The_MercsMan

Ok now I've got an idea in my head and I can't get it out.


(Warning Contain Spoilers)
In Guassian's Arc (The 4th Vanguard Arc) the rogue Swords plan to detonate a modified Nuclear Missile underneath the Rikti Portal to their Homeworld. Guassian Mentions that this could cause the two parallel universes to collide (or collapse) by destroying the barrier between them.

I've been thinking about how GR will work and it's been implied that it will heavily involve Praetoria, I assume that will involve linking Praetoria to Primal Earth in some way, shape or form.
So my question is, will the barrier between Praetoria and Primal Earth be destroyed - allowing Metas to switch between them at will or even involuntarily?

Another question which follows this one is related to Maria Jenkins's Arc in which Statesman is kidnapped by the Praetorians.

He is held prisoner and they attempt to torture him using Praetorian technology but he seems oddly impervious to anything from Praetoria. They then manage to secure some Primal Earth Scanners and modify them to be used against Statesman to great effect
At the time Maria tells you:
"You remember how the Praetorians weren't able to use their own tech to scan States? Well, our best theory on that is that Statesman is physically so similar to Tyrant that his presence in the Praetorian dimension is never quite complete. It's as if there just isn't room for him there. The upshot is that Statesman is impervious to Praetorian technology. And it's impervious to him! He can't break out of those bonds, not on his own."

So in the scenario where Primal Earth and Praetoria are linked how would Statesman and Tyrant interact, would one of them dominate their powers whilst the other is drained of them? Would this apply to everyday heroes and villains?

At the moment I'm prepared to disregard the fact that Reichsman (As another Marcus Cole) isn't impervious to Primal Earth's technology because his device which drains the powers from alternate Marcus Cole's likely drains Statesman's powers and thus Reichsman is able to take Statesman's super-powered place in Primal Earth. Whilst Reichsman was locked up in the Freedom Phalanx's base they no doubt had power sapping devices built into his prison preventing him from escaping and/or taking Statesman's place in Primal Earth.
Alternatively Reichsman's place in Primal Earth could never have been complete, allowing the Freedom Phalanx to imprison him in the same way that Statesman was imprisoned in Praetoria.

I doubt that Manticore will be able to answer but I hope I can get some other people's opinions on my theories.

I reckon that picture is either Weaver One (The creator of the Arachnos Taratulas) or The Weaver (The founder of Arachnos). I can't find the poster anywhere but I seem to remember there were at least some of Recluse's Lieutenants there. So most likely this is Weaver One, seeing as The Weaver was assasinated by the Red Widow on Recluse's order before he (Recluse) came to lead Arachnos.

Usually when I'm about to hit off Unchain Essence I'll be in Dwarf; I'll hit a minion with Black Dwarf Mire, then an attack or two and then another dwarf mire, usually killing the minion, so I have 3 mires up and a dead body to use Unchain Essence on. A nice little bonus of this is that with Black Dwarf Mire being slotted for damage most; of the time the Lieutenants will be dead and the bosses will be under 50% of their max HP.

I can see the attraction of slotting GW for damage but as I usually Dance and get most of my damage from the forms I rarely use it. At the moment it is usually reserved for helping Controllers/Dominators to hold pesky AVs (Such as Ghost Widow or Nosferatu), or else wiping up a boss after a fight.

Here's my own twist on your cheaper build. I traded in some of your +Max Endurance for better numbers in some of the other powers (Hope you don't mind )
Note: I took the 5th Slot out of Dark Nova Bolt because the chance for buildup won't do much for you considering you have 2 Mires, both of which are more effective than Build Up (When used against 10 enemies). The 6.25% Recharge bonus in Dark Nova Bolt wasn't doing anything seeing as it was already capped.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Defying the Curse: Level 50 Science Warshade
Primary Power Set: Umbral Blast
Secondary Power Set: Umbral Aura
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Concealment

