Too many powers! How do you pick?

Been levelling my warshade a bit (trick or treating is great for this). I'm confronted, though, with a fundamental problem: There are way too many powers. I clearly can't pick all of them, but I'm not clear on how to narrow the field down to a manageable size. Even assuming I completely ignore pools, I can't actually take all the powers from my two sets. So what should I be skipping?

Huh! I hadn't thought about it that way. I'm used to assuming that I can pretty much tell in advance which powers will be important, but with WS, I'm stumped. I guess I can rule out the nuke, just because I never use nukes -- my "might-need-it-later" instinct means that rarely-used powers are mostly worthless to me.

It does seem as though I should probably just ignore pools, at least thus far; I can see being able to pick two powers to drop, but more than that seems ridiculous. I'm trying to figure out what things do -- part of it, I think, is catching on to the similarities between some of these powers and things in other sets. (Inky Aspect looks like Oppressive Gloom with the serial numbers filed off...)

Assuming you're going triform:

- Shields tend to be low priority. Of the three, the first (S/L) shield is the most useful. If you're just looking for someplace to put a KB IO, well, you have Absorption (the auto pick@level 1.)

- You don't need a travel power. If you don't like teleport, you can fly in Nova, after all. Don't want either? Neb. form can help, at least for a while. Don't need CJ for Immob protection, either.

It's almost easier to go "What do you really want to take," and just fill in from there. Starless Step, Gravity Well, Mire, Stygian, Eclipse and Extraction pretty well top the list no matter who you ask. Fill in what you want after that (I like having GE and a blast or two,) as well as some stuff you can take without slotting.

See my Guides and Tutorials

My tri-form mentality:

Is the power a copy of something in the forms?* Skip it.
Is the power a weak +RES toggle? Skip it.
Is the power Hasten? Get it.

*Mire being the notable exception to this rule.

A good guide is very helpful. I have found several on this forum, and each is very helpful, albeit in different ways. What I gathered from all my research is that it will take time to know the AT, and get an idea of what you want to get from it.

My previous level 50 AT's before the WS were a Controller, a Blaster, and 2 Scrappers - so imagine my surprise that a WS can do all of that to some degree. I tried to team with some higher level WS's so I could see them in action, and found that there are at least a few ways to play one.

You can do the all human form, which means you can choose 2 more powers, and concentrate your slots in the human powers without fear of gimping your other forms. After over a year with my Shade at 50, I can tell you I have learned to spend a lot more time in human than I thought I would, so I can see how the 'human-only' idea certainly has merit.

But I still like the Tri-form. This is to me the most challenging AT to play, but gives you a rollercoaster ride of excitement. I have a Elec/Shield scrapper that seems to do more damage to more mobs faster... but the it's almost point and shoot compared to the WS. Played incorrectly, the WS can die pretty fast, but when played to the strengths, the WS is almost like having all toons rolled into one.

This is my usual pattern: Hit Haste. Jump into a large mob, hit Eclipse, then Quasar, then Sunless Mire. After this, I fire a few Shadow Blasts or Ebon Eyes until at least one is down. Hit that defeated foe with Unchain Essence for more AOE goodness, pull a Dark Extraction (gotta get your furry pet!) on that same defeated foe, then shift over to Black Dwarf, where I use Mire and Antagonize (to help round up the stragglers). I throw a few Strikes and Smites here and there and maybe a Drain if my health budges (not too often). When I see that my Eclipse and/or Quasar is back up I shift back to human to hit those again, and maybe the Haste.

I switch to Nova more when there's already a lot of melee. I probably use it the least, but I do use it often enough to justify it. Detonation is especially nice for for hitting several foes.

The powers I mentioned are my 'must-haves', I choose the others based on what their dps seems to be. I'm not a hard core number cruncher, usually if a power description uses the words "superior" or "extreme", it's on my list.

You do need resistance and defensive powers, but it's up to you the order you get them. The only problem with those powers is they drop when in another form, so when you go back to human, you have to re-toggle them. It's not a pain, but as much as I switch back and forth, it becomes time consuming.

