Are you an MMORPG junkie? Do you spend as much time in Azeroth as you do at your day job? Maybe you know Tyria better than your own neighbourhood? If you spend a lot of time performing the same string of button presses, or know how horrible a missing an ability or miss-pressing your keys can be, this keyboard could be your saving grace.

kb

+7 to modified pwnage

So you use 1-0 for your basic commands, with alt+1-0 for the next 10, right? What about alt+shift+1-0? Or alt+shift+ctrl+1-0? Unless you are a contortionist, or you play your MMOs without a mouse, this probably isn’t the most efficient key combination. What if you forget which does row two and which controls row four of your hotkeys? The Anansi has seven ‘thumb modifier keys’ situated just below the space bar. If you don’t need that many rows of spells or abilities available, the keyboard uses a nifty piece of software to allow you to change what various key presses do. Thorny issues of whether you are breaking any ToS or EULA by using these features aside, you can teach your keyboard to use one button to enter in a series of key presses, complete with delays down to the millisecond. Personally I thought this would be great for say, popping a shield, drinking a healing pot and activating a trinket, but there seems to be some contention about the use of these features. Use your own discretion kids.

At this point I should point out that this keyboard isn’t really left-handed friendly, as the thumb keys sit exactly where you want to rest your wrist.

100+ programmable keys

Maybe you have a pile of programs that you keep running on your machine? Set M1 to open your e-mail, or the ever handy calculator. The usefulness of the keyboard isn’t limited to MMORPGs. In Dota 2, I had a macro that made T7 activate Lifestealer’s Rage and Armlet of Mordiggian for six seconds, allowing for an intense burst of damage. You can also switch between profiles at the touch of a button, reducing the time you need to switch between your healing setup versus your DPS key presses.

Mood lighting, baby

Because this is a gaming keyboard, you can disable the pesky windows key by pressing the function button and F11, which puts your keyboard into gaming mode. Now if only it disabled work as well. Keeping with Razer aesthetics, the Anansi has a 16 million colour backlight, which can be set to either slowly move through a range of colours, or make it glow to suit your mood or the rest of your computer’s lighting scheme. For all this lighting power, the Anansi uses two USB ports, something to be kept in mind, depending on your peripheral count. The backlit keys shine through a custom font, adding that little extra of feeling of something unique.

Extra large, slightly alien

The Anansi feels massive. At 515mm wide by 190mm high, this keyboard is not built for sitting on a retractable keyboard tray. I found the footholds to not offer enough resistance on my wood desk, but it sticks in place on my glass desk. At a hefty 1020g, this isn’t really a problem unless you push weights as often as you grind dailies.

As with any slightly different layout or setup, allow time for acclimatisation. One thing I noticed, is that I reorient my hand by finding the left CTRL button, which is generally the key at the bottom left corner. Instead of pressing CTRL though, my hand would be resting over M5, which was one of my macro keys. Needless to say, this can lead to disasters in a dungeon, so get used to the keyboard in a safe environment before trying to main tank that new hard dungeon.

Get a keyboard that works as hard as you do. The Razer Anansi costs about R1000, and it will make you a much better gamer (maybe)!

Last Updated: April 3, 2013

Razer Anansi MMO Keyboard
N/A

111 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 3, 2013 at 12:34

    Epic review about an epic product by an epic dude

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      April 3, 2013 at 12:58

      Hmmm, not so epic downvote 😛

      Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        April 3, 2013 at 13:04

        rectified with an upvote

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Erwin

          April 3, 2013 at 13:04

          Right back at ya

          Reply

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:05

            Have another for that!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:05

            Ditto, uhhh, tritto?

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:09

            This upvote. I like it…. ANOTHA!!!!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:13

            NICE!

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:14

            Indeed!

          • Deon Steyn

            April 3, 2013 at 13:15

            Moar upvotes!

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:19

            YES! BRING THE UPVOTES!

          • Deon Steyn

            April 3, 2013 at 13:34

            Our upvotes are stronger!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 14:17

            I sense upvotes in the Force

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:21

            Inderdaad ou maat

          • Ultimo_Cleric_N7

            April 3, 2013 at 13:31

            ME TOO PLS! Upvotes are all that matter to me. trolololol

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:37

            Have an upvote!

  2. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    April 3, 2013 at 12:48

    Great review dude.

    Looks like an amazing product. Although I will admit the M keys could have been better placed. I just know I will be hitting one of those keys while going for ctrl at some point hehe.

    Reply

  3. DaxterZA

    April 3, 2013 at 12:53

    Nice review, but I would much rather recommend a Mechanical keyboard like the Razer Black Widow…

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      April 3, 2013 at 12:57

      I need to play on mechanical one first to be able to discern, but very curious to do so!

