Redlynne

So I keep looking at the Leadership pool power Victory Rush ... and I keep not finding answers for questions. I can tell that Victory Rush is limited to being available only once per 5 minutes, since it has a 300s recharge time and the power IGNORES recharge buffing (as designed) ... but getting info on what the power "does" when used on various ranks of $Targets is extremely hard to come by. My copy of the build planner only has this to say in the Window > Data View ... ... which doesn't help all that much. Pretty much the only thing I can tell from this is that Victory Rush will create a different "pet" at the (defeated) $Target you cast the power on which then lasts for 2 seconds, which is presumably long enough to buff everyone within 100ft of the (defeated) $Target. Furthermore, the "strength" of the buff that "pet" delivers to everyone within the 100ft radius is different depending on whether you're using the power on an Underling, a Minion, a Lieutenant, a Boss, an Elite Boss or an Archvillan/Giant Monster. The power description says that everyone buffed gets an endurance recovery buff (like Physical Perfection?) and an endurance cost reduction (like Conserve Power?) ... but how much (of each) for how long (for each) is left completely unspecified. Does the duration of the effects vary with the rank of the $Target as well as the "strength" of the buff you get from Victory Rush? Does Victory Rush have a better "uptime" when used on higher ranked (defeated) $Targets? Is there anyone on these forums who would like to do the necessary research to quantify for us what Victory Rush ACTUALLY DOES when used on various ranks of (defeated) $Targets? And as if that weren't enough ... according to the build planner you can slot Endurance Modification sets into Victory Rush, which then gives you access to the Energy Manipulator and Performance Shifter procs. Given the way that Victory Rush is (for lack of a better term) ... structured ... is there any point at all in ever using either the Energy Manipulator proc or the Performance Shifter proc in Victory Rush? Are there any edge cases in how Victory Rush "works" such that it would make a good candidate (the only candidate?) for putting the Energy Manipulator proc into? I ask because if you don't know in advance how procs are going to function inside of a power, the default position is to simply not use any of those procs in that power. That gets worse when you can't even tell how the power actually "works" in practice due to a lack of available documentation. So ... any testers out there willing to take up the challenge of quantifying and documenting Victory Rush adequately enough for it to be evaluated for use?

Fair warning(!) to anyone and everyone who's interested ... I'm working up a v2.0 rebuild of my SR/MA Tanker right now and things are getting ... 👀 scary 👀 ... even for what usually results from my efforts. It's totally turning into a Scranktroller build (because that's how I prefer to play) that is both Hasten-less (BURN HERETIC!!) and does not use the Fighting pool (BUILD A BRIDGE OUT OF HER!!) ... and it's still able to exceed 59% Defense vs Melee, Ranged and AoE with an endurance cost of no more than 1.25/s spent on all toggles you'd want to be using in combat (up to 7 total) with an endurance recovery rate of 3.24/s before including Panacea and Performance Shifter procs over time. So that's something to look forward to. I might be done with the rebuild and have it posted in a week or so (at the rate I'm going with it).

Fashion Designer near Rita Mayfair in Imperial City and Trina the Body Sculptress in the Tiki Room of Pocket D. Commuter inside any of the subway stations in Nova Praetoria, Imperial City or Neutropolis.

I'm posting this here mainly as an answer to a question that's been lingering in the back of my mind ever since I realized that Infrigidate is a proc monster power 2 months ago. If you need to learn more about how to use the PPM formulas, you'll want to read @Bopper's PPM Guide. So the basic idea here is ... which Mastermind Secondaries have T1 powers that are "proc monsters" basically from character creation onwards? Why ask that? Because once you pick your Secondary powerset, you're stuck with the T1 power whether you like it or not. However, if you can proc monster a power that most people resent being forced to take, and instead wind up with something USEFUL that you find yourself using as often as possible ... well ... wouldn't that be a nice thing to know? So in the data below you'll see what the "best case scenarios" (meaning lowest slotted recharge possible for highest proc chances) are for each T1 power and the procs that it can slot offensive procs into them. 8 Secondaries can slot these offensive procs into their T1 powers, while 7 Secondaries cannot slot offensive procs into their T1 powers ... which makes for a decent balance (I guess). Some of the Secondaries are able to slot either the Winter's Bite or the Frozen Blast sets which are automatically Attuned and the procs in them appear on an enhancement that has recharge built into it, so those entries get their own separate lines of data after all the others get computed at zero recharge enhancement on their respective powers. Some of the T1 powers are a ranged single target to spawn pseudopet around the $Target variety, so I gave both single target and (what I presume is) pseudopet spawning proc info. Some procs will work only on Foes while others will only work on Friends (or at least you'd think they ought to work that way), so some testing of whether there's any "guardrails" against buffing Foes and debuffing Friends using the options available would certainly be warranted. Remember, everything you see below is THEORETICAL based on maths and formulas, rather than the result of iterative regression testing for statistical proofing. If anyone wants to try and steal Arcanaville's thunder on that side of the testing regime ... be my guest. And just to prevent any kind of suspense ... Infrigidate and Time Crawl are the "most reliable" proc enabled T1 Secondary powers, with both having a 90% chance on 3.5 PPM procs with no recharge slotted into them whatsoever. Infrigidate, however, can basically be 5 slotted with USEFUL procs (plus an Accuracy enhancement so it will hit sometimes), while Time Crawl can at best add 1-2 procs (on top of the obligatory Accuracy enhancement). Force Bolt also looks like it could be proc monstered in a somewhat unusual fashion. And finally, the much maligned Gale could become absurdly useful with the right offensive procs combined with the Sudden Acceleration KB>KD converter IO, since as a Cone AoE you'll often get "multiple bites at the apple" when using Gale on multiple $Targets. So, with all of that preamble out of the way ... let's get on with it, shall we? Proc Formulas used: Cold Domination: Infrigidate Dark Miasma: Twilight Grasp Empathy: Healing Aura Force Field: Force Bolt Kinetics: Transfusion Nature Affinity: Corrosive Enzymes Pain Domination: Nullify Pain Poison: Alkaloid Radiation Emission: Radiant Aura Sonic Resonance: Sonic Siphon Storm Summoning: Gale Thermal Radiation: Warmth Time Manipulation: Time Crawl Traps: Web Grenade Trick Arrow: Entangling Arrow

Shopkeeper at the Origin Vendors in the Rogue Isles from Cap Au Diable onwards ...

