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I've revised the Warshade powers based on thread feedback. It now looks like this:
Warshade
Astral Diversion - 41
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe: -ToHit -Def, Team: +ToHit +Def
Your Kheldian energy can be used to unify your team and improve their combat skills while weakening enemies. For all entities around a targeted foe, all foes are drained of energy and all teammates receive energy. You and your team will receive increased ToHit and Perception, defense to all attacks, and resistance to ToHit and Perception debuffs. Affected foes suffer decreased ToHit and Defense.
Note: This should be a good analog to Astral Emanation without having the questionable utility of a team recall.
Cosmic Vengeance - 41
PBAoE, Team: +Dmg +ToHit +Def +Res(Effects), Foe: -Res(Effects)
The loss of a comrade enrages the team. Should you be defeated in combat, activate this power to drain the essence of nearby foes to grant your teammates a bonus to ToHit, Damage and Defense to all attacks. A Vengeful team has no fear, and Cosmic Vengeance protects your Teammates from Fear effects. It also gives your team great resistance to all status effects, Placate and Knockback. At least one foe is required to activate this power, and the more foes there are to fuel this power, the more bonuses are applied to your team. Affected foes become less tolerant to all status effects.
Note: Is now a self-defeat-cast power.
Veil the Mind - 44
Toggle, Self: +Res(All Mez)
When you toggle on Veil the Mind, you create an energy barrier that grants you moderate protection to most status effects, including disorient, sleep, hold, immobilize, knockback, confuse and terrorize. You must be at least level 44 and have Astral Diversion or Cosmic Vengeance before selecting this power.
Note: Note: Specifically lacks the Psionic protection granted by Light of Reason, since that comes from Eclipse instead.
Suppress Essence - 44
Ranged, Foe: -Recov -Regen
By smothering the life force of a single foe, you can dramatically decrease their Recovery and Regeneration rate for a while. You must be at least level 44 and have Astral Diversion or Cosmic Vengeance before selecting this power.
Note: Since a Warshade self-buff doesn't look to feasible, a simple but effective enemy debuff seemed appropriate.
Gravimetric Disposition - 47
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe: Teleport Immob
You can open a gravitational wormhole behind a targeted foe and violently push him, and all nearby foes, through it. The victims are transferred to the other end of the wormhole and are left Immobilized in a crushing field of gravity. You determine the location of the wormhole's end, but it must be placed on the ground. More powerful foes may be resistant to the wormhole effects. You must be at least level 47 and have two other Essence Mastery powers before selecting this power.
Note: It doesn't show it in the overview, but the power applies a short-duration sleep on cast and grants knockback protection to immobilized targets. -
Quote:I'll admit I got kinda caught up on the idea of an archetype-granted team recall, but you're right about Shadow Recall: every Warshade gets it; what's the point of saving yourself 60 seconds by taking something that does roughly the same thing?Fold space is ok, I guess - not super amazing, but at least it's potentially useful. Although I'd really like something to further differentiate between it and shadow recall (which, remember, every warshade gets for free) - is the ability to recall everyone at once worth a power pick when I automatically have the ability to do the same thing with a bit more time investment?
The thing with buffing teammates is problematic with Warshade, though, since the whole Nictus lore revolves around how they're sucking power out of other people. I do see potential for something Kineticsy here, though. Perhaps as an analogue to Astral Emanation, the power can emit a one-pulse buff/debuff around a targeted enemy: foes get -ToHit -Def, friends (and self) get +ToHit +Def. Nothing to the extent of Fulcrum Shift or even necessarily noteworthy, but but a buff/debuff diatomic power might be just the ticket.
Quote:Vengeance is something you can already get from a pool. The devs don't usually like the ability to duplicate powers, and honestly it's a bit boring - I'd rather have something new and unique. Apart from the 'cast veng on self' idea (which would be fine if you don't want to change this power too much), if we want to keep to the 'dead bodies' theme but involve teammates in some way, perhaps something along the lines of a team-affecting mashup of mire and a rez? Drain the energy of enemies to rez your friends, each affected foe making them get up with more health/end along with some sort of debuff on the foes (maybe slow plus -damage and -tohit, sorta like a reverse mire)?
What you've described sounds like Howling Twilight. Again, the problem I have with giving an ally rez power to a Warshade is that it's a bit backwards from the Nictus lore. Even Stygian Return is reaching a bit, but at least it's self-serving. I'd like to avoid the ally rez concept if at all possible.
I think it'd be fun to mix it up a bit. I like the self-casting Vengeance idea, but let's toss in a twist: you need at least one enemy around for it to work, and the more enemies, the bigger the buff to your team. That will let the Warshade buff the teammates without just saying, "here have a buff," and would make the power situational enough that you wouldn't feel compelled to take it.
