Recommended Posts

I've seen enough inconsistency from be.imba (and correlation between W-H, rawr and EJ) to discount it on my blood tank (suggesting resi on shoulder for a dk, lolwhut?) aff lock and protadin to safely discount it. It's immaterial how long the sites have been about, they both became popular in 2008 and have each served a purpose.

Chances are good you're at the def. cap no matter what you use: it's almost impossible not to be over 540 these days.

Ignore the benefit of resilience entirely.

  • Arcanum of the Gladiator has resilience but it also has 30 stamina.
  • Greater inscription of the Pinnacle has 20 dodge rating and 15 defence rating.

In terms of "how big of a hit can I take before I get killed" or "how long can I live without getting healed" the stamina enchant works out to be better.

Rawr is widely considered to be an accurate model of game mechanics and it offers similar advice (stack stamina and armor until your eyes pop out).

Chances are good you're at the def. cap no matter what you use: it's almost impossible not to be over 540 these days.

Ignore the benefit of resilience entirely.

  • Arcanum of the Gladiator has resilience but it also has 30 stamina.
  • Greater inscription of the Pinnacle has 20 dodge rating and 15 defence rating.

In terms of "how big of a hit can I take before I get killed" or "how long can I live without getting healed" the stamina enchant works out to be better.

Rawr is widely considered to be an accurate model of game mechanics and it offers similar advice (stack stamina and armor until your eyes pop out).

Truth. 30 Stm to shoulders is superior than 20 dodge/15 def rating. The only time you should ever use is, if you are a fresh tank still gearing up and may be lacking def rating or your a Warrior/Pally going for a "un-hittable" set and need to stack def.

Note: "Un-hittable" means, if a mob doesn't miss you, you will either dodge, parry or block the attack (Melee only).

Not to derail the conversation, but does anyone remember the name of the mod to change all the text font in the game? I had it during TBC, but can't remember the name to save my life anymore.

Not to derail the conversation, but does anyone remember the name of the mod to change all the text font in the game? I had it during TBC, but can't remember the name to save my life anymore.

There's a number of mods that do that. Just search WoWInterface.com for "font".

I have sharedmedia in my addon folder. This was an addon that would override all the fonts in the game with whatever font you wanted (ie. Adventure, Morpheus, etc.). I found what I used on wowinterface, and it was called ClearFont2. Unfortunately, it's been discontinued. Anything else similar to this that someone knows about?

EDIT: Nevermind. I discovered tekticles and I'm enjoying the new look.

My horrible DK tanked ICC for the first time. Apart from "lol heroics" and a ToC where everyone in the raid but me had ICC-25 gear it was my first real tank experience.

Kinda fun - gives me a different perspective on some of the encounters: hard to get over the healer/DPS instincts and actually stand in front of the boss / not immediately turn and run from OMG damage /etc.

I jumped on my priest for an "alt-friendly ICC10" - we had hard mode putricide to 1% and then the servers stalled for 10 minutes before we got DC'd. Logged back in hoping to see a dead boss only to find ourselves in Dalran without credit. The difference between a "good" guild (ie: my priests) and an "average guild" (ie: my DKs or the people I run my mage with) is night-and day. Killing Festergut with only a single tank transition or getting Lady Deathwhisper with only a single 'pair' of add sides was a new experience: it really trivializes content.

My priest's guild is 5/12 hard modes on 25 man, I'm not sure how they're doing on 10 - probably pretty well if they're dragging me to them on my poorly geared healer.

Truth. 30 Stm to shoulders is superior than 20 dodge/15 def rating. The only time you should ever use is, if you are a fresh tank still gearing up and may be lacking def rating or your a Warrior/Pally going for a "un-hittable" set and need to stack def.

Note: "Un-hittable" means, if a mob doesn't miss you, you will either dodge, parry or block the attack (Melee only).

