Brev's I8 Guide to Warshades and Human Form

Brev's All New [I8] Guide to Humanform Warshades

Welcome to my guide to the human form Warshade! In this guide I will be covering all the Warshade powers that are available, although I will be doing so primarily from a human-form perspective - so I won't dwell too much on the Nova or Dwarf forms. Kheldians can be very overwhelming as there are so many more choices than a normal AT, and there is no 'one right way' to play them. This guide is intended to give you an idea of the various warshade powers that are available and which of those might be more suitable for a human form specialist (i.e. a warshade not taking the nova or dwarf forms) and how they may want to slot those powers.

If you spot any mistakes please let me know and I will try to correct them. Any constructive feedback welcomed.

I have finally got round to updating this guide to bring it up to date with ED, the "Global Defense Nerf", and various other changes that have occured along the way - along with other experiences I have picked up since I initially wrote the guide.

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What I'll be covering:
<ul type="square">[*] Kheldians - an introduction to Peacebringers and Warshades[*] Warshade Inherent Powers[*] Warshade Primary - Umbral Blast[*] Warshade Secondary - Umbral Aura[*] Pool Powers[*] My Build[*] PvP / The Arena[*] Summary[/list]Let's get started!

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Kheldians - an introduction to Peacebringers and Warshades

Kheldians are the first Epic Archetypes to be introduced in City Of Heroes. They are unlocked when you get a normal Hero AT to level 50 (NB - getting a Villain to 50 will NOT unlock Kheldians, even though you get a message on-screen saying Epic AT unlocked - that is a bug. Supposedly Villain Kheldians are on the way, but whether or not they will be unlocked in the same way remains to be seen). Once unlocked, the Peacebringer and Warshade options become accessible from the character creation screen (a common mis-conception is that your level 50 somehow 'becomes' a Kheldian. Your level 50 is unaffected by any Kheldian you choose to make, which will be a brand new character starting at level 1). Kheldians are often described as the jack-of-all-trades AT as they can be built to fulfill a number of different roles - they also gain significant buffs from being in teams.

One of the key issues Kheldians have to deal with is Voids and Quantum gunners. These are specialist mobs that appear both in missions and in open city zones. Almost all villain groups have occasional mobs equipped with Quantum weaponry - these guns fire a special projectile that deals a moderate amount of negative energy (that affects and can be resisted/debuffed normally by all AT's) and a larger amount of special nictus energy (that only affects Kheldians and cannot be resisted/debuffed at all). In addition to Quantum-equipped troops (which apart from the gun and their name, appear just the same as their native villain group), there are also Void mobs. These turn up among all villain groups and are even nastier than the Quantums. Not only do they have Quantum guns, they also do nictus damage with their melee attacks and also have toggle shields that resist energy and negative energy attacks. Fortunately they are also easily identifiable among most enemies in their predominantly black uniform. Both Quantum troops and Voids can vary in class from minion up to boss. The boss class villains can generally take a Kheldian to minimal health (being protected only by the anti-one-shot code) and so it is imperative they are neutralised as a priority. A useful bind that I thoroughly recommend you setting up straight away is this one:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/bind TAB "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next void$$target_custom_next quant$$target_custom_next cyst"</pre><hr />

Basically it replaces the default command associated with the TAB key (target_enemy_next), with one that does the normal TAB action most of the time, but if there is a void or quantum mob visible, it will force-select it - allowing you to very quickly identify a dangerous mob. It will also identify 'Shadow Cyst Crystals', which although don't deal Nictus damage and so aren't any worse for us than other ATs - are rather dangerous for the team as a whole, and should only turn up in missions for teams that have a Kheldian - so be prepared for them. They basically spawn a whole load of dark extractions that are like mini-dark nova's, which can overwhelm a team if they aren't ready for them - especially with their stacked slows and -recharge. Shadow Cyst Crystals also explode violently upon defeat - so squsihies should be well out of range as they go down. Another useful sort of bind to use is one that highlights a particular target to the team - you may have used this sort of thing before anyway for helping to point out mission-objectives to the team, but I have used one like this in the past:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/bind tilde "local WARNING: $target spotted!$$em whistle"</pre><hr />

This little bind will blow a whistle (if your character is free to do the emote), and announce in local chat that you have spotted something ($target is replaced by the name of your target) - which should hopefully get the attention of your team.

On a related note, one common misconception is that the White/Black Dwarf and Bright/Dark Nova mobs that are occasionally encountered in missions are also particularly dangerous to Kheldian players - they aren't. They just deal smashing/energy/negative damage and are only of concern in so far as they are Boss-level mobs and so can hit quite hard anyway.

Peacebringers and Warshades are in many ways very similar in that they can both gain the ability to shift forms and they both have a single primary and secondary each from which to choose their main powers. These primaries and secondaries have a larger number of powers to choose from than the normal ATs' primaries and secondaries and the powers unlock at slightly different levels. The Kheldian powersets borrow several powers from existing AT powersets (albeit with different names and visual effects) while also introducing some brand new abilities. Since the entire primary and secondary are deemed 'epic', Kheldians do not get access to any Ancillary Power Pools from level 41.

The most obvious way in which the two Kheldian ATs differ is visually; Peacebringers have very 'light-coloured' powers, while Warshades' powers are generally purple-coloured to reflect their shadowy nature. In terms of playstyle, Peacebringers are more self sufficient in that they can heal and buff themselves independently, whereas Warshades need to use enemies to buff and heal themselves; some Warshade powers even require defeated enemies and so cannot be used until part way through or at the end of a fight. The balance comes in that Warshades can achieve a higher overall buff depending on how many enemies are in range. As such Warshades tend to shine particularly well in larger teams or in teams with tanks who can gather up a large number of enemies into confined spaces.

Warshades are often described as the more 'controllery' of the two Kheldian AT's too, and although it is true they have a greater capacity to stun enemies, they cannot get near the sort of proper area lockdown that a full Controller is capable of. What Warshades are able to do in general, is to mix their limited control with a potent offence and strong damage resistance. A human-form warshade is eventually able to make the most of all of these by combining excellent damage resistance, decent crowd control, and impressive damage all at the same time. In a suitable team they become very formidable indeed.

This guide will go through the various Warshade powers, describing what they do, suggesting why they may or may not be good choices for the human-form Warshade, and how you might slot them should you take them. There are many different directions you can take a human-form warshade, some leaning towards damage at the sacrifice of crowd control, others accepting lower damage for superior defence, and probably a dozen other combinations. I will try to keep the power descriptions as objective as possible, regardless of how you might want to specialise your build.

