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I have technical question: how well does WoW run on Macs (iBooks and iMacs)?

im playing it on Windows and wondering how it would perform on a mac (if I get one) without DirectX?

Depends which model and video card you have. There's a current OBNOXIOUS bug due to Leopard and some video cards which involves incredibly annoying geometry glitches. I'd normally play FFXI on my desktop and WoW on my 12" PowerBook concurrently, but can't really do that anymore because this graphic glitch is that annoying.

I just started this game 2 days ago. I'm a level 7 Undead Warlock. It's pretty fun so far, but it seems really confusing. Abilities, spells, classes, races, instances, raids, partys. I've paid other MMO's so get the basic stuff. I only have 1 online friend that plays it, he's not around much, so I have no one to teach me.

I'm on the 10 day free trial btw. What is a raid and when do you start doing them? Should I keep grinding and doing quests alone or should I find people? What abilities should I buy or 'train' for my Warlock, every one that's available? I'm on the Firetree server. (think that's the name)

I just started this game 2 days ago. I'm a level 7 Undead Warlock. It's pretty fun so far, but it seems really confusing. Abilities, spells, classes, races, instances, raids, partys. I've paid other MMO's so get the basic stuff. I only have 1 online friend that plays it, he's not around much, so I have no one to teach me.

I'm on the 10 day free trial btw. What is a raid and when do you start doing them? Should I keep grinding and doing quests alone or should I find people? What abilities should I buy or 'train' for my Warlock, every one that's available? I'm on the Firetree server. (think that's the name)

I played WoW for a little over a year, its a very fun and addictive game. I just stopped having the time for it.

I always quested alone. I would stay away from guild at first and just stick to getting leveled up. Usually you would want to get into a raid when your at your peak level. Raids are just a party of 5+, where you usually get as many as you can (i think 40 is the max). Raids can be doing Kara or other dungeons to attacking a small opposing town.

For a warlock I would do tailoring and enchanting. These two are a good bind and tailoring is beneficial for a warlock at 70 for tailored epic gear.

Vindicated, 70: echo isles

You dont start raiding truely in instances till level 70. Theres level 60 raid instances but people dont do those anymore.

I was raiding in the old end game content before BC came along..my guild had just started with BWL but we gave it up once BC came but me and my friends are still eager to kick bosses in MC, Onyxia, ZG etc...we loved them when we where 60 and we still do :D

So sometimes when we have enough ppl we do a pre-tbc raid instead of a BC raid..unless someone can't show up ofc

I'm the opposite of evn. I pvp only and enjoy it more then I ever did pveing. I guess wasting 50 hours a week raiding pre-tbc has totally turned me away from doing any sort of pve in TBC. I have my warrior that has all heroic keys and I've cleared Karazhan once. Other than that I stick to the battle grounds.

Currently, I am leveling a Druid to try out druid/lock in the arenas. My warrior is 4/5 s2 gear, with mostly the new vindicator's pieces. My priest(main char now) is 2/5 s3 with vindicator's pieces(neck,belt,bracers, etc). As for gold, I'm a cheap ass and only do the pvp daily.... so gemming new gear takes some time unless I beg my raiding friend for some gold to hold me over hahahah.

Ya greg, I want to do something like that but I cannot seem to find a class that I like. I may just roll a priest again because I enjoy shadow that much. I know I can roll a lock, but they seem a bit too slow for me. I hate the put dots and wait idea, prefer going in and hitting them hard from the beginning (although that can be done with a destro lock)

Also do you guys know where I can DL wow quickly?

I know I can roll a lock, but they seem a bit too slow for me. I hate the put dots and wait idea, prefer going in and hitting them hard from the beginning (although that can be done with a destro lock)

The key to warlock kill speed is to kill more than one thing at a time. By level 40 you should be able to juggle 3-4 monsters roughly your level and kill them without losing substantial health or mana.

Also do you guys know where I can DL wow quickly?

https://signup.worldofwarcraft.com/trial/index.htm

The trial version is the same as the full retail edition. The account you log in with determins whether or not to run in 'trial mode' or not.

ok... I really cant wait for it to come out.. looking for more things to do in this game lol...