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg:50(A)
Level 1: Absorption -- S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(A)
Level 2: Gravimetric Snare -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob:50(A)
Level 4: Gravity Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 6: Dark Nova -- P'Shift-End%:50(A)
Level 8: Starless Step -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(11), RechRdx-I:50(19)
Level 12: Sunless Mire -- Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(15), RechRdx-I:50(15)
Level 14: Shadow Cloak -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 16: Super Speed -- QckFt-EndRdx/RunSpd:50(A)
Level 18: Gravity Well -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(19), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(21), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(27), Lock-%Hold:50(36), Lock-Acc/Hold:50(36)
Level 20: Black Dwarf -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx:30(21), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:40(25), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:40(25), P'Shift-End%:50(43)
Level 22: Stygian Circle -- Efficacy-EndMod:50(A), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx:50(23), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg:50(23)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 26: Gravitic Emanation -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:50(37), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:50(37), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(37), Stpfy-Stun/Rng:50(50)
Level 28: Inky Aspect -- Rope-Acc/Stun:50(A)
Level 30: Unchain Essence -- Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Posi-Dam%:20(40)
Level 32: Dark Extraction -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg:50(40), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx:50(42), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), RechRdx-I:50(43)
Level 35: Stygian Return -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 38: Eclipse -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg:40(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg:40(39), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(39), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(39), Acc-I:50(40)
Level 41: Quasar -- Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(43), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:50(50)
Level 44: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 47: Grant Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 49: Invisibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Dark Sustenance
Level 1: Shadow Step -- Jnt-EndRdx/Rng:50(A)
Level 10: Shadow Recall -- IntRdx-I:50(A)
------------
Level 6: Dark Nova Bolt -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:40(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:40(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:40(7), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(48)
Level 6: Dark Nova Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:40(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:40(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:40(7), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:40(11), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(46)
Level 6: Dark Nova Emanation -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), Posi-Dam%:50(46)
Level 6: Dark Nova Detonation -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), Posi-Dam%:50(9), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), RechRdx-I:50(46)
Level 20: Black Dwarf Strike -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:50(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(48)
Level 20: Black Dwarf Smite -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48)
Level 20: Black Dwarf Mire -- Oblit-Dmg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(29), EndRdx-I:50(45), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(50)
Level 20: Black Dwarf Drain -- Nictus-Acc/Heal:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(17), Numna-Heal/Rchg:50(17), Nictus-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg:50(34)
Level 20: Black Dwarf Step -- Winter-ResSlow:50(A)
Level 20: Black Dwarf Antagonize -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(A), Mocking-Rchg:50(36)
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 9% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 9% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 9% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 9% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 9% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 9% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 9% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 9% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 3% Defense(Smashing)
• 3% Defense(Lethal)
• 3% Defense(Fire)
• 3% Defense(Cold)
• 5.5% Defense(Energy)
• 5.5% Defense(Negative)
• 3% Defense(Psionic)
• 3% Defense(Melee)
• 4.25% Defense(Ranged)
• 3% Defense(AoE)
• 6.3% Max End
• 41% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 3% Enhancement(Stun)
• 91.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 100.4 HP (9.37%) HitPoints
• Knockback (Mag -4)
• Knockup (Mag -4)
• MezResist(Confused) 2.5%
• MezResist(Held) 2.5%
• MezResist(Immobilize) 12.4%
• MezResist(Sleep) 2.5%
• MezResist(Stun) 6.9%
• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.5%
• 13.5% (0.23 End/sec) Recovery
• 10% (0.45 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 20% ResEffect(FlySpeed)
• 20% ResEffect(RechargeTime)
• 20% ResEffect(RunSpeed)
• 3.15% Resistance(Fire)
• 3.15% Resistance(Cold)

------------
Set Bonuses:
Steadfast Protection
(Absorption)

• Knockback Protection (Mag -4)

Steadfast Protection
(Gravity Shield)

• 3% Defense(All)

Luck of the Gambler
(Shadow Cloak)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Basilisk's Gaze
(Gravity Well)

• 2.5% Defense(Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense(Ranged)
• 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery
• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Lockdown
(Gravity Well)

• 3% DamageBuff(All)

Efficacy Adaptor
(Stygian Circle)

