The MFing Warshade (A Tri-Form Guide)

sure, toss 'em in, I'm good with it.

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I almost feel compelled to work out a contrasting Peacebringer guide. Just reading through again (yes, a repeat read!) and thinking of my various PBs brings out the contrast in attitude (at least for me personally) when approaching a Peacebringer.

For instance, here we happily sacrifice humanform blasts, especially early, to pump up the slotting for Nova and Dwarf, with an eye toward control and self buffing - locking the forms (including human) together to take advantage of each other.

Personally, for me, when it comes to a Peacebringer, slotting those human powers becomes far more important - and not just the attacks. It almost makes it seem bi-forming lends itself better to a peacebringer. A PB loves melee, so you *want* to slot those attacks... and along with them, shields, and all that suggests you look at Stamina (as PBs have no Stygian.) I keep saying a Peacebringer's more self contained and more independent - it doesn't need enemies, all the buffs are steady buffs, etc, and that does tend to reflect itself in the forms, as well. Nova is the same, regardless, but without the backup of the fluffies (and I don't think anyone will really say Seekers are the equivalent.) Dwarf can use the buffs from human, but it doesn't give anything back but mez protection from being in form (and a second self heal.)

There's also the fact that, human-side, we can't separate a crowd. We have no TP Foe - so if you're attacking in human, you're wading into melee no matter *what's* in there and, again, will probably put an eye towards those shields and possibly stealth.

... May have to write up a post to have the community hash it out over in the Kheld forums. This reply's already longer than intended.

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'tis why I said it, sir.

Edit: Upon second read, I have a minor nitpick, though I might be wrong. Mids and Tomax are both saying the Dwarf Mire is the same radius as the Human: 15 feet. The Dwarf Mire does look bigger, but I'm not sure it really is.

Most AoE animations are scaled to the height of the target/caster, so the Dwarf mire probably looks bigger because the Dwarf character is generally taller than the human character.

Most excellent guide, Dechs! A must-read for any Tri-form Kheld Driver!

One thing you might mention when dealing with mezzers is that if all else fails, Nova form's got unsuppressed fly. Since toggle suppression came out, you won't detoggle Nova if you're held, stunned or slept, and if you're still in Nova you're still flying! No dropping to the ground for the easy kill for you my squiddy friends, so it's not such a panic when you're right-clicking inspirations to create a break-free.

SPEAKING of which, you might also want to link to Microcosm's inspiration combining guide - something else I consider canon for new Khelds.

A five-tentacled salute to you, sir! I may have to change up my playstyle a little after reading this a second time through.

Sweeet I'll check them out and add a linky to the sticky!

Just so you all know, I've run a taskforce or two with "The MFing Warshade" and trust me, you may want to go guard your mother.

This is maybe my favourite guide I've read over the years. I really like it when someone writes a guide to playing a thing, not a character recipe with a bunch of stats.

Unfortunately, Warshades are entirely too gothy-gloomy for me, so I stick with a Peacebringer. Which is why...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill I almost feel compelled to work out a contrasting Peacebringer guide.

Do one up like Dechs, here. I'd love to read it. What you've outlined on the PB method (all melee, all the time) is what drew me to the AT and got me to stick with it, so insights on how to play it better would be greatly appreciated.

I grinned ferociously reminiscing my TriFormShade™ while reading the guide... nodded to myself while going over the tricks and tips and also realized how much I've missed you guys and the antics of an All Kheldian Team.

Keep up the good work, I may yet return from the coldness of outer space...

Awesome guide! I wish it had been around when I took my WS to 50! She is human form only but I am tempted to use name dual build #2: The MFing Warshade!

..Wow... the giant reply I had typed.. Oi.. gone.. eaten because it loggged me out.. Okay, I'll do my best to start over and hopefully remember everything I had wanted to say.



So, anyway Dechs, it's me Nikku and you asked me to come check this out and I have and wow, I am impressed. Nowadays with most guides being builds and: "Pick this, this and call it a day." I must say, that your guide is a much welcome change from things I've seen. I also heavily enjoy it for the simple fact that, it's yeah, exactly the mindset I have when I'm on Nikku.

A LOT of the power choices and reasoning was the exact same as my own and why I went those choices, though I admit I wish I had noticed the greatness that was Gravitic Emanation. But hey, you win some and you lose some. Hahaha. And I cannot help but to smile seeing that you mention the positives about taking Stygian Return. Many people seem so against it, but I like not having to really worry about carrying awakens and there are many times I've just hit self-destruct and Stygian Return to get back some endurance or to just cause some damage because I could. (Long AV fights come to mind that just seemed to be taking forever with no new bodies to come say hi. Sigh.)

But, as you also mentioned, a lot of the choices you make in the warshade's life will be to your playstyle and personal enjoyment. For example, for early powers, I went with Gravimetric Snare and Gravity Shield. With a hold IO in Gravimetric Snare and in Shadow Bolt, I can fling around a quick few spam like attacks to try and lock down a few or help Controllers / Dominators lock down some hard targets and when the LGTF was bugged well, any sort of hold help was appreciated. Plus, I think with only one-slotted, in each, it does more then my Acc/Dam HOs did. And hey, despite all the recovery options, I still run stamina. Hahaha. Which I know my friends just kinda look at me funny for doing. Guess I just hate running out of endurance.

