Grey Pilgrim

You're welcome!

And actually, the benefit of Temperature Protection is more from its slow resist of 20% (it's also an easy place to drop a -KB IO). I have that and the Winter's Gift IO (not sure how easy that is to get right now, as you get it via the Christmas/Winter Event: probably rather expensive), so it's nice having 40% resist to slows. You'll probably like that too since you like things recharging fast.

Personally, I go the Combat Jumping/Super Jump route with all my tanks, since they all go for stacking defense as high as possible (Willpower and Invuln are no brainers for this). It's nice for a Fire/Fire if you're going for defense, too. Just Weave and Combat Jumping alone get you to 10% to all positions and Psi damage, so I just had to pick up ~12% to all those to get in the low 20s for defense, which is quite noticeable. I thought it was worthwhile before set bonuses, and it's even more so now.

But that's your call... I don't really care for Hasten's end drain (end management being tricky enough on Tanks, usually), and I still dislike it from the days of when everyone advocated taking it at the start of the game. If you have a non-IO set build, it can be kind of nice to have if you go the more offensive route and Fireball, as it does have a 32 second recharge.

Boy, the 2nd raid in RWZ 2 was something else. I led and the pylons went down just fine once people started paying attention to the Request channel (I think zero people moved when I called out the first pylon... I had to yell in Broadcast a bit to get people moving). But after that, we had a lot of Magi spawning in, and people just wouldn't rez to the hospital as I kept telling them to. We managed to get a bomb for all the teams, beat Ukron or whatever his name is, and get everyone to the middle, just in time.

Still, it felt rough to me maybe because I wasn't on my Tank this time around (I was on a blaster, which is always squishy, especially when SK'd), nor did my team have its own tank. Not sure how many SKs the other teams had, either, but we had a few. I am a tad disgusted with how long people were taking to get to the hospital... and 2 teammates. I had one hanging out at the costume changer DURING the raid, and one teammate, who was also a mentor, quit with five minutes to go.

Oh well. Wish Dirtball had been on to help organize things... it felt more smooth last time.

Happy belated B-day!

Yeah, I don't think anyone would argue that EM is suddenly overpowered because Whirling Hands drew even with Combustion (or even went over it... halfway or all the way to FSC). I know my Fire tank wouldn't be jealous, as it could easily outdo my EM tank in a group.

Okay, here's my second build, since the forums got confused when I tried two builds in one post. I should add that my first build is probably going to have one change at this point... for Fire Sword Circle, I think I'm going to put in a set of Obliteration rather than Multi-Strike... a bit more accuracy, recharge, and melee defense wouldn't hurt, though FSC will cost more endurance with that change.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Wall of Fire Offensive Build: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Shield -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(3), ResDam-I(15), ResDam-I(19), ResDam-I(25)
Level 1: Scorch -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(46), Dmg-I(46)
Level 2: Fire Sword -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(9), Dmg-I(11), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 4: Combustion -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(5), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(13), EndRdx-I(40)
Level 6: Healing Flames -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), Heal-I(15), Heal-I(17), Heal-I(19), EndRdx-I(33)
Level 8: Consume -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(9), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(43), EndMod-I(50)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Plasma Shield -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(13), ResDam-I(17), ResDam-I(27), ResDam-I(27)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Run-I(A)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Blazing Aura -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(23), EndRdx-I(23), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(34), Dmg-I(42)
Level 24: Temperature Protection -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 26: Taunt -- Taunt-I(A), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 28: Fire Sword Circle -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(29), Dmg-I(29), Dmg-I(31), Dmg-I(31), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 30: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 32: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 35: Incinerate -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(37), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(40), EndRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Char -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(42), Hold-I(43)
Level 44: Melt Armor -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(45), EndRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Fire Ball -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(48), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(50), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Rise of the Phoenix -- Heal-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet

"Wrong" is very subjective, especially for a Fire/Fire Tank. What is your goal for this hero? Do you want him to be the main tank for an 8-man team? Do you want a tough, Scrapperish type character?