• 12 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
• 1.5% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery

Luck of the Gambler
(Combat Jumping)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Stupefy
(Gravitic Emanation)

• 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery
• 20.1 HP (1.87%) HitPoints
• 3% Enhancement(Stun)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Positron's Blast
(Unchain Essence)

• 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery

Expedient Reinforcement
(Dark Extraction)

• Status Resistance 2.5%
• 3% DamageBuff(All)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 10% (0.45 HP/sec) Regeneration

Obliteration
(Quasar)

• MezResist(Stun) 2.2%

Luck of the Gambler
(Stealth)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Luck of the Gambler
(Grant Invisibility)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Luck of the Gambler
(Invisibility)

• 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Decimation
(Dark Nova Bolt)

• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.75%
• 12 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
• 2.25% Max End

Decimation
(Dark Nova Blast)

• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.75%
• 12 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
• 2.25% Max End
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Positron's Blast
(Dark Nova Emanation)

• 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery
• 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Positron's Blast
(Dark Nova Detonation)

• 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery
• 1.58% Resistance(Fire,Cold)
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 6.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Crushing Impact
(Black Dwarf Strike)

• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%
• 12 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
• 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Crushing Impact
(Black Dwarf Smite)

• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.2%
• 12 HP (1.12%) HitPoints
• 7% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Obliteration
(Black Dwarf Mire)

• MezResist(Stun) 2.2%
• 3% DamageBuff(All)
• 9% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)

Touch of the Nictus
(Black Dwarf Drain)

• 20.1 HP (1.87%) HitPoints

Winter's Gift
(Black Dwarf Step)

• 20% ResEffect(RunSpeed), 20% ResEffect(RechargeTime), 20% ResEffect(FlySpeed)

Mocking Beratement
(Black Dwarf Antagonize)

• 1.8% Max End

This build has quite a bit of focus on using Unchain Essence and Quasar as often as possible, so I wouldn't advise following it unless that fits your playstyle

With the new Difficulty Slider my Warshade has probably become my most powerful soloer, if you count soloing as x8 Players and +1-3 level(s).
(Sorry if I repeat myself here)
When people often say that a Kheldian is a jack of all trades but a master of none I get a sense that they are refering to the forms, not the ATs themselves. Sure neither Dwarf can tank as well as a "real" Tanker, the same with the Novas compared to a real Blaster, but that doesn't mean when used together they cannot create something new and exciting.

I think the AT my Warshade is closest to is a Scrapper, albeit a Scrapper with a range of fancy new toys to play with. The reason I think my Warshade is like a Scrapper (Note I say like a scrapper, not play like a scrapper) is because it's a self-fuelling steamrolling machine. Sure it might not have quite the up-front damage of a Blaster, nor the survivability of a tank, it can still take out more enemies at once than either of these (In most cases) .
Also if we view a Blaster as the "King" of AoE Damage then I think a Warshade geared towards AoE damage may come close to usurping the blaster, whilst still having more self buffs and heals than it, and indeed a lot more sustainability in the area of endurance, meaning in the long run - even if we disregard staying alive - a Warshade will do more damage than most Blasters (This IS a big generalization, and I make no claim that there are no Blasters that can out damage a Warshade in the long run, that would be a world gone topsey-turvey ).

To sum it up a Warshade is the only Build I know of that can practically Hard-cap it's resistance and damage bonus at the same time, without outside buffs, if there is another build that can I'd like to hear about it

I'm going to jump on this before the rest of the Kheldian Forumites swarm:
Building a human form is definately a lot harder than a tri-form.
This doesn't mean it's impossible; nor does it mean that your human form will be weaker, but it takes a lot of experience to build a human form well, you're better off making a tri-former first, but this may not be your playstyle. If that's the case then continue with the human form but it will be more tricky.

Most of my experience comes from my level 50 TriFormShade, so I may be lacking experience referring to Peacebringers.

