I just got a new N52te Speedpad I loved my old N52 Speedpad so much that when my puppy Scout chewed through the wires of my N52 I was afraid that without it I would not be able to play. I loved my N52 so much I that a gave several to my friends for Christmas. I would have happily bought another of the Original N52 Speedpads but alas they don’t make them anymore. So I had no choice but to upgrade.
The N52 and its successor the N52te are made by Belkin who partnered with Razer for this recent upgrade. The price tag for the speed pad is high at $69.99 MSRP, I think I paid $39.99 for the old one. While I don’t think the changes from the original justify that much of an increase it does offer some new features: back lit keys (pretty but not necessary), a thumb stick on the D-Pad (I find it clumsy and will probably remove it), and new software.
The software is where the N52te really stands out, where the previous software used two programs, an Editor and a Profile Manager, this one is integrated so there is no more saving a configuration then switching between programs to load the configuration while trying to configure your buttons.
The old N52 had four button states available: Regular, Red, Blue and Green where the new one has only three Blue, Red and Green. The programming for switching between modes was different with the original version as well. With the original the Red State Toggle, for example, was a literal on/off switch push it once for Red State, push again to turn Red State off. With the tournament edition the only way to turn Red State off is to turn Blue or Green State on.
Even with the handful of unnecessary changes and the increased price I am quite pleased with the Updated Version. The buttons are smoother and easier to press (especially the thumb trigger) and the improved software means that setting up new configurations is a snap.
For those of you who are considering getting one and wonder how you might use it here is my current raiding layout:
Blue State Tree Form
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Red State Tree Form
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All of my spells are in macros so that they mouse-over cast:
/cast [target=mouseover] Spell Name(Rank #)
The Thumb Trigger button is set to Momentary Red State, so as long as I hold it I can cast any of the spells listed in Red otherwise my defaults are the spells in Blue. I have my bars setup using Bongos2 so that each form has two states and my caster form also has a paging so that I can set my offensive spells to my default and have my healing spells as my altered state. The Up and Down scroll changes pages, and the click of the wheel cycles through states. The Green state holds my travel forms and my Raid Icons and is not linked to forms so it is static. The under thumb button is Set to Next Target except in green state when it is space bar.
In total I have 7 bars with 15 Buttons each and although some buttons are repeated it feels pretty cool to know that I have 105 Buttons under my left hand at all times. I’m not sure how I could ever synergistic-ally play a druid without it. Shifting into an animal form and still have my healing and offense casting spells a mere click away has made me a much better druid.
Related Links:
Resto4Life’s Discussion of the Original N52 Speedpad and the N52te
13 comments
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March 11, 2008 at 5:19 am
Xotli
Awsome. I want one. To bad I live in EU. /cry
March 18, 2008 at 1:01 am
Add-ons: Bongos2 «
[...] week, I talked a little about my favorite peripheral the N52te Speedpad by Belkin. As great as it is to have all those buttons at your fingers they [...]
May 10, 2008 at 9:43 am
Bill
Please help, can’t figure out n52te and bongos2 setup, bar#1 switches when I form but when I hit any button on it it I change back to NE form and cast from that bar.
May 12, 2008 at 3:19 pm
lifebloomer
@Bill-Hmmm. How are your key-bindings set? when you change forms are the key bindings the same or are they different. I t sounds like the bar one buttons are assigned to different keys than the “bear bar” so when in bear form you are still hitting the humanoid form abilities which will auto-shift you out.
I would recommend clearing all your key-bindings then only assign bar one. I think you may have assigned keys to the bear form bar and that is what is hanging you up.
July 17, 2008 at 1:42 am
Grendalsh
For Druid, rather than mapping a new color Mode for each form, just map Blue mode on the N52 to your main actionbar. (I use Ctrl-Dpad to select combat forms.). Then, shift forms and load up that form’s abilities on your main bar. You can’t cast Moonfire in bear form, so why dedicate an N52 button to it? Rather, dedicate your N52 buttons to specific actionbuttons on screen, and let WoW swap THOSE out for you
Using Bongos I have 4 actionbars on screen, all addressable from one N52te mode using combo presses. I play pretty much every class, so I use a generic profile that accommodates them all. Use Bongos to lay out the actionbars to mirror the N52 (3 rows of 4 buttons), and use b01, b06, b11 as Shift, Ctrl, Alt for combo presses rather than using the Color modes on the N52. Think of these as Virtual color Modes – if you’re using mode toggles, that’s technically a combo press, so this is pretty much the same thing, but affords 4x as many keybindings in WoW (you can’t keybind to Greenmode b03(3), but you can keybind to Shift-3!). As a bonus, you can use the Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys in combo with your mousebuttons (granted, not left/right click), giving you 4x mouse power!
