RobertoLyon

I'm bouncing all over the webz trying to select a new monitor.

But beyond knowing that higher max resolution = Better, I'm pretty lost.

Do I want a Widescreen? Most of the 19" ones I'm looking at are 1440x900. Is that acceptable? Do I need to go higher for really pretty gaming?

Looking to not spend a bundle and get a solid, middle-of-the-road monitor, primarily for gaming.

The monitor I have now is a shabby Dell hand-me-down, so anything will be an improvement, but how much do I need to spend? Any help or suggestions?

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I get what your saying, but I have a soft spot for new people.


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Same here. I spent the entire evening on a lowbie going through the basics with a brand new player this week.

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I find this to be an absolutely fascinating aspect of the whole CoH endeavor.

It's been my experience that THIS game, in particular, tends to attract people who are "heroic" by nature... that is, they get gratification from helping other people.

I know I do, both in real life and in-game. Whether it's fixing a colleague's mistake without busting their chops about it, or just seeing some tourists pouring over a map and looking around bewilderedly here in NYC, and stopping to offer help, being a "do-gooder" makes me feel good inside.

I would love to see some hard-core inquiry and testing done on this...it seems like a fascinating correlation worthy of further study.

D'oh!

Ok SuckerPunch, and the Guide to Guides need to update their shizzle!

There's the whole Pain Domination secondary for Corruptors!

THAT'S the one with the Fortitude/Clear Mind/Adrenaline Boost versions for Villains.

I'm still leaning toward Rad, tho, as some of the powers sound very fun to use, and I already have a couple of Emp Defenders, Hero-side.

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They are very busy and make it hard for me to see combat clearly through a team that is on fire. (I haven't played villains much for a while, but I recall that Thermal is the one that has fire shields..right?)

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Yes Therm is the one with the fire shields, and you do bring up an important point. I've heard plenty of complaints about how Therm can bring some PCs to their knees, how many people don't like the look of the effect, and in fact, personally, I don't care for the fire shield on me as a recipient, I can only imagine what it's like trying to keep an eye on/target a team-full.

I also wanted to say I realize I oversimplified in saying Therm=Buffs/Heals, and Rad=Debuffs/Heals... Therm certainly has some Debuffs of its own, they just come much later in the build.


Edit for: ArcticFahx I love your Apostrophe Guidelines in the sig - can we please make that a sticky/required reading for all posters on the Interwebz? Thanks!

Okay ONE MORE question, sorry...

Now I've really spent some time in the Corruptor Guides and on SuckerPunch's builder...looks like Therm and Rad are the heaviest Support secondaries for a Corruptor.

Both have their pluses and minuses, so lemme just poll you Villains; who would you rather team with, a x/Therm with its Buffs and Heals, or a x/Rad with its Debuffs and Heals?

Back for one more question - now that I'm focusing on a Corrupter as a Blaster/Defender hybrid, I'm paging thru the Corruptor guides here... but can't figure out which power set offers single-target Ally buffs like Fortitude, Clear Mind, and Adrenaline Boost.

Are there similar powers Villain-side? Which power set?

As expected, plenty of intelligent, helpful replies.

Thanks a lot you guys, you definitely helped me pick a starting AT for my first real Villain.

Thanks Eek_a_mouse, that helps.

So if on Heroes I pretty much bounce back and forth between Blasters and Defenders... a Corruptor sounds right up my alley, do you agree?

Edit for: Thanks to you too Chaos, didn't see your post as I was composing my own.

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Best Blaster

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Wins.

Extra points for unusual color-scheme: +15

Mine was grey and a slightly lighter shade of grey. Still have it in a box somewhere.

Long-time Hero, first-time Villain.

Could someone either provide, or point me toward, a really simple explanation of the Villain ATs as they relate to Hero ATs.

e.g. A Brute is like a Tank, but...
a Stalker is like a Scrapper, except...
a Corrupter is like a Blaster, but...
a Dominator is like a Controller, only...

I actually did roll a Mastermind a long time ago, but it didn't turn out to be what I thought it would... and I'm worried I'm going to encounter the same thing with the other ATs, so I'm trying to avoid getting frustrated or starting to level a Villain only to discover it's not what I wanted and have to start from scratch, with another AT about which I know very little.

I've played around in SuckerPunch's online builder, so I kinda know what powersets are available to the ATs, but it's a very "dry" kinda understanding... I'm looking for the "flavor" of the ATs, in terms that I can relate to as a long-time Heroes player.

I've also perused the Paragon Wiki entries, but again, they're not giving me the info I'm looking for in a way that I can relate to as a long-time Heroes player.
Thanks in advance for your help!

But how was the OP seeing 5 stars above other players if s/he hadn't yet played around with the Player Notes system?