If you want to Tank for a big team or for TFs, I really do recommend that you pick up Tough and/or Weave. You can be quite offensive still by doing so, and you can take a lot of punishment... I've tanked pretty much every scenario in this game (well, not Hamidon, but I'm not that keen on that encounter) by taking those.

However, you CAN kind of have the best of both worlds. I have my main tank build that I finally finished IOing out, and then a secondary "offensive" build where I grabbed a bunch of the offensive powers from the Pyre Mastery set.

I'll post both builds below, but a couple things about your build right now (if that's the general way you want it set up). I'd drop Burn and Breath of Fire and get Incinerate and and Fireball. You should definitely have Incinerate in any build, as that is one of your main ST powers. It's a DoT, of course, but that just means you should use that power first against a hard target. Not taking it is a glaring hole in your abilities. Fire Ball is easier to leverage as it has more range and is a Targeted AOE (rather than a short range cone). BoF does recharge faster, but I've found Fireball to be more useful (and it doesn't have that weird animation, either). Oh, and Burn is really only useful for damage if you're facing something that does not get fear (an AV, usually) or if you have some source of immobilization yourself. That's just too many difficulties to me... I'd rather use the other powers that will always hit reliably without a lot of setup.

Oh, and I don't think you need Hasten. Most of your powers can recharge fine with good slotting, and IO set bonuses can help reduce this even further, without the end drain caused by Hasten.

Anyway, here are my two builds for you. The first is my tough Tanker build, the second is my more offensive build (which can dish out more, but not take as much punishment as the first build). The second build is not yet using IO sets, as that's my next project for this hero. He runs just fine with basic IOs.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Grey Pilgrim Switchover: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Shield -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam(3), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(15), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(19), ImpArm-ResPsi(40)
Level 1: Scorch -- F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg(A)
Level 2: Healing Flames -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(A), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(3), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), H'zdH-Heal/Rchg(17), H'zdH-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(33)
Level 4: Combustion -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(13), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(15), Sciroc-Dam%(42)
Level 6: Fire Sword -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(7), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Dam%(37)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A)
Level 10: Consume -- P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(11), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(23), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(27), P'Shift-EndMod(34), RechRdx(45)
Level 12: Plasma Shield -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(13), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(23), ImpArm-ResDam(25), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), ImpArm-ResPsi(42)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-ResKB(42), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(46), Winter-ResSlow(50)
Level 16: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Temperature Protection -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A)
Level 24: Blazing Aura -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(34), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(43), Sciroc-Dam%(46)
Level 26: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(27)
Level 28: Fire Sword Circle -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(29), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(31), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(46)
Level 30: Boxing -- Acc(A)
Level 32: Tough -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam(33), TtmC'tng-EndRdx(33), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(43), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(43), TtmC'tng-EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 35: Incinerate -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(36), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(37), T'Death-Dam%(37)
Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(40), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Char -- G'Wdw-Acc/Rchg(A)
Level 44: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(45)
Level 47: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def(48), RedFtn-EndRdx(48), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(48), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(50), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Rise of the Phoenix -- Heal(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet

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A short film my brother in law worked hard on was being shown at the Detroit/Windsor International Fill Festival. We went out to dinner with he and my sister first, so I'm missed this one. I would LOVE to be in on the next one..

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Ship Raid 6/28 8pm est

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Are you from the FUTURE?

Edit: Though re-reading the OP, this particular raid is for August 28th anyway

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True, though the title of the thread is for 6/28. Arggggh! When is it really for?

If there's enough, we can always try for a raid in RWZ 2 like last time. I'm not willing to show up 30 minutes before a raid just to try and get in, so I'll join a second if it goes.

Bah, tough call.

