Necrotron

CoH will only use two of the cores. That said, even two Phenom cores at that speed will probably best whatever you currently have.

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Interesting discussion. Will be even more interesting seeing where all these characters end up living in the future .

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I have an idea what this means, but it's SO out there. I mean, even more far fetched than a moon base, so I'll neither tell other people what it is nor gets my hopes up.

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You thinking single unified server across all continents? Seems damn unlikely, but weeelll....

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I can hope. But... no. More far fetched.

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Interesting discussion. Will be even more interesting seeing where all these characters end up living in the future .

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I have an idea what this means, but it's SO out there. I mean, even more far fetched than a moon base, so I'll neither tell other people what it is nor gets my hopes up.

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Something to do with the phrase "in the future" perhaps?

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In that I mean time travel? No. In that I mean something absolutely HUGE and infeasible to pull off? Yes. At best I can hope that it happens on a scale of years, being added in 2010. So in that sense, in the far future. That's how 'out there' my idea is.

I ain't spilling the beans, as people will just get disappointed when it doesn't happen. Plus I don't want to look stupid. >_>

EDIT: OH. I see what you mean now. Damnit, now my brain is on overdrive thinking about that.

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Interesting discussion. Will be even more interesting seeing where all these characters end up living in the future .

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I have an idea what this means, but it's SO out there. I mean, even more far fetched than a moon base, so I'll neither tell other people what it is nor gets my hopes up.

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They're announcing that they'll announce something on Wednesday...

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I will eat your soul.

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*settles in to read document* ooooo, shiny!

Can't wait to read your reactions .

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...

KHAAAAAAAAAAN!

Good news. It's all officially launched now. We've got ForceWare 177.83 WHQL, which includes PhysX 8.08.01. Get them here. They also have tech demos to show off your swanky new PhysX abilities.

Hopefully these new drivers fix the CoH issue.


Yep, all fixed. Though I still can't get CoH to run in hardware PhysX mode. I tried manually copying a new PhysXcore.dll file into the City of Heroes directory, but the updater had a fit and fixed it back. Even if I replaced it when the updater was done, no dice; the game must see that it's not the CoH .dll file. I only bring this up because doing so enables PhysX in UT3.

It wouldn't me too much effort for NCNC to use the new PhysX .dll, but I'd rather they focus on this world-beating I13.

9800GTX users (any card with a G92 chip, that's 8800GT and newer) have had access to PhysX for a few weeks now. Install the latest driver, along with the latest PhysX driver from nVidia (not officially out yet, look on guru3d), set it to use the GeForce, and y'am off. These new drivers add support for G80 chips, that being 8800GTX and GTS.

I can't tell you if this works with CoH, but in theory if you replaced the PhysX DLLs in the CoH directory with newer ones it would work. They used a similar technique to get UT3 running PhysX on early drivers. I'm not trying that though.

Also, beware the Forceware 177.79, they break CoH!

I messed about with that a long time ago, and hated it. Nothing worked correctly, pretty much every game I had needed to be excluded, and 3DS Max failed so hard it broke a few laws of physics. The clincher was that Steam didn't run with WB installed, exception or not. All that and it bogged my system down, just to get a pale imitation of Vista's transparent theme.

This is probably why I think Aero in Vista is the best thing since sliced bread, as it does everything Stardock set out to do, but gloriously better.

Trust me, uninstall this filth. If you want to customise your XP theme past the norm, I recommend this site. The themes are free, and use XP's standard windowing engine, so they won't bog your system down or interfere with anything. There are a few ways to install the themes, but I'd use this, as it's free and fairly easy to use.

I ruddy hope this is an isolated problem... I just got everything set up as I like it on 177.79. You'll have my verdict in a few moments! (sounds.pigg failed a checksum and now it's checking everything...)

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to enable physx in cox you actually need a physx card

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Bit o' background here. nVidia bought Ageia ages ago, and recently got PhysX running on their graphics cards. Any 8000 or newer can do that. I've been waiting for some useful GPGPU stuff for a long while.

Some crazy modders got it running on the new Radeons as well, though it was very slow, nothing more than a quick hack. That said, nVidia are open to other companies using PhysX, even if they're Canadian and red (ATi).

(If you care about such things, the GPU will split the workload between graphics and physics to give you the best FPS that it can - it's already designed to balance a good ten thousand things at once.)


EDIT: Damn and blast. It's exactly as FFM said, all up in the top left corner.

EDIT THE SECOND: Dagnabbit, even fudging the registry to get CoH in windowed mode doesn't help!

That's a pretty good idea, but it may be annoying if you both try to equip the same henchmen at the same time. It also might not work thematically; I wouldn't imagine an Oni carries ninjitsu equipment around with him.

