The new keyboard
Last week I had my birthday, and my friends were kick-ass enough to fulfill my greatest wish: a G13 Logitech gaming keyboard. I have long been unhappy with my keybindings. As warrior I have more abilities and bars than any other of my characters. I use the number keys for my main action bar, and then Shift and Alt modifiers for the other bars. Not efficient. It means some awkward finger positions while tanking, and always two hands on the keyboard, which makes me a keyboard turner.
First impressions:
the thing is heavy. Quite heavy. I had to clear some stuff off my desk to make it fit. Hand position was pretty comfortable. Also, 22 keys still don’t seem enough, and I will have to prune stuff off. The display is nice, and will be great for seeing who talks on Vent, but the character information is kinda pointless. I can see all that via my UI. Moving with the thumb stick will take some time getting used to, but it really makes you turn using the mouse.
Setup is extremely easy. Click on key you want to configure in the Profiler, assign a key from your regular keyboard, done. There are a lot of pre-configured macro actions, like Auto-Run, Follow, Jump, Attack, etc. which also provide nice examples on how to use the macro abilities of the keyboard.
I redid my action bars, using 3 bars with 7 buttons. The middle G-row is numbers 1-7, the top row is Shift 1-7. The row with five buttons has various stuff like mounting up, /startattack, etc. The lower row I have assigned to Shift, Ctrl and Alt, so I will be able to use Clique for healing easily.
Sounds nice in theory, but how does it play? After doing my Brunhildar daily, I set off to Stratholme, to get some Runecloth and Argent Dawn rep while learning the keyboard. And it is a learning process. I remapped most of my keybindings so that the abilities I use non-stop are more easily reachable. This is mostly Charge, Thunderclap, Devastate, Revenge, Concussion Blow, Shield Slam. Buttons 3-5 are the core tanking abilities Revenge/HS, Concussion Blow, Shield Slam. Charge, TC, Shockwave and Cleave are in the row above, and they’re a bit trickier to hit. It’s all about my finger memory at the moment.
I completed Stratholme using the G13 exclusively and was pretty happy for the most part. Some keys aren’t mapped perfectly yet, and I have to shuffle things around still. It was very comfortable and I felt very mobile. Targetting was a bit iffy, but I can work around that.
As I still need two dungeon Elders for my title and Azjol-Nerub was the heroic daily, a guildie came along and we pugged the rest. My first real test of the G13!
As you can imagine, it went awfully. Targetting was a problem. Hitting my auto-run thumb button was a problem. Suddenly not remembering the new bindings in the heat of the moment was a disaster. We wiped on the three-pull before the first boss. Back to the regular keyboard I went, but as I mentioned, everything was rebound, so that did jackall. Yet another wipe. I have to give it to the guys from the PUG, they didn’t seem to care about my keyboard moments. Then my Pitbull 4 alpha failed me and Target of Target didn’t work anymore, so I quickly had to ditch Pitbull for my ouf setup. After re-binding all keys back to what they were before, I finally got a handle on things.
It was one of the messiest heroics I have done, DPS stole aggro left and right, and even though we one-shot all bosses when we did them, at least one DPSer usually died. But then, standing in Anub’arak’s Pounce is not so smart. As major bonus of the day, Hadronox dropped Essence of Gossamer, and of course I am now only one Elder away from my title. 28.2k health unbuffed, rawr!
I have to continue to fine-tune my G13. I predict a lot of time spent in Stratholme while I try to figure it all out. I think my shaman and all other characters will be fine, because I just use a lot less abilities on the rest of them. My next scheduled guild heroic is Halls of Lightning on Wednesday, we’ll see if I can make that happen with the G13. I hope so! We’re doing OS-10 again on the weekend, but I will be healing again, which should be a breeze.
So, who of you are using a gaming pad to tank? n52te, G13, the Saitek Command Unit, what have you. Share your experiences. 
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First off – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Well, that was all I really wanted to say, but I suppose i should add something on-topic.
I have no experience with gaming pads/keyboards, I’m one of those guys playing on the laptop board and using MANY modifier macros to make my action bars flash every time i hit Shift, Alt and Ctrl. Generally I have my left hand on the board (I’d love a numpad on the left!) and the mouse clicking away at buttons on the right hand action bars.
So far it’s the best I can come up with for my setup, but far from optimal. Anyone else doing something different with a standard setup? (Other then trying to click buttons on the bottom left – cos then I tend to go crosseyed!)
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Hello,
Long time reader of your blog and let me start by Congratulating you on well written, informative and wonderful blog
I think my wife is getting me a n52te as Valentine’s day gift. So I am doubly interest in your experience with the G13.
I am a clicker and i want to move away from that habit and i hoping n52te will help.