July 18, 2008 at 11:39 am
lifebloomer
Grendalsh,
I hear what your saying but I think your method adds unnecessary complexity to the WoW side of your controls.
We both use Bongos and we both have our forms change our main action bar. While I am playing in treeform or caster form I don’t care to have my screen cluttered with my bear and cat form abilities, because I can’t start casting those abilties until I change forms. However when I’m in cat bear or tree form I do want to see my healing and balance spells because I can start casting them without a form shift.
I agree with you that the modes on the speedpad are essentially modifiers. However the game has more powerful modifiers build in that you can automate the use of using macros you could with one button no and no modifiers by you cast a moonfire on a hostile target, cast a lifebloom on a friendly target, cast a lifebloom on you if no one is targeted, buff a friendly traget out of combat, buff yourself if you have no target out of combat, not to mention the fact that you could set all these up to work on moseover so that you’d never have to actually “target” anyone. with that many modifiers available to you I can’t see why you would choose to use 3/14 of your handy keymad for less functionality.
The way that I have my UI and macros I have essentially added 224 buttons (14 buttons X2 Modes X8 built in Modifiers) to my mouse without using a Shift, Alt or Ctrl Modifier. With that much power I don’t need to bother with click-casting, I don’t need to show 4 bars on my screen.
I recgonize the power of the keyboard based modifiers and using them and the blizzard automated modifiers you could create literally 324 buttons on one action bar (12X3X9 included dead as a modifier) but I can’t see how you’d ever use the 100 additional buttons and the key press modifiers I find slow me down too much.
August 12, 2008 at 1:39 pm
daxc
Can you tell me how you have your states set up? I want to be able to go from blue to red, back to blue, skipping green altogether. For some reason, I cannot get this to work. Any words of wisdom?
August 14, 2008 at 10:04 am
daxc
Nevermind. I missed that you were using momentary states. I just sent back my te and bought an old N52 off ebay.
August 28, 2008 at 10:51 pm
dave "the tree hugger"
thanks for the guide. nice work.
August 30, 2008 at 12:31 am
lost
you mention u use bongos to alter your bar when you shift states.
How do you get the bar to update whilst holding button 15 down?
August 30, 2008 at 9:36 am
lifebloomer
lost- You need to create a Bar for each stance, so your primary or stnace-less bar can be Bar 1, your Bear Form Bar is 2, Cat Form Bar is 3, Prowl Bar is 4, etc. you can create bars for travel form, swimming form, mounted and flying but thats a lot of bars. Once your bars are set up and your buttons assigned, you right click Bar 1, the Bar that will be changing and got to “Stances” set the each stance to the bar you made for it and Bongos will do the rest. Nothing needs to happen on the Hardware side it’s all Bongos controlled.
As I was writing this I started thinking I should write a post… turns out I already did, http://lifebloomer.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/add-ons-bongos2/, that is a fairly complete walk through. Good Luck.
August 31, 2008 at 12:03 am
lost
hey
sorry got that all working but i meant the Red keymap state.
when i click the thumb button number 15 the n52te goes to red keymap but bongos doesn’t update the casting bar
I think u thumb click and click the scroll button is that correct?
August 31, 2008 at 12:51 am
lifebloomer
oh I see what your asking no what I did was to have a second bar full of abilities bound to different keys which were link to my red state so if balue state is bound to your caster form and uses the buttons 1-10, you can then stat up red state to use bar 2 and be bound to F1-F10. The Toggle or Momentary state key can’t also be bound to a key push which is what I think you are looking for.
Don’t forget to assign whatever you choose for your red state in both the n52te editor and in your bongos2 keybindings.