kheldians The (Almost) Complete guide to Kheldians

[Laucianna]

So I just want to start of by saying this guide is not 100% complete and never will be, I intend to keep adding to this guide with every new bit of information I learn from personal experience or what others have told me (You can help add to it by messaging me in game at: @Laucianna)

If you would like to join an in game chat channel to speak to fellow Kheldians and hear about any Kheldian only events (Like the Squid Squad Saturdays ran by @Wispur)
All you need to do is: right click your chat box - Channel Search - search for Kheldian Family - Join! 💛

 

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All Kheldians!

 

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To start with Kheldians (The race of Aliens that make up both PeaceBringers and WarShades) are one of (if not) the hardest AT (Archetype - Think of it like a class in most other MMOs) to learn in the game due to having 3 different forms and learning how to maximise each of them to the best possible outcome, so please do not go into a Kheldian thinking it's going to be a stroll in the park, and even when you finish your character to perfection you will never be the best at one set thing.

 

However! As the saying goes "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." and you get bet your backside the Kheldian is the Jack of all Trades AT!

 

Can you tank as well as a Tanker? No but you can tank better then everyone else whilst out damaging the Tanker.

Can you match the damage of a Blaster? No but you won't die when an enemy looks at you as make them regret that decision.

Can you lead a random Team/League? You excel at it with the ability to fill whatever role is missing, or pump out nukes and DPS.

Can you solo x8/+4 content with ease? Without a doubt!

A quick comparison between PeaceBringer and WarShade playstyle:




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Main information

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Spoiler

 
So why play Kheldian?

Spoiler

From the post above you might be thinking "But Laucianna, if those other ATs can do that job better, why not just play them?" which is a perfectly valid question and in a perfect world there would be no need for Kheldians as the team with have the right amount of each AT needed for the job, with everyone knowing how to play said AT well. However that is rarely the case, either the other members of your team are not level 50, do not understand how to play their AT, or simply are dying too quickly and not able to pump out damage. That is where we come in, we are the all purpose AT for a reason so we can fill whatever it is that is lacking without having to swap characters mid mission/TF.

 

“Don't fear the man who knows 1,000 techniques. But fear the man that has practiced one technique 1,000 times.” - Bruce Lee

 

Learning a new powerset takes time no matter what AT you play as so even if there is a tanker with better stats then you, there is a high chance that tanker does not understand his AT as well as you should come to understand yours, and therefore you could do a better job. Same with a blaster that is used to playing tankier characters, they will run in and die where as you will be able to survive with ease. Just ask yourself: "Would I rather have someone who knows what they are doing with their character, or someone with a small increase in stats?" Chances are you go with experience.

Your role in a team:

Spoiler

One of the biggest issues with Kheldians is where they fit into a team, the tankers tank, the blasters blast, and the defenders don't defend but buff/debuff. Kheldians are different in the sense of we decide at any given moment what role we WANT to fill, if you want to chill at the back and blast? You got all of your nova attacks, you want to be upclose and scrap? You got human form mixed with your form attacks, you want to taunt and keep agro? You got dwarf. The point is don't look at a Kheldian of filling a set 1 role in a team, but instead something that changes and adapts to what is either needed or what you want to do at that time ❤️

The 3 forms:

Spoiler

All Kheldians get access to 3 forms: Human, Nova (Nicknamed Squid), Dwarf (Nicknamed Lobster). A build only using the base Human form is called a Human-Only, a build using the base Human and either the Nova or Dwarf form is called a Bi-Form, and finally a build that uses all 3 forms is called a Tri-Form. You also get our quirky builds (Like a petless MM) where people go Nova-Only or Dwarf-Only.

 

Human:

Your base form, everyone gets this and some people refuse to leave it, and it has all your nukes, toggles, and general attacks. This form also gets access to toggles like Weave and Maneuvers.

 

Pros:

 - Able to use extra power pools like Teleportation/Leadership etc

 - Access to the nukes

 - Lightform/Eclipse needs to be activated in Human form but carries over to the other two forms

 - With Kheldians Grace enhancement slotted gives extra resist

 - Customize appearance 

 

Nova: 

Your go to for ranged damage, this form does not have melee at all but you don't need it, you have 2 AOEs and 3 ST attacks (Glinting/Ebon Eye are usable in this form) enough to have a full rotation of powers to use from level 4!

 

 

Pros:

 - Highest ranged damage scaling in the game

 - Free flight for WarShades

 - 4 ranged attacks for the price of 1 power slot

 - With Kheldians Grace enhancement slotted gives extra damage

 

Dwarf:

Your go to for taunting, since we are a super tanky AT it only makes sense for us to be able to taunt as well. Dwarfs have 1 taunt, 1 heal, 1 teleport, 1 AOE, and 3 ST attacks (Gleaming/Shadow bolt carry over to this form but with less range).

 

 

Pros:

 - Free teleport for PeaceBringers

 - Taunt is an auto-hit outside of PvP same as a tanker

 - The best self heal available to both PeaceBringers and WarShades

 - 3 melee attacks, 1 heal, 1 taunt, 1 teleport for the price of 1 power slot

 - With Kheldians Grace enhancement slotted gives extra health

 

The difference between a PeaceBringer and a WarShade:

Spoiler

Apart from the obvious appearance and power differences, the main difference between the two is fighting groups of enemies or solo enemies like AVs (Arch-Villains = Toughest mobs). PeaceBringers once they have enough recharge to keep Lightform perma can go toe to toe with an AV a lot better then a WarShade can, however if you chuck in a group of mobs a WarShade will shoot ahead in both damage and durability. So the main deciding factor should be if you would rather be a constant reliable character you go PeaceBringer, however if you want to use your enemies (both dead and alive) as steroids you go WarShade.

 

Levelling from 1-50:

Spoiler

Some quick advice before I go into detail, A Kheldian thrives on a team so I would highly suggest you join teams your level and take it slow, if you get to level 50 and have no idea what you are doing it will be far harder to learn!

 

 

Levels 1 - 3: Pre form beginnings!

 

These first few levels there is not much to speak about as you play the same as any other AT, very limited attacks and damage at the moment.

 

 

Levels 4 - 19: Your very first form!

 

Your first form! The Nova form is our best form of ranged damage, and you get 4 attacks for the price of 1 power slot! I wouldn't worry about slotting the form power itself but you can slot some of the more damaging attacks in it like Nova blast and the AOEs.

You should then spend the next 15 levels playing safe like you are a blaster and getting used to switching to nova and firing off their attacks, then switching back to human for their attacks too, you can do this by using a bind that turns you into nova and switches your bar to your nova attacks like below (It is also worth having the attacks visible on a second bar so you can see when they are ready without switching form)

 

/bind numpad1 "gototray 4$$powexec_toggleon bright nova"

/bind numpad1 "gototray 4$$powexec_toggleon dark nova"

 

Also don't forget to have a bind that turns you back to human such as:

 

/bind numpad0 "gototray 1$$powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova"

/bind numpad0 "gototray 1$$powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$"

 

Levels 20 - 31: Returning to melee combat!

 

Here is where it starts getting complicated as you get your final form meaning you have 3 total forms each with their own powers and benefits, you should have a decent understanding of using your nova form so now try moving a bit closer to the fight and throwing out some dwarf melee attacks (Don't worry about doing tons of damage or tanking a nuke yet, you are just getting a feel of the different forms still) You can maybe slot some resist in your dwarf form, but I would still focus on just upgrading some of the attacks.

