Jade_Dragon

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Also, the redraw would be practically mandatory. I can just hear the complaining now: "Why does my AR/Energy put away his gun when he uses Bonesmasher when the [Pistols/Martial Arts] blasters get to keep their guns out?"

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Actually, I would consider this one of the main selling points of the Set. It doesn't have to be ALL kicks, but with a few of them it could overcome the redraw problem that other Blaster Secondaries have. AR could always pair with this set if it wanted that capability...

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I think the both you and the OP are either misinformed or ignorant of the reasons that redraw is in game.

A character will always put a weapon away in order to do a new attack unless the attack their using also specifically uses the weapon. From what BABs has told us, it's an issue of changing stances. You can't just flip a switch stopping a power from having redraw.

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It seems to me that you just explained quite neatly how this will work, at least for Dominators. They have a martial arts attack defined with an animation that assumes they have the guns out. It doesn't USE the guns, it uses the kick, but it is a kick performed with guns drawn.

If what you're saying is true, that you can't have any animation that does not use the weapon that does not keep the weapon drawn, then no weapon set would be able to keep their weapon drawn when they use Taunt/Confront. Now, one thing I don't know is whether you HAVE to draw the weapon to use Taunt/Confront, or if you CAN have the weapon drawn to use Taunt/Confront. In other words, if Taunt has two animations depending on your stance, like Brawl does.

(Also, Build Up)

If that is not the case, then it's workable for Dominators, since it's all in the same set, but it's not for Blasters, since you would not be able to pair "weapon drawn" animations with Primaries that don't have weapons. There could also be the issue that the stance with Pistols is not the same as the stance with AR. However, it is at least possible that you could create a kick animation with both hands held out away from the body, which would not look too goofy with no weapons, would look fine with two pistols, and for the AR would have the rifle held in one hand while the other was held up away from it.

If it is possible to have the same power use two animations in two different stances, then that may work out even better. The problem is not the animation, it's whether you can make AR, Pistols and other sets share the "weapon drawn" stance.

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Also, the redraw would be practically mandatory. I can just hear the complaining now: "Why does my AR/Energy put away his gun when he uses Bonesmasher when the [Pistols/Martial Arts] blasters get to keep their guns out?"

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Actually, I would consider this one of the main selling points of the Set. It doesn't have to be ALL kicks, but with a few of them it could overcome the redraw problem that other Blaster Secondaries have. AR could always pair with this set if it wanted that capability...

OTOH, I definately think there should be some other effects, maybe so "Chi" effect buffs like in Energy, or some gadgets like Devices to round it out. It would probably have to be a little less damaging than Energy to counter the advantage of not requiring redraw.

Certainly if there is a Pistols Assault set for Dominators, and it mixes in hand to hand attacks with the pistol use, then it would have to be something that did not require redraw. So martial arts kicks would fit that bill. While Blasters don't need a set like this to be consistent with Dominators, it would sure be nice. Honestly, I don't like using Energy as a substitute for martial arts abilities, even though I do.

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The problem is that enemies in this game tend to do less damage at range, and have less ranged attacks. So you're getting hit less often with weaker attacks. That's why range is considered a defense.

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Yeah, Blasters say "Range isn't a defense", but that's primarily at high level, where the damage becomes so great that even being at range is no longer protection against a one hit kill. Ironically, it's because of Tankers and Scrappers that Blasters have this problem, the ranged damage has to be enough to pose a threat, even to Tanker level defenses.

That very fact, though, is why range IS a defense -- to Tankers and Scrappers. They can afford to break melee with a foe when they get in trouble and put some range between themselves and their foes, because usually their defenses will protect them even at range. They can't attack, but the damage taken should go way down. So clearly, if you give a ranged attack to an AT with this much defense, kiting becomes child's play.

Which is why Defenders and Kheldians have less defense than a Tanker, but less damage than a Blaster. (In fact, human form Khelds have about the same defense as a Scrapper, but much less damage -- unless on a team, that is. ) The "Tank Mage" does exist, but it's not as strong as the AT that specializes with either range or defense.

