shawnculli

Yeah, I already take double maneuvers and double assault. Freeing up the fitness line would allow me to take tough though, and might actually make me consider taking tt:tactics.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll throw my nickel into the discussion.

1) I agree with the previous poster about Elude, skip it. You really don't need it.

2) I think I'm probably an oddball when it comes to attack chains, and I'll be the first to admit it's not the most efficient, but it works for me. I have Poison Dart, Mental Blast, Dart Burst and Psychic Scream...I use these most of the time when teaming so I can position myself for maximum benefit from all my leadership toggles. I also have Lunge, Slash and Spin for melee attacks, so I can get in and mix it up close and personal when needed. Yes, I freely acknowledge Gloom as a better attack, but it comes so late, I have all of my attack powers by 35.

3) I don't use tactics, so I have one in Build-Up. I can't say I've honestly ever noticed it going off, so I have considered removing it completely.

4) I don't use the medicine pool on my widow, but I can definitely understand why someone would. My inherent regen usually takes care of recovery after a big alpha, but I always keep a couple of greens for emergencies in my task bar. I made do without it soloing probably 70% of the way to 50, and most of my time now is in teams, so I doubt I'll ever add it.

Don't forget halloween salvage as well. It will give you a total of six costume slots, though you can only access the last one using cc 5 or one of the variants for costume change emotes. Also, before you do the level 40 costume mission make sure you really like the costume in your second slot, as it will be copied over to slot five and cannot be altered.

I've been running CoH on a pair of Dell laptops for the last few years, having no spare money to upgrade to a desk top machine. My buddy, who doesn't have this problem, gave me his old server machine, only a couple of years old, that was near the top of the line when he built it. Needless to say, it's a huge upgrade from what I've been playing on.

Unfortunately, I've been experiencing crashes with a couple of minutes of launching the game. Complete system lockup, can't CAD out to close the program or anything. There's a good chance the problem might be caused by faulty hardware, but the only thing that hasn't been swapped out or changed already is the motherboard. Help me if you can guys, I'd really like to experience the game just a bit at better than minimum graphics.

Here are the results of CoH Helper and Highjack This:

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

DxDiag gathered at July 4, 2010 23:17 (-04:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909)
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
System Model: MS-7125
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 2048MB
.Net Memory Report: 1455MB out of 2047MB available
Page File: 3308MB (787MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3120026AS ATA Device) 74858MB out of 114370MB (65%) free
D Drive: (ATAPI iHDP118 4 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.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 8800 GT
Video Memory: 1267 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.12.5721
Driver Date: 6/7/2010 7:58:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek AC'97 Audio)
Driver File: RTKVAC64.SYS
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.6305
Driver Date: 6/18/2009 7:45:06 PM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek AC'97 Audio)
Driver File: RTKVAC64.SYS
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.6305
Driver Date: 6/18/2009 7:45:06 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: MS-7125
Motherboard Version: 3.0
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: Nvidia - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20060721000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1920x1080
3D Resolution: 1920x1080 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Medium quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: No
Shadow Mode: Stencil shadows
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Medium quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Performance
Occlusion Strength: Slight
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance


Gamma Correction: 0.495
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.046
Music Sound Volume: 0.011

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201006040036.5Tr
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 34 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files


Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.4
Scan saved at 11:21:12 PM, on 7/4/2010
Platform: Windows 7 (WinNT 6.00.3504)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.7600.16385)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Windows\SOUNDMAN.EXE
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.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
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
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
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')
O16 - DPF: {1E54D648-B804-468d-BC78-4AFFED8E262F} (System Requirements Lab) - http://www.nvidia.com/content/Driver...reqlab_nvd.cab
O16 - DPF: {74DBCB52-F298-4110-951D-AD2FF67BC8AB} (NVIDIA Smart Scan) - http://www.nvidia.com/content/Driver...aSmartScan.cab
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: @%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 - 4946 bytes

I'm working on one of these myself. I received a lot of good advice in this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=205681

Thanks for the clarification and suggestions guys. I'll have to see what I can do about obtaining some Hamidon enhancements for all my characters if they're as good as that.

As for whether the build is finalised, and the order of powers...I plan on getting stamina to level up. Pretty much no way around that if I want to keep swinging until Power Sink is fully slotted. Dark Consumption will come earlier, but the recharge on it is too long to depend on it alone the way I tend to play. The order or powers on the sample build is by no means final.

I appreciate all the help folks. Even after almost two years of play I still feel like a newb sometimes.

Thanks for the response Julius. I had constructed a similar build with Darkest Night in it that considered also. My other electric armor character hasn't achieved Power Sink level yet, so I'm not sure how the power works. I assumd slotting for endurance mod in lightning field and power sink increases the amount drained from the foes? Or does it just increase the amount returned to you. If the former I definitely see where your slotting would be more beneficial.

And your suggestions for Siphon Life are interesting as well. I've never experimented with hamidon enhancements as I've never had the opportunity to attend a raid, so I never bothered to learn about them. I see other people include them in their builds frequently, so perhaps I should try to learn about them myself.

