Doomrider

Welp. I guess we'd have to change Spinning Strike then too since it that takes targeted aoe sets... probably have to change Frost as well... it's a cone in a melee set and it takes... you guessed it... targeted aoe sets. I'd sooner just lump ToF into the outlier category along with these two and leave it be, but that's just me.

Daaaaamn girl.

Thanks for not forgetting about us Warshades with these teleportation changes. 😅 Initial thoughts... Starless Step having a small to-hit bonus, especially for Warshades, is actually nice as it will help ensure our Mires/Eclipse have a greater chance to hit more targets when we initiate combat. Shadow Slip (fold space clone) having a 2 min base recharge AND an accuracy check has me questioning it's usefulness though. I typically have 1 or 2 mule spots in any of my WS builds but seldom have slots to spare so I may not end up using this despite it being a cool party trick if nothing else. I will have to play around with it some more.

Np, and I agree, trying to go for multiple softcaps is often unnecessary and takes away from your offensive potential. 32.5 def is often more than enough IMO.

Except Sentinel Bio Armor does get DDR. About 41% through Athletic Regulation.

Please also revert the changes you made in regards to the Nova form scalar. If you want to do something productive, add both the Nova and Dwarf scalars to the Peacebringer and Warshade pages under "Modifiers (at level 50)".

Take a look at this from the Issue 13 patch notes. This was when Kheld's damage scalers were adjusted from what they were originally to what they are currently. Subsequently, the damage scaler for Dwarf form that you deleted from the wiki was buffed at the same time from .85 to 1.0.

Hey maybe when you're done scrubbing the wiki of information you don't like, you can scrub the screenshots I posted earlier? 😂

In game.

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Damage The table I posted in my responses earlier shows the nova form damage scaler. I took it directly from this link. Look under the heading "damage scale by archetype"

Except that's not how damage scalars work IIRC. They're used to assign a base damage value to the power. Otherwise the base damage on the tool tip would indicate 115.5 for Nova Ebon eye. The 45% damage bonus is a buff granted by the toggle, whose damage bonus applies to powers the same way aim or build up does. As an example, lets suppose Blasters had access to Umbral Blast in it's current form, no changes made. Ebon Eye in human form at 44.49 for the WS with a scalar of .80 would be 25% more at base with blasters 1.0 damage scale. The damage for their ebon eye would be 55.61. If you were to work it back the other way, you could say Warshade's Ebon Eye is essential .80 of the same base damage value used by Blasters. We use blasters as the reference point only because their damage scalar is 1.0. Now if we apply this same math between Kheldian forms where human is .80 and nova is 1.20 it starts to make sense, albeit it doesn't apply to Nova Ebon eye which seems to be a strange case but I have theory on that later... Compare Shadow Bolt (T1) and Ebon Eye (T2) blasts with Nova's equivalent Nova Bolt (T1) and Nova Blast (T2) and it starts to make more sense. Since Human form uses a ranged mod of .8 and Nova of 1.2 we have essentially a 50% increase in base damage examining the nova form equivalents. (ex. .8 x 1.5 = 1.2) Shadow Bolt base damage is 26.69. 26.69 x 1.5 = 40.035... the same base damage as Nova Bolt at 40.04 (tool tip rounds up). Ebon Eye base damage (in human form) is 44.49. 44.49 x 1.5 = 66.735... the same damage as Nova Blast at 66.73. This is where that 1.2 scalar is evident. Now as for Nova Ebon Eye this is a weird edge case. I believe they've essentially created a second power behind the scenes when they ported it's use to Nova form. Because if we take the base damage in the tool tip at 50 and do the reverse math... 77.41 / 1.5 = 51.60 51.60 should be the base damage in Human form but we know that isn't the case. This is what to me, indicates the Nova version is actually a separate power otherwise it's damage value would actually be on par with Nova Blast when used in Nova form and we'd end up with 2 virtually identical ST blasts in Nova, at least as far as damage is concerned.

So what if it's third party info? Does that mean that information is incorrect? I'm genuinely asking just fyi. Where are you reading that Kheldian range mod for nova is .08? Issue 4 patch notes don't have anything that I can see, stating this specifically. Even if we assume the 45% damage bonus is to be included as part of that modifier which it really shouldn't since it does take away from your damage cap, it would be .8 x 1.45 = 1.16.

Unless HC changed something the ranged and melee damage mods between forms are infact not the same. See table from the wiki below: As for the Ebon Eye, when I bring up the enhancement screen in game I get the same Nova Ebon Eye tool tip so I'm not sure what it is you're looking at in game. .

This is what I was referring to just for reference (as it appears in the character creation). The same can be seen for Shadow Bolt, it's listed as "Dwarf Shadow Bolt" and the stats in the tooltip reflect it's base values while used in that form. Fwiw, the values indicated as "average damage" in tool tip are base and any bonus damage (45%) granted by Nova form would further influence it's actual damage dealt. For instance... Dark Nova Blast base damage is 66.73 before the damage bonus granted by the form just like is Nova Ebon Eye is 77.41. The 45% bonus is calculated after the fact so those two powers actual damage at base w/o slotting should be closer to 96.76 (Dark Nova Blast) and 112.24 (Nova Ebon Eye) when used from Nova form. As to why/how Nova Eye scales in relation to Shadow Blast, I couldn't tell ya. Maybe because Human Ranged damage mod is .80 and Nova Ranged damage mod is 1.2? I'm no mathemagician but that would be my first inclination.

