Katie V

I'll have to disagree with all of the above, and say "no".

Win7 is a significant improvement over Vista, but assuming you're reasonably competent with computer security, it doesn't offer any "must-have" benefits over XP yet. Sooner or later, somebody will start providing software you need that doesn't work with XP, but until then, I'd wait.

As a side note, you say you're dual-booting Ubuntu? Be sure you back everything up before you upgrade: the Windows installer doesn't play nicely with other operating systems.

The side effect of this is that they are also unaffected by recharge debuffs. This makes pets very nice to have against things like Council Marksmen and others with -recharge attacks.

This happened recently on a Baby New Year mission.

We had an eight-person pickup group consisting of my MA/Regen scrapper, a Warshade, and assorted other types. As we were clearing the frosties out of the central cave of the BNY map, somebody accidentally aggroed a Shadow Cyst crystal.

Teamwipe.

"Okay, let's regroup and try that again"

Teamwipe.

"Let's try pulling the frosties to clear things out"

Teamwipe.

"This is starting to get annoying"

After the third teamwipe, I'd bought a tray-full of purple inspirations. The rest of the team faceplanted, and I spent the next few minutes feeling like I was in the middle of a bubble -- nothing was touching me. I was vaguely aware that three members of the team had quit, and that the team leader was talking about resetting the mission. During that time, I wiped out the last of the frosties, most of the Nictus spawn, a handful of Redcaps, and the crystal, at which point I faceplanted -- those things pack a punch when they go down. That was enough that the rest of the team was able to clear out the room, at which point I rezzed and we were able to finish the mission.

I can play villains just fine. I just can't play the sort of villain that the CoV story arcs seem designed for.

My villains are typically motivated by a desire for power. If you get in the way of one of my villains, he'll remove you as efficiently as possible. If you stay out of his way, he'll ignore you (and might even help you, if doing so would increase his power).

The CoV missions I've encountered seem to be designed for amoral mercenaries or sociopaths, and totally at odds with the motivation of my villains -- you don't gain power by being somebody's lackey. The only CoV character I've gotten beyond level 20 did so through a mix of newspaper missions and MA arcs.

I suggest making sure it's the sound card that's at fault: crackling and popping are usually either a bad connection between the speakers and the card, or drivers that aren't providing sound information to the card as steadily as they should.

Pretty much any pairing of a damage dealer (scrapper, blaster) with a protector (tank, controller, defender) will work. Scrapper/blaster and scrapper/scrapper pairings can work, but require both parties to coordinate well. Tank/tank, controller/controller, and defender/defender pairings will be highly survivable, but won't be too fast at taking down enemies. Blaster/blaster pairings have problems with survivability, but will tear through enemies incredibly fast.

Powers seem to come in four varieties:
1) Powers that can be cast while airborne, at an airborne target. Most powers are in this category.
2) Powers that can be cast while airborne, at a grounded target. Most pet and pseudo-pet summons are in this category.
3) Powers that can be cast while airborne but in contact with the ground. The only one I've found is Gun Drone, but there are probably others.
4) Powers that cannot be cast while airborne. The Ouro portal is one of these, as is "throw snowball".

A level 25 common IO is about as effective as an even-level SO -- in short, the game is balanced so you can complete most normal content using them. Good frankenslotting is more effective than SOs/common IOs, so you should be more effective there.

As for the Aegis set, ED comes into play here: both a full level 25 set and a full level 50 set are solidly into the ED cap for resistance. The only difference is that the level 50 set gives 25% lower endurance use and faster recharge.

The benefit of staying with level 25 IOs is that you get the set bonuses as long as you're not exemplared down to level 22 or lower. The benefit of going with higher level ones is you can try to do absurd things like soloing GMs and AVs, or running at +4/x8 difficulty.

This could be tricky: with me along, the team has plenty of knockback/knockdown, but not much else for mitigation. BP are nicely vulnerable to being knocked around, and do mostly (IIRC) smashing and lethal damage, which the tank should be about 50% resistant to. Thorns, on the other hand, tend to have exotic damage types, and the ghosts are immune to knockback.

Against BP spawns, the tank, the defender, and I could all take the alpha: M30 Grenade lets me put half of them on their backs, Freezing Rain lets the defender do the same, and the tank simply has good survivability. After that, I concentrate on whatever is the biggest threat.

Against Thorns, especially ghost-heavy spawns, it's harder. I'm not sure what I'd do.

The to-hit rolls are made at the beginning of the animation. This is most obvious with ranged attacks against a moving target: an attack that will hit will curve to follow the target, while an attack that will miss will go in a straight line. Damage and other effects are applied when the attack hits, though, so you can, for example, see a hold attack coming and pop a breakfree ahead of time.