As for Dark Consumption, I do have that on a dark melee scrapper. The endurance recovery is nice, but I use it for more damage right before Soul Drain runs out. You can never have enough aoe damage support with dark melee. I figure with a decent fury build up the damage should be pretty nice.

Hi forumites. I've been playing for a while but I have very little experience with brutes. I have been enjoying my ele/ele scrapper and my dm/sr stalker a lot, so I thought I'd try combining the two into a brute.

The build I've put together looks decent in mids, but that's does not always transfer over to fun and effective in game. I've used some frankenslotting in places in an effort to maximize damage/recharge/endurance on attaks and provide as much endurance reduction as possible on toggles. I know the powersets have built in endurance recovery tools but I wasn't sure how effective they would be on a brute seeing as the goal is to keep fighting as fast as possible to keep fury up.

Let me know what you think please.

I purchased both of the booster packs seperately a while back, so I'm wondering if you know how the free month works if you already have an active account? I haven't done much with the AE system and frankly don't have the time or inclination to make my own missions. If there is a free month at that price it would definitely be worth purchasing.

The only Stalker I've been able to get into so far is my DM/SR. Like the previous poster mentioned there is good synergy with the dark attacks and the feel of being an assassin. The synergy with -to hit and the defense set is nice and the heal from siphon life is very useful.

My only complaint is the large floating skull when you use Assassin's Eclipse. Thematically I like the idea of sneak attacking with siphon life instead. There's just something very satisfying about popping out of the shadows and absorbing someone's life essence as they fall to the ground. Too bad that feel only comes on minions.

And I'm the guy on the right of the Daybreakers piece. I have to say man, you make me look far more intimidating than I feel most of the time. Awesome work.

I feel your pain. My company has a good IT team that has managed to block all possible avenues of IM type communications. Except the internal ones of course and the tech support guys like to go back to sleep after they handle the calls I send them.

I am pretty new to Virtue myself, playing mainly with a static group I joined a couple of months ago in the mornings, the Daybreak Patrol. Most of my characters are centered around them, Daybreak Sigma, Daybreak Gamma and Valerie Bellemont. I also have a new scrapper, Ace Maguire and Dawnstar Dioscuri (PB of a PB/WS duo) on hero side. My villains are Lectric Lex, Riff Rumbler and Vlatok.

So nice to meet you fellow night owl. Maybe we can meet up in Faultline for a donut and coffee one morning after work. Send me a pm if you want to arrange something some time.

Today's Shirt Woot. He should've eaten a Shroom pizza maybe.

"Going Rogue should make for an excellent starting point for those who want to try City of Heroes out for the first time, as it'll include a new starting experience for new and existing players in the parallel universe of Praetoria."

I'm looking forward to this myself. If this means we can start out in Praetoria instead of Atlas/Galaxy that will be very cool.

Dude, great concept for a character. Too bad there's not a pulse rifle set in existence to use for it. You could do energy/energy based off the heavy armor suits that had the built in weapons, but I know it wouldn't be conceptually perfect for the scout suit.

To echo the others, we like to have fun. We try to run on Tuesday/Thursday but last week and this week have not been very accomodating. Our static group is at level 18 currently, working on the Faultline arc. We've one of each AT minus the epics right now, and tend to mow down enemies for a while and then get overconfident and get spanked hard.

We're levelling fast, which is to be expected with the xp bonus from being in a group and the fast kill rate, but that is not our focus. I'm working on alts in the group now myself, and since we're opening it up to non power armored types now I'll probably have a couple more in the next few days. I've all but abandoned my old server since I've discovered Virtue, and am contemplating moving my characters over if I can sweet talk my wife into ignoring the charges on the credit card.

I see a bunch of people have looked at this thread so far, I hope one or two of you might be interested in joining us.

Daybreaker Sigma
Daybreaker Gamma
Daybreaker Nova

Yeah, I tried to log in earlier. Several servers were up but not Virtue. So I'm hitting the sack now.

Yeah, great memories from the first time I played through the Faultline arc. The Striga arc would be as good if Council bases weren't so annoying.

Today really was lots of fun wasn't it? And our core group here really is gelling into a well oiled machine it seems. I really don't see any reason we won't experience the same success rate in the future as we become even more used to working with each other.

As for opening our group up to others I'm kinda torn. While I'm really enjoying working with just the small squad I understand others may be interested in the theme we have here. I'm not opposed to adding new suits for further review, assuming they meet our design requirements.

What I really wish is we could all obtain the PPD chest emblem from the vet reward, that would be sweet. I'm about 9 months away from it myself, but I wish there were some way to obtain it in game, through Dayjobs or something.

Your choice of powers to skip is exactly what I was thinking as well. I've never used SS on a character either, though that was mainly because of a lousy computer. Now that I've upgraded a bit I might give it a try on this toon. I echo TheSuperFrog's thanks for your suggestions.

My sonic/mind is still pretty young, but in the build I looked at in Mid's I think I only skipped two powers. Both sets are chock full of goodness.

I'm running late leaving work, had to deal with a sticky situation. Probably won't be in game until about 09:20.

Daybreaker Gamma

I concur with that plan. We do the hollows and it will allow us to attempt that task force. I've done it once, and it was a real challenge with a pug, so I think it will be fun with a well oiled group like ours.