PrincessDarkstar

PB will do better DPS against single targets (In general), but Warshades will outdamage them a lot in AoE because of Sunless Mire.

But the AoE damage will only come from Nova, so it also depends how you like playing.

Right then - your build is very different to mine so I won't make too many comments on the powers you have taken - but what I would say is watch for the powers you never use and considerer switching them for powers that you might use, even occasionally. For example Shadow Blast could be swapped for Stimulant, even if you use Stimulant once that might be more than you would use Shadow Blst, and it is one step closer to Resuscitate.

The particulars I would say:

Shadow Blast - Looks like you either use it, or you don't. If you do then find some more slots, if you don't save yourself the cost of that IO

Sunless Mire - I only have mine 3 slotted, but lots of people have their's 6 slotted so I would definately recommend finding room for more slots in there, it makes a huge difference when you have it fully saturated.

Black Dwarf (Form) - Overslotted. I have 4 slots, 3 Res/End and the chance for +endurance. You are slotting for endurance reduction and modification but with your slotting you are only recovering 0.2 endurance per second, and that is costing you 3 slots. You are better off trying to get endurance reduction into the attacks instead.

Stygian Circle - Well slotted, though perhaps you can save a slot here because you don't need quite so much end/heal.

Gravatic Emination - You have slotted it as an attack, which is fine if you are going for the recharge, but it is an excellent stun, so consider slotting it for stun instead (Stupefy has the same recharge bonus - and costs less!).

Eclipse - Doesn't need the endurance modification. I have mine slotted with 4 res/rech and one normal accuracy IO. You get better numbers that way.

Super Speed - Consider putting the +stealth IO into Sprint, that way you can stealth using Sprint and Shadow Cloak without running into walls

Quasar - It is a nuke, slot it like one Obliteration works nice because you don't really need the endurance reduction, which is the bonus Obliteration is low on.

Dark Nova Bolt/Blast - Any reason that are slotted differently? I would decide which gives the best bonus' and slot them the same. And if you can save up for the Decimation set, that works really well in both.

Dark Nova Emanation/Detonation - Consider dropping the acc/dam/end for the proc, increases actual damage done on average, but make sure you can afford the endurance. You have enough global accuracy to make it work.

Black Dwarf Mire - The Obliteration set is a poor choice because this is very endurance heavy, and spamming it every 6 seconds will use your endurance up fast!

That is about it from me

PS: You are on an old version of mids

The choice of splitting your builds makes sense, but it depends how much you want the human only build.

The majority of tri-formers are mostly Nova/Dwarf builds in the same way your second build would be, but there is still room for the key human powers. The only thing you lose going tri-form is the ability to fight in human form - which is up to you if you want it or not - going tri-form doesn't mean missing out on any of the key powers.

If you still want to try human only by all means go ahead - but don't think using the forms means missing out on human powers completely.

However the advice I think most people would give you is to pick the forms when levelling up, particularly Nova at 6 - because for a good few levels you will outdamage any blaster. Then all the way into the mid 20's you are still pushing them all the way.

At 20 I would say take Black Dwarf, then you have I would say 2 choices - Do a respec (Or 2nd build) and slot Dwarf up from level 1 (Using a respec you can slot the forms right away, some kind of bug they will never fix) and leave Nova with less slots so that you can experience Black Dwarf in all its glory - Or what I did which is leave Black Dwarf as pure mez protection, 3 slot the form and don't slot the powers, or just slot them lightly, staying in Nova until the late 30's when you start getting enough slots to put into Black Dwarf.

I would say don't plan on playing human or dual or tri-form until you have experienced it - because as much as I will tell you that tri-form is the way to go, the playstyle isn't for everyone.

If you are after a build (Whichever form you choose) I can knock you one up, but it depends on your budget because I will always start with the purples unless told otherwise

Having said that if you try a build yourself the comments you get might be more help than having a build made for you, so you can see exactly why things are picked or slotted a certain way.

