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I am Kind of sick of my current PC, don't really care about running high end games but would like something that will do WoW at Max Settings, 1440x900, 60 FPS all the time (in Shattrath, in 25-man raids, in a massive 40-man Kazzak/Doomwalker raid). I guess good performance in Source games would be nice too

This level of performance should be well within the reach of today's tech, but since none of the popular hardware sites do WoW benchmarks, it's kind of difficult to estimate what sort of hardware I'll need. So essentially I just have to rely on people's anecdotal evidence -- if you're getting a constant 60fps everywhere, what's your setup? Obviously I'm on a budget, otherwise it'd just be a quad core and an 8800GT.

I'm also toying with the idea of a 1GB Mac Mini or or refurb'ed iMac -- can any owners comment on Apple's WoW performance? Both of those options would probably be way more expensive than just building a modest WoW-machine, but I'd like to give Apple's OS a try for once.

 

[ManaByte]

I am Kind of sick of my current PC, don't really care about running high end games but would like something that will do WoW at Max Settings, 1440x900, 60 FPS all the time (in Shattrath, in 25-man raids, in a massive 40-man Kazzak/Doomwalker raid). I guess good performance in Source games would be nice too

This level of performance should be well within the reach of today's tech, but since none of the popular hardware sites do WoW benchmarks, it's kind of difficult to estimate what sort of hardware I'll need. So essentially I just have to rely on people's anecdotal evidence -- if you're getting a constant 60fps everywhere, what's your setup? Obviously I'm on a budget, otherwise it'd just be a quad core and an 8800GT.

I'm also toying with the idea of a 1GB Mac Mini or or refurb'ed iMac -- can any owners comment on Apple's WoW performance? Both of those options would probably be way more expensive than just building a modest WoW-machine, but I'd like to give Apple's OS a try for once.

How much of a budget?

 

[border]

As small a budget as possible, to get within those performance specifications. I posted my request in the Gaming Forum, but was hoping I'd get some more valuable feedback from the people here that are frequently in large raids.

Everyone there seems to agree that the $400 Crysis rig will do it, but I wanna hear from people that regularly see 60FPS in towns & raids.

 

[Kosma]

Try my build, constant 60 is impossible in towns though, it dips to 40 there, in busy parts. All settings maxed out.

 

[Ramirez]

set your focus to the druid, and try to spell reflect cyclones and roots if possible, try to LOS the ones you cant spell reflect

2 must have mods if you want to do well in arena are Proximo and NECB, makes doing the above pretty easy

you can also spell reflect natures grasp

who are you doing 2v2 with? if you are running warrior/shaman, then the shaman needs to set the druid as his focus and try to earth shock to interupt Cyclones + Roots, and drop grounding totem when shock is on cool down

also always fight near the shamans totems, dont chase the druid, if the druid tries to kite you, switch back to the warrior, with Windfury, Bloodlust, you should be doing a lot more dmg to the warrior then vice versa, only switch to the druid if hes in caster form and you can quickly intercept to him

idk that should help tho

Yea it's a shaman, I had some really good spell reflects last night, got a mage to kill himself with a 3k frostbolt, and did get a few polys/cyclones reflected. We actually didn't do as bad as I made it sound. I guess it's just the ones you do lose because you were CC'd a good majority of the game stick with you more than the ones you win.

 

[firex]

honestly I think a typical $600+ gaming PC is what it would take to get a constant 60fps in Shattrath, but anything else can max out the game nicely.

 

[ToyMachine228]

Finally finished my Elixir Mastery quest today. Got the last 2K honor I needed to get Vindicator's Boots as well. Going to grab the 60 badge Elemental Shaman belt, get the PvP cloak, get Sha'tar rep to Revered to get my Tier 4 head enchanted and either get the Horn, or the Sha'tar spell damage trinket and then I'm pretty much set outside Resto gear which is a real possibility. I like healing so...I may see Resto some day soon. Did kill some shit with my Gorehowl today though:lol

Looking forward to checking out Master's Terrace...And looking forward to Wrath of the Lich King:lol Considering making a Death Knight my main and tanking as my server seriously lacks tanks.

 

[Chris R]

58 woot woot

 

[Masta_Killah]

Been playing WOW for about a month and a half now and so far I've been having a blast. I first rolled as an ally druid but then switched to a troll hunter when I joined my friend's server. I'm not too sure if I'm equipping my armor correctly, but so far I have mostly +agi/+stam and I just recently started to add more +ap. Am I doing it right guys? Or should I just concentrate on agi/stam and forget the rest? I'm actually trying to find a nice balance between pve and pvp and I did notice a nice jump in crit when I added the pants.

