Melee Range at High Levels.

How do you do resist getting held in melee range as a Warshade? I have a primarily human-form Warshade that I play as a blapper, but at higher levels enemies like carnies and malta appear that always hold me as soon as I get close. It's really annoying and it's making me wonder if I even want to continue playing that character. So I need to know, how can I continue playing that style at higher levels without getting held so much? Are there certain IO sets I should buy, or what.... I'm also probably going to respec into acrobatics which will help. but besides that any advice would be appreciated.

1) Get on a large team with Controllers/Dominators to benefit from your Dark Sustenance which will grant you mez protection. 3 Controllers should do.

2) Carry around Break Frees or pick up Black Dwarf. You can switch forms while mezzed. Other than that, perhaps slot +Mez Resist IOs, but I don't know what good that will do.

When i can tag mez'ers first in groups, like i see that sapper before he sees me, i'll run behind a corner, and TP foe him into a gravity well (while the warshade TP foe is animating, i'll que up gravity well) and then beat him up. This does two things for me:

1) No more mez mob

2) Bait for my pet, or a heal, or i can drag the rest of the group to the body and unchain essence it for some nice burst damage.


When i don't feel like TPing enemys around, i'll just use dwarf form. I have enough recharge where i have a constant attack chain in dwarf form, and its pretty durable it itself.

Yeah, I already have the black Dwarf Form, but I prefer to only use it during emergencies, I like being in human form most of the time, and having all the attacks and stuff that they can use. Maybe I should just use the Dwarf form more often against certain Mob types. You both make some good points. also I knew about the inherent ability giving mez protection, but it seems like there's never a controller or a dominator on the team when I need one.

Because I hate doing the same work twice, here is an excerpt from my guide on how to deal with certain situations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison Mezzers If you read that and thought "Easy, just go dwarf," then shame on you. You're bad and you should feel bad. Remember what you learned in Phase Three: you are all forms at all times. Thinking any other way limits your options; options are power. There are a hundred ways to deal with mezzing enemies, and dwarf only covers about six of them. Mez them first. You have Gravity Well, a heavy hitting hold, and the means to single out that mezzer through stealth or TP foe if you took those powers. You also have Gravitic Emanation, one hell of a ranged stun for when there are multiple mezzing enemies. You may also have inky aspect if most or all of the minions are mezzers. If it's a mezzing boss, a healthy stack of stuns from aspect and emanation will do the trick. Unchain Essence can stun too. Sacrifice Fluffy. You have pets that follow you. Either stealth or teleport past the enemy group and let fluffy take the mez. You might hurt his feelings, but that's fine because he's already a tortured ball of angst you ripped from a whimpering, delectable soul. How much worse can he really feel? Kill them first. You have some very heavy hitting attacks from nova, especially if you carry a mire from the last mob. In fact, I've even run ahead to the next mob to saturate a mire, only to run back in nova and feed the mezzer his teeth. Yet another option is to open up with a (mired) Quasar. Get inspired. Seriously, you have inspirations. You should be killing so many enemies that you will have trouble keeping an empty tray. Either a break free or a few purples should keep you mez free long enough to kill two full groups of enemies. Please look here for some handy methods to making the inspirations you want. Wait it out. Generally, this is a bad idea, but you can always just wait for the mez to wear off. Maybe you don't want to waste time shifting into dwarf and then back into nova. Maybe you simply want to cackle madly while the enemies feebly attack your stunned yet impervious body, all the while getting pelted by your three floating furious fluffy friends. Eclipse is not a toggle, so the resistance it grants will not suppress while you are mezzed. Die. Ha, you probably think I'm kidding. Little hint: Mez and debuffs go away when you die, and Stygian Return gives you ten full seconds of glorious, unhindered retribution.

Solo
Use Gravitic Emanation before you buff your self. That should take care of all the non boss mezzers.

Group
Eclipse before you Mire. Rather go Eclipse>Sunless Mire >>Dwarf form>Dwarf Mire. If you have a couple of scrappers or blasters you may just be at the damage cap. If you have nova then at this point start raining galactic death or go human Quasar/Unchain. If you have a hold on you during dwarf then just stay dwarf until the hold runs out. If you get held immediately after eclipse you should be over 60ish resistance to all.

