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speaking as a healer, 3 second's can go by really quick

catches you off guard heh

but could be other dependencies

Paladins have to press their heal tank button: it's not like the damage is unexpected. Druids have to stack

lifebloom, decurse, and then kill time waiting to keep the stack going; typically by tossing rejuvenation or

re-growth. Give the ~3 seconds without healing registering, and the fact that he was at 16k HP (raid

buffed he's probably closer to 21k) you can safely say they were slacking.

The only situation I can see that happening is if the tank gets ported after an arcane buffet waiting for lifebloom

to drop off, then taunts human kalec. I can't imagine a tank making it that far into the game and doing

something like that.

It was the story of the night. As you know the guild is on Twins yet they still spend the occasional night wiping on Kalecgos/Brutallus.

My guild keeps tanks in almost identical gear (typically 1 or two pieces differs between them). One druid

gets OMFG raped on Brutallus and M'uru, the other one is trivial to keep alive.

I suspect that on M'uru he's letting the adds get passed, turns to grab them and doesn't re-position correctly

so he dodges less. Difference in damage taken is typically 20-30%. On Brutallus he's been getting insta-gibbed

(30k+ in less than a GCD) but you can't really blame positioning on it because they're in exactly the same

spot. I've ran over the fights as best I can and there's nothing in the logs to explain it. Either he's cursed or

doing something that we just can't understand. We've taken to feeding him Iron shield potions but that's a

pretty desperate measure. Damage taken for the fight is within 5% but the bursts are killing us.

4 more weeks till new content. Horray!

I've not played in about 3 months now. My character has been left for dead since the guild stopped raiding awaiting WoTLK can't see me getting back into the game either really. I've not followed anything with the supposed changes to the Shaman, just got used to false promises and also sounded like they were making things overly complicated with adding extra variances into the game.

http://armorylite.com/eu/Azjol-Nerub/abandonedt RIP :(

Ya...I'm getting burned out. I thought dual boxing and quick exp would be really fun...but ever since level 30, it has been really slow. I just hit 40, and I am currently looking at other games.

Tried WAR....didn't like it, now I am going to try the 14 day trial of Lotro.

i got my hunter to 70 a few days ago and tried magtheridon last nite. we 1 shot him and everyone was in gear much better than mine - i dont even have lvl70 dungeon gear lol anyways someone running dps meters said i actually beat a few people and wasnt on the bottom. thats just sad

i got my hunter to 70 a few days ago and tried magtheridon last nite. we 1 shot him and everyone was in gear much better than mine - i dont even have lvl70 dungeon gear lol anyways someone running dps meters said i actually beat a few people and wasnt on the bottom. thats just sad

Lol Gratz. I wish I was that fortunate when I turned 70. I spent countless hours PvP'ing to get those welfare epics to kick start myself to Kara. After that, spent butt loads of gold on the Spellfire set, being a Destruction Lock.

I guess you weren't lucky enough to get the T4 chest piece?

Lol Gratz. I wish I was that fortunate when I turned 70. I spent countless hours PvP'ing to get those welfare epics to kick start myself to Kara. After that, spent butt loads of gold on the Spellfire set, being a Destruction Lock.

I guess you weren't lucky enough to get the T4 chest piece?

nah i didn't bother rolling. i'm not sweating that stuff since the xpac is due in a month and the first quest reward will probably be better hehe

One thing that's really taken it's toll on our Guild, Server, and hell..the whole game is people just not playing or not caring as much because of the new expansion. Our guild used to have enough people active to get together a 25-man on the weekends, now we can't even run Zul'Aman. It's been really stressful on the guild and I'm losing interest, sadly. I'm thrilled about the expansion, but I wish people would realize the benefits of raiding other than gearing themselves selfishly. With better gear leveling would be that much easier, and better yet, you get to bond with your guildies and learn *how* to raid which is more important than anything.

yea. i raided pretty consistently on my warrior, starting back in MC, BWL, AQ20 & 40, ZG.. then all burning crusade stuff except Sunwell. In general, whats happening now is the same thing that happened shortly before Burning Crusade was released.

Have you guys been keeping up with the changes coming to Wotlk? I don't understand why Blizzard has this mentality of changing core mechanics every expansion....

TBC was the huge stamina change along with resilience

Wotlk is the change of healing/damage gear, changing PvP rewards, forcing Arena, changing classes to be the same

Seriously, why don't we all just roll a race and then pick whatever skills we want from the different classes, because all classes are starting to look exactly the same, just with different looking spells.

Hahaha, so this whole absent thing is happening across the board I see.

