[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

2 hours ago, Radeon said:

Sorry, i didn't mean to say that there is a faulty build, but i played the toon for 65 levels and in all those levels she wasn't stunned that often like in the last hour. Really, every single mob! stuns me. 

 

I have to find out how to mitigate that or i don't like to play her anymore.

 

Maybe i am simply using wrong attack chain..what would be recommended?

 

No offense taken. I meant more in respect to "any build" not specifically the one in question. No build will solve that issue. At least when it comes to Human Warshade.
Warshades are one of few classes whose performance heavily relies on player input, and situational awareness.

You can build other AT's into Invincible Demi-gods that require very low input whereby the build essentially plays itself save for a few button presses and basic player movement.
Warshade is the opposite. And for some, that level of input or "extra effort" is not worth it to them. For some, it comes down to a "why should I have try this hard with "Class A" to perform the same task that "Class B" can perform but with much less minimal effort."

Part of the issue is also the binary nature of Mez effects; they either effect you wholly, or not at all. Some AT's can ignore them entirely with their built in Mez protection.
But for Human Shades, they can completely lock you out of playing and shut off your offensive toggles. It can be frustrating, and it is certainly a learning curve. 

So you either have learn to live with that, and use the tools at your disposal (break free insps, defense amp temp powers, clarion destiny, etc.) or decide if the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. 

ALL that being said; with practice many overcome these obstacles and work around their short comings. Human Warshade is definitely a hard road to travel though. One approach you can try is to use Gravitic as your opener to stun mobs, run in with Inky Aspect on to stack stuns including the boss. 
Then reposition and repeat as needed to keep them stunned. 
I tend use that approach, rather than run into melee range and try to buff up w/ Eclipse and mire first.

Also try to use Dark Detonation on cooldown to abuse the knockdown.

If you take a more offensive approach, it may work better. Alternate Quasar and Unchain between mobs. 
You can click on Dark Extraction to target downed bodies a bit easier, to help you queue up Unchain.

Unchain also has a short stun attached, and Cross Punch has a chance to stun as well so those can help stack with Inky.
 

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

15 minutes ago, Radeon said:

Just finished the respec, built in all sets and it's unfortunately almost not playable. At least for me. I am dying all the time, 10 times more than before, because i am in stun/sleep/hold in their second attack. Malta and Council alike. 

 

Probably i am doing something wrong, but i don't know that. 

Mez is the achilles heel of the Human Warshade. Not fault of the build tbh. 
A bandaid solution could be to run a defense amplifier for mag 4 mez protection. Clarion Destiny would be the other option. 
Pre-emptively using break frees to maintain mez protection is another option.

Another option you could look at is building even more defensively (higher defense totals) but it would come at the cost of offense, and IMO, it's generally not worth it on a Warshade.
The unfortunate truth, and it's especially true even for a fully fleshed out Human Shade, is you will have some reliance on inspiration usage.

EDIT: On the note of inspirations; anytime you're building for 30%+- defense, the build will operate optimally when using small purple inspirations to shore up that defense. If you run into a group of Malta/Carnies/Arachnos (any faction that poses a real threat) with 30% defense alone, due to the nature of not having any DDR, your defense will disappear from defense debuffs. At that point you will 100% rely on inspirations, and active mitigation (Gravitic Emanation + inky) to cc mobs.

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

7 hours ago, Radeon said:

- is there a kheldian alternative to cross punch? Boxing, Kick and Crosspunch feels so ordinary, i really like being warshade and that feels so less flashy

Not really, unfortunately. Warshade Single Target damage is really lacking, this is even more pronounced on the Human only variant. This is part of the reason I included Cross Punch, but not the only reason.

Cross Punch, when boxing and kick are also taken in the build, will grant you +10% tohit and +10% recharge per enemy hit by the attack. That's in addition to being a pretty good attack even used against single targets, and it takes to damage procs decently as well. That, to me, is what it gives it an edge over other power choices.
Not that it applies to the slotting in this build but, the fact that it also takes Pbaoe IO sets so it has access to Fury of the Gladiator -res and Force Feedback make it very versatile.

