Call Me Awesome

Are you running Vista or Win7? You'll need to set Vent to "run as administrator", it's a checkbox on the shortcut properties.

Alternately you can use voice activation... you'll still have to run as administrator though.

Archery/EM is a great combo... it's very endurance friendly (mine at 50 has never had Stamina or needed it) and with perma-boost range (3 recharge SO's and you're there) you can drop an entire 8 man spawn from 100' away in 3 shots; you can do this every 30 seconds too.

The staminaless build I have has roughly 1 SO worth of end reduction in each attack and Conserve Power. I can attack full speed for about 3 minutes before my end bottoms out, I hit CP and by the time it's expired my end bar is full again. I've never had an occasion where I needed CP and it wasn't recharged.

In the interests of full disclosure I don't run any toggles; if I was to add in Leadership or other toggles I would need to get Stamina.

I've upgraded/moved/reinstalled more times than I can count over the years so I've had some practice.

Let me STRONGLY recommend a complete clean install of everything... going from XP to Win7 64 bit will require a clean install of the OS but there are methods to kind-of, sort-of move programs. Don't even consider this, even if it works it's very likely to introduce bugs (I know, bugs in Windows, who'd a thunk it?).

Before you start your upgrade of hardware make sure you've backed up ALL the data you want to keep, your email, word documents, pictures and whatnot. The actual programs themselves don't matter since you'll just reinstall them from the original disks but the data is what's important.

The last time I made a clean install of Win7 it took me roughly 3 hours; installing the OS, configuring it and then installing all the programs. Actually I typically keep installing the odd program I forgot for the next week or so; I'm reminded when I need that program the next time and it isn't there...

With that kind of bankroll you certainly can get a highly capable machine. I'd check out Power Notebooks, you'll be able to get precisely what you want there at a good price, and they're completely reputable to deal with.

I'm typing this on a Sager I bought from them, it has a 17" screen, Core2Duo, Nvidia 7950GTX video card and 3 drive bays. I've had the computer for 3 years now and it's been completely bulletproof; it cost me a shade less than $2,000 back then. Obviously this is a dated machine, but it's fully capable of COH Ultra Mode (limited) at around 50fps. The downside to this particular machine is weight... 10lbs of computer and 5lbs of power supply.

They also have smaller, lighter units that'll still pack a nice punch; I have an Asus I bought from them around 2 years ago is in the 6-7lbs range and is likewise COH capable with a 16" screen.

Figure out what you want, choose a chassis and screen then pick CPU, RAM, HD, Vid Card and Operating System... choose XP, Win7 32 bit, Win7 64 bit or no operating system at all. It will come as you request with only the software you request (or none) loaded.

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At a glance here's something that should work nicely for you

Or this one

Or this one

City of Heroes... Sketch Book?

Does such a thing even exist? A search of the website only brings up character sketches done at a 'con. Unless there's something new that searching the COH site doesn't find that what you're looking for isn't available.

Try Omega Drivers, I've found updated ATI drivers for various "proprietary" laptops there that work fine while looking on ATI's site I get referred back to the laptop manufacturer for driver support.

You want the latest drivers for your ATI Mobility card.

I'd support this option myself. At the moment I'm happy with the names of all my SG's but this is a nice QoL addition.

I've had the most luck with Bronze 10-14 as well, they're cheap and there's a good chance of getting a winner. I just rolled 1500 tickets at Bronze 10-14 and got a couple of Steadfast 3%, one Karma KB and a bunch of junk. Vendored the trash and crafted and stored the good stuff for alts. They're fairly valuable on Wents if you need cash.

I can't think of a time I've made more than 10 rolls at that level without getting SOMETHING good.

A secondary with a taunt aura (Invuln and Shield primarily as theirs are strongest) will do a great job of getting aggro... Inv (Invincibility) and Shield (Against All Odds) both have a full strength Tanker level taunt aura so they're fully capable of tanking and holding aggro. Fire, Dark and to a (much) lesser extent WP likewise have an aura, albeit a weaker one.

If an Invuln or Shield scrapper with his aura running is first into a group then he has the aggro... even a skilled tanker will have a VERY hard time getting aggro away from them. It's possible, but the tanker will really have to work hard at it.

