Ventrilo Tricks

Volume Normalization
This will normalize the volume of all other users to the same level, so you don't have to mess with manually adjusting their volume through the special effects screen, or ask them to adjust it on their end.

• Go to Setup
• Enable Direct Sound
• Select the SFX Button 
• Select Compressor and click Add.
  
• Under Compressor Properties use the following settings:
• Gain = Adjust for how loud you want people to be. (I use 14)
• Attack = 0.01
• Release = Around 500
• Threshold = Around -30
• Ratio = 100
• Pre delay = 4.0

Multiple Ventrilo Windows

• Right click your Ventrilo desktop icon.
• Go into "Properties".
• Go into the "Shortcut" tab.
• In the "Target" box, add '-m' to the path.  For example: "C:\Program Files\Ventrilo\Ventrilo.exe" -m
• Click "OK".
  

Gemming

This will be an in-depth guide to gemming, focused specifically on DPS classes (much of the advice will hold for other roles, but not all of it).

Basics
Gems are divided up into 8 types: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, prismatic, meta.  The first 6 are going to be the primary ones used for gemming.  Gem sockets in items are divided into 5 categories: red, yellow, blue, prismatic, meta.

Meta sockets can only take meta gems, and meta gems may only be socketed in meta sockets.  Prismatic sockets will take any color (at present, the only prismatic sockets are the ones from an Eternal Beltbuckle and the Blacksmithing-specific wrist and glove socket modifications).

The colored sockets will take any color of gem (excluding meta), but require a gem of a color corresponding to the socket color in order to count towards the socket bonus.  Socket bonuses are granted if all of the baseline sockets (ie. excluding Blacksmithing sockets and Beltbuckles) are socketed with gems matching their color.  Red, yeloow, and blue gems match only sockets corresponding to their color (though they may be socketed in any socket except a meta socket).  Orange, green, and purple gems match two colors of sockets, red/yellow, yellow/blue, and red/blue respectively.  They will activate a socket of either color if placed in it.

Each of the primary gem colors (red, yellow, blue) has certain stats assigned to it, and gems will have a balance of stats from all colors present.  Red generally has the most direct upgrade stats, yellow tends to have the combat ratings, and blue tends to have the endurance-related stats.  A full list of stats obtainable from each color follows:

Red - Strength, Agility, Attack Power, Expertise, Armor Penetration, Spell Power, Parry, Dodge.
Yellow - Intellect, Resilience, Haste, Hit, Crit, Defense
Blue - Stamina, Spirit, mp5, Spell Penetration

Each meta gem has a certain set of gemming requirements in order to be activated (for example, 2 blue gems, or more yellow gems than red gems, etc.).  For the purposes of these meta requirements, gems that count for multiple colors count for all of those colors at the same time regardless of which slot they are socketed in.  For example, a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond requires 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue gem.  Socketing an orange gem will fulfill both the red and yellow gem requirements, even if the orange gem is put into a blue socket.  A Siren's Tear or Nightmare's Tear will fulfill all 3 requirements on it's own.

Metas and Socket Bonuses
Almost all dps classes will use one of two different gems: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond or Chaotic Skyflare Diamond.  Casters will almost universally use a Chaotic Skyflare.  Similarly, agility-based physical dps will almost universally use a Relentless Earthsiege.  Strength-based physical dps may use either, and there are pros and cons to each (explained in detail below in the Advanced section).  Thus nearly all dps classes will require either 1 or 2 blue gems, and 0 or 1 yellow gems.

As stated above, both the blue and the yellow gem requirement for the Relentless Earthsiege may be filled with a single Nightmare's Tear (which will similarly fit any socket (excluding meta) in your gear), and will fill the first of the two blue gem requirements for the Chaotic Skyflare.  The second blue requirement is usually filled with a purple gems, as the red color portion tends to grant a greater benefit than the yellow portion of a green gem (the blue portion will be the same in both cases).

The general rule of thumb for dps classes (see the Advanced section for exceptions) is to socket the minimum number of blue-colored gems needed for your meta gem using your spec's optimal blue gem, which for most is a Nightmare's Tear in one socket and (if a second is needed) a purple gem with Str/Stam, AP/Stam, Agi/Stam, SP/Stam, or SP/Spi, depending on class and spec.  All other slots are filled with your spec's best overall gem (see Advanced).

Advanced Gemming
This section relies rather heavily on having accurate stat weights for your spec.  Ideal places to gather these are from the forums on Elitist Jerks, Rawr's Pawn export, and any simulators being maintained for your class.