Regarding boxing and kick, they are not really USED in the build. Boxing is muling a KC set to round out your S/L/Melee defense, but both are taken so a) they empower Cross Punch and b) we need them as pre-requisites for taking Weave.

All that being said, you could take Essence Drain in lieu of and proc it out if you're looking for more style over substance.
ED does okay dmg w/ procs, but is very lacking without them and costs about twice the end of CP, is a little slower and will only hit 1 target, but will give you some health back.

Alterations to include Essence Drain would look like this:
Doom's Budget Human Warshade - 30 30 MR def (no CP).mxd
 

7 hours ago, Radeon said:

- do i really not need any shields, like Penumbral Shield, Twilight Shield etc?

Not really no. If you plan on exemping below Eclipse range (sub L35 cotent) then you could look at finding room for Twilight shield if you wish.
Penumbral I don't bother with as fire/cold dmg is not super common. Even if you're exemping, your inherent will be giving you a decent amount of resistances from your teammates and you can use Gravity Shield., even single slotted as it is.
 

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

59 minutes ago, WitchofDread said:

Cant seem to get this build to download, is anyone able to send it to me please?

I've removed the data chunk and uploaded the .mxd file directly in that post. Should work now.

EDIT: All other older build data chunks have now been removed and replaced with file links.

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

36 minutes ago, Radeon said:

I don't know what to say. I never expected that you would create the build from scratch on my request nor that anyone would do it that quickly and put in explanation as well. 

 

Thank. you. very. much.

 

P.S.: And i will have a deeep look into converters. I think i have around 90+ characters, 25+ 50ies but never converted anything 🙂

 

No problem. I just did it while I had my morning coffee. It's a consequence of making too many kheld builds, it's mostly reflexive.

 

Start with looking into converters cause that's a game changer for affording builds. 

 

You can do the same thing with purple recipes. Some of the cheaper ones like the stun and confuse purples you can buy for much cheaper on the AH than the dmg sets. Then craft and convert until you get the set type you want, then convert again to get the specific pieces.

 

You may find you are richer than you think.

 

 

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

On 5/1/2022 at 4:58 AM, Radeon said:

HI all, 

 

i have been away a while and stumbled across this thread and i do really like my shade which is fresh incarnate now. When i started looking for any decent Human focused builds, i read through that thread here and took some inspiraton on what power circle, what is important and what not, but is there a build which is affordable and not around 800 mil influence?

 

I am able and willing to put in, lets say 200/250 mil in it, but cannot afford more yet (and hate farming).

 

If any of you could point me to a build like that, i would really appreciate your help. 

 

Thanks a lot in advance 🙂

 

Doom's Budget Human Warshade - 30 30 MR def.mxd

If I was running a Human Shade on a tight budget, this is probably something I would run.
It does have the -2- Kheld ATO sets and a panacea. But no other pvp or purple io's. 
ATO price wise are not too bad to buy un-catalyzed. Then you can catalyze them yourself as catalysts drop frequently enough you shouldnt have to purchase them.

Recharge:
We take Spiritual Core Alpha to tighten up our recharge which should get us to near perma Hasten, Eclipse, etc. 
Cross Punch's recharge boost and FFB in Dark Det will help shore up the last bit.

End Consumption & Defense:
Reasonable net end gain of 1.9 (Human Shades are an end hog) as we use minimal toggles to achieve 30 melee/range defense.
1 small purple insp will get you just a hair below softcap.

Special notes:
- Passive Accolades are turned on so HP and Endurance recovery will be slightly less until you get those.

- I have boosted some IO's across the build to shore up enhancement values so keep an eye out for those.
I didn't include boosters within the budget seeing as you can also acquire those with Reward Merits just from running task forces, etc.

- Gravity Well slotting probably looks really strange. I wanted a set that would give us a global recharge bonus, a damage proc, reason able enhancement values and do

all that in a 5 pcs so we could put a hold proc at the end.
In my own build I use the Blistering Cold hold proc in mine and it can be real handy to get that 1 shot hold on a pesky boss. 
The lockdown proc here will do the same but won't go off as frequently as the Blistering Cold but lockdown is much cheaper.

