Gearing up for runescape, what to wear. I know you didnt sign up for this, but hey. Im kinda bored of wow so im going back to runescape for a bit.  As you may have already heard. Yep im back to being a noob once again, or maybe i always was anyway, i am slowly piecing together the best bits of gear that arent too pricy in runescape, for your viewing pleasure. Please correct me if im wrong… this is a good base of gear anyway.

Melee Gear – Noob Guide

Bandos Armour Now alot of people say that you should wear the dragon boots as they have better str bonus these can be had for about 185k so not too pricey, so this is probably true for melee training as the Str or Strength bonuses make you hit harder, so thats always good. The problem with bandos is that its fairly pricey, coming in at 17.6 million for the Bandos chest, 19 million for the Bandos Tassets.

Item		Attack bonuses					Defence bonuses						Other				Absorption
	Bandos chestplate	0	0	0	-15	-10	+98	+93	+105	-6	+133	+52	+4	0	+1	0	4%	0%	9%
	Bandos tassets	0	0	0	-21	-7	+71	+63	+66	-4	+93	+25	+2	0	+1	0	3%	0%	6%
	Bandos boots	0	0	0	-5	-3	+17	+18	+19	0	0	+15	0	0	+1	0	0%	0%	0%
Totals		0	0	0	-41	-20	+187	+174	+190	-10	+226	+92	+6	0	+3	0	7%	0%	15%

More details on Bandos Armor Wiki

Another good piece of gear that is nice and easy to get is a regen bracelet, you wear this instead of gloves and can be had for about 150k. Its pretty good as it makes your health regen twice as fast and usually ticks for about 3-5 health every few seconds from my experience, so its free health and gives you a bit longer to be fighting with less bank runs.

Now if you are feeling keen, you can goto the warriors guild and get yourself a dragon defender to use instead of a shield, it counts as an offhand weapon and looks pretty pimp as well.

For main hand weapon a whip is usually the best bet unless you are training strength, where a dragon scimitar will probably server you better (if you have done the Monkey Madness quest), otherwise you can use a brackish blade, which are on the pricy side at around 550k (if you have no money like me).

Some other gear opinions that i have found are as follows (not sure what to choose, i guess it depends on skill level and funds) :

The Medium’ly Expensive Option

• HEAD: Torag’s Helm (217,684gp) / Guthan’s Helm (714,000gp)
• Neck: Amulet of Fury (10,233,873gp)
• BACK: Obsidian Cape (36k gp) (Until fire cape) 
• BODY: Torag’s (Set is 1.6m) / Guthan’s (2.2m) / Dharok’s (5.4m)
• GLOVES: Barrow Gloves - Not avail on Grand Exchange, have to do a quest/points. I much prefer the regen bracelet my self.
• RING: Ring of Life (8k)
• LEGS: Torag’s Legs/Guthan’s Legs/Dharok’s Legs 
• BOOTS: Dragon Boots (185,900)
• WEAPON: Armadyl Godsword (44,800,000 gp)

Totals (if you buy the full set) : ~ Around 56 million, due to the weapon. Give or take about 5 mil.

The Cheap’er Option

• Chest: fighter torso (babarian assault) *quert requirement
• Dragon Platelegs (171,236), 
• Dragon Boots (185,900)
• Abyssal Whip (801,000) (when 70′attack) 
• Dragon Long Sword (59,427) or Dragon Dagger (17,641) (p++) 
  • train slayer and do the “smoking kills” quest to get the Slayer Helm
• dragon defender (warriors guild)

Totals: Around the 1.2million GP mark

Thought these looked pretty awesome, im guessing they finally added the jump skill to GW2? Shows the new classes and their skills.

Guild Wars 2 – Full Teaser Trailer

Guild Wars 2 – Thief Skills

Guild Wars 2 – Elementalist Skills

Necromancer Skills

Guardian Skills

Ranger Skills

Warrior Skills

So I am officially addicted to leveling.

Ive been leveling my hunter the past few days, up to 83 now. Do i really want another 85 character. not really, the gearing, the honor grind, the dailies. I just have to pick one class and stick with it. Eh i will decide when im 85… maybe . I do still have a druid and pally that i may level in the future.

As I also do, i check out the latest in arena geared classes that i want to copy the spec’s and gear etc of. Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all.

Here is the Top Rated Arena Priest at the moment: Wrathful Gladiator Talbadar good to see what the leet players are doing with there chars .

Found a good article on wow riot, its a bit old now. But still quite good showing how to 1v1 with a shadow priest. Its a massive post, but a good read, still kinda relevant.

Here’s an excerpt on how to beat a frostmage with a shadow priest, this could have all changed after the update, but may still be good strategy wize so take it with a grain of salt.

 vs. 

I would put Frost Mages as the third most difficult class/spec to win duels against(pve geared feral/muti rogues own). Some would argue Death Knights are harder, but I have more ‘random’ losses versus mages because of sheer luck where the DK tactics are more refined and less risky.

Gear Choice: I honestly have not tried Satin versus mages, but with a couple of strategies I have Satin would definitely be more ideal than Mooncloth. You need 600-1000 haste against Mages to do well because your globals are going to be really important. The speed of Dispel Magic, SW:D, Fade, and Shield is limited to your globals only so having millions of spell power will not work as good against Mages as it does DKs. If you have access to gear like on TR you will want a Bauble and Corroded key to just outlive any burst attempts.

 

Race: Human

 

Spec Choice: There is one talent choice that will literally win half of your duels and that is Silent Resolve. I have seen some Mages try to spellsteal my shield 10 times and fail while I kill them (Eraseasaurus  xD). Here is the most ideal specs: Satin / Mooncloth

 

The Opener: 

The opener is pretty much not in your favor at all. The best mages prefer the unpreventable opener with IMP CS into a sheep. They will continue to spellsteal all of your buffs and triple sheep while their CS is coming back up in 5 seconds or so after the CC chain is done. The best way to prevent this opener (if you do not want to get sheeped or want to save trinket) is to spam silence at the start. I will usually use devouring plague then dispel magic twice in that time so I have a DoT ticking for 24 seconds with no shield. They will usually reapply ice barrier, though. Starting buffs is important for this duel. I start with Inner Fire, Vampiric Embrace, Fort, Shield, PoM, Levitate,  and Divine Spirit. Having Shadow Prot, Abolish Disease, and Fear Ward can only hurt you if they spellsteal it early on. All of the other buffs have some sort of beneficial idea to wearing them at the start. Fort, Shield, and PoM are basically rush prevention buffs. If they decide to go for some all-in no sheep no spellsteal tactic you want those on at the start. Levitate is just a nice trash buff that does not help them much and Divine Spirit gives you 16 spell power for free. IMPORANT- If they do sheep you at the start you can use a macro to remove all of your buffs. I just made a simple one for myself and did not get too technical with it. /cancelaura Power Word: Fortitude /cancelaura Power Word: Shield /cancelaura Levitate /cancelaura Prayer of Mending /cancelaura Divine Spirit /cancelaura Shadow Weaving /cancelaura Shadow Protection

 

Strategy 1 – Survive the Spam: 

It is one of the most difficult things to survive against a Frost Mage with Icy Veins pumping Frostbolts into your face. Like I mentioned earlier if you have defensive trinkets you will want them for this fight. The biggest problem in this matchup is that Mages have 30% dispel resistance and that can be so frustrating when each resisted dispel is another 5k Frostbolt in your face. Anyway, assuming the Mage did not go for some all in strategy you still have your PvP trinket and he starts casting Frostbolts with IV up from distance with an elemental and his mirrors out. Your best bet is to run away while dispelling yourself and him. I usually Silence or trinket and Silence to stop the initial damage and Winter’s Chill stacks. If you get distance you should be ok (usually cast some instants and a few Holy Novas if this happens). If you are unable to get away this is the most dangerous part of the duel. The Mage may have blinked into you or just caught up while you were snared and you cannot escape. 100% of duels I will use Disarm as a quick interrupt on a Frostbolt. It lasts 1.5 seconds, but it is enough to stop some damage so it’s worth it. Your best bet if they stick on top of you is to get a dispel on his shield and icy veins and start casting mind flays to give him serious pushback. This basically prevents the zerg as it gives them 1.0 second pushback on every frostbolt and they will need to stop casting them.

 

90% of Mages will run at you and then do a Cone of Cold Frost Nova Deep Freeze combo, so if you see a Cone of Cold have Fade ready and prevent as many Deep Freezes as possible. Something else I will do when I have time is offDoT and possibly kill/fear the water elemental as it actually does a bunch of damage and lasts a long time. Similar to the DK duel you will have to heal yourself. Juking the CS is pretty much necessary and if you do get CS’d just spam spells from the other school because you will just get put behind otherwise. If you get locked on Shadow you can try to get distance or just spam heals. This may sound like something trivial and obvious, but many times when I get locked on a heal I end up trying to run away and to no avail where I could have just stood there and spammed damage to pressure him to stop casting bolts. Another important thing to remember is that you have to use dispersion in deep freeze or you get owned. I always save it until their first frostbolt in the deep is about to finish and then use it. I usually come out early unless my mana is going to get wasted. I usually disperse the first one and trinket the second. Once you are able to survive all of the early pressure mages are simple to deal with.

