Good Mice for Minecraft Speedrunning?

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Hi, I haven’t seen a topic here that’s just seeking advice but think this is an appropriate place/tag for a discussion like this? I’m getting a new mouse for the first time in like 4 and a half years and I probably won’t be able to get another one for a while, so I want to make sure it’s a good decision. I don’t really have much knowledge of any particular mice other than my own or what the MCSR mouse meta is. I guess I could just type !mouse in the Twitch chats of some top runners, but given that they’ll have their own individual preferences, I don’t know if that gives the full picture or all available options, let alone an understanding of how this works.

I assume important features would include being able to drag click i.e. being able to lower debounce time (i don’t know if there’s any other requirements, I’ve heard that some mice don’t require tape to drag click but I don’t know if that’s worthwhile), an accessible DPI toggle button, and available mouse software to change DPI.

Is there anything else to consider? What mice in particular do these things? Thank you.

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On top of all the normal things you may want out of a gaming mouse for any other FPS game (a shape that fits your hand/grip, extra buttons you need, lightweight, or anything else), MCSR benefits more from a couple specific features:

Being able to drag click is the first and most obvious added requirement, and even if you don’t plan on drag clicking, getting a mouse that is capable of extremely high CPS will also benefit butterfly clicking enough to be almost as good in most speedrunning situations compared to drag. Any mouse that has optical switches and a customizable debounce time should be able to drag in theory, but I would definitely try and hear what people who actually own the mouse have to say. Whether or not you need tape is a lot more personal, like it depends a lot on weather and how moist your finger is usually, but regardless most people who drag click consistently do use tape regardless of their mouse.

Another requirement would be being able to lower your DPI using a button. Part of this is a software thing, and most gaming mice should do this no problem (except Keychron kinda). As for having an extra physical button to change your DPI, that is a nice to have (and probably why the Burst II Air was so popular) but really isn’t necessary, since you can use middle click or one of the two side mouse buttons. That might require you to change your binds in game to accommodate, but I wouldn’t personally put any weight on having buttons other than the default 5. Or you can use Linux and this doesn’t matter because you don’t need to change DPI.

Other than those two things, MCSR doesn’t really require anything extra. I think it’s also important to mention that you may not need a mouse with a high CPS cap or easy DPI toggling, depending on your requirements and setup. Feinberg has a G502, Infume has a Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed, bigbigmongey has a G203, etc etc. That being said, a lot of runners have an OP1 (edcr, beefsalad, v_strid, lowkey, silverr, nonsochiama), many have a Burst II Air (doogile, Ranik, Darvy), and a few have the Lamzu Atlantis (hax, Aquacorde, 7rowl), so there is clearly some value in getting one of these specific mice.

@sonya might have thoughts on this too

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since i was tagged i thought i’d also just share what i think of the whole r0hkx response, but mostly i agree neither of ability to drag click or dpi switching is a “requirement“. Feinberg’s G502 and Infume’s Naga V2 are incapable of changing debounce in software, and both are good examples of good performance in both ranked and official categories. everything comes down to preference, but you need to be aware of certain “tech” that is impossible on certain peripherals - if you don’t have customizable debounce time (IMO you should just avoid brands like Logitech, Razer, Pulsar for Minecraft) you can’t perform certain methods to boat clutch, stack multiple blocks at the time, airplace etc… as rohkx mentioned, it’s not just for drag clicking, but faster clicking potential overall. but at the same time, again, none of these things are quite necessary for good performance. With DPI switching - Extra buttons on the mouse are nice even if you’re not planning to DPI switch (It’s primarily useful for ranked, since ranked modes are RTA-based) but a thing that’s worth mentioning is that most mice that don’t have a DPI button on top (near the scroll wheel) probably have one on the bottom of the mouse, and some runners actually make use of it (AFAIK meebie and skylewl use this in ranked)For my personal recommendations, i highly suggest using , as i think the mouse shape and size (and weight, kinda) should be your first priority, since it’s way more important if you are comfortable using your mouse rather than it being crazy overpowered pro gaming choice. For example, Endgame Gear make 2 versions of their newest mice - OP1 8k (or OP1w 4k for wireless) and xm2 8k (or xm2w 4k for wireless). as far as i know, the only difference between 2 is just shape, op1 is smaller and narrower, when xm2 is slightly bigger and is intended for players with bigger hands. If you want to go in-depth on how many different mice there are and which ones are worse and better, there’s a ton of channels on youtube (boardzy, for example) that specialise almost only on reviewing gaming peripherals, and have reviewed hundreds of different mice. but it’s good to keep in mind that they ignore the facts that are important for minecraft, so you will more likely find roccat and turtlebeach mice at the bottom of tierlists despite them having good CPS and drag clicking potential
This is probably nothing burger of a message since i don’t give any straight forward recommendations, but thats just more to prove that it’s all about preference :stuck_out_tongue:

