A possible solution to the kheldian revamp

[FlammeFatale]

22 hours ago, tidge said:

 

The issue with a shapeshifting cooldown (as I see it): The shapeshifting is the defining play feature of the Kheldians, so any flat restrictions on this should be a non-starter.

 

Eliminating the changeling exploit will almost certainly have to be an 'under-the-hood' change involving power-queuing.

 

One easy solution would be to have a timer like combat teleport. For instance, we would be limited to 4 or 5 shapeshifts per 30 seconds. 

This way, we would keep our defining feature and our fun moves like double mire, but changeling would be gone.

 

Once this is done, I do not think it would be difficult to improve kheldians. They just need more damage and less clicks. 

 

I would really appreciate less clicks. I feel less clicks should be the top priority in any revamp. This can be implemented simply by adding shapeshift to every power in the form. For instance, clicking Black Dwarf Drain from human form automatically shifts to dwarf and perform the drain. You cannot exploit this because of the 4-5 shifts per 30 second limitation.

 

Improving damage would be easy too, just change the damage scales.

 

In the case of warshades, it would be nice also to have some powers scale up when there are only a couple mobs around and a better inherent. Nice but not necessary. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21 by FlammeFatale

[Black_Assassin]

I am still sold on making Dark Extraction a PBAOE and it summons a pet for every dead body around you for a set period of time. (maybe give the option for team tp clone to port the new army of fluffies around)

Edited August 21 by Black_Assassin

[FlammeFatale]

This would be fun. At least make it a PBAoE, even if it summons only one pet a time. A PBAoE means one less click compared to the current method.

[Syler]

I've desperately been trying to love Kheldians and specifically Warshades since live. 

 

But I cannot stand the changeling meta playstyle. I know - just don't do it. But I hate that I feel incredibly held back by a mono or even dual form playstyle. Plus it just looks so ridiculous swapping forms and exploding into whatever color of alien mist. Yeah its fun watching everything fall down, super fast (especially for PBs). But it feels and looks clunky/wrong.

 

I wish the forms worked as toggles that retained all powers relevant to the theme of that form and melee/range specific attack buffs since they're still limited IE: 

 

Nova would retain any and all armor toggles (at a reduced effect) and all ranged attacks across the entire power spread.

 

Dwarf form would grey out any ranged attacks and a small damage or ToHit buff to melee. Give it access to all melee attacks in the set and the PBAoE auras. 

 

And maybe human form should get some inherent passive since the other two come with their own buffs. 

 

I can see the outline of a vision where instead of one primary build (since HEATs are the most powerset restricted in the game) where you have 3 totally viable playstyles in Human, Nova, or Dwarf and theres still room for hybrids. H/VEATs are some of the lowest created and while they can all be viable, whether for meta or general purpose, they pigeon hole themselves. Some worse than others. 

 

Until then I'll continue to try and make a Human/Dwarf WS semi-viable. Thanks for reading

[FlammeFatale]

9 hours ago, Syler said:

I've desperately been trying to love Kheldians and specifically Warshades since live. 

 

But I cannot stand the changeling meta playstyle. 

 

Until then I'll continue to try and make a Human/Dwarf WS semi-viable. Thanks for reading

 

Syler, you could try my old-school Human/Dwarf warshade. It is not changeling, I only use animation cancelling for the double mire.

While not as fast against single targets as changeling, it is still faster than all my tankers, controllers, dominators, defenders, masterminds...

 

Here is the original explanation: 

 

I am also appending my latest build, which has changed very little.

 

One thing to note is that I use a lot of binds, to reduce the tediousness of too much clicking. For instance:

F1 "targetcustomnext enemy defeated"
F2 "powexecname dark extraction"
F3 "powexecname unchain essence"

So a quick F1-F3 tap allows smooth integration of unchain in the alpha AoE chain.

- Flamme Fatale - Bi-Form WS .mbd

[Syler]

2 hours ago, FlammeFatale said:

Syler, you could try my old-school Human/Dwarf warshade. It is not changeling, I only use animation cancelling for the double mire

 

Many thanks Flamme! I will give this a go this week

[Xalon]

It's not hard at all to click the forms to change and use those abilities. I don't get why others have such an issue with it. We are getting bonuses from each form rather than just using those extra powers, so I like it. Once you map things on your keyboard comfortably, it's really quick to switch. 

 

Ranged and extra DPs = bright nova

main damage with toggles and more variety + melee or ranged = human form

extra defense and invul to a lot of cc = dwarf

 

Switching between them is part of the fun IMO. 

[Xalon]

Peacebringer should stay as it is. I'll take buffs, but there is no need to make any nerfs or add cooldowns or anything. The difference in power between PBs is selection of powers, slots and enchancements and procs. So why change that? 

 

Other than other ATs complaining it's unfair we have 3 forms, is there really a need to make any changes?  I don't get it. 

[chi1701]

15 hours ago, Xalon said:

Peacebringer should stay as it is. I'll take buffs, but there is no need to make any nerfs or add cooldowns or anything. The difference in power between PBs is selection of powers, slots and enchancements and procs. So why change that? 

 

Other than other ATs complaining it's unfair we have 3 forms, is there really a need to make any changes?  I don't get it. 

Tbh, few changes I would like, wouldnt change its how tanky or how much damage it does, but some quality of life changes, issue is how to balance around what I percieve as quality of life changes.
Changes such as having more access to abilities in forms. Dwarf would have 2 heals which would be balance issue for example.
Then have community it self, players feel that Dwarf is a "Tank" in same right as a proper Tank and Brute since it has taunt.
Personaly feel, that when in the forms, I dont provide any benefit to the team other than taunting off team members or simply doing damage.
As a tri form players, I have abilities simply for the IO set bonuses which for me, is a shame.

[Maelwys]

On 9/28/2025 at 1:38 AM, Xalon said:

It's not hard at all to click the forms to change and use those abilities. I don't get why others have such an issue with it. We are getting bonuses from each form rather than just using those extra powers, so I like it.

...

Switching between them is part of the fun IMO. 

The issue isn't about switching between forms. 
It's about what happens whenever you switch to a different form whilst you currently have an attack animating.

Form switching currently allows Kheldians to activate a new attack regardless of whether their previously-activated attack's animation has fully completed.

The "Changeling" (good grief I hate that stupid moniker almost as much as I hate the graphical vomit they spew) binds simultaneously swap a form and queue up an attack power; so if you get the press/release timing right it's possible to activate several attacks every second, resulting in a drastic increase to your damage output. This bypassing of regular attack animation times is an exploit and as such, it needs to be addressed. However the Developers are apparently intentionally holding off on disabling this exploit until such time as they can spare the time to bring baseline non-exploit Kheldian performance up to a level that is deemed "acceptable".

[Warshades]

On 9/27/2025 at 8:45 PM, Xalon said:

Other than other ATs complaining it's unfair we have 3 forms, is there really a need to make any changes?  I don't get it.

 

Has nothing to do with having 3 forms, it's best to visualize how it's getting exploited currently. Now to be clear, I could care less about pylon times someone is able to achieve using this exploit and I'm quite sure this isn't even close to the record that some other ATs have been able to set on pylon times. The bigger problem is that kheldians need to use this exploit to even attempt to match the damage output that other ATs are able to output and without it, this pylon time would likely be over 200-300 seconds. The exploit should be removed, but kheldians need to be changed and those changes need to be buffs. No one is saying that they should be nerfed (aside from removing the exploit).