Jade_Dragon

Well, one thing I am hoping is that resolving the issue of returning to Human form being unable to be queued will also come with a change in the transformation time. For instance, if they can make the time to return to Human form half the time of a shift to the other Forms, then they can half the time of those shifts as well. So while a shift from Nova to Dwarf form would still take as long as it currently does, a shift from Human to Dwarf or Nova would take considerably less. And the drop to Human form taking more time than it does now could be acceptable simply because it could be at a different point in the sequence than the shift to Dwarf form.

Slot management that doesn't do anything about, but I put that to the unique nature of the Kheldian. If you could be equally as strong in all three forms as you could be in two forms or even one, that would be horribly overbalanced. No one would ever play Human Form. (Why would you play Human Form only, when you can get Nova and Dwarf forms with just the cost of a single power each?)

I think this is the issue. It is not that it wouldn't make sense for, say, the Human form ranged attacks to be used in Nova form and the Human melee attacks in Dwarf form. Rather, as the animations are written for the Human form, they would look crazy in the Nova form at the least.

Mind you, I was just wondering why Novas can't fire off the main "novas", Dawn Strike or Quasar. It's not like Dwarf Form doesn't get an extra attack, there's no reason to limit them to four. Although I'm guessing the potential of firing off two in a row is the issue.

It's gotten a lot better since the damage was made resistable. As I said, you can almost ignore it in Dwarf form. In fact, the extra damage may have even been reduced, as part of the Kheld revamp. Even if it wasn't, since Khelds can now use their innate Energy resistance against it (even in Nova form they have Energy/Neg resistance) the damage did go down.

You can still be taken out by about two shots in Nova form if you're not paying attention, though. You just have more options. I've had a couple of times where a Quant caught me by surprise, and I went into Dwarf form, and survived the encounter.

And Biospark, one thing I might add is that while you might have certain weaknesses in certain forms, such as Psi as a Dwarf or mezzes as a human, you can in many cases change form to avoid them. You don't really have any protection against Psi as a Nova that you don't have as a Dwarf, but you can kill it faster. So I think in that light Quantums were meant to be a weakness in all your forms. That isn't really true as much for Dwarf form any more, but then being able to form shift isn't always all as useful as that either.

If you haven't played Kheldians since the revamp, you might try them again. You may still have to watch out for Quantums until you hit 20, they can still make your early levels a pain. But you can use your Energy Shield in Human Form to protect yourself.

Quantum weapons do additional damage to Kheldians that are hit by them. This is somewhat like Containment, which is additional damage which is done to a foe by a Controller attack if the foe is held. This is coded into the attack, so when it hits a foe it first does the basic damage, then checks if it satisfies the requirements of Containment, and if it does, applies an additional damage equal to the first.

In short, all Quantum weapons have a code in them something like "do X damage; if player=Kheldian, do Y damage". Y is a MUCH larger number than X.

Honestly, it's true that Quantum weapons are a challenge, although it's become much easier since the damage was made resistable. Dwarf form can now pretty much survive Quantum blasts long enough to pound the Quant into the dirt. I still find the best way to handle Quants is to spot the target before entering combat, single it out with either a Starless Step for a WS or just charge in and use Iridescent Strike as a PB, and retreat if necessary after it is down to recover so you can take on whatever else is in the spawn.

It is a hassle, yes, but there are foes that threaten every type of AT you play. Psi critters cut through Invulnerability's defense, so you'd want to take them out first if you play Inv. Sorcerers and Yellow Ink Men can be dangerous to many ATs, so you want to single them out. Some squishies have a lot to fear from Ancestor Spirits, while tanks often don't. Maybe if Kheldians were a little more balanced, and had Human form status protection as well as resistance to Psi damage, I might say that Quants are their "weakness", but I can still watch out for it pretty well anyway.

The Quantum is certainly no increased threat to my team, only to me. It's possible that I may not be able to fully support the team unless they make the effort to eliminate the threat, but if my team doesn't seem to care about that, I usually just shift to damage dealing and try not to draw the aggro of the Quantum, or stay in Dwarf form if I think I can handle it on my own.

