PrincessDarkstar

The only Kheld I still have surviving is my Warshade namesake Princess Darkstar, and I checked yesterday and she was on 949 hours and 702 patrols.

I have looked at a few very basic numbers (I was going to refine them, but there isn't much point when you see the conclusion) and decided that Warshades in particular realistically cannot solo an AV. At least not without temps or insps, which I am counting here.

The situation I thought would be best was for a human only Warshade (Using a perma-hasten build full or procs - I ignored accuracy and end when slotting the powers for this), against a non-mezzing AV, surrounded in melee by a load of minions to use as Eclipse fodder.

The survivability wouldn't be a problem with Eclipse perma and the ability to use the self heal in the attack chain, and to 1 shot a minion for a 50% heal whenever it was really needed. The endurance wouldn't be a problem due to eclipse refreshing every 90s too.

The damage was the problem. Particularly because using Sunless Mire is at odds with keeping the minions alive for Eclipse fodder, and using anything longer lasting than minions would probably lead to your downfall.

I think you need about 95dps to beat the regen of an AV. But the best attack chain I found was:

Gravity Well > Shadow Blast > Gravimetric Snare > Essence Drain

For 686.5 damage over 7.34 seconds or 93.5 dps, which isn't enough.

You can potentially add in Sunless Mire once or twice, plus you will have some pet support from Dark Extraction, but although that would give you enough DPS to damage the AV, you would be cutting your Eclipse fodder down too fast to finish the AV off, and at some point would have to stop kiling minions for pets, and the AV would regen again.

Then I thought maybe Nova would be able to manage it, and since all the survivability stuff is the same as a human only that still isn't much of an issue, except that you may have to kill the minions for healing more often than a human would.

The Nova attack chain would be:

Dark Nova Bolt > Dark Nova Blast

For 341.6 damage over 3 seconds, or 113.8 dps.

That is enough to beat the regen of an AV, but not by much.

Again you would have the option of killing minions for pets, and the option to stay at range and take less damage, but I think the damage is so low that you would end up having to take out the minions for healing faster than you would kill the AV.

I could go on to work out the average damage you would sustain from the AV and thus how many minions you would need to kill for healing but I don't think it is worthwhile really. Even with 85% resists you will be taking a lot of punishment.

However then I had an epiphony, and while it is cheating the Nictus at the end of the ITF don't aggro if you attack them from far enough away, so there are at least 3 AV's a Warshade can (Slowly, very very slowly) solo!

Smiling_Joe that is just the kind of post I like! Lots of nice numbers

I think the point that Kheldians were designed to be able to perform a number of roles and be 3rd best at everything did and probably still does hold true looking at those numbers, but looking at the powers each Kheldian has been given I don't necessarily think we were meant to fill 'every' role.

Tanking
Healing
Team Buffs/Shield
Debuffs
Control
Damage
Stealth (Kind of)

I think those are the only real roles in the game and Kheldians can do damage, tanking, stealth and control and I think that is where our intended strengths are. Both Kheldians do various debuffs, but as a side effect of our damage rather than in a specific way like defenders or controllers.

PB's get a heal, but that really feels like it was just stuck on rather than a designed extra role, and this is where I feel the numbers fail on this occasion.

I would happily see PB's get some extra debuffs added to the attacks, happily see some extra control added in there, but I wouldn't like to see them given another role altogether.

I say this not only from a design/theory point of view, but from a usefullness point of view too, adding an extra heal wouldn't improve anything unless that heal actually made us the 'good' healers*, but at that point it would be expected and I would hate that.

* I know Glowing Touch does work ok when slotted well enough, but throw in a useful aura heal and the whole reason PB's get team invites changes.

Well I tested 8 man mission with my scrapper aginst +4 carnies and loved that, then I tried a +2 mobs on my Warshade and got really annoyed with the form rooting so didnt play very long.

I have never filled my missions before so I think fighting that many mobs will take some getting used to, but it was more than doable and will be quite fun when I get used to it

I will also probably end up refining my build to get perma-Sunless Mire.

Aside from the comment about not liking Family Guy (How can anyone not love that show?!?!?!) I have to agree with Obsidian again, I was never really a big fan of all the stories that ended up on this board because they were just far too "look at me!" and I have never been that way. Plus I was never sure just how much of each story was missed out of exaggerated.

I would much rather you explain how you took a spawn down in x seconds using y tactic and z build, so everyone can replicate and try and improve on what you have just done. You can still use the poetic licence and do it in a story telling way if that is your thing.

As kind of agree with both sides on this, Black Dwarf Drain is over time a better heal than White DWarf Sublimation (Assuming good slotting on both so a 95 chance to hit), but the way the RNG seems to work is that when you really need the heal it always misses.

The other problem is that in the type of conditions where you do really need that kind of healing there are so many debuffs on you that your chance to hit isn't quite as good as it should be.

So the numbers probably favour Black Dwarf in normal situations, but White Dwarf when the pressure is really on.

Also I don't know how much endurance White Dwarf Sublimation is, but Black Dwarf Drain is an end hog, and has ran me out of endurance a few times in the past.
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I didnt read those links AlienOne but I think I remember reading someone thinking that the RNG rolls once every few seconds and you either hit or miss everything until you make the next roll. I have seen the same thing where you just cannot hit for love nor money, even with a seemingly good chance (And hitting NOTHING with Eclipse is the biggest let down ever).

Stone Tank/Brute
Force Fielder
Empath/Thermal
Sniper
Heavy debuffer like Rad/Cold/Sonic

If you have both a Thermal and a Sonic/Cold then you can even do without the bubbler.

Then anything else to make up the numbers (Though I would say you need a stalker on the MoRSF).

A team like that should see you through pretty much anything.

The only kind of powers we are missing are shields and debuffs but if we got shields then people would expect us to all take that power (And I hate casting shields), and the debuffs would probably end up being useless (Like whatever it is in the tanker pyre mastery pool).

So I am perfectly happy without any additional power choices.

The way it would have to work is that it summons two pseudo pets. One heals you and one casts a heal aura.

The heal self part would have to be smaller than current because the heal aura would also hit you, but from a players point of view you would still get healed for the same amount, and there would be a heal aura.

So technically it is possible (They use this mechanic a few times). I still don't like the idea, but it is possible.

Urgh I really hope they fix that bug!

I can live without changable colours (Stupid idea), I can live without being able to make a Kheldian in the MA (Another stupid idea), I can live with having problems getting into Dwarf (I tend to use dwarf pre-emptively) but anything that roots me is just annoying, I hate being rooted!