I got some great feedback from my Skyrim video card recommendations and had a number of people who were very happy with the video cards suggested in that article. To accompany the Diablo 3 release, this article provides the best value choices for video cards to upgrade or build your PC for Diablo III.

The video cards suggested here are all listed as officially supported by Blizzard, and the specs will all be aimed to maximize performance with Diablo 3. This may mean slightly different choices than you would want for an FPS or other type of game.

You’ll be able to benefit from my research — just pick your price range and find the card that was determined to be the best value for that range. To research this article, I played the Diablo 3 Beta to test the strain and requirements on systems, I’ve scoured benchmarks and video card reviews from many sources, and taken into account many opinions from various forum discussions and reviews among other knowledgeable users. Rest assured, the results you’ll find here are the same you’d come up with after hours of research on your own.

Low Budget Video Card Choices for Diablo 3

These cards will be the best value for playing Diablo 3 specifically. One great advantage of Diablo III is that it is designed to work on older and less powerful systems. In fact, as far as new triple-A PC games go, Diablo III will likely be one of the most forgiving on your computer hardware for a long time. The detail level and lighting effects can scale down gracefully if needed, there is limited view distance, and although a lot of enemies and effects may be active on screen at once, this is still less taxing than most other modern games.

If your budget is tight, and you only plan to play Diablo 3 and possibly older games, choose one of these options and you wont be disappointed.

Graphics settings recommended for Low Budget Video Card with Diablo 3:

• Resolutions: 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024,  1440 x 900, or 1680 x 1050
• Graphics Quality: Medium, High

Best Choice in the $50-75 Range:

Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 Video Card

Model # 100326DDR3L
Reason: Sapphire is a trusted brand that has been around for a very long time. They offer some higher end cards, but are best known for their great budget options. I’ve personally owned two Sapphire cards that have run perfectly for many years, and this specific card consistently gets the highest reviews at this price range. Medium or high graphics settings will run just fine at mid-range resolutions listed above with this card.

Best Choice: $100 or Less

HIS Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128 bit GDDR5 Video Card

Model # H675F1GD
Reasoning: One step above the Sapphire card listed above, you’ll be able to handle high graphics settings as long as you’re using a medium or low resolution listed above. Or, if you happen to be using a larger monitor and want to run at 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 resolutions, this card will be able to handle it at medium graphics settings. Choose this card if you want to play with maximum / high graphics settings, are on a budget, and have a medium sized monitor (such as a 20, 21, or 22″ monitor). This is the highest rated card at this price range.

Mid-Range Video Card Choices for Diablo 3

Mid-range video cards are your ideal choice if you want to max out all the graphics quality settings with maximum screen resolutions on a medium to large monitor. You wont have to worry about any low framerates or skipping because cards in this pricerange will have plenty of horsepower for D3. These choices will also allow you to play a wider range of other modern games at preferable settings. As covered above, Diablo 3 does not need a super high end video card to absolutely max out the graphics performance, so this price range is ideal for the best performance.

Graphics settings recommended for Mid-Range Video Cards with Diablo 3:

• Resolutions: 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1200
• Graphics Quality: High, Ultra (Maximum)

Best Choice: $125 – $150 Price Range

EVGA Geforce GTX 550 Ti - *Editors Choice!

EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti FPB 1024 MB GDDR5

Model # 01G-P3-1556-KR
Reasoning: This was an extremely easy choice. The EVGA GTX 550 Ti is by far the most popular card and best value card in a wide price range. There are also often rebates on Amazon which drop the price on this card ridiculously low, so check the above link for information on that. Ask anywhere and the near unanimous opinion will be to go with this card unless you’re looking to spend an extra $50 or more. EVGA cards have great warranties and I’ve personally used one on my main gaming system with great results. This card has near perfect reviews and is the top seller in its category/price range all over the internet. There really is no better choice in this price range, making this a real no-brainer.

High End Video Card Options for Diablo 3

To be perfectly honest, there is little point of spending this much if you only plan to play Diablo III. Only go with these high end choices if money is no object, if you want to future proof your system for other modern games, or you plan to play at uncommonly high resolutions or with multiple monitors such as in an Eyefinity (Radeon cards) or 3d Vision Surround (NVIDIA cards) setup. However for multi-monitor setups, be aware that fog of war will still apply, so even though the extra monitors will show parts of the map that would otherwise be off screen, you wont see any monsters there and there will often be just pure darkness.

Best Choice: $200 – $250 Price Range

MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB Twin Frozr II OC

Model # N560GTX-Ti
Reasoning: Although you don’t need a card this powerful to run Diablo 3, this is one of the best options at its price range. Like the other cards suggested it gets great reviews and is one of the most popular cards on the market. With this card you won’t have any need to upgrade for a few years and you’ll be able to play any new game with ease. One of the key features of this card is advanced cooling – two large fans and an improved heatsink mean it runs cool, is quiet, and can be overclocked further.

Conclusion

$50-75 – Low Budget / Value Card:  Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1GB
$100 or less – Low Budget / Value Card: HIS Radeon HD 6750 1GB
*$125-150 – Medium Budget Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
$200-250 – High End Card: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB Twin Frozr II OC

*Editors Choice: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti ($125 – $150 mid-range budget). For only a few dollars more than the low budget options, you can easily max out all Diablo 3 graphics settings at any resolution, and you’ll have plenty of power to run other modern games as well. This is easily the best value card in the current generation.

