Kheldian Binds and Strategies

Okay here's the thread I promised I'd start - the idea is to compile a list of tactical binds that kheld players use and the strategies for their use. Now I'm not really interested in what key you bind, so I'll use the following format when giving binds:

/bind [key] "supercool_powah combination$$bind_example 1"

You get the idea.

EDIT - Okay, I'm going to list individual binds up here to better keep them organized - I'll give a brief explanation and link them to their original post so the discussion can be easily found.

First, let me give out this link:

Black Specter's Advanced Bind Guide

It's not on the forums, but it's the most complete guide to binding around, and it's well worth the read.

GENERAL KHELD BINDS
These are binds that any Kheldian can use, no matter how many forms they've taken:

Don't think this is about shape-shifting either - binds can be used just as effectively in human form. Most of the guides from Plasma and company will also have these, but I'll repeat here anyway.

1) Where's that Nictus?
Use this one to automatically select quantums, voids and cysts with your tab key without having to think about it:

/bind tab "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next quantum$$target_custom_next void$$target_custom_next cyst"

A word of warning: if there is a quantum, void or a cyst in a spawn, this bind will only select said quantum, void or cyst - even if they're dead - until the body disappears, so once you kill the nictus you'll be forced to either hit a power to select another enemy or manually select them with the mouse.

Coolio, however, pm'd me - and posted farther downthread - a solution to this problem. Source:

/bind tab "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next alive quantum$$target_custom_next alive void$$target_custom_next alive cyst"

For reference thats 125 character's and stating 'alive' should no longer target defeated pre-fade mobs.

Thanks, Coolio!

2) The not-stalker stalker:
This one is for any kheld who took invisibility, but I suppose that would mostly be peacebringers:

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff Invisibility$$powexec_name Incandescent Strike"

Cruise into the spawn while invisible, scout around to make sure you've got the best position for minimum aggro, hit Build Up and hit the bind - it'll drop invisibility and fire off IS. It was an illusion, but to me it always seemed like my character would become visible while in the air excecuting IS - very cool effect. More importantly, it took human error and human delay out of the equation - there was no way my victim could get an attack off before the IS fired. Now if they got an attack off before it finished animating that was one thing, but you were guaranteed to - provided you didn't miss - do some major damage.

3) Obligatory WS teleport bind:
Might as well get this one out of the way:

/bind lshift+lclick powexec_name shadow step

Alternately, you could use bind files. The example Lord Xenite gave was to use two files, named wsDwarfTP.txt and wsHumanTP.txt:

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordXenite The wsDwarfTP.txt and wsHumanTP.txt files contain respectively: SHIFT+LBUTTON "powexec_name Shadow Step" SHIFT+LBUTTON "powexec_name Black Dwarf Step" These files allow me to use the Shift and Left Mouse Button for teleporting myself no matter what form I'm in as long as it's not Dark Nova.

I know. I know. There's a form-specific bind in there, but let's keep the teleport powers together, shall we?

If you've got white dwarf, you can substitute white dwarf step in the above bind for shadow step.

/bind lshift+lclick powexec_name white dwarf step

EDIT - what follows in red is apparently no longer working, but I'll leave it just in case I've got something mistyped:

Coolio suggested a bind on the third page of this thread that should bind both powers to one key:

/bind shift+lclick "powexec_name shadow step$$powexec_name black dwarf step"

Source
IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE with the above teleport binds, you could try what Microcosm suggests here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Microcosm I had problems with that type of bind as well. What I found to ultimately remove errors was changing it to this: /bind shift+lbutton "powexecname Shadow Step" Notice it's lbutton instead of lclick. For some reason lclick and all other types gave me errors randomly, and anytime you bind something like this to the right click, it will just bring up the reticle like you said. So now I use lbutton, rbutton (still brings up a reticle if used with a teleport or placement type power), and mbutton for mouse wheel.

4) Activating TWO powers with one key (source):
Lord Xenite had a clever way to use a toggle bind:

/bind [key] "+down$$powexec_toggleon orbiting death$$powexec_toggleon inky aspect"

Now if you're a warshade you're not flying, and the +down does absolutely nothing, travel-wise. HOWEVER, since it designates the assigned key as a toggle, it will activate Inky Aspect upon the key's press, and Orbiting Death when the key is released. Pretty nifty, LX! You can, of course, substitute whatever two powers you'd like, so long as the +down stays where it is.

You multi-formers out there might want to use this bind after dropping from form with one of the below relevant form-dropping/powexec binds...

NOTE: This isn't a quick key-tap we're talking about here. Just tapping the bind key for this and letting it up really quick will result in only one toggle (the middle command) being activated. If you use this bind, HOLD THE KEY ALL THE WAY DOWN until your first toggle cues, and then let it up. YMMV.

5) Read. This. Guide. for indispensible break-free macros!
Microcosm's excellent mini-guide gives you four macros that no human-former should be without. I won't even bother repeating the information here.

Okay, lemme sum-up. It's three macros that can combine three of any inspiration to form a break free (small, medium and large, respectively) and one to gobble said break free. I will pull Granny's bind a couple posts down because I like it so much:

/bind [key] "inspexecname escape$$inspexecname emerge$$inspexecname break_free"

Granny bound it to the escape key, which I thought was appropriate, but insert any key you like in place of [key]. What I like to do is put it at the end of a form shift bind (source):

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff dark nova$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_name gravity shield$$inspexecname escape$$inspexecname emerge$$inspexecname break_free"

Okay, now for some specifics:
TRI-FORM AND BI-FORM WARSHADES

1)Obligatory shift-to-form binds (source):

• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_on Dark Nova$$camdist 18$$goto_tray 9"
  
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_on Black Dwarf$$bindloadfilesilent wsDwarfTP.txt$$camdist 26$$goto_tray 8"

The idea is to put your form's powers in the appropriate tray. You can find these binds in any of the guides, but we'll list them here, too. Plus, Xenite does this cool camera distance thing that keeps you from getting disoriented. Also note the loading of the bind file? That requires that the bind file be located in the same folder with the City of Heroes executable.

Of course, if you don't like bind files, you could always put bind in your /bind. It looks like this:

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff dark nova$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_name gravity shield$$camdist 18$$bind lshift+lclick shadow step"

WARNING!!

I don't think the following section in red is working currently, apparently because of multiple powexec_name commands bound to the same key, but haven't had the chance to test. Use at your own risk! I'll update when I get the chance to test it out.

Switching Forms Without Switching Trays!

Now some people might not like so much the notion of swapping trays, and as someone who's accidentally toggled off a form in combat without switching trays, I can certainly understand. Never fear. Taxibot Joe's got yer back (source). Essentially it involves binding three attacks to your number keys. Lemme 'splain:

For example, as a triform Shade you might have Tray 1 full of human form attacks as such:

Gravimetric Emanation | Sunless Mire | Gravity Well

...and so forth. For Dark Nova, you might have:

Dark Nova Blast | Dark Nova Bolt | Dark Nova Scatter

...in your Nova tray. Likewise, your Black Dwarf tray might begin with:

Black Dwarf Smite | Black Dwarf Mire | Black Dwarf Drain

Now if you use tray switching binds to swap forms, you'd just go right on like normal and whatever attack that was in slot 1 of your form's would fire when you pressed 1. However, If you used the following bind:

/bind 1 "powexec_name Gravitic Emanation$$Powexec_name Dark Nova Blast$$Powexec_name Black Dwarf Smite"

...then there would be no need to swap forms, since the powers in the bind are all forms-exclusive! Essentially, since there's no chance more than one of those powers would be available for use no matter what form your in, then it wouldn't violate the "no two powexec_name commands in a single bind" rule, and the power available to you would fire! Even if you do want to swap trays, you can still bind your number keys to make them tray-independant.

