AlienOne
-
Posts
1152 -
Joined
-
The "Complete" Guide for Human Form Warshades
by "Alien"
Preface
Hello, and welcome to the 'Complete Guide for Human-Form Warshades!'
In this guide, I will attempt to cover a human-form warshade's power choices, strategies, cost, alternate builds, and general "solo vs. teamed-play" and "chaos vs. order" mentalities.
To begin, if you are reading this guide as someone who has never created a Kheldian before, I have a few suggestions:
A. Check this guide out for the Kheldian back-story. (by Memphis Bill). It's pretty cool info!
B. Check this guide out for *general* advice on rolling a Kheld. (by Tamerlane). Although it's a bit dated (i.e. you are no longer dropped to human form when mezzed, etc.), there is some extremely insightful advice in there, including the suggestion that there is no "one build" for a Kheld, as I will illustrate later.
C. Try rolling a Tri-Form Kheld first. (by Dechs Kaison) Leveling from 1 to 50 as a tri-former has proven to be much easier. If you still want to be a human-former after that, you can always respec into it.
Now, why would someone writing a guide on human-form "Warshade-ing" give that last piece of advice? Is a human-former not fun or effective? To the contrary! A human-form Warshade can prove to be one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences for any City of Heroes player with the "cahonas" for it, if done right. I primarily advise first-time Khelds to play tri-form because playing tri-form affords you a better opportunity to see the "all-around" aspect of a Kheldian, and can help you to better make a decision on what powers you like, as well as what forms you like or dislike... Who knows? You may find that you like the other forms better than the human form!
In addition, playing a human-form Warshade takes a lot of patience (sometimes more than a first-time Kheld can muster), hard work, strategy-practice (which obviously changes according to the enemy group you're facing), and INFLUENCE!
Now, it won't cost billions and billions of influence to build a good, effective human-form Warshade (unless you choose to follow one of my "purple" builds), but it will cost you a significant amount--in many cases more than building just about any non-purpled tri-form build I've ever seen. This is an important point to consider when making the "leap" to deciding to build a human-form Warshade.
That said, I have put some "IO Only" and "SO Only" builds together as well, so building a cheap human-only Warshade is doable, but you'd be doing it at the sacrifice of some major global recharge penalties, which is one of the primary "backbones" to human-form play.
Human-Form Mentality
The process by which a person decides to build, slot, and set their human-former is what I like to call the "Human-Form Mentality." This also includes the strategy by which they play, which in turn affects their play style. This varies from person to person, but two major points that most human-formers seem to eventually agree on is global recharge and endurance recovery. The reason for this is that enough global recharge allows a human-former to maintain a "perma" (permanent) Eclipse, and a high endurance recovery allows for more utility when encountering a variety of situations, not the least of which is fighting bosses during solo-play when the rest of the "mob" is down and Stygian Circle goes "out of play".
I've also found recently (as of issue 21) that the Human-Form Mentality can be further broken down into two "ideals" or playstyles. One is "chaos" and the other is "order."
In the "chaos" human-form playstyle, more importance is placed on timing and heavy reliance is placed on Stygian Circle and Eclipse. These players usually invest more in regen from set bonuses than they do in HP. People who play human-form Warshades in this way usually come from a Blaster/Blapper or Scrapper (non defense-based, such as Regen) background, and have no problem making liberal usage of inspirations and any other powers afforded to them. "The developers put it in the game, so I should use it, right?" People with this mentality relish every fight as a "chance to cheat death." The best example of that I can show you is in THIS VIDEO. Play close attention to the health and stamina bars during the action. This is what I mean by "cheating death." Every encounter is a "fight to the death," and may or may not kill you. I personally come from this sort of background (I played competitive FPS games like Unreal Tournament before playing this game), and enjoy a fast-paced, timing-based, in-your-face sort of thrill this kind of playstyle offers. A "chaotic" human-former *may* enjoy Warshade-vs-large mob play more than anything else.
The other human-form playstyle is what I like to call an "order" mentality. In the "order" human-form playstyle, more importance is placed on defense (particularly soft-capping defense), and there is less reliance on Eclipse and Stygian Circle. These players usually invest more in HP from set bonuses than Regen. People who play human-form Warshades in this way usually come from a Tank, Support or Scrapper (defense-based secondary like Invulnerability or Super Reflexes) background. This person may also enjoy a fast-paced game, but prefer the stability and reliability that soft-capped defense offers. An "order" human-former *may* enjoy Warshade-vs-AV play more than anything else.
