Finduilas

As Sailboat said, it is pretty easy to soft-cap Shields, especially if you plan to take Tough/Weave. Because you don't have far to go to soft-cap, you have lots of options for how to do it.

For my Shield/Electric build, I did it on the (relative) cheap, using Multistrike for Melee/AoE with 2-slots of Blessing of the Zephyr and Eradication for Ranged def. I also plan to slot the Steadfast +Def, plus 6-slot Build-Up with Gaussian's for 2.5% def to all positions. Note that this is without CJ, so if you do take CJ, you'll need around 3% less in bonuses.

As for when to slot sets, well, that depends in part on whether you have access to enhancement storage. Once I decide on my build, I start buying recipes, and crafting and storing enhancements as soon as I can afford to do so. Then when I reach the level when they can be slotted, I slot 'em.

If I'm on a server where I don't have SG storage, I buy and slot as I go, starting around level 30. Keep in mind that often level 35-45 enhancements will be perfectly adequate for your needs, so there's no reason to only use level 50's and wait until level 47 to slot them.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, guys. It's nice to hear that Home Premium should work with most XP programs; I saw the "Windows XP Mode" mentioned with Professional and Ultimate and wondered if that would be an issue. (My daughter plays a lot of Sims 2, which although it's originally an XP program works pretty well with Vista.)

And I'll keep an eye out for that upgrade multi-pack! My son's laptop was on XP also, but died recently, so I may need a third copy depending on what's installed on his new comp.

Thanks again!

Currently, my computer is running XP and my daughter's laptop is on Vista. The fact that I don't use Vista often or know it well makes it a complete PITA to diagnose problems on her computer.

I'm thinking of upgrading both to Windows 7. I'd like to spend as little as possible on the upgrade, (no surprise!) so would Windows Home Premium be sufficient for most purposes? Both computer are mostly used for gaming (CoH, Sims) internet surfing, etc. I occasionally bring work home and have to run SPSS on my desktop, but nothing more complicated than that.

So would Windows 7 Professional have any real advantages for us over Home Premium?

Thanks for your help!

My son's 2-year old laptop died recently (grr!) and we are in the market for a new one. (I almost wrote "a new son", now wouldn't *that* be Freudian!)

I know the standard specs for a graphics card that will play CoH well, (second number 6 or above, etc.) but my son plays CoH only very occasionally, he spends most of this time with online games, You Tube, etc. Nothing too demanding, graphically.

So I'm willing to compromise on the graphics card a bit to keep the price under $600 or so. I would prefer a dedicated graphics card if possible, but something that will play CoH with the settings turned down a bit would be fine. (For reference, his old computer had a NVidia Go 7600 and a 1.8 Ghz dual core processor.)

Here are some laptops in my price range at NewEgg, let me know what you think:

HP: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834147987
ASUS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220636
MSI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152129

Thanks for your help!

I know you said this is a respec, but unless you're never planning to exemp down, I'd definitely take Fire Sword much earlier. Having to rely on Scorch and Boxing for ST attacks until 35 would not be much fun, IMO. I'd push the Fighting Pool back so you can take another attack earlier.

Also, Obliteration is not a particularly good choice for a typed def build. It takes a lot of slots to get relatively little return, and Oblit as a set is very low in end reduction. I think Eradication is a much better choice, since you get 3.13% E/NE def for just three slots, and you can throw in a couple of Scirocco's to round out the slotting and get the Scirocco's 2-slot regen bonus. Just two sets of Erad will get you to the soft-cap for E/NE.

You're also very close to soft-capping S/L, at this point just a set or two of Smashing Haymaker will put you over the top. But if you go that route, please note that Smashing Haymaker and Kinetic Combat both need additional Accuracy and Damage to be fully slotted, so I'd put another slot in any of the KC or SH attacks you plan to use often.

By the way, CJ really doesn't need to be slotted so heavily. If you need a slot for something else, the Def/End would be a good one to pull.

Lastly, if you are able to soft-cap both S/L and E/NE def, you should consider 3-slotting RPD with Aegis, which will give you a nice F/C def bonus.

