Justaris

Mask of Dimitrios, Dark Miasma/Dual Pistols Defender

Cornelius Lorre was a beat cop, good at his trade but nothing special, particularly by the standards of his native Paragon City. On a rare vacation away from the precinct, Lorre visited the home of a distant relative he barely knew. The only surviving relative, he inherited an estate filled with strange artifiacts and volumes upon volumes of handwritten journals. It was during one of his many attempts to sort the contents of the mansion that he came upon the mask.

The ornate ivory mask was striking, and just touching it gave Lorre an odd sensation. Even more strange was the letter he found enclosed with the mask, written in a flowing feminine script and addressed personally to him. The letter detailed the mystic powers of the Mask of Dimitrios and was signed simply “Irana”. Having never met any “Irana” and somewhat leery of the supernatural in general, Lorre kept the mask as a curiosity but dismissed much of the contents of the letter.

Lorre had never intended to take up the mask, but in recent years the blows suffered by Paragon City’s heroes and the increasing chaos he saw in the world began to make him wonder if perhaps he has dismissed Irana’s words too quickly. Taking the mask to a few trusted friends in M.A.G.I., he confirmed a few of Irana’s claims under controlled conditions. The mask did indeed grant the wearer control over shadows and allow him superhuman reflexes and reaction time, a phenomenon termed “ShadowTime” in the letter’s pages. Always a fine marksman, Lorre discovered that by exploiting ShadowTime he could accomplish remarkable things.

Combining the inherent powers of the mask with his own skills, Lorre finally made the decision to do his part to return Paragon City to the days of good and evil, of black and white. Taking the name of the mask itself as his nom de guerre, Cornelius officially joined M.A.G.I. as ther hero Mask of Dimitrios.

Can't speak for everyone, but if you schedule this then at the very least I can give you a firm "Yes, I'll be there" or "No, I can't make it." I have a fair amount of flexibility with my work schedule IF I'm given advance notice. I can usually make evenings and weekends, but again I need a specific scheduled date and time before I can committ 100%. I expect that's most people's situation too.

Based on what had been said in the thread to date, it didn't look like the Sunday run was happening. If it did happen, then I'm sorry to have missed it. I'd seen something about the 15th of June and some stuff about the 30th of May and was waiting to see what got organized. Since no one had taken over organizing after Az'rial dropped out I figured it probably wasn't going off.

It really depends on a lot of other factors, most notably the overall focus of the build. Are you human-only? Tri-Form? Some hybrid in between? I'd encourage you to post your build from Mids so we can give you better feedback.

For Eclipse you generally want recharge, accuracy and damage resistance in that order of priority (in my opinion, there are others I'm sure who'd disagree on the prioritization there). I would not put much priority on EndRedux or EndMod as you have all the endurance management you should need in Stygian Circle and you may or may not have Fitness working for you too.

I use 1 Accuracy / 3 Recharge/ 2 Damage Resistance as the default slotting on Eclipse, before getting into IO Sets. I usually six-slot it and would recommend a bare minimum of four slots. If you intend to frankenslot it with various IO Set pieces from different sets you could probably get by with four or five slots.

Slotting is always a challenge on a Kheldian, due to the versatility of the AT's design. I hope the above's been helpful, and enjoy your Warshade!

Nitpicky nitpick: Since we have three distinct types of AOE powers (PbAOE, targeted AOE or "spherical" if you will, and cone AOE), I find that just saying "AOE" can be misleading. "Spherical" also doesn't work since PbAOE are likewise spherical. Hence I prefer to use the terms "PbAOE", "AOE" and "Cone", though I suppose "targeted AOE" would be more correct. And this is totally a semantic tangent.

Short version: Take Gravitic Emanation!

Nitpick: It's "Gravitic Emanation" and it's a cone rather than an AOE. It is indeed amazing.

Or, to put it another way, "ability to solo" =/= "soloing AVs".

Plenty of builds, Crabs included, solo just fine.
Generally speaking, builds which excel at AOE aren't going to be your first choice for single hard targets like AVs.

We had a good run at it, got picked off at the Thorn Tree. Sincere thanks to all who came out to help.

Yes, I did that both then and now, but thank you for the reminder.

As on Monday, I'll be recruiting up people when we gather for this. If anyone else is interested, speak up and I'll hold a spot for you.

Yeah, what Alien said.

Even within "human-only build' there's a huge variety of builds and playstyle that drastically changes how you play and therefore what is and isn't applicable.

You might consider playing around with this build and then coming up with a refined build based on the direction youv'e ultimately decided to take the build. The downside of this of course is that it burns respecs - one to make the build above and another to change to your 'final' build. And that's assuming you don't end up tweaking the 'final' build again down the line... many people use many respecs on their Khelds. If you've already burned a lot of them, you might seriously consider making use of the Test Server.

