PoE hurts. Literally hurt my hand.

I find it extremely likely that positioning/technique is the problem mentioned. It always boils down to using it wrong(position, technique) and overusing it/extra stress on body/not rested/nutrition.

Given the combination of factors it could be technique related to the type of controls in poe. Excessive moving the mouse to control while also using it to attack.

If you read this OP, did you have similar issues in other ARPG's?

Also this story is worth taking note of, maybe you become stressed because you feel you have to click too much and causing you to grip it too tightly?:

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SirSid wrote:

I use to have this problem ,even with short term play time dew to the work i was doing being VERY strenuous to my hands .

I fixed the problem by learning how to write calligraphy ???

I know its wierd but it worked really well , she basicaly taught me how to hold the pen's lightly , so lightly that she wanted to be abel to remove the pen from my hand while i was writing with basicaly no resistince , and i developed this super light grip dew to it , I then started to use when gaming . Took me a long time to ajust , especial in starcraft i basically had to re learn the game but in the end i developed this new super light grip i can use in some situations it negates TONS of hand strain and increases speed 10 fold

I have similar problem so some extent - since I learned to battle it at least semi-effectively.

- Just buy a Mad-catz mouse. It's very important that your thumb is carried on something during mouse movement. It prevents the thumb grip on the mouse which is very unhealthy.
- It Mad-catz is not for you consider switching to vertical mouse - Evoluent is best
- Massage your hand even through pain. Massage your wrist and muscles and joins between thumb and other fingers.
- Also massage the muscles and joints up to elbow
- Massage your wrist from all sides - don't forget to massage from top - really!
- Learn to relax your grip and posture on mouse as much as possible. Do every click and movement as lightly as possible
- Switch the mouse to bigger sensitivity -> so less movement is greater distance
- Put some books under your mouse pad
- Stretch your hand, but also give it enough time to rest. Relax your muscles after stretching.
- Shake your hand with great force - the aim is to pulse wave - so that your muscles and joins position themselves correctly - as big shock waves as possible

If above is still not enough:
- relax your hand above hot cup of tea - up to what skin can bear not to be burned up
- Use acupuncture needles - directly piercing the places where muscle spasms create - those places are easily located (it clicks back and forth on them). You can do this yourself, just learn where are your main arteries in hand. Or visit acupuncture expert and tell them this - warning they will also try to put acupuncture needles to all places across your body where you don't need them - try to limit this effort of theirs as while it can cure your other problems, it certainly will not help the hand problem.

Things which don't help:
- Don't block your wrist movement - while it can cure the inflammatory problem (that one which is causing the pain) it weakens muscles in the long run making the problem coming back more often
- Same is with injections -> doesn't cure the problem, just the symptoms
- Operation could cure the problem - but there is a risk of accidentally cutting your nerves (low, but bad risk doctors won't tell you much about). And the recovery time is long - 3 months. I see acupuncture method to release the tension points as much better option - since recovery time from this is +/- 1 day or less.

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Filousov wrote:

- Just buy a Mad-catz mouse. It's very important that your thumb is carried on something during mouse movement. It prevents the thumb grip on the mouse which is very unhealthy.
- It Mad-catz is not for you consider switching to vertical mouse - Evoluent is best

Unfortunately a Mad Cat mouse is not for everyone, and I for one think it's the worst possible choice. But everyone is different, and for some people this is exactly what they need to solve their wrist pain. :-)

As for the vertical mouse by Evoluent, I use to have one. It helped a great deal for regular computing, but I found it horrible for gaming. And there's a steep learning curve. You'd be moving the mouse quite differently than you're used to with other mice.

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

what I do:

dont assign the move key to the left mouse button, you dont want to be clicking that often with the arm you have to move the mouse with. I have the move key set to W on my keyboard and I hold it down with my left hand the way ud walk forward on a first person shooter. That hand stays still over the keys so the tension of holding down the button isnt aggravated by having to move that arm. Essentially W just drives my character towards my mouse cursor, I dont constantly click it I just hold it down when I want to move, I have attacks on left and right mouse click. It leaves ur right arm a lot less tense so its easier to move the mouse around a bunch without straining your arm/wrist muscles/tendons.

I do this with spacebar, so my left thumb sits there and I still have the other four fingers for flasks/skills. Lab really really sucks with this movement scheme, but I've been playing this way for years and at least my hands don't hurt.

Edit: I also moved "attack in place" to F, so back and forth space,F,space,F a lot instead of reaching for shift.

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Expugnaturum wrote:

neat

what the heck is that thing

Vertical mouse. Lovely and suitable to people with carpal tunnel syndrome.

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Elua wrote:

After last 12h non-stop beta session I can't play PoE any more. Game is great, I love new content and I'm very excited but my hand is full of pain. It feels like burning inside, I can't make any fast repetitive movement. This is not new problem to me, it's so called "Carpal tunnel syndrome"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpal_tunnel_syndrome

I play too much and too often, my hand can't endure this and pain starts. Nothing new, but PoE it's only game making this problems back. In other games "mouse click fest" is way more intensive and problematic. I can play 16h/7 of 24h/7 days World of Warcraft or World of Tanks and feel comfortable and painless. But after just 2 days in PoE pain will be back. This is sad, because I like PoE and want play much more.

What can be done to prevent this pain:

- allow players use WASD for movement ( I know it's unusual in H&S genre, but definitely will put less pressure for mouse usage frequency. )
- make currency pick-up automatic based on proximity ( that will be huge help greatly lowering total click numbers )
- auto sorting and auto transferring pre-defined items to stash will help too
- stop playing PoE or making short session only ( this is very hard from mental perspective, only strong pain make me choose this option and go play WoT for example )

Tell me what do you think.

I don't know much about CTS but I know from experience that pain is an alert from your body and if you tend to ignore it too much it will backfire really bad at some point when your body won't be able to endure it.

1-analysis the cause of pain, too long playtime without break, the mouse, the movement you do, do you hold the mouse too tight ...?? (I'm holding my hand really light almost only with the fingers only maybe ur issue come from there, basically my hand just sit on the mouse i don't pressure it)
2-Try to play with controller if it's possible
3-Don't wait the game to fix ur problem for you.
4-Eliminate the very reason ur pain come from.

Use ergonomic mouses/keyboards. Also a wrist rest for both helped me. On top of all this hit the gym and lift weights. Stressing the muscles and tendons/joints will prevent atrophy. I used to have bad carpel tunnel to the point that I couldn't lift a book with one hand from WoW. At first I had to wear a wrist brace when doing dumbbell workouts but now I have no need for it.