With those picks, I'd probably go with Icicles as the last power. Icicles would complement the ice anciliary powers, and give EM some much-needed AoE damage. Besides, Icicles is much more fun than Permafrost!

If you're interested in soft-capping, it still can be done without Weave, and I don't think it'll take all of that 200 million. Let us know when you want to spec out with IOs and we can give you some help if you need it.

My planned build (the character is currently level 32) will have 44.9% S/L def and 44.3 E/NE def without EA. That includes one set of Kinetic Combat and a whole bunch of less expensive IOs.

As Rylas said, Permafrost isn't necessarily a bad pick, it does give a little fire resistance and some slow resistance (which EA also has). IMO, it isn't enough fire resistance to help that much--you'll still definitely have a weakness to fire damage--but it's not entirely useless. I just think there are usually other picks that help more.

If you're using SOs, I'd definitely recommend 6-slotting Hoarfrost 3 Rch/3 Heal. However, using IOs--common or set--you can easily get away with 5 slots instead, just like you can fully slot attacks in 5 slots using IOs.

It would be easier to make suggestions if you could post your build and let us know what your goals are. I tend to assume that players want to soft-cap defense, but I know that's not always the case.

Permafrost is pretty good as a IO mule if there's nothing else you'd like to take. However, I wouldn't just take it for the Steadfast +Def IO, it can also go into Hoarfrost. You could also pick up Tough and put it there; IMO Tough is a lot more beneficial than Permafrost.

Stalling at the loading bar is often associated with WindowsBlinds, or some other Windows skinning program. If you have one of those programs running, turn it off or set it to exclude CoH.

I have two level 50 Invul tanks, both of which have tanked the ITF without the Fighting Pool. So as others have said, it can be done.

The ITF can be a tough TF, especially if you don't know to watch for the Cims' brutal defense debuffs. Reminds me of the first time I tanked Carnies, not knowing about their end drains--it was ugly.

And as Adeon said, Invul had some buffs a while ago, and if your build is not setup to take advantage of them, that could be a problem too.

I second the suggestion that you drop by the tanker forum and ask for advice--we're very friendly! Lots of people there could give you some suggestions on how to optimize your build without the Fighting Pool or IOs.

I think this is the first time I've seen a build with *exactly* 45% defense.

Looks good, I think this build will work very well for you.

Hope you've got reeaally deep pockets, because the BotZ -KB alone--which, BTW, Invul does *not* need--will probably cost you 100 million inf.

Your power order and selection is pretty good, though I'd take Tough Hide as soon as it's available. Either ResEl or ResEn can be delayed to make room for it.

For tanks, the benchmark is soft-capping with one foe in range of Invinc, by that metric this build does hit the soft-cap for S/L with CJ toggled. Be warned, though, that some pieces of Kinetic Combat are currently very expensive and hard to find. Putting together 3 sets will be a challenge, so if you're using Boxing primarily as a IO mule, consider using the KD proc in place of one of the other enhancements. And note that the attacks that are four-slotted with KC are underslotted for Acc and Damage, so I'd recommend adding another slot to Haymaker at the very least.

6-slotting Touch of Death is a very expensive way to get 1.88% S/L def. I'd use 4 slots of Smashing Haymaker instead, which has the same bonus for a fraction of the cost. SH has the same problem as KC regarding Acc and Damage, but if you add an additional slot you'll still have a free slot to use somewhere else.

As I mentioned above, the BotZ -KB is very expensive and absolutely not needed for Invul. And since F/C damage is the least common other than Psi and Toxic, I'd pull that slot and use it elsewhere.

Again, F/C def should be a low priority, so instead of 5 Scirocco's in FootStomp, I'd slot 3 Eradication plus 2 Scirocco's, which will give you a nice E/NE def bonus.

Both Weave and Tough Hide are very underslotted for defense, an odd choice considering that you're buying expensive IOs to get defense bonuses. I'd put 4 slots in Weave and 3 in Tough Hide. While any defense set will do, I prefer the bonuses in GotA and LotG over Red Fortune. Something to consider, anyway.