I cannot emphasise enough that a bit of forward planning is a very wise investment in your time. Making sure you'll be able to build your character with the powers and slotting that you want will result in far less shocks down the road. There are many tools available online for hero planning and most of them these days support Kheldian builds. One thing I would warn you about is the numbers given in hero planners - they are very often inaccurate as they haven't used particuarly good sources. The best source for numbers in my opinion is now RedTomax's: The City of Data. This is a comprenhensive database of powers in the game, along with numbers for pretty much every attribute - it has been developed with the help Iakona, who is very well respected on the boards and so the numbers are as accurate as you can be sure of.

My own Warshade has been human-form his entire career, this was partly because I wanted a challenge (and boy did I get one!), partly because it fitted his backstory better that he didn't shapeshift at all, and also because I didn't actually like the look of the Nova form anyway. I also wanted to ensure I had as many slots as possible to dedicate to the human-form powers. Many people will take the Nova form route to make the journey into the 20s easier (and it is certainly much easier to solo with Nova), with a view to respeccing into human-form later on.

If you are going human-form the whole way then realise you will do best to do it in teams. Soloing is really rather painful for a human-form specialist until you get some of the better crowd control abilities in the late 20s and the pet at 32 and really not recommended unless you're a glutton for punishment. I was fortuante enough to be teaming pretty much all the time.

With that in mind, let's take an in-depth look at the Warshade powersets...

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Warshade Inherent Powers

The first special feature of Kheldians is that they have some additional inherent powers over the Sprint and Rest of the normal AT's.

The first is that Warshades have a built in self-teleport power from level 1, called Shadow Step. This is identical to the Teleportation Pool 3rd power except for the visual effect. It is a very expensive power to use before you get Single Origins and Stamina (more detail on that later though!), but once you have both you should be able to suffice with one Endurance Reduction in Shadow Step and then as much Range as your build can spare as this will dramatically increase your travel speed. Below is a common bind for Teleport that allows you to hold down Shift (or substitute for Control or whatever) and then just point and click travel.

/bind SHIFT+LBUTTON "powexec_name Shadow Step"

The other inherent power that is also available straight away is Dark Sustenance. This is your link ability that enhances your damage, damage resistance, and status protection, depending on what sort of ATs you are teamed with.<ul type="square">[*]Each Scrapper or Blaster will add 20% base damage to all your attacks.[*]Each Tanker or Defender will give you an additional 10% resistance to all damage (including Psi).[*]Each Controller will give you limited protection to status effects.[*]Other Kheldians give you no bonus.[*]You must be close to the team-members to get the bonus[/list]The 3rd Warshade inherent power is Shadow Recall which you are automatically given when you train to level 10. This is exactly the same as recall friend but with a far funkier visual effect. It doesn't need any additional slotting and what you put in the default slot isn't too important either - I usually put a Recharge in there in case I'm recalling a few people.

Now onto the powers where we have to start making difficult decisions!

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Warshade Primary - Umbral Blast

First of all the warshade primary has 14 powers to choose from rather than the traditional 9, however these 14 powers are still all unlocked over the course of the 1-32 game. You don't have any ancillary pools to distract you so any powers you choose not to take straight away can always be taken later on.

The Warshade primary is a blend of traditionally blaster-type powers, a couple of powers borrowed from Dark Melee, a few control-type powers, and of course the Nova form. Essentially it is the assault powerset for the Warshade along with a bit of crowd control.

Most of the Warshade blast powers have a small secondary effect of slowing both movement and attack rate. This is more of a 'nice to have' and isn't really worth slotting (only the movement speed part is affected by enhancements anyway). Several of the powers also have a chance to knockback, although for most it is a pretty low chance.

The base damage of (Human) Warshades is slightly below that of defenders for their ranged attacks (62.5% blaster damage versus 65% blaster damage), but above them for melee attacks (75% blaster damage versus 55% blaster damage), however the dark sustenance power gives a 20% damage buff for each appropriate nearby team-mate and so in teams, the human-form warshade can sport some pretty powerful attacks. The Kheldian shapeshift forms use higher Damage Modifiers, but don't benefit from Dark Sustenance buffs - but I'll discuss those later.

[Note: Base damage is given as at level 50, Damage Scale numbers are as per Iakona's Guide, Control Durations are given as base level (theoretical duration if used at level 1) and will linearly increase by +1% per level up to 1.49 times duration by level 50.]

So, onto the powers...

Shadow Bolt
Range: 50ft
Endurance: 3.12
Recharge: 1.5s
Activation Time: 1s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 20.85 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.6DS
Available: Level 1

A standard low damage, low recharge attack that is fired from the hand. You'll have to start with either this or ebon eye so it's really down to personal preference. It's not really worth dedicating extra slots to and will probably only be an attack chain filler. You'll probably only need one or other of the first two attacks, especially if you also have access to the Sands of Mu or Slaying Axe Veteran Reward.

Ebon Eye
Range: 60ft
Endurance: 5.2
Recharge: 4s
Activation Time: 1.67s
Accuracy: 110%
Damage: 34.76 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS
Available: Level 1

The other starting option from the primary and this is a blast fired from the eyes. It is more damage per hit and slightly longer range, but longer recharge and higher endurance cost than Shadow Bolt. They have identical DPE (Damage per Endurance) but Shadow Bolt's DPS (Damage per Second) is slightly higher, as is its EPS (Endurance per Second). Personally I've found Ebon Eye fits into my attack chains nicely and the higher damage per hit ends up being a bit more satisfying. Don't bother slotting it whichever you go for - just an accuracy in the default slot is what I'd suggest, unless you happen to have loads of spare slots floating around later on.

Gravimetric Snare
Range: 40ft
Endurance: 7.8
Recharge: 4s
Activation Time: 1.67s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 5 x 3.48 neg + 5 x 3.48 smash &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS
Immobilize Duration: 13.5s (critter), 9s (player)
Immobilize Magnitude: Mag 3
Available: Level 2

A low ranged attack that will immobilise anything up to a Lt and do the same damage as Ebon Eye in DoT. Unlike controller single target immobilises, this one won't stop bosses in one hit - although it does last a decent enough time to stack on a boss if needed, or to lock down a runner or to cover your escape from a nasty mob. I did have it in a previous build but it simply got completely overshadowed by gravity well a bit later. If you do get it then minimal slotting is needed - even just a single accuracy should do.

Shadow Blast
Range: 50ft
Endurance: 8.53
Recharge: 8s
Activation Time: 1.67s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 57 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.64DS
Chance to knockback: 10%
Available: Level 6

Your first half-decent single target damage attack - I recommend getting this and putting a good few slots in it early on. 1-2 Acc and 3 Dam should do, and you can add Rech too if need be.

Dark Nova
Endurance per tick: 0.13
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Endurance Recovery Buff: 15%
ToHit Buff: 9%
Available: Level 6

Well although this is a human-only guide, I'll mention the Nova form (fairly) briefly. It is basically a glorified toggle that can't be used at the same time as any other toggle. None of your auto powers (like stamina, dark sustenance) will work in Nova form and you can't activate non-Nova click powers either (although powers like Hasten, Mire or Eclipse with lasting effects will carry over into Nova form if you activate them first). External buffs like fortitude, RA etc. are also carried over into the form, and can be applied to you while in Nova form too.

