Guardien
-
Posts
113 -
Joined
-
I would be surprised if it changed things much blue side. There are LOTS of lvl 50 heroes who for whatever reason either don't have, or don't enjoy khelds. Red side....
-
I haven't seen anyone post in the Kheldian boards about soloing an AV with their Kheld. Honestly, I don't think it was even possible before i13, and I would be pleasantly surprised if it was possible now. We are simply better at AoE damage than ST damage, that doesn't translate well into AV fights.
-
Lightform has, in my opinion, one of the best side-effects of any god-mode: no body to animate. No animations = no rooting. As far as I know, it is the only way to achieve this much desired capability.
-
Quote:This.Originally Posted by PrincessDarkstar
I thought it was summed up when someone said it was because the eipc pools are actually built into the primary and secondary.
Khelds get more power choices than any other AT, so don't really need any extra choices. -
Quote:Seige has those nasty radiation robot friends (-res). I always get Nightstar and Blackswan mixed up, one of them has significant negative energy resistance (maybe both?). I haven't fought Black Scorpion in a while, so I dunno about him...but, is there a mission that reliably has him in it outside of the STF?Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Sounds like (if I recall my AVs right) Siege or Nightstar, then. Potentially Black Scorpion. At least for the first ones that come to mind.
-
Quote:First, while not actively doing anything, the mere presence of teammates is an outside buff to you, I'd say you can't take advantage of your inherent, sorry.Originally Posted by Socorro
Well, I'm considering giving this 'soloing AVs' thing a try, so I'm counting on you guys to tell me I don't have a chance... haha
Firstly, I've never attempted it - on any toon. However, my Human PB has successfully soloed the EB versions of Nemesis, Ghost Widow, and Nosferatu and many of the Praeteroian EBs. Most of these were done before I recently started 'Purpling Out' my PB.
Well, now she is purpled out, I have a lot of recharge (about 140% with Hasten, which is auto and has less than 20 sec. downtime) and Purple Procs for the extra damage needed. I've not calculated my DPS, but I feel like I might could put a dent in an AV. No, what would likely prevent me from succeeding is my Damage Resistance and my Endurance.
Right now, my Resistance sits at around 35% for Smash/Lethal to around 50% for Energy/Neg. Energy, with everything else somewhere in between ('cept Psi, that's around 11%, forget soloing a Psi-dishing AV). I don't have an real Defense to speak of. I depend on my Resistance and fast-recharging Heals for protection and that works very well against pretty much all normal content, but got a feeling it's not sufficient for soloing an AV. I believe to have a shot I'd have to stay in Light Form as much as possible and hope I can ride out the moments it's down. Lots of Oranges and Purples, maybe...?
Then there's my Endurance. I normally run all 3 Shields, Combat Jumping, and Assault all the time, plus have Hasten on Auto (thus it's up most of the time), so I can burn thru *alot* of endurance. To counter it, I have a Numina +Recovery, Performance Shifter Proc, and IO bonuses, so for most situations Endurance is manageble, even though I use it like a Hummer. But on Long Fights, it can start to dip low. I have Light Form and Conserve Energy for those moments, but not sure of the gaps between their downtimes. Maybe alternating between them will work. I also recently got a Miracle +Recovery, but haven't had a chance to see how much of a difference it makes. Additionally, I could probably turn off some of the shields, depending on the AV...
So, how to go about it? First, got to pick the right AV. An Uber Psi or Mezzing AV is right out, as is probably one of the Tanker Type AVs (my DPS is good for a Kheld, but not sure if it's that good). Any suggestions (or how about suggesting "Give this idea up, fool!")
Another opinion: LX stated that for these goofy scenarious, using a Shivan or other Non-AT based Pet is not really soloing. Well, what about having other players on your team but they don't help you fight the AV? They'd just stand around cheering you on...and of course provide some nifty Cosmic Balance buffs. I'm pretty much certain I could solo some AV with that haha. It *is* a part of our ATs package (we're not going outside the AT, like with a Shivan), but it does require teammates... Thoughts? Is it soloing an AV if you have teammates but they don't help with the actual fight?
More importantly: I'd strongly suggest you pick up as many accolades as you can. In particular the +max hp, +max end, and Geas of the Kind Ones especially (+recharge, +recovery). Sure, it's on a 25min timer, but you can fire it even when you have zero endurance and it will overcome most -recovery penalties (say, from Light Form crashing, or the Dawn Strike drain).