Oh, and Galaxies do the same damage as Nictus/Warshades. (which is just Negative Energy) They are not Quantums. Voids are, though. (Which is why that keybind searches for "quantum", "void" and "cyst")

That would be my thought. It might work, if you made it an Inherent, say a click power that you earned somehow, like Domination. But if you give up any of the pet powers then you cut into the MM's normal damage dealing abilities, and if you give up the attacks, then what's the point of the power?

Honestly, I don't really see Dr. Doom or Kingpin or Lord Recluse as a Mastermind anyway. They're Brutes or Corruptors (Recluse is an Incarnate...) that sometimes happen to send one of their cronies to fight you in place of them. The Joker or Penguin or Lex Luthor (without the Kryptonite powered battle suit) that's more what I think of as a Mastermind in the player character sense. They're never going to be around without some kind of minions surrounding them, and they're never going to be first into the battle. They may be somewhat dangerous in combat, but once their minions are gone, they're going to hightail it out of there.

The thing is, it's not really the damage that makes a Mastermind "weak", it's his selection of attacks. If you give him additional damage to compensate for the fact that he has only three attacks, (and they're extremely Endurance inefficient) then you end up with a situation like Containment, where filling out a full attack chain lets you do extremely high amounts of damage. And unlike Controllers, there is no problem with a Mastermind's damage in the absense of an Inherent doubling his damage.

Now, if you could use a click power that would exchange his pet powers for attacks, maybe like a Kheldian's Form Shift, that would be one thing. But then he would be a Corruptor. And seriously, if after Batman defeats all of his henchmen, Joker can turn around and say, "Now see what *I* can do," and he turns around and defeats Batman, then he never needed the henchmen in the first place.

Considerate, yes, but it does not change your point, which is that in your opinion no one should play Kheldians, because they "bring distractions to the game". That you choose to leave the team and someone else does not is irrelevant, to you they are merely ignoring the distraction. Perhaps to their own detriment. And you have stated as much openly on this forum, so don't protest that you never make your position known.

As I said, you have yet to make a CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. While the OP may not have asked for opinions on how to correct the issues with Kheldians, he did ask about them in order to understand what those issues are. If you have already stated what those issues are, then there is nothing really but to go into greater depth about what can or should be done. Unless you just wish to repeat yourself endlessly.

The point of criticism is to correct behavior or to provide advice for future improvement. By your own admission, there is no behavior to correct, or improvement that can be made. Your argument is with the DESIGN of the Kheldian. You do not offer advice in how to better play a Kheldian or how to minimize the issues that you find important (and there is nothing we can do to improve it, that is all in the hands of the devs) you merely refuse to team with them. Period.

In short, your advice is, "Don't ever play a Kheldian". That is your idea of "learning from mistakes", the mistake being that we are all foolish enough to play Kheldians in the first place. As such, I don't find it to be constructive criticism at all.

Why do people keep saying that? At range you have exactly the same damage modifier as your Tier 3 pet, and you have WAY more non-attack abilities. Want proof? Put yourself up against a friend's Tier 3 pet in the Arena. It might be a stalemate, but I'm betting that Dark at the very least will be able to defeat a Tier 3, by holding it with Petrifying Gaze and healing until the foe can be finished off. (And of course this assumes the other MM does not support the Tier 3 in any way, which is what any henchmen that might turn on you should expect)

With a full chain of attacks and a couple of the Vet Rewards, you could probably defeat a Tier 3 easily, no matter the Secondary. Now whether you WANT to do that, and spend the End and the time needed on constant attacks is another issue.

The problem is not really the Tier 3, but the Tier 2 and Tier 1 stacked on top of that. You can beat any individual henchman for damage, but cannot compete against their damage as a whole. With the Assault Bot and similar Tier 3s they also have more potential to do AoE damage than you do. (But that still doesn't mean they do more single target damage)

I'll also add that doubling your health and dismissing all your pets would be a REDUCTION in your survivability with full Bodyguard. I can see the logic in making the petless Mastermind more of a viable alternative (like the Human Form only Kheldian) but you really would not be gaining anything you don't already have. Except the satisfaction of being somewhat closer in strength as an individual compared to other ATs.