- There are no added travel powers. Build tried to squeeze everything performance wise out. You could drop a utility (shadow slip, rez, etc) and fit one in if you really wanted to.

- All aoe powers have the knockback converted to knockdown.

LAST SPECIAL NOTE:

Converters are your best friend when it comes to sticking to a budget. Have a bunch of reward merits across alts but not enough liquid inf to fund that new build?
USE CONVERTERS. This even works with Luck of the Gamblers. You can buy cheaper Red Fortune recipes, craft them and convert with a good chance to get a LotG.
After that you can convert with in that named recipe to get the pcs you need.
This also works for any ATOs.
I often use converters to turn a neglected alt's IO's into the ones I need for a new one. I play very very casually, and dont farm and still manage to churn a new build out every now and then.



 

[Trapdoor Test Results - the other half of Pylon testing?]

I gave it a go on my Warshade just to see how poorly I'd fare. Not even close to a top time but I'm okay with 5:40ish. 

I never run Trapdoor. I'm super bad at navigating cave maps so It could have been a little faster. This was 1 of 4 runs.

None of my incarnates really helped outside of Clarion which I chose just to reduce my inspiration need down to the occasional yellow to counter blinds.
But for clarity I used:
T4 Vigor
T4 Reactive
T4 Clarion
T4 Assault (passive only)

Look upon my UI in horror.
 

 

[Let us keep toggles when form changing]

FWIW, I don't think toggles persisting through forms would be OP given the current state of the game and while I have my own ideas of where Khelds need improving, I wanna chime in on toggle suppression and present an alternate idea to achieving the same thing.

IF toggle suppression is the goal, but the execution is an issue either due to the amount of work required to implement or some other technical hurdle, what about borrowing from Bio's adaptation to emulate suppression?

For example; When Dark Nova is toggled on, allow Gravity Shield (while toggled on) to apply a -22.5% s/l res to self, negating the base resistance value of Gravity shield, and likewise have Gravity Shield also grant Nova an additional 15% recovery (.25 end/sec) to offset the base endurance cost of Gravity Shield and allow the toggle to persist through the forms.

Bio's adaptations show that sort of functionality already exists within the game. The ability to let certain toggle powers alter or grant supplemental effects to other toggles powers.
Offensive Adaptation does something similar applying a -7.5% res to self while it's active. I don't see adding a recovery buff as well being an issue.

Let Nova form (and likewise Dwarf) act like the individual Adaptations do to alter the buffs granted by the other toggles from Kheld secondaries and let those toggles persist while suppressing the end cost, and the effects (if so desired).

It's may be not a perfect solution, but I think it's an idea worth exploring.

[Fire-Dark Sans Hot Feet?]

On 1/22/2022 at 2:32 AM, VV said:

I am working up a Fire/Dark here and would like it to fly. With Tar Patch, is there any reason to take Hot Feet? I mean, I know Hot Feet doesn't work while flying, but if there was some amazing reason to take both Hot Feet and Tar Patch, I would consider superspeed instead of flight. But, as far as I can tell, there is nothing great that Hot Feet does that is not done better by Tar Patch. The tiny bit of damage is essentially pointless, unless I am missing something about it. Running around with an aggro aura kind of defeats the point of the Shadow Fall stealthiness. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Hot Feet, anyway. So, if I could skip it, that would make me happier. But, if it really is super good for some reason, I'll work it in.

You can use hot feet while flying. You just have to activate hot feet before you activate fly.

Also if you're not going to use Hot Feet, you're going to be missing a good chunk of the damage potential that fire has. It's a staple power of the set. Hot Feet does a lot of damage on a controller thanks to containment, and it has a 16 target cap. /Dark is already one of, if not THE most defensively robust controller secondaries so you can afford to hang out in melee and thus take full advantage of hot feet.

As for it's interaction with Shadow Fall's stealth aura, you can toggle off Hot Feet while stealthing and then toggle on when in combat. That's what I do on my Fire/Dark.

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

29 minutes ago, StriderIV said:

Doom! I tried an all human Peacebringer, but mine came out underwhelming. I know you have the Mids link, but Mids isn’t jiving with my Mac right now. Would you mind copy and pasting your build to this thread? Would love to give another all human PB a shot.

