Speculator

"I'm like a lizard, I need a warm body under me to digest my food."

I agree about Artie having a problem with Brittany and his first time after the fact. Its like eating a meal at a restaurant and then complaining about the cooking to the kitchen after you finished all the food.

I saw where it was announced that everyone was granted one free global name change. But I can't find where to do it in game. It's been so long since the last time we were given one I forgot how. Can anyone help?

So last week I finished up a session of CoH and the 670MB update starts to load after I log out. I decide to let it upload and I go to do some other things before I go to bed. I come back about an hour later and find it is hung up at about 220MB. I quit the updater and then I notice the DSL connection and internet traffic lights are out on my modem. Power cycling the modem doesn't help. So after a call to AT&T support and a house call from a technician, the diagnosis is one dead modem. The poor thing must have worked too hard downloading all that data. NCSoft you owe me $50 for a new modem! :P

Does the -slifbos 2 tag work on live? (Yes, I know its an unsupported feature, but I was wondering if they brought it over from the test servers)

Unless I missed an announcement, is there any chance that NCSoft is going to be at WonderCon in SF this weekend?

I'm just throwing out an idea but what if you were allowed during respec to 'break down' an IO you select into its recipe and salvage components? Assuming your salvage tray has 52 slots and is empty, and each IO uses an average of 4 pieces of salvage, then you could save about 52/4 = 13 more IOs than you can under the current system. Maybe add a prompt asking if you want to delete the salvage in order to fill up your recipe slots.

The reason for this suggestion is that a complete overhaul of the respec system would take a lot of time and resources. This would be a band-aid on the current problem, but maybe much more achievable under the current system.

If you have a Costco membership, costco.com is selling Velocity Micro PC's. They seem to have a decent reputation for building good PCs. The good thing is Costco's generous return policy so if something isn't working right you can always bring it back.

The problem with the 'middle of the line' PCs is that they usually have a weak power supply. So check your prospective video card power needs before you buy.

Thanks...I don't know if i can get a hold of a XP-SP3 disk. If I just have the original restore disk (Dell XPS 600, circa 2005) then I just have to download the latest Service Pack off Microsoft's website and install it, right?

I'm hoping someone here can help me. I was trying to update my video drivers and I used Driver Sweeper to clean out my old drivers. But I accidentally deleted my chipset drivers too. Now my computer won't boot, it goes straight to a blue screen. Is there a way of restoring my drivers without re-installing XP and losing all my data?

If you take one of the resistance based armors in the APPs, then you can get the Steadfast Protection +3% Defense IO to stack with Dispersion Bubble. My FF/Energy just hit 50 and I went with Assault, Maneuvers, Aid Other and Aid Self from the power pools. From the APP, I took Electric Fence and Charged Armor, mostly as placeholders for IO's. With IO's its pretty easy to cap your ranged defense and my melee and AoE defenses are nearly capped too.

On steamrolling teams, Fire/Fire tanks are great. You don't need to stand there and take a beating, just go in and grab the initial aggro. Then you have the offensive firepower to help your team go from spawn to spawn faster.

Thanks for the input. Its funny, as I said earlier I'm more of a Dr. Fate fan and I just mentioned Dr. Strange so people would get an idea of what I was going for but most of the replies here reference Dr. Strange. I've always thought the mysterious faceless helmet of Fate was a cool look. hewhorocks, Dr. Fate is basically DC's version of Dr. Strange. I don't know who came first though. Basically depending on the writer, either one can do whatever they want and chalk it all up to 'magic'.

Jade_Dragon, I never considered a Storm/Dark but its is a great idea. Dark/Dark might be good too. In the end, I think I'll go with a blaster. I know they lack the utility of a Defender or Controller, but I think the cooler comic book moments are when Dr. Strange blasting a villan with the Eye of Agomotto versus tying someone up with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. Similarly, I think Dr. Fate's best moments are when he teleports into a battle scene and unleashes a massive AoE. Now that I think about it, if you didn't have to shift forms a Peacebringer would be great fit.

I'll probably go with a Fire/Mental or Energy/Mental Blaster. That way I can have lots of damage and a little control too. Energy is generic enough that it can fit any theme (magical, science based, etc). Its hard to explain, but with Fire its easy for me to fit it into different concepts, but something like Storm or Ice seems too attached to an elemental theme for me.

I know you can't accurately recreate a comic book character in a MMOG and have any kind of game balance, but how would you approximate one of these types of characters in CoH? Dr. Fate has long been one of my favorite characters and I thought it would be fun to play a character something like him. It seems like an expert magic user (but not a Sorcerer Supreme, wouldn't want any copyright infringments) would be a mix of blaster/controller/defender. I was thinking about making a blaster with the Mental secondary for some control but haven't decided on the primary. Any thoughts?

Thanks so much for updating your planner SuckerPunch! This is a big help to those of us CoH players who are stuck at work!

I had a similar problem with my computer. I didn't know if it was a power problem or an overheating problem. Unfortunately I have a Dell with a proprietary power supply so I couldn't replace it.

So I made two changes to my setup...I plugged my computer into a better UPS that could handle the power draw of my computer and also deal with any voltage spikes/drops. My previous UPS wasn't powerful enough for my computer. Then I found a small USB cooling fan that I could lay over the top vent of my case so I can actively draw out more heat. I never figured out what was the source of the problem, I haven't had a shut down since I made those changes.

Sweet! I'm going have to take my Spines/SR out of mothballs. Now if you can just get rid of that annoying Spines redraw after Practiced Brawler goes off, I'd be eternally grateful.

Air Superiority is great for kicking a guy when he's down.

