tidge

I run (on a PC) with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, and have no problems during MSR or Hamidon raids. I don't do anything like over-clocking. I don't mess too much with CoH game settings, but I have had no reason to 'gimp' them. My (gaming) experiences are with 'full size' desktop PCs; in my circumstance I also use these machines for what I would describe as the 'high end of casual PC use': lots of office work, a fair amount of audio work, gaming (but nothing really cutting edge), and a smidge of video (re)work. I have some experience with smaller systems (including more 'embedded' variants) but no relevant information for trying to video game with them. For a while I was using an AMD Radeon RX 560 and I had nothing but problems with the AMD Radeon. I'm not much of a PC gearhead, but I know how to replace the various guts of my PCs, how to manage drivers, how to pay attention to diagnostics, and how to follow directions. I'll never buy another graphics card from AMD if I have a choice. It didn't play nice with its own drivers (and overly complicated software), it liked to overheat, the default settings were simply stupid. I keep part of the original packaging just to remind me to never let this vendetta slip. The Cryptominers using graphics cards are quite problematic for us gamers. This is one area where I try to buy brand new (never refurbished), and on a new machine the video card is the first element that I'd recommend that you go "bleeding edge" with, because (unless you burn it up it) can last you through many generations of both games and video. After the video card, try to make sure you didn't gimp your rig's power supply. A power supply 'on the margins' (or simply 'flaky') can cause issues for your video card.

For Scrappers, Stalkers, and VEAT: I prefer Provoke (Presence pool) over the single-target Confront variants... the circumstances where I want an auto-hit on a single target, as opposed to grabbing more AoE aggro with the Presence pool attack (albeit with a chance to miss), are extremely narrow. If I really want to pull aggro from a teammate against a single target, I had better be doing more damage to that target.

I was going to write "The only change Stalkers need with respect to Build Up is that the Gaussian's enhancement set should scale over the full range of level 10 - 50", because I can't imagine NOT taking Build Up and NOT using at least one piece of the Gaussian's set in it. However... Even when playing low-level SF/TF where I lose the set bonus (and quite a bit of global +Recharge) I find that the Build Up is still key to DPS, in both solo content and team PUG.

Take a look at the current slotting; Endurance recovery (positive or negative) isn't a factor in my suggestion.

>fingers in ears< ....la la la la la... ...not listening.... >fingers in ears< To offer some explanation: The core mechanic that I don't like about Fury is having to maintain it to maximize performance. In a game that includes chatting and travel between missions, I like that it is possible to invest in a Dominator (to maintain perma-Dom) without having to be hyper-active.

I would defer to @Bopper but I think you will get more mileage from replacing the (second) Numina's Healing piece (in Health) with a single Power Transfer %Heal in (Stamina)... unless that piece is already hiding somewhere in the build. IIRC it is 3 PPM, which may be a better return than the extra regeneration (plus set bonus) from Numina's.

Is this assessment of Robots based on a sliding scale of some sort? 'Bots has a slotting problem: in order to make their ranged attacks most effective, their KB needs to be turned into KD (for patch damage) which eats a slot, and the primary doesn't have a "Gang War" power to slot the Aura pieces. But... The Soulbound Allegeince is a fine piece, and the KD is a very nice soft control mechanism. These aren't classic "%damage procs" but I leverage them. As far as attacks from the MM itself, I think Photon Grenade can have a KB->KD piece and a %resistance debuff, which helps the 'Bots (probably more than a %damage proc would help). IIRC I use the MM attacks (on 'Bots/Traps) primarily as soft control/debuffs. Edit: as @Coyote wrote: I wouldn't take MM attacks before lvl 32 unless I had a very specific concept/reason.

As @TygerDarkstorm wrote: I'll simply toggle the stances/shift orders for those times where the enemies are controlled and not seen as a threat.

I hesitate to make suggestion on Dominator builds, mostly because any given build can be a balancing act for achieving Perma-Dom. I'll make just a few small comments/questions. I like @Coyote suggestion to franken-slot Terrify, except that (if the build doesn't have it elsewhere) for cones I prefer the Overwhelming Force Damage/Knockdown piece to a single Ragnarok. Honestly, I wouldn't chase Knockdown in Terrify rather I would try to increase the range of the cone instead. With enough Inf, ranged cones are good places to consider using Hami-Os. My experience: Once you have perma-Dom, you don't need extra Recovery from Numina and Miracle in health. I encourage you to try unslotting them first to see how you play. While leveling up, you will need extra recovery, but a level 50 Dominator build should not require them... even exemplared. Doms can run HOT, but the Endurance refill from Domination should be able to cover your expenses. If you really benefit from more Recovery, the Miracle piece should be enough. I'm not a great fan of Patron pets. I understand the set bonus (+Recharge) that is coming from the slotting. How do these play for you? One comment on Perma-Dom and Global Recharge from set bonuses: If you are getting 5 10% bonuses from Very Rare sets, you can always hold off on catalyzing the ATOs, this will prevent them from pushing past the cap of 5, as they have slightly lower bonuses (e.g. 8.75% global Recharge) when un-catalyzed. Typically this isn't neccesary, but it is an option for some tight builds.

