Recommended Posts

ElvUI question, is there any way to up the scale some? My screen is 1680x1050 but it seems like the bars are just a TAD too small, not enough to be unseeable, but enough that reading the tooltips can be annoying sometimes.

Use the slash command /tc to bring up the config. From there you can either change the scale completely (it does auto 1:1 for you) or you can up the font sizes on just about anything. I would recommend the font size route as changing the UI scale would blur up the clean lines of the UI.

Hunters need some spec/glyph advice.

BM Spec - What I'm currently using. Purchased Dual-spec and not sure which tree to go down in the other two. Haven't kept up with hunter changes and last time I played one was back in BC. (2.0.3 to be exact).

So any advice on current BM set-up and a dual spec one and anything in general would be helpful. :)

ElvUI question, is there any way to up the scale some? My screen is 1680x1050 but it seems like the bars are just a TAD too small, not enough to be unseeable, but enough that reading the tooltips can be annoying sometimes.

You think you're having a problem with it? Try it on a 2560x1440 screen. :laugh:

Hunters need some spec/glyph advice.

BM Spec - What I'm currently using. Purchased Dual-spec and not sure which tree to go down in the other two. Haven't kept up with hunter changes and last time I played one was back in BC. (2.0.3 to be exact).

So any advice on current BM set-up and a dual spec one and anything in general would be helpful. :)

I suggest going survival as the secondary spec, i actually use survival as my primary (i find it kills much faster than BM), and i use BM for the pathfinding on long rides. I would say get glyph of Mending (heals your pet for 60% of health or so per mend pet), and glyph of Mend Pet which returns happiness each time you use mend pet (which cuts out the need for feed pet). If you go survival then explosive shot, serpent sting (which does damage before the dot if you have the talents), and then autoshoot or steady shot will kill anything. Check out my hunter's armory for an idea of what i did

Donova - Bloodhoof

For some reason it's showing half my gear missing, but my talents should be intact.

Donova - Bloodhoof

For some reason it's showing half my gear missing, but my talents should be intact.

Old Armory, it's getting phased out, I doubt they'll ever update it with the new items from the Shattering.

Try this one instead: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/bloodhoof/donova/

ElvUI question, is there any way to up the scale some? My screen is 1680x1050 but it seems like the bars are just a TAD too small, not enough to be unseeable, but enough that reading the tooltips can be annoying sometimes.

Use /tc to get to the config and one of the options there does the scaling, uncheck auto scale and then adjust the scale from there I tried a scale of 1 and it was too big so i just let it auto scale for now.

here's my pally template : http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mar%C3%A9cage+de+Zangar&cn=Kiah . Discuss and tips plz.

Note : This is very first toon on WoW and I love to do PvE and I love to do it solo and I'm not into PvP at all. If this can help.

Edit : http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/marecage-de-zangar/kiah/ new armory link, just in case.

Old Armory, it's getting phased out, I doubt they'll ever update it with the new items from the Shattering.

Try this one instead: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/bloodhoof/donova/

Thanks very much, it's too late to update my old post, but this link works better.

here's my pally template : http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mar%C3%A9cage+de+Zangar&cn=Kiah . Discuss and tips plz.

Note : This is very first toon on WoW and I love to do PvE and I love to do it solo and I'm not into PvP at all. If this can help.

Go to The Blood Furnace in Hellfire Citadel and clear it (by yourself) - the second boss drops a libram which is better than having nothing in that slot.

Should take more than a few minutes to clear because you can walk by most of the trash.

If you like to play solo you should pick up dual spec and make your offspec protection. A prot. paladin even in horrible gear can solo damn near anything that requires a 5-man group.

It's easier if you have an appropriate set of tank gear but any sword & board will work. Pick up the talents that buff word of glory (and the glyph) and you're pretty much a one-man raid. Your single-target damage will probably be 25% lower, but you can kill 10 things at once.

Picking up repentance and rebuke will vastly improve your ability to to solo content - your protection talents aren't doing a whole lot for you so that's where I'd get the points.

hit ~4.7k dps on a couple bosses today. starting to not come in last place which is nice. only have one green and one tbc trinket to replace. up to almost 1k gold as well. started spending my justice points for some more epics from dalaran, not sure which tier they fall into though.

i've noticed alot of these tanks seem to have problems holding aggro on trash pulls in heroics. i mentioned it to my bro and he said something about since the changes tanks complaining they have been having problems with aggro but feel stronger in pvp or something. it seems like they are losing aggro right at the start of fights and even later even if we're just AOEing or healing slowly or w/e, maybe just one mob though.

i've noticed alot of these tanks seem to have problems holding aggro on trash pulls in heroics. i mentioned it to my bro and he said something about since the changes tanks complaining they have been having problems with aggro but feel stronger in pvp or something. it seems like they are losing aggro right at the start of fights and even later even if we're just AOEing or healing slowly or w/e, maybe just one mob though.

