TheBruteSquad

Defense bonus IOs. Same as the other resistance sets. It's harder to softcap, and softcapping a defense set takes away a few of the things that makes electric armor special: energy drain resistance (dodged with a softcapped build) and decent resistances (dodging is better). It still has unlimited endurance going for it... but IOs take away from that as well since endurance is often not a problem once you slot a miracle and numinas (a week and a day of tip running even if you're broke).

Before IOs it was widely regarded to be the king of brute armors: tough, fast, unlimited endurance, no weaknesses to late game enemy groups. Those days have passed.

More than that they've taken damage from Death Shroud (even a pulse or two before they wander away in the case of OG, which I hate - I use cloak of fear). With Brute's threat modifier that should be enough to get them coming back for more after the stun or fear duration's up.

If they're not, you know... dead. Which they will be on a team.

Stick to your original plan. Darkest Night isn't quite a Godmode for a willpower, but it does make diving into packs of x8 arachnos less annoying - and fury fueled aoes are always fun.

So do I. I thought one had slipped past my spam filter but everything checked out in the e-mail: Perfect english, proper domain names with no extra domains 'cleverly' hidden in the full link name, inability to log into the game until I'd followed the instructions. I'm still not ruling out 'scam' entirely but if it is, it is by far the most competent and therefore dangerous one I've ever seen.

Not that it matters *much*... I use a personal password generation system that's easy for me to remember so no two things online share the same password. A clever system means nothing to a keylogger, though, so here I am.

Thanks for the second glance and the .de tip.

I received a warning from a different game that due to suspicious activity on my account it had been suspended and that I most likely had a keylogger. This... aggravates me somewhat, as I am both reasonably knowledgeable about such things and careful. I'd rather not have anything happen to my City of Heroes account (or online banking). I can't see anything wrong but maybe I'm missing something?

---
Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 3:25:02 PM, on 12/11/2010
Platform: Windows Vista SP2 (WinNT 6.00.1906)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.6001.18975)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\avgtray.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\Identity Protection\agent\bin\avgidsmonitor.exe
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applica tion\chrome.exe
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applica tion\chrome.exe
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applica tion\chrome.exe
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applica tion\chrome.exe
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applica tion\chrome.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = C:\Windows\SysWOW64\blank.htm
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
F2 - REG:system.ini: UserInit=userinit.exe
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
O2 - BHO: WormRadar.com IESiteBlocker.NavFilter - {3CA2F312-6F6E-4B53-A66E-4E65E497C8C0} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\avgssie.dll
O2 - BHO: Windows Live ID Sign-in Helper - {9030D464-4C02-4ABF-8ECC-5164760863C6} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live\WindowsLiveLogin.dll
O2 - BHO: AVG Security Toolbar BHO - {A3BC75A2-1F87-4686-AA43-5347D756017C} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\Toolbar\IEToolbar.dll
O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
O3 - Toolbar: AVG Security Toolbar - {CCC7A320-B3CA-4199-B1A6-9F516DD69829} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\Toolbar\IEToolbar.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [StartCCC] "C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLIStart.exe" MSRun
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe ARM] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG_TRAY] C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\avgtray.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Google Update] "C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Google\Update\Google Update.exe" /c
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O13 - Gopher Prefix:
O16 - DPF: {39B0684F-D7BF-4743-B050-FDC3F48F7E3B} (CDownloadCtrl Object) - http://www.fileplanet.com/fpdlmgr/ca...2.3.10.115.cab
O18 - Protocol: avgsecuritytoolbar - {F2DDE6B2-9684-4A55-86D4-E255E237B77C} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\Toolbar\IEToolbar.dll
O18 - Protocol: linkscanner - {F274614C-63F8-47D5-A4D1-FBDDE494F8D1} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\avgpp.dll
O18 - Protocol: wlpg - {E43EF6CD-A37A-4A9B-9E6F-83F89B8E6324} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Photo Gallery\AlbumDownloadProtocolHandler.dll
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: AMD External Events Utility - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\atiesrxx.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: ASP.NET State Service (aspnet_state) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspn et_state.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: AVG Security Toolbar Service - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\Toolbar\ToolbarBroker.exe
O23 - Service: AVGIDSAgent - AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\Identity Protection\Agent\Bin\AVGIDSAgent.exe
O23 - Service: AVG WatchDog (avgwd) - AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG10\avgwdsvc.exe
O23 - Service: Dragon Age: Origins - Content Updater (DAUpdaterSvc) - BioWare - C:\Games\Dragon Age\bin_ship\DAUpdaterSvc.Service.exe
O23 - Service: @dfsrres.dll,-101 (DFSR) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\DFSR.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @keyiso.dll,-100 (KeyIso) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @comres.dll,-2797 (MSDTC) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\msdtc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\System32\netlogon.dll,-102 (Netlogon) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\psbase.dll,-300 (ProtectedStorage) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\Locator.exe,-2 (RpcLocator) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\locator.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\samsrv.dll,-1 (SamSs) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\SLsvc.exe,-101 (slsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\SLsvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\snmptrap.exe,-3 (SNMPTRAP) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\snmptrap.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\spoolsv.exe,-1 (Spooler) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vds.exe,-100 (vds) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\vds.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\vssvc.exe,-102 (VSS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%Systemroot%\system32\wbem\wmiapsrv.exe,-110 (wmiApSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe,-101 (WMPNetworkSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe (file missing)
---

There's a little IGN crap in there but I've subbed to their file download service for years (bought City through it actually) so it's nothing new. The 'file missing' stuff is also annoying as those files are indeed still there... I've heard that's a vista thing.

