amd on software

This is a sponsored review
Lets talk about VOIP in-game options. It’s essential - last thing you want to be doing when working on something complicated and time-critical is trying to explain with text communication. Currently I use at least 4 different ways to talk to my teammates when playing games.

• TeamSpeak: the ubiquitous TeamSpeak is the oldest and most reliable gaming VOIP service available. Occasionally laggy and echo-y
• Skype: internet telephony. This gives much better quality voice than TS, but doesn’t integrate well with games
• X-fire: they took IM and made it game compatible. Integrates fantastically with every popular game on the market but voice sound quality is poor at best. Stick to the IM guys!
• Ventrillo: the New TeamSpeak. Skype-like quality, with no lag, and integrating with most games. Downside? Less popular than TS

Mainly these days I’m using TS when multi-player Counter-Strike (4+) because the server is TS enabled, but occasionally I just leave Skype running in the background to my friend and we both jump on the same server. X-fire’s advantage comes in here because you can right-click your friends name and “Join server”.

What about Ventrillo? Well Dallas Xtreme asked me[1] to check out their Ventrillo hosting and I decided to see if it could match my TS experiences. If you check out their site you’ll see a list on the left hand side that shows London, England, Ashburn, Virginia, etc. These are test servers. I chose the London server as my testing ground since it’s close to Dublin here.

Was I impressed? With their server, yes. Voice quality was more than adequate, and lag was non-existent. With the non-server elements, well Ventrillo is a pretty polished piece of software.

Update

Chris has some interesting technical info in the comments section:

I wouldn’t say your experience was exactly typical. Heres the breakdown:

Teamspeak supports a number of quality levels (codecs). It ships with one of the lowest enabled, because it takes up less bandwidth. Teamspeak uses UDP, a connectionless protocol, to send data. This is faster than TCP/IP, but less reliable.

Ventrillo supports a number of codecs also. It ships with one of the highest enabled, because it sounds good. Vent uses TCP/IP, which can cause enormous lag if packets are dropped, but with guaranteed delivery you will always hear exactly what others said.

In summary: Vent sounds better out of the box, but may effect your game performance by hogging bandwidth. Teamspeak may occasionally sound worse, especially out of the box, but will have a much less noticable effect on gameplay.

Here’s my reply to his comment:

Thanks for the detail, I hadn’t seen it broken down as simply as TeamSpeak using UDP, Ventrillo using TCP before.

Regards sound quality vs lag… well I was going to say that that’s an easy one to answer - I’ll take the lower quality any day, but don’t lag me! But on consideration, that’s not quite true - it depends on circumstance.

In a hectic game of CounterStrike, where 1/100 of a second makes a difference then lag is unacceptable, but dropping voice packets is acceptable.

In the slower paced game of World of Warcraft at length discussion of your raid’s strategy is vital, but 1/100 of a second lag is normally dealt with quite well by the game network code.

So on that basis I would go for TeamSpeak with UDP. For WoW I would say that communication quality is more important, thus being more suited to Ventrillo.

Would I recommend dallasxtreme.com? I don’t know. I certainly don’t think you’re going to have any issue with the quality of communications. If I were you I’d first of all check out the test servers, and when happy, take a look at the pricing options and see if you’re happy with the price.

Ratings: overall: 7/10 (quality 8/10; value 6/10 (because their competitors at the low-end are free))

1. (ReviewMe does not require reviews to be positive, these are my true opinions)

This is a how-to on doing a Dire Maul:Tribute run. Part of my Warcraft Tips series - hope it’s of some use to you!

For druid tanks it’s all about getting the Unyielding Maul which is a weapon almost as good as the Warden Staff. Comments in quotes are originally from US WoW forums.

Pre-requisites:

• Gordok Ogre Suit (http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?q=16112) needs:
• Bolt of Runecloth: 0/4
• Rugged Leather: 0/8
• Ogre Tannin: 0/1 (obtain inside instance)
• Rune Thread: 0/2

Broken Trap requires:

Thorium Widget: 1
Frost Oil: 1

I suggest bringing 16 bolts, 32 Rugged Leather, 8 Rune Thread, 4 Thorium Widgets and 4 Frost Oils so you can try 4 attempts in row for good chance to drop. I think you can get away with 50% of the suit mats if you’re a LW or tailor, but another person in my party made the suits so I can’t confirm. If you bring that amount you’re cool.