But really, Memphis Bill beat me to my big suggestion in a lot of handy IOs such as the Winter's Gift which I am very fond of. The only other one that comes to me off the top of my head and I find worth mentioning is the Stealth IO. Toss it in sprint and not only do you get full stealth as soon as Shadow Cloak opens up, I find it very easy to afford nowadays with Hero/Villain merits and it would save you the choice of a power pick, unless you wanted super speed to go along with your teleport, fly in Nova. Me? I'm content with ninja run, teleport and that nova flight.

The biggest piece of advice I can give that may help contribute or mention is that I know quite a few players who are terrified of binds / macros etc. I really don't use a single one of them, but I hated trying to arrange the powerbar and find a set-up I was comfortable with Nova and Dwarf powers being unclickable or vice versa when I'm in another form. I use the default HUD, but in the center between my Chat Bar and my Powers Tray I create a custom tray to fit snugly between those. I forgot the exact shape you can pick from, but one of them fits --exactly-- all your Nova, Black Dwarf powers including taunt and teleport. Put your form to the side, click and you have the perfect shape-shift power tray with no confusion or mess. So to those who feel apprehensive about giving Kheldians a try for fear of mastering macros / binds. You don't. Trust me.


Anyway, as I mentioned before, I wish I had C&Ped my original message before posting, but, what can you do and hopefully I remembered everything I wanted to say, but this was probably more then you expected, but since you asked, I wanted to make sure it was worth the read. Great job on the guide though, you hit the hammer on the nail and this should guide many a new & old players well.

What the hell does MF mean? I didn't find it anywhere. Can't be "magic-fincing" o_0

Nice guide. I have to ask/wonder if the style was "borrowed" from the famous (on the relevant boards - League of Legends) "MFing Cho'Gath" guide. It seems too similar to be coincidence, maybe they are both running on the same memeblood from an old meme I'm unfamiliar with?

I have discovered an awesome bind.

Consider, if you will:

/bind shift+lbutton "powexectoggleoff Dark Nova$$powexecname Shadow Step"

If you are in Dark Nova, this works -- it shifts out and teleports.

Now consider a macro, perhaps named Nova or something. You can't do this in a single /macro, you have to edit the macro, but:

powexectoggleon Dark Nova$$gototray 9$$bind shift+lbutton "powexectoggleoff Dark Nova$$powexecname Shadow Step$$gototray 1$$bind shift+lbutton powexec_name Shadow Step"

Upon activating this macro, you are transformed into a Dark Nova, and shift+lbutton is bound to "shift me out of dark nova, cast teleport (instantly targeted where I clicked), reset my tray to my human powers tray, and rebind shift+lbutton to just cast shadow step".

This works! That surprised me.

... Oh, interesting. It is broken by something, possibly zoning or the like, such that although it works when I set it, a while later it gets trimmed to end after gototray 9. I do not know why.

Okay, got it working.

Here is the trick. Create a file, in the Data subdirectory of your CoH folder, called "nova.txt", containing the following:

shift+lbutton "powexectoggleoff Dark Nova$$powexecname Shadow Step$$gototray 1$$bind shift+lbutton powexec_name Shadow Step"

Now, create a macro button:

/macro Nova "powexectoggleon Dark Nova$$gototray 9$$bindloadfile nova.txt"

When you click this button, shift+lbutton will be bound to turn you back into human form, teleport, and rebind the shift+lbutton to just plain teleport without the fancy stuff. So, any time you want to get out of where you are, you just shift-click, and bang, teleport.

Before someone claims I'm doing thread necromancy, I have a level 50 necro/dark mastermind who was not only my first CoV 50, but the first CoV character I made after it came out... Needless to say, I have experience with necromancy.

Second, I really have to say that your guide brought back tons of good memories I have of playing my warshade (DJ Winza, 50, Justice). I would also like to thank you for giving me the idea of slotting mine a little better. Now if only I could get more time to play him so I could get the IOs.

Now that you have (i would think) your dream build, will you share sloting secrets with us, or just how you slotted it? Which sets you used and for what reasons, and any frankensloting you did?

How has the new purple sets affected your build? Maybe talk about the dream build versus a great functional build and whats different.

Now that I have a grasp on your playstyle, how does the different set bonus's effect your toons play? Could you play the same way with SO's or generic IO's only? How will inherant fitness (if it carries over) effect everything?

I got lots of questions and I hope you have lots of answers!

Seebs, thanks for the binds and macros. I'll roll them into the guide on my next update*.

Winza, guides can be necro'd without fear. The guide wasn't that old anyway.

Medic, I started by saying I won't give a Mids export, and I'm going to hold to that. I have some slotting suggestions already, but I do plan to expand that section. I briefly talked about the new purple sets in the contest thread, but I will give a detailed explanation of that in the next update*.

*I am working on revising this guide, I just need a block of time that I can devote to it. I am not blessed with an abundance of creativity and amazing writing skills; I have to work at it a bit before I have something presentable. I'm not going to put a bunch of ten minute notes into a guide. The next update should be here within a few weeks.

OK, I started a Warshade. I would say MFing Warshade, but she's only level 7, so she is just sort of blasting stuff and trying not to die.

Thanks for the guide, looking forward to trying something I never have before.