Putting the E Back in HEATs

[Midgardian]

Kheldians are nifty.

 

Kheldians are fun.

 

Kheldians are… epic? Well, kinda, but…

 

The perceived problem with HEATs, I feel, is that both PBs and Warshades have to work a good bit harder to be only mostly okay at the job they’re trying to do, and thereby they feel a little flat. This design does make sense, especially at its inception, but I think the modern game outpaces it too much, even when put up against VEATs alone. My goal is to modernize the AT in ways that compliment what already makes them unique, and do so while rewarding as many playstyles as possible - as build diversity (and the [slotting] challenges therein) is, to me, part of what does make these ATs especially fun. I want people to be excited about having Kheldians on their team again, like I was when they first appeared back in Issue 3.

 

Let’s start with Peacebringers, as I think they’re suffering more.

 

PBs embody the latter half of “jack of all trades, master of none” problem, most especially human form. They have a self-sufficient survivability kit, but poor HP. They have a good inherent debuff, but not much extrapolation on that outside of slotting to that effect. And they have one skippable QoL power, and two duds. Compared to the combination of soft controls available to a human-form Warshade, PBs fail at the support role they seem to want to serve. So let’s look at what they want to be.

 

PBs are light-based SupporTanks. So, paladins. They’re paladins. To that effect, I’d consider some combination of the following changes:

 

1. Raise Def Buff values, making them both better Tanks and “Blapfenders,” as some like to be. Not quite as high as VEATs, but close the gap a little.

 

2. Replace Group Fly with Radiant Fortitude, a small PBAoE self+team absorb toggle, akin to Nature Affinity’s Wild Bastion without the HoT.

 

3. Make Glowing Touch a PBAoE team heal.

 

4. Replace Pulsar with Cleansing Light, a PBAoE self+team Mez Protect that can be clicked when Mezzed, like a mini-Clarion. Shades need their Disorient power exponentially more than PBs do, and yeah, I’d maybe make this perma-able with slot investment, to reward the human-only’s/support-leaning players.

 

5. Bake some Taunt into Dwarf Flare.

 

* Admittedly I also wanted to incentivize taking Quantum Maneuvers more for some builds as well, albeit in an unexpected way: I wonder if adding a level of Threat into Quantum Maneuvers would be interesting and helpful for both SupporTanks and Blapfenders, to make more use of the AT’s high resist values even for the latter case. I thought about sticking the Mez protection in there, and that’d be the easiest thing to do, but the thought of human PBs getting two paladin-esque aura abilities was just too much fun.

 

With these changes, endgame PBs of any playstyle can feel like they’re uniquely contributing to the team.

 

Now for Warshades!

 

Shades might be a little more straightforward, as I think they succeeded at their experiment a little better. They have high +Damage potential, and their soft controls stack together neatly between Grav Well + Gravitic + Inky (if you build that way) and, of course, all the KB (most especially with KB > KD). Thematically, they want to be foils to the PBs: where PBs emphasize SupporTank/DPS, Warshades want to be DPS with a side of TankTroller. PBs want to work to support their team; Shades want to work to support themselves.

 

The Warshade’s biggest holes are a lack of Mez protection in human form, and an ST weakness/dependence on bodies. Since the above powers sought to expand the support capabilities of PBs in order to better serve their identity, I think a Warshades’ true “thing,” if you will, should be all about their ability to buff their own damage.

 

1. Raise Warshade damage cap to 500%. Maybe higher even, if you really wanna lean into the idea of them working hard to be damage monsters.

 

2. Increase the duration of Dwarf Mire’s damage buffs just a little bit, just enough to carry saturated (and, conversely, stacking ST) Mires a little bit further. The one thing I find myself struggling with somewhat on my triform Warshade is making the most out of my time in Nova, and I think increasing Dwarf Mire’s buff duration could help smooth this out. The only thing is that we shouldn’t want to raise the cooldown as a tradeoff, as Dwarf neeeeeds the quick Mire in its rotation.

 

3. Bake a small, stacking absorb component into Stygian Circle.

 

4. Bake some Mez protection into one of two powers, or both: for ease, Shadow Cloak. For fun, Starless Step. I love the idea of combat teleporting out of Mez. For maximum fun and effort, layer it so that Shadow Cloak covers lower-mag Mez, with Starless Step allowing you to break out of higher-mag Mezzes and grant you a small window of protection ala its To-Hit buff. This lets players stay human-only and still have to work a little for their Mez protection.

 

5. Bake some Taunt into Dwarf Mire.

 

Re: Mez protection for both, I know the easy answer is “go/mule Dwarf,” but well, as I said before, I think build diversity is the highlight of this AT. People want to be human-only, and since the pieces are there anyway, let’s reward it.

 

The last thing that has me a little stumped is their Inherent. I like its concept enough as-is, I just wonder if it needs a solo-friendly component ala Defenders.

 

What do you think?

[biostem]

They aren't "Epic" because of their power level - they are "Epic" in the story sense, in that they tie more closely into the goings-on of the storyline than the more generic/general ATs...

[Rudra]

Well... they were more "epic" in that they were a challenge AT that the player unlocked access to by getting a blue side AT to level 50.... Agreed though that "epic" isn't meant to mean power level.

[Wavicle]

White Dwarf Flare already Taunts.

