Recommended Posts

I won another hilt?again. That's three total. Sold one, used one (to see the quest), and this one I'll probably give away to a friend because the quest line is kinda lame.

My priest has one drop every single time he randoms into heroic halls of reflection, doesn't always win the roll but it'll always drop.

I won another hilt?again. That's three total. Sold one, used one (to see the quest), and this one I'll probably give away to a friend because the quest line is kinda lame.

My priest has one drop every single time he randoms into heroic halls of reflection, doesn't always win the roll but it'll always drop.

:|

send one my way!! :laugh:

<!--quoteo(post=592129790:date=Jan 20 2010, 00:16:name=evn.)--><div class='quotetop'>Quote - (evn. @ Jan 20 2010, 00:16) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=592129790"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I won another hilt?again. That's three total. Sold one, used one (to see the quest), and this one I'll probably give away to a friend because the quest line is kinda lame.

My priest has one drop every single time he randoms into heroic halls of reflection, doesn't always win the roll but it'll always drop.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<img src="https://cdn.neowin.com/forum/uploads/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/noexpression.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":|" border="0" alt="noexpression.gif" />

send one my way!! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":laugh:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

Can you even repeat that quest once you completed it the first time? I was under the impression that the quest is not repeatable. It'd be cool if it was. I could get the healing version of it as well. :p

Hit 67, really enjoying WoW right now and the new dungeon finder is fantastic Blizzard (Y)

Then ME2 is upon us :laugh:

My current character at 67, don't think I'm that badly equipped :) - http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Anachronos&cn=Ayres

By the way can anyone explain Battlegroups to me? Says im Cruelty / Crueldad and I heard someone talk about it in-game.

The dungeon finder definitely improved WoW for me ten-fold, gives people with not much time on their hands a chance to join groups without having to put up with

elitist asking for Item Level 245+ gear, 17 kinds of achievements and whatnot, you just join and go nuts.

As for battlegroups, it's basically a number of realms that are within each 'battlegroup' meaning they share Battlegrounds and Arenas, which was done to decrease queue times.

I also believe the new dungeon system works off the battlegroup system.

The dungeon finder definitely improved WoW for me ten-fold, gives people with not much time on their hands a chance to join groups without having to put up with

elitist asking for Item Level 245+ gear, 17 kinds of achievements and whatnot, you just join and go nuts.

As for battlegroups, it's basically a number of realms that are within each 'battlegroup' meaning they share Battlegrounds and Arenas, which was done to decrease queue times.

I also believe the new dungeon system works off the battlegroup system.

I kind of understand what you're saying, should I be concerned about it for anything or does it not really matter?

edit: Also what's the best DPS addon meter for instances?

I don't get it, why should you be 'concerned' ? It's just a system meant to decrease queue times for every realm that was implemented ages ago.

Back in the days, 4-5 even 6 hour queues for certain battlegrounds wasn't unheard of on some realms.

EDIT: I'm using Recount

I don't get it, why should you be 'concerned' ? It's just a system meant to decrease queue times for every realm that was implemented ages ago.

Back in the days, 4-5 even 6 hour queues for certain battlegrounds wasn't unheard of on certain realms.

I've only ever done a battleground once, I was just wondering if some reason being in a certain battlegroup was better than another, or if your friends weren't in the same it might affect something end game :p

Remember I've been out of WoW since like patch 2.2 :blush:

I like Skada Damage Meter. It has a threat monitor, too.

I already have a threat monitor, so I'll grab Recount and see if it's simpler :) But thanks.

I've only ever done a battleground once, I was just wondering if some reason being in a certain battlegroup was better than another, or if your friends weren't in the same it might affect something end game :p

Remember I've been out of WoW since like patch 2.2 :blush:

Well, you'd have to move server to also move battleground and you can't really say "X Battleground is better" because there aren't any solid statistics on any of them. Yes, some battlegroups, Alliance might have a higher Win / lose ratio in AV

or perhaps Horde wins more Arathi Basins but it's completely up in the air. So just play the game and don't pay much attention to it.

By the way can anyone explain Battlegroups to me? Says im Cruelty / Crueldad and I heard someone talk about it in-game.

Your battlegroup is a cross-language battlegroup. Crueldad is spanish for Cruelty. Therefore it show both names for the english people and spanish people.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Battlegroup_EU_Cruelty/Crueldad

How popular are rogues now...I just started my first one last night...Ive played almost every class and man I really fill like Ive missed out for so many years not playing this class I mean is is a **** load of fun, and I love all the burst damage, how does everyone else fill about rogues. Are they still popular in wow today....I havent played in like a year and I was wondering if they are still badass....

