Dragon Soul Encounters, Class Balance Follow Up, Poll, Setup of the Month

Originally Posted by schwarzkopf

So - out of 6.2 million toons analysed by MMO - 1200 had 50k+ VPAnd in the poll of currently around 10k respondents - 1036 had 50k+ VP.I smell statistical anomaly.

Seriously? A sample they go after and analyze without participation of the players and a sample of players that come to the research and answer actively and you still "smell anomaly"?
Anyway... Hunters... I simply stopped to try. I know I can't reach the other DPS no matter the effort I put on my survival Hunter, so why even try?

Originally Posted by Alixie

I cant remember the last time there was an evil tauren to fight since Mr Smite.

Plenty of Evil Tauren trash inside Blackrock Caverns

Originally Posted by pwnjitsu

good to see some new models being used for boss fights... ohwait.

hahahahaha luv that xD

I really wish that Blizzard had included "lore-based" bosses in the final menagerie of enemies you'd be facing in the Deathwing raid... and while I realize lore pickings for characters are quite scant at this point (save for maybe Chromatus...), it would have been nice if they had given these bosses at least SOME sort of context... for example, they should have had Morchok leading the twilight Cult in Deepholm, popping up occasionally in questing... Warlord Zon'ozz and Yor'sahj could have lead the faceless ones in vash'jir, and Warmaster Blackhorn could have been directing the twilight dragonflight in the Twilight Highlands... while I know it would have been a bit of work to include these end-game bosses in this way from the very start of the expansion, Blizzard really needs to work on tying these things together to give the story a much more cohesive, directed feel... with the relatively "unknown" territory they're going in to with MoP, they're going to need to focus on establishing story lines solidly from the start.

Originally Posted by foulplay2

Did they seriously just recommend builds without sandybridge-e processors in November?

Here is your new Puppy build:
Case Thermaltake Level 10 VL30001N1Z - $850
Power Supply SILVERSTONE ST1500 - $350
CPU Intel Core i7-3960X - $1050
Heatsink Intel BXRTS2011LC High Performance Liquid Cooler - $100
Motherboard ASUS P9X79 PRO LGA 2011 Intel X79 $330
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 64GB - $1200
Graphics Card 3 x EVGA 015-P3-1589-AR GeForce GTX 580 $2100
Hard Drive Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW600G3B5 600GB - $1130
DVD Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20

Total = $7130

There, a good entry level gaming rig.

Did you really just recommend spending $700 more on the new i7 for gaming?? do you just like splashing out on the most expensive things without bothering to check out how well it actually works with gaming? And honestly "entry level" what the hell.

(unable to post links :< )Please see the review at anandtech[dot]com/show/5091/intel-core-i7-3960x-sandy-bridge-e-review-keeping-the-high-end-alive

Next why would you want a 600gb ssd? I mean if you just wanted everything running off ssd's then just buy more 120gb ones which works out cheaper anyway.

Tri-sli ? is a useless piece of technology for gaming, unless you happen to be using a 3 monitor arrangement running your games at 5700x1280. You will get better performance from using just 1 card like the gtx590. This also happens to cost you a lot less money.

Obviously if you have money to burn then buy the setup you suggested and upgrade it all in 1year when they release the new components. For me the $5000 price difference between your "entry setup" and the Unicorn setup kinda says something about who is more aware of what games can use at the moment and what is worth paying for.

Originally Posted by slipshade

Unicorn should really be updated for SANDY BRIDGE-E now that it was released November 15th even if the 2600k is a legendary cpu the socket is much better for games like wow having 40x pci lanes so you can actually have 2 graphics cards at the full 16 lane capability. oh and pci-e 3.0 = double bandwidth. quad channel ram....... only thing good about 2600 is a cpu benchmark which it will score high overclocked to hell but we all know wow uses less cpu and more gpu so there's really no point. Turn off hyper threading and see your wow fps jump why? because wow can only use 2 cores weather they are physical or threaded. Meaning wow will use 1 physical core at 50% and one theoretical core at 50% when you turn off hyper threading wow will use 2 physical cores at 100%. Unfortunately that is how wow is programmed atm

The PCIe lanes off the CPU are quite configurable. Users running dual-GPU setups can enjoy the fact that both GPUs will have a full x16 interface to SNB-E (vs x8 in SNB). If you're looking for this to deliver a tangible performance increase, you'll be disappointed:

Multi GPU Scaling - Radeon HD 5870 CF

Max Quality, 4X AA/16X AF

Intel Core i7 3960X (2 x16) | Metro 2033 (19x12) 1.87x | Crysis: Warhead (19x12) 1.80x | Crysis: Warhead (25x16) 1.90x
Intel Core i7 2600K (2 x8) | Metro 2033 (19x12) 1.94x | Crysis: Warhead (19x12) 1.80x | Crysis: Warhead (25x16) 1.88x

Modern GPUs don't lose much performance in games, even at high quality settings, when going from a x16 to a x8 slot.

