GavinRuneblade

Late to the party but need a new laptop to play CoH. Yes I understand the cost and power advantages of a desktop. No I don't want one.

1. What will you primarily be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
CoH + MS Office (Includes PowerPoint but not Visio). Lots of online junk such as the D&D online character builder, a wordpress blog, and occasional streamed movies via netflix. Far and away City is the most compute-intensive activity. Don't watch movies via DVD, but it's nice to be able to archive things that way. I may pick up Adobe Creative Suite, but usually I don't do much with it.

Ideally a docking station would be available so I can plug into a second monitor and bigger screen, plus I have an external harddrive (usb) etc. but this is a nice-to-have.

2. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$2,000 USD, and yes Tax and shipping included (I'm in Hawaii so tax is 4.5% flat and shipping is double or triple anywhere else in the US).

3. Where do you live? This is important as it affects what vendors you may buy from and how much shipping costs might be.
Oahu, Hawaii.

4. Are you planning to buy or build?
Buy. Have built 4 or 5 computers, and I pray I will never do so again as long as I live.

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need. If you're unsure what exactly you need, say so.
Doesn't need to run all graphics settings at max, but High or near to it would be ideal. Really, just needs to beat my current crap system (4g ram, 2.8ghz dual core Intel, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro) and I don't want to give any more money to ATI.

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A

7. Will you be overclocking?
Hope not.

8. What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? What is the resolution?
Laptop, request you tell me.

9. When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I'm patient. If there's a reason to wait two or three months, I'll wait. But would prefer immediately.

10. What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Need? Nothing is a need.

11. Any specific must-have features? Must be able to max out Ultra-Mode? Must have 6+GB of RAM? Must have an SSD? etc.

As close to max ultra mode would be nice, but really, high is good enough.

12. Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to use?
Always loved the Sony Vaio's but never known them to be worthwhile gaming rigs. Other than that, I prefer a brand whose name the general public is likely to recognize over some random el-cheapo-here-for-less-than-a-year-but-damn-we're-cheap brand.

13. Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to avoid?
Anything with an ATI video card.

14. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? (Note: If your current OS came with your computer, odds are that it is NOT transferable.)
I have a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate that is legit and reusable. But I'd rather not. =) New license of Windows 7 would be ideal.

I did look at the one Shred Monkey proposed and am seriously considering it. Are there any alternatives that have a docking station option and a little more oomph (stronger processor and/or graphics card)? I did see the same line has a higher model, but it's $1790.00 for I'm not sure how much better. Doesn't look like twice the performance and if I'm paying that much more it really ought to be.

Thanks for any help!

Yup, and I have no plans to use any of the new stuff.

I know the new travel pool powers are cool AoEs, which we need. But none of my current stalkers have room for them. Hell, I'm still trying to get murky cloud to fit into my /dark's build =) and I think that takes precedence.

I don't have any currently and have no plans to build any /ea or /ice characters.

If they will look at our max HP and overall damage of all primary sets then I'll consider going to test and talking. Just to look at and balance the new stuff? Nope.

My take on the original question is this: I don't test anything ever, and never will.

I get so little time in game that I'm sure as hell not going to waste it where I don't get to keep the rewards I earn and can't be teamed with my friends.

I also feel that while the devs understand the players as a whole, and are generally very successful at helping the player base as a whole, there are a few sub-groups they either ignore, or marginalize, or don't understand. These include Base builders, Badgers, PvPrs, Kheldians and Stalkers.

One way I keep my roots both control and damage, is like you 5x posi, but instead of trap of the hunter, I added the grav anchor chance to hold. The effect is very nice. I do like your extra damage concept too. =)

I'd recommend pulling the 3rd slot from haste, adding it to charged armor and going with 4x reactive armor.

On chain induction, go with 4x kinetic combat, and two of something that gives accuracy. I like either the mako quad or triple and proc myself. But there's a lot of options.Touch of death's proc is not terribly effective, especially since you're already doing energy rather than lethal damage. It's appeal is that it is not as resisted, but you don't need that. and the S/L defense from kinetic helps you much more than the melee from touch of death.

The chance for stun in powersink pretty much doesn't help. I tried it all different ways, in lightning field, in powersink, in charged brawl... Just all around unimpressed with it. I forget if it takes taunt sets or not on brutes. If it does, consider dropping taunt, and slot a taunt set into it.

On Ball Lightning, will the proc be better than dam/range? I'm not sure but it might be.

401% without speed boost is too much. =)


Anything else is only too much if it is taking away from another bonus, as has already been mentioned.

Edit: Unless I'm mistaken, the hardcap to recharge is 400%.

I check level 50, 45, and 40 price to purchase when I want to slot a common IO before I craft it. Why? Because often I can buy below crafting cost. I'll take whichever one is currently cheapest even if that means paying level 50 price from yesterday for the level 40 today, if the level 50 is even higher today.

I sort of fall into FourSpeed's third group. Post level 40, the difference in bonus isn't relevant to me. To be honest, in most cases the different past level 20 isn't relevant to me, I just like that IOs never expire and don't have origin limits.

But 9/10 times I go for a set not a common.

I'm a little like Leo: I use a big bag of tricks to minimize the number actually attacking. And I usually don't do x8 style groups solo. If I ever have to, I use insps and temp powers as fast as I can click them.