the 5th one are not normally detected when setting up bindings in-game.

Loved my Naga for my Warlock on WoW who had 7 million spells and macros, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy one for GW2.

There is basically a hard cap to how many spells you can have in the limited bar space, and normal keybinds can cover those spells easily.

Ixal.7924:

If you buy one get a Logitech G600 and not one of those low quality Razer things where you pay for (non existing) bragging rights instead of actual functionality.

The G600 costs the same as the Naga, and is a piece of crap with far too many technical/build quality issues. First time Logitech has disappointed me.

as other stated yes you can go without the razer naga and still survive in GW2 but, in my opinion, having a razer naga greatly makes you more agile in mmorpgs.

I have the razer naga for a year now and I have no regrets buying it. I’ve used it in WoW, Forsaken world and now in Guild wars 2 and let me tell you it’s the best thing you’ll ever have in a mmorpg game.

Having 12 extra side buttons in your mouse will let your left hand concentrate on just moving your toon. No more stopping in a middle of the fight just to press the buttons beside the wasd keys. Having problems with the F1-F4? No problem! Just bind it to buttons 7-10. Still need the utility skills? Then bind it to buttons 11-12 and mouse button 3 and 4! This means alot especially when you play pvp, wvw and or being mobbed by monsters in pve maps when every second counts.

And yes, I will admit that once you start using naga you won’t go back to standard type mouse afterwards because it’s that great. I don’t think I will survive an mmo without it anymore, heck, even in FPS games which I like to play as well. I tried playing mmo games from my friends house with a standard mouse and, it’s like, meh.

As for fat fingers I have one as well and it won’t matter after the long run since you’ll get used to it. There is a learning curve when using the 12 side buttons and it will depend on how quickly you get used to it. For me I got used to the 1-6 keys for two weeks and the 7-12 keys in a month (yes I’m a slow learner). Expect your performance to decrease while getting used to it but when you do, all I can say is wow!