Recommended Posts

Thanks!

What should I do with my talent tree between 10-20 to make things as easy as?

Between 10 and 20 I would put 5 in Improved Mark of the Wild (Restoration tree) as this will increase armor and stats in Mark of Wild buff, then 5 points in ferocity.

When you hit 20 reset points and go :

5 Feral Aggression (good to get at 20 because you get cat form and there +dmg% to fercious bite which will be your main finishing move)

3 Thick Hide (increasing armor)

2 Feral Instinct (reduced ability to be detected while in stealth)

At 20 & 21 - put your points in in Feral Swiftness which will make you move 30% faster outside in cat form +4% dodge

22 - put another point in Feral Instinct

23-25 - 3 points in Sharpened Claws

26 & 27 - 2 points into Primal Fury

28 & 29 - 2 points into predatory strikes ( you will pick up the 3rd point after)

30 - take Faerie Fire (Feral) Love this talent... debuffs targets armor, and useful for pulling mobs to you.

31 & 32 - 2 points in to Savage Fury

33 - put the last point into predatory strikes

34 - 1 point into ferocity (only to open up the next tier of talents)

35-39 - 5 points into Heart of the wild

40 - Leader of the pack

41 & 42 - 2 more points into ferocity

43 & 44 - 2 points into Improved Leader of the Pact

45 - 49 - 5 points into predatory instincts

50 - Mangle... this is a brutal attack which also now becomes your main attack!!!

51 & 52 - 2 more points to finish off Ferocity

53-57 - Improved mark of the wild (again from restro tree)

From here its up to you... you can choose in any order.

5 points in the Resto tree to open up Omen of Clarity (frequently gives you clear casting state where the next spell wont take mana or the next attack wont use energy/rage. To do this you can put points into Naturilst or furor (or some in each to total 5 to unlock Omen... then you can finish those 2 skill off after if you want.)

Optionally you can take 3 points for Survival of the fittest in Feral Tree.

If you want you can take 5 in Furor to unlock Omen then take Nature's Grasp and Improved Nature's Grasp in the Balance tree. I didn't because you would have to keep popping into normal form to cast it then shifting back into cat form every minute and it only has 1 charge so then only real times it may be useful is if a big mob is chasing but at the cost of 5 talent points, I would take cast entangling roots and run or shift into bear form to take less damage. So i don't suggest it.

After that, you can do pretty much what ever suits you!

I suggest my final build

This is my Druid's Talent Build

Edited by Ash
Between 10 and 20 I would put 5 in Improved Mark of the Wild (Restoration tree) as this will increase armor and stats in Mark of Wild buff, then 5 points in ferocity.

When you hit 20 reset points and go :

5 Feral Aggression (good to get at 20 because you get cat form and there +dmg% to fercious bite which will be your main finishing move)

3 Thick Hide (increasing armor)

2 Feral Instinct (reduced ability to be detected while in stealth)

At 20 & 21 - put your points in in Feral Swiftness which will make you move 30% faster outside in cat form +4% dodge

22 - put another point in Feral Instinct

23-25 - 3 points in Sharpened Claws

26 & 27 - 2 points into Primal Fury

28 & 29 - 2 points into predatory strikes ( you will pick up the 3rd point after)

30 - take Faerie Fire (Feral) Love this talent... debuffs targets armor, and useful for pulling mobs to you.

31 & 32 - 2 points in to Savage Fury

33 - put the last point into predatory strikes

34 - 1 point into ferocity (only to open up the next tier of talents)

35-39 - 5 points into Heart of the wild

40 - Leader of the pack

41 & 42 - 2 points into Survival of the Fittest (pick up the 3rd later)

43 & 44 - 2 points into Improved Leader of the Pact

45 - 49 - 5 points into predatory instincts

50 - Mangle... this is a brutal attack which also now becomes your main attack!!!

51-55 - Improved mark of the wild (again from restro tree)

56 - Finish off Survival of the fittest

From here its up to you... you can choose in any order.

4 more points in Ferocity

5 points in the Resto tree to open up Omen of Clarity (frequently gives you clear casting state where the next spell wont take mana or the next attack wont use energy/rage. To do this you can put points into Naturilst or furor (or some in each to total 5 to unlock Omen... then you can finish those 2 skill off after if you want.)