 

Strategy 2 – Playing the Mind Game: 

This is really something that wins nearly all of my duels versus top mages. I always work hard to give the Mage a false sense of what I am trying to do. After my duel series with Eraseasaurus I gave him some insight as to why he lost the series and he actually beat me a few times once he figured out some of the games I was playing. The biggest game I like to play is the Shadowfiend juke. This wins so many duels, heh. As soon as the Mage gets in a comfortable position with spam frostbolts and shields off cooldown, I will always fall behind in healing and do not have too many options to come back. The best way to relieve some pressure is this move. Basically what you do is as soon as you are getting low you use your Shadowfiend. Seems simple and pointless, no? It is more complex than it sounds, though. The reason this is so effective is because every Mage in the world sees a Shadowfiend and they instantly want to stop it. They will Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Deep Freeze, and pet nova it until it goes down 95% of the time. That is exactly what I am looking for them to do when I use it. When I am waiting for my weakened soul to fall off or I am just hoping to live until the second disperse I just use it and hope they do not ignore it. There are some other mind games I like to play and one of them is the DPS race. As soon as the Mage tries to go hard and go for the kill I will just stand there and cast damage into them to try to force them to run. Generally the Spriest will die first in this kind of engagement, but most people tend to want to run away instead of going for the risk of the kill. The best thing about Mages running away is when they go cast Evocate. Evocate is one of the last spells you should be casting as the Mage in this duel. I do not remember the last time a Mage went to go Evocate and has come back to win the duel. The spell is just false hope unless you have your entire second set of cooldowns and mirrors up to finish the Spriest off after. It is very easy to live through a solo mage without any pets so having them go Evocate when you are at 50% health is basically a free win – just cast some heals and you are full. There are a few others I do, but one last one is messing with their opener. Lots of Mages love to juke deaths because they feel good doing it, so to abuse that against new Mages I will just get 3 dots and start flaying them. This usually leaves them at 50% when I am sheeped and that is pretty much a won duel already.

 

Extra Tips for the duel:

1. Find a Pillar

If you have a pillar nearby you will definitely want to be using it. By spamming dispel on yourself around corners you can prevent any quick deep freezes (even avoid imp cs deeps) while your DoTs slowly kill them.

2. Devouring Plague is your Friend

If you are on the move you should really be spamming this spell. It does 2-3k damage on use and causes you to gain ~500-700 health per application when they do not have a shield.

3. Effective Shielding

Mages love spellstealing your shield as much as they love juking deaths and preventing shadowfiends. To abuse this love you want to use your shields as frostbolts are about to hit you. When the frostbolt lands it should absorb the spell completely and leave your shield with 500-1000 absorb left. If they waste time spellstealing it they will not realize that it has almost nothing left and is pretty much free globals for you.

Check out the full article here has a whole bunch of strategies on how to 1v1 pvp shadow priests

Remember robocop? good times

Ah back to the future, ok thats enough caffeine for me.

Related Videos for

Check out this Extreme downhill bike runWatch through the eyes of a crazy Chilean cyclist as he risks life and limb in the VCA race run in Santiago.

And who can go past the awesome dub mix of charlie sheen! lol classic.

Yeah i know what to do in wow eh, Cant be bothered raiding or PVPing, just want a bit of a break. Well archeology will certainly take up you time, but is it really worth it? Lets take a look.

Now some people say that archeology i wow is a bit boring, and well it can be quite monotonous however, get the 310 speed mount (and being a mage is also handy ) and then crank up some cool tunes. I recommend something like Paul Okenfield (this mix is funky) Planet Perfecto Radio Show. Anyway, then just get open a page or forum to read and aim for the closest dig symbol on your map, aim for some sky, press num lock and your good to go. .

I know get to the point, is it really worth leveling? Lets check out the items for inspiration. Im just going to list the rare ones, cos the other ones you will just vendor for some extra cash anyway.

Dwarf artifacts

Fossils

^^^ Yep thats how you get that funky raptor every second person now has! Hey its still cool and it sounds a bit like a chicken or a pig when you hit the space bar while mounted

Night Elf artifacts

Troll artifacts

OMG the best looking sword in the game and it binds to account so you can sent it to your other toons!!!

Draenei artifacts

Orc artifacts

Nerubian Artifacts

Vrykul artifacts

Tol’vir artifacts

Also Here are some tips while leveling, just to make leveling archeology it a (tiny) bit quicker.

• Just collect fragments all the way up to level 50, if you do this you will get 1 level everytime you fond some fragments, then once you hit 50 you can go in there and get all the way up to like 90 or 100 just from the fragments you already found.
• make sure you get to the dam trainer when you hit the level cap, and dont waste any of those annoying to find fragments.
• mount up after you survey, so i usually have my survey key bound to like scroll up or down or something and then i land, hit survey and straight away hit the mount key again so im ready to follow it to the next node, just saves a bit of time. If you wait for the pointer to spawn and then mount. Hey it may only save 5 seconds but it adds up.
• Dont spend time compiling posts like this, as it severely impacts your leveling speed.

This Post is proudly Brought to you by the letter X and the following other links:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.htmlsid=2000&topicId=26726035891

FranksPlace.org Cataclysm Archaeology Guide

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Well its another gaming day, and i just wrote half of this post and did a select all and delete, and then i couldnt even resurect it by pressing ALT+Z argh! Guess thats what i get for trusting in the wordpress editor, back to notepad++ for me. anyway… here goes again.

I really dont need another MMO to play, wow is just too all consuming as it is, but there is a bit of hype going around about a new one called Rift. It actually looks a little bit like aion vs warhammer. Some people are saying a few good things about it, you can get access to a beta key pretty easily i think, you may just need to pre-purchace it or something like that. But the community is growing.

Heres one review i found on RiftFan – Rift from an MMO veterans point of view:

I’ve played it all…
UO, EQ, EQOA, EQ2, FFXI, WOW, LOTRO, DAOC, Aion, AOC, WAR, AO, SWG, FE, VG, Shadowbane, FFXIV, DF etc… and I’m sure there are some I’m forgetting.
I’ve played WoW off and on since release, but did not buy into Cataclysm. It was just time to move on.
Enter Rift.. I had not researched it at all, I didn’t even care about it. The only information I had about it was what one of my friends had shared with me and even then I really didn’t pay attention. I didn’t think it would be a good game from how it sounded. One of the things I had missed about current MMO’s were their lack of attention to the PVP parts of the game. Once my friend mentioned how Rift was handling PVP, my interest was suddenly peaked. So I managed to get a VIP beta key.. and here’s what I found in the game. Please keep in mind that I’ve not stuck with any MMO except for WoW for more than a few months in the past year.

GRAPHICS
Trion was smart. They didn’t do like many others have done in the past and try to make a ridiculously system intensive game. They designed the game so that it looks great, but will still play fairly well on lower end systems. Mine is several years old and I can still play on almost the highest of settings. The graphic style was a good balance of “realism” and “stylishness” for me. The character models didn’t have a whole lot of customization options, but I believe there were more than WoW’s system. I also felt the models looked good and fit into the world around them. They didn’t look completely out of place like those in say, Vanguard. The world graphics fit the atmosphere of the game pretty well in my opinion. I really don’t have any gripes about the graphics at all. They look better than WoW and they run well on lower end systems.

GAMEPLAY
Since this is only a review of the parts of the game I’ve actually played. Please don’t take this and think that I’m referring that the entire game will be the same way, because we have yet to get to play the entire game as of yet. This is solely based on the short time I was in beta. I’ve heard alot of people scream that the game isn’t as it was advertised, or that it isn’t revolutionary.. etc. Does it have to be? WoW definitely wasn’t, and it did very well. Usually from what I’ve found, games that try to be extremely different from what people are used to.. are the ones that don’t do so hot. The gameplay in RIFT is definitely not revolutionary, but its very solid and smooth. What it does, it does well. The animations are smooth, the spell effects look great. I think everything they’ve done, takes WoW and amplifies it by a few notches. Which is what WoW did itself when it was released. They didn’t rewrite the book on MMO’s they just took what already works well and made it work even nicer. Most people who are looking for something “new” aren’t really at all. Most just want a familiar game in a new setting. This is what RIFT does. It won’t take long to familarize yourself with the controls or the game as it is indeed very similar to WoW and its counterparts. Is it a WoW clone? Depends on how you look at it.. are all the multitudes of FPS games with the same controls “clones”? There’s a certain formula that just “works” and this is one of those formulas. Age of Conan and Darkfall tried to change that formula and look where they ended up. On a down note, I could see where the game might get boring Because of this.. because they all eventually do.. but there’s always a downside.