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thanks for the reply and the info. that makes sense, i was thinking more about details relevant to minecraft because i think i have matters of preference figured out decently well, and i also removed some matters of my own personal preference from my draft of the first post because i wanted it to be less about myself. but personally, i’ve been using a razer deathadder v2 for the last 4 and a half years and it’s pretty good for me in terms of size and shape, a slightly lighter mouse would probably be nice because as my mechanics have improved over those 4 and a half years i have come to care more about being able to quickly flick my mouse. and a slightly smaller (but probably not too much smaller) one would be fine. the biggest issue with my current mouse is that it is just impossible to click fast with because you can’t change the debounce time, so that’s one thing i’m definitely looking to improve.

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ok i did some research and the xm2 8k mostly looks really good, but from the reviews i’ve seen, unless the associated software got updated more recently the lowest polling rate you can set it to seems to be 1000 for some reason :frowning: this is a problem for older versions because there’s no raw input and the mouse accel is worse at higher polling rates, some people have even reported their mouse stuttering in old versions on higher polling rates. i might have to look a lot deeper than i first thought

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oh I did not consider that as another added requirement. surely there must be some work around to lower polling rate, right? i feel like using a certain kind of dongle or some software or something should be able to do the trick.

https://www.overclock.net/threads/usb-mouse-hard-overclocking-2000-hz.1589644/
I did find this old forum thread that probably would work for this case, but I would be pretty hesitant to try it myself unless desperate

i did find this video of a review of the xm2 8k that does seem to show a 125hz mode, but nothing in between 1000hz and 125hz which may not be great (though fwiw i don’t think 125hz would be that bad on 1.8).

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oh, maybe the software got updated or something, but this video you linked seems to be for the XM2w 4k (the wireless one) and not XM2 8k (the wired one). the video i saw that didn’t have the 125 hz option was this one. (edit: the XM2 8k polling rate options are also briefly shown in the video you sent at 3:25 into the video). i’d prefer wired because i have enough stuff to keep track of charging and i’m used to wired mice so i’m a bit worried about latency, but i’ve heard the latency on some newer wireless mice is pretty minimal and if some top runners can use them i’m sure it’s fine), and i could probably make it work if i had to.

if the 125 hz option is there and is the only one lower than 1000, that’s fine, i actually currently use 125 hz in old versions and it’s obviously not ideal, but because of how broken the mouse input is in old versions, it is sort of the best option available as far as i know

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but this video you linked seems to be for the XM2w 4k (the wireless one) and not XM2 8k (the wired one)

whoops i missed that detail. that would make sense if they only include the 125hz polling rate for power saving.

i’m a bit worried about latency

latency on modern wireless gaming mice is indistinguishable from latency on wired mice. there is the added chance of weird signal interference but unless your microwave cuts out your wifi i wouldn’t really worry about that.

charging

this is the one real drawback of a wireless mouse, but most of them only need to be charged around once every few days to once every couple weeks. worst case you can just plug it in and use it wired until its charged.

im a big wireless mouse enjoyer, i can’t see myself ever using a wired mouse again.

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i just got an OP1w 4k v2 and want to add that the “power saving” polling rate mode feels very bad, like choppy. the 125hz (office mode) feels fine though