returning player with MANY Kheldian questions

To start out, I'm coming back to the game, and now that EATs are unlocked at 20 instead of 50, I'd be a fool not to play them. That said? I have many, many questions, and with all the guides being "old" or "assuming I have basic knowledge that quite frankly, I lack", I'm goin straight to the forums

1. in general forum consensus, what'd be simpler to play for a returning player/lover of controllers/sorta-understand-er-of-VEATS-and-not-much-else, a tri-form peacebringer, or triform warshade? Triform WILL happen. I'm starting this toon out, I want to be awesome

2. Is there a time limit to how long you can be a dwarf/squid? I'm just wondering, cuz..they both seem awesome, and logically, there's a reason people aren't squids 24/7

3. when you first unlock dwarf/squid, you automatically get xyz powers, ya?

4. I understand that kheldians get boosts while in groups. do kheldians also GIVE boosts? VEATS have really cheap leadership pools with good numbers on them. How does that balance with Khelds?

5. I keep reading that i21 will do...something with khelds. I've googled "issue 21 COH Kheldian"(and it's various permutations), and I can't pull up any patch notes. What is happening in 21?

6. Why do people say Warshades are better than Peacebringers? Just...a general question. Is there some hidden power gem that massively unbalances one over the other? is it a "flight is worse than teleport" thing?

Thanks in advance for takin time with my silly questions.

1. WS's are more controllery, and more form-friendly; however, they are more difficult to play and only get really good later on.

2. No time limits, it's just the different forms offer different things. Controls? human. Need ranged damage? nova. Taking too much heat? dwarf. It can be tricky dancing around between the three, so you should check the binds thread stickied on this forum for some really helpful tools.

3. Yes; you need to be in the forms to use them. They will not initially show up in your powers tray, though. You will need to open up the Powers tab and drag them from your inherents onto your trays.

4. They do not give boosts to teammates, and this is a complaint of many people who like Veats. They are currently out of balance, but that's being somewhat worked on.

5. i21 will affect mostly pb's. Lightform, the tier 9, is being altered to be usable in forms and more frequent, like the warshade tier 9, Eclipse. Build Up is being turned in to Inner Light, which will extend a weakened version of its effects for an extra 20 seconds after the initial 10 second full-buff (helpful for form switching). Photon Seekers (pb "pet" which is really a mini-nuke) is having its recharge shortened, but it's still going to be too weak. Pb's will get a new fly-speed boosting power similar to the new one in the Flight pool, and Ws's will be getting a new zone-teleport power also similar to the one in the TP pool. Taunts of both Dwarves will be autohit. Shadow Cloak (Warshade) and Combat Flight (pb) are getting a bug fixed so that they offer typed defense as well as positional. The best AoE human pb's have, Solar Flare, will be usable from the air (used to be on the ground only, which was silly as you get an inherent version of hover). Some issues, like knockback in questionable places, are still not being fixed as the devs are afraid pb's will become overpowered (I'd lol, but it's more sad than funny).

6. Warshades can reach higher levels of power than Peacebringers, while Peacebringers are more consistent in their performance. That sounds nice and all, but the difference between power levels of the two is way too big. New Lightform makes Pb's much better on survival than they were (and I personally feel better than Ws's as a whole), but the damage difference between the two is horribly large in the Warshade's favor; this is entirely due to the pets, as warshades get pretty awesome pets (Dark Extraction) while Peacebringers get possibly the worst pets in the game.

Someone will be along shortly to point you to a certain "MFing Warshade" guide

Eh. I read the thread at the top of the forum. Last updated WS guide was I9.
It's I20 at the moment

that's an 11 issue difference.

I feel peacebringers are a bit more survivable on their own thou than warshades. As a peacebringer u have 3 heals that u can use just from ur primary and secondary counting the one in [White Dwarf] and that helps me fighting tougher single NPCs. Where the warshade needs a couple to a few dead or alive NPCs to surpass the peacebringer in survivability. Kinda like the peacebringer has a bit of Regen feel. I play a peacebringer pretty much exclusively so I am biased. Also not much has changed in those guides.

