Call Me Awesome

What he's talking about is that Nvidia is worse than ATI from a price/performance outlook. Basically for what you'd pay for a given Nvidia card you could get a higher performing ATI card.

The Nvidia cards still do the job, and the higher end ones perform quite nicely... they're just priced higher than comparable ATI cards. They also tend to eat more power and put out more heat. With that said my main rig does have an Nvidia 275GTX in it and it works quite nicely. Yes, in today's market I could get a faster ATI for the money the 275 costs but when I bought it things were a bit closer together. If I were buying today I probably would go with an ATI.

It sounds like there's something wrong in your machine; while you aren't running a top end computer it's plenty to run the game just fine... at your resolution you may well be able to activate some limited Ultra Mode shinies. The fact that it's locking up on you isn't at all right.

I'm not an expert, but a few things I would check would be:

• Update your video drivers... this is kind of a shot in the dark but worth a try

• Try verifying all files on COH

• Check Device Manager (control panel/system/device manager) to see if anything has a red x next to it.

• Defrag your drives, particularly the drive COH is on.

• Run Memtest to check out your RAM... a bad stick can cause interesting problems. The download gets you an .iso you can burn a bootable CDROM disk from. I'd say this is unlikely to be your problem, but I've had a bad RAM stick cause all kinds of really weird intermittent problems before I tracked it down.

Does the computer work fine for everything else? If all of the above comes up negative I would probably try an uninstall/reinstall of COH; if that failed I'd probably reformat and reinstall windows. That's a drastic step though and if you aren't familiar with the process I don't recommend attempting it. If you do reformat, make damn sure you've backed up everything on your computer first.

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Just out of curiosity do you find the tablet that big an improvement over using a mouse for image work? I've considered getting one for Photoshop but since I've never used one before I'm unsure if it's really worth it.

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Both of them are very capable sets nowadays, Mace was buffed a few issues ago and it's quite good now instead of the joke it used to be. Shield can be very powerful once it matures; it's mostly a defense set so like all defense armors it struggles early. It'll start to feel solid once you get your defense into the 30-35% range and once you reach the 45% soft cap it'll be VERY good. As a tanker you can nearly get to the 45% soft cap on SO enhancements alone so with minimal IO investment it can be a great primary.

I'm currently leveling a Shield/Fire tanker; at level 41 I've soft capped Melee/Range/AOE defense and he has a very solid offense. Shield also holds aggro very well... the aura is as good as Invulnerability's aura. The secondary effect of your taunt aura is as a damage buff based on the number of enemies in melee range and Shield Charge is a fantastic AOE attack.

I haven't played Mace, but I have heard a lot of good things about it and have a couple of friends who are playing it. It has decent AOE, good solid single target damage and a fair amount of soft control.

On the Shield side Grant Cover is your most skippable power; I'd start with Deflection at level 1 and pick up Battle Agility in the teens. Active Defense will need 3 recharge SO's to give a good overlap... it's just barely perma with two green SO's. Phalanx Fighting gives you a base 5% defense and additional defense if you have teammates within 8' of you... don't count on it giving more than the 5% base.

There's two schools of thought on the Medicine pool... some think that Aid Self is nice to have and others think that you can simply carry a few greens for when the mobs get lucky. Personally I'm in the second category; I almost never find myself needing a heal without having a green in my tray. I've leveled a Shield scrapper to 50 and my tank to 41 and don't see a need for two power selections to do what the occasional green inspiration will do.

All in all once your tank matures around level 30-35 you should be very solid.

Yeah, emps do tend to attract the highest percentage of bad defender players so that probably skews the perception somewhat. It's just that the last few PuG's I've been on have had EXTREMELY bad defenders... a few "aura rocker" emps and a stormy who ran perma-hurricane and just HAD to stand next to the tank.

You were absolutely correct... any competent tanker will be pushing the pace and always the first into combat; that's what he's there for. When I'm tanking my first priority is to grab the aggro NOW to preempt any itchy trigger blasters. I'm doing my best to watch the entire battle and if any loose aggro heads to the squishy teammates then I'm going to toss a taunt on it to get it under control.

In the higher levels I tend to let scrappers handle their own aggro... most of them have a pretty good idea of their limits and if they're well built they can handle it. I'll still keep an eye on them though and intervene if they get in over their heads.