My guild, ranked 4th on our server, Twisting Nether, has stopped raiding, cut over 100 players (alts included, so really only about 50 players) and kept about 15-20 core people. Hilariously enough, I was kept. I nowhere near compete with some of the previous top members but have apparently had a good attitude, commitment and focus, as well as improvement. We were neck and neck with an alliance guild, ranked 3rd, for a very long time and it seems that now the wishes of the majority of players have changed and raiding is no longer a priority.

I'm not so crazy about seeing all of the content before it gets easier, meh, I'd rather have a good group of people I'm close with in-game to level up and pick up raiding at 80.

Have you guys been keeping up with the changes coming to Wotlk? I don't understand why Blizzard has this mentality of changing core mechanics every expansion....

TBC was the huge stamina change along with resilience

Wotlk is the change of healing/damage gear, changing PvP rewards, forcing Arena, changing classes to be the same

Seriously, why don't we all just roll a race and then pick whatever skills we want from the different classes, because all classes are starting to look exactly the same, just with different looking spells.

Yet again another "Blizzard hater". Of course anyone posting in this thread cares enough about the game they are most likely keeping up with the changes. And they are good changes, for the most part. How can you say changing core mechanics is bad when resilience brought balance to an otherwise completely unbalanced battleground? Or when nearly every caster weapon has both healing and spell damage stats, it is bad to simply combine them into spell power with appropriate changes made to equal out the less +healing?

You are completely misinformed, and it sounds like you want something to bash because you don't fully understand what is happening.

Hahaha, so this whole absent thing is happening across the board I see.

My guild, ranked 4th on our server, Twisting Nether, has stopped raiding, cut over 100 players (alts included, so really only about 50 players) and kept about 15-20 core people. Hilariously enough, I was kept. I nowhere near compete with some of the previous top members but have apparently had a good attitude, commitment and focus, as well as improvement. We were neck and neck with an alliance guild, ranked 3rd, for a very long time and it seems that now the wishes of the majority of players have changed and raiding is no longer a priority.

I'm not so crazy about seeing all of the content before it gets easier, meh, I'd rather have a good group of people I'm close with in-game to level up and pick up raiding at 80.

Yeah, we have a fairly new guild - we broke away from one of those "Kara stuck guilds". So I am very anxious to push to greatness on our server, we are currently 37th on server and 12th on Horde. Moving that far in a month, we feel, is an accomplishment. The active people in our guild currently really want to do Naxx, down Zul'Jin, as well as few more bosses in TK, but without the cooperation and activity from the other players, it just wont happen. :(

Have you guys been keeping up with the changes coming to Wotlk? I don't understand why Blizzard has this mentality of changing core mechanics every expansion....

Core mechanics (tanks tank, healers heal, dps huts stuff) is all roughly the same as it's always been. The way <class x> goes about filling <roll y> is changing but for the most part it's in response to the this expansion worked out.

At the end of the previous one we had two "truths":

  1. Raiders win at PvP by default
  2. Stacking consumables and buffs to extremes is not out of the question for progression guilds

They addressed those two things in this expansion: resilience + stamina + accessible 'welfare' gear made sure that everybody at least stood a chance. Patch 2.1 was the 'raider' patch: they fixed itemization, removed some of the most annoying attunements, and largely solved the problems we had with unfun things like farming ancient lichen.

This expansion showed new things:

  1. Raiders will stack their raids to obscene levels: if all classes aren't equally viable for the roles they want to fill then the lesser classes will not be taken. Warlocks and Shaman filling up 40-50% of a raid is ridiculous.
  2. Rampant gear inflation decimated PVE progression, ruined battlegrounds with AFK farming, and ended normal-mode 5-man content.
  3. Small raids are fun for a lot of people.

The changes we'll see in 3.0 and WoTLK are to address those problems.

Wotlk is the change of healing/damage gear, changing PvP rewards, forcing Arena, changing classes to be the same

Play a mage, and shadow priest, elemental shaman on beta - they're not the same class.

Things like "you can get divine spirit from multiple classes, not just priests" is a good thing. Do you have any idea how not-fun it is to say

"Sorry guys: we can't do Felmyst because we only have 2 priests." or "We only have 2 shaman so we're not doing M'uru unless someone can buy a pre-cleared Black Temple for Illidan."

Seriously, why don't we all just roll a race and then pick whatever skills we want from the different classes, because all classes are starting to look exactly the same, just with different looking spells.

If players want 10-man raids then there needs to be some overlap in class abilities: it's not reasonable to expect exactly 1 of every class with people swapping to alts or respecing every encounter any more. In 25-man raids it sucked to do it too, killing that off is a good thing.

