Recommended Posts

Druid tanking is pretty simple and doesn't really have problems with threat, even if you're slightly outgeared by people in randoms. All you really do is macro Maul into your Mangle, Swipe, FFF and Lacerate abilities and you're set. Trash is just swipe fest and boss tanking is just using Mangle and FFF on CD and keeping lacerate up. Then swip/maul in between then. I've only tanked on a pally on the PTR but it was made easy with 2 macros and I didn't find it all that fun. I enjoy druid tanking more than tanking on my DK,

Does everyone use macros now to do everything? Also is druid tanking easy to level with 1-80 through LFD? my hunter did it t he old way and I really rather not do that again lol.

Does everyone use macros now to do everything? Also is druid tanking easy to level with 1-80 through LFD? my hunter did it t he old way and I really rather not do that again lol.

Well since you'll be able to queue as a tank, your queues will be instant, which should make leveling easier. As far as macros it just makes tanking easier for me. Maul causes a huge amount of threat so having it macro'd into some of your other abilities is nice for threat gen. As a pally tank you can pretty much make 2 cast sequence macro's: one for your 6 second CD abilities and one for your 9 second CD abilities and tank like a mad man from 60'ish on.

I don't know what exactly is involved with 'uploading my ui'. Is there an easy way to export settings etc?

Here's the same UI on my TV from tonights clean up of ICC. There are still some minor issues but the old "make profiles and keybinding to switch" works somewhat well.

I've been playing with an addon "reflux" to replace my old macros that switched profiles.

Here's what I've managed: same UI but running on a large-screen television.

For the most part everything "just worked". The only things that needed weird hacks was quartz and pitbull - which were minor things.

I don't know what exactly is involved with 'uploading my ui'. Is there an easy way to export settings etc?

Here's the same UI on my TV from tonights clean up of ICC. There are still some minor issues but the old "make profiles and keybinding to switch" works somewhat well.

I've been playing with an addon "reflux" to replace my old macros that switched profiles.

Here's what I've managed: same UI but running on a large-screen television.

For the most part everything "just worked". The only things that needed weird hacks was quartz and pitbull - which were minor things.

That's a really great setup. Two questions if you don't mind: what are all the addons involved in the minimap area and what buff tracker (upper right) are you using?

You really helped me out with that Reflux addon that you mentioned. Should let me switch between my iMac and my MacBook pretty easily.

That's a really great setup. Two questions if you don't mind: what are all the addons involved in the minimap area and what buff tracker (upper right) are you using?

The minimap is Squeenix with the trackers for finding a group, tracking, mail, etc. provided by statblocks (and the appropriate pluggins).

Buff/debuffs and the timers under the cast bar (and one you can't see: purgable/clensable buffs on my target) are provided by Satrina buff frame.

To square them up I'm using ButtonFacade with the Apathy theme.

The minimap is Squeenix with the trackers for finding a group, tracking, mail, etc. provided by statblocks (and the appropriate pluggins).

Buff/debuffs and the timers under the cast bar (and one you can't see: purgable/clensable buffs on my target) are provided by Satrina buff frame.

To square them up I'm using ButtonFacade with the Apathy theme.

Thanks! I had never even heard of Statblocks before.

The minimap is Squeenix with the trackers for finding a group, tracking, mail, etc. provided by statblocks (and the appropriate pluggins).

Buff/debuffs and the timers under the cast bar (and one you can't see: purgable/clensable buffs on my target) are provided by Satrina buff frame.

To square them up I'm using ButtonFacade with the Apathy theme.

Another question: what are you using to hide the raid difficulty flag? I know the /script command, but I have to keep typing that in (or clicking on a macro) every time I zone in or the difficulty changes (from, say, Normal to Heroic and back).

Another question: what are you using to hide the raid difficulty flag? I know the /script command, but I have to keep typing that in (or clicking on a macro) every time I zone in or the difficulty changes (from, say, Normal to Heroic and back).

I don't have one that hides the difficulty (ie: raid is now set to heroic mode in chat): I just have that garbage filtered out in the standard chat window settings. I do have one that hides the "50 attempts of 50 remaining" for heroic mode end bosses: it's one I whipped up myself that hides a frame (I just edited EError which hides the "you're out of range" / "that ability is not ready yet" error text box). I've since moved to having it display just "45" for ICC and "50" for Algalon (showing the number of minutes left). I'll post some code when I get home tonight. It's not very complicated and I know I just hacked up somebody elses addon but I can't remember for the life of me what the original was.

I don't have one that hides the difficulty (ie: raid is now set to heroic mode in chat): I just have that garbage filtered out in the standard chat window settings. I do have one that hides the "50 attempts of 50 remaining" for heroic mode end bosses: it's one I whipped up myself that hides a frame (I just edited EError which hides the "you're out of range" / "that ability is not ready yet" error text box). I've since moved to having it display just "45" for ICC and "50" for Algalon (showing the number of minutes left). I'll post some code when I get home tonight. It's not very complicated and I know I just hacked up somebody elses addon but I can't remember for the life of me what the original was.

I was actually talking about the little raid difficulty flag that pops up on the upper left hand side of the minimap, but it looks like Squeenix just added a way to hide it.

I still appreciate your post though. That "attempts" frame is getting in the way sometimes.

Finally got these after weeks of failed Fire Fighter attempts.

Congrats, but personaly to me with the current lvl of gear now and etc... these drakes aren't really impressive anymore, and the server i'm on they pug and successfully do 25 man uld HM's every sat or sunday to get everyone ironbound drakes

You'll probably beat me to it. I've been sitting in a rather pathetic situation for a few weeks now.

