Justaris

Thankfully, on these new forums, I can edit the guide all I want. I'll still be posting a brand new thread for the 3.0 version of the guide (assuming I ever get around to it), but I've taken the opportunity to make a number of minor and not-so-minor corrections above.

Version 2.1, I suppose.

This is an extremely well-constructed argument, and one I can find little fault with. I've always been a proponent of Kheldians having more viable build options, of being the AT that gets away from the 'cookie cutter' builds that so many other ATs and powerset combinations fall into. While I've been aware of the difficulty in playing Human-Only variants for some time, this post brings the issues into sharp relief and makes a reasoned argument for change. Kudos to Bill.

While I've no idea what the current 'vision' is for Kheldians, I think a design goal of making this AT support as many variants as possible (while still retaining reasonable balance, of course) is a laudable one. While Kheldians of both stripes remain my favorite ATs to play, there's clear room for improvement here.

I'd be interested to see how the numbers come out when if the PB's human form damage is recalculated using the VEAT modifiers, just to get a sense of what sort of buff we're talking about here. I agree wholeheartedly that a buff is called for, but how much of one is always the sticking point. Based solely on subjective experience, I think using the VEAT modifiers would probably be just about right, though of course then we have to decide what an acceptable new level of DPS is, how much is too much, how little is too little, etc.

I'd also be interested to see how the buffed PB numbers compare to the current Warshade's. Granted, a Warshade is better equipped to play tri-form, but I'm not entirely convinced there's sound reasoning for buffing PBs and not WSs for purposes of human form viability. I agree that a Human-Only PB probably needs it more, but that alone to my mind isn't sufficient reason not to tweak the WS too. Very few people take the WS human form ranged attacks now, and generally powers that are widely panned indicate a problem (We won't even get into Group Energy Flight).

Anyway, that's probably enough from me. I hope this OP garners some well-deserved attention.

It's actually a fairly common mistake. There's a couple of solutions.

1) Go to an unaffected character (or make a new one). Go to Options, and at the bottom of the General options in the Chat Settings click "Save to default file". Then open the affected character and on the same interface click "Load from default file". Instant fix, assuming you don't mind the characters having identical chat settings.

2) This is a bit more involved. It's what I do on the occasion I still manage to make this mistake (it's all too easy to do). Right click on the chat window and select "Add Tab". Then "Edit Tab" with the newly created tab selected. Then you add in every type of chat that you want to see - you're essentially recreating the tab you deleted and customizing it at the same time. Once you're satisfied, close that out.

In order to restore the divide between the top and bottom boxes, simply click on a tab (any tab) and drag it down - this will recreate the two boxes. You can then create more tabs. So long as at least one tab remains in the bottom box, it will remain in existence.

The cyborg stuff is unlocked by account, not by character. You should still have it. What specific costume pieces are you not finding? Maybe we can point you in the right direction. Some of them aren't listed where you might think and maybe you forgot where they were between the time you first made this guy and now.

Personally I've always been more of a Tri-Form enthusiast, so I may not be the best person to answer this. However, I've been a fairly active participant in the Kheldian forum community for a while now and I can tell you the reasons I've seen others give for opting for Human-Only. Two seem to predominate, though of course everyone's case is unique.

1) Aesthetics. In a game that has perhaps one of the best systems out there for individualizing one's appearence, using forms forces you to look like everyone else. Some players would prefer to see their costume while playing. Also in this camp are players who find one or both of the forms aesthetically unappealing and avoid them for that reason.

2) Slotting. It's no secret to anyone that's played a Kheldian or tried to build one in Mids' that slotting a Tri-Form is something of a challenge. It's a delicate balance with a large number of powers and only a standard number of slots to divide between them. Choosing to play Human-Only drops the number of powers substantially and makes slotting somewhat more straightforward.

As I said, these are just a few common reasons. There are also Human-Only enthusiasts who love their Human-Only for what it is irrespective of the above. While I personally have never liked Human-Only as much as Tri-Form, I've played with many and I know how effective it is in the right hands. This was even more true before the inherent was made to work in the forms.

As pretty much everyone has said, there's more detail in the Market section of the forums. Most of the people with billions of influence are playing the Market in addition to or even instead of farming. As you've noticed, however, there's a sizeable investment needed to start crafting and turning things around at that level - you need money to make money.

If you really want to get into marketeering, a good safe way to build up the capital you need is to memorize IO recipes. Pick an ever-popular one like Accuracy or Damage and craft enough of the correct level IOs to get the corresponding Invention badge. This 1) allows you to craft that IO without a recipe and 2) gives you a sizeable discount on the crafting cost.

At this point you can craft the IO and sell it for more than it cost you to make it, but less than it would cost someone who doesn't have the badge to craft the same IO. It's a win/win. The person who doesn't want to go through the bother of getting the badges or who just wants fast IOs buys them from you because it costs less than making them themselves and you still make a profit. You can make a couple million per session this way. It's not nearly as lucrative as more complex marketing but it's reliable and will build you the seed cash you need.

