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I think that holds true for many classes. ;)

While that is true I think it's just because many people who've had no tanking experience get a DK rolled at 58 straight away is it? Then are still a bit dodgy in the 70's or whatever, especially if they follow a levelling guide then start tanking in higher instances out of the blue.

A mage was telling one of our DKs how to actually hold aggro, as he didn't know how to at all, /facepalm. Level 71 I think. I'm not abusive or angry with these people I happily help them as well, but it's just a wee bit annoying at times when you wait in the queue for LFG for 30 minutes then get someone who seems to have just started playing WoW today tanking in higher level instances.

Just glad I'm finally the tank, because that's always the main problem in groups; rubbish tanks. Not to mention they are now the hardest class to find in the LFG system, so it's such a gamble.

I'm getting a lot of praise for my tanking, which always puts a smile on your face :)

Just glad I'm finally the tank, because that's always the main problem in groups; rubbish tanks. Not to mention they are now the hardest class to find in the LFG system, so it's such a gamble.

I'm getting a lot of praise for my tanking, which always puts a smile on your face :)

Still trying to pull me over? :p

I will one day when finances aren't so tight and I've hit 80. In the meantime if I do get bored I'll create a new character on the server for a bit, but moving the Paladin would be best (Y)

And yeah I definitely praise a good tank, couple of them have had to rely on me at times for aggro management/keeping the healer alive, but that should be expected of a Paladin, even if DPS. Lay on Hands as I've come to realise is very helpful ;)

Also loving how I'm topping all the DPS meters, only beat once by a really good shadow priest.

I'd love to get an 'appropriate' tank on my characters. About half the time the people are good players but they simply can't hold threat against a T10-geared mage. When single casts are critting for > 20,000 you really need to have a tank that can keep up with threat. I end up spending most of the instance "Wait?Wait?Arcane Blast, Missile Barrage?Iceblock?Wait?Arcane Bast?Slow+Blink?Wait?etc." The other half of the time I'm stuck with "tanks" that are really just DPS trying to jump the queue. They take so much damage and fail to hold on to anything; the healer remains constantly out of mana. You spend most of the instance waiting for people to drink.

My priest (who's also passably geared) tends to end up grouped with 50,000 HP tanks and 3 sub-2k DPS classes. I toss a renew every 15 seconds and then stand around while the pull takes 25-minutes to die. Sure I can toss some smites - but that isn't fun. If I wanted to DPS I'd do it on the class I levelled for that purpose.

I swear the LFG system looks at your gear and says "Hrm?6,000 DPS mage? Let's put that with the fresh-80 tank so that things die so fast the tank doesn't take any damage". If you queue as a healer or Tank it'll say "Hrm, Tier 10 geared healer? Let's team that up with the TOGC25 geared tank and the 3 fresh-80 DPS so that they can just bore the mobs to death by outlasting them".

Bad players are around and it sucks to get stuck with them. It sucks even more to get stuck with 'good' players that just don't have gear that's appropriate to the group. There's no better way to bore a healer, or make a tank feel useless than by pairing them with 4 other people that they just can't work with.

Still trying to pull me over? :p

I will one day when finances aren't so tight and I've hit 80. In the meantime if I do get bored I'll create a new character on the server for a bit, but moving the Paladin would be best (Y)

And yeah I definitely praise a good tank, couple of them have had to rely on me at times for aggro management/keeping the healer alive, but that should be expected of a Paladin, even if DPS. Lay on Hands as I've come to realise is very helpful ;)

Also loving how I'm topping all the DPS meters, only beat once by a really good shadow priest.

Nah, I gave up the last time I asked :laugh:

I just found a new annoying problem, I re-installed Windows a few days ago and now my FPS is struggling. I could hit 100FPS+ easily in Northend and now I log in and I'm skipping about

at 20-30 FPS. Turn down shadows and a few effects I had problems with the last time and it's the same, I turn off CrossFire in CCC and it's still the same ... Arg!

I'd love to get an 'appropriate' tank on my characters. About half the time the people are good players but they simply can't hold threat against a T10-geared mage. When single casts are critting for > 20,000 you really need to have a tank that can keep up with threat. I end up spending most of the instance "Wait?Wait?Arcane Blast, Missile Barrage?Iceblock?Wait?Arcane Bast?Slow+Blink?Wait?etc." The other half of the time I'm stuck with "tanks" that are really just DPS trying to jump the queue. They take so much damage and fail to hold on to anything; the healer remains constantly out of mana. You spend most of the instance waiting for people to drink.