There's no really good AV for Khelds, so let's say Infernal as a middle of the road one to test with. Pick something that does almost exclusively smash/lethal damage (unless I am forgetting the one that does energy?) and drop your other shields to pick up Tough to get your resists to that as high as possible...or pack a lot of Lucks.... Old school AV soloing involved a lot of binge inspiration munching, I suspect a Kheld would need to do the same. -
The reason the guides haven't been updated is that Kheldians haven't changed very much. They had their damage scalars changed, and their inherent now carries over into the forms, and dwarf form doubles as a break free. Oh, and range increases in the human form ranged attacks. That's it, as far as I can remember. Tactics are still the same. Obsidian is correct though, in saying these boards are not overly number friendly. Kheldians aren't really top of the food scale in terms of performance, and that's usually all numbers people are interested in. Consider this: to achieve peak performance on a Kheldian, you CANNOT fully slot all of your powers...some scrapper builds take powers they never use just as mules for IO sets. Add to that the fact that a simple SO'd Kheldian can achieve the same peak performance level as a purple IO'd out one (but not as frequently, and the IO build needs some fairly IDEAL circumstances to maintain that level), and things get even more ridiculous. That said, Kheldians are incredibly versatile, and offer several play style paths right out of the box, even more when you factor in power pools.
-
Guardien Spirit (PB) lvl 50 (tri-form) (pre-CoV creation date)
494 hours
318 patrols
Guardien Wraith (WS) lvl 50 (tri-form) (pre-CoV creation date)
375 hours
320 patrols
Lighthouse (PB) lvl 50 (human only) (pre-issue 9 creation date)
235 hours
173 patrols
Dysleximouser (WS) lvl 35 (tri-form) (created in i15)
37 hours
36 patrols
NRJon (PB) lvl 33 (tri-form) (pre-issue 13 creation date)
40 hours
38 patrols
I tend to spread my playing time around quite a bit, especially among my higher level toons, so these numbers don't surprise me. I think the creation date is (somewhat) important as some key things happened around each time frame: CoV launch = largest # of subscribers = lots of opportunity to team; issue 9 = inventions = look at all the cool stuff you can slot in a PB!; issue 13 = sweetest changes to khelds that I know of
; and issue 15 has AE = very fast leveling.
-
To be fair, PBs do very well vs. large spawns of minions w/ Lt.'s as well. WSes just BENEFIT more from larger spawns (for mires and eclipse). Remember, they have almost identical AoEs, and KB makes an effective mitigation.
-
Like I said, I've never had problems tanking with either of my WSes. I think it just comes down to Knockdown being visually a better team mitigation ability than -speed/-recharge. White Dwarf Flare LOOKS like it's protecting the team better than Black Dwarf Mire - it might actually BE better too, no idea, just justifying my preference ;D.
-
QR
Part of what we're seeing in this thread, and others, is the paradigm shift that has hit CoX with the release of the "real numbers" in the game. For over 4 years, we were operating pretty blind...we could see some powers out-performing others, or some tactics working better, but we had no idea exactly how much better. Or more accurately, no one outside of Arcanaville and a few other mathematics geniuses out there had any idea ;D. For the average player, it was all about the "feel" of things. I remember when I first came to the Kheld boards, someone greeted me with something like: "congratulations! after all your hard work to get to lvl 50, you can now have FUN as a kheldian!" (it took me over 500 hours to get to lvl 50...on a scrapper...). I can say, without hesitation, that kheldians are the most fun AT to play (for me) in the game, they "feel" good. Now, with the numbers being revealed, we can see just how good a double-mired eclipsed dark nova really was/is, and how lucky we were to be able to do that with just SOs...but the shift is taking place everywhere. Every board is talking numbers now, and not surprisingly, it has spread to here, the home of FUN! (tm). Not that numbers aren't fun...no no...math is good, stay in school...there's just no sense of adventure to it. There's no "omg, I did X Y Z on my WS last night, it was awesomesauce!" because all we see is 300% this, 180% that, 85% thisthat. The stories are gone....gone, from our EPIC! ATs....
I REMEMBER when LordX first started bamfing around in here, all wide-eyed and full of giggles...it makes me a lil sad to think the next generation of khelds might not be like that... -
IMO the first key for a human only kheld (sorry, HO still makes me think of hamidon origin enhancements...), is recharge. Hasten & any other +recharge you can afford to get is well worth it. When you can stagger your nuke and your mini-nuke (unchain essense/photon seekers) for every 3rd spawn (or so), happiness ensues. It has the added benefit of bringing all your cool toys back into play more often too: dark extraction, lightform, essence boost, eclipse, sunless mire, solar flare, etc etc etc. Recharge is the key. The shields are a nice to have, but by no means necessary as most of the damage you face is smashing/lethal, and that's the only shield you're forced to take.
