RSI issues playing a rogue.

[Deleted]

Hey

I have been playing a rogue ever since FL and i am starting to notice the strain on my hand. I understand the idea of pressing your buttons harder to do more dps but rogue just seems to be alot worse.

Do any veteran rogues have ways of dealing with the spam or is it just part of something i will have to deal with.

Shadohw

[-Raer-]

When I start getting strain (which is not really often), I use auto hotkey.

[Tehterokkar]

When I start getting strain (which is not really often), I use auto hotkey.

Auto Hotkey is a great program to alleviate the spam. You only have to hold down the button to continuously trigger it(in many cases, it is better than spamming the button on your keyboard), it takes a while to get used to though.

But it is a 3rd party software and there is always the chance of getting in trouble with Blizzard.

[Verain]

I don't believe holding a button for continuous button messes with ToS.

I don't have any solution for you. I agree that pressing a button REALLY hard makes it more likely to crit. You can also bind keys differently, and ensure that your hands have the correct "posture" on the keyboard.

[Squirl]

I do these as necessary:

[straws]

This may appear as odd choice to some, but I have bound my combo point generator ( mutilate/sinister strike/backstab) to mouse scroll wheel and finisher to the wheel click. So to spam the generator just scroll the wheel up and down,and use the finisher with a mouse wheel press. This takes care of 90% of the spam in rotation, rest of the cds/spells/buffs/debuffs can be normally keybound to q/e/r/f/v and 1234 . I can feel the difference as i play my alts which are not setup this way coz of needing multiple abilities to spam and i feel pain in my wrists while playing them over a extended periods , but never once on my rogue i have felt it not even during t15 combat fiasco.

[Deleted]

This may appear as odd choice to some, but I have bound my combo point generator ( mutilate/sinister strike/backstab) to mouse scroll wheel and finisher to the wheel click.

i play with my rogue as an alt atm, but i use many of my spam abilities as scroll down accross my chars, it just works for me and i'm used to it
sinister strike/hemo/mutilate (i prefer backstab on a different keybind due to positional requirements for when i pvp)
smite/mind flay
bloodthirst/MS
lightning bolt
jab
etc etc
mainly things that i use a lot or will use on cooldown, i'm just used to it i guess but it works for me

[khatsoo]

sinister strike/hemo/mutilate
smite/mind flay
bloodthirst/MS
lightning bolt
jab

Nothing in there gets as spammy as Sinister Strike with a geared combat rogue, I believe.
Maybe using hemo and with a high haste and maybe a windwalker in the same situation (I play BrM main, so I off-dps with the same crit build).

Mutilate is slow and not spammy at all, smite and lightning bolt have a cast time so at least you're not spamming as hard aiming for the gcd to prevent energy capping, mind flay as a channel you don't want to be spamming the button, and both warrior skills have a cd (short, but cd).

[Datenshi]

yes i know that feeling really badly
i especially have it while playing combat (which is a real shame ) i have the same problem if i play my guardian druid for too long.
though funny part is i have no problem what so ever while playing assassination.

but yeah it's a real shame since i really love playing rogue and have played it since i started

[Dextar]

I've been raiding on my rogue since Vanilla, it wasn't until switching to combat and getting fully geared up have I started to really notice the spam and pain combo. After a full night of raiding my wrist starts to get sore, raiding 12 hours a week doing that gets really tedious. I want to switch back to sin just to save my wrists..

[Warstar]

Really even at high haste unless you're during adrenaline rush and/or hero rogues aren't energy capping so instead of 2222222222222222 spam take it easy.

Casters honestly have it worse since they need to get that next spell queued almost immediately or else it's a loss of dps with down time so button spam is a must but, with a rogue as long as you're not energy capping you can slow down the spam a lot.

Assassination definitely has the laid back feel built into the class with energy pooling and everything but even combat doesn't hurt from slowing down.

Personally I think there are a lot worse classes out there than the rogue. Stuff like the Arms warrior whose GCD capped atm so you always need to be spamming buttons or other classes that always have a button to push.

All things considered combat isn't that bad if you just relax a bit. Oh and it's super chill during blade flurry times since your regen goes to shit.

[Yuni]

I've been a button spammer since classic so I guess my fingers have been lifting for so long that they're jacked and can handle it. I'm the person who's keyboard you'll always hear over Skype or Vent.

[Kael]

Casters honestly have it worse since they need to get that next spell queued almost immediately or else it's a loss of dps with down time so button spam is a must but, with a rogue as long as you're not energy capping you can slow down the spam a lot.

Personally I think there are a lot worse classes out there than the rogue. Stuff like the Arms warrior whose GCD capped atm so you always need to be spamming buttons or other classes that always have a button to push.