A couple of good ways to get around the slot squeeze on a tri-form are:
Avoid slotting up the redundant Human form powers too much, these powers are generally the ranged blast powers, Nova gives superior clones for the blast powers that have the inherent (from Nova) to hit bonus, 45% damage bonus AND a much higher damage multiplier of 1 (equal to blasters) compared to the human form ranged attack multiplier of .65 IIRC (Equal to defenders).

Franken-slotting is great, but at the higher levels not really needed if you followed the piece of advice above, it consists of using different IO Sets to slot a power for exactly what you want (for example you could use a variety of sets to slot 4 Acc/End/Rech/Acc IOs, in an attack, which would give a substantial bonus to all of them). I personally don't frankenslot much on my TriFormShade, prefering to use sets to get recharge bonuses needed for perma-eclipse, perma-hasten, Stacking Black Dwarf Mire and near perma Sunless Mire and Triple Fluffies (). The only powers I frankenslot are Eclipse (4x Resistance/Recharge IOs) and Unchain Essence (Which I only frankenslotted because all the useful bonuses I could have gotten from it were maxed out).

With any Kheldian with forms you're never going to be as good a tanker in Dwarf mode as a Tanker, nor as good a Blaster in Nova as a real Blaster, so if you want to achieve higher than these ATs you have to Dance! Dancing involves shifting forms as the battle calls for it, maximizing your potential by utilizing all of your powers. Dancing becomes a whole lot easier when you have macros set up to switch form and switch trays.
A typical tactic for a Warshade if they're getting overwhelmed is to hit off Sunless Mire, switch to Dwarf and hit off Black Dwarf Mire (or vice versa), then drop back to Human and use Quasar or Unchain Essence, or both (if using Unchain Essence then it is wise to kill an enemy in Dwarf beforehand to avoid spending excess time vunerable in human form), then all you need to do is pop a small blue, use Stygian Circle off the bodies of your enemies and you're back at full health and endurance (Most of the time). This eliminates most of the enemies, the rest can easily be picked off in Nova, and you're completely recharged and ready for round 2.

When it comes to triforming it all becomes about the Dance, although Warshades dance better than Peacebringers (generally) due to their longer lasting click powers such as Eclipse vs Lightform (which incidentaly can't carry over into forms as I understand it, where as Eclipse can) and Sunless Mire vs Build Up (Sunless Mire lasts for 30 Seconds and Build Up lasts for 10).

There was a thread on the Kheldians forums a while ago discussing why Kheldians get a worse rap than any other ATs, and a conclusion was not because people were ignorant (Although this was part of it ), but rather the fact that there is no Ultimate Build for either a Warshade or a Peacebringer, they show so much versatility, cater for so many different playstyles and have such a wide scope of powers that it would be impossible for any single person to find an ultimate build for them.

I hope this has been informative and I'm sure my fellow "LOLKhelds" will be here soon to supply some different points of view.

PS. I heavily advise checking out Plasma's Ultimate Guide to Kheldians (It's linked earlier in this thread) as it's got great info and it's still very relevant, There is also The Dancing Warshade - A Guide to Tri-form Combat which is one of my favourites.

IIRC It's not when you load a zone (An outdoor zone rather than an instanced mission) that you get all the infomation about all the players in it.

You won't recieve any data about a person's costume and powers untill you are 140 yards (in game ) away from them, this explains a number of things, such as why the "quite" room in the Architect Entertainment building is "quite", it's not only the fact that powers can't be used inside it but also that it (like most buildings) is far far underground, the main body of the Architect building was the first building (I know of) in CoX to actually be placed inside it's outer shell (the one that you see from the outside), the rest are usually far underground as can be seen when you click on an team-mate's name in the team window whilst they are in a hospital or such. The only exeption I know of to the 140 yard rule is team-mates, You can certainly see them from over 140 yards away so you probably either start recieiving data about them the minute you join the team or when you enter the same map as them.

I don't really see why the new power customization should cause lag, aside from if your computer's having alot of trouble processing all the different colours, but this would have happened before anyway (although not to such extent).

The flickering of a team-mate's map statis doesn't really concern me and I don't see how it could be caused by power customization, what annoys me more is the bug where it confuses Supe Group bases with Missions, this is more of a practical concern for me especially on team's looking for more members or upping the difficulty and Mayhem and Safeguard missions.