If you want you can take 5 in Furor to unlock Omen then take Nature's Grasp and Improved Nature's Grasp in the Balance tree. I didn't because you would have to keep popping into normal form to cast it then shifting back into cat form every minute and it only has 1 charge so then only real times it may be useful is if a big mob is chasing but at the cost of 5 talent points, I would take cast entangling roots and run or shift into bear form to take less damage. So i don't suggest it.

After that, you can do pretty much what ever suits you!

This is my Druid's Talent Build

Great post, thanks Ash!

I'll have a read through it, and then off I go :)

druid is awesome. they are the only class with a solution to almost every combat situation, however, they are probably one of the hardest classes to play optimally. you have three sets of abilities to remember and three forms to switch between. a fight against a heavy armor class requires you to open up in cat form, pounce (stun), mangle, rip (damage over time) shift to bear, charge (stun) stun again, shift back to caster form, cyclone, heal, heal, back to bear, charge finish em off. as aposed to a warlock, who does the same thing against any class, he casts a bunch of insta-cast damage over time spells and then fears you. re-cast DOT's. fear again. maybe sits down, has a snack, uses a free healthstone, then dots and fears you some more. sorta boring.

druid also has a travel form for land and water which in itself is an amazing bonus considering you will spend HOURS (no exaggeration) just running from place to place while you level. and once you hit 68, you get flight form. the ONLY class with an insta-cast flight ability is a HUGE advantage for initiating attacks and running away. if im pounding on some hord, and a few more show up and i know im out done, i pop into cheetah, run away, pop out, clear any curses and poisons, maybe a heal over time spell, then right into flight form and im gone. then i circle back, dive down a bit, shift out of flight, shift into cat, hit stealth before i hit the ground and re-initiate combat with my prey. its insane fun.

the most memerable moment is flying around outlands and comming across a group of 40 horde doing an outside boss fight (really really hard fight). waiting untill they are about 15-20 seconds into the fight, dropping down and cycloning the main tank then watching all 39 other people get 2-shot'd by the boss. aaaahhh the memories.

stick with one class ALL the way to 70, and then roll something else. every class is viable. no class is the "best" they all have their weakness's. i just thing ranged combat classes (mage, lock, hunter) are boring. you stand around shooting you highest damage spell in raids. its the melee classes that always keep the game exiting. imho.

Edited by Nose Nuggets
druid is awesome. they are the only class with a solution to almost every combat situation, however, they are probably one of the hardest classes to play optimally. you have three sets of abilities to remember and three forms to switch between. a fight against a heavy armor class requires you to open up in cat form, pounce (stun), mangle, rip (damage over time) shift to bear, charge (stun) stun again, shift back to caster form, cyclone, heal, heal, back to bear, charge finish em off. as aposed to a warlock, who does the same thing against any class, he casts a bunch of insta-cast damage over time spells and then fears you. re-cast DOT's. fear again. maybe sits down, has a snack, uses a free healthstone, then dots and fears you some more. sorta boring.

druid also has a travel form for land and water which in itself is an amazing bonus considering you will spend HOURS (no exaggeration) just running from place to place while you level. and once you hit 68, you get flight form. the ONLY class with an insta-cast flight ability is a HUGE advantage for initiating attacks and running away. if im pounding on some hord, and a few more show up and i know im out done, i pop into cheetah, run away, pop out, clear any curses and poisons, maybe a heal over time spell, then right into flight form and im gone. then i circle back, dive down a bit, shift out of flight, shift into cat, hit stealth before i hit the ground and re-initiate combat with my prey. its insane fun.

the most memerable moment is flying around outlands and comming across a group of 40 horde doing an outside boss fight (really really hard fight). waiting untill they are about 15-20 seconds into the fight, dropping down and cycloning the main tank then watching all 39 other people get 2-shot'd by the boss. aaaahhh the memories.

stick with one class ALL the way to 70, and then roll something else. every class is viable. no class is the "best" they all have their weakness's. i just thing ranged combat classes (mage, lock, hunter) are boring. you stand around shooting you highest damage spell in raids. its the melee classes that always keep the game exiting. imho.

Being a hunter did get kind of boring for me, thats why I kind of "died" at 68, and have been there for moooonths.

The only novelty I liked about the hunter was having a pet and there was a good variety to choose from.

That and what I said ealier, great solo class.

It came down to Druid/Rogue to try out melee and keep things interesting. Being a Druid does seem to have a a much higher "skill" (or should I say management abilities) needed than being a hunter :p I'll see how I get on though.