Be sure to check the links for rebates at Amazon’s site, which can commonly knock an extra $10-$25 off the price! If you liked this review, and decide to purchase one of the cards, please click the product link to go to Amazon from this website – this won’t affect your order in any way, but Amazon provides us a small referral that helps support this site and more reviews.

Ban List for Dominion Games

Who should you ban in Dominion? Here is a ban list of the currently recommended champions to ban in League of Legends Dominion Draft Mode – and why they are recommended. Using this list will prevent teammates raging because you selected bad bans, and will help create a balanced game because there are quite a few overpowered and unbalanced champions in Dominion.

Recommended Bans

All of these should be completely acceptable in any situation — no teammate should ever rage at you for banning these champions:

• Rammus – fast move speed to backdoor, and he is also so tanky that he is nearly unkillable, which lets him defend towers forever, or tank tower fire when taking the enemy point
• Shaco – extremely high damage and very slippery unless your team has several good stuns or other crowd control spells
• Jax – when Jax gets farmed he is nigh unkillable – and in Dominion the farm is basically automatic. He is very tanky and has high sustained damage output — he can feasibly take out an entire enemy team by himself
• Wukong – has a great initiate, escape, and great utility with his ult. Combined with high damage output and fairly tanky and he is a very strong dominion champ
• Poppy – super high burst damage and invincibility with her ult means she can dive into any tower and take out one or two squishy casters or carries – the only response is to try to run away.
• Pantheon – tanky, high damage, and can jump halfway across the map with his ultimate, which can help defend or take a tower that otherwise would be too far away.

Situational Bans

These are bans that should only be picked if you have a specific reason to do so:

• Malzahar – a strong bottom lane pusher, only ban if you have a very weak bottom lane pusher (or if someone on your team is picking another strong lane pusher and wants to try to dominate)
• Heimerdinger – probably the strongest bottom laner in dominion – with his unstoppable lane pushing and harrasment – smart turret positioning will make him a nightmare for the opposition
• Shen – a very rare usually unnecessary ban. He can be very tanky and can teleport across the map to help take or defend a tower, but really not needed to be banned. He could be an option if your team wants to pick several of the above mentioned heroes however.

I’ve printed tens of thousands of pages using the printers and ink mentioned in this article and have gained a great understanding of the real world use, cost, and maintenance of these printers and the liquid gold they call ink.

As with all DayDull articles, if you appreciate the article, please help support this and future articles by clicking on any of the Amazon links before making any purchase at Amazon. If you can’t find an Amazon link, click “Support” at the top of this website or in the sidebar. You can also link to this website from your own website, blog, or forum, to help get the word out.

How to Remove the Printhead from Canon Printers

(Step by Step instructions with Photos!)

1. Open the top cover of the printer to get to the ink cartridges
2. Wait for the ink cartridges assembly to come to the middle/front
3. Unplug the printer (now the cartridge assembly wont auto-return while the lever is up)
4. Lift up the gray lever on the right side of the ink cartridge assembly
5. Remove all ink cartridges
6. Lift the black plastic printhead up and out (Note: at first, this confused me. The printhead itself is a smaller piece inside of the whole assembly that slides on the rail inside the printer. Grab from inside where the cartridges were sitting and the printhead piece only will come out easily.)

Diagram of Locking Lever / Printer with Removed Printhead

Diagram of Printhead Before Cleaning with Removed Rubber Gaskets

To Remove Clogged Ink from the Printhead:

Take these steps ONLY after attempting many cleaning cycles and nozzle checks. You may also want to try a “flushing” cartridge, which is an ink tank filled with a cleaning fluid. The author of this article takes no responsibility for any damage caused by attempting these steps, and this will most likely void any warranty. If your printer is under warranty, I would first suggest calling for a replacement (note–do not admit to customer support that you have been using unbranded inks, and be sure to state that you ran cleaning cycle maintenance regularly).

1. (First be sure to try an alternate ink cartridge as sometimes the ink cartridge itself can be dried out)
2. Carefully wipe down any excess ink from inside the printer and on the printhead
3. Gently remove the rubber gaskets from inside the printhead, there will be 1 for each ink color and they are located where the ink cartridge’s opening at the bottom would be. Be sure to set these aside and do not lose them – you MUST replace them correctly after, so note the correct orientation before removing them.
4. Put the printhead under a strong faucet, or even use a garden hose with a sprayer attached for tough clogs. Focus the spray on the area where the above mentioned rubber gaskets were located. This would force pressure through the area where the ink travels and most likely has clogged and dried. You should see colored water coming from this – keep spraying until only clear water comes out the other end for a long time.
5. Allow the printhead to dry completely — about 2 hours under a fan should be plenty after wiping it down
6. Replace the rubber gaskets in the correct orientation.
7. Replace the printhead in the printer and pull down the locking lever, then replace all the ink cartridges
8. Run several cleaning cycles and nozzle checks through the printer’s software. Some have reported you may need to run up to 20 cleaning cycles, however be sure to not run these all at once. Run a few at a time every few hours over a couple days, all the while doing a nozzle check printouts to see if progress is being made.

Note that it is possible for this to not fix the problem. If it doesn’t, it is likely one of two things: the clog is extremely bad and you should use higher pressure water for a longer period of time, or the printhead has been burnt out and is unfixable. A printhead can be burnt out if the printer has been clogged and then you tried to print with it too much after no ink was flowing through. This will cause the heat to fuse the tiny nozzles which is permanent damage.

Still Not Printing?

