ShoeTattoo

Below are a few thoughts:

Good as is:
- The order in which you take shields is good because smash / lethal is so common, your nrg/ne shield helps to cut damage from quants/voids, and the remaining damage types aren't as threatening.
- You took sunless mire at the first opportunity, which was a good idea.

Suggested alterations: when to take powers
- Take shadow blast at 6, shadow cloak at 14, gravity well at 18, stygian circle at 22, gravitic emanation at 26, inky aspect at 28, dark extraction at 32, and eclipse at 38.
- Every one of these powers makes a noteworthy difference while leveling up, and they are all higher priority than the powers you took earlier in their place.

Suggested alterations: slotting
- you will probably want an accuracy in sunless mire, even with your IO bonuses. If you're consistently fighting even level mobs or lower, then what you're doing is likely to be fine.
- Slot gravity well for accuracy, damage, recharge, and end reduction, aiming for +65% accuracy or thereabouts, maxed out damage, and maxed out recharge, and whatever you can squeeze in, for endurance reduction. If you're planning on fighting mobs of equivalent level or lower, less accuracy will get you by just fine, just as for sunless mire.

• I suggest the above slotting for gravity well because gravity well is by far the heaviest hitter you will ever get and defeated mobs don't fight back. Find +recharge somewhere else, or slot a melee IO set that provides +recharge.

- Maxing out recharge in eclipse is a top priority. Aim for perma-eclipse, if possible
- +recovery is less important than +recharge, for a human-only warshade, to help keep eclipse perma. Stygian will help your endurance recovery needs
- You can find other ways to boost recharge, instead of by using stygian return as an IO mule. Slot a ranged power for a +recharge bonus, for example, which nets you better damage, as well as better global recharge.

Suggested alterations: power choices
- Gravimetric snare doesn't seem likely to do much for you, especially slotted the way it is. Consider dropping it from your build, and take hasten earlier instead.
- Essence drain is a "flavor" power. It is not character-changing, the way it can be on a dark melee character because of stygian circle and because essence drain has mediocre DPA for warshades. Feel free to delay taking it for quite a while.
- Choose between ebon eye and shadow bolt, as they are near mirror images of each other. I prefer shadow bolt because it fills attack chains a little better than ebon eye, with both of them having virtually equivalent DPA and shadow bolt having the shorter animation time and recharge time.

There are quite a few other performance improvements that can be made, if performance is a high priority to you. Still, even if you only fix the issues mentioned here, your warshade will be much more effective while leveling up.

Edit: Check out AlienOne's human only warshade guide. It is definitely worth a read, especially if you're trying to put together an IO build.

Kudos to the OP for this suggestion. I'm in favor of it.

This would be an effective way of dealing with supply bottlenecks currently in the system, as people will use tickets to purchase whatever is in short supply. Prices will still fluctuate, but with a (hopefully) lower ceiling on some items. It also lets those who don't want to participate in the markets the option of more easily opting out, while still getting some of the nifty benefits from IOs.

Another way of tackling this same problem would be for drop rates for specific salvage items to be determined on a dynamic basis on the devs' side of the line, based on current market supply and demand. That would be much more complex, it would require developer time, and it would be difficult to calibrate. Putting some tools in players' hands that allow them to bring better balance to supply and demand, while keeping hassle costs for players to a minimum when they're doing that, is a very attractive idea.

If the devs' rationale for forced random rolls was to pump up supply on the markets, then I'm not in favor of that. That's a lot of like forced grinding, with no fun whatsoever to be had in doing it for many players.

One way to set up an anchor is to target your intended "anchor" mob, leap through the air to behind an obstacle that blocks the target's view of your character, and then initiate the toggle as you are in mid-air.

The effect is that your targets become aware of the anchor in their midst once you're behind an object. They can't see you, so they all come by to say "hi there!"

One suggestion is to keep your shields at 1 or 2 slots for the moment, with a single endurance reduction SO in each shield no matter how many slots you put into them. Those extra slots can be thrown into heals and/or enchant undead / dark empowerment.

If you do some calculations, you'll probably see that the 3.3% or thereabouts of extra resistance for each extra SO into resistances doesn't come close to how well you can improve minion survival by having stronger, quicker recharging heals and better endurance management. Those extra resistance bonuses are particularly minimal in how they help your zombies, given their low base hit points. After your heals are well slotted up and you have endurance management under control, then slotting up resistance shields is a helpful step to take.

On a related note, I don't bother with upgrades until shields / bubbles are up, on minions that are being summoned in the middle of a battle. Its nice to have pets upgraded, but having them upright and keeping them upright takes priority; that means using heals and shields, for a thermal. I'll only upgrade mid-battle if I believe I won't soon after end up flooring my MM's endurance and, ipso facto, his or her ability to keep minions upright.