 

/bind numpad2 "gototray 5$$powexec_toggleon white dwarf"

/bind numpad2 "gototray 5$$powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf"

 

 

Levels 32 - 50: The beginning of godhood!

 

Now you have a bit of understanding on using the different forms, you get the reward of your ultimate resist power!!! Right now it is most likely not permanent so don't think you can last forever tanking hits, but while it is up feel free to go nuts! PeaceBringers you need to be careful of the crash when it runs out that will take you to 50% health and drain 50% of your max endurance, use these levels to get an understanding of how to handle this crash by using a heal, backing off for a bit, using inspirations etc (Quantum flight is great for dealing with it as you will be intangible for 30 secs, enough time to heal and repop it) WarShades take this time to focus on increasing your accuracy, as if your attacks miss you don't get the resists, or the healing, or the damage buffs.

 

 

Levels 50+: The future is yours to make!

 

Once you reach level 50 you may be lost on where to go so here are a few ideas you can try checking off your list:

 

 - Get Perma Hasten (This will make sure your Lightform/Eclipse is also perma!).

 - Get some incarnates up to tier 3, try to go with ones you think your Kheldian is missing.

 - Try making a build for your unique Kheldian, with Kheldians being so broad you can really take your Kheldian to your unique wants and desires.

 - Try your hand at solo content, while a Kheldian thrives in a team it is also good to know your own capabilities and the best way to do that is some solo missions.

 

 Time to pick a Playstyle!

Spoiler

With the huge amount of powers available to both PeaceBringers and WarShades you have a range of how you play your Kheldian that can really help you narrow down how you play and what you can do ❤️ I will list the most common ways below with ratings on how difficult I feel it is to play, however that does not mean you can't play the hardest from the start!

 

Human only - Difficulty = 1/5
Human only is where you don't take any forms and play like more akin to a Sentinel with Melee attached but less damage. This is by far the easiest playstyle as you do not switch forms at all and have an abundance of slots to use 🙂 

Bi-Form - Difficulty = 3/5
Bi-Form is similar to Human only but with the addition of one of the two forms, the most common being a Human/Dwarf so you get the damage and utility of the dwarf form (And WarShades get double mire).

Tri-Form - Difficulty = 5/5
Tri-Form is what I believe the original Devs wanted Kheldians to play like, using all 3 forms and focusing on the different strengths to utilize them in game. The slots here can be difficult to start with but if you focus on what powers you actually use the slots are not too bad.

Changeling/Shifter - Difficulty = 2/5
Changeling/Shifter is a newly discovered playstyle (Compared to live) where you swap in and out of forms at high speeds allowing you to fire off powers quicker then anyone else. This is achieved through binds listed in their own section below ❤️ This playstyle was readded to the game by the Devs purposefully hence why it is now mentioned here.

Infinity Changeling/Shifter - Difficulty = 4/5
Infinity Changeling/Shifter is where some would say is the ultimate playstyle of a Kheldian, it boasts the highest DPS of any of the playstyles due to it relying only on form attacks for their rotations, using the binds to make them quick casting and using Human form for buffs and nukes alone.

It is also worth noting how both normal and infinity Changeling/Shifter will keep you looking as your human form, only showing the forms on a rare occasion for a fraction of a second.

General Binds:

Spoiler

The following Binds I believe are useful for all Kheldians to use:

 

/bind Tab "targetcustomnext enemy alive$$targetcustomnext enemy alive Sapper$$targetcustomnext enemy alive Mistress$$targetcustomnext enemy alive Mu$$targetcustomnext enemy alive quantum"

 

^^ This bind will target the most dangerous enemies to you first before a the next nearest enemy ^^

(Thanks to @trel)

 

 General Build tips:

Spoiler

When building a Kheldian one of the biggest issues comes from an overabundance of powers and not feeling like you have enough slots (You couldn't even take every Kheldian power if you wanted on a single build, both Peacebringers and Warshades having a total of 36 unique powers wanting slots if you go Tri form)

My main advice to people building any Kheldian is to focus your slots onto powers you use, focusing in order of:

 - Getting permanent Lightform or Eclipse
 - Having reliable heals

 As once you have both of them you are super tanky which gives you freedom of how you want to spend the rest of your slots, do you want to plug the Psi hole on a Peacebringer? Have better base defence? Or just as much damage as you can pump out ❤️

 

How do I do more damage?

Kheldians have very low base damage on their attacks so building for +dmg does not help us greatly, this is where our lovely friends called Procs come in handy! These are our key to having high damage at the sacrifice of set bonuses, in fact our base damage is so low I would personally suggest slotting a single Acc/Dmg enhancement (If you struggle with endurance having one that is Dam/End will help) and the rest procs, preferable damage procs but having some -res procs in your rotation is good to have too.

Noteworthy Enhancements:

To help a bit more, below are some listed enhancements I would highly suggest 🙂 

For recharge:

Luck of the Gambler - 7.5% global recharge
Superior Essence Transfer (3 set) - 10% global recharge
Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge - Chance for 100% recharge boost for 5 seconds (HIGHLY SUGGEST SLOTTING THIS IN AN AOE)

For Tankiness:

Superior Essence Transfer: Recharge time/Global Heal - Gives every attack a 18% chance to heal you for 6.5% health (SLOT THIS IN A POWER YOU USE IN EVERY ROTATION, AS IT DOES NOT ACTIVATE UNTIL USED ONCE ON A MAP)

Gladiator's Armor - 3% in all Def
Steadfast Protection - 3% in all Def
Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb - Gives you a small absorb shield on low health
Power Transfer/Performance Shifter - Chance of 10% end and 53.54 HP (HIGHLY SUGGEST SLOTTING IN FORMS)

Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance - 20% slow resist, which helps to maintain perma resists.
Impervium Armor - 6% Psi resist which helps Peacebringers reach Psi cap.
Unbreakable Guard - +7.5% max hp (Around 80 hp)


For Damage:

Achilles' Heel - -20% resistance (Does not stack with itself)
Annihilation - -12.5% resistance
Fury of the Gladiator - -20% resistance
Kismet - +6% Accuracy (Allows you to slot more procs)
Superior Kheldian's Grace (2 set) - +15% accuracy
Any damage proc - Chance for 107.1 or 71.75 damage per one

(Thanks to @wesslen for suggesting this ❤️)

 

Power Pools:

Spoiler

Below I will list all the extra power pools you can get for Kheldians, sadly we don't get epic power pools but we still get a good variety (These are from my own personal opinion, you might have a different one to me ❤️ (Also if you think I am missing the benefit to any of the power sets let me know in the comments!))

 

• Concealment - Good for LoTG (Luck of the Gambler) procs.
• Experimentation - Not seen anyone use this as there are better pools.
• Fighting - Contains the best defence buff we can get (Weave) but requires a good bit of investment.
• Flight - Useless on a PB, and a WS would be better of taking Sorcery unless you want Hover for LoTG proc.
• Force of Will - Not seen anyone use this as there are better pools.
• Leadership - Second best defence buff with 1 power, Victory rush is also good if you have low recovery.
• Leaping - Combat Jumping is a good little 1 power defence boost, the rest of the powers are not worth it.
• Medicine - Good if you really want to play into the support role.
• Presence - We have a better taunt in our Dwarf form.
• Sorcery - Useless on a PB, a WS might want this for flight but teleport is faster.
• Speed - 98% of Kheldians take this for Hasten alone, helps to get Lightform/Eclipse permanent .
• Teleportation - Useless on a WS, a PB might want this for faster travel and Fold Space (Fold Space can be used in Dwarf/Nova forms).