Scattering is useful while soloing and fighting $Targets that "do stuff" upon being defeated ... like Nemesis Lieutenants casting Vengeance or Ghouls in Praetoria doing that PBAoE heal/buff thing that they do when they're defeated. The Ghouls especially are better to deal with scattered so they don't heal each other upon being defeated. However, that kind of thing is pretty rare, when you think about it. Usually scattering winds up being counterproductive relative to herding, especially in a team context. There are edge cases where scattering is "better" but it's definitely a minority subset of situations, even when solo.

The "true" answer is ... whatever works for you. While you're leveling, you won't have the build completely slotted out, so you won't be in perma-Inner Light territory yet, when you can get the recharge on Inner Light down under 30s permanently (even without Force Feedback procs). I'd say that you'd want to get in the habit of using Inner Light as a sort of "preamble" to alpha striking with Nova form. Approach spawn group in Nova form at altitude above them (so as to get situational awareness) Select $Target in spawn group you want to eliminate first Switch to Human form Toggle on either Energy Flight (Levels 1-9) or Combat Flight (Levels 10-50) so as to stay airborne When ready, Click to activate Inner Light Switch to Nova form Begin Nova form attack rotations The alternative to this is basically doing the same thing in either Dwarf (minus the flight power toggle on and using Dwarf Step to teleport into battle range instead) or Human form in order to make the most use of Inner Light in ways that advantage your particular playstyle. It's just that when you're in Nova or Dwarf forms you need to revert to Human form just long enough to cast Inner Light before resuming your Nova or Dwarf form. Being able to get into the habit of quickly form switching in order to pull this kind of stunt will serve you well in the long run and is an example of a Learned Player Skill that will augment your overall performance. Right now, I'm getting into the habit of switching from Nova form (which flies) into Human form (which can fly but isn't required to) and back again while traveling across zones in order to learn the necessary muscle memory for pulling that stunt when needed in combat. Let's put it this way ... +72% damage with a +tohit buff for 30 seconds. Most build up buff powers only last for 10 seconds. Exactly. The way you play at low levels will determine "how" you play at endgame. If you never develop the habit(s) and ease of use, then you'll never use your Peacebringer's capabilities at their (and your!) full potential. Staying in 1 form permanently is "easy mode" in terms of mental calculus you need to be doing, in that it requires less effort and has fewer variables (and combos) to contend with. I'm not saying you need to be PERFECT at this while leveling, when your power effects aren't perma yet (and won't be for some time) ... but it's wise to start developing the habits of using these powers early on, so that you get in the habit of knowing where to look in your power trays and also into the habit of looking for opportunities to use powers like Inner Light once their recharged, because the "use it now or save it for later?" question is a legitimate one. However, if you permanently get into the habit of "save it for later" and then just wind up never using it ... you've wasted a power pick on something you simply aren't using (like, at all). Remember, practice makes permanent (not perfect!).

No. No you didn't ...

We call them "wrong" ... it saves time.

Or to put it another way ... hyper-specialization into being a One Trick Pony™ is a mistake. Specialization is for insects ... because ... You can be MORE ...

No no, not me ... The OTHER Red ...

And that only happened because I couldn't get bindloadfiles to load other bindloadfiles so as to be able to switcheroo what my keybinds "did" when changing forms. The only way I had left to make things work without needing to so something really stupid was to right the "fallthrough" system I ultimately came up with. If you have questions on how stuff works in it (so you can customize to your own preferences, I can be found floating around the forums (in different forms, of course). The simple fact of the matter is that a Human only is really best done as an endgame respec option on an alternate build. The reason why I say that is because you'll need all your slots in order to invest in a Human only build in order to make it REALLY work to your best advantage. While you're leveling, no matter what you do your build is going to feel "incomplete" as you're working your way up to 50. The main reason I like being able to level up with Tri-Forms is because it gives you "phases" of the game for you to grow into (and through) ... such as 1-5, 6-25, 27-42 and 43-50 ... in which you're building out the various forms so as to give yourself a wider array of OPTIONS for how to deal with the various challenges you need to overcome, with everything coming together with the "keystone" settling into place at Level 50. The benefit of all that is that it makes for a very Exemplar friendly kind of build and playstyle that is flexible enough to take on very nearly anything and everything, at any Level, either solo or in groups. It also helps you build the necessary foundations of understanding exactly HOW to play the various forms in different roles (controlling, blasting, tanking) so as to know how to best adapt to evolving capabilities and the different demands you'll be called upon to fulfill in groups, and having that broader base of understanding will serve you well if you're an altaholic (like most of us).

Single power slotted into ... NOT global.

Turn the thinking around and look at it from the other direction. Spring Attack makes for a decent combo with Dragon's Tail ... but it is by no means a replacement for Dragon's Tail. Spring Attack is good as an opening alpha strike attack, but it isn't useful for repeated use in a repeating attack chain rotation, due to Spring Attack's long base recharge.