A secondary like SR or Regen with no aura will have a lot of trouble with aggro... if you're first into battle then yes, you'll get the alpha strike but a nearby Blaster can and will strip aggro away from you.

So, depending on your secondary you may have been holding aggro with your aura or you may have simply been getting the alpha by pure damage aggro.

Ok, first off I would NEVER choose to invite a self-described "healer" on any TF run if I had a choice... with very few exceptions in my experience they are poor players who tend to neglect everything but their heals. That's one of the biggest red flags I know of for a bad player so I strongly recommend you don't advertise yourself as a healer.

Actually even for a MoSTF Empathy would probably be my last choice for buff/debuff because they bring less to the party than Rad, Kin, Dark, Storm or the like and in my experience most Emp players fall into the "healer" mentality, something that's not very useful past level 20.

For a MoSTF run my priority is first for 8 very competent players who know the TF well and know their characters well. After that I'll want a solid tanker who can hold aggro and survive the pounding unassisted. Next I look for controllers/defenders for buff/debuffs and damage and finally I look for more damage. A bunch of controllers can fill all of these roles, that's why they're my AT of choice when recruiting. I'll finish the team with straight damage in the form of blasters or scrappers.

Now about Ghost Widow... her hold is entirely avoidable if you have a Kinetic, Sonic, Thermal or Emp on the team with their anti-mez buff; the mez protection of it stacks. As long as the tanker has 8 stacked Clear Mind/Clairity/Increase Density/whatever buffs along with his own mez protection the hold is a dead issue. If the tanker is any good the rest of the team will never see GW's aggro so he's the only one who needs the buff.

Your other choice if you don't have any of those buffs is to simply get your defense to the soft cap... GW's hold is straight negative energy so 45% defense to ranged/negative will also serve the same purpose... she'll only have ~10% chance to land the hold.

For Lord Recluse if your tanker's built well a Stone, Invuln or Shield can tank him unassisted while the rest of the team takes out the towers. Kill the Red tower first as it doubles his damage, then kill the Blue as it gives him a 25% tohit buff and speed boost. Once both of those towers are down your tanker should have smooth sailing.

My strategy when tanking with my Invuln is to keep 2 big orange inspirations and 2 big purple inspirations (enough to keep my def at 75%) active until the red tower dies, then let the orange expire and keep the purples active until the blue tower dies. After that I allow the inspirations to expire and just watch my HP... if I get a big hit I pop Dull Pain. If I get another I pop a green or two. Simple and something I can handle without requiring aid from the team.

Controllers and Defenders are always welcome on any TF, "healers" are usually dead weight. Healing is the worst form of damage mitigation in the game once you get into the 20's... buffs and debuffs are FAR more effective than simple reactive healing particularly since in the late game squishies tend to be either completely healthy or dead so healing doesn't work very well.

Well, I have a BS/Shield scrapper at 50 who's tough enough to main tank the ITF so an Elec/Shield can fit in there... it will take more IO bonuses to get there than a tanker but it'll hit considerably harder.

I also have a Shield/Fire tanker I'm leveling, currently 43. Once my defenses climbed above 30% it was a competent tanker and deals a surprising amount of damage, easily the highest damage tanker I've yet played. When I hit 41 I reached the soft cap with pretty minor IO bonuses so it's much cheaper.

Basically your answer depends on what your priority is. Kill speed with great survivability? Scrapper hands down, they put out considerably higher damage than even the best tanker. Raw durability with decent kill speed? Tanker; you'll have higher base hit points, better resistance and defense numbers and your damage will be respectable, just not on the same level as a Scrapper.

My BS/Shield scrapper's soft cap build probably cost roughly 300 million, my Shield/Fire tank on the other hand was closer to 75 million. Both of these figures do include IO sets that don't necessarily contribute towards survivability; for example I'm a fan of the Gift of the Ancients set for recovery and bonus endurance but it doesn't contribute defense bonuses.

To sum it up, the Scrapper will certainly kill things much faster; it'll need a larger bankroll to reach peak durability. The Tanker will kill slower (but still decently) and will be cheaper to reach the soft cap. Which you go with will depend on what your priority is, both should be competent characters.