Dr_Impossible

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At first, I was all like,

Then and I'm like, totally

So they're like, all, [ QUOTE ]
NCsoft NorCal will be focusing exclusively on the City of Heroes franchise and will be doubling, if not tripling, the size of the development team in the coming months.

[/ QUOTE ] and I was like,

I'm Ellen Feiss, and I'm excited.

(Pie to anyone who can catch the reference in that one!)

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't get the reference, but man, that was funny. King's to you!

Increasing the size of the team is great. The gist I get is that NC really thinks quite highly of this franchise, so much so that they are adding more staff and putting more into the game.

Only concern would be losing all or any of the great people that have made this game greater and greater in the last year.

Someone mentioned WOW-ising the game. I just don't think that will ever happen. To use an analogy between the two I'd have to say that WOW is like Independence Day and City of is more akin to Blade Runner-> excellent product with excellent people and players that has slowly built up in that cult following kind of way.

Don't fix it if it ain't broke!

If we start losing people like Posi and Babs, JLove, the list goes on, then that could/would blow. Other than that, it all sounds all good.

Nice Guide Juz, that needed to be written.

Super guide, this needed to be said and was begging to be written. Very thorough with great examples. King's to You!

Gil, great guide, totally sound advice.

Lemme add one thing. I have recently started playing on Virtue and Protector from Infinity, and what I have found really helpful in the infl/enh situation is Respecing all the way up. It can really take the edge off having to slog for cash on your way up to around 30ish when(out of sg mode) you can start to pull in some decent dollars.
I'm playing heroes, so there is one more respec trial than villains, but also I have a freebee left over from i8 and my Vet. Granted, not everyone has the Vet 'specs, but still, running trial and doing respec's at new enh lvls can help a lot.

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Between I7 and I8:
AMD 2.1 Gig processor
GeForce 6600 256mb RAM
1 Gig DDR RAM
80 Gig HD

When my settings were tuned down fairly significantly I got about 50-60 FPS in missions solo, about 25-40 in missions with larger teams.
35-45 FPS outside runnin around

Post I8:
everything the same except I upgraded to 2 Gigs of RAM

Getting about 25-35 FPS solo in mission, settings turned down.
18-25 FPS in mission with large teams, and sometimes lower.
25 FPS max runnin around outside.

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Did some tweaking on my settings and have been able to up my framerate back to between 45-64 in mission, solo.

Outside it is a bit better, anywhere from 15-30 depending on the zone. Faultline I find my frames drop outside moreso than older zones.

Inside missions on a 8 man team, I am now getting flip book style framerate action. Was on an 8 man team in Faultline, lvl 23ish with my Ice Tank. All the missions we ran were indoor and my FPS was consistently between 2-8, sometimes I'd get lucky and get up to 12, but that was usually when we were takin' a rest.

The thing i have noticed more than anything that makes my frames bottom out imediately is Warshades, Peacebringers don't really do it as much, but when the WS joins the team, the Frames hit the floor. I thought maybe it was Tendril effects in general, but the Darks don't really affect it the same, i.e. Dark scrapper/Dark defenders.

My card is runnin' my AA and AF
Geometry is on
Partical slider is at 16k
Character detail is very high
World detail is medium
Bloom off
Shader high
Shadows off
Crispness is smoove
Vert Synch is off
Refresh is 60 on both

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Good guide. I have an archery/devices build, but haven't taken very many device powers (just web grenade and targeting drone). I might have to reconsider some and respec my character.

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Dude.........I did the same exact thing. I made my Energy/devices blaster waaaaay back when i started and I was like this sucks and that blows and 'I'm never takin' this or that', but after playing for a while and actually learning how to play the game and slot and all that jazz, I picked him back up and started trying stuff other than the Drone and Cloak and man is there some nice stuff in there.

Taser, which i originally thought was lame is so not, when that guy is in yer grill-zapp him
Smoke Grenade, really takes the edge off the enemy attacks.
Caltrops-same, didn't take it with my En/Dev yet, but did right away with my lvl 12 Arch/Dev and cant live without it right now(I solo a lot with that one).

Moral-Take 'em, try 'em, they be good, can save butt. Enjoy!

Nice guide bud! Have a 50 Fire/Energy/Fire and a 32 Energy/Devices, just started putzin' around with a Archery/Devices and loving it so far at 12.

In the section about the attacks, you list the reccommended slotting for Fistful of Arrows as 1 acc, 3 dam, 2 cone rng-Could you clarify this a bitsy. Last I thought, they took the seperate 'cone range' enhancement out of the game and just left it at one to do all jobs, similar to the endurance modification enhancement to cover end recovery and end drain.

