I bought a $180 mouse to play one PC game, and I'd do it all over again

Digital Trends

5 days ago

Playing games isn't just about getting your hands on the best gaming PC — it's also about the peripherals. That's a lesson I had to learn the hard way over years of gaming and spending all of my budget (and then some) on my PC, and my PC alone.
When I finally bought myself a proper gaming mouse, I went all out by spending $180 on a Razer Naga V2 Pro. I only ended up using it for one game, but I have absolutely zero regrets. I'd actually do it all over again.
I've neglected my peripherals for years
I'm a PC builder with nearly 20 years of experience. I've built many PCs over the years, and more often than not, I've gone over budget. What can I say, self-control is not one of my biggest virtues.
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Overspending on the PC itself meant that peripherals were often an afterthought. I didn't have the money to spend on fancy mice and keyboards, all because all my money went toward getting one of the best graphics cards or a better processor.
For years, I didn't mind — after all, having high frames per second (fps) is more important than having a killer mouse or a fancy headset. I got by with cheap peripherals for a long time, but eventually, I decided to stop spending money on cheap mice that performed poorly and broke all too quickly. I decided to start scaling up on my peripherals.
I accumulated several mice through my initial testing. It took me four until I found one I was completely happy with, and that was the $180 Razer Naga V2 Pro. I bought it with a very specific game in mind, but I thought that over time, I'd end up loving it for other titles, too.
That never happened, and I have zero regrets.
The Razer Naga V2 Pro blew me away — eventually
I've had this mouse for around a year now, and I love everything about it. But when I first got it, I came close to sending it back and asking for a refund.
There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the Razer Naga V2 Pro. Rather, it was my own lack of familiarity with MMO mice that made me hesitant to start using the Naga. Having a total of 12 buttons on the side plate was intimidating, but I knew I liked the idea of it, so I've committed myself to giving it a proper try.
My game of choice was World of Warcraft Classic. I no longer play the retail version of WoW, which would've justified the expense a little bit more, but as WoW Classic evolves, more and more keybindings are needed to keep up with the robust toolkit each class receives.
For a game such as this, the extra keybinds provided by the Razer Naga can make a big difference in gameplay. Instead of using Shift or Control modifiers to support each new bind, I could just click different buttons right underneath my thumb.
I was excited to try the mouse for myself, but when it first arrived, setting it up was a chore. I had to re-think each and every keybind, and then somehow get used to the new way to use each spell and ability. But the real chore was still ahead of me.
I play multiple characters, so for each class, I had to redo the whole keybinding process in an unexpected way — I had to reorganize my keybinds in a way that I'd remember across many different characters. This resulted in a major cleanup across the board, where I tried to bind each mouse button to something that'd do roughly the same thing for each class. Spoiler alert: It wasn't completely possible, but I tried my best.
Many months later, I'm more than happy with the result, but it took a lot of getting used to.
I could never go back, but …
After a year with the Razer Naga V2 Pro, I have to say that there's no way I could go back to not having this mouse now. My WoW gameplay is built around relying on this mouse, and giving it up would be a nightmare.
With that said, I also can't imagine going through all the key-binding trouble for any other game. It takes time to set up and even more time to get used to, and as I don't play any other MMOs, I simply don't own games that would truly benefit from such an obscene amount of programmable mouse buttons. In fact, I do most of my gaming on an Xbox controller, bar WoW. If I do use a mouse, I still use the Naga (and I don't even bother swapping to a different side plate), but I don't assign all the keys to the mouse.
As a result, I've essentially spent $180 to play one game. As I said before, I have absolutely zero regrets. None whatsoever.
I just wouldn't do it in any other game. I consistently go back and make tweaks in my keybinds for WoW Classic: Mists of Pandaria, but I'm not going through that hassle for any game I love any less than a whole lot. It's just not worth it.
With that said, if you have more time or patience than I do, you could very well make the most of the Naga in other titles. If you can see yourself needing a mouse with that many buttons, you absolutely can't go wrong with this one, so I heartily recommend checking it out on Amazon. It's $175 right now, and I'd buy it again in a heartbeat if my current one broke.