As for Defenders or Corruptors not having melee attacks, again, Kheldians, specifically Peacebringers, do have melee attacks. OTOH, melee attacks typically do more damage than ranged attacks because you have to risk being in melee (and taking more damage) to use them. So Defenders and Corruptors are in a sense forced to use the kiting strategy because they get more risk for less reward for going into melee. Blasters, on the other hand, get melee attacks that allow them to really increase their damage when they can be assured the foe won't hit back.

Thor may throw his hammer, but the core of the character is hand to hand combat. It's even a matter of honor for him, he is a Nordic warrior, (and god) after all.

I think if the Tanker had access to a few ranged attacks (like Hurl, even if you do have to wait for 35 for that) that's wouldn't be a problem. Heck, every Tanker, Scrapper, Brute and Stalker in the game has access to their Origin attack, Nemesis Staff AND the Blackwand from level 1, assuming you've been playing the game long enough. And it doesn't take much to go to the Market and buy a Revolver on top of that.

The difference is, though, if you're conceptualizing a character that has ranged attacks, melee attacks AND defenses, that's not a Tanker. It's not a Blaster or Defender either, but that's a lot closer. A Human form PB is right on the money. As Ultimo has himself mentioned. So you get it.

And really Iron Man may have defense, but does he have Tanker level defense? Does he go toe to toe with the Thing and the Hulk in hand to hand combat? Not likely, I would expect him to step back and use his range as an advantage. Either that or tweak his armor so it IS Tanker-like in nature. (Like the old original armor used to be)

Whether you look at it in game, from the standpoint of wanting to avoid the Tank Mage, or you look at in the comics, where the specialists generally are stronger with what they specialize at than the generalists, if you want both ranged attacks and defenses then you're going to want weaker ranged attacks and weaker defenses. You won't have as much defense as someone who doesn't have any ranged attacks, and you're not going to do as much damage as someone who doesn't have an defense.

You can't bash a Tanker to fit another Archetype by giving it ranged attacks. No matter how many lightning strikes you give Thor, you're not going to turn him into the Human Torch. No matter how much Heat Vision you give Superman, you're not going to turn him into Captain Atom. These "high defense, high ranged attacks" power characters aren't really in CoH, but they aren't really Tankers with ranged attacks, either.

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Guys.... one of my first sentences was *IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE*

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My problem is that there's not enough on which to base a speculation. "If it turns out to be true", yes, but if WHAT turns out to be true? Full Customization? Color Customization? Your powers change colors when you switch sides? Ability to choose animations, or just what's attached to you, like in Weapon Customization?

And this does nothing about the appearance of the Kheldians themselves. Would Power Customization allow you to change the way your forms look? Or would it only allow you to change the way their powers look?

In general, the order goes: (from most damaging to least damaging)

Thugs
Ninjas
Necro
Mercs
Bots

Necro and Mercs might be reversed there, I can't really say with Necro for sure. Necro certainly does less damage than Ninjas, and Mercs does more damage than Bots. (Although barely, and only pre-32)

In terms of single target damage, it is more like this:

Ninjas (by a LARGE margin)
Thugs
Necro
Mercs
Bots

In terms of AoE damage it is like this:

Bots (post-32, by a LARGE margin)
Thugs (also by a fairly large margin)
Mercs
Ninjas
Necro
Bots (pre-32)

Thugs is overall the highest damage, but Ninjas beats them out in single target damage. Bots becomes incredibly powerful after 32, although for the most part you need really large groups to outdamage Thugs. (Basically, it's all in the Assault Bot and his Incindiary Missles)

Defensively, it's pretty much the opposite:

Bots
Necro
Mercs
Thugs
Ninjas

Ninjas are REALLY fragile, but I think that's because they are intended to be used stealthily, like a Stalker. They aren't really meatshields like the other MM Primaries are.

And again, I can't be sure about Necro, although I'm pretty sure they're in that gap between Bots and Mercs. Although Necro has to take a lot of damage from being in melee, they all have high resistances and self heals. Thugs' Bruiser can also be really resiliant, it's the Punks that die at the drop of a hat.

Nah, I'm not ready to guess that Going Rogue will include Power Customization. I suppose it's possible, but it seems symbolic to me, in that video.