When in Nova form, as you cannot use any of your human-form attacks, you instead get access to 4 Nova attacks (each of which can be slotted separately and are listed under Inherent ). There are two single-target blasts, a cone, and an AoE attack - they are listed here along with their level 50 damage and associated Damage Scale:

Dark Nova Bolt (58.06 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.6DS)
Dark Nova Blast (96.76 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS)
Dark Nova Emanation (95.79 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.99DS)
Dark Nova Detonation (58.06 neg + 29.03 smash &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.9DS)

The Nova form itself has an inherent fly ability and also built in ToHit and endurance recovery buffs that can be enhanced by slotting the form itself. The form also has a much higher ranged damage modifier than the human form (1.2 blaster rather than the human form's 0.625), and also has a built-in +45% damage buff (hence why it gets much higher damage out of seemingly modest DS attacks) - that makes it much more potent than the basic, unbuffed human-form. The downside is that Nova form has access to no resistance shields and gets no resistance buffs from the Dark Sustenance link power either, so it is generally very squishy (although it does have a basic 15% resistance to energy and negative energy damage). When you choose the Nova form you are in fact getting 5 new slottable powers so it begins to present big challenges as to where to start putting slots.

Many will choose Nova form to help blast their way through the early levels as it has a lot more damage output at this early stage than the human-form - you can always respec out of it later. Of course the sooner you get used to the human form the better, as it is quite a different playstyle to that which Nova grants you.

Starless Step
Range: 200ft
Endurance: 15
Recharge: 20s
Activation Time: 1.93s
Accuracy: 100%
Available: Level 8

Starless Step is an exact replica of the Teleport Foe power, again with different visual effect. Although I've not taken it, it can be a valuable tool later on for grabbing a minion that you can easily defeat and extract a pet from before taking on the whole group, or for other single pull reasons.

Sunless Mire
Radius: 15ft (melee)
Max Targets Hit: 10
Endurance: 15.6
Recharge: 120s
Activation Time: 2.37s
Accuracy: 120%
Damage: 41.71 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS
Damage Buff (per target hit): 11.25% (for 30s)
ToHit Buff (per target hit): 4.5% (for 30s)
Available: Level 12

This is the first of the really vital human-form powers. It is basically soul drain from the Dark Melee primary and it gives us Warshades a much needed damage (and accuracy) boost for all our attacks. You get 11.25% damage and 4.5% tohit buff for every foe this hits that lasts for 30 seconds. So if you fire it off in the middle of a large group and hit the maximum 10 targets, you'll get a 112.5% damage and 45% tohit boost. Of course in your early career, this power can get you rather a lot of unwanted aggro (that you may not be able to handle) so it is best to avoid using it with large groups unless a tank is already holding their aggro.

As the power has an inherent +20% accuracy, one accuracy enhancement is usually sufficient to hit most mobs in a group and then 3 Recharges is very useful too. The damage it does is fairly secondary really as it is on such a long recharge.

Dark Detonation
Range: 50ft
Radius: 15ft
Max Targets Hit: 16
Endurance: 15.18
Recharge: 16s
Activation Time: 1.67s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 31.28 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.9DS
Chance to knockback: 50%
Available: Level 12

At first glance it sounds like one we definitely want but in fact it isn't a great power for the human-form warshade. However the damage is rather underwhelming and it basically just scatters an otherwise nicely grouped set of mobs - definitely not what we'll be wanting later on. If you are wanting to go human-form all the way you could take it and respec out later when the better aoe's come along; I doubt many teams will enjoy the scattering it usually causes though.

Gravity Well
Range: 5ft (melee)
Endurance: 18.51
Recharge: 20s
Activation Time: 2.07s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 65.06 neg + 10 x 5 smash &gt;&gt;&gt; 2.76DS
Hold Duration: 9s (critter), 6s (player)
Hold Magnitude: Mag 3
Available: Level 18

The second absolute must human-form power. Despite being marketed as a hold, this is also actually your highest damage single target attack. Some of that damage is DoT which isn't ideal but there is also a sizeable upfront hit. The hold is a standard Mag 3 which means it will get lt's and minions in one hit, but needs to be stacked with a second hold to overcome bosses. Unfortunately it doesn't have the same base duration as controller single target holds and the recharge is a bit longer, so you won't be able to chain hold bosses with it on your own (there will be a short period you can hold them when a subsequent application will stack before the first wears off). This is the best power you have for dealing with Quantums and Voids as it will render them utterly helpless while you neutralise them. You will want to get this 6 slotted asap and I recommend 1-2 accuracy, 2 Hold, 2-3 Damage. If you ever get access to Hamidon Enhancements, this is an excellent power to use Dam/Mez (and Acc/Mez or Acc/Dam) enhancers in.

Essence Drain
Range: 5ft (melee)
Endurance: 15.6
Recharge: 15s
Activation Time: 1.93s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 41.71 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS
Hitpoints Healed: 10%
Available: Level 18

This is basically Siphon Life from Dark Melee and personally not one I found to be very useful overall. The heal is fairly mediocre and the damage wasn't anything special. In a few levels you get Stygian Circle which completely outshines it in terms of the heal anyway. Essence drain does have the advantage of not requiring a corpse to heal you though so requires less care for timing and positioning than Stygian Circle.

Gravitic Emanation
Range: 40ft
Cone Angle: 45°
Max Targets Hit: 10
Endurance: 14.35
Recharge: 45s
Activation Time: 1s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 13.9 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.4DS
Disorient Duration: 9s (critter), 6s (player)
Disorient Magnitude: Mag 3
Chance to knockback: 100%
Available: Level 26

Gravitic Emanation does considerable knockback and does so pretty consistently. As such it is very useful as a precision crowd repositioning tool. It also has quite a long range and so can also include quite a large number of mobs if you want it to. It also has a decent base duration Mag 3 disorient that will stun lt's and below in one hit. It can therefore be used as an effective alternative to Gravity Well for dealing with Quantums/Voids and has the advantage that it can be used from range. When used in concert with Inky Aspect (see later) it can even allow you to disorient bosses. This power is good from the outset with even just one accuracy enhancer. It is worth considering a second accuracy though to ensure hits on the occasions you don't have a mire in effect and also a disorient duration enhancement or two - these can be left till later though if there are more pressing powers to slot. Recharge may also be helpful here, depending on how you want to use the power.

Unchain Essence
Range: 40ft
Radius: 20ft
Max Targets Hit: 16
Endurance: 26
Recharge: 240s
Activation Time: 3.17s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage: 90.37 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 2.6DS
Disorient Duration (50% chance): 4.5s (critter), 3s (player)
Disorient Magnitude (50% chance): Mag 3
Chance to knockback: 10%
Available: Level 26

Unchain Essence is your second most powerful AoE attack (after Quasar) and is basically like a mini-nuke. The snag is that you need to target a corpse in order to fire it off. By this stage you should have both Shadow Blast and Gravity Well pretty nicely slotted and when further fuelled by a Sunless Mire you should be able to take down a minion very quickly and use the freshly defeated corpse to give his friends a big shock; you should normally be able to get the unchain in pretty easily before the mire buff expires. It is well worth 6 slotting unchain essence as it will be a very formidable power when used against large groups of mobs. Anything left standing also has a good chance to be disoriented for a short while which makes unchain a nice covering move for extracting your pet in a few levels time (and the two powers can be easily used on the same corpse). It has the same base recharge as dark extraction and so if you slot them for the same amount of recharge they are ready at the same time if you want to use them this way. I have mine slotted 3 recharge, 3 damage (I always use it after a mire so I let that take care of the accuracy).

Targetting a corpse in the middle of a load of mobs is often nearly impossible and so a better thing to do is to cycle through the targets until you see a minion or lt that is low on health and finish it off yourself, you will then have a fresh corpse already targetted and ready to be unchained. Once you get Dark Extraction you will be able to use that power to target the nearest corpse (as clicking on the power when you have nothing targetted will attempt to select a corpse for you). Oh and the sound this power makes when hitting a large group of mobs is *really* nice

Dark Extraction
Range: 40ft
Endurance: 26
Recharge: 240s
Activation Time: 3.2s
Accuracy: 100%
Available: Level 32

Huzzah! Pet time! The Dark Extraction power enables you to create the Extracted Essence pet from any defeated foe. Extracted Essence, or 'Fuzzie' (Fluffy has already been stolen by those Dark Miasmists) is a small fuzzie ball that follows you around while blasting away at your enemies. It is basically like a mini-Nova in terms of its power; it has two single target blasts and a cone - all of which are basically pure negative damage blasts with the associated slow and -recharge secondary effects - they don't have any of the knockback or stun effects that your versions of the powers do (note that his version of grav emanation is more of a damage power than the control power yours is), and Fuzzie hits for quite a bit more with its blasts than you do too - here are its powers and their associated level 50 damage and DS value (Fuzzie uses the ranged pet modifier of 0.8):

Shadow Bolt (26.69 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.6DS)
Shadow Blast (72.96 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.64DS)
Gravitic Emanation (44.04 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.99DS)

At level 32 you have access to both this and Quasar - but you should definitely get Fuzzie first IMO and 6 slot it straight away. I recommend an accuracy, and then 2-3 recharge, 2-3 damage to taste. Personally I have 1 acc / 2 recharge / 3 damage which, with hasten running on and off, allows me to have 2 out most of the time (available corpses allowing). Note that Fuzzie is one of the few pet powers which allows more than one at a time. Damage and ToHit Buffs (e.g. Sunless Mire and Inspirations) that are active on you when you summon will also be transferred to fuzzies - so if you time it right, you can summon a fuzzie that is nicely buffed up (the buffs only persist for as long as they are active on you though). Hasten appears to transfer too (you get the icon in the pet window, and the fuzzie will get a 'Hasten glow'), however so far my testing indicates that it doesn't actually enhance the recharge of its attacks. Warshades (like all non-Masterminds) don't have the pet window visible by default at character creation - but it is easy to enable it via the options window. You can the click on 'Pets' at the top of your team window to open the floating pet window to keep an eye on the status of your pets.

The corpse targetting snag is a bit snaggier with Fuzzie due to the extended animation time associated with extracting him; the pet only gets formed towards the end of the animation, and if the corpse you are using disappears (as they do after a while) before he appears, then you will get no pet (although you will still be charged the endurance and you will have to wait for the power to recharge). As you can imagine this is a right pain when it happens but the chances are minimised if you use a freshly created corpse - the 'finishing off a low health mob' trick as described for Unchain Essence is usually the best way to do this. If you have nothing targetted and you click dark extraction once, it will switch to the nearest corpse (if there is one) - you can then activate the power again on the target to extract a pet, or activate unchain essence. I tend to prefer using the fresh corpse method as it reduces the chances of disappearing corpses, but in the heat of the battle you may not have a choice.

Quasar
Radius: 25ft (ranged)
Max Targets Hit: 16
Endurance: 20.8
Recharge: 360s
Activation Time: 3s
Accuracy: 140%
Damage: 104.27 neg + 52.13 neg (75% chance) + 52.13 neg (50% chance) &gt;&gt;&gt; 3.0-6.0DS
Chance to knockback: 100%
Available: Level 32

Well this is basically the Warshade version of the Energy Blast set's Nova (not to be confused with our Dark Nova of course). Of course being Warshades (masters of funk), ours looks much better It is the most damaging AoE we have access to and is best used against a large number of mobs following a mire on the lot of them. The power doesn't actually need that much endurance to use but it will completely drain your endurance bar regardless of how much end you actually had and will halt your natural endurance recovery for 20 seconds after using it. Depending on the exact point in the end tick cycle you use the power, you may actually be left with a tiny amount of endurance - sometimes it is actually enough to use Stygian Circle, which of course is very handy as you will no doubt have lots of defeated minions and lt's around you who will kindly completely replenish your endurance bar. Even if you aren't left with enough endurance, you can pop a blue inspiration which will restore enough to use Stygian which will then fill you up the rest of the way. The only thing to bear in mind is that this power sends things flying everywhere so you may need to position yourself to get enough corpses in proximity for Stygian Circle. The other side-effect of the Endurance drop after using the power is that most (if not all) your toggles are likely to drop and so it is worth bearing in mind you could be leaving yourself rather vulnerable to anything that may have survived the blast.

I usually find this is a more situational power to use than unchain and so I usually only use it when I know there are enough mobs to justify it. The main things to slot this power for are damage and recharge (accuracy shouldn't be needed given its inherent +40% accuracy). As you may well find it is situational you can probably just get away with slotting it for only damage - but you may find you want to use it a bit more often, so I'll leave my slotting suggestion as 3 Dam, 0-3 Recharge.

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Warshade Secondary - Umbral Aura

Well only 12 powers here rather than the 14 in the primary, but still more than usual and similarly, they are all unlocked by the time we hit 38 like a normal secondary.

Where Umbral Blast provides the main damage powers, Umbral Aura is where the Warshade finds his self-preservation powers. We have a blend of damage resistance, stealth, recovery, regeneration, and some minor damage and control powers to choose from, and of course Black Dwarf form.

Much of the protection in the set is toggle based and as such we are rather susceptible to status effects, something unfortunately we have next to no protection from in human-form! Ultimately we will have the ability (in many circumstances) to cap our resistances (which for Kheldians is 85% in all forms) to all damage types, including psionic.