Doors

The outer door is opened with Crescent Key from DM: East. The Courtyard door is opened with Gordok Courtyard Key, which can be picked up during the run, from a chest on a pedestal near the door. The inner Courtyard door is opened with Gordok Inner Door Key, which is dropped by Guard Mol’dar. HOWEVER I suggest NOT killing him. If you avoid killing named guards, you will get more loot in the Tribute Chest. All doors can also be opened with Powerful Seaforium Charge/Truesilver Skeleton Key / rogue w/300 lockpicking so this really is the way to go.

All head left inside the entrance, clear all the mobs in the corridors, but skip side arches. Kill as little as possible, it speeds it up. In order of priority, kill mages first when in the corridors, and in the order Doomguards, Warlocks then melee classes when inside. Always kill “Eyes of Kilrog” if they appear asap, they summon Voidwalkers if they get enough time after detecting you.

When you see the goblin ahead on the right, don’t kill the patrolling Ogre - fix the Broken Trap using Thorium Widget and Frost Oil. He will walk into it and voila, trapped! Go to the goblin to get quest to make the suit and DON’T free him! Now go loot the tannin (upstairs near mobs) and he will make suit . You have to be a tailor or leatherworker to make it yourself, but it uses only 1/2 the mats, useful if you’re running several times.

“Use the suit and talk to the captain and he will be non-hostile and run to elsewhere in the instance.”

Yep, he does just that. Now you just need to clear a couple easy mobs (dogs etc) and head straight ahead to the King.

“Defeat the end boss (trying not to kill his named support if you can, but that makes it harder) and you will become “King” once you talk to an ogre that walks up. A tribute chest (with more/better stuff the fewer people you killed) will drop. Make sure every party member gets the “King” buff though. “

I disagree. This was the easiest fight of the entire thing. I tanked the King, all dps on him, hunter’s pet tanked the support guy. I pulled the King away from the other as otherwise the King gets healed. Only thing to watch for is a big knockback. King does that, then goes on a random (or maybe 2nd highest threat) party member. Use charge and pull him back away from his healer. He goes down fairly easy I think. YMMV.

Win! Talk to the guy, become King, loot tribute chest and have a fairly decent chance of getting the Maul. Don’t forget to talk to all the guys you didn’t kill and get the really cool 2 hour buffs.

Tags: Wow, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, tips, Dire Maul, Tribute

Part of my Warcraft Tips series - hope it’s of some use to you! Do me proud, put those warrior tanks to shame!

Druid tanks don’t need to worry so much about T0/T1/T2 sets. It’s a blessing and a curse - we don’t get stat bonuses, but we do get to look different

Here’s the gear I was looking for at L60. Note that this gear list is around WoW version 1.11 so if some changes have occurred (like in 2.0) then some of it will be out of date. Most of it still holds true at this point though!

Update: best feral druid enchant?

I just had a conversation in the comments with Psyx that might be of interest. (s)He asked:

+25 AGI enchant for cat huh?
Last time I checked AP is most important for cat, and since AP is derived from strength, I would go for 15 STR on ur catweapon.

Well, like everything else, that depends!

Yep, +25 AGI gives you by far the best bang for your bucks in the form of +dodge +armor and +crit as well as +AP… yes only half the amount of STR but you’re getting 10 more points!

If it were a question of 15 STR vs 15 AGI then it’d be a question of whether you’re going to be in cat most of the time or not.

I’m tanking 90% of the time and only rarely dpsing. For both cat and bear we get such huge benefits from AGI that makes it more worthwhile considering the bigger number.

So back to which is better…

15 AGI vs 15 STR - take AGI if you ever tank with that weapon. Use 15 STR only on a dps cat weapon and only if you’re PvE only. If you PvP you gotta go for the AGI.

25 AGI vs 15 STR - take AGI unless you are dps cat STR spec and will *never tank*. If you are crit spec cat then stick to AGI for +armor +dodge +crit. If you’re really rich and lucky with drops, get both.

Cheers for that Psyx, good point to bring up!