Quote:Power boost seems useful at first, but then you have to ask, 'what would I actually use this on?'
[...]
The problem is, like you said, what else can you buff? I'm not sure, really. One thing that comes to mind, though, is to make it a combination self-buff and foe debuff like something out of kin (like siphon speed), in keeping with the warshade's vampiric theme. Maybe foe -special, -end, slow, warshade +special, +end, +slow resistance? Stygan is great for filling up after fights, but not during them, so combined with the -special and the slow resistance this would be more useful.
However, as you've shown, how else can you buff a Warshade that makes a power even worth taking? Well, I'm not so sure you can. So your suggestion of an enemy debuff would probably be a better fit.
I'm thinkin' a strong, single-target -Regen -Recov. No other debuffs; just the "life force" ones. It will help harder targets go down easier, either solo or on a team.
Quote:A wormhole-esque power at 47 is great. I agree that a carbon copy of wormhole would overlap a bit too much with grav em, though, and think a -KB immob is a good alternate version. However, removing the stun and KB leaves it with an amplified version of the same problem wormhole has - you'll get your face shot off using it.
Think of it like the Arachnos Patron sets: one powerset across multiple archetypes. The color scheme for the icons is actually a blend of Peacebringer and Warshade colors. -
Hey, I'm all in favor of stupid rules. I feel more ornery when I break them on purpose. And "Thou shalt not point out the rules to those who break them" has never been a rule, so it gets really fun after a while.
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I touched on this very topic in my "award"-winning analysis documentary historical movie regional catering bonanza, The Best Build
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Quote:Mechanically, there is no rationale. Conceptually, it's specifically designed to be an alternative to the shape-shifting forms. That decision was made before any of the powers were designed.If the problem with mez protection was that they wanted you to take dwarf, and you want them to give it to people who don't take dwarf, why lock those that took that form out of the power? I don't see the reason for the lockout still.
As per your Black Hole suggestion, I'm actually considering replacing the stun with a -KB Immobilize. -
Quote:Warshades already have one: Unchain Essence.I would suggest instead of using Cosmic Vengeance use a warshade version of fallout either using npcs, teammates, or both.
Kheldians aren't short on damage by any means. I really think utility is more appropriate in the epic set than more offsense. -
I wouldn't want to play an archetype called SoL. "Castle, we're horridly underpowered!" "Sorry, you're SoL"
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Quote:I was kinda limited on self-buffs for that one. Can't buff damage or ToHit because of Sunless Mire, can't heal or recover Endurance because of Stygian Circle, can't boost damage resistance because of Eclipse, so all that was really left was a way to amplify mez and debuffs, which Power Boost does beautifully.I personally don't like Power Boost, and don't really find myself needing extension of the mez effects on my powers at all, plus stygian is extremely powerful as a heal anyway.
Not that the power can't be switched out for something entirely different (like a summon patch), but I'd like to keep it in the self-buff category if possible. I'm open to suggestions. -
Quote:Some of the design considerations for Kheldians revolved around the alternate form powers, and mez protection in particular is the big one. You want mez protection, you take Dwarf; no way around that. When the devs tried Kheldians with mez protect toggles, they found that they were wholly sufficient in and of themselves, which significantly discouraged taking Dwarf whatsoever.1) Why should it only be limited to human-only builds? I'm not sure I see a good reason to block form users from a non-overpowering ancillary pool.
The logic for Essence Mastery here is that if you're dead-set on not taking the alternate form powers for their demonstrable perks, then you'd at least be treated to a new set of perks instead.
Quote:3) Not really liking the ws onesFold space would be really really not necessary/helpful; it's just a minor convenience thing to teleport everyone at the same time. You can already get Veng from a normal pool, so...
Vengeance is a very handy power, but it requires a defeated teammate which, frankly, shouldn't happen in the first place, so it's a bit of a bittersweet dealie. I wanted some way to buff the team while someone was dead, and Vengeance was the first thing that came to mind.
I think what might be more fun, actually, is making Cosmic Vengeance a self-cast power like I understand pool Vengeance used to be (and the way Nemesis lieutenants work). If you, the Warshade, go down, you can buff your team.
All-in-all, I think it's important that the first two powers are rather lackluster in terms of self-service, yet helpful to teammates, since the primary and secondary powers are very self-serving and the Inherent power in particular just comes across as leechy. -
I have faint memories of posting something like this years ago. But this one's better!
Half-Baked Introduction
So you say you're a Kheldian without an epic powerset? Well, there's already too many powers available in your primary and secondary to even take them all, but let's not ruin a perfectly good reason to get additional powers!
