Syntax42

It is good to hear you're having fun with it.

Numerically, SS/FA is better. Brutes gain 8% damage bonus per target hit with Soul Drain and can hit a maximum of 10 targets for an 80% damage bonus. Many AV fights will lack the additional targets needed to saturate Soul Drain due to team members killing the adds. Most high-end builds barely get Soul Drain's recharge close to the duration of 30 seconds. Rage gives 80% damage bonus and can be double-stacked with the same amount of recharge bonus required to have perma-Soul Drain. Some people don't like Rage crash, so Dark Melee is an alternative even though it lacks a decent AoE attack.

Cole is trying to destroy/take over/enslave Primal Earth. The Resistance are trying to fight against him. Basically, if you started as a Loyalist, you were on the wrong side, according to current story lore. It would take quite a plot twist for the devs to justify us fighting against the Resistance.

Whichever you pick, getting Tough and Weave by level 20 will help greatly.

Strength of Will drains 50 endurance when it ends. Toggles only drop at the end of a Tier 9 power because players don't have enough endurance left to keep them on. If you're ready for the SoW crash, you can get yourself over 50 endurance before it ends and be fine.

Physical Perfection would be the only epic pool power I would suggest for DB/WP. Taking an attack would only cause redraw time when you use DB powers again.

Self-Rez powers only save you from having to use an awaken inspiration. In most situations where an awaken won't work, the self rez power also won't work due to enemies killing you before you can get your toggles back on. A hospital trip is almost meaningless at 50.

If you use Maneuvers, you can save yourself 2-3 billion INF by not having to slot the Gladiator's proc. Assault is only adding about 4% to your overall damage.

You only have 11% of your hard drive space free. Try to free up some space and defragment afterwards. Also, a scandisk never hurts to check your hard drive for errors.

After that, I would perform a file verification on CoH. I don't remember how to do it with the new launcher.

There is already a thread about this on the first page:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=256229

I finally got solid data on how long it takes me to do tip missions. The difference in completion time between my first tip and last was 15 minutes. Add in less than 5 minutes to get the initial tips and complete the first mission. That's less than 1 hour and 20 minutes to get one Luck of the Gambler global recharge. It could be done faster. I had some idle time in there, and I ran to Terra Volta on my second trip to get tips, instead of using my base teleporter pads.

If you don't mind the randomness of the ticket system, and the time it takes to craft, it can be faster INF sometimes. If you just want guaranteed INF, farm alignment merits.

It would greatly help if you could constantly monitor and log your temperatures just before a crash. I used to use nTune before they turned it into a 3d program. I think I found an old 2d version that is much easier to read and set up for logging to a text file:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.25.00.html


One thing you might be able to do is disable your secondary video card using Windows' device manager. That might help to isolate it without draining your cooling system.


Edit: I found a third-party temperature monitor that is more up-to-date than the nVidia one.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVIDIA-I....94_d2612.html

I post on these forums to help others with their builds because making builds is complex and ruining a build is too easy. It can take an hour or more to craft and slot IOs for an entire build. It only takes about 10 minutes to respec. It takes less than 5 minutes for most people to log in to the game and see if they have a respec available. I have spent hours posting to try to help other people with their builds, but the three of you think it is unreasonable for me to expect someone I'm trying to help to spend 5 or 15 minutes on their own character?

Even if you don't have the INF to invest in IOs, you can slot a build with SOs. It won't hurt your performance much if the slots are moved around, but you will be ready for the IO sets and you won't be wasting the free respec that was granted for I20. Basically, there are no good excuses for not respeccing before the next free one comes if you have one available now. Checking to see if you have one only requires you to log in to the game. It will say if you have an unclaimed respec available, or you can type "/respec" and click back or cancel to not use it right away.

My communication skills are fine. My communication style is what you have a problem with. I am blunt and to the point and I don't tolerate a lack of effort on other people's part when I am putting forth effort to help them. If you don't like that and you want a carebear-loving forum, try the Hello Kitty Online Adventures forum.

Horizontal lines on the monitor are usually a bad monitor or connection to the monitor. However, if they show up in screenshots, it is an issue with the hardware or software.

The OP can try to update drivers, change settings, or reinstall CoH, but the problem will likely disappear then come back eventually. From my experience, once you get artifacts, your video card went bad and needs to be replaced. In this case, it is likely bad video memory as Gaia pointed out.

The only other thing I can think of is changing your VSync setting.

It doesn't sound like a bandwidth issue. Hotel internet gets abused a lot and your individual connection may have an unstable ping and high packet loss. The packet loss is usually what causes the issues you describe. Unfortunately, there is little you can do if you continue to use the hotel's internet connection. There are simply too many people in the hotel abusing it by downloading constantly or running torrent programs or allowing malware to use the connection.

I agree with the OP. The new team UI is too big!

Tanker base defense and resistance on powers is higher than the Scrapper version of Shield Defense. The Scrapper had to spend a lot more INF to reach what you did with very little INF.

Instead of going to 5 Mako's and gaining a meaningless damage buff and mez resistance, consider 2 Pounding Slugfest or Bruising Blows for the regeneration or recovery bonus.

I just noticed Phalanx Fighting has a defense enhancement in it. That isn't doing anything for you. The defense granted by Phalanx Fighting when no allies are nearby is unenhanceable. A Luck of the Gambler or Kismet to-hit would be better.

You definitely should add Hasten to your build so you can keep Active Defense double-stacked. Even if you are against using Hami-O's in it, having 70% DDR is better than only having 50%. Cimeroreans will tear you apart if you aren't close to the DDR cap.

If it shows up in screenshots, then you likely have a video card going bad.

Don't worry so much about who has the bigger defense numbers. Going past 45% does almost nothing for most of the game's content. The soft cap for incarnate trials is 59%, but you can reach that with a small inspiration or team buffs.

I highly recommend double-stacking Active Defense and taking Grant Cover. Shield Defense can reach 95% defense debuff resistance if you slot 3 Membranes in Active Defense and have it double-stacked.

Mako's Bite is not very useful unless you go for the 6-slot bonus. A Crushing Impact set would give you some recharge at 5 slots.

Chasing recovery bonuses has left some powers underslotted. Deflection and True Grit would be better off with resistance IOs than the sets you have. You have Physical Perfection so you should be fine on endurance.

If you use this build to level up, I would advise taking Battle Agility as soon as possible. Your attacks can wait if you have temp powers like Blackwand and Sands of Mu.

A Scrapper's role on a team is to do damage and stay alive. Super Reflexes gives you enough survivability on its own, although some people like Aid Self or high regeneration from set bonuses. To do as much damage as possible, you should try to use the top attack chain. I don't remember what the top attack chain for Katana is. I would think it would be Golden Dragon -> Soaring Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut, but I could be wrong.

Try reading this thread before they close the I20 beta forums:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=254417

It explains everything about incarnate powers and slots, and how to get them.