New set of questions
1. If I have stamina slotted with just..vanilla end/mod enhancements, does it do ANYTHING to nova and dwarf forms?
2. If I six slot a nova form, or dwarf(...and obviously, I'll be doing so..cuz..I LOVE shapeshifting), are there any invention sets floating around that are both flat-out MADE for khelds, AND affordable?
3. Are kheldian macros serverside, or clientside? Like..I set up all those complex "switch to tray, drop form, goto form" macros for nova and dwarf. will I have to set them up again for each computer I have CoX on? Or will they be there inherently?

1) Yes, Fitness powers now work across all forms, so slotting Stamina does now benefit you across all forms. This is a relatively recent change, only a few issues ago.

2) There are no particular Sets which are tailor-made for Khelds, though there are many that work well. Like any other character, it comes down to deciding what bonuses you want to put a premium on and gathering as many of those kind of bonuses as you can. Recharge tends to be a popular choice.

3) Macros and binds are distinct things here. Both remain with the character and are stored serverside, binds can also be saved to your hard drive using slash commands, while macros are grey player-made buttons in your power tray and have to be remade on each character. You will NOT need to redo either of them when playing on another computer, but if you have rotating binds that make use of bindloadfile commands, these will not work because those files are not present on the other computer. Basic trayswitching binds should work fine on any computer because they are stored serverside.

In fact, when making a new Kheld, I would highly recommand logging into an old Kheld and using the /bindsavefile command to copy the binds and then /bindloadfile to load them on the new Kheld. This works very nicely, though of course the power names are different so both need to be same type (both PBs or both WSs) for this to work.

Ive been away from EATs for a long time so I am kind of in the same predicament. I have a few questions as well. Im rolling a 3man team with 2 of my friends they are stalker(with experience playing) and a Dp/Cld Corr (with maybe medium experience playing). So I figure I will need something with a backbone so I chose an EAT.

1. Which would be a better fit for this team PB or WS and why? I think Ill prolly spend a lot of time in Lobster-mode with this team but we also team with other people so who knows.

2. If I went WS would I be better off as an all Human form?

3. When it comes to IO Set Bonuses I have been messing around with Rech and doing okay. However I am not used to not having a lot of Def (Coming off of a shield brute aint helpn).

4. Do you have to be in human form to use your Incarnate powers?

Stone pretty much covered but I'll give my two cents.

1.) The best way I can think to put this is that with i21, Peacebringers will have more consistent survivability but Warshades will have more diverse survivability. The debuffs from cold won't benefit either a Peacebringer or Warshade more, so it really comes down to preference.

If one of the people you're playing with is a Stalker, you might honestly be better off with a Peacebringer. Warshades are in their element with more enemies so that might put your friend at higher risk. Peacebringers like stalkers excel against single targets.

2.) That question is very subjective- I think everyone should level up as Tri Form. It's the best way to get acquainted with how the Archetype functions, figure out what you do and don't like, and then you can go from there.

Like Stone said, Human only Warshades are more effective at the high end price tag wise, but the game isn't played on a spreadsheet so your main concern should be what you have the most fun playing.

3.) You can get a very good amount of defense on a Kheldian build. You shouldn't worry about hitting the softcap to anything, as it is not necessary with 85% resistance to all damage (all but Psi in a Peacebringer's case.) Your main goal should be enough recharge for perma Eclipse or Light Form respectively.

If you post up a build for either, I (and I'm sure a few others) would be happy to help you find something you're comfortable with.

Thanks a lot guys that helped me come to a decision on which one.I think I will want to go with Tri Form WS since we want to be 50 BEFORE Freedom. Also I like AoE and the chaos that comes with it lol. However now I want to know about this Superior Human Form build.

Sounds interesting so Im guessing Purple IO Sets are the cause?

Speaking of Purple IOs, aside from the level wide coverage, they don't give you any def and such so I don't really use them too much. Am I missing something?