Rodion

We just tried to do a Statesman TF and the first mission instance crashed three separate times, booting everyone out.

The first run the team leader had the difficulty set too high (causing most of the team to wipe during the Arbiter Sands fight), so we reformed the team and restarted the TF.

The second run we destroyed the cables and began to fight Arbiter Sands. The instance crash manifested itself with a Mapserver Disconnected message, eventually booting everyone out.

We tried again, entering the same mission again once everyone was back, with the same result.

Then we reformed the team again and restarted the TF from scratch, with the same result.

Each time the instance crashed during the Arbiter Sands fight.

This was on Pinnacle, between 2 and 3:15 PM CST.

There are separate volume controls for music and sound effects. Have you checked that the volume is greater than zero for the effects?

My guess is that music and sound are basically the same -- they just play ogg vorbis files for both. So if one works so should the other.

I have an Earth/Fire Dom at 38. I'm not sure I'd six-slot Consume; with perma-dom the you already have a way to replenish End without having to get into melee range (plus you seem to be going for ranged defense, so you're probably not going to have a lot of opportunity to use it). I'm planning on three-slotting it with Eradication to squeak out a little more defense.

So it seems like you use the slots somewhere else and find a better recharge bonus than the 5% Efficacy Adapter gives. Maybe six-slotting Stalagmites with Stupefy and a recharge if you want Stalagmites to recharge quickly.

I also went with Expedient Reinforcement on the pet instead of Blood Mandate. It has a 6.25% +recharge bonus, though the defense is a little lower.

It's hard to offer good suggestions without knowing what your requirements are. It's certainly a playable build, but without knowing how often you plan on teaming as opposed to soloing, it's hard to know what to recommend. Looks like you get better defense with Boxing/Tough/Weave instead of Maneuvers/Tactics/Rise of the Phoenix, but that's totally a judgment call on your part.

If defenses are integral to your concept, you might consider a corruptor.

I have a Radiation/Kinetics/Mace corruptor with 45.9% S/L, 46.7% Energy and 35.2% ranged defense (running Scorpion Shield, Maneuvers, Tough, Weave, Combat Jumping and Hover). Sets used include Thunderstrike, Red Fortune, Enfeebled Operation, Reactive Armor, Steadfast: +Def and Obliteration. Endurance usage seems kind of high until you realize that you can fire off Transference four or five times a minute and completely replenish your Endurance, while totally draining your target (very useful for bosses).

Corruptors get better base numbers for defensive powers, so they can achieve better defenses than blasters. If you choose the appropriate secondary you can get very satisfactory damage (Kinetics) or a huge cushion of safety with decent damage (Dark Miasma).

I hated playing my Rad/Kin corruptor for the longest time, and almost gave up on it several times. But a respec into the current build changed my mind -- it's not bad at all. I've run several ITFs and I just follow the tanker/brute straight into every fight and fire off Fulcrum Shift, getting the full benefit of my own buffs without getting creamed. Irradiate is also a PBAoE, so you need to be in melee range. (Be sure to carry lots of Break Frees, however!)

Knowing what I do now, I'd probably go for Fire/Kin instead of Rad/Kin (Rad seems underpowered; the -Defense debuff isn't worth all that much in these days of IO sets), but I'm not sure you can get quite the same level of defense with Fire without making compromises.

I also have a Fire/Dark that's soft-capped for Range. This character was fun to play the whole time and didn't need any big revamp at 50. This character can play at x8 and is extremely survivable.

I'm not sure why movie fans are distraught when producers and directors start new projects instead of rehashing the same-old same-old. Alien has run its course.

If James Cameron had continued in the Terminator rut we'd never have gotten Avatar. If Lucas had gotten stuck on American Graffiti sequels we'd never have gotten Star Wars. If Spielberg had gotten stuck on Close Encounters we'd never have gotten Raiders of the Lost Ark.

After a sequel or two it's time to give franchises a rest. The cast and crew lose interest and quality declines. It's best to end on an up note.

Are bases obsolete? To quote The Tick: "Egad. I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff."

If it's just your graphics card that needs updating and the rest of your rig is up to snuff, you can probably get a graphics card that will handle CoX for a hundred bucks or less these days. It won't be super fast and fancy, but it'll get the job done. I got one for $150 two years ago and I run with shadows turned on and rarely have graphics lag.

However, as others have mentioned, dark armor causes ridiculous amounts of graphics lag. It was so bad that I made some binds to turn off the display of effects when playing my dark/dark scrapper. There's a slash command for toggling the personal effects distance -- check out the Paragon Wiki for details.

I had much the same problems you did when I first started playing the game. There was so much going on it was hard to decide what to do, and I'd get killed due to indecision. After a while you learn what to do and you can survive just about anything if you see that bad stuff coming and take preemptive action -- which often involves using inspirations before you're dying.

My first suggestion is to set up a bunch of key binds that are consistent for all your characters. Put all time critical actions on keys that you can press. Don't use the mouse to click powers in combat -- you'll lose the cursor and will be unable to respond in time.

I keep one hand on the keyboard and one hand on the mouse at all times. I can find all attacks, healing powers, buffs, etc., without having to take my eyes off the action. I use the mouse look functionality to constantly look around me so that I'm not surprised. Being aware of everything going around you is extremely important.

When in combat, don't rush. Because most powers have 1-3 second activation times, you really have a lot of time to figure out what you should do next. Some people have an attack chain that they grind through relentlessly, but I watch what's happening and often use an attack or power for a specific purpose rather following the sequence of the cast-in-concrete attack chain.

This is especially important when you're playing defenders, masterminds, controllers, etc. You have to see and react to conditions to protect team mates, not just pound on enemies in the same relentless sequence to maximize DPS.

I put my healing inspirations in the first and second columns so that I can quickly press F1 or F2 when I start taking damage. Being able to do this quickly will save your life over and over.

Finally, don't be afraid to use inspirations. You'll get them back quickly, especially if you're soloing at difficulties of x4 and above. If your brute is squishy, use a purple before you charge in. You'll likely get another to replace it quickly.

Manage your inspirations to make sure that you have the ones you need for that character. Everyone needs greens. Squishies need break frees (I always keep 3-4 on hand after level 20 or so). Everyone needs purples, especially squishies that are attacking bosses and EBs. I rarely use other kinds, converting them to greens and purples when I run low on those, but if you have a robust tanker or brute you may be able to use reds instead. You only occasionally need yellows, and oranges just don't make enough of a difference to help most characters.

Over time you'll learn what enemies cause you problems and solutions to those problems. Generally the answer is to eliminate the problematic enemy first. For example, Tsoo sorcerers can be a total nightmare. Solution: whack or mez them right off the bat. Or: Lost Anathemas will hold your squishies. Solution: carry 3-4 break frees when fighing Lost and use one the instant you get held.