I don't think I could be persuaded to play a ?/War Mace Tanker, but for a particular reason. I wanted to try War Mace (especially after the Tanker updates), but the way I wanted to play the character concept had me go old(er) school and roll it up as a WM/Invuln Scrapper instead. I feel like I gave up a little on the AoE-side, but for most content I play the rest of the team will have that covered anyway. Similarly, I didn't want to specifically ever have to fill the role of a "tank"/ The need for +Recharge is real, but now that I have one War Mace character, I don't think I'm likely to roll another unless a specific concept hits me.

My initial reaction is that for a Farming character, the accolades are probably not necessary. Several of them can be picked up rather quickly with PickUp Groups. Depending on if you go Red/Blue will determine how fast you can get the other ones... this is primarily based on which 'defeat' badges you need. I will take you at your word that you also want that farming toon to "contribute on teams outside of AE." The truth is: any toon can contribute to (or be carried through) almost all game content. I don't have a "fire farmer" but I've played with several in PUGs... if there is a common behavior I see with such characters in regular content that is nothing like a grievance, but has more of a 'shake my head' and watch them learn... it is a mix of: The fire farmer can't resist a variety of enemy attacks <- not unexpected, but often comes as a surprise to the unitiated The fire farmer plays "slow" <- often "I'll just stand here" The fire farmer tries to "corral" <- which is IMO just another variant of "playing slow" All of these SMH effects are best addressed by simply changing play style when outside of AE. PUG will tend to move quickly, especially on TF/SF. With damage auras, it is easy to get in over your head when trying to race through a map, as you will be causing a lot of aggro. You may have to wait to be summoned to the points of interest, or you can opt to play with the characters that aren't racing to the end to click a glowie.

I don't farm with my Dark/Time/Force, but I'm typically facing x8 spawns (usually with PUG, but also when I solo) and I use Umbral Torrent as my default attack. I'll open with it to bring the distant groups closer to me, and to get Moonbeam (the snipe) into Fast Snipe mode. Most of my builds end up with 2 proc-heavy attacks; ranged attack cones are usually the first one I look at to franken-slot, with increased range the "base" of the cone is reasonably wide. Since Umbral Torrent already has a decent base range, I made sure to include some Accuracy slotting in it. Accuracy bonuses from set bonus slotting (and teammates) only goes so far, and I enjoy running with PUGs in low level content with the difficulty cranked up. Other characters I have with Psychic Scream usually have that as one of the %proc attacks. On my Dark Blaster: Level 2: Umbral Torrent (A) HamiO:Centriole Exposure (37) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure (46) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 30 (48) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy): Level 50 (48) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50 (46) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown: Level 50 When franken-slotting with %procs, I try to keep an eye on the (set) level requirements of the enhancements so that I don't end up with an effectively 'unslotted' power when exemplaring. There are some powers where I ignore this advice (Gaussian's is too good to not include in an early choice "Build Up" power) and with some slotting options you may not have a choice. (See Positron's Blast %Energy in the above example). In your case, without diving into the details of your build (such as global accuracy and recharge) or the exact nature of the types of content you will run with it, the only general piece of advice I will offer is that if you intend to do 'farming', it is probably in your interest to try to match the range of your cone attacks where possible. Blasters don't really need to rely on %damage procs, so even if you are leveraging a 5-piece set bonus you may want to consider using the 6th slot to boost range on some of the shorter cones instead of dropping an extra %damage. YMMV of course, I recommend using unslotters to test different options in the content you typically play against.

The Very Rare, Universal Damage (Overwhelmin Force), and ATO %procs are. Procs are unique for the Winter Sets as well, but I don't know if any of them are "damage procs". Other %Procs (including PVP) can be slotted in multiple powers.

The above quote exactly describes my process, including the converter budget and the target price point. The ONLY quibble I have (and this is more about me than the method above) is that I often slot pieces/sets that the market doesn't 'appreciate'. For example, I think Thunderstrike and Mocking Beratement are very undervalued (uncommons) and the market on Basilisk's Gaze and Expedient Reinforcement (two rare sets with good 4-slot set bonuses) is either feast-or-famine.

The first 50 are for the badge(s), after that it is just to clear out stuff that other players can use for cheap. Just a fer-instance: waiting for a Hamidon raid to start is a perfect time to dump inspirations into the Auction house to clear slots. It doesn't bother me what level of profit (if any) folks may be getting off of those.

Add my voice to the chorus of players who appreciates having capes/wings and auras available to character costumes at level 1. I have some characters for which I don't need/want those, a few who have added them as the 'progressed', and a few that would have really weird looking costume choices without them. I will admit that having a character with wings that can't take a Flight power from a power pool immediately feels a little odd, but those concept characters almost always make such a power pool pick very early... certainly much earlier than level 20. Similarly it feels very odd to NOT be able to have glowing eyes (for example) until level 30, when the character may have a "glowing eye" attack power before level 10.