Second key thing: teammates. Some give you +recharge (see above), but they all give you something worthwhile. PBs (IMO) benefit more here, as their inherent seems designed to balance out the team, boosting them for whatever is "lacking" in the team. In the low teens my human only PB made a better tanker (with appropriate support) than many tankers at that level in terms of AoE aggro generation and survivability (granted, a tanker with that same support would do better in some cases - not all the support was active).
Prior to Issue...13? (whenever we got the kheld-love from the devs ) I would not have recommended going 1-50 human only, but I see no reason not to these days, if that's what you want to play.
-
QR
Interestingly, -recharge debuffs hurt PBs more than WSes (imo). PBs only really have 3 quick recharge powers in dwarf, vs. all of the powers for a Black Dwarf are fairly quick recharging.
Obsidian will hate this, but...playstyle really impacts how well either performs a great deal. On my PB, I wait as long as possible before hitting the self heal in dwarf (typically at ~1/3 health). On my WS, I am hitting the heal much sooner, and more frequently (sometimes just to fill out an attack sequence). Both tank admirably, and both are vulnerable to certain debuffs more than others. I typically bring my PB if I KNOW I will be tanking, just for the reliability of the self heals, but when I've been "promoted" to tank as my WSes, they've never let me down (promoted as in main tank dies, or team has no other taunter for whatever reason). My Dark Armor tanker has similar vulnerabilities to a black dwarf (heal w/ tohit check), and is a beast, so I don't doubt a dwarf built to tank would do very well regardless of debuffs. -
There is a HUGE difference encountering a Cyst at level 50, versus encountering one at levels below 20, regardless of team make up and experience. At level 20, a nictii blossom from a Cyst can stack enough slows to create a hole in SR's mez protection (considered one of the best in the game, fyi), for example. It can certainly dish out enough AoE damage to overwhelm any individual healing power set (meaning if there isn't another toon with heals on your team, you a likely going to have at least one death). At level 4, your team is dead, period, unless you run, or have an exemplared level 50 with you... It is, in my opinion, one of the main reasons you don't see many teams running at the highest difficulty setting before level 22 when SOs basically double the strength of all your powers. I doubt there are many khelds who can solo a Cyst before level 38, but after level 38 they probably don't even hesitate to try, and more often than not likely succeed (if they took the power that unlocks at 38). They ARE challenging, for most of the game, and CAN be a pain, even at level 50, depending on placement. And I for one wouldn't have em any other way
-
QR -
A viable alternative that used to be employed quite often, was the "staged build" (my term, my search-fu is not strong) where you use one build from lvl A to B, and another from B to C, C to D, etc as desired. The easiest example of this is using and slotting nova form from levels 6 to 23, at which time you respec and move all of those slots into dwarf and turtle your way from 23 to 39, at which time you respec and take advantage of your tier 9-ish power. Obviously, you don't want to invest in IO sets until you are in the final stage, but regular IOs, or frankenslotting, will do you quite nicely as you go. The idea behind it is: you will always be starved for slots, so why not focus your slotting in places it will be most effective at a given level. The reason for using dwarf form from 23 to 39 is two-fold: first, since i13, your damage output is much more respectable; and second, particularly in the 20s, you CAN make a better tank than some tankers (as they are missing quite of few powers still at that level). -
Be wary of your terminology: Mez Protection is what prevents a mez from having ANY effect on you, Mez Resistance reduces the duration of mez effects. Acrobatics has Hold Resistance, and Knockback Protection. There is no true mez protection available via the Power Pools (true mez being: stun, disorient, sleep, and hold - ie. an effect that prevents you from using any powers or inspirations except break frees). The Epic Power Pools have some mez protection, but they aren't available to PBs. Your choices are: carry break frees, use lightform, take dwarf form, or team up with people that can provide you with mez protection.
[edit: forgot about lightform, shame on me!] -
I think the "worst" Cyst placement I've come across personally, was in the sewers, at level 4....not sure how many of the team were new players, but at that level, really didn't matter: team wipe.
Well done on taking on two with no deaths! -
Unless things have changed recently, Nova form has the highest damage scalar in the game. Period. If you don't know what that means, don't argue about what out damages what. If you do know what it means...well, then there shouldn't be anything to debate...
-
QR
I tried to keep up with this, but a few days with no internet and I'm a 100 posts off again...
Anyways, what about this: damage boost based on # of enemies within range? inverse correlation of course. Max boost at 1 enemy, minumum/none at X enemies. I'm thinking of the scaling resistances that /SR gets as it drops below 60% health...