Also, I went w/ BM and I usually play solo, joining groups once in a while. I also do some BG, but not hardcore.

Here's my gear: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lethon&n=Daygo

I know fiery weapon is useless, but it looks soo damn cool! That and I was getting jealous of all the glowing gear the lvl 70's were running with.

I also plan to add a scope through a friend and all the enchants are actually mine('cept the fiery weap), so they kinda look pathetic. I actually switched from lw(225)/skin(275) to mine/enchants, since my server has gotten over saturated w/ leather workers and skinners. That and minerals net much more money then leather.

Finally, where should I instance for some nice gear for a hunter? So far at this level, Ulda has netted me the most use, but what about the other places?

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

...I've played BM hunter. BM hunters who just hit one button and watch are not good BM hunters. It's like saying Prot Warriors are just hit one button and let the damage rake in. You have to manage aggro and shit.

Talking about PvP... and if you had a BM hunter pre-BC and raided your guild was either very good and let you fuck around after you proved yourself or they were just morons.....

And hunters were not necessarily the worse at pvp back then, the class just attracted more noobs than others. It just seems like hunters sucked back then when it was the player not the class. About a year before BC i could kill anything but some frost mages and any good warrior without using traps. Just learn to kite. one of the main thing ppl didnt know was rapid fire was your friend in pvp. you could get another aimed in off a scatter if you rapid pre-scatter. >.>

Hunters now don't even need to learn to kite good, I'm upset with what it appears they've done with the class but haven't played a 70 one so idk for sure.

 

[Ashodin]

Vashj down! And Rage Winterchill too same night :lol

BT and Hyjal here we come!

 

[Twig]

Talking about PvP...

So am I. PvP is what I live for. I don't mess with the rest of the bullshit.

 

[JoeFu]

Leveling weapon skill sucks

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

So am I. PvP is what I live for. I don't mess with the rest of the bullshit.

you worry about aggro control in PvP? <.<

 

[Trasher]

Anyone out there that will let me use scroll of resurrection on their account?

 

[Twig]

you worry about aggro control in PvP? <.<

No...

What the hell are you talking about?

 

[fallout]

you worry about aggro control in PvP? <.<

I believe he was referring to prot warriors having to worry about aggro control (and in PvE I assume).

 

[border]

DAILY QUESTS FOR HALAA AND BONE WASTES WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/spiritdaily.jpg

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/halaadaily.jpg

World PVP -- down, but not out!

My only complaint is that the quest objectives are not actually to win at World PVP, just do small some small part in it (kill 10 people at Halaa, capture 1 Spirit Tower).....so people might just do whatever it takes to complete the quest and abandon the overall objective. Hopefully once they get engaged in things though, they'll stick around to fight it out.

EDIT: Also....Sorry Taurens!

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/swiftwhitehawkstrider.jpg

 

[firex]

oh, awesome. they finally put in the pvp hawkstrider! I was going to grind the 6k or so I have left to exalted with silvermoon first, but I'll just buy it with tokens.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

That's not the pvp one, it drops off of Kael. It's assumed at the moment that Kael is meant to drop a different one, without any race restrictions and they accidentally put what should be the pvp one up.

 

[JoeFu]

So I'm not liking prot pally atm, should I just switch back to ret? I don't like how little damage I do, but running through low level instances as prot has been kinda fun.

 

[firex]

learn to aoe grind is all I can say.

If you want to go ret, by all means, but good luck getting a group for anything, ever. at least prot will allow you to tank stuff! and if you're a BE then you can go with warrior gear to tank and use seal of blood.

 

[bengraven]

oh, awesome. they finally put in the pvp hawkstrider! I was going to grind the 6k or so I have left to exalted with silvermoon first, but I'll just buy it with tokens.

Dag! Are you sure? 30x30x30 seems more of a pain in the butt than just 6k rep.

I did a few hours of old quests and spent like 100g in RC to get my orange raptor for my undead. Less time than all that BG.

 

[firex]

well, I could do both, but I'm going to wait to rep grind the horde races until I'm 70. Plus I'm pretty poor, so losing 80g for a mount, even if it's only 80g, would suck. and I'm going to pvp a lot at 68-69 for tokens so I can have an easier time grinding honor for arena gear at 70, so I'll probably be able to buy the pvp mount easier than I would grinding all that silvermoon rep. I have like no silvermoon-specific quests left except for one WPL quest.

although to be honest, the swift pink hawkstrider is a lot better look for a goofy epic mount than the swift white one.