What could happen is that when you switch sides, you get your counterparts' color scheme. So for instance when an Invulnerablity Tanker goes evil, he gets the same darker colors for his auras as an Invulnerability Brute. Since those are not the same Power Sets, though, just duplicates, the color difference isn't exactly the same as Customization. More like two different ATs getting different forms of the same power.

If it does work that way, though, I would like to see Warshades get something to distinguish them as Nictus. Perhaps a darker color scheme. And PB's could become sort of blue-grey.

In the in-game lore, though, there is no difference between a Warshade and a Nictus. It's just a name some Nictus have chosen to indicate their "change of heart".

I have to agree, the Dwarf Form Warshade will do a lot more damage than just being a tank, and you might actually be better than the Fire Tanker on a large team, but a Warshade is not really a Tanker. It's strength, even if you don't take Nova, comes from what it can do it its human form. If you've decided from the start that you're not going to drop back to human and blast, you're really not utilizing the Warshade's flexibility.

It might still be a lot of fun, but in the long run the Tanker will tank better.

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Why would they do this? First off, Empathy was turned into Pain Dom because the devs said the "concept" of Empathy was not villainous. This wasn't about self-damage boosts or team-friendliness. Villains already have powersets that are majority ally-only. This was about empathy being too touchy-feely nicey-nicey for villainside.

I assume that reasoning is out the window with Going Rogue. If you can bring an Emp Def or FF Def redside now than you are saying that person, with that powerset, can be a villain. So why would you go to the trouble now of changing FF for Corruptors, that being the case?

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Well, first of all while the stated reason for changing Empathy to Pain Domination was to make it more villanous, we don't KNOW what the reasons were for adding self damage boosts to that set. Is it "villanous" to have a self damage boost? Kin has self damage boosts, and it is not considered "villanous". Therefore we can conclude that while they changed the "feel" of the set to make it fit the goal of being more suitable for villains, they added specific features, like the +dam -- to the caster even, and not to the team -- to make the set more balanced and resolve issues with that had been reported with Empathy.

In fact, they could have made Pain Domination an exact clone of Empathy, only changing the names and the power effects. The idea that they wanted Pain Domination to have a "villanous" concept does not mean they had to change the implementation.

Second, I am not suggesting that they change Force Field for Corruptors without changing it for Defenders, and in fact I'd rather they did not. I am actually suggesting that the devs will introduce changes to Force Field BEFORE they Proliferate it to Corruptors, in order to address those problems. Since FF already exists on the villain side, on MMs, this would not be a villain problem, but a Corruptor problem. Or more specifically, FF Defenders seem to have more of a support role and less of a damage dealing role, which would be innappropriate to Corruptors, which are supposed to have more of a damage dealing role and less of a support role. The problems FF Defenders currently have in fulfilling that role would cause FF Corruptors those same problems.

And note that while there are some Corruptors that have more of a team oriented role than others, and thus have trouble soloing, there is NO Corruptor that does not have a way to increase the amount of damage he does to a foe by either buffing his own damage or debuffing his foe's resistance. If you think you can name a Corruptor Secondary that does not have this capability, please name it.

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As a very rough comparison of damage, given the same power, slotted the same way, on the same level toons:

Blaster: 100% damage
Corrupter: 85% damage
Defender: 66% damage

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Um... actually, it's more like this:

Blaster: 112.5% damage
Corruptor: 75% damage
Defender: 65% damage

However, that's not quite a fair comparison, because Corruptors and many Defenders have something Blasters do not; a way to boost their damage. Part of the time or even all of the time, they can either buff their own damage, or debuff the foes' damage resistance. And since Defenders do this better than Corruptors, this kind of balances out their damage.

With a scale -3.0 debuff to the foe's damage resistance: (such as provided by Enervating Field - this would be 30% for a Defender and 22.5% for a Corruptor)

Blaster: 112.5%
Corruptor: 91.875%
Defender: 84.5%

Or normalizing Blasters at 100%:

Blaster: 100%
Corruptor: 81.67%
Defender: 75.11%

And note that a Rad can stack a 25% damage boost on top of that with Accellerate Metabolism. The more the damage boost, the closer the others come to the Blaster, and the closer the Defender comes to the Corruptor. (Which is why Sonic Assault makes such a good Ranged set)

Of course it takes time to stack all those effects, and so of course the Blaster will do the most damage with his first shot, then the Corruptor, and finally the Defender. The Corruptor will also likely do the most damage with his last shot, too.