Burn is a great power if you use it well, it works well when used with Blazing Aura (as the taunt makes them run back into burn when they run away) and spectacularly with AoE immobilizes.

Don't forget it can be used defensively if there's too many melee foes beating you up, although on Scrappers this won't happen too often

I always try and aim for a balanced team but sometimes that isn't possible, whether it's because of people quitting or just lack of specific ATs.
Last night I saw a Sister Psyche TF being advertised on Freedom TFs (I always advise to join global channels), so I decided to tag along on my level 29 DB/Invul Scrapper, and hopefully I'd get some fun, levels and merits out of it. We had 2 Blasters, 2 Scrappers, 1 Tank, 1 Controller (with Forcefields), 1 Assault Rifle/Trick Arrow Defender (who made his build as "The ultimate redraw joke, but he ended up being Uber") and a Kin fender; a very well made, and balanced team. Within about 3 missions we had lost our Bubbler and our Kin (also being our only real source of heals), another couple of missions later we lost our tank, now we were 3 crucial players down and we had gone from being very balanced to very unbalanced.

So me and the other Scraper ended up tanking, we had no heals and no buffs, outside our own and any inspirations we picked up along the way. A team mate suggested I set it to the lowest difficulty possible (As I had the star, although I wasn't actually the leader ) so I set it to -1 level to hopefully enable us to finish it.
It was a long slog but was very fun and we ended up being very smooth with little deaths, not necessarily the fasted Sister Psyche ever but at least most of us were getting xp.
We ended up winning despite the fact it was an unbalanced team of 5 taking on missions set to 7-8 with a Rad/Rad Archvillain at the end, this may be anecdotal evidence but I believe it shows that you never need the perfectly made team, as long as everyone has a good attitude, knowledge of their build and how to use it and adapts; you can take on most challenges the game throws at you. (Special mentions Helena Frost, the ghosting Blaster and Dangerr Man, the AR/TA Defender whose debuffs we all loved)
Overall everyone showed a great attitude and were all very flexible in their play styles, not to mention kick ***
As a note: All of us (Except Helena) were level 20-30.

But as a note on PUGs, when creating them I generally try and find people around my level, sure anyone will get xp (barring level 50s) and they'll all be Sidekicked or Exemplified but a level 6 will be underpowered compared to level 26s who have more attacks, better enhancements, more slots for the enhancements and a bit more experience with their builds.

I dare you to take on Madame of Mystery

Powers:

Mask of Vitiation (Ranged) Foe -Defense, -Regeneration, -Recovery
The Ring Mistress' Mask of Vitiation has drained your vitality. She has drained some endurance, as well as reduced your Defense, Hit Points Regeneration and Endurance Recovery!

Subdue Ranged, Psionic, Foe Immobilize
Subdue deals moderate damage and may leave the targeted foe Immobilized for a brief time. Immobilized foes can not move but can still attack.

Petrify (Ranged) Foe Hold
The Ring Mistress has petrified you.

Twilight Grasp Ranged, Foe -Accuracy, -Damage, Team Heal
The Dark Ring Mistress channels negative energy through herself to a targeted foe. Twilight Grasp drains the power from that target and slowly transfers it to yourself and all allies near her. The targeted foe's accuracy and damage is reduced while she and her nearly allies are healed. Twilight Grasp can only heal she and her allies as long as there is a valid target to steal power from.

Now she would be a pain in the tentacles!

I've always said human Council are like fast-food for Warshades, so weak, so dense, so tasty

Dynamo Stinger
ThunderBee (Thunderbirds)

I had a similar thing except it was in a SG called The Mighty Atomic Ants, we all had ant in our name somewhere, people were always amazed to see 4 feet tall insect-like superheroes running round with names like Antagonist, RadiAnt Mutant, Sarge Ant etc etc.

You think you've got it tough, the downtime is now 9-11 for Australian EST.

Sorry to hear it didn't work out. How many people ended up coming?