Basically, it comes down to this: "Chaos" human-formers will rely heavily on Eclipse and Stygian Circle (as their "signature" powers), and "Order" human-formers will not need to rely heavily on these powers, and may instead focus more on high DPS attack chains for soloing AVs than AoE-based attack chains for large mobs.
*NOTE*
The aforementioned statements do NOT prevent a "chaos" human-former from fighting AVs or "order" human-former from fighting 50 enemies at once--it is just an attempt at explaining the mentality behind specific play-styles, which I hope will help you align yourself with what build-type you need to go for to best meet your own playstyle needs. Something else worth noting--as you will see in the BUILDS section--is the fact that an "order" human-former doesn't have as much slotting flexibility as a "chaos" human-former, due to the fact that they are specifically building for defense, and thus require specific IO sets and slotting.
It is with those two primary "playstyle strategies," (along with an extra side helping of damage) that I put together the list of *possible* human-form Warshade builds in this guide.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
A. Intro/Preface and "Human Form Mentality"
B. Powers
C. Mid's Hero Designer Tips & Tricks
D. Builds
E. Incarnate Powers
F. Videos
G. Miscellaneous
H. Summary
*SPECIAL THANKS TO:*
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank any and all contributions to this guide from the Kheldian community, including opinions, numbers input, and builds. In particular, I would like to thank Microcosm, AIB, Memphis_Bill, TwoHeadedBoy, New Dawn, Dechs Kaison, Bionut911, Kemphler, Redlynne, and Wanted_NA (a.k.a. Sparky) for their invaluable input. Without them, this guide would not be as informative and complete as it stands today. Also, thanks to my fiance Amber (a.k.a. "Oracle") for allowing me the time to do this. -
Quote:That's sort of the whole purpose of creating a guide... I worked extremely hard on my Warshade too, and put him through an innumerable amount of respecs to get him to where he is at today, but I figure sharing that knowledge with the general public only serves to help the CoH community.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
The Devs have recently taken to selling enhancements for real life money, and I'm assuming with the trend of selling progressively nicer stuff over time they'll be selling Purple and PVP IO's soon. If someone comes on the board looking for help with a build, takes the initiative to contact me, etc. with any questions I don't mind helping them out but I would not feel right enabling a bunch of people to mindlessly clone my Warshade. I worked hard on it after all.
Hell, it may even be what makes a F2P player decide to become a VIP--so they can test out some of the higher-end builds we offer for them to try--and, adding more paying players can only help the overall quality of this game.
"Alien" -
Quote:Why's that?Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
I've gotten a few questions about my build lately, so I just wanted to let anyone who hasn't seen other posts know that the build I used for this is not my current build on live- I've been sending the updated version out on a per-request basis but I don't want to post my current build on the board.
-
Hey, going to try and finish up this guide within the next day or two, so if any of you have any suggestions for my aforementioned talking points and want to talk with me "live" about it, you can find me on xfire at "ilwzxvn" or the new Evolve game chat client (www.evolvehq.com) at "AlienOne".
Or, you can just post in this thread between now and tomorrow sometime.
Hope to hear from you!
"Alien" -
Quote:Great suggestion.... Actually, I would highly value a couple things as I'm working on the guide this very second:Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
Anyways moving forward, have you considered a more Q/A format? What feedback about specific things you are looking for to make the most complete guide you can?
1. I don't consider myself an expert by ANY means in the Incarnate power choices (I've only made Incarnate power choices for my own Warshade--no other toon yet--based on what works for him), so I would really appreciate everyone's input on what Incarnate powers they like (and why they like it). I have your personal message from a month ago pulled up in a seperate window that talks about your Incarnate power choices, but that's all I have to go off of right now.
2. I haven't been around these boards much in the past year+, due to tons of school work keeping me from my "gaming duties," so for those of you who HAVE kept an eye on the boards during that time, what sort of builds/playstyles have been most addressed/asked for over the past year? I.E., have people wanted to make farming builds? Single-target-heavy builds? Solo or teamplay builds? AV fighter builds? And, are there any links to any of the top builds that came out of those discussions?