 

 Changeling/Shifter

Spoiler

So you want to go all the way with your Kheldian? Pushing them to the highest limits and making them into true godhood, then below are the binds you will want to use to achieve this, they now work with a single button press so much more user friendly thanks to my new binds ❤️ 

I would highly suggest you keep the powers themselves on the tray and bind the power to the respective tray slot, so if you have Dwarf Smite in your number 1 slot, bind it to number 1, this way you can still see the recharge of the power on your bar 🙂 

To get used to the binds and the way Changelings are played I highly recommend the following steps:

1 - Head to the test dummies in RWZ
2 - Start off pressing the button down and after a second letting it go (This should transform you, fire off the power, and return you to human)
3 - Slowly start increasing the speed in which you let the button go, until you find the sweet spot
4 - Once you have that sweet spot, test it out a bit and slowly adding more attacks to your rotation ❤️


However if you want to go at full speed you can double tap them and they will fire off rapid fire speed but will leave you in one of the forms at the end so make sure you have your form drop macro/bind ready 😄 


The activation key for these powers (So for instance 1 for Nova Bolt) should be changed to what you are comfortable with!
For instance my Nova bolt is bound to the R key

 

PeaceBringer:

/bind 1 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$powexec_toggleon Bright Nova$$powexec_name Bright Nova Bolt"

/bind 2 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$powexec_toggleon Bright Nova$$powexec_name Bright Nova Blast"

/bind 3 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$powexec_toggleon Bright Nova$$powexec_name Bright Nova Detonation"

/bind 4 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$powexec_toggleon Bright Nova$$powexec_name Bright Nova Scatter"



/bind 5 "+$$powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$powexec_name White Dwarf Strike"

/bind 6 "+$$powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$powexec_name White Dwarf Smite"

/bind 7 "+$$powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$powexec_name White Dwarf Flare"

/bind 8 "+$$powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$powexec_name White Dwarf Antagonize"

/bind 9 "+$$powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$powexec_name White Dwarf Sublimation"


^^Better binds thanks to @ScarySai and myself^^

 

 

WarShade:

 

/bind 1 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$powexec_toggleon Dark Nova$$powexec_name Dark Nova Bolt"

 

/bind 2 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$powexec_toggleon Dark Nova$$powexec_name Dark Nova Blast"

 

/bind 3 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$powexec_toggleon Dark Nova$$powexec_name Dark Nova Detonation"

 

/bind 4 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$powexec_toggleon Dark Nova$$powexec_name Dark Nova Emanation"

 

 

/bind 5 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$powexec_name Black Dwarf Strike"

 

/bind 6 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$powexec_name Black Dwarf Smite"
 

/bind 7 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$powexec_name Black Dwarf Mire"
 

/bind 8 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$powexec_name Black Dwarf Antagonize"
 

/bind 9 "+$$powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$powexec_name Black Dwarf Drain"

^^Better binds thanks to @ScarySai and myself^^

 

^^ Video curtesy of @Madvillain

 

 

 

 

 

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PeaceBringers!

 

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Spoiler

Peacebringers are like the Paladins of City of Heroes, they use their own inner power of "light" to empower their attacks, boost their resists, and even heal their allies. Much like Paladins in other games a PeaceBringer can do it all without much worry, yes they will not be as fast as a WarShade in their ideal environment, but PeaceBringers will also not suffer when the conditions are not ideal for them.

 

 

Perma-Lightform:

Spoiler

Perma-Lightform is the goal of almost every PeaceBringer out there, since when this is on 24/7 you should always be capped on resists (Except psi) and it is not the easiest to do since we don't get any power apart from Hasten to boost recharge, however the number you are aiming for before hasten is around 90% however I would aim to get perma hasten on any PeaceBringer meaning you want a total of 180% recharge with hasten on. Below are a few good ways to get this:

 

Luck of the Gambler 7.5% global recharge - You can have 5 of these

Superior Essence Transfer - you get 10% recharge for 3 of these in one power and you can have 6 total

Any other purple set - 10% recharge for 5 of these, perfect to make the final slot a knockback to knockdown

Panacea - 7.5% recharge and it stacks on top of Luck of the Gambler

Agility Core Paragon - Gives a massive Recharge bonus to all powers plus adds to your defence!

Once Perma-Lightform is achieved it should also pretty much cap all your resists bar Psi resist which it doesn't affect at all, making the rest of our shields and things like Tough almost useless apart from as enhancement mules (Powers that stay at 1 slot and dont't need to be toggled on to take affect by putting a global enhancement in it such as "Impervium Armour: Psionic Resistance")

 

Cosmic Balance:

Spoiler

Every AT gets a special power just for them, we Kheldians get one that is one of the best if you enjoy teaming. We gain different bonuses depending on what kind of team mates we have nearby, including bonuses to damage and resistance. Below is a list of all the ATs and what bonus they give:

 

Tanker/Mastermind/Corruptor/Defender - 20% Damage increase

Scrapper/Brute/Stalker/Blaster/Sentinel - 10% Damage resistance

Controller/Dominator - 1 Mag Mez resist

Kheldians/Arachnos - 10% slow resist

 

 

Hints:

Spoiler

- Lightforms "Whispy" appearance disables NPC collision for you whilst it is active, this makes it super easy to position yourself for an optimal nuke, or to escape being trapped in a corner.

 

 - Be careful when going up a lift on a mission, as if you are relying on your Cosmic Balance to boost your stats you will lose that until your team rejoin you on the same floor.

 

Binds:

Spoiler

/bind lshift+lbutton "powexec_location cursor White Dwarf Step"

 

^^ Teleports you whilst in Dwarf form ^^

 

/bind numpad1 "powexec_toggleon bright nova$$gototray 4"
/Macro Nova "powexec_toggleon bright nova$$gototray 4"

 

^^ Causes you to go into nova and switch action bars ^^
 

/bind numpad2 "powexec_toggleon white dwarf$$gototray 5"
/Macro Dwarf "powexec_toggleon white dwarf$$gototray 5"

 

^^ Causes you to go into Dwarf and switch action bars ^^

 

 

/bind numpad0 "powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$gototray 1"

/Macro Human "powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$gototray 1"

 

^^ This bind/macro will make your numpad 0 key revert you back to human form ^^

 

** Things to be wary of: **

Spoiler

 - The crash from Light Form, when light form ends you are taken to 50% of your max HP and lose 50% of your endurance, it is paramount that do not get taken off guard by this, even with perma Lightform on auto cast, with the 50% loss of endurance it could detoggle all your defences and unable to heal, causing you to die by a thousand cuts.

 

An easy way to count this is to make sure you have both flashing on for fading powers and cooldown timers on your power (Options - Windows - Powers), once your lightform is almost ready you know that soon your previous lightform will drop and you can prepare a heal.

Knockback

Spoiler

The following list is the powers with KB, in order of most powerful KB to least.