What is the best gear/stats to look out for (for feral, best leveling build). I assume strength and stamina?

ps. Has anyone here got the font "Avant Garde" ? I need it to make Spookie's GUI pack work right. I sent him a PM, but he's not been on NW for a while.

druid is awesome. they are the only class with a solution to almost every combat situation, however, they are probably one of the hardest classes to play optimally. you have three sets of abilities to remember and three forms to switch between. a fight against a heavy armor class requires you to open up in cat form, pounce (stun), mangle, rip (damage over time) shift to bear, charge (stun) stun again, shift back to caster form, cyclone, heal, heal, back to bear, charge finish em off. as aposed to a warlock, who does the same thing against any class, he casts a bunch of insta-cast damage over time spells and then fears you. re-cast DOT's. fear again. maybe sits down, has a snack, uses a free healthstone, then dots and fears you some more. sorta boring.

Nah most mobs I went against I didn't needa shift from form to form. Just keep mashing claw/mangle to get combo point then ferocious bite to do a big chunk of dmg (hopefully to finish the mob off). The only times I find any need to shift is multi mob fights. Like Caliph Scorpidsting the Wastewander guy in Tanaris walking around with 2 rogues.... sneak up on him do a few claws then a bite, start walking back hit yourself with a rejuvination, and maybe a heal if needed, pop into bear mode, hit demoralizing roar then start swiping (and if you have mangle after 50, use that whenevr possible) like mad. The initial mob should die quickly because you already did some decent dmg with the cat attacks, Swiping should finish him off and hurt the other mobs. Depending on the amount and level of the extra mobs you may needa entangle roots one of em if you getting too hurt.

stick with one class ALL the way to 70, and then roll something else. every class is viable. no class is the "best" they all have their weakness's. i just thing ranged combat classes (mage, lock, hunter) are boring. you stand around shooting you highest damage spell in raids. its the melee classes that always keep the game exiting. imho.

Me, play play one class for a while then another for a while, jumping between all various characters, so when you get bored of one play style you c an play another style... and that way your alts build up rested xp so when you return to em you level quicker! Right now I am juggling my BE Mage and NE Priest!

What is the best gear/stats to look out for (for feral, best leveling build). I assume strength and stamina?

For Feral Cat... Agility first and foremost, then a mixture of Stamina & strength. It may take a bit of learning how much of each you need... basically you only need enough stamina so that you don't die too easily! Focus on Agil because it ups your crit rate and armor level! I think my druid with leader of the pack talents is at 27% crit in cat form.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Attack_Power

as your leveling a druid your gear requirements will change as you aquire your new forms. so between 1 and 20, dont worry about it too much. once you get cat at 20, you will be using cat almost exclusively and so you will want agility. once your 70 you will want to keep a set of gear for healing, tanking, and dps. sadly, the only real viable role for a druid end game is either resto spec and being a healer, or feral spec and being a tank. so make sure you dont mind either of those if you plan on doing a lot of end game PVE content. if PVP is more your bag then it does not matter. the best gear in the game is from battlegrounds and arena anyway. i have spent lots and lots of money on talent re-working so if you want to benefit from my pocket book you can go here and check out my spec

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents...mp;n=Sassquatch

rogue will always, always, always out damage a rogue. always. shadowstep rogues are immense fun to play. but its really hard to solo a warrior or paladin. it can be done, dont get me wrong, but its hard. there is just so much i like about the druid. if i want i can re-spec and be a healer. a rogue can not. i cal just switch my gear and be the one of the best tanks in the game, superior in almost every way to an = gear warrior. a rogue can not.

as far as stealth goes, if a rogue has full talents for +hiding he will bar fer less detectable then a druid with full talents in +hiding.

@ Ash: the high armor fight i specified in my initial post is PVP. you will be cat almost always while leveling or fighting non elite mobs. there is nothing a warrior or rogue loves more then a druid who stays in cat form. where talking a difference of 10K armor, thats close to 50% damage mitigation.

rogue will always, always, always out damage a rogue. always. shadowstep rogues are immense fun to play.

@ Ash: the high armor fight i specified in my initial post is PVP. you will be cat almost always while leveling or fighting non elite mobs. there is nothing a warrior or rogue loves more then a druid who stays in cat form. where talking a difference of 10K armor, thats close to 50% damage mitigation.