A vast improvement - any tweaks from here are going to be more personal preference than optimization, I'd say, by and large. The only major thing I'd comment on is that you're getting Stamina at 20. For many people this is almost automatic on all characters these days, but for a Warshade you don't need to do it.

In fact, you don't really need Fitness at all on a Warshade, but on a Human-Only variant where it works all the time (passive powers such as Health and Stamina do not work in the forms, with the sole exception of Dark Sustenance). So if you have nothing more attractive to pick, Fitness is certainly helpful, but you can easily delay it if you want to fit other things in earlier. Don't feel obligated to get Stamina at 20 - you won't gimp yourself if you wait on it or even if you skip it altogether.

Stygian Circle is just that good.

There have been relatively few major changes to Peacebringers - Plasma's Ultimate Guide is still good with the single exception that the inherent (Cosmic Balance) now works in all three forms.

I'm not a big fan of just giving out builds, since it's my belief that you play better and are more effective in a build that you design based on the way you like to play. The forum community can help you refine that build, and you end up with an optimized build that works best for you.

With that said, here's a build that may help you get some ideas. I encourage you to experiment and design your own build rather than copying what follows.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Fourscore: Level 50 Natural Peacebringer
Primary Power Set: Luminous Blast
Secondary Power Set: Luminous Aura
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Glinting Eye -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(3)
Level 1: Incandescence -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A)
Level 2: Shining Shield -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(3)
Level 4: Essence Boost -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Rchg(7)
Level 6: Bright Nova -- Frbd-Stlth(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(42)
Level 8: Radiant Strike -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(9)
Level 10: Swift -- HO:Micro(A)
Level 12: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 16: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Incandescent Strike -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 20: White Dwarf -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam(37), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 22: Reform Essence -- RgnTis-Regen+(A), RechRdx-I(42), Heal-I(48)
Level 24: Conserve Energy -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 26: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A)
Level 28: Glowing Touch -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Heal-I(43), Heal-I(50)
Level 30: Quantum Flight -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Photon Seekers -- S'bndAl-Dmg/Rchg(A), S'bndAl-Acc/Rchg(48), Dmg-I(50), Acc-I(50)
Level 35: Dawn Strike -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(46), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), Sciroc-Dam%(46)
Level 38: Light Form -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(39), TtmC'tng-EndRdx/Rchg(39), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Solar Flare -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(43), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(43), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Sciroc-Dam%(45)
Level 44: Restore Essence -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 47: Pulsar -- HO:Endo(A), HO:Endo(48)
Level 49: Super Speed -- Run-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Cosmic Balance
Level 2: Ninja Run -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Combat Flight -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 6: Bright Nova Bolt -- HO:Nucle(A)
Level 6: Bright Nova Blast -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Build%(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(42)
Level 6: Bright Nova Scatter -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(13), Posi-Dmg/Rng(15), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), Achilles-ResDeb%(23)
Level 6: Bright Nova Detonation -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(11), Posi-Dmg/Rng(15), Achilles-ResDeb%(17)
Level 20: White Dwarf Strike -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), FrcFbk-Rechg%(36)
Level 20: White Dwarf Smite -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), FrcFbk-Rechg%(37)
Level 20: White Dwarf Flare -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(27), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(29), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), Sciroc-Dam%(31)
Level 20: White Dwarf Sublimation -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal(21), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(25), Dct'dW-Rchg(25)
Level 20: White Dwarf Antagonize -- Zinger-Acc/Rchg(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(27), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(36), Zinger-Dam%(36)
Level 20: White Dwarf Step -- Range-I(A)

A few thoughts based on a quick review of the build:

Big things -

• Stygian Circle delayed until 38. Not a huge deal if this is a respec buld at 50, but even then you'll hate yourself every time you exemplar below 33. I very strongly recommend you take this power right at 22 when it becomes available.
  
• Gravity Well delayed until 35. This is your single-target hold and one of your stronger attacks, and while you can make a case for putting it off into the 20s, I'd take it somewhere close to 18 when it opens up.
  
• Dark Extraction delayed until 44. This is another very potent power delayed for no reason I can really see. I suggest moving this up to 32.
  
• No Eclipse. Why? This is a signature Warshade power and I can't see any good reason for skipping it unless your concept dictates that you must.
  
• No Gravitic Emanation or Inky Aspect. These powers are your main control, both stuns. I would very strongly recommend you take at least one of them. Inky Aspect is a pusling toggle and Gravitic Emanation is a cone with knockback. Choose the one that fits your preferred playstyle best. Or take both!
  
• No Quasar. This is more of a preference thing as not everyone cares for nuke-type powers, but with Stygian Circle you can use Mire, use Quasar, pop a blue inspiration and then refill your green and blue bars instantly. Something to consider.
  
• You've taken all three shields and you've taken the Fighting pool but you've skipped your most powerful source of survivability in Eclipse - this puzzles me. Weave will give you some modest Defense, but otherwise you're getting very little from these powers that you couldn't get from Eclipse for fewer slots and power picks. I would seriously question taking the Fighting pool at all and especially at the expense of what this build doesn't have.
  
