Smurch

This is true. Cats also use different body language with humans than other cats. When greeting a human they know, a cat will do a little dance, but when greeting another cat they know (and are friendly with), they nod or bob their head twice.

We had a cat who would also make specific complaints about his food dish, but in his case it was when the dish got below what he considered the minimum acceptable level of food. He'd complain, lead us to the dish, which would be half full, but he'd make us fill it up all the way. Once filled, he'd inspect it carefully, then casually stroll out of the room. He did the same thing with his water bowl.

This was true of a cat I owned for a while when she was a kitten. Eventually I got so sick of her biting my hand I grabbed her paw and nipped it a little (she nailed me good and drew blood and I was a little upset). The cat said "MEW!" really loud then looked a little confounded, but didn't bite me hard when playing after that.

Interestingly, cats will sometimes purr when in pain as well as when happy.

Agreed. My level 50 SS/Invul Brute totally rules that wall. No ifs ands or buts about it.
And still no Fighting pool. Go fig.

I think by this point it's an open secret.

Not sure what your situation is, but I have a level 50 SS/Invuln brute who managed to be the lead tank for an ITF twice so far. I do not have a ton of IO sets either, only a few cheap sets and otherwise just have "generic" IOs slotted, nothing major - I'm not a theorycrafter and I build whatever sets I think might be cool and that I can get on the cheap. I don't have Fighting pool, just Fitness, Super Speed, and Mace Mastery

And I'm a brute, not a tanker, so I think if I can do it... there's gotta be something else going on here other than "the changes for the game".

PVP has gone all kinds of wonky, that part's true, but everyone complains about that. Not that it was all that great before either, however.

This. It sounds very much like a keyboard going bad and closing a circuit at random. Possibly a mouse issue, but I'd bet on the keyboard. Swap the interface devices out, keyboard first, mouse if that doesn't fix it, and I betcha it'll be one of them.

And they NEED that in order to build up Fury! Oh wait...

Sorry Meester Arteest that disturbed your perfect plan. I know I am only on the team to do the /em cheer and /em clap emotes for you while you do everything, but darn it all, I just wanted to you know, use my powers and stuff.

Then they have no business being on a team. Teams are about working together, give and take, adjusting to your teammates strengths, not about "OMG I HAD TO WAIT TWO WHOLE SECONDS TO USE MY AWESOME ATTACK BECAUSE OF YOUR KB N00B!"

So I'd say such a scrapper should stick to solo.

Just clarifying.

However, you're correct that the main thing is if a name violates the Terms of Service which are far more restrictive than either copyright or trademark law.

But I still think it's important to use the correct word when discussing something. You know, because words mean things and such, so they're kinda an important part of language.

You were right... then were wrong again.

Copyright and Trademark are completely different sets of laws governed by completely different branches of the government: The Library of Congress copyright office administers copyright law, whereas the US Patent and Trademark Office covers trademarks.

A Name, Title, or other word cannot be copyrighted. It can be Trademarked for use in specific ways.

Copyright protects a "work", that is something someone creates. Copyright protects a piece of art, a literary work, a photograph, or a film from being copied.

So, for example, if Frank Miller draws a picture of Batman, that picture is copyright protected, but the name "Batman" is NOT copyrighted. It is, however, Trademarked.

Using a trademarked name or title in a game is a trademark violation if this medium is one of the mediums under which the owner of that trademark operates. Hence, if you make a character named batman in this game, but DC Comics owns the trademark of Batman for use in videogames, you're violating their Trademark. You're not violating a copyright, however.

You're still doing something illegal, but it's a very different law you're breaking.

Now, referencing the movie in the bio is completely irrelevant to whether or not it's a trademark violation. However, a movie reference in the bio could be used in court to prove Intent. It's still not a copyright violation. However, if someone puts actual dialog from the movie in their bio (or, as I often see, Song Lyrics), NOW they have committed copyright infringement.

Copyright != Trademark.

COMPLETELY different laws.

Neat! Smurch is my skiier character (he looks great in his stocking cap) and while I've got the gold medal from the main ski run, I don't have it for the overhead track yet. Will need to give that a go

I figured I was going to do an upgrade next summer. Might just need to do it a wee bit sooner. I'm good on Proc but could use a GFX and memory upgrade. Looks like I know when I'll be doing that.

Maybe I'm just that good, but it sure seems like I'm still not getting hurt much and splitting damage when I have them on defensive-target. I'll need to test that later.

Its possible it's just because I'm only using the defensive/targeted stance once the spawn has been whiddled down to make quick work of the left overs (mopping up) and the left overs just aren't that threatening anyways. Defensive Follow is my default mode most of the time.

Dress him like this: http://www.costumesofnashua.com/CNWe...hnicR90203.jpg

Then call him Apocalypso!

In my experience, I only need to break out self-heals in tough boss fights or EB fights. It's to the point that if I haven't played my /regen in a while, I often FORGET that I need to use self heals. If I've been running, say, paper missions I might well have not even touched reconstruction in some time. I'll get to an EB mission and get killed because... oh yeah! I can HEAL!

My Claws/Regen stalker is absolutely amazing at level 47, and really took shape around level 30.

I don't know where exactly your problem is, so I can't help you with specifics, but here's how I see it:

First, since the beginning, I treated /Regen as my primary power. That means I slotted it preferentially, I focused on taking regen powers first if I had a choice, etc.

Second, I took everything in the set, plus Fitness.

Finally, I've slotted it up pretty well over the past 10 levels or so. I've focused on IO sets that give +regen or +max HP, with +recharge being tertiary. I haven't spent a fortune, in fact, few of my sets are complete. But I've managed between level 35 and 47, to really boost that regen. All heal powers have AT LEAST three slots (healx3) in them. People will tell you one or more powers are skippable. I didn't buy that, and got everything. I don't know how much of a difference that makes, but I know it's working for me.

I spent most of this character's life (up to level 46) running under the old difficulty system on the "Relentless" setting (same as "Invincible" for you hero types)

Playstyle, what I do is I run in, AS, then scrap. If it's an ordinary spawn, I might even skip AS if I'm feeling impatient. Generally, few things can do enough damage to me to actually overcome my regen rate. For instance, anything short of a boss level usually isn't dangerous to me, the damage is usually healed faster than they can dish it out.

For those that do, as soon as I hit about half way, I kick off recontruction. If I get hurt down to half again, it's time for Dull Pain. If I get into serious trouble it's Moment of Glory followed by Instant Healing (until you get MoG, pack some purple insps). With Instant Healing running, almost nothing can kill me. For those that still can, I use Insps, mostly purples for +def. All I need is a short breather and I'm back in the game. I pack a few greens, but rarely use them. They're more for emergencies.

I use Hasten in big boss fights (especially EBs) to bring Reconstruction and Dull Pain up more quickly. In some really big battles, I've actually kicked Instant Healing off more than twice.

I've solo'd the "defeat Romulus' forces" mission in Cimmerora with this character (on the old "Relentless difficulty, too!), including scrapping down Polyphemos while his reinforcements arrived.

I consider Regen one of the "oh wow!" powers of the game. It's great to just laugh as you realize "I. Cannot. DIE!" And I'm a stalker!

now if you can share a bit about your build, maybe I can make some suggestions.

Give it a few months. Prices for things like this drop very rapidly. By the time GR is released, these cards will probably cost significantly less.

It depends on the context, really. I think it'd be out of place in a "realistic" grim and gritty kind of setting, but it's almost a requirement for cinematic pulp.