I have no idea, good question. Does that make or break it as a good power? Well ... let's put it this way ... 202/188.3 = 100% + 7.28% That means if your Dragon's Tail crits more than about 7.3% of the time then Dragon's Tail will be doing "more damage than Spring Attack. Although another way to put it would be that if you hit 10 $Targets with Spring Attack you'll do 2020 damage, and Dragon's Tail with no crits would be doing 1883 ... but if you add just ONE crit from Dragon's Tail on those 10 $Targets into the mix, suddenly Dragon's Tail is doing 2071.3 damage output against the entire dogpile. So it kind of depends on your perspective, I guess. Note that using Dragon's Tail immediately after Eagle's Claw tends to yield pretty good critical hit performance out of Dragon's Tail. I'll leave the reason(s) for why that should be so up to the disinterested observers of this thread.

A better question is whether you've got the power picks AND the additional slots to put into those power picks available given the rest of your build. A lot of the patron powers "need" to be enhanced in order to make them worthwhile to use in the overall context of a lot of builds ... so if you can't support them without cannibalizing the rest of your build, the tradeoffs involved can start getting pretty steep.

This is TRUE ... but the problem is that for some protection schemes there's not only more kryptonite but that kryptonite is actually more "common" than it really ought to be, all things considered.

Scrapper primary powers can crit. Pool powers ... not so much ...

Posted (finally!).

Dr. Quaterfield ... 😎

Reserved (just in case).

Human Form (no Sunless Mires, no Build Up procs) Form endurance recovery with all accolades and no toggles: 3.3 endurance/second. Shadow Cloak, Gravity Shield, Penumbral Shield and Twilight Shield cost 0.25 endurance/second each. Orbiting Death costs 0.65 endurance/second. Maneuvers and Tactics cost 0.37 endurance/second each. Total endurance cost of running all above toggles: 1.73 endurance/second … leaving 1.62 endurance/second net recovery. Orbiting Death Ranged Single Target Only (T2H > T3H) Melee and Ranged Single Target (T9H > T2H > T3H > T2H > T3H) Nova Form Form endurance recovery with all accolades and no toggles: 3.32 endurance/second Form endurance cost: 0.25 endurance/second Net recovery in Nova form: 3.07 endurance/second Ranged Single Target Only (T2H > T2N) Ranged, Cone and Target AoE Mix (T2H > T3N > T4N > T2H > T2N) Dwarf Form Form endurance recovery with all accolades and no toggles: 3.32 endurance/second Form endurance cost: 0.21 endurance/second Net recovery in Dwarf form: 3.11 endurance/second Damage calculations assume T4D Black Dwarf Drain and T5D Black Dwarf Antagonize hit same $Targets. Note that buffing effects on damage output from Black Dwarf Mire are, for the purposes of these calculations, "ignored" due to the highly variable number of $Targets can can be hit by Black Dwarf Mire. Melee, PBAoE and Target AoE Mix (T5D > T1D > T2D > T1D > T3D > T4D) Single Target only attack chain rotations (best > worst) ranked by different criteria Damage per second comparisons: Endurance per second cost comparisons: Damage per endurance comparisons: Net endurance per second recovery comparisons: Multi-Target Mix attack chain rotations (best > worst) ranked by different criteria Damage per second comparisons: Endurance per second cost comparisons: Damage per endurance comparisons: Net endurance per second recovery comparisons: When Decimation Build Up procs … which subsequent powers in the repeating rotation gain the benefit of the 5.25 second duration buff? Bold Text marks the T2H Glinting Eye power in the rotation that casts the Build Up buff on yourself at the end of its animation. Italicized Text marks the succeeding powers that are subject to the Build Up buff assuming no pauses in the attack chain. Subscripted Numbers 12345 count the succeeding powers that are subject to the Build Up buff. Underlined Text marks Cone and AoE powers that increase the effectiveness of the Build Up buff multiplicatively against larger numbers of $Targets. Where an attack chain repeats will be marked with a >> notation so as to make it easier to visualize buffs "wrapping around" into the next repeat. T2H Ebon Eye … animation: 1.67s, recharge: 4s (base) to 1.38s with Hasten T3H Gravimetric Snare … animation: 1.67s, recharge: 4s (base) to 1.45s with Hasten T9H Gravity Well … animation: 2.07s, recharge: 20s (base) to 6.1s with Hasten T2N Dark Nova Blast … animation: 1.5s, recharge: 4s (base) to 1.31s with Hasten T3N Dark Nova Emanation … animation: 1.5s, recharge: 12s (base) to 4.75s with Hasten T4N Dark Nova Detonation … animation: 2.5s, recharge: 16s (base) to 6.34s with Hasten (T2H > T3H) Human Form (T9H > T2H > T3H > T2H > T3H) Human Form (T2H > T2N) Nova Form (T2H > T3N > T4N > T2H > T2N) Nova Form

