Any MMORPGer out there knows that nothing is more important then your gaming peripherals. The SWTOR gaming mouse by Razer is both wired or wireless depending on users preferences, and is a must have for anyone who is looking to buy a gaming mouse, weather it be your first mouse or a replacement/upgrade to your current mouse. The design of the mouse is based off the Razer Naga, a slightly older model by Razer. While most people say they are identical and that the swtor mouse is just the Naga with a star wars skin, the two differ in a few aspects. For one, the placement of the 12 side buttons are aligned differently. DIFFERENTLY, not BETTER, better is a term of opinion is this situation. Secondly, the Naga has embedded groves for your fingers on the right and left click buttons where as the SWTOR mouse does not. Again, some mighy say it’s better, I just say it’s simply different. The last noticable difference is in it’s weight and overall size. I have noticed a lot of mixed perspectives on the matter, some say it’s smaller, some say it’s larger. I havn’t ever used the Naga so I can’t put a personal opinion on the matter. Keep in mind that the battery takes up a large percentage of the total weight. Once I got used to the SWTOR mouse, it feels very comfortable in my hand. I am able to play SWTOR for over 12 hours without any irritation.
The mouse has a total of 17 buttons, 12 of which sit on the left hand side of the mouse for easy thumb access. These 12 buttons are fully customizable allowing gamers to control which button will do what for any game of their choice. The 12 side buttons are a huge help to any MMOer, making it fast and easy to interrupt an opponents skill or cast an instant buff without moving your hands off the next offensive skill about to be casted. If your gaming with a keyboard that does not have macro keys, this mouse will help you out immensely so you can continue to use the WASD keys for movements and your mouse for skills on a secondary quick bar (or the primary quick bar, whatever floats your boat). Sounds great so far doesn’t it? That’s because it truly is. The other 5 buttons are your regular right click, left click, scroll wheel and buttons 4, and 5. On the bottom of the mouse you’ll find two switches, the one on the right changes the default button configuration between the numbers above the keyboard (1 through =) and the number pad on the far right side of your keyboard.
One of the Great features of this mouse is the ability to choose between wired or wireless mode. The left switch on the bottom of the mouse allows you to change this option. (You must have the charging doc plugged in, as it acts as a receiver and charger.) Both work exceptionally well. The wireless function is, to my surprise, very responsive. I did however come across one issue with the wireless when I first got it. Every 5 minutes or so, the mouse would freeze for about half a second. While this wouldn’t seem like too much of an issue to most people, I found that luck was against me and it always seemed to cut out when I needed it. Even if it was just half a second, it was annoying. This was an issue I had when I first bought it and was trying everything out back in mid February. Since then I have only ever used the wired mode, mostly due to personal preference on the matter. There will always be less chance of technical difficulties with a wired product then there would be with a wireless product. Not to mention I always forget to charge the dam thing. My roommate uses the wireless feature a lot and has not had any problems with it. I’ll assume there was a driver patch/update for the mouse since I’v last used the wireless function.
While the functionality is without a doubt the most important feature in any gaming peripheral, it’s nice to have some eye candy to wrap the final product up in a neat and friendly bow. The SWTOR gaming mouse by Razer has an epic star wars themed look to it making it look ‘edgy’ yet sleek at the same time. The installation of the mouse was simple and fast, no need to reboot the computer to finish the installation. The Razer synapse program is easy to use for setting up your button configuration. Using the Razer synapse program, you can customize the color of the scroll wheel on this mouse to pretty much any color you want it to be. Along with customizing your scroll wheel color, you can also change the faceplate of the mouse to either have an Imperial symbol or a Republic symbol to show your dedication to the faction of your choice. While some have issues/complaints that you can’t change the color of your faction symbol (yes, it will always be yellow), these complaints are fairly minor due to the fact that your hand is covering the faction symbol whenever your holding the mouse. That being said, I can cope without faction symbol color change. The faction faceplate, along with the battery cover, are SUPER easy to remove, as the parts are magnetized (including the charging doc). Eliminating the need to go find a screw driver when you want to add/remove the battery or change the faction faceplate.
The SWTOR gaming mouse by Razer can be found for around $150. A lot of people are saying it’s overpriced to the teeth. However with all the functions and features this mouse has, I say it is 100% worth the price tag. The SWTOR gaming mouse by Razer, along with the other SWTOR razer products, comes with a code, which can be generated through the Razer synapse program, that gives you access to a special in-game crystal color. This color is a black inner with a glowing green around the outsides, really awesome looking when you’re playing the game. I have a Logitech 510 gaming keyboard that compliments this mouse extremely well. Ultimately I only use the macros on my mouse and keyboard to control basically everything except for ‘tab’ ‘shift’ ‘ctrl’ and ‘esc’
All in all, I give this mouse a 5/5. It is extremely worth the price and you will never play MMOs the same way again.