Ahh k ya I was more talking PvE Leveling. Like I mentioned before I haven't really done anything in the realm of PvP.

you said "rogue will always, always, always out damage a rogue." which part was a typo?

All through my leveling especially after I got Mangle, I was out killing everyone, except like I said there was an occasional Fire Mage which were able to drop things a tiny bit quicker, like a couple seconds, but for the most part I was out killing most mages too... and yes out killing rogues... but this is PvE. Even leveling wise I was able to drop mobs quicker on my Cat than my Rogue, which is why I switched from my Rogue to my Druid as my main!

rogue will always out damage a druid. sorry about that typo.

leveling is always incomparable. all comparisons are end game. a warrior lvl 1-20 suck donky balls. but end game they are one of the highest dps classes if speced for it. you should always quest down as well. i never do yellow or orange quests only greens. you can smash through them at twice the speed and get the same quest xp. with my rogue i kill cloth and leather mobs in 3 hits. druid, not so much. but with the druid i dont have a pop a vanish if i get adds i just bear form and frenzied regeneration. plus there is no down time. fight, fight, fight, fight caster form, heal, cat form, fight, fight, fight, repeat.

The fight is mostly about execution.

Are you going in to phase 4 with all the adds down? If you're not at least burning down Capernerian when kael breaks free then it's going to be messy (people are spread out leading to no healing on mind controls breaks, untanked phoenixes etc). Make sure the DPS knows the priority: Shock Barrier > Eggs > Kael > Phoenix.

Doesn't sound like your tank is getting owned by pyroblast so you've got the DPS to win. Sounds like people just need to work on not standing in a fire.

Pro tip: Keep a list of people that die to Thaladred, flame strike, or phoenixes: don't invite them to Archimonde, they'll just make you sad.

Shock barrier stops being a concern, mind control ends, and you spend a lot of time in the air so flame patches/phoenixes are much less threatening. It's pretty much the "You Win!" phase like Solarian's Voidwalker phase. Phase 2 heroic 5-man Kael is harder than 25-man man phase 5, I suspect that the orbs of doom are actually what they had intended for phase 5 but we got stuck with the stupid "beams of don't hurt" instead.

Thanks and yeah we normally have all the adds down about 1-2 secs before or after p4 actually begins. He shud drop this week or next as that 2 weeks of hitting p4 and no further

New PTR patched was deployed yesterday.

Looks like they nerf'd druids lifebloom but reduced the cost on mana of regrowth.... LOL. Theres a rumored distance change for cyclone which isn't really a huge nerf either. The only way they could nerf it is if they made it dispellable :)

Tried to log in today, password wasn't working.

It's the same password I use for everything...

Reset it by password request, logged in... characters missing (new druid I was leveling last night deleted).... my main 68 hunter was still there though, logged in, 900g missing and I was in a location I've never been to before.

Someone must have got access last night.

FFS.

Only programs I ever used are wowace and some other updater. No idea how someone got my account details.

I've not played wow in months either, probably 4~5.

Anyway, whats the best Blizzard email/number to contact?

Thanks

ps. All the items in my bag/bank are cleared out as well :(

I hope Blizzard can help, I can give them an exact time of when my account was compromised. Must of been in the last 12-15 hours.

Surely they have access logs?

Had to contact them through - http://www.wow-europe.com/support/webform/...ult.html?lan=en - Telephone lines aren't available at the weekend.

Edited by Audioboxer

I've contacted a GM and am waiting a reply as well.

Anyone know WTF this is all about?

fzof.jpg

Yndi is my main 68 hunter that was hit hardest - 900g down/no items left.

What is with all the COD mail?

At least I have a name, fzof, who seems to be connected somehow?

Currently the reply time of emails ( They say on forums ) is in excess of 3 weeks. The account investigation and reimbursement is well over a month.

Just had my own account comprised a few weeks ago.

3 weeks?!

Bloody hell.

I thought this would be figured out fairly quickly. I mean I have such a small time window everything has happened in - They should easily be able to see the account being used within the hours I wasn't on (sleeping).

Only programs I ever used are wowace and some other updater.

I know wowace isn't compromised, tons of players would be flipping and wowace.com would probally be down from people hitting it. That other updated could be though. If both of those are in good shape then, you have a keylogger or some other nasty on your computer. Run virus/spam check pronto. Or your username/password is insanely easy to figure out. I got an easy username, but my passwords change every month (or every few) and sometimes they simple and some times complex. Current one is 13 in length, not a word in it or a pattern just a bunch of randomness that I write down on my notebook. If I don't have that notebook I can't login from other computers.