I've found that buffing up accuracy and damage is very good for zombies and grave knights. Three accuracy and three damage works well for zombies. Two accuracy and three damage and a heal or achilles -res proc in the sixth slot works well for grave knights. The set bonuses you are getting with how you slot your tier 1 and tier 2 minions are probably not making up for the lost damage.

If you can get one or both +10% pet resistance procs into soul extraction, that will really help minion survival.

Finally, the previous poster's point about endurance seems accurate to me. I'd suggest taking that third slot out of stamina and putting it into enchant undead or dark empowerment; having two endurance reduction slots in each of those powers really helps for re-summoning. An end reducer in cauterize and one in each shield would also really help you manage endurance better.

To the OP:

Another "well done" from over this way.

To provide a bit of historical perspective, for quite a while posting about petless MMs on the forums would lead to cries of "unplayable" and personal invective being hurled at those raising the issue; the intention of some posters was very clearly--even explicitly, in a few cases--to bully those who argued in favor of playing petless MMs, or who were persistently inquisitive about viable petless builds. That nasty little coterie of posters has moved on and hopefully they're more mature and tolerant now, wherever they are.

In other words, the response you've received is a double scoop of sunshine and happiness, compared to responses you would probably have received in the past.

By all means, share your build; it does the forums good to have different versions of effectiveness floating around in them. Knowing builds associated with those different versions of effectiveness is also helpful.

Are you playing mostly on large teams? I would agree that necro minions don't survive particularly well on most large teams in the 27-32 range, especially when dealing with mobs that sling around a lot of AOEs. After you get to 32, their survival does pick up noticeably with their self-heals and the nifty controls the lich receives.

To help their survival on large teams, I've found that picking targets on the margins of battles and sending in the tier 1 and tier 2 minions against them keeps them upright longer at any level range, usually because of less problems with AOEs taking them out that way. I'll often send the zombies and grave knights in against a single target together, on teams and they usually take it down fairly quickly. Also, I consistently take and eventually slot up life drain, which gives me a better chance of survival when I've taken the tier 1 and tier 2 minions out of BG mode to have them attack something. Finally, I usually have my MM take alpha to get the battle started, ensuring that if AOEs are part of alpha to separate myself enough from my minions that the initial volley of AOEs doesn't hit them. Life drain can fix the damage from alpha if you're in BG mode, even on medium sized teams.

Still, my attitude to losing minions at any level tends to be "They're zombies, so they're disposable. I'll just summon more zombies."

As for macros, I seldom bother with them. I put the grave knights on aggressive and keep the zombies and lich on defensive follow (BG), both teamed and solo.

I find this way of using necro minions and staying safe (with life drain) allows me to concentrate more on using whatever my secondary is more effectively. I've brought 2 necros to lvl 50 (poison and storm) this way. Plus, 1 is now at lvl 46 (force fields), 1 is at lvl 26 (TA), and 1 is at lvl 27 (traps). More active minion management would probably squeeze more performance and survival out of them, but this way works well enough for my purposes.

I don't have strong feelings about the issue, one way or another.

An intriguingly nuke-lear blaster pairing would be DP/devices/munitions.

You get three(!) nukes that way, none of which deplete your endurance; HoB, time bomb, and LRM. And, you can open up with a trip mine before HoB and time bomb, making that combination the equivalent of "spawn-a-way."

Eliminating "Fed Ex" PvP solicitation missions would probably be a better received way to modify PvP than some version of "World PvP."

Instead of making PvP even more intrusive than it already is, with multiple PvP solicitation missions for every alt that every player makes, make it less intrusive. Make PvP contacts show up automatically at the appropriate level, just like Midnighter contacts do. Also, give players the right to click on a button so that they can decline to insert them into their contacts list (so that players can make PvP contacts either disappear entirely or be shifted into the "inactive" tab).

A question worth asking is whether or not its important to address inflation in the markets. With new influence and infamy being "printed" all the time by people who play the game, its probably not feasible to substantially cut inflation without structural changes that are likely to be more distracting and unpleasant than simply allowing inflation to continue.

One pleasant side effect of continued WW/BM market inflation is that it makes it simpler and simpler, over time, for new players to put SOs on their first character; put a handful of things on the market somewhere along the journey to 22 and you're rich enough to buy them. COX isn't like reality in several significant ways in that strong, continued inflation in COX markets does not damage the quality of life of those living on a fixed income, nor does it weaken a nation's currency or its financial system.

