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

[chaud]

Diablo 3 - Even more info on bosses after yesterday's preview, and a blue post to explain the new Auction House stackable items buying/selling (And it would probably be awesome to see that on WoW) - Diablo 3 Boss Artwork Information Update, Stackable Items at the Auction House

Patch 4.3: Dragon Soul Encounters
Start getting ready for the new raids now by brushing up with our encounter pages! All values are from Heroic 25 Man mode.

Statistics: Class Balance Follow Up
You asked for it, so here is the class balance at each of the different Valor Points achievement levels. Keep in mind that the higher we raise the bar, the smaller and nosier the sample becomes. The data from 50,000 Valor Points is unlikely to provide any statistically useful insight. Let me know if there are other things you would like to see in the future.

Sample Sizes

• Any: 6,200,000
• 5k: 1,800,000
• 25k: 254,000
• 50k: 1,200

Don't see a chart? Enable javascript!

Poll: How many Valor Points have you earned?
Speaking of Valor Points, how many have you earned on your main character?




Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

Check back later this week for a list of Black Friday sales!

If you have been looking to purchase a new hard drive recently, you might have noticed that prices have tripled from what they were just a month or two ago. This is due to the recent floods in Thailand, which affected all of the major hard drive manufacturers and their suppliers. It is going to be 6-12 months before prices come back down closer to their previous levels, as some of the factories still have several feet of water inside.

Now is a good time to buy a SSD, as the next generation is a good while away and the current prices are fairly flat. AMD's Bulldozer arrived to universally negative reviews, citing excessive power usage and heat output and very poor single threaded performance. They are working on another stepping which may help the problem slightly, but don't expect any significantly improvements on the design until the middle of 2012 with the arrival of Piledriver. New AMD GPUs are rumored to be coming in Q1 2012 if you are thinking about upgrading.

Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions!

Peripherals/Monitors

Component	Puppy	Dolphin
Monitor	ASUS VW224U 22-Inch Widescreen - $150	ASUS VW246H 24-Inch Widescreen - $200
Keyboard	Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 - $20	Cyborg V.5 - $47
Mouse	Logitech G400 - $35	Logitech G500 - $61
Speakers	Logitech S220 2.1 Speaker System - $23	Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $40
Component	Narwhal	Unicorn
Monitor	ASUS VE276Q 27-Inch - $314	HP ZR24w 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $398
Keyboard	Logitech G110 - $73	Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $72 ($123)
Mouse	Razer Deathadder - $45	Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $68
Speakers	Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speaker System - $45	Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $70

Puppy and Dolphin
Overclocked Puppy will outperform Dolphin when multiple threads are in use (Not WoW) and come close in most other cases.
Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Mix and match anything between Dolphin and Narwhal.

Component	Puppy	Dolphin
Case	NZXT GAMMA Classic - $36	NZXT GAMMA Classic - $36
Power Supply	Corsair CX500 V2 - $48	Corsair CX600 V2 - $60
CPU	AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $112	Intel i3-2100 - $122
Heatsink	Corsair Air Series A70 - $22	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $26
Motherboard	ASUS M5A97 AM3+ 970 - $100	Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $114
Memory	4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $27	4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $47
Graphics Card	XFX 6770 - $90	MSI 6850 or EVGA GTX 560 - $168 / $195
Hard Drive	Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB - $125	Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB - $125
DVD	Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20	Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20
Total	$580	$718 / $745

Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.

Component	Narwhal	Unicorn
Case	Cooler Master HAF 912 - $60	Cooler Master HAF932 - $150
Power Supply	Corsair 650TX V2 - $90	Corsair 750HX (7 Year Warranty) - $134
CPU	Intel i5-2500k - $225	Intel i7-2600k - $315
Heatsink	Thermaltake Frio - $60	Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $85
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 - $160	ASUS Z68 P8Z68-V PRO - $210
Memory	4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $47	8GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $69
Graphics Card	XFX 6950 1GB OR EVGA GTX 560 Ti- $200 / $250	XFX 6970 2GB OR EVGA GTX 570 - $330 / $370
Hard Drive	Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $162	Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $162
SSD	Crucial 128 GB m4 (Review) - $210 OR Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB - $195	Intel 510 Series 120 GB (Review) - $280 OR OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 (Review) - $190
DVD	Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20	Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20
Total	$1024 - $1234	$1665 - $1795

[Alixie]

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

[Simca]

Oh god please don't nerf us. I blame the ability to fill all roles (tank/healer/dps) and the classic D&D "Paladin in shining armor is fucking awesome" concepts.

Edit: Also please note on the graph that I've raided almost every week since the start of Cata and only have 43k Valor. The people with 50k+ are literally a SUPER SUPER small sample size.

[Narshe]

Happy 7 years of WoW, Boub. Hope 4.3 comes out on the 29th!

[Wreckeded]

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

Having to beat Mr.Smite is probably why.

[Ragu]

Mr. Smite #2?

[anathama]

How come the mouse from the dolphin section is more expensive that the mouse from the narwhal section? I thought the sections were to group together items that aim for a particular price/quality range, or am I misunderstanding it?

[Polarthief]

You know polls fail when idiots lie and say 50k+ right off the bat...

[chaud]

How come the mouse from the dolphin section is more expensive that the mouse from the narwhal section? I thought the sections were to group together items that aim for a particular price/quality range, or am I misunderstanding it?

It is usually cheaper, but hopefully everyone recognizes that all of those Peripherals/Monitors are interchangeable.

[Azaile-]

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

[Kudia]

How about a PVP version of this.

I would love to see the correlation between PVE and PVP and how much people play.

[Xcuse]

Hah, every "pure dps class" has more "low amount" than "high amount" VP characters of which the oposite is true for hybrids.Not really too surprising if you think about it, but who would think about it that way? - Definately interresting to look at.

[Lockula]

Hmmm wonder how many valor I would have if I continued maxing it out every week even though I didn't need anything else, and the valor boe market is kind of bad on my server. Currently 34k valor total.

[Bawl]

Around 43k points here currently, I know i missed the cap quite a lot towards the end of T11 though. I'm usually quite an achievement fiend, but this is one of those where I'm just like meh, it'll get there.

[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.

[Nahuuaela]

You know speaking of how 4.3 is just around the corner, you think you could maybe update that cataclysm drop down menu there on the top right of the website? It hasn't been touched since Cata was new it seems, and could use some love! Not that I would use it, but it just seems odd how outdated it is now lol. >

[Bellomourn]

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

This was my thought too. Hadn't seen all the models used.. very disappointed. Though MoD model is still great.

Guess they're trying to push through Cata asap.

[Deleted]

ULTRAAAAXIIIOOOOOOOOON !!!!!!!!!! he must be very strong.

[PriestAlisha]

Reused models? Oh well, as long as there is new fight mechanics that are fun and challenging...

[Cygne]

Poor poor rogues.