Alright … time to explain the bindloadfile strategy that I use for controlling my Kheldians, because without well written bindloadfile keybinds you're going to find playing a Kheldian WAY MORE annoying that it necessarily needs to be! So, first of all, I need to explain what my keyboard and mouse setup is, simply so as to make the ergonomics of my user interface is like. I use a (wired) full keyboard Apple Keyboard (I'm a Mac user) ... and I use a dirt cheap wired Logitech B100 mouse. These items look like this: My actual default keybinds that get used for ALL of my alts as a baseline which then gets overwritten by character specific keybind files is this one: keybinds.txt The ESC through F1-F12 keys get used. The Tilde through Backspace keys get used. TAB is rarely (if ever) used, but it does happen occasionally. Q and A are usually used for "throttle" functions in games, but I use them here for things like Auto Run/Walk and cancelling power queuing on the Q key (with modifiers for the extra functions) and doing the Ninja Run, Power Surge/Sprint toggling on the A key (with modifiers to differentiate) via slotting of those powers in specific slots in tray 9. WER SDF are my movement keys, and I "invert the T" so as to put side to side strafing movement on top, with turning down below. Backspace is used to return tells. Backslash is used to open the Menu (so as to change costumes, check ID or simply Quit). The Return key I have custom coded to require Shift+Enter to startchat, so as to prevent "rolling startchat" after hitting Enter to actually send a chat. The Semicolon key I have custom bound to toggle my Contacts window (with a smartphone emote). Shift+Semicolon does the same thing for the Auction House. M is simply there to toggle my Map from the keyboard. Spacebar is, of course, Jump and "fly up" ... while Shift+Spacebar is used to "fly down" when needed ... and Control+Spacebar activates the Jump Pack via keybind to a specific slot in tray 9. Which then brings me to all of the Kheldian keybinds that I layer on top of this (including for controlling Mastermind Pets, as it turns out). WS.txt T shifts to Nova Form. G shifts to Human Form. B shifts to Dwarf Form. Tray 1 slots 1-4 are Nova form powers. Tray 1 slots 5-9 are Dwarf form powers. Trays 2+ slots 1-10 are Human form powers (etc.). Right Arrow is an alternative way to cast Shadow Step or Black Dwarf Step which will enable the teleport rings so you can check which destinations can be reached. Shift+Right Arrow toggles on/off Shadow Slip (which isn't included in this build, but just in case someone wants to respec into it). Down Arrow casts Shadow Recall to teleport teammates to your location. Shift+Left Arrow toggles on/off Nebulous Form. LShift+LButton activates either Shadow Step or Black Dwarf Step teleport all in one click (the Teleport Bind™). Simple and easy to use … because I'm not calling up other bindloadfiles depending on what form I'm in, and the power activation keybinds work on a "fall through" implementation where if a key can't be used in one form it'll fall back to being used in the next form, thanks to the Form lockouts. Additionally, since everything is addressed by tray and slot positions I can rearrange my powers in my trays without needing to rewrite by bindloadfile that controls my user interface. The only trick is to dedicate Tray 1 to all of your Nova and Dwarf Form powers and keep Tray 1 visible at all times, then use Trays 2-9 for Human Form powers. Note that the above keybinding scheme is an All In One format which uses only a single bindloadfile to control all three forms (simultaneously?) and relies on the intellegence/situational awareness of the Player to take full advantage of everything and "know" what needs to be done when (and why) while playing a Warshade.

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Note that attached .mxd file includes an Alternate Slotting that shifts towards Superior and Purple 50 Sets slotting for endgame players for whom resources and financing is NOT a problem. Warshade - Umbral Blast - Umbral Aura.mxd

