Recommended Posts

I remember seeing 29 twinks rock that.

Sad thing was I wasn't doing any boosts, main reason being I need all the greens/blue to disenchant, but I'd def of gave that ring away to someone, just felt like a "waste" disenchanting it cause it's very rare :p

This is a bit wrong....

wowscrnshot020810204150.th.jpg

My tank that is .... :o

How are you doing that much damage as a tank? Could you link your armory for your dk? I can only do about 2k as a tank I can hold aggro great but I've never seen that much damage I'm wondering if it's just a gear gap or spec difference or if I'm doing something wrong and if you can do that as a tank what can you do as dps O.o?

How are you doing that much damage as a tank? Could you link your armory for your dk? I can only do about 2k as a tank I can hold aggro great but I've never seen that much damage I'm wondering if it's just a gear gap or spec difference or if I'm doing something wrong and if you can do that as a tank what can you do as dps O.o?

Frost Spec Tank, generally dps is between 2-3k on single target, i can get upto 4k sometimes with some lucky killing machine procs on single target, very rarely can i hit 5k. AoE tanking can hit 5k+ all day long had a screenshot somewhere of doing 9k on first boss in HoL, that was pretty sweet.

Armory: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormrage&cn=Fusi%C3%B3n

This is my alt, generally i do not play it or raid on it, just log in do daily and log out, sometimes i might be used as a backup tank by the guild if we fall short but most of the time that is not the case.

You got to the pub like 5 times a day you alcoholic, you can afford a little move and faction change you sob.

Imagine all the instances we can do with no queues! :o

Yeah, quit drinking, transfer, do dungeons with no queues, Sethos gives you any DE'd mats he gets, you hook him up with enchants, etc.

I suppose I don't need to add the bit about it being more fun than solo'ing, yeah? Well it is.

Ok, so I want to start reading the lore of warcraft, anyone know where to start ? Like, i've looked at bookstores but there is nothing that is clearly marked #1 :l

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9023679087&sid=1

http://www.wowwiki.com/Novel_guide

Yeah, quit drinking, transfer, do dungeons with no queues, Sethos gives you any DE'd mats he gets, you hook him up with enchants, etc.

I suppose I don't need to add the bit about it being more fun than solo'ing, yeah? Well it is.

See Gavin, SEE?! The pretty man agrees with me.

Ok, so I want to start reading the lore of warcraft, anyone know where to start ? Like, i've looked at bookstores but there is nothing that is clearly marked #1 :l

You can start reading online here:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/index.html

5 chapters of good warcraft lore. If you want to go into more details, check out the Timeline section for the chronological order of the novels & games.

I was random-pugging on my priest yesterday (gotta get them frost badges) and ended up stuck with two other people from my server.They were members of a newly formed guild that splintered from a middling gulid that inaccurately claimed a server-first kill of Sindragosa. I don't know the details of the drama (I hadn't logged in for a few days) but I'm told members of that guild were ###### during their 15 minutes of fame. Eventually the truth came out (they've never killed the boss in question) and credit rightfully went to my priest's guild.

Anyway, as soon as I ended up in old kingdom:

tank: hey ****ers keep the ****ing icon off me or u find another ****ing tank

tank: you ****ing get it

<somebody puts the orange circle on tank>

<tank leaves party the party>

tank's warlock friend: ****ing give me leave

tank's warlock friend: invite him back

<tank joins party>

me: I'm curious: is everyone in your guild an angry child or are you just acting out because the server found out you have no progression worth speaking of?

tank's warlock friend: hey touchy if ur going to act like a ****ing kid go back to guild wars.

me: I'm sorry, would you like me to make what I write a little more 'adult' by sprinkling it with profanity?

tank: u wanna talk to our gm? he hasn't had his meds today and im sure hed love to talk to u

me: I don't think he'd have anything interesting to say.

me: Though I will admit that I'm judging him solely on the company he's chosen to keep.

<tank pulls mobs>

<tank+warlock leave party>

<remainder of group runs out of dungeon>

A few minutes later our GM posts a comment in guild chat:

GM [Whisper: tank/warlock's GM] Hi, can I talk to you about one of your members?

GM Which one of my children was acting up today?

Me I bet this one is mine: you're going to love it.

GM So this ******* is wasting my time over a raid icon?

Apparently they ratted me out to their GM who "told my mom" on me.

I'm not sure what they hoped to accomplish: as a group they're on pretty poor terms with most on the server, especially the people in my my priest's gulid.

Logged onto the Neowin server/guild. Doesn't seem like anyone has been on in a very long time.

Probally going to be playing there off and on, would love to have some company as I level. I would also love to have an invite to the guild on a hunter/mage I would love to start playing. If you do happen to be on and there's no one in the guild, just join the chat channel Neowin and see if anyone responds. Post in the thread here and we can organize a meet date or something of the sort.

Could also use some suggestion on a bag/map addon. I don't like sexymap and Bagon is starting to annoy me.