20100601-enhkttpkcqeqxema8denct2iph.jpg

I'm not much for achievements, but come-on.

Sad part: I've Gone and Made a Mess is one of the few achievements I do have towards my 25m drake.

I'm very close to my 10m one though (and I prefer the look of it, fortunately). Just Full House and All You Can Eat left since they took Neck-Deep in Vile off of the requirements in a hotfix.

I don't know what exactly is involved with 'uploading my ui'. Is there an easy way to export settings etc?

Here's the same UI on my TV from tonights clean up of ICC. There are still some minor issues but the old "make profiles and keybinding to switch" works somewhat well.

I've been playing with an addon "reflux" to replace my old macros that switched profiles.

Here's what I've managed: same UI but running on a large-screen television.

For the most part everything "just worked". The only things that needed weird hacks was quartz and pitbull - which were minor things.

Just put your Interface, WTF and (optionally) Fonts directories in a RAR/ZIP file and upload them somewhere. I'll take care of the rest.

Finally got in to a guild that likes to raid regularly. We did ICC10 tonight, and got to Blood Princes. Unfortunately, we wiped at 4%. :pinch:

The plus side is I'm finally getting my rogue upgraded like I want, and bring her DPS up big time.

Oh hell, I might give this a shot here..

I tried to install WoW again as I wanted to play it once again, lately it's been boring :)

I can't, for the life of me, to install WoW any way I try, I have the vanilla box (5 CD's), the BC expansion (3-4 CD's ?) and LK expansion (1 DVD).

I insert the first CD and begin installing, 99% of the times I've tried to install it goes on fine, the second CD gives out an error about "can't verify file X" or something like that, either my CD is corrupted or my C/D drives are (I tried installing to both drives), I checked my HDD's and there were no errors reported, I checked my RAM and no errors were reported, I checked my CD's and they're fine.

This is not even my main issue, I can easily download the game, I'm in no hurry to play, but the exact same error pops up when downloading the game, at first I chose "WoTLK" installation and it gave out the error, then I tried the vanilla installation and it gave the same error again.

So it's not the CD's, it looks like it's the HDD's, but they don't report any problems !

I also re-installed my OS like 3 times to see if I messed up with some updates or programs that interfere with WoW, but it didn't help, no difference at all.

The only plausible explanation is that my HDD's are dying, is there another way to test them ? Like a third-party utility to see if it loses data periodically ?

Perhaps the cabling is faulty ? I've opened my case and re-attached every cable (SATA2) and even placed them away from each other so less heat affects them, I even swapped the HDD's and I now install the OS on the other one.

It ****es me the **** off, I simply don't know what's up, I don't want to buy a new HDD only to find out that the error will keep haunting me even with the new one.

I decided to post here because you're technically adept and you play WoW, so you might have some information about WoW specific installation errors.

I have tried to download the game as well (not illegally mind you) and it gave the same error, in addition to error 2 which went away after I deleted all traces of WoW's installation and started it all over again.

I have also tried to copy the contents of the CD to the HDD and it copied just fine, indicating that the CD's were fine, generally.

It still gave the same error when run from the HDD.

I also had some bad luck with archives when downloading them with Chrome, downloading the same archive with IE8 fixed all CRC errors, I attributed the problem to Chrome, not my HDD's.

I also have a problem with Adobe Reader, for the 2nd or 3rd time I can't download it properly, when I download it, it appears to be finished, 26mb~, the installation gives an error that I cant find any information about.

I try to download the file again and it finishes in 1-2 seconds, like it's from a cached copy or something, it's obviously just as corrupted..

It's not relevant to WoW, I know, but perhaps it could shed some light on my situation..

Out of curiosity, is the guild mentioned on the first page of this thread still active with people from Neowin on it? I used to play this game (Tried to anyway) for about a month or so. I actually did enjoy it, however my friends who got me on the game (Across 2 different servers might I add) never played with me, they were all high level and too busy doing their own stuff to even care. So I kind of got bored as not only was I questing alone, but I didn't have anyone to talk to either.

I have been interested to start playing again though, never played as horde, and knowing that there are like-minded people in a guild could just be the incentive I need to play once more.

Out of curiosity, is the guild mentioned on the first page of this thread still active with people from Neowin on it? I used to play this game (Tried to anyway) for about a month or so. I actually did enjoy it, however my friends who got me on the game (Across 2 different servers might I add) never played with me, they were all high level and too busy doing their own stuff to even care. So I kind of got bored as not only was I questing alone, but I didn't have anyone to talk to either.

I have been interested to start playing again though, never played as horde, and knowing that there are like-minded people in a guild could just be the incentive I need to play once more.

http://www.wowarmory.com/guild-info.xml?r=Quel'dorei&gn=Neowinian

It's not really active as I see it, it's also in the US, you're from the UK, so...

Out of curiosity, is the guild mentioned on the first page of this thread still active with people from Neowin on it? I used to play this game (Tried to anyway) for about a month or so. I actually did enjoy it, however my friends who got me on the game (Across 2 different servers might I add) never played with me, they were all high level and too busy doing their own stuff to even care. So I kind of got bored as not only was I questing alone, but I didn't have anyone to talk to either.

I have been interested to start playing again though, never played as horde, and knowing that there are like-minded people in a guild could just be the incentive I need to play once more.

Other than the whole region issue, the guild is pretty much dead. I've leveled a few toons to the low 20's there, but never had someone from the guild to invite my toons. It was a cool idea, but it requires alot of work and leaving behind friends/progressed toons to make it worthwhile, unless everyone transfered a toon there (cha-ching) and we managed to set-up raid times/days and all that other goodies when it comes to being a guild.

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!