NewScrapper

I like the Flurry animation. It's usually the only reason I take Flurry -- for the flavor. That the animation takes so long is only a drawback in that the payoff (what the power actually does) is so low. Shadow Maul and Sands of Mu also take as long (and leave you flailing in place upon a total miss), but that's okay because they're high damage cone attacks that inflict -ACC. When you miss with SM or SoM, it sucks, but the possible damage/effects output makes it worth the risk -- the same's not true for Flurry.

So, in my estimation:

1) Flurry's animation is equivalent to Shadow Maul & Sands of Mu's animations -- no change needed.

2) Flurry gives a chance to disorient, while SM & SoM do -ACC -- makes Flurry a little underpowered, but it's a pool power, so that's okay by me.

3) Flurry's damage is moderate, while SM & SoM have high damage -- makes Flurry a little underpowered, but it's a pool power, so that's okay by me.

4) Flurry is a single-target attack, while SM & SoM are cone attacks -- THIS needs to be rectified. Make Flurry a cone attack, and it becomes a power worth taking (IMO) for what it can do, not just for the animation.

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I take it when I'm feeling silly and want to run around using nothing but Sands, SM and Flurry.

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Exactly. I myself wanted to create a speedster who would pummel his enemies into submission. Then I got Flurry, and I realized the pummeling was going to take longer than I thought....

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It's a broken power. At the very least, it needs to have the claws equation thrown at it so that it's internally balanced.

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Broken meaning "too good" or "too bad"? (In Magic: The Gathering speak, "broken" means "ridiculously good".)

One of my pet peeves is that Flurry shares the same long animation as Sands of Mu and Dark Melee's Shadow Maul, but while Sands of Mu and Shadow Maul are high-DOT cone attacks, Flurry is a Moderate-damage single-target attack with a chance of minor disorient. All that animation time for a single-target attack that disorients only some of the time? Come on. Does anybody actually like Flurry like this? I mean, I've only ever picked it once, on a character-flavor basis, and I think it's ridiculous. Now, if it were expanded to be a cone power like the other two that share the animation -- even keeping the moderate damage and chance to disorient -- then I can see its usefulness. Am I wrong on this? Does anyone really think Flurry is just fine as it is? If so, how often do you take it, and/or why do you like it?

Okay, stupid questions time!

1) If I do get ZoneAlarm and use that for a firewall, does that mean I should have Windows Firewall turned off?

2) Is a cable modem anything like a "hardware router", or are those two different things? (I've got a cable going from the back of my computer to the modem, and another from the modem to the surge protecter/UPC, and another from the surge protector to the cable outlet in the wall.)

3) Does (AVG or Antivir) + (MalwareBytes) deal with spyware at all? A friend of mine says no, which is why she also uses CCleaner and AdAware.

4) Once I've got the new products installed, should I totally uninstall my TrendMicro and Webroot products from my PC, since I won't be using them anymore?

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Personally, I've always despised Webroot's products. I've seen many cases where they...absolutely dominate a system's resources. I'm talking 99% CPU utilization for the first five to ten minutes of a computer starting up....

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I can testify to that. Webroot's startup time is hideous.

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AVG, Malwarebytes, and basic ZoneAlarm are the only programs you need, and cost zero for home use.

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I think I'm going to try this. Thanks to everyone for all the valuable input!

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Eh, I've never seen this kind of dialouge work any other way, myself.

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If you play some of the earliest hero arcs (pre-CoV), I think those might still work right.

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The one that annoys me is when all the NPC dialouge triggers right as you enter the map. All of it. No matter how many NPCs are speaking, or how far away they are. That one annoys the heck out of me, but it's only happened twice...

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I've seen that happen, too, but like you said, it's rare.

Is it on a developer's "to-do" list somewhere, at least? This isn't a "the website is down" bug, granted, but it's a HUGE quality-of-play bug...especially now that MA is here.

Nobody has seen this but me? I may need to chill till I get a new PC, then....

I'm playing a blaster w/ snipe right now, so I don't know if what I'm seeing is totally caused by this, but I don't think so...I'm pretty sure I've seen it happen with my other close-range toons, too (e.g., Brutes, Scrappers, Tanks, etc.).

Back in the early days, getting within a certain range of a kidnap victim or an end-boss would cause a first bit of dialogue to trigger. Actually engaging the kidnappers or end-boss would then trigger a second separate bit of dialogue.

For example, upon entering a room where two Council troops are holding a hostage, I would hear the Council troops threaten the hostage, "Tell us what you know, or else!" and the hostage would reply, "Oh, I wish a hero would rescue me!" Then I would engage the villains, and the villains would say, "Oh, no! A hero!" and the hostage would say, "Go get 'em!"

But ever since CoV went live (I think), there's been something wrong with the dialogue timing. Now the first bit of dialogue doesn't trigger upon approach at all. Instead, both the first and second bits trigger upon engagement, which results in a flood of dialogue that, because I'm in the midst of an attack, I have to go back and read once the battle's over.

Is anybody else seeing this? This drives me nuts. It just kills the immersion because I can't read what's going on and fight at the same time.

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AVG, Malwarebytes, and basic ZoneAlarm are the only programs you need, and cost zero for home use.

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But do any of these free versions include real-time protection? I have had instances in which either PC-Cillin or SpySweeper have generated visually "loud" pop-ups right in front of me saying, "I just stopped such-and-such file from doing something really wrong to your PC," so I don't think I'm going to feel comfortable without at least SOME measure of realtime protection.