      Reply

    • ElNicko

      April 3, 2013 at 13:00

      also have a Black Widow – only problem with a Mechanical kb , its very loud , especially during something like WOW with constant key pressing. The thing is sturdy and strong though

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 3, 2013 at 13:05

        How loud is very loud?

        Reply

        • ElNicko

          April 3, 2013 at 13:21

          it will probably keep up people if youre playing late at night.
          and on another note – I see Skippy the Downvote Troll has returned to plague us once again

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:24

            Kill it with fiiiiiire

          • ElNicko

            April 3, 2013 at 13:35

            will that be enough ?? Better bring some extra napalm along too

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:47

            Yeah, one can hope

        • DaxterZA

          April 3, 2013 at 13:22

          Depends on what switch you decide on. The “Cherry Blue” switch is used on the Black Widow, it responds and types very nicely, but is also the loudest switch type.

          If the loudness bothers you, rather get the Cherry Red or Cherry Brown switches, they all respond in different ways, so its up to the user to decide what he/her prefers.

          Take a look at the Cooler Master Mech keyboards, they are cheaper than Razer and offer more switch types.

          http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4&sort=3a&filter_id=30

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:24

            Not a bit fan of the coolermaster brand, get it, fan?

          • DaxterZA

            April 3, 2013 at 13:26

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:28

            Another rebeltech regular, have an upvote!

          • DaxterZA

            April 3, 2013 at 13:29

            Thank you my good sir, have one yourself! Taaa!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 14:16

            😉

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          April 3, 2013 at 13:22

          normal keyboard: tap tap tap click tap tap

          Mechanical KB: CLICK CLICK CLANG CLICK BANG CLICK CLICK CLICK

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:23

            XDXD

          • ElNicko

            April 3, 2013 at 14:02

            that sounds about right

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      April 3, 2013 at 13:04

      Mechanical KB’s are great until you try to play quietly lol 🙂

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 3, 2013 at 13:22

        Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          April 3, 2013 at 13:22

          Nee! Ek sien wat in jou mind nou an gan! Nee!

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:26

            (don’t think your spelling mistakes in original post went unseen….)

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:31

            Drat!

  4. Slade Boender

    April 3, 2013 at 12:59

    haha ^maybe^. Good Review

    Reply

  5. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 3, 2013 at 13:13

    We have some trolls on this page…Skelm downvoters

    Reply

    • FoxOneZA

      April 3, 2013 at 13:21

      I concur, good Sir p_0

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 3, 2013 at 13:25

        monocle enabled!

        Reply

  6. Sir Captain Rincethis

    April 3, 2013 at 13:25

    Great review man. The sad loser downvotes will cometh! Bring it, bring it on NOW!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      April 3, 2013 at 13:27

      I suspect its the 4/10 dafuq trolls still bearing a grudge

      Reply

      • Sir Captain Rincethis

        April 3, 2013 at 13:28

        Hahah! What NOOBS!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Erwin

          April 3, 2013 at 13:33

          The funny thing is disqus counts up AND downvotes as a vote, so vote away you ignorant fools!

          Reply

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 13:37

            Yeah, I didn’t know that when I had Gumpy my Troll. I don’t know what happened to him. I fear he may had had an accident under his bridge. Very sad 🙁

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:40

            Not a tear shed by me, every time a troll dies, a fluffy unicorn is born…

            SO FLUFFYYYYYYYYYY

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 13:43

            Whahaahahahaha!!!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 13:59

            EpicFluffyNess10k

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 14:05

            No. I think he spawned kids with the amount of upvotes lately. He was on maternity leave. That’s all

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 14:33

            NoooooooooO!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 14:43

            “maternity leave”
            Hahaha.

            Don’t you mean spawning season?

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            April 3, 2013 at 14:58

            Spawn camping?

  7. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 3, 2013 at 13:44

    I roll with a diamondback and a lycosa, the diamondback is now almost 8 years old, and still in bewdiful condition, the lycosa is now 4, and has seen the face of war.

    Looks like it might be time to replace…….

    Reply

  8. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    April 3, 2013 at 13:48

    lol, ok why are you guys downvoting each other?

    Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      April 3, 2013 at 13:51

      We aren’t. There be downvoters among us.

      BUT HAVE NO FEAR!

      THE #UPVOTERSQUAD IS HERE!

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 3, 2013 at 14:17

        OVS, deploy!!!