I think Devices is a great secondary, maybe it is 'underpowered' compared to the others but it gives you such a nice mixed bag of alternatives, the Drone being one, and a great one at that, plus a bit of debuff, bit of soft control. Yes I agree that Trip Mine, Time Bomb and Auto Turret could use a bit(or lot) of work. If yous'd properly though, its wicked aaasome guy!

Also, your bit about Auto Turret gave me quite a chuckle.

Other than that one burning question, the guide is great, nicely put together and well worded. King's to you!

Between I7 and I8:
AMD 2.1 Gig processor
GeForce 6600 256mb RAM
1 Gig DDR RAM
80 Gig HD

When my settings were tuned down fairly significantly I got about 50-60 FPS in missions solo, about 25-40 in missions with larger teams.
35-45 FPS outside runnin around

Post I8:
everything the same except I upgraded to 2 Gigs of RAM

Getting about 25-35 FPS solo in mission, settings turned down.
18-25 FPS in mission with large teams, and sometimes lower.
25 FPS max runnin around outside.

I did mine with no travel either. Mostly because of concept, being a Natural. With many toons, and now even more so with the temp travel powers, I use my Natural travel/fitness combo build. Basically its a sprint and hurdle with 2 slots each, swift, single slot and CJ later with a single. Gets me around fine, defenitely not for everyone.

Great guide Billzzzzz. Very Informative and helpful.

Awesome guide and very helpful. Thank you much!

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"Those two paragraphs have nothing to do with a bad or a good team." -- Superbull

I disagree.

The use of Leet and the use of a flavor-of-the-month build still set up red flags in my head.


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I totally agree with this. That is one of the criteria I use when building a Pick up Team. I love Pick ups. I have built and been on many. When I'm building one I look for certain things and Name alone tells me worlds about what I might be getting into with that particular person. I could go into it(Leet) deeper, but I think it would turn into a disertation, and I don't want to be inflamatory.

Nice guide Rein. I have a 34 Grav/Storm myself.

I agree with what you said about choosing between Crush and Lift: Both are good. My current build has no Crush only because i wanted another power and respec'd out of it, but i will be choosing it again. I think anything that adds to yer control is a good thing, and yes, Lift is great control in the form of damage mitigation.

I was curoius about one thing. You start talking about specing into leaping for KB protection in your 2nd post and my question would be-Why no Hover? Hover is great KB protection. I mean, not the best, certainly not better than Acro( as I have used both) but why not take that instead of AS?? Unless of course you prefer controlling the universe from the ground.

Other than that, great guide, especially for people starting on this set.

-Mohlvie

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I couldn't remember yer exact slotting specs as I couldn't find this thread for so long so I did mine like so: I'll grab Hurdle and put one slot in that and one in sprint-Jump and Run respectively. Then I throw in CJ with Jump in the default. Thats it!

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Worth adding this nugget i forgot. i always take, well usually, I did with the three toons i mentioned, Swift with this setup and that rounds out the ground speed nicely for me!

I randomly stumbled on this Thread when first posted a few months back and have been looking for it ever since. Glad I found it as I have tried this idea on quite a few toons. Let me share.

25 elec/elec Brute-First toon I tried this on. I did it because I already had the temps from the Mayhem missions and thought is was a cool idea, wanted to try it. Works great! when I got Lightning Reflexes It got even better. Good ground speed and the jump was more than enough to get me up onto most first story rooftops.

23 SS/Dark Brute-He was 18 at the time I did this. He was made pre-i7 so there were no temp travels available yet. i actually respec'd OUT of SJ in favor of this setup, and with the temp travels, im golden.

15 Dark/SR Scrapper-Anything with /SR is a tight build due to the fact that you want to take as many peices of the /SR defense as you can. This was a perfect fit because in order to get what i wanted in my primary and secondary I had decided that Travel had to go.

Having played a while with more than one of every AT, I find this setup to be more than enough to get me where I am going. Granted I havent used it at the 25+ lvls but I cant see it being game-breakingly detrimental.

I couldn't remember yer exact slotting specs as I couldn't find this thread for so long so I did mine like so: I'll grab Hurdle and put one slot in that and one in sprint-Jump and Run respectively. Then I grab CJ and just slot the default with a Jump. Thats it! I'm happy with that.

I like this setup for a few reasons:

-It's great for a Natural type Hero/Villain that really has no 'Super' powers.

-It allows me to Milk the temp travel powers like nobody's business.

-In my DM/SR it covered my Travel AND my Fitness pool requirements before 14 and allowed me to take (not nesecarily a critical lvl 14 power) other powers that are available in and around 14(I was able to take a few powers with a few toons that came up at like 16 or 18) that are very useful instead of later or way early, i.e. it just loosens up some builds nicely.

-Also its a good precursor to SJ/Acro if u decide you want/need to go that route.

With my aforementioned Brutes, they are both quick enough to use only this getting around what I typically do is use this as my main travel and if I need extra verticality or have a longer distance to go I can just dial in one of the temp travels for that trip.