 

[border]

Can't you get like +1400 horde rep just from finding all those dudes for the Lunar Festival?

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

I believe he was referring to prot warriors having to worry about aggro control (and in PvE I assume).

yea, i misread. anyways....

wth at lack of druid tanking weaps. the one from Bot and earthwarden are about it.

 

[ToyMachine228]

AV weekend! Time to get my PvP cloak and be done with getting gear through PvP. Besides Arena stuff. Got a group that steam rolled Heroic Botanica for the daily today.

 

[JoeFu]

learn to aoe grind is all I can say.

If you want to go ret, by all means, but good luck getting a group for anything, ever. at least prot will allow you to tank stuff! and if you're a BE then you can go with warrior gear to tank and use seal of blood.

Only thing I'm not liking is how long it takes me just to kill something. When I was ret it was easy taking out stuff and questing, but as prot it takes forever to kill something.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

AV weekend! Time to get my PvP cloak and be done with getting gear through PvP. Besides Arena stuff. Got a group that steam rolled Heroic Botanica for the daily today.

i logged on 10 minutes after my friends started their heroic bot, and the epic feral staff dropped...

 

[firex]

Only thing I'm not liking is how long it takes me just to kill something. When I was ret it was easy taking out stuff and questing, but as prot it takes forever to kill something.

That's why you aoe grind. it'll take a little longer but you'll kill multiple mobs at once as long as there's no casters. And you have way less risk of dying than aoe grinding as a mage.

 

[Kintaro]

Here are some random 2.4 changes: http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/02/14/ptr-notes-miscellaneous-changes/

* Commendation of Kael'thas has had its dodge rating bonus reduced from 380 to 152
* Five epic trinket jewelcrafting recipes have been added, all with passive benefits and on use effects. See this MMO-Champion screenshot for materials.

o Crimson Serpent: +33 Int, + 49 Stam, use: +150 damage/healing for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
o Empyrean Tortoise: +42 def rating, use: +165 dodge rating for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
o Shadowsong Panther: effective stealth level increased by one, +80 attack power, use: +320 attack power for 15 sec (2 min cooldown)
o Khorium Boar: +84 attack power, use: summon the Khorium Boar to fight for you for 30 sec (5 min cooldown)
o Seaspray Albatross: +18 mp5, use: restores 900 mana over 12 sec (3 min cooldown)

* New gem cut: Regal Nightseye, +4 dodge rating, +6 stam, matches red or blue

* Warlocks' Drain Mana buffed by 50%; top rank now drains 300 mana per second (was 200)

* Paladins' Holy Shock damage buffed by about 35%, healing buffed by about 75%. Top rank now deals 721-779 damage or heals for 931-987 (was 530-574 damage or 530-574 healing).

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

those trinkets JC only?

EDIT: Didnt see the picture lol. They arent

 

[firex]

yeah they are. They're BoP.

 

[Alex]

Warlock mana drain buff is the most unnecessary buff I've ever seen added to the game.

Shamans, by the by, have a known Blizzard employee bitching about Elemental burst potential, so the 4 piece set bonus nerf might just be the start of it's reductions. Details on their board.

Poor Shamans, least played class, has one spec that's good in one setup in one bracket, and Blizzard is swinging the axe at it. Blizzard is swiftly turning into Verant 2.0 when it comes to class concerns. I mean, they had some slip ups before, but it was never too bad, recent changes are just... mind bending though.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

yeah they are. They're BoP.

gah, they are... was lookin for 300 Jewelcrafter or w/e.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

Warlock mana drain buff is the most unnecessary buff I've ever seen added to the game.

Resilience affects mana drain now. So its a nerf and a buff. It isn't as bad as it seems.

 

[Alex]

Resilience affects mana drain now. So its a nerf and a buff. It isn't as bad as it seems.

Yes, it is. It hits Viper Sting, it hits Mana Burn but Drain Mana, the strongest mother fucker of them all, the one with no cooldown, no way to LOS it, gets buffed to be more potent even with a full set of arena gear?

It's like nerfing -Healing effects (Wound/MS/Aimed) effects by 10% in PvP gear, but then making Mortal Strike 65%. The classes that need no touchups whatsoever are getting buffs, and the mediocre ones are left alone, or in Shamans case, nerfed?

It's utterly vapid. Kalgan through and through lets his UO3D expertise shine.