If you do end up having a broken or fried printhead, your best bet is usually to purchase an entirely new printer because repairs will end up costing as much as a brand new printer. Below you can find the current deals at Amazon for the Canon printers. I am a big fan of the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MK II since it is often on sale at prices that make any other comparable printer seem far too expensive.

Replacement Printers

Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MK II

Best Choice for Large Size & Photo Printing

Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MK II – Best choice and value, with the highest reviews if you need a wide format printer (13″ wide print size) or if you just want a fast, extremely detailed photo printer. It also easily and noticeably beats my other inkjet printers in terms of text quality and text print speed, so it often gets used for printing text too.

Canon Pixma 420 All In One

Best Choice for 8.5×11″ Photos and General Home & Office

Canon Pixma MX420 Wireless All In One – A great value with all the most up to date features at the lowest price you’ll find on any comparable printer. Wi-Fi Connectivity, Scanner, built in LCD screen, and borderless 8.5×11″ prints are all higher end features on a low to medium cost printer.

Canon Pixma MG3120

Best Choice for General Home & Office Use (On a Budget)

Canon Pixma MG3120 Wireless All In One – If you don’t need the extra bells and whistles like the LCD screen from the above Pixma MX420, you can save about $30 or $40 by switching to this model. Most users will not notice the difference, especially for occasional home use. The MG3120 still offers wireless connectivity, and is an “All-In-One” model that you can use to quickly make a copy or to scan old photos or documents for digital storage.

Ink Tips

After printing tens of thousands of pages, ranging from professional photo and art prints, to advertisements, to office documents, I recommend generic inks for the best value. If you end up needing to run cleaning cycles with official Canon brand inks, you could easily eat up $20-$40 worth of ink in a day without even doing any printing! If money is no issue, by all means Canon inks will give you peace of mind and may clog slightly less with slightly more accurate color, however you’ll be paying 80 to 90%+ more for ink.

Generic ink works fine as long as you remember to run a cleaning cycle every few days, or print out a full color image every few days – and keep in mind that even Canon brand ink will clog, so you would need to do cleaning cycles any way. Also, remember–these days, almost all printers are best thought of as throw-aways that last only a couple years, since they usually include ink valued as much as the printer. Don’t be afraid to just buy another printer if it is out of warranty.

Sources to Purchase Cheap Generic Ink

Below are links to where I purchase my generic Canon CLI-8 Ink Cartridges (these are what most modern Canon printers use) from at Amazon. At only $1-4 each (depending on the color) for each generic cartridge — compared to $10-15 for Canon brand cartridges, there really seems to be no question that generic ink cartridges are the way to go. On rare occasion, expect to run into a cartridge that may not work perfectly, but the savings easily make it worth a minute or two of time and a quick toss to the garbage.

Arctic Silver Thermal Paste

This article explains whether it is safe to use several years old thermal paste / grease. A few months ago I needed to replace a motherboard, which meant removing the heatsink fan from the processor. Because of the way thermal paste works, this also meant cleaning off the old thermal pad / paste / grease and apply a new coat to ensure the best possible heat transfer between the processor and heat sink fan.

I had old tubes of Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 7, and Arctic Silver Ceramique lying around – each only having been used once in personal computer builds. I did not want to spend another $10 or so buying another tube, then having 80% of the product go to waste.

I tried testing the Arctic Silver 7 by squeezing out a bid of the goop onto a test surface. At first, only a clear oil-like substance came out, but then the silver colored particles appeared like normal. The substance was not tried out or flaky, so all seemed well but first I wanted to do more research.

Well, Is it Okay To Use?

I couldn’t find any information online, so I went to Arctic Silver’s limited website. There was also a lack of information there, so I emailed their customer support.

Arctic Silver’s customer support responded very quickly and reluctantly confirmed that yes, it should be okay to use. I say reluctantly because I’m sure Arctic Silver does not want to be blamed for any problems caused. The “canned response” as they put it – was to recommend 12 months, refrigerated, for strict military specifications. However he went on to say that as long as the material was fully mixed, it would be fine.

Instructions for Using Old Arctic Silver and Most Other Thermal Paste / Grease

(and most other thermal paste and grease) – Squeeze out a few dabs of the substance onto a scrap surface like a piece of paper or plastic, then throw that away. You’l likely get a clear fluid that comes out first: squeeze until the “silver” colored material of the Artic Silver starts coming out, well mixed. Make sure what you are squeezing out is well mixed and not flaky or clumpy or dried out.

Set the tube nose down for a day or two. This will make sure the “silver” floats to the bottom of the tube, ready to be applied. Before applying to the processor, be sure to push put a bit more to make sure it looks smooth, liquid, and well-mixed. Be sure to follow the instructions for proper application, including not applying too much. Different processors recommend different methods for spreading out (or NOT spreading out) the thermal paste, so be sure to check the Arctic Silver documentation for your specifics. Note that the author of this article is not responsible for any problems or damages caused.

Storage to Ensure Longevity

Be sure to have stored it securely capped (I’d also recommend in a sealed plastic bag or container to help), hopefully in a location that does not get too hot or too cold. If at all possible, store the tube nose down. Note that I stored my tube of Arctic Silver on its side, in a box, without being sealed airtight, that was left outside for multiple days during the winter, so its not strictly important to do these things.

Using this information, I used 6 year old Arctic Silver on a Sandybridge i5 2500k processor and its working great. I saw temperatures drop a few degrees after switching to this old Arctic Silver compared to the thermal pad that came applied to the retail processor fan. Nothing else changed except the Arctic Silver instead of the retail thermal pad, so since temps have dropped and remained lower, I know everything is fine!

