Soulwind

A fully spec'd out MM with an eye towards AV stomping could probably do it.

A level 29 MM? Unlikely. Not necessarily impossible, but it would take a specialized build.

Giant Monsters (GM's) automatically scale thier damage taken and damage given to the
level of the character attacking/being attacked (so a level 50 fights a GM like it's a 50 and a level 30 fights a GM like it's a 30).

The Rikti Invasion mobs and the Zombie Apocalypse mobs do the same sort of scaling.

However, GM's have a metric-ton of hit points and a healing/regeneration rate to match.

There are folks who can solo them, but it usually takes a specialized "arch-villain killing" build to do it. You need massive damage output and a good source of anti-regeneration (or vice versa) to keep ahead of thier healing curve.

The bot blasts do have -regen so that definately helps, but I'd expect that 29 is just a bit too early in the character's career to solo GM's (most of them at least).

I forget what level the scrapyarder followers tend to spawn at, but that could also be a consideration if they aren't deep grey to you yet (GoS gets a lot of those follower mobs with him).

Most of them are just some "generic heroes" and some are "signature heroes" that never got "signatured" if you know what I mean.

That is, of course, Sister Psyche next to Statesman. Backalley Brawler is there towards the back of the group.

I've always thought that the other woman next to States may have been an early version of Ms. Liberty (or possibly Miss Liberty), but that's just imo.

Well the "fight" with Darkseid was pretty much exactly what I expected to happen (ie nothing).

Overall the show ended in the exact same way it's been running for years, with a resounding *Meh*

I don't regret my time spent watching it, I even enjoyed most of it, but I long ago came to terms with the mediocre writing and accepted that it would almost always be what it was.

BUT: What's with the 7-years later and just now getting around to doing the wedding over again bit? I mean, they had exchanged vows...technically (by most religious standards) they were married, (and by legal standards) all they really had to do was SIGN THE FREAK'N LICENSE.

Oh well, I guess it's just the "can't have Lois and Clark actually married or it breaks early canon" or something...

Thanks Baron...I didn't even think about a Widow.
They are pretty much an ST claws aren't they?

I'll try working out a build for one (never played a Widow yet, so that might be worth persuing).

Thanks for the info EG. I always forget about the AT mods.

For my wish list:

A different Hasten effect. Either colorable or much more subtle looking. Preferably something with a full body effect instead of just fire-coated hands.

A non-transparency effect for the various Stealth powers. The fully invisible effect is OK (although I'd like one for invisibility too -- could be a "hey don't notice me" or "perception filter" type power instead of real invisibility -- but I can't really simulate that now), but the partial transparency from Stealth/Cloaking Device/Energy Cloak just looks ugly in my opinion. It's just transparent enough to mess with costume looks and to allow you to see all the layers/polygons that make up the various body sections.

Thanks for the opinions all.

I'm curious about Spin on the Brute now. What got tweaked?

Unless Mid's is wrong or it's just one of those situations where you can't see the reality from the raw numbers; I'm not seeing any difference between the B and S versions. (other than base damage and recharge rates - damage lower on brutes and recharge is higher on brutes). Activation times are both marked the same, AoE size same, etc.

As to why Invul, it's mostly just because I haven't done an Invul in a long time. I've got 4 Super Reflexers, 2 Shields, and just recently finished a stint with a Willpower Tank. So just wanted something a bit different.

Honestly, I started the character idea with Energy Aura (which I've never used), but I really really really don't like the transparency effect that stealth powers force onto you (barring stalkers of course, on them it's acceptable). And /EA without the stealth power is just a weaker version of /SR....

Well, thanks again folks. I think I'm going to go with a Scrapper version.

A Rage-like timed damage (and maybe even recharge) boost would be good, but not the to-hit bonus.

The devs have already spent way too much effort on crippling any Defense based powerset to then go and add an additional +20% to-hit on top of that.

Oh and to add a bit more.

I'm also toying around with the idea of skipping Followup as well.

What!!! I hear from the distance, skip your build-up power?

Well, yeah. It's been a very long time since I've done anything with Claws but I seem to remember Followup as rather slow (in comparison to the other attacks) and as throwing off the whole flow of slice, slice, stab, mince, puree that Claws "should" be doing.

So I don't really know...that's one that I'll probably have to try out and decide upon, but I think an attack set with Swipe, Strike, Slash, and Focus would be pretty fast and brutal.

So, I've got a powerset, name, bio, origin, and costume for a new toon that I'm wanting to make.

But what I can't decide on is should I make a Brute or a Scrapper? (I like both, I've played multiples of both, but I just can't decide with this one)

Claws/Invulnerability

-- the caveat here is that the toon will be strictly a single-target, flashing blades of buzzsaw bad-a**sery type.

-- I will not be taking Spin, Eviscerate, or Shockwave

So, given the "fast kill, move to next target, fast kill, rinse and repeat ad infinitum" type play that I expect from Claws, it sounds like a Brute might be the way to go.