Really this is the only dangerous part. If the enemies start laying multiple sleeps and stuns on you during the transformation they will stop the switch to dwarf form. Trust you resistance and the team then pop a break free or just slam your dwarf form macro key over and over.


O and sappers are the only thing that can really stop you dead. Mez them first. Another new troublesome mob are the new freakshow Bosses. They can sap you quick and then sleep you. Keep your wits about you with the fresakshow now.

These are bad since sapping is the only real big whole WS's have, and you don't have an answer for if it gets out of hand.

Here.

Yeah, Starless Step + Gravity Well is my solution. If I still get surrounded and start getting chain mezzed, well, they asked for the Dwarf to come and put the beatdown on them, I'm just doing what they wanted.

Dechs list of ways is quite good.

I'll mention one more: Go in with Nebulous Form running but with Shadow Cloak OFF. They will try to mez you, but they can't cause you're Phased!

Not sure if that will always work against Illusionists though, since they Phase as well.

Please do!

Here's the easiest way. When the binds take effect, you will automatically combine insps into breakfree's as you move with WASD. Click both your left and right mousebuttons at the same time to use one of your breakfree's: copy/paste the following strings of text into your chat bar in the game, pressing Enter after each one.

/bind w "+forward$$inspcombine insight break_free$$inspcombine luck break_free$$inspcombine catch_a_breath break_free$$inspcombine respite break_free$$inspcombine sturdy break_free$$inspcombine enrage break_free$$inspcombine awaken break_free"

/bind a "+left$$inspcombine focused_rage emerge$$inspcombine keen_insight emerge$$inspcombine take_a_breather emerge$$inspcombine dramatic_improvement emerge$$inspcombine rugged emerge$$inspcombine good_luck emerge$$inspcombine bounce_back emerge"

/bind d "+right$$inspcombine righteous_rage escape$$inspcombine phenomenal_luck escape$$inspcombine second_wind escape$$inspcombine resurgence escape$$inspcombine robust escape$$inspcombine uncanny_insight escape$$inspcombine restoration escape"

/bind mousechord "inspexecname escape$$inspexecname emerge$$inspexecname break_free"

Two Phased entities can't touch or affect each other not can they affect the "normal" plane. Phasing in the game gives the target a status of Untouchable. Which means (with 1 exception) that game abilities will not affect the Untouchable target at all. The exception are abiliies that have a special flag in their effects which says they can affect (touch) Untouchable targets. The prime example of this is the Hamidon's and Mito's attacks. They can reach out and touch you regardless of your "touchability".

Edit: And I do use the Phasing trick on mezzing NPCs which I can't use a Gravitic Emanation easily or safely on my Warshade. As the mezzing attack power animation plays (the attack roll has already happened and not effected you), I will de-Phase allowing my mezzing and damage auras to kick in, and I'll Gravity Well or Gravitic Emanation on the mezzer.

The thing to remember to make the trick work effecting, the Hit/Miss determination along with the game effect determination happens instantaneously (relatively speaking) at the instance the attack animation starts. You don't see the results (hit/miss/not effect) until the attack and game effect animations and timing play out. If you are phased at the start, you can safely unphase and do your thing. But hopefully during a very long attack animation.

I am sure most know this but be very carefull if you shift into dwarf form. The mezzes do stack up on you in dwarf form even though they dont do anything... unless you shift into human and bam! Mezzed.

My shade is amazing, but I started seeing the cracks when soloing tips. Malta ambushes are nasty because stealth is meaningless, and once they get line of sight the chain mezzes are a commin. So the best bet is to dwarf form. And even though my dwarf form attacks are well slotted, its still limited relative to my human form power. I wound up turning my diff down to 0x3 and no bosses because of tips. In the end I have found that my Crab VEAT and my Elec/Nin stalker to be more solid performers with all mobs, pretty much because of the mez ambushes in tips. On a team though... all 3 are close, with my shade probably being the best for me, the crab being best for the team.