Best Mouse For ESO in 2023 – Elder Scrolls Online

Two ingredients for surviving and thriving in an MMO are skills and good peripherals. Elder Scrolls Online is no different. It being an MMO requires tools that are bespoke MMO.

When it comes to MMOs like ESO, there is only one type of particular mouse that comes to mind – a mouse that has multiple programmable buttons on the side. 

These programmable buttons can be assigned skills from your skills bar as well as actions such as crouching, jumping, etc.

There isn’t really more than this to a mouse for ESO.

While there are other parameters that you can look into such as high sensitivity, DPI, weight, and wired or wireless connectivity, in the end, any quality gaming mouse these days (even if it is a budget option) offers these.

Hence, choosing the best mouse for ESO does not have to be complicated and you do not need to worry yourself much with the complex terms and jargon.

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Choosing the Best Mouse for ESO

There are threads upon threads upon threads (I can go on and on) that have come up in my research that suggest ONE critical feature for a mouse for ESO.

IT MUST HAVE 12 PROGRAMMABLE BUTTONS ON THE SIDE.

While there are many gaming mice out there that have a plethora of programmable buttons found randomly scattered on the sides, and on the top surfaces, for MMORPGs, the common theme of having 12 programmable buttons on the left side of the mouse (for right-handers) comes up almost as a rule of thumb.

And this is a feature that is suggested not just for ESO but for ALL MMORPG games.

Razer Naga was one of the earliest mice to feature the 12 buttons on the side specifically made for MMORPG.

Since then, there have been several iterations and models released including. While the earlier models have gone obsolete. The current models include the following:

• Razer Naga Trinity: Wired mouse with 2, 7, and 12 swappable side panels
• Razer Hyper Speed: Wireless variant with 12 side buttons
• Razer Naga V2 Pro: Wireless variant with 2, 7, and 12 swappable side panels

Razer Naga Trinity happens to be the cheapest since it is wired. The wireless variants are naturally more expensive. 

Also, these are generally very large and heavy mice and unfortunately, there isn’t a more compact variant available. A typical Razer Naga weighs about 120g. Compare this to a typical FPS mouse such as the Glorious Series One Pro which weighs only about 50.6g.

Hence, these are certainly not the mice you would use for competitive FPS gaming.

Now, of course, Razer products are expensive. I mean take for example the wireless option, the Razer Naga Pro. This costs about $120 and not everyone has the top dollar to spend so much on a mouse!

Budget Brands

Well, fortunately, you have more budget brands like Redragon featuring the same type of mice for less than HALF the price.

The wired variant of this mouse is even cheaper.

While it doesn’t offer the changeable side button plates, it offers the hallmark 12-side button for an MMORPG like ESO.

Now another important feature to remember is that these mice have onboard memory. 

You can essentially assign multiple profiles to the keys on your mouse.

So you can have 1 profile for ESO another for World of Warcraft and a third profile for computer software that you work with etc.

These profiles are assigned using the software but once assigned, they are saved onto the mouse. That way even if you were to use it on a different PC, the profiles will remain intact.

These profiles can be switched using one of the buttons on the go. Meaning, you DO NOT have to use software to change the profiles.

Software and Remapping the Programmable Keys for ESO

Aside from the 12-side buttons, the second most important ingredient for a good MMO mouse is for it to have a responsive software for binding the programmable keys to specific skills and actions in ESO.

In the majority of the cases, for a quality and respectable mouse brand, the included software are very responsive and quite intuitive.

The Razer Synapse software, for instance, is among the most popular.

You can select what each and every button on the side of the mouse button does using these software. For instance, you may want to the number “1” button to bind with the number “1” on the keyboard.

That way when you press the “1” button on the mouse, it will perform the action skill that is attached number “1” key on the keyboard.

So and so forth.

You can also assign actions such as jumping or crouching to a certain button.  For instance, you can bind the number “2” side button on the mouse to the “space bar” key on the keyboard. 

That way whenever you want to jump, you can just press the “2” side button instead of the space bar key.

It does take some getting used to, but overall, the MMO mice can improve the quality of life experience for all MMOs including Elder Scrolls Online.

On the Fly Recording

Many key binding softwares also have the Macro Recording functions.

So you can essentially assign a certain simple or complex function to a mouse button using the record button.

You can set up very simple key bindings as well as very complex macros using the record functions.

For instance, to set up a Copy function for a button, you’d press the record button, and then press the keyboard keys in the right order:

1. CTRL
2. C

That way, whenever you press the corresponding mouse button, it’ll execute the copy macro.

Of course, you can also set up simple bindings using the record button for Elder Scrolls Online for skills and actions.

Final Words

ESO being an MMO at heart, benefits from a mouse that is designed for this genre of games and these are typically defined by 12 programmable buttons on the side and a large and heavy form factor.

This is in stark contrast to the FPS mice which are designed to be light and have a minimal design for quick and fast reflexes.

So essentially, the best mouse for ESO is nothing complicated. It is simply a quality MMORPG mouse.