Get Dungeon Set 2. I saw more people in 9/9 Faith than I ever saw in 8/8 Virtuous. I'm willing to bet it's more rare than 5/5 Tier 6 too.

Also has there been any news on the arrival of the new expansion?

When it's ready is the official word.

Nax. was released in June - 6 months before the expansion. Patch 2.0 was released in December, 1 month before the expansion.

The notable difference between now and Nax. is that when Nax. came out very few guilds had managed to see C'thun where as (at current rates) >700 guilds world-wide will have killed Illidan if Sunwell comes out at the start of April.

Edited by the evn show

Just started playing again, was getting tons of honor with my Warrior, could afford the Gladiator's Greatsword tommorow :D

I log out for 10 minutes, in 10 minutes my entire account was stripped, lost 4000g + Tons of Epics.

Now my account is suspended for investigation ... :cry:

I'm so angry & frustrated.

I did a party last night, me, lvl 14 lock, with some others my level, wasn't too organized, we went in RFC, and it was damn fun! My first time killing stuff in a group. We had a healer, a puller, a tank and I summoned my imp, was doing DoT attacks from a distance, casting spells on it, draining the damn things life. I love discovering new things in the game, ways of killing stuff, new attacks, and areas. You kind of start doing some boring stuff, then all the sudden something cool happens and it's exciting again, and that happens a few times a day for me.

I hope it's worth buying still. How long does it take to get to level 60 if you play everday? Is there a sneaky way of leveling faster than normal? I saw a video of a guy going from 60-70 in 24 hours.

I have to say that for new players who are looking at leveling up in a nice, fast-paced fashion, you should think about looking here:

Jame's Horde Leveling Guide

All my characters are horde and you can level up really fast with that guide. It walks you through everything in the fastest manner to solo your way to 70. Very nice actually. I printed it out on my inkjet printer and put it in a binder and use it to level up alts. I don't recommend this for people just starting out because ... well, enjoy the game a little!!! :D But when I level up alts, I can't always remember the repetitive things I've done and hate alt-tabbing out of WoW to look online for where quest items are, etc. Yes, I know Joana makes one and all that but this one is FREE and it is laid out better than his in my opinion.

That also kind of goes to my next add-ons for faster leveling:

LightHeaded, DoubleWide and TomTom can all be found by clicking here

Once again, nice for leveling up quick.

  1. LightHeaded installs a database of how to pass quests quickly from Wowhead (right in the game)
  2. TomTom allows you to add way-points on your map, like little yellow marks so you don't have to keep opening up your map to see how close you are to your target
  3. DoubleWide works great to allow you to view quest notes easier, as you do less scrolling on the little Window Blizzard provides you with by default

I am all about game enjoyment, but to be honest, after leveling up 6 characters, sometimes I just want to race through things instead of try to rely on my overstuffed brain to remember all the things related to every WoW quest I've done 5 times already :rolleyes:

Just a UI Update, I was bored so i thought i would post.

I really like the way you handled the Player/Target unit frames by stacking them. I think I'll steal that layout for mine this weekend.

hyjalui.jpg-thumb_140_105.jpg

One shot everything from Hydross to Archimonde yesterday (attuning 5 people along the way) only to have an

idiot shadow preist and shaman end our evening with a wipe 30 seconds into the fight because they just can't click tears and

not stand near the giant line of flames.

Also, our best geared paladin ebayed (3/6 T6) and the resulting drama cost us another. Add in a couple of people feeling burnt out and this last week has been really bad for attrition, I can't imagine what the hardcore guilds must go through.

I did a party last night, me, lvl 14 lock, with some others my level, wasn't too organized, we went in RFC, and it was damn fun!

Now imagine doing that with 7 other groups of five, fighting a monster the size of the auction house in Ogrimmar, tenticles breaking through the ground and swallow you whole (where you attack the monster inside it's stomach), throw in an eye-beams of doom chasing you around and you have C'thun: definitely one of the coolest fights in any game, ever.

For me, the sight of 40 (or 25 now) people moving and fighting in concert is one of the most interesting things to see & do in a video game.

I hope it's worth buying still. How long does it take to get to level 60 if you play everday? Is there a sneaky way of leveling faster than normal? I saw a video of a guy going from 60-70 in 24 hours.

I took about 175 hours to hit 60 on my priest and 125 to do it on my mage - both were before the buffs to quest experience and the reduction in experience-to-level requirement.

Assuming you follow a guide I think that about 100 hours is a reasonable amount to make it through the Dark Portal.

Leveling form 60-70 took another 100 hours on both characters. There are ways to level faster but typically the infrastructure required to do it simply isn't available to most people

The 24-hour 60-70 grind was done by having a full raid guild chain-killing monsters for another person. That exact approach is no longer workable anymore anyway (changes to the way XP for a kill are calculated occured shortly after this).

Edited by the evn show
One shot everything from Hydross to Archimonde yesterday (attuning 5 people along the way) only to have an

idiot shadow preist and shaman end our evening with a wipe 30 seconds into the fight because they just can't click tears and

not stand near the giant line of flames.

Also, our best geared paladin ebayed (3/6 T6) and the resulting drama cost us another. Add in a couple of people feeling burnt out and this last week has been really bad for attrition, I can't imagine what the hardcore guilds must go through.

I was hearing the same thing from a guild on our server. 4 people were so ****ed off about the Romulo and J fight (losing, playing with idiots I guess) that they gquit right then and there and that was it.

I've been down on the game lately - mostly due to guild crap I guess. I normally play it every day to relieve stress and help me sleep (drains my brain from all the activities) but this week I haven't played at all. Been off for like 6 days.

I think I'm just not such a fan of the guild leader and his inability to actually lead. Remember before how I said we can't complete Kara? Well now he wants to do Gruul's. I'm like WTF!? He says, we have the gear for it. I guess that I'm just a n00b then. If we are so "readily geared" for it, then why the hell can't we pass Kara? Why bother going in if you can't get past an instance that's easier than the one you are attempting to enter!?!?!?

Whatever, I'm getting worked up again. /leave

Just a UI Update, I was bored so i thought i would post.

Ooh, I saw you posted the same thing on the EJ forums, good to see people around here too. :)

I've been playing around with a few different UI configs this week, although I can't get used to moving away from the default unit frames. I'm thinking that it's because I recognise targets by their portraits which the UI I was building didn't have in. Either way these are what I came up with.

viu1201913577n.jpg

Then finally ended up with...

rgh1201913622w.jpg

I have to say that for new players who are looking at leveling up in a nice, fast-paced fashion, you should think about looking here:

Jame's Horde Leveling Guide

All my characters are horde and you can level up really fast with that guide. It walks you through everything in the fastest manner to solo your way to 70. Very nice actually. I printed it out on my inkjet printer and put it in a binder and use it to level up alts. I don't recommend this for people just starting out because ... well, enjoy the game a little!!! :D But when I level up alts, I can't always remember the repetitive things I've done and hate alt-tabbing out of WoW to look online for where quest items are, etc. Yes, I know Joana makes one and all that but this one is FREE and it is laid out better than his in my opinion.

That also kind of goes to my next add-ons for faster leveling:

LightHeaded, DoubleWide and TomTom can all be found by clicking here

Once again, nice for leveling up quick.

  1. LightHeaded installs a database of how to pass quests quickly from Wowhead (right in the game)
  2. TomTom allows you to add way-points on your map, like little yellow marks so you don't have to keep opening up your map to see how close you are to your target
  3. DoubleWide works great to allow you to view quest notes easier, as you do less scrolling on the little Window Blizzard provides you with by default

I am all about game enjoyment, but to be honest, after leveling up 6 characters, sometimes I just want to race through things instead of try to rely on my overstuffed brain to remember all the things related to every WoW quest I've done 5 times already :rolleyes:

Sweet. Will check all that out when I get home. Hope it's not too confusing, that one page was huge. (Y)

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  • Posts

    • You literally have to do it on a desktop, which is incredibly annoying in our mobile-first world. What???
    • What part of "you can’t really depend on service providers to maintain features forever" is not clear enough?
    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
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