SPECIAL FEATURES
RIFT includes a few things that we may have seen before in other games, but done in a new way. One of the biggest things I really enjoyed about the beta were the rifts, which are basically a more polished version of WAR’s public quests.. which I always thought was a great idea if they had been implemented properly. I really like the fact that they can appear anywhere . Its like a “drive by” raid and allows for group play without all the pains of trying to form a group. I’m sure they could get overwhelming when trying to level up, but I think that if your smart.. you can avoid them or better yet.. participate.
The Crafting in Rift is nothing special at all, its more of the “it works, so why change it” formula that WoW capitalized on. If your playing this game to be a crafter, I would suggest finding something else. This is not a crafter’s MMO. Crafting is more of a supplemental part of the main game and was never meant to be a game in itself here.
Rift’s Soul system is one of, if not the coolest feature in the game. With the way they’ve designed the character customization.. (if they are able to keep it balanced) We will be able to create some of the most customizable characters in an MMO to date. This could easily go very bad, if they did not balance things properly. As usual my fear is that within a few months, the “hardcore” min maxers will have already figured out what builds are the absolute best and idiotic gamers will just follow suit, rather than experiment and play the souls they find to be the most fun for them.
PVP in RIFT is something I haven’t gotten to do a whole lot of so I can’t really comment alot.. but from everything I’ve seen and read. They’ve put alot of thought into the PVP part of the game, so that its not just “Tacked on” like it is in most other games that focus mainly on PVE. It seems to have a purpose on its on, and I like the faction based system because I really think we will see some good world PVP out of it with how different the factions are.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I’ll be preordering the game, with several of my former WoW and Conan guild mates. I cannot tell you if the game will last for any of us, but as of now its surpassed everything else we’ve tried in the past year and is finally allowing us to lay the world of Azeroth to rest, and that for us is great because we were pretty sick of that world. If your looking for revolutionary, your looking in the wrong place. If you just want a fun game in a new setting that does what you already know very well.. Rift is your game, as it stands in beta.

Another interesting one that someone sent me a video link to is Interstellar Marines. This one looks quote good judging by the video so far, they have released three playable demos so far downloadable from their website. check out the vid below.

We realize that it can be difficult to explain the concept of Interstellar Marines and AAA indie game development to your friends and family, so we’ve put together a comprehensive new video that will get everyone up to speed in less than 5 minutes. Even your grandma will get the message! … Go to InterstellarMarines.com to learn more!

And finally a sweet (and yet surely annoying) console setup… Unless the fans dont make an annoying noise, and its not 3am…

So apparently blizzard are offering free iPads if you have the best promotional or unique screen shot of your Core Hound Pup!

/searches for latest screen shot’s showing the corehound pup. Yeah i got mine a few months ago now, i dont even pull it out very often. No better reason than this to start though .

All you have to do it take it out in interesting locations and then press ALT+Z to hide your interface and then the Print Screen key to take a screen shot. Then wow automatically takes a photo of your in game screen and saves it into your world of warcraft folder under screenshots. If you installed wow on your C drive in Program Files \ World of Warcraft it would be in the location: “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Screenshots”. to get there quick in windows just press the windows key + r and then paste in

1

"C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Screenshots" to go straight there.

Here is the official blizzard Post:

If your account is protected by a Battle.net Authenticator or the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, then you already know how safe and secure your Core Hound Pup pet can make you feel. But there are plenty of players out there who can still benefit from the companionship and peace of mind that our infernal puppy provides.

We’re kicking off a Core Hound Pup adoption campaign and we need your help! Simply send us funny, cute, or just plain epic screenshots featuring your fiery two-headed buddy. We’ll be picking two of the most memorable images each month in 2011 and awarding the winners with a brand new iPad.

If you have yet to adopt a Core Hound Pup of your very own, then don’t wait a moment longer, or we just might have to give you the big puppy-dog eyes. Visit our account security site to learn how to get a Battle.net Authenticator or download the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, available through our mobile apps page or as a free download from the Apple App Store or the Android Market.

Adopt a puppy! Protect your loots! Win an iPad! Read the contest rules for details and eligibility requirements, and happy screenshotting!

via the Official Blizzard Blog

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So i am still leveling my mage at the moment… however its always good to see someone elses point of view when it comes to PVP. Found this one on the wow forums, looks like a two part series should be a good viewing. I have re-arranged the original post source to include the vids, i know it was hard work but hey makes for easier viewing and readage. The following vids and skill all belong to Nighttempest im not trying to claim any of his glory just promoting some good cata mage pvp skills Check it out:

DISCLAIMER: I don’t claim skill! I just happen to know what I’m doing (half the time).

Anyways out of sheer boredom I decided to make a mage guide I managed to get some good clips (all of it was filmed in one day other than the scene on the docks vs the boomkin and warlock which was 3.3.5), so I decided that I should probably put them to use… anyways it’s a 2 part movie just read the description, and it takes a while to load in from youtube since its popup so you can get the full quality.

As long as I don’t waste your time completely, and you guys get at least ONE thing out of it I’ll be happy.

Part 1

• Movement/Kiting
• Lining Up Burst
• Simple Exercises to increase your mage skill

Part 1 is essentially a very slow, very chill movie starts from the very basics of everything, and ends with some silly exercises of me doing stupid crap in IF. Anyways you can at least enjoy the music if nothing else. (WARNING: I was a “bit” drunk for the last bit of part 1 since it was the end of the day so expect some weird screen shaking.)

Part 2

-Class Specifics: Rogue

(Rules: No Water elemental, or mirror images allowed)

Notes: I was going to include warrior, but they are not a complete class until 85 in PvP so they won’t be on here despite the opening list on part 1. This movie is a lot more edited than the first part, and is not really in the “chill” mood.

I’m going to add a voice over (on a separate file that you can listen to while you watch) when I have access to my mic again (100$ mics seem to break down more than the 20$ ones), but till then read this:

Fedxx is a 2750 MMR rogue (ex glad on his UD), and we’ve been duel buddies for a while now, this is the 2nd time since the first day of 4.0 that we dueled so expect to see a learning a curve, and a few mistakes (mostly by me he makes like 3 in the entire movie).

His opener:

-Opens with a garrote without breaking sap so I can’t spin around to face him, into a KS while I’m still blanket silenced by garrote.

To trinket, or to not trinket the stun rules are simple…

-Did he use shadow dance?

Yes: trinket

No: Don’t trinket (derp)

Don’t worry about being blinded it’s better for him to reopen without shadow dance. (Some duels I eat the shadow dance since I don’t want to fraps his reset, so I save trinket for blind.)

-Why are you invising? It’s just going to break.

It gives me 2-3 globals of breathing time, and a possible freecast, but unfortunately I’ve been pro’d and sapped out of invis before >_>. That’s a minor issue though considering how many bleeds sub rogues have.

-Why are you taking so little damage?

I’m facing him as much as possible. The maximum amount of backstabs he gets per duel is 8-9, and max of 3 ambushes.

-Why doesn’t he just turtle for his CDs?

He does some duels, and those are the ones where I lose, but he was nice enough to do burn down duels as well.

-He wouldn’t be able to turtle as much if you used a pet.

I’m aware of that, but mages are such a hard counter to rogues with the pet atm that I found it cheap to use it so I decided to run without it.

-Won’t rogues smokebomb change the game of rogue vs mage?

Not really we can counter it with ring of frost, or just blizzard. Vs good mages smokebomb will mostly be for:

a.) Getting out of combat with blind, and then smokebombing off the pet (assuming pet nova is used). (No other rogue on beta has thought of this yet…. kudos to me?)

b.) Smokebombing as deep freeze goes off.

c.) Recup tick time, and energy regen.

Rogue vs mage has remained essentially the same formula since level 60 even.

Mage plays defensive until Cds are out, mage resets, rogue has jack. Rogue qqs about mages.

Alternatively: Mage plays defensive, but rogue outplays mage, and mage QQs about rogues.

Anyways as I mentioned earlier I hope you guys get at least ONE thing out of this, and I’ll be happy.

Check out the rest of the thread on: WoW Forums

Ok so it cant be a guide beyond Cataclysm, but hey it has a good ring to it… What the opposite of beyond, (checks google) Hmm, well that was no help, and unrelated to this post anyway. So I have been leveling my new mage just lately, and going through all of the changed content and locating all of the new quest hubs etc, and i have to say its pretty cool what blizzard have done to the wow leveling flow in cataclysm. It all flows together nicely and there are a lot more connecting quest chains and they break it up with a few different and fun quests here and there, but if you just feel like grinding through the level you can do that as well. I have just hit 73 on my dranei mage and it has started to get a lot slower, 60 – 70 was a breeze and before that was amazingly quick compared to how long it used to take! Even battle grounds are ok to go in every now and again being alience i tend to win more than on the horde side overall, and wins can get you about 25% of a level in the 30′s and 40′s. not so much in the higher levels, but you can still get about 100k exp from winning an av and thats only about 20-30 minutes of game time, so its pretty comparable.