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.1.2.5
https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Doom's endgame Humanbringer: Level 50 Natural Peacebringer
Primary Power Set: Luminous Blast
Secondary Power Set: Luminous Aura
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Force of Will
Power Pool: Leadership

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Glinting Eye

• (A) Superior Essence Transfer - RechargeTime/Global Heal
  

Level 1: Incandescence

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
• (13) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
• (48) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
• (48) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

Level 2: Gleaming Blast

• (A) Gladiator's Javelin - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic)
• (3) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (5) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage
• (5) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (9) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
  

Level 4: Essence Boost

• (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance
• (37) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge
• (37) Panacea - Heal/Recharge
• (40) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Panacea - Heal
• (50) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

Level 6: Radiant Strike

• (A) Gladiator's Strike - Accuracy/Damage
• (7) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
• (7) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (9) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
• (11) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage
• (11) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
  

Level 8: Boxing

• (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage
• (43) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance
• (43) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
• (43) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (50) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
  

Level 10: Kick

• (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage
• (45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance
• (45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge
• (45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 12: Inner Light

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
• (13) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 14: Luminous Detonation

• (A) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (15) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (15) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
• (17) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage
• (17) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage
• (21) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
  

Level 16: Cross Punch

• (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage
• (21) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance
• (23) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage
• (23) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage
• (25) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage
• (25) Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff
  

Level 18: Weave

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
• (40) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (48) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
  

Level 20: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (31) Recharge Reduction IO
  

Level 22: Reform Essence

• (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance
• (33) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge
• (33) Panacea - Heal/Recharge
• (36) Panacea - Heal
• (37) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 24: Weaken Resolve

• (A) Empty
  

Level 26: Solar Flare

• (A) Superior Essence Transfer - Accuracy/Damage
• (27) Superior Essence Transfer - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (27) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown
• (29) Superior Essence Transfer - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (29) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage
• (31) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge
  

Level 28: Mighty Leap

• (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%)
  

Level 30: Unleash Potential

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
• (33) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
  

Level 32: Dawn Strike

• (A) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Accuracy/Damage
• (34) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Recharge/Form Empowerment
• (34) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (36) Superior Kheldian's Grace - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
• (36) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown
  

Level 35: Maneuvers

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
• (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
• (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

Level 38: Light Form

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
• (39) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime
• (39) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
• (39) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
• (50) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

Level 41: Tactics

• (A) Rectified Reticle - Increased Perception
  

Level 44: Vengeance

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 47: Shining Shield

• (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

Level 49: Quantum Maneuvers

• (A) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
  

Level 1: Cosmic Balance 

Level 1: Brawl

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

Doom's Endgame (Incarnate) Human Peacebringer

Doom's endgame Humanbringer - Peacebringer (Luminous Blast).mxd



Features:

- 32.5 (ish) s/l defense 
- minimal toggles 
- Full proc chain (Gleaming - Radiant - CP) for max ST dps.
- 65% slow / -recharge resistance
- 42% psi res
- 2k HP w/ passive accolades
- Perma LF
- We take Unleash Potential for another LotG mule but also to push our s/l and melee defense to softcap for 1 minute bursts.
Which will work well in no-insp difficulties.
- High FFB uptime, Higher +tohit and more global recharge than shown in the totals due to CP being intergral to our attack chain.

Incarnates: (not toggled in the build file attached)
Alpha - Musc Radial 
Destiny - Ageless Core (more recharge and to cushion against end drain)
Hybrid - Assault Core (solo) Assault Radial (when teaming w/ a kin)
Interface - Reactive Radial (solo general play), Degenerative Core (solo vs hard targets), Spectral while on teams for Neg dmg and to limit chance of over stacking Reactive or Degen.
Judgement - Any
Lore - Any

[Doom's Kheldian Builds [ARCHIVED] No further updates.]

Here's one from Doom's vault of kheld builds... One for the less proc inclined.

