MidnightJacket

Hey guys, just wanted to give my 2 cents. I hear a lot of people whining about Kheldians as well when they see me enter the team. A lot of people talking about how much they hated playing them and refuse to play them.

BUT!!! The problem is, people don't KNOW what kheldians do because of the freedom of thought required to make choices. A tanker, obviously, tanks. A blaster, obviously, blasts... Etc. Etc. etc... And while naturally playing the game and studying the powersets and planning out my play strategy, the kheldians are so intuitive it's hard to see why some people are having so much trouble with these two ATs. With powerset proliferation and the constant nerfing needed in an MMO to balance sets, you get so many min/maxers that powersets become "cookie cutter". I don't think khelds are prone to this kind of thinking with all the choices you're allowed to make. I absolutely love it and look forward to one day getting a few more ATs into the game that gave you as much freedom as the khelds do.

My first kheld was a WS and completely CHANGED the CoX universe for me. The storylines were AWESOME! The gameplay was awesome! Sure, it was a bit more challenging, but the WS can take a solid team and turn them up a notch in eating through enemies, and patching up holes to get by when things get tough.

Then I've been working on my PB who is just about to hit 35, and again, he completely CHANGED the CoX universe for me. And he's kind of the opposite of my WS. He's the ultimate recon weapon. He takes a hole-filled team, he fills whatever role the team needs (and does it well mind you!), and turns the team into a solid team that has no weaknesses and can't be beat.

The only frustrating thing about kheldians is trying to figure out which AT I like more. I'm usually a melee/damage hog and HAVE to be in the middle of things causing tons of damage. But my PB is probably my favorite character I've ever created. I love the extra challenge of adapting on the fly to my teams needs. I love the constant need to attend to hairy situations to help dominate and squeeze enemies into submission.

Long story short, kheldians are awesome. Given the way every other regular AT is made in the game, I don't know what stroke of genius led to the devs creating the khelds. For the people who didn't give their khelds enough time to appreciate their sophistication and finess, shame on them. I guess some people need a manual to be told how to play the game. For the rest of us, there are kheldians.


PS, for those who are just starting khelds and need advice... Decide your vision. What do you want to accomplish with your kheldian? The more you want to do, the less effective you'll be at everything. The problem with this is, you've been programmed to min/max your toons to make the best possible use of your powersets. With a kheld, having versatility is one of the big strengths of the ATs. So you'll be walking a fine line between min/maxing and versatility - and there's where the freedom and fun comes in.

Once you've got your vision in mind, look at all of your potential powers and lay out a road map of what powers help accomplish your vision. Based on these powers, start designating slots to the most important powers. You won't get everything fully slotted, so again, make a decision between beefing up your versatility (spreading the slots around to all the powers you've chosen to be okay at everything) or min/maxing your powers (fully slotting your key powers). Depending on how defined you want your role to be on a team, you may want to min/max your build with fully slotting powers. If you want a more loose definition of your role on a team filling in where needed acting as "recon" (as I do with my PB), you'll need to be much more thoughful with your slots and spread them around just enough to maximize general effectiveness.

Ultimately, know who YOU are. Know your toon. Know your playstyle and make sure your kheldian's power choices and slotting matches that idea. It takes both a well built kheldian and a smart player to use a kheldian effectively, but an effective kheldian can be absolutely devastating and IMO two of the most fun ATs in the game.

I've upgraded to SP2, and when I try the hotfix now and run it I get the message "The update does not apply to your system". Unfortunately, I'm still randomly crashing while playing CoH.

The random crashes usually happen about every 1 and a half missions. I could be in the mission, I could be out in a zone, I could be at the loading screen, I could be minding my own business, I could be taking on a number of baddies, ie completely randomness. I'm posting my system specs below.

I've tried doing an auto-update on my video card drivers but Windows searched and said my video driver is currently upto date. I'm kind of stumped on what else to try. The crashes are beyond frustrating, I'd be thrilled with any help or advice anyone is willing to give. Thanks in advance!


---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.7---

DxDiag gathered at May 31, 2009 00:10 (-04:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.lh_sp2rtm.090410-1830)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion dv4 Notebook PC
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5800 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory: 4058MB
.Net Memory Report: 2392MB out of 4058MB available
Page File: 6189MB (2155MB currently in use)
C Drive: (Hitachi HTS542525K9A300 ATA Device) 151301MB out of 226966MB (66%) free
D Drive: (Hitachi HTS542525K9A300 ATA Device) 1913MB out of 11504MB (16%) free
E Drive: (PIONEER DVDRW DR-TD08HB ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer / Chip: Intel Corporation / Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
Video Memory: 1759 MB
Driver Version: 7.15.0010.1502
Driver Date: 6/12/2008 2:51:32 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers and Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Driver File: stwrt64.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.6087.0000
Driver Date: 9/10/2008 8:54:44 PM

Sound Device Description: SPDIF (Digital Out via HP Dock) (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Driver File: stwrt64.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.6087.0000
Driver Date: 9/10/2008 8:54:44 PM

Sound Device Description: Independent*Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Driver File: stwrt64.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.6087.0000
Driver Date: 9/10/2008 8:54:44 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: Compal
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: 30F7
Motherboard Version: 99.64
BIOS Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
BIOS Name: Default System BIOS
BIOS Version: HPQOEM - 1
BIOS Release: 20080826000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1024x768
3D Resolution: 1024x768 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: None
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: None
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Crisp
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: Low (no world bumpmaps)

World Texture Level: Medium
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.800
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.300
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 247393 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20090422.5T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

One great tactic with gang war I saw the other day for PVP...

Make your character look exactly like a basic thug, summon gang war... wah lah, you have created your very own "where is waldo" search.

KB would be a much loved addition to any/all of the status protection powers for brutes. It's not "essential", but it would be a huge break for the AT.

Something about the all powerful smashing toon getting tossed around like a rag doll just doesn't make sense. And as someone else pointed out (and the main reason why I agree) is no one should be forced into the SJ travel power just for a basic protection for an AT like a brute. Perhaps if KB was on combat jumping so that 3 powers were not required, but that large of a change certainly won't happen.