If you still need to purchase a new tube of Arctic Silver, you can find it at Amazon here: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Whether you are playing normal or ranked, draft mode is definitely the way to go. It adds an extra layer of team strategy as well as providing you with the ability to avoid temporarily overpowered champions in games.

This article is meant to be a very quick list of who you should ban if you are in doubt…and lets be honest, if you don’t watch the pros or play constnatly, its very easy to fall behind in what the currently accepted champion / summoner bans are. If you ban the wrong champions you may very well be giving the enemy team a big advantage or pissing your own team off, which by itself can lead to a bad game.

This list is current as of February 2012 and probably won’t change substantially for another couple of months. Unfortunately the bans do change regularly as each League of Legends game patch nerfs or buffs champions and changes the overall balance.

Always 100% Team-Approved Bans (in rough order of urgency):

• Rammus – powerful ganks that bypass wards
• Shaco – all around annoying and very powerful in the right hands at medium to high ELO
• Kassadin – dominates most mid lanes / beats most AP picks
• Ahri – lots of mobility, range, burst, and a great CC

Other Possible Bans that generally wont be questioned

• Shen – after recent buffs, one of the most common bans (global ult provides split lane pushing / team fight saves)
• Cassiopeia – very strong AP mid,  TONS of damage
• Vlad – lots of sustain in lane and crazy end-game damage. Only downside is not a super-strong early game
• Shyvana – strong jungle / jungle invasions (but weak ganks so not too scary)
• Whatever the most recently released champ is, like Nautlius or Ziggs (this may result in lots of queue dodges however)
• Morgana – strong mid lane AP who is nearly impossible to stop farming, only pick if someone wants to attempt to dominate mid
• Ryze – strong mid lane, a common ban, but in my opinion not too overpowered — definitely not a necessity ban
• Skarner – one of the strongest junglers at the moment, but not too overpowered
• Nocturne – a strong jungler if he is fed, great ganks, but not too overpowered
• Sona – questionable ban in matchmaking but often banned in recent pro games. Strongest support currently.

Note that if your team is communicating well and you get first pick after bans, you can sometimes strategize on who NOT to ban so that your team can take advantage of an overpowered champ or to customize your team composition. Also, if you watch pro games, you’ll notice that often times they’ll ban strange champions. This is because they are targetting bans at a certain player because they know one of the opposing players is extremely good with a certain champion. This won’t be a factor in matchmaking however, so generally stick with the common bans listed above to avoid teammates raging, which is honestly the most important part for most mid or low level ELO matchmaking games. If you happen to be matched with a team that has great communication (either by being lucky or queuing with friends), all of the above rules can be thrown out the window as long as you have a specific strategy in mind.

The first thing you’ll need to do is decide on your price range. Several price ranges are listed below. As is usually the case with computer hardware you will get the best value from products that are low to mid-ranged. Hardware that was cutting edge 3 years ago will now be budget priced, yet the performance is the same, and this will always be the case. Decide what kind of premium you want to pay, and how cutting-edge you would like to be.

Luckily Skyrim will run acceptably on older and budget hardware, albeit at lower resolutions and lower detail settings, so you can get by with almost anything. However, it is a game that certainly will benefit from the graphical improvements — adding to the immersion and reality of the world. The sweet spot for video cards is around the $120-$175 range in order to get the best results.

Best Video Card Options for Performance and Value In Each Price Range

Without further ado, on to what you came here for: the best price to performance value for each video card price range. Also be sure to check the “considerations” list below, for some extra considerations that may affect what price range will be best for you.

Price Range: $100-150  (The sweet spot)

This is the sweet spot for price vs performance for video cards and has been for many years. This price range generally offers cards that were on par with cutting edge technology 2-3 years previously. By waiting you can take advantage of the discounts in the market as new technology emerges. The ideal price range is the $125-150 range after rebate. There will almost always be an active $20-30 manufacturer rebate on some card in this price range.

Models to look for that fit this price range

• Geforce GTX 550 Ti
• Radeon 6850
• Radeon 6870 (on sale or with rebate only)

#1 SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCIE Graphics Card

Price: ~$140-$150 (after rebate only)

This is the perfect card for the sweet spot, and is one I decided on for one of my own systems. This card has had an active rebate for almost the entire time I’ve been watching it, which brings it down below $150. Featuring Eyefinity and plenty of power to run Skyrim and other current games at the highest settings and 1920×1200 resolution, and without paying extra for power that won’t be necessary. Savvy shoppers may also note that this product includes a free Steam key for the full game Dirt 3, which is worth about $10-20 if you are able to sell it away.

Pros:

• Rebate makes card a winner for best value, dropping its price range considerably
• Dirt 3 game included free
• Popular product which means better driver support

#2 EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti FPB 1024 MB GDDR5 SLI Ready Graphics Card

Price: ~$130-140 (also rebates sometimes available)

This is also a great option if you want to save a few bucks. The card may start to struggle a bit, especially if you plan on using the Skyrim HD texture pack, but in many cases you probably will not notice the difference. If you’re running a 21″ monitor or less this option would also be a great choice since the lower resolution will require less from the card. The Geforce 550 Ti models are roughly equivalent to the Radeon 6850 models.

Pros:

• Slightly cheaper option compared to the Radion 6870, with only slightly lower performance
• Great EVGA customer support
• Popular product means better driver support and compatibility

Price Range: $150-200

If you want to have a bit of future proofing, plan to run all the settings maxed, or just have a bit of extra cash to spend, this price range is the higher end of where you get great values and also impressive performance that will get you by for games coming out for at least a couple of years.