For all examples in this section, I will be using the following stat weight scale (which comes from Kahorie's DK Simulator from the EJ forums, using my current gear and spec).  I've specifically excluded Hit and Expertise rating, as I always gem for the cap for those stats, so their effective weight is approximately identical to strength (the stat that I'd be replacing, though in reality, hit is worth slightly less then strength on gear and slightly more than strength on gems because the additional yellow gems allow me to get socket bonuses that otherwise would not be worth socketing for the bonus).

Strength - 2.88
Agility - 1.59
Crit - 2.24
Haste - 1.32
ArP - 2.58

To find the ideal gem of each color for your spec, simply add the total overall value of the stats for each eligible gem and pick the one with the highest total value.  For example, a 20 strength gem using the above scale would be worth 20 * 2.88 = 57.6 points, while a 10 strength / 10 crit gem would be worth 10 * 2.88 + 10 * 2.24 = 51.2 points, so the 20 strength one would be the superior gem for a red socket color.  For a yellow socket, strength is my most valuable stat (so the ideal gem will be an orange Str/- gem, rather than a pure yellow), and crit is the more valuable of the two secondary stats, so Str/Crit is my ideal gem.  However, Str/Hit technically ranks higher so long as at least 7 of the hit rating is pre-melee cap.

Evaluating meta gems (for strength-based plate, at least) is somewhat more complex, but not a great deal more difficult.  Since the secondary (non-stat) portion of both the Relentless Earthsiege and the Chaotic Skyflare are the same, the only value I need to take into account is the difference between agility and crit.  Using the above scale, the Relentless Earthsiege is worth 21 * 1.59 = 33.39 while the Chaotic Skyflare is worth 21 * 2.24 = 47.04.

However, the Relentless Earthsiege requires a single blue gem to activate, while the Chaotic Skyflare requires two.  Thus the value for the Relentless Earthsiege must also include the value for the half of the gem that would otherwise be blue.  Since that socket will without fail turn into a 20 Strength gem (all blue sockets except those needed for the meta are socketed pure Strength for me, as there's not a socket bonus yet in existence powerful enough to overrule 10 strength), the half that would normally be blue being 10 strength, the Relentless Earthsiege effectively gains an additional 28.8 value, totaling 62.19.  Thus for the Chaotic Skyflare to be better, I must have a second item requiring a blue socket with a socket bonus equal in value to at least the difference between the metas, or 15.15 points.  This equates to a minimum of 6 strength, 6 ArP, or 7 Crit.  If the item with the blue socket also requires one or more yellow gem sockets, the socket bonus value would need to be increased by 6.4 points per yellow socket, or a minimum of 8 strength for a single yellow socket, and it's impossible to out-value if the meta bonus is crit, ArP, or requires more than 1 yellow or blue socket.

This same technique can be applied to items that only require red and yellow sockets (or even just yellow ones).  Since pure red gems are almost universally better for dps classes than orange ones, the value of the socket bonus can be used to calculate whether it is worthwhile to socket pure red gems or socket orange gems in yellow slots to gain the socket bonus.  For example, my gloves require a single yellow socket for a +4 Strength bonus.  The value of the socket bonus is 4 * 2.88 = 11.52.  The value of socketing it with a red 20 Str gem would be just the value of the red gem: 57.6 points.  The value of socketing it with an orange 10 Str/10 Crit gem would be the value of the gem (51.2) plus the value of the socket bonus, totaling 62.72.  Thus I gain more dps benefit from socketing a less powerful Str/Crit gem to gain the socket bonus than I would from socketing the more power pure Str gem and ignoring the socket bonus.

To generalize, the value of the socket bonus must equal a minimum of the difference between your most powerful gem overall (in my case, 20 Str) and the value of the gem required to match the socket in question (in my case, 10 Str/10 Crit), times the number of sockets of that color required (in this case, 1).

As an example, the plate dps chestpiece from Emblems of Frost (Castle Breaker's Battleplate) requires 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue socket for a +8 Strength bonus.  The red socket has no value difference if socketed for best overall (pure Str) or for the bonus (also pure Str).  The yellow socket sees a decrease of 57.6 - 51.2 = 6.4 if socketed for the bonus, and the blue socket sees a decrease of 57.6 - 28.8 = 28.8.  Thus the socket bonus must equal at least the value of those two decreases combined for it to be more valuable to socket for the bonus, in this case at least 35.2 points.  The 8 strength socket bonus is worth 23.04, well below the required value, so it is more valuable to socket pure strength and ignore the socket bonus.