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Before I post the build, I will say one final thing. Defenders DESPERATELY need a damage boost.

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FF. Live it, breathe it, accept it, learn to love it. Or loathe it.

Or as Fulmens says, "Don't solo FF. Just don't do it."

Definately, definately take Assault. Slot all bubbles with Red Fortune and all Knockback with Explosive Strike. (Not just the chance for Smashing damage, slot 2, for the +dam) Plus anything else you can find that gives a damage boost. Also, I can't believe I forgot the Devistation: Chance for Build Up, in your most used fastest recharging attack. (One good reason for Neutrino Bolt, there...)

I have to admit, I was also going to say "Duh!". Ranged attacks + Defenses = Defender. Technically, a Corruptor would be closer to dealing Iron Man's damage, but there's very little variation in actual practice. And really, a Human Form Kheldian would also be a REALLY good choice, you'd get personal shields, and not have to worry about the ranged ones.

By definition, these kinds of characters are going to be hard to play, the devs will make them hard, but as long as you accept that it's okay.

You might look into Sonic, too, it can fit the "power armor" concept. And you'll get a bit more damage out of Sonic Siphon. Not to mention if you go FF/Sonic. All good alternatives.

[edit] Also, some suggestions for your build. Either take out Air Superiority, and use Boxing in melee, or take out Hover and use a Blapper strategy. Either way, move Power Bolt down. You've got so much Pool stuff (and I understand why) that you're crowding out your attacks. Remember, like a Tanker your attacks open up late, so you NEED to take them the moment you can. Without damage you'll never get to 22. I know this, I stumbled through my teens with only Neutrino and Irradiate and it was horrible.

Are you using a Vet Reward attack?

Also -- wait -- no Aim? Seriously, for a damage build that and Power Build Up, after 41 should be a priority. The good news: you should not need Tough AND Temp Invulnerability, and Boxing AND Total Focus. When you get to 40, respec out of the weaker versions into the stronger.

And Conserve Power, while it might be useful in place of Stamina, it has a VERY long recharge time. (So does Power Build Up, but that's why you get Aim first) So you can drop it for Power Build Up)

Weave... um. Okay. I can see it, stacked with Manuevers, maybe Hover. Not really sure that Assault wouldn't be needed a heck of a lot earlier, though. In fact, stacking Tough with Temp Invulnerabilty would probably buy you more in melee.

As for Aid Self, I skipped it, but mainly because Aid Other used up a slot that I really needed prior to 14. And also, if you're not going to take the ally bubbles, why take an ally heal? Aid Self is probably going to be better in the long run than Tough, but for purely conceptual reasons, you'd probably want to go with Tough.

I'd recommend Detention Shield, too, but I don't think it fits this concept.

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As I have not played the set in months, and from recent posts it's obvious my knowledge of the set is starting to slip, I figured it was time to finally kill that last part.

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Your knowledge was starting to slip? Well, I suppose I can hope that someday soon there will be a time when you don't know anything at all about FF, because Castle has changed it so much it's not recognizable.

You'll always be "FF Guy" to me, though.

[edit] Although I read this line from Fulmens' "Dark Side" guide and burst out laughing:

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I counted, once, 54 damaging attacks to drop a Boss.

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Not sure if it was laughing or crying, actually.

My own little cyborg girl is Electric/Fire. The /Fire is mainly for Fire Sword, which I explain as a superheated jet of plasma, enclosed in a magnetic bottle. Probably not the most powerful combo out there, but it works for me. I tried Energy/Energy, and really couldn't get into it.

The thing about Electric is, if you're used to Energy, you may miss the mitigation, but then you get Tesla Cage. Between that and Ring of Fire I don't have any problems keeping foes out of range. Keeping them from hitting me, with Ring of Fire, that's different, but I've found that Tesla Cage + Fire Sword + Lightning Bolt will usually keep a foe from becoming a problem.

I also have both Hover and Super Jump, so I can both hover above the combat, and get out of it fast. I definately agree with the advice to Hover above the combat and knock foes down, although I don't have an knockback myself. (actually, at one time I had Jump Kick explicitly for that, but then the devs changed it to knockup...)

