Crysys

For my Dom builds, I've found it much easier to cap S/L defense thanks to epic/villain pool shields. Scorp shield being the big help here, along with frozen armor.

It takes more work and costs more inf to cap ranged defense -AND- still get Permadom unless you are slotting purples or PVP IO's.

But with Doms in my stable that have been built using both methods, I can say that Ranged > S/L. I've no issues getting into melee distance once I've locked things down. THAT is your S/L defense. Build for recharge first, then accuracy and THEN Defense.

I have a huge stable of 50's and don't obsess that much over playing one that's "better" than another. In reality, "better" usually equals "easier," not "more uber." In other words, if it only takes 2-3 buttons to wipe out a +4/X8 spawn, you aren't really trying that hard to challenge yourself. So I'll swap over to a different toon that I know is more fragile or takes more precise positioning to accomplish a kill. Heck, I've even got level 50's that have ZERO enhancements slotted. Seriously....try it some time for a huge challenge.

If you can only get into min/max, it simply means you don't like a challenge. That's ok, its your subscription fee, play how you want. But in such a simple game universe like COH where everything really boils down to button mashing, why would you insist on the easiest toon builds to play?

Considering that once you hit 50 you will find yourself teaming with a lot of other 50+ full Incarnate-enabled players, PVE content dies WAY too fast for debuffs and the like to really even be useful. More damage is always useful, however. Damage in this game seems to always scale, but debuffs seem to hit a point of diminishing returns.

That plus with everyone now basically running around dropping blaster nukes on every single freaking spawn....what's there to debuff?

I'm not really sure graphics settings impacts required throughput all that much. I play routinely using a MiFi portable hotspot from Verizon. Although I recently upgraded to the 4G model, most of the areas of the country I travel to still don't support 4G so its usually in EVDO 3G mode.

Regardless, lag isn't an issue. Latency on Verizon's EVDO network is actually pretty good and you don't need a lot of speed/bandwidth to play the game. I monitor my usage pretty closely since Verizon doesn't offer the 'unlimited' plan (I'm on a 5gb/month plan) and even with 2 hours of play per day, I barely hit 1Gb usage from that for the month.

I play on both a Mac running lower-resolution modes (due to the insanely buggy Mac client) and an Alienware running the client on Ultra mode. Don't really notice lag in either situation, other than the normal stuff you'll get on a 24-man BAF run or a RWZ raid.

I PL'd a Fire/SD and an Elec/SD both to 38. I've played both to 45 since then on normal PVE fare, teamed and solo.

Elec/SD is a fantastic team build, and he does fine solo. But as has been mentioned, your ST attacks are rather lacking. If you go with the Fire epic, you get more AOE goodness, although for thematic reasons I chose to the Mu pool. He's a blast to play...just takes a little bit longer on bosses than I'm accustomed.

The Fire/SD is a little better solo and the DOT really helps if you want to set him up for farming purposes.

Really, you can't go wrong with either. Do a search for Fury Flechette's thread on various builds for both types of builds. I chose the "moderately expensive" builds for both (modified since these builds were posted before Fitness was inherent) and have been very pleased with the results. Both can be pretty much fully tricked out by lvl 40 with IO sets.

Farm or PL, its all fine to me and obviously perfectly acceptable behavior to both the playerbase in general (although a few of the purists/snobs disdain the practice) and also to NCSoft. They LOVE alt-itis, it keeps players interested in the game and willing to run the hell out of their content over and over and over again. There's a reason they charge you for additional character slots per server these days....they figured out a way to get people to pay for making even more alts.

All of my alt-itis is now fed by a couple of farming/PL toons. AE is used to run them up to level 32 in a single evening. It makes the game infinitely more enjoyable to me. For farming, I often just use portal missions since it gives me a chance for purple drops and incarnate shards/threads.

Anything you can do in this game is OK until the rule-makers say otherwise. Opinions around here notwithstanding, the only person who can tell you what you are doing is wrong are the owners of the game.

Not a single purple in my Plant/Fire/Fire and I'm Permadom and capped on range defense. Not that hard to do and one of the cheaper builds I've made.

/FA is for most PvE content like playing a +RES build with a heal. While heavy recharge IO builds can still do well in most missions, you'll need some defense if you plan on grabbing aggro or trying to tank. Play it like a regen scrapper and pop some purples for alphas and you will do fine. I came back to game after a long hiatus and not even knowing what "cyborg fire farms" were, I rolled a /FA brute in Praetoria. I took him from 1-50 only hitting a farm or two in my late 40's. It's a great build for teaming, just dont offer to tank without some buffs.

