GoKawiilWhat kind of mouse do you employ for your daily PC or laptop usage?
Is it a simple two-button mouse, or does it feature more buttons than you can shake a stick at?
Personally, I’m lucky enough to have a mouse for all occasions, as sometimes it’s great to have a peripheral that’s targeted to a specific task that it can excel at. An example of my personal usage is my Logitech G Superlight 2 - this is my current go-to mouse for when I get a little serious about playing my favourite FPS games. But this is the exception, as there are usually not that many buttons needed to be pressed and certainly no need for added functionality such as macros, although the software still supports it.
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The main mouse I employ, though, has for years been an MMO/MOBA mouse of some description. For both gaming and a plethora of productivity applications, I’ve found that the intuitive functionality of a multi-button mouse offers me the best experience and streamlines my workflows, as well as saving my hand from cramping due to complex keyboard press combinations.
One of the first mice I started using this way was the Razer Hex when it first came out. This MOBA mouse had the usual left/right mouse buttons and a scroll wheel, but had an extra six buttons on the side panel nearest my thumb. There was a little changeable rubber nodule in the middle of the ring of six buttons to rest your thumb on and grip the mouse, so as not to accidentally press any of the side buttons. It took a while to get used to training the muscle memory of my thumb to use these extra buttons, but it was well worth the effort, as it freed up even more assignable buttons on my keyboard and also sped up my reaction times considerably in high-octane game sessions.
For games such as World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XVI, the default spells and abilities start populating the number row on your keyboard from the 1 key to the =+ key (1-12), with further spells, abilities, and movement keybinds being assigned to other keys that are comfortable to reach with your non-mouse hand. There are also modifier key press combinations to double up on the number of things you can assign your buttons to on both the keyboard and the mouse, and that’s not even counting the fact that your free hand is also navigating WASD and the Space bar for movement.
Although I persisted with the Razer Hex for a while, I soon desired more buttons and switched up to a Razer Naga, which sported the now-infamous 12-button side panel that's been imitated by almost every other MMO mouse since. Operating 12 buttons with just your thumb does take a lot of practice to commit the button positions to memory, with different manufacturers using slightly differing button design shapes to facilitate easier recognition.
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