I liked Juggertha's, but it strikes me more of a picture of someone LOOKING at a movie poster, rather than a poster itself. Being technical, perhaps, but that was a part of this. I do like the picture quite a bit, however... hehe, and the humor (eat your hear out, Statesman!). At least, I assume that's supposed to be poke at the developer formally known as Statesman, having to look on at the great stuff developers like Matt Miller and Bianca Jones are doing. If not, maybe I'm reading into it too much.

Aprosaath's is nice as well. I think it kind of feels like an SE Hinton novel cover as well, but maybe that's the look of the covers I've seen? Not sure.

I'm down between Lousy Day and Tricky Tacky. I think I have to go with Tricky Tacky just because that image really pops. Lousy's text looks great, but the helmet doesn't quite pop out as much as I'd like. Hard call, though. Lousy does such great work!

No problem! When using the wiki, try varying up your search terms... I didn't find that using the term "day cycle," which is the first I used. I got it by searching for "time." It helped that I knew that page was in there somewhere, but that's a good thing to remember when using any type of search engine (hopefully that all was helpful, too, sorry if it wasn't).

QR

Mine would be the son of a world famous magician: the magical, the majestic, the mysterious, Magistero! As you might imagine, he had fun with the Magic booster set, to look even more like a classic magician as he controls his opponents with the powers of Earth and Storm.

Heh, I was thinking of adjectives to describe a magician, and those three somehow melded into "Magistero." Fun stuff when the mind works like that.

Paragon Wiki also provides your answer.

I could be wrong, but it might be the map, since they also use that map in one of the RWZ story arcs. I can't recall if it's like that there as well, or if it's only at the end of the LGTF. I know I and several others at least have had the same issue with that last mission of the LGTF as well.

QR

I'm also curious as to whether Tough or Aid Self is more needed for an Elec/Elec. I have one that I just started up as well, and I'm trying to get in the low 20s for all my positional defense, but I was hoping to pick up Summon Striker from my Patron set, and I don't think I can get Aid Self and Tough if I do that. Grrr. I'm a bit torn about what to do.

Yeah, it looks like all the retail things I'm seeing have both and aren't OEM.

This happened to me and a few teammates on Johnny Sonata's mission where you get Akarist from the Longbow in FBZ. Depending on how I moved the camera, mobs would appear and disappear, so it wasn't draw limit or anything like that. Some of my teammates were having the same issue (also, I could see all my teammates attacking mobs that I could not see... my AOEs were hitting them as well, so it's a purely visual thing).

Yeah, when I tanked STF, while my team takes out the towers, I have my damage aura off. I'm just taunting and minding my defense and resist levels, as well as healing when needed (he hits hard enough sometimes that my Fire/Fire did that when a heal from my support teammate was still recharging). Doing that, I had no banes spawn. Once the towers were done, I move Recluse to a back corner where we dropped him pretty easily.

Ah, see, I noticed it mentioned 32-bit and 64-bit in the hardware requirements, but I wasn't sure if that meant it would work for either or not. I didn't want to just assume, but this all clears it up. Thanks, all. I'm probably going with the Home Premium as I don't really have anything that would need to run XP (unless I have some old PC games that won't run otherwise, but I'm not sure if that will be worth it). I don't really remote desktop, either. Not to mention spending $50 less is a good idea for me right now.

I think part of the problem with the changes to EM is that people were used to doing gobs (relatively) of damage in a very quick animation for ET. It still does good damage (more than KO Blow, which I'm never going to complain about damagewise), you just have to wait a little longer. One second for ET was out of whack, but of course, people were used to it.

EM is also pretty solid for stunning... I'm able to stun minions and LTs with my attacks much more often than I am with War Mace (which is okay for WM, as it has some Knockup and Knockdown). Still, it's something that tends to get overlooked with EM, I've noticed.

I do like that Barrage does damage now (it felt like you were sneezing on your target before, for all the damage it did), but the extra recharge does throw you off from what you had before. Before, you could have a nearly seamless attack chain with just Barrage, Energy Punch, and Bone Smasher. Now, there are fairly large gaps, which can be frustrating always, but especially at lower levels. Once you start slotting for recharge and have more than 3 attacks, it's a lot better (and Barrage continues to have a use, I would say).