My priest (who's also passably geared) tends to end up grouped with 50,000 HP tanks and 3 sub-2k DPS classes. I toss a renew every 15 seconds and then stand around while the pull takes 25-minutes to die. Sure I can toss some smites - but that isn't fun. If I wanted to DPS I'd do it on the class I levelled for that purpose.

I swear the LFG system looks at your gear and says "Hrm?6,000 DPS mage? Let's put that with the fresh-80 tank so that things die so fast the tank doesn't take any damage". If you queue as a healer or Tank it'll say "Hrm, Tier 10 geared healer? Let's team that up with the TOGC25 geared tank and the 3 fresh-80 DPS so that they can just bore the mobs to death by outlasting them".

Bad players are around and it sucks to get stuck with them. It sucks even more to get stuck with 'good' players that just don't have gear that's appropriate to the group. There's no better way to bore a healer, or make a tank feel useless than by pairing them with 4 other people that they just can't work with.

lol, I'm all up in T9 and had to sit and autoattack yesterday for the tank we had (along with Chains of Ice and deathgrip to pull mobs off healer). Hunter switched to using Viper the whole time. :laugh:

Hey I admit, I'm a bad tank..

I leveled up my DK to 80 without doing an instance.. and I didn't do that many heroics or instances as a druid before I took a break etc..

I started off with 3 other guildies , in nexus non-heroic, and we had to find a random a random healer..

I really showed my nubness.. ah well..

but to explain a bit further I couldn't really group up until now due to time constraints.. I really didn't want to get in a group or instance and have to leave at a moment's notice, recently I had more time to group but lack of experience shine's through ..

I am working on a warrior though, and rogue mostly I am having fun rp'ing and just doing random stuff

My subscription ran out! :(

Waiting for my paycheck and income tax refund to come in...

Itching to play sooo bad. Sold a bunch of those Lovely Charm Bracelets for over 1k... NEED MOAR!!@ :pinch:

What the actual **** people are still buying them?

I have more than I know what to do with.

What the actual **** people are still buying them?

I have more than I know what to do with.

As far as I'm aware, yeah. The price dropped to around 14-15g each on my server, but if you know where to farm them, ohhhh boy. Good money.

Since you guys don't play on my realm, I'll fill ya in: If you have a character around 68-74ish, go to Borean Tundra and head to Temple City of En'Kilah (top-right corner of the zone). There are skeletons that spawn with roughly 500hp every few seconds, enough to keep you from ever having to sit and wait for respawn. You cannot do this at 80 since the mobs would be gray to you, but it's certainly awesome if you have a character in that range.

I sat there with my mage killing them all in one shot of Arcane Explosion (instant AoE) as I ran through them again and again. As a paladin, just drop your consecrate and divine storms, judging in between to keep your mana up. It's not as fast as a mage, but you'll still get plenty. :)

I skipped the achievements for valentine's event but now attempting to get the "Elder" Title for my DK.. .. heh I roleplay an old orc, then I'm think I'm going to mostly retire him, except for dailies and switch to my rogue or warrior. Death knights seems too... umm out of place honestly..

I kinda want to do a tanking , dps and then healing class to 80 before cataclysm, not worried about gear to much really..

I skipped the achievements for valentine's event but now attempting to get the "Elder" Title for my DK.. .. heh I roleplay an old orc, then I'm think I'm going to mostly retire him, except for dailies and switch to my rogue or warrior. Death knights seems too... umm out of place honestly..

I kinda want to do a tanking , dps and then healing class to 80 before cataclysm, not worried about gear to much really..

Paladin / Druid. Reroll once, have loads of fun. :)

I have a Pally Healing Question.....

I switched my main from DPS to Holy Spec which for the most part I do like; however, when healing wither either PUG groups or ones that are with my guild, my healing is subpar at best compared to other healers. My gear is pretty decent actually and just think that I should be doing a lot better then what I am, just not sure what I am doing wrong?

I usually spam FoS and use Holy Light when needed for big heals. I use beacon on either the MT or OT(which ever I am assigned to)

My Gear score I think right now is 5176 (actually that is going to go up, have some Emblems of Frost I can use and also just got a belt from ICC but just have not put on since since I am broke and cannot afford to get GEMS/Enchants until I cam farm) , my user name is S??r?m??t and I am on Eonar if you would want to look at my gear and see if I am Gem'd/Enchanted correctly. Thanks in advance.

I have a Pally Healing Question.....