Conventional Human Warshade
 

 

Build highlights:
32.5+ def to melee/ranged
Decent base recovery
- 170% global recharge
- Perma Eclipse
- Moderate resists w/ 1 target eclipse 
75/46/46/40/40/28/28.
Build not reliant on alpha choice (pick whichever you wish)
 

Doom's Conventional Human Warshade - Umbral Blast - Umbral Aura 09.18.2020.mxd

[White Dwarf compared to a Tank]

7 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

According to City of Data, all Dwarf attacks actually have a taunt built in. I didn't know! 

 

Either way, it's not hard to hold aggro at all, they're very sturdy, everyone and their cow provides defence buffs and soft control from the knockdown is useful. 

Yep all Dwarf attacks... except Black Dwarf Mire. Or at least the tooltip and City of data indicate that it does not.

[White Dwarf compared to a Tank]

Dwarf Flare also taunts. So you have a 10 target taunt there, and a 5 target taunt in White Dwarf Antagonize. 

White Dwarf (or proper Triform really) can be a capable tank but one whose aggro controls are less braindead than a an actual Tanker. 
Don't discount the soft control available to you as another form of mitigation, if you kb-kd your main aoes (Solar Flare, Nova Det, Dawn Strike).

[Pylon tests?]

19 hours ago, Honest Abe said:

 

Actually, I misspoke earlier. Abe actually had the best pylon time for WS as evidenced here. XD.

 

[Pylon tests?]

I have but it's not great. I can manage it with out adds for Mire and without pets or lore but it takes a bit and that's being done with an already pretty jank proc build. Probably somewhere in the wheelhouse of 5-6 min pylon times. I know @Microcosm ran some challenges a while back and had a respectable time on a human shade build IIRC, though I do believe it was a build heavily catered towards Pylons. 

I've had a lot more luck taking down a Pylon with my Peacbringer.

 

[Wanting to play Peacebringer but it looks complicated]

46 minutes ago, TheGentlemanGhostronaut said:

I'm a bit confused about the buffs.  Going into either Squid or Dwarf knocks off the buffs, but you want to spend most of your time in one of those forms, right?  So... what's the point of the buffs?

If by buffs you are referring to the resistance shields (ex. Shining shield), those are primarily used by players forgoing both nova and dwarf and instead sticking to playing in human form.

Human PB's also tend to pick up other toggles (weave, combat jump, etc). 

 

Click buffs like hasten and light form persist even when u change forms. You can only activate them in human form, but do carry over when you swap forms. 

[So, procs...]

45 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

 

I don't agree, honestly.

 

Procs don't contain, and I'm of the opinion that controllers don't hit hard enough - hence why so many of them use vast amounts of procs.

 

Seismic being a melee attack that belongs to a single epic pool you can opt into seems fine to me. If proc damage is somehow taken care of, base damage should go up across the board for all control sets - especially gravity.

Problem is damage output across the board is kind of insane right now particularly with the ease of access to IO builds to push it further and we want to take the means for Controllers to do any meaningful damage away (ie. fixing procs)?

Fast moving, high damage teams (which are in abundance) already make Control sets a bit redundant. Procs right now, at least for lower damage AT's kind of a feel like a bandaid solution to a larger problem, but it at least allows them to participate without feeling wholly redundant once IO builds come online. /shrug

[Switching to Nova/Dwarf but staying as a human?]

1 hour ago, Psilencer said:

Darn.  That's too bad.  Funny that a game with such a robust character creator essentially forces one to forego that creativity and play an ugly squid lest be gimped. 

Fwiw, with enough time and experience you may find you hardly spend anytime in any one form, be it Nova or Dwarf so the visual impact on ones costume or aesthetic is perhaps less than one might imagine .
It can be a difference in methodology depending on who you ask really. Some people think of the forms as switching 'roles', others like myself see the forms just sd a means to use the powers they provide and as such, I only spend enough time in either form as is required to use the power the forms provide before dropping back into human form.

Some may consider that playstyle to seem cumbersome or like it's more work than they are willing to put in but it's only then when you really feel like a shapeshifter IMO.

[Procs in Photon Seekers]

They aren't. At all. Not even soulbound chance for build up works anymore. Seekers also isn't affected by damage bonuses outside of enhancements.