But I digress - on to the feral druid tanking gear list:

Gloves:
AQ20 Kurrinnaxx (1st boss) Toughened Silithid Hide Gloves (181 Armor +18 Stamina +15 Agility +11 Strength — yes these are superb tanking gloves Smiley )
LBRS Urok Doomhowl (Ogre pile event) Slaghide Gauntlets of …(random enchant - hoping tiger, bear, monkey or defense — see below 207 AC)

Belt:
LBRS Quartermaster Zigris Cloudrunner Girdle (185 AC +14 Strength +15 Agility)
MC crafted Lava Belt (223 Armor +15 Stamina +26 Fire Resistance) (requires 5x Lava Core 4x Cured Rugged Hide 4x Ironweb Spider Silk)

Legs:
UBRS The Beast Blademaster Leggings (154 AC, +1% Crit +1% Hit +2% Dodge, +5 Agi)
Strat:Baron Baron Shadowcraft Pants( 150 AC, +12 Str +25 Agi +12 Sta)
Scholo Six Teachers Cadaverous Leggings (150 AC, +52 Atk, +18 Sta)
Strat:Baron Baron Wildheart Kilt (150 AC, +13 Str +12 Agi +14 Sta +14 Int +14 Sp)

Relic:
Strat:Baron Magistrate Barthilas Idol of Brutality (Equip: Reduces the rage cost of Maul and Swipe by 3) note: Diaros has

More on the random Slaghide Gauntlets of …

Slaghide Gauntlets of the Tiger 207 AC +14-15 Agility +14 Strength
Slaghide Gauntlets of the Bear 207 AC +14-15 Stamina +14-15 Strength
Slaghide Gauntlets of the Monkey 207 AC +14-15 Agility +14-15 Stamina
Slaghide Gauntlets of Defense 207 AC +21-22 Skill Defense

There are several others, the only other one that appears useful to tank is the “… of Fire Resistance” one for MC.

Feet:
PvP AB Revered Leather Boots (181 AC +16 Atk, +12 Agi +16 Sta, Minor Speed)
Scholo - Six Teachers Cadaverous Walkers (118 AC, +24 Atk, +20 Sta)
LBRS - Halycon Pads of the Dread Wolf(116 AC, +14 Sta, +40 Attack)
Scholo - Rattlegore Shadowcraft Boots (115 AC, +21 Agi +9 Sta)
MC crafted Corehound Boots (126 AC, +13 Agi +10 Sta, +24 FR)

Head:
UBRS - Rend Eye of Rend (143 AC, +2% Crit, +13 Str +7 Sta)
MC crafted Molten Helm (150 AC, +1% Dodge, +16 Sta, +29 FR)
ZG crafted, 300 Eng req. Bloodvine Lens (147 AC, +2% Crit, +12 Sta, stealth detect, ) (One of the reasons I got Eng to 300, but I dropped it as mats were too difficult to get)
Scholo - Gandling Shadowcraft Cap (141 AC, +13 Str +20 Agi +18 Sta +5 Spi) (Better than Bone ring if you have plenty of +sta already)
Scholo - Rattlegore Bone Ring Helm (141 AC, +6 Str +5 Agi +30 Sta +6 Int +6 Spi) (Great +sta here)

(Forgive different format, stolen from Feral Druid Equipment thread)

Bracers:

R63, 77 AC, +1% Hit, +5 Str +13 Sta, +10 SR: Blackmist Armguards (UBRS - The Beast)
R63, 77 AC, +10 Sta, +45 Atk vs Undead: Wristwraps of Undead Slaying (Scourge invasion - Silver spawns)
R62, 76 AC, +10 Agi +9 Sta, +24 Attack: Bracers of the Eclipse (DM west - Tortheldrin)
R60, 74 AC, +9 Str +10 Agi +10 Sta: Wristguards of Renown (BRD - Emperor)
R58, 72 AC, +7 Agi +16 Sta: Malefic Bracers (random Scholo)
R57, 71 AC, +15 Agi +7 Sta: Shadowcraft Bracers
R57, 71 AC, +9-10 to two or +15 to one stat, +10 FR: Cinderhide Armsplints (BRD - Incendius)

