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Grand Master

Noveed

Posted
Posted

Yup, watched that video today. Most fights didn't last 2 minutes

Linkage: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=146299

wow unreal... i thought our dps was pretty decent but thiers is insane... my guildies on a good night range between 7-11k on the 10 man normal.... these guys were consistantly pushing 11k+ in HC ... wow!

Yeah after watching that fight i certainly think its doable... I am going to be brave and ask my guild if i can try lol... probably do not have his mana pool at the moment, im HoL specced/orientated with only around 3k SP buffed i know I could easily solo heal a few.

Grand Master

Olemus

Posted
Posted

And some more cataclysm news:

We're continuing to refine the badge/emblem and PvP point systems in Cataclysm and we'd like to share some of those changes with you today. Please enjoy!

Our primary goal when approaching badges in Cataclysm is to address a lot of the confusion that comes with these currency systems. To that end we're changing badges to a more straightforward point system, similar to the ones we've used for a while for Arenas and Battlegrounds. There will be a total of four types of points you can earn in Cataclysm (two for PvE and two for PvP), and these will remain the same even as we introduce new content.

Here's the breakdown:

PvE

Hero Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)

Valor Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

PvP

Honor Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.

Conquest Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. (currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower tier. For instance, if a new tier of raid gear is released, your Valor points will be converted to Hero points, and similarly if a new PvP season begins your Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Of course that means with these new releases you'll always begin without any of the higher tier of points, and thus be unable to stockpile them.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We're removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they're definitely removed for weapons. We might offer a few items to the absolute best players based on personal rating, largely as cosmetic or 'bragging rights' type items. And you'll have the option of purchasing the previous season?s gear with the more readily available Honor points.

We do plan to have a way to convert Honor points (PvP) into Hero points (PvE), and vice versa, at a loss. The conversions will be possible, but it won't be a 1:1 rate, and you'll have fewer points after the conversion process. We won't allow the higher tiers to be exchanged for each other, however.

To explain the reasoning for the weekly cap on points for the higher tiers, this is to provide flexibility in how players choose to earn the points without feeling like they have to do all of the content as often as it is available. If your Valor income from raiding is sufficient, you may not feel the need to run Dungeon Finder every night, or perhaps even at all. Likewise, a PvP player could choose to participate in a lot of Rated Battlegrounds but no Arenas, or focus on both, and still be able to earn the points they want.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments!

Grand Master

Noveed

Posted
Posted

O M G

PvE

Hero Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)

Valor Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

PvP

Honor Points -- Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.

Conquest Points -- High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. (currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower tier. For instance, if a new tier of raid gear is released, your Valor points will be converted to Hero points, and similarly if a new PvP season begins your Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Of course that means with these new releases you'll always begin without any of the higher tier of points, and thus be unable to stockpile them.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We're removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they're definitely removed for weapons. We might offer a few items to the absolute best players based on personal rating, largely as cosmetic or 'bragging rights' type items. And you'll have the option of purchasing the previous season?s gear with the more readily available Honor points.

We do plan to have a way to convert Honor points (PvP) into Hero points (PvE), and vice versa, at a loss. The conversions will be possible, but it won't be a 1:1 rate, and you'll have fewer points after the conversion process. We won't allow the higher tiers to be exchanged for each other, however.

To explain the reasoning for the weekly cap on points for the higher tiers, this is to provide flexibility in how players choose to earn the points without feeling like they have to do all of the content as often as it is available. If your Valor income from raiding is sufficient, you may not feel the need to run Dungeon Finder every night, or perhaps even at all. Likewise, a PvP player could choose to participate in a lot of Rated Battlegrounds but no Arenas, or focus on both, and still be able to earn the points they want.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments!

So blizzard have realised that players could stockpile Badges... They did it in BC and in Wotlk... only 2 expansion and they decide to change... this is a step back not progression. So all they are doing in Stunting/gimping progression. They have seen how raiders teared down ICC and previous raids, are they making gear Harder to get or making the process longer and more annoying?

So Just to sum up then in Cata...

10 mans and 25 mans of the same dificulty share the same raid lockout ID... (less badges)

There is a Cap as to how many Valor badges on could get per week ...

Just guessing then currently as things stand one could possibly get in one week

VoA10 x2 Frost

VoA25 x2 Frost

Weekly x5 Frost

ICC10/HC x24 Frost?

ICC25/HC x24 Frost?

Doing First Random Everyday for 1 week x14 Frost

In total then 71 badges of Frost per week (someone can correct me if I am wrong, not sure if Heroic modes drop more badges than thier normal counterparts)

From the 71 or so badges it costs 23 Badges for the Primodal Saronites to craft gear... and you need like 5-8 to craft items (25 for Shadow's Edge ... just imagine trying to craft it in Cata...) If making the game annoying and tedious is thier best answer to make things harder to get then im probs out when Cata arrives. Obviously they have not stated if the new badge mechanics will apply to old badges like Frost Triumph etc or just new Cata ones however i just gave frost as an example as they are the current badges. As things stand I do not need gear on my hunter and I had around 300 badges, I have been selling saronite to guldies on the cheap for around 700g so they can craft Shadow's Edge... also I have been sending stuff over to my alts so I could get the Boots/Legs Crafted... Once Cata hits this sort of gameplay will most likely be gone, I wouldnt mind if they make the badges BoA, atlteast then people could send badges from alts to mains and vice versa... I could have had Full T10 on all my alts by now if that was the case ;)

Grand Master

Elliott

Posted
Posted

So blizzard have realised that players could stockpile Badges... They did it in BC and in Wotlk... only 2 expansion and they decide to change... this is a step back not progression. So all they are doing in Stunting/gimping progression. They have seen how raiders teared down ICC and previous raids, are they making gear Harder to get or making the process longer and more annoying?