Black Dwarf Mire does not taunt, intentionally, so that one can use it as a dps tool, by hitting dwarf and mire, then going human or nova and attacking, without pulling aggro to yourself.

 

 

 

I think the Dwarf Antagonize powers should hit up to 10 and have a 20' radius.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Wavicle

[Midgardian]

59 minutes ago, biostem said:

They aren't "Epic" because of their power level - they are "Epic" in the story sense, in that they tie more closely into the goings-on of the storyline than the more generic/general ATs...

 

45 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Well... they were more "epic" in that they were a challenge AT that the player unlocked access to by getting a blue side AT to level 50.... Agreed though that "epic" isn't meant to mean power level.

To these two points, the references to “epic” was semantics, really. Just being cute for a fun read. I know they’re not meant to be epic in power level, and agree with the sentiment of the latter point especially: that they’re “epic” because they’re something of a challenge to play. Which is something I enjoy about the AT. Just thought I’d chime in with some ideas to pull the ATs out of memery. 

 

42 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

White Dwarf Flare already Taunts.

Black Dwarf Mire does not taunt, intentionally, so that one can use it as a dps tool, by hitting dwarf and mire, then going human or nova and attacking, without pulling aggro to yourself.

 

 

 

I think the Dwarf Antagonize powers should hit up to 10 and have a 20' radius.

 

Good point! Would be a simple and to-the-point change. 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Midgardian

[Andreah]

They're not played a lot, but it's not because they're substantially less powerful than other AT's; imo, it's because they're more complicated to build and play.

[Wavicle]

They’re also really only equivalent to 2 powersets of 1 AT, not 2 whole other ATs.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Wavicle

[biostem]

12 minutes ago, Andreah said:

They're not played a lot, but it's not because they're substantially less powerful than other AT's; imo, it's because they're more complicated to build and play.

I'd also attribute a fair part of them not being as common to them being a "jack of all trades, master of none", as well as forcing a specific appearance on you if you go w/ nova & dwarf, thereby eliminating any uniqueness you may have had otherwise.

[Glacier Peak]

Nah they are great how they are. Build them as desired, the tools are there for everyone to use if they want. 

 

Of course like everyone else I'm biased by my perspective; having played since Issue 1, I remember "earning" these two Archetypes and leveling them up before inherent fitness, before their inherent was buffed, before teams were open to inviting them because they spawned Cysts and Void Gunners in missions,  before they had their own Archetype Origin IO, before toggle suppression was added by Homecoming. 

[Wavicle]

10 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Nah they are great how they are. Build them as desired, the tools are there for everyone to use if they want. 

 

Of course like everyone else I'm biased by my perspective; having played since Issue 1, I remember "earning" these two Archetypes and leveling them up before inherent fitness, before their inherent was buffed, before teams were open to inviting them because they spawned Cysts and Void Gunners in missions,  before they had their own Archetype Origin IO, before toggle suppression was added by Homecoming. 

I definitely would like their Tanking ability to be improved slightly, but aside from that I agree.

[Sakura Tenshi]

Oh, the “losing uniqueness “ with forms gives me an idea for a suggestion: nova and dwarf form customization which involve taking the forms of similar previous alien hosts to the Nova and Dwarf but distinct!

 

also on the note for forms, I kind of felt like forms got kind of boring and repetitive to specialize in which made me wish nova and dwarf could get one or two more powers. One idea being that certain powers selected for human form could carry over to the shifted forms for extra diversity. But I have not played any sort of kheldian in a long time and don’t feel like a good judge of the AT.

[Wavicle]

17 minutes ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

Oh, the “losing uniqueness “ with forms gives me an idea for a suggestion: nova and dwarf form customization which involve taking the forms of similar previous alien hosts to the Nova and Dwarf but distinct!

 

also on the note for forms, I kind of felt like forms got kind of boring and repetitive to specialize in which made me wish nova and dwarf could get one or two more powers. One idea being that certain powers selected for human form could carry over to the shifted forms for extra diversity. But I have not played any sort of kheldian in a long time and don’t feel like a good judge of the AT.

 

they did that. Dwarf can use the t1 Blast and Nova can use the t2.

 

 New SKINS for Nova and Dwarf would be very welcome.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

Agreed the kheldians feel like they take too much effort to be fun at least for me. On paper their specs look amazing though. Can we at lease recolor novas and dwarfs?

[Wavicle]

Pretty sure you can recolor iirc.

[biostem]

2 hours ago, Wavicle said:

Pretty sure you can recolor iirc.

You may be able to recolor the transformation FX or the faint glow around them, but not the model itself.

[kelika2]

Adding a chance for Minicrits to having Mask or Cloak on to everything would be neat, including ranged attacks to Wolf spider

[biostem]

4 minutes ago, kelika2 said:

Adding a chance for Minicrits to having Mask or Cloak on to everything would be neat, including ranged attacks to Wolf spider

Well, "HEAT" from this thread title generally refers to the Heroic Epic ArcheType, not the Soldiers of Arachnos...

[kelika2]

5 hours ago, biostem said:

Well, "HEAT" from this thread title generally refers to the Heroic Epic ArcheType, not the Soldiers of Arachnos...

oh well in that case leave khelds alone, i already burned all my free/level respecs