If you're fully integrated with your Kheldian essence, then you wouldn't have been granted the shape-shifting abilities. These few brave souls are the ones who get access to a new epic powerset for human-only Kheldians: Essence Mastery!
Formal Powerset Article
My user space on Paragon Wiki: Essence Mastery
Design Specification
Available only to Kheldian characters with neither the Nova nor Dwarf powers. This presents an alternate, viable "third form" for players who choose to remain human-only.
The level 41 powers should be team-centric so as to sort of "give back" for the inherent buffs that all teammates grant to the Kheldian archetypes. You can't pick anything else unless you take one of these.
Being an epic powerset, these powers should somehow fill in the gaps left by the primaries and secondaries, but for an epic archetype that's not all that easy to do.
Power 1: Something helpful for active teammates
Power 2: Something helpful for defeated teammates
Power 3: The long-requested mez protect toggle
Power 4: Self buff (Peacebringer) and enemy debuff (Warshade)
Power 5: Something uber that affects multiple enemy targets (not an attack)
Peacebringer
Astral Emanation - 41
Toggle PBAoE, Team: +ToHit +Perception +Def +Res(-ToHit, -Perception)
Your Kheldian energy can be used to unify your team and improve their combat skills. By emitting a warm, soft light, you can increase you and your team's ToHit and Perception, provide defense to all attacks, and provide resistance to ToHit and Perception debuffs.
Note: This is sort of an alternate Leadership power that combines the effects of Maneuvers and Tactics into one power. With the pitiful Kheldian team buff values, though, it shouldn't be overpowered. (-:
Celestial Twilight - 41
PBAoE, Ally: Rez +Dmg +Res(All)
Focusing the power of the stars, you can revive any fallen friends around you from the brink of death. Revived allies are charged with the cosmic energy and will recover full Hit Points and Endurance, and will deal more damage and be more resistant to all damage types for 30 seconds. Revived allies will be protected from XP debt for 20 seconds.
Note: I smell a Rikti Mother Ship raid.
Light of Reason - 44
Toggle, Self: +Res(All Mez, Psionic) +Def(Psionic)
When you toggle on your Light of Reason, you create an energy barrier that grants you moderate protection to most status effects, including disorient, sleep, hold, immobilize, knockback, confuse and terrorize. You will also receive moderate resistance and defense to Psionic attacks. You must be at least level 44 and have Astral Emanation or Celestial Twilight before selecting this power.
Note: This power intends to fill in the gaps between Peacebringers, which get no Psionic protection, and Eclipse, which grants good damage resistance to ALL damage types for Warshades.
Renew Essence - 44
Click, Self: +Endurance
Through perfect control of your body and energy, you can concentrate for a few moments and replenish some of your Endurance. You must be at least level 44 and have Astral Emanation or Celestial Twilight before selecting this power.
Note: Basically a rechargeable, enhanceable Catch a Breath. This power is intended to bring parity between Peacebringers, which have no means of replenishing their Endurance (Conserve Energy just makes it last longer before it goes out), and Stygian Circle, which is generally used to fully refill Warshades.
Bow Shock - 47
PBAoE, Foe: -Dmg -ToHit -Def -Res
You can create a devastating flash of ionizing light energy, weakening all enemies around you. Bow Shock deals no damage, but is extremely accurate and can dramatically reduce the damage, ToHit, defense and damage resistance of your foes. You must be at least level 47 and have two other Essence Mastery powers before selecting this power.
Note: Essentially a one-shot, PBAoE version of Noxious Gas. Anguishing Cry is very much the same as it is, so why not take it a step further and debuff their damage and ToHit while we're at it?
Warshade
Astral Diversion - 41
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe: -ToHit -Def, Team: +ToHit +Def
Your Kheldian energy can be used to unify your team and improve their combat skills while weakening enemies. For all entities around a targeted foe, all foes are drained of energy and all teammates receive energy. You and your team will receive increased ToHit and Perception, defense to all attacks, and resistance to ToHit and Perception debuffs. Affected foes suffer decreased ToHit and Defense.
Note: This should be a good analog to Astral Emanation without having the questionable utility of a team recall.
Cosmic Vengeance - 41
PBAoE, Team: +Dmg +ToHit +Def +Res(Effects), Foe: -Res(Effects)
The loss of a comrade enrages the team. Should you be defeated in combat, activate this power to drain the essence of nearby foes to grant your teammates a bonus to ToHit, Damage and Defense to all attacks. A Vengeful team has no fear, and Cosmic Vengeance protects your Teammates from Fear effects. It also gives your team great resistance to all status effects, Placate and Knockback. At least one foe is required to activate this power, and the more foes there are to fuel this power, the more bonuses are applied to your team. Affected foes become less tolerant to all status effects.