Models to look for that fit this price range

• Radeon 6870
• Geforce GTX 560 (non-Ti)
• Geforce GTX 560 Ti (only on sale or after rebate)

#1 MSI Radeon HD 6870 1 GB 256-bit GDDR5 CrossFireX with Eyefinity R6870 Twin Frozr II

Price: just below $200

The MSI Twin Frozr II cards are widely viewed as the best choice for this generation and price range of card. This is a great choice is you really want to max out all the settings in Skyrim and utilize 3 monitor Eyefinity.

Pros:

• Eyefinity – all you need is this card to run a 3-monitor-wide view of Skyrim
• Amazing cooling prevents overheating and prolongs video card life
• Widely accepted as the best performance in the $150-200 price range for current gen cards.

#2 XFX AMD Radeon HD 6870 900M 1 GB DDR5

Price: $180 (also look for common rebates to drop price to $160)

This card fits in the price gap between the MSI Radeon 6870 Twin Frozr II ($200) and the Sapphire Radeon 6870 ($140). If it fits your price range, you’ll get a good value out of this card, but it may be a better choice to go with one of the other two cards for the absolute best deal.

Pros:

• XFX offers a lifetime warranty if you register the product within 30 days of your purchase
• Shorter than other cards so may be a better choice if your case size is smaller.
• About 3″ shorter than most other current generation cards at 8 to 9 inches, where most cards are about 11 inches.
• Quiet / Lower Heat & Power Consumption

Consideration: HD Texture Pack

Skyrim has recently recently released a high resolution texture download for the PC game. Ideally you will want to be able to run this because it does add noticeable level of clarity and detail to objects nearby. For example when searching the ground for items the textures are noticeably more detailed, rather than being obvious texture patches that are blurry when zoomed in. The HD texture pack is free and can be downloaded from sources like the Steam store. In order to properly run the HD Texture pack, you must have a card with 1gb or more of memory. In order to keep up a smooth framerate and allow you to keep the visual effects enabled and set at high settings, I’d also recommend sticking with the $150-200 price range video cards. You should also be able to get by with something at the high end of the $100-150 range

Consideration: Radeon Eyefinity and nVidia Surround

For an immersive world game like Skyrim, these technologies may be worth the cost. Eyefinity and Surround will allow you to use 3 (or possibly more) monitors, displaying a single image.  This means the world will wrap around your peripheral vision, just like it would if you were walking the lands of Tamriel. The main drawbacks to this technology are the strain on your video card, and the unfortunate drawback that the case / bezel around your monitor’s screen will be splitting up the image. Note that you could probably use 2 monitors, which is a more common setup, however this would mean your view would be split right down the middle by the monitor edges–not ideal for aiming or immersion. If you plan to use one of these to expand your display over multiple monitors, stick with the upper end of the $150-200 price range or better. The higher resolution and strain on your graphics card will require this.

Consideration: Your Monitor Resolution

Do you have a 23″, 24″, or larger monitor? If so, avoid the low end budget cards at all costs for gaming purposes. These monitors work best at their native resolutions of 1920×1200 (or 1920 x 1080 depending on the aspect ratio). For smaller monitors – 17 or 19 inch – you will be able to save without sacrificing performance because you’ll be running at a lower resolutions of of 1280 x 800 or 1440 x 900. This will take a lot of stress off your video card. If budget is a primary concern, shoot for a 21 or 22 inch monitor which will run at 1680 x 1050. This is high enough resolution to get detail, but does not stress your video card too much.

How do you curse other players worlds as a Gravelord Servant? How to PVP as a Gravelord Servant? Why does it take so long to initiate PvP as a Gravelord Servant? What are the benefits of joining the Gravelord Servant covenant? Do other players see a Gravelord Servant summoning sign? Why don’t I see a sign after using an Eye of Death as a Gravelord Servant? How do I join the Gravelord Servants? How do I get Eye of Death items?

Upon initial reading about this covenant, I was pretty excited – it sounded like this would be a fun way to initiate PVP while maintaining the home advantage of using estus flasks. However, you will likely come to see below that the Gravelord Servant Covenant is not an ideal choice.

How do I start PVP and/or curse others as a Gravelord Servant?

In order to PVP, you will need to first join the Gravelord Servant Covenant (see below). Once you are a servant, you will need to be a human. Some websites claim you need to be in an area where you have not defeated the boss, but I found this was not the case — I used the Eye of Death in the Depths long after killing the Gaping Dragon.

Effects of Using the Eye Of Death

When you meet the above criteria, you will be able to use the Eye of Death item. Once used, you will see a cool smoky black aura around your character. This indicates you have cursed the worlds of 3 other players (note–this is the advertised effect, though it may not be working properly, even in the new 1.05 patch in 2012).

What happens to a player cursed by a Gravelord Servant using an Eye of Death?

Those cursed players now have extra, stronger “black phantom” enemies appear in their world. For example instead of one Black Knight, there will be two, and one will be extra strong. I have read that if one of the players you have cursed dies in their world, you will receive half of their souls (and they will only be able to regain half when they retrieve their bloodstain). I have not seen this happen however.

Also of note is that these extra black phantom mobs DO drop items, so I believe that some players actually want to be cursed and use this to farm items and souls more quickly–in which case they would not come to your world and fight you to end the curse.

Here is a video that shows the more powerful black phantom mobs (see the reddish looking glow around one of the black knights):

Do cursed players see any sign in their world that they can use to invade you?