The dungeon finder is pretty awesome. But I still think they should of added a third difficulty for the better emblems.

I don't think they could make the zones hard enough (TBC 2.0) to be fun or 'worthy' of dropping the best gear in the game without also enraging 95% of the player base who have gotten used to face rolling easy content for free gear.

WoTLK is the expansion of easy mode, I doubt they'll be giving us anything that makes 'casual' content more difficult.

Being a DPS kinda sucks with the dungeon finder. Takes forever

That's the problem with there being too many DPS and not enough healers/tanks. There are some things blizzard could do to encourage people to non-DPS roles (ie: make most 25-man raid encounters require 5 tanks and 5 healers). You'll still have people rolling multiple DPS alts but rarely more than one tank or healer alt.

We need Magtheridon cubes, shadow labs trash pulls, and m'uru enrages at all tiers of content. We need 5-man boss fights that last 5-10 minutes with good DPS, so your healer runs out of mana if you stand in a fire and you wipe to enrage if you die. Right now the most fun 5-man content in the game is Naxx-10 because at least then it feels like you're accomplishing something.

If DPS required any sort of effort maybe we'd see people 'taking the easy road' of tanking or healing. Right now a single tank or healer can carry a 5-man group, the same is not true for a single DPS class: doing 'too much' damage just gets you killed.

That's the problem with there being too many DPS and not enough healers/tanks. There are some things blizzard could do to encourage people to non-DPS roles (ie: make most 25-man raid encounters require 5 tanks and 5 healers). You'll still have people rolling multiple DPS alts but rarely more than one tank or healer alt.

True. I tank on my warrior, I doubt I'll ever tank on my druid (boomkin/healer) nor on my DK (mostly cause he's farm) nor will I on my pally (heal/ret). It's just to easy to call yourself DPS and do it then it is to tank. Mostly is I don't want to put in the time/effort to tank on those other classes when I already do (though I don't think it'll be hard since I already do tank on one toon), which is the same case with everyone else.

We need Magtheridon cubes, shadow labs trash pulls, and m'uru enrages at all tiers of content. We need 5-man boss fights that last 5-10 minutes with good DPS, so your healer runs out of mana if you stand in a fire and you wipe to enrage if you die. Right now the most fun 5-man content in the game is Naxx-10 because at least then it feels like you're accomplishing something.

I'll join your wishful thinking and sadly we both know it won't happen. :(

On another note, any of ya'll DPS saying it's taking to long. Better kiss some ass and suck up to a tank you know and que with him. By myself it takes less than 3 seconds to find a group, with just one DPS that went up to 4 seconds.

Time it takes is also dependent on how many people are activly searching on the dungeon finder on your battle group

Yup. But as a tank it doesn't matter how many people are looking it's nearly instant for me. The only time I waited for more than 5 seconds was when I que'd for FoS only.

Yup. But as a tank it doesn't matter how many people are looking it's nearly instant for me. The only time I waited for more than 5 seconds was when I que'd for FoS only.

Yeah, that's what I see a lot. Of course, I generally run them with my fiancee and her brother. Healer + Tank + DPS = Bwooonnnnggg... instant. :p

I don't think they could make the zones hard enough (TBC 2.0) to be fun or 'worthy' of dropping the best gear in the game without also enraging 95% of the player base who have gotten used to face rolling easy content for free gear.

WoTLK is the expansion of easy mode, I doubt they'll be giving us anything that makes 'casual' content more difficult.

I think you are right. I keep trying to get back into WoW, but the magic has gone somewhere else.

I hear that the ICC content is decent, and there are still the hard modes in Ulduar and ToC that I think are challenging. But I just can't commit to a solid raiding guild right now to get through that stuff. So all that is left is easy and boring content.

But the game would have a lot more depth to it if they added a difficulty level to each LK instance for every new emblem. Instead they just hand them out. Oh well, this is really an over discussed subject :p. Must find something else to do with time...

Speaking of time...

I spent my time today getting Exalted with Timbermaw Hols and the Sporeggar. This netted me the Diplomat title and 35 exalted factions.

Grats :) I still gotta do them too

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

    • 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.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
    • Thanks
  • 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
      164
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      88
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!