Note: Is now a self-defeat-cast power.
Veil the Mind - 44
Toggle, Self: +Res(All Mez)
When you toggle on Veil the Mind, you create an energy barrier that grants you moderate protection to most status effects, including disorient, sleep, hold, immobilize, knockback, confuse and terrorize. You must be at least level 44 and have Astral Diversion or Cosmic Vengeance before selecting this power.
Note: Note: Specifically lacks the Psionic protection granted by Light of Reason, since that comes from Eclipse instead.
Suppress Essence - 44
Ranged, Foe: -Recov -Regen
By smothering the life force of a single foe, you can dramatically decrease their Recovery and Regeneration rate for a while. You must be at least level 44 and have Astral Diversion or Cosmic Vengeance before selecting this power.
Note: Since a Warshade self-buff doesn't look to feasible, a simple but effective enemy debuff seemed appropriate.
Gravimetric Disposition - 47
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe: Teleport Immob
You can open a gravitational wormhole behind a targeted foe and violently push him, and all nearby foes, through it. The victims are transferred to the other end of the wormhole and are left Immobilized in a crushing field of gravity. You determine the location of the wormhole's end, but it must be placed on the ground. More powerful foes may be resistant to the wormhole effects. You must be at least level 47 and have two other Essence Mastery powers before selecting this power.
Note: It doesn't show it in the overview, but the power applies a short-duration sleep on cast and grants knockback protection to immobilized targets. -
I got logged out of the forums again. I tried to log back in, but it told me my credentials were incorrect. I thought it was just that stupid bug from the other thread I'm religiously bumping, but then I remembered my account was actually due to lapse today.
No problem, I thought. I'll just go back in and add some more time using the same credit card I've been using for the past 4 years. Eh, what's this? My payment was declined? Something about "risk management assessment"? I've heard of other people having this problem; people who want to buy the game but can't.
Screw you, NCsoft.
What I did instead was head over to GameTimeZone, which has online-purchaseable time card serial codes for both the US and EU sides of the pond. Not only that, but the 60-day option comes to $24.99, which is a $5 savings over buying two individual months through NCsoft directly through credit card... In fact, doing the math, it's $12.50 per month, which is even cheaper than NCsoft's rate of $12.95 per month for the 6-month subscription.
If anyone has problems making payments, I highly recommend using either this site or some other like it. Hopefully that gets their attention, what with them actually losing money for every customer who has to take this route. I'm all about a full $15 every month, but if NCsoft refuses my money, then I'll let someone else have it in exchange for game time.
EDIT:
Heh, kinda funny, but when I posted this reply, it took forever for the forums to refresh, and when it did I'd been logged out again.
EDIT2:
Aaaand, it seems to have submitted the post twice. -
The CIT backend before we got ahold of it seems to be making decisions as to which badges should be granted based on other badges already having been earned. We still haven't been able to find out exactly why it's happening, but we are looking into it. The fact that badges are usually added at times when the character is not even online is particularly puzzling.
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I had to log in. "Remember Me" must mean "Don't Remember Me"!
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Quote:Because I object to the fact that tortoises, which are turtles, are able to survive in the desert.You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise crawling towards you. You reach down and flip the tortoise on it's back. The tortoise lays on it's back, it's belly baking in the hot sun beating it's legs, trying to turn itself over, but it can't without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that?
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Believe it or not, Beef Cake, we've actually been deliberating over your request since the day you've sent it, and we're just now at the point where we could give you an appropriate response. It's not a simple yes-or-no answer, though, and a lot of other considerations have been taken into account.
I have word that TonyV just sent you a message somewhere in some form or another, so check all your inboxes. The good news is that we're definitely willing to work with you on this. -
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Quote:"The holidays"? You make it sound like this is being postponed into the new year. Try "just that one holiday next week" and you'll be right on the money.Apparently, it will not be released until the after the holidays.
Expect Issue 19 to be released the week of the 29th. -
I was able to log in via Titan Sentinel just fine right now.
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On the other hand, I am a developer.
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I just... don't work for NCsoft. -
I would have done the epic powerset proliferation in Issue 18 correctly instead of sucking it up something fierce.
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Maaan, the more Issue 19 gets delayed, the longer we have to wait for Issue 20! Terribleness!
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Hehe. I clicked on the thread to check the latest discussion, and suddenly see everyone's signatures. I log back in, and now the singatures are out-of-sight, so the forum has become a much better place. (-: