Doomrider

Wednesday at 05:59 PM

With changes like this, WAI is starting to feel like "Working as we intend it to, so deal with it" even if the change makes ZERO sense.

The power is already penalized with a reduced radius and increased base recharge.
Now the accuracy requirement just adds another hoop to jump through in order to take advantage of the real reason players take the power.

The way I see it, the accuracy requirement is just an added slot sink to the power because I guess it wasn't already penalized far enough.
A patch of tar should not need to roll an accuracy check. You're standing it, you're affected by it, plain and simple.

Let's not forget how Tar Patch works relative to powers like Sleet. The enemy has to BE IN IT, for the -res to apply. If they run out of it, welp, no -res.
Unlike Sleet who only has to tag enemies for the 30 sec debuff duration to apply. So add that as another point against Tar Patch.

April 21

17 hours ago, golstat2003 said:

Well yeah the game is thankfully not balanced around min maxed builds. It's just ONE of the many things taken into account. The devs have said repeatedly (whether a lot of forum regulars like it or not) that the game is not balanced around IOs.

I know a lot of people still parrot this "balanced around SO's statement", but at this point, it kinda seems more like living with your head in the sand. It's also sometimes used as this weird "gotcha" attempt during balance discussions but provides no value to the conversation.
IO's have existed for a long time now, they make all content but especially more difficult content easier to succeed at, to the point where it's basically mandatory for the Hard Mode Taskforces.
Saying the game is balanced around SO's doesn't change that. And you can't begin to discuss balance or adjustments to an AT without considering IO's so what value does parroting this dated statement add to this conversation?

Also, can anyone provide an example where an AT was buffed, but said buff came with a tradeoff that was punitive to existing characters and ONLY provided value to those who min/maxed? I cannot think of one, but I'd love to know what such a statement would be in reference to.

April 19

1 minute ago, Videra said:

No. They have the same resistance and defense scalars that scrappers do - their caps are higher, yes, but actually benefiting from that requires them to sabotage their own damage potential through slotting sets instead of procs.

So, they're as sturdy as scrappers on average, do less ST damage than scrappers, and are outstripped in AOE and survivability both by tankers. What is a Brute's purpose?

Eh, I don't think it necessarily requires sacrificing their own damage potential to put their higher hp and res caps to use. That argument certainly has more merit if you look at in the vacuum of solo play though.
On teams, where resistance buffs aren't unheard of, that 90% res cap is going to allow brute to take a fair bit more damage the scrapper equivalent.
But for defensive sets, this where their caps don't help them nearly as much, and where sturdiness between the brute and scrapper equivalent start to look almost identical.

They lost their identity a long time ago and any edge they had at being an offensive tank, went away with Tank buffs.
When you can make a Tank easily more sturdy AND more damaging than a Brute, you've completely supplanted the AT.
There are a few sets that are outliers that shine on Brutes, but generally speaking there isn't much incentive to play Brute, if you arguing performance.

April 16

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

And where are you getting your information from? Yes, the terrorized effect only affects lieutenants and minions, but the ToHit debuff affects everything in range.

What part of my statement you might think is incorrect, is irrelevant. I'm not here to play teacher. Go look it up.
I said my piece, now back to the OP.

April 16

-5% to-hit would be worthless even without the heavy end cost and small melee radius.

Poor base accuracy
Heavy end drain
small radius
10 target cap
only affects minions
tick rate doesnt alowl it stack with itself.
CoF is garbage.

Back to the OP, Dark Regen does not really need a buff but im sure the heal could be adjusted. and the endurance cost reduced and it would still be potent.
The other tools in the set need work tho.... sooo maybe?
Of all the things in this game that need attention, this aint really near the top of the list tho. Maybe eventually.

April 5

16 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Can someone tell me why they think there is anything that needs changed on Kheldians?

They're perfectly balanced in my opinion, that's why I'm a big fan of them.

In what contexts do you think they're perfectly balanced?
I want to know from the side that thinks they don't need to be adjusted, just why and under what circumstances do you think they need no further adjustments.