Now i have posted the following leveling flow diagram before but its so good ill post it again here:

originally posted here…

I was looking for a bit of extra advice on power leveling as well, not the bad powerleveling that you pay for but the stuff that just helps you with general leveling in wow, dont get distracted, and concentrate, try not to get bored i was leveling the other night and watching a movie, that definately slowed down my leveling process probably due to not being able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, might be a male thing.

Anyway here is a few tips on powerleveling that i found:

Five golden rules of powerleveling

Minimize Downtime

Downtime is whenever you are not killing mobs or completing quests. Examples for downtime include regenerating mana or hitpoints, traveling, chatting, attacking other players, reading or dieing.
For obvious reasons downtime directly hinders your goal of leveling as fast as possible. Keeping these activities to a bare minimum is the most important aspect of power leveling.

Maximizing Burst Damage

The second most important thing when powerleveling is how fast you can kill mobs. Both single mobs and groups of mobs. Burst damage is greatly impacted by your spec (think protection versus fury), your gear level and your playstyle. And to a lesser extent by consumables, buffs and reforging/stat choices.

Play alone

To clarify right away: I do not have any math showing how grinding instances with a fleshed out 5 man group compares to leveling by questing. But if 70 – 80 is any judge, leveling by questing will be at least as fast but without the drawbacks of leveling in a group. You set the pace, you decide when to take breaks, you rely on your preparation and expertise instead of the preparation and expertise of other people. The method of power leveling purely in instances is not the focus of this text. Much rather the focus is on leveling by questing and grinding.
Questing in a group of multiple people always has drawbacks that can never outweigh the benefits. While „killing-quests“ are typically (slightly) faster in a group, a lot of drop-specific quests are much slower in groups and you will find yourselves waiting for mob respawns a lot. Not the mention the downtime is increased significantly for a group with multiple players.

Always know your next steps

Use a guide; preferably with an addon that goes hand-in-hand with the guide.
If possible use a second screen to always display the guide so you can read while you travel or grind. Always read at least the next paragraph in the guide so you know what you will be doing after the current task. This is to make sure you don’t travel unnecessarily or separate tasks that should be persued together.

Stay awake

Only read this paragraph if you consider leveling to 85 hardcore.
My personal, most important advice: Do not drink alcohol when trying to stay awake and focused for a long period of time. Alcohol will get you very, very tired very fast.
Most people (including me) will find listening to music while leveling stimulating and keeping you going.
Caffeine is your friend, but you need to use it the right way:
Caffeine works by changing the chemistry of the brain. It blocks the action of a natural brain chemical (adenosine) that is associated with sleep. Adenosine is produced by your daily activity, especially by physical exercise.
To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine. Caffeine, therefore, binds to the adenosine receptors. However, it doesn’t slow down the cell’s activity as adenosine would. The cells cannot sense adenosine anymore because caffeine is taking up all the receptors adenosine binds to. So instead of slowing down because of the adenosine level, the cells speed up. The „problem“ is, that adeonosine keeps building up while caffeine is blocking the adenosine receptors. So as soon as the caffeine loses its effect, you have a lot of adenosine around that will rapidly occupy all the receptors. This happens very fast and you will turn from being totally focused to dead tired in a matter of minutes. Drinking a coffee or an energy drink will flood the brain with caffeine for a short amount of time. It usualy takes 15-30 minutes to feel the effect, which then peaks around 30-60 minutes after consumption.
So once your body decides that you are tired, you would have to drink a coffee around every 2 hours at least to stay focused and you would still feel a lot of „ups“ and „downs“ when the caffeine peaks and declines.
A much better way is to rely on a continuous, controlled flow of caffeine that never peaks or declines but keeps a steady level to prevent you from becoming too tired. You might know the substance that provides just this effect under the name of „Guarana“. Guarana capsules usually work over several hours (typically 5-6), emitting a steady flow of caffeine (the exact same thing that you get when drinking coffee). Designed to keep you awake when feeling tired as opposed to coffee, which is good to „remove“ tiredness when you are rested; which is why coffee is consumed to wake up.
Enough of the medical lessons. You can get guarana capsules prescription free (in most countries?) at your local apothecary. I suggest you learn some more about the effects of guarana or ask your pharmacist about them before trying them out. Just to clarify again: Guarana is NOT a drug. It is identical to the caffeine chemical derived from other sources, such as coffee and it is classifed as GRAS in the United States.

Note: This rule is for crazy gamers! For you health, I suggest that Life first, Game Second! lol!

Take care of yourself

Don’t carry leveling to excess.
Make sure you always feel comfortable or immediately stop playing!

Here a few tipps:

• Always have water or tea on your desk (or any neutral beverage) and don’t forget to drink enough.
• Eat two or three times a day. You will notice you won’t be as hungry as usual simply because your body is burning much less calories. It’s only a couple days, so go all out on pizza, lasagna and what else makes you happy (and can be eaten at your computer ). I would say try to eat some fruits/vegetables too etc, but yeah, **** that.
• Again, no alcohol or drugs apart vom caffeine.
• Care about hygiene. It is much more comfortable to play after a shower.
• Make sure your Monitor is at least 50cm away from your eyes. If your eyes start to hurt, take a break or stop power leveling.
• Maybe stick around in your Teamspeak to keep some company and to motivate eachother. But it can be distracting, especially if people keep asking stuipid questions about where to find quest objectives.
• Turn off your mobile phone and lock the door if you have a toilet & fridge in your room. For a second you thought I was serious here, right? Powerleveling is nice and fun, but don’t do it at the cost of the people around you.

Now just on a small side note about leveling mages, i was arcane for ages while leveling in the low levels and that was doing pretty well for me. I switched out to frost spec at about 40 or so and have been leveling as frost all the way to 73, after reading a bit a lot of people are going fire now for leveling, i might give that a try and see how it goes.

Frost is quite easy though for leveling, Just do a Frost Fire, then ice bolt x2, and ice lance and finish with a fire blast if its still going. Then when you get the freeze spell (cant remember exactly what level thats at) has a 30 sec cd, and then u just freeze the mob and hit them with 3 ice lance crits, gonski! Anyway ill check out a fire pve build and see how that goes, leveling as ice gets a bit same old after about 30-40 levels anyway

I found a pole on mmo champ and the results about leveling mages were, Arcane (9%), Fire (71%), Ice (20%). So it seems fire is the way to level.

My mage has some rather horrid gear for a level 80. I logged onto the PTR last night to mess around with fire, and much to my surprise I pulled 5400 DPS in a fight against one of the new encounters for the pre-Cata event. This was done knowing very little about a fire rotation (Hey, I’ve been Arcane!), and without my normal bindings.

My thoughts on it? Scorch is insane. Quick little spell that you can cast while moving with talents, doing 5K a shot. Oh, and it’s free and freaking FAST. All I did was spam the hell out of it and fire of Pyroblast when it procced. I loved it. Considering the last time I used Fire on my mage (August of 2007), I will definitely have this as one of my specs. It’s just so much fun.

________ __ _

Everyone says ‘go frost,’ so that’s mostly what you see (sheeple). The best spec is the one you have the most fun with. I levelled my mage fire all the way. When dungeoning with groups that outgear you and/or the content, your dps will suffer because of the time factor mentioned above. All things equal, fire does very well. The non-fire spells in combo do very well indeed.

The Sources:
MMO Site
MMO Champ
KruXoR

So apparently Ghost Crawler has announced some pretty crazy priest BUFFS! it should hit the test realms soon!

Lets see what we have here. Oh yeah, disc wont suck anymore. /yay. (or maybe it was just me, heh) ah well im playing my mage now so eh. But still good news for disc pvp priests. Ill break down the official disc list here, ill skip the boring bits…

• PVP Buff: Focused Will now procs when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect. : so that means that now it will stack?
• PVP Buff: Improved Power Word: Shield now also increases the amount absorbed by an additional 15/30% when cast on oneself. : but i did hear that the mana cost for shield is also being increased so you still cant spam it (too much).
• PVP Buff: Pain Suppression is no longer dispellable.
• Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.
• PVP Buff: Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.
• PVP Buff: Glyph of Pain Suppression has been renamed Glyph of Desperation and now allows Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned, in addition to Pain Suppression.
• PVP Buff: Glyph of Spirit of Redemption has been converted into Glyph of Prayer of Mending, which increases the healing done by the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 60%.

Now i have probably overlooked some of them so check out the official list below, but its looking good. Hmm do i want to go back to playing my priest or keep leveling the mage.