I might be a bit extreme, but I like to keep what I have and would rather avoid the hassle.

I know wowace isn't compromised, tons of players would be flipping and wowace.com would probally be down from people hitting it. That other updated could be though. If both of those are in good shape then, you have a keylogger or some other nasty on your computer. Run virus/spam check pronto. Or your username/password is insanely easy to figure out. I got an easy username, but my passwords change every month (or every few) and sometimes they simple and some times complex. Current one is 13 in length, not a word in it or a pattern just a bunch of randomness that I write down on my notebook. If I don't have that notebook I can't login from other computers.

I might be a bit extreme, but I like to keep what I have and would rather avoid the hassle.

The other updater was from http://wowui.worldofwar.net/.

I've not used it in a while though.

By the way, that character Fzof came online (I added to friends).

Level 1 Warrior...

Must be gold sellers or something.

My username is from my email, but my password consits of letters and numbers, I wouldn't say it was easy to guess at all.

I use Avira Antivir and it's not picked up on anything on my PC :/

My WoW account has now been closed, I think the GM must have read my note.

^

Yup,

Greetings,

We have temporarily suspended your account as there is evidence that it has been accessed by an external party:

Account Name: AUDIOBOXER

Type of Violation: Suspected Compromised Account

Details of Incident: Account Security Compromised

Consequences for Account: Account Suspended until Account reviewed as secure.

Our Account Administration team will evaluate the risk to your account. We will either ask you to provide further details or if it appears your account is relatively secure, will unlock your account and reset your password to your registered email address. In the latter case you will then be able to access the World of Warcraft Servers once more.

Please note that investigation into lost or missing items, characters or currency has not yet been performed and will be completed as soon as possible. Please allow several days for this to occur. You will be notified of the conclusion of investigation along with the results.

Edited by Audioboxer
3 weeks?!

Bloody hell.

I thought this would be figured out fairly quickly. I mean I have such a small time window everything has happened in - They should easily be able to see the account being used within the hours I wasn't on (sleeping).

Yes, It's not that they can't check the logs, see your account have compromised. It's the sheer number of people who have been hacked.

Go check the In-game customer support forum over at wow-europe.com and you might get an understanding how big the problem is, so many people are getting hacked.

( It has gone down a bit, but just a week or two ago, 80% of each page was about compromised accounts. )

But i can re-assure you, even though the GameMasters and Community representatives have said 3 weeks plus reply time, you can get lucky.

I made a pretty long post on the in-game customer support forum, how i secured my PC, reinstalled windows etc. the following day ( 3 days after the hack, a weekend was in between ) my account was unlocked again, around 12 days later, i got my items back. ( I did send in the webform with my cd-key etc. ). When i said this in a general discussions thread in the wow-forums, everybody was actually amazed how i could get it back so fast, so i must have done something right?

Good thing to come of this was, every item i was reimbursed that was previously BoE and i had used, was returned to BoE status. So had some AH Epics i didn't use, i sold again with a profit.

So i got a flying epic mount out of it :p

Yes, It's not that they can't check the logs, see your account have compromised. It's the sheer number of people who have been hacked.

Go check the In-game customer support forum over at wow-europe.com and you might get an understanding how big the problem is, so many people are getting hacked.

But i can re-assure you, even though the GameMasters and Community representatives have said 3 weeks plus reply time, you can get lucky.

I made a pretty long post on the in-game customer support forum, how i secured my PC, reinstalled windows etc. the following day ( 3 days after the hack, a weekend was in between ) my account was unlocked again, around 12 days later, i got my items back. ( I did send in the webform with my cd-key etc. ). When i said this in a general discussions thread in the wow-forums, everybody was actually amazed how i could get it back so fast, so i must have done something right?

Good thing to come of this was, every item i was reimbursed that was previously BoE and i had used, was returned to BoE status. So had some AH Epics i didn't use, i sold again with a profit.

So i got a flying epic mount out of it :p

Hope that happens to me :D

What does COD mean?

From the mail in my inbox as shown above (image), there was about 2k worth of gold in COD mail (200g per mail).

