Yeah...a good n00b start is reading doubles guide...its the best one out there.....there are the usual comments about how other people play especially Jiaozy's build...there are two different (Slightly) depending on how people would like to play them, mine is hitting 29 soon, Im basically hitting a new level everyday because im loving the build so far....Have a look, only way to learn!
http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/showfl...;fpart=1#290353
You need a level 50 Hero to be able to create a kheld, not a villain.
(currently)
UNION
Officer Cuffz lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tank
Badge lvl 50 dwarf/human Peacebringer
Dark Air lvl 50 Ice/Cold Corruptor
Ayre lvl 50 Storm/Elec Defender
Total Cat: @Officer Cuffz
"When I say interview, I mean engage in combat and defeat..." -Laura Brunetti, on how to deal with Warriors.
Oh yeah....missed that :S
really?? aww.. that sucks 
after all that work too >.<
@MidnightGuard - on Union you may know me as:
Mr. Vile - Electroman X - Zenodorus - Battler
Naga Knight - Stinkspitter
Not too much of an issue. Kheldians will come to CoV and then you can have your squiddy villain fun.
Talking about issues: When is I8 coming? (Just killing kittens...)
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
Dont worry midnight, You'll get whats dude 
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Not too much of an issue. Kheldians will come to CoV and then you can have your squiddy villain fun.
Talking about issues: When is I8 coming? (Just killing kittens...)
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The Villain kheldian equivalent will be a Nictus! in I8 and possibly another one too...maybe Dark Crystals?
Main 50 & Badger Nine Claws Claws/Regen/Body
Other 50's Ph10x Brute Unjust Law Tanker Samantha Urai Scrapper Codename 1250 Scrapper
Cepheus Defender Nilus Scrapper Electro Field Blaster S.PONGE Tanker
Standard CoX play pattern
1. Rush your first toon to level 50 using every trick you can in the book, powerlevelling ,leeching, going afk, dodging debt at the expense of fun. Missing lots of content and fun on the way.
2. Roll a Kheldian
3. Get completely fed up with how awful they are by level 10-20.
4. Roll another "Standard" toon. Have much more fun, dont worry about debt, see more content, relax.
Enjoy! 
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Standard CoX play pattern
1. Rush your first toon to level 50 using every trick you can in the book, powerlevelling ,leeching, going afk, dodging debt at the expense of fun. Missing lots of content and fun on the way.
2. Roll a Kheldian
3. Get completely fed up with how awful they are by level 10-20.
4. Roll another "Standard" toon. Have much more fun, dont worry about debt, see more content, relax.
Enjoy!
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This might be surprisingly true. Although I took my sweet time getting my first toon to 50..
I got a kheldian(pb) at 35,almost 36 and he is still the same fun as he was when I started him.
The nice thing about being a kheldian is the differnt forms I can be.
Do I need to fight an eb? Then I go dwarf.
Do I need to do a lot of damage fast? Then I go nova
Do I want to just smash around a bit? Then I got human form.
If you can get over a few small things( such as daily debt by quantums and voids then kheldians can be suprisingly fun.
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Not too much of an issue. Kheldians will come to CoV and then you can have your squiddy villain fun.
Talking about issues: When is I8 coming? (Just killing kittens...)
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The Villain kheldian equivalent will be a Nictus! in I8 and possibly another one too...maybe Dark Crystals?
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Um, I don't think the villain Khelds are in I8 - last I heard they were hoping to get them in for I9.
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Um, I don't think the villain Khelds are in I8 - last I heard they were hoping to get them in for I9.
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Correct.
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Standard CoX play pattern
1. Rush your first toon to level 50 using every trick you can in the book, powerlevelling ,leeching, going afk, dodging debt at the expense of fun. Missing lots of content and fun on the way.
2. Roll a Kheldian
3. Get completely fed up with how awful they are by level 10-20.
4. Roll another "Standard" toon. Have much more fun, dont worry about debt, see more content, relax.
Enjoy!
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Oh no I've done everything wrong!
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3. Get completely fed up with how awful they are by level 10-20.
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Think that's the crux of the matter, unless you go nova-form-heavy, PB's don't get good until the 20s. I had REAL problems Human-only until level 18 and Incandescent Strike.
Human 'Shades won't have their controllery powers slotted up till much later, and most of Shade Tri-formers damage comes from a good double-mire which you don't get until at least 20 (dwarf form).