[Peacebomber Builds & Macros]

It's not really damage scale that should be the only determining factor in whether you take radial or not, it's also damage cap. If your AT can hit cap easily and often as khelds can, radial is almost universally more beneficial since the bonus dmg comes in the form of energy damage procs so it still works even when your damage capped.

[[Beta] Patch Notes for April 24th, 2021]

I'd rather see bursts 100% Crit become a feature of the set tbh. Nerfing it for the sake of consistency is super lame, taking a niche and below average set and making it weaker because reasons. 

 

I just don't even know what else to say about these kind of changes. Who is honestly asking for this to be done? 

 

I'll echo others and say the set could some attention FIRST before Burst's Crit chance is adjusted.

[Working on an all-human warshade build, struggling with end drain when soloing +4x8 lvl 54 Rachnos]

12 hours ago, FlammeFatale said:

 

 
I am not a purely human shade, I am a bi-form human/dwarf playing mostly in human, but I have not taken Inky Aspect either. I don't need the Gravitic Emanation/Inky aspect combo to stun the mobs, because most mobs are dead after my alpha anyway. There are only a few left, on which I'll use Grav indeed, but as much for the -res proc I put in, as for the stun. Also, not taking Inky aspect means one less click to worry about in a character with too many powers to start with.

 

Yeah if you're bi-form you wouldn't be using Inky anyway. That being said, Gravitic is still useful even if you just need to stun that Mu lieutenant that managed to skirt your alpha.
Plus, you can proc it out and still manage about an 18 second mag 3 stun for 1 sec animation time and do about 85% of the damage of unchain (granted to 10 targets instead of 16) and not require a body, so it's a difference in tactics. Also with that, I can cast Gravitic roughly every 12-16* or so seconds as I slot a FFB in there as well. I'll probably get 5 of those off to every 1 unchain.

You may corner pull to handle these mobs and that certainly works. Where as I, as a triformer will open with Gravitic -> Nova emanation while entering melee (because Nova fly does not suppress so this is easy to close the gap simultaneously) into dwarf mire and most everything is dead at that point save for bosses. No time spent corner pulling, no need to buff up before firing off the alpha. But essentially you are right in that a lot of the time, it's less of a build issue, and more comes down to the player input.

For a human form only build, because we spend so much time in melee naturally, I find the Gravitic+inky combo to be essential, at least for solo play. Perhaps less so while on a fast moving team, but It mitigates so much dmg on it's own so you don't have to rely on passive mitigation alone(def bonuses, res from eclipse, etc). 

[Are melee focused blasters facing an identity crisis, or is that just how you should play?]

9 hours ago, DarknessEternal said:

 

Are you really of the opinion that there's anything complicated in this game?

I think both things can be true. The game really isn't that complicated, likewise you will have more ST dps and survivability as a Scrapper in many scenarios like you said but what Nemu said, as cynical as it may sound, isn't really incorrect either.

Melee AT's have a much lower skill ceiling than many other AT's while still performing at the same level or better, so the title of "training wheel class" is kind of true as much as it might sound a bit disparaging. It's simply less effort to play and even less so once optimized with an IO build, having many scrappers tuning their attack chain down to just 3 attacks and maybe a couple aoes, being able to wholly neglect incoming enemy CC and in many cases not needing inspirations at all in order to survive, your damage mitigation becomes mostly passive.
That's not appealing to many people, especially those who want to create challenge in a game largely devoid of it. Playing a blapper is one of many ways to do that.

[For player understanding and balancing, can each AT and powerset be described with its niche?]

It's one thing to know what a power or powerset is for, it's another to how to utilize it great effect. GW2's classes, their utility skills and traitlines are no different in that respect.
Part of the fun is discovery, becoming familiar with a powerset in a hands-on sense will tell you far more about how to use something, that just knowing what it was intended for. 

I'm not sure a new list will be universally helpful in aiding people with choosing powersets but it certainly couldn't hurt (assuming it's not rife with inaccuracies). 

Perhaps updates to the character creation screens are in order to help guide players to powersets that might interest them. That being said, players have been known to break the conventions of what certain AT's or powersets are capable of and what they were meant for, so definitions for certain skills/powersets many vary wildly depending on who you ask.