Originally Posted by djprada

Look at Rogues dieing class ( I don't understand why Rogues are represent so low. Is it the class mechanics makes gameplay difficult? Or is it a class itself very unpopular? Ex retired Gladiator Rogue Djprada

they are the most outdated class, and getting 0 fixes from wotlk to mop is also a reason ,always passive buffs

Sorry but warriors are far more outdated than rogues. The truth is having a pure DPS main can get boring fast, and for pure DPS ranged > melee in boss mechanics.

One of the SSD's on unicorn is cheaper than both the ones on narwhal. So either it is better and cheaper and it should be used on narwhal as well, or it's not better and it really has no place in unicorn, which is it?

Originally Posted by slipshade

Unicorn should really be updated for SANDY BRIDGE-E now that it was released November 15th even if the 2600k is a legendary cpu the socket is much better for games like wow having 40x pci lanes so you can actually have 2 graphics cards at the full 16 lane capability. oh and pci-e 3.0 = double bandwidth. quad channel ram....... only thing good about 2600 is a cpu benchmark which it will score high overclocked to hell but we all know wow uses less cpu and more gpu so there's really no point. Turn off hyper threading and see your wow fps jump why? because wow can only use 2 cores weather they are physical or threaded. Meaning wow will use 1 physical core at 50% and one theoretical core at 50% when you turn off hyper threading wow will use 2 physical cores at 100%. Unfortunately that is how wow is programmed atm

The PCIe lanes off the CPU are quite configurable as you can see from the diagram above. Users running dual-GPU setups can enjoy the fact that both GPUs will have a full x16 interface to SNB-E (vs x8 in SNB). If you're looking for this to deliver a tangible performance increase, you'll be disappointed:

Multi GPU Scaling - Radeon HD 5870 CF

Max Quality, 4X AA/16X AF

Intel Core i7 3960X (2 x16) | Metro 2033 (19x12) 1.87x | Crysis: Warhead (19x12) 1.80x | Crysis: Warhead (25x16) 1.90x
Intel Core i7 2600K (2 x8) | Metro 2033 (19x12) 1.94x | Crysis: Warhead (19x12) 1.80x | Crysis: Warhead (25x16) 1.88x

Modern GPUs don't lose much performance in games, even at high quality settings, when going from a x16 to a x8 slot.

Originally Posted by kilicantplay

Did you really just recommend spending $700 more on the new i7 for gaming?? do you just like splashing out on the most expensive things without bothering to check out how well it actually works with gaming? And honestly "entry level" what the hell.

(unable to post links :< )Please see the review at anandtech[dot]com/show/5091/intel-core-i7-3960x-sandy-bridge-e-review-keeping-the-high-end-alive

Next why would you want a 600gb ssd? I mean if you just wanted everything running off ssd's then just buy more 120gb ones which works out cheaper anyway.

Tri-sli ? is a useless piece of technology for gaming, unless you happen to be using a 3 monitor arrangement running your games at 5700x1280. You will get better performance from using just 1 card like the gtx590. This also happens to cost you a lot less money.

Obviously if you have money to burn then buy the setup you suggested and upgrade it all in 1year when they release the new components. For me the $5000 price difference between your "entry setup" and the Unicorn setup kinda says something about who is more aware of what games can use at the moment and what is worth paying for.



The PCIe lanes off the CPU are quite configurable. Users running dual-GPU setups can enjoy the fact that both GPUs will have a full x16 interface to SNB-E (vs x8 in SNB). If you're looking for this to deliver a tangible performance increase, you'll be disappointed:

Multi GPU Scaling - Radeon HD 5870 CF

Max Quality, 4X AA/16X AF

Intel Core i7 3960X (2 x16) | Metro 2033 (19x12) 1.87x | Crysis: Warhead (19x12) 1.80x | Crysis: Warhead (25x16) 1.90x
Intel Core i7 2600K (2 x8) | Metro 2033 (19x12) 1.94x | Crysis: Warhead (19x12) 1.80x | Crysis: Warhead (25x16) 1.88x

Modern GPUs don't lose much performance in games, even at high quality settings, when going from a x16 to a x8 slot.