Here goes the list of changes for Priests happening in Patch 4.0.6:

• The duration of Levitate has been increased to 10 minutes, up from 2.
• The mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude has been reduced by approximately 68%, making it roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.
• The mana cost of Power Word: Shield has been increased by approximately 31%, but its effect has been increased by 208%.
• The mana cost of Renew has been reduced by 24%.
• The mana cost of Shadow Protection has been reduced by approximately 65%, making it roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.
• Mind Blast damage has been significantly increased. It should be roughly 50% greater than Mind Spike.
• Mind Control now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
• Mind Sear can now be channeled on friendly targets in addition to enemy targets. In addition, Mind Sear’s damage has been increased by roughly 15%.
• Prayer of Healing effectiveness has been reduced by 15%.

Talent Specializations

Discipline

• Divine Aegis: Critical effects from Prayer of Healing now award a bonus amount in addition to the default, always-proc Divine Aegis effect.
• Grace is no longer limited to one target at a time.
• Focused Will now procs when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect.
• Improved Power Word: Shield now also increases the amount absorbed by an additional 15/30% when cast on oneself.
• Pain Suppression is no longer dispellable.
• Penance mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.
• Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.

Holy

• Blessed Resilience will now proc when the priest is critically hit, in addition to its current effect.
  Chakra
• Chakra states now last 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.
  Binding Heal and Holy Word: Serenity now refresh the duration of Renew on the target, in addition to the other direct heals.
• Binding Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal can now trigger Chakra: Serenity.
• Mind Spike can now trigger Chakra: Chastise.
• Circle of Healing effectiveness has been increased by 30%.
• Desperate Prayer now heals the priest for 30% of their total health, up from a very subpar value.
• Guardian Spirit: The absorb/heal from this ability can now never exceed 200% of the maximum health of the target.
• Holy Concentration now increases the amount of mana regeneration from Spirit while in combat by an additional 15/30%, down from 20/40%.
• Holy Word: Chastise now has a 30-second cooldown, up from 25. In addition, it properly breaks from damage.
• Lightwell’s health has been increased by 50% (for PvP purposes).
• Serendipity now has Spell Alert and Floating Combat Text feedback support.
• Surge of Light can now also proc from Flash Heal and Greater Heal, and can now also critically hit.

Shadow

• Shadow Orbs benefit from mastery has been increased by approximately 16%.
• Vampiric Embrace now lasts until canceled.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Mind Flay no longer requires Shadow Word: Pain to be on the target.
• Glyph of Pain Suppression has been renamed Glyph of Desperation and now allows Guardian Spirit to be cast while stunned, in addition to Pain Suppression.
• Glyph of Psychic Horror now reduces the cooldown of Psychic Horror by 30 seconds, down from 60.
• Glyph of Spirit of Redemption has been converted into Glyph of Prayer of Mending, which increases the healing done by the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 60%.

patch notes / talents come via Cataclysm Stuff

A few things have changed just lately, and i have found the following to be quite a good guide on mounts in wow, apparently you can now get your flying at 60 and fly around all of the old worlds, but you still have to wait until 68 until you can fly in burning crusade land… and then you can fly in Northrend, but you need to have cold weather training from another character if you want to do that before 80. Argh so much to remember, good thing i have this list below:

Azeroth is a large world and it’s recently become much larger. There are hills to climb, deserts to explore, fjords to ford, and a vast sea separating the continents. And lets not forget that beyond Azeroth proper there lies a whole other shattered world — Outland. Traveling has never been more interesting, and for some, confusing. To help you with getting around, weve compiled a list of some of the more common ways you can see the world, meet new creatures, and (likely) be killed by them.

Mounts: Mounts come in all shapes and sizes, and each race has its own type of mount that becomes available at level 20. Youll need to learn how to ride, of course, and then you’ll need to keep your feet on the ground until level 60 when you can take to the skies — after purchasing the flying skill and a flying mount.

Apprentice Riding
Level 20

Journeyman Riding
Level 40

Expert Riding
Level 60 (Allows for flying in Outland)
The Burning Crusade

Artisan Riding
Level 70

Master Riding
Level 80

Cold Weather Flying
Level 68 (Allows for flying in Northrend)
Wrath of the Lich King

Flight Master’s License
Level 60 (Allows for flying in Azeroth)
Cataclysm

*Tip – Hitchhiking: Some mounts are designed to carry more than one person, so you can always try to catch a ride with a friend.

Flight Masters: For a little pocket change, you can get a lift from a Flight Master. Youll need to find the flight paths (as indicated by the green exclamation (!) point) and learn the route before you can fly to many destinations, but they should be easy to find as you explore. Its important to note that there are flight paths that can be used by Alliance only, Horde only, and by both. These are noted on your map as red for Horde, blue for Alliance, and gold for Neutral (both factions can use.)

Boats: Boats are free to use, and while the crew may look like they have loyalties to the Horde or Alliance (depending on the harbor they make their home), they will never attack their passengers. The residents of the harbor, however, may have other things in mind. Most boats dock in Alliance ports and can be an inconvenient means of transport for the Horde, though Booty Bay in the Eastern Kingdoms runs a neutral port.

Zeppelins: These flying contraptions may look like floating death traps, but they use the best in goblin technology… so yes, they’re probably death traps. You cant beat free airfare, though, which is surprising given the goblins’ greedy nature. Much like the boats, zeppelins are faction-neutral, but perhaps more difficult to use for the Alliance.

Portals:
Portals are magical constructs that allow travel from one location to another.
Mage Portals: They may cost you — either because the mage is charging a fee or youre generously leaving a tip. These portals are created by a mage and allow party members to travel through them. When traveling alone, mages can teleport themselves without opening a portal.

NPC Portals: NPCs can sometimes help you get where you need to go, though their transportation methods are generally attached to a quest or progression path.
Static Portals: Many portals offer travel to a fixed destination. These can be found in a variety of locations.
–Orgrimmar:
The Western Earthshrine – Offers portals to Hyjal, Vashjir, Deepholm, Uldum, and Twilight Highlands after you’ve completed the quests that guide you to these new Cataclysm zones.

Tol Barad – Found near the Western Earthshrine, you must be level 85 to enter this world PvP zone.
Blasted Lands – Found in the Valley of Spirits, you must be level 58 to use this portal. It delivers you safely to an outpost just outside The Dark Portal.

–Stormwind:
Blasted Lands – Found in the Wizards Sanctum, you must be level 58 to use this portal. It delivers you safely to an outpost just outside The Dark Portal.
The Eastern Earthshrine – Offers portals to Hyjal, Vashjir, Deepholm, Uldum, and Twilight Highlands after you’ve completed the quests that guide you to these new Cataclysm zones.
Tol Barad – Found near the Eastern Earthshrine, you must be level 85 to enter this world PvP zone.

–Outland Portals:
The Stair of Destiny: Offers portals to Orgrimmar and Stormwind on either side of the Dark Portal.

–Neutral Portals:
Shattrath: Within the Terrace of Light, a portal transports those of the appropriate level to the Isle of QuelDanas.
Dalaran: Within the Violet Citadel, a portal is available for travelers heading to the Caverns of Time to defend Azeroths timeline from the machinations of the Infinite Dragonflight.
Within the Sunreavers Sanctuary (Horde) and the Silver Enclave (Alliance), portals are available for Wintergrasp, Strand of the Ancients, Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Isle of Conquest. (Note that queuing for Battlegrounds can be done anywhere from within the User Interface.)

Summoning:
When theres no portal available, you can ask your friends for a helping hand. Players can be summoned by using a meeting stone outside of a dungeon (level requirements need to be met) or by utilizing the services of a warlock.

Special:
Many additional means of transportation around the world become accessible via quests, special items, or NPCs, but there are two specialized methods that we just couldnt leave out.
Rocketway Exchange: The goblins have arrived, and with them, a little extra goblin ingenuity. You can find the largest of these Rocketways in Azshara.

Deeprun Tram: Running between Ironforge and Stormwind, players can take this underground train for free and easy transit between the two cities.

Edit – 18.01.2011 :  (i was wondering what the difference was between, artisan riding and master riding) found this excellent table from wowwiki I have added for convenience below:

Skill granted	Proficiency	Riding	Friendly	Honored	Revered	Exalted	Required for	Necessary level
75	Apprentice	4	3 80	3 60	3 40	3 20	Mounted riding (+60% movement speed)	20
150	Journeyman	50	47 50	45	42 50	40	Faster mounted riding (+100%)	40 with Apprentice
225	Expert	250	237 50	225	212 50	200	Mounted flying (+150% in the air)	60 with Journeyman
300	Artisan	5000	4750	4500	4250	4000	Faster mounted flying (+280%)	70
375	Master	5000	4750	4500	4250	4000	Fastest mounted flying (+310%)	80[1]
n/a	Flight Master’s License	250	237 50	225	212 50	200	Allows flying in Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and Deepholm	60 with Expert or higher
n/a	Cold Weather Flying	500	475	450	425	400	Allows flying in Northrend	68 with Expert or higher
Total Price		11054	10501 30	9948 6	9395 90	8843 20

This post comes via: Cataclysm Stuff

I know this probably isn’t the newest news, but hey i get there eventually. And also i haven’t rebuilt my PC in more than a year now so it hasn’t exactly been on the top of my mind, bios’s and such. But here it is, the uEFI Bios in all its glory.