If you do keep your tray-swapping binds, however, just remember that if you - for any reason - change the order of the attacks in a given tray, the keys will still be bound to the same attack.

Thanks, Taxibot Joe, for bringin' that to the table!

2)Fun with Human Form: (source):
Dropping out of form and simultaneously executing a power is key to these binds:

• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_toggle_on Sprint$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16"
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Eclipse"
  
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Stygian Circle"
  
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Sunless Mire"
  
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Unchain Essence"
  
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Gravity Well"
  
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Gravitic Emanation"

Now there's a list for ya! Follow the source link for how LX puts them all together (especially the part about dwarf mire/eclipse/sunless mire/nova - LX uses his numpad to really do some serious shifting magic!), but let's just say that which power you activate when dropping from dwarf and when is key to success. Nonetheless, we'll cover some oft-mentioned strategies here, too.

THIS JUST IN!!!

File this one under the "Now why didn't I think of THAT" category. Dremster has a couple of binds that will drop form, execute a power and go back into form when the key is let up. It's all in this post.

The binds use toggle keys and autoexec together. Now I'd tried toggle keys, and I've had my share of binds using autoexec, but I never thought to put 'em together! Here's the bind:

/bind [key] "+down$$powexec_auto stygian circle$$powexec_name black dwarf"

See what he did there? Totally drops you out of black dwarf, fires off stygian circle and puts you back into dwarf - all in one keystroke. Just make sure you press the key all the way down before you release it. You know, the standard warning for toggle keys. As Dremster said, the real beauty is that letting up the key also toggles off the autoexec, so everything works just hunky-dory after that!

You can substitute just about any command, as well. Here's Dremster's other example:

/bind [key] "+down$$target_custom_next enemy defeated$$powexec_auto dark extraction$$powexec_name black dwarf"

Now this one had me shedding tears of joy. It drops you out of dwarf form, targets a corpse and yanks a fluffy out for you. Then, as above, you're back in dwarf and stompin' away.

Thanks, Dremster! These are going on my warshade tonight!

3) The Double Mire:
This is the most basic trick that makes warshades so powerful - it capitalizes on the black dwarf's ability to mire and stacks it with sunless mire. It used to be that BDM had the same duration as SM, but has since changed so that BDM has a MUCH shorter duration, so they don't stack for as long. Nonetheless, it's very effective for, say, double-miring and hitting a boss with gravity well:

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$powexec_name sunless mire"

Use this before you have eclipse or when eclipse is down. What you do is teleport into a spawn in dwarf form, hit black dwarf mire and this bind. Then gravity well the nearest boss and go from there. Another way to do this is with a macro, and put the macro right in your dwarf tray if you need to. Tell you what - we'll list macros separately at the end as people list them.

The TRUE Double Mire!

That's right - there's a true one. It's a double mire that you can execute with JUST ONE KEYSTROKE! Using this bind:

/bind [key] "powexecauto Sunless Mire$$powexecname Black Dwarf Mire$$powexectoggleoff Black Dwarf$$gototray 1"

you will immediately drop to human form and perform BOTH mires at the same time.

BIG OL' HONKIN' CAVEAT!! This bind will put Sunless Mire on auto fire, meaning that it will fire automatically every time it charges. It works in this bind because it merely sets Sunless Mire to auto fire, which then fires all on its own when dwarf form is toggled off.

Now the powexec_auto command toggles the autofire mechanism on and off, meaning that the second time you hit the bind it will only toggle the autofire on Sunless Mire off, and Sunless Mire won't fire.

In short, if you hit it once, make sure you hit it again before you jump back up into dwarf form. Just note one more thing, however - don't double-tap the key in rapid succession, or you'll only get one mire. YMMV.

4)The Double Drain

We've all been there. You're tanking an AV or an EB in dwarf, and your health starts dropping. There are no more bodies around to use Stygian Circle on, and your black dwarf drain is up. Now you know you've got essence drain, but you need to drop to human form to use it. SO you fire off BDD, drop form and BAM! Cat aggro. (or spouse aggro, or parent aggro, or whatever) It's only for a moment, but in the time it takes you to find your keyboard again you get pwn't by the AV, taking away any healing you got from BDD and possibly downing you.

