AlienOne

Hey, saw another thread with the title, and thought I'd be a copycat... >.>

Anyway, took a screenshot of the "blue numbers" I see on a regular basis as a human-form 'shade...



*winks at all the "omg human-form play sux" crowd*

Have a great day.

"Alien"

*EDIT*
Also worth noting: Eclipse isn't up.... XD

Wow. I was thinking about one of those for a blaster build I put together, but if they're going for the cost of setting out 5 to 7 other toons, forget it.

"Alien"

Well, if you're good enough at playing human-only, you don't always have to have a maxed eclipse, nor do you always have to have it up at all times to be effective.

There's been many, many, many, many times I've had Eclipse drop with 2 bosses still up from a mob, and chose not to activate Eclipse again until the next mob, and still been ok. Of course, that may be because I have procs out the wazoo on my build, but to each his own.

The Eclipse on my own build has only 4 slots on it, but because of how I slot out my build, it still has no downtime. If you're really good at slotting for +recharge on a Warshade, you won't need to 6-slot Eclipse. You're better off using those slots elsewhere to make other powers more effective.

Also, 0.6 seconds is nothing... If you die in that amount of time of Eclipse downtime, you might be better off going tri-form to make it easier on yourself. Human-form gameplay isn't a piece of cake...

"Alien"

Thanks to Mod08 "TheOcho" for stoppin' by to say hi on his Saturday! Thanks for everyone's support, and may we all continue to team for years to come...

"Alien"

Well, the tri-form isn't ONLY for Posi runs, although it does quite a bit of them.... I use the tri-form build for TFs all the way up to and including the Manticore TF....So, although I may not be "maxing out" for specifically the Positron TF, I feel as though I'm more flexible for all the lower-level content with my current build.

"Alien"

Interesting. Thanks for the post. Excellent information.

"Alien"

However, to clarify to anyone reading this, that does not apply to set IOs--ONLY generic IOs. In my previous post, I was referring to my sets that I have at lower levels, not my generic IOs.

So, in your opinion, if I'm regularly getting exemp'd down to a level 15 status (Positron TF, which is mainly what my tri-form build is for), and a level 50 IO (generic) would not have any effect on me at that level, which level IO should I get? Stay with 50? Do they even work when I'm exemp'd down that low?

"Alien"

Hey! Welcome to the Kheldian forums.

If you are rolling your first Kheldian, then my recommendation is to roll a tri-form Peacebringer to start out... The reasoning behind this is that Warshades are notoriously more difficult for Kheldian first-timers, not only because several of their powers require both live and dead bodies, but also because their performance is "momentum-based." Ever hear the story of the turtle and the rabbit racing? It's sort of like the Peacebringer/Warshade match-up. A Peacebringer has a more rock-steady continuous-flow-more-reliable performance, whereas the Warshade can build up crazy momentum/carnage, and suddenly drop off on performance when there are no more bodies on the ground.

Once you've mastered a tri-form Peacebringer, I'd suggest going human-only on your Peacebringer's second build for a highly-surviveable "blapper-style" play. After that, make a tri-form Warshade and master that. Then on the Warshade's second build, attempt to master a human-only Warshade.

If you try playing Kheldians in this order, it will really smooth over the learning curve with Kheldian play and powers, and you'll have a much more enjoyable experience overall... If you try those steps out of order, you'll just get frustrated, as trying a human-only Warshade before anything else (for example) proves to be much too difficult and frustrating for most CoH players.

"Alien"

Actually, IOs only work scaled down when the level of the IO is within 3 levels of what you're exemped down to. Example: If you're exemp'd down to level 40, then you could use up to level 43 enhancements to get the "maximum" enhancement for that power when you're exemp'd down to level 40. If you have a level 50 IO slotted (and it's not a purple IO, a PvP IO, or a Proc/Unique IO), then it will not take effect on that power if you are exemp'd below level 47.

Most of the time, I slot level 50 IOs/Sets on all my level 50 toons so they're "maxed" at the upper-tier content. However, I built AlienOne's human-only build to handle content as low as level 38 (when you get Eclipse). So, technically, on powers that weren't slotted with purples/PvP IOs/Uniques, I could have slotted all level 41s if I wanted to be anal-retentive about it... However, it's extremely hard to get a full set of anything (even on Freedom) at "off-levels", so I decided to just go with 40s, so I could have the power fully enhanced and keep the set bonuses all the way down to (technically) level 37. However, most of the time, if the content's below level 40, I go ahead and switch to my tri-form build anyway.