I tried to stay up for the event (it was at 5 am for me) but I fell asleep at 4:30

Alien and I grabbed a shiny Mo5thTF badge (Although it's name is slightly lame :P) on our Warshades. Team build was something like; 2 Warshades, 1 Tank, 1 Scrapper, 1 Blaster, 1 Controller, 2 Defenders. It took two attempts to get it because in the last mish, when Reichsman was at about 1/3 Health... the scrapper died

There I was tanking the AVs (at least until the tanker taunted them) as they spawned in Dwarf and the Scrapper gets killed by Reich's AoEs, tut tut

Just checking my timezones, thats approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes from when I posted this?

I've never found cysts a problem as long as you're smart about it and you see them before the fight.

It helps tonnes to grab a good targeting bind as they will automatically find cysts and/or quantums/voids depending on the bind. (Theres a guide stickied at the top of the Kheldian forums with binds)

IMO the best way to approach, cysts, on my WS at least, is to make sure hasten is up (No problem on a high recharge build), this will give a massive recharge boost and it's usually enough to carry you through the worst of the Nictus' slows. I actually find that on big teams it's sometimes safer to solo the cyst instead of having the entire team attack it at once, you'll have more experience at taking out cysts than most of them and IIRC the amount of fluffies the cyst spawns is dependant on the amount of players close to it.

Just throwing in my opinion, back to the topic of the inherents bonus when teamed with other khelds, I'd have to say the recharge debuff resistance usefullnes varies a tonne.
As an example, about 10 days ago I did a Mo5thTF with Alien One on his Warshade (Vestige One, I was on my Warshade; Image of the Past), we got that Mo badge on the second try (Two Warshades and the sole Scrapper was the one who went and died on the first )
I never even noticed the bonus I was getting from him, it was so situational that most of the time (indeed all of the time in this TF) it was useless. After the Mo5thTF we attempted a MoITF (twice), failed both times due to trollers dieing, but this time it was noticeably easier (especially in the second and final missions) when Alien was around, although on the last mission when Rommy's mobile cyst was beating out the Nictus the bonus made little difference.

I think they should either change the bonus (possibly to actual recharge) or up the numbers on the recharge debuff resistance to something more substantial to make up for it's limited usefullnes.

Mercs

Well I'll throw my 2 inf in.
My WS is named "Image of the Past". This has more to do with his back story than any naming convention. The part where I put in a more generic Warshade name is coming right up

In his back story he's the descendant of Dark Redemption (a name I made up), who fled to Earth around the same time Cimerora was taken over by Romulus Augustus. Long story short, Dark Redemption merged with a human known as Julius Hannibalus and fought against Romulus Augustus and the 5th Column, blah blah blah. In the end when Julius died Dark Redemption's nictus half (Also named Dark Redemption :P) was captured by Nictus forces, they kept him captive in a Shadow Cyst that they isolated from the cyst network so he couldn't die or escape. The Nictus periodically took him possible hosts who were on their deathbed, tempting Dark Redemption to join with them. Whenever he grew attached to a Host they tortured and slaughtered the host to agonize Dark Redemption. Eventually Imperious himself found the cave where Dark Redemption was held captive, he fought his way through the cave and destroyed the Cyst that Dark Redemption was held captive in, thus freeing Dark Redemption. But Dark Redemption was right at the end of his natural life-span, and with no viable host, or shadow cyst, available he was forced to shatter himself into several of what are now known as N-Fragments. Each of these crystal like fragments were taken by Imperious, he then distributed them to each of his closest men and they were instructed to fast for five days, grind them into a fine powder, add them to Water of the Furies (taken from the source of Statesman's, Lord Recluse's and Imperious' powers), it is said Imperious diverted a small stream of water from the Well of the Furies to pass through his own personal garden, this water was in itself faintly magical but held nothing of the power of the water that was found inside the Well of the Furies, and could therefore not turn men into Incarnates. However this water was powerful enough to bring life to the Nictus inside Dark Redemption's N-Fragments. Each of these N-Fragments grew into Nictus inside Imperious' men and they all became powerful Warshades.