Oh I would also say that defence debuffs are more common than recharge or resistance debuffs, so recharge is still the way to go.

I think it is possible to get defence, you may even be able to softcap one positional without losing out on much.

But I would always build for recharge at least until you have perma-eclipse, because perma-capped resists to every damage type is just fantastic! And has the bonus of making you able to attack more and mitigate damage 'actively'.

If you had the budget I could see it being possible to get perma-Eclipse and then going for 20-30% defence without losing much in the way of effectiveness, but I think that would need purples to make up for the recharge lost while chasing that defence.

It is also apparently possible to cap ranged defence and have perma-Eclipse, but until I get shown otherwise I think that has to be sacrificing something to get that defence.

Additionally I don't think capping just one positional is going to do you much good after you have perma-Eclipse.

Firstly the majority of mez is AoE, second the heavy hits are melee, and third, you are only really going to be at range in nova, so the other forms won't get such a benefit from the defence.

Secondly when you are only taking 15% ranged damage anyway, mitigating part of that isn't as important as if you were taking the full brunt of each hit.

Thirdly, once you reach perma-Eclipse (Actually even before that) you would probably be better trying to make sure you have the best slotting in each power rather than chase a second bonus, so that you can kill or stun the enemies before they hurt you.

While writing this though the thought occured to me about maybe trying to get as much smashing or lethal defence as possible, because the majority of attacks in this game have a smashing or lethal component, but I don't know how possible that is.

Forgive this reply because it is about efficiency

I am going to ignore the low chance to proc for now and assume it has procced, against a minion that proc is worthless because you will probably be 2 shotting them anyway, against a lt the proc still isn't much cop, against a boss it works out ok, but not as good as a damage proc.

So it is only when you get to EB's or AV's that the proc actually starts to have a benefit, but even then you have to consider the 20% chance to proc and that it only lasts for 10 seconds, so over the course of an AV fight it still won't be all that effective, though better than nothing. (I remember seeing the numbers on the scrapper boards and this is correct - I will look them up if you really want)

My advice is this:

Only slot it in whatever power you would use against an AV (So maybe the Nova ST blasts if you fight them in Nova) and only slot it if you have already maxed out the damage slotting on that power.

I wouldn't bother slotting it in any AoE, because although the idea sounds good, nothing really lasts long enough for the -res to really have a chance to work.

I think it does stem from low level experiences when meeting them, if you are on a squishy and you aren't prepared, or your team are right on the edge of what you can cope with then the appearance of a Cyst might just tip the balance against you and can cause a team wipe, on a level 50 team I have never known them cause a problem, but if you only team with a Kheld once and a Cyst causes a wipe you tend to remember it.

I think there is a lot less panic about them these days because most people seem more educated about the game, though the AE has brought in a few people who will hit 50 without seeing them.

Sadly macskull is correct, you can spec a Warshade with powers that don't rely on lot of mobs or dead enemies, but you just won't be very good afterwards.

All the good powers a Warshade has are pretty useless in pvp. You can't even rely on the teleport foe > gravity well trick anymore so hit and run away to stay alive is about the best you can hope for, but I find that so boring.

I have tried PvP in Dwarf, Nova and Human, Dwarf can take the hits (Or some at least) but can't do the damage, Nova can do the damage but can't take the hits, and human is neither here nor there. The form changes are not fast enough so by the time to swap say from Nova to Dwarf after someone tries to fight back it is too late.

Gonna watch it later tonight I think.

But the point I really want to make it that I am so jealous of you Americans and your Mountain Dew! They brought it over here for one summer to tease us with its glory then stopped selling it!

I am a big fan of taking the medicine pool, but never for the self heal

Though I just realised that I think I actually have aid-self and now wonder why I didn't pick stimulant instead ...

Good summary Smiling_Joe, you have a good understanding of things!

One last comment to AlienOne: Any reason you haven't got all the accolade powers yet? I get them as soon as possible so it is bugging me