As for Haste, you have an extremely valid point... I've actually gone with the 2-slot Hasten thing on several of my controllers and scrappers. For example, I built a Plant/Trick Arrow 'troller that has soft-capped ranged defense, which required me to 6-slot a LOT of powers in order to get those ranged defense bonuses, which really stretched the slots of the build out considerably. In that case, I 2-slotted Hasten.

Long story short, the reason I 3-slotted Hasten was so when I hit a base buff for +recharge (20%), that would put me at 180% global recharge, which would effectively put my Hasten at "perma." Having Hasten at perma is not necessary for surviveability on a human-form build, but IMO, it's really nice to have a constant recharge that high, and no downtime for Hasten... Just my preference though.

I say if you really, really need the extra slot somewhere else, then definitely take one of those recharges off of Hasten.

"Alien"

Oops, I meant affording it as in affording the slots for it, as I know any Kheldian build will be tight for slots... Sorry for the misunderstanding!

"Alien"

Also, if you look at the description for the enhancement for Expedient, you'll see that the "resistance aura" that you provide for your pets when you have that slotted is 20 feet. Sovereign Right's Resistance IO gives you a 40 foot radius for the "resistance aura", which is many times better for those pets, as they tend to have a pretty good range for their attacks.

If you can afford it, I'd put both resistance IOs on your pets, which will give your pets 10% or 20% resistance, depending on how close your pets are.

Something to think about, anyway...

"Alien"

Thanks for the info....

One question though... Why do they seem to have no problem handling any sort of modern game right now (Crysis, UTIII, etc., etc.), if they're that bad for gaming? I thought that if they could handle something like Crysis, which is notorious for system bog-down, then I could handle a "higher graphics mode" for CoH...

Guess I was wrong.

"Alien"

je_saist, do you know anything about the cards I have? Or no?

"Alien"

After browsing/skimming/reading through all 11 pages of this thread, it looks like je_saist or Arcanaville may be the people to ask for this:

I have dual nVidia Quadro FX 3500 cards set up by SLI (512MB of Video Memory).... They're pretty old cards in "computer months/years," but they still handle everything that I throw at it... I originally put them in my self-built computer because I'm a video editor, and those series of cards are wonderful with both HD video editing and any sort of AUTOCAD software tools.... Needless to say, it doesn't matter what sort of game I install, these cards kick butt. Unreal Tournament III? No problem. Modern Warfare 2? No issues. Fear 2? Resident Evil 5? Fallout 3? They wish they could drag my system down (haha)....

So, my question is... Is this "ultra mode" going to be what finally breaks my system and causes me to get rid of these wonderful little beasts?

Right now, I'm running Windows Vista 64-bit with 8 gigs of memory...

What's the verdict, guys? Have my cards finally reached the end of the line as far as handling high graphics in modern gaming? Or will I be able to handle this new "Ultra mode?"

"Alien"

It's true... IOs are more effective...

However, they're also a hell of a lot more expensive, comparatively speaking... Any "new" player without any sort of stored up cash from other toons would not be able to afford a completely IO'd-out build at level 15, especially if they're not familiar with WWs money-making strategies.

IO'ing out your build is extremely viable, yes, but it's just also worth noting that most people recommend DO'ing or SO'ing out your build until they can actually afford IO'ing it out... I know several people who choose to IO out their build at lvl 25, and then wait to replace all those IOs until they hit 50...

If one can afford it in the beginning, good on them. If one can't, well.... Someone might have to take Justaris' advice.

"Alien"

Mez resists in set bonuses is absolutely laughable. I made a build recently that got up to 80-something percent mez resist (I think for stuns), and it was still laughable, because getting up to 100% mez resist only cuts a mez duration in half.... You'd need 200% mez resist to make a mez "unnoticeable"... Therefore, getting a "huge" mez resist bonus from, say, Soulbound Allegiance is only....4.4%.

Mez resist via set bonuses is a joke--just like building for extra damage resistance via set bonuses is a joke.

"Alien"

I don't believe lag is caused by a color being different than it actually was.... We had lag problems well before then... From what I can tell (on missions that seem to have it the worst), it is a combination of map architecture, hordes of enemies, full teams of 8, and both enemy horde and teammates' animations all working together that causes the server/your computer to respond slower--trying to calculate everything that's going on.

Factor in that you're just one such mission (of MANY) that may be running at any given time, coupled with the fact that even more people seem to have moved on to higher populated servers, and you have even more reasons for lag than before.

I'd say before a power customization rollback, I'd be looking at a total server upgrade (IMO).

"Alien"