No more. Just use this bind(source):

/bind [key] "powexec_auto essence drain$$powexec_name black dwarf drain$$powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$goto_tray 1"

When you hit this bind, you will drop out of dwarf and perform both drains in human form in a single keystroke! No actual thinking required.

BIG OL' HONKIN' CAVEAT!! Just like the double mire bind above, this bind will put essence drain on auto fire, so the same rules apply.

So just to repeat myself, if you hit it once, make sure you hit it again before you jump back up into dwarf form, and don't double-tap the key in rapid succession. As above, YMMV on this one.

5) Invisible fluffies of DOOOOM! (Source)

Don'tcha hate when your fluffies get picked on for no good reason? Now it's one thing if they float off and start something (sometimes I think the extracted souls of my enemies do it on purpose to mess with me) but it's entirely another thing altogether if they're minding their own business and someone's got a wider aggro range than them.

Fortunately, you've taken grant invisibility for a LoTG +recharge mule. Or for concept reasons. Or because your significant other's toon has this REALLY HIDEOUS costume and you don't want to get in trouble telling them to change it.

To each their own. Microcosm's got what ya need:

/bind [key] "powexecname Grant Invisibility$$targetcustomnext Extracted Essence"

Now remember the game reads binds right to left (actually it reads left to right, it's just on the inside looking out at you) so what happens is it targets a fluffy and then you cast grant invisibility on it. Not bad, eh?

TRI-FORM AND BI-FORM PEACEBRINGERS

1) Obligatory form switching binds:

• /bind [key] "powexec_toggleon white dwarf$$goto_tray 9"
  
• /bind [key] "powexec_toggleon bright nova$$goto_tray 8"

Same deal as the warshade binds, but these are simpler. You can always put LX's camdist/bindloadfile commands in, too if that's your thing.

STOP!

What follows in red is apparently not working! Until I can come up with a way to make it work, ignore it completely - I'm leaving it in just in case I am successful, and I'm too lazy to retype it if I am.


Switching Forms Without Switching Trays!

If you're daft enough to read this post top to bottom, you'll likely notice that what follows is pretty much copy/pasted from the Warshade Section above with the appropriate names changed. Sue me. I'm lazy.

ANYway, some people might not like so much the notion of swapping trays, and as someone who's accidentally toggled off a form in combat without switching trays, I can certainly understand. Never fear. Taxibot Joe's got yer back (source). Essentially it involves binding three attacks to your number keys. Lemme 'splain:

For example, as a triform PB you might have Tray 1 full of human form attacks as such:

Radiant Strike | Incandescent Strike | Solar Flare

...and so forth. For Dark Nova, you might have:

Bright Nova Blast | Bright Nova Bolt | Bright Nova Scatter

...in your Nova tray. Likewise, your Black Dwarf tray might begin with:

White Dwarf Smite | White Dwarf Flare | White Dwarf Strike

Now if you use tray switching binds to swap forms, you'd just go right on like normal and whatever attack that was in slot 1 of your form's would fire when you pressed 1. However, If you used the following bind:

/bind 1 "powexec_name Radiant Strike$$Powexec_name Bright Nova Blast$$Powexec_name White Dwarf Smite"

...then there would be no need to swap forms, since the powers in the bind are all forms-exclusive! Essentially, since there's no chance more than one of those powers would be available for use no matter what form your in, then it wouldn't violate the "no two powexec_name commands in a single bind" rule, and the power available to you would fire! Even if you do want to swap trays, you can still bind your number keys to make them tray-independant.

If you do keep your tray-swapping binds, however, just remember that if you - for any reason - change the order of the attacks in a given tray, the keys will still be bound to the same attack.

And again, as I said above, a big THANK YOU to Taxibot Joe!