March 14

40 minutes ago, MadnessAsMuse said:

I can't argue with that. Awesome. I have no idea how you got all that with dmg so high, it's 14% higher than if I slot it the same way.

Plugged into Mids on my build with both Mires, my dmg with that slotting in Gravitic Emanation is 275 and my Nova Emanation is 277 with 5 Ragnarok and KB to KD. I'm OP and I'm taking suggestions on my build. Current In-Game Mids build attached.

I'm open to another respec, I've done one already with help from this thread. I'm starved for slots because I'm going for Recharge set bonuses so I don't think I could six slot Gravitic Emanation like this, or even work it into my attack chain, but I would like to see my damage as high as yours. I use Alpha Musculature, Interface Reactive and Hybrid Assault to increase damage as well, but maybe my Mires aren't adding as much +DMG as yours using Obliteration and Armagedon since I slotted those for the recharge time bonus to get perma Eclipse.

I enhanced every power with Knockback (except Nova Blast) with Sudden Acceleration KB to Knock Down because I want to keep mobs tight for tanks. If I want to stun 10 enemies at once, I stand next to them with Inky Aspec 😉

VixenOMorph_respec.mbd 58.84 kB · 0 downloads

You're starved for slots because you're slotting extremely inefficiently. Not because you're going for recharge bonuses.
A few observations on your build:
- Psi res uniques like aegis are a waste. Eclipse will cap you on Psi res.
which will bring up your total resistance floor instead of just psi.
- Manuevers and Shadow Cloak on a Triform build are of arguably little value, but you've devoted a lot of slots to them.
- Gravity Well is an attack first, hold second. Essence drain when you have Dwarf Drain is a waste.
- You are already swimming in accuracy bonuses (90% according to your totals) but still slotting 2 acc in Eclipse, which are doing basically nothing for you. That 90% accuracy global your Eclipse will inherit. If you're concerned with Eclipse missing, use Dwarf Mire before firing Eclipse.
- Your single target attacks are criminally under slotted. This is of course felt more when soloing, if you team exclusively it will matter less, but your team will be carrying you hard during AV fights.
-Dark Nova Emanation has no native KB, despite allowing KB enhancements. The sudden acceleration is not converting any KB to KD, because it doesn't have any.
Replace sudden accell with Force Feedback. Many of your aoes can slot it and it can help shore up recharge bonuses by a suprising amount if you play aggresively enough.
- Inky aspect only stuns minions on its own. Its mag 2. Grav Emanation + inky will stun minions, lieutenants and bosses.
- the extra slot in Dark Nova is a waste. The to-hit from Nova only applies to that form, and like i said, you're already swimming in bonus accuracy.
- You only have mag 4 KB protection, but plenty of locations to slot BotZ. I would suggest doing so.
- Your net endurance recovery is really bad (.82/sec, assuming beast run is off) if you intend on running all those toggles.
- Assault Core is also a bad choice. It gives +dmg and we cap our damage super easy both solo and on a team. Assault Hybrid is better because it grants all attacks energy dmg procs, which still apply even at dmg cap.

March 13

47 minutes ago, MadnessAsMuse said:

I still don't understand this power for builds which take Nova. More power to you for Human only and Bi-Form Dwarf Khelds.By Mids numbers it's a far worse Nova Emanation. My brain can't comprehend the redundancy possible on Warshades.

Because you do things like this:

A 26 second mag 3 stun on 10 targets with guaranteed KB. Not this 50% chance of that mindlessly scatters like other aoes, and the power procs quite well making it also a very good DPA attack and another aoe. Great for any WS build. Plus you can stack the stun with Inky to mez bosses. It's one of the greatest powers in the Warshade toolkit.

March 8

18 minutes ago, Wolfboy1 said:

I have to wonder if this build is still viable myself, been wanting to dust off my own WS but...something just keeps me from committing and a voice in the back of my head goes "No, you will die to the first mob that sees you, especially if it has a Quantum in it."