Garbage tanks. Even with all those changes and what not. It's still stupid easy to tank anything. Only reason why tanks would loose aggro is overgeared DPS with undergeard tank. Going all out before tank even has a second or two to gain aggro.

Of course in the heroics I do (with friends and what not), tank's just there to take the initial beating of a 6-10 mob group. After that it's massive AoE and everyone gets hit. But before any real damage is done, all the mobs are dead and were moving onwards.

well i'm pulling aggro off a single mob from a group with flame strike and blizzard after giving the tank a few seconds to get his hate on with an avg item level of 200. my bro doesn't seem to even get a chance to start healing or anything he's pulling aggro quite often, again with a single mob.

well i'm pulling aggro off a single mob from a group with flame strike and blizzard after giving the tank a few seconds to get his hate on with an avg item level of 200. my bro doesn't seem to even get a chance to start healing or anything he's pulling aggro quite often, again with a single mob.

There's alwyas the chance that this is their first week tanking. Most people don't tank as a main, and those that try are probably confronted with jerks that aren't prepared to give them a chance to learn how to do the job. If a DPS slacks off nobody notices. If healer slacks off a tank can sometimes cover for them (and if DPS is dying its' their own damn fault anyway) -- struggle through a few randoms or some battlegrounds and they'll be able to get by well enough to do RDF pugs. Tanking doesn't have a way where you can learn to do it on your own and if someone has an average item level of 200 then they haven't been 80 very long on that character.

I'd bet like most players they solo'd their way to level cap, maybe did a handful of dungeons on their way (as DPS) and now they're just trying to work out how to play.

Of course their's also the possibility that they're just a DPS queuing as a tank to by pass the very long queues: in which case the jerks can rot in hell. Typically I like to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not that far back in our history that we were all learning how to play.

There's alwyas the chance that this is their first week tanking. Most people don't tank as a main, and those that try are probably confronted with jerks that aren't prepared to give them a chance to learn how to do the job. If a DPS slacks off nobody notices. If healer slacks off a tank can sometimes cover for them (and if DPS is dying its' their own damn fault anyway) -- struggle through a few randoms or some battlegrounds and they'll be able to get by well enough to do RDF pugs. Tanking doesn't have a way where you can learn to do it on your own and if someone has an average item level of 200 then they haven't been 80 very long on that character.

I'd bet like most players they solo'd their way to level cap, maybe did a handful of dungeons on their way (as DPS) and now they're just trying to work out how to play.

Of course their's also the possibility that they're just a DPS queuing as a tank to by pass the very long queues: in which case the jerks can rot in hell. Typically I like to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not that far back in our history that we were all learning how to play.

I fully agree, I still rage when someone like this:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/yoshimoro/

Expects me to heal them through H Pit of Saron.

Gems

2x DEPRECATED Test Glyph 3 [PH]

1x Inscribed Flame Spessarite

Enchant/Gem Bonuses

+15 Strength

+3 Crit Rating

Character Audit

9 empty glyph slots

10 unenchanted items

4 empty sockets

Missing Ebonsteel Belt Buckle

31,911 health

He's a DPS queuing as a tank and his tank gear isn't gemmed or chanted, then they wonder why the tank is dying...

Thankfully I'm a tank. So either i'm tanking or my buddy is. If I was a healer/dps and go paired up with a dps q'ing as a tank, they get insta vote to kick from me. I wouldn't put up with that.

As to what Evn was saying about people trying to learn how to tank. I agree they do need to learn and they need some slack. But when I first learned how to tank, I only ran with friends. People who understood what I was trying to do. I didn't join UBRS/Strat/Scholo (back at 60) runs until I felt comfortable. Otherwise I tanked with friends and friends only until I was good/decent enough to go on my own. So I guess I expect people to do the same.

And if you can't find 4 friends or have "friends" who wouldn't run with you to learn, thats pretty ****ty since we are all playing a MMO.

Maybe with Cata making things more difficult people will more inclined to run do things that don't directly benefit them to help someone get X, if that person helped/will help them get Y.

I fully agree, I still rage when someone like this:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/uldum/yoshimoro/

Expects me to heal them through H Pit of Saron.