It was mid-30s that I started really loving my PB... in his 40s the carnage he could do just got silly!
Admittedly, I only got my shade up to 27. And I will only play for the extra content now.
Simply put, they are not uber, and where never designed to be. They are a jack of all trades, for sure.
But therein lies the problem. If I want to do damage, Ill play my blaster who has far more tricks and power. If I want to tank, Ill play my tank, who again is more resilient and grabs aggro much more effectively. My controller controls better, even my radation defender heals better. Most characters debuff better, some characters buff better. My scrapper melees harder and is more resilient. My Kheldian, because of lack of specialisation is worse in every single domain than the "Specialist" AT.
The attractions are - flexibility if team situation changes, a few original powers like extract essence, and new content.
I completely fail to see the attraction myself.
The attraction for me as a mainly human-form PB was the near-blaster level single-target blapping damage output, along with respectable AOE damage output.
To offset the slightly lower damage output you get two uninterruptable heals (one of which boosts HP), a "God mode" button which includes mez protection and an AOE disorient that can perma-mez minions. Other nice toys include an "immediately activating" Phased Flight for an escape button, inherent travel powers and Conserve energy. Dwarf form can Psuedo-tank and gets a 3rd uninterruptable heal.
When soloing your damage output will not match Blasters, and you get Voids and Quantums which are hard to handle. That's something you have to live with. The flip side is that in an average team with two defenders and a tank, you'll be sitting at +60% damage with Cosmic Balance... that's when you will consistently start to outdamage Blasters.
True Khelds are meant to be "epic" not "uber" (read: CoH in Hard mode) but due to the wide array of powers you get you can produce a build that does start to excel. Particularly in large teams.
PB's Dwarfie is even one of the better options to tank psi damage enemies due to Essence boost's "dull pain" and two +50% heals that are each up every 20 seconds with Hasten. I've tanked the Psi CW king on my dwarfie several times now without an empath backing me up. With Quantum Flight you don't even take any damage from the Alpha strike.
Tri form Warshades can be even better than Peacebringers at high levels. Without any outside buffs they can hit the damage cap with Double-mire, and the resist cap to all damage types including Psionic with Eclipse, then switch to Nova form and unleash AOE carnage that blasters can only dream of. And they can do it regularly: I've seen some 'shades built that way which I can only describe as "uber".
I can understand being discouraged by the initial hard road that greets a new toon, but if your Kheldian doesn't feel very powerful by your late 30's, there's something seriously wrong with your build. My first toon to 50 was a regen scrapper, and my Peacebringer is *much* more powerful than that toon. The only toon I have that comes close to matching my Kheldian is a Bot/Dark Mastermind, and he's INSANELY overpowered.
Perhaps the reason would be that you're trying to make all your powers individually produce "acceptable results" instead of combining some of them to produce "great ones"? Power synergy can truly make Khelds great! There's a terrific tri-form Warshade Guide that illustrates this point perfectly.
With all due respect, its not the build that the problem. Its simply that Khelds dont do it for me at all. The only AT that feels more dull is scrappers.
I dont play CoX to be "uber". I play it because i like an original toon with a cool concept. Kheldians have the concept pretty much inbuilt which is an instant turn of for me.
I will never get into Kheldians. Even if they boosted all damage and resistances by 100%, i just find them dull and uninspiring.
Fair enough. I had assumed that you were big into 'large teams and AoE damage' due to your posts on Spines/DA on the scrapper forums.
I have to admit I didn't like the 'alien energy squid' concept either, so I completely rewrote my characters back story for my PB "Unit Omega".
I'm sort of expecting the other "epic ATs" to be the same though. Coralax etc. will all presumably have prewritten backgrounds already attached.
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The attraction for me as a mainly human-form PB was the near-blaster level single-target blapping damage output, along with respectable AOE damage output.
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Not nearly, at best about 30% of my blappers output. But Im starting to get to grips with my Khelds build, if only I could find the tenacity to get the next 8 or so lvls until the build would be more acceptable for me, (just hit 24 and im getting stamina now, it might help). Also I need a respec propably to move useless slots from nova into dwarf..
At times like this I see how im put off from certain ATs because of their 'late-blooming' quality which I dislike. You have to have faith that they will indeed bloom at some point, but I have too little time to test out everything and especially in PvP it is possible to be really disappointed. Unfortunately characters PVP-potential is important to me. And I was massively put off from the khelds by trying them in the test server event..