I guess I should mention that I'm a kind of "stupid user" when it comes to knowing what I should stay away from or not. Also, my mother shares the PC with me. So I might be needing more than just a freeware level of protection -- is that true?

Also, I just got recommended Norton 360 -- apparently the footprint is much smaller and the security is more comprehensive?

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MalwareBytes is awesome. I have spoken.

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Free version only, or is it worth the one-time $25 fee to get the real-time version?

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I run a software firewall (a real one - ZoneAlarm, not Microsoft's)....

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I assume you mean the free version?

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But if you want to keep just 1 of those 2 then I would choose Trendmicro.

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Why TrendMicro over Webroot? (Not arguing, just wondering why.)

I used to have both TrendMicro PC-Cillin Antivirus and Webroot Spysweeper (antispyware), and this was working fine for me, but now 2 things have changed. First, Webroot upgraded their Spysweeper product so that it now contains antivirus protection, and when this happened, I got a warning saying PC-Cillin was not necessarily compatible with the new Webroot product and could cause system stability issues. Second, my TrendMicro PC-Cillin subscription expired this week. So, I'm thinking about going with just Webroot from now on (and uninstalling PC-Cillin altogether) so I can cut my subscription costs in half. All I'd like to know is, is it a good idea to have just one software company's anti-whatsit product, or is it mandatory to have at least two company's products working at once so as to have the right amount of protection? (A Geek Squad guy once told me having more than one company's products was better.)

I'll probably buy myself a new computer at the end of the year. I've been a PC owner for years, but I've heard rave reviews about the iMac and the simplicity of life that comes with having it (no bloatware, no major virus/spyware issues, few if any crashes, etc.) but I was wondering how well CoH has been running on it. Any hassles so far?

Anybody ever have a problem where their Intranet and Internet only works for the first 10 minutes after you boot up and log on? When I start up in the morning and kick off IE, I get "Loading www.cnn.com" and it works. 10 minutes later, I do the same thing, and I get "Connecting to 10.1.666.666" (or some such number) and it doesn't work anymore. I can reboot to fix the problem, but that only lasts another 10 minutes, then I have to do it again. Anybody ever seen this?

Okay, I have a dumb question, since I've never used HijackThis before: Generally, before I run CoH I shut down all other apps, plus I shut down my realtime virus protection and put my spyware sweeper in "gamer mode". Then I start up CoH. Should I wait until I've reached this point (i.e., w/ CoH running) to take a "snapshot" of my PC with HijackThis?

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The majority of lag or timeout problems while loading the Markets are caused by not enough RAM.

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Really? I think I've got 2GB of RAM. Do you think another 1GB would be enough to fix the problem?

The first time after logging in that I click on a Wentworth or Black Market rep, especially if I've done a mission before going to Market, it takes so long for the auction page to load that I get disconnected from the mapserver and have to log out and back in. Is there anything that can help this?

Just thought I'd share this for a laugh:

My graphics card was "idling" at 90 degrees, according to the ATI console, and I couldn't play CoH for more than a couple minutes before my computer would spontaneously shut down. So, I finally took apart my PC and blew out all the dust, put it all back together, and found that my card was now "idling" at 106 degrees! I figured I must have done something to jam the fan while I was cleaning out the dust. Anyway, I let it lie for a couple of days, and then my mom got back into town from her trip, so I turned on the computer, read my email, etc., checked the temperature one more time (still 106 degrees), then let her have it so she could get caught up on email, etc., while I went and took a nap. I figured when I woke up I'd take apart the PC again and fix the fan if I could. But, when I woke up a couple hours later and checked the graphics console to see what the current idling temperature was...it showed only 71 degrees!!! The dang thing fixed itself!

My current theory is that the computer was missing my mom. I had to tease her and say, "I don't know what you did, but you really did something to that computer." She was freaking out and saying, "I just checked my email! I swear, that's all I did!" And I said, "Well, you must have done something else to it...because now it's fixed!"

I wonder if the multiple-build code is the underlying functionality for the Going Rogue game, only right now we're limited to builds within the same AT. I haven't made any use of this feature yet, but I'm glad the devs saw fit to include it.

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Sound like a good idea. Especially for those contacts that send you to "talk" to another contact which locks you into an arc. Yes, I am looking at you Marshall Brass and Seer Marino. With what we have now, if you run the talk to mission, you get locked in to her arc. If you drop the Talk to mission, you are locked into her arc. Very annoying if you do not want to run her arc.

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Actually, I think that's incorrect (unless there was a bug introduced that I don't know about). I've gotten the "Talk to Seer Marino" mission plenty of times, but once I talk to her, I'm free to do whatever from that point on -- I can choose to enter her arc, or I can go about my other business. The same used to apply to Marshall Brass, too.

"Talk to" missions are irritating in their own right, though. I prefer the little dialogue bubbles that pop up after you've leveled and say, "So-and-so needs your help and has been added to your contact list." Would be nice if they could do this for David Wincott, Steph Peebles, and Jim Tremblor(sp?), as well as Seer Marino villain-side.

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There is another option: continuously skip those missions until you are through the arc... you do have alts, right?...Admittedly, that is a crappy option....

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So crappy, in fact, that I can't believe you suggested it.