Blue gems (including Nightmare's Tears) should be used to gain the most amount of overall stat benefit from gear.  If you have more blue sockets than you need blue gems, calculate the total value of the gems and socket bonus for each item both when socketed with the for the socket bonus with the blue gem and socketed for your best overall gem (ignoring the socket bonus).  Whichever item shows the the smallest decrease in value from when it was gemmed for best overall gems is the one in which you should socket the blue gem.  Generally this will be the item requiring only a single blue socket with the largest amount of your most valuable stat.  If you need a second blue gem, repeat this process with all remaining items with a blue socket, excluding the one you used the first blue gem on.

Extrapolation to Other Areas
These same techniques can be applied to other areas of gear optimization as well.  For example, there are three available glove enchants for melee dps (excluding Engineers): +44 AP, +20 Hit, and +15 Expertise.  Since most melee classes will gem for the hit cap, the value of hit can be weighted the same as Strength.  While technically orange -/Hit gems maybe replaced with other orange gems (-/Crit usually), they will only be so replaced if the socket bonus value exceeds the value of the lost additional red-color stat, and can thus be ignored (although this is why the hit on gems is worth slightly more than strength for me, as it allows me to gain yellow sockets that I otherwise wouldn't, effectively allowing me to gain socket bonuses that require yellow sockets with a gem that weights the same as my best overall gem, a pure red.  Correspondingly, since it decreases the amount of hit I am required to gem for and therefore decreases the socket bonuses I receive, hit on gear and enchants is slightly decreased in value compared to strength).  Thus the 20 hit enchant effectively has a weight of 57.8 points, while the AP enchant has an effective weight of 44 points.

Again, though, a balance point can be found.  If I am currently hitcapped with the 20 hit enchant and have a yellow socket on an item that would grant a socket bonus if filled with an orange gem (but the socket bonus is small enough that it isn't worth gemming for Str/Crit), then it would be superior to gem for the hit and use the 44 AP glove enchant if the socket bonus is worth at least the difference between the enchants, in this case 13.8.  However, since the socket bonus value required for it to be better to gem Str/Crit for me is only 6.4 points, this situation will never occur, as that yellow socket would have already been filled with a Str/Crit gem (in other words, the value loss of swapping the enchants needs to be less than the value loss of swapping from a my best overall gem to my best yellow gem in order for the situation to even be possible).

Procs

Definition
A procs is an effect that has a chance of occurring from certain qualifying events. This includes effects that proc off of physical attacks, spell casts, and certain rare conditions such as being attacked, being crit, or taking a certain type of damage.  Procs are of two general types, static-chance and proc-per-minute (PPM).  Procs may also have what's know as an Internal Cooldown (ICD), which indicates the period of time after a proc occurs in which the proc cannot occur again.  In general, static-chance attacks tend to have ICDs, while PPM effects tend not to.

Proc Per Minute
Effects that run on a PPM, system occur almost exclusively as procs from weapon attacks, and are designed to give approximately the same proc rate regardless of the speed of the weapon.  Each proc is given a specific PPM number (for example, 2 PPM for Rune of the Fallen Crusader).  This number is then multiplied by the base speed of the weapon divided by 60 to give the percentage chance per attack of the proc occurring:

P = Proc chance per swing
M = Proc per minute value
S = Base speed of the weapon


Excluding a few BC-era items, the proc chance is calculated from the weapon's base speed (in other words, the speed listed on the tooltip).  Thus any haste effects will increase the actual proc rate of the effect, as the character will swing more often, but at the same percentage proc chance.

In addition, most PPM attacks are capable of procing off special attacks made by the character, though it may be limited to weapon-based specials (in other words, special attacks that involve using your weapon to attack, such as Heart Strike or Crusader Strike, but not Bloodthirst or Judgement).  In these cases, the special attacks use the same percentage chance as the melee attacks.

This means that for PPM effects, the chance per swing from white attacks is irrespective of weapon swing, but the proc chance per special increases as base weapon speed increases.  Assuming two players, one with a fast weapon, one with a slow weapon, with the same amount of haste from buffs and gear, using the same number of procable special attacks per period time, the player with the slower weapon will experience more procs on average over a given interval due to the higher proc chance per special attack.

Static Chance
Static chance procs function just as they sound:  they have a fixed percentage chance per qualifying attack to proc.  Otherwise, they function just as PPM effects.

