Tips for Leveling Human WS?

[dtj714]

I’ve leveled a tri-form WS and human-only PB (multiple times actually) and love them both - to the point where I can barely bring myself to play the other ATs. So, I figured I’d give a human-only WS a shot. 
 

Problem is, I’m having a hard time seeing the “path” for it. I could sort of mirror what I did for my PB (2 ranged, 2 melee, most of the AOEs, shields until LF, etc.), but of course that doesn’t translate directly.

 

What tips can you guys provide for leveling a human ‘shade?  E.g., what powers to take when, what gets slotting priority, etc.  Btw, my leveling method is DFB to 20 then TFs and other group content to 50, and I can afford any IOs short of a bunch of purples, so take those into consideration fwiw. 

[chi1701]

Human vs triform is dependant on person to person, I went triform and stuck with it, I would suggest triform as nova has inbuilt to hit bonus and dwarf provides more survivability. These can help mitigate low level enhancement and set bonuses till 50.

[Doomrider]

9 hours ago, dtj714 said:

I’ve leveled a tri-form WS and human-only PB (multiple times actually) and love them both - to the point where I can barely bring myself to play the other ATs. So, I figured I’d give a human-only WS a shot. 
 

Problem is, I’m having a hard time seeing the “path” for it. I could sort of mirror what I did for my PB (2 ranged, 2 melee, most of the AOEs, shields until LF, etc.), but of course that doesn’t translate directly.

 

What tips can you guys provide for leveling a human ‘shade?  E.g., what powers to take when, what gets slotting priority, etc.  Btw, my leveling method is DFB to 20 then TFs and other group content to 50, and I can afford any IOs short of a bunch of purples, so take those into consideration fwiw. 

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. 

[mathemagic]

A little farther down the forum page is  AlienOne's Complete Guide to Human Form Warshading.

[ZekeStenzland]

On 10/17/2020 at 8:37 PM, mathemagic said:

A little farther down the forum page is  AlienOne's Complete Guide to Human Form Warshading.

There's a lot of good theory and generality in that guide. However, most of the actual builds themselves seem to be unreadable by Mids Reborn, and likely require some version of the original Mids to open.

[SableShrike]

Here's a pretty solid general build I'm fond of.

 

Teams you can really go nuts on, but soloing +4x8 is probably not going to be easy due to mez.  I did use Purples in this; you can use other sets in the meantime, but there really is no substitute for them.

 

Soloing is easiest when playing as a stealth assassin:  Cloak+Sprint to sneak to wherever you want to be (I turn them off for combat), Gravitic to stun the mobs, close to melee for Inky, kill a Minion or Lt., Unchain Essence, and Extract Essence.  Quasar is your GTFO power.  Yeah, you won't be grinding mobs solo like on a farmer, but mission clear speed is pretty ridiculous when you get rolling.  A Shade with full stealth can pound out arcs similar to a Stalker, meaning you get Merits quite easily compared to some ATs.

 

I'd recommend raising enemy level to +2 (+3 after Incarnates) and staying around x3-x5 for max spawn size solo.  You really need to be hitting the whole mob with Gravitic until you're high enough to have Clarion.  Mez when solo is your biggest weakness.

 

The P2W Defensive Amplifier can give you mez protection solo, but it gets pricey as you level up.

 

I'd recommend the Incarnates I have in the build, but you can switch out everything but Clarion and do just fine.

 

Build Features:

1) uses the strongest hitting Human attacks (Shadow Blast, Gravity Well, Essence Drain)

2) perma-Stun with Inky and Gravitic

3) is only a few seconds off perma-Eclipse without Hasten (meaning you can autofire Clarion Core for mez protection)

4) caps to all Resist with 5 mobs

5) is very close to Melee softcap Defense if you pop a single small Luck

6) I took and slotted Shadow Slip to account for recent changes that are soon to be Live; it'll pull mobs into your Orbiting; the empty slot is for one boosted Acc common IO

7) 45% Slow resistance as Slows can kill Shades by locking their heals on cooldown

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10
https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Be More Human: Level 50 Magic Warshade
Primary Power Set: Umbral Blast
Secondary Power Set: Umbral Aura
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Concealment

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Ebon Eye -- SprKhlGrc-Rchg/FormBuff:50(A)
Level 1: Absorption -- GldArm-ResDam:50(A), GldArm-End/Res:50(3), GldArm-3defTpProc:50(3), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(9)
Level 2: Gravity Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(45), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(45), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg:50(46)
Level 4: Orbiting Death -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg:50(5), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc:50(7)
Level 6: Shadow Blast -- Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Apc-Acc/Rchg:50(9), Apc-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(11), Apc-Dam%:50(13)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A)
Level 10: Penumbral Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(46), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(46), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg:50(48)
Level 12: Sunless Mire -- SprEssTrn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), SprEssTrn-Acc/Dmg:50(13), SprEssTrn-Dmg/Rchg:50(15), SprEssTrn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(15), SprEssTrn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), SprEssTrn-Rchg/Global Heal:50(17)
Level 14: Shadow Cloak -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A)
Level 16: Twilight Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(48), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg:50(50)
Level 18: Gravity Well -- Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Hct-Acc/Rchg:50(19), Hct-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), Hct-Dam%:50(42), UnbCns-Dam%:50(50)
Level 20: Essence Drain -- TchoftheN-Acc/Heal:50(A), TchoftheN-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen:50(21), TchoftheN-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), TchoftheN-%Dam:50(23), Dmg-I:50(23), Dmg-I:50(40)
Level 22: Stygian Circle -- PreOptmz-EndMod/End/Rech:50(A)
Level 24: Shadow Slip -- Empty(A), RechRdx-I:50(25), RechRdx-I:50(25), EndRdx-I:50(37)
Level 26: Gravitic Emanation -- Stp-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(A), Stp-Acc/Rchg:50(27), Stp-Acc/EndRdx:50(27), Stp-EndRdx/Stun:50(29), Stp-Stun/Rng:50(29), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(37)
Level 28: Inky Aspect -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 30: Unchain Essence -- SprKhlGrc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), SprKhlGrc-Acc/Dmg:50(31), SprKhlGrc-Dmg/Rchg:50(31), SprKhlGrc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), SprKhlGrc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(50)
Level 32: Dark Extraction -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(33), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg:50(34), SlbAll-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(34), SlbAll-Build%:50(34)
Level 35: Quasar -- Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Arm-Acc/Rchg:50(36), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(36), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(36), Arm-Dam%:50(37), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(42)
Level 38: Eclipse -- EffAdp-Acc/Rchg:50(A), PreOptmz-Acc/Rech:50(39), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(39), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(39), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(40), UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(43)
Level 41: Stygian Return -- Prv-Absorb%:50(A)
Level 44: Grant Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A)
Level 47: Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A)
Level 49: Stealth -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Dark Sustenance 
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Shadow Step -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- UnbLea-Stlth:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 10: Shadow Recall -- WntGif-ResSlow:50(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), Mrc-Rcvry+:40(42), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(43)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- SynSck-EndMod:50(A), SynSck-EndMod/+RunSpeed:50(43), SynSck-EndMod/Rech:50(45)
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve 
Level 0: Portal Jockey 
Level 0: Task Force Commander 
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion 
Level 50: Spiritual Radial Paragon 
Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement 
Level 50: Spectral Radial Flawless Interface 
Level 50: Seers Radial Superior Ally 
Level 50: Clarion Core Epiphany 
Level 50: Support Radial Embodiment 
------------
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Edited November 9, 2020 by SableShrike
Tweaked Stam for more Slow Resist

[Mr. Vee]

2 words - Defensive Amplifier