I could probably of been swimming in 2k of gold had I opened the mail :p However I'd rather have all my items back - Some rare stuff in there that took me many hours to get.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Posts

    • On the topic of being locked out of a service. Recently two different friends of mine got locked out of their Google accounts. Both were hack attempts and one of them is waiting 30 days before he can get back in. He had backup codes and MFA but not a passkey. It was a browser token hack. Anyhow he has to wait 30 days for the dispute or whatever to end. The other person only had a password and is screwed losing all of the email, docs and years of photos. Google won’t help her at all. Her fault because she had no backup/recovery setup. Enable passkeys if possible. Also do NOT use browser based password managers. If using a cloud service make sure it is one you can fully sync to one of your devices so you can back it up. Like a PC or Mac with some backup drive plugged into it. Google is the worst to use IMHO. You can’t sync your photos at all. You have to use the “Take Out” service which is manual and takes days. That service strips the meta data from your photos. Also Google Docs synced to a device are useless without a Google accounts. MS Office/Libre Office is not going to open a link to a Google doc to a dead account.
    • Why you need to take back control of your synced passwords and how to go about doing that by Paul Hill Credit: Pixabay Last month, when Google decided to introduce daily and weekly caps for Gemini, it reignited an anxiety of mine, that you can’t really depend on service providers to maintain features forever, and it got me looking into free software (as in freedom) in other areas too. One app I quickly came across was KeePassXC on desktop and KeePassDX on Android as an alternative to password manager lock-in within the Chrome or Firefox ecosystems. I personally like to switch around with browsers, and using either password manager is inconvenient, so something like KeePassXC was interesting to me. The main issue with it now is syncing; I was not sure how to do that. After a bit of research, I came across Syncthing, a tool I was vaguely familiar with but had never used because it seemed complicated. However, I was completely wrong, and honestly, I think everyone should use it if they use multiple devices. It essentially lets you share folders peer to peer across all of your devices, no cloud services that you don’t control necessary! And it was fairly simple to set up, if not a bit clunky. Since setting it up, I’ve also started using Syncthing to back up other apps too, so don’t think it’s limited to just saving password databases. You can use it for pretty much anything you use Dropbox or Google Drive for. Before continuing to talk about those apps a bit more, let’s walk back a bit and talk about browser sync. Ever since the late 2000s and early 2010s, really, since we have been using smartphones, browser sync has been a necessity of life. I don’t know about you, but I have hundreds of passwords saved. For the most part, they’re all unique, so I don’t remember them and rely on software to manage them for me. Until recently, I’ve relied on password managers in Chrome and Firefox, but what I always found annoying was that it can be hard to transfer them between browsers. Sure, on Windows it is simple enough, but on Linux, exporting bookmarks has been temperamental. It works OK nowadays, but not too long ago, Chrome required you to enable exporting passwords in chrome://flags. The situation is even worse on mobile; there is no exporting or importing of passwords of any kind. You literally have to do it on a desktop, which is incredibly annoying in our mobile-first world. Sync also lets us take out bookmarks, history, tabs, and autofill data easily. To enable sync, it’s just a matter of signing into the browser once, and it handles the rest. It’s nice and easy. Obviously, all this has some issues, including those I’ve outlined above about it being hard to transfer data between browsers, but also things such as account suspension, lost account passwords, and other lock-in mechanisms, such as passkeys, being tied to a specific browser. On a sidenote, I have just removed all of my passkeys because they can make it harder to move browsers. I think the biggest threat to your synced passwords, especially if doing this with Google, is having your account suspended. I don’t ever expect mine to be suspended, but you do hear horror stories on Reddit where people lose access to their Google accounts. Imagine if you have hundreds of passwords, then suddenly lose access to them because Google froze your account, what would you do? So yes, it can be nice to use these syncing services for their convenience, but they also have risks. You may have seen me going on about free software quite a bit in my editorials. It’s essentially a concept championed by the Free Software Foundation. It’s software under particular licenses that grant you four freedoms: run the program for any purpose (0), study and change the source code (1), redistribute copies to others (2), and the freedom to distribute modified copies to others (3). For example, if there is an app I use and one day it gets abandoned by the developer, I can keep running it or even clone the software and continue developing it. Look at the myriad of cool services Google has run over the years before killing them. You can’t take the source code for those because they are proprietary, for the most part. Both KeePassXC and Syncthing are free software, so I get the freedoms listed above. In my use case where I’m syncing a database full of my passwords, I also get proper ownership over my data, there is no losing access to the database due to a frozen account, I can