If you look at the tooltip for ebon eye in the character creator it should be titled "nova ebon eye" which is a little weird (and misleading) but the damage for that tool tip should only reflect how much damage it does when used in nova form. This isn't a bug. Ebon eye does indeed out damage shadow blast and nova blast ever so slightly, but again only when it's used in nova form. I believe ebon eyes damage base damage at 50 when used in human form is closer to 44.

It's a flawed premise because the AV fights don't last long enough on a full team for any amount of lock down to matter. So regardless of the intent of the proposal, it's impact would largely go unnoticed. Until AV's, outside of a few instances, scale to provide some kind of actual threat, I really can't see that changing. I would like Controllers to have some kind of impact in those fights as well but it's a multi-facet problem, one that increasing the small likelihood of lockdown is not going to solve IMO. Look at the other side of the coin, perhaps it's not Controllers that need adjustments to make them feel impactful in these kind of fights but maybe it's AV mechanics in general that need looking at. /shrug

If you've never played human-only WS, I would suggest you give it a spin on test. It's quite a bit different IMO than Tri-form and even compared to human-only pb. That being said, making a second human-only build on an existing 50 WS is much less painful than trying to level a new one up, purely in human-only. I usually tell new shades that intend to play as human-only, to level up tri-form first and then respec into a human build later. Now, if you still intend to level one up you'll want to get take the following powers in this order: 2) Gravity Shield 6) Shadow Blast 12) Sunless Mire 14) Shadow Cloak 16) Twilight Shield 18) Gravity Well 22) Stygian Circle 26) Gravitic Emanation 28) Inky Aspect (to allow stun stacking with Grav Emanation) 32) Dark Extraction 35) Quasar 38) Eclipse For aoe I would suggest taking Orbiting Death over Dark Detonation, OD will actually be more end efficient once slotted up. You can take it and slot it earlier with the SO's that drop from DFB if you want, otherwise you could take it at 20 just before you get Stygian Circle. Other powers to fit in wherever you perfer; combat jumping, hasten, leadership (manuevers, tactics, veng) or fighting (boxing, tough (to mule), weave). Slot panacea proc in health early to help with recovery. If you don't want to rely on prestige powers to fill in gaps in your chain while you level up, you could take toxic dart which sadly will have better DPA than Shadow bolt or Grav Snare, then respec out of it later. For slots prioritize Sunless, OD, Gravity Well, Shadow blast. Then Grav emanation and Dark extraction. You probably only need 2 slots in both shields, they're not overly end heavy. You will want a couple slots in stamina for end mod at least. Maybe a 3 for a performance shifter proc once you're the appropriate level. Stygian will help recovery but you don't want to rely on it too heavily. The rest of the power slots you can fill with whatever you wish.

This Beam Rifle mod is actually pretty good. I wasn't a big fan of the original beam rifle SFX either.

I think Sovera hit the nail on the head and I agree. Kudos for the efforts made, but this proposal is based on a flawed premise. More control, even with a small percentage chance won't lend more usefulness to Controllers late game or against EB/AV type enemies. The other variables as to why Controllers can be seen as undervalued in these circumstances have to be taken in consideration, not just the Controller's contribution through CC. That being said, even if enemies were made to survive longer or be dangerous enough for locking them down to be beneficial I still think we'll still run into a bit of a wall with how CC's contribute to an AV fight. IF AV's were likewise going to be increased in power and actually be a threat, I would prefer to see Control powers serve an alternate purpose or effect in those fights then just purely locking down when the purple triangles or down, or not when they are up. What if Controller's CC abilities could reduce enemy debuff resistances? Surely that would be not only benefit the controller themselves, letting more of the debuffs from their secondaries affect the AV but also that of their teammates debuffs as well.

The problem with Kheld improvement threads, is you're going to find everyone has a vastly different idea of how to approach this as Kheldian playstyles vary immensely from person to person. Some players may spend extended periods of time in any particular form, choosing to play out some sort of psuedo 'role' aka nova = blaster mode, dwarf = tank mode and while I don't prescribe to that particular mindset, it's a perfectly reasonable way to approach Kheldians based on how they are set up. I, however don't spend more than a few seconds per form while in combat and perfer the "all forms at all times" mantra. As an example, my ST attack chain is a shifting one so it is literally Nova Blast -> Gravity Well -> Dwarf Smite -> Nova Blast -> Dwarf Mire -> repeat (and yes this requires a heavy amount of macros) but I digress... Giving Dwarf access to Dawn Strike/Quasar without the need to shift would not improve anything to be perfectly honest. While macros and binds are not native to the powerset, anyone can easily create a macro or a bind to instantly drop to human and trigger the power and this knowledge is nothing new. That being said, I firmly believe if any improvements to either the WS or PB kit are warranted, those would be mostly QoL improvements (for the most part) coupled with improvements to make the sets more intuitive in how they play while cutting down on power bloat... but that's for another thread and another day.