If you are managing Eclipse keeping your resists capped AND you're using active mitigation (ie. gravitic for stuns, kb/kd from your blasts and gravity wells hold) Quantums should not pose a threat. They have been significantly toned down over the years.
If you are still finding difficulty with said mobs then I don't think it's a build issue.
That being said, I would be more inclined to suggest my latest Human Form WS build, just a few posts up from here, over this one. Assuming you are married to the idea of the human form build and are thus avoiding Tri-form altogether.

A solo WS definitely still leans on smart inspiration usage and active mitigation, and as more and more enemy factions get revamped, this statement is becoming ever more true.
Defense bonuses alone can only get you so far, and while my older builds posted in this thread certainly have them in abundance, revamped enemy factions are coming loaded with more ways to debuff said defenses.

March 5

We're on Discord being sh*theads and pretending like we're young. Well some of us anyway. Welcome back old man. 😛

February 27

3 hours ago, unstatusthequo said:

Yeah the changeling stuff will be gone I think based on the other threads I've seen. So is playing a tri-shade basically not that great anymore? Is there even a tri-shade build that works? Diving into this Warshade world is a completely different thing. Lots of info, but not much recent. I'll check Discord too. Appreciate your thoughts, @Doomrider as I learn this new thing.

Tri-Form even without Changeling is still great make no mistake. But outside of the realm of Changeling, I think human-centric WS builds got more from the Toggle Suppression changes.
Human:
- gained access to double mire effectively. This was way too clunky before to really use well. Now Human can enjoy Double Mire just like Tri-forms can.
- gained access to taunt effectively which a lot of solo players felt had value for managing aggro from your pets.

The real difference now for Triforms, is any toggles you had, be-it Orbiting Death, or otherwise, can be more than mules if you want them to be,
but they still see no real value while you're shifted.
Changeling uses this to a great degree with how OD and Inky can ticket in-between macro'd attacks but if that functionality goes away/gets patched out
then it's back to, well, how much value and use do those toggles powers really bring you if they still only work in 1 of 3 forms?
Really depends on your build.

February 27

1 hour ago, unstatusthequo said:

@Doomrider Now that toggle suppression is a thing, would you change anything in the tri-form "expensive" build you linked here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=29201

Thinking about a new Warshade. Sounds like there may be some changes on the horizon for them though.

Yeah I probably wouldn't play that build at all. Since the defense changes, s/l defense isn't as valueable as it used to be and stacking Kinetic Combats wasn't ideal to begin with.
If I was going to play something that utilizes the benefits of toggle supression, and wasn't concerned with playing with Changeling macros I'd play this build I posted to the discord recently.
It's basically a Human Shade build that can also macro Dwarf Mire and Dwarf Antagonize so that you have an extra aoe attack, double Mire and built in taunt on an otherwise conventional Human Shade build but with 30%-ish melee/ranged defense.

Doom's New Humanshade (if you have to play humanshade) - Warshade (Umbral Blast - Umbral Aura).mbd

February 26

3 hours ago, Koopak said:

Changling IS powerful and it IS game changing. But it also can't hold a candle to top end dps ATs, which is why I feel any fears of it being OP are unfounded. Now arguments about it being significantly stronger than non changling play are understandable as it necessitates a certain playstyle to get the most out of the AT, one many may find unacceptable.

This isn't quite anecdotal, not quite precise data, but I ran some tests recently using my own PB builds to get a rough idea how much each component of the changeling build was contributing to my dps. I then ran another couple tests to see how it stood up to, what I consider the best non-changeling chain, both with procs and without to see the damage difference. No enflame shinanigans btw.

Build more or less stayed the same, with the same % of global recharge, ST damage powers slotting changed to test the differences of proc'd out versus minimal procs.
These tests are not super precise, but the important controls were in place (ie. the driver, the build and same incarnates used).