access the code of the tools I’m using, and I can get support from real people online if I run into issues, rather than having to consult a vague help page from an opaque company. With the KeePassXC password manager, you create a .kdbx file, which is what will be synced between devices. KeePassXC has cross-platform apps and also has browser extensions so that the browser can fetch passwords from the database once it is unlocked. Meanwhile, Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file sync tool where you can select folders to sync between your devices. Just pop files in the folders you choose, and then they will be available across your other devices whenever they come online. Syncthing is resilient as it works over both LAN and the internet and only ever sends content between your devices, never to a third-party server somewhere else. By combining these two pieces of software, you can essentially replicate the browser sync functionality. I have had a weird, conflicting issue where a new file is appearing, but it doesn’t seem to be impacting my main password database, which is updating between devices just fine. If you want to get a setup similar to what I have, you will need to go here to download KeePassXC for your computer. Once you have that, you will need to download your passwords from your web browser to a CSV file. In Chrome, you can type chrome://password-manager/settings into the URL bar, and you should see an option to download your passwords under Export Passwords. This will give you the CSV file you need for importing into KeePassXC. If you use a different browser, just use a search engine and type “browser-name export passwords” and muddle along. In KeePassXC, you’ll want to press Import File from the home screen, select the CSV file, and create a new database from it. On one of the screens of the wizard, there will be a Title field with a drop-down selected to none. Change this to Title and continue. You’ll select a name for the database, the encryption level (the defaults are fine), and then you will pick a password. I would choose four unrelated words that are easy for you to remember, as you’ll be typing them fairly often to access your passwords. When you have all your passwords in your new database, you will want to set up the browser extension so that your browser can fetch passwords from KeePassXC. Rather than explain how to do that here, refer to KeePassXC’s guide on how to set it up properly. Once you’ve got that set up, you want to install KeePassDX on Android. You can grab it on the F-Droid store and the Google Play Store. For iPhone users, there are other .kdbx-supporting apps, but I haven’t tried any of them, so have a look around and use what suits you. Once you have that done, you will want to install Syncthing on your computer and find a third-party app for your mobile device. On Android, I use an app called BasicSync; there are also options for iOS, but again, I’ve not tried these. Once you’ve got SyncThing, you’ll want to set it up and connect all of your devices together and share a folder between your gadgets. PCWorld has a good tutorial on setting up a synchronized file between your devices using SyncThing. Once you’ve set it up, congrats, you’ll never have to touch that stuff again except for adding or removing devices. I’ll be honest, I didn’t particularly like setting up Syncthing. It didn’t take me a massive amount of time, but I think I had to check online because I found it a bit confusing. That said, I’ve had it running for several weeks now and never need to touch the Syncthing settings, so that’s very nice. I also mentioned a conflicting file. I’m not sure why this is appearing, but the main .kdbx file seems to be updating and syncing just fine. What’s nice is that both KeePassXC and Syncthing are free software, so they won’t just vanish one day; you can take the code and fork the project or use a range of alternative implementations that others have made. It’s also nice that it works over LAN, so even if your ISP is having problems, your passwords will still sync. One area where you will want to be a bit more careful with this setup is if you only have one device. I am OK because I have a computer and two phones, all synced up. If you just have one device, you will probably want to store a backup of your .kdbx file somewhere else. Obviously, you’ll also want to remember your password really well, too. If you get locked out, it's game over. Overall, if you want to take back control of your computing from big tech, taking control of your passwords is an important part of this. You don’t need to immediately clear out your browser’s password manager; try running KeePassXC and the password manager concurrently for a while to see if you run into any problems. If you do try this out, let us know some other creative ways to use Syncthing. I haven’t really come up with a solution about what to do with my bookmarks, for example.
    • If the price was a dollar, someone would complain "Why isn't it free?" If it was free, someone would complain they weren't being paid to play it.
    • That lens of history will burn if you hold it at the right angle... Warn users too late: Shame, Microsoft! That extremely minor update to an obscure Control Panel widget required 2 years of warning. Warn users too early: Shame, Microsoft! We've got better things to do. Pipeline and process be damned, we'll just always be disappointed, eh?