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. Tankers have toggles in their Primary, Defenders have toggles in their Primary. Tankers have click powers in their Primary, Defenders have click powers in their Primary. The point you could make is that Defenders AS A WHOLE have more click powers compared to toggles than Tankers do, and their click powers do not last as long. However, this isn't always the case, Force Field Defenders rely heavily on toggle powers, and have click buffs that have an relatively long duration.

Your argument would also seem to apply to Corruptors and Masterminds as well. It would seem that if a Defender did not have the time to use both his Primary and blasts as well, then a Corruptor would not have time to use his Secondary with all of his blasts. And a Mastermind would be unable to use his Secondary if he devoted time to controlling his henchmen. Since this isn't the case, I would say that a Defender has plenty of time to use his Secondary, in between applications of his Primary powers.

And if a Defender's Inherent were raised by use of his Primary click powers as well as his attacks, in much the same way a Dominator can raise his Inherent with either Primary or Secondary click powers, I'd say there would be no need for any argument at all. (The Secondary can provide more of a boost to the Inherent, again, as with Dominators, but at least more active Defenders would not have to sacrifice Inherent to protect their team)

The problem is that there is a recent "fix" to costume powers to prevent them from being detoggled if you have a power queued up. So if you are firing off an attack and hit your Form power to return to Human, you will not return to Human. Your tray will switch, but you will still be in the Form, and all your Human powers will be greyed out.

This was to stop an exploit which apparently involved the Halloween costumes, but it got Kheldians as well. Positron said they were looking into it, but there has been no more mention of it. The big issue is that as turning a toggle OFF is not a power ACTIVATION, it is not queued. It is not even possible to put it on the queue, at least the way things currently stand.

Personally, what I would like to see is for it to be possible to have certain toggles put on the queue to be detoggled, and to give them a deactivation animation as well. That would solve the issue of return to Human form not having a special effect. Which would, as I said, allow animation time of Form activation to be reduced since total shift time from Form to Form would remain unchanged.

And that any apparent fear on the part of the devs towards Ranged/Defense, at least as it stands in this game, is overexaggerated. As I have said since the beginning. I've always felt the devs underestimated the prevalence of ranged attacks on critters in this game, compared to other MMOs.

This is not to say that the Ranged/Defense combo should not be weaker damage or defense wise than a specialist with range or defense, but there is room for tweaking.

The advantage of "known flakiness" is that as it is known, it can be anticipated. Tray swapping has stopped being an issue since I changed my behavior to only drop out of human form after all attacks have fired. Mez cancellation is still an issue, but typically I find once I realize it's happening I can shift to try and match the rhythm of it, or just use a Break Free. It's not like you could shift to Dwarf form when mezzed BEFORE.

Time to shift has never been an issue with me. I would actually like to see Dwarf/Nova shift time halved, and then the shift to Human form become a true queueable shift with an equal animation time (and appropriate graphic effect) but I don't expect it to be reduced overall.

I do admit to being less annoyed with it rather than not annoyed, though. I am still waiting for a fix to the Human form shift, and will continue to bug the mods about it until it gets done. I don't care if they have to use a kludge like an Inherent power that shifts you back to Human. Just do what needs to be done.

Sandolphan's Guide should help you do that, yeah.

The idea is basically that numpad 1, when you press it to select Zombies, then changes the bind on numpad 4 to tell it to effect the selected group. You would actually press numpad 5 to select Defensive stance, and then numpad 8 to set Follow. So you would press three keys, 1 - 5 - 8.

I'll send you more details in my answer to your PM. However, keep in mind my PM assumes you're trying to set a permanent bind on numpad 4. (I hadn't read this when I replied) The way Sandolphan's binds work is they change as you press the keys to select which group to send commands to.