I was also working on an answer xD But you were faster, its just stupid how ppl goes to amazon and posts the high priced things without even having a clue of what the f** they are doing.

This is the first time i see the loot table from dragon soul and it looks a bit poor...Some items from valor are better than what the raid drops, no plate hands for tanking/dps or i can't find them, no chest/legs/helm. At least you are now forced to do fl hc till you can get your token.

that VP poll doesn't really mean that much, especially due to the fact for most of this expension you could get your valor cap each week without setting a foot in a raid environment (or purposely using anythong other then the LFD tool.

what i would like to see is the same graph, intersected with the graph for people who finished firelands, finished firelads HC, and finished BoT and/or BWD before fireland patch came out. while it would not be such an accurate calculation it iwll at least show the trend of how many of those valor cap earners are actually earning them through raids, and how many are simply queueing up with the LFD tool 7 times a week.

Originally Posted by pen

Interesting how it's only the single role classes that have the downward trend. The only exception being Death Knights, which could be explained by the fact that they start at level 55, making them a very popular class for alts (who are obviously less likely to have a lot of valor than a main).

no, its quite obvious why pures dont have that many valors... they dont need them. they have one set of armor, the end, you can gear up pure class from valors with like 10k easily, you need 3 times as much for say druids or paladins as they have three different sets of gear or warrs and DKs as they have 2 different sets of gear. Pures wont run heroics until its for fun or bear, not to cap valors, if they already have all the gear they want.

Originally Posted by foulplay2

Did they seriously just recommend builds without sandybridge-e processors in November?

Here is your new Puppy build:
Case Thermaltake Level 10 VL30001N1Z - $850
Power Supply SILVERSTONE ST1500 - $350
CPU Intel Core i7-3960X - $1050
Heatsink Intel BXRTS2011LC High Performance Liquid Cooler - $100
Motherboard ASUS P9X79 PRO LGA 2011 Intel X79 $330
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 64GB - $1200
Graphics Card 3 x EVGA 015-P3-1589-AR GeForce GTX 580 $2100
Hard Drive Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW600G3B5 600GB - $1130
DVD Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20

There, a good entry level gaming rig.

You Sir fail.

1) The Sandy:E CPUs are OVERKILL for gaming and i5 2500k and i7 2600k are more then enough.
2) GTX580 is pointless unless running tri-screen+
3) 1 GTX580 would still be an overkill for most games, at least for most current MMOs.
4) Check before you post pile of crap.
5) 1 600GB ssd vs 5 120GB SSDs in Raid ... hmmm

troll, I call it.

Think i got like 15000-20000 valor but i do change main nerly each patch XD

Originally Posted by djprada

Look at Rogues dieing class ( I don't understand why Rogues are represent so low. Is it the class mechanics makes gameplay difficult? Or is it a class itself very unpopular? Ex retired Gladiator Rogue Djprada

Na the mechanics are a piece of cake - assi or combat - nothing complicated - the point is i think that other classes (esp. hybrid classes) bring more benefits and the same or better DPS to raids. It is common sense that it is better to bring a druide/shaman with equal gear and skills to a raid as an rogue - in my raid we have hybrids with dual talents (druide / shaman as range / melee) so we can switch if we need more melee or if we need more range.

The gear is nowadays a minor problem (boe, craftables, 2nd need ...) and many raiding hybrids are used to play two styles already (because the content and raids favors/rewards this playstyle) - the trivialized mechanics makes it easy to switch between to talents. Sure all our player play there main style the best but there second talents are also good enough. We switch from 3 healers to 2 healers in some fights or from 2 tanks to 1 tank or be able to switch from melee to range - and that is the point where hybrids do shine over the single dps classes.

Calling this "Class Balance" is sensationalist tripe. Even the arena community only calls it representation, not balance.

Great reused boss models...

I applaud your work in building these systems for everyone Chaud. After having to build 5 myself for a college assignment, I have newfound insight in to just how much of a pain in the rear it can be to get components that won't wage war inside your system.

Going to the Zoo must fill some people here with bile and vinegar. "Ocelot? More like reskinned puma! AMIRITE?"