Alright. You all know the drill by now (and if you don't, well … you're going to learn!). If you've read ANY of my other builds that I've posted, you know what's coming … WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU!!! Yes … You Have Been Warned … again … And for anyone who isn't clear on the concept (yet), you're going to see this same preamble of the common features repeated on both my Peacebringer and my Warshade builds, simply because it does bear repeating due to the common features shared by both (before they diverge into their own build specifics). For anyone who wants to refer to the prior versions of my Warshade builds, they can be found in the links below: Leveling Tri-Form Warshade [v2.0] Leveling Tri-Form Warshade So ... what happened since the last (Warshade) build post I put up? To put it mildly ... my [v3.0.3] Peacebringer build happened, that's what. For the first time, I tried doing a "beginning to end" analysis of how powers in the holistic context of the entirety of a build would ultimately "throughput" into repeatable attack chains, and where the ... breakpoints ... for building that way would tend to fall as a result of all of the choices made in powers selection and allocation of slot resources so as to see how EVERYTHING "fit together" into an overall cohesive whole ... and it turned into a FAR LARGER project than I could have ever anticipated (I figure I've spent more than 20 man-hours on that Peacebringer build do to ongoing discoveries and revisions followed by more discoveries and more revisions leading to yet more iterations of the process). So ... yeah. THAT happened. And now it's time to take everything I learned from redoing (and redoing and redoing and redoing!) my Peacebringer build to hone it to the point where every slot in the build is virtually SCREAMING under the strain of needing to allocate scarce resources (because Tri-Forms are just that slot hungry!) as efficiently and optimally as possible ... and here is the results of that labor. I've been playing the v2.0 version of my Build build linked above and found through actual gameplay that the idea of slotting up and using Shadow Bolt and Ebon Eye in lieu of slotting up and using Dark Nova Bolt and Black Dwarf Strike ... because as I discovered you can use Shadow Bolt and Ebon Eye in ALL forms(!) instead of just one or two(!) ... and had been thinking I'd be able to leverage that into slotting up one power and then use it in all three forms (twice!) wasn't really panning out as being all that good of an idea. Don't get me wrong ... it works ... it's just not as "superior" an option as I had been hoping for. So ultimately I was wanting to do the same thing with my Warshade, where the foundational attacks for Human form would be Ebon Eye and Gravimetric Snare instead. Suffice it to say that Shadow Bolt is only "useful" for Levels 1-5 because at Level 6 you get Nova form and then basically stop needing to rely on Shadow Bolt for much of anything (except as a filler). Go to a P2W Vendor (they're in all the starter zones and even in the tutorial zones!) and pick up Throwing Knives (best damage per attack option), either the Nemesis Staff or the Blackwand, along with either the Ghost Slaying Axe (which works, as advertised, on Ghosts!) or Sands of Mu (a knockoff of Flurry from the Speed pool). With those extra attacks you can "make it till you make it" to Level 6 and get Nova form ... but until then, you need to pick SOMETHING as your power picks between Levels 1-4 (and spend your enhancement slots from Levels 3-5) before you can get to Nova form. So looking at the v3 build here relative to the v2 and earlier v1 builds, that's pretty much the only "real" change going on in power picks ... aside from dropping Inky Aspect and the Stealth pool (which was only being used to mule Luck of the Gambler global recharge enhancements) in order to make way for Maneuvers, Tactics (because of how the Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control Build Up proc works in it) and Vengeance out of the Leadership pool. These resulting changes combined to lower the overall global recharge set bonus to the entirety of the build, but I was able to "juggle" the repeating attack chains for each form into a "shape" in which that relative loss of recharge buffing isn't actually as big of a problem than it might at first appear. For each of my previous Kheldian builds, I'd first build the (MFin' Indeed!) Warshade and then proceed to adapt the "core" choices from that build into a (G*d D**n!) Peacebringer counterpart ... but here that process has been reversed. This time is was the Peacebringer that came first, and it's the Warshade that wound up needing to play catch up afterwards due to the things I "discovered" as a result of honing the Peacebringer build into the v3.0.3 that you can see in these forums (and everything THAT experience implied). That said, there are some pretty significant things that a Peacebringer can do which simply don't "translate" over to a Warshade ... such as having a plethora of Knockback powers which can be leveraged into Force Feedback "recharge refueling" attacks in each form. A Warshade simply doesn't "do that" the same way, mainly because a Warshade is a "slow monster" compared to the Peacebringer's "knock monster" thematics. So while some things translate across from one to the other, a number of other things don't (Photon Seekers vs Essence Extraction simply being a prime example of this). One of the major considerations for the v3.0.2 Peacebringer build was that I needed to apply a "governor" to all the major knockback powers using the Sudden Acceleration KB>KD IO while at the same time wanting to add in a Force Feedback proc for recharge buffing onto AoE attacks in all three forms, because Peacebringers are so "self-contained" in that they are completely independent of factors external to themselves for buffing (Inner Light vs Sunless Mire for example) and that Peacebringers have a number of powers that are advantaged by recharge buffing in a way that Warshades are not (or at least not to the same extent or in quite the same way). Peacebringers can reduce the recharge on Light Form, for example, and never have to worry about having enough $Targets around them to get the most out of casting Light Form upon completion of recharge ... not so for Warshades, who are far more dependent upon external circumstances for powers like Eclipse, Sunless Mire/Black Dwarf Mire, Black Dwarf Drain, Stygian Return as well as Stygian Circle and Dark Extraction (of course), where you not only need to have the power recharge "in time" for it to be perma but also the necessary "fuel sources" to make it worthwhile to even use a number of abilities at all (although, granted the times when you can't use Stygian Circle are limited...). So with a lot of the demand for Sudden Acceleration KB>KD IO slotting removed from the Warshade build, that made available (a few ... too few ...) extra slots for repurposing in a Warshade counterpart build. The first and biggest (and earliest) difference between a Peacebringer and a Warshade arrives by Levels 2-4. What I mean by that is that instead of having Glinting Eye, Gleaming Blast and Essence Boost as the first 3 power picks, with recharge times of 4s, 8s and 360s (respectively), with Essence Boost being a Dull Pain power port ... on a Warshade you get Ebon Eye, Gravimetric Snare and Orbiting Death as the