I would say your build looks good, although I'm not sure why you would put off Total Focus so long, particularly when you could take it instead of Rescuscitate. The double punch of Aim and Build Up will definately help you get through the early levels, and although you don't have a lot of melee, you don't really need it with Total Focus.

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I'm surprised nobody's said this already, but...

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Oops, well, you beat me to it.

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On a slightly different note, if this is the case...shouldn't they just open up ALL powers to both heroes and villains? Because that is essentially what they are going to do.

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The simplest answer to this is, they ARE -- it will just take time. It is called Powerset Proliferation.

Empathy and Pain Domination seems to be a unique case, and I'm not sure how the devs will handle it. It seems odd for them to make such a case for Empathy being only hero side, and then we will have Empathy heroes going to the villain side.

Well, you're right, I don't think there is a guide to soloing. I don't know if I can come up with a guide, but I'm a pretty "hardcore" soloer, so maybe I can offer some advice. You are talking about exclusively redside, right, you don't want me to list any hero ATs?

Let me start with your questions, I guess...

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*What challenge level for missions?

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This depends. In general, I stay with the first difficulty (Villainous) until level 10. I then bump it up to second (Relentless? I think) so I will get Bosses in my missions. Some people go for much higher difficulty right off the bat, though, to level quickly while there is no debt, and try higher difficulties past 10 as well.

I wait until level 22 and SOs to bump up my difficulty any further, though. At that point, I usually go to either 3, 4 or 5 depending on how well the AT solos. (I totally forget the rank names, but 3 and 5 will be less foes, while 4 will be more, which is nice for Masterminds and Brutes, who like lots of enemies instead of a few strong ones)

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*Better to just kill mobs outside?

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NO!!! I mean, uh, no, don't do that. You will get a lot more XP by doing missions, even if you just run Paper Missions over and over. In fact, this is a great way to make XP fast if you don't want to bother with story arcs and running around from Contact to Contact. (90% of the time when you take a new Paper Mission, the door is within a few feet of your last one)

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*What specific other skills are a must have if any? (not talking about the basics, just skills that shine if your soloing from the power pool)

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I don't think anything really shines. Air Superiority is always a great Pool attack. If you've been playing a long time, Vet Reward attacks (Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff) are great for getting damage up in the early levels, especially for MMs, Doms, and Corrs. (Although the Dom buffs may make this less of a big difference)

As usual, you want to get your travel power fairly early, and pick up Stamina. (Except for MMs) You might skip your travel power, though, if you pick up the jet pack and jump pack in the first two Mayhem Missions. I'll also add that taking a power like Combat Jumping or Hurdle early on, like pre-level 10, can help you get over obstacles you can't yet use a travel power to get across. This seems to be less of a problem red side, though. (Walls in the Rogue Isles seem to be either low enough to jump more readily than in Paragon City, or so high that you'll never get over it without Super Jump, and sometimes not even then)

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*AE missions, they good?

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They seem okay to me, although I don't know if I'd rely solely on them. Some have suggested creating characters to run only in AE missions, though, and I may try that.

Now, let's see if I can offer some more specific advice:

Brutes - Brutes are like Scrappers, easy to solo. The big difference is leveraging Fury, if you're not good at it, you'll die. The best thing to do is to pick up low damage, fast recharging attacks early on, and use them with Brawl to build Fury. You want to slot for ENDURANCE, not damage, as Fury will give you more of a boost than Enhancements will. (Of course, you also want to slot for Accuracy, as with any starting character, although it actually doesn't matter to Fury if you miss, so you could slot your Fury building attacks with End, and your big hitters with Accuracy, so you'll be sure to hit when Fury is high)

It's much easier to concentrate on attacks when levelling a Brute since you get them earlier than Tankers do. Don't think a Brute's a Tanker, though, that excess HP will basically be used up by the damage you've got to take to build Fury, so think like a Scrapper. Build your Fury cautiously, conserving End, then use it as long as you can to steamroller through spawns. If you take this too far, it's called "SMASH! Addiction".