Thousands of years later, in the year of 1935, a young police-man came to Paragon City, his name was Julius Hannibalus, named after one of his descendants from thousands of years ago (it was a family tradition to name the first boy of every fourth generation after the great hero who had brought honor to the family name). Julius had been in Paragon City for a few years when one day he came across a flaming building. A young boy ran out of the building with tears streaming down his face, he shouted "They're all stuck in there! They're trying to kill them!". Julius immediately forgot all police-protocol, drew his gun and entered the flaming building as stealthily as possible when choking on lungfuls of smoke. Julius rounded a corner and saw five figures before him, four were lying on the ground, apparently dead, the other was slumped against a wall. Julius trained his gun on the one leaning against the wall and crept closer, the smoke was thick and the corridor was only lit by a small fire poking through a hole in the ceiling above the figures, it would be impossible to see anyone who was more than ten meters away from them yet all the figures, including the four that Julius had previously believed dead, turned and faced him.

Julius looked at the closest one, there was a look of pure ecstasy on his face, mirrored by the faces of the other four. Just then five armor clad figures rounded the corner at the end of the corridor, bullets leaped from their previously unnoticed guns, Julius yelled and dropped to the ground, in the light from the muzzle flashes Julius immediately saw that these were Fifth Column soldiers. The four figures on the ground clad themselves in purple bubbles and the standing one shot from his hands a beam of purple with a brilliantly black center that seemed to eat away at all light, this beam impacted on one of the Fifth Column soldiers, seeming killing him, and the others fled back around the corner.

Julius knew instantly what these figures were, they were Warshades; redeemed Nictus whom had joined willingly with a host. He knew about them because his ascendant after which he had been named had been one, he felt a strange connection with the five Warshades and they all spoke to him in unison, telepathically.
"We have waited for you, you are the descendant of Julius Hannibalus, our original host here on Earth"
"What do you mean? You can't ALL have been hosted by him." shouted out Julius, not bothering with telepathic communication.
"We are not five as we seem, but one. We are the children of Dark Redemption, after Julius was killed Dark Redemption split himself, he was an immensely powerful Warshade and was poweful enough to father the five of us. Despite how powerful he was we were weak to begin with, we needed to rely on Imperious' magics to empower us, we grew inside hosts and have been waiting ever since to find a descendant of Julius Hannibalus, and here you are!"
"Why was it so important you find me? I thought any host would do for a Warshade?
"We are not.... well, we're not whole, splitting oneself is a last resort and the result is supposed to be temporary. We are not as powerful nor as long-lived as Dark Redemption was, we are just fractions of his child. We have been looking for you because we need a suitable host all go into, to reform inside."
"But What about your current hosts! I know what will happen to them if you leave them!"
"They are already doomed, there is too much smoke inside their lungs, too many bullets in their flesh, we cannot protect them for much longer, We know this, they know this and have accepted it."
"What if I don't want to become a Warshade?"
"Your duty is to protect, you want to protect, you are a police-man. The only difference will be that you can protect more people than ever before, you are already a hero, we propose you join us and become a superhero."

Just then a bullet tore through Julius' chest, blood spurted out of his chest and he herd a rush of air as his lung was punctured. He knew the wound was fatal, he only had a minute or so to live as his very essence poured out of hi. He knew his only chance of survival was to join with these Warshades and become their host, but he didn't have the breath to say anything, not even to utter a yes to them. They reached out to him with their minds and he realized they knew what he was thinking.

