milks

You didn't really ask my opinion, but spines stalkers are kind of bleah. Your placate will fail almost every time because your attacks have a poison DOT on the back end.

You can't soo Heroes and AV's without some kind of -regen, which pretty much rules brutes out.

Almost any brute can solo elite bosses.

I always feel like I miss way more often playing sets like EM or KM with horrendously broken animation times. Every time I miss a total focus I die a little inside. It's heartbreaking to jump up in the air, hover there for like an hour, come back down and *whiff!*

I always feel that I am missing way more often on those sets over other sets. I really hate the 95% tohit cap in general though. You should be able to accuracy up to 100%.

Yeah I'd ignore the pet purple set except for the proc. The proc is really good in Call Thugs since they empty clips and the arsonist has fire breath and molotov cocktails. Also there's 3 of them instead of two.

I like to slot my enforcers with 4x dam/acc IO's from mixed sets and 2 defbuffs because their leadership is pretty baller.

You can go Super Reflexes if you don't like Ninjitsu (hint: ninjitsu is awesome).

Willpower isn't broken or gimped or anything. It is just that you won't go into hide properly if you placate at or around the same time you're hit. Or if your placate lands on the enemy while he's animating an attack that hits you, it'll break the hide component of placate and you won't get an AS/Crit off unless you wait 8 seconds to naturally re-hide. You're hit a lot if you are playing a resist based stalker. It's more of a quality of life thing.

I'm not a huge fan of Regen for stalkers outside of PVP. Regen is better if you have more HP because regen numbers are all % based. The amount of HP/Sec a scrapper gets out of Regen is remarkably higher than what a stalker gets. Regen kinda relies on being able to take at least a few hits so you have enough time for instant healing and your passive regen to build your HP back. My regen stalker frequently gets flattened in 2 hits by a boss with dull pain and IH running. I hate it.

I'm not a huge fan of resist based Stalkers in general (I know WP has pretty ok defense but it is still mostly a resist set for melee attacks IMO. It is harder to get a decent placate off when almost everything hits you.

KM is a decent set. It's animations can sometimes be a bit long and you'd probably find yourself whaling on your reconstruction hotkey with 5% life left while your dude flails his arms around like an idiot. Concentrated strike has a 50% chance to crit out of hide though, so a lot of times you can placate, build up, CS, FB, SB and then placate and hit buildup again. Vs. minions it's probably faster than using your assassin strike.

You can't go wrong with either really. Both have two reliable knockdowns. Both do lethal damage. The main difference is that ninja blade has divine avalanche that buffs your melee and lethal def by a ridiculous amount and dual blades has a much easier and more damaging cone attack. You can reliably hit two enemies with golden dragonfly, and if the stars align perfectly you can hit three. One thousand cuts is trivial to catch as many dudes as you want in it's 90 degree cone. It does quite a bit more damage too for the cost of 3 seconds more on recharge time and a fairly long animation time vs. how snappy golden dragonfly animates. Also flashing steel from ninja blade has a very nice arc (130 deg vs. 90 deg for 1kCuts and Sweeping Strike) that kinda makes up for GD's inferiority vs. 1KCuts.

Dual blades has krazy kombos too if that floats your boat.

Honestly I like ninja blade a bit more. You can softcap your melee defense easily if you are using a defense based secondary, as long as you remember to keep your divine avalanche going.

I have one of each type of MM at level 50 except for necromancy (which is like 40) and I don't experience anything remotely like this issue you guys are having. Sure my range pets run in and melee and I wish they wouldn't, but I can honestly say I've never seen them all run in; only one ever does at a time.

My pets that don't have melee attacks never run in. I wonder what I'm doing differently. I have my standard petcom_all attack defense macro and also a petcom_all follow passive one for when I want to re-position them, but that's really what I use 95% of the time other than macros to make my bruiser run in and to position Oni better for a fire breath.

Anyone know if bosses have an increased drop rate for better recipes?

Yeah spirit shark looks neat but IMO its only good for slotting Posi blast or the purple set for the set bonuses. Especially for ninja blade since you also have redraw to contend with after the crazy long animation for it. Zapping the occasional runner with a homing shark is reasonably hilarious though.

I couldn't live without my water spout. It is so great now that it knocks down instead of back. It mitigates so much damage and recharges fast enough that its always there when I want it. Water spout does respectable damage on EB's and other things that it can stay on for a full duration too. It also looks baller as hell. It doesnt fit at all with my natural origin nin/nin stalker either but I got over it. I also think SSJaws is the best looking hold in the game and Hibernate is amazing for when Retsu crashes and Im not paying attention.