Cloak:
R62, 214 AC (+170 AC included), +5 Def: Cloak of Warding (crafted) (Terrlock can make)
E62, 48 AC, +1% Dodge, +17 Agi +8 Sta: Shifting Cloak (crafted)
R63, 115 AC (+70 AC included), +17 Sta: Sergeant’s Cloak/Cape (PvP R3)
R63, 45 AC, +20 Atk, +15 Agi: Cape of the Black Baron (Strat dead - Rivendare)
R63, 45 AC, +17 Agi +7 Sta: Shadow Prowler’s Cloak (UBRS - Drakkisath)
R63, 45 AC, +15 Sta, +7 Def: Redoubt Cloak (DM north - Tribute)

Rings:
150 AC, +9 Sta: Ring of Protection (EPL Battle of Darrowshire questline)
50 AC, +10 Sta, +5 Def, Reflect 3 Arcane: Nagelring (BRD)
50 AC, +8-9 to two or +12-13 to one stat: Archaedic Stone (ULD)
120 AC: Band of the Great Tortoise (Tanaris)
+1% Crit +1% Hit, +16 Atk, +11 Sta: Don Julio’s Band (AV Exalted)
+1% Crit +1% Hit, +6 Str: Band of Earthen Might (Silithus)
+1% Crit, +16 Atk, +7 Sta: Painweaver Band (UBRS)
+1% Crit, +6 Str +7 Sta: Magni’s Will (BRD; Alliance only)
+1% Hit, +4 Damage, +8 Sta: Might of Cenarius (Silithus)
+1% Hit, +30 Atk, +9 Sta: Ring of Fury (TAQ)
+1% Hit, +20 Atk, +6 Sta: Blackstone Ring (Mara)
+1% Hit, +15 Agi: Tarnished Elven Ring (DM north)
+14 Str +13 Sta: Band of the Ogre King (DM north)

Weapons:
46.5 DPS (89-134 @ 2.40), 260 AC, +11 Sta, +10 Def: Warden Staff (random world) (Diaros: main tanking weapon for endgame bosses)
53.0 DPS (135-204 @ 3.20), 250 AC, +12 Sta, +8 Def: Unyielding Maul (DM north) (get this from DM:Tribute if you can’t get Warden)
55.7 DPS (158-265 @ 3.80), +1% Hit, +22 Str +22 Sta: Doomulus Prime (RAQ/ZG) (superb DPS tanking weapon for trash mobs)

Other options:
53.8 DPS (129-194 @ 3.00), +1% Crit, +30 Str: Bonecrusher (DM west) (superb for cat form and tanking if no +sta concerns)
51.4 DPS (160-241 @ 3.90), +29 Str +12 Sta: Slavedriver’s Cane (Strat dead)
51.4 DPS (135-204 @ 3.30), +29 Str +12 Sta: Fist of Omokk (LBRS)
49.7 DPS (147-221 @ 3.70), +14 Str +21 Sta +12 Spi: Twig of the World Tree (random world) (sufficient weapon for mid-50s ferals)

Trinkets:
180 AC, +1% Dodge, +10 AR: Mark of Tyranny (UBRS reward - don’t pick Blackhands Breadth)
150 AC, +7 FR/FrR/NR/SR: Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Enchanting 265 crafted: Binds on Pickup - if you’re serious about tanking bosses, you should get this)

On trinket choice I quote the Feral Druid Equipment List post:
Quote:
Mark of Tyranny and Smoking Heart are the two biggest Bear trinkets. Many Druids switch to Enchanting and raise skill to 265 just to make the Smoking Heart (you can drop Enchanting afterwards and continue to equip the trinket). For Cat, Blackhand’s Breadth is good but I would choose the Mark of Tyranny over it. It is easier to find a substitute for offensive trinkets than for defensive since there are so few that raise Armor directly and since we take such great advantage of them.

Weapons Enchant:

For both Cat and Bear druids there is only 1 choice: +25 agi to 2H. Anything else is criminal given the benefits we get from agi (crit, dodge, armor, attk power in cat).

If you’re using 1H then there is +15 agi available, however I’d be interested to see a 1H that beats our 2H options, before BWL or AQ at least.

We have a really good Gaggia espresso machine in our building. It’s a pleasure to use, right up there with what most dedicated coffee shops are using, and much better than the rubbish you’ll see in a lot of bars. One of the guys here with me appreciates a top notch coffee as much as I do. We know how to make a sweet espresso or our standard superb cappuccino. We have a routine to making 2 cups which we have down pat. Although we appreciate quality over speed, for amateurs we’re fast, very fast.

