Introduction

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Leetgion is a brand new company aimed at providing radically different mice to gamers around the world. Leetgion is owned by Thermalright. Known by many for their high quality coolers, Thermalright is not a company completely new to designing stuff for the gaming crowd. The Leetgion El'Druin is a gaming mouse for RPG players. It features a wealth of buttons and has several tricks up its sleeve with a DPI adjustment wheel and a gaming S-Pad on the side. The S-Pad can be assigned to control all sorts of in-game things. Two differently sized palm plates the mouse ships with make the shape of the El'druin customizable. They come in two different colors: black (satin finish) and grey (normal plastic finish).

Specifications

Avago 9500 Laser Mouse Sensor (100 to 5000DPI)
Two Made in Japan Omron Micro Switches.
One patent pending Omni-Tuner for DPI Micro Tune and profile management.
Five-directional thumb SPAD.
Twelve fully programmable hotkeys.
Four custom profile sets (one default profile).
Dual LED lighting cue system for profile and Omni-Tuner Mode indication.
Four removable palm plates for adjustable size and grip.
Heaven Plate size: L 127mm x W 69mm x H 44mm
Inferno Plate size: L 119mm x W 63mm x H 43mm
Weight: 120g

The Package

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Leetgion's El'Druin ships in a large box. You can see the mouse once the sleeve of the box has been removed, but there is no way to grip the mouse.

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The bundle includes everything you would need and then some. Leetgion jumped on the customization bandwagon and is shipping four different palm plates with the El'Druin. They come in two different sizes and with two different feels. The two black plates have a soft-touch satin finish, while the two silver plates come with a plain finish.

Closer Examination

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Like the Helion mouse from Leetgion, it definitely has its own look. This mouse is aimed at Diablo III players and its style probably includes everything a diehard Diablo III gamer would love. It is made for a fingertip grip which means that the palm plate only gives a limited amount of support.

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Leetgion included a novel feature on the El'Druin. Instead of a normal thumb-button layout, they have made what they call an S-Pad (like a D-Pad on your Playstation controller). It does not have analogue detection and effectively gives your thumb five buttons to operate.

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Although this mouse is meant for MMOs like Diablo III, the bottom of the mouse has a lot of material, so it will probably last you for a very long time.

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The cable has a relatively soft braided sleeve and comes with an integrated cable binder, which is neat.

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Size-wise, the Leetgion El'Druin is almost as big as the new Func MS-3 mouse. The size is close to perfect for finger-type control, because it allows the S-Pad to be positioned nicely; however, you have to adjust your grip to the mouse in order to get it to work.

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Leetgion opted for another scroll wheel on the other side of the mouse, for quick in-game DPI changes. Whether the switch is usable depends a lot on your gaming style and grip. Personally, I find it hard to use anything on the sidewall opposite to my thumb.

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The scroll wheel area is uncluttered, which is a nice change from other mice.

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The build quality of both cable and mouse is quite nice; it is definitely on par with most modern high-end gaming mice.

Software

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The driver suite performs alright in its current incarnation. You get to assign different profiles to the mouse and can build quite elaborate macros. The layout is a bit messy, but better than what we have seen on many recent gaming mice. It would have been nice to see some pre-programmed macros specifically for Diablo III, so that all the lazy Diablo III gamers could get going straight away after simply assigning these macros to specific buttons.

Performance

It is quite obvious that this mouse is for RPG games since its button placement gets in the way of efficiently lifting the mouse up. Leetgion is totally upfront about its target audience with this mouse: it is for Diablo III and similar MMORPGs. This design is definitely not for everyone and makes the mouse perform poorly with all FPS titles. That being said, you can still play FPS games with the El'Druin, but it will require you to change your play style of playing and grip, which would be too much of a hassle for most FPS gamers.

The mouse uses the Avago ADNS-9500 sensor: one of the best-performing sensors on the market, and the implementation is well executed. All of its main characteristics, like low lift-off distance (LOD), very high failure speeds, and the positive acceleration issue, are still present.