Stalkers - Don't think of Stalkers too much like Scrappers. While they are, the addition of stealth makes them much more capable in the one on one situation, and much less dangerous against groups. You can scrap, a lot more than you could when CoV first came out, but still, it's a different strategy. You don't want to run in without thinking, you want to scope out the terrain, see what's where, and make sure you won't be surprised by someone hitting you from behind. I also like breaking line of sight so I can leap out for an ambush as a foe follows me, and using Placate. (In other words, get a free second Critical instead of just depending on Assassin Strike)

Corruptor - Corruptors aren't really that much different from Defenders, although you get the bonus of Scourge just when you need it most, when the fight is nearly over, and you're running out of End. Corruptors are just as soloable as the most soloable of Defenders, especially since many of the options that are hard for Defenders to solo (like FF) aren't available to Corruptors.

Dominator - The Dominator is a tough AT to solo. Like the Stalker, it calls for a specific style, and you've got to be on top of it, constantly holding your foes so they don't hurt you. This is one of the ATs you'd want to solo on difficulty 3 or 5. Never mind the potential to use AoE holds on more foes, what you want is to hold down as many foes as you can with your single target holds. Using an AoE at the wrong moment can get you killed.

There are really two types of Dominators, those with a damage dealing Secondary, like Fire Assault (which is more AoE and ranged than most other Doms) or Electric, and those that have Power Boost in the Secondary, like Ice and Energy. And Psi is kind of a third option. Power Boost doesn't give the Dom more damage, but it does make his holds stronger, so that makes Ice and Energy a bit more control oriented.

Typically, you will have to use a "Blapper" strategy with a Dom, holding down an opponent, then closing to melee to use your most powerful attacks. It should get better once the adjustments are made to Doms to give them more damage out of Domination, but even now, once you get Domination you do massive damage, particularly in the early levels. What you want to do is "toy" with your foes, use Stalker like strategies to single them out and build up Domination, then start wasting whole spawns once you do have it.

Don't be like some Dom players and refuse to use Domination at all. It can be helpful to save it for the Boss, particularly if you know you're coming to the end of a mission, but you should use it several times at the beginning. If you do reach a Boss without Domination (or get defeated, which will cause you to lose Domination) you might try going outside the mission and hunting foes to build your bar back up.

And don't underestimate the effect of refilling your End bar and gaining mez protection when in Domination. Both are extremely helpful.

Masterminds - For people who find MMs boring, or want to solo through the early levels, I have three words for you. Take your attacks. You heard me. Respec out of them at 26 when you get your last henchman, but between 1 and 10 you are doing almost as much damage as a Blaster with your attacks, and from 18 to 20 you will need as much damage as you can muster, minor damage from attacks aside. You'll feel more active, instead of just watching your henchmen fight, and they aren't going to get the really big attacks until you get Upgrade at 32. Certainly if you plan to solo all the time, you will need all the damage you can get to get through the 20s.

And as I mentioned above, Vet Reward attacks can make a HUGE difference in the damage output of an MM. (Not so much Pool attacks, although you can pick one if you want to be more melee oriented)

9 pages, but I just wanted to point out that this is not a strategy that has to be limited to recipes, it could be regular Enhancements as well. That's a technique I often use to raise quick cash, although not in the millions.

The issue of drying up the supply, I think, depends on the amount of time you are willing to wait. There will always be SOMETHING on the market you can sell back to the store for a profit, it's just a matter of either taking the time to find it, or just placing your orders and waiting for them to be filled.

I think that there will probably always be those who want to unload their drops on the market for a cheap price, because they already have plenty of inf and don't want to be bothered with it. If it helps someone who doesn't have a lot of inf raise some, then so much the better. If it is actually USED for what it's intended and the buyer gets a good deal (which allows him to do better in the game and earn more drops you can then buy on the cheap) then even better.

I buy from the market for the Enhancements that I use, too, and I'm glad they are cheaper than the store. I can't always find everything I need, but I can usually save enough that I can outfit myself totally, when before I probably would have left the least important powers with some Enhancements in the red.

IMHO, it's not really taking money out of the system, it's making sure it runs smoothly.

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You will retain all badges that were earned, because you can always switch back to your original side. The Devs aren't going to wipe out all badges if you are able to switch back. They may change the names of the badges depending on what side you are on, but they'll still be there.

