How do YOU beat the hand cramps/pain etc of tradeskilling?

[Greymantle]

Get rid of the mouse .... get a trackball. Tons eaiser on the hands.

[Kalavas]

Am I the only one here who uses StickeyKeys?

[Foraern]

Curious about something:

While making wu's armor I had to have a lot of vials of mana available, so I set my chanty to work making them and used the following hotkey macro:

/sit (stand up)
/cast 1 (thicken mana)
/pause 100 (wait for spell to complete)
/autoinventory
/sit

Is it somehow possible to do the same with tradeskills?
something like:

/move inventory1 (first slot in inventory ie. (1) of stack of whatever) container1 (whatever tradeskill container is open)

/move inventory2 (second slot in inventory ie. (1) of stack of whatever) container1 (whatever tradeskill container is open)

/combine
/autoinventory

this is something that wouldn't be "exactly" macroing
but would help a lot when tradeskilling

[Cubwynn]

use a trackball mouse that fits your hands
use a keyboard that fits your hands
have a desk that supports your arms and hands properly
comfortable, supportive chair

I have never had any issues with any pain or soreness while tradeskilling.

Here's a hint, guys... if it hurts, YOU'RE doing something wrong.


tired of hearing whines about "carpal tunnel" when most of you don't even know what it really is.

[Lothay]

I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Both wrists. Diagnosed, accepted, and under treatment.

I also tradeskill.

I don't suffer unduly from it.

Things to make sure you're doing

• Sit in a comfprtable chair set at the right height for comfortable access to your keybard and mouse/trackball.
• Use use devices that are most comfortable to you. Trackball works best for me, mice for some of my friends. Comfort is important.
• DO NOT sit or hold your hands in any position you find painful or unpleasant. Doing so is a sure way to hurt yourself.
• Take breaks. Don't grind for hours. Do a couple of stacks and rest.
• If something hurts, STOP DOING IT.

[Kandrak]

A5-35 works for me. Not the white stuff, the blue stuff.

[Hibashira]

A small rubber-faced clamp on the ctrl key. A wrist brace (with a metal or hard plastic spine) for the mouse hand. Closely placed bag, combiner, hotbutton windows with /autoinventory button, and inventory window with destroy button.

[Raienya]

Well, I just got diagnosed with tendonitis in my right wrist (good thing I am left handed=p). Have to wear a wrist brace for a few weeks, so going to have to take it really slow on any tradeskilling I decide to do.

Oh, and before you ask, no, it's not from tradeskilling...something as simple as trying to stand up while sitting on the floor and not bracing myself properly

[Marinoni Oakenshield]

SoE should make tradeskills, at least some of them a little more realistic. For example. If I am a brewery, I don't make one beer at a time, I make many at a time. So, for example the Minotaur Hero's brew is a 9 item combine. Well, put in one stack of each item into the brew barrel, hit combine and you get 20 attempts at brewing it, with the success/failure messages and any skill ups you may have received. This could be used for a lot of skills, Baking, Pottery and Brewing for sure.

[Kaprice]

I found out that for some reason once I started a regular weight lifting program along with aerobic exercise, I could tradeskill much more regularly with a lot less pain. It used to be so bad I had to take a few weeks off and wear a wrist brace. Now it's only after a couple of hours of straight tradeskill do I feel pain. Good luck with your skills

[Jobrill]

Play a Bard for 52 levels. TSing is nothing after Twisting.

[Ziela]

Your weight lifting is probably helping because it is strengthening your shoulder, back, and arm muscles. So those areas can do more of the work of supporting your wrists and hands properly. I still struggle with tendonitis from working in a lab and doing the recommended arm exercises and stretches really helps. What I also try to do is set a limit for how many combines I will do that session, i.e. 2 stacks of opal steins. Periodically force yourself to get up, walk around and stretch. It's easy to get sucked into the game and not realize you've been sitting glued to the monitor for hours.

[Zaniel]

I've never suffered pain or even any discomfort tradeskilling in spite of ridiculous marathons and coming home from a day at work in front of the computer. My three tips? :

1) Make sure your wrist is supported and arm is level (this means good posture and correct height chair amongst other things)

2) Make sure you do other physical exercise (I work out a lot at the gym and consequently can seat myself firmly for long periods without being tempted to slouch or droop my arm)

3) Make sure only your pointer finger is doing any work whatsoever (this means getting a good shaped mouse that can be used with minimal use of any muscle in the hand other than pointer finger, I use the MS Optical Intellimouse).

[Kieroth_whiteleaf]

EQStratics (Not sure how valid a news site they are, so mileage may vary... this was my first time there) had a post that sony is planning on making a tradeskill macroing system - it looked something like the update to the spell gems where you right click a tradeskill container, select the recipe, and it automatically finds the appropriate stuff and combines.

Not sure exactly how it handles what recipes are available or anything else, but looked semi-promising.

Assuming it's even true.

SFG

[KyrosKrane]

Look here for local commentary on that change, including a quick word from Maddoc, the EQ tradeskill guru-type person.