 

- Dawn Strike, 100% chance of 18.7 KB.  If you’re going to mitigate the KB of only one power, this is the one.  At 18.7, this power will absolutely scatter mobs and really frustrate your teammates.

- Solar Flare, 80% chance of 4.1 KB.  While not as bad as Dawn Strike, this will still scatter everything around you.  Highly recommend some mitigation.

- Luminous Detonation, 50% chance of 3.8 KB.  Now we’re getting to a power where you might choose to not mitigate the KB since it will only affect half the targets.  The magnitude is still fairly high though.

- Bright Nova Detonation, 50% chance of 3.7 KB.  Same as Luminous Detonation.

- Radiant Strike, 60% chance of 2.0 KB.  At this point, you may not feel the need to reduce the KB since this affects only a single target and it won’t fly that far.  Just be prepared to finish them off with a ranged attack if they survive.

- Photon Seekers, 50% chance of 2.0 KB.  Another judgment call on this one.  The KB from a single seeker isn't bad, but all three going off simultaneously can be unpredictable.  Especially if one lifts the target a bit and the second or third one goes off a moment later.

- White Dwarf Smite, 100% chance of 0.7 KB.  No mitigation needed.

- White Dward Flare, 80% chance of 0.7 KB.  No mitigation needed, unless you’re fighting a lot of low-level targets.

- Incandescent Strike, 80% chance of 0.7 KB.  No mitigation needed, especially since you’re probably using this against a Lt/Boss/EB/AV who’s not going to be easily tossed around.

- White Dward Strike, 30% chance of 0.7 KB. No mitigation needed.

- Bright Nova Blast, 10% chance of 1.9 KB.  No mitigation needed.  This happens so rarely that you’ll forget it can happen but may be annoyed when it does.

- Gleaming Blast, 10% chance of 1.9 KB.  No mitigation needed.  Same as Bright Nova Blast.

 

One more thing to keep in mind when you’re thinking about what powers to mitigate is the level of opponents you’ll face.  If you’re routinely fighting evil doers who are above your level, then KB will be less pronounced.  In which case you can get away with not mitigating the KB of some powers. And a massive thanks to @Mack008 for making this list and even colour coding it! ❤️

 

A Basic Build:

Spoiler

The build below is no where near and endgame build, however it should be a cheap build to work at as you level and understand the character. Once you get level 50 you can start swapping the sets out for more expensive ones, or fully redo the build based on what you want more out of it. For instance you could make it more tanky, do more damage, be Human form only, even faster recharge, pick up different powers that you want instead. the possibilities are incredibly vast when playing a Kheldian so have fun with it! I know I am still adding touches to my builds after playing for over half a year straight! XD

 

Peacebringer Basis.mxd

(This build will set you back around 300m (Subject to change depending on the AH at the time))

 

End game builds:

Spoiler

Below are some builds that will hold their own in level 50 content ❤️ I have made one for each playstyle so feel free to download the ones for the playstyle you want to try out!

 

Human only

Human Only.mbd

 

Sustained DPS - 324

Burst DPS - 324

Bi-Form
Bi Form.mbd

 

Sustained DPS - 297

Burst DPS - 297

 

Tri-Form
- Goddess Laucianna - General.mbd

- Goddess Laucianna General.txt
 

Sustained DPS - 297

Burst DPS - 297

 

Changeling/Shifter
- Goddess Laucianna - General.mbd

- Goddess Laucianna General.txt
 

Burst DPS - 865

 

Infinity Changeling/Shifter

- Goddess Laucianna - 23.mbd
- Goddess Laucianna 23.txt

Sustained DPS - 767

Burst DPS - 1,137
 

 

The Peacebringer Build I suggest:

Spoiler

You may be reading this guide, overwhelmed and unsure of what playstyle/build you want. For that I have spent time developing the following build that can be played from a level 1 Kheldian and can carry you all the way into 4* content, allowing you the time to develop your skill and knowledge of the AT and improve naturally rather then jumping straight into the deep end and getting overwhelmed.

This is done by making a build with max resists across the board at all times (Granted it's 84% psi resist not 85% but technicality 😄) that can be played as a normal tri form, into a changeling when you are comfortable, and starting to touch upon the Infinity side if you want to push it. However this build does NOT require you to play changeling or Infinity, you can play this build as a normal Tri-Form from start to when the game closes once more, this build will grow as you grow and not expect you to be something you do not enjoy ❤️

Your main ST rotation for this build will be as follows:
Bright Nova Blast - White Dwarf Smite - Radiant Strike/Gleaming Blast

Your main AoE rotation for this build will be as follows:
Bright Nova Detonation/Scatter - White Dwarf Flare - Dawn Strike/Photon Seekers

If you want to try getting into the peak of the Peacebringer capabilities (Towards infinity) you can use:
Bright Nova Blast - White Dwarf Smite - Bright Nova Scatter - White Dwarf Flare - Bright Nova Detonation - Bright Nova Blast - White Dwarf Smite - Radiant Strike

- Goddess Laucianna - General.mbd

- Goddess Laucianna General.txt

Rough Stats
Resists - capped across the board

Defense - 18.3% in all
Max HP - 2064.23

Sustained DPS - 453

Other pros:
Fold Space
A mini nuke every 6 seconds
Phase shift on a 30 second cooldown
2 actual nukes

Content ran with build (Both tanking and DPSing):
All of the 4* content
All Incarnate Trials
Hamidon/MotherShip Raids
Solo Fire farming
Solo +4/x8 missions


Build Showcase:
 

 

 

 My personal build:

Spoiler

This is the build I use for all content, TFs, Trials, Raids, Farming, 4* content. The only problem I have ever come across using it is either my own forgetfulness or Arachnos with their Psi, -End, hold/blinds, but if you take them on slowly and nicely they go down just as well as everything else! ❤️ 

This build is an infinity changeling meaning the only human attacks are the two nukes, apart from that all attacks are from the different forms for rapid fire damage 😄 

The main rotation for damage is: Bolt - Strike - Smite - Bolt - Strike - Blast
Using Detonation, Flare, Scatter when all 3 are up.

To tank and hold agro you use your first taunt on the meanest target (Like an AV), when it is back up if they are all grouped together feel free to spam it on the meanest target when it's up. If they are spread out however use every other taunt on a seperate group away to pull them towards you. This should keep the meanest target focusing on you as you DPS with a high duration taunt, whilst also pulling mobs towards your AOE monster mash. (Dwarf Flare also has a built in taunt so use that whenever it is up ❤️)
 

 

 - Goddess Laucianna - 23.mbd
- Goddess Laucianna 23.txt

Rough Stats
Resists - capped in all but Psi

Defense - 12.7% in all
Max HP - 1910.29

Sustained DPS - 767

Burst DPS - 1,137

Other pros:
Fold Space
A mini nuke every 6 seconds
Phase shift on a 30 second cooldown
2 actual nukes

Content ran with build (Both tanking and DPSing):
All of the 4* content
All Incarnate Trials
Hamidon/MotherShip Raids
Solo Fire farming
Solo +4/x8 missions

Cons:
Arachnos are the only mob type that cause issues due to their psi damage, -end, holds and blinds. So when encountering them take it a bit slower and nuke em faster then they can recover ❤️ 

 

 

 

 

Shout out guides:

Spoiler

One of the main and OG guides for a PeaceBringer is the God Damned PeaceBringer guide and is 100% worth a read if you have time ❤️
 

 

 

 

 

 

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WarShades!