"Grab these 12 buffs/debuffs however you want, fill the raid with 7-8 healers, 2-3 tanks, and 15 dps: go go go!" I'm looking forward to playing with people I like rather than 'the best geared <X>'.

When 25-man raids were announced I was one of the "finally we can shed dead-weight" supporters. It turns out that you still ended up playing with people you didn't want to, not because you had spaces to fill, but because you had class requirements to meet. Hopefully by allowing more flexibility we'll be better off.

When 25-man raids were announced I was one of the "finally we can shed dead-weight" supporters. It turns out that you still ended up playing with people you didn't want to, not because you had spaces to fill, but because you had class requirements to meet. Hopefully by allowing more flexibility we'll be better off.

this!

God Im loving all these stupid threads entitled "OMG OP OP RET" "RET OP OMGZ" that are springing up on MMO-Champ and Official Forums

Er its not any more than a DK is. Arthas was a what, before he turned into a DK? Blizz even hinted that Pallys were an anti DK class. Then ofc the fact Rets been underpowered for years and had to fight a hard fight to keep up to other classes. I mean look at Disc Priests in Arena they drain a Pally down, cleanse all his defences and let other classes nuke them. Then theres locks who will just fear bomb you into hell.

Its not that there OP its that instead of being easy pickings there now able to put up a fight. Tho in saying this I do feel the burst damage is a bit over the top. But I wouldnt expect Blizz to beat us silly with the nerf bat if anything it,ll be 1-2% here and there and maybe some sort of control over the burst, certainly in PVP to stop things like 3x3k hits.

Tho thats possible at mo, just a bit more unlikely. If you get hit by a decent Ret pally with Seal of Command proccing and critting who`s also using the swing timer with a Crusader Strike that crits, then thats atleast 6-7.5k. Ive seen the vids of 15k judgements etc but from my own testing on the PTR its not happening as often as people make out and nor is it an easy thing to do. Your still reallying on equipent combos and buffs.

If a class is OP dont whinge like a bitch and post 100`s of nooby threads whining. Try adapting and using your own abilitys better. Its what a lot of Rets have been doing/trying for years now. So expect them to have that going for them aswell.

But hey thats my 2 cents, will get off my soapbox now so you can all tear me a new one :p

God Im loving all these stupid threads entitled "OMG OP OP RET" "RET OP OMGZ" that are springing up on MMO-Champ and Official Forums

You get them whenever a class gets any kind of buff, regardless of weither its needed or not.

I remember when Mages got trainable Iceblock (So PvE Fire Mages could at least attempt PvP).. the forums were flooded with posts saying that 3 PoM Pyro Mages will be the only viable 3v3 arena team.

i read a blue post saying they know ret pallys are doing too much damage and need adjustment and that they'll address it after the release of LK with a patch

Yip they are but as I say dont expect huge nerfs as people have cried out for, it will just be the % here and there theyve even said that most of the trees etc are now how they want them to be so there wont be juggling of talents to address it. The reason I refered to Pallys/DKs was because there both in the supposed OP boat at mo but neither class is gonna take a heavy nerf beating. It will be gradual and probs as I stated above. But it wont stop the OP crys. Pound to a penny they,ll switch from "OMG 15k judgements" to "OMG you get free FOL"

Which isnt a big deal in itself, it just seems like that at mo as were comparing to TBC

I remember when druids got Cyclone and the out cry that caused

God Im loving all these stupid threads entitled "OMG OP OP RET" "RET OP OMGZ" that are springing up on MMO-Champ and Official Forums

Its not that there OP its that instead of being easy pickings there now able to put up a fight

I haven't been following those classes, but I have seen level 70 ret paladins AOE grinding 5-10 level 80 elites in front of Icecrown wearing Tier 6. That's broken no matter how you look at it.

Try adapting and using your own abilitys better. Its what a lot of Rets have been doing/trying for years now. So expect them to have that going for them aswell.

By the same logic should you have STFU'd and learned to play better against priests and warlocks?

Do you really expect us to except that world+dog is horrible and ret paladins have been down on their

luck so long that they're just naturally better players from overcoming adversity?

but neither class is gonna take a heavy nerf beating. It will be gradual and probs as I stated above.

You must have missed the whole 2.0 raping that paladins got (from gods to clods in 2 weeks), The pathetic state of hunters in 2.1, The crap kicking warlocks take wrt. mages in 3.0. Etc.

The nerf bat is swift and merciless.

Yip they are but as I say dont expect huge nerfs as people have cried out for, it will just be the % here and there theyve even said that most of the trees etc are now how they want them to be so there wont be juggling of talents to address it.

I remember when druids got Cyclone and the out cry that caused

we'll just have to wait and see i guess. :(

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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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