3. I am going to remove all "numbers" associated with builds that I currently have in my guide, due to the ever changing nature of this game (keeping them in would probably make my guide outdated as early as next month...lol), and also due to how Incarnate power choices significantly alter those numbers. In regards to that, is there anything specifically about those sections that you would want kept in or changed? I know the builds are probably going to change, but I definitely want to stress "choice" and "flexibility" in regards to builds, especially in the area of various budgets. Some people may not have billions to spend on an "ultimate" build, but still want to build something similar.
Thoughts?
That's going to change, ND, because I actually use a human-only build WITH Gravimetric Snare in it, so I've grown to like it since the writing of that guide.Quote:Originally Posted by New Dawn
I had alot of things in my head that YOUR warshade can do, so no not a one trick pony, where I have flexibility with my WS you don't but where you have flexibility with your WS I don't which is better? What is better is its subjective and if you look at Aliens original guide there are many ways to build a Human form warshade cept all without Gravimentric Snare.
"Alien" -
Nobody's staying anyone else is a one-trick pony.
The point of what New Dawn was saying was precisely what I was asking for in my original post--which was suggestions for how I could better my guide. His suggestion was simply to make sure that I discussed positives and negatives of every power without "pushing" specific build choices on players, which I can definitely understand.
I've always been a major proponent of "choice" in Kheldian play. That's the beauty of human-only, bi-forming, and tri-forming. It's a choice. All are extremely effective if you want them to be, so it only detracts from the Kheldian community if I suggest that there's only one way to build a human-former.
I have no doubt whatsoever of your Warshade's capabilities, just as I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my Warshade can kick just as much butt, even with a different build choice, because that's exactly how I want him to play.
"Alien" -
Quote:Thanks... I'm thinking of putting a section about what picking Dwarf form can do to your human-only build at the end of my guide, just so it's covered.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
By the way, Alien, the level 53 AV soloage (linked in my signature) was done on a "pure" human build, no forms taken for mules... Just sayin'.
The reason I speced out of that build and into my current one that picks Dwarf for set mules is that it helped me reach a build goal (softcapped s/l defense) in one power choice that would have taken three power choices to reach on a pure human build. My current build actually has more useful human powers, higher defense, and more recharge than the "pure" build I was previously using, meaning that taking dwarf lead to me getting more out of my strictly human form play style (I literally don't even have Dwarf or any Dwarf powers in my tray.) Just thought I'd put that out there for your consideration.
I totally get what you're saying, and your back-and-forth with THB is precisely what I was hoping to get out of this thread. I'm afraid that my originally-written guide, although informative and thorough, might be a tad bit slanted towards specific powers. I need to make sure and discuss both the positives and negatives of each power listed.Quote:Originally Posted by New Dawn
I'm a lover of secondary effects. Initially I made a Mind Controller to level with before finding Taunt control in Tankers. In most peoples guides they don't emphasize on secondary effects enough. What the effects can do? How do they work? Why is it the powerset has them? Not just for personal performance either but also for helping a team mate do their thing better.
One could from one guide have the option to make different types of Kheldians rather than a go solo some 53 AV type Kheldian. Khelds aren't everyones main so with them being a alternative plaything to some people, cheaper, alternative multi-playstyle options could be on the table. If you can't make your Kheld all the way good at a particular goal you can atleast make it useful towards a team effort or something.
Gravimetric Snare as an example could be superslotted and be more useful than a Trick Archers Entangling Arrow yet it's skipped. A lot of people maligned Trick Archery for years but some of that was short sightedness in my book. In 2006 whilst almost every single person would of gave up at the thought of a STF with a Scrapper, 6 Blasters and 1 Trick Archer, I most definitely would of thought "Why not? Both plausible and different". A WS that is an alt, which is never going to be given the 2 billion to do greatness for itself could very cheaply offer the potential for teams to be flexible on how they overcome obstacles. A 10:1 Immob:rechg ratio being gold in Gravimetric Snare, do damage with that as well and it as a power is at its sweetest. A Warshade with that becomes a useful duct tape Trick Archer. (I am not one for finding x powerset for a team or give up). If I think of a plausible way for an MoSTF to be done with an all Kheld team then someone would have a superbly slotted Gravimetric Snare, if I tried to build an all Kheld team for an STF I can almost guarantee that I would have the only Warshade with it, which could be disagreeable if I am on a Peacebringer because I can almost guarantee that I am the only Peacebringer with Group Fly XD.
"Alien" -
Well, my guide's always clarified it as "human only," but... I guess there's two ways to skin a cat when it comes to definitions...which reminds me of a phrase I heard once:
"It depends on what the definition of 'is' is..."