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Spoiler

I will be honest my knowledge of WarShades is very limited, so anyone with any experience I would be super happy to hear from! But from what I do know they are basically like Vampires/Deathknights, using the lifeforce of your alive enemies to boost your resists and dmg to absurd levels, killing them all with your now absurd damage, and finally using the now dead bodies around you to heal and damage lost, recover any endurance used, and most fun of all: Extracting what little remains of their corpses as your own personal pets to kill the next group of enemies! (Thanks to @mathemagic for explaining more)

 

 

Dark Sustenance:

Spoiler

Every AT gets a special power just for them, we Kheldians get one that is one of the best if you enjoy teaming. We gain different bonuses depending on what kind of team mates we have nearby, including bonuses to damage and resistance. Below is a list of all the ATs and what bonus they give:

 

Tanker/Mastermind/Corruptor/Defender - 10% Damage resistance

Scrapper/Brute/Stalker/Blaster/Sentinel - 20% Damage increase

Controller/Dominator - 1 Mag Mez resist

Kheldians/Arachnos - 10% slow resist

 

Hints:

Spoiler

- Double Mire: Don't forget WarShades get two damage buffing abilities called Mires! One in Dwarf form and one in Human form, and yes they do stack! This is the main reason a lot more WarShades play with the changeling macros so they can quickly activate both mires and cap their damage bonus before unleashing a heavy hitting ability. (Thanks to Dark Squall for this tip!)

 

 - Tapping Dark Extraction just once selects a fallen opponent - either tap it again to extract the essence for increased firepower or if in a large mob where the extracted essence is vulnerable it may be preferable to fire off Unchain Essence in the manner of an additional Nova type attack. (Thanks to @TNMMike for this tip!)

 

 - Be careful when going up a lift on a mission, as if you are relying on your Cosmic Balance to boost your stats you will lose that until your team rejoin you on the same floor.

 

Binds:

Spoiler

/bind lshift+lbutton "powexec_location cursor Shadow Step$$powexec_location cursor black dwarf step"

 

^^ Teleports you ^^
(Thank to @Dungeoness Eloorafor this!)

 

/bind numpad1 "powexec_toggleon dark nova$$gototray 4"

/macro Nova "powexec_toggleon dark nova$$gototray 4"

 

^^ Causes you to go into nova and switch action bars ^^

 

/bind numpad2 "powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$gototray 5"

/macro Dwarf "powexec_toggleon Black Dwarf$$gototray 5"

 

^^ Causes you to go into Dwarf and switch action bars ^^

 

 

/bind numpad0 "powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$gototray 1"

/macro Human "powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$gototray 1"

 

^^ This bind/macro will make your numpad 0 key revert you back to human form ^^

 

** Things to be wary of: **

Spoiler

 - A lack of bodies (Both alive and dead) is the biggest fall of a WarShade, it means you are not doing as much damage, or being as tanky as you can be.

 

The best solution if you are solo or the team does not mind moving is bringing a tough mob like the AV to a group of weaker mobs, you should easily be able to kill them whilst tanking the AV which grants you more dead bodies to use!

 

A Basic Build:

Spoiler

The build below is no where near and endgame build, however it should be a cheap build to work at as you level and understand the character. Once you get level 50 you can start swapping the sets out for more expensive ones, or fully redo the build based on what you want more out of it. For instance you could make it more tanky, do more damage, be Human form only, even faster recharge, pick up different powers that you want instead. the possibilities are incredibly vast when playing a Kheldian so have fun with it! I know I am still adding touches to my builds after playing for over half a year straight! XD

 

Warshade Basis.mxd

(This build will set you back around 300m (Subject to change depending on the AH at the time))

 

End game builds:

Spoiler

Below are some builds that will hold their own in level 50 content ❤️ I have made one for each playstyle so feel free to download the ones for the playstyle you want to try out!

 

Human only

HumanformQueenMaya.mbd

 

Infinity Changeling/Shifter

 

Queen Warshade Maya V13.mbd
 

Burst DPS - 1,137

 

 

 

Shout out guides:

Spoiler

One of the main and OG guides for a WarShade is the MFing WarShade guide and is 100% worth a read if you have time ❤️ 

 

https://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011/01/mfing-warshade.html

 

 

 

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Extra Information

 

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Spoiler

 

Lore:

Spoiler

Lore in CoH is iffy at the best of times due to retcons, incomplete stories, and of course: the sad fact the game is no longer being officially developed. Thankfully however we can get a decent picture when it comes to us Kheldians so if you don't really care where your character comes from feel free to skip this part 😄

 

The original Kheldians were beings of pure energy (This is visible in game as a Peacebringers Lightform) who had an average lifespan of only 5-10 years, this is where the first big bit of lore comes in as there was two solutions to this short lifespan issue; the first being to bond with another life form, this however alters the personality of the Kheldian as it is not a case of two minds sharing one body, but the two minds merging into a singular mind, taking aspects from both minds. The second option is what created the Nictus (And later the Warshades), that being to use science to drain the life force from other life forms by force, Kheldians who did this became corrupt and eventually led to a war between the original Kheldians and the Nictus (a war that carries on today).

 

This led to both sides exploring more of the universe to uncover different species to either use as hosts or drain of their life, before coming to earth there are only two confirmed alien races the Kheldians came into contact with, that being the Dwarf and Nova forms. This all happened thousands of years ago as there has been confirmed Kheldians all throughout history (Just look at Cimerora where the Nictus are in effect).

 

Now we explored what Peacebringers are, being original Kheldians who make consensual bonds with their hosts, but Warshades are a whole different story: Warshades were originally Nictus (Hence all the life stealing powers) who due to their own personal reasons realised what they did was wrong and have since began making consensual bonds with hosts, yet still tainted by the evil sciences used by their time as Nictus.

 

Now the original Devs of CoH were leading up to the Battalion being the big bad of the game but never got around to fleshing it out much, however they are especially relevant to Kheldians as (I believe) in the future the Battalion ends up using Kheldians as a fuel source due to them being pure energy.

 

Special Enemies that WILL spawn

Spoiler

One of the older downsides to playing a Kheldian was there will occasionally be a special group of enemies spawned into whatever mission you were doing that are MADE to kill you, with the power levels you can get to on Homecoming with incarnates and IOs etc they shouldn't cause much of a problem, however on the lower levels or when you are not killing them first they can wipe you out before you realise what hit you. Sounds like a huge hassle right? Wrong, with a simple targeting bind (That I have listed below in the "binds" section) you will automatically target any of these threats with your normal targeting key, making sure you wipe those enemies off the face of the earth before dealing with the less threating ones.

 

Lore wise these enemies are either Nictus at the higher danger scale, or simple members of the enemy faction who you are currently fighting who have brought weapons made by the council just to kill us (Funny how 99% of enemy factions are willing to buy weapons just to kill us) (Special thanks to @Lusiphur Malache for mentioning this!)

