titleThe licensing people over at SteelSeires must stay very busy. A quick glance over on the SteelSeries website shows a whopping 15 different games that they have peripherals on. This doesn’t even count special models with pro gaming team logos on as well. The LanOC Guild Wars 2 Guild (LOL) will be very happy to hear that SteelSeries introduced a full set of Guild Wars 2 peripherals at the games launch. Well we may or may not have intercepted a whole box of Guild Wars 2 goodies. We are going to take a look at each as well as the group together. Are you going to have to pick up your Guild Wars 2 peripherals for your next game? Let’s take a look and see what they are all about. 

Product Names: SteelSeries Guild Wars 2 Peripherals

Guild Wars 2 Gaming Mouse, Guild Wars 2 Gaming Headset, SteelSeires QCK Guild Wars 2 Eir Edition

Review Samples Provided by: Steel Series

Written by: Wes and Adam

Pictures by: Wes


Specifications

Guild Wars 2 Gaming Mouse

Sensor Specifications

Frames per second: 12000

Inches per second: 150

Mega pixels per second: 10.8

Counts per inch: 90 – 5670

Maximum acceleration: 30 G

Sensor data path: True 16 bit

Lift distance: ~2 mm

Maximum polling: 1000 Hz

Size and Weight

Weight: 90 grams (0.2 lbs)

Height: 38.7 mm (1.5 in)

Width: 68.3 mm (2.7 in)

Length: 125.5 mm (4.9 in)

Compatibility

Windows 2000

Windows XP

Windows Vista

Windows 7

Mac OS X

Guild Wars 2 Gaming Headset

Headphones

Frequency response: 18 – 28000 Hz

Impedance: 29 Ohm

SPL@ 1kHz, 1 Vrms: 118 dB

Cable length: 2m

Jacks: 3.5 mm

Microphone

Frequency response: 50 – 16000 Hz

Pick up pattern: Omni-directional

Sensitivity: -38 dB

SteelSeires QCK Guild Wars 2 Eir Edition

Height

2 mm (0.08 in)

Width

320 mm (12.6 in)

Length

270 mm (10.6 in)



Packaging

If you’ve been playing as much Guild Wars 2 as I have, the color scheme alone is enough to associate the peripherals with the game. The bright red on white is a theme you’ll become familiar quickly with this set, it’ll catch eyes from the store shelf to LAN parties. There is more subtle detail paying homage to the game, such as the silhouette borders around the edge of the packaging which is similar to the border around the in-game frame. Each provide a plastic window view, the Sensei Raw and the Flux opening clamshell, and the Qck surface shelled in a plastic with a partial cardboard sleeve.

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The surface has the most direct access, sliding the plastic out of the sleeve and opening crimp-style. As usual, SteelSeries includes a leaflet and logo sticker.

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The Guild Wars 2 Sensei Raw is packaged in typical mouse fashion, as mentioned providing a direct preview of the hardware inside. The inside cover and back of the package lists paragraphs of information in several languages. Inside, the mouse is suspended in a plastic cradle, the bright red cord secured behind accompanying the instruction insert, logo sticker, and driver disc folio.

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The larger Guild Wars 2 Flux headset uses an additional magnetic tab to hold the preview window closed, inside the window occupies the majority of the space, showing off the pivot function of the ear pads by facing the Guild Wars 2 logo outward. The Flux is nestled into a plush plastic pallet, with plenty of paper work behind. The detachable 3.5mm audio cord can also be observed from the peak window.

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Guild Wars 2 Gaming Mouse

We’ve already been won over by the Sensei Raw, a variant of the original Sensei that lacks things such as the LED display on the bottom of the mouse to make it more affordable. The Guild Wars 2 edition shares the same features such as incremental scale of CPI from 90 to 5670 to fine tune 90 CPI at a time, up to 12,000 frames per second, and 1000 Hz maximum polling.

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The facial upgrades obviously play to fans of the series, co-designed artists at ArenaNet so the artworks on all pieces in the series are authentic. The anti-tangle cord, which is achieved by using a heavier USB cord, is the noticeable bright red that is consistent between the peripherals in the family. The same color matches the four programmable side buttons, scroll wheel, CPI switch, as well as a translucent bottom of the mouse. The scroll wheel is illuminated, as well as the logo near the rear of the mouse.

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The shell of the mouse looks like a porcelain-ceramic material with a pure white background, and the iconic dragon “two” logo emerging on the palm. The side material is a smooth rubber to help with grip, and the form of the mouse is designed to be ambidextrous.