It is a tough choice because targetting drone is nice vs. defense based enemies. Although even if you slot it for end reduction, it slurps up endurance like crazy and is more expensive than your other 2 ninja toggles combined. Exploding shuriken is only okay. It's damage is enemic unless you are on a big team and hit a ton of dudes with it, and it has a painfully long recharge. If you're going to go weapon mastery, don't forget Web grenade is also a 40% recharge debuff, which is no joke.

You guys don't seem to understand that by giving Stalkers more AoE, they would have to bring single target DPS down. More AoE isn't going to improve Stalkers. I think you should probably just play a scrapper or a brute if you want to do more AoE.

The solution to buffing Stalkers and making them valuable is to improve their potency on a single target. Assassin Strike should do percentage damage on EB's and Heroes. 7-10% health on a Hero NPC modified by resistance buffs/debuffs would be welcomed and would encourage stalkers more to use placate and AS more while fighting harder content. Having a stalker on a TF should be useful and the only way they are going to remain unique and remain useful is to focus on their strengths. Currently when you AS a Hero you don't even see their health bar move. It's pathetic. TF leaders should be actively looking for a Stalker to help gank harder Heroes quicker.

I run TF a lot on my stalker and I wouldn't say no to taking one on one of my own I'm leading. This is mostly because the TF's aren't really that difficult more than any other reason though. If there was content that was so hard that you needed an absolutely perfect team to win, then I probably wouldn't invite a stalker because they are just a poorly designed AT for how this game works at high levels.

I love playing my nin/nin stalker. And thanks to the changes to the AT they are pretty fun to solo (used to be atrocious). I have done almost all the arcs in Grandville solo over the last couple of weeks and have soloed every elite boss thrown at me. The only one that gave me much trouble was Mynx because for some reason the developers think that giving Mynx a 5 second cooldown on her Elude is compelling and fun. I dislike my stalker in groups though because they are just broken in group combat dynamics. There have been tons of really great suggestions from the community that have been completely ignored in the past, so I won't waste too much time complaining about it. I just solo my stalker and have fun that way.

When i want to group or do TF I run them with friends/VG. I don't feel like I'm contributing much but no one ever complains.

Not really the cheapest build in the world, considering you could probably slot two powers with full purples for the cost of that gladiator's armor +def IO.

I took this power on my stalker and I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm wondering how people are slotting it though. I don't really care about how often it stuns or knocks up, so right now I have it slotted with 5 posi blasts mostly for the passive set bonus and the fact it does decent damage on stuff that it doesn't blow around. Is it worth slotting for anything else?

It seems that no matter what value I put in for resolution in registry or in safe mode, it comes out multiplied by 10 in COH Helper's output file. What the hell is going on? Does anyone have any insight? I just reinstalled the client again and the same exact thing happens.

Does anyone know where City of Heroes stores its client side options?

Hmm, I downloaded Tweak COH and made it pick 1900x1200 resolution but it still doesn't work. Does anyone know of a file I can go into and manually change it?

Does everyone else's COHHelper dumps show a proper resolution?

I just reinstalled COH on a system where it worked fine on before. Now when I click on the game and run the updater, it runs fine and then when it goes to start the game (where you get that thin "Loading" graphic before the game actually loads up, it just freezes there.

I have searched the forums and have found many people with the same issue but none of why theirs were not loading apply to me. I am not running Window Blinds or any Alienware visual programs. In fact this is pretty much a brand new fresh reinstall. I have tried running in Windows Xp compat. mode and have tried disabling visual themes and desktop comp in compatibility options. I have tried adding exceptions and outright disabling windows firewall. I've made sure my motherboard's firmware is up to date and downloaded the newest sound drivers for my onboard sound.

I have tried the latest WHQL drivers for my video card and have also tried every other certified drivers all the way back to January 2010.

After trying to run the game I have to go into task manager and kill the process. If I just kill the application, it just keeps sitting there as a running process. At one point, I had about 5 of them in there even though I was killing the app.

I should also note that I have no issues loading the game up in Safe Mode. It works fine.

I am at a total loss as to why its doing this. I am hoping someone can help me out.

