Gavin Wants To Know What You Use To Dominate!
Posted on June 11th, 2008 by Gavin under Efficiency Tips, General TipsWe had such awesome feedback during our writing contest, I decided to give you guys the floor one more time. During our writing competition we had so many players submit entries with a very high level of expertise that it was quite startling. So now what I want you to do is help us explore a very overlooked aspect of the WoW playing experience.
We could go on for months and months about action bars, UI mods and macros without ever getting close to covering even a fraction of the things you can use in those areas. We will certainly do our best to give you some major players in the UI mods genre in the coming weeks, and our staff writers are hard at work paring down the options into useful articles.
But first, we’re going to take a closer look at how our readers actually interface with the game by finding out what hardware master players are using. I mean, what good is having all those extra bars and macros if they are difficult to access because you use a crummy stock mouse and gooped-up keyboard?
I personally use a programmable mouse that activates macros and other functions. When I play a hunter, my right clicks go through a complete shot cycle, so I have far greater control over the combat sequence. I am able to do everything a hunter is good at without ever really worrying about what should come next, my mouse takes care of most of it for me. That way I can spend more time (especially in raids) watching for those surprises and changes in the combat environment that require my special attention. But without my particular mouse, it would be virtually impossible to accomplish.
Our editor, Lawbringer swears by a particular game pad he uses. I gives him 36 extra keys to play with. He actually goes in a very different direction with his play style. While I never take my hand off the mouse, he rarely touches his. With a compact keyboard, a little clever hotkey assignment, and a bar mod, he has over 60 hotkeys at his fingertips without ever having to do anything like press [shift]+F1 or [Cntl]+5. He plays fast, fast, fast. Since virtually every skill is at his fingertips, the only thing he ever has to wait on is cooldowns!
If you have a setup that enhances your game play, now is your chance to tell us about it. Keyboard, mouse, peripherals, headsets, monitors – anything that you use to increase your ability to dominate!
Post your setup and why it helps you dominate as a reply to this thread. We’ll review the submissions and then do a series of articles about the very best products you guys actually use. It will be a huge help to the new and intermediate player looking to advance to serious raids and PVP action. Those of you who have already been through the process of selecting the very best equipment to use can give them a little great advice and we’ll help you by giving everyone links where they can find all the cool toys you recommend.
I know you guys like to brag, so let me have it. Show Gavin how your setup rocks the competition, and gives you the ability to truly Dominate!
















Trackball
Forgot the link.
i use a normal mouse (how boring) but also may have 1-2 monitors or computers set up so i can have WoW on one monitor and on the other is either vent or thottbot(or another such useful site).
the point i find in this is that if i dont know whos talking on vent i can quickly look over and see, for healers and buffers in raids this is crucial because you never know who it is your meant to be healing when they just say they need heals over vent
I use a Logitech G9 Gaming mouse, its adjustable weight and body sizes helps greatly depending on what i’m doing, for instance, in pvp making it lighter and able to move to different parts of the screen to hit macros and items that are such rarely used they arn’t bound, but desperately needed in certain circumstances is very useful. In pve increasing its weight and size allows for more comfortable playing, where the constant use of the same procedures are required and they come on easily with the amount of time ive spent raiding…
I also use a Logitech G15 keyboard. With its LCD display, showing in game stats, whispers, battleground data and such its very useful. As well as that, its vent monitor allows you to keep an eye on who’s talking when, and who to tell to shut up when they blast vent. Its extra 18 programmable gaming keys are very useful for simplistic keyboard macro’s (heaven forbid that you make an afk macro out of it…). Also its default button locking feature is very useful when it comes to those tense times when accidentally hitting the windows key can make an arena game fall apart…
I find the basics are easy enough to play with. I’m one for solid simplicity. I have bought many types of mouse: small, big, laser, jammed full of buttons so it looks like a keyboard! I’ve also used several different types of keyboard attachment. Do you know what I’ve found the best? The roller ball mouse and the basic keyboard, that came with my dell pc. In my opinion, life’s just as easy and the more simple it is, the more enjoyable it is too!