Only GCD-capped casters or those without short-term spell-queuing will have an issue. 1-2 presses per cast doesn't generate any issues (screw instants for everyone not resource-capped). Warriors... yeah I can't play one, the stress of getting instants off on the actual GCD/CD makes me spam painfully hard. The advice in this thread definitely applies there as well, but it doesn't mean that a combat rogue trying to play the top of their game (and to be honest, ANY high-time requirement play for MOST classes) can cause RSI even without massive spamming - that just accelerates the issue.

The stretches brought up above are useful, and appropriating the mousewheel is a godsend for spamming, in my experience.

[Warstar]

Only GCD-capped casters or those without short-term spell-queuing will have an issue. 1-2 presses per cast doesn't generate any issues (screw instants for everyone not resource-capped). Warriors... yeah I can't play one, the stress of getting instants off on the actual GCD/CD makes me spam painfully hard. The advice in this thread definitely applies there as well, but it doesn't mean that a combat rogue trying to play the top of their game (and to be honest, ANY high-time requirement play for MOST classes) can cause RSI even without massive spamming - that just accelerates the issue.

The stretches brought up above are useful, and appropriating the mousewheel is a godsend for spamming, in my experience.

I think a lot of casters like mages/shaman/disc priests get into the habit of just spamming their filler spell non-stop. I know on my disc priest I find myself just mindlessly smite spamming between CDs.

But ya, warriors are the worst by far. My hand gets so damn tired after playing mine that it tends to cause me to not play it again for awhile.

[Deleted]

Auto Hotkey is a great program to alleviate the spam. You only have to hold down the button to continuously trigger it(in many cases, it is better than spamming the button on your keyboard), it takes a while to get used to though.

But it is a 3rd party software and there is always the chance of getting in trouble with Blizzard.

During T15 I also started using Auto Hotkey. Now I don't really have to use it anymore, but its nice that I can fall back to it when I feel that my fingers and wrist are getting a little tired. I think it cuts my button pressing by about 2/3, maybe even 3/4.

[Fat Mac]

auto hot key or get a naga mouse ... no more spam clicking buttons , just hold it down

[Shelly]

Really even at high haste unless you're during adrenaline rush and/or hero rogues aren't energy capping so instead of 2222222222222222 spam take it easy.

Casters honestly have it worse since they need to get that next spell queued almost immediately or else it's a loss of dps with down time so button spam is a must but, with a rogue as long as you're not energy capping you can slow down the spam a lot.

Assassination definitely has the laid back feel built into the class with energy pooling and everything but even combat doesn't hurt from slowing down.

Personally I think there are a lot worse classes out there than the rogue. Stuff like the Arms warrior whose GCD capped atm so you always need to be spamming buttons or other classes that always have a button to push.

All things considered combat isn't that bad if you just relax a bit. Oh and it's super chill during blade flurry times since your regen goes to shit.

I actually think most casters - or at least hard casters - have it easier. Especially over rogues given that the rogue GCD is shorter.

Anyway, to the OP, check your environment first.

Make sure you're using correct posture and have things set up correctly to avoid unnecessary strain and softball it a bit on some things on raid nights. I mean sure it's great to lead overall DPS and everything but there's no reason for you to go balls to the wall on every trash pack. :-)

[Maxxron]

Been main lining a rogue since vanilla and I'm used to the spam now. Long, long nights of raiding is how you get used to it. Also, those little hand workout thingies. But honestly, it's one of those little quirks of the class that you either get used to, or don't.

Personally, I like it. Just find a comfortable level for your arm/hand to take the stress off. But that's just common sense with a keyboard.

[Deleted]

i couldent stop noticing this about this auto hotkey /naga . how exactly does it work? is it legal? can any naga mouse do it? got a razor naga molten .

[Kael]

i couldent stop noticing this about this auto hotkey /naga . how exactly does it work? is it legal? can any naga mouse do it? got a razor naga molten .

The Naga can apply different functions to its keys - map a key to "continue pressing" the key so long as the button is held down is a function that can be copied using software. Blizzard keeps a... muted/awkward stance on this. Macros that function only outside the game (e.g. programming delays into a mouse button macro) are 100% against the ToS and can get you banned, but Blizzard won't make a statement about AHK/Naga because it's capable of doing things that are fine.

They've never directly said "yes, holding a button to spam it is fine," but there's a big line down the road from "I'm holding this instead of spamming it" and "this button plays my character for me." That said, as with anything Blizzard doesn't decide to take a stance on, it remains "use at your own risk" in case they decide it's against the ToS later.

Any mouse/keyboard that can map different functions to keys is capable of doing this, so long as you can toggle on/off the "press a key" function. For Naga, go to razor synapse, take a key, and remap the function accordingly. Edit - specifically, make a macro to press your key once, bind that macro to a key, with the playback option "play while assigned key is pressed".