You can do this and farm simultaneously. Stock up your wares at the market, go farm, come back and collect your earnings, sell anything good you got as drops from farming, then recraft your IO wares and put them back up for sale. Then go farm again or log off and come back later. Active and passive earning.

But I waaaaaaaant one...

I figured it would be something like that. I'll have to look for any good Carnival images on my own I can make do with until there's something more suitable.

No, PvP zones are still level-restricted, as is Ouroboros and Cimerora.

As previously mentioned, the reason for opening up RWZ was likely the cross-faction MA.

Personally, I still make use of the Nova form for pretty much the reasons Grey Pilgrim outlined above - a quick source of good AOE damage. I use it less in the upper levels since I have things like Flare and the ST Strikes to put out some damage in human form, but it still sees regular use.

I'd say you could really go either way. One of my other PBs is human-only and is definately more effective for the extra slots he has to spend from not taking or slotting any Nova/Dwarf powers. On the flip side, my tri-form PB feels more versatile to me and has a few more tricks up his sleeve. You could always try dropping the Nova on your Dual Build and see how you like it, though of course you'd have to slot both alternate builds up to really get a true sense of how one feels versus the other.

Short answer: Is it a good idea to drop Nova? Yes. And no. Is it a good idea to keep Nova? Yes. And no. As with most build/playstyle choices in Kheldians, it comes down to your playstyle, what you want your Kheld to do, and what you find fun.

I don't much care for dueling, myself.


Seriously, though, I'm thinking of doing a Kin/Dual Pistols Defender. Something of a cross between Vigilante and Cable, but it's still in the formative stages. There's a good chance I'll alter his concept further once I get my hands on all the new costume stuff in GR.

Stygian Circle has had a number of upgrades over the years, but as far as I can remember it's always been autohit. It didn't always provide the values it does now and in fact didn't used to provide +End at all, but I don't recall ever having a miss with the power (except from timing issues with fallen enemies fading away or positioning issues where I was too far away or KB'd, but that's not the same thing as a to-hit check). I can state with certainty that it is autohit now. I believe it always has been, but it's entirely possible that there was a to-hit check early on. It's been autohit since at least Issue 4, as I got my first 50 and created Iscariot shortly thereafter.

It really sounds to me like Essence Drain from the information provided, though. And if a neophyte Warshade player was trying to use Essence Drain to pull himself out of a tight spot, I don't fault him his frustration. I always found the power useful as part of a regular attack chain to keep a human-form Warshade topped off, but as an emergent heal in a sticky situation I wouldn't rank it highly.

You are in fact wrong. Set bonuses do carry over into the forms. Any Set Bonuses you have from human form will apply in Nova and Dwarf. Any Set Bonuses you have in the Nova will carry over to human and into Dwarf. And so on and so forth.

Sounds like a playstyle conflict, which is perfectly reasonable as a reason not to like/play something. The only thing I'm keying in on is the mention of accuracy in a heal - that sounds like you're referring to Essence Drain or Black Dwarf Drain, which makes me wonder if you were using Stygian Circle on your Warshade. +HP and +End for every fallen baddie around you, no accuracy needed (though it does, as you noted, require baddies around. Defeated ones, but baddies nonetheless).

I say that all the time.

Seriously, I do. Case in point: I ran a Katie Hannon TF a few months back on Champion. It was a group I hadn't done too much with before - they put out a call for people to play in a static team and it sounded like fun so I signed up. Anyway, I was tanking for them and we had a pickup person who was offering to play either a Dark or an Empath and didn't seem to really much mind which. I immediately pushed for the Dark. A teammate of mine from the static group was perplexed and asked me why.

I explained, in brief, about all that Dark brings to a team. That added to the fact that we already had an Empath on board made it an easy choice from my perspective, but she didn't seem convinced.

After one of the best, smoothest Katies I'd done to date (the only person to die was me when the witches sapped me on some of the Mary ambushes), she wasn't so dubious any more about the wisdom of including a Dark def.

You can't even get Incandescent Strike until level 18 anyway, so whoever told you that likely either was being facetious or wasn't paying very close attention.

In the early levels, I've usually found the best solution to Quantums/Voids is overwhelming force. Eat several inspirations and go to town on them - purple and red inspirations especially. It's not as bad now that their damage has been toned down and you'll only fight boss-class Q/Vs if you're in a large team (and I would hope on a team of that size someone would help you.

I-Strike's not bad and the hold is nice - it's one good tool among many. Although on my PBs nine times out of ten overwhelming force is still my tactic of choice with Q/Vs for the most part. As with Sappers or other troublesome special enemies, they're the most dangerous when they see you before you see them.

I realize I'm not part of the demographic you asked to hear from, but I just wanted to toss my two cents in on this topic since it's one that interests me as well. Not too long ago, je_saist made a very insightful post about Kheldians not pigeonholing well into preconceived team roles and it's got me thinking about this a great deal lately.