It is possible to slot your Warshade to have effective perma-haste, which can allow for 3 pets at any one time, if you keep moving and don't linger between combat areas. Remember, downtime = less damage and resistance, so if you are following a tank that rests after each battle, you will not feel as uber as possible.

But fret not, after you've got your WS down pat, you don't really NEED a tank. Not to say you should ignore the tank, or run solo and forget about the team play. But after people team with you they won't be so quick to replace a departing tank when they know you are around.

I would suggest reading the power description for each power, then deciding if that power sounds adequate for what you want to do. It is likely that you will want to respec at least a few times as you tweak your character more towards how YOU play. Some people spend a lot of time in Dwarf mode as a Tank-ish AT, others love to play up the Nova's blaster qualities. These preferences will most likely affect your desire to use/not use a specific power. Experimentation is the key.

Although I can tell you that Eclipse is almost like god-mode on maps with large spawns. I recommend choosing that power as soon as you can. It is most certainly worth it, for any form you are in.

And Stygian Return is a welcome power when you get in over your head, which you are likely to do a lot as you are mastering your toon.

Good luck!

Picking powers on a warshade is a lot like picking out an ice cream flavor at baskin robbins. Look it over, there are some you know you don't want, there are some you know you do, and there are some you're not sure about. In the end you just get all of them anyway and eat around the ones that sucked.

The strategy for any Kheldian is to come up with a unifying theme behind your build first. With other ATs you have a choice of sets, you can be a Invulnerability Scrapper, an SR Scrapper, a Regen Scrapper and so forth. Kheldians give you a lot more freedom to mix and match capabilities like defense, healing and attacks, but you can't take EVERYTHING. You have to decide what fits your theme.

While for the most part this comes down to individual playing styles and preference, let me give you some examples:

Of course, I'm assuming in all cases you will pick up Stygian Circle, Mire and Eclipse, to skip those on any build would be foolish.

1) The Tri-Form Build - For any Tri-Former, the forms should have well defined roles. For a Warshade, that is blasts for the Nova, scrapping for the Dwarf, and utility/controls for the Human. Skip all blasts and most of the shields (go head and pick up Gravity Shield, but that's it) on the Human. You won't need them because you'll be in another form most of the time. Shadow Cloak, Starless Step, Gravity Well and Essence Drain will be your bread and butter powers for Human form.

2) Human/Dwarf Build - Here you are going for Dwarf for scrapping, and so you will want Human for your ranged. Now you will want the blasts, Dark Detonation, Unchain Essence, and maybe even some moderate shields. The controls and stealth will be less important, although you will want to go with some AoE controls, like Gravitic Emanation.

3) Pets/Utility - Let's say you want to use lots of pets and utility powers. You would go with Dark Extraction, first of all, slotted for lots of recharge so you can have several of them out. Unchain Essense so after you pets kill something you can make it explode. Shadow Cloak and Starless Step for sneaky tactics and divide and conquer. Inky Aspect, Quasar, and maybe even Orbiting Death for AoE damage and controls after your pets grab aggro. You would use your forms for tanking and hovering out of range, you might contribute yourself to the damage, but that wouldn't be the focus of your build. The forms might be light on slots, and you would skip most attacks.

And that's just the start. There's Tri-Forms, Bi-Forms, and Human Form builds, and all the different strategies on top of that. It may help to use dual builds to test out different combos and see which you like.

Since there is already so much great advice in this thread I will refrain from tossing out any more on powers.

I just want say to you, since you have recently discovered Warshades,

"Welcome to AWESOMELAND!"

Their theme song, IMO, is Fuel by Metallica. Now go listen to the song and then go forth and be FUELED by the masses of baddies to which you shall easily lay waste.

If you are on Protector I will gladly provide a demonstration.

Okay, about the "more enemies"... What power or archetype feature is it that makes more enemies better for me? I haven't noticed it yet. I know I get bonuses from the group I'm in...