 

[BigJonsson]

Hit 65 tonight, I can smell 70

 

[Ramirez]

I love seeing Drain Mana go through solid objects halfway across an arena personally. :lol :|

 

[firex]

well, looks like I'll just stick to 5 mans and heroics for my shaman and forget about arena until they actually fix them. 2.4 so far has no significant positive change for resto (41 talent points still easily negated by basic spells, just 30% less likely to happen right away!) and all the buffs everyone else gets just makes this class worse.

I see almost no reason to play shaman/paladin for now, even with the much needed holy shock buff, when you could play the better all around druid for a hybrid, or anything else for a more "pure" class that will be better at its intended roles. at least they'll probably be forced to put out a balance change patch after 2.4 that will make the current gimps a lot stronger, or find a way to make them not suck in the next expansion (unlikely, I know).

 

[Son of Godzilla]

those trinkets JC only?

EDIT: Didnt see the picture lol. They arent

? Yes they are. They are just epic (barely) upgrades to the current jc only trinkets.

And I have no idea what you are talking about in regards to shaman. Just fucking try the arena out instead of speculating endlessly about how horrible it might be. Warr/Sham is really fucking strong, water shield is still broken as fuck, and purge plus shocks are great utility. So dispellable shields make you a target? That's a couple seconds longer nobodys focusing on killing wf totem or dispelling lust. And really, that's all a fucking warrior needs. You can shock pally and shams in the face, purge the fuck through priests. Sure, druids can be a pain in the ass, but uh... welcome to arena.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

? Yes they are. They are just epic (barely) upgrades to the current jc only trinkets.

yea i know, i fail at editing.

 

[yacobod]

? Yes they are. They are just epic (barely) upgrades to the current jc only trinkets.

And I have no idea what you are talking about in regards to shaman. Just fucking try the arena out instead of speculating endlessly about how horrible it might be. Warr/Sham is really fucking strong, water shield is still broken as fuck, and purge plus shocks are great utility. So dispellable shields make you a target? That's a couple seconds longer nobodys focusing on killing wf totem or dispelling lust. And really, that's all a fucking warrior needs. You can shock pally and shams in the face, purge the fuck through priests. Sure, druids can be a pain in the ass, but uh... welcome to arena.

honestly, nobody bitches about resto shaman in arena, because there arent many around at all, not enough to bitch about anyways

resto shaman are sorta successful in 2v2 with a warrior, or on some teams in 3v3, like maybe ret pally/warrior/resto shaman or resto shaman/resto druid/warrior

i mean if you run priest/hunter in 2v2, ya resto shaman warrior will be kinda hard to beat, shaman on purge + warrior can rape any priest healer + dps team in 2v2

honestly warrior/shaman can beat pretty much any dps + healer team in 2v2, the shaman + warrior weakness is double dps teams

elemental shaman are only really successful in 5v5

 

[Chris R]

man I hate arena talk, 2v2 is the worst thing to happen to the game in BC.

Here is hoping WOTLK brings back real world pvp, or atleast a proper battleground(I know, it wont happen since they seem to have everyone hooked on 2v2 or 5v5).

 

[ManaByte]

man I hate arena talk, 2v2 is the worst thing to happen to the game in BC.

Here is hoping WOTLK brings back real world pvp, or atleast a proper battleground(I know, it wont happen since they seem to have everyone hooked on 2v2 or 5v5).

Lake Wintergrasp.

 

[Tamanon]

man I hate arena talk, 2v2 is the worst thing to happen to the game in BC.

Here is hoping WOTLK brings back real world pvp, or atleast a proper battleground(I know, it wont happen since they seem to have everyone hooked on 2v2 or 5v5).

WOTLK is going to have a PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp. Complete with objectives, quests, siege weapons and all that. Not a battleground but a honest-to-God warzone.

 

[Chris R]

WOTLK is going to have a PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp. Complete with objectives, quests, siege weapons and all that. Not a battleground but a honest-to-God warzone.

And it will be empty because the rewards will suck compared to the things you can buy with arena points.

If the rewards are better, there will be people there. If the rewards are equal, it will still be empty.

 

[firex]

lake wintergrasp will be fun for a month or so, then people will realize there's some easier way to get better gear and it'll be empty aside from bored level 80s harassing lower level people in the zone (assuming it actually has some leveling content in it like nagrand).

 

[Son of Godzilla]

And it will be empty because the rewards will suck compared to the things you can buy with arena points.

If the rewards are better, there will be people there. If the rewards are equal, it will still be empty.

They just need to make some worthwhile dailies and yay, instant population.

 

[Ripclawe]

Update 15:00 CET - Oops, something I forgot to mention ...
Primal Nether aren't bind on pickup anymore !

woooo