World of Warcraft

[Bobbias]

Overclocking just a little bit can make a huge difference in WoW, lol.

My desktop is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (running 32 bit windows :/) clocked from the default 2.0 GHz to 2.64 GHz,, and my graphics card is a fucking CHEAP one.

My Graphics is an ATI Radeon x550 (cost $90 a couple years ago), slightly overclocked (it only has passive cooling :/).

When I OC'd that card by like, maybe 3%, it made a huge difference. WoW went form running something like 15 FPS average to like, 23 FPS average (in unpopulated areas, that is).

And that computer only has 1GB of ram (and it's not even running at Dual Channel, because my mobo is retarded)

[Spectere]

4) My computer would probably run like shit if I played it on here

WoW's system requirements are fairly low, actually.  I can maintain 50-60fps on my laptop and the video card in that system was considered low-end even when I bought it in 2005.  I'm running it at 1280x800 with most (but not all) of the detail settings floored.

[Bobbias]

Well, my computer runs it at 1440x900, so that might make some difference. Plus, I've pretty much got it maxed (mind you with some options to try to make it run a bit better)

[Sneaky]

You could legitimately acquire it and play on private servers, just to get the hang of it/see if your pc is 'good enough' for it and such. At least thats what I did to see if I enjoyed the game at least a little bit before I paid for it monthly. They DO have demo CDs in gamestops/etc, or a 7 day trial if you go online and download it, so you can 'experience' the community online.

[Spectere]

Well, my computer runs it at 1440x900, so that might make some difference. Plus, I've pretty much got it maxed (mind you with some options to try to make it run a bit better)

Lowering the detail settings seemed to help more than dropping the resolution.  My laptop doesn't seem to support 1440x900 directly and I don't feel like mucking with it, so 1280x800 is good for me.  It was kind of funny when I first ran it.  I ended up copying the entire WoW directory from my PowerTower(tm) and forgot to delete the WTF\Config.wtf file (why on earth did they pick that extension? heh).  There was nothing quite like watching my laptop struggle to run the game on full detail at 1920x1200.  Thankfully, its X300 only supports FSAA at 1024x768 and below, otherwise it would have been running at far less than 2fps.

They DO have demo CDs in gamestops/etc, or a 7 day trial if you go online and download it, so you can 'experience' the community online.

It's a 10 day trial, actually.

That's actually how I ended up getting into the game.  Best part about it is that you don't need a credit card to give it a try.

[Bobbias]

WTF is the best extension ever, lol.

well, if it doesn't list 1440x900 in the drop down menu, you can easily just type that into the config file and it will work.

[Spectere]

What I mean with the 1440x900 support is that the driver doesn't list it as a valid mode.  WoW just retrieves the available resolutions from Windows.

I could probably get the resolution added, either through the ATI driver configuration (I can't get the Catalyst Control Center with the drivers that my laptop has, so I might not be able to do it directly like that) or through other means (custom utility like PowerStrip or whatever) but it's not that big of a deal, really.  On a laptop display you're not going to notice that much of a difference anyway, especially by the time the display scaling gets done with it.

It doesn't really serve much of a use for me as a desktop resolution either since I always run it at 1920x1200.  All in all, not worth the effort.

[Bobbias]

Ahh, well, I have the CCC on here, but for some reason, I couldn't find it for the longest time, lol.

[Kulli]

See you, BC.

You'll be missed.

[Skorpion9x]

So I soloed Onyxia (a level 60 forty man raid boss) today on my druid .

A few days ago, I had read that ferals could solo her on the class forums, so I was like "I got this" and jumped right into it after a minimal amount of research. I got my ass kicked. It turns out the ferals who had soloed her were herbalists, with the new lifeblood ability. Well my druid's a skinner so I don't have that. I had just about given up the idea of soloing her (not going to drop skinning and level herbalism just for that) when it occurred to me - I have a trinket from SSC that does pretty much the same thing as Lifeblood. So I went in there today, with a different set of gear. First attempt I got owned because I forgot to respec for 2/2 imp LotP (my normal spec is 1/2 in that talent). So I teleported to Moonglade to respec and I also dusted off two pieces of my T5 set for the instant regrowth bonus. I went back into her lair, recleared the trash which can be harder than Onyxia herself sometimes (the level 63 ones make me use my cooldowns), and then I took another stab at her. This time I emerged victorious!

She dropped for me the following items: 163 gold, Helm of Wrath, Netherwind Crown, Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire, Mature Black Dragon Sinew (damn, this can't be vendored!), Head of Onyxia, Onyxia Hide Backpack (replaced the last 16 slotter in my bank), Mugthol's Helm, Elven Spirit Claws, Book: Gift of the Wild, a random green of the whale or something, and Chapter VI of Draconic for Dummies (quest item). I then skinned her for 4 Onyxia Scales, unfortunately forgetting to take screenshot(s) beforehand. I did however take this screenshot of my Eavesdrop combat log later in Ironforge: http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z96/skorpion9x/onyxia.jpg .

[Bobbias]

Christ, awesome!

I've seen a video of the first person to have solo'd Onyxia, but they took someone with them in case they got screwed by that flaw that aggro's one of the mobs there, since they pretty much screw you, and it can be unavoidable, thanks to a flaw in how the level was designed.

[Kulli]

I unquit.

btw check out my gear, it owns Skorion's face

[Leorina]

btw check out my gear, it owns Skorion's face

Holy crap...even though most of that gear is said to be common I know that it is actually pretty hard to get and must have teken a while to achive so, "GOOD JOB!!!"

[Kulli]

man what

[Spectere]

!!!

/want