 

 Regarding Knockback:

Spoiler

Love it or hate it, sadly a lot of people hate it and it is most of our powers, if you do not care what people think and want to knockback enemies freely go ahead! You can skip this bit 😄 otherwise you have two main solutions to the issue:

1 - *Learn to control your knockback* (at least for AOEs) is the name of the game. And that's done through positioning. Obvious things, sure, like "Don't stand next to the tank and knock everything away," but also "On a PB, you have fly. use it. Knocking back into the floor is enhancement-less knockdown." Knock things *into* patches/melee. And on a 'shade (or if you want to make the investment into a pool on a PB) there's always Shadow Slip. (Thanks to @Greycat)
 

2 - Turn it to knockdown (Super useful CC at any level) using an enhancement, that being:
 

Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown
 

This will turn your power from a Knockback to a Knockdown which is amazing Crowd control (Keep in mind, Dwarves attacks are already Knockdown and do NOT need to be converted). Personally I only convert my Area of Effect powers to knockdown as I only Single Target bosses+ or they die in 1 or two hits.

 

Toggle Suspension:

Spoiler

Massive thanks to @Glacier Peak for reminding me! Recently Homecoming brought out something called "Toggle Suspension" which is a MASSIVE Quality of Life improvement! To put it simply, if you have anything toggled on whilst in human form, if you shift into Nova/Dwarf to attack and then switch back, it will keep all your toggles on! They are now only suppressed when in Nova/Dwarf form so you don't get their bonuses, but you do not have to sit and re-toggle all of them when you switch back to human.

 

Note that this does not count for Incarnates as they are still active in all forms even if you switch.

 

Damage Resist Numbers:

Spoiler

To prevent every AT from getting 100% resists each AT has a different cap on how much resist they can get, so for the example below we will show how much damage you would take if an enemy hits you for 500 damage:

 

Tank/Brute - 90% dmg resist = 50 damage (10 hits = 500 damage)

Kheldians - 85% dmg resist = 75 damage (10 hits = 750 damage)
Others - 75% dmg resist = 125 damage (10 hits = 1250 damage)

 

 

Kheldian Enhancements:

Spoiler

Every AT in the game gets their own special duo set of enhancements, some of them are amazing, others are meh. The two that Kheldian's get however (Named: Kheldian's Grace and Essence Transfer) are both pretty good I would say and defo worth trying to slot especially the procs!

 

Kheldian's Grace

Kheldian's Grace has a normal purple set bonus so you will get extra damage and recharge time, but the proc is the main thing we want from this set even if you only play human form, as it will enhance what ever form you are in full time, giving you:
extra health in Dwarf,
extra damage in Nova,
and extra resists in Human.

However that is not all! It will also give you the bonus of the previous form you were in, so if you went from human into Nova, you would have both the resist bonus AND the damage bonus!

 

Essence Transfer

Essence Transfer is one of those sets where you need to chose between splitting it between two powers or getting a full bonus, because at 3 of the enhancement in a single power grants you 6.25% recharge (10% for superior) which means you can get that bonus twice if you split it between two powers (3 in each), or you could look at the great def bonus a full set will give you: 3.13% Ranged and 3.75% Melee (5% each for superior). On top of that the proc works a lot like the "Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self" where you have a strong chance to heal yourself whenever the power is used, once the power with it in is used once on a map it then becomes a global proc giving you a chance to heal on all your attacks.

 

(Thanks to @honoroit for suggesting this!)

 
Lore Pets:

Spoiler

From what I know there are 3 main candidates for Lore pets pretty much across all ATs that I have listed below and why you might want them, honestly this is purely up to you and what you want more of from your pets:

 

Banished Pantheon - Gives the enemy a -res (For cold and Negative, not our damage but helpful for the team/league, thanks to @Koopak for mentioning it <3) debuff and the Radial side gives an unattackable AOE pet

Longbow - Gives the enemy a -regen debuff and both are ranged attackers

Polar Lights - They actually use Nova attacks! They are great at AOE and are super small so don't block small areas.

 
PvP

Spoiler

A smaller talked about portion of the game but a portion nevertheless! Now I am no master at PvP on a Kheldian so I have asked a few of the Kheldian's who I know play PvP for their advice! (Thanks to @Ms Deadly, @Sikotics, and Kheldian Warlord)

At higher levels WarShades are less playable then PeaceBringers, and even worse in Arena, this is mainly due to the WarShades needing other bodies to power their attacks (Which is not possible in Arena, and is awkward to do in Open Zone), whereas a PeaceBringer has it's things like it's phase ability and 3 heals which help a ton (Make sure to keep an eye on when your buffs wear off however, as you do not want to be caught with your pants down.)

Another point is that what makes Khelds unique is a downfall in PvP, as you will never out burst a pure DPS or survive as long as a Tank, so in 1 on 1 combat you will have a hard time for sure. A way to help with this is the current Changeling exploit (REMEMBER, IT WILL BE REMOVED SO DO NOT RELY ON IT SOLEY) to help boost your dps and use the health and end procs to help heal whilst your powers are on cooldown, you can also sneak in the Dwarfs taunt with your rotation for the -Range.

 

It is also suggested you slot heavily for Recharge/Range/Procs as the base numbers for Kheldians are pretty low and you will get stomped on by others relying on that alone.

 

(Like I mentioned at the start PvP is not my forte so if you have any hints or think something is wrong, let me know in the comments!)

 

 

 

 

Closure:

 

Thank you for reading this guide and hopefully it has helped you on your path to playing your own Kheldian, I just want to finish this with saying there is no right way to play a Kheldian so have fun with the AT and as a nice little bonus I added some cool facts about Kheldians below ❤️

 

 

The official language of Kheldians is referred to as "Khelda" (Thanks to @Glacier Peak for letting me know!)

 

Most beings are, for lack of a better description, like apartments to Kheldians. They can move in, if the host is willing (or very weak,) and they can separate at will.

 

The effects you can buy with Aether such as Photosynthesis or Ghost also carry on over into the different forms to varying degrees, but it means you can play a elemental Kheldian! (Thanks to @Ms Deadly for this info)

 

The Kheldian stretches its hosts lifespan when joined. In addition, in the future it can make an energy "copy" of any being it's been joined with in the past - such as the Nova and Dwarf forms.

 

Enflame from the Sorcery power pool remains even whilst in your dwarf/nova form so could be useful as a constant damage when fighting AV's/Giant Monsters (Thanks to @Koopak for the update!)

 

The Nova form is actually an alien the Kheldians encountered living in a gas giant.

The Bright Novas are called Mefnanim,

The Dark Novas are called Hulmanim.

 

The Polar Lights Incarnate Lore pets actually use Kheldian powers, in case you wanted even more Kheld on your character ❤️

 

The Peacebringers are regular Kheldians, beings composed of light and are dedicated to hunting down the Nictus and destroying them for what they did to the Kheldian race.

 

When a Kheldian is forcibly separated from the host, the two halves can "feel" the other's out there. We don't know if this happens with a willing separation or not.

 

Shadowstar, the Warshade leader, has been around since ancient Egypt - 3000 to 5000 years (So Aliens might of built the Pyramids). Also here's a little cherry picked bit on info on how Ancient Egyptians treated death... TLDR Ancient Egyptians were possibly all Kheldian.
"The Egyptians believed that every human being was composed of physical and spiritual parts or aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a šwt (shadow), a ba (personality or soul), a ka (life-force), and a name. The heart, rather than the brain, was considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will, but they required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a statue) as a permanent home."

