After contacting the Asia-Pacific branch of Razer for more info on the Switchblade. I was given the opportunity to review one of their latest gaming mouse. The Special Edition of the Naga, the Naga Molten. Released last year at around mid-december, the Naga molten sports a few changes in the Naga design to give MMO gamers more oomph in their online gaming.
To get things started, here’s the technical specifications of the Naga Molten:
- 17 Fully-programmable MMO-optimized buttons (including 12 button thumb grid)
- 5600dpi Razer Precision 3.5G Laser Sensor
- 1000Hz Ultrapollingâ„¢ / 1ms response time
- Zero-acoustic Ultraslickâ„¢ feet
- Unlimited character profiles with AddOns
- Optional MMO-specific software AddOns
- Approximate size: 116L x 69W x 41H (in mm)
The Naga Molten comes with the following items:
- Certificate of authenticity
- Razer Naga Grid Trainer
- Quick Start Guide
- Master Guide
- Razer Product Guide
- 2 pcs. Razer Stickers
The Naga Molten is the redone design of the Naga, an earlier Razer mouse that was made specifically for MMO gaming. It’s ergonomic design was made for long gaming sessions. Upon
seeing the mouse as I flipped open the cover I was pretty dubious at first. Specially with the 17 buttons which are mounted on the side. However upon my run through with the mouse it was a snug fit and the num pads weren’t a bother for me.
Unlike most mice I’ve used in the past, the Naga Molten had a learning curve. It’s due to the fact that I wasn’t used to the numpad on the side of the mouse. The most of my experiences with a mouse of this kind would be the a4tech x7 which had two buttons on the side. Speaking of which I have the Naga Molten and the X7 side by side in one picture.
I surprisingly got used to the numpads after 30 minutes or so. However, Razer expected that not all will get used to the numpad design so they included a “guide”( which is in fact part of the package) that can serve as your “training wheels” for the naga molten. The guide or grid trainer comes in a form of an 3M adhesive which you can put on the numpads to at get your fingers used to clicking the right number without so much as a second game delay.
The Naga’s original was made for MMOs. Currently the official add-ons that are made specifically for the mouse are for World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online. Aside from that, you can also program the mouse to do specific tasks even outside of gaming. The Naga Molten in fact allows you to program in macros.
The Naga Molten really feels comfortable as I was using it on various games. The mouse glides smoothly on the wood table I have which is really surprising specially when I had to use a mousepad for my X7. After almost half a day of playing the mouse still felt comfortable, even with my sweaty hands (which is surprisingly the first time that happened to me while using a mouse).
I like how the mouse’ lights “throb” as it’s plugged in. In fact this is how the mouse looks like in the dark:
The mouse is practically handy specially in WoW. I actually was able to control my Dwarf Hunter with just my hand on the mouse (yes after playing horde for most of my WoW life I wanted a shift in factions :P, I used to be a BE Paladin all my horde life). The forward and backward
mouse are pretty handy too since I don’t have to press and hold the right and left mouse button to keep my character moving.
I used the default settings of the mouse so I was able to control my character with the forward and backward button found on the side of the left mouse button. The irritating thing though is that the backward button wasn’t working in the game (but, I was able to use it normally while browsing). Also, me and a friend who had problems with the placement of these two buttons, however they’re not really too irritating since I got used to it eventually.
Aside from WoW I was able to use the mouse on various games such as, League of Legends (had a good run with it too!), Team Fortress 2, and Borderlands. Weapon switching for the FPS games (TF2 and Borderlands) was easier since I don’t have to rely on my keyboard anymore. Of course I had to adjust for my first hour of playing since I this would be the first time I would be using my mouse as the weapon switcher (I don’t use the mouse cycle cause it’s slower, seriously slower, at least for me). On the RTS game (LoL) I had to remap some of the keys to integrate the mouse with it, since I wasn’t really rushing I just used the default controls and it helped me use my items faster compared to the use of the keyboard.
The mouse was pretty handy on all the games so this definitely isn’t just for MMOs.
Overall I enjoyed my experience with the Naga Molten. My earlier fears of the design was really unfounded and my experience with it really proved that it works and it isn’t awkward to use, at all.
The Naga Molten has a tag price of 4,399 PHP. So if you’re looking for a mouse that can help you out in your MMO gaming this can be an answered prayer to you.
Here are more pics of the Naga Molten:
