Shred_Monkey

This laptop...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+L...&skuId=2712579

...is the newer version of the laptop I bought a few months ago. Available at Best Buy so it's real easy to buy... no assembly and minimal software installation and a relatively friendly return/replace policy, if that matters to you.

It runs CoX very well at high graphic settings. It has a backlit keyboard and it's a full keyboard, numeric keypad and all, so it's no different then using a desktop keyboard. It's a 17" screen, and it doesn't get hot at all, so you can truely use it on your lap comfortably, even wearing shorts.

One downside (if it matters to you) is that, for a laptop, this thing is HUGE. You will never find a laptop bag for it. In fact this weekend I took it on a trip and it doesn't even fit in the carry-on style bag I use. It doesn't have much battery life either, so this is really more of a desktop PC that you can take with you easy then a remote computer.

For the price I couldn't find anything to beat it. The only thing I sacrificed from my wish list is a blue-ray player... but anything that had one was more then the cost of buying this and a blue-ray player seperately.

Also, I bought a rebuilt one and got it for $999 instead of $1200. I have had no tech issues at all.

Most of your questions have good answers already. But I'll throw in my opinion also. I find I usually hunt Fake Nemisis in PI, just because there's often teams hunting fakes there and you can join them instead of doing it all solo. I can also do it while looking for a pick-up team or looking for tips, whereas FBZ is out of the way of doing anything else.

For clockworks, I always go to Parez Park and hunt around the lake that has a boat house. There's 6-8 regular spawns that often have 2 princes each. Usually I can go from 0 kills to 100 of gears in about 15 minutes there.

You didn't ask about them, but I like to hunt Freakshow tanks in Terra Volta, though usually I'm close to if not already at 100 Tanks before I get high enough to hunt Fakes just from running missions.

For /SR I recommend:

1. Hit the soft cap
2. Hit the needed recharge for my selected attack chain
3. Get as many HP as possible.

The hitpoints are very important to survival. Even with softcapped defenses you're still going to get hit. There's a very significant difference in survivability if an enemy has to hit 4 times to kill you instead of 3.

Luckily theres a lot of sets out there that give a little of all of these, and some of these sets also give +damage and +regen.

Blasters will most likely level faster on a team where they're buffed and able to just open up and deal damage while getting the most from their AoE ability. Solo, they can do ok because they are a damage based AT.

30 minutes/mission does sound a little long to me. I think 10-15 minutes is normal if you push yourself, utilize insperations, and have good endurance management. Obviously some missions take a lot longer then others.

/signed

I don't like what the incarnate powers have done to the game. I like the incarnate trials... but I agree that the most of the rewards feel stuipidly overpowered.

I feel like what we had before was like a carefully balanced see-saw where the kids were down to putting rocks in thier pockets on each side to make the balance perfect... then someone just came in said screw it and gave each kid an elephant.

I'm going to disagree with most every response to this thread and say, no, the game doesn't really get any harder. Technically you can set it to be more difficult then the default settings. But relative to most MMOs I've played, this game never actually gets hard, which is probably closer to what the OPs friend is asking.

It's fun, and complex, and a very good product. But it's not a hard game.

Nice Job!

I'm curious, looking at the build in your sig... what's your general strategy for fighting?... immobalize things then attack from range? or do you go into melee? You don't have a lot of attacks, do your pets do most of your damage? (I've never really looked at veats, so maybe these questions have obvious answers).

I'm still not sure why they needed to update the CoT costumes in the first place, but I'm glad they listened to the forums.

Some people will charge for PL-ing as long as people will pay for PL-ing. Some people will pay for PL-ing as long as they can't get it done for free. On freedom these people have found each other.

In previous games I would really get into trying to level fast... trying to find the optimal ways to level fast was part of the fun for me. So I understand what these people are doing and why. Even bringing along others gives you some satisfaction in that you have an audience that appreciates what you've invested your time into. Earning influence is just another added way to feel like you've accomplished something worthy of a reword.

I don't do AE farms... and when I do find myself in a farm-like situation elsewere in the game, I'll politely move on after 1 pass through a mission. I don't find that playstyle fun. But it really bothers me when some people attack farmers for playing the game the wrong way. Its a game. If they're having fun, and not ruining the gaming expirience of others, they're doing it right.

It's my understanding that things that are available to VIP members are also available to Free-to-play people by paying for them. So based on that I think that you should be able to do anything you want... but it won't be free.

I start my DB toons to chain Weaken > Empower > Weaken > empower... Technically you can't land combos back to back to back because you can only start a combo every 5 seconds and those combos are less then 5 seconds long. But the power activation times and recharge times line up well to make decent chains whether the combos hit or not.

Just wanted to say, this is a brilliant idea... Unfourtunately I can't dedicate my play schedule in advance for this stuff. I hope the whole server turns out... might I suggest a few broadcasts in Pocket D that night to get some of the regular trial runners to go along and learn something.

Just wait until you both get shield charge... you can alternate opening on a spawn with soul drain>shield charge clear x8 missions stupid fast.

Probably the only AV you guys might struggle with is malaise.

Can you give us more information? Most things I can think of in the real world that are measured in PSI would always apply the force perpendicular to the surface. That wouldn't prevent an instructor from creating a word problem that acted differently, however.

Also, from what I recall, if you do find the old piece renamed, the cost to change is 0. It just doesn't find itself automatically.

This is one of the procs that's not a game changer by any stretch. I've used it heavily on a sonic/elec blapper concept I did, that had this proc in several attacks... i would see it heal me every other spawn or so... but I can't say it every did much to keep me alive.

First... if you don't feel the way the OP feels, don't belittle the guy or attack him. Just don't respond, ok? There's plenty of people out there who frequent these forums who choose to play the game the way he does because thats what we enjoy. We don't need you to tell us we're playing the game wrong any more then you need someone telling you that you're not choosing the right powers.

To the OP: I run into this myself a lot. What I tend to do is what Dr Harmony said. I select a self impossed limit... I may preselect a pair of powersets and just say, ok.. i'm going to min/max THIS toon and not compare it to the level 50 maxed out toons I have already.

Also, I don't just min-max at level 50 where there are some toons that are just going to perform better then others. I look at min/maxing toon at level 12 (using lvl 15 IOs)... then again at 22... and again somewhere in the 30s. I often find somewhere about that point the toons that I don't really feel like playing at level 50+ tend to get parked and I move to new alts.

This helps me enjoy, for example, options such as a controller or low damage dominator. I feel a whole lot more useful and important in the level 10-35 game where my controls are helping keep other players alive... whereas at level 50 most players can keep themselves alive without controls and I feel like all I'm doing is keeping myself alive while everyone else does the killing.

(And I know there are controllers and dominators soloing STFs and GMs, etc etc... I'm not a fool. Those people are using 2-3 powers unique to their powersets to do something, but outside of those powersets, the usefulness of a control power on, for example, a typical ITF, BAF, or Lambda run is pretty low.)

Another thing I look for is just some unique power concept to exploit. For example an electric/ninja stalker can use build-up>lightning rod>caltrops and then assassin strike without every having to placate (assuming they don't get hit)... that's kind of a unique little toy to try out in a power combination I probably would never look at due to it's lower damage output using normal means. I've made other toons who focused on sapping endurance from the spawns they attack as a survivaiblty technique... or a sonic blapper that sleeps a spawn then beats down 1 at a time with air superiority in it's chain go keep the 1 waking target from fighting back.

There's lot of little gimmicks like that to toy with in this game.. most of which aren't real practical to use at level 50, but they're still good for some enjoyment in the earlier stages of the game.

Also... when you need to click a power then do a mouse click... there's a good chance you'll lose some animation time... in fact i think due to servertime delays and mechanics there may be no way to avoid losing enough to cause them to be a hurt to DPS instead of a help.