Similarly my dominator is past lvl 30 now and is slowly starting to show signs of getting better, still being wet toilet paper in PVP though.
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Fair enough. I had assumed that you were big into 'large teams and AoE damage' due to your posts on Spines/DA on the scrapper forums.
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I am, I am
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The attraction for me as a mainly human-form PB was the near-blaster level single-target blapping damage output, along with respectable AOE damage output.
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Not nearly, at best about 30% of my blappers output.
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"Objection!"
(Peacebringer) Incandescent Strike at 50:
65.06 Smashing Damage
83.42 Energy Damage
Total = 148.48 (along with a Mag 3 hold, -defense and -fly)
(Blaster) Total Focus at 50:
55.61 Smashing Damage
142.36 Energy Damage
Total = 197.97 (along with a Mag 4 stun)
Now granted that's considerably more for the Blaster when soloing, and the figures are for unenhanced base damage. However factor in a PB's Cosmic Balance +damage on teams and it gets a little closer!
Radiant Strike is a PB's other main blapp, which does -fly and is a little under "Energy Punch" in terms of damage output. PB's don't get a third blapp where /NRG will get Bonesmasher, instead PB get Photon Seekers, Solar Flare, Glinting Eye and Gleaming Blast which are all solely energy damage. I imagine that the PB bias for energy damage would help offset things towards PvE endgame.
The "Blaster comparable damage output" comment is from personal experience in PvE, level 35+. I've found that the PB is decent at AOE and very good at single-target damage in that bracket. Outdamaging scrappers is easy at that level and on large enough teams Unit has been able to match or outdamage /elec and /nrg blappers. Usually on large endgame teams you're recieving a constant +60% to +100% damage from Cosmic Balance, the highest possible boost is +140% (with all 7 teammates either tanker or defender).
In pvp Blasters will far-and-away outdamage PB's due to their unresistable damage effect. Despite his two uninterruptable heals, Light Form and Pulsar I doubt Unit'd be able to match Cap Skyfire in a pvp match... wouldn't dream of trying! 
(Pulsar/Seekers/SolarFlare/DawnStrike can really ruin a Mastermind's day though- Unit's actually becoming a lot of fun for me in zone pvp... just need to remember to bring loads of yellows/blues/breakfrees!)
Numbers are from http://www.nofuture.org.uk/cox/
psst, you forgot that my blaster has bit more attacks than just total focus, also you forgot to take aim's +damage into account (or BU for that matter).. When I said output I meant DPS output.
I have said several times regarding khelds, two good melee attacks do not a scrapper (or blapper) make.
Two good melee attacks that cycle with two decent blasts and an above-par footstomp into a constant smashing/energy damage chain work out pretty well though. A combination of melee attacks and blasts is pretty much a hybrid blaster/scrapper which is "a blapper" for all intents and purposes.
Even the Little Twits of Doom help by producing a very major spike in AoE damage every so often without totally draining your blue bar. Providing they impact, they're more powerful than the nuke (Dawn Strike).
PBs do get Build up... but Aim is sorely missed. That's the main reason Unit needs to suck all those yellows!
I'm not saying Unit could keep up with Skyfire if both were solo or both were at the +damage cap. Just that if both were on a large PvE team (and assuming there's no perma-fulcrum) then I'm pretty sure that their damage output would end up being very similar.
If they WERE both under the effects of a perma-fulcrum, then although higher blaster base damage would give ol' Cap the advantage, I don't think there'd be enough mobs left near either of them for a fair comparison...
...certainly no mobs still "resisting arrest"!
Although Unit's currently respecced out of the Footstomp (in favour of Seekers + Superspeed) I'd be up for trying this sometime as a little experiment, any Gooniemonkeyites that are nearing the 50 stretch?
I wouldnt mind coming along to watch that, either as my 50 Nrg/Nrg or 41 WS
My Blaster fares better ST, but my Shade outstrips him in team AoE (when Nuke and LRM arent used).
Well yea err last night i beat up a WS in RV, then talked to him about his pwoers and AT, and i got really excited about getting a Kheldian. So i went on a lvling spree to 50 and am not 2 bulbs away.
I really love all 3 forms of the Kheldian, the powers that each grant you and stuff. For now, i mthinking of making a WS, so any tips to an ultra-kheld noob on this one?
@MidnightGuard - on Union you may know me as:
Mr. Vile - Electroman X - Zenodorus - Battler
Naga Knight - Stinkspitter