As for longer animations, I think people just need to adjust a bit... some people don't like them, but I learned a long time ago how to use the Shadow Maul animation, use all of Incinerate's damage ticks, etc.

So a lot of it is perception (according to my perception, heh). There is probably room to debate whether it does enough ST damage to outweigh its very lackluster AOE, however.

*added* Kruunch, Combustion has a fairly long animation, three seconds. Interestingly, Fire Sword Circle is only .33 seconds shorter, but it always feels a lot shorter than Combustion. At any rate, it does less damage than FSC and has a longer animation.

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QR

I'm confused... is Windows 7 just 64-bit ready no matter what? All the pre-order things I've been seeing on Newegg and Best Buy don't mention 32 or 64 bit, and I was wanting to move up to 64 bit so Windows will see all 4 GB of my ram. Can anyone help clarify this?

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As I recall, both versions are in the same package.

[/ QUOTE ]For retail it is not oem. For that you have to specify. Either way if you dont get the one you want you can always request the other disc from microsoft directly for a small fee. Remember its the disc you use that determines whether its 64 bit or not, the key just determines what flavor of vista/windows 7 you get (home premium, ultimate, business, upgrade or full install).

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If that's the case, I really don't understand why two major suppliers of computer software, etc. do not let you specify. On Newegg's site, for instance, you can choose between pre-ordering the Home Premium and Professional edtitions... that's all I'm seeing. They don't have 32-bit or 64-bit versions to choose from. I searched around in their software section and searched a bit, but that's all I see. Same for Best Buy.

QR

I'm confused... is Windows 7 just 64-bit ready no matter what? All the pre-order things I've been seeing on Newegg and Best Buy don't mention 32 or 64 bit, and I was wanting to move up to 64 bit so Windows will see all 4 GB of my ram. Can anyone help clarify this?

QR

Procs are usually worthwhile on quick recharging attacks, as they have more of a likelihood of going off. Jab definitely fits that description. You can also find logic of doing this with long recharging attacks (like KO Blow), as it makes the activation even more worthwhile when the proc goes off.

I think Jab, Punch, and KO Blow all have procs in my Shield/SS build, though I had the further encouragement to put those in to get my defenses to the softcap from defense bonuses. At any rate, they're a nice bonus and I have good recharge, endurance reduc, etc. on all of them as well.

Yeah, I figured they latched on to that one because of all the crazy special effect things they could do with it, like the other recent Dr. Seuss movies. *sighs* G and PG movies are moneymakers because families can take their kids to them, so they'll just keep making these things. Bruce Campbell will probably be his usual entertaining self in it, but that doesn't overcome my disgust with the premise.

Bah, looking at this list, it makes me depressed. Used to be there were a decent amount of movies every summer (let alone a year) that I wanted to go to, but I'm feeling kind of meh for yet another year... been the case for a long while now.

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I only cited Champions as a game that made it possible (possible does not equal CERTAIN) to create very different characters of equal capability.

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CoH does the same thing. Archetypes and power combinations work in very different ways- offensive/defensive, support/solo- but are relatively equal in capability. Any combination of characters can form an effective team.

Yes, they're far from perfectly balanced, but MMOs are forever a work in progress when it comes to that.

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Yeah, I'm a little confused as to how he's not seeing this possibility with CoX. I have Tankers, Scrappers, Blasters, Controllers, Masterminds, and a Stalker that can solo or team effectively in this game. They all look and play differently as well, so there is a lot of variation available to us.

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I don't think Team DC was that bad with splitting last night. I wasn't even dying that much, and I was -2 to -3 the whole night!

I will say this, though: the rumors of DC's team sniping skills have been greatly exaggerated.

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Meh, you stopped being a healer, so you can ignore how badly split the team is. It becomes glaringly obvious to me when I keep trying to heal someone and I can't. So you can hopefully take my word about gaining some gray hairs.