Actually, for a DK tank the EH from 30 stam doesn't outweigh the 20 dodge/15 def beyond 540 defense, we still get dodge and parry from the defense that's more valuable than the health. Your truth isn't applicable to all. Word ;)

Actually, for a DK tank the EH from 30 stam doesn't outweigh the 20 dodge/15 def beyond 540 defense, we still get dodge and parry from the defense that's more valuable than the health. Your truth isn't applicable to all. Word ;)

Yes it is. EH > avoidance in all encounters. If you believe otherwise, you haven't been a tank for very long and have yet to learn the importance of EH. Suggest you go read and learn some more. Back in vanilla while tanking, the best thing warrior's could do was to make sure they had the highest amount of Health/Armor they could. That trend continued into TBC (with all tanks) and has continued into LK.

I can't remember the exact numbers, since the patch that changed the ratings/formulas for dodge and parry, but roughly 20 Dodge is just over .5% dodge chance and 15 defence rating isn't adding much to either stat. 30 STM trumps both, especially when you add in BoK.

Yes it is. EH > avoidance in all encounters. If you believe otherwise, you haven't been a tank for very long and have yet to learn the importance of EH. Suggest you go read and learn some more. Back in vanilla while tanking, the best thing warrior's could do was to make sure they had the highest amount of Health/Armor they could. That trend continued into TBC (with all tanks) and has continued into LK.

I can't remember the exact numbers, since the patch that changed the ratings/formulas for dodge and parry, but roughly 20 Dodge is just over .5% dodge chance and 15 defence rating isn't adding much to either stat. 30 STM trumps both, especially when you add in BoK.

As you stated in your previous, it helps alot for fresh tanks wanting to close the gap on def cap etc,

but with T9 armor being easier to obtain, the option of which enchant to place becomes a preferred/situational choice.

As you stated in your previous, it helps alot for fresh tanks wanting to close the gap on def cap etc,

but with T9 armor being easier to obtain, the option of which enchant to place becomes a preferred/situational choice.

After you obtain T9 and the other badge gear and the gear from heroics and the lol raids you can do at this point, the only viable enchant is the STM one in terms of greatest improvement to your tank stats. The dodge/def one doesn't stand a chance in hell to come even close to it, unless your building an "un-hittable" set which is only viable for Warrior's/Pallies for Anub alone. (I'm sure you could use it elsewhere, but meh mostly not worth it.)

Yes it is. EH > avoidance in all encounters. If you believe otherwise, you haven't been a tank for very long and have yet to learn the importance of EH. Suggest you go read and learn some more. Back in vanilla while tanking, the best thing warrior's could do was to make sure they had the highest amount of Health/Armor they could. That trend continued into TBC (with all tanks) and has continued into LK.

I can't remember the exact numbers, since the patch that changed the ratings/formulas for dodge and parry, but roughly 20 Dodge is just over .5% dodge chance and 15 defence rating isn't adding much to either stat. 30 STM trumps both, especially when you add in BoK.

Thanks for that, pasted a chunk into the tank channel last night while we were busy wiping pp-hc, caused much amusement :)

Faction hopping real soon here.

Currently: BE Hunter, in icc 10/25 gear on Maelstrom US.

I'll be switching to Alliance on Shattered hand.

I've played my hunter, http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Maelstrom&cn=Dominatious , for almost 100 days /played on horde.. it's going to be really, REALLY weird.

Any race suggestions?

I also have a Druid but I'd like to take him over when he can become a Worgen, :D

Does anyone know if there is a utility that does a ping and/or trace route to all wow realms to help pick a low latency realm (for me)? Or more importantly, avoid high latency realms.

Lowest latency realm I'd assume would be choosing one closest to you. I believe if you do a bit of Googling, you'll be able to find where the servers are located. Did it for you, check here:

http://www.wowwiki.com/US_Realm_List_By_Datacenter

This tool also is supposed to really cut down your latency. Many people have had success with it, including myself. I now sit in the 20s. Easy to remove should you decide you don't like it or if for some reason it doesn't work for you. Won't hurt your system as far as I'm aware.

Faction hopping real soon here.

Currently: BE Hunter, in icc 10/25 gear on Maelstrom US.

I'll be switching to Alliance on Shattered hand.

I've played my hunter, http://www.wowarmory...&cn=Dominatious , for almost 100 days /played on horde.. it's going to be really, REALLY weird.

Any race suggestions?

I also have a Druid but I'd like to take him over when he can become a Worgen, :D

Draenei.

Trojan succesfully hacks Authenticator Protected Accounts

A new virus spawned on the internet a few days ago and seems to be the first trojan capable of hacking a WoW account protected by an Authenticator. It was confirmed by Blizzard a few hours ago.

Quote from: Kropacius (Source)

After looking into this, it has been escalated, but it is a Man in the Middle attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack

This is still perpetrated by key loggers, and no method is always 100% secure.

Basically, what the virus does is fairly simple after you're infected :

The next time you log in World of Warcraft, the game asks for your Authenticator code.

The virus intercepts it, send it to another server, and sends a wrong one to Blizzard = You get an error.

The people behind the virus now have a few seconds/minutes to use the "real" code while it's valid to change your password / empty your account / guild bank.

How to check if you're infected

Just search for a file named "emcor.dll" on your computer, it is most likely located in "C:\Users\(Your user name)\AppData\Temp" but I suggest that you check everything just to be sure. If you do find the file, delete it and make sure you update your anti-virus to prevent any further problem.

To be honest, if you found this file your account is probably already compromised.

What does it mean exactly?

Yes, you can get hacked even if you have an authenticator, the chances are MUCH lower but you're not invulnerable.

It definitely isn't an excuse to not have an authenticator. We're talking about a single virus here and the authenticator will save your ass 99% of the time.

Get a decent anti-virus, buy an authenticator, you'll be safe.

Clever *******, are they not? As always, keep your computers clean.

Faction hopping real soon here.

Currently: BE Hunter, in icc 10/25 gear on Maelstrom US.

I'll be switching to Alliance on Shattered hand.

I've played my hunter, http://www.wowarmory...&cn=Dominatious , for almost 100 days /played on horde.. it's going to be really, REALLY weird.

Any race suggestions?

I also have a Druid but I'd like to take him over when he can become a Worgen, :D

Draenei, hands down. 7% hit cap really, really helps hunters.

As far as the druid goes, you'll be waiting a while.

Blizzard said they're not going to allow people to race change to Worgen or Goblins immediately as they want people to see the starting zones and level up their Worgen / Goblins first.

Draenei, hands down. 7% hit cap really, really helps hunters.

As far as the druid goes, you'll be waiting a while.

Blizzard said they're not going to allow people to race change to Worgen or Goblins immediately as they want people to see the starting zones and level up their Worgen / Goblins first.

I strongly disagree this is not the case not so much now, this might have been the case in early wotlk days but now if you can't get +hit capped as a hunter just from gear then you are doing something terribly wrong. There are loltrinkets availbile with like 3% +hit on them. It is pointless to start a draenei hunter hunter as when you raid/party theres a high chance another draenei will be in your party so you get the buff anyways.

I have been as low as 5.80%-6% in Raids and still not missed a single shot blizzard for some reason do not punish hard from being slightly under hit cap. Im sitting at 14.64% in raids im at 15.64% ( i know its totally wrong lol it should'nt be that high but it is ) So a draenei for me would be out of the question. Like i mentioned before if you can not get +hit capped just from gear you are doing something wrong, terribly wrong. (before the elitist start with the EJ best DPS spreasheets have hunters specced into focussed aim well my answer would be thats them, No doubt they have better gear than me, gear that does not have +hit and also they are probably ArP capped too, even if i regemmed to ArP i would still sit about 600 under the cap in my current gear.)

Having checked IanPete armory, he is way above cap. Choosing Draenei would not reap any benefits however if you are a dwarf and you use a gun you will get an extra 1% crit (for free) + stoneform etc, and if you are a Nelf then you get shadowmeld the extra base agility and quickness.

My Armory if you want to look me up, excuse the loltrinkets but im saving up DKP for Deathbringer's Will and pugging ToC25 religously for Death's Vedict.

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!