Pro's: turns you into a heavier hitter, speeds up soloing.
Con's: not tied to rank/con of enemy just their numbers, defining "what's in range", is a damage boost, exploitable?
Hmmm...complicated twist: base it on number of allies? 0 allies = max boost, 7+ allies = 0 boost? (7+ to take into account pets, and tank dropping from team in a mish to gain benefit...)
Pro: there is already an ally proximity+number dmg buff auto-power (kheld inherent) so no "new" coding, improves solo speed, turns you into a heavier hitter.
Con: is a damage boost...? -
QR
I only managed to skim this thread, fair warning.
I remember the days of herding entire maps in a garbage container. Please, DO NOT remove the aggro cap. I think it's very telling that the only group I've come across even asking for it, are tankers...possibly because it was so incredibly boring for the rest of the team? Teams are much more fun, content is much more challenging, as is (compared to a no-aggro-limit environment). Not that consensus among us would influence the devs, but, thankfully, we do not have it anyway so, no real point in arguing it. Not likely to happen, sorry. -
Any PBAoE has a chance to hit targets you can't see (whether due to blindness, or stealth) - that is an AoE centered on you, not a targeted AoE. So for a WS that means both Mires, Eclipse, Inky Aspect, and Orbiting Death. Not sure if enemies suddenly become visible when they are defeated, if so, Unchained Essence would work too...though it is technically a targeted AoE.
-
QR
The biggest reason you don't see builds, particularly for WSes, is because they can self-cap +damage and +resistance. If you slot for recharge and accuracy/tohit, you will be a monster...USING SO'S! Once you're at the caps, nothing you do will improve your performance (technically chance for dmg procs bypasses dmg caps, but still). Getting your +recharge high enough to perma Eclipse, and two pets out perma with a 3rd for x time, and that's peak performance for a WS. As there are a few ways to to achieve all of that...no builds. MAINTAINING that peak performance is something altogether different .
PBs are a bit different, as they can only self-cap +resistance, and Lightform cannot be made perma. PBs, IMHO, are also the more versatile of the two, and so can be built in a variety of ways depending on what role you want to focus on (if any).
Hope that helps. -
QR I use it when I intend to stay in human form for a while, as retoggling it after a form switch is a pain (rooting). It's one of only a few WS AoEs with no chance of knockback, so that's nice. It's also great at hitting things you can't see (blinded), or that are stuck in a wall. It can be an aggro magnet, so I don't recommend running it until you have some significant mitigation options (teammates, stygian circle, inky aspect, dwarf form, etc). You can certainly do fine without it though.
-
QR
In terms of getting that "wow" factor from teammates, IME that boils down to a select few powers/situations. For warshades, it's typically a squid with two wingmen laying waste to spawn after spawn taking next to no dmg due to eclipse, and launching the human aoe combo of Sunless Mire + (something to drop a minion) + Unchain Essence + Quasar + Stygian Circle and moving on, perhaps with a new pet.
For PBs it's typically the human form powers Incandescent Strike (hello damage!), a well executed Dawn Strike (nuke powers are always impressive), and that nearly indestructible ball of light that has no animation rooting...oh, and the rare occasion where our "homing missles" (SOOO calling photon seekers that from now on ) take out a nasty enemy for us.
Again, IME, it's much rarer to get a "wow" from experienced players, who have seen those powers used before (even if not necessarily used to their utmost performance levels), but new players, or even just ones that haven't teamed with a lot of khelds VERY often quit my team to go roll one for themselves (occasionally even sending me tells in the days that follow about slotting and power choices), or VERY VERY often simply say "wow...I didn't know khelds could do that!".
And I agree that lack of knowledge about binds/macros is a very limiting factor on number of people that get a kheldian past level 20. Assuming you take Nova and Dwarf, you will have more powers than visible trays by level 20 (much sooner if you're a long time vet). Placeable trays help, but binds/macros are much easier to manage. -
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
skill...this game needs very little skill. Regen takes very little skill "I'm hurt...HEAL!". If you're going to go on about skill, solo an AV with a defender, that takes some skill. Everything else is just ego.
[/ QUOTE ]
You are drinking from the wrong koolaid
[/ QUOTE ]
No, I am being perhaps to literal and precise in my choice of words.
Skill: ability gained through training, typically by repeating an activity.
Knowledge: understanding of a subject gained through study and reasoning.
This game requires very little training. Knowledge on the other hand... Understanding the game mechanics makes one a FAR better player, than all the training you can muster. To some extent, they go hand in hand, I just don't see much room for improving your play through repitition(sp?), compared to understanding game mechanics.