Gems

2x DEPRECATED Test Glyph 3 [PH]

1x Inscribed Flame Spessarite

Enchant/Gem Bonuses

+15 Strength

+3 Crit Rating

Character Audit

9 empty glyph slots

10 unenchanted items

4 empty sockets

Missing Ebonsteel Belt Buckle

31,911 health

He's a DPS queuing as a tank and his tank gear isn't gemmed or chanted, then they wonder why the tank is dying...

Because wow is very hard now.

Majority of instances infact almost all of the dungeons can be carried either By a tank, dps or a healer.

1. Tank sucks ... Decent healers and DPS compensate his/her suckyness

2. Healer Sucks ... Tank and DPS carry the group

3. DPS Sucks ... Tank does more dps than the DPS, healer that is not braindead also does a bit whilst not healing.

I have tanked all dungeons on my DK in DPS gear/specs. I have run with groups where sometimes there is not tank and sometimes no healer too.

The guy you show has got a protection spec from what his armory is saying. Might be an ebayed character but yeah he does have a prot spec...

Oh I've done the same too, I always heal my mate in dps spec/gear in heroics.. the whole point with this fellas was that he didn't care to gem/chant, he couldn't hold aggro and he had no idea what he was doing. There is only so much you can cover for in the end.

Oh I've done the same too, I always heal my mate in dps spec/gear in heroics.. the whole point with this fellas was that he didn't care to gem/chant, he couldn't hold aggro and he had no idea what he was doing. There is only so much you can cover for in the end.

Quite true, threat has changed as far as I recall, it now scales with dps does it not? hence why some tanks can keep up with dps classes now. If I had a tank that just started gearing up now I would not bother with gems or enchants either with cata around the corner.

I received an e-mail from Blizzard saying I can upgrade my account to WOTLK for ?8, i'm seriously tempted. Have they made any changes to leveling? I'd like to see a bit of end game content but I got bored of the grind at lvl 40 last time.

There's alwyas the chance that this is their first week tanking. Most people don't tank as a main, and those that try are probably confronted with jerks that aren't prepared to give them a chance to learn how to do the job. If a DPS slacks off nobody notices. If healer slacks off a tank can sometimes cover for them (and if DPS is dying its' their own damn fault anyway) -- struggle through a few randoms or some battlegrounds and they'll be able to get by well enough to do RDF pugs. Tanking doesn't have a way where you can learn to do it on your own and if someone has an average item level of 200 then they haven't been 80 very long on that character.

I'd bet like most players they solo'd their way to level cap, maybe did a handful of dungeons on their way (as DPS) and now they're just trying to work out how to play.

Of course their's also the possibility that they're just a DPS queuing as a tank to by pass the very long queues: in which case the jerks can rot in hell. Typically I like to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not that far back in our history that we were all learning how to play.

yeah makes sense. i figured most people i'm running with just got enough gear to run heroics and are getting ready for cata. as it is i'm already no longer coming in last place for dps in general and coming in like 2nd for boss fights with no interruptions where i can just spam AB.

I received an e-mail from Blizzard saying I can upgrade my account to WOTLK for ?8, i'm seriously tempted. Have they made any changes to leveling? I'd like to see a bit of end game content but I got bored of the grind at lvl 40 last time.

71-80 is now 25% faster with a 20% reduction in exp needed. 1-60 has been quite fast for quite some dunno if it has been made faster since wotlk or not, if you get a RAF and reroll you can level to 60 in like 2days /played time. i always found 60-70 to be fun after you get out of hellfire in tbc land, especially if there's a fair number of people of the opposite faction leveling up around you to pvp with while questing. i personally found wotlk leveling to be slow and boring even with the occasional world pvp, but now you got the random dungeon finder to grind dungeons between quests at any level which should get you fast exp and gold.

you can also level through BGs, but i don't know how fast it is. with BGs you can now queue from anywhere instead of finding the battlemasters in a city like org.

it also helps getting a leveling guild to play with a decent one will help you with quests and dungeon runs, and at the very least provide company in vent while you play and give you tips on how to spec out your toon and where to go next.

I will continue with my main being Destruction Warlock (for Raids and Dungeons) and Demonology for Leveling. However my Main Alt is switching from my DK to my Druid (just power leveled over the weekend to level 60 (that was my goal) Started the Character on Wed. Last week and its Level 60 on Saturday :D

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

    • You literally have to do it on a desktop, which is incredibly annoying in our mobile-first world. What???
    • What part of "you can’t really depend on service providers to maintain features forever" is not clear enough?
    • 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.
  • 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
      511
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      165
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      90
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!