Or would a more-or-less permanent Followup bonus, plus the Criticals make a Scrapper a better choice? (plus I wouldn't have to start in praetoria...again...either)

Opinions?

That's normal during maintenance downtimes.
Have you tried during various times of the day?
And have you checked the "server status" page to ensure that the servers are up?

If you have, and you're still not getting connected, and you don't have any issues
with connecting to other websites and such (to make sure your internet connection
is working correctly), then it's probably being blocked on your end.

Try temporarily turning off your firewall and virus scanner and see if it lets you in then.
If it's your firewall blocking access, then you'll need to put the game into your firewall's white-list.

If that doesn't work, then the only thing I can think of with the limited info you've provided would be to try a "verify all files" option during startup (there's a checkbox) and/or reinstalling the game.

You could also go over to the Technical Help forums section and ask there (they'll want you to post some outputs from Hijack This and the CoH Diagnostic tool).

Then you've still got the problems of it being a continuous AoE around you.

You flying faster than everyone else [note: with the recent changes to base flight speed, I don't know if this still applies anymore], and watching teammates and pets suddenly fall from the sky.

There's the clunky MM pet workaround (following your pets and doing "goto" commands), but it's a cludge at best.

Meh. Maybe there's just no real "good" solution to Group Fly.

"An interesting game, the only winning move is not to play."

Honestly, there's one "simple (standard code rant applies)" change that could be made to Group Fly and fix most, if not all, of the complaints about it.

Change it to a single target "Grant Flight" power just like "Grant Invisibility" is.

1) Yes please.

2) The storage limits were chosen, from my understanding, as a way to ensure that there is a steady supply of stuff on the markets rather than just letting everyone hoard up everything they ever get. So it's unlikely to change.

3) Same as #2

4) That's not a "mission completion bar", it's a "contact trusts you/happiness bar". It's possible to fill that bar doing nothing but the contact's non-story-arc missions. It's also possible to do the story arc and not have it be full (meaning you need to do some of the one-off missions too). It's even possible to do EVERYTHING the contact has for you and STILL not get it completely full on some of the contacts [this one annoys me to no end as I'm rather compulsive about having all my contacts with full happy bars].

It used to be related to what the contact would offer you (you have to fill the bar a certain point before the contact offers you full sets of inspirations and to another point before they offer to sell you enhancements), but pretty much nobody uses contacts for that anymore (nor should they for enhancements at least, contacts will rip you off on enhancement prices).

5) Yes please. The most annoying one is the "defeat all the Praetorians" accolade and figuring out which AV you've missed.

6) Stimulant is a "clear mind" analogue, and it needs to be explicitly less powerful than clear mind (since it's a power pool power). So I'd seriously doubt this would ever happen. It would be nice though.

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1) Can't comment. I think Pistols is fun as is, but I don't spend a lot of time working over the numbers.

2) Yes, a martial arts type secondary would be nice for Blasters.

3) No Comment other than more powers is always welcome.

4) Body Armor is a PASSIVE power. It's always on, costs no endurance, and can't be suppressed or turned off. As such it's going to be worse than the toggle armors. Yes it could use a bit of a boost, but I wouldn't count on it.

5) I've got no opinion on this as I rarely use much from the APPs/PPPs anyway. But OK.

For those who are advocating against being able to control team makeup, why not extend that thought process a little further?

So you'd be for having anyone with a LFG flag set being randomly assigned to any team out there who isn't running at a full 8-man mission team?

Myself and my wife are duo'ing radio missions...suddenly 6 other people should be randomly forced onto us just because we aren't running an 8-man locked out team?

Whether or not we WANT to run on 8-man teams? And if we kick them out, we're jerks?

So all of the "PL Meh!" types can just force thier way onto teams? That's what you're basically asking for.

Or let's use a real life example: you and your significant other are having a "private moment", should you be required to let me join in too...after all, I shouldn't be excluded from your fun just because I don't want to put in the effort of obtaining my own s.o. (form my own league rather than waiting around to glom onto someone elses).

The problem I have with all of this Incarnate stuff is the *major* paradigm shift that's now occurring in the game.

I have literally hundreds of characters.

In the past, ANY of them could join a team and be viable.

We need another tank (or blaster or scrapper or controller or etc)? No problem, I just shift over to another character.

Sure, that character may not be totally min/max optimal, but he's more than viable and can effectively contribute to the team success.

Now? Not so much. In fact, odds are he can't even join the team; or if he can, he'll be beyond worthless and nothing but a total leech.

I have a grand total of 3 characters who've unlocked the Alpha slot and only one of those has anything actually slotted in - a common built from shards that took almost 3 weeks to gather.

At the moment I don't really care. I enjoy running lower level alts and that's what I continue to do for now..

