part - 2 -
The sheilds:
The sheilds are an interesting debate in the forums. Some people like them, some people like all or nothing and find them uninspiring. The RES combined with bonuses from inherent can make for some pretty impressive defenses, but they have a big MEZ hole. Now, some don't mind the hole and see no hole. I'm one of them. I see that all ATs need a weakness. Kheldians have several. And this is where all the negativity comes from. However, I find that playing a blapper (blaster that relies on melee for damage), I like the shields even without mez protection. However, if you find the hole big enough to ruin your fun, learn from the ways of the dog, and find a bone (teammate) to fill it with. Also, another downside, if you switch forms, it detoggles shields. Some find this to be annoying, because the combined activation time of the shields can hinder your effectiveness
Filling the Mez Hole (if you want to):
List of powers that can fill this hole
1. Empathy - Clear Mind (got a healer... blarg)
2. Storm Summoning - O2 Boost
3. Sonic Reson - Clarity
4. Kinetics - Increase Density (couple with Speed Boost to overcome side-effects)
Villains side:
5. Thermal Radiation - Thaw
6. Poison - Antidote
7. Repeats from above
Also, anything that buffs DEF can be used as semi-protection. If the hold doesn't HIT, it won't STICK.
My Advice:
Play a peacebringer like a human form blapper. If you're on a team see if you can have 2 controllers or a defender with a clear mind type power, and use the shields. If not, play like a blapper. You will have immense damage by taking the strikes. You can lead off with the AoE soft-control, then Build-up and blap away. You have a dull-pain and a heal (third heal if in dwarf). Don't bother with detonation, but the cone can be used as more soft-control. At 32, you can occasionally go kaboom if you take the nuke. You'll feel alot like a blaster at that point. Build-up, Strike, Strike, Stomp, Boom. If you play like a blapper, you can avoid the mez.
Play a warshade like a tri-form utility-belt. You can pretty much do anything, and tank if you slot the taunt. You get very high resists for a single toggle, plus comes with mez protection.
If you WANT to actually use dwarf form, slot it up. Don't be shy. The damage is pretty decent when slotted, about 70% of the nova attacks. I wouldn't bother slotting the hold if you take, more than four slots (accuracy and three durations). This is because if I'm human I'm only making a pet, letting hasten activate, or using stygian circle to fill my health and endurance (three minions can pretty much top off both). There is NO downtime, but you have to be quick. Double mire when you want to take things down quick (double mire means activate dwarf form, use Dwarf Mire, then detoggle dwarf and Sunless Mire)
Phase shift:
Both get a phase shift power, good oh-crap power. Take it, slot if you want. Peacebringer gets a super fast fly. Warshade gets a tenth of Superjump, more like Combat on steriods, and has a longer activation time. (yeah, what's the deal???)
(PB) Dull-pain boosts dwarf, high health, live longer.
(PB) Build-up, Dwarf form, Flare, detoggle Dwarf, Detonation, Solar Flare, and Dawn Strike.
(PB) Double Flare: If you start in Dwarf-form and detoggle during the Flare animation, Solar Flare appears to have little activation time. It seems you might actually ditch the Dwarf Flare pause when you detoggle. Who knows?
(WS) Perfect Double-mire: Stealth in with Super Speed and Shadow Cloak, Eclipse, Dwarf and mire, detoggle Dwarf, Sunless Mire. Damage as you see fit.
(WS) Trio: Stay in Nova unless hasten or extract essence is available. Slot up EE and hasten for recharge. You can maintain two Essences 90% of the time.
(WS) Poor Man's Stamina: Stygian Circle out of the box can keep you full on endurance and health at the end of every fight. One EndMod in Circle can almost fill endurance with only two minions.
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* FILLER for expansion purposes. *
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NOTICE:
Please, leave only positive and constructive comments on how to utilize Kheldians if you reply. I wish to show people how to play Kheldian, since they really can be utilized well in good hands. There is far too much negativity surrounding Kheldians, and I wish to correct this, because A LOT of the negativity follows from AT brainwashing.
I mentioned this in the other thread, but you are still spelling Archetype wrong.
Otherwise a good guide for the beginning Kheld.
[ QUOTE ]
(WS) Poor Man's Stamina: Stingy Circle out of the box can keep you full on endurance and health at the end of every fight. One EndMod in Circle can almost fill endurance with only two minions.
[/ QUOTE ]
Are you meaning to say Stingy Circle on purpose?
Ok, this was very good, And I'm going to go ahead and say that I am NOT going to insult your spelling. You showed all aspects, and I knew what you were talking about. This makes me want to make a WS, mostly just because I want a little more challenge than your normal tank(run in, punch, foot stomp, foot stomp leave) and controllers(run in, mass hold, mass imobilize, [lightning storm] blah blah)
So yea, this was very well done!
Good job!
RAWR.
:3
Member of Operation Unlimited Justice!
You only wish you were this epic.