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As has been mentioned previously, all badges already have two names, one implying that you "betrayed" the other side. So if you go villain you are no longer "Statesman's Ally" you are "Statesman's Betrayer". IIRC, there are some badges that are shared between both sides, so they already use both of the names. This would just allow heroes to gain the badges they couldn't get because they were on the villain side, and vice versa.

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Accolades present an interesting question. It's possible you will only get access to the Accolades on the side you are on, but they might also just let you have them all. I haven't done the research to see if that would be unbalancing or not.

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Actually, in keeping with the "there's a different set of rules when you're Neutral" theory I've been working on, it would make sense to me if a new set of Accolades were added for Neutral characters. Then when you leave the Hero side to become Neutral, you lose all the Accolades you had and gain the new ones, if you have the prerequisites for them. Then if you continue your side switch and become a Villain, you gain the Villain Accolades, again assuming you have managed to earn the needed villain badges.

This would be a lot more likely, I think, than allowing you to potentially earn BOTH sets of Accolades, including duplicates that could stack with each other for unintended effects. Unless somehow it turns out that those Accolades are the same ones, just with different methods of earning them.

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Ummm... when I talk about binds, I actually lean more towards those keybinds that take you out of Nova/Dwarf form(s) and switch to corresponding tray and execute a Human-form power. The binds to actually shift to Nova/Dwarf are quite simple in essence both to write and use. It's those drop-to-Human/Activate-power binds that are the tricky ones.

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Me too. As I said, when shifting from Nova to Dwarf I will often use Mire in mid-shift, or even Stygian Circle if I've dropped enough foes with my Nova attacks, and I have keybinds defined specifically for that. It keeps the time in non-Dwarf form to a minimum when surrounded, so I don't take a lot of hits in Human form, but can still attack.

The basic concept, though, follows logically from defining binds to shift forms. How far you go with combining form shifts and power activations is where those tells saying "How do you DO that?" come in.

And technically speaking I don't use keybinds, they are macros on that form's tray. Same difference though.

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Well said Jade.

Also, post-I13, with the forms now gaining the inherent team-bonuses, the last approach Jade mentioned is now a lot easier to handle, and perhaps even more fun.

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Another point I realized is that since the forms do get the team boost, the generic build of a Tri-Form is overcome by those boosts. So you might be able to tank for a team of Blasters (PB) or Defenders (WS) or be a blaster for a team of Tankers (PB) or Scrappers (WS) and stay in that form, while using your shifting to stay alive while solo. (Or if the team makeup makes it hard to stay in a single form)

Your choice, of course, but it gives you that option. And of course my examples also point out how a WS gets stronger in the same way the team is strong, while a PB fills in where the team is weak. Which I think is really cool.

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I would dare say that more than any other AT in the game, Kheldians benefit the most out of having their attributes monitored by the player and the use of keybinds.


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And while I could have just included this in my previous post, I think it's so important it deserves it's own post, even if I say nothing but "I agree 100%".

A shapeshifting bind to change your form and switch to a tray with that form's powers (and another to go back to human) can make the difference between being unable to play a TriForm, and being able to make allies send you tells saying, "Man, you are INCREDIBLE with that Kheldian!"

(And there may be an AT that gets as much or even more use out of keybinds. But they're on red side. Masteminds. )

First off, let me add to those that have suggested taking Super Jump with your Warshade or using Nova form to get around that you also have a power called Nebulous Form. In addition to making your intangible (so you can't be attacked) I believe you also gain the ability to Super Jump. This power is on a timer, so you can't use it for long, but you can shift to Nova when it wears off and then back to Human when it recharges.

Now, in essense your problem with a Kheldian is that you have way too many powers and not enough slots. If you try to become a generic Kheldian with every power available you will be too weak to defeat foes. Thus, there are a couple of basic build concepts that most people use:

Human Form - This skips the Nova and Dwarf forms (or uses them only as travel powers) and concentrates on slotting the human powers. For a PB you will essentially be a Defender with melee attacks, for a WS you're a bit more like a Controller. Being in human form so much you can take all three of your shields, knowing you won't have to keep putting them back up, and as previously mentioned, for PB you have Light Form.