All and all, I think this is a great setup, can't beleive I never thought of it, and will use it wherever deemed necesary. Glad I stumbled back onto this thread today. Nice Work Airman!!


-Mohlvie

Good guide with some good points in it. I agree with and have had similar experiences. About Flavor of the month sets, I agree with you and Bill. I don't think all of those sets are dominated by idiots that are trying to PL and cheat their way thru. However prudence is called for and I can say while I don't think all Fire/Kin controllers are 'Those People' I am wary of inviting them lately and will usually pick a dfferent type of contrller. Have i been influenced adversely? Maybe.

For me 33 with my eyeball on the barrel of 34.

I almost forgot! I am a level 33 Lanscape business owner from Mass.

My primary is MA(Aikido) and my secondary would have to be Hockey in one form or another.

No pics, ive been playing for quite a while and I am admittedly so bad at using the controls in the Forums. I don't know how to do squat, certainly not link things with pics and links with things and, I think you get it.

I never leave the Island(of Nantucket) because i can't tear myself away from CoH for more than a few minutes. However, this idea intrigues me. I think I would actually leave island for a Boston shimmy-sham CoH style. Or Woosta even, catch an IceCats game.

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panthershade is from boston also

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Charlestown here

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The Mighty, Cold, Windy, Grey Island of Nantucket. It's real shaap, guy!

Wow. I have played for a little bit, have toons of all ATs, and of all the guides this is easily the best one i've read. I'm always interested in learning new stuff about any and all ATs i am playing and was really impressed with the info in yer guide.

I just started playing my DM/DA again after a long break. I decided it was time to push him the rest of the way up to 50, and I have become reinvigorated about playing scrappers again, even more so after reading the Bible.

As many people have stated and as i well know, there are so many different ways to build a DM/DA and so many that work great. The build on mine was solid, needed a bit of streamlining powerwise and slotwise and i wanted to do it instead of waiting til 50(48 atm). I gotta tell you, I was blown away by that psychotic Focused Accuracy build you posted as your lvl 50 respec build. I was a bit hesitant at first, I have a blaster with Devices and did something similar but was too nervous to go all the way without Acc enh in my attacks(talkin' Targeting Drone here). I tried 6 different build/slotting schemes last night on test, 3 I got from the Bible, and loved 'em all. Ultimately I am settled on the Focused Accuracy build with OG. It totally rocks hard tasty abs washerboard style!! Lots of fun. So I am throwing the book and my old build out the window in favor of it. That's it! Kudos to you for a great guide!

I would be psyched if you talked about Focused Accuracy a bit more in it. That was the only thing i wanted more testimonial/info about. How it works, how good it is with no Acc enh, end costs, etc.

Also noteworthy-When I got to the section on the Weapon Mastery I absolutly laughed my face off. That whole bit was hysterical, couldn't stop laughing and my chest and stomach were starting to hurt. Very funny and true. Again, great guide and thanks.

-Mohlvie

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[ QUOTE ]
....when people you are playing with go, 'There was a Battlestar Galactica before this one??'

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I refuse to watch the new one because:
1)where the hell is Muffet?!
and 2) STARBUCK IS NOT AN ASIAN CHICK!

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Actually, its pretty darned good. You should give it a try, Mirra.

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It's actually great. I watched the orig as a kidlet religiously. And this show is so well done all across the board-writing, acting, music, FX. Definitly give it a shot if you haven't checked it out. The fact that Starbuck and Boomer (not Bomer, sorry Mirra) are women don't mean squat, it rocks hard tasty Abs washerboard style!

Great guide. I hope people read this. CoH is my first MMO ever, but i have been playing games since before the Atari 2600 came out and this simply is the best game ive ever played, period! In life all things must be accepted as they are. Everything is what it is, that doesn't omit room for change. I've read lots of whining and complaints, and of course there are certain things i would love to see in this game, but for me anyway, thanks are in order to the devs for making one of the best 2 games i've eve played! 50 is not a goal, it's a journey. One that for me has been all about stopping playing one toon and powerset, only to make a different one, because this game allows full flexing of my Imagination muscles, and thats where its at. Thanks again for the great guide Adam, thats all for now

-Sincerely, Mohlverine

Starbuck isn't an asian chick, she's the blonde white chick, Boomer is the asian chick. Boomer in the original was a black guy. But you are right about Muffet, what's up with that?

[/ QUOTE ]

...what about the Captain America movie?

...they call me Yuk-mouth, cuz i dont brush....

....you raced home to watch Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors after school.

....you played with 'Adventure People' as a littl'n

...you had a Big Wheel but really wanted a Green Machine

....you have a toon named '2112'........and nobody gets it.

...you start talking about 'The Shadow' and everyone on the team goes 'Who?'