first 3 power picks, with recharge times of 4s, 4s and 4s (although Orbiting Death is a toggle instead of a click, so the low recharge is kind of moot here). That makes it a LOT easier for a Warshade to cycle their early Human form attacks around the addition of P2W sourced supplemental attack powers since the recharge times aren't quite as staggered as their Peacebringer build counterparts. The problem though is that Gravimetric Snare is a damage over time power that functionally takes ~10s to dish out all of its damage, and at low Levels Orbiting Death adds smidgens of damage against $Targets within 20ft of your PC. However, Gravimetric Snare enjoys one decidedly useful feature over Gleaming Blast in that it also MAG 3 Immobilizes for 20.12s without any slotting whatsoever, meaning that it is not only "perma out of the box" on Immobilization but you can use it to rotate among $Targets so as to lock them into positions where they can't escape your Orbiting Death aura radius while keeping them outside melee range as a form of "poor man's incoming damage mitigation" to protect yourself. Alternatively you can use Gravimetric Snare as a way to "defer" the approach of a $Target from a spawn group such that you only need to deal with 1-2 instead of 3 simultaneously when using Line of Sight blocking to force other (mobile) $Targets to come to your position while leaving behind 1-2 of their fellows who need to wait for the Gravimetric Snare duration to expire. Also, Gravimetric Snare helps prevent "runners" by Immobilizing them so that you can dispose of them at your leisure. By the time you reach Level 8 you'll have Starless Step which is even better for "dismantling objectionables" in spawn groups (such as Quantum Gunners and the like) by virtue to being able to teleport (foe) them away from their spawn groups so that you can deal with them in a 1 on 1 context, rather than in a many on one context that is far more hazardous to your chances of survival ... especially since unlike a Peacebringer, as a Warshade you haven't got the extra "insurance policy" of an Essence Boost/Dull Pain equivalent power at your disposal, meaning that a PvP-like "surprise burst" of damage following a Starless Step "get over here!" against Quantum Gunners (et al.) is your best bet for taking them down with the least amount of risk for your own safety/survival. I personally find that on a Peacebringer, the best thing to do is to use Nova form and try to burst the Quantum Gunners down with sheer damage production in as short a time frame as possible, using any Knockback that RNGesus provides as a delay in incoming damage from the Quantum Gunner, before needing to engage the rest of the spawn group to dispose of them. By contrast, with a Warshade I find myself selecting a Quantum Gunner as my $Target, moving BACK through already cleared areas until I can reach a "safe distance" that Starless Step can "reach through walls" to bring the Quantum Gunner to my position in Human form (with Orbiting Death already up and running). I then set up to use Starless Step, to put the Quantum Gunner "in a corner" (if available) such that in order for them to escape my Orbiting Death aura they will need to run past/around my Warshade (which helps to maximize return on Orbiting Death chipping away at them) and then I use Starless Step to teleport the Quantum Gunner into the corner I've selected ... but I aim the teleport rings UP TOWARDS THE CEILING of that corner so that when the Quantum Gunner arrives THEY WILL FALL DOWN to the floor. It has been my experience that the scant second or so it takes a $Target to fall down to the floor from being teleported up towards the ceiling by Starless Step is time during which my $Target isn't able to draw a weapon and therefore attack my Warshade. Put simply, most $Targets that don't have Hover/Fly powers need to be standing on the ground in order to cast ... and I USE that delay created by the (admittedly short) fall after a Starless Step to make it more likely I'll be able to pull off/cast my next power before the Quantum Gunner can shoot me. So my standard operating procedure when dealing with Quantum Gunners is to use Starless Step to teleport them into a ceiling corner that has them fall down into my Orbiting Death aura ... but Starless Step has an Interrupt of 2 seconds on it, so if you queue up another power during the 2s Interrupt of Starless Step you'll interrupt Starless Step (and Starless Step requires a to hit check and sometimes it will "miss" and fail to teleport your $Target) so you'll want to wait until you see the hitbox of your $Target MOVE to the destination point before doing the next step. Once I see the hitbox arrive at the teleport point, I then IMMEDIATELY queue up the P2W Nemesis Staff power, while Starless Step is still completing its animation ... because although Starless Step has a 2s Interrupt duration it will continue animating for an additional 1.93s (for the full 3.93s of the power's animation time) after the $Target has been teleported ... and during that remaining ~1.93-ish seconds of animation, if you're quick, you can get most of the weapon draw animation for using Nemesis Staff finished(!) ... meaning that as soon as Starless Step finishes its animation you can be casting a blast out of the Nemesis Staff which has a very high probability of being a Knockback that will buy you even MORE time before the Quantum Gunner gets to draw their weapon and attack you. And even better yet, since your $Target usually can't attack until they're STANDING on the ground (instead of falling towards it or ragdolling around) that buys you the precious time you need to finish off most Quantum Gunners before they can get off a shot against you! And because you picked your location wisely, the Knockback from the Nemesis Staff will toss your $Target into the corner while keeping them within your Orbiting Death aura radius so it continues to tick and chip away at their HP for you while you queue up the necessary follow on attacks to try and finish off your $Target. It's at this point that I will often times either stay in Human form and just keep using Human form powers (and P2W supplemental powers) or switch to Nova form for increased spike damage production so as to attempt to finish off the Quantum Gunner as quickly as possible. Sometimes I'm able to get lucky and defeat Quantum Gunners before they can even fire off so much as a single shot, meaning that it is possible to take basically no damage from pulling this Starless Step stunt until other mobs from the spawn group arrive (and start attacking) ... but sometimes I can pull a Quantum Gunner out of a group using Starless Step and none of the other members of that spawn group "notice" that anything happened, so there's a LOT of permutations for using this trick (including the Nemesis Staff MISSING, which sucks when it happens) ... but on the whole, it's a safer set of options than engaging the way that I would want/need to with a Peacebringer who cannot bring $Targets from their location to mine (without investing in the Teleport pool for Teleport Foe). The next big difference between a Peacebringer and a Warshade is that Warshades don't get a Radiant Strike equivalent power (since Warshades have Starless Step instead). This radically changes the calculus for what powers to use for attacking with while in Human form, which again pushes the advantage onto being able to simply