Steelseries World of Warcraft mouse and keyboard
Steampunk peripherals – how very 19th century
Review During the knuckle-grinding twilight hours spent levelling my Worgen warrior chick in World of Warcraft Cataclysm I had been pondering when I would get a go on some dedicated peripherals. Lucky for me Steelseries has seen fit to supply some goodies.
WoW your friends? Steelseries' Cataclysm mouse
First out the bag is the World of Warcraft Cataclysm MMO gaming mouse, the box looks like something from the auction house of Gnomeregan, all fatty fatty and burnished steel, a steampunk fantasy. And big ... yes very big, which should have prepared me for the sheer scale of the monster that lay inside.
I was a little shocked to find no literature in the massive box just a leaflet with direction to the Steelseries website to download the latest drivers and firmware. Smart ethical move, good for the environment, you say. I want pretty stickers, I would counter. After a fairly nifty installation it’s onto some customisation. Luckily, I really like the look of the software – so red and black and flamey. Giving me almost infinite colour options to illuminate the mouse, and also being surprisingly easy to use, this is a real selling point for this product.
Compared to the Razer Spectre mouse I have been using (and loving) this beast seemed massive. Even though it was hard to reach some of the 14 buttons, I found it moves really smoothly across my dedicated Deathwing Steelseries mouse mat, mainly due to the very large surface area on the bottom. The burnished steel coating is definitely an upgrade from their last wow mouse that was prone to losing its metallic lustre after a couple of heavy raids.
Customisable buttons and colours too
Most of the buttons are assigned default functions but it's very simple to customise them in game. Since the Catacalysm expansion, naturally, I have more characters and I really liked that I could assign up to ten different custom profiles, including my Tauren Hunter and Worgen Warrior. This mouse did make a difference to my game play, allowing me to cast spells faster and select enemies on the fly, but is really only worth the expense if you’re a serious raider.
Next page: Key features
COMMENTS
space bar?
why is a split spacebar a problem though?
you're still going to hit it with either your left thumb or your right, and it makes no difference which half of the spacebar that you hit, does it? it still triggers the spacebar keystroke.
it's purely asthetics as you'll end up resting one thumb on the split between them i guess
Still
it makes me look like an idiot, not a sucker ;)
still, the basic keyboard which i plugs into is still £40 which still brings it in at almost half the RRP of the caty one. (the best deal for the reviewed one is around £87)
So even though I overlooked the fact that my initial post lists a naff replacement key pad, the point that they keyboard is a rippoff and is basically a clone of a product already on the market with a different sticker on it, is still valid.
is a sticker of a Dragon instead of a dranei and a bloodelf worth £45 quid more to you?
:P
Get your facts right
You've linked to just a KEYSET (just a part of a full keyboard). You should really look into the facts before making yourself appear to be the sucker!
Nice looking mouse....
I wouldn't mind it, as for the keyboard, I've a logitech g19 and it does everything I really need, as well as having a nice little screen for all sorts of fun things while gaming.