I always thought the simpler suggestion would be the ability to store pets away once upgraded. This removes the zoning penalty and doesn't benefit combat at all. You can run with your team in a mission to the first group, drop your pets in besides you, and start Masterminding. Then, should one of them die, your only choice is to re-summon and re-equip, with all the delay that entails.

A 30 foot PBAoE mag 20 Fear attack which causes Superior Psionic DoT, with default accuracy, an activation/interrupt time of 3.5 secs, and endurance cost of 40 points and a recharge time of 90 seconds? Game-smashing much?

That's like saying Mastermind /traps is similar to /FF, because it has force field generator.

While the individual powers might not be a lot to get excited about, there are a number of unique cornerstone powers in the branches that define what you're capable of doing. Add in the very handy uber-leaderships, a smattering of different damage types, debuffs, unique content, and some awesome outfits. The playstyle is truly unique. They made archetypes that can be played in many unique ways for the game where the archetypes can already be played in many ways, and succeeded.

It seems to me that you're a man of variety. The SoA powers read as plain, but when you start looking at prospective builds, you've got something wonderful.

You don't seem to be fond of archetypes which appear to be trying out two different things at once, so I would stay away from the Crab Spider. Banes might be up your street. You might also be very interested in the Blood Widow, branching as a Night Widow. Again, Fortunatas sacrifice pure damage for Dominator powers, so they might not be for you. Of course, I haven't actually PLAYED any of them yet, and this is just what I'm feeling from the US boards.

There's also a whole lot of unique VEAT content, that being something Castle has said defines an epic archetype. If you're sick of the regular stuff, this could be just what you need.

No need, I downloaded the unofficial version and had a butchers.

You seem to be using full sets a lot. This is all well and good but I couldn't really see which set bonuses you were trying to get. You were also sacrificing the accuracy of your minions and such. The build itself looked quite solid though. I'll give you some general tips on real-world IO usage.

For Stamina, there is one accepted slotting that seems to be the most optimal to use. One common level 50 End Mod IO, one Performance Shifter End Mod IO, and one Performance Shifter Chance for +End IO. Using a chance for endurance IO yields more endurance than simply adding in a third end mod IO, and because stamina is an autopower, you'll always have the proc firing in the background.

Set IOs tend to be much easier to find (and cheaper) at level 50. This might be because a lot of players team at that level, and the market gets flooded with IOs at 50 rather than 40. If you don't have that much influence, levgel 50 IOs might be a better bet.

I wouldn't slot Health that much, but if you're looking to maximise regen, that's fine. It might be a better idea to use dedicated Heal IOs for better efficiency. I'd also move the unique Numina's Regen/Recovery IO into Health, so that you always have a chance for it to fire every 10 seconds, instead of only when you use Aid Other. Add in a Heal IO from the Numina set to get a further bonus to regen (iirc).

I'd be very wary about immediately putting Soulbound Allegiance purple IOs straight into your top tier pet. They are extortionately expensive. Easily more than 20-30 million each, more for the rarer ones. And that says nothing about the high level salvage they need. A full set doesn't even maximize accuracy, and damage is pushed way beyond reasonable (though I did see that you moved the Soulbound Damage IO out, good idea). Generally I would shoot for 90% Accuracy and Damage, but scrimping on accuracy in the name of set bonuses is an entirely valid technique.

Longpost is looong.

You must be using an unofficial version of Mids' hero planner. Your data chunk breaks mine.

There are a hueg [sic] number of procs to choose from for some types. Single-target melee attacks have bags of them, any attack that has more than one set type has tons. And of course you can reassign slots to other powers if you have a slot-starved build - ie, a Warshade.

That said, full one-set slotting has its place. My scrapper uses sets that give Psionic resistance, which means 6-slotting them.

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However, if you're like me and don't like the idea of Frankensteining your build (sorry if anyone's offended but I think it goes against the intent of IO sets), I'd go with Soulbound Allegiance in your Grave Nights, Sovereign Right in your Lich and Blood Mandate in Zombies & Soul Extraction.

Just remember that the Sovereign Right resistance buff is around you not the pet (has about the same radius as supremacy).

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I have to raise a bit of an issue with that. Set bonuses aren't the only thing that IOs are good for. No, they aren't just a way of using up otherwise free slots - they can let you do infinitely more things with fewer slots.

In my current planned MM build, I am using four IOs to cap my damage and accuracy boosts (92% each) for my pets, while getting a not-really-relevant-but-might-be-handy 40% end discount. DMG/ACC, DMG/ACC/END, DMG/ACC, DMG/ACC/END, all level 50, from two different sets. I may lose out on a set bonus but, really, is it worth two whole slots? It simply gives me so much more freedom.