Bi-Form - This skips either Nova or Dwarf and concentrates on building up the Human form along with the other chosen form. This has less slots to devote to the Human form, but gains the blasting ability of Nova or the tanking of Dwarf. You will probably want to concentrate on the counterpart of your form in Human form, for instance for Human-Nova you would make your Human form defensive and make use of the melee attacks, while for Human-Dwarf you would concentrate on your ranged attacks so you can use Human form as a Nova with melee abilities. You also have the advantage of using your Human form powers to complement your other form, double Mireing as a Human/Dwarf WS, for instance, or using Build Up as a PB and shifting to Nova to blast.

Tri-Form, form emphasis - This is probably the most common Tri-Form build, and the one you seem to be interested in. Essentially, you take both forms, and slot them well, and then take and slot the Human form powers that complement your forms. Your Human form isn't for fighting, it's for support of your other forms. This helps narrow down your options, as you said, and allows you to concentrate slots on your form powers, letting them do all the damage. You would shift to Human form after the battle is over to do a Stygian Circle (WS) or Essense Boost. (PB) Most of your fights, though, would be either in Nova or Dwarf form, depending on what the team needs, a damage dealer, or a tanker.

Tri-Form, shape shifting emphasis - In this strategy, you slot all three of your forms, and try to make them balanced in their capability. As I mentioned previously, this would normally be a bad design, you are so generic all of your attacks would be weak. This concept gets around that, though, by constantly shape shifting DURING the battle to take advantage of each form's strengths.

This is probably the hardest to play well, and since shape shifting takes time you do lose a considerable amount of DPS, but it is a LOT of fun. This is the strategy I use. Basically, I build to each of my form's strengths, on my PB, my Nova form is the ranged blaster, my Human form does all the melee damage, and my Dwarf form takes the hits. I shift momentarily to another form to make a massive attack, then shift back to Dwarf to take the return fire. It takes timing, and you've got to balance the form shifting with remaining in a form long enough to use it to its full advantage, but that's part of the fun of learning to play that way.

On my WS, the Dwarf does more melee damage than the Human, so I typically use Human form only for holds and Mire/Stygian Circle. I do make use of the Human form's stealth powers, though, like Shadow Cloak and Starless Step (TP Foe) to whittle down a group in Human form. Then I go Nova and start blasting, and drop to Dwarf (with a Mire or Stygian Circle in the middle of the form change) as soon as they close with me.

In short, whichever form you stay in the most should get the most attention. If you want to pick a role in a team or a couple of roles, then slot for that, otherwise you can just spread the slots around and go where you seem to be needed at that moment. If you want to play more of a team support role and slot, say, your PB's ally heal power and use Nove for knockback, you can do that, too. You really have a lot of choices, and you can't ever really take them all. (Although with dual builds you might be able to try out a lot of them)

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I checked. It was the thread in which I was trying to get suggestions for building a character based on Dr. Doom. Somehow, it transformed into a discussion about Mastermind attacks. You definitely posted, but I didn't look to see how often, it might have just been once.

Not relevant to this thread though.

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I won't repeat everything I (likely) said in that thread, but to my mind, when you get 75% of your damage for free, you don't need more than 25% damage. It would be like a Tanker whose damage aura did 75% of his overall damage. The low damage is annoying when your concept is that you do more, but you just simply can't do any more, it's all you have room for. Of course the converse to that is that it's all you NEED to do.

As you said, though, not relevant to the thread, except in general terms. As in, each AT has its own feel, and sometimes that means not plowing through a spawn the way a Scrapper can.

Yeah, while the target can't effect anything around it, the effect is actually coming from YOU. (Even though it's around the target) Thus, its phased status does nothing but protect it from the effect that's centered on it.

I'm actually surprised that I've never tried this, but then, the only FF Power I could target on a Detentioned foe would be Repulsion Bomb. It's obviously more valuable for Dark or Rad. (Darn those allies that keep killing your anchor )

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As to how often you have to use your bubbles on teammates, I re-bubble on every second mob, if the team is rocking... every third. Or you can use the poor man's way, keep a eye on team health and wait till you see someone dropping quicker then normal.

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My strategy for bubbling is simply to start at the top of the list and work down. I have a keybind for it. I usually bind the first person a few seconds before the rest. Then I watch him, and when his buff icon starts flashing, I know it's time to refresh everybody.