Yes, a player cursed by a Gravelord Servant will see a sign similar to a summoning sign. It will be white with black smoke and will say “Touch the Sign of the Gravelord Servant”. The cursed players can use this to come into your world and fight you. The sign will appear in their world where you used the eye of death, just like other signs (note that the Gravelord Servant who used the Eye of Death does not see any sign or marking, however).

It also appears that other players may see your sign without being cursed at all. The extra powerful black phantom (BP) enemies may not have appeared in their world at all. I have seen been on the receiving end of this and also seen reports on forums of this being the case.

Below is a video that shows the extra Black Phantom (BP) enemies and at 50 seconds in, you can see the Gravelord Sign (white, with black smoke) on the ground:

Where do I get the Eye of Death items?

There are several locations where you can pick up or purchase about 9 of these items without doing any PvP. 3 are located in the Catacombs, 3 are located in the Tomb of Giants, and 3 can be purchased from Patches after defeating Gravelord Nito (back in Firelink Shrine). See the Dark Souls wiki for here for details on finding these.

The best way to get Eyes of Death is to farm them from the cursed frogs found in the lower parts of the depths. After patch 1.05, they now drop quite regularly. I would recommend using the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring and a few humanity, then farming them. You can run a circle through the Depths and farm Humanity from the rats and Eyes of Death from the frogs at the same time. You should get 1-2 of each (at least) on each run.

Why does it take so long to PVP as a Gravelord Servant? / Why doesn’t anything happen when I use an Eye of Death? / Why doesn’t anyone invade me as a Gravelord Servant?

Very good questions. Unfortunately PVP for Gravelord Servants is extremely slow or completely broken. There are a number of possible reasons, all of which likely contribute to this problem. People have reported (and I have also experienced this to be true) that you will only get a couple of PvP fights per hour as a Gravelord Servant. Obviously this would be extremely boring, so it is not a very popular covenant. Here are some possible reasons for this:

• Server issues that were never fixed — possibly you are not even successfully cursing anyone at all when using the Eye of Death.
• Some players may want to be cursed, and thus not fight you, because it speeds up farming
• Some players may not want to PvP at all, and also not understand that the extra powerful enemies in their world are related to you cursing them.
• Players may not understand how to use your Gravelord Sign that appears in their world.
• Players who are cursed by you may just give up and quit, or possibly restart their game to remove the curse.

The result is that you will be spending a LOT of time waiting to fight people, and you may not even be cursing anyone successfully–there’s no way to know what is happening in other player’s games. I would instead suggest joining just to get the Gravelord Sword and the 2 miracles (farm the cursed frogs in the depths to get 10 eye of death for the upgraded miracle). Then join another covenant that is better for PvP.

What do I get by joining the Gravelord Servant Covenant?

You get the powerful Gravelord Sword, which is upgraded with Demon Titanite. Using your strong thrust attack, this often inflicts toxic status on enemies. You also get the Gravelord Sword Dance miracle, which is an area attack that makes ghostly red swords pop out of the ground and deal damage. After turning in 10 Eye of Deaths to Gravelord Nito, you will be given the Gravelord Greatsword Dance miracle, which is a stronger version. Note that these miracles have no stat requirements to use! Using different talismans, you can make the damage scale of either Intelligence or Faith. These spells do look pretty impressive, but as with most of the area of effect spells, they take a very long time to cast and are not very effective in PvP.

How do I join the Gravelord Servant Covenant?

You will need to have at least 1 Eye of Death in your inventory. See the Dark Souls wiki for here for details on finding these. Then, go to the Catacombs to where the Titanite Demon (also called Prowling Demon) is, in the long hallway near the blacksmith / spiked wheel skeletons. You will see an open coffin in this hallway on the left, and when you approach, you will be able to lay down in the coffin. Wait about 30 seconds to 1 minute, and you will be transported to Nito (who will not be hostile). There, you can join the covenant–very easy way to get a powerful sword.

Note that you MUST join the covenant before killing Gravelord Nito in the Tomb of Giants. Also note that you can’t turn in any more Eyes of Death after killing him, so make sure you get the second miracle before proceeding on. Keep in mind that once you get to the end of the game, you wont be able to switch back and forth between this covenant like you can with most other covenants.

What happens in a PVP fight with a Gravelord Servant?

From the perspective of the Gravelord Servant, you will get a message that a Spirit of Vengeance has invaded your world. Note that they may not appear at the place where you used your Eye of Death, especially if you have been moving around different locations in your world. Below is a video of a Gravelord Servant being invaded by a player they cursed:

And below is a video from the perspective of another, non-Gravelord Servant player, who was cursed and decided to fight the Gravelord Servant. Note that here the player who was cursed won, and received humanity and an eye of death, as well as a small number of souls. After successfully defeating the Gravelord, they received the message “Disasters are gone after the defeat of the Gravelord Servant”

Conclusion & Recommendations / Strategies:

As mentioned above, it appears the Gravelord Servant Covenant is one step away from being completely broken and pointless. This is current as of the Dark Souls 1.05 patch in 2012, and it does not appear it will ever be changed.

I’d recommend just joining the covenant, getting the Gravelord Sword and 2 miracles, then joining another covenant. Don’t waste time trying to PvP as a Gravelord because you will probably be waiting 30 minutes to an hour before seeing any sort of action. I have tested this at a number of locations and levels and this has been what other people around the internet have also reported.