Looking forward to reading how you get on with G13.
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Happy B-day!
I’ve used my girlfriends way of playing…..graphics tablet…..it is NOT a good idea for tanking, but nice for healing.
I’ve already had the issue with changing my keyboard about to fit in more heroic strike (since i’m what Vene calls a clicker) with horrendous results, it might just take some time to get used too is all I think my current set-up for example took me a week to get properly used to it.
Though saying that, I will also just stick with keyboard and mouse.
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Tarsus Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
If you use a the “standard” WASD keybinds, I recommend binding Heroic Strike to the “2″ or “3″ button, just above your middle finger. It was the only keybind I used for a longtime, but it definitely made it easier to get those Heroic Strikes in more often.
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I’m tempted to get a G13, but since I already own a G15, I wonder if there would be any conflict between the 2.
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admin Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I don’t think there would be any conflict, though I am not sure how the Key profiler would distinguish between those too. Logitech will release the successor to G15 in April, G18, and from photos I have seen, their money-making scheme is to get hardcore gamers to use both G18+G13.
If you have a newer G15 with the reduced amount of macro keys, I would shoot for the G13, if you want more keys.
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sheldreyn Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
I’m lucky to have the older version with 18 keys (which I all use)
G18, eh ?
I guess I’ll have to look that up
sheldreyn´s last blog post..3.1 Warrior Changes
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I got the old Nostromo when NewEgg had it on sale, with a rebate that made it less than $10.
My biggest problem with trying to use it was space on my keyboard tray. The G15 that I have is too large, and there’s no way I could fit my trackball, keyboard, and Nostromo on the tray. So the Nostromo went away. Maybe someday I’ll have a smaller G15 or a different setup (like not using the keyboard tray), but for now, I just don’t have enough room on my desk for it all.
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http://www.ideazon.com/us/products/mercstealth.asp
I got an Ideazon Merc Stelath for Christmas and I am loving it. It took about a week or so to get completely adjusted to it, but now I don’t think that I could tank with out it. The best thing has to be the positioning of the 7-11 keys (they are actually 7, 8, 9, 0, -) which keeps me from having to move my all the way across the keyboard for those key-binds. The only downside that I have noticed was the main keyboard keys are a bit smaller and a little cramped when it is compared to a standard keyboard, but that was an easy to adjust to.
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admin Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
That keyboard looks pretty wicked, never heard of them before. But then, only yesterday I heard of the Wolfking, now that’s one bizarre looking gaming keyboard.
I am wondering if Durnic will share his experiences with that keyboard. *hint hint*
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Happy Birthday!!!
I myself use a G15 Keyboard (The old Blue version ofcourse!) and a Logitech mouse (MX850 or something close to that)
The macro’s I use are limited to a few with basic functions! (I hate using macro’s if I do not understand 100% what it does!)
I tanked with that config basically all of the TBC-Content and even tho I should use some more abilities on hotkey, I seemed to manage pretty well!
I hope you get the hang of your Gamepad and let us know when you do! ^_^
~Baruti.
“Tank 4 life!”
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admin Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I certainly will do. I am hoping that I’ll get the hang of it within a week.
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I’ve got a G15 keyboard but rarely use it since I’ve picked up a gaming mouse(forget the model). I’ve pretty much programmed 2-9 action bars to the middle wheel. 2=up. 3=down. 4=shift-up. 5=shift-down. 6+7=alt. 8+9=ctrl. Pinky moves from 1 and shift easily. Thumb on alt. Pinky on ctrl not as easily. Then the same for the 2 programmable keys bound to my bottom side bars as well as mouse click. So pretty much all of my action is on my mouse with mouse turning easily available.
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[...] and Controllers I came across a Logitech G13 post on the great blog, Tank like a girl, that inspired me to write about my own Ass-Kicking controller. For I too have a G13 and it’s [...]
Happy Birthday! And gratz on the G13, you will love it!
You inspired me to write a post on my own experiences with the G13. It’s got a definite learning curve and your hand might cramp for a few days, but after that it’s awesome!
I had to drastically change up my keybindings, both in WoW and in the G13 game controller, but I think I came up with a good layout. Take a look and see if it helps.
Again, Happy Birthday!
TGAPGeorge´s last blog post..Keybindings and Controllers
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You’ll find out that your new speed pad will become as much of a necessity as Clique.
For me to do my bindings I first removed all skill Icons from my bars and opened up the old Skill Book. Then I would pick my #1 pressed skill and press buttons on my speed pad until it “felt right” With dominos when I press a key that the frame that key is bound to flashes. I would drag the Skill to that barspace. I did this with 1-0 and Alt/Ctnl 1-0 giving me 30 action binds on my speed pad and I have the old Nostromo so less keys.