Let's look in detail at what Umbral Aura has to offer us...

Absorption
Damage Resistance: 11.25% (Energy, Negative)
Available: Level 1

Well you don't have any choice with this one so you straight away have a bonus resistance (11.25% base if you're interested) to energy and negative energy, which fits with the theme of Kheldians as masters of energy and matter rather well. Not really worth slotting up (at least not initially) - if you want more energy/neg energy resistance then you can grab twilight shield later on, or just hold out till eclipse. Just one Damage Resistance should do, though you could add another one or two later if you are looking to max out your energy/negative resists outside eclipse.

Gravity Shield
Endurance per tick: 0.13
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Recharge: 2s
Activation Time: 0.67s
Damage Resistance: 22.5% (Smash, Lethal)
Available: Level 2

Well this is really a must have for the human-form Warshade - you are going to be spending a lot of your time in or close to melee and that is where smashing and lethal damage is most prolific. Gravity Shield offers 22.5% resistance to both and so is well worth investing some slots into. In the far distant future Eclipse will be able to, well... eclipse this in terms of overall resistance but Gravity Shield will remain invaluable for surviving any initial attacks before you get Eclipse off, and for those occasions where there aren't enough enemies for eclipse to add much resistance and so any slots invested here now really aren't ever wasted, even after Eclipse. I'd recommend 1 endurance reduction and 3 damage resistance.

Orbiting Death
Radius: 20ft (melee)
Max Targets Hit: 10
Endurance per tick: 1.56
Tick frequency: 2s
Recharge: 4s
Activation Time: 1.17s
Damage per tick: 7.09 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.17DS
Available: Level 4

Well this power is affectionately known as Orbiting Debt by many people, mainly due to its amazing ability to draw aggro to you. It is basically a copy of Dark Armor's Death Shroud but again, with far funkier visual effects. I think it's worth taking this power with a view of not using it too much until a bit later when you can afford to take the beating it will no doubt draw to you (once you have eclipse you can use orbiting debt and be a pseudo-auravoke-tanker so long as status effects aren't a problem). It is very useful for finishing of foes with a slither of life - many of the big AoE's will leave some mobs with a bit of life left and Orbiting Death can be very useful for taking them out. It is quite expensive to run and so will probably need 2 or 3 endurance reducers, even after stamina, but it can work out cheaper in the long run than firing off blasts at several different targets to finish them off. Sunless Mire will help give it a decent enough damage boost most of the time, but a few slots of damage here aren't wasted - an Accuracy can be useful too (but again not essential if you staying Mire'd up a lot of the time).

Penumbral Shield
Endurance per tick: 0.13
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Recharge: 2s
Activation Time: 0.67s
Damage Resistance: 22.5% (Fire, Cold), 15% (Toxic)
Available: Level 10

This is basically the exact same thing as Gravity Shield, but it resists the less common damage types of fire, cold and toxic (the latter having a slightly lower level of resistance). I took this shield originally as I was encountering plenty of villain types that did these types of damage but you may be able to survive without it as the actual amounts of those damage types isn't particularly high most of the time (certainly not as much as smashing and lethal anyway). If you do get it then the normal slotting of 1 EndRedux and 3 DamRes is probably best. Might be a power to get initially and then respec out later on once you get Eclipse.

Shadow Cloak
Endurance per tick: 0.13
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Recharge: 20s
Activation Time: 1.17s
Defence: 3.75% (Melee, Ranged)
Stealth: 389ft
Perception: +60% (and 60% resistance to -Perception)
Available: Level 14

This is basically a copy of Dark Armor's Cloak of Darkness - as well as giving you standard stealth (but without the movement penalty), it also gives you a small amount of defence, a bonus to perception (allowing you to more easily see stealthy foes), and gives a small amount of Immobilize protection. This is the only Warshade power with +Def, though it is a very small amount and won't be noticeable most of the time - even with 3 Defence SO's it will still only offer 5.9% Defence. It is however extremely valuable for allowing you to sneak up on Voids/Quantums to apply Gravity Well safely (and also allows you to scout around without fear of Voids/Quantums spotting you and taking you out). I'd recommend slotting at least 1 EndRdx and adding Def enhancers only if you have nothing better to slot.

Twilight Shield
Endurance per tick: 0.13
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Recharge: 2s
Activation Time: 0.67s
Damage Resistance: 22.5% (Energy, Negative)
Available: Level 16

Again, the same numbers as Gravity and Penumbral, but this time for energy and negative energy. Our level 1 auto power Absorption already gives us 11.25% base resistance and that is probably enough to be getting by most of the time - if you do want to get twilight (admittedly it does look rather cool) you can give it the usual 1 EndRdx, 3 DamRes treatment. Again, you might get it earlier and then respec out later after getting Eclipse. It does have value in PvP though, where energy damage is particularly common (and you won't often be getting particularly good performance out of Eclipse).

Black Dwarf
Endurance per tick: 0.13
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Endurance Recovery Buff: 15%
Damage Resistance: 37.5% (Smash, Lethal, Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative, Toxic)
Available: Level 20

Well I mentioned Nova a bit so I suppose it's only fair I mention the big lobster too. Same rules apply for toggles and auto powers so only the Dwarf's own powers can be used when in this form. Again hasten and any other persisting click power will be carried over into Dwarf form.

Dwarf form basically gives you 37.5% base resistance to all damage except psi, high protection against all status effects (even fear and confuse), boosted endurance recovery, a 75% increase in hitpoints, and access to 6 special Dwarf powers - they are listed here along with their level 50 damage and associated Damage Scale (where appropriate):

Black Dwarf Strike (23.64 neg + 16.07 smash &gt;&gt;&gt; 0.84DS)
Black Dwarf Smite (47.27 neg + 15.13 smash &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.32DS)
Black Dwarf Drain (47.27 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS)
Black Dwarf Mire (47.27 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0DS)
Black Dwarf Step
Black Dwarf Antagonise

Again, these are all additional slottable powers which get listed under your Inherents - note that like Nova, Dwarf uses a higher Melee Damage Modifier than human form (0.85 blaster damage instead of 0.75), which again is why the Dwarf attacks hit for a bit more than human-form attacks with similar Damage Scales - though it doesn't have the same +45% damage boost that Nova gets. Slotting 3 DamRes in the Dwarf Form is generally a good idea to strengthen all those resists up a good amount. You may notice Dwarf Mire in there too - this is basically exactly the same power as Sunless Mire, and so if you do take Dwarf form you will have two nice buildup-type powers to push yourself closer to the damage cap with a good group of mobs. I won't go any further into the Dwarf powers here though.

