G13 re-visited
A little over a month ago I first mentioned that I was the proud owner of a G13 now. It’s been a little over a month now and I thought I’d share my impressions of it.
First off: relearning muscle memory is hard. I never thought it’d be so hard. When I ran my first instance with the G13, we wiped several times until I rebound everything and went back to the old way. Then I ran H HoL with it, and again, it was pretty painful. But I kept at it, trying to learn. My basic layout is to have the center row as 1-7, with the thumb buttons bound to Shift and Alt. This allows me to use modifiers for the center row, so that’s 21 buttons right away. The top row is 8-0, Tab-Target, ß (which is next to 0 on German keyboards), my health pot and healthstone keybinds. All abilities that are staples are bound to easily accessible keys. Devastate on 3, Revenge macro on 4, SS on 5. These abilities are hit by ring-finger, middle-finger, index-finger respectively, which is very comfy. Taunt is on 2, Charge on 1, both hit by the pinky.
Now, the big lesson I learned is that muscle memory lets you know where you have all the abilities you don’t use that often, but which are still important. I was in trouble. I had trouble remembering where Taunt was. Getting used to the thumbstick made Shockwave positioning not so great. Challenging Shout, where art thou? Ouch, where’s Shield Bash in a pinch? My friend Kaylexanna definitely confirmed that my AoE threat was down the toilet, so I did what I had to do and went back to the regular keyboard. However, I know that won’t be forever. I use the G13 for solo play all the time. It’s just me working on muscle memory now.
On alts, like the retribution pally I recently leveled to Outland level, it’s super-awesome. If you start with a fresh character, the G13 will come naturally. Also, a wonderful side benefit for a keyboard player like me: you stop being a keyboard turner. Completely. It just breaks that habit real quick. If you look back to when I started my blog, it was something I struggled with, but now, I mouse turn, all the time. It’s faster, and I really feel it makes me a better tank. Especially on such encounters as Loken, Anub’rekhan, Heigan, turning with the mouse is a huge advantage.
As for the display, I find it helpful. I don’t use the RSS feature, though I guess I could add WoW bloggers to make it more exciting than my current news feed. 
The WoW display is kinda pointless, I have other tools to see my durability and character stats. Same with the whisper alerts. The Ventrilo app is pure win though, I can finally see who speaks on Vent, when people join, my ping, good stuff!
My final verdict is that the G13 is a great piece of hardware. If you are a dedicated keyboard player, it’s definitely worth it. If you are currently a clicker, the learning curve might be a bit much, and it might not be enough to break the habit. Keyboard turners who are looking to change their ways, the G13 is gold.
As next investment, I will likely go for a 5-button mouse, because that will add even more flexibility to an already powerful combo.
I’ve been seriously reconsidering my old Nostromo lately. I am not sure what it is, but I am having a hard time getting my fingers to the keys, and am finding myself becoming more and more of a “clicker” than a keyboard masher. But I simply don’t have room on my keyboard tray for my G15 (original model), the Nostromo, and my trackball. Perhaps if the G15 dies, I can try out a regular keyboard again, and pull out the Nostromo.
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I love my new G13 for boss fights. On trash with a lot of crazy positioning I get a bit lost. I’ve only had it for a week and you are right, it will take some time to get the muscle memory working properly.
I left my keyboard bindings as they were for optimal use on the keyboard and just mapped all the abilities to where I wanted them. Of course I had to make a “cheat sheet” so I could remember which button had taunt on it.
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You need a bar mod that highlights or flashes a skill when you press the button regardless or whether the skill trigers or not.
That way with a little bit of imagination you can practice outside of combat. You just look at your bars and NOT your hand. Think “taunt” and press the button you think is taunt, if you right it will flash, grats. If not you start spaming keys till you hit the right one – than gratz. Do whole rotations and “oh crap” moments too. Then go and tank some elites without heals just inside the entrance of an instance and see how long you can last until you have to back out.
It is very hard to go from being a clicker to keypad user when your at cap level with all your skills. I know when I was leveling up I kept moving the bindings on my skills as I got new ones to keep everything “feeling right” it would always take me awhile to get back in the zone. I suggest you wipe your bars go solo for a bit and add just a couple skills at a time. If you add skills as you remember you need them you tend to get the most used ones bound comfortablely and the less used in a sensable way.
It is difficult for me to envison that a tank can be a clicker. Or full clicker anyway. I’m hittng a skill every GCD as well as spaming HS and when someone pops bloodlust I just don’t think I could move my mouse around fast enough even with decent HS macros. You can only click “one key” at a time, where-as you can press many.
Good Luck and don’t give up.
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Ladina Reply:
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
With the GCD it is not as hard to click as you think. I have a home base of 4 keys that I push but the rest I click.
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Bent Reply:
March 24th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
By clicker I meant someone that clicks 100% of the time expect for moving. I beleive Bloodlust reduces the GCD?
Under that clarity you can prob understand better why I find it difficult to envison.
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admin Reply:
March 24th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Just to clarify, I have never been a clicker. From the get-go, all keybindings, all the time. My issue was that I also used the keyboard to turn.
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I currently use an nt52te, I can’t say enough good things about it. For a mouse I use a Logitech MX Revolution, lots of programmable buttons. The one suggestion I would make is for the thumb stick on the gamepad. Since it’s not used for turning anymore, I reset the bindings from turn left/right to strafe left/right. I use this all the time, sometimes in conjunction with pressing mouse buttons. It is good for positioning and circling mobs. Try it out, you won’t be disappointed.
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