Old Award Bios (we will miss you) :

(i know this is actually the old interface on the new bios, but you get the idea )

New uEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) Bios:

Powered by the new chip!

Apparently its already being rolled out on some new motherboards, such as this sexy looking board by ASUS, the ASUS Sabertooth P67 TUF. I actually like the plastic coating (or tactical vest as they like to call it) that this board is covered in, looks pimp! Just dont drop any screws down in there when installing it…

You can actually get these boards for under $200 as well which is not bad at all really, or are things just getting cheaper.

Full review of the this board here.

So which console do you prefer? According to the sales, the Nintendo DS is coming out way ahead with 47 million sales in just the United States alone and 135 Million Total Sales.

According to Nintendo’s internal sales figures, the Nintendo DS™ family of portable video game systems has sold more than 47 million in the United States since the original model launched in November 2004. That tally makes Nintendo DS the nation’s best-selling video game system of all time.

For the second major milestone of 2010, Nintendo’s internal figures show that the Wii™ home console marked its third consecutive calendar year with U.S. sales of more than 7 million – a feat never before accomplished in the history of video games by a home console. To date, the Wii system has sold more than 34 million in the United States alone.

Heres where all the consoles rank overall

1. Nintendo DS @ 135.58 million, including DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL units (as of September 30, 2010)
2. Nintendo Wii has sold 75.9 Million consoles.
3. Worldwide: 62 million (as of September 16, 2010)
4. XBOX 360 – Worldwide: 44.6 million (as of September 30, 2010 (2010-09-30))
5. PS3 – 41.6 million (as of September 30, 2010)

The wii was always going to be popular due to the target market for this console and the new control method that is assisting people adopt this new technology, and its available out of the box.

See the PSP isnt doing so bad after all coming in at number 3, but it has been around for a little while now

The XBox 360 and PS3 are neck and neck at 44.6 million and 41.6 million respectively, give or take a couple of million.

sources:

via Gamer Stuff

I have been looking into these awesome small form factor cases lately, as im looking to downsize my gigantic server case. I originally bought it as my new (at the time) 460GTX wouldnt fit in the Antec Lanboy case that i had, without some shoe-horn action. And i really wasnt in the mood for that kind of modding. Anyway, it is time to downsize and im really not sure what case i want to get.

For the hardware side of things i was thinking of getting something with an i7 in it and probably about 6 gig of ram. I also have heared good things about the ASUS ROG Rampage III or II GENE (MicroATX) motherboards, for there all in one features.

Motherboard

Board Specs: (Version II)

• Intel I7 Processor – LGA 1366
• Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset
• 6 DDDR3 DIMM Slots w/ MemOK! Support
• Supports DDR3 up to 2000 MHz
• PCI Express 2.0
• Supports ATI CrossfireX and nVidia SLI Graphics
• 24-bit X-FI SupremeFX HD Audio
• EAX 4.0 Support
• Tuned for Overclocking
• Onboard Power, Reset, and CMOS Clear Buttons

Board Specs (Version III)

• CPU: LGA1366 socket Intel® Core™i7 Extreme Edition /Core™i7 Processors Chipset Intel® X58/ICH10R
• Memory: 6 x DIMM, max 24GB DDR3
• 2200(OC)/2133(OC)/2000(OC)/1800(OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz
• PCIe x16 slots: 2 x PCIe2.0 x16 slots, supports dual x16 mode
• Multi-GPU: Supports NVIDIA SLI™ / ATI CrossFireX™
• LAN: Gigabit Intel® LAN
• Audio: SupremeFX X-Fi 2 built-in
• Storage: 2 x USB 3.0
• 11 x USB 2.0
• Exclusive features: ROG Connect
• Game First
• CPU Level Up
• MemOK!

(Hmm.. wonder if i can fit a blockquote within another blockquote…(Edit: No it looks kinda not cool.)) Rampage GEN III or R3G takes more of the great features that Rampage Extreme III have a best seller. It features the Intel X58 chipset, supporting Intel six-core processors i7-980X, 6 GB, and USB 3.0 and SATA (6GB/s(ZOMG!:))) for the fastest data transmission available to consumers.

You can pick these up for about… $432.51 (at the time of printing) Phew… thats a bit much for a motherboard. But really it does come with some nice features. All you need then is a video card, ram and a cpu and your set to go. And with the cheap prices of video cards at the moment, you could actually run SLI / Crossfire quite easily on this board as it totally supports it!

Whats the difference between Micro ATX and Mini ITX?

This one caught me out once, Please note that it is not a fun experience when you byt a MicroATX board and try and fit it into a MiniATX Case. you can however do it the other way around, but still just check that both the motherboard and case are the correct sizes, or otherwize your in for a major headache .

Here is the “official” specs of…

Micro ATX

microATX, also known as µATX (sometimes transliterated as mATX[1] or uATX[2][3] on Internet forums) is a standard for motherboards that was introduced in December of 1997.[4] The maximum size of a microATX motherboard is 244 mm x 244 mm (9.6 inches x 9.6 inches), but some microATX boards can be as small as 171.45 mm x 171.45 mm (6.75 inches x 6.75 inches)[5]. The standard ATX size is 25% longer, at 305 mm × 244 mm (12″ wide x 9.6″ deep). via.

Vs

Mini ITX

Mini-ITX is a 17 x 17 cm (or 6.7 x 6.7 inches) low-power motherboard form factor developed by VIA Technologies[1]. Mini-ITX is slightly smaller than microATX. Mini-ITX boards can often be passively cooled due to their low power consumption architecture, which makes them useful for home theater PC systems, where fan noise can detract from the cinema experience. Beside that specific application, they are commonly used in small form factor (SFF) computer systems. The four mounting holes in a mini-ITX board line up with four of the holes in ATX-specification motherboards, and the locations of the backplate and expansion slot are the same (though one of the holes used was optional in earlier versions of the ATX spec). Mini-ITX boards can therefore often be used in cases designed for ATX, micro-ATX and other ATX variants if desired. via.

In summary:

Mini ITX = 17 x 17cm (or 6.7 x 6.7 inches)

Micro ATX = (the bigger one) = From: 171.45 mm x 171.45 (6.75 inches x 6.75 inches) to 305 mm × 244 mm (12″ wide x 9.6″ deep).

Small Formfactor MicroATX Case Round-Up

So what are we going to put this tasty motherboard in? well i personally prefed the Lan-Li Micro ATX Cases, there just slick. but here are some of the options available.

Silverstone Sugo SG07

The Sugo SG07, with a size that slots in between the venerable SG01 Micro-ATX SFF case from 2005 and the SG05, a powerful Mini-ITX case released in 2009, was designed to take the Mini-ITX platform to a whole new level. It is twice as powerful as the SG05 but only 37% bigger. Its custom 600W power supply, which is rated up to 50?with 80 PLUS Bronze level efficiency and single +12V rail, was carefully chosen and optimized for SG07. Exhaustive testing was conducted to create unique VGA fan duct and exhaust vents that enable SG07 to not only accommodate the longest consumer graphics cards physically (up to 12.2 inches/310mm) but also capable of supporting graphics thermal profile of up to 400W through overclocking. For the CPU and motherboard area, a record-breaking use of 180mm fan (bigger than the Mini-ITX motherboard!) with vortex generating design was utilized to provide possibility of fanless CPU cooling of up to 95W (via CPU cooler such as SilverStone’s NT06-E). But despite having tremendous amount of cooling performance, the SG07 is easy to maintain as well. It employs positive pressure layout with all intake areas fitted with removable filters so dust will not accumulate inside. If the goal is to make the ultimate Mini-ITX system, the SG07 is hard to beat. via here.

Looks to be only available at this time in NZ, but they can ship to pretty much anywhere. Just makes the price tag of, $365 a little much…

Lian-Li V350

This is a bit of an older case now, if cases age? i guess they do, but not as much as hardware, or as quickly anyway.

Antec NSK1380

The NSK1380’s small and compact cube design allows it to fit into virtually any workspace while the inside is spacious enough for your microATX motherboard, up to four full height PCI expansion cards, and four drive bays.