The software suite makes use of the SteelSeries engine, which essentially collects the software for any SteelSeries device installed and allows you to switch between them via a side menu and configure them individually, eliminating the needs to install multiple suites and switch between them. The theme of the Guild Wars 2 portion is surprisingly lack luster; we’ve seen them redesign the entire user interface before with the Diablo 3 mouse. Instead, the charcoal black colors are maintained, adding a subtle corner mark with the Guild Wars 2 logo when the device is selected.

There are four areas of configuration. The first, buttons, provides graphics of the different perspectives of the mouse and button locations, and allows users to reprogram the numbered buttons corresponding to a legend.

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Settings is where things such as CPI, polling rate, and illumination settings.

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The Properties tab allows profile creation and application association to auto switch with macros and bound actions.

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Statistics recalls the schematics from the buttons tab to allow users to start a timer and record which buttons are pressed and how much, both by a numerical and color-intensity representation. This is a feature we've seem with most SteelSeries mice since the integration of the Engine. Unlike the Diablo 3 edition, it does not track lifetime clicks at the time of this release.

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Guild Wars 2 Gaming Headset

For the Guild Wars 2 Gaming Headset, SteelSeries took an interesting route. Up until now we have seen them typically go with their Siberia V2 as a base for their game themed headsets. This time around they went with an entirely new model, something that at the time of launch wasn’t even available, the Flux. The Flux is a much smaller and more portable than the Siberia v2. This is because the Flux, officially, was designed for mobile gaming. Even more interesting, the Guild Wars 2 Gaming Headset actually came out before the Flux although I’m sure they intended to have the Flux available a little earlier.

Playing around the Guild Wars 2 Gaming Headset was immediately impressed with its flexibility. Because it is designed for mobility, it will fold up into a more compact package for transporting. You can also customize the headset later if you decide that you don’t want to sport the Guild Wars 2 logos on the sides, the ear pieces pop off quickly and are held in place with a small magnet. SteelSeries will have other ear pieces available as well as different color cords.

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Being a small headset I wasn’t sure about the on ear design when going into it our testing but after using them for a while I was happy with their comfort level. Because of their size, they are very light and put very little pressure on your head. The top band is an interesting design, they didn’t go with a suspended headband design like the Siberia or a leather covered pad like we have seen on other SteelSeries headsets. Instead they went with a design that basically integrates foam directly into the top. Surprisingly, this worked out really well in this case, but with more weight it would have been a little too much.

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Audio performance was impressive considering the size of the headset. The 18 – 28000 Hz frequency response hit the lows when needed and put out enough sound that you could literally use this headset as a small set of speakers if you needed too. The microphone also performed as expected, something I was a little concerned about because of it being built into the cord and a little farther away from your mouth.

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All in all, I would have still preferred the Guild Wars 2 Headset to be a Siberia v2 due to their size and frankly the Siberia v2’s would look amazing in the white and red theme. But considering that, these are still a great headset. I literally had to pry them out of my wife’s hands for testing and she can get a little picky.

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SteelSeires QCK Guild Wars 2 Eir Edition

Both Guild Wars 2 themed Qck surfaces are medium sized, which 10.6x12.6 inch area. The top of pad is a tightly compacted cloth surface that allows for a smooth scroll across, while the bottom is fashioned from rubber to prevent slipping. The Qck surfaces are traditionally heavier than your typical mouse pad, but I‘ve never had to readjust them on my desk. They are also very durable and ideal from traveling to and from LAN parties, easy to roll up and for the most part liquid-resistant.

There are two art pieces available; ours is of the ranger that Norn-race characters will recognize as Eir. As mentioned, SteelSeries has partnered with ArenaNet to preserve the authenticity of the piece.

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Overall

It’s hard to fail when you send battle-proven hardware branded with a beloved game to fan boys. We’ve covered the Sensei Raw, Qck, and are looking forward to more hands-on time with the newly released Flux headset, and sporting the Guild Wars 2 artwork only sweetens the deal. It’s no secret that we’re dealing with largely cosmetic upgrades, but we also have seen licensing go horribly wrong in the past. SteelSeries pulls it off the right way, and on hardware that matches the quality of the game it represents.

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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Lersar's Avatar
Lersar replied the topic: #28182 09 Oct 2012 01:03
SteelSeries Guild Wars 2 Sensei RAW, Flux, and Qck! We have A LOT of community members playing GW2, what do you think, do they do the game justice? BTW, the Flux headset is their latest headset, we get a little preview before we go full hands on.

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