  You're also taking the shields in an odd order, with the Smashing/Lethal shield (arguably the most useful) taken last at level 49.

Overall, I'd suggest redoing this build from scratch as there are several major things absent, delayed or slotted oddly. On the one hand, I'm a strong advocate of building your Kheld however you wish to - there is no 'right' way to build a Warshade or even a 'right' way to build a human-only Warshade, but you should have reasons for your choices and based on your OP I'm guessing you don't remember why you made the choices you did.

Feel free to repost and I'll be happy to give my comments again, as I'm sure will the other members of the community.

I'd be up for this.

Okay, so I'm going to run another one of these. I've got some time off this week so I'm going to really push for getting this badge while I have the leisure. I'm shooting for a start time of 8pm CST for this (9pm EST / 7pm MST / 6pm PST). Friday, May 21st. Master of Statesman's Task Force, here goes.

1.) Tetujin, Rad/Rad Defender (Justaris)
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We got as far as the tree and had a death, but it came together pretty well for a largely pickup run and I think we had a good shot at it. I'm planning on trying again later this week, Friday most likely. I'll make a new thread later on tonight for the signup. Thanks to all who came out.

I've attempted a Master STF for my Rad/Rad a few times now, often on the fly. This has become my primary badge character and I'd like to check this off my list. To that end, I'm going to try scheduling it over the forums in the hopes of bettering my chances.

Monday, May 17th at 8pm EST / 7pm CST / 6pm MST / 5pm PST.


1.) Justaris (Tetujin - Rad/Rad Defender)
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Thanks in advance to all who join, and here's hoping for a successful run.

I've got a PB on Triumph I could bring. My Triumph-based Warshade isn't high enough, but I could conceivably transfer in one of the others if needs be.

Just to second what everyone else has been saying - No, you did not make a mistake choosing Radiation Emission. It's one of the best debuffing primaries out there and a single well-built Raditaion Emission Defender can turn the tide of some of the more difficult battles in the game.

On large mobs of relatively weak foes your debuffs won't often be strictly needed. As you've noticed, it'll be difficult to keep all the foes within the debuffs and often your debuff anchors will die quickly. One tactic which works well is to place your debuff anchors (RI and EF) on different targets so as to keep up some measure of debuff even if one anchor is taken out by your team prematurely.

On hard targets such as Giant Monsters or Archvillains, however, you will really come into your own. You'll also more than earn your keep on teams that are fighting large-scale difficulty mobs which contain many bosses.

Rad isn't the only game in town when it comes to debuffing, but it is easily one of the best. As others have said, don't neglect your secondary either, as attacks will be another valuable part of your contribution to any team. Not only that, a Rad defender can solo more easily than most and you'll want a good attack chain for those instances as well. Any secondary would work, though given the issues you're having I'd concur that Ice might be a good choice.

However, if you're reasonably far along with the Rad you have now, I don't think it's necessary to restart just to get a different secondary - as has been said, any of them should serve you just fine.

I'm firmly in the camp of people who think the change is fine. Better than fine, it's overdue. Why? Several reasons.

• The Devs have themselves stated, repeatedly, that having an EAT unlock at fifty was a misstep. It encouraged people to PL to 50 to unlock the EAT and worse, it encouraged perception of the EATs as 'reward' or 'uber' ATs, a misperception which still harms Kheldian popularity today (VEATs too, but less so since they were introduced so much later).
• Dropping the unlock to 50 removes one more piece of endgame-gated content (opening up all the hazard zones was another big move in this area). This helps to shift the game's focus even more towards alts, which is appropriate since the game's overall design has always been primarily focused on the journey of characters rather than on an ever-increasing carrot-and-stick for max-level characters as in other raid-based MMO endgames.
• Conversely, removing the unlock from level 50 also helps to reduce the 'endpoint' feeling that level 50 all too often has. Instead of "Now you're 50, go start an EAT!" 50 now becomes simply the max level. Without the immediate carrot of another AT, people may actually be less likely to shelve their 50s. That's, of course, pure speculation.
• Last but not least, the idea of "cheapening" an achievement is just pride. And it's rather retarded pride at that - it's the same school of thought that has people tormented in fraternities, apprenticeships and training programs all because "I had to do it, so you should have to do it too". That's ridiculous. Yes, it was harder to unlock EATs before and it's easier now. So what. I got to have EATs all this time, that's reward enough, to say nothing of having a max-level character I can call on if I have the need. It doesn't *need* to be harder so that everyone else can *earn* it under the same conditions, any more than we need to bring debt back to the way it was becaues the newer players didn't get to suffer like we did. It's bad logic.

Have to add my vote for Death Shroud as well. It doesn't cost that much endurance, it's great DoT, it's your aggro aura... I'd definately pick it.