Thanks for all the input, guys... I took some time off today to go see the first 6 minutes of Batman and Mission Impossible IV, so I'll get back into it first thing tomorrow morning.
"Alien" -
I agree that it's a playstyle choice, but I just happen to believe that it's also a build restriction.
I've always felt that a stone tank that doesn't actually take granite (just for the hell of it) is decidedly playing a "different playstyle," but he (to me at least) is choosing to not pick the definitive power for stone tanks. Conversely, if you pick a "definitive" power for a Kheldian (a form), that decides whether or not you are human, bi, or tri. You may not PLAY like a bi-former (playstyle choice, obviously), but technically you ARE a bi-former if you have 2 forms. The form may be for looks, it may be for set mules, it may be because you like to pull aggro if the team's tank dies, or it may be because you just did't know what other power to pick--but, the bottom line is, you have two forms, which makes you a bi-former.
I feel like what you're saying is the equivalent of me calling my Widow a Fortunata because... I just like to call her one--not because I actually picked any Fortunata powers.
Since she has one build that is a widow build and another build that is a fortunata build, what is she? Widow or Fortunata?
I say she's a Widow when she's on her Widow build and a Fortunata when she's on her Fortunata build. She may play like a Fortunata (Not sure how you could do that, but whatever), but if she has picked Widow powers, she's a Widow.
THB may not ever use his Dwarf form, but the simple fact of the matter is he picked Dwarf form. Sure, he can call himself a human-former because that's how he plays. He can call himself Rip Van Winkle if he wants. That's his right as a CoH player.
However, I think it's a bit strange to create a guide for "human only" and then tell people that in order to "properly" play a "human only" Warshade, you have to pick one of the other forms... That's a bit backwards.
I realize we're arguing semantics here, but that's just how I feel.
"Alien" -
That's because it's both a playstyle AND a build choice. Kheldians are unique in that they have various forms they can take, whereas a blaster cannot take another form.
I see where you're coming from... You see taking Dwarf form on a Kheldian just like taking another power (like boxing) on a Blaster.
I see it as taking another "form." Hence, the terms "Bi-form" and "Tri-form." Regardless of whether or not you only use 4 powers or one power (like mire) in that form you picked, it's still another form you've taken.
A form, to me, is like another entire toon. That's why Kheldians are unique. They, unlike any other AT, offer you the opportunity to play "three toons in one," so to speak. The forms act as basically a whole other powerset with its own powers, its own rules governing it (such as damage modifiers), and its own "playstyle possibilities."
So, the moment you decide to pick Dwarf form or Nova form, you've not only added a myriad of new possibilities of how you can play your toon (and what you can do with it set-wise), you've also completely changed your build possibilities--such as "set muling."
My guide is specific to human-only because I believe human-only play has its own unique possibilities for playstyle, which is much different than the playstyle possibilities for a bi-form and a tri-form. That is why there is differentiation between forms for Kheldians as well as differentiation in builds.
Other ATs just have different builds--we have forms to further complicate things... Which leads me to my final point: When are you going to make a bi-form guide, man? :P
btw, thanks for the input for the guide! I'm still pounding away at it right now.
"Alien" -
Thanks for the input!
TwoHeadedBoy may kill me for this, but I'm a bit of a "purist" when it comes to referring to "human only." My thoughts have always been that if you're human only, you're human ONLY. If you are using Dwarf form (even if it's just for set holders or the mire), you're a bi-form Warshade--not a Human-only.
Human Only = Human only
Bi-Form = Human + Dwarf or Human + Nova
Tri-Form = All three forms chosen
With that said, I don't think I'll be able to (with a "clean conscience," so to speak) include builds for bi-forms in a guide that's meant specifically for "human only" builds.
However, I highly value input from THB when it comes to WS's, and have consulted with him about updating this guide prior to creating this thread.
Thanks again for your input!
"Alien" -
Yeah, it didn't allow me to post with my other account earlier, but it seems to be something they implemented just afterwards, so I guess I spoke too soon.
Thanks for all the help, guys!
"Alien" -
C'mon.... Nothin'?
Where's everybody at? :P
"Alien" -
Quote:Ah, ok. That makes sense.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
They were/are experimenting with allowing non-VIP (read: Premium, but not free) players to participate on the forums.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Does that experimentation have anything to do with the upcoming forum maintenance? -
Quote:Thanks for the full explanation as to what was going on. Good enough for me!Originally Posted by Zwillinger
I absolutely understand (and share) your frustration with this, however this was, unfortunately, unpreventable.
