Thunder Knight

Just to cover all the bases, you can't create EATs (hero or villain) if your over-level-20 character is originally from Praetoria, regardless of their alignment once you leave Pretoria. (There is a "Epic Archetypes Unlocked" message when you get to level 20 with a Praetorian, but it seems to be coded to appear when any character hits 20, and doesn't actually unlock anything)

I think the point was that "Artemis Crock" is an actual DC comics character, albeit an obscure one, not a character entirely made up for the series. The comics version (who uses a crossbow instead of a regular bow, and goes by the codename "Tigress") is the daughter of two villains, both of whom have appeared on the show (though her mother wasn't shown as a villain).

Is there a version of the Launcher for the Mac yet? If not, will Mac players still be able to get the aura?

I was in a PUG with an Electric/War Mace Tanker who was clearly based on Thor, but the design more closely resembled on the mythological figure (red hair, beard, etc), and this was sometime last year, long before the Thor Hype Train really got going.

Copyright is also more of a complete package. You can't copyright a name alone, for example, but instead have to copyright an entire character, including name, appearance, general backstory, etc.

That's why both DC and Marvel can have characters named "Captain Marvel" - because they're different characters otherwise, neither one is a copyright issue. However, since they have the same name in the same medium, only Marvel is allowed to actually title a comic book "Captain Marvel", due to trademark issues (which is why DC uses "Shazam").

But due to those same trademark issues, Marvel has to actually publish a comic with that title every so often, or they'll lose it, and DC will be able to use it as a title for their Captain Marvel comics. That's why Marvel keeps giving the name to new characters every few years and starting up a new comic.

So the reason that people can't make X-Men copies in CoH is not due to a possible loss of trademark on the X-Men, but because it's against copyright law for anyone but Marvel to do anything with the X-Men, because they own the characters.

The flip side of that is that, technically, they should allow names to be used as long as those names are for substantially different characters, but they're probably playing it safe, at least as far as the well-known names go. (You can probably get away with using the name of an obscure character or even a non-comics character, especailly if the entire rest of the character is different. Heck, the game itself even uses the name of a Marvel villain for a contact in Grandville - Abyss. The two characters couldn't be more different other than the name)

I don't know whether they'll let you outright use public domain characters, but I'd imagine they'd proably generic them just to be on the safe side.

I know I'm far behind the topic at this point, but I'm guessing the confusion was caused by the similarity in appearance of the Fury bar for Brutes and the Domination bar for Dominators. They look the same, and they build up in a similar manner (not identical, but similar - both rise when you attack, but Fury also rises when you get attacked), but Domination can only be used when when the bar is completely full, while Fury is giving you at least some bonus as long as the bar is not empty.

.... and I managed to completely forget when Protector's giveaway was, so I sauntered in nearly an hour after everyone had left. Yay.

Three tries, three fails.

Yeah, if you don't mind dropping Granite for the duration, Minerals will deflect Psi attacks easily. Its base defense is so high that it's stupidly easy to softcap with just common IOs. (I pretty much stink at playing the market, so common IOs and a handful of SOs make up the bulk of my characters' slotting, and I still have Psi more than softcapped on my 40-something Stone/Stone tanker with just three-slotted Minerals and three-slotted Weave, all with common Defense IOs. My Tanker easily takes on Psionic enemies that give my Elec/Invuln Brute fits)

If you actually slot for Psi defense Set bonuses on top of that, then you'll be sitting pretty when facing Psi-using foes. (Plus, since you won't be in Granite for the duration, you'll be able to take out the Psi-wielders all the more quickly without the heavy damage and recharge penalties)

If it helps, I've always found Pretoria far more difficult than Blueside and Redside starting areas. The worst one was a case when I created an Earth/Earth Dominator (who was neither my first Dominator nor my first Pretorian, so I knew the class and I knew the mission), and got killed by the very first spawn in Praetor White's very first mission.

That was an extreme case, of course (it hasn't happened again) but it's something that never happened at all as a hero or villain. (I immediately deleted that character and re-made him as a Villain, and had little trouble).

Even the Praetorian tutorial makes you go directly through a huge group of Ghouls, which must be a little much for a brand-new player.

That's about how I've always felt about it: if the topic is still relevant, and the new post restarts a actual conversation, then it's fine and the topic should be left alone . If it's clearly not relevant (say, someone asking a question that's long since been answered) and/or the new post doesn't add anything (say, a short "I agree" post), then that's a Bad Necro, and the topic should be closed.

I lost this topic for a while, sorry.

Thanks for all the tips. I'll know what sets to keep an eye out for, for when I do have the funds. (I managed to drop a Respec Recipe... but I don't know whether I want to sell it or use it)

I mostly ask because Invulnerability is a very resist-heavy powerset, yet it's frequently spoken about as if it can be soft-capped relatively easily, so I wanted to see what I was missing. I'm thinking that it's the "relatively" that threw me.

The Brute's primary is Elec Melee, if that helps. (I do frequently get some "defense" by draining more powerful opponents' Endurance bars dry)

Any tips that threaten to lead to Oranbega. I hate that place.