10 Drop Ships taken down.
your explanation about pb's should only be played as a blapper is very biased. i think pb's are very useful triform. you might want to check that out
Intro:
Kheldians are actually great and fun utility Archtypes if you know how to use them. You can get a lot of fun out of them. The problem lies in that most people mis-interpret what to expect from them. Everyone HAS to level up a 50 to play a Kheldian, which means we have 50 levels of brainwashed gameplay in our heads and expect our Khelds to do what our old archtype used to, because the assortment of powers just don't make sense. Others just don't like what Kheldians have to offer. Regardless of their disagreements with the Archtype, destructive comments rarely put things into perspective, most often are exaggerated, and on the forums often get reposted more than constructive comments. All of this combined results in an image of bias that doesn't necessarily need to exist.
Before jumping into your Epic Archtype, remember that Epic refers to story and context, not ability. I find the AT to be epic enough in ability. Since they are hodgepodged powersets, you'll find yourself being good at everything but not exceptional at anything, just wait. Khelds get some good tricks at lvl 32 onward that might change your mind if you can wait that long.
This is not intended to be an indepth look at powers or how to min-max Kheldians, but simply an constructive introduction that will reveal the characteristics and flaws of Kheldians so you know if they are right for you.
Inherent:
The unique thing about Kheldians is their inherent power. The power buffs the Kheldian based on their team make-up and whether they are a Peacebringer or Warshade.
Peacebringer is a team balancer. A defensive team yields an offensive Peacebringer, whereas a defensive team yields a defensive Peacebringer.
Warshade is a team enhancer. The opposite of above.
Both net a status effect protection from controllers (1 point per). Don't plan on being tank-worthy yet, because 1 point per controller means even a full team of controllers won't put you at tank-lvl. It is far more effective to team with a defender or controller that has a Clear-Mind type powers. These are listed further down.
Powers:
To offset the fact that you can't choose a secondary and primary when you pick which Kheldian you want to play, both the secondary and primary sets are significantly larger than the typical AT. You'll notice scrolling through the powers that both types of kheldians generally have the same core powers in their sets. However the truth is the effects are totally different. As you follow through the higher powers, you'll see they branch off in different directions. To start, Peacebringers feature -DEF effect and MORE of the knockback effect, while warshades feature the slow and -rech effect and MORE of the stun effect.
Peace-bringer is a little more defensive, while the Warshade is a little more offensive. Don't worry, the truth is both are balanced quite well. The PB powers tend to be click self-buffs relying on nothing more than your own endurance. Which means they start out great. However the Warshade buffs require enemies, which means they have more potential.
Early in their career the powers seem almost identical. Post lvl 6 we see a little branching. Peacebringers get melee damage, which is considerably powerful for human form (Inc Strike has a chance to hold). Peacebringers also get an AoE stun and a heal other. Warshades get an immobilize and a melee hold. They get TP Foe and a drain ability.
NOTE: In their primary PBs have heal other, while WS has heal self.
The remaining powers differ in their secondary effect as mentioned above, and the fact that WS rely on enemies and PBs are flat self-buffs.
NOTE: Human form powers do little damage on their own except the PBs Strikes. If you intend to rely on the human powers for damage, plan to team according to your inherent as mentioned above.
Pets:
The PB pet is nothing more than three homing pets. They, like other homing pets, have a clunky AI, summon them right by the target, or they might forget they can attack. The Warshade pet has another clunky fault. Make sure your dead body is fresh, cause if it fades during the animation, you don't get a pet.
The Forms:
Both Peacebringer and Warshade get two forms, Nova and Dwarf. The Nova is a pocket-blaster while the Dwarf is a pocket Tanker. Nova get inherent flight, while Dwarf get their own Teleport. Both as travels are seperate from the inherent travel power wrapped in your human form. Both forms benefit from a higher base recovery. Nova benefits from a higher base slottable ToHit, and Dwarf benefits from a higher base HP and slottable resistance. It's more than just the powers.
However, it is JUST the powers as well. Because a White Dwarf isn't a Black Dwarf (Seriously.... no PC joke intended) I will mention the differences.
Nova:
Both are nearly identical, but yours truly would like to remark that the human buffs are dramatically different between PB and WS. Since Eclipse carries over into forms whereas Light Form does not, I find the Warshade Nova to be more effective. Also, Black Dwarf gets it's own Mire, two Mires >>>>> PB's Buildup.
Dwarf:
To be fair, I will admit that the PB Dwarf takes the cake. Since PB gets a Dull Pain equivalent, and the Dwarf heal is more effective on PB side, AND Dwarf Flare does more damage and recharges faster than Dwarf Mire, PB Dwarf can both hold aggro and health better than WS Dwarf.
Summary of differences so far:
- Both the peacebringer and warshade get a pocket-blaster and pocket-tanker, in the two forms Bright/Dark Nova, and White/Black Dwarf.
- The warshade as a more effective nova due to it's utility powers and mires.
- The peacebringer has a more effective dwarf due to dull pain (max health increase) which carries over into the form, it's heal is more powerful, and it has
a more effective AoE power for maintaining aggro.
- The human powers do less damage, but have a greater secondary effect.
- PB gets an AoE soft-control, and Inc Strike has the hold effect.
- WS gets an immobilize and a hold, a cone soft-control.
- PB gets the -DEF effect, WS gets the -rech and slow effect.
- PB buffs are flat-rate buffs.
- WS buffs are variable by the required enemies bodies.
- PB pets are short-lived and clunky
- WS pets are long-lived but can mis-fire when summoning