Some Clarification: 'Shade Battleplan, Role, Slotting

Hello all. My tri-form Warshade hit 35 last night, and I'm liking it so far. But today, I ran a mish in Cimerora at +0/3 and got whallopped. I must have died 7 or 8 times. Now I've got a few questions.

First, my general battleplan: Group the enemies together, Gravitic/Inky for disorient. Sunless Mire, Grav Well lieutenant. Start firing human blasts at minions. At this point, I'm usually taking damage. The enemies have either wandered out of Inky's range or Inky has missed a couple tics (I have 2 acc IO's in it...). Now I get to go lobsterform and slowwwwly kill the mob.

What am I doing wrong? Should I have the human form shields? 'cause I don't.

Second, my role on a team. To my great amusement, I'm finding that I can almost take on a different role every other mob. CC/single target damage (Inky, Gravitic, blasts), AoE nuker (Unchain, Quasar), and of course blaster and tanker with my shapeshift forms. Is this par for the course for a teamed Warshade? I enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I'm covering all the bases.

Finally, how exactly do you slot for global recharge? Is this mostly a frankenslotting thing? I have no idea what sets to collect or bonuses to go for. (I haven't played around with Mid's yet, so... give me a couple of days on that one). Any quick tips? (Some of those enhancements cost 20-30 million apiece. Good grief.)

Thanks very much, and sorry it was such a long read.

I have to echo the previous posters, if you're tri-form then you should be blasting in Nova. Personally, I wouldn't even slot/take the human blasts. The Nova blasts really are that good.

Don't neglect the dwarf attacks either, it can actually churn out some decent damage nowadays, especially if you slot it properly. Besides, which, the slots are useful for helping get +rchg.

Personally, I never found the human aoe's that good, though many swear by them. I found the Nova aoe's and blasts far more effective. The range, damage and speed of the attacks is so good. I just found that by the time I dropped to human form, used a big aoe, that the mob would of been dead anyway, had I stayed in Nova.

Recharge is all about the sets you slot into your attacks. Usually you gain +rchg on the 4th or 5th piece of a set. Examples would be .. 5pcs of Crushing Impact in dwarf attacks, 5pcs of Decimation in nova blasts and 4pc of Basilisks Gaze in Grav Well, Doctored Wounds in the heals, etc. There are obviously other sets you can go for as well. The other usual practice is slotting LotG recharge IO in defence powers like Shadow Cloak.

Personally, I gave up on chasing recharge, I just wasn't disciplined enough to re-apply eclipse whenever it was ready. I went for Ranged Defence, which probably worked out just as expensive, but it did allow me to play around in Nova form for longer.

I would still pick up and slot the Physical shield, but I'll echo the previous advice. If you're going to have your shields down, you should be in Nova form. Human form is either for a few seconds while you fire off a utility power or Gravity Well, or for the long haul with all shields up. Granted, it takes a few more seconds to shift to Nova form rather than just start flinging the blasts, but it's a timing you want to get used to.


One thing I do have is a keybind that both drops me to Human form AND raises my shield. From either form. There's no reason not to do this, Human form is deactivating a power, not activating one, so it costs you nothing to add the sheild. (Honestly, if activating your shield in either form was possible and automatically dropped you to Human form, it would be a great feature)

As for your role on the team, that's what I like best about Kheldians. I adapt myself not just to what the team needs, but what the team needs or even what I need at that second. It's great fun.

As far as slotting, I would echo the others in saying that you should slot fairly heavily for recharge. My build on Live has about 93%, but still lacks 20% from purple sets (He's 48). Minus the Luck of the Gambler +Recharge pieces (I have three), it has cost about 350 million influence. So it doesn't cost an insane amount of influence to get high levels of recharge with Warshades (Especially if you save up merits for the Luck of the Gambler pieces); my 'Shade is several seconds shy of perma-Hasten at the moment (and perma-Eclipse). He'll have it in two more levels.

Have you made bodies other than your own or teammates? Then you're doing it right.

Seriously, I play my warshade like nothing else. I'm just plain crazy on her. Not saying it's awesomely super effective, but debt is so minor and with the ability to set difficulty where it works best for you, debt goes away really fast.

As far as the issues you are having with cimerorans, going offensive is probably your best bet. All it takes is one shouting to screw over the stun/kill combo you're trying for, so change tactics and just kill, kill, kill. I'd just jump into nova, pop reds and a purple or orange (or both, if a boss is around) and just blast them to death, using your speed and ability to stay above them to keep away from the harder hitting melee attacks they use. Stealth in and Mire whenever it's available, especially if there is a boss around. Just make sure you have a couple purples and/or oranges on you, because otherwise they will smack you down before you can swap forms.

If you don't have oranges or purples, make them. If you can't make them, buy them. If you die, take the opportunity to restock your insps. When you get to 38 and can grab Eclipse, life will get much, much better for you, especially if you plan for it and start picking up some of the cheaper/easier to get recharge bonuses. As for eclipse slotting, I find that Perf Shifter: Acc/Rech, Eff Adaptor: Acc/Rech, and 2 res/rech from various sets gives you good accuracy and recharge values, plus good res enhancement for when the spawn is smaller.

If you are going to fight cimerorans, perhaps going -1/x4 or 5 would be better. They won't hit you as hard, and will go down faster, and more bodies for Mire is always good. I've found that for every level lower you go, increasing the spawn size by 2 keeps the actual xp earning rate about the same, so take that as you will.

Wonderfully informational responses, guys. Thanks.

I'm not sure I'm up to this whole Warshade thing. I'm doing a bit of soul-searching... and I'm wondering if I'm not trying to force my shade to be a scrapper. The forms are ok, but definitely not as fun as all the cool stuff you get in human. AoE's. Yay. The ability not die. Yay. I'm just not sure it's for me. But that's my own problem, I guess.

Thanks again for the info. I'll keep ole No-Shadow around, but I don't know that I'll be "maining" him or pouring bazillions of inf into him...... at least, not yet.