In my drones and the assault bot I've slotted in all the procs I can get my hands on. As they're robots, they have knockback, and so can take knockback IO procs. The [censored] bot has "Chance for Smashing" and "Chance for Recharge" in it, while the drones have the AoE Resistance bonus and a "Chance for Recharge" proc. The protectors have two common Defense IOs, giving me a 4% buff to the defense granted by protector shields - that's the same as slotted Maneuvers.

Likewise, I've managed to max Defense and Endurance for Scorpion Shield in 4 slots. I haven't bothered using the 'extra' two slots for procs, as I moved them to other powers.

You can apply this approach of using two level 50 sets to max out two attributes in four slots with almost any power. Melee attacks, ranged attacks, AoE attacks, all manner of mezzes, build up, res/def shields, the possibilities are endless! You can save slots in powers where you can, and add them to core powers with Procs. The permutations are staggering.

If I saw someone join a team with... with... that... I'd probably strangle myself with my mouse cord.

You have created the devil.

I'll tell you one thing about Kheld slotting, IOs just made it a whole lot easier. With the right IOs you can max out damage and accuracy (91%) with a bit of an endurance/recharge bump, in four slots. I don't know why people say IOs are a bad thing for a slot-starved archetype when they allow you to save so much on slotting.

Don't forget the mezzes. Gravimetric snare, gravitic emanation, inky aspect, that's a lot of control power in the hands of a damage AT.

Gravimetric snare is a fairly beefy melee hold, useful for voids and quantums. Consider picking up Super Speed to stack with Shadow Cloak for complete invisibility, so you can zip right up to a quant and hold him. On the SS note, Hasten is extraordinarily handy for a Warshade. More pets, more double mires, more AoEs during double mire, faster Eclipse.

Gravitic emanation is considered by some as the best soft control power in the game. It's a very fast animating cone disorient power with knockback. Stacked with Inky Aspect, a PBAoE disorient toggle which saps your health, you can mez bosses.

Dark Extraction is another human form trick. Slotted for recharge and with Hasten, you can keep two pets fairly reliably. They're pretty much mini Nova-forms, with damage dealing cones and AoEs.

Stygian circle is what you'll go into human form to use the most. Anything more than three corpses nearby and you just filled up your health and endurance. Who needs stamina, eh?

There's also Quasar, your nova, which does almost as much damage as the Blaster Energy/ nova after a double mire.

With all this utility you may be asking what the point of Nova form is if you're doing so much in human form. The simple fact is that Nova has a fairly large damage and ToHit buff. Plus, you're getting four powers for the price of one, and the ability to slot Nova powers at level 1 when using a respec.

As soon as you get Nova, make some macros or binds. I use macros myself, but if you have the buttons free, binds will work just as well.

/macro Nova "powexecname Dark Nova$$gototray 4"

Put all your Nova powers in tray 4 and bish bash bosh. Then...

/macro Hum "powexectoggleoff Dark Nova$$powexecname Gravity Shield$$gototray 1"

Put that macro in tray 4. It will return everything to normal and activate Gravity Shield for you. Dead handy. Remember to put the gototray command in last, as commands after that seem to delete themselves after a logout. Don't ask me.

When you get Dwarf form, you'll want to make macros for that as well. Just put all your Dwarf stuff in tray 5.

One more question. Do Protector Bots take Heal or Defense set IOs? Mids list them as accepting Damage, Knockback, and -ToHit sets, while they can accept Heal, Disorient, and Defense common IOs. I think that slotting a few commodity Heal or Defense set IOs in my two free slots will get better mileage out of them.

Well. I've put it off long enough. Here's my build. Prepare for cringing.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Rickar: Level 50 Technology Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Force Field
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:50(A), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg:50(3), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), SvgnRt-PetResDam:50(5), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(7)
Level 1: Force Bolt -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 2: Deflection Shield -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:50(7), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:50(9), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(11), RedFtn-Def:50(40)
Level 4: Insulation Shield -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:50(9), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:50(11), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), RedFtn-Def:50(40)
Level 6: Equip Robot -- RechRdx-I:50(A), EndRdx-I:50(39)
Level 8: Hover -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 12: Protector Bots -- SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:50(13), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(15), DefBuff-I:50(15), DefBuff-I:50(17)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I:50(A), Flight-I:50(17)
Level 16: Personal Force Field -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:50(19), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:53(46)
Level 18: Repair -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(19), RechRdx-I:50(33)
Level 20: Dispersion Bubble -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:50(21), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), RedFtn-Def:50(23), RedFtn-EndRdx:50(37)
Level 22: Health -- Heal-I:35(A)
Level 24: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod:50(25), EndMod-I:50(25)
Level 26: Assault Bot -- ExStrk-Dam%:20(A), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(27), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg:50(27), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(29), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:50(29), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31)
Level 28: Group Fly -- Frbd-EndRdx:50(A), Frbd-Fly:50(31), Frbd-Stlth:50(31), Srng-EndRdx:50(33), Srng-Fly:50(39)
Level 30: Assault -- EndRdx-I:50(A), EndRdx-I:50(40)
Level 32: Upgrade Robot -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(33), RechRdx-I:50(34), EndRdx-I:50(36), EndRdx-I:50(37)
Level 35: Tactics -- AdjTgt-ToHit:50(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx:50(36), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg:50(36), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg:50(43), Rec'dRet-Pcptn:20(45)
Level 38: Force Bubble -- EndRdx-I:50(A), EndRdx-I:50(39)
Level 41: Dark Embrace -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg:50(42), TtmC'tng-EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), Aegis-Psi/Status:50(42), TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(43), TtmC'tng-EndRdx:50(43)
Level 44: Aid Other -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:50(45), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(45), Dct'dW-Heal:50(46), Dct'dW-Rchg:50(46)
Level 47: Soul Tentacles -- TotHntr-Acc/Rchg:50(A), TotHntr-Acc/EndRdx:50(48), TotHntr-Immob/Rng:50(48), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg:50(48)
Level 49: Soul Storm -- EoCur-EndRdx/Hold:50(A), EoCur-Hold/Rng:50(50), EoCur-Acc/Hold:50(50), EoCur-Acc/Rchg:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Supremacy