I switched my main from DPS to Holy Spec which for the most part I do like; however, when healing wither either PUG groups or ones that are with my guild, my healing is subpar at best compared to other healers. My gear is pretty decent actually and just think that I should be doing a lot better then what I am, just not sure what I am doing wrong?

I usually spam FoS and use Holy Light when needed for big heals. I use beacon on either the MT or OT(which ever I am assigned to)

My Gear score I think right now is 5176 (actually that is going to go up, have some Emblems of Frost I can use and also just got a belt from ICC but just have not put on since since I am broke and cannot afford to get GEMS/Enchants until I cam farm) , my user name is Såçrámëñt and I am on Eonar if you would want to look at my gear and see if I am Gem'd/Enchanted correctly. Thanks in advance.

http://www.theholypaladin.com/frontpage.php

http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t84922-holy_paladin_compendium_3_3_a/

And most importantly, you should figure it out on your own by trying new things etc.

did a druid .. its retired.. though I might try to level another one maybe (don't ask why I am rerolling one, mine had a incident )

tried paladin but it was kinda boring to level up

I have a warrior in the 40's and leveling a rogue now.. I have a priest on another server which I can transfer over sometime to my current one..

My DK can also serve as a tank or dps I guess

I kinda want to do a tanking , dps and then healing class to 80 before cataclysm, not worried about gear to much really..

I have a hunter at 80. My advice, roll a pure DPS class and not a hybrid, only to avoid the the tax, that is.

I am leveling a Druid, he's parked at 60 right now as I haven't played since the end of January. I leveled 30-50 as Resto with the LFD tool, then from 50-60 I leveled Feral tank.

I enjoy both and will decided at 80 which I want to main spec/offspec.

Based on my decision of what my Druid will primarily be, I'm going to level either a strictly healing class, or strictly tanking. Of course I'll dual spec them to 80 just so that by 80 I'm not completely burnt out with the classes intended purpose.

Not saying that any of you suffer from this ailment, but I didn't notice over the past few days of tanking at level 70 that I find a lot of people get aggro from attacking a mob the tank is not concentrating on. The result is that the tank only has minimal aggro on tertiary mobs and thus any damage done to them will pull aggro. As a warrior I am learning a lot about aggro and what I notice is that although he has very good aoe control, the paladin is much better at handling large groups of mobs. I'm going to work more on my paladin tank over the next few days, he is at 65 right now. I have to say that the warrior feels like the funnest of the three tanks I have; DK, Warrior, and Pally.

Not saying that any of you suffer from this ailment, but I didn't notice over the past few days of tanking at level 70 that I find a lot of people get aggro from attacking a mob the tank is not concentrating on. The result is that the tank only has minimal aggro on tertiary mobs and thus any damage done to them will pull aggro. As a warrior I am learning a lot about aggro and what I notice is that although he has very good aoe control, the paladin is much better at handling large groups of mobs. I'm going to work more on my paladin tank over the next few days, he is at 65 right now. I have to say that the warrior feels like the funnest of the three tanks I have; DK, Warrior, and Pally.

Warrior can handle just as much mobs as a pally. It's just we can't press one button and viola be "pro" at it. AoE tanking as a warrior still has us going back to the old days of AoE tanking. Tabbing between targets, and only keeping the mob targetted long enough for one/two Dev or a Shield Slam, while keeping Thunderclap on CD. You don't have to tab much now and days (usually only once through and your good to hold 'em) but we still need to.

AoE pulls for me, normally go like this:

Pull 'em all and Shockwave. It's great for some burst threat and a stun (that stun is awesome since most DPS will open up right away). Followed by a Thunderclap. Then just tab target Dev/Shield Slam around, while Thunderclapping. You shouldn't use shockwave again. It has a 20 sec CD and if you have to use it twice on one pull, then your AoE is fail. What I mean by that is the mobs should be dead or less than 10%, so saving your shockwave for the next pull is ideal.

It'll come with time as you tank more and more.

My brother hit 80 on his shadow priest. He came over with some take-out and I called a couple of friends (two live on my block,

one on the opposite side of the golf course). Half an hour later we were able to run 5-man dungeons while working our way through

my liquor cabinet.

Contrary to what we expected: runs were about half as fast. We kept getting distracted by the dogs, booze, olympics, etc. Latency was

pretty crappy, and playing on laptops is less than ideal. Reminded me a lot of 'wii days' where you're stuck inside at a cabin with friends

because it's raining (or not snowing).

If it ever happens again: it's not going to be at here. My house is a mess and I hate waiting in line to use my own bathroom.

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  • 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
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