Kheldian Slot Starvation: A Fix

As we all know Kheldians suffer from a severe lack of slots. To get a tri-form build working is a pain in the tentacles. My suggestion is "simple" (conceptually, maybe not technically): give the bonus powers granted by the alternate forms TWO starting slots instead of just one. That would go a long way towards making the forms useful right out of the box, and of course it would make building kheldians a bit easier.

While we're at it, can we make the Dwarf transformation not be interrupted if something mezzes you while it's animating? I keep thinking I'm going to be transformed and safe but the effects fade away and there I am, in human form, mezzed, and I have to start the transformation all over again while my enemies gleefully carve me to pieces.

Cutting the activation time for the transformation in half or even less would be nice too. If your build depends on a lot of changing you can spend half the fight locked in transformation animations. Slow and annoying.

Finally I'd love it if kheldians could be as desireable on a team as the spiders are. I don't know what can be done about that short of making each kheldian grant an xp bonus to non-kheldians on the same team for putting up with them.

Kheldians could definitely use some attention.

God forbid you not be able to perform every role ever thought possible with one spec.

I don't agree with extra slots for kheldians at all.

I wonder if Kheldians would be more desirable if they gave the team buffs the same way they revieve them from having team members (Their inherent)

We have IOs. They're not all superexpensive. Frankenslot.

If we were still stuck on SOs only, I'd be more inclined to agree.

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Ill start by saying I have very limited experience with Khelds (only tried a PB once and it just wasnt fun for me). Not saying its bad just wasnt my cup of tea. Also I dont know the stroy-line for Khelds so not sure if my below suggestion would break the history/story.

I am planning on trying a WS in the near future (suffering badly from Altitis and want to get most of them int6o the high 30's at least before I start a new toon).

With all that being said, what do people think about changing the way HEATS level into somethng like VEATS?
You are human until level x. At which point you chose EITHER alt FormA or alt FormB. That option is now fixed and you dont get to chose the other.
You still get to be either Human or alt Form and swap as normal but only get 1 alt.

You can Dual-Build for the other option and respecs will allow you to rechose all powers/slots like normal.

This way the problem with the number of slots avail is reduced, but you can still have both alt Forms via Dual-Build (if you wish).

Absolutely not. (Even without getting into the fact that the way VEATs level is one of the things I can't stand about them.)

That flexibility of one to three forms is one of the things that makes Khelds Khelds. Take that away and you might as well kill the AT completely.

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I myself wouldn't mind any buffs for Kheldians, but I do agree that part of it is playstyle. You have to rememeber that the kheldian is your swissarmy AT, anytime you see a certain and mob and think "Damn, I wish I was on my X AT" you can go "Oh wait, i don't need to be on my X AT!", prepare yourself with a bit of strategy and move in.

But one of the problem is that you can't always do that because the power that allows you the mimic "X AT"is anemically slotted, you can't afford slotting anything else into it, or maybe the power just isn't that great on that particular AT.
Though perhaps what Kheldians need aren't damage buffs, but like mentioned, shorter form shift animation times, or possibly modified numbers in other stats, such as maybe buffing their armor modifiers to be on par with doms. (This would boost their out of the box shielding from 22.50% resistance with the base toggle shield to 25.50%)
And maybe another possible thinmg to REMOVE THE NEED for extra slots would be to boost some of the number bonuses on the alternate forms. Such as boosting the recovery rate bonus on them to 20%.
So khelds have problems, maybe, and there's a lot of eways they could be brought up to a stronger par with others, so slots can be an answer, but not the only answer.

In reality, I think Warshades are fine but Peacebringers are the ones hurting the most, sacrificing the stronger controls, utilities, and debuffs of a warshade for... raw attacks that often aren't even so damaging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

I agree with Bill's last comment that the uni, bi, and triform choice is what makes Kheldians themselves and is the main reason to play them.

Yet on the flip-side, I do also believe a buff would be in order. There's a few suggestions that were said in other threads that I could get behind:
- make the human toggles only suppress when in form, instead of shutting off
- a few more slots may not hurt
- other stuff I can't remember

Also, I feel I should ask what you guys think: were Kheldians intended to switch forms mid-battle?

I actually like Steampunkette's idea of mirror slots.

Admittedly this comes from someone who wants to actually be able to play in all three modes at once, and that means, when in human form, I can slotted attacks and slotted defenses.

Even with frakenslotting, I haven't found this to be easy.

Would it give the Kheldian's a set bonus edge? Well yeah, but I wouldn't call it a major one. Really, unless they start slotting some of the worst sets for trivial set bonuses, that even when stacked up with others, don't amount to much, they're going to run into some repeated set bonuses.

Could be wrong, but this is me thinking on a few toons where I would have to go back on some slotting, or I'd have more than 5 of the same HP increase.

And not everyone would IO out the HEAT anyways, they'd juse slot the human form powers and the form powers.

Now all that said...

I LOVE Tidbit Jr's idea to have the human form toggles suppress (this means effects AND end use), when in the different forms, without actually detoggling.

And this might go along way in making a HEAT more enjoyable. Maybe even enough not to want the mirror slot idea.

Also, I think alot of people's hate for HEATs comes from knockback hate.

And I think if the mirror slot suggestion happened, we might see more tri forms. I know lately, I've seen more human form only, than anything (this isn't to say the tri forms arent out there...or even to say they aren't more prevalent...I just havent teamed with them lately)

I had made a suggestion about this a long time ago, and I still think it would provide the best benefit for the Kheldian AT with the understanding that there is a bit of compromise in some areas of performance of certain built types of this AT.

I suggested that Human forms stay the way they are. However, when changing into nova form, all the human non-ranged attacks, buffs, etc.. are grayed out, leaving only the ranged attacks selectable. Nova form will use its current animations for these human ranged attacks, but will have a damage and range modifier applied so that the nova form version of the ranged attacks receives the same damage and range they currently have.

Each Nova form would gain a new ST ranged attack as a result. For examample, PBs, Bright Nova Blast would actually be Glinting Eye and it would gain the Nova damage modified version of Gleaming Blast.

The inverse would occur for melee attacks and dwarf form. The one major change occurs to War Shades since they lose out on the ability to double-mire. Peace Bringers wouldn't be able to use both Reform Essence, then switch to Dwarf for Sublimation.

Now, this technically doesn't really save slots, but what it does do is allow for Human forms to have ranged attacks, and the Nova forms to have them as well, without any sacrifice of slots for having both forms use the power. The down side is the loss of slot bonuses from Inventions, if someone slotted both form's ranged and / or melee attacks.

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This.

Except for the deletion part. I have a warshade half-way through the game, and he's doing...

... what I'd expect a Defender with a no-debuff set* to do pre-damage boost.

* such as Force Fields

I find the most painful thing is getting interrupted while trying to switch to dwarf form.

Slot starvation is not fun but it does force a more deliberate planning of the build. I'd be concerned with what we would be giving up to get more slots.