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That looks like a solid build. All the bases seem to be covered, everything that wants slots has them, powers are well chosen. It will fit your playstyle well. Now all that's left is to make a set IO build.

Like Chin said, using a few commodity set IOs to max out damage, accuracy and endurance in 4 or so slots lets you use other slots for the odd Proc or whatever you want to put in. You'll probably find this better than slotting for pure set bonuses.

Mace Beam Volley and Web Cocoon might want a bit more Accuracy in them, especially Web Cocoon, but you can cross that bridge when you come to use set IOs.

Well, although I'm only half sure about the patron, I think I've got the slotting down. In all three of my pets I'm gonna put two Sovereign Rights (Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End) and two Blood Mandates (Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End again). That maxes out accuracy and damage to a good level (91% after ED) while giving endurance a leg-up, leaving me with two whole slots to play whit. Hooray!

In the Drones I've put the Force Feedback +Recharge and the pet resistance PBAoE IO. (Oh yeah, does that IO have a PBAoE from the pet or from the player?) Prot bots have two common heal IOs, even though set IOs would probably make better use of the slots. The assault bot has the chance for recharge and the chance for smashing damage.

I could post my build, but I'll get yelled at for maximising endurance so much while still getting stamina. I just like the ability to do at least a partial resummon/reupgrade/rebubble with my toggles on. Teammates might actually want me to keep buffing them while I hurry away on my bots.

I have a few questions about Masterminds. They're damn hard to plan out for the higher levels. The options for pet IOs are bewildering, set IO bonuses seem a bit pointless as I'm a no-attack-power Commandermind, and there is very little advice about Patron sets - given that they're permanent, it's a pretty big decision.

I've got a Bots/FF mastermind rapidly approaching 40, so the best thing to do would be to decide on a patron before anything else. Mostly they seem similar to the point of homogeneity, aside from Mace giving a Defense shield while other sets give a Resist. I'm torn here. The extra defense would raise my total to around 40%, which is borderline tank territory. Not bad with the pseudo-75% resist from bodyguard.

But that said, if I tried to switch to Bodyguard while using such high Defense, there's a good chance it will be a few attacks before I actually get hit and my pets respond. Wouldn't it be better to have a Resist of equal effectiveness (that being about double in percentage) and a greater chance of Bodyguard working? It would also be better against foes with high ToHit, which would bypass all my Defense completely - a Resist would give me something to fall back on.

Not that I intend on getting into a fight at all, but there are times when it's inevitable. Then again, I keep getting drawn to the idea of 40% S/L Defense...

Aside from the patron shield, all the sets have a damage cone, an immob cone, and a hold. I'm interested only in immobs and holds, something I don't have at all. Being able to keep a mob together sounds like a great way to help all the AoE my bots deal out, especially with Force Bubble pushing them into a corner, and the Hold is always useful. On showiness alone I'm drawn to Soul mastery, and I don't quite get what advantages or disadvantages the Patron immobs have over each other.

Concept doesn't really matter, as these are pools taught by a signature villain - they aren't meant to fit in.

A few examples for pet IO slotting would be nice too. There are many options, and more Unique IOs with very nice bonuses than I'd like, forcing me to pick which bots I want to have build up or such. And I can't shake the feeling that I'm not maximizing my damage and accuracy like I can with common IOs.

The chance for recharge knockback set IO also seems to be broken in that it procs for every mob hit, and should that get fixed it might be nowhere near as desirable as it is now.

So, yeah, a lot of horrid decisions to make at once, and I'm tired from university work. Little help, folks?

Edited because wall of text makes MY eyes hurt.