I got that last night for the first time on the Mac version of COH. I am executing /reloadgfx commands every 30 minutes which usually helps keep the Mac COH client from crashing. Its a known bug on that version that they have all sorts of memory management bugs.

But this is the FIRST time I've gotten that particular error message. I usually get other error messages or at times complete crashes with zero error messaging involved.

I posted one of these in another thread but it may have gotten buried since it was part of a different topic.

I cannot run more than a single AE mission without having to either quit/reform the team or pass the leadership star to someone else. Upon exiting an AE mission and clicking the avatar to 'finish' it, you can't select a new mission to run as it tells you that you are already on a task force and must quit same before selecting the new mission. There is, however, no way to 'quit' task force as you just completed the prior AE mission. So you are forced to quit team and re-form it, or pass around the leadership star to clear the error condition.

Here's how to repeat the error condition:



1) Form a team...number of players doesn't seem to matter, but obviously at least 2.
2) Choose an AE mission from the terminal.
3) Click the mission avatar outside the portal. Accept the mission.
4) Enter mission portal.
5) Run mission, complete the objective.
6) Click the blue button to "Exit" mission.
7) Click the mission avatar outside portal for the closing comments.
8) Approach AE mission portal and search for a new mission or choose the same mission to take it again.
9) You'll be given a prompt that says you are currently on a 'task force' and must either finish it or quit it before taking another mission. There is no such command to do so.
10) In order to take any other AE missions, you must quit and reform team or pass the leadership star to another member of the team. In the latter case, you can either have them select a new mission or pass the star back to you which "clears" the error condition and then select another mission. Then repeat the above 9 steps and you'll find the error is back.

Second bug is one I've seen since the last update sporadically. I'll get on a team (team size irrelevant) to run normal missions (Tips, Radio, contact arcs, etc.) and at least ONE member is exemped....this hasn't happened when everyone on the team is same natural level.

As soon as we zone into the mission, one or more characters will show up on the team roster bar as "black" as if they aren't inside the mission...but they are. Occasionally, they will suddenly blink back into existence after a death/rez. Or if they zone out of the mission and then come back in. But when playing a buffing class, you effectively can't target them from the team bar to apply a buff, keep an eye on health or whatever. They are there, they earn XP but they don't appear to be in the mission. Very annoying.

Congrats. I've only been back to the game for a couple of months now after a multi-year hiatus. But using the guides and spending only a little time has now netted me over 9B. I've re-spent almost 2/3 of that on a bunch of new alts I've PL'd up. But its really not that hard to gain ridiculous amounts of inf these days with just a little patience and some luck.

I can understand if you don't like how the Strongman looks but having slotted both sides of the T4 for Carnie Lore Pets now, I have to say I'm very happy with how they perform.

I do miss Vickie standing side by side with me slashing away at stuff, though. Good thing I can always slot her back in if I wish since you don't 'lose' Incarnate powers once 'crafted.'

^^ At least one person in here can spot humor. Bravo. Have a cookie.

Seldom made a thread a few weeks ago about a "Death from Afar" Archery/Energy blaster built for extreme range. The theory was build for lots of range and range=defense rather than try to focus so so heavily on IO's that provide +DEF.

Its an expensive build (lots of HO's and almost two sets' worth of Purples) but you can sub-out some other things for the purples and still get MOST of the range he advocates. Its funny that you say "cost is not an issue" and then mention you've got a billion to spend. Once you mention HO's and Purple IO sets, you are looking at a starting minimum of about 2 Billion. Could be even more depending on the market.

I've gotten my Archery/Energy to 47 and am currently accumulating HO/Centrioles to help make this a reality. Thus far, I've not been able to abandon Aid Self, but since you pretty much can ignore your blapper powers, still think I can keep it. Right now I'm so far away from the fight most times that I have plenty of time to use Aid Self before anything even gets to me.

Anyways, its a different build design for the set....just thought I'd mention it as something to consider. You can find the thread HERE. Given your comments of range and ranged defense...something to think about. Range itself is pretty much the best "ranged defense" you can get.

LOL, you are genuinely offended by that earlier comment aren't you?

Again...it was a joke. Lighten up a little, I'm happy to let you have your superiority fantasies if it keeps you in a support role. Works for me.