2) Your basic "drop to human and raise a shield:"

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff bright nova$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_name shining shield"

Again, a no-frills bind. You can drop form and insert any power you like - even an attack - but the format remains the same.

3) The Double-Stomp:
The famous Peacebringer double-stomp:

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_name solar flare"

It works like this: activate your white dwarf flare, and as your dwarf is bringing its "flare foot" back to stance with its other foot hit this bind. It will drop form and activate solar flare as they're getting off their butts. Then, if you're quick and Pulsar is in your tray 1, you can hit the Pulsar key while they're in the air to stun them when they land. The animation will still be going, but if they're in Pulsar's radius when it starts, they'll be stunned when they land.

3.5) Double-stomping with one key (source):
Yes, there is a quirky little bind that accomplishes this:

/bind [key] "powexec_auto solar flare$$powexec_name white dwarf flare$$powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1"


USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! This bind makes use of the powexec_auto command, so hitting it once will set Solar Flare on auto-fire, and hitting it a second time will take Solar Flare OFF of auto-fire! That means the bind will work properly only every other time you hit it, so if you do decide to use it, get used to hitting that key twice anyway.

MACRO-RONI! WITH CHEESE!!

So if you're like me and forget which keys you've bound to what, you might be looking at your nearly-empty nova tray and saying to yourself: "Self, I think it might be time to convert one of those shapeshifting binds into a macro and drop it right there in slot 5"

No problemo. Just copy the relevant /bind listed here, replace /bind [key] with /macro [name] and you're all set! Pretty much any Kheldian bind you find will have a dollar-dollar in there somewhere, signifying multiple commands, so leave the quotes right around them in that case, and everything will work out right.

For example, this:

/bind F1 "powexec_toggleoff dark nova$$powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_name stygian circle"

will become:

/macro healz "powexec_toggleoff dark nova$$powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_name stygian circle"

See? Easy. Make macros for all your favorite drop-form combos and fill those form trays out!

I use a bind layout that utilizes all of my NUMPAD keys including the ones around the number keys themselves. Some of it (for my TriFormShade™) may be seen below:

• NUMPAD1 "powexec_toggle_on Dark Nova$$camdist 18$$goto_tray 9"
  
  
• NUMPAD2 "powexec_toggle_on Black Dwarf$$bindloadfilesilent wsDwarfTP.txt$$camdist 26$$goto_tray 8"
  
  
• NUMPAD3 "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$powexec_toggle_on Sprint$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16"
  
  
• NUMPAD4 "+down$$powexec_toggle_on Gravity Shield$$powexec_toggle_on Shadow Cloak"
  
  
• SUBTRACT "unselect$$target_custom_near enemy defeated"
  
  
• ADD "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Eclipse"
  
  
• NUMPAD5 "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Stygian Circle"
  
  
• NUMPAD6 "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Sunless Mire"
  
  
• NUMPAD7 "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Unchain Essence"
  
  
• NUMPAD8 "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Gravity Well"
  
  
• NUMPAD9 "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 1$$bindloadfilesilent wsHumanTP.txt$$camdist 16$$powexec_name Gravitic Emanation"

That's a good idea... It'd probably be prudent to list binds under categories like "Fits Under Strategies X and Y, but not Z", or an addendum after a category of binds that says something of that nature, if you know what I'm saying...

"The One"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

My keyboard has shiny buttons.

Do you like to press them a lot?

.....and, how does that make you feel?

*quietly nods and jots down a few things on a pad of paper*



"The One"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

Here's a quirky one I just tried on my pb:

/bind [key] "powexec_auto solar flare$$powexec_name white dwarf flare$$powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1"

Now it goes against all conventional wisdom, and it only works in this order for some reason, but this bind enables your peacebringer to do a true double footstomp with one keypress. It's weird. It will drop you to human form, where you perform the white dwarf flare as though it were solar flare, and then the solar flare animates immediately after. Heck, I did it on my level 21 Peacebringer Aether Flux - since he obviously doesn't have solar flare I substituted incandescent strike - and it looked just like he performed a solar flare with knockdown (vise kb), followed immediately by IS.

All with one keystroke.

Now it does use the powexec_auto command, effectively putting solar flare on autofire, so you have to remember to hit the key twice to deactivate the autofire.

I immediately got all excited and went and tried to write the same keybind for double mires on my warshade, but for some reason it won't work. My current theory is that White Dwarf Flare and Solar Flare use the same animation with the same animation time, so the power translates to human form successfully, while Black Dwarf Mire has its own animation that isn't duplicated somewhere on the human form frame.

I guess...

::shrugs:: I just know it works.

Interesting...

Oh, and you can find the black dwarf powers under the "Inherent Powers" section.

Yes, they have the same animation time - I'll try this one out when I get home for my lunch break.

A while back, before I13 hit, I noticed that form powers would briefly lock you in your current form, thus making it more difficult to double-Mire/Flare.

When I talked to the red-names about it, I was told that the ability to execute two attacks at the same time — one from either Nova or Dwarf and the other from the Human form — was not the exploit the Devs targeted with the fix.

I would therefore assume that being able to double-Flare or double-Mire isn't considered an exploit, however, it may not be considered a feature of the AT which will be preserved at any cost by the Devs.

The double-footstomp is still possible with two keys really, one to execute White Dwarf Flare and the other to down-shift to Human-form and execute Solar Flare. It just requires better timing than it used to.

I would bet 2 INF that the reason the PB bind works, Joe, is that essentially, Solar Flare fires off as soon as White Dwarf Flare allows the PB to drop to Human-form. The drop to Human-form from Dwarf-form while White Dwarf Flare is animating simply isn't possible anymore, but the costume-locking fragment in the animation time for WD-Flare is probably much smaller than it is for Black Dwarf Mire which is why it works for PB's and not WS's.

That's my theory at least... maybe BaB could be bothered to confirm/deny it...

What I see when I try a double-stomp is that first the enemies are knocked down (White Dwarf Flare) and for the brief second that my White Dwarf is stomping its foot and the AoE effect has just started, the keybind to drop me down to Human-form and execute Solar Flare actually does nothing! Before I13, it actually let me perform WDF and SF exactly at the same time for double-stacking the AoE's attacks.

After that brief pause and while the enemies are picking themselves up from the floor, I can hit my Solar Flare keybind and send the enemies flying away.

From what I was told by the red-name who responded to me about this, I assume that the costume change is the source of the brief pause and it was placed there because people were exploiting costume changing powers to avoid rooting and stack multiple AoE's.

I'd say the best way to judge what's really happening is to see what the WDF+SF combo does to the enemies around you. If they get enough time to actually fall down, start getting up only to be thrown away from you, then I think that indicates that WDF+SF are not executed exactly at the same time.

If however the enemies are simply thrown away but with much more force than SF exerts on its own, I guess that would mean that WDF and SF are stacking the KB values on the enemies which probably indicates they're executed so close together that for all intents and purposes, it may as well be at the same time!

Just a quick post to confirm that this:
/bind t "powexec_auto essence drain$$powexec_name black dwarf drain$$powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$goto_tray 1"

will indeed result in a double drain - both of them firing and animating successfully in human form.

Okay, I keep meaning to add more of the binds that I use, and one of my favorite tactics on my PB is the double nuke. It's not really a double nuke so much as it's Photon Seekers followed by a built-up Dawn Strike. I usually initiate it from dwarf form with a lot of mobs around me. The thing is, with all those mobs around me there's often a hold or a stun or two or three flying around, and dropping from dwarf form can get rather hazardous.

I edited the first post to show Microcosm's mini-guide on break free macros, and I'm incorporating this part specifically:

Quote:

"inspexecname escape$$ inspexecname emerge$$ inspexecname break_free"

Now applying that to my dwarf form de-toggle bind, I can do the Safety Dance (Yes, that's a pun on the "Dancing Warshade") and drop form in complete safety (from mez) to activate the necessary power sequence.