My 80 second average for full Changeling build is not quite as high as moogs, despite running very similar builds, but I'd say it's at least in the same wheelhouse as top end dps builds, just not the bleeding edge Illusion Dom, Bio Scrapper range we've being seeing lately.
That said, it is miles ahead of where the AT would be with minimal procs but still using -res procs and the optimal human chain.

February 25

The problem with wishlists, is they end up being some real pie in the sky type discussions and any serious talk on how to address issues within the AT design never actually get touched on.

It should not be about what we WANT, but rather what the AT NEEDS relative to the current state of the game.

The issues with the AT are many.

- ST Damage tiering is extermely out of date. We literally have 3 attacks with low damage identical DPA's. Base recharges need to change with slight changes to animation times to improve DPA's for Bolt/Eye/Blast so their damage tiers are more comparabe to other modern blast sets.
- Essence Drain doesn't even follow the Damage Formula currently, it's damage scale is erroneously set to 1 so it does 47 base damage for 15 endurance spent on a 15 sec base recharge.
That is some of the worst endurance to damage ratio on Single Target attack in the entire game. This is basically Dark Melee Siphon Life pre-buff.
- Mez protection is an issue, regardless of your stance on it. One of the top pain points for new Shades I hear is getting shut down by mez on what otherwise should feel like an armored AT.
VEATS have mez protection AND copious amounts of defense which naturally already lets you avoid incoming mezzes but the damage resistance based cosmic alien beings can be shutdown by a mag 1 stun. It makes ZERO sense. Dwarf form as a break free barely worked when we were all running on SO's but that idea was flawed from the get go.
- So many powers do the same thing. Inherent gives damage resistance, shields give damage resistance, Eclipse gives damage resistance. It's ridiculous.
- Nova's offensive advantage thrives in the early game and dies in a fire by mid game. It's 45% damage bonus isn't even baked into the form, it cuts into our already small damage cap.
And yes before you say, it's ranged damage scalar is 1.25 but none of that matters if Nova Detonation and Dark Detonation do the same DPA due to animation differences. The offensive advantage is barely there over human.
- Powers like Sunless Mire/Eclipse need to be front loaded so the first target struck gives the largest bonus, with subsequent targets struck giving a smaller bonus there after. This is how current Soul Drain works post Dark Melee buff. It would lessen WS reliance on target saturation immensely.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Us vets who have been playing Shades forever have gotten around this but it's an absolute minefield of noob traps for the uninitiated.
The class can remain complex without coming with a laundry list of caveats and loop holes for players to jump through when being introduced to the AT.

February 25

5 hours ago, FlammeFatale said:

I am sorry Koopak, but results from a "log parser in development" by someone "that you cannot name", are not even anecdotal.

Also, I just checked the pylon testing rules. First post in the thread: "External survivability buffs can be used, but only if explicitly stated and can ONLY affect survivability or mez resistance". I think this summarizes my point. You can do great on pylons if you forego survivability and mez resistance. I am not sure this is good advice for general game play though.

You can have your cake and eat it too though. Strong ST damage, strong aoe dmg and still have sufficient survivability to take on the hardest factions on max difficulty.
Also the whole "external survivability buffs can be used" line doesn't really apply to Pylon testing anymore since the most recent patch. All testing is now done one the pylons just outside the Vanguard base and they don't attack the player.

Yes some people make builds specifically to push their AT to the bleeding edge of dps for bragging rights, sometimes to the determent of their damage mitigation but I don't think that's what being discussed here and certainly isn't the golden rule.
You CAN still build very strong ST dps into your build without gimping yourself for regular content but this idea that you should put ST damage output at the bottom of the priority list is sending the wrong message. I regularly see people taking builds that are well balanced and sacrificing single target damage output to stuff them full of defense bonuses, even on AT's with no defense debuff resistance.

Plus, the faster you clear enemies = the less damage mitigation you generally need. And as far as defense goes, sure Positionals might be king but *checks AT subforum*
building for too much defense can come at a heavy cost for the AT's discussed within this subforum, and any others who don't have DDR.
If I need some defense to surive the alpha strike I can just use purple insipirations, and I don't need to sacrifice power budget to do that.

