Eek a Mouse

Also note that if you ZIP (or otherwise compress) your old logfiles they will be reduced in size quite a bit. I used to log all of my chat in EverQuest. I was a guild officer and raid leader and always needed to refer back to our chat. I had many gigabytes of log files, but each month I would put them in a folder and add it to a .ZIP archive. they were usually reduced 90% or more. Log files are perfect for this kind of compression because they are plain text with lots of repeated patterns.

As far as set IOs, I will slot them as early as 15. A level 21 dual aspect IO has a total enhancement value greater than that of an SO. As long as I value both aspects, I'll slot a dual aspect IO at 18 and never have to worry about it again (although it will surely get replaced in the 30s-40s). Two level 21 DAM/ACC IOs are better than one Damage SO and one Accuracy SO, and can be slotted 4 levels earlier and never wear out. Obviosly this isn't optimal if one of the aspects of the IO is less useful (range, end, recharge on a toggle/auto).

Similarly, a triple aspect IO at level 18 (slotted at 15) provides more benefit than an equivalent SO.

The "Current level" setting has always had some variability in it, where you could face enemies as low as -2 (green minions, blue LTs, white bosses) and as high as +1 (yellow minions, orange LTs, red bosses). Sounds like you were just fighting enemies at the high point of the range.

Don't think of it as setting the level of your enemies. Think of it as modifying your perceived level, just as the teammates option modifies your perceived team size.

It used to be that missions would either start lower and progress to higher levels, or the opposite. I remember quite a few "frontloaded" missions where I'd start out frustrated facing really tough enemies and by the end of the mission I'd be breezing through them barely stopping.

I have a buddy who roleplays a malfunctioning robot hero. He has self-destruct set on autofire. Every hour he blows up, no matter what he is doing.

See also: http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Malfunctioning_Eddie

Also it was strongly hinted by Sexy Jay that a future booster pack would be street gang/urban in theme, and it is assumed that would be for the Natural pack.

The only defender I have with the snipe is Moonbeam on my Dark/Dark, and that's only because of the extreme range. Moonbeam and Psionic Lance are the longest range snipes, and its base range (175 feet) is longer than most other attacks can get to at the ED cap (160-ish). I use it regularly to hit targets I can't even see, and it makes pulling the 4 AVs on the STF pretty straightforward.

Other than that, I have little use for a snipe on a defender.

I love the snipes on my archery and AR blasters, but as much for the look and feel as the effects. When my archer draws back the bow, the animation during the interrupt time has a little shake in the arms as if she is drawing at the absolute limit of her strength. It just looks so awesome.

My AR blaster is named "Outlaw Sniper" so she needed that power. Even without Aim+Buildup, the boost from Targeting Drone makes the damage acceptable. I LOVE using her on the ITF. The snipe is a one shot kill on Surgeons, so while someone is pulling the generals to the bridge on the third mission, she is stealthed and picking off the healers one by one. Boom, headshot! Boom, headshot! It is such a kick watching a Surgeon go flying back and the other ones nearby turn and try to heal... too late! Boom, headshot!

Yeah, sorry for the snarky reply. I thought you were serious about wanting to spam the AE room with your aura heal.

Let me agree with what has been said here already:

1) Although at low levels (and to people coming from other games) heals may seem the most attractive damage mitigator, by later levels they are the least effective.

2) Every "healer" has better things to do than heal, even Empathy defenders, who have some awesome buffs and blasts. There's nothing more boring than a "Pure Healer" defender on a team that doesn't need heals

3) Auto-fire heal auras are the worst of the worst. Not only are they inefficient and annoying, but they rarely go off when or where they would be useful, and when they are needed they are usually unavailable.

I bought a little digital kitchen timer at Target for $10. It shows the current time, but also has a really simple countdown feature that I use when I am playing a buffing class.

I set the timer for 3m 50s and start the countdown when I start buffing. When the alarm goes off, I have 10 seconds before buffs start fading. It auto resets to 3:50 so I just have to press the button twice -- once to silence the alarm and once to restart.

When I am not buffing, it is a regular clock (although I have it set to Western Australia time since I have other clocks around and I have friends in Perth).

Perhaps you should check out this thread:

How to Silence Specific Game Sounds
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=113746

I have turned off most auras and toggle sounds, most of Sonic blast, the Portal corps ambient "railroad" noises, the waterfall roar, the sewer water splash, the Huge-model jump effect, boombox music, and various other irritants. There are still lots of effects in the game, but the most annoying ones are gone.

1) Healing Aura from Empathy or Radiant Aura from Radiation Emission. Both are defender primaries and controller secondaries.

Don't do that.

2) Maybe no one invites you because you are the kind of person who wants to spam healing auras in populated places.

I start in with common IOs at level 12 (lvl 15 IOs), adding in SOME set IOs at level 20 or so -- multi-aspect set IOs (ACC/DAM) at this level are more powerful than SOs, although single aspect IOs are not. But I rarely worry about set bonuses until I get above level 30. The lower level IOs just don't have set bonuses that are attractive enough for me to worry about them.

Above level 30 I buy some IOs for the set bonuses, planning for the future. Since IO sets with good bonuses usually have a few very rare or expensive pieces, I will usually fill in those spaces with cheaper IOs from other sets (aka "frankenslotting") until I can get my hands on the rare IO. So even though I am working on set IOs from level 30 on, many of my powers won't get their full set bonuses until the 40s. Rarely do I wait until 50 though, since my level 50s are generally retired.

Considering DB and WP came out at the same time, I often think of them as "thematic", and there are a lot of characters out there with that combo. And as noted above, there is good reason for it: they work well together.

DB/SR is a very tight build, which means it is hard to fit in Tough/Weave, Hasten, Aid Self, or the new Physical Perfection APP power (not saying you need any of those, but lots of people like them). DB/WP is less tight but you still don't have a lot of room for pool powers -- good news is you don't need them.

I hope the natural pack includes a phone booth costume change emote.

Although I talked with a student the other day who had never seen or even heard of a phone booth. He was 13.