But, if this trend towards nothing but bigger/badder Incarnate-powered mega-gods being the required play-style continues (as it appears to be likely to do so far), then my options for fun become further and further left behind in the dust....

I don't have a problem with the Incarnate stuff and the big raiding parties existing along side "normal" play, and I understand that there's only so many things that can be crammed into each release; so I'm more than willing (been here 6 years, so obviously I can be patient when needed) to wait for them to "catch-up" with themselves and go back to providing other gameplay styles as well.

But if the vision for the future of this game is really going to be what it's looking like it is so far then .......

OP,

Just as an added note. A good 3x120mm radiator with good airflow fans (I like Scythe Gentle Typhoons) [usually running at 1/2 power so they are near silent] will make a world of difference.

And adding another pump is probably not needed, unless you want it for the redundancy factor (one pump fails, the other keeps the water flowing). It's all about flow, but unless you've got a real tangle of tubing and/or lots of 90 degree bends, one pump can usually handle it.

My rig: I7-920 running at 4ghz, full motherboard water block, 2 GTX 480's (yea the hot ones) in SLI with full cover blocks. I'm running a PA 120.2 and a PA 120.3 set of radiators with scythe GTs (currently running at about 1200 rpm due to my fan controller).

System is near silent - my wife's air cooled rig is several times louder. Heck the hard drives are louder than the fans/pumps.

My full load temps are nearly equal to your idle temps: I average 39-40c on the cores and 40-42c on the video cards under full-load (real world) conditions. Actual torture tests go higher of course, but I've never crested 50c on the cores even while crunching/folding.

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It really does sound like an overheating issue though. Whether that's an overheat on the motherboard (likely from the sound of it -- probably the vregs actually as they usually get some extra air from the CPU fan) or on the water cooled parts is a bit murkier, but you definately do need more rad space.

One easy way to test it would be to open up the case and point a room-type fan at the motherboard. If the problem goes away, then you know what was causing it and can take steps to get more air flow into the case.

Rant On....

Gaah...I really wish they would stop selling these various "kits" for water-cooling. Yes they allow beginners to get into the wc-scene, but they also often end up stagnating the learning curve for those folks.

Where to begin?

First, the "reserator" series is a passive system. It isn't a "normal" water-cooling radiator, and it doesn't have an active fan system blowing air across it for efficient heat exchange.

So, you don't have nearly enough heat exchange with that thing to handle what you've put on it. -- It's OK (for heat at least, there's a lot of other issues with them) on a CPU only loop, but not for a CPU + SLI GPU loop.

Second, it's made of ALUMINUM. Go read up at some of the dedicated water-cooling forums about mixing AL and Copper in the wetted sections of a loop (it's called galvanic corrosion and it will mess your system up). You can get away with mixed metals if you use an anti-corrosion additive, but you're just slowing down the problem, not preventing it.

Trouble is, most new water-cooler's (the people that is) tend to come from air-cooling with a "set it up and forget about it" type attitude. How long has it been since you've flushed and cleaned your setup? Bet it's been a while....and that corrosion is going to build up over time.

OK. Rant Off...

Now as to your "other heatsinks" getting hot and the apparent overheating your getting on the motherboard. When you go with a water-cooled rig, air flow to the rest of the system (motherboard, ram, hard drives, etc) often ends up taking an unintentional hit.

It really sounds like you aren't getting enough air flow over the motherboard heat sinks (north bridge, south bridge, vregs (mosfets), and probably ram as well).

First thing I'd do is get some extra air-flow (either in general over the entire motherboard, or some spot fans) in the case and see if that helps the overheat problems.

[After that, if you're enjoying the water-cooling hobby, go and do some reading at some of the dedicated forums...there's lots of info out there].

By the way VREGS are the voltage regulators (either on the motherboard - often also called MOSFETS, or on the graphics cards - they have thier own vregs). VREGS tend to get quite hot, but they are also designed to handle that heat. You still want a good heat-sink and air flow over them of course.

All emotes or just specific ones?

Were you standing stable on the ground or flying/hovering?

Any auras (especially the newer ones or the combat-only ones) in effect?

Mid's doesn't show the average effect of the Panacea proc because it's considered
as a Heal and not +Regeneration.

Other than that, yes you're mostly correct.

In the long-term, you will get a heal of 64.58 hp (don't know if healing set bonuses affect it, but assuming not) every 50 seconds. So, assuming that you're always hurt enough to get the full heal when it fires, you'll average a 1.29 hp/sec healing rate.

Which is fine on paper. Reality doesn't really work out that way though, since it's all in a burst of healing rather than a steady bonus like your other regeneration.

Still, when you're hurting and you get a sudden burst of self-heal, it's nice. Nice enough to pay for a PvP IO? Well, that's up to you.

Me, personally, if I had one I might add it into a build, but only as an extra-slot type (on a regen type character, I'm ED capping health first - or at least putting in 2 level 50 IOs and the Numina and Regen Tissue procs first), but that's just me.