The market and IOs are fun for some, frustrating for some others, and probably both frustrating and fun for some, but at the end of the day they're a side-game. The song "Let it Be" comes to mind, when I think of COX markets.

Earth / cold brings together the strong area controls of earth and the strong single target debuffs of /cold to make a very solid team controller.

For soloing, animate stone will be even tougher with /cold shields and, if taken, frostwork; when you add in the -res from sleet and the stealth from arctic fog that allows you to easily drag stony into aggro range, you've got a very easy solo ride as soon as you hit 33 and slot animate stone up for damage and accuracy.

All earth controllers solo relatively slowly until level 33; even if you take pool powers such as air superiority there's no way around that.

This sounds like an interesting combo, on reflection.

The better defenses of /FF take some of the sting out of using wormhole, plus the stuns in wormhole and replusion bomb can stack. Also, even if it comes late, having AOE from the /FF secondary makes a grav/FF character a little more versatile. Thematically this combo is also a very nice fit for a mad scientist or a magic-slinging kind of character.

Below I'm giving the basic outline of a possible build order, the early details of which might be particularly interesting to the OP.

This is the build path I followed on a human-only warshade who was human only from level 1. He's level 38 now, having just taken eclipse.

FWIW, I found levels 15-17 to be the toughest levels. As soon as gravity well was taken, it got easier. I maximized slots on gravity well ASAP, and put two slots into stamina ASAP. Stygian circle has 4 slots, with a mixture of end mod, end red, recharge, and heal enhancers. Incidentally, the third end mod enhancer in stamina nets you about 0.04 extra endurance per second; its an inefficient use of a slot, as you can usually put an extra end reducer in a frequently used attack or a shield and get a far, far better return on that, for the sake of managing endurance.

Regarding playstyle, I essentially play my human-only shade as a "stalkinator" (stalker + dominator). He is perma-stealthed; he usually closes in to open battles with gravity well, catching mobs by surprise with a high-damage attack to open. Sometimes he'll begin with gravitic emanation, instead.

Here's the build ...

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner v5.0
+ http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Archetype: Warshade
Primary: Umbral Blast
Secondary: Umbral Aura
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Absorption => Empty(1)
01: Shadow Bolt => Empty(1)
02: Gravity Shield => Empty(2)
04: Orbiting Death => Empty(4)
06: Shadow Blast => Empty(6)
08: Hurdle => Empty(8)
10: Hasten => Empty(10)
12: Sunless Mire => Empty(12)
14: Shadow Cloak => Empty(14)
16: Health => Empty(16)
18: Gravity Well => Empty(18)
20: Stamina => Empty(20)
22: Stygian Circle => Empty(22)
24: Twilight Shield => Empty(24)
26: Gravitic Emanation => Empty(26)
28: Inky Aspect => Empty(28)
30: Essence Drain => Empty(30)
32: Dark Extraction => Empty(32)
35: Maneuvers => Empty(35)
38: Eclipse => Empty(38)
41: Tactics => Empty(41)
44: Dark Detonation => Empty(44)
47: Unchain Essence => Empty(47)
49: Vengeance => Empty(49)

+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Inherent Powers
+----------------------------------------------------------------

01: Brawl => Empty(1)
01: Sprint => Empty(1)
02: Rest => Empty(2)
01: Shadow Step => Empty(1)
10: Shadow Recall => Empty(10)

I had forgotten to list kin earlier, and I won't play it again for the same reasons as others.

SB is a bit of a pain to keep constantly on all members of a large team, and there are players who complain if its down for 3 seconds. After I'd put up with that several times on a kin defender, I deleted that character and I've not seriously considered making one since.

I like Sparky, but I don't try to keep him out all the time; for most battles other powers are more than enough to take down mobs, without spending time keeping Sparky constantly around.

Sparky is most helpful for boss battles and as a pre-battle defiance buff (ie: just before nuking or unleashing other AOEs). I value him for those purposes, as well as for incremental end drain and for how few slots are needed to make Sparky function well. Every now and again Sparky is useful for pulling from around corners, as well, and every once in a blue moon he'll fire at incoming mobs that I hadn't yet spotted (which is nicer than finding out by suddenly getting hit over the head).

Consider trying both up until level 8 or thereabouts. You'll figure out if the sound effects and rooting for sonic blast are for you, or not. For some people they're a set-breaker, so its worth checking out.

Rad will definitely give you better AOE, but the -res in sonic is very pleasant when teaming.

I guess we define "dumbing down" differently, Forbin. I'm not in favor of making the battles even easier than they've become. But, I see movement powers as, well, movement powers.