Uptime and Time Between Procs
Calculating the uptime (for a duration proc) or time between procs (for instant effect procs, such as damage), the method is strikingly similar.  One needs to know 4 values: the duration of the proc (only applicable to procs with duration.  Instant effects have an effective duration of 1 second), the internal cooldown (if any), the chance to proc (either static or the percentage calculated from PPM), and the average time between procable attacks.  These are noted as follows in all following formulae:

U = Percentage uptime
D = Proc duration (D = 1 if the effect is instant)
T = Time between procable attacks
P = Proc chance per attack
I = Internal Cooldown

The following formulae will give the uptime for any duration proc.  If seeking the time between procs, whether for an instant effect or duration proc, simply take D / U (remember, D = 1 for instantaneous effects).

Instant Effects and Long-ICD Effects
If the effect has an ICD at least as long as the duration or if the effect is instantaneous (most trinkets), the uptime is as follows:

As an example, the ability to use Deep Freeze for a frost mage has a 15% proc per cast, and an effective internal cooldown of 30 seconds (the cooldown on Deep Freeze).  Assuming the mage has an average net haste of 15%, the mage will be casting a Frost Bolt every 2 seconds.  Based on the above, the mage will then have an average time between Deep Freezes of 43.3 seconds.

No-ICD Duration Effects
Duration procs without an internal cooldown function differently, as overlapping procs will reduce uptime below what one would expect intuitively.  Uptime for a proc without an internal cooldown is as follows:

As an example, Fallen Crusader with a 3.0 speed polearm has precisely a 10% chance to proc per swing, with a 15 second duration and no ICD.  Assuming no haste and no special attacks, FC will show a 41% uptime.  Compare this with the 50% uptime one would estimate if one simply took the PPM times the duration and divided by 60.

Short ICD Duration Effects
Procs with an Internal cooldown shorter than their duration use a complex amalgam of these two.  The formula is as follows:

As an example, the Totem of Electrifying Wind has a 70% proc chance per Lightning Bolt, with a 12 second duration and a 6 second ICD.  Assuming 33% overall haste (reduces Lightning Bolt to a 1.5 second cast), and assuming the shaman is spamming nothing but Lightning Bolt, the totem will have an uptime of 99.6%.

Star Trek Online

Over the weekend I managed to get my hands on an open beta key for Star Trek Online by Cryptic.  As an avid fan of Star Trek, I was expecting truly great things from this game.  I was sadly, horribly disappointed.

The graphics are fairly good for a space-based game, with quality lighting, engine trails, and explosion effects.  The ground effects, on the other hands, are reminiscent of Elite Force (the first one) without as much polish.  Character animations are jerky and disconnected, NPC pathing is asinine, and everything looks like it's made out of plastic.

To make matters worse, the game has some of the most extreme instancing I've ever encountered.  To move between systems, you first have to warp to 'sector space', which is somehow supposed to represent warp travel, but really just looks like a semi-3d map that you can only navigate at about 1/4th maximum movement speed.  In fact, you don't even have to know where anything is or explore it, they have a convenient list of every system in the sector, and doubleclicking on any system auto-pilots you to it without effort.  There are no random encounters or world mobs, only mission-oriented ones.  Now, once you warp to Sector Space (load screen), you find your system, auto-pilot to it, enter it (load screen), get the mission brief, kill some enemy ships, then either have to beam somewhere or warp somewhere for the next piece (load screen), then warp back out to Sector Space (load screen).  To make matters even worse, every single zone, including both missons and the 'public' areas (ie. the non-mission areas, Sector Space, Earth station and surrounding space, etc.) are all instanced by themselves, with dozens of instances that often cap at 10-20, or possibly up to 50 in certain high-density areas like Earth station.

Lastly, the missions actually get more difficult when you group, as the number of enemies increase, and they tend to focus-fire one ship at a time, make survival a great deal more of an issue, and the rewards only barely increase (no extra skill points, only extra loot, and that's shared among the party on a round-robin).  All these combine to make the game nothing but a solo game that you have to log in to play.

It's also an astoundingly grindy game.  The levels are broken down into 5 teirs: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50.  When you start the game, after the initial tutorial missions (which you have to do on every character you start, there's no "Ya, I've done this, skip please" option), you are given command of a Nebula-class starship, a light ship with 3 weapon hardpoints (2 forward, 1 rear), and 3 bridge officer positions.  You are stuck in that ship until you reach level 11.  I've put in about 6 hours play time combined in the beta thus far, and while I'm certainly not power-leveling, I haven't really been slacking either, and I'm about halfway through level 5.  That's right...the first 10-15 hours of play offer zero ship upgrades.