alternate Ebon Eye and Gravimetric Snare by getting the recharge for both of these powers under 1.67 seconds each (so they recharge in the time that it takes the other to animate). Gravity Well is the equivalent power to Incadenscent Strike, but Gravity Well animates FASTER at 2.07s vs 3.3s for Incandescent Strike ... and with only Ebon Eye and Gravimetric Snare to fill the time between uses of Gravity Well, you want the recharge of Gravity Well to be "conveniently under" a recharge time that is a multiple of 1.67 seconds for a "just in time" recharge performance from Gravity Well when using a repeating attack chain that is filled out by Ebon Eye and Gravimetric Snare where you aren't "wasting" too much recharge time waiting for other powers in the chain to finish animating. Another HUGE difference from Peacebringers is that Sunless Mire for Warshades has a less favorable uptime than Inner Light for Peacebringers. Sunless Mire has a 120s recharge for a 30s duration instead of Inner Light's 90s recharge for a 30s duration ... meaning that it's possible to make Inner Light a perma buff without Force Feedback procs (and I have in my Peacebringer builds), while it is almost impossible to do the same for Sunless Mire ... and that's not even including the fact that Sunless Mire requires $Targets be within 15ft of your Warshade to get any benefits at all AND you need to hit 7 $Targets with Sunless Mire to gain +78.75% damage buffing to match/exceed the +72% damage buffing that Inner Light gives to Peacebringers for hitting ZERO $Targets. Yes, you can get up to +1112.5% damage buffing out of Sunless Mire by hitting 10 $Targets with it ... but you can't always count on having that many $Targets (oh so) conveniently located next to your Warshade every time Sunless Mire finishes recharging. The point I'm making here is that even IF (a humongous if!) you're able to get the recharge duration of Sunless Mire down to less than 30 seconds (good luck with that one!) you aren't always going to be able to make use of it, regular as clockwork, every time Sunless Mire has recharged simply because Sunless Mire is context dependent upon the situation you find yourself in at that time. So Warshades can temporarily achieve a higher amount of damage buffing from Sunless Mire in $Target Rich Environments™ but those conditions are hardly consistent ... while a Peacebringer can just cast Inner Light upon recharge and be able to sustain their damage buff indefinitely (so long as their endurance holds out and they switch back to Human form in time to recast). The next big difference between Warshades and Peacebringers comes when comparing Gravimetric Emanation (a 45º Cone with a 40ft range that does Knockback and a MAG 3 Stun) to Solar Flare (a damaging 15ft PBAoE Knockback) and Pulsar (a 20ft PBAoE MAG 2 Stun), because Gravimetric Emanation occupies this weird tangential relationship to both of these Peacebringer counterpart powers. Although Gravimetric Emanation is a damaging Cone attack power, its primary purpose isn't to be a heavy damage dealer (base damage is 17.8 Negative Energy), but rather to act primarily as a control power. In its default out of the box configuration Gravitic Emanation can best be described as a "Keep Away From Me" type of power since it has a base Knockback MAG of 9.35 and it will MAG 3 Stun for 13.41 seconds, allowing you to buy yourself time before needing to deal with what can best be described as "small fry" in front of you. So Gravitic Emanation allows you to "filter" Minions and Lieutenants in a way that mezzes them so that your Warshade can concentrate on taking down a Boss (or Bosses) without being distracted by the extra adds (temporarily). I've taken that basic functionality and augmented it with slots almost beyond recognition in this build ... and this is something that I'm rather proud of, since I haven't seen anyone else do exactly this on any other Warshade builds posted here in the forums (they might have, but if so, I haven't seen it, so there's that). What I did was this ... Level 26: Gravitic Emanation (A) Rope A Dope - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge: Level 50 (27) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge: Level 21 (29) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown: Level 21 (29) Superior Frozen Blast - Recharge/Chance for Immobilize: Level 50 Okay ... so what? You 4-slotted Gravitic Emanation with a pile of procs, none of which are damage procs. What's the big deal? The big deal is that those 4 slots change Gravimetric Emanation almost beyond recognition, as I mentioned earlier. In the context of this build, the duration of the MAG 3 Stun gets increased from 13.41s to 16.96s (okay ... big whoop) while the recharge drops down to 14.89s without a Force Feedback proc, and all the way down to 13.24s with a Force Feedback proc (which has an over 50% chance to proc per $Target hit, which rapidly increases to over 90% with 4+ $Targets getting hit by Gravitic Emanation). This makes the MAG 3 Stun portion of this power relatively perma-able (depending on the shaping of the rest of the repeating attack chain). It also means that with a 1s animation time it is theoretically possible (in what would no doubt be heavy combat) to cast Gravimetric Emanation as often as 4 times per minute and get 4 Force Feedback procs per minute ... or up to 8 Force Feedback procs within the 2 minutes of Hasten's buff duration (which I'll circle back to later). So, so far ... the MAG 3 Stun can be perma and the Force Feedback proc slotted into the power can procced relatively reliably as often as 4 times per minute, despite Force Feedback being set for 2 procs per minute (2 PPM), so long as there are $Targets around for Gravimetric Emanation to be used upon. But Gravimetric Emanation also deals a base MAG 9.35 Knockback ... which Sudden Acceleration then converts into Knockdown, preventing unwanted scattering of $Targets. This conversion to KnockDOWN then makes Gravimetric Emanation a power that is "team friendly" in that it doesn't "knock over the board" of the battlefield, scrambling the positioning of $Targets (whether you want to or not). So the Sudden Acceleration makes up to 10 $Targets "fall down" where they stand (or "flip them over" where they hover/fly) which can disrupt their attack patterns against yourself and your team. But then in addition to all of that there's the Superior Frozen Blast chance for Immobilize, which in its Superior format yields an astonishing 89.04% (less than 1% shy of the 90% chance cap!) of applying a MAG 3 Immobilize for 10 seconds(!) ... which then combines with the MAG 3 Stun of the base power to yield a Stun+Immobilize=Ghetto Hold for 10 seconds following the 1s animation of casting Gravimetric Emanation. In effect, Gravimetric becomes an area lockdown (that may leak the occasional $Target who isn't Immobilized, but you've got Gravimetric Snare to lock that down too) where $Targets are MAG 3 Stunned while MAG 3 Immobilized (denying them actions AND movement simultaneously) in a 45º Cone reaching 40ft in front of your Warshade that can be used "with impunity" (even in teams) because it won't rearrange the locations of everything you hit with Gravitic Emanation ... while at the same time often/usually proccing Force Feedback to speed up the recharge on your long recharge time Human form powers (Hasten, Sunless Mire, Gravimetric Emanation itself, Dark Extraction, Quasar