Stygian Circle
Radius: 20ft (melee)
Max Targets Hit: 10
Endurance: 15.6
Recharge: 30s
Activation Time: 1.17s
Accuracy: Autohit
Endurance gain (per corpse): 20
Hitpoint gain (per corpse): 20% (minions), 30% (lieutenants), 40% (bosses, elites, players), 50% (AVs, monsters)
Available: Level 22

This is an absolute must-have for any warshade, and the endurance hungry human-form in particular. It works by giving you a heal and endurance boost for each defeated foe around you when you activate it. The radius is actually pretty large and you usually completely fill both your health and endurance bars at the end of a fight with this power (or during it if its a particularly long fight). It's great out of the box, but is still worth investing some slots in so that it gives you a good boost even from just one or two enemies. I would recommend 1-2 EndRdx to ensure you can fire it off even when low on endurance, and then 1-2 rech, and 1-2 EndMod. Heals generally aren't required as you normally aren't that low on health anyway, and the cases where you might be, there are more than likely to be loads of defeated enemies around - and you get a larger amount of health back for higher class enemies.

Nebulous Form
Endurance per tick: 1.3
Tick frequency: 0.5s
Recharge: 60s
Activation Time: 3s
Stealth: 222ft
Available: Level 24

Nebulous Form is the Warshade phase shift power - it reduces your visibility a bit, but you will still be detected if you stray too close to the enemy (although of course they can't do anything to you if you do). Nebulous Form also has the bonus feature of granting you a moderate jump ability too, but it's nowhere near full superjump (it's about half of it in fact). Nebulous Form can stack with SuperSpeed though to create a very safe and pretty effective travel power (although only for 60 seconds at a time). It can be used quite nicely for soaking an alpha-strike from a large mob, and you can 'phase-herd' with it to a degree too. It can be used as a panic button in some cases (e.g. a Void unexpectedly turning up), but it does have a quite considerable activation delay during which time you are still vulnerable to attacks so make sure you activate it before things go too wrong. Like all intangibility powers, it has a pretty long recharge on it and it will also automatically deactivate after 60 seconds of use - so you can't have it on all the time like you once could. 1 EndRedux is really all it needs, considering it won't be on all the time.

Inky Aspect
Radius: 8ft (Melee)
Max targets hit: 10
Endurance per tick: 0.16
Tick frequency: 2s
Recharge: 8s
Activation Time: 1.17s
Accuracy: 100%
Disorient Duration: 5.4s (critter and player)
Disorient Magnitude: Mag 2
Self-Damage per mob per tick 4.17 special
Available: Level 28

Inky Aspect is another power we've borrowed/stolen from Dark Armor and funked up - this time it's Oppressive Gloom. It basically applies a pulsed Mag 2 Disorient in Melee range around you. On its own it will only overcome minions, but when stacked with Gravitic Emanation then it can actually disorient bosses too. Anything that becomes disoriented will be unable to attack, will drop their toggles, and will wander around in small circles - as such, Inky Aspect is a very effective damage mitigator. If you are teamed with another user of Inky Aspect (or Oppressive Gloom) then if you stick together you'll be able to keep everything around you near perma-disoriented (accuracy and wandering mobs allowing). I've found this an invaluable tool in human-form. The endurance cost is minimal and the disorient lasts as long as the next pulse - one accuracy in the default slot is all it really needs - though you can add a second if you want to make sure.

It does take a bit of your own health away for each mob that it hits for each tick of the power, however the effect is minimal overall - at most you will be suffering about 40 damage every 2 seconds which you can easily deal with.

Stygian Return
Radius: 25ft (melee)
Max targets hit: 10
Recharge: 300s
Activation Time: 1.17s
Accuracy: Autohit
Damage: 41.71 neg &gt;&gt;&gt; 1.0 DS
Endurance gain (per target): 30
Hitpoint gain (per target): 27%
Available: Level 35

Stygian Return is yet another hijack from the Dark Armor set - well almost. Soul Transfer get's the funk treatment this time and gives us our self-rez power. It is powered from nearby live mobs (there must be at least one for the power to work) and the more mobs there are, the more health and endurance will be restored. Unfortunately we don't get the nice PBAoE stun that Soul Transfer has, and although we should have a short (5s) period of invulnerability when you activate the power, it can be a bit unreliable as it only activates 0.25 seconds into the animation. It is also rather dangerous to use if rezzing from only one enemy - you really need two or three mobs to be rezzed to nearly full health and endurance. The debt protection works properly though and lasts for 20 seconds. This is a power I usually leave quite late in a build (often a level 49 choice), as it's not too important overall and requires minimal slotting (Just a Heal in the default slot is probably all it needs).

Eclipse
Radius: 15ft (melee)
Max targets hit: 16
Endurance: 0.52
Recharge: 300s
Activation Time: 1.03s
Accuracy: 100%
Damage Resistance gain (per target): 11.25% (for 90s)
Endurance gain (per target): 25
Endurance drain (to target): 33%
Endurance recovery debuff (to target): 100% (for 10s)
Available: Level 38

Eclipse is simply awesome. Although it sounds like it might be a copy of Dark Melee's Dark Consumption, it's actually a very unique power. For a start it is on a much longer recharge and as such the endurance recovery aspect is more of a nice to have (although you usually only need to hit 3 or 4 mobs to completely fill your blue bar though so it's a "very nice" to have). It also drains endurance from the mobs it hits (rather than their hitpoints), and also halts their endurance recovery for a while. The key aspect of the power however, is that it increases your resistance to all damage (even psionic) by 11.25% for each mob it hits. This means that without any other shields or dark sustenance buffs, you only need to hit 8 mobs to hit the resistance cap of 85%. If you have some shields and/or resistance buffing allies then you need even less to hit the cap. For example with a 3 slotted Gravity Shield, you would only need to hit 5 mobs to cap out your Smash/Lethal resistance.

Since the advent of Enhancement Diversification, Eclipse can unfortunately no longer be perma (at least not without considerable outside buffs to recharge speed), however it is still very powerful for the 90s it is up, and with 3 Recharge alone (even without Hasten), it will be up over half the time.

The main dilemma you really face is whether to use Eclipse first or Sunless Mire when encountering a new group. Since Sunless Mire actually partially holds the mobs while it is firing off I often Mire first against smaller groups to ensure I have the accuracy for Eclipse to hit all available mobs, but this does leave a small window of opportunity for the mobs to get some shots off at me without my capped resists. Against particularly large crowds I will use Eclipse first as there are so many that Eclipse is likely to hit enough to cap anyway and it is the 'safer' option. My recommended slotting for Eclipse is 1 Accuracy, 3 Recharge, and 2 Damage Resistance Enhancements - with 2 damage resistance, you will only need to hit 5 mobs to cap out your resistance to everything, even without any shields running.

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Standard Pool Powers

Well almost same rules as for normal ATs - you can choose from a maximum of four of them and I would highly recommend Fitness and Speed are two of them. With so many more powers available in the primary and secondary you may find little room for anything else - a number of powers in the main powersets are the same or better versions of ones in the pools anyway.