Is your monitor full of addons? Well mine used to be. That’s why I bought my 20” wide-screen monitor. I know I will never look back. You gain far more space on your screen and with better detail. There has been no downsides to buying it at all.
Lastly, my headset. I currently use: Plantronics – a Dsp 500. I have to admit, they are very good. The essence of surround-sound. Noise cancelling, making my lovely voice clear as crystal on teamspeak. However the problem I found with many high quality headsets is how it affects your speakers. You don’t want both working at the same time, or to have to restart your pc to get the other to work. I would say that I miss my old headset for this reason, if it wasn’t for my new headset being able to beat out enough sound to rival my speakers!
I think there is one main question to ask yourself when your testing out a new piece of hardware. Could I ever go back? If the answer is yes, then the item is not for you.
As a final note. Remember that your chair, desk and layout are also extremely important. Not just for your gameplay, but also for your health.
I use a Razer Copperhead mouse which I couldn’t live without- the high resolution means small movements of the mouse translate to large movements on the screen which makes for speedy healing work! it’s also very accurate so minimises miss-clicks, very important when you want to right click your tank and not the mob he’s attacking!
Keyboard wise I use a Merc Stealth for the extra keys, means typing in guild chat and movement are seperate keys for me, which helps a lot, also having hot keys for things like open all bags makes life easier, it’s still a nice keyboard to type with too, although it doesn’t seem to have improved my spelling any, sadly
i have three things I can’t live without while playing wow. one is my mouse it is the MX revolution by logitech, it is heavy so it is very accurate when i need to be but is still really responsive, it also has 3 buttons i it that i use for my most common use ones like earth shock, frost shock. claw swipe, etc.
my keyboard it your normal z merc keyboard which i love being able to have all my hotkeys there in reach even while running
around…my mouse helps because i can steer and run very easy with it and still be able to cast with my left hand.
And everyones favorite a screen full of addons lol but really they help my favorites are trinty, x-perl, and healbot. omen i don’t use much because i only have one level 70 druid and if i pull aggro from the tank and i am not over healing there is a bigger issue because i am normaly the lowest on threat. (in raids)
oh and instant healing macro is the shit in pvp lol 3/4 of my health back in one click and only a 3 minute Cooldown
A good chair. I have found that proper posture really make a difference in response time and reaction speed from my side. Also helps in those marathon grinding sessions.
May seem weird but i cannot play WoW without Techno. keeps me in the mood XD i listen to basshunter and DaRude and thats what helps me dominate the noobs
The kind of keyboard i would want, is a kind of keyboard that is prepared for WoW. Instead of learning about new keys, i just know which is which, it would make the game a whole lot easier.
Yeah, I dont use any special Items, just a stock key board and mouse. I click, and hit 1 2 3 … I have tried getting extra things but, it doesnt really help, if your good you dont need extra stuff to help skill will do its part
i have a crappy ball mouse- often has to be cleaned, but it has the advantage of moving at far greater speeds that a light one. one flick of a finger can send it across the screen. i have a couple of chunky headphones with certain stuff pumped up so i can hear foottsteps behind me- it works well in pvp.
and i play lots of dragonforce- speeds up my kill rate
I just use the built in features of the game, along with my plain keyboard & mouse, though, if i had a choice in the matter, id probably go with a Z-board, or Razor Tarantula keyboard, as for addons, i tend to stick with the default bars, and use healbot if im playing one of my healer toons
I use a macro setup with my Belkin n52te (http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=390404) which i find is useful if you set it up correctly. i need only flick my thumb in any direction to cause massive damage to the enemy. i also use a LG 5 button mouse when i’m at home, and i program those with a few macros also.
Belkin n52te Just making it a clickable link.
iv recently updated my hardware after seeing this. now, i use a 1600dpi mouse, and a fang gamepad, as shown on the picture. i still have headphones, and my bro wants to play cod4, so ill soon have a better computer. thanks, gavin( and lawbringer) for helping me to dominate. Coz gavin was right, hardwarre takes techies the extra mile