The bottom line is that I'm there first and foremost to protect the team; if I don't move NOW to grab aggro and always watch out for loose aggro then I'm not doing my job. After I've gathered the aggro then I worry about killing things, but I have to still keep my attention on the battle as a whole and avoid scrapper lock.

Unfortunately there are a lot of really bad tanker players out there; in my experience about 50% are worthless or actively counterproductive, 30% are trying but lack experience in what to do, 15% are competent and skilled and 5% are excellent. When you run into a competent tanker remember him and tell him he's doing a good job. I always make a point of encouraging the players who are trying and giving them a suggestion or two on how they could improve. The bad players I simply remember and avoid in the future.

Bad players come in all AT's; it's just that bad tankers and defenders tend to be the easiest to spot.

Well, E/N defense is useful as is health... however if you get the +HP accolades Dull Pain will put you over the HP cap so IO bonuses are less important. CMA has 45% S/L/E/N def with one foe in range and ~30% F/C. Frankly I wouldn't bother with Psi resist... you simply cannot get enough to matter. The Range/AOE defense you get as a byproduct of building typed defenses does apply to most Psi attacks.

I'd tend to agree with this advise, for a small team tanker durability really shouldn't be a huge issue but kill speed could well be. Fire or Electric both offer a bunch of AOE damage to mow down groups quickly; I'd give the nod to Fire because it also has very good single target damage... something that's lacking in Electric Melee. Dark Melee would increase your durability, but it lacks AOE damage so it'll be slower to kill mobs.

Ice/Fire could be an efficient killing machine with CE holding mobs tight to you, Icicles dealing constant minor damage and Combustion + Fire Sword Circle laying down lots of AOE hurt. Incinerate & Greater Fire Sword will do a number on that problematic boss while your AOE's take out his minion/LT buddies. Just keep a few greens in your tray for when the mobs get lucky, and before you reach the soft cap you'll want some purples.

You may have some durability issues if you're tanking for an 8 man team without some buffs or IO bonuses but for solo or duo you should be just fine. Be aware that all defense sets are slow starting and fairly squishy early... they do mature nicely in the later game particularly with IO bonuses.

After all, farming something else stinks

I'd make a few changes to your power order to make life a bit easier if you exemp for a TF. For one, delay Boxing, Energy Punch and Whirling Hands so you can get Unyielding, Invincibility and Stamina all in by 20... you can check out my first 20 levels guide for some thoughts on that. In my opinion Unyielding and Invincibility are priority powers that should be taken as soon as they open up. I realize it leaves you somewhat light on attacks but it builds a solid foundation for your tanker.

I would snag Dull Pain at 2, Bone at 4 and CJ at 6 to make room for Unyielding at 8. Get Hurdle & Health by 16 and Invincibility at 18 to make room for Stamina at 20. That leaves two power selections pre-20; presumably you'll grab Super Jump at 14. I generally grab Taunt at 10 but you could grab Energy Punch instead.

Boxing/Tough/Weave are staples for maximizing your durability; and some relatively inexpensive IO sets can make an enormous difference... the difference between a decent mid-range tank and one that rivals Granite Armor without the penalties.

What you decide to do with your tank will depend on your goals and your budget... at the time I wrote it my soft cap guide could be built for under 20 million inf, in today's market you could probably manage it for around 50-70 million with some patience.

Your more immediate question of what to do right now though; I'd use the free respec you have from issue 17 to shift things around and I'd want to get Weave in there by 41. Things get tight and you'll have to make some occasionally painful choices of this power or that power... on my Inv/Stone tank it cost me my tier 2 attack to make room for Weave. As you've discovered the /EM set is pretty end heavy... much of that will be offset by IO slotting since you can get decent amounts of endred "free".

Your APP choices are pretty open; personally I tend towards either the Energy pool or the Pyre pool. Conserve Power/Laser Beam Eyes or Char/Fire Blast/Fire Ball being the powers I pick from those pools.

In any case, welcome back and enjoy your stay. Your 50 Fire/Rad is still a very capable character... nothing in the game can trivialize the content more than putting a group of Fire/Rad controllers together. Get together with some friends running a group of Frads and you'll quickly find money isn't a problem anymore.