February 16

5 minutes ago, NastygenV said:

Yeah leaning more towards just trying a tri-form build out now. Is there a build for it thats cheap so someone can test it out and not need to spend billions to make it viable?

Check here. It's a bit of an older thread of mine but there is a Tri-Form Budget build posted on page 1. It's a bit of an older build but still viable, and can have tweaks made to it easily.
I made it as a sort of training wheels for Tri-forms. Good base of recharge bonuses but also has 32.5 s/l defense (this is back before the defense changes) but would soft cap s/l with 1 small purple inspiration.

February 16

12 hours ago, NastygenV said:

Damn was really hoping I could go for it. This character has been the one I have grown attached too and seem to want to keep playing nothing else has really stuck with me. I love the look of the skills and fantasy of the class along with its rarity. I knew the post was old and figured it would be outclassed nowadays but a tiny bit of me was really hoping it could be well rounded and workout. Feeling a little defeated now...How are blood widows? I seen some people say they are good or would i just be in the same situation as with the WS? PS. I have put about 100mill into the class already and almost have maxed Alpha so i am able to have perma eclipse currently im also technically a "new" player but i learn builds and rotations pretty fast. Does that change anything or is human WS just not in a good place and a scrapper or something could do what it does just way better?

If you've already leveled it from 1-50, are acquiring Incarnates now, and are still enjoying it then you may be the exception lol.
If you are the kind of player who is willing to use any/all tools at your disposal, whether they are contained within that's classes kit or not, to make the build work then

you can certainly make Human Form WS work.
That being said, Widows are a good class. They share some similarities to Warshade. They've both Hybrid dmg/control classes with a mix ranged, melee and control powers but Widow has some Leadership +def buffs built it to help your team. Warshade is Resist based with no mez/cc protection where as Widows are defense based but have mez/cc protection.

If you want to make Human Warshade work, we can make it work. Will other things be better? Yes. But same is true for many things.

I guess it depends on what your goals are. Are you casually playing? More solo oriented, or doing a lot of teaming/pugging? Do you care at all about playing Hard Mode content?

February 16

37 minutes ago, NastygenV said:

Ok so i found this build https://web.archive.org/web/20120911114020/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296404 which made me want to give WS a try i never played any of the special ATs before. Im also a semi new player so I dont really know the big dogs builds besides the obvious spines/fire scrapper type builds im also not really established at all financially in the game so ive been spending what i get when i get it to try this build out but im now at the purple enhancements purchase stage and really just want to see peoples opinions on this guys build before i invest further. What exactly can this build do is it just a tank primarily that has ranged skills? Can it even match most tanks dmg? He doesnt seem to have much damage buff options that he chooses from the incarnate system. What if any could i change since this may be a outdated human form WS build. I just dont want to feel like im wasting my time but even if i am i seem to still be enjoying the class while i do i was just hoping to make this class work. Really looking for some vet WS players who have done some build testing to give some advice here. Thanks!

Imma sort you out real quick.
Just don't.
I knew THB pretty well so I'm familiar with that build. He and I worked on many builds together and this one was very good at the time, but much has changed since then.
Human Warshade is not a tank. It's a Hybrid class. It has moderate CC abilities, decent aoe damage, nukes and can cap it's own damage resists when surrounded by enemies but it's Single Target damage is weak.
It has no protection from enemy crowd control abilties which frustrates a lot of newer players, and requires a good amount of recharge bonuses before it comes into it's own and even then, the learning curve is steep.

As a new player, with limited funds especially, save your influence.
Human Warshade is a build with a lot of holes that need to be filled with IO's and Incarnates and can be a frustrating experience to learn while leveling. So I can't recommend it.
Tri-forms Warshades are a different story and typically have a much better time leveling. But even then they require binds/macros to make the most of thus requiring extra steps to set-up.

