Timeshadow

I'm sure you meant Stygian Circle. Stygian Return is the self-rez.

Expanding on the issue of unique IOs, it's largely up to you what you do with 'em. But I don't recommend using Gaussian's (Or any other procs) in toggles. As another poster said they'll hardly fire when they'd be useful. When you slot procs in toggles they have a chance of going off once every 10 seconds. Since toggles run constantly that chance is completely random. It's much better to slot them in fast recharging click powers that you'll be using often (AKA attacks) because the procs will then have a chance of going off every time you use the power instead of on a fixed timer.

Being a triform Kheldian means excess toggles are bad because they turn themselves off when you switch forms (This is especially a problem for Warshades who shapeshift very often to take full advantage of their various buffs and controls). So the Leadership pool is something you should steer away from. If you wanna slot Rectified Reticle +Perception I recommend putting it in Nova Form. Its a global IO so the effect isn't dependent on whether the toggle is on or not.

You...

And you...

Have been SCOOPED!!!

I could definitely see Siphon Power as a replacement for Build Up but I think it'd be somewhat of a waste. As a single target damage buff/debuff you'd probably be looking at fairly low numbers on all the melee ATs to compensate for their higher damage modifiers.

I'd rather see Siphon Speed since it'd provide something that the melee ATs often want but rarely get; +Recharge without the use of IOs. Plus, its been done before. Mental Training and Lightning Reflexes both provide +20% Recharge and Speed. Of course those are auto powers so you don't have to worry about the issue of balance when the question of stacking comes up.

That'd be very nice. Maybe something of a blend between Invincibility and Against All Odds. "You create a field of kinetic energy that both deflects your enemies attacks and siphons off their strength. Each foe within melee range of you provides a defense bonus. What attacks do breach the field are substantially weakened (Enemy -DMG)."


Ya know, that makes sense until I look at my PB. Double Footstomp FTW!

Only problem with that idea is that it's a carbon copy of Extracted Essence minus actually having to extract anything from a dead enemy. That compromises one of the differences in playstyle between PBs and Warshades and could potentially end up being too much of an advantage.

We had a discussion about this yesterday on Triumph. I agree with this statement. 20 is entirely too low. At that point players are just discovering how their characters really work and synergize with others'. That's a premium requirement for being a good Kheldian player.

This was exactly my argument. It's not really anyone's fault. Labeling the unlockable ATs "Epics" has created an issue that persists to this day. The word epic, as it's used in modern culture, doesn't invoke the works of Homer or any other great bit of storytelling. Rather, it makes people think of something awesome and awe inspiring. In a game that often translates to overpowered.

If you're new to the game you're gonna have expectations of something that can laugh in the face of purple cons while you obliterate 'em with a single click of a button. As we all know, that's just not the case with Kheldians or Soldiers of Arachnos. Both sets of EATs are rather unimpressive until the mid 20s. That's all fine and dandy if you come in with some experience and maybe a bit of knowledge from the forums. But let's be honest, that's not gonna be the case for the majority of players who'll be picking up EATs when they become available at 20.

I can't deny this being a part of my opinion as well. I joined the game because I wanted to play a Kheldian. Sure, it took me a long time to get a 50 but I'm a better player for all the experience. Contrary to the usual statement here on the forums, you can't just roll your face on the keyboard and win in this game.

Whenever I see or team with another Kheldian or SoA I give 'em a nod. It shows some dedication and I have a higher standard for that particular player. Now that may not be right but this is the personal opinion portion of my post so you guys can suck it

I'm guessing based on your terminology (Raid) that you're coming in from WoW. Best advice I can give you is to forget everything you learned. CoX doesn't use what's commonly referred to as the "Holy Trinity" of class synergy. Hell, we don't even use the term "class" (It's Archetypes or ATs for short). The game is a lot less rigid in its makeup (AKA easier) and you can find success without dedicated tanking, healing, or DPS. Just to reiterate, healing isn't king here.

Disclaimer: I'm speaking as someone who doesn't play Defenders. I'm a melee DPS kinda guy. So all the feedback and advice I give is grounded in my experiences with Defenders as team mates. I'll focus on sets that have healing as a partial focus since they'll feel more familiar to you off the bat.

You're asking about powersets so there's a lot of different options. As others have mentioned Empathy plays a bit to the more traditional MMORPG role in that it has some powerful heals. Those are supplemented by equally powerful ally buffs. The worst thing you can do as an Empathy Defender is neglect one aspect to focus solely on the other. The reason for this is because, at some point, one of them is going to fail. Either your buffs won't be enough to prevent damage or your team's gonna be taking so much damage across a wide enough spread that you won't be able to heal 'em fast enough.

Thermal is the other Defender primary that has heals as a focus of its gameplay. You get both a single target and a PBAoE heal. Now those aren't as good as Empathy's but they can do a decent bit to keep your team mates' health bars in the green. However, those heals alone are not gonna be enough. Thermal also gets ally buffs in the form of shields. These are gonna do the heavy lifting in terms of protecting your team. As a Thermal, keeping everyone shielded is gonna give you more bang for your buck than focusing only on keeping people's hit points topped off.

I'll let the actual Defenders advise you further as to the specifics of different sets. I do advise that you head over to the Player Guides section and read Silas' Plays Support and So Can You. It's a very succinct and well written guide that focuses on the support oriented powersets and how to use them effectively. Hope you have fun in the City of Heroes/Villains

Nitpick: There are only a handful of raids in this game to speak of. Hamidon Raids and Rikti Mothership Raids are the two major ones. Most of the others aren't raids in the traditional sense. They're zone wide events.

Yes you can. You can recolor the animations and switch them to lava or crystal themes just like Stone Armor.

In the words of Spider-Man, "They're not very tough but there sure are a lot of 'em."

Not just AVs. Tsoo Ancestor Spirits have it too. Of course it doesn't do as much damage as the AV version but the stun it provides when combined with their other SS powers can make quick work of anyone without some form of personal defensive powers.

I want their jetpacks. Matter of fact, I'd love a TF/SF that unlocked the full set of Wyvern costume pieces. I just love 'em as a group and wish we saw more of 'em hero side.

This bit is a known challenge. Quantums and Voids are very much trivialized by Dwarf form, especially since you can activate it while mezzed. But dealing with 'em on a build without Dwarf can be challenging. This is particularly noticeable if you don't spot 'em before a fight starts.

As for that not being solo friendly bit, can't say I've ever had an issue soloing my Peacebringer or my Warshade. Warshades used to be less solo friendly due to their dependence on the number