Yes, they're stunting progression so people don't just obliterate their content the night it's released, but I also think they're doing this because there will be more raids available at the start in Cataclysm than there were in WotLK. I'm in a raiding guild and even I don't want to feel obligated to do every raid to get all the badges/points I could possibly acquire per week. Putting a cap on this basically just gives people a break and lets them choose their favorite raid or two to do per week.

Really, they're just trying to find the happy medium between vanilla WoW's system and the emblem system. I think they want to keep it so you can buy the base level of your gear (like the iLvl 251 T10 gear) with points (instead of dropping "tier tokens" from bosses), but they don't want you acquiring all that gear in three weeks. Not sure why they put a cap on the hero points though. Then again, I didn't see the point in capping honor points.

VoA10 x2 Frost

VoA25 x2 Frost

Weekly x5 Frost

ICC10/HC x24 Frost?

ICC25/HC x24 Frost?

Doing First Random Everyday for 1 week x14 Frost

In total then 71 badges of Frost per week (someone can correct me if I am wrong, not sure if Heroic modes drop more badges than thier normal counterparts)

Actually, 25 from ICC10 and ICC25. You forgot the Val'kyr before Valithria that drops an emblem. So, 73 total. With 73 per week, you can get geared up damn fast if you're dedicated and can down most/all of the bosses in ICC.

Grand Master

Noveed

Posted
Posted

Yes, they're stunting progression so people don't just obliterate their content the night it's released, but I also think they're doing this because there will be more raids available at the start in Cataclysm than there were in WotLK. I'm in a raiding guild and even I don't want to feel obligated to do every raid to get all the badges/points I could possibly acquire per week. Putting a cap on this basically just gives people a break and lets them choose their favorite raid or two to do per week.

Really, they're just trying to find the happy medium between vanilla WoW's system and the emblem system. I think they want to keep it so you can buy the base level of your gear (like the iLvl 251 T10 gear) with points (instead of dropping "tier tokens" from bosses), but they don't want you acquiring all that gear in three weeks. Not sure why they put a cap on the hero points though. Then again, I didn't see the point in capping honor points.

Actually, 25 from ICC10 and ICC25. You forgot the Val'kyr before Valithria that drops an emblem. So, 73 total. With 73 per week, you can get geared up damn fast if you're dedicated and can down most/all of the bosses in ICC.

Totally forgot about the "free badge" lol thanks for reminding me.!

Grand Master

Elliott

Posted
Posted

Totally forgot about the "free badge" lol thanks for reminding me.!

Actually, I forgot even more: the weekly quests inside of ICC. That's 10 more if you can do them in both ICC10 and ICC25. So 83 badges per week total.

Grand Master

the evn show

Posted
Posted

The one thing I dislike is removing personal rating from weapons: it's a trip back to TBC and patch 2.0 where you were pretty much obligated to do PvP if you were a raider because the weapons available from arena points were better than anything you realistically had access too (you could zone into tier 4 with weapons on par with end-boss loot. For some classes PVP items were better than all of the alternatives -- ie feral druids wanted the pvp staff over Tier 6 weapons).

Frost badges quickly became 'obsolete' as do all badges: capping the rate at which you can farm them (ie: 75 are available per week but you cannot earn more than 50, pick the way you want to earn those 50 from raids, dungeon finder, etc) might be part of their plan to deal with raiders getting upset at being forced into old/dead content for their daily fix of frost.

The running joke in my guild is that raid lockouts will be account bound. Conspiracy only schedules 2 progression raiding days per week but everybody has a lot of alts (I'd guess the average is 5 each) so there are a lot of pick-up raids through out the week. If I had to guess I'd say there are problem 10-different raid lockouts used in the guild every week: that turns in to a lot of frost emblems.

Even without this change, there were official guild "main" and "alt" raids so that you could practice new bosses without ruining your limited attempts on your main. Mostly I'm happy with the changes: playing an hour a day is going to be extremely viable and that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Grand Master

Elliott

Posted
Posted

The one thing I dislike is removing personal rating from weapons: it's a trip back to TBC and patch 2.0 where you were pretty much obligated to do PvP if you were a raider because the weapons available from arena points were better than anything you realistically had access too (you could zone into tier 4 with weapons on par with end-boss loot. For some classes PVP items were better than all of the alternatives -- ie feral druids wanted the pvp staff over Tier 6 weapons).

I'm worried about this too. I really don't want to do PvP to get the best weapons. I'm hoping they bring down the quality of the PvP items to be in line with the PvE items. Then again, I couldn't see myself replacing Trauma with any of the PvP weapons right now.

Grand Master

the evn show

Posted
Posted

I've decided to start 'seriously' 25-man raiding again now that my guild is going to a 2-days/week schedule. There's an opening in my guild's raid for a shadow priest and my 10-man strict group (7/12 hard modes) fell apart a couple of months ago. I haven't played as a shadow priest since?ever really. Can anybody offer advice for some of the harder bits of content? We're 11/12 HM 25-man but there are a couple of fights that are still sketchy (putricide, sindragosa, and saurfang).

Kind of a shame to have the mage go into retirement but nobody seems to need one these days.

Grand Master

Minifig

Posted
Posted

Cataclysm Friends and Family Alpha on MMO-Champion :-(, I wish i knew some Blizzard employees

It's not the Alpha.

They just said it's alpha.

If you read the post on the forums it says the "Friends and Family PHASE", which lead me to believe they're just getting access to the beta early.

Grand Master

Elliott

Posted
Posted

Just got my 3rd orb of deception on my 98th run for Deathcharger.

Ah well, they make some money :p

You're going to hate me: I decided randomly a few days ago that I wanted the Deathcharger. Did one run and it dropped. :laugh:

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    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      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

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      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. 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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.
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