Don't you have to give someone a rating before you...y'know...see it? (and if a tree falls in the forest...blah blah blah)

After reading guides on Kin, I tried to do the Siphon Speed, then Inertial Reduction, in-lieu-of-Travel-Powers thing.

But in the end I found it too limiting - Siphon drops when you're halfway across the wet part of IP with no mobs around, or when there's nothing around but purple-cons (or even red-cons...miss on your Acc check and now you've gotta wait til it recharges, and hope you Hit on the next one), etc.

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but generally it's not hard to find something to hit

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Yeah "not hard" doesn't mean "easy". YMMV.

So I respec'd, kept Siphon Speed because it does slow the baddies, and does accelerate your attack chain, so it's still useful in combat, and CAN come in handy for travel if you don't NEED it, but never took I.R., just took SJ instead. Plus I like having Combat Jumping anyway for the extra jump height & control in combat, and the (admittedly minor) +Def and -Immob.

Can't say I'm a huge fan of the Siphon Speed/Inertial Reduction instead of Travel Power idea. I won't say DON'T DO IT - just be aware of the limitations and realize it's simply not the same as having a true Travel Power, there's another layer of concerns laid on top that can be a headache at times. *More* of a headache, anyway, than just toggling your Travel Power and zooming away.

(BTW: GravKinTroller on Freedom: level 50)

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Thanks everyone for the quick replies and the good advice. I think knowing what the community thinks about this will help me in general to be less tense if someone else interrupts one of my fights, since part of my concern won't be whether or not I should be concerned. It's harder to loosen up about what others are doing when you think it's a reflection on something you shouldn't be doing.

It's also good to know I won't be losing all of the rewards for my hard work or that there are ways to deal with it that won't mean overreacting if it gets too crazy. Thanks again. You guys are all great.

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What a polite Reply to all the Replies to the Original Post.

I'll just mention that on my first night in-game (my first night playing ANY MMORPG), I started "helping" a stranger fight mobs in Atlas.

They gently and politely explained the concept of "kill-stealing" without any anger or vitriol. They then offered to team with me and patiently explained some other concepts as we went along. I try to pay that kind of "heroicism" forward every chance I get.

We were all brand-new at some point - those of us with 4 or 5 years under our belts can lose sight of that at times.

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They could have it under control even if you don't think they do, or could even be TRYING to die.

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Yes - an open letter of apology to the lowbie in the Atlas sewers last night (early Sunday morning) on Freedom, whom I came upon after tagging along, buffing and healing a Sewer Team on my 50 Healing Defender.

Was in the process of exiting the sewers, came around a corner, saw him surrounded by a big mob of critters, down to a sliver of health.

Hit Heal Other purely by reflex and a split-second after it went off I realized what he was doing (Express-train back to Hospital).

Sorry, bud - that was pure reflex - if I'd had one second to think about it I would have let you die.

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They call this game City of Heroes. Oh, really? Maybe City of Jerks. I haven't seen a real hero in this game in quite a while.

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I see heroes doing heroic-type activities ALL the time, my friend. Karma is a boomerang, you are what you eat, etc.

Make an effort to act heroically, you'll begin to take notice of all the other heroic acts, and attract heroic-types to add to your Friends list.

Well-thought-out and well-written - thanks for an enjoyable read!

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Anticipating obligatory quoting of that huge block and adding "tl;dr".

Hah!

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Tl;dr

Anyone care to summarize what the zombie was saying about his own post for me?

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Well played!

Dear Caves,

As a member of the National Speleological Society I feel compelled to ask: where's all the light coming from? Phosphorescent fungi? Bioluminescent organisms?

REAL caves are quite...y'know...devoid of light.


Freakin' posers.

R

Twitter: one more ingredient in the recipe for a severely socially-disfunctional generation.

Want to know what your friend is up to? Meet them for a beer and find out in person.

Actual face-to-face conversation takes you places a Tweet never will.

Twittering is not Dialoguing. It's Announcing.

I find it rude, and maybe even dangerous, to forgo human interaction in favor of Twits, texts, emails, etc.

I worry for the younger generation, their social skills are developing along unprecedented, and entirely unexplored paths (in the course of human history).

Could lead to problems later in life when they may need those skills to succeed professionally, and in relationships.

G'luck, Twits.

You are so awesome for surviving another year on this inhospitable planet!

Happy B-day!

*gives Rick a Sesame Roll*

Since I got this ball rolling - I'll just say that I see the merits of both sides of this discussion - luckily I can afford the $14.99 for a slick new keyboard - but the one I ended up getting, even tho I like the feel of the keys, does have its problems.