Any DPS DK's here that can help me get the most DPS out of this frickin class? I have a 5k GS now and I am still having troubles in 5-Man groups getting more than 3.6K DPS and sometimes as low as 2.6k. It seems odd because I have seen DK's do far more like 5k with just 5200-5500 GS. I have read a lot of the threads on the WOW boards and I just feel like they are leaving stuff out. My current build is an Unholy 17,0,54 which seems to be the consensus top 3 builds for a DK. Any hints or tips that you think may help are welcome. If you want to see my build look up Malfecance / Korgath Server on the armory and you can see my gear.

Rotation

In general I open up with the normal Icy Touch, followed by Plague Strike, followed by Scourge Strike and Blood Strikes as available. When neither are available I spam Death Coil and cool downs. The priority tends to be Scourge Strikes as they are the best instant damage attack I have. I understand the logic behind using Gargoyles when procs have gone off and try to do that with the correct timing. However I often find that I have dead time waiting for runes to come back. I've gone to maxdps.com for more info about gear and rotations, but I'm still missing something.

Any DPS DK's here that can help me get the most DPS out of this frickin class? I have a 5k GS now and I am still having troubles in 5-Man groups getting more than 3.6K DPS and sometimes as low as 2.6k. It seems odd because I have seen DK's do far more like 5k with just 5200-5500 GS. I have read a lot of the threads on the WOW boards and I just feel like they are leaving stuff out. My current build is an Unholy 17,0,54 which seems to be the consensus top 3 builds for a DK. Any hints or tips that you think may help are welcome. If you want to see my build look up Malfecance / Korgath Server on the armory and you can see my gear.

Rotation

In general I open up with the normal Icy Touch, followed by Plague Strike, followed by Scourge Strike and Blood Strikes as available. When neither are available I spam Death Coil and cool downs. The priority tends to be Scourge Strikes as they are the best instant damage attack I have. I understand the logic behind using Gargoyles when procs have gone off and try to do that with the correct timing. However I often find that I have dead time waiting for runes to come back. I've gone to maxdps.com for more info about gear and rotations, but I'm still missing something.

Wearing PvP items to boost your GS doesn't normally improve your PvE dps.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZZfM0Ixcdg0zx0uIqo:LsbMmV - That's the spec you should be using and the proper glyphs. Should be noted this is more of a build to single target DPS.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZZfMbIhcdg0zx0uIqo:psoMmV - This becomes the optimal spec/glyphs to use for AoE. The DPS lost on a single target when using this build isn't very high, so you might want to just use this.

The info above and a lot more info can be found in the following thread:

http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-unholy_dps_3_3_2_all_right_moves/

Wearing PvP items to boost your GS doesn't normally improve your PvE dps.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZZfM0Ixcdg0zx0uIqo:LsbMmV - That's the spec you should be using and the proper glyphs. Should be noted this is more of a build to single target DPS.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZZfMbIhcdg0zx0uIqo:psoMmV - This becomes the optimal spec/glyphs to use for AoE. The DPS lost on a single target when using this build isn't very high, so you might want to just use this.

The info above and a lot more info can be found in the following thread:

http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-unholy_dps_3_3_2_all_right_moves/

Cool I'll take a look at those. My PVP gear was replacing fairly low level PVE gear and definitely gave me a boost to DPS, but I'm sure not as much as I would get with PVE gear of the same level. Typically resilience replaces secondary stats like haste or to hit. Additionally my cape is missing strength which definitely hurts my ghoul because he doesn't pick up on AP, instead he only picks up my strength and stamina. I'm trying to get some good replacements, but a decent cape is hard to find as is and the boots have been an absolute nightmare to find. My previous pair were 200 epics that were available once I hit exalted with Ebon Blade. The difference in strength was pretty significant so I couldn't really justify keeping the old ones rather than the PVP pair.

Also, work on your rotations - thats almost certainly the root of the problem. The elitist jerks thread gives you the basic rotations, just practice them. I hate doing DPS as melee so I just made 3 cast sequences based on the information in that thread:

  • Single target
  • AOE, Part 1
  • AOE, Part 2

I programmed my keyboard (Logitec G1) to have G1 to spam the single target cast sequence every 1.5 seconds. G2 hits the AOE part-1 marcro 8 times (enough to cycle through once) and then it just spams part 2 1000 times. That lets me just walk up to mobs, press the appropriate button and then just tab through targets. Now and then use cooldowns (ie: gargoil) but mostly I'm just on autopilot having friends drag me through. Even then - with a completely mindless play style I'm able to do sustain ~2.7-3k DPS in a 'typical' 5-man group.

My DK doesn't actually have any DPS gear - it's all tank loot (poorly gemed and enchanted because she lives off the scraps of my mage/priest). There's almost no way you've got worse DPS gear than I do.

The other problem could be that stuff dies too damn fast. In a group with 1 good tank and 2 horrible DPS my mage can easily maintain 5.5-6.5k DPS because I've got time to cast. When I run with friends that can do similar DPS to me - we all drop down to < 5K because you don't have time to make good use of procs/cooldowns/etc. Pit of Sauron is a pretty good way to judge your DPS. A good balance of single, 2, 5 mob pulls, plus a pair of huge AOE pull at the end.

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

    • 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.
  • 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
      165
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      88
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!