Here is my log fomr CoHHelper:

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at October 29, 2010 15:20 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/22/10 12:51:51 Ver: 08.00.15
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 8192MB
.Net Memory Report: 6792MB out of 8190MB available
Page File: 14803MB (1574MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST31500341AS ATA Device) 1284475MB out of 1430696MB (89%) free
D Drive: (WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0 ATA Device) 886539MB out of 1430796MB (61%) free
E Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22N ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce GTX 280
Video Memory: 4077 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.11.9621
Driver Date: 01/11/2010 9:03:33 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (VIA High Definition Audio)
Driver File: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7900
Driver Date: 01/11/2010 6:05:20 PM

Sound Device Description: HD Audio HDMI out (VIA High Definition Audio)
Driver File: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7900
Driver Date: 01/11/2010 6:05:20 PM

Sound Device Description: SPDIF Interface (TX1) (VIA High Definition Audio)
Driver File: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7900
Driver Date: 01/11/2010 6:05:20 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P7P55D
Motherboard Version: Rev 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 07/22/10 12:51:51 Ver: 08.00.15
BIOS Version: 072210 - 20100722
BIOS Release: 20100722000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 19200x12000
3D Resolution: 19200x12000 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No


Physics Quality: Unknown (31)
Maximum Particles: 500000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Unknown (2147483647)
Anisotropic Filtering: Unknown (2147483647)
Texture LOD Bias: Unknown (20)
Water Effects: Unknown (2147483647)
Bloom: Unknown (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: Unknown (30)


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Unknown (2147483647)
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: Unknown
Shadows Enabled: No
Shadow Mode: Unknown (2147483647)
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (2147483647)
Environmental Reflections: Unknonwn (2147483647)
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: High performance
Occlusion Strength: Unknonwn (2147483647)
Blur: Unknonwn (2147483647)
Ambient Resolution: Unknonwn (2147483647)


Gamma Correction: Unknown
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: Unknown
Music Sound Volume: Unknown

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: Unknown
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1850.201009101722.15T2r
Installation Directory: C:\Games\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

Hijack this:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.4
Scan saved at 3:29:26 PM, on 29/10/2010
Platform: Windows 7 (WinNT 6.00.3504)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.7600.16671)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Games\Steam\Steam.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\SteelSeries\World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse\WoWMHID.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\SteelSeries\World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse\WoWMTray.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Contacts\wlcomm.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Users\Chris\Desktop\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
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: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse] C:\Program Files (x86)\SteelSeries\World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse\WoWMHID.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HDAudDeck] C:\Program Files (x86)\VIA\VIAudioi\VDeck\VDeck.exe -r
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Steam] "C:\Games\Steam\Steam.exe" -silent
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [uTorrent] "C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [msnmsgr] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe" /background
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /autoRun (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\RunOnce: [mctadmin] C:\Windows\System32\mctadmin.exe (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /autoRun (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\RunOnce: [mctadmin] C:\Windows\System32\mctadmin.exe (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\program files (x86)\common files\microsoft shared\windows live\wlidnsp.dll
O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\program files (x86)\common files\microsoft shared\windows live\wlidnsp.dll
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\efssvc.dll,-100 (EFS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\fxsresm.dll,-118 (Fax) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\fxssvc.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: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (nvsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\nvvsvc.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\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\sppsvc.exe,-101 (sppsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\sppsvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Steam Client Service - Valve Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Steam\SteamService.exe
O23 - Service: NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service (Stereo Service) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvSCPAPISvr.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vaultsvc.dll,-1003 (VaultSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.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\Wat\WatUX.exe,-601 (WatAdminSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\Wat\WatAdminSvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\wbengine.exe,-104 (wbengine) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbengine.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)

--
End of file - 6204 bytes

Please help!

Thanks!

I'm looking at the damage enhancements I'm slotting in my 2nd tier demon summon. As far as damage enhancements go, I have 3 dam/acc and a dam/end enhancement (as well as a couple of heal/end but that's not relevant for this post). All are between 22% and 26% damage so my tier 2 demons should be rocking out around 95% damage.


When I mouse over them in the enhancements window it says that they have 61.1% damage buff and 61.1% resist damage. I have not slotted any damage resist enhancements for their ember shield. Is the game splitting the damage from my damage enhancements into damage and damage resists for some reason? Is there another explanation for this? I want these guys putting out more damage.

I just came back after being on hiatus for a long time. I rolled up a new mastermind with a Storm secondary. I have looked all over for a bind command that lets me target a specific pet or a pet's name so I can bind them to my numpad for fast heals. Does something like that exist? Thanks!