    • Microsoft Paint used to be my favorite Windows app as a kid, and it's still pretty good by Usama Jawad I have been using Windows since the early 2000s, when I was around 10 years old or so. I vaguely remember playing around with Windows 98 and Windows 2000, but that may have been on school PCs which had old operating systems installed. My main OS on the home PC, and the one I recall spending most time with, was Windows XP. At that time, I used the home PC to create Word and PowerPoint documents for school, but a lot of the time, I simply used it to play games. My dad would bring game discs which we would try and install on the PC, sometimes unsuccessfully, and sometimes, we would rely on flash games in the browser, like Bubble Trouble on Miniclip. However, the problem with the latter approach was the internet speed. On a good day, our dial-up internet would offer us speeds of 56 kbps, but on most days, it was closer to 33 kbps. This did not facilitate online gaming as I would often have to wait minutes for a game to load or "draw" on the screen, and trying to download pirated games wasn't simple either. I remember getting tired of waiting for online games to load and just downloading simulator games from the Big Fish Games website instead, only to be disappointed after finding out that I was just being given access to trial versions of the title, and I needed to fork out money to pay for the full version. All of this is to say that it wasn't very easy to find entertainment options on the home PC when I was a kid, due to a number of reasons, mostly outside of my control. This situation pushed me towards a rather unconventional ally: Microsoft Paint. Whenever the internet wasn't working as good as I expected, I would simply spin up Paint and draw complete rubbish on the canvas. Of course, that wasn't always the intention, but it usually happened when I messed up drawing a straight line or something, and then I would give up on that particular piece and simply draw a random collection of objects. Microsoft Paint was extremely accessible and easy to use. Even if you weren't an artist, you could quickly understand the tools at your disposal and how to leverage them on a canvas. The absolute breadth on offer ensured that each painting was truly unique, as you could utilize various combinations of tools like the pencil, paint, spray paint, and more to truly personalize your creation. Since I wasn't particularly good at drawing both on digital screen or a physical screen, I remember that my main style of art would be to insert a bunch of randomly intersecting lines and then fill them with random colors through the paint can. I have trying to replicate that art style in the latest version of Paint below, and as you can see, it's truly Pablo Picasso-esque. The human imagination truly knows no bounds Microsoft Paint kept me occupied for hours and was my best friend when video games on the home PC were inaccessible for one reason or the other. There was no academic or professional reason for which I would need to use Paint, but I still loved using it in my personal time, even if what I created wasn't worth being shown to anyone. It was simply fun. Fast-forward to today, and the situation is mostly the same. Now that I am almost 29 years old, and I still have no reason to use Microsoft Paint in a professional capacity. In fact, I don't even use it in a personal capacity, except to dabble with it from time to time, just to see if core functionalities are still intact. And I'm happy to say that I think Microsoft Paint still offers the same accessibility and inviting experience that it did to me a couple of decades ago, even though its UX has been refreshed and it's been integrated with Copilot features. Interestingly, things could have been a lot different, had Microsoft had its way. Microsoft Paint was marked for deprecation with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update in 2017, and even began displaying a product retirement alert, urging customers to shift to Paint 3D instead. Fortunately, after consumer backlash, Microsoft reversed course on this decision, and Paint continues to be a native app inside Windows installations that can also be updated quite frequently through the Microsoft Store. Instead, Paint 3D ended up on the chopping block, which is for the better, I think. I have intermittently played around with Microsoft's refreshed Paint experience in the past few years, and I do think it has received worthwhile upgrades. the UI and the UX has been modernized while retaining core functionality, and the app is still fairly easy to use. It doesn't meet any of my use-cases, but I've never really had any use-cases ever, as described previously. Of course, the elephant in the room is the Copilot integration. Personally, I believe that this is one place where Copilot does make sense, environmental concerns aside. I know that a lot of creatives use AI to generate images, and while some may be using professional alternatives, Paint still offers a decent casual experience, with the power of Copilot. Of course, you do need to have a valid Microsoft 365 Copilot license and available credits to use it, but even if you don't, you still get the big Copilot button in the toolbar, unfortunately. All in all, I am glad that Microsoft Paint continues to be a native feature in Windows 11, and a piece of software that has evolved to meet modern needs without cutting off its own roots. It's just an iconic piece of Windows history that was an essential part of my childhood, and while I don't use it anymore, I'm just glad it is still there.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Supreme Spray LV earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Genuinetonerink- Dubai earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Genuinetonerink- Dubai earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      hhgygy earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      AMV earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      513
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      163
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      88
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!