How fast exactly? Well, our boss sends an email:

Reminder 2pm Room 16b, meeting with Amy & Joe - be on time.

It’s 1.55pm but for this meeting we know we’ll need serious caffeine hits - can we get downstairs, make 2 cappuccinos, clean up after ourselves and be back at the meeting room ontime? Sure we can!

Walking into the meeting room at 1.59pm with 2 fantastic coffees, dusted lightly with chocolate powder, knowing we’ve left the steamer and the rest of the machine spotless? The coffee was superb. Anyone need a couple of baristas?

60 druid, The Venture Co, EU. (13/33/5 feral tank spec)

I quit WoW on 26 August 06 03:32 CEST. I decided to quit on the 25th, and luckily the 26th was when my monthly game time was expiring. I’m not sure that I would have gone through with it had I had a longer run out period. I quit the payment and removed my credit card number from the payment system, so I’ll have to consciously enter it again to restart my character.

Although the temptation is there I haven’t gone back yet. I feel like an AA guy saying “one day at a time”. I didn’t delete my character or bank because I was telling myself I might consider playing the Burning Crusade expansion, but that’s probably a real bad idea so I think I’ll pass.

I was not the worse of the addicts, I played 6 to 8 hours a day for about 4 months and I considered myself a “casual player” - haha, what a joke! I was considering back in July that I wasn’t enjoying it as much any more - I was part of a small guild and didn’t want to join a large raiding guild, but at the same time I am really competitive with myself so wanted to try out the tough stuff. We joined with a coalition of other small guilds and tried that for a month or 2.

It was good, with some really cool people, but when I see people complaining online about 4 hour raids I laugh - we took 8-9 hours at a time due to people leaving, getting substitutes etc. I led one of the ZG raids, which was a good learning experience, but boy that was tough. At the time there was no DKP which didn’t help matters, we were rolling on each drop so it was really hard to get people to commit to the raids and see them through.

The coalition started changing a bit, deciding to get more organised, with DKP etc. I was asked about whether I was going to keep doing the coalition raids. They just loved the ~12,000 armor druid tank, and I was good with tactics and a trusted master looter. I asked what kind of commitment is necessary, because I will not commit to something I am not able to follow through on. They told me minimum of 2 runs per week (AQ20 and/or ZG).

I just couldn’t afford that any more… I was willing to commit 1 evening a week to a regular event, and possibly a second or even 3rd evening depending on the week.. but I could only ever guarantee 1 to them. Unfortunately that was not enough for them so I bowed out as a regular member. I said if they need a substitute tank, I was happy to step in. Pity, because some of those guys were really, really cool people.

After I stopped raiding I did a lot of the 5 and 10-man instances, I got my UBRS key, running Baron to figure out Baron 45 strategy, and having lots of fun with my guild. The game became fun again! I was really enjoying myself, and our guild started expanding from 8 to 10 to 20 as we had un-guilded guys be the 5 man into instances or join us in UBRS when we needed a sub. We got a good rep on the server as decent, friendly, non-a$$holes, with some fairly skilled players.

Then it started going wrong again. We grewing too fast as a guild, and that caused its demise. We wanted to get us to ZG and AQ20 raiding level quickly and we were a lot less discriminating than we might have been in accepting new candidates. Older members didn’t get on with the new guys and things started to disintegrate. Lesson: Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is a raiding guild.

I had 3 goals playing WoW:

• Fun: Have fun playing
• Competitive: Do stuff that’s challenging
• Reality: Don’t let the game affect real life negatively

Ultimately I was hitting 1/3, and that only about 50% of my time playing.

One of the guys at work is in an old school guild of about 50 mates with MC on farm and working on BWL - they go every Wednesday to either of them, and play little or no WoW besides that one evening a week. I can see the attraction of that, that’s a great way to play. If I could get to that, I would love it, but I’d have to sacrifice playing with my friends.

I guess I have to be thankful that our guild imploded, otherwise I’d probably still be playing from 6pm to 2am every day and longer on weekends. I wouldn’t be out cycling or playing rugby or going to bars or any of the normal activities of a semi-healthy 28yr old.

When I was levelling my druid I was averaging about 6-8 hours a day for almost 4 months.. that’s fuckin crazy! That’s 6-8 hours 7 days a week - more than my full time job and they pay me a lot of money for that privilege! One job is enough.