The firemen had arrived on the scene and were attempting to put out the fire, it was an impossible job so they settled to attempting to stop it's spread. A large spire fell from the building and landed on the steps of another, the firefighters desperately tried to put it out, they succeeded but three were badly scalded and had to head over to a triage tent were the residents of the flaming building were being treated. The Chief watched them pass, his gaze then flicking back to the dancing flames that towered across the building, his assistant went over to talk to him.
"What do you think happened here chief?"
"The Freedom Phalanx has contacted us, they say there were 5 heroes in there. Trying to stop a Fifth Column plot."
"Five Heroes? What do you think has happened to them?"
"Of course they're dead, no one could survive that"
"But-"
"Listen kid, superpowers or no superpowers they couldn't survive a blaze like that, what we've got to focus on is saving the buildings next to it."
"Wha-"
But the assistant was cut off by the chief who raised a hand sharply to signal silence. His assistant followed his gaze which seemed to be directed at the roof of the flaming building.
"Alright everybody back, it's about to collapse!" The Chief boomed across the street, and he was correct barely thirty seconds after he had shouted the building collapsed, sending embers everywhere.
"What's that in there!?!" Shouted the Assistant excitedly.
"What?"
"That clearing in the fire!" said the assistant pointing with his finger towards to center of the collapsed, flaming building. The Chief was amazed at what he saw, one man standing there, with what appeared to be five men at his feet, completely shielded from the fire and debris. Standing there unharmed, a spiking Image of the Past.

Ok I may have gone slightly off topic and it was a tad longer than I meant it to be But it does give some background info on Warshades, and hopefully it will inspire some new names for Khelds

I feel reallly guilty about one thing I did. This was a while back, I use the BM/WW to transfer inf across servers from my rich toons to my lowly poor toons on other servers. I used a lvl 12 Steadfast Protection: KB protection recipe to do it this time, my general strategy was; buy all of the ones that are for sale, put one up for sale at high prices on my poor guy, then I'd buy it for prices that were slightly out of wack with the rest of the prices to say the least

So this time I bought one for 20 mil, previously they were selling for about 5 mil each. Over the next few days I returned to the market and checked out the KB protection recipes, to my suprise all of the last 5 transactions on the lvl 12 Steadfast Protection: KB Protection recipes were for 20-25 mil! At first I burst out laughing at how stupid the buyers were when they could have just checked at a lvl lower or higher and the price would have still been at around 5 mil, but then I checked them and to my disbelief they were the same. I checked most of the Steadfast Protection KB recipes and they were all costing 20-30 mil Each!

I desperately tried to put the prices back to normal by selling the surplus lvl 12 Steadfast protecton: KB protection recipes I had (from when I buyed up all the stock to make sure I bought my own for high prices) I put them up for about 1 mil each and the all sold for around 15 mil, at least this was lower than 20-25mil I thought, but this was still an increase of 300% on the original price, and all the other levels of the recipe were selling for the same price. Over the next week or two the prices lowered to around 10 million each when buyers noticed the discrepancy between the prices of Steadfast Protection and say Karma KB protection recipes, this of course involved the prices of Karma recipes going up aswell. So in the end I made a large profit (accidentaly) and raised prices all around the board for KB protection Recipes by around 5 mil for about a month, I still feel guilty about those people who bought them at such high prices, I try to ease my pain by thinking about anyone who didn't look at the other level ranges for recipes before buying them for 5 times what they a level or 2 away. Another thing that helps me cope is imagining how happy I must have made some lowbies when they discovered their recipe was worth 25 mil

This is my lowish-cost build. it's got good recharge, perma eclipse and near perma-hasten.
I've been using it for at least 6 months by now and it's effective.

I logged onto test today and soloed a 52 LT farm set to 8 (Sorry for bragging)

Yeah the Character Copy tool is back up and my WS (Image of the Past, lvl 50) is on Test.
My Global there is @Glove of Verdook.

I'll still be happy to help with forming the teams, strategies for the missions etc.

Mercs

Just so you all know I have at least 500+ runs of ITF experience, so even if I can't get my WS copied over I can still aid the teams with tips and information on the missions. Hopefully the character copy tool will be back up by the time we run this event and I'll be able to join in, but as I've said before even If I don't get my Warshade over in time I'll still attend and help out forming the teams etc.

Mercs

Unfortunately the character copy tool seems to be down, I've been trying to copy my Warshade over for 3 days now. If I can't get him copied in time I suppose I can attend the event on another toon and just answer questions for all the fans. It'll be sad to miss all that kheld awesome-sauce but I'm sure there will be some nice videos on Youtube of it

Mercs