Concealment - Well given Umbral Aura already gives us Shadow Cloak which is superior to Stealth (and no, they cannot be stacked with each other), and nebulous form is superior to phase shift, there is really little point in looking at this pool unless you don't like the visuals or sound effects of the Warshade ones or you want to be able to grant invis.

Fighting - The tempting power here is Weave as it gives us much sought after defence. Unfortunately we need to take two other powers in the set to get it and they are all pretty much redundant - gravity shield offers far better smash/lethal resist than tough, and we have no shortage of single target attacks already at our disposal. I've tried a couple of builds on test to fit in the fighting pool but I couldn't really manage it without severely compromising the rest of my build - you might be able to if you don't have the same build requirements.

Fitness - Human-form Warshades are huge endurance users - we have several pretty high cost powers in our primary and we also have to worry about toggles. I still advocate getting and 3-slotting stamina for the human-form, as even though Stygian Circle is good - it needs more than one corpse to start giving back more endurance than it uses and you need to use plenty of endurance to defeat some mobs in the first place - especially if you are starting off a mission without the aid of pets. Stamina is less of a concern for multi-form Warshades as both Nova and Dwarf form have an increased (and enhanceable) endurance recovery rate. Take whichever pre-requisites you want - though with Stygian Circle you'll probably find that Health is pretty redundant (unless you want it for the modest sleep resistance).

Flight This pool is unavailable for Kheldians as we have our inherent teleportation powers (and Peacebringers have inherent flight-based powers).

Leadership - Well tactics is always nice for a team, although as Warshades we already have access to a superior ToHit buff in Sunless Mire (even though only we benefit from it), and we get good +perception from Shadow Cloak too. Given the number of toggles we are likely to be running, this might be one for later in the build if you do want to get it.

Leaping - Well we can already have a mini-superleap in nebulous form and have a free travel power from level 1 in shadow step anyway - why would we want the leaping pool? The answer of course is Knockback. One of the delightful additions in Issue 4 was the introduction of knockback for us players. Our mire(s) and eclipse rely on careful positioning in the middle of mobs and knockback can cause us endless grief. Acrobatics is therefore an absolute godsend. Acrobatics also has the added benefit of minor hold protection. The added benefits of combat jumping (good combat movement and superior immob protection) make this pool well worth considering. To get acro you of course need at least one other power in the pool and so I would recommend superleap for an alternative travel option (it also stacks with nebulous form).

Medicine - Well it could be worth getting if you want a bit of self-sufficiency and find yourself having problems with the Warshade's own healing powers. It also gives you some support options. Personally I find Stygian Circle is normally all I need and simply don't have the space for any other powers anyway.

Presence - Not a pool I've tried with my warshade and of course Black Dwarf's antagonise is a taunt power anyway. We have no fear powers to stack with the high end presence powers so a 'scary blaptroller' is probably tricky to pull off - feel free to give it a go though as I don't think anyone's tried it yet!

Speed - I have already mentioned hasten in my build earlier on and I strongly recommend it. We have several very long recharge powers and hasten (even if it can't be perma anymore) means we get to use them more often - you will be a far more potent hero with this in your build. Superspeed's stealth stacks with Shadow Cloak for virtual undetectability when scouting. It also synergises nicely with the jump in nebulous form. If you are wanting an alternative travel power to Shadow Step, this is an excellent choice.

Teleportation - For the same reason as flight, this pool is unavailable to Kheldians.

[/ QUOTE ]
My Build

Well this is just an example of how a human-form warshade can be built - there are numerous others I have tried on both live and test (I've used all 3 Reactor respecs as well as two freespecs), and it just goes to show how diverse Warshades can be (even before considering the forms).

This is the latest build I have respecced into, having dabbled in the medicine pool with the last one (at the expense of Quasar and Stygian Return - though the order I took powers was very different). I have pushed a few things out quite late in this one that I have usually taken much earlier (Hasten and Shadow Cloak specifically) in order to get Acrobatics in as early as possible - you might want to shuffle things around a bit to take it earlier. I levelled my Warshade up in the days before knockback was such a big issue and didn't originally take Acro till the 40s - it's probably still a viable choice but I'm just used to picking up Acro a bit earlier these days.

Level 1 Ebon Eye - Acc (L1) Acc (L11) Dam (L11) Dam (L17) Dam (L17)
Level 1 Absorption - DamRes (L1) DamRes (L48) DamRes (L48)
Level 1 Shadow Step (Inher) - EndRdx (L1) Range (L37) Range (L43) Range (L50)
Level 2 Gravity Shield - EndRdx (L2) DamRes (L3) DamRes (L3) DamRes (L5)
Level 4 Orbiting Death - EndRdx (L4) EndRdx (L5) EndRdx (L37) Acc (L37) Dam (L43) Dam (L46)
Level 6 Shadow Blast - Acc (L6) Acc (L7) Dam (L7) Dam (L9) Dam (L9)
Level 8 Combat Jumping - Jump (L8)
Level 10 Swift - Run (L10) Run (L48)
Level 10 Shadow Recall (Inher) - Rech (L10)
Level 12 Sunless Mire - Acc (L12) Acc (L13) Rech (L13) Rech (L15) Rech (L15)
Level 14 Super Jump - EndRdx (L14)
Level 16 Hurdle - Jump (L16) Jump (L50)
Level 18 Gravity Well - Acc (L18) Acc (L19) Dam (L19) Dam (L21) Hold (L21) Hold (L23)
Level 20 Stamina - EndMod (L20) EndMod (L23) EndMod (L25)
Level 22 Stygian Circle - EndRdx (L22) EndRdx (L25) Rech (L42) Rech (L43) EndMod (L46) EndMod (L46)
Level 24 Acrobatics - EndRdx (L24)
Level 26 Unchain Essence - Dam (L26) Dam (L27) Dam (L27) Rech (L29) Rech (L31) Rech (L31)
Level 28 Gravitic Emanation - Acc (L28) Acc (L29) Disor (L31) Disor (L34) Rech (L36) Rech (L40)
Level 30 Inky Aspect - Acc (L30) Acc (L50)
Level 32 Dark Extraction - Acc (L32) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Dam (L33) Rech (L34) Rech (L34)
Level 35 Hasten - Rech (L35) Rech (L36) Rech (L36)
Level 38 Eclipse - Acc (L38) Rech (L39) Rech (L39) Rech (L39) DamRes (L40) DamRes (L40)
Level 41 Quasar - Dam (L41) Dam (L42) Dam (L42) Rech (L45) Rech (L45) Rech (L45)
Level 44 Shadow Cloak - EndRdx (L44)
Level 47 Nebulous Form - EndRdx (L47)
Level 49 Stygian Return - Heal (L49)

[/ QUOTE ]
PvP / The Arena

Given that some of our nicest powers rely on defeated opponents, and/or lots of tightly grouped foes, at first glance Warshades appear to be royally stuffed in the Arena. As it turns out, we can actually use a mix of stealth, ranged stuns, our hold, slows/-recharge, and moderate damage to cause problems for some opponents. Add in that our pets persist even if we are defeated and we actually get very nasty if we get a foothold and manage to summon a fuzzie or two. As long as you begin the dark extraction power while a defeated opponent is on the ground it will succeed in being summoned - even if the person subsequently re-spawns (if it hasn't already spawned, the fuzzie will appear where the player re-spawns and return to you). The trick of course is getting that foothold in the first place! Peacebringers tend to be overall more successful in PvP (one on one at least), as they are a lot more self-sufficient and have a couple of really heavy hitting melee attacks. Overall though I've not had much luck in PvP with my Warshade - they are pretty difficult to be successful with.