If you really want to try to PvP as a Gravelord, I’d suggest using your Eye of Death in the main PvP locations: Anor Londo: around where Ornstein and Smough were, Darkroot Garden: in the forest (through the door with the Crest of Artorias, use the eye at the bottom of those stairs), and in the Kiln of the First Flame: right after walking down the white/foggy stairs (this is where most people PvP and farm). Good luck and prepare to wait a long time!

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Using a Homeward Bone will remove the Eye of Death aura from you. Most likely this means your curse of other people’s worlds has ended and you will never be invaded by them. You would need to use another Eye of Death, which means this is a bad covenant to use while you try to farm.
• If the Gravelord Servant dies or disconnects from their game, any players who they had cursed will receive a message similar to “Disasters have been removed” and their world will return to normal without needing to fight.

Feel free to leave a comment with any new information or experiences with the Gravelord Covenant!

Homedics NMS-350 Neck and Shoulder Massager - Click to View on Amazon.com

Exclusive Review from A Real User of the Homedics NMS-350 (Daydull.com)

After one too many mornings and nights of neck pain, caused by long hours at a computer desk (or the occassional all-night gaming/working session), I set out to research and find a good value, effective neck massager. I was not sure how much it would help so my main consideration was a cost effective, but still high performance product.

As with all Daydull reviews, all reviews are about products I have purchased myself and have used fully in the same way any buyer would hope to use the item. I do not review hundreds of products and crank out reviews — this is a product I have used for weeks and know the ins and outs of.

Performance

The NMS-350 does a very good job relaxing your neck muscles and a decent job on the upper back shoulder muscles. You will need to use the handles and hold the device in place to have it affect your shoulder muscles, but this was not a big deal for me. Generally I preferred the neck massage.. The rotating/moving shiatsu pieces plus the heat were very effective. I did not enjoy the vibration mode because it vibrates your entire head. If you are trying to view a screen or read with the vibration on, your vision will actually be blurred! However, it was still completely effective without vibration turned on.

Design & Quality

I had a couple simple, but overlookable issues with the design of this product. First, the on-off button for the heat switch is not the type of button that sticks down when you push it. Since the heat takes a couple of minutes to become noticeable, its often hard to figure out if you’ve turned the heat on or off. It may cause you to sit around for an extra 5 minutes waiting for heat when its actually switched off.

The other issue I had was with the mesh fabric covering the neck “Shiatsu” massagers (which you can see in the above photo). The fabric is stitched in such a way that one of the stitching / seams overlaps the exact point where the device will be pressing into your skin. It is not noticeable at first, but after prolonged use I sometimes felt some irritation from the seem stitching rubbing the same spot on the skin. This could have easily been fixed by moving the stitching over a bit. I am also considering just cutting off the fabric as I don’t believe it really serves any purpose.

The power cord should be long enough to reach any outlet. The only issue I ran into was it was almost too short when used in the living room because an outlet except at a wall across from the couch. At a computer desk it will never be a concern however.

Other than the two above minor issues, the build quality is top-notch. It feels like a good quality product, has a good weight to it, but isn’t heavy, and fits over your shoulders perfectly. The material is a dense, comfortable cushiony soft nylon-esque material. You can grab the handles on each side and move it around to different parts on your neck or shoulder for extra spot treatment. The controls are easy to use and intuitive.

Value

The Homedics NMS-350 appears to be a very high price to performance product. I researched and tested a number of other similar products before purchasing, and decided on this unit. It can be purchased for about $30 on Amazon and is the highest rated, most popular product of its type anywhere near this price range. I would easily recommend this product over a Sharper Image or other higher priced product. You would need to spend over $100 to get anything significantly better.

Summary

Pros:

• Heat & Shiatsu works very well together to relax neck
• Extremely cheap, much better value than other options
• Great reviews, best product in this price range
• Sleek design
• High build quality

Cons:

• Vibration mode not as effective as Shiatsu
• Heat switch should be more obvious if it is on or off
• Stitching on rotating Shiatsu “nodes” can rub your skin

Conclusion

I hope you have benefitted from this review. As with my previous reviews, I only review products that I have used for weeks and have a full understanding of. If you decide to purchase this product, please click my Amazon link first. This will not affect your purchase in any way, but amazon offers a small percent of your payment back to us for advertising on any purchases you make after clicking the link.

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them — just leave a comment!

This guide will cover secret tips that aren’t explained in-game, as well as all the basics, other important things that can affect if you get matched up at all, and any rumors that are unconfirmed as of yet.

Troubleshooting Multiplayer Summoning in Dark Souls – Secret & Lesser Known Tips on Getting Matched Up

Try these things if you are having trouble being summoned

• Open the ports on your router for the PS3. Sometimes this is not necessary, but after doing this I immediately saw an increase in summoning activity. This was the main piece of information that helped me. Go to the “Port Forwarding” section of your router and open/forward the following ports:
  TCP Ports: 80, 443, 5223
  UDP Ports: 3478, 3479, 3658
• Also if your router has the option, set your Playstation 3 or Xbox 360′s IP address as the DMZ. This makes sure there are not firewall / router issues blocking any connections.
• Play during peak hours, such as evenings and weekends.
• Look for and place summoning signs near bonfires and right in front of the fog gates to area bosses.
• If everything above fails, try resetting your PS3 as you may have been randomly placed on a low population server. If this is the case you will probably see very few orange info signs / tips and bloodstains.
• Make sure you are the proper level for the current area. Currently, Dark Souls is set up to only match people +/- 10% levels. At level 20, this is only +/- 2 levels, so can be very restrictive. See the article HERE for the recommended summoner level for each area.
• Matchups are prioritized by the covenant of each player. If you have joined one of the harder to find or less popular covenants, you may be less likely to find summons. The most popular early game covenant is likely The Way of White, from the cleric in Firelink Shrine. Also popular for co-op play is the Warrior of Sunlight – talk to Solair of Astoria / pray at the Altar of Sunlight (take a right at the bonfire under the bridge fire dragon in the Undead Parish). The Warrior of Sunlight covenant allows you to be summoned as a gold phantom instead of white. It requires 50 faith, but there are ways around that – read the Wiki about the Warrior of Sunlight covenant here

To Get Help in Your Game (Summon Others)

You need help beating a boss and want to have others join your game to help.