Gaming

In-game tests with this mouse were limited to CS:GO and Diablo III. It makes sense to test the mouse with Diablo III because the mouse is built for such games. The CS:GO test was solely conducted to gauge the core performance of the mouse in regards to tracking.

First up was a lengthy session in Diablo III. The mouse proved to be interesting, since you can map a lot of neat stuff to the four-way button. It lets you swap spells out easily and gives you faster access to some of the more menu-buried functions in Diablo III. The macro system works alright if you are into that sort of thing. Personally, I am not for spending a lot of time setting it up, but it might be worth the trouble if you play RPGs competitively. The S-Pad, once properly set up with appropriate button assignments and a little in-game testing, made for quite a good mouse to play with, although the shape and its functions take a lot of time to get used to. Most of the annoyances were gone after a week of testing, but the S-Pad still felt a bit awkward. Its placement compromises both grip and in-game ergonomics somewhat, making it hard for people with larger than average hands to get the most out of the mouse because it is placed too far towards the back of the mouse.

The primary buttons are great. Their lower-than-average actuation force and slightly longer travel time works well in RPG games with a lot of key strokes, like Diablo III. That together with the S-Pad makes this mouse a serious kit for Diablo III but a horrible mouse for FPS games and ordinary desktop use.

The right side's secondary scroll wheel is almost impossible to use properly, since you have to use it with your ring finger or pinky. Placing it a little further forward would make it so much more efficient. It leaves a lot to be desired in its current implementation.

Desktop Work

We would have loved to see a way to integrate left/right and up/down sensor movement into macros, since that would allow you to create a very neat CAD work profile for SolidWorks, Pro Engineer, or any other CAD software. It would be ideal if you could get the S-Pad to mimic a 3Dconnexion desktop controller; however, that is not possible with this driver suite, but may be an excellent idea worth looking into. You can, however, get past this issue in SolidWorks by assigning ALT + Arrow keys to get component reorientation to work.

Value and Conclusion

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The Leetgion El'Druin sells for $99!

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Feature rich design
Swappable palm plate
S-Pad
On-the-fly DPI adjustment
Great build quality
Nice button mechanisms
Profile enabled
Good sensor
Very low lift-off distance

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Very expensive
Shape only really good for RPGs
Styling perhaps a bit over the top for some
Ergonomics are quite special

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<tr><th>8.0</th>
<td>The Leetgion El'Druin's current incarnation is for a very specific crowd. It does very well in Diablo III, gives you loads of tweaking options and a lot of easily accessible buttons via the ingenious S-Pad. We would have loved a couple pre-made macros for Diablo III and other RPG titles, and a few tweaks for CAD-oriented work.<br>The S-Pad holds a lot of potential for gaming and ordinary desktop work, but Leetgion is unfortunately not exploiting the mouse's physical capabilities fully. The 1.01 version of its software is stable, and I sincerely hope they will complete the package by adding in more features. The driver suite of a mouse with so many features as the El'Druin deserves to be incredibly comprehensive. It really only lacks a couple features in order a deliver a fulfilling experience. Considering its price, more features would definitely make the mouse a lot more attractive.
<br>The design of the mouse is either a love or hate affair. The El'Druin is quite pleasing to game with if you modify your grip to fit the mouse. You will run into serious issues if you cannot tweak your grip properly, since both sides of the mouse are occupied by large buttons or scroll assemblies. This is not a major deal breaker as every mouse takes a little getting used to. This mouse just represents a major departure from everything else you have ever had.
<br>The fact that you can tweak the palm plate is a good idea. It is well executed on the El'Druin. Swapping back and forth between plates is an easy procedure, and with the two offered sizes, most people will be able to get a very satisfactory experience.This mouse comes with one of the best sensors on the market. The Avago ADNS-9500 is still at the very top of laser sensors, although it has been superseded by something with a higher DPI rating. The use of Omron switches is also a nice touch.
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