I thought it was mostly because ice armor's numbers suck on anything not a Tanker?

Quite possibly the most 'comic book' ending the show's had. Good episode.

Looks pretty good. Only thing that worried me?

"In 3-D (and in 2D in selected theaters)"

Shouldn't that be the other way around? Sigh. I have duane's syndrome - ze goggles, dey do nothi-- little (though they are slightly better than the old red and blues which literally did indeed do nothing. Just like the old viewmaster toys.)

Whereas I'm the one responsible for making sure that all social media sites remain blocked by the firewall and monitor a few 'creative' individuals who try and get around it.

/em comic book guy "Worst. 'Contest'. Ever."

Lord Recluse: "If only Arachnos had developed some sort of counter to heroes flying around out of reach. Something... spider themed. I like spiders. Some sort of grenade that... exploded into webs or something. Something easy to mass produce in quantities sufficient to outfit most of my soldiers with it. Something I could carry around to counter the fact that I can't fly (Damn you Marcus. Why did you get all the cool powers?) Some sort of mace or something. With a spider on it. I like spiders."

I hate the market too. That's why I put everything from clockwork winders to hamidon enhancements to purples up for 5 inf.

It's still made me well over a billion infamy. I've got about 600 million in cash at the moment with a few builds 'worth' 500 million plus.

No crafting, no playing the market. As for inventory management the most I do is when I run out of salvage space I sort by amount and just chuck whatever I had the most of if I'm not interested in running to the market to dump things (usually I'm not). Same with recipes. I'm not interested in spending any more effort on it than that. I guess I could global e-mail things to myself instead of chucking them but... meh. Why mess with something that's worked for me?

Simple. Use the Architect and set the minimum mission level to 52 and max to 52. Voila, instant +2 AV.

Blue:
My sm/wp brute has only been able to successfully solo one AV... Manticore. Other than the teleporting arrow attack (auto hit, about 1000 damage) it wasn't so bad. My endurance bar was my true enemy. My attacks have 88% end reduction, I have two perf shifters, and a 4.0 recovery. That's enough to solo a Rikti Pylon no problem, but an AV makes me want to use ALL my toggles instead of just the three needed to shrug off a pylon. Big difference between .7 end/sec consumption and 1.25 (mostly darkest night and weave). Your dark/inv should be able to handle a few himself.

edit: Beaten to the AE punch

I'd go dark/willpower instead, personally. Out of the box on SOs Willpower's two weaknesses are to large spike damage like an alpha (which regen is worse at out of the box) and a lack of a self heal if their regeneration isn't enough. Dark melee plugs the second hole fairly well... and dark's negative to hit, which is great for any armor set, stacks with the defense value of Heightened Senses nicely. Once you floor the enemies accuracy both sets are great... but I feel that Willpower, outside of moment and glory or instant healing being active, will be better at surviving getting the enemy to that point.

Considering that some scrappers solo task forces... I'd imagine the answer is yes.

Also that's a Tanker, not a Brute. Among other things Brutes don't get Invincibility until 28, not 18, and Unyielding at 16, not 10.

The game *heavily* favors smashing over lethal as a damage type.

Put it this way: I have four brutes and scrappers at level 50 that use smashing (stone melee x2, super strength, martial arts). I have one scrapper at level 50 that uses lethal (broadsword). My experience with him has led me to never, ever, ever, ever consider taking lethal damage to 50 again.

Headsplitter vs council, arachnos, crey, or rikti bosses for 188? They're *most* of what I fight at level 50. Most of what the game throws. Yes, I have the -res proc in hack... it doesn't help much.

Sure, the odd 1200 damage crit against a carnie boss is giggle worthy but other than that playing that scrapper for a few tip missions after playing one of my other 50s makes me want to throw up. My EM tanker out bursts him in the span of a build up in most cases.

Control/Defense would be cool...

Oh, wait... that's my Fortunata.

Well, that would work if Cole were a Mutant, instead of the magic origin powerhouse that he is... but that's just quibbling. Nicely modified background for your homage.

I intended to take taunt, but ended up taking superjump, hasten, and weave instead on my sm/wp.

However, my gut feeling is that hasten bringing my global recharge from 55% to 125% isn't really affecting my damage much. My four single target attacks are seismic smash, gloom, heavy mallet, and stone mallet... and without running hasten it's rare I get a chance to autobrawl before one of those comes back up, especially now that I've slotted a spiritual alpha boost. Then again, I *can* bottom my blue bar out when hasten is running (two perf shifter procs and 4.0 end/sec recovery or not) whereas I can't dent it when its not so I *have* to be attacking faster, despite perception.... don't I?

Maybe a numbers guy can figure it out. I'm seriously considering respeccing hasten for taunt as it stands.

Oh, if only Nethergoat was wrong.

Damn, Shadow Shark is already taken. Was going to make a dark melee/sr stalker in honor of the cool typo.

I could see how this mission would be frustrating to players who aren't used to fighting EBs. And it IS a frequently complained about mission in Broadcast. So much so that I logged a tanker in and ran through the arc three times helping people complete it before logging out... and likely will again when I log back in.

Smersh has said everything I would have, and better, but for the record I was using this definition: