Wut's Your Mouse?

I have been experimenting with different mouse options.  I needed more buttons.  My previous weapon of choice was a Microsoft Side Winder Gaming Mouse which had 5 re-mappable buttons: left, right, middle, and 2 pegs in thumb's reach.  Was overall a good responsive mouse which also allowed users to add weights in a side compartment for personalized comfort.  For my healing days on my druid it was good to passable for most situations in game.  I have used the mouse on hunters, paladins, and rogues at low levels but often felt at a disadvantage not being able to access certain abilities on impulse.

My first purchase into higher button count mouses was the Steel Series MMO Gaming Mouse that was released for Cataclysm and backed by Blizzard which even added a UI option for the detection of this mouse.  The mouse offered 14 true mouse buttons strategically placed at key points of this massive mouse.  And, yes, I emphasize massive which was my only complaint about the mouse.  I was constantly fumbling this handful during play which made this mouse really uncomfortable and very noisy during stressful moments (besides my cursing).  The configuration software was relatively easy to use as well as the in game integration and it had a cool change the LED glow color option which though cool would piss me off if that was why this mouse was so huge.  It was also not cheap coming in at $100 CAN was not an option for casual players.

After many weeks of remapping and rewriting macros for my new gaming mouse I came across my next purchase at a demo price.  I have heard about this mouse on the WoW Insider podcast and would not have made the purchase after my $100 dollar mistake if it were not for the demo price this mouse was coming to me for.  So I took the plunge and bought a floor model Razor Naga Mouse - literally a normal sized mouse with a number pad carved into its thumb side.  In my opinion not a pretty mouse and I had a few Mac issues regarding not being able to map the mouse's number keys to the actual numbers on the keyboard - a feature that totally works on a Windows system.  It sadly forced me to re-think my macros and just directly map and macro with out modifiers (shift,control,alt).  In the end the slight change in my game play to use the Naga Mouse was definitely worth it.  Not only did I get better access to an array of abilities but I saw a definite improvement in my game play.  I found the size, as well, to be perfect and definitely no more mouse fumbling on "execute".  Even more so had this been my initial purchase I would have saved my self $20 - the mouse can be found at Future Shop for about $80 CAN before taxes.

First Warrior to 60

I took on learning the warrior class a little better a couple of weeks ago and started 2 warriors.  Initially I had a Dranei warrior which I started when I rerolled as a jewel crafting alt.  I am leveling that warrior as Arms.  I later on heard from the WoW Insider show's warrior expert that an elven warrior had the best racial which is a 2% chance not to be hit which was not dodge based.  The non-dodge base is key since some bosses and warriors have an ability to instantly in-act damage on a dodging target (overpower).  I started this new warrior with no heirlooms and went the fury tree with prot as a secondary talent set. 

I always consider level 60 the first big achievement in game and a definite sign that a character is not merely an alt.  And though the leveling process from 1-60 has been optimized I found the climb as mainly a fury warrior to 60 has been quite quick and satisfying.  My questing route has been somewhat benefited by my previous rises to 60 and feel that the path I took this time around was rather quick and optimized in terms of XP, reputation, rewards, and lore.  Anyone who tries my quest path feel free to comment on how you felt about it.

Night Elf Warrior Quest Path

Teldrassil
Darkshore
Ashenvale
Stone Talon Mountains
Desolace
Ferralas
Thousand Needles
Tanaris
Un Goro Crater
Swamp of Sorrows
Blasted Lands

Few notes on using this quest path:

• Reputation Grinds - I was able to get revered with Dalaran and Gnomeregan.  I am about 3/4 the way to revered with Stormwind.
• In Stone Talon I did the quests towards the North Barrens but doubled back towards Desolace instead of continuing through the Barrens.
• When leaving Ashenvale and questing towards Stone Talon I easily missed (second time around) the gnome at Silverwing who basically opened up 95% of the quest chain in Stone Talon.  I had missed this quest giver initially when my Elven druid made his way through there and could not figure why no quests were available in Stone Talon.
• Profession Grinds - I am finding herbalism to be a great profession to level with since flower picking now adds XP with each harvest regardless on whether you can level your skill.  The beneficial skill of herbalism gives my warrior a minor heal-over-time option which I have been mainly using to speed up post mob recovery.  I did not sell any herbs and found it more beneficial to send them to my scribing alt and my alchemist alt for glyphs and potions.  Skinning has somewhat been profitable.  I have made thousands of gold auctioning old world leather and have been using the armor kits to supplement my armor needs.  The Skinning beneficial adds to my DPS.