It seems like this and an unrealistic expectation of godmode are the most common things I see players new to Kheldians complaining about and finding frustration with as they attempt to make Khelds of their own. Both problems stem from the person making the Kheld expecting it to be something other than it is.

That said, I'll be interested to see what other responses this thread gets.

In terms of population the largest server is Freedom, followed by Virtue. This does not necessarily mean anything in terms of activity for teams, TFs, etc - it's just sheer numbers. Some servers with smaller populations, such as Justice, have very active and organized groups running TFs despite a smaller overall population.

Pretty much all of the servers have a good population, especially if you get on the global channels, but if the volume is what you want then you want Freedom.

63 months here (66 next week). I play a little bit of everything. I'd say my favorite ATs are probably Warshades, Defenders, Blasters, Controllers, Masterminds, Dominators and Stalkers. I have Tankers, Scrappers, Peacebringers, Brutes, Corruptors and VEATs as well, but not as many. I have a great many alts but still play many of my old characters regularly, and I also tend to play across many servers.

Yes and no. My original primary character was a Scrapper and once I got to 50 with him I've found that I've been more interested in other characters and have never really got back into melee again since. I do have a few Scrappers, Tankers and Brutes around, but I seem to get bored with them quickly and return to other ATs. Brutes especially I seem to have trouble sticking with.

Hands down, my favorite is my Warshades, with Masterminds coming in second.

I'll my voice to all of the others saying to go with LR. It's an excellent debuff and your best source of -regen, something that a Rad is often called upon to provide. As for Mutation, sure, it's nice, but now that players can create their own awakens on the fly I'd say all rez powers have pretty much been relegated to the "nice-to-have but not invaluable" category. Mutation is one of the better rez powers in the game, but certainly not so good that I'd call it mandatory.

If it was an autohit stun and a -regen debuff, and happened to rez multiple people, then I'd call it mandatory. But that's another powerset.

Okay, well, many of these questions are somewhat subjective/relative.

1. The Defender is going to do less damage. A Defender's roles are support (primary) and damage (secondary), while for a Corruptor it's the other way around. A Corruptor, all other things being equal, is going to put out significantly more damage even without considering Scourge. That said, for a Defender, Trick Arrow offers a significant damage boost versus some of the other sets in that you get Oil Slick Arrow. Archery isn't the best of the Defender secondaries when it comes to damage but partially makes up for this with higher accuracy, so your DPS is not bad. Not on the level of a Corruptor or Blaster, certainly, but neither is it so low that you couldn't solo effectively. Especially once you get OSA, you can solo quite well.

2. There's too many variables here - the type of enemy (and therefore what resistances they have), the debuffs in play from Trick Arrow at the time (especially slows such as Glue Arrow to contain the enemies for the full rain), and so forth. In general you can usually clear minions from a mob and do decent damage to lts and bosses, assuming all enemies are at full health when RoA starts. As a Blaster, of course, you're going to do more damage, especially if you use Build Up.

3. Yes, it's very decent. Most debuff-centered Defenders are very survivable if played well, as opposed to buff-centered Defenders who often have many ally-only buffs that make them incredibly powerful in multiple-Defender teams but leave them a bit in the lurch solo.

Ultimately, questions like "how surivable is it?" and "how's the damage?" depend heavily on your expectations and your idea of what level of survivability and damage output constitutes acceptable. For a Defender, a TA/A won't rank as high as a Kin or most */Sonic combos in terms of damage output, but does better than many others. In terms of survivability it offers significant tools for the savvy player to make use of, much like Storm. If you're going to compare a Defender to a Blaster or Corruptor and use those other ATs as your standard for damage output, you're going to be disappointed no matter what you choose.

Not really. I'd say it's an expected result of a game that's extremely instance-heavy. Over the last few years the game has focused more and more on instances rather than open-world content. Street sweeping is relatively rare now outside of the still-popular heroside sewers runs. Most people, especially from level 10 on, do missions now which means you don't see them out on the streets.

Multiple means of fast travel including Mission Teleporter, Base Teleporter, Market Teleporter, Base Telepads, Ouroboros Portal and Pocket D mean that fewer people are even in transit than they were before.

Fancy customizable Hide settings also allow people to cloak themselves from /searches (which were never all that reliable as indicators of population to begin with). All of this tends to lead to a perception of emptiness that's probably exaggerated. When the Halloween Event started, I saw a lot of people out and about getting their Banner badges in the open Apocalypse events in various zones.

Granted, not everyone much cares about badges, but give people a reason to be outside and you see a lot more people. I'm not trying to say that every server has Freedom's teeming masses, but I got all my badges on my main badge-hunters on Triumph, Infinity and Liberty in a single afternoon of play. Plenty of teams. So, to those people who like to claim servers are 'dead', well... it's not so.

Starts tomorrow. Details.