As I posted yesterday we've taken a good number of steps towards normalcy in our post Hurricane Helene journey. One more step today was heralded by the arrival of my long awaited Wooting 80HE delivery!
I had ordered the 80HE almost a year ago at this point when it was first announced. The 80HE brings all the goodness of the Wooting keyboards and lekkar switches in a "slightly bigger than 75% keyboard layout so we'll call it 80" size. Compared to my 60HE this brings back my F keys, arrow keys, and a few extras like PgUp/PgDn/Del/Ins. While I loved my 60HE I did miss all of extra keys; especially the F keys.
Friendship ended with Wooting 60HE and friendship started with Wooting 80HE! Well not started yet, but the Wooting80HE is entering it's founders period today and I'm jumping on the buy button if I can snag one!
80% layout!? WTF!
As I've said before playing with my Wooting 60HE feels like cheating. I gave up my old Glorious GMMK to my teenager when I moved to the Wooting and the few times I go to use his PC I immediately miss my Wooting.
While I love my Wooting 60HE I have to admit I am not a fan of the 60% layout. I really liked the 75% layout of the GMMK. The good news is Wooting is bringing us a bigger layout with the 80HE with all of the other features I've come to enjoy and rely on to be the l33t gamer that I am (not really)!
In classic Wooting fashion they couldn't just be like the rest of the world and give us a standard 75% layout and instead landed at an 80%. It is hard to say what actually makes the up the 5% difference and there was a small uproar in the keyboard community about the placement of the arrow keys (too far to the left). The arrow keys will be moved to the right slightly in the final version.
For me I just want my F# keys back and arrow keys. As much as I've adapted to using customized key settings and the FN key on my 60HE I will be happy to be back to just using an F key or an actual arrow key. Also delete instead of FN + Backspace will be nice.
Of course all of the other Wooting goodness will be there and I'll still be legally cheating in all the games I play because of it :)
Still under the weather and facing down travel for work so going to keep things general topic for a few days here and yes I know I said 2023 blogging would be more about gaming moments/memories instead of opinion and blather but bear with me as I fail yet again to do what I say I'll do. With that said today I wanted to chime in on my experience so far with the Wooting 60HE keyboard. It is like legal cheating.
What you can do with this keyboard creates immediate difference in how you play games; especially any game where quick movement via WASD, such as side to side strafing, is advantageous (which is basically all FPS). Out of the box this wasn't apparent but after watching YouTube videos like the one below and tweaking settings I found the difference remarkable.
The main tweak enabled by the keyboard's lekkar switches is per key actuation settings. Setting one key to actuate (i.e. register that it was pressed and released) at 0.7 mm and another to actuate only at full key press 4.0 mm lets you have keys be super responsive or require a full key press (i.e. eliminate you hitting it by accident).
My Wooting 60HE
In my use case, as in the video, it is FPS games and WASD at 0.7 mm which gives such a crazy sense of response. It is the closest I've ever felt to movement keys responding to the speed my brain is working at. Depending on the game and how snappy movement is influences the feeling, but for many modern games such as Overwatch in the video or Battlefield 2042 for me it changes how you move in the game.
Movement advantage wasn't as obvious in New World, but what is clear is being able to avoid accidental activation of things like my heartrune (like an ultimate ability) or key skills I want to be purposeful in using.
There is also capability that other keyboards have such as mod tap where a single key can be set to do one thing with a tap or something else if it is held. I don't have many creative game uses for this but since its a 60% keyboard with no arrow keys I have keys set up to act as arrow keys on tap but their normal action on hold. No arrow keys is probably my biggest gripe with moving to a 60% board.
The difference is not just noticeable in games, but in general productivity as well. If, like me, you are prone to typing errors because you hit keys by accident going in and setting those keys to longer actuation or shorter if they are one's you miss easily (for me its P that I set to actuate faster just the way I reach for P).
Then throw in things like the keyboard saving all the settings on the keyboard itself, being able to manage via a web browser instead of needing an app, and just so many nice quality of ownership features and this thing is crazy. Any serious PC gamer is at a disadvantage without this keyboard. Will it make you into a chad gamer just by using it? No, but you should feel a difference and that is saying a lot for a $175 keyboard when there are many more expensive "gaming" keyboards out there that don't do anything remarkable.
