Dechs Kaison

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the read.

Recharge, then go for recharge. After that, prioritize on recharge and defense. Maybe some recharge, too.

Seriously, though, recharge is a warshade's best friend. You're not high enough to have Eclipse yet, but once you have it you'll understand the overbearing, outright need for recharge. That ability can cap your resistance (85% to ALL) and then carry over to nova form. With enough recharge, it's always up.

Recharge helps all the other stuff too. More mires, more stygian circles, more fluffy balls of doom... The only thing recharge can't give you is more bodies, but there's plenty in the game you can find.

Making sure that Eclipse is permanent takes a lot of slots, so there isn't a lot of room left for other bonuses. I grabbed a little defense and some +max endurance, which has done well for me.

If it's a global bonus, you keep it across all forms. All set bonuses, LotG +recharge, Steadfast +def, even KB protection. The ones you won't keep are things like Miracle +recovery, but that's only because it's a proc. Technically, though, you can keep it. Every time you use the power you have Miracle slotted in, you get 120s of +recovery. Most people put it in health though, so if you took that waste of a power on a warshade, you'd have to go to human every 2 minutes to refresh it. Let's face it, it wouldn't be bad at all because you're already dropping to human often enough to mire, summon fluffies and refresh hasten, but do you really need the recovery with things like Stygian Circle and Eclipse?

I find having the performance shifter proc in my kheldian forms to be invaluable. I didn't bother to slot the forms for endurance reduction or modification, the proc does enough for me. Dwarf form is a little on the endurance heavy side, but I haven't slotted the heal for endurance reduction by mistake. I feel a respec coming...

I'll be honest, I had trouble soloing my warshade until I upped the difficulty to about +0/x4, but I found -1/x6 to be pretty fun too. Learn to leverage Gravitic Emanation, it's a handy power for bunching 'em up for a mire and leaving them helpless while your nova blasts melt things.

Once I had Eclipse, I could go +0/x8. Fully IO slotting and whatnot, and I could go higher.

Just remember the warshade mantra: "Must find more bodies."

Mirelock is a beautiful thing.

I think that's more due to the original design of stalkers being the hit and run type and not needing endurance recovery.

And they can't be entirely against endurance recovery... EA has energy drain.

You, sir, win.

I don't know what you win, but you do. This post made my day.

Aggro and target caps are two different things.

Sure you could herd the entire island up, but you'd still only be able to hit 16 at a time with fireball.

I think the secret is having a tank that can handle it.

I haven't failed one yet with mine. (Granted I've only done it four times, but they were all PuGs.)

Claws, you're on Virtue, aren't you? What are you doing today at say.... 4:30?

Did you read any of my descriptions? Particularly the tier two power?

It's not designed around "get to low health and then damage everything." It's not designed around dying. It's designed around surviving on the edge.

You would be correct if they had some kind of taunt power, be it in the inherent or part of their powersets.

Also, they were originally designed without bodyguard mode, so I am hard pressed to believe they were supposed to be tanks.

S'ok. I didn't think you were, but I had already mentioned my aggroholic tendencies earlier in the thread, so I thought it was worth clarifying.

I do a fair amount of LGTFs and ITFs, so I've been with brutes, and I don't see anyone replacing anyone else. I end up treating them just like scrappers. Depending on how they're built, they might be able to handle themselves and have a desire to do their own thing. They both fit in very well to my usual "leadership style."

Rule 2: If you think you can handle it, you're free to go for it.

The difference is less than that because I can bump the level of the Mako quad to 50. The reason I stuck with a level 43 triple was for exemplaring (enhancement values under 20% don't start being deminished until level 21).

Thanks though, that was a good catch. Not sure how I missed it.

As I mentioned before, I am an aggroholic, which I believe to be one step better than what you've described here. I don't go out of my way to steal aggro from brutes/scraps/blasters that can handle themselves, but I am always looking for the next big group of nasty that can be hitting me.

First, it's Dechs. Pronounced "dex." Notably not short for "Dexter."

EDIT: I'm not upset or anything. I know it's an odd name. Just clarifying.

I completely understand what you're saying though. An IO'd brute is better than an SO'd tanker with the same powersets, but an IO'd tanker doesn't have the damage of an SO'd brute with the same powersets. I totally agree.

The only thing I am saying is: you won't ever find a Dark Armor brute as tough as my Dark Armor tank. Tanks will always be better at holding aggro and staying alive than brutes with the same powersets/budget. That's not debatable.

Is the need for that kind of toughness up for debate? Certainly. I happen to be an aggroholic. I don't feel "super" because I can defeat stuff. I feel "super" when I herd monsters for a hami raid, or taunt as many AVs as I can find. Sure I won't kill them, but by $deity, nothing's going to hurt my team.

But the fact remains that tanks will not replace brutes and brutes will not replace tanks.

Yeah, I know it's harsh, but it's only there when you're above 75% health. The idea was for it to get you into damage bonus, but it goes away once you're there. Maybe it should only be -10%?

THIS!!! This is what the set needs! Oh, do I like this. It removes the need for a "No-Self-destruct" mechanic. Once I read this, I like the idea of changing the initial power to some kind of "active mitigation." Either knockback or fear. Fear would be more thematic, I think. I'll definitely have to change the order of powers, but I really really like this.



Everyone else has had some really good input too. I'm going to have to pour over this when I get some more time and make an update.

Thank you very much.

Drops are just really rare.

And for the record, I farm a level 49 mission set to -1, and I've gotten purple drops from it.

Sounds like you're talking about me. I know I don't use anything over level 40 IOs if I'm getting set bonuses. I do enough TFs that it makes a difference.

Also, I've double checked the total enhancement values and I really don't feel like I'm losing anything. Between the small difference from level 40 to level 50 and slotting to ED, the loss is negligible.

I dare you to make a Dark Armor brute that can tank as well as my Dark Armor tank.

Agreed. This is clearly the best suggestion I've heard. My vote would be for just attacks coming in. I don't see it encouraging taunt-bots because attacking generates aggro too.

Although, I would still kill to have unsuppressed toggles.

I think it's very important to note that I form PuGs, not join them.

1) First thing I do when I log in is usually start a TF. I broadcast in the channel and take the first seven people interested.
2) I don't usually bother asking friends first because they all listen to the channel anyway, but I'd say I end up with usually 2 or 3 friends or at least people I've played with before on the TF most of the time.
3) Pretty much most of the time. Unless it's a Master's run, I don't really even pay attention to how people play.
4) Occasionally I run into an empath that puts fort on my tank instead of the blasters or some such like that, but as long as enemies are dying I don't bother to mention anything.
5) This happens a lot. The chatty fun to be around people get added, regardless of how they played.
6) I've only teamed with each jerk once. Player notes are a godsend. I still don't find that it happens all that often.