If you keep like skills on the same keys across multiple chars it helps. My basic attack (sinster strike, Heroic strike, mind flay, fireball) is always bound to pointer finger resting. BAM spell (exucute, Shield Slam, Eviserate, etc) is always one key to the right of Pointer finger resting. AE Fear ctrl top right. Spell interupt pointer down; etc
If you don’t do something like this, your muscle memory is going to bug the crap out of you when you play different toons.
Just go and do some questing and you’ll learn the keys pretty quick. Solo some elites, etc. You’ll find yourself tweaking forever. You’ll find out about a new macro, and suddenly have a key free for something else.
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I have the n52te and it does take a while to get used to it but you’ll get a ton of long-term benefit by becoming a mouse turner.
While many of the setup guides will have to map some key to alt and ctrl to effectively triple the number of buttons that you have, I could never get working in practice. Just too much coordination for my simple brain.
I try to use as many macros as possible and map all my key’s 1-1 (no modifiers).
Just stick with it and you’ll get the feel for it. You should also try to use a 5-button mouse (2 thumb buttons). I use 1 thumb button for jump and the other is your choice. During fights I just use the controller and mouse.
It’ll come so just stick with it. Enjoy.
Jet
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I’ve tried the Logitech gaming gear, but have had better luck with standard keyboards using the following trick:
1) Configure your O.S. so that the NUM-LOCK key is on by default.
2) Physically remove the NUM-LOCK key from your keyboard to prevent accidentally toggling it in the heat of battle and disabling any abilities bound there.
3) In WoW, unbind run toggle from NUM-LOCK. I bound it to the numpad ‘-’.
Congratulations, you have now turned your numpad into a 15-key game pad.
I use WASD to move during fights, with 1-4 above bound to my most important abilities. The rest of my frequently used abilities are bound to a numpad key, and less frequently used abilities on 5-= on the main keyboard.
The beauty of this is that almost nothing requires a mod key, everything is one key-press away except for a couple of abilities I never want to press by accident, intimidating and challenging shouts. These I do have on a different bar with a SHIFT-mod.
The other great thing about it is except for less frequently used abilities, I don’t have to move my hands around the keyboard too much. My left hand covers movement and primary abilities, my right covers all the key secondary abilities.
Try it out!
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Bent Reply:
February 11th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I did this and it worked fine, until I started doing some PvP on the side. Keyboard just doesn’t let you turn fast enough.
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Funny, I was just drooling over this on Tankspot the other day.
I currently use an original n52 (pre-te). I like it better than a standard keyboard, but I’m not in love with it. For starters, it has way fewer keys than the g13 and while you can have up to 4 different keysets it is way too complex to switch them during a boss tank (really, it’s only a key-press but I don’t want to have to look down at my hand to make sure that it actually did switch). So, you end up only using 1/4 of the device’s capability. I use the directional pad for Shift, alt, tab, and shift-tab keys rather than movement since I already had my movement on the mouse.
I find the handrest to be somewhat awkward as well. It has a very steep arch to it and I feel like I have to reposition my hand every time I want to reach the top row of keys. I’d like to try the n52te to see if it is any better, but the g13 looks like it is a better candidate.
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Just like Domichi I’m using an Ideazon Merc Stealth. I’ve been using it for about a year and I must admit I love it. I did use a Nostromo before but that usually was to play FPS only. I found it quite limited for other games, maybe because I somehow never got used to using the thumb pad for moving around.
Anyway, I really recommend the Merc Stealth to anyone who’s looking for a gaming keyboard. One particular thing I really appreciate is that EVERY key is macro-able, not just a row of 10 keys on the side… So you can remap your entire keyboard layout if you wish to.
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I am gonna respec to Prot later this week (hope I have time for this tonight).
It’ll be my first time to spec Prot at lvl80 (Been lvl70-tank for months and months on end and just dinged 80)
Now I was wondering if any of you have any usefull tips I might take into account in terms of placing and hotkeys! (I usually only use the hotkeys 1-6 and use ‘F’ for Bloodrage and my 6 buttons on the G15 for Shout’s, intervene and the likes..)
But I am really open to many suggestions! (Tho I hate to ctrl-click stuff… ^_^
~B.
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As another idea, I change my caps lock key on all my computers (mac, windows, linux) to be another ctrl key making ctrl a very easy modifer to hit. Basically my main keybindings are:
1-6
Shift 1-6
Ctrl 1-6
Shift QWERTY
Ctrl QWERTY
Just another idea for people that want more keys and hate Control due to it’s position. Caps lock is largely unneeded if you aren’t trying to be an idiot anyway.