Next there's the methods of leveling.  First, you can PvP.  Second, you can complete missions.  However, the missions are astoundingly repetitive and shallow, all being variations of 'kill all enemy ships', with maybe some 'collect x of y', 'use x', 'escort x to y', or 'beam down and kill all enemies' thrown in.  The larger of the first missions are the patrol missions, which require a patrol of 4 specified star systems, each of which can take up to an hour, and the reward is usually just access to 1-3 more patrol missions and possibly a new minor upgrade or bridge officer candidate.

Leveling is also rather complex and tough to understand at first.  STO doesn't have experience in a traditional sense.  Instead, the player gains skill points for completing missions, which can then be spent on poorly detailed skills with no explanation of the specific benefits gained.  Each 'level' simply requires a certain number of skill points be spent.

The currency system is another hideously overcomplicated system.  Instead of any normal currency system, STO uses several types of tokens.  First up is Energy Credit, which can only be gotten by selling or melting down items received as loot or quest rewards (the quests themselves only award skill points and merit points).  Selling items grants 50% of vendor sell price, melting them down with the replicator grants 40% (but can be done without returning to Earth station).  Energy Credit is used to most basic items and services.  The next currency item is Merit points.  These are used exclusively and only to purchase bridge officers and train them (think of BO's as a weird hybrid of talent trees and minions), and are received from quests.

STO also has a stack of Exploration tokens, which can be used to purchase higher-level ground and space upgrades, and a bit more than a half dozen salvageable items from spacial anomalies in each system and ground mission, which are used to craft certain rare upgrades or consumables.

Just to accentuate this, STO entered Open Beta a week ago.  The devs are still working on major bug fixes and implement much of the content intended for release.  The game releases in two weeks.  That's right, open 'beta', which is supposed to absolute last phase of testing, running a stress test (which they failed miserably), and squashing last minute bugs, has turned into late alpha testing, and the game is due in just two weeks.

Ultimately STO feels like a rushed, half-assed Star Trek clone of Champions Online (in fact, the UI still has most of the same look, and even the same cartoony font).  It's grindy, unfinished, boring, unrewarding, socially truncated, and only barely has the Star Trek feel that was the entire point of making a Trek MMO.  Add to this that Cryptic seems to be running a rather desperate cashcow scheme by offering the ability to play Liberated Borg characters for the small price of just under $300 for a lifetime subscription (also included 2 extra character spots, which btw, they only give you 2 to start with and sell you ones beyond that), and the entire game just seems like a last-ditch effort to cash out on the Trek fan community to save Cryptic's failing finances after the debacle of Champions Online.

My advice: avoid until Cryptic is bought out by someone that can actually produce a successful game (Activision or Bioware come to mind).

Bryntroll Update 2

Spent some time this morning testing Bryntroll since the hotfix:

• It can still proc from BCB strikes.
• It CAN still apply from Icy Touch.
• It CAN still double-proc from Plague Strike
• It doesn't seem to be able to proc off the shadow portion of Scourge Strike.
• Refreshing diseases with Pestilence via Glyph of Disease does not seem to proc it.
• It CAN, however, proc off of spreading diseases with Pestilence, even apparently on targets out of melee range (had it proc against a target dummy ~9 yards laterally away from me), and on the primary target (so long as Pestilence hits more than one target, that is).

Assuming this is the way it stays, this adds 36.55 dps and 60.92 AEP to the above for non-GoD Unholy (total 330.61 dps, 551.02 total AEP) and 37.54 dps and 62.57 AEP for non-GoD Blood (total 377.10 dps, 628.50 AEP).

The procing from spreading of diseases and applying them via IT or PS seems like it may be removed as well, though, in which case the AEP would drop to my prior calculated value.

Bryntroll Update

Blizzard released a modification tonight to Bryntroll's proc, labeling it is a 'bug fix'.

We have found a bug with Bryntroll where it procs too often for Retribution paladins or Unholy DKs. For example both portions of Scourge Strike could cause a proc, which is unintended.


Bryntroll seems to account for about ~3-4% of dps for a typical Icecrown Fury warrior. That's more of where it should be for other melee.

Assuming they simply remove the ability for disease, Righteous Vengeance, Deep Wounds, and similar DoT refreshes or applications to proc the effect, this is a noticeable nerf to Unholy, Fury, Arms, and Ret, and a mild nerf to Blood.  Blood will lose 6 procable attacks per minute, Unholy will lose 12, and Ret, Arms, and Fury lose an amount dependent on their haste, crit, and skill at maximizing GCDs, though all 3 will likely lose 12 or more.

For those looking for numbers, this reduces the DPS / AEP for DKs down to 294.0 dps / 490.10 for Unholy and 340.0 dps / 565.93 for Blood at raid baseline (Windfury, Swift Retribution, zero haste rating).