and Eclipse!) so as to be able to use them more often and to better advantage than you would have been able to without Gravimetric Emanation. In short, this slotting practically revolutionizes both the potential and the applicability of Gravitic Emanation well beyond the uses that the power would otherwise be confined to (except in a solo context). It also means that the best time to use Gravitic Emanation as part of a repeating attack chain is AFTER using Gravity Well, so as to possibly get the Force Feedback proc from Gravitic Emanation to accelerate the recharge on Gravity well to the point where you can use Gravity Well more often (and stack Gravity Well's Hold MAG on a Boss even faster/deeper). But if you aren't in melee range to use Gravity Well, just use Gravitic Emanation on a group of $Targets as your alpha strike to neutralize a substantial number of them ... or allow a teammate/aggro magnet to herd them up and then hit them with Gravitic Emanation (guaranteed useful against Malta Sappers!). And because Gravitic Emanation will recharge in under 15 seconds, with or without a Force Feedback proc, you have every incentive to use Gravitic Emanation at every opportunity that presents itself! So yeah ... that's ... rude ... to NPC $Targets. I've got Dark Extraction slotted up the way that I do for maximum recharge in the fewest slots (in this case I had to use Call to Arms in order to avoid over slotting of +3% Damage set bonuses) while using the 5th slot for the Soulbound Allegiance Build Up proc. The reason for this is that once a Fluffy™ procs the Build Up the duration on the damage buff is 10 seconds for Pets, unlike the Build Up procs in Decimation and Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control which last only 5.25 seconds. In the context of Fluffy™ pet attacks, that's a fair chunk more potential damage during those 10 seconds (when it matters) and they can keep proccing the Soulbound Allegiance Build Up by continuing to attack, meaning that the benefit of the slot is most apparent in a $Target Rich Environment. Quasar is basically slotted the same way as on my Peacebringer build, where the idea is to deliver a massive burst of damage without hurling $Targets away from their current locations, turning Quasar into a very team friendly crashless "nuke" power to use in Human form. Nova form ... is Nova form when it comes to attack power rotations, because the core functionality remains unchanged from previous versions of my Peacebringer and Warshade builds. There are basically 2 rotations that can be used for either Single $Target or Multi $Target. But Dwarf form for Warshades is fundamentally different from Dwarf form for Peacebringers, because Warshades have Black Dwarf Drain, which simply NEEDS to be used to survive while in Dwarf form ... and once you include Black Dwarf Drain in the attack rotation there is simply no good reason not to include Black Dwarf Mire in the rotation so as to power up and supercharge damage throughput while in Dwarf form. Consequently there is basically just one attack power rotation that makes sense to use while in Dwarf form. Since this build doesn't reach for defense buffing from set bonuses, the protection scheme is a purely resistance based one ... mainly since Shadow Cloak and Maneuvers only offer a pittance of defense buffing to Human form only, although Vengeance is good for a 21% defense buff when a teammate can't stay upright (and there's always one ...). With Gravity, Penumbral and Twilight Shields toggled on you can hardcap all of your Resistances, except Toxic and Psionic, by hitting as few as 3+ $Targets with Eclipse while solo. Hitting 4+ $Targets with your Shields toggled on will hardcap Resistances to Toxic and Psionic as well for you. With Gravity, Penumbral and Twilight Shields toggled off (and/or while in Nova form) you can hardcap ALL of your Resistances, including Toxic and Psionic by hitting as 5+ $Targets with Eclipse while soloing. With Gravity, Penumbral and Twilight Shields toggled on, Dark Sustenance will hardcap your Resistances, except to Toxic and Psionic, with 5+ Corruptors, Defenders, Masterminds or Tankers on your team and 7 Corruptors, Defenders, Masterminds or Tankers on your team will hardcap even your Resistances to Toxic and Psionic. While in Dwarf Form you can hardcap Resistances to Smashing/Lethal and Fire/Cold with 2+ Corruptors, Defenders, Masterminds or Tankers on your team. You can hardcap Resistances to Energy/Negative Energy and Toxic with 4+ Corruptors, Defenders, Masterminds or Tankers on your team and can hardcap Resistance to Psionic with 7+ Corruptors, Defenders, Masterminds or Tankers on your team. While in Dwarf Form with Eclipse can hardcap all Resistances, except Psionic, by hitting as few as 2+ $Targets with Eclipse while solo. Hitting 4+ $Targets will hardcap Resistances to Psionic also. The final point I want to make for this build is that YES ... I took 3 powers out of the Leadership pool ... mainly as set mules, but also as "opportunities" when playing late game content (particularly Task Forces/Strike Forces) where someone else on the team is playing aggro magnet and you can get away with staying in Human form for a while and letting Orbiting Death do a fair amount of damage for you over time on the cheap. Maneuvers and Vengeance are basically there as Luck of the Gambler mule power picks, although they do still have some usefulness when used (in the right contexts). Tactics, however, is simply "too good" to pass up with the way that the Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control Build Up proc "works" in teams (and leagues!) to in effect supercharge your Human form damage dealing potential by having an increasingly high chance to proc the larger the number of team/league-mates you have within range of Tactics and being buffed by it (~41.5% chance every 10 seconds in Team-8 contexts when the team sticks together). Blended together with the Decimation Build Up proc in Ebon Eye this can provide significantly increased uptime for the Build Up procs (plural), turning your Human form into something of a damage and control powerhouse (who also has a damage aura in Orbiting Death). And while running ALL of the toggles available in Human form might get rather ... expensive ... in terms of endurance costs, when you can use Stygian Circle every 13.05s (or less if Gravitic Emanation procs Force Feedback!) to refuel yourself from the (mountain of) corpses you'll be creating as a Warshade using this build, you don't want to look at all those demands on your blue bar as being necessarily prohibitive to getting the most you can out of this build. And just in case it wasn't obvious, Nebulous Form is included as an "Oh S#*t!" button to escape from situations where you're taking too much damage (as well as using it as a travel power for getting around zones outside of combat). And I'm sure that someone is going to notice that I've got Superior sets slotted into Gravimetric Snare, Gravity Well and Gravitic Emanation in this build, unlike in previous builds I've posted. Mainly that's a matter of being able to acquire the non-Superior version of the enhancement while leveling (so as to slot it in) and then upgrade to being Superior at Level 50, providing the increased recharge and proc values represented in the proc performance data. So with all of that blathering out of the way, let's get on with the build itself, shall we?