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Grats on your new keypad and happy (although belated) birthday!!! I hope you get used to the keypad quickly and stick with it. Like I told ya before, it took me 3 returns of my n52te but I can’t live without it now. Forcing yourself off of keyboard turning is a great side-effect too =D. Look forward to hearing how it works out for ya.
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Been using a nostromo (I had the non- te for a year or more and have been using a te for a few months…once I got hooked I needed to have a backup in case one died
I love, I do wish it had a few more keys, but right now I know I couldn’t live without it.
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So, any tips on getting through the beginning of A-N? I get stuck on the 3 pull bit at the beginning every time. I have strange targetting issues: the mob’s name bars are way up in the ceiling, the mob’s are dark and overlap, and they’re all immune to taunts.
I’ve been tempted to bring a paladin to tank that part and then take over, but that doesn’t seem right. Either that or bring an extra priest along and shackle two mobs in every group.
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tPaste Reply:
February 12th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
You sure about that? I think that’s incorrect. I believe only the Skirmishers are immune to taunt and that’s only after being engaged specifically when they do their “fixate” move (they turn red and focus on a random party member). When that happens I try make sure I have a stun available if necessary…but IMO that is the one to make sure gets killed first.
Really you shouldn’t need a pally tank and you shouldn’t need extra shackles.
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admin Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 1:45 am
tPaste is right, you really shouldn’t need a prot paladin here. What you need is really hard hitting DPS, and if you’re really having trouble with the skirmishers, a rogue or a hunter or a ret paladin.
The skirmishers are the only mob that cannot be taunted, when they have their enrage. They will then attack a random target and you cannot taunt them off. If it’s the healer, you’re outta luck. Keep skirmishers stunned as much as you can, and hunters can use one of their shots to dispel the enrage.
My advice would be to Heroic Throw pull the caster, get them all into your range, TC and Shockwave, spell reflect when it’s up and definitely kill the skirmisher and the caster first, then the watcher.
Good luck, let us know how it goes!
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tPaste Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Agreed, even though the watchers all have annoying CC and feel like they should go down first, they also have by far the most hit points. eliminating the other mobs first means you only have to deal with them (and their CC) and you won’t have multiple mobs (with either hard hitting shadow bolts or annoying enrages) on you as long.
I think that’s the key to the early pulls.
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One thing I forgot to mention that’s helped me out a ton. I took a paperclip and snipped two short pieces from it. Then I taped them horizontally with black electrical tape to the buttons on either ends of the 5-button row.
Now I always know if I’m hitting “tab target” or “taunt”. I edited my original post and put a pic of my controller at the bottom. Hope that helps!
TGAPGeorge´s last blog post..Keybindings and Controllers For WoW
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I love solid peripherals. And I’m very tempted to try a gamer keyboard some day. I have two arguments though why I haven’t bought one yet.
1. Switching Computers. I play on my Desktop Computer for most of my Raids but pretty often I use a Notebook. And until now I like the flexibility to play on more than one machine
2. Sometimes less is more. Even if I have 20 Buttons in reach of my left Hand I doubt I would use them. Sometimes just organize your keybinds, maybe clear Q E R F for some shortcuts are more than enough.
And: Don’t forget your right hand. There are folks out there who have monsters of peripherals on their left side that lets them taunt and cook coffee with one button and still have a 2 button mouse. Srsly guys, everyone should get a decent mouse with 2 (two) thumb buttons and bind those 2 buttons to important stuff (don’t forget shift/ctrl) as modifier.
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admin Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 10:33 am
As for 1, the G13 has internal memory, so if you connected it to your laptop, it would still have all your key profiles stored.
Guilty as charged about the mouse, a 5-button mouse is on my to-do list.
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I used to use an Ideazon Merc. I still would, but the driver wigs out on me. I bought a Fang, which is basicly the left side of a merc, for my laptop. It usb’s and sets on the left side of my keyboard. I could not tank without it. The button layouts are perfect and the “butterfly” movement keys under the main buttons are perfect for straifing and backing up. Positioning is key on several naxx bosses I’ve found so far, and this baby will let you fine tune it without missing a beat in your rotation. That combined with a microsoft sidewinder, I rarely use my keyboard for anything but marking. My only fear is that they may not be making them anymore, I haven’t seen any in stores in quite a while. I may pick up a spare or even two since they are VERY cheap on ebay, best buy’s website, etc. Definately check into them, you won’t be dissappointed.
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Try looking at the n52 YouTube videos Grendalsh has made. The first few are found under the worldctzen account, http://www.youtube.com/user/worldctzen
Check out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wS9wY-ke6A first
The rest are found at http://www.youtube.com/user/Grendalsh
The principles can easily be transferred to the G13. Highly recommended!
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