I kinda like the idea behind the Executor, and as written it could possibly be made barely viable due to the ability to get some resistance, defense, and mez protection from Pool Powers (Tough, Weave, Combat Jumping, and Acrobatics), but it wouldn't be easy or much fun getting to that point, you'd still be vulnerable to the majority of effects (Stun, Confuse, etc), and those Pools would pretty much be required for every Executor, regardless of the character's actual concept.

And it might be more workable with a heavy overhaul of the melee sets - Primary could be Offensive Melee (melee attacks that debuff and/or mez the target, pretty much what we have now, probably with higher percentages to take effect), and Secondary could be Defensive Melee (melee attacks that buff the user when they hit, similar to Claws' Follow Up and Broadsword's Parry). Defensive Melee is the one that would have to be created from scratch, to include more defense buffs, resistance buffs, and mez protection.

In effect, I could see it working if it was something like a melee-range Dominator, with higher damage output making up for the lack of range.

The other two... far more problematic. As said, Deflector absolutely needs attacks (and giving them such pretty much turns them into Defenders), and Destroyers are pretty much just Blasters with a massive handicap (inability to use even Pool melee powers - what about Brawl?), bad armor (no S/L damage resist or defense seems weird on its own), and a whole new "minimum range" mechanic that'd have to be written into the game.

Though the more I think about this, the more I just like the idea of a Defensive Melee powerset of some sort (for the current melee ATs, that is, not as a new AT). That'd probably require all new dodging animations, though, and would probably be overpowered when stacked with actual Armors.

As I understand it, not wanting "pimp" characters is nothing more than a rumor, and the real reason is purely technical.

There's a bunch of topics about it, but I think this one explains it the best: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=236651 (start with the 10th post, past all the "no pimps!" rumor-mongering)

There was an in-game announcement. The game went down at noon GMT for two hours, presumably to remove the double exp and Winter Event from the game.

Those two hours should be up around... now. (The key word there, of course, is "around". The game doesn't seem to be up now. Server Status page says "Unknown" for all servers, which is usually a synonym for "Down")

Edited to add: ... and now it's back up, and the ski chalet is still there, and I still seem to be getting double experience. So... um... hm. Never mind.

If you don't like hover, there's also Air Superiority, IMO the best pool attack in the game. (100% chance for knock-up with a fairly quick recharge? Very yes, please!)

Though with kat/ you'll have to deal with redraw, but AS is still an option to keep in mind.

Took me a moment to find it, but:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Damage_Scale

All Dominator secondaries are damage sets (compared to Controller secondaries which are buff/debuff sets), so, yeah, Dominators do more damage than Controllers right from level 1. As a trade-off, they have little to no defenses (outside of their controls).

I don't have any direct experience with Electric control (my three Doms are Grav/Elec, Ice/Ice, and Mind/Psi, and none of them are very high level), so I'll let someone else answer that.

I was kinda put off by both the negative tone of his first post and his chosen name.

Or should I say hir first post and hir chosen name? (Don't hurt me, I kid, I kid...)

But it just goes to show how darn nice this community is.

Exactly. And with Batman, he started a little early. His Golden Age comics presented him as a dark vigilante more than willing to kill (or, at the very least, not lift a finger to save a criminal) to rid the city of crime, and the Joker (in what was intended to be his only appearance) as a murderous - and not particularly humorous - serial killer. By the time of the "boner" comic, Batman had settled into his Silver Age portrayal as a public figure, known and loved as a crimefighter by the people of Gotham, and the Joker had become a mostly-harmless thief. The art style was still reminiscent of Golden Age works, but the writing had already turned the corner.

I'm more of a concept player than a power player, but, still, I want to get a little more survivability in. (It's part of my concept)

Anyway, I was wondering how to softcap a level 47 Invulnerability Brute's S/L Defense. I don't have Mids (I'm using a Mac), so I can't post my build in its entirety, but I have:

Invulnerability (six-slotted, 2 Defensive IOs, 3 To-Hit Buff IOs, and LotG Def/Rech)
Tough Hide (3 Defense IOs, giving about 6% Typed defense)
Weave (1 Defense IOs, just gotten at 47 so I haven't had a chance to slot it yet, about 4.5%)
Small S/L Defense bonus from a full Titanium Coating set, for another 1.25%.

Total bonus: 11.77% S/L, 10.52% to F/I/E/NE, 7.11% to Melee, and 4.61% to Psi/Ranged/AoE, not including whatever buffs I get from Invulnerability (which can push me into the ~20% range).

So, since softcapping positional is probably impractical, where do I get the other 35% or so I need to softcap S/L?

Caveat: I only have about 9 million Inf to spend, because I'm apparently absolutely terrible at playing the markets. (For example, just this moment, as I was typing this post up, I managed to sell a crafted Level 45 Performance Shifter End/Acc IO.... for 250,000 Inf). I want to get the rest of the LotG set, but it's not happening on that budget.