The ESC key is not square, it's like a little rectangular half-key, so I do have trouble finding it without looking down, and right above it there's a programmable quick-key that by default opened my Outlook. So I had to switch that off as I kept hitting it by accident when reaching for my half-size ESC key.

But as you say, it's been a few weeks and now I'm getting used to it, and like the overall feel of the board so much I won't be taking it back or anything.

So to each his own - if you wanna, and can, go green and re-spiffify your old keyboard. If you want a new keyboard, and can afford it, buy one.

Helpful, eh?

He didn't even mention the free cookies.

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This morning.

Them: care to join a farm
Me: No
Them: omg u r probably 25 yo with no life or gf and you sit around playing video games what a loser how much can your life be????
Me: Okay. /ignore

(He was right.....I am 25. I don't have a social life, nor do I care to. I also have no GF.....I am two years into marriage. It did make for a good laugh)

Maybe this should've gone into that rude tells thread......

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No offense my friend, but you're gonna have to kick it up a notch if you wanna make it into the Rude Tells thread.

"OK. /ignore" just ain't up to snuff.

Read thru some of Psychoti's EPIC mind-gaming posts for clues on how a Rude Tell should go.


Oh on on the Idiot Moment topic: my idiot moment was spillling Diet Coke on my keyboard... but it didn't die immediately...my text started coming out like "t4ar3get t3he Sha4ma4ns fi1rs6t pl2s" and got progressively worse until the keyboard quit altogether. Unfortunately at that point we were just finishing the mish, and as Leader, the team was looking to me to get the next one rolling.

So I tried to communicate, through EMOTES ONLY, that I was unable to continue. *Arrrrrgh!* *shake fist* *Arrrrgh!* *grief* *Arrrrgh!* *laptop* *Arrrrgh!*

I thought since they had witnessed the gradual degredation of my ability to type, they might figure it out.

No such luck, and I was forced to Quit the team "with no warning" or even a G'bye Thx!

Epilogue: I switched to a game that didn't really require keyboard input, mostly mouse-work, but didn't unplug the keyboard. So my PSU melted in a shower of sparks.

*Arrrgh* *grief*

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There is so much to learn ... I still am not even sure what I need to see or the questions I need to ask ... So is it up to me to research all the hundreds of forums and thousands of pages of info to sort out?

It still seems to be overwhelming...Is time the only answer for me?

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Here's the thing; as I see it, for the most part you only HAVE to learn what you WANT to learn, in order to have fun.

I've been playing for more than 4 years, and consider myself an "expert" player, to the extent that I know my toons and their capabilities inside and out, and love to put together excellent 8-man mish teams where everyone has loads of fun and gains buckets of XP.

But there are vast stretches of in-game real estate that I've never even experienced. I don't TF much, I don't "purple out" my 50s, I venture into WW only when I really need to, I don't PvP, I'm not involved in my SG beyond using the Vault/Crafting Table/Ports to Zones, I'm not entirely sure what a "Hami-O" is....I could go on and on about what I've NOT "had to" learn in order to play and enjoy the game.

Try not to get caught up in what you *don't know* about the game. As long as you're enjoying yourself, and not irritating other players unnecessarily, you know everything you need to know about playing CoX.

So I see these kinda posts from time to time and am just wondering - with all due respect - why are you wondering?

If you work for the company or something I guess you'd wanna know this kinda stuff. But then you work for the company, so I think you'd have more access to this kinda info than we civvies.

Is it just curiosity? Are you afraid the game will shut down and we won't be notified until we try to log on, and can't?

I'm about as curious a customer as anybody else, but there are other heroes in Paragon City when I log in.

For me anyway, case closed.

Again, serious question, no snark intended, but Why do you care?

I've found another use for the AFK bubble message, thought I'd pass it along.

I've made macros for my Defenders, so that when they fire a buff like Fortitude, Adrenaline Boost, or Clear Mind, the AFK chat bubble appears with the name & description of the buff.

e.g. "Adrenaline Boost speeds Health & End recovery, and Recharge"

or "Fortitude boosts Accuracy, Damage, & Defense"

or "Clear Mind protects you from Sleeps, Holds, and Immobilization".

I first tried putting this in Local Chat - but it pretty much spammed the Team Chat window unnecessarily. That incarnation only lasted a mish or so.

Putting it in AFK chat is informative (for players not familiar with playing a Defender), but MUCH less intrusive.

Plus, doing it as a Macro instead of a Bind means I have the OPTION of displaying the message on activation, but if I'm worried about overdoing it, just hit the Power itself, instead of the Macro.

Doing this from memory - and I'll check this later and fix if it's incorrect - but I think the Macro command is something like:

/macro AB "afk Adrenaline Boost speeds Health & End recovery, and Recharge$$powexec_name Adrenaline Boost"