Check it out here

Download the PDF of this Post Here

Found this one on Crunch Gear how classic…

A retired Navy doctor wanted to sell a few of this old knick-knacks and posted his Rolex on eBay for $9.95. The seller, a guy named Bob, bought a Rolex watch on the Kwajalien Atoll from a Navy Exchange fifty-two years ago and he wore it almost every day for forty years. He then put the watch away and forgot about it for a decade, finally pulling it out recently to see if he could sell it for a bit of Christmas money.He posted it and forgot all about it until the bids started hitting in the thousands. Over the next few days he watch it rise to $30K. He spoke with his son who discovered that his watch was the rare “Bond” Rolex Submariner Ref 5510, the same model Sean Connery wore in Dr. No, Goldfinger, and Thunderball (trust me: if you’re a watch dork, this is your holy grail). This particular model is the rarest and most sought-after version of that watch. It should be noted that Ian Fleming wore an Explorer.

The auction closed three days ago at $66,100, which definitely isn’t bad for a timepiece that the owner originally thought was worth $10. If you’d like to pick one up yourself here’s a similar watch for a mere $100,000.

From the Wiki

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner is a line of watches manufactured by Rolex, designed for diving and known for their resistance to water. The first Submariner was introduced to the public in 1954 at the Swiss Watch Fair. Copied by other watch makers, the Rolex Submariner is recognised as a classic, and one of the most widely recognized luxury products in the world. The Rolex Submariner is part of Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual Professional line. The watch has been part of expeditions both at sea (such as the Moana expedition) and overland in the Antarctic (where it withstood temperatures of 45 degrees below zero Celsius). In the Moana sea expedition it withstood in excess of a thousand dives. Thor Heyerdal, the Norwegian anthropologist, wore a Rolex Submariner in his 1970 Ra II sea expedition. The Rolex Submariner has appeared in eleven James Bond movies

Which one would you choose? Its a hard line up

Corvette 2010

Camaro 2010 – also known as the bumblebee

Ford Shelby 2010

Here i show you some nice easy ways to format a HTML form using CSS and a couple of images, just for the button texture.

The CSS:

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form {
	background: #dfe3ee;
	padding:10px;
	border:1px solid #c6ccde;
	font-family:corbel,verdana;
	font-size:13px;
	width:500px;
}
 
select {
	background:#FFFFFF;
}
 
div.element {
	margin-bottom:5px;
}
 
div.element label {
	width:130px;
	text-align:right;
	vertical-align:middle;
	display:block;
	color:#555555;
	float:left;
	padding-right:6px;
	padding-top:5px;
}
 
.textbox {
	border:1px solid #c6ccde;
	background:#f5f6f9;
	color:#555555;
	padding:3px;
}
 
input submit {
	color:#FF0000;
}
 
div.infobox {
	width:100px;
	float:right;
	border:1px solid #c6ccde;
	background:#f5f6f9;
	padding:5px;
	font-size:10px;
}
 
input.green { /* the shiny go button */
	background: url(images/green_button_grad_long.png) top left #64a551;
	padding:0px 6px;
	border: 1px solid #3b6e22;
	height:28px;
	color:#FFFFFF;
	font-size:13px;
	width:130px;
	font-weight:bold;
}

The Demo Form

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<form>
 
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
 
<div class='infobox'><b>Info Box</b><br>Information in the box.</div>
 
<div class='element'>
	<label>
		Label
	</label>
	<input type="text" class='textbox'></input>
</div>
 
 
<div class='element'>
	<label>
		Label
	</label>
	<input type="text" class='textbox'></input>
</div>
 
<div class='element'>
	<label>
		Label
	</label>
	<input type="text" class='textbox'></input>
</div>
 
 
<div class='element'>
	<label>
		Label
	</label>
	<select>
		<option>option</option>
		<option>option</option>
		<option>option</option>
	</select>
</div>
 
<div class='element'>
	<label>
		&nbsp;
	</label>
	<input type='submit' value='Go Button' class='green'>
</div>
 
 
</form>

And the image that i used as the background for the go button is just here, save it in an images folder for it to work correctly.

or here

Also i noticed that the form actually fills the whole screen in IE, so may want to wrap the whole thing with another div depending on the layout of your page.

Social Networks, Social Sites and Other sites that have hit the rich list.

Thought these dudes were quite interesting so this is what i found, good for a bit of inspiration .

Coming in at Number 5.

Name: Andrew Michael
Site: Fast Hosts (http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/)
Age: 29
Value: $110+ Million

Looks like this guy knows his business, maybe a bit of luck played its role as well here.

Fasthosts is a provider of Internet access and hosting services based in Gloucester, England. The company also operates the domain name registration service UKreg and cloud infrastructure service Rise, and has operations in the United States.

Fasthosts was originally started by Andrew Michael, then aged 17, as part of an A-level school project. It became a limited company in 1999, and launched UKreg in 2000. The company specialised in providing services for small businesses, and in 2002 was listed as the second fastest growing technology company in the United Kingdom by The Sunday Times. In 2005 the company had a turnover of £20 million and made £5 million profit. The company also became known for hosting lavish Christmas parties for its staff; an event in 2005 costing £600,000 featured appearances from Jonathan Ross, The Darkness and Boney M. In 2006 Fasthosts was sold to German internet service provider United Internet for £61.5 million, netting Michael £46 million for his 75% stake. Michael remained as CEO until 2009, when he left to found Livedrive.

A hacking incident in 2007 prompted Fasthosts to temporarily shut down customers’ websites. The company noticed that its servers had been accessed in October and wrote to customers recommending that they change their passwords; in December after noticing “unusual activity” on some sites it closed down those that had yet to change their passwords until new passwords could be issued by post.

In 2008 Fasthosts acquired reseller Streamline.net, and also launched a reseller hosting service in the United States. Cloud infrastructure service Rise was launched in 2010. Fasthosts is the founding sponsor of The Great Exhibition 2012.

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasthosts

______ __ _

Coming in at Fourth Place (4th)

Name: Blake Ross and David Hyatt
Site: Mozilla
Age: 22
Value: $120+ Million

Together they took the browser world by storm.

Blake Aaron Ross

Blake Aaron Ross (born June 12, 1985) is an American software developer who is known for his work on the Mozilla web browser; in particular, he started the Mozilla Firefox project with Dave Hyatt, as well as the Spread Firefox project with Asa Dotzler while working as a contractor at the Mozilla Foundation. In 2005, he was nominated for Wired magazine’s top Rave Award, Renegade of the Year, opposite Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Jon Stewart. He was also a part of Rolling Stone magazine’s 2005 hot list.

Born in Miami, Florida. He created his first website at the age of 10. He began programming while still in middle school and began contributing to Netscape very soon after it was open-sourced. He worked as an intern at Netscape Communications Corporation at the age of 15, while attending high school at Gulliver Preparatory School, from which he graduated in 2003. Later that year, he enrolled at Stanford University, where he is now on a leave of absence to focus on work. He currently resides in nearby Mountain View, California.

via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Ross

David Hyatt

Dave Hyatt (June 28, 1972) is an American software developer currently employed by Apple Inc. (since July 15, 2002), where he is part of the development team responsible for the Safari web browser and WebKit framework. Hyatt was part of the original team that shipped the beta releases and 1.0 release of Safari. He is currently the Safari and WebKit Architect.

Before Apple, Hyatt worked at Netscape Communications from 1997 to 2002 where he contributed to the Mozilla web browser. While at Netscape, he also created Camino (then known as Chimera) and co-created Firefox (originally called Phoenix) with Blake Ross. He is credited with the implementations of tabbed browsing for Chimera and Firefox (the initial implementation for Netscape/Mozilla browsers, on which Hyatt based his work was created by HJ van Rantwijk, as part of his MultiZilla project at multizilla.mozdev.org).

Hyatt also created and wrote the first specifications for the XBL and XUL markup languages.

Hyatt studied as an undergraduate at Rice University and graduate at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Hyatt developed, but no longer maintains, the software for Shadowland Six in his spare time; a forum and discussion server for the Shadowrun community. He also co-wrote published material for Shadowrun as a freelance writer, including the books Renraku Arcology: Shutdown and Brainscan.

He is also an active member of the W3C’s CSS Working Group. He was an editor of the HTML5 draft specification up through March 2010, at which time he resigned to concentrate on other endeavors.

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Hyatt

______ __ _

Third Place (3rd)

Name: Chad Hurley
Site: Youtube
Age: 30
Value: $300+ Million

Chad Meredith Hurley (born 1977) is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the popular video sharing website YouTube. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0′s “50 People Who Matter Now” list. In October 2006 he and Steve Chen sold YouTube for $1.76 billion to Google.

Hurley worked in eBay’s PayPal division—one of his tasks involved designing the original PayPal logo before starting YouTube with fellow PayPal colleagues Chen and Jawed Karim.

Hurley was primarily responsible for the tagging and video sharing aspects of YouTube.

via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Hurley

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005.

The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, BBC, VEVO and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.

Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users 18 and older. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google.

via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

______ __ _

Second Place (2nd)

Name: Andrew Gower
Site: Runescape
Age: 28
Value: $650+ Million

Man did i waste too much time playing this game, argh give me back those long lost years! Although i must say that i did prefer the classic runescape the the new version.

Andrew Christopher Gower (born 2 December 1978)[1] is a British video game developer and co-founder of Cambridge-based Jagex Ltd, the company he founded with Paul Gower and Constant Tedder. He is noted for writing the MMORPG RuneScape with the assistance of his brother Paul Gower. He remains its Lead Developer.

via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Gower

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First Place! (1st)

Name: Mark Zuckerberg
Site: Facebook
Age: 23
Value: $700+ Million

Yes they have just made a movie about it. Definitely on my to watch list.

Mark Elliot “Zuck” Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard. He is a 24% shareholder of Facebook

via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

Now im no vetran to SC2, i think half of my winning is luck actually (i think). But i still like to try, and when you get pwned, have a look at the score screen and see what they did to beat you and use it to your advantage! Check the build order, check what they specialised in and upgraded to get that win. A Loss can be used to your advantage for the next game.

the Zerg Creep SC2

Terran vs Terran

Question:

They go: Marines / Marauders -> Medivac -> Banshee -> Mass Vikings

Honestly, I don’t know what to do late game, it always seems to end up massed vikings vs massed vikings. My thors always seem too few and too slow and are often out flanked as they simply go around and rape my forces/base/expos. Any tips on late game?

Early on after defending against Reaper rushes or whatever, it devolves into my Marines + Siege Tanks against their Marines / Marauders + Medivacs. That’s fine and all but then they are much more mobile and enjoy dropping on me.
Otherwise, its my Marines + Siege Tanks vs. the exact same thing and I don’t know how to attack a sieged position without going air… which leads back into the massed vikings vs massed vikings.

Basically my build is Marines + Siege Tanks -> Ravens + Thors (for banshees?) and maybe Vikings if we go into air. Help on glaring flaws would be great. How do you guys play Terran?

Answer:

bio opening is ok. But keep in mind what the mid game is going to look like. Mid game you’re going to see a decent stalement of two terrans with tank/thor/some light air (usually viking or raven). Late game you’re going to see even more tanks/thors, or more emphasis on air to finally break the stalement (ie: battlecruisers with yomato).

Bio drop on your tanks: you should have vikings to counter by the time he has medivacs. Yes they are much more mobile, but you opened with tanks which means you have a time frame advantage mid game when they switch to mech. If they don’t switch to mech, laugh as your mech destroys his bio.

Marine/tank mirror: the same idea from SC1 applies. You simply don’t attack a siege position without going air (or massing thors, but you need to have a much better economy than your opponent before doing that). A well played terran will know when to push out and when to turtle. Yes you’re going to see alot of viking wars, but try not to overcompensate too much. Vikings in this matchup are really only good for antiair or harassment. Grounded vikings get pwned by tank/thor.

I haven’t seen much banshee usage in TvT. Viking solves her way too easily.

I play TvT by going straight to marauder/tank followed by an expo followed by teching to mech followed by more expos, all while turtling on my protected side of the map (unless my opponent left himself wide open for some reason). Finally when I have a clear advantage (position wise or economy wise), I start to push out.

Terran vs Zerg

Question:

I go Marines + Medivac -> Vikings if I see mutas or zerglings. Otherwise, against roaches + hydras I go Marauders + Siege Tanks. I try to get Ravens either way as a detector. I rarely see banelings.

Advice? FYI I also get Nydrus Wurm raped more often than not Do Hellions help? For Banshees I always feel that I can never get enough to be useful, I’m busy with a ground war and Banshees when I can mass them get shot down by the hydras and mutas in play.

Answer:

We need more information on the type of zergs you play. If it’s muta, usually it’s a fast tech, which a fast expo + mass rines can solve. If it’s a zergling opening, hellions will completely fry lings.

Advice is to harass with hellions anytime you see a zerg fast expo opening. A proper hellion harass against an improper zerg fast expand can sometimes net you an easy win. After that, adapt to your opponent (is he going roaches? hydras? mutas? ??).

Nydus worm: keep vision throughout your base. Usually I build supply depots or random buildings on the perimeter of my base so I can see any incoming overlord asap and send units to take it out. You should only have a problem with nydus worm if your multitasking skills are not up to par.

Banshees: I’ve had some lucky cheesy success with them in TvZ, but I expect it to not work as well against the true top zergs. But actually, if you try it on a map like Scrap Station, there’s almost nothing the zerg can do because it takes so long to run to your base to rush and banshees usually come out before zerg can tech to muta/hydra. Other than cheese though, I find that hydra/muta counters banshee too easily to be useful.

Terran vs Protos

Question:

I always go Marauders to stop stalkers and zealots, marines help too against immortals. However, I’m always puzzled when the toss tech up.

What the hell is am I supposed to do vs. colossus and stalkers? They cut through my infantry like nothing. Siege Tanks? Vikings? Neither seems to work well. Against Immortals I usually just keep stocking up on Infantry, though Marauders take terrible terrible damage from the +armor.

Answer:

vs colossi and stalkers: Ghosts and emp. Use it, abuse it. Also tanks + positioning really helps, and vikings can snipe colossi. Against immortals you really need that emp so your tanks can dish out the dps.

You should actually pressure early with MM before you even get to MMM. If you wait that long, you’re typically too late.

The problem is that the Terran is really strong early game, but weakens out the further the game goes. Terran’s late air game is very very weak compared to the other races. You can still win it, but you need to be crafty.

Therefore you have every reason to end the game as early as possible, especially against a good Zerg player, who will just fast expand across the entire map and manage an economy that you can’t hope to beat nor stop.

I go back and fourth on Reaper Harass mostly depending on how the other player is playing, but honestly, in a game where Reaper Harass isn’t protected against, I’m probably going to already beat the person without having to do the Reaper Harass, so it’s probably worth my while to just get my MM out there and mobile that much faster.

To be fair, that isn’t always the case. I have won a couple games because I groin kicked someones supply line with Reapers and they couldnt get their economy back up fast enough to fight against my income with my main + natural expansion which gave me an easier chance of winning than if I hadnt harassed at all.

You just have to feel it out.

Terran play much much better offensively than defensively, even though we’re the “Turtle” race. If you’re playing against someone turtleing, soften up their Choke with a Nuke before you press in. It’ll typically give you a solid psychological advantage as well.

Parts of this post came via sc2armory.

I just dont know if i want an iPad really. I got one of those mini 7 inch laptops, and just dont use it. Well it was useful when i was travelling, but now it usually just sits in the cupboard. Do i dare to get an iPad or a gPad when it comes out and risk leaving that on the shelf as well? Ah well the screen technology is cool!

google pad the gpad

Last week’s announcement, on the Download Squad blog, that HTC is building a tablet using Google’s Chrome operating system, and not Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS, shouldn’t be too surprising, given that the manufacturer made the NexusOne cell phone for Google, but it represents a shift for N-trig. The Israeli developer’s technology is integrated into Windows 7, and in a departure from policy the giant from Redmond, Washington has invested in N-trig. There’s no legal barrier to the “betrayal,” though, as Microsoft and N-trig never signed an exclusivity agreement.

The news about the N-trig-HTC collaboration was delivered to TheMarker via the Taiwanese firm, and N-trig declined to comment for this article.

So, what’s so great about multitouch? If you don’t know already, borrow your daughter’s iPhone or take a spin at a store that carries Apple varieties. It’s easy, convenient and very, very fun even on the relatively small screen of the phone-PDA. Just imagine the fun you can have whisking images and applications along the screen of a full-sized screen, not to mention rotating pictures with the twist of a finger and zooming in with a pincer motion.

For now the gPad is in the single-prototype stage, a closely guarded secret even from most N-trig employees. Let’s just hope, for their sake, that no one leaves it in a Ra’anana bar. The secrecy extends also to the details of the new tablet’s branding – will it bear the colorful logo of Google, or the staid one of HTC? – as well as of the agreements among the various companies that are involved. Even the November rollout date, one of the few known details, is subject to change.

via haaretz

KruxorWP Screenshot

I know its a bit on the simple side, and i have included the logo at this stage. But just wanted to get something out there, its still just a work in progress type of theme to see what i can produce when i give it a shot .

There is a list of changes already that i will add when ever i get some spare time:
- option to disable or change the kruxor logo, (this can be done with a small amount of html editing).
- Inclusion of ad code in the header instead of the logo. The divs are already in place for both size header ad’s. Called header_ad_box_728 and header_ad_box_468, both are set to display:none for the moment, so if you want to put some ad’s in there just paste in the ad code in header, and change the style.css, remove the display:none line.
- Heaps more general formatting of stuff…

All tested out to be HTML5 and W3C compliant.

Check it out Here, KruxorWP Theme v1.0