If you're interested in learning the class, I would suggest leveling up as a Tri-form and get familiar with the powers. If you reach 50 and still enjoying it, then maybe think about investing but it may be better to invest in something else first and circle back to Khelds later.

January 22

Ship it. Let the community decide what to do with it. My guess is speed runners will shrug their shoulders and carry on doing their thing given this reward isn't substantial enough to bend over backwards for and most teams will get the bonus by accident. But no one will really know for sure until it's out there.

Who knows maybe people will advertise runs as "RDB ITF" in which case, you know what you're getting into before you send your tell asking for an invite.

At the end of the day, it's the person forming the group who gets to decide how they want to build their team. That's how most MMOs work and COH is no exception.
If you want to ignore the bonus and form your own team on a first come first serve basis and not care about the bonus, that's entirely up to you but no amount of hypothesizing via forum posting will tell you how this will actually affect anything.

January 11

Pylon

~~84 seconds - Peacebringer.~~
100 seconds... Peacebringer.

84 seconds was a one off. I did 9 more runs, and with a new build. Lowest was 93, but averaged out was a bout 100 seconds.
I don't have it in me to grind more at the moment, my timing feels real off at the moment. Might revisit later.

New Doom Peacebringer (Luminous Blast - Luminous Aura).mbd

January 2

46 minutes ago, victusfate said:

I never really noticed it while levelling on teams, but as I started to lead and tank for more teams, I hated the crash. It was all over, and my endurance kept running empty. I think incarnates could fill in for the endurance issues (cardiac/ageless) but I don't see how I can fix that 50% hp drop.

How do Peacebringer centric players handle it?

ps I have and play a decked out Warshade and love it

You may already be aware, but just incase you are not, the crash does not actually drop you to 50% HP. It BRINGS you to 50% HP and End.
Meaning, if you were, for whatever reason below 50%, the crash would actually bring your HP up. That is to say, it's still something PB's have to watch for and get used to.

Fortunately Light Form has a very good recovery buff built in to help you recover END. It's even in enhance-able so you can throw an END MOD enhancement or even and END MOD/RCH one and boost it. Between that, Panacea in health and a performance shifter in Stamina should be enough to recover.
As for HP though, I can typically see when my Light Form is about to expire. The first hint is when it comes off cooldown and is ready to re-apply. After which point I just monitor my buff bar.
Once the buff starts blinking, I know it's time to ready one of my 3 heals and hit it as the crash comes. I put my health/end bar directly below my character so I can easily see the crash with my peripherals.

August 31, 2023

On 8/11/2023 at 4:45 PM, GM Crumpet said:

I can't justify the cost of Hami-O's, so made do with alternatives.

I'm a bit late to responding, but the Hami's can be easily replaced with any acc/dmg piece boosted +5.
The Hamis in my old builds are just relics of the past. I don't recommend those to anyone but haven't had any time or energy to update the builds after taking a long hiatus from the game.

October 27, 2022

I would love a Peaceshade or a Warbringer. I'll take one of each please.

October 26, 2022

As long as you are okay with only having 5 powers, all attacks and 1 of which (nova bolt) isn't even needed. Then pick whichever is your favorite colour; blue-white or dark purple.

October 24, 2022

The slots tax is more evident pre-IO's.
Once 50 and slotted out, it's far less of an issue than it's made out to be. When building, everything has an opportunity cost, and Khelds are no exception.
When you consider that both forms have single target attacks which require virtually ZERO enhancement to their endurance reduction or recharge (as their end cost and base recharge are already quite low), you can get away with very few slots per power while still enhancing maximally for damage and enough accuracy.

Kheldians are more challenging to build than standard AT's as anyone who has spent time with the class knows.
The challenge comes from knowing how many slots to devote to specific powers (sometimes only the base slot) and which ones require more investment to function.
Taking the same build philosophy you'd use on say, a Tank for instance, and devoting 5 or 6 slots to each attack power and then applying that same philosophy to a Kheld build often doesn't work. This often can contribute to this "slot tax" idea.

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