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      April 3, 2013 at 13:54

      The ones commenting, are the ones upvoting, haha, BANANAAAAAAAAAAAAA

      Reply

  9. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 3, 2013 at 14:33

    Looks like the troll passed out, haha

    Reply

    • Sir Captain Rincethis

      April 3, 2013 at 14:34

      I think its camping…

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 3, 2013 at 14:35

        BACK UNDER THE BRIDGE

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          April 3, 2013 at 14:59

          It might think that it has an overwatch position from within a sewage pipe…

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:30

            We woke it up XD

  10. Sir Captain Rincethis

    April 3, 2013 at 14:37

    Who knew Garth would pull in so many comments! lol! 😉

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      April 3, 2013 at 14:37

      lol so much spam! hahahaha

      Reply

      • Sir Captain Rincethis

        April 3, 2013 at 14:39

        Haha! The comments here have about as much substance as the inner workings of a downvoting trolls mind!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Erwin

          April 3, 2013 at 14:42

          Oi, I resent that you silly sausage! Some of them have quite the content 😛

          Reply

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 14:45

            Haha! Ya, if you consider the contents of the new KFC Double Down as quality 😉 trololol!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 14:49

            Have you had one yet? Whats innit? Only heard about it on radio

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 14:54

            Ya, had one last week. 2 deep fried breasts, with cheese, sauce, fake bacon round thing, near instant heart attack!

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            April 3, 2013 at 15:06

            I was going to get one this weekend, but when I saw another dude eating one (it was practically drowning in oil and fat in the wrapper), I thought… “hell no” and got a box meal instead.

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 14:56

            Here is picture, placed on black plate to look classy…

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 14:57

            No bun?

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 15:02

            No, the actual chicken IS the bun! 0_O

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:06

            How doth one ship it?

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            April 3, 2013 at 15:08

            It comes in this weird denim-style wrapper… lol. It’s very weird. When I saw that I thought.. “Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh…. box meal it is”

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 15:10

            Yeah, though I must say it was pretty nice, I think I gave it a 7/10 on twitter, with a 100% chance of maiming you if more than one is consumed in one sitting…

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:15

            ROFL

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:30

            #MoerseHungryNow

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:14

            What a weird and wonderful world we live in. Chicken, as buns….BUNS OF CHICKEN!!!

            WOOOOOOOT

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:37

            LOL you are a messy eater…SAUCE ON FOOD

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 15:41

            Actually, sauce on right I added! Sauce in middle was there from when the KFC staff member dipped the whole monstrosity into a boiling vat of UBER-USED OIL 0_O

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:44

            So they dip the WHOLE THING???

            #AwesomeHeartBomb

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 3, 2013 at 15:49

            Hehe, nah, they deep fry the outside ‘bun’ and the stuff in the middle is added later. Not sure what the round pinkish stuff is supposed to be… In the good ol’ USA it’s two pieces of deep-fried, saturated bacon! MOAR!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 3, 2013 at 15:51

            Bacon wrapped in bacon deepfried XDXD

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 4, 2013 at 13:06

            Stil hungry for this!

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 4, 2013 at 13:15

            I think I’ll send one out to you man! Just talking about this is wroth at least 50 comments… That way when your loved ones want to look back at who you are, and why led you to the fatal heart attack, they’ll know who to blame. And my work shall be done!

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 4, 2013 at 13:19

            Nah, strong healthy heart this side!
            I’ll just nomnomnom my provitas with cheese and imagine them to be this beastie

          • Sir Captain Rincethis

            April 4, 2013 at 13:25

            I had a strong heart, until I took one of these to the… 0_O

          • Admiral Chief Erwin

            April 4, 2013 at 13:37

            pfff….EATING COMPETITION CHALLENGE RAISED

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 3, 2013 at 14:58

        73 already!

        Reply

  11. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 3, 2013 at 16:14

    This article, and the comment thread, was super fun!

    Thanks to all that contributed POSITIVELY!!!

    The rest, go suck lemons 😛

    Reply

  12. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    April 3, 2013 at 17:47

    If we get this to 150 comments, Garth is going to shave his beard and head…

    Reply

  13. Matthew Figueira

    April 3, 2013 at 18:37

    LIFESTEALER OP! 😛

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      April 4, 2013 at 07:40

      Is that ALL you took out of this?
      😛

      Reply

      • Matthew Figueira

        April 4, 2013 at 13:13

        No 😛 but it did stick out for me!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Erwin

          April 4, 2013 at 13:15

          Liar, you bloody Dotaslut 😛

          Reply

          • Matthew Figueira

            April 4, 2013 at 16:25

            RUN! SAVE YOURSELF! Its too late for me I’m afraid 😛

  14. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 4, 2013 at 11:51

    You know what I hate? This article was so damn good. The product and the company is ACE in my book (Admiral Chief Erwin, get it? :P), the trolling, the fun, all was so damn epic…

    The feeling is now all gone, replaced by sadness for the whole Disney Lucasarts thing.

    IR SAD

    Reply

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