I'll just look at one command here. This is the one to select Zombies:

/bind numpad1 "bind numpad4 petcompow zomb agg$$bind numpad5 petcompow zomb def$$bind numpad6 petcompow zomb pass$$bind numpad7 petcompow zomb att$$bind numpad8 petcompow zomb fol$$bind numpad9 petcompow zomb goto"

You would just type (or copy and paste) this in to the chat window. Now, notice that this is a /bind command, followed by the numpad1 key, and then a command. But that command is ALSO a bind command. And then there is a $$, and another bind command, and another $$, and so on. So when you press numpad1, it defines numpad4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. (and the bind commands, "nested" in that command, don't have the slash in front of them. That's important)

If all you ever did was type in that command, you could press numpad1, and it would then define all the other numpad keys for you. You could then command your zombies with keys 4 through 9. The other binds, for numpads 2 and 3, and the All Pets bind for numpad 0, would redefine those same keys to control those pets.

I hope that makes sense. It's actually really complex, and it's probably best to just type it it and not worry how it works. Probably a keybind file would be the best way to load it in, but the guide doesn't provide one for download, just shows you how to write it.

Not to spoiler anything, but does anyone else think maybe THAT Ajax got his powers in the exact same way? And the one before him? Maybe he's a totally different person now, maybe even explaining how he survived the blast when no one else did.

Also interesting since Ajax was a Greek hero, and as Hero 1 points out, Statesman is very closely tied to Greek mythology.

This is actually the character that I will most likely use the Walk on fairly often in a nutshell. She is an AI from the 26th century -- in her own time she is a hologram and cannot be touched anyway -- and her partner programmed her to be alluring specifically to distract teenaged gang punks. It's not that she's disconnected from her body, it's that she knows that there's nothing anyone can do to take advantage of her. So at some level it amuses her to play with the "flesh creatures" and make their hormones make fools out of them.

OTOH, she's not really cruel about it. It's a combat tactic, so when she's not in combat, it's more of a game, or just joking around. If she's around friends or allies that get that it's a game, then she enjoys playing around with it. Otherwise, she does have a sense of modesty, and doesn't want to be thought of as going too far. She does like being flattered, though, but for the right reasons, not the wrong ones.

I did try out the walk on one of my male characters, just to see what it was like. It did help moving around the base without seeming like I was rushing everywhere, but at the same time it was maybe a bit too slow. Turning it on and off seemed to be the most useful. And I haven't tried it on the Huge model yet, I'll have to try that.

Actually, it was not the DoT that was removed, it still does its damage in two tics. What was removed was the excess damage. Instead of doing base damage + the damage for its secondary effect in two tics, it now does its base damage in two tics.

I would correct that to:

• Flares has no secondary effect. The added damage (over time) effect was removed in I15. (Alternatively, Flares' End cost and recharge is too high for the base damage not counting the second tic)

And even without self-stacking, perma-Mire (in Dwarf form) is nothing to sneeze at. Particularly when solo. Having the boost constantly can compensate for it being lower. (due to less foes)

See, I think this is a perfect example of what Positron was talking about when he said, "A bonus under some condition can always be viewed by a player as a penalty under other conditions."

Personally, I don't feel that Kheldians are stronger when on a team, I feel that they are penalized, solo, for being "tank mages". The bonus on a team is to encourage them to team, instead of just doing it all themselves since they can. So if you look at it that way it's not "leeching". (And besides, leeching is when you earn XP from a group without contributing to it. If you are contributing with your greater powers then that's not leeching, not in that sense anyway)

Again, that's not the way I look at it. The concept of the Kheldian is that he adapts himself to the team, fitting into whichever role is most needed. If the team needs a meatshield, he uses Dwarf form, if it needs damage dealers, he uses Nova form. The Inherent does the same thing, if the team is strong on offense, then a Peacebringer will balance that by bringing more defense. A Warshade, conversely, adapts himself to match the team's specialization instead of balancing it.

No AT is "required", because a PB or WS does not have to be balanced to contribute to a team. The PB can rely on his teammates to fill in where he is weak, while the WS can just help the team specialize with damage if that is what they want. (And the WS does more damage on a larger team anyway, so even on a defense heavy team he's bringing more damage, which is usually what everyone wants. )