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff bright nova$$goto_tray 1$$inspexecname escape$$ inspexecname emerge$$ inspexecname break_free"

Starting with Break Frees, the bind will cycle through all of the inspiration commands until it finds one of the appropriate size, consuming that inspiration and skipping whatever insp command is left to go to the proper tray and drop toggles.

It's a great way to avoid mez when switching between forms or just dropping for a heal/build up/mire/whatever.

EDIT - Heh. I know. I made a pun on the Dancing Warshade guide in the context of talking about a peacebringer bind. Sue me. And while your lawyers are drawing up the paperwork, insert "Black Dwarf" for "White Dwarf" and "Dark Nova" for "Bright Nova" when you read it.

An update on this whole "new double-stomp" bind. Last night I kicked it with the Umbra Illuminati on my fledgling pb Aether Flux (got two levels to level 23! Woo!) and I made it a point to try this bind command combo out extensively in eight-kheld combat. Now as a pre-26 pb, I of course didn't have solar flare, but I've discovered that incandescent strike works just as well as the auto power.

I actually did it as a macro with the following command:

/macro stomp "powexec_auto incandescent strike$$powexec_name white dwarf flare$$powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1

I put the macro into slot six of my dwarf tray (tray 8)

Anyway, Vessel of Light sk'd me and we went tearing off through Unai Kensai's dimensional rupture Council missions. Lots of Warwolves. Lots of pb "bliiiiing!" sounds and ws "shoooomp!" sounds with accompanying graphics to really bog down the old processor. In other words, la fair bit of lag.

Perfect.

The macro worked great! It felt a bit weird seeing my level 21 toon footstomping in human form, but nearly every time I hit the macro it executed exactly as described above: I'd drop to human form, perform the white dwarf smite, and then IS would fire.

There were, of course, some snafus:

I generally waded in and hit a strike/smite/strike combo before hitting the macro, and if I got jumpy and hit the macro before the last strike was finished animating, the tray would switch to 1, IS would be put on auto and white dwarf flare would execute, but it wouldn't detoggle white dwarf, which put me off my rhythm, since I'd have to un-auto IS and get back to the dwarf tray.

I used a macro and not a keybind, which really wasn't the most efficient way to use this one. Since the macro was in the dwarf tray, I couldn't hit it twice after executing, because I'd be in tray 1. This meant that I had to remember to control/click IS to take it off auto-fire. Had I used a keybind I would have been able to do a quick second tap on the key as IS was animating to shut off the auto-fire. It really was no biggie though. If I forgot to control/click IS, it just meant I had to manually hit IS next time I fired the macro.

TBH I didn't really expect there to be much of a "wow" factor to this bind. After all, it doesn't cause two attacks (or heals, in the case of the ws) to fire simultaneously, it just lets you do it with one keystroke while also detoggling the dwarf power. (essentially three commands with one keystroke).

However, I did find it useful in lag situations! Ordinarily the act of executing WDF, detoggling dwarf and executing IS is just as fast as this bind, but you also give the server two separate times between keystrokes to lag out and not read your keystrokes until your enemy has a chance to recover from your flare and launch another attack that might put you out of range for IS.

With this bind it wasn't a problem. It quickly unloaded three commands to the game server before any lag could interrupt my chain, and so even if I found myself suddenly sitting on my butt ten feet away after getting hit with a thrown boulder, my precious incandescent strike had fired anyway, and the owner of the boulder was dead before the boulder hit.

So I recommend this bind (and its warshade equivalent) for any shape-shifting kheld who has periodic problems with lag. As with any bind combo, make sure you know the pitfalls, especially where the auto-fire is concerned, and understand that it doesn't fire two powers simultaneously.

I think that so long as the dwarf power executed has an exact animation match on the human frame, it doesn't matter what human power is put on autofire. You could, for example, bind black dwarf drain with stygian circle.

I haven't tried it with nova powers yet, but I wonder if it would work with a detonation/detonation combo? I doubt it, but you never know...