Recommended Posts

**** me levelling up Blacksmithing costs a lot. Luckily all my farming for Deathcharger is paying for it.

Going to level up JC as well eventually, but I'm making good coin off of enchanting.

lakerslaugh.gif

Do them at the same time or you'll be buying gold before the month is out. :p

Nah I still don't have deathcharger yet, so I'll be farming again soon and I'll keep enchanting to bring the money back up again!

Plus I'm doing a ton of heroics just now for raiding gear so I still make good money from enchanting.

Also I disenchant all the crap I make from Blacksmithing.

Nah I still don't have deathcharger yet, so I'll be farming again soon and I'll keep enchanting to bring the money back up again!

Plus I'm doing a ton of heroics just now for raiding gear so I still make good money from enchanting.

Also I disenchant all the crap I make from Blacksmithing.

Deathcharger? isnt that a DK mount? I thought you had a pally and the have "chargers" i think.

Im LW and Skinner on my hunter, so wish I did JC though :( the extra stat gems are nice.

Deathcharger? isnt that a DK mount? I thought you had a pally and the have "chargers" i think.

Im LW and Skinner on my hunter, so wish I did JC though :( the extra stat gems are nice.

It's a mount that drops from Stratholme boss with a 1% drop rate. It used to be 0.01% way in the past, then 0.1% pre 3.0. Then boosted to 1% which caused the people who got it ages ago to whine, and nowadays a lot of farming goes on for it... you see it fairly often now in SW/IF.

Modelled in the same vein as the charger mounts, but it's the only undead mount the Alliance can get, and it's ironic a Paladin on an undead mount :p

How many runs?

I'm at 91 I think :p

The sword dropped at 70 odds :pinch:

Just... insane amounts. Pre 1%, so I was pretty ****ed when they announced the increased drop rate, as you might imagine. But then again, maybe my other characters want one as well. ;D

I remember it well... I had been doing runs sooooooo much, just... stealthing in, slapping the guy up and resetting, and then two buddies ask if they can come along and see how it's done... AND IT DROPS. So great. ^^

I never did get any orbs though. :p

Just... insane amounts. Pre 1%, so I was pretty ****ed when they announced the increased drop rate, as you might imagine. But then again, maybe my other characters want one as well. ;D

I remember it well... I had been doing runs sooooooo much, just... stealthing in, slapping the guy up and resetting, and then two buddies ask if they can come along and see how it's done... AND IT DROPS. So great. ^^

Oh one of them :p

Nah I do sympathize a little, the amount of runs I've seen some people do is downright ludicrous when you see me complaining about 91 runs. I guess that's just down to expectations though, I'd never of ran for it at the 1 in 5000 drop date it used to be, but when it's 1 in 100 you do expect it to drop within a reasonable amount.

Yeah I've got to the point of it's more about the feeling of it finally dropping than actually wanting the mount that badly :p Although I have been on a good break from farming as I can't stealth so the 8-12 min runs were driving me nuts.

Although as I have said in this thread I probably earned about 7.5k from those 91 runs, which ain't bad coin as a side bonus to your real goal.

Oh one of them :p

Nah I do sympathize a little, the amount of runs I've seen some people do is downright ludicrous when you see me complaining about 91 runs. I guess that's just down to expectations though, I'd never of ran for it at the 1 in 5000 drop date it used to be, but when it's 1 in 100 you do expect it to drop within a reasonable amount.

Yeah I've got to the point of it's more about the feeling of it finally dropping than actually wanting the mount that badly :p Although I have been on a good break from farming as I can't stealth so the 8-12 min runs were driving me nuts.

Although as I have said in this thread I probably earned about 7.5k from those 91 runs, which ain't bad coin as a side bonus to your real goal.

Hm... 7.5k. Disenchant, I suppose.

Maybe my pally does really need it after all. I can drop skinning real quick-like, and everyone knows I'm the cheapest ****** you can find. Which also includes greedy. I dropped a profession for the side-cash once, I'm not opposed to doing it again. Hm. Hm hm.

Hm... 7.5k. Disenchant, I suppose.

Maybe my pally does really need it after all. I can drop skinning real quick-like, and everyone knows I'm the cheapest ****** you can find. Which also includes greedy. I dropped a profession for the side-cash once, I'm not opposed to doing it again. Hm. Hm hm.

One of my orbs of deception did go for 750G. The other one I kept.

But yeah rest of the gold was from disenchating and selling cloth. A stack of shards was going for like 92-95G on my server.

Undercutting all the time so quick sales and quick cash reel in.

You guys see the new under-water area in cata?

Hell yes: Vashj'ir. :D I'm torn about whether I should level there or in Hyjal. I love the lore in both areas (though WoW has been pretty devoid of Naga lore up to this point). I'm really, really curious about the underwater mechanics, though.

I cannot wait to hear more about how they are going to change underwater travel, combat system. This is very interesting to me. Also I am interested to see the amount of change that they are going to be doing to stranglethorn vail.

My wife asked how are we going to be able to breathe underwater for so long, which raises a good point ... you going to get some special brew, or just have to buy a ******** of pots for this area .... or what?

They're supposedly implementing a whole new way to travel and fight underwater, so I doubt we'll have to take a potion or anything. I can only imagine what they're coming up with.

They'll probably only let you control the mount with your drowned corpse attached to it. For combat, the mount flails your lifeless body at the enemy. This is where the old warrior T2 set really shines.

:laugh: Those blades on the shoulders and head would hurt.

So finally just before reset my guild decides to do an ICC10 run. We saved lock from Last reset as we were on the LK on Thursday so we had 1 full night of trying to learn the fight (was annoying as they kept changing tactics and didnt stick with the one that looked the most promising :\ ) ... in the end we didnt get him down however non of us had a raid ID.... I am guessing you need to down something once you have extended the raid id to actually get saved with it after reset or something.

Anyways last night was sort of a speed run(ish) We wiped 2 times in total in the entirety of the raid. (1 time on blood council which was my fault for not spotting a beach ball thing and 1 time on Sindragosa (we did have an intended wipe on her to show the new guys how we do it so I am now going to count that as a "proper wipe"))... Had 1 attempt on the LK before we had to call it a night. Now i must say ICC10 is starting to feel more and more like Nax I am confident once we kill the LK we will be clearing it in 1 night and doing the HC version on the second night we raid.

For some odd reason the raid in general was getting higher dps than ususal most folks were doing between 7-10k dps (on saurfang we had 1 dps below 8k and that was a shammy (main spec healer though) who managed around 5-6k ish and he was one of the new guys) ... not sure if some classes got stealth buffs or something or if we were just focussing more, we we'rnt even flasked up or anything which is kinda bizzare.)

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!