I hope you’re in the mood for some macro keys!
You’d be forgiven for thinking MMO mice are a daft idea. Taking a perfectly good mouse and ramming in a load of tiny buttons right where your thumb sits sounds like it would be a recipe for disaster.
At least, that’s what I thought until I got my hands on the Roccat Nyth modular gaming mouse. This thing’s great.
Product: Roccat Nyth modular MMO gaming mouse
Manufacturer: Roccat
Input: One USB 2.0+ Port
MSRP: $119.99
In my experience, a lot of peripherals built around their ‘modular’ or ‘customisable’ design tend to be lacking in build quality because of it. The Nyth is a nice change of pace, as every component feels sturdy and well-built. The matte plastic, chunky thumb buttons, and the thick braided cables all look and feel really nice, and are exactly what I’d expect at this price.
The form of the mouse is mostly comfortable to hold. It’s huge, which is perfect for my giant ogre hands, and it’s well-shaped for a claw/palm-hybrid grip. I’ve been using the Nyth for about five days now and haven’t had any sort of cramping or discomfort, even in the early few hours of adjusting to it.
As a nice added bonus, the right flank of the mouse is attached magnetically and can be easily removed and swapped with an included, chunkier one if you like your mice to be a bit wider.
Unfortunately, that comfort is betrayed by a large, obtrusive macro bar placed in the dead-centre of the mouse. It gets in the way quite often, especially when trying to use a full palm grip or while using the scroll wheel. It feels like an unnecessary addition that’s just there to bump up the advertised amount of macro buttons.
The main feature of the Nyth is the 12 macro key slots on the left flank. They’re meant to provide quick and easy access to hotbar skills in MMOs, but they can be rebound using the Swarm configuration software to do whatever you like, both in Windows itself and in-game.
Roccat has somehow managed to fit 12 relatively large keys on the side of the mouse without them becoming a major hindrance. They’re just firm enough to prevent accidental presses, and they’re large enough to cut down on mashing multiple buttons with my already mentioned ogre hands.
What’s more is that you’re able to physically remove and swap the keys around with alternative ones included in a small case.
The process for removing the keys can be a bit fiddly. There’s a latch, which when held makes all the keys fall out, and then replacing them requires you to match up the right numbers with the right sockets. But even after all of that, being able to replace two keys I don’t use with one double-width button is a feature I really like. My current setup includes eight standard buttons for MMO hotbars, and then two wider ones for my screenshot and video recording macros.
Adjusting to an MMO mouse in World of Warcraft feels a lot like learning to use an arcade stick in a fighting game. At first, I was all thumbs, had no idea where any of the buttons were, and ended up generally frustrated with the experience. But with time, I learned how to use the keys correctly, and now I don’t think I could ever go back to any other control scheme. It’s efficient and easy to use, and not having to throw my hands all over the keyboard for skills can cut down on potential fatigue, too. Lovely.
Fancy buttons aside, the Nyth stands up as a great mouse in its own regard. The Swarm program lets you set the DPI to a maximum of 12,000 (as well as five individual DPI stages for the on-the-fly switching), and set the polling rate to up to 1,000 Hz max. I tested it on my fabric gaming mousemat and a glossy surface, and both seemed to be equally accurate and responsive. I’ve broken more than a few personal bests on Devil Daggers with this thing.
My only problem in regards to the functionality of the Nyth is one that I also encountered on the Roccat Ryos MK FX keyboard: the Swarm configuration program. It’s required to install the device’s firmware and tinker with its settings, but getting it to work in the first place can be difficult. I had to reinstall Swarm numerous times just to get the keyboard to work, and then introducing the Nyth caused even more problems. Sometimes settings just flat-out didn’t want to save, which can be incredibly frustrating after spending a long time calibrating the mouse.
All in all, I’m still really, really impressed with the Roccat Nyth. While it does have some software and ergonomic problems, it’s managed to win me over to the idea of MMO mice. Turns out jamming twelve keys onto a mouse doesn’t necessarily compromise the quality of the mouse itself!
If you play a lot games that require you to use all of your keyboard’s numbers, or even if you just want a lot of free macros to work with, for its cost the Nyth is an absolute no-brainer.
[This review is based on retail hardware provided by the manufacturer.]