I almost never vendor (common/uncommon) salvage. The order of checks is usually: Check to see if I have any dropped recipes worth crafting (burns salvage from inventory and SG racks) SG empowerment buffs Check SG racks for necessary refills. I waste SG space but save time (traveling to/from base, using the AH) by keeping ~10 each spares of common/uncommon salvage in racks. Sell extras on the AH When I am doing bulk crafting, I never work with recipes that require rare salvage, so occasionally I have to clean out (via the Auction House) the "rare salvage" SG racks of specific pieces that aren't being used and have a large inventory count. Otherwise the rare pieces are used for one-off crafting of PVP/Very Rares, and certain other Rare recipes. I could be slightly more efficient with storage in my personal SG base (by relying only on the AH for salvage, or using individual character's Vault) but I don't have the headspace (or the desire to maintain a spreadsheet) to keep track of particular salvages/recipes.

From the PoV of a Spines/Bio Stalker: Leveling wasn't easy, but the stalker aspect made it fun. I absolutely agree that the combination is much more fun & effective once it has the full compliment of level 50 options (slots, enhancements). I know this is true of many ATs, but I really feel it with this character. One of the two things I disliked about this combination (that I think also applies to Scrappers) is that I initially (during leveling) felt I needed Weave (taken at 30) for Defense and Hasten (taken at 28) for Offense.. which ended up delaying DNA Siphon until lvl 38. IMHO DNA Siphon is simply too good to put off until such a high level, so I respec-ed swapping the power (level) picks of Hasten and DNA Siphon. I have no regrets: DNA Siphon can be turned into a very reliable PBAoE attack (with %procs) that also increases personal performance. Stalker-specific gripe follows, forgive me: The other thing I don't like about the combo (on Stalkers) is Spine Burst. It's fine to have on fast moving PUGs, but it strikes me as out of place on Stalkers. I'm not sure I really grok the reason why the Stalker gets a PBAoE attack at lvl 2 instead of the single-target Impale. (-Fly would be so much more useful when CoT start showing up). I can appreciate the theory of making powers with certain damage scales available at certain levels, but Spine Burst was one of those powers I wasn't happy with until I could use it to hold a Very Rare set. I still grumble on low level SF/TF when I have to use it as part of my attack chain!

Neat idea, but I'd prefer to get conversion/pooling of Hami-Os first.

Oh I absolutely don't want to dissuade anyone from making a Tanky Bots/Dark. I believe that at shutdown that was a very survivable combination; I haven't made one on Homecoming.

I have found that Robots/Traps is somewhat tanky. The 'Bots can all accept Knockback->Knockdown IOs, which contributes to their survivability in most situations. The traps will either disrupt enemies or also draw aggro. The FFG doesn't need much extra slotting to be a big contributor to pet defense.

I agree with @TheSpiritFox. I have a Thugs MM and I think I'd really have to change the concept to make it a viable Tankermind. I just don't think the Thugs behave well enough to be trusted! However, if you want to stick with it... I wouldn't pass up Tough and Weave. Even with Scorpion Shield you will need more slots to add Global IO pieces (as well as set bonuses). The Endurance issues you encounter are real for MMs. Look for +MaxEnd bonuses (sets, accolades) as well as Endurance discounts from set bonuses. If you want to Tankermind, you need to be able to grab aggro... My observation is that rapid attacks will drain your Endurance faster than anything else. My Tankermind (Robotics) didn't even pick attacks until level 30. My Thugs MM attacks only come from an Epic pool. I should be explicit that I went Bots/Traps for a Tankermind since I had lots of ways to grab aggro before personal attacks, and I could (eventually) leverage the attacks into being AoE knockdowns/debuffs to support the ranged-only Robots. With Thugs/Fire, I generally do keep the Thugs on defensive and I try to draw attention with proc-bomb attacks... but because the Thugs have a mix of close/range, they will very rarely stay near me, so I have a harder time balancing offense (from them) and defense (for myself) with them.

FWIW my SJ/WP scrapper had all the power picks I really wanted by level 35. I didn't need/want much else for the concept, so for the next power choices, I went with lvl 38 Tough (2xUnbreakable Guard) <- End discount bonus, plus a mule lvl 41 Shadow Meld (LotG, IO Recharge) <- Mule lvl 44 Weave (6xReactive Defenses) <- Nice bonuses, plus a mule lvl 47 Assault (IO End Reduction) lvl 49 Vengence (LotG) <- Mule I'll toggle Tough and Weave for harder content, and use Shadow Meld only occasionally (see posts above). I forget I even have Vengence, but if I'm in a high-level PUG I'll try to have it ready. Assault is one of those things I will try to toggle for PUGs. I did have to take a fighting pool attack earlier in the build, but I had a gap choice at level 30. I do wish that it was possible to take Cross Punch after only one prior Fighting pool pick. It seems weird to me that a Cross Punch is allowed after taking one attack then one toggle. I have a different Scrapper where I'd rather delay (or opt out of Tough) to get Cross Punch earlier.

I have a vague recollection that (on Live) the argument against allowing the change of the 'stabby' colors was to keep the violence as 'cartoony' as possible.