Unleashed actually does not have a crash despite what the tool tip says. I usually franken slot it lotg 7.5%, lotg def/rch+5 and either 2 end mod pieces boosted to +5 (premptive optimization for the bonus max end) for the bonus recovery. It's really good for end heavy set ups pre-incarnate and exemping down. I used it on my khelds a lot, but used it on a plant/storm troller to make it sustainable pre-ageless. It's a really underrated power imo. With the slotting listed above, it's like a small purple inspiration with a good amount of recovery bonus for 1 min. Even though it's not permeable, I still find it really useful slotted that way.

I actually use go Musc Radial on pb's for the damage and end mod enhancement. As with any/all incarnates they really are to flavour for the most part. For Destiny I'd probably go Ageless Radial for the debuff resistances as PB's don't get any. Barrier or Clarion are also useful, though you will get a small amount of mez protection through Light Form and defenses are yet another way to help prevent getting hit by mez so it's not ultimately necessary. That being said, if you find mez to a particular grievance and don't like playing the inspiration game, Clarion may be more appealing to you. Interface; go to's are typically degen core or reactive radial. Hybrid; assault radial. IMO, due to Kheldian's lower damage caps, Radial is a better choice as the bonus proc damage will work regardless if you're at the damage cap or not. Due to our damage cap being low and our inherent also boosting damage bonus potentially, hitting the cap is often trivial and will occur often. Lore; flavour really. Pick whichever you like best. Some are objectively better than others but none are necessarily specific to a PB's needs. Judgement; I like Void radial with the hefty -50% dmg debuff for 30 seconds. It's very good defensively but again, Judgement is more flavour. Perma Lightform works when the power recharges more quickly than the duration expires. Sometimes that overlap is greater on some builds than others. You can refresh Light Form before it expires, but the buff does not stack and the crash will happen regardless. You can't have Hasten and LF both on auto without a special bind/macro. Dominators typically do this to juggle Domination and Hasten, I'm not familiar with the exact bind string, however all I can say is I don't personally use it. The best way to monitor LF and anticipate the crash is to use the beta feature "cooldown timers" from the options and to monitor your buff bar as the power gets close to coming off cooldown. The LF buff icon should start to blink letting you know the power will expire shortly. The crash; when LF crashes it will actually bring your HP to full then crash it to 50%. This happens even if you're below 50% HP when the crash occurs. Your endurance bar will also take a similar dip. This can be a bit alarming at first but you'll quickly get used to it. Fortunately LF has a built in recovery buff to help recover your blue bar. When the crash happens (and it will, no matter what); I typically have a few second overlap on mine. I hit LF as soon as it is back up to maintain the buff with no downtime for the buffs. When the crash hits I will cue up Reform Essence or Essence boost (preferably) based on whichever one is up. Ageless, Conserve Power or Unleash Potential (if taken) can really help fill your blue bar back up but aren't explicitly necessary to recover from the endurance portion of the crash. Likewise, inspirations can also be substituted in dire situations when none of the above referenced powers are off cooldown. The crash becomes less and less of an issue the more familiar you become with your PB, so naturally it does take some getting used to. I recommend binding Light Form to a key so you can quickly activate it. The crash is a small price to pay for being able to have 85% resists to all but psi damage all of the time regardless of circumstance. In a human only build a bind such as this is simple and effective... ' bind x "powexec_name light form" ' If playing on a Triform you'll want that bind to work even if you're currently in a different form in which case use this... ' bind x "powexec_toggleoff bright nova$$powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$powexec_name light form" You can replace x with whatever key you prefer. If you use the triform bind, it will drop you out of whatever form you are in and fire Light Form off.

There's no minfx option for forms unfortunately, however you can adjust the color using the darkest option of any colour (furthest left selection on the palette) to help dull the blinding...ness. It's not perfect but it helps I find.

This isn't technically true. I would reword it to 'Low defense debuff resistance'. With Foresight slotted properly you can get close to 27% DDR. Not a lot, but it's something.

With how easy it is for people to have fleshed out high end IO builds on HC and incarnates coming quite easily, much of the game no long requires a full team. If you can find 2 or 3 regular people to play with it, it can really breathe new life into playing support and you can go on to do some impressive feats with a less than full team. I've done a 3 man Lambda (corr, sentinel, controller) 4 man Seed of Hamidon (defender, 2 peacebringers and a controller). Used the same team to take down a Rikti drop ship just to see if we could. Even a 4 man Dilemma Diabolique (Widow, Scrapper, Corr, Controller) Doing these sorts of challenges on a small team definitely made the support feel impactful. Doing any content with less though does, it's just harder to pull off with pugs. It's not a perfect fix, but it's a suggestion. Just something to try.