Desmodos

While I agree several of the new generation of MMORPGs have superior character creators in terms of our ability to manipulate the look of our character, that's not what I'm referring.

I'm referring more to your character's lore, origins, and motivations. You can create virtually any background and ongoing story for your characters in CoH. Not so much so in other games.

That thing is hilarious.

This needs repeating. I get the whole growing form with out thing, but color restrictions of costume vs skin are a big limitation on this.

My apologies. Internet crapped out on me. There were thunderstorms in the area, so I presume they were the cause. Internet was back up this morning.

Perhaps you can elaborate a little bit more as to the distinction. As it stands now, I'm not understanding how you feel ParagonWiki is lacking.

Actually, no. My initial thought was you could get some improvement with a CPU upgrade, but after looking up your current CPUs specs, I doubt it. If I'm not mistaken, your current CPU is single core, which puts you about four generations behind. I believe a CPU upgrade for you would require a new MOBO, at which point you may as well build a new rig entirely.

You're better off trouble shooting game settings (and possible GPU settings) until you're ready to build a new rig.

7900 GTX should be ok, but you will need to turn down some settings. Should still look good. This of course depends on your RAM and CPU, but you should not be getting a slide show. Trying turning down a few things at time, you're likely having problems with a specific setting.

Also, obvious but just in case, update your drivers.

OK, seriously, what are you two smoking. Anyone who knows you should be able to see an dramatic difference a dramatic difference in performance between your heavily IO'd characters and those who haven't invested into. If a player has never teamed with you before, they may not be able to distinguish as much, but they should notice to some degree as well.

I'm in no way saying every character needs to be IOd out. Anyone who judges a team members value solely on the set bonuses is fairly stupid. Folks should keep in mind that set bonuses are not a cure for stupidity.

Ultimately it boils down to personal preference. Since I've been playing Dark Armor since issue 2, Knockback is a touchy issue with me (as in it used to REALLY PISS ME OFF!!!). As such, my response to it may be stronger than necessary.

Another thing to consider is play style and teaming habits. If you primarily solo, you'll likely only encounter 1 or 2 KB happy mobs at a time. If you team frequently, depending on mob types, you may encounter larger number of KB happy mobs at once. (same would apply for certain difficulty settings.)

Below level 35 I find 1 Mag 4 -KB IO more than adequate. From level 35 on I start to notice the difference. I could certainly get by with one if I stick to small spawns or avoid troublesome mobs, but that's not fun IMHO.

When leveling my BS/DA scrapper I ran a Katie Hanon TF with only Mag 4 -KB. For the last two Mary Macomber fights I was essentially useless as I could not execute a single attack chain getting bounced away. A new mouse and keyboard later I slotted 2 more Mag 4 -KB IOs. A tad overkill, but I was still pissed.

Basically there is no absolute answer. You'll have to decide what you're comfortable with. My slotting strategies and build designs are based on level 30 set IOs. This will not work for everyone as many players spend little or no time exemplaring.

In my case, I start slotting level 30 set IOs at level 27. The logic being these are the final IOs I'll be placing in those powers, essentially saving influence/infamy as those slots never need be replaced...well until some dev goes around mucking up set bonuses, but I digress...

Hi back. Things tend to stay pretty informal here.

All of my builds are designed to level into. This allows me to place IO sets of the final build as level up. It's obviously a good a idea to account for accuracy, damage, and or endurance in the individual powers though. Level 30 set IOs are a personal preference since my play habits have me exemplaring a lot for Task Forces, basically how I get my IOs. When using generic IOs, I'll go for the highest level I can get.

DISCLAIMER: All the builds in this guide use BoTz as the guide was written long before the nerf. While these builds are certainly good they are no longer quite as good. In the next version of this guide, I will be placing greater emphasis on Typed Defense over positional. This will cause the builds to look significantly different. See scrapper forums for on going discussions on the subject.



If you're asking for the minimum recommended -KB, then the answer is 8. The most common -KB IOs come in Mag 4 so you want to aim for at least 2 of these. For level purposes, you can get by with only 1 Mag 4 -KB IO until about the upper 30s. Keep in mind Mag 8 -KB will cover the vast majority of situations but you will still get knocked back occasionally, not enough to be too annoying. Ideally you want Mag 12 -KB, where you'll rarely get knocked back at all.

Hi back. Things tend to stay pretty informal here.

All of my builds are designed to level into. This allows me to place IO sets of the final build as level up. It's obviously a good a idea to account for accuracy, damage, and or endurance in the individual powers though. Level 30 set IOs are a personal preference since my play habits have me exemplaring a lot for Task Forces, basically how I get my IOs. When using generic IOs, I'll go for the highest level I can get.

DISCLAIMER: All the builds in this guide use BoTz as the guide was written long before the nerf. While these builds are certainly good they are no longer quite as good. In the next version of this guide, I will be placing greater emphasis on Typed Defense over positional. This will cause the builds to look significantly different. See scrapper forums for on going discussions on the subject.



If you're asking for the minimum recommended -KB, then the answer is 8. The most common -KB IOs come in Mag 4 so you want to aim for at least 2 of these. For level purposes, you can get by with only 1 Mag 4 -KB IO until about the upper 30s. Keep in mind Mag 8 -KB will cover the vast majority of situations but you will still get knocked back occasionally, not enough to be too annoying. Ideally you want Mag 12 -KB, where you'll rarely get knocked back at all.

No one is saying we hate SGs, just there isn't a need for one. This negates the very premise of your ranking. A list of the most influential meaningless things.

Once upon a time, SGs did play a significant role in teaming. In those days, one could argue larger/popular SGs were influential. That was years ago. Today, they're more of a hindrance.

Oh, my unsustainable build was running 38% S/L/E/N. Net EPS on the build was around 1.4, which was completely unsustainable. Revised build is running at 31% S/L and ~32% E/N with an net EPS of 2.03.

I stated it in an earlier post, but not as a complete statement. Assuming you have the ToE: End PROC I've found a net of 2 EPS (Recovery - Consumption) is the minimum I can tolerate for sustaining my play style. I have found that obtaining 20-22% Energy Defense can be accomplished easily without dipping below 2 EPS net recovery. That's running DE,OS,MC, Hover, CJ, Weave, Tough, Death Shroud and CoF.

Not sure I'm understanding the question. Are you referring to defense numbers or recovery?

For the record. I prefer the build with the Impervium armors. Melee defense is great, but you need Energy defense. IMHO, anything less than 20% Energy defense is unacceptable. On a Dark Armor build, anything over 24% Energy defense is damned impressive, though I recommend shooting for 30%.

Basically it depends on how you built your character. The only real problem is for those with a relatively finished build needing to make the switch. On every Dark Armor character I have, the redesigned builds are actually stronger defensively than they would have been with BotZ.

The appeal of BotZ for Dark Armor was primarily the advantage of obtaining KB protection and defense out of the same set for so few slots. This more or less pushed you into the positional defense category. Truth is, though small, Dark Armor's native defense values (CoD, Hover/CJ, and Weave) were equally effective as positional or typed. Since BotZ has lost it's appeal, I'm finding typed defense builds considerably stronger.

In the specific case of Kat/DA (or BS/DA for that matter), this is actually more true since Divine Avalanche (or Parry) was both Melee and Lethal. While players tended to focus on the Melee part, switching to S/L can be equally effective when paired with E/N.