In team matches our link buffs have a chance to kick in (of course they are still reliant on proximity to the appropriate team-mates) and so we can get an extra edge. I've not played my Warshade in that many team-matches though, so my experience is fairly limited there.

[/ QUOTE ]
Summary

Human-form Warshades take a long time to come into their own, but when they eventually do they can become extremely powerful. The lack of status protection, however, is a constant thorn in our side for our entire career and can only marginally be offset with pool powers. Teaming with controllers, defenders, and tanks is the best way to deal with it as otherwise you need a rather large and continuous supply of break-frees, although making sure you mez opponents first can avoid quite a lot of problems.

Going from multi-form to human-form only can be a difficult choice and there is no 'right time' to do it. If solo-ability is a concern then I can tell you I didn't find mine to be realistically solo-able until the late 20s; things became much easier with the fuzzies at 32 and once Eclipse is slotted up you'll probably do fine until the nastier mezzing type enemies. From what I've read, many who choose to dump Nova and go human-form only do initially really notice the drop in up-front damage output, but the added abilities of the human-form do offset that more and more. For soloists I'd suggest that from level 28 onwards is probably the time you can begin thinking about leaving Nova behind - I'd recommend trying out a human-form build on test first though to see how you find it, but bearing in mind they will be far more effective in teams.

There is such a wide variety of power choices available, even when choosing human-form only, that you can produce some markedly different builds, each just as viable as the next - so don't be afraid to try something different.

Hope you find this guide useful and have fun with your Warshade!

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A very nice guide. Well done

I would change one part, that about Dark Detonation. If you are on a large team with good control, then DD becomes another blast in your chain, and has decent AOE effects. The knock-back is not much of an issue if you have good controllers. Full teams also mean large spawns and maximum benefits from the other players.

In this case, DD is a great tool, giving the human form a decent AOE and good blast. Perhaps in smaller teams, or solo, then the KB is bad; but in a full team, it is very effective.

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2012 -- 35 years on the Net

Minor correction - Dark Nova Detonation is 100% neg energy.

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Brilliant guide. One addition: Precision corpse targeting can now be achieved with a bind.

/bind &lt;some key&gt; "target_custom_next enemy defeated"

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Invictus Est Level 50 Invul/Fire Tank
Malentis Level 50 Ice/Energy/Leviathan Dom (Freedom)
Black Jeremiah Level 50 Fire/Fire/Mu Dom
Sejanna Level 50 Dark/Dark/Elec Def (Virtue)
Arc #119664 - The MiniMech Cometh - Hess TF Mini-Sequel

Very nicely done guide. Clear, concise, good numbers. Well done. Been thinking about the All-Human on Shadowforged, and this looks to be a good way to do it.

[ QUOTE ]
One addition: Precision corpse targeting can now be achieved with a bind.

/bind &lt;some key&gt; "target_custom_next enemy defeated

[/ QUOTE ]

I was going to say the same thing, I love this bind, it helps a lot. What I have is 'i' bound to find a corpse (though I usually do the kill weak minion routine), 'y' is bound to corpse explosion, and 'u' is bound to unchain essence. Works pretty well and keeps my tray clean.

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Thanks for the kind words, additional thoughts, tips, and corrections - I'd forgotten that Dark Nova's Detonation was all negative (Bright Nova's is a mix of types as you might expect, given its effect). I'll also have to see about incorporating that bind too.

I9 looks set to make Kheldians even more interesting with the invention system - it should give us lots of options we didn't have before (like knockback protection without having to take acrobatics for starters).

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_Brev_!!! I love this guide!!! Thank you thank you thank you. I, frankly, loathe the dwarf and nova forms for two reasons: 1) aesthetics. 2) homogeneity - I hate looking like everyone else!! If only I could dress up that lobster and squid!

Though it's a tough road, I prefer the idea of a Kheld that has only touched a human form and, therefore, has only that one at its disposal. Thanks for writing a guide to show me and others the way.

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Eh. Even with shields and sorts, I still don't like Orbiting Death. I never liked those DoT auras...especially the ones without any secondary effects.

But otherwise, very nice guide and suggested build

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Ok... quick question...
I normally run with my tab set as target next closest...

How do I change the tab bind to do that and still point out
the ones I need to look out for...?

/bind TAB "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next void$$target_custom_next quant$$target_custom_next cyst"

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Hey Brev,

Quick question. Do the Nova and Dwarf toggles still detoggle you from all other toggles? Or do they just act kinda like Phase Shift now and just cease affecting anything?

One of my biggest problems with the powers has always been the detoggle of all other powers when the khelds first came out. I've been away for quite some time and recently came back in the past few months, but hadn't done any experiments to see yet and thought you may know the answer as to whether it got changed without a copy to test for me.

Also I'm giving some thought on the presence pool. My most recent respec I picked Neb form back up, but its still been just as useless to me as it was when all phase powers got changed. I was considering picking up provoke and 4 slotting it with the Perfect Zinger set. This would both protect my pets, give me an extra 5% recharge, and I could put the Psi damage proc in it for a little extra occasional chance at some AoE.

The only problem is I would have to drop CJ as I'm maxed on pools already.

Will have to send you my current build. I was farming better than some fire/kins this weekend.

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<sigh> Viv says its no longer "all me".
http://wendy-mags.mybrute.com/

I'll just answer that in case Brev isn't around - going into Dwarf or Nova detoggles all toggles and removes all auto powers. Click-activated powers stay on until their duration ends.

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well this is exactly what i was looking for... i wanted a guide that would show me what i am in store for with my lvling WS.

I thank you for it.

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" I don't let me kids play on the Freedom Server" -Oya

Overall, a very nice guide. I would add one small change however. Recently, I have become enamored of anti-kb IOs. It is not too hard to get some IOs that will reduce the magnitude of a knockback power by -4. The best part is that none of these are unique, they can be slotted a lot of places, and they are available at level 10. It will cost you 5-10 million a pop for them, but it is WELL worth the investment, as they make the requirement for Acrobatics "not a rule, really, more of a guideline."

David

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Those didn't exist when this guide was written.

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