 

Nictus are Kheldians who, when faced with the short native lifespan of the Kheldian people, turned to science and changed themselves into beings of darkness.

 

It's possible a Kheldian could visit, for example, five other planets, have five more species of hosts, and become octoform not just a tri-form.

 

With a continual chain of hosts, Kheldians are functionally immortal (It is also rude to ask how many hosts a Kheldian has had, like asking a women her age).

 

The White Dwarf form is actually an alien race called the Kurukt, and lived on neutron stars.

The Black Dwarf form are called the Ruktur, who are said to have lived on the surface of a pulsar.

 

Warshades are Nictus that have had a change of heart, merging willingly with another instead of trying to force their way in. They fight alongside the Peacebringers against the Nictus.

 

Being energy, Kheldians have no natural "shape." At best they appear as wisps of energy. Occasionally bad tempered, deadly wisps of energy, but wisps nonetheless.

 

We don't know of "native" Kheld gender. The hosts obviously have gender, but native Khelds - unknown. (⊙.⊙)

- Goddess Laucianna - 15.mbd

Edited December 14 by Laucianna
Added a bit at the start about the Kheldian Family channel and @Wispur's Squid Squad Saturdays.

[Glacier Peak]

Love this! Great read so far, I'll be coming back to it again in the future. 

 

Would you consider Light Form and Eclipse to be a 'Fourth Form' ?

 

Edit: Also, didn't Sentinels get added to Cosmic Balance bonus?

 

Edit 2: I think it's worth mentioning Toggle Suppression or whatever name they went with, meaning Kheldians can go to different forms and not have to retoggle.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Glacier Peak

[Laucianna]

19 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Love this! Great read so far, I'll be coming back to it again in the future. 

 

Would you consider Light Form and Eclipse to be a 'Fourth Form' ?

 

Edit: Also, didn't Sentinels get added to Cosmic Balance bonus?

 

Edit 2: I think it's worth mentioning Toggle Suppression or whatever name they went with, meaning Kheldians can go to different forms and not have to retoggle.

You are 100% right! Personally I would say Lightform and Eclipse to be human form as a shield only build tends to go into the niche builds (Like nova only). Yes I believe sentinels give slow resist too, I will double check. And omg how did I forget toggle suppression!!!!!

[Xiddo]

Hey GL, pleasure to see you on the forums too. You invited me to the global channel.

Sents are in the same category as brutes. So res for PBs/ dam for WS.

 

This reminds me, I need to send you my build.

[Laucianna]

19 hours ago, Xiddo said:

Hey GL, pleasure to see you on the forums too. You invited me to the global channel.

Sents are in the same category as brutes. So res for PBs/ dam for WS.

 

This reminds me, I need to send you my build.

 

Glad to see you too hun! I am pretty sure I tested in game when I added Sentinels that it was the same as Scrappers though hun, are you able to test it on your end to double check and let me know?

[Xiddo]

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=inherent.inherent.cosmic_balance&at=peacebringer

Aye, for PBs blaster/brute/scrapper/sent/stalker are all the same!

[Foxy]

For a tri-form PB, what would be considered must have powers and which ones can be skipped or are limited in their usefulness?  

[Orivon]

6 hours ago, Foxy said:

For a tri-form PB, what would be considered must have powers and which ones can be skipped or are limited in their usefulness?  

Light Form is kind of obvious because it's your main defensive power. I took Reform Essence and Essence Boost to help keep your health up and dealing with LF crashing at less than ideal moments. Also helps bump up max HP.  Inner light is a must because it helps with ToHit and Damage and it's effects are stronger for a couple seconds and then reduce after but you can get your recharge time low enough to have the remaining Inner Light stack with your new one for some extra buffs. At this point it can be somewhat up to play style. I chose a lot of the shields because I was slotting them with +Psi Res IOs (my psi res is up to 77%) and stealth power pool for some extra Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge IOs. My build has changed over the years and just updated it recently to remove all human attacks except for Glinting Eye (usable in Nova form), Photon Seekers, and Dawn Strike. I primarily use Nova and Dwarf attack powers.

 

As far a skipping: Pulsar is up near the top for me and the animation time is kinda long. Which is also why I have respec'd out of Incandescent Strike. It's a really fun power to watch but it's a longgg activation. Since you're talking tri-form you can skip all the human attacks so you don't have to slot them and you'll have a better version in Nova form.  You could skip Group Energy Flight because these days it's easy for people to get around and not really necessary.

 

Lastly, I take Glowing Touch because I like to heal (also slotting Panacea for set bonus) and it does come in handy in a pinch but this may not be someone else's play style so you could potentially skip this too.

 

Hope this helps!

[Laucianna]

13 hours ago, Foxy said:

For a tri-form PB, what would be considered must have powers and which ones can be skipped or are limited in their usefulness?  

It would highly depend on your playstyle hun (Part of what makes a Kheldian so unique to play). If you plan on staying in your forms to do all your damage/tanking that you want to pick up long lasting buffs like Hasten and Essence Boost etc, utility powers like Stealth or teleport, or slot mules such as infiltration for defence procs or the shields for resist procs. However if you plan to play but going in and out of the forms you can pick up so shorter lasting buffs like Inner light, some of the more hard hitting Human attacks like Radiant Strike or Gleaming Blast, and of course the two nukes we have access to. I am going to try making some cheap tri form builds to post here that people can use as a basis to go from, but most Kheldian players mould their character differently depending on what you want (Such as @Orivon picking up Glowing touch because they want to have that)

[Foxy]

Thanks to both of you - that does help a lot and gives me things to consider before I respec.  

[Orivon]

I'm on Excelsior if you'd like to team up and I can show you how I play my PB.

[biostem]

All else being equal, there are really 2 questions you need to ask yourself:

 

1. Are you going tri-form, dual-form, or human only.

 

and

 

2. If you chose tri- or dual- above, how good are you with keybinds/macros, cuz you're gonna need/want them!

Edited January 14, 2023 by biostem

[johng99]

This might help too.  I use the top number row to attack, the arrow keys to move and the mouse to click things.  So I added this macro to my WS: 

/macro SQ "powexectoggleon dark nova$$goto_tray 7" then I copied the powers down to tray 7.  And of course, for the dwarf:

/macro LB "powexectoggleon black dwarf$$goto_tray 8" then copied those powers to tray 8.

Unfortunately, there is no "human" form to turn on, you turn off the other forms.

So I stole this from above: /macro HM "powexec_toggleoff Black Dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff Dark Nova$$goto_tray 3"

I also added to trays 7 & 8 a "human" macro.  /macro HM "powexectoggleoff dark nova$$goto_tray 3" and of course /macro HM "powexectoggleoff black dwarf$$goto_tray 3"

 

Also, I have "FLY and land" macros.  /macro FLY "powexectoggleon dark nova$$autorun 1$$goto_tray 7" and /macro land "powexectoggleoff dark nova$$autorun 0$$goto_tray 3"

Switching to the nova tray is a good idea if you get attacked while flying.

 

I also stole the tab key bind from above.

 

SQ = squid, LB = lobster, HM = human

 

[Xoza]

Always happy to see more... Kheldian energy in support of our Archetype.

[Orivon]

I highly recommend an MMO mouse or at least one with some extra buttons because it made playing my PB, and CoH in general, much easier. My key binds are all done on the mouse.