I 'burned' my free respecs once I knew I15 was pretty close to getting released. Now days, it seems we are granted free respecs with every issue release, regardless of if there were any major changes to powers or not. With the changes to Dominators in this issue, it was almost a certainty that we would be getting a free respec. For any CoH veteran, I don't think you can claim that you didn't know free respecs were coming on issue release, even if you didn't see the official announcement.

[ QUOTE ]
It does the same damage as Neutron Bomb (scale 1), which makes it one of the best direct damage powers available to defenders.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean to say the damage was bad, I just meant that the damage was about the same as the Tier 1 energy blast on my FF/Energy, which the game classifies as 'minor' damage.

In fact, I used to have Repulsion Bomb six-slotted with Razzle Dazzle for the defense bonuses and stun duration, but I just recently switched the IOs to frankenslot it for accuracy/damage/recharge so I can solo a little better. If the OP is just going to team exclusively, then I think you should respec into Repulsion Bomb and pick up the Razzle Dazzle set (for cheap!). You will be happy with the recent changes to the power.

If you take Repulsion Bomb (they changed the power so now it is enemy targetable, provides minor damage, knockdown and stun) you can six-slot it with the Razzle Dazzle set for 2.5% Melee and AoE defense.

I recently pulled my lvl 50 MA/Inv out of retirement. With the changes to IO sets enhancing both positional and typed defense, I focused mostly on S/L defense. As Soul_Fane said, most other typed damage comes paired with S/L damage, so S/L defense protects you from both. For whatever isn't covered, I use Dull Pain and Aid Self.

Below is my 'cheap' IO build. I used Smashing Haymakers instead of Kinetic Combat just because they were cheaper or more available than Kinetic Combat. The psy defense/resistance set bonuses and uniques are left over from when I bought them just after Issue 9 when everything was cheap. My build isn't maxed out and could use a little tweaking, but it's a whole lot tougher than it was before IO's.

+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: N/A
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Martial Arts
Secondary: Invulnerability
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Resist Physical Damage ==> DamRes(1),DamRes(43)
01 => Storm Kick ==> Smashing Haymaker(1),Smashing Haymaker(3),Smashing Haymaker(13),Smashing Haymaker(19),Focused Smite(34),Focused Smite(46)
02 => Temp Invulnerability ==> Reactive Armor(2),Reactive Armor(3),Reactive Armor(5),Reactive Armor(9),Reactive Armor(34),Reactive Armor(40)
04 => Dull Pain ==> Doctored Wounds(4),Doctored Wounds(5),Doctored Wounds(7),Doctored Wounds(11),Doctored Wounds(15),Doctored Wounds(25)
06 => Air Superiority ==> Smashing Haymaker(6),Smashing Haymaker(7),Smashing Haymaker(15),Smashing Haymaker(23),Focused Smite(34),Focused Smite(46)
08 => Crane Kick ==> Crushing Impact(8),Crushing Impact(9),Crushing Impact(13),Crushing Impact(19),Crushing Impact(31),Crushing Impact(39)
10 => Focus Chi ==> Rech(10),Rech(11),Rech(17)
12 => Swift ==> RunSpd(12)
14 => Fly ==> Flight(14)
16 => Unyielding ==> Impervium Armor(16),Impervium Armor(17),Impervium Armor(23),Impervium Armor(25),Impervium Armor(37),Impervium Armor(40)
18 => Health ==> Heal(18)
20 => Stamina ==> EndMod(20),EndMod(21),EndMod(21)
22 => Resist Elements ==> DamRes(22),DamRes(46),Steadfast Protection(48)
24 => Resist Energies ==> DamRes(24),DamRes(48),Aegis(48)
26 => Dragons Tail ==> Sciroccos Dervish(26),Sciroccos Dervish(27),Sciroccos Dervish(27),Sciroccos Dervish(31),Sciroccos Dervish(36),Sciroccos Dervish(40)
28 => Invincibility ==> Red Fortune(28),Red Fortune(29),Red Fortune(29),Red Fortune(31),Red Fortune(37),ToHitBuff(43)
30 => Boxing ==> Acc(30)
32 => Eagles Claw ==> Crushing Impact(32),Crushing Impact(33),Crushing Impact(33),Crushing Impact(33),Crushing Impact(37),Crushing Impact(43)
35 => Tough Hide ==> DefBuff(35),DefBuff(36),Kismet(36)
38 => Unstoppable ==> Titanium Coating(38),Titanium Coating(39),Titanium Coating(39)
41 => Tough ==> Reactive Armor(41),Reactive Armor(42),Reactive Armor(42),Reactive Armor(42)
44 => Weave ==> Red Fortune(44),Red Fortune(45),Red Fortune(45),Red Fortune(45)
47 => Aid Other ==> Heal(47)
49 => Aid Self ==> Interrupt(49),Interrupt(50),Heal(50),Heal(50)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)

With the recent buffs to both MA and Inv, I pulled my Lvl 50 scrapper out of mothballs and have been playing with him recently. I forgot how much fun it is kicking bad guys in the head.

I was able to fit both Aid Self and Tough/Weave in my MA/Inv build, and it made a big difference in survivability. As a drawback, I had to sacrifice the APP powers, but I don't really miss them.

I noticed you have your attacks each slotted with two Accuracy enhancements. I think with the To-Hit buff from Invincibility, you can get by with one Acc. Then you can add a Recharge or EndRdx enhancement in your attacks.

If you need more slots, I would take out the second EndRdx out of Unyielding, or Heals out of Health and use them elsewhere.

The use of IO's really help. Even ignoring the set bonuses, getting seven or eight enhancements out of six slots really make my scrapper more playable.