- I don't see how super jump is inherently dumber than combat jumping or sprint.
- I don't see how getting a movement power at level 6 is inherently dumber than level 14.
- I don't think getting movement powers earlier makes people dumber.
- I don't think getting access to movement powers without having to take an earlier pool power is dumb. I like the idea. The idea of being forced to take an earlier power before you could move all super-like just seemed like one of those arbitrary fun-reduction thingies (that's the technical term) that the previous dev team seemed to like to foist on players. Quite a few fun-reduction thingies have already been rolled back by the current dev team, and getting rid of one more would be welcome.

I have a lot of difficulty maintaining interest in the human MM primaries because the AI is an immersion-breaker, to me. I don't mind when bots or zombies do the same dumb things as the human pets do ... because they're bots and zombies. I also wince sometimes when the human pets get badly damaged or die, which cuts into my enjoyment from time to time. When the zombies die, I think "time to summon more expendable zombies."

I've tried to like gravity control, but the range and the initial aggro for wormhole are frustrating. Mind control doesn't have the every-spawn control that earth or ice control do, and so I don't care for it much either. As for plant control, I've never been able to enjoy seeds, which is central to the set.

Sonic blast doesn't work for me, either. Having essentially a single cone for AOE, one that requires regular adjustments to line up properly, is probably the primary reason, with the sound effects being another reason.

Finally, stone armor performs well as a brick wall. But, I don't find being a brick wall all that interesting and the hefty damage, recharge, and movement penalties of granite armor make it no fun to play.

With the game as mature as it is and as easy as it is, performance is almost never the ultimate reason why I can't stick with a set. Its little annoyances that frequently get repeated that tend to break a set, for me.

If you're interested in making the markets function better, which is a worthy objective, then find another way. There is simply no need to do (or recommend) something divisive and frustrating to a substantial number of players, and something likely to look particularly dumb to those who don't play.

And it would look particularly dumb to those who don't play the game (ie: potential players). Put the following into a marketing message, and think through how somebody who doesn't play the game would react ...

"Come play our superhero game in which heroes and villains trade powerful items with each other, and heroes are too thick-headed to notice, too weak to stop it, or all players just pretend that the markets are not merged, even though they really are merged and we all murmur the word "canon" to explain it, or the heroes are really happy about trading with villains because they get their phat lewt cheaper that way!

By the way, even though black markets and legitimate markets are *NEVER* fully and completely integrated in reality, we have fully integrated them for your purchasing convenience in-game! Come one, come all!"

I get why markets wouldn't be merged. Heroes and villains don't want to help the other side. That's simple. I read through the complicated and, frankly, silly rationalizations offered for having Wentworths and the Black Market merged and all I can think is ...

"WTF?"

I support the objective. I believe it would be better to reach it through other means.

Make the tier three power for travel power pools the exception to the general rule about pool powers; you can pick a tier three power from any of the travel power pools at level 6.

Then new players get that "look at me, I'm flying" feeling earlier, along with a grin on their face when they're watching their character fly across the screen. That makes them more likely to stay. Also, characters for those with less than five years vet badges will have more flexibility in how they're built; you can still pick up that tier one or two travel pool power if it makes sense for your character, or you can ... not do that and still have a travel power.

Attila: Get a dictionary and look up the word "merger." Then reflect on what that means. Really take a little time to reflect on what that means; it doesn't mean a stolen truck here and there. It means a dedicated distribution system that functions more or less seamlessly, all year round for years on end.

Reflect on the odds that heroes would stand for merging a legitimate market and a corrupt system of commerce.

So, with "heroes would be OK with that" off the table, the argument is that heroes would be "too dumb to notice" and/or "powerless to curb the corruption, and so they would accept it and participate in it." And, not just some heroes would fall into the "too dumb / too powerless and therefore accepting of the status quo" category, but *all* heroes would fall in that category.

Moving beyond the "WTF" moment, what is enticing about roleplaying heroes who are dumb enough or morally bankrupt enough to actively support a corrupt system of commerce?

I like the idea of eliminating levels associated with IOs. Working with that idea, make the stats provided by IOs vary according to the level at which a character is playing the game, and not the IO itself. Thus, when you exemp a level 50 character to level 15 for a Positron TF, you don't have level 50 enhancement values. Instead, you'd get level 15 enhancement values (for example, 19.2% for a vanilla accuracy IO) while doing the TF.

You still have more slots and powers available up to level 20, when exemp'd down for a Posi TF. Still, you aren't as badly overpowered as before. When you exemp down to 35 for a Manticore, you get enhancement values commensurate for that level, and so on.

A simpler-to-use market, with more liquidity in it, would be a very good thing.