 

This is my current set up with my Steel Series Aerox 9

 

 

G - bright nova

V - white dwarf

X - light form

Left Shift - down flight

F - energy flight

T - white dwarf step

B - combat flight

 

Then I combine multiple binds to the same key:

 

1 - "powexecname photon seekers$$powexecname bright nova bolt$$powexecname white dwarf strike"

2 - glinting eye/dwarf smite

3 - dawn strike/nova blast/dwarf flare

4 - essence boost/nova scatter/dwarf antagonize

5 - reform essence/dwarf sublimation

6 - glowing touch/nova detonation

7 - quantum flight

Shift+7 - quantum acceleration

8 - conserve energy

9 - teleport target

0 - inner light

[Greycat]

On 1/3/2023 at 5:38 PM, Goddess Laucianna said:

Love it or hate it, sadly a lot of people hate it and it is most of our powers, if you do not care what people think and want to knockback enemies go ahead! You can skip this bit 😄

 

For those of us who do want to address the Knockback issue there is sadly only one reliable enhancement you must put into all the powers you want to convert from Knockback, that being:

 

... there might be one enhancement, but it's not a "knock stuff around willy nilly or use this" choice.

 

*Learn to control your knockback* (at least for AOEs) is the name of the game. And that's done through positioning. Obvious things, sure, like "Don't stand next to the tank and knock everything away," but also "On a PB, you have fly. use it. Knocking back into the floor is enhancement-less knockdown." Knock things *into* patches/melee. And on a 'shade (or if you want to make the investment into a pool on a PB) there's always Shadow Slip.

 

(Side note, once you're at least 50+1 and have threads - or cash - to spare to pick up Ultimates, MSRs will love your Warshade for Slipping those tasty, tasty Rikti into the meatgrinder.)

 

Ancient PB guide of mine - I mean, old forums, 2010...

https://web.archive.org/web/20120904221601/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=238237

 

Obviously some things have changed, but it's a perspective. I'll still slot a Winter's Gift in because Dwarf has so few attacks... one fewer on a PB, after all, since the heal's not also an attack.

[Laucianna]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

 

... there might be one enhancement, but it's not a "knock stuff around willy nilly or use this" choice.

 

*Learn to control your knockback* (at least for AOEs) is the name of the game. And that's done through positioning. Obvious things, sure, like "Don't stand next to the tank and knock everything away," but also "On a PB, you have fly. use it. Knocking back into the floor is enhancement-less knockdown." Knock things *into* patches/melee. And on a 'shade (or if you want to make the investment into a pool on a PB) there's always Shadow Slip.

 

(Side note, once you're at least 50+1 and have threads - or cash - to spare to pick up Ultimates, MSRs will love your Warshade for Slipping those tasty, tasty Rikti into the meatgrinder.)

 

Ancient PB guide of mine - I mean, old forums, 2010...

https://web.archive.org/web/20120904221601/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=238237

 

Obviously some things have changed, but it's a perspective. I'll still slot a Winter's Gift in because Dwarf has so few attacks... one fewer on a PB, after all, since the heal's not also an attack.

Thank you for the point hun! I added it to the guide as it is a viable option to save a precious enhancement slot if you can control the knockback ❤️

[mathemagic]

Hi Laucianna,

Longtime Warshade main here.  If you don't mind, I'd like to correct a bit of your warshade post.  First off, warshades need LIVE bodies even more than dead ones.  Eclipse increases your damage resists for every live body it hits.  I would also recommend that one go for perma-eclipse in the same manner that you describe for light form.  Also, the two mires, human and dwarf, increase damage output for every live body they hit.  And the effects from Eclipse and the mires carry over into Nova or Dwarf.  So you can jump into a pack of baddies, Eclipse and double mire, then turn Nova with capped resists and max damage output.  You should be surrounded by dead bodies in no time.  Use the dead bodies for your Dark Extraction pet, and Stygian Circle, which refills your health and stamina bars for every dead body it hits.  Hope this helps.

[Laucianna]

1 hour ago, mathemagic said:

Hi Laucianna,

Longtime Warshade main here.  If you don't mind, I'd like to correct a bit of your warshade post.  First off, warshades need LIVE bodies even more than dead ones.  Eclipse increases your damage resists for every live body it hits.  I would also recommend that one go for perma-eclipse in the same manner that you describe for light form.  Also, the two mires, human and dwarf, increase damage output for every live body they hit.  And the effects from Eclipse and the mires carry over into Nova or Dwarf.  So you can jump into a pack of baddies, Eclipse and double mire, then turn Nova with capped resists and max damage output.  You should be surrounded by dead bodies in no time.  Use the dead bodies for your Dark Extraction pet, and Stygian Circle, which refills your health and stamina bars for every dead body it hits.  Hope this helps.

 

Hiya!

 

Thanks for the info hun! My knowledge on WarShades is a lot more limited so a massive thank you for letting me know, I have updated the intro to WarShades to better reflect the playstyle you mentioned, let me know if I am still missing anything ❤️

 

 - Lauci

[mathemagic]

Thanks for the mention.

Your opening WarShade paragraph is one of the most concise, entertaining descriptions of a WarShade in action I've read.

[Laucianna]

01/04/2023 - Added a section on why play Kheldians since our main strength comes from understanding our AT better then others do when they have to constantly alt ❤️

[Laucianna]

03/04/2023 - Fixed typos in some of the Macros

[Lusiphur Malache]

Glad to see this guide.  I've put it to good use since making a warshade.  This guide gave me the courage to make a human only warshade when everyone told me it couldn't be done well.  It would be nice to mention quantums, cyst, and shadow shards for Kheldians and other ATs that team with Kheldians, just so everyone can know how dangerous they are.

[Laucianna]

2 hours ago, Lusiphur Malache said:

Glad to see this guide.  I've put it to good use since making a warshade.  This guide gave me the courage to make a human only warshade when everyone told me it couldn't be done well.  It would be nice to mention quantums, cyst, and shadow shards for Kheldians and other ATs that team with Kheldians, just so everyone can know how dangerous they are.

 

Great idea and so glad to hear you have the courage to try something fun! After all games are meant to be enjoyed not just min maxed 😄 Added the "Special Enemies" section that lists what happens and also an easy way on how to deal with it, but let me know if you think I am missing anything! ❤️ 

[honoroit]

this guide is great - ty for making it!  

 

khelds are super fun, PB most of all imo.  while youve maybe not the power of a focused other xyz archetype, you have massive power diversity versus say a melee character, and can get a lot of unique sets put with some creativity. ranged, melee aoe, ranged aoe, def, res, heals... and, you get a bunch of free powers for things like lotg muling.

 

functionally, you can deal with most things.  power overchoice is a thing, but thats a better problem to have than 2 or more from a set which are definate passes.

 

apart from instant shifting the HEATs havent gotten a refresh in a bit, at least not to my awareness.

 

animations are super nice on the powers, big bangs of light and stuff... 

 

it would be nice to hear your thoughts on the impact of the atos from a play standpoint. what does it mean 'empower forms' for example, spelled out.

 

recommend something like q (squid), z (lobster) and e (humee) for the binds, as you dont have to get off wasd. 

 

i have macros for the human form from ages ago, that toggle on the shields / auras if you repeatedly press the button, it falls through. they still work, I'd post them if i knew how to make it show me 'whats the macro on 'e''