1. Do NOT use your white soapstone item. If your sign is down in your game, you will not be able to get help from others (when you use this item, this causes it to appear in other players’ games so they can bring you into THEIR game.)
2. You must be human. If you are hollow, which happens whenever you die, just go to a bonfire and select the option to spend 1 humanity to return to human. If you currently have 0 humanity you will need to find one or use a humanity item from your inventory.
3. You cannot have already killed the area boss in your current area in your game.
4. To summon other players into your world, once you are human, look around for a white sign on the ground and select OK to summon help. Look for these white signs on the ground near bonfires close to bosses and right in front of the gray fog boss gate (where it says “traverse the white light”). This is where people will most likely place them.

Extra Notes on Getting Help in Your Game (Summon Others):

• You probably won’t find any help until after the bridge with the Hellkite / Drake that spews fire. This is because other players need the white soapstone item in order to help you — so you probably wont find help until after the Taurus Demon, depending on your path.
• Some bosses may have more activity. Popular bosses would be any boss that can be reached quickly from a bonfire and bosses that can be killed quickly and give a lot of souls. Other players will want to farm these bosses for souls. The Gaping Dragon and Iron Golem are two bosses that are fairly popular in the early & mid parts of the game.
• Note that you can summon multiple people at a time. This is great to ensure you don’t waste humanity getting killed with a white phantom that doesn’t help.
• Be sure to use your Estus Flask to heal white phantoms that join your game to help you! Using yours will heal everyone in the game. They can’t use their own Estus Flask so will need help healing.

To Join Another Game To Help Someone Else (Being Summoned)

Joining another players game can be a fun cooperative play experience and can also be very beneficial in order to farm large amounts of souls in a small amount of time. The are also other various in game benefits from assisting other players.

1. Place your white soapstone summoning sign in front of the gray fog boss doors (where you get the message “traverse the white light”). You could also try placing the white sign near a bonfire if you want to help someone through more of the level. This may be a good idea of the path to the boss happens to be tough.
2. Being hollow is completely fine. You do not need to be human to help others.
3. Your area boss can already be dead, that is fine also.
4. Stay in the area. If you get the message that your summoning sign has disappeared, you’ve gone to far and will have to go back and replace it. You do not need to stay right on top of your sign however. If I am trying to farm a boss repeatedly, I will generally place the sign and then kill the rest of the enemies in the area. Eventually you will be summoned and once the connection goes through you will be transported back to your sign.
5. Place your sign in front of bosses that people are likely to need help on.
6. Play during peak hours, such as on weekends and during the evenings. This will increase the activity of other players looking for help.

Extra Notes on Joining Other People’s Games to Help Them (Being Summoned)

• Re-Place your White Summon Sign. If you have tried all of the above and are still having trouble, it may help to replace your white summoning sign every minute or so. There are unconfirmed reports that this may help “refresh” you in the multiplayer queue. You may also want to try sitting at a bonfire every now and then.
• Try restarting your PS3. If you are not seeing many orange “info” signs or bloodstains from other players, you may be on a low population server. Dark Souls multiplayer is split up into multiple different servers and there will be times where you are randomly placed on a server with very few people. Try restarting the game and possibly resetting your PS3 if this is the case.

This guide is current at this time. There are rumors of a possible patch coming to the game that may change the way network play works, but this has not arrived yet. The article will be updated if anything changes.

Hopefully this will help some people out as I found the summoning process to be pretty confusing at first, with very little in-game explanations. Before researching and looking into this, I was waiting for 30 minutes at a time without any coop action. I am now able to repeatedly fight some bosses every 5 minutes or so as a white phantom, and was able to get help quickly (just a couple minutes waiting) on a boss I was having trouble with.

With the non-linear layout of the game, it is sometimes very tough to know what area to visit next, so this will also ensure you aren’t too outmatched by the enemies in the area.

Dark Souls Recommended Summoner Level for Areas:

Undead Burg ( 5 – 10 )
Undead Parish ( 10 – 20 )
Lower Undead Burg ( 20 – 30 )
The Depths ( 20 – 30 )
Blighttown ( 30 – 40 )
Quelaag’s Domain ( 35+ )
The Catacombs ( 30 – 50 )

The Great Hollow ( 50+ )
Ash Lake ( 50+ )
Darkroot Garden ( 20+ )
Darkroot Basin ( 35+ )
Valley of Drakes ( 40 – 60 )
Undead Asylum Revisited ( 30 – 40 )

Sen’s Fortress ( 40+ )
Anor Londo ( 45+ )
Painted World of Ariamis ( 60+ )
New Londo Ruins ( 60+ )
The Duke’s Archives ( 60+ )

The Abyss ( 50 – 70 )
Crystal Cave ( 50+ )
Tomb of the Giants ( 70+ )
Demon Ruins ( 60+ )
Lost Izalith ( 75+ )
Kiln of the First Flame ( 60 – 80 )