Lineage 2 had their Free to Play launch yesterday and it's initial response has been very positive; so positive that they actually had to spin up a new shard on rather quick notice to support their concurrency. Unfortunately, it meant that this took priority over our forums maintenance, which is understandable.
Right now we're looking at the maintenance happening on Monday, however I'm not putting stake in the sand on that until I get further confirmation later on today.
"Alien" -
Yeah, I just checked with my 2nd account (which isn't VIP), and I am not allowed to post at all.
So, I"m not exactly sure what the point of having different colored names is as far as the VIP playerbase is concerned, due to the fact that we all know that every poster is a VIP player. I'd understand it if non-VIP players could post, and we could look to the left and immediately tell if the person was VIP or not, but if we're ALL VIP posters on here....what's the point? -
Thanks!
One other quick question: Isn't the boards set up to where you can't post on the forums unless you are a VIP player? Or am I mistaken? -
Quick question:
What do the yellow names mean on the "online users" list? -
Hey, ladies and gents...
I'm finally on my Winter Break from school for the next couple of weeks, and I'm in the process of updating my i16 human-only WS guide to be i21-friendly...
Is there anything that anyone who is currently playing human-only warshades would want me to make sure and include in the guide?
And, for the more experienced (veteran) forum members out there (Dechs, Micro, Bill, etc., I'm looking at you!) would want to add to that?
I'm wanting to make this guide as comprehensive as possible. I also want to set it up in a way that will allow me to more easily update it as new issues are released and changes to Kheldians are made.
Thoughts?
"Alien" -
Hey, there's a little delay in completing the guide... I have a few r/l issues that are holding me up for the next week, but rest assured, I'm still working on it!
If there's anything that anyone wants mentioned specifically that they think should be in a human-form WS guide, please send me a PM, and I'll see what I can do.
Thanks!
"Alien" -
Quote:Hey there!Originally Posted by CaptainBrawl
the links wont load in in mids hero designer! could i get a new link? or maybe a PM of how many slots i need to put into what? thanks!
Glad to see people are still trying to use this guide... I'm FINALLY trying to update it, and should have it updated to reflect all changes to the game since the release of City of Heroes: Freedom (i21)... I've gotten some great input from TwoHeadedBoy on what all this Incarnate stuff means for human-formers (and how it completely changes the game for playing a human-former), so I'm in the middle of compiling that data into a newer, slightly expanded version of this guide.
Stay tuned--I should have it done no later than Monday!
"Alien" -
Thanks for the info!
-
Quote:Since when did that happen? Being a huge proponent of "human only" Khelds back in the day before it was popular, I was always careful to say that a human-only Kheld couldn't possibly put out the exact same DPS as a tri-former... Did something change in the past year during my absence?Originally Posted by AIB
As for the "under utilizing" remark...know that I like leveraging my "weaker than Human only" Triform Warshade to accomplish the "impossible."
Also, I remember when I used to post accomplishments in these forums... There will always be people out there that try to put you down. Just keep at it, and know that there is nothing more satisfying than the accomplishment of pulling off a personal goal, no matter if it means nothing to anyone else.
Nice job.
"Alien" -
Quote:If they ever removed Cysts, I would be a very, very, very, very, very, very sad person.Originally Posted by Socorro
With the recent PB changes, I can solo at +8 now, so I encounter Cysts quite often while soloing these days, and it still blows my mind that this 'feature' still exists after all this time.
Of course, it is pretty cool that I can take out a Cysts solo these days while being in the middle of a +8 spawn
Very.
"Alien" -
Quote:I went ahead and respec'd into it... and it has about a minute and a half cooldown for me--but then again, I have an INSANELY fast recharge build... Not like I'd really need to use it more than once every minute and a half, but wow... with as many TFs as I run, it was a no-brainer to me... Just imagine... finally being able to lead a Shadow Shard TF and going back and forth from the SS to Paragon City in a matter of seconds!Originally Posted by Gospel_NA
Just testing it and it's not worth the power slot.
It teleports you to any zone you can go to for your alignment, but has a 5 minute cooldown.
It really doesn't take much time to just take a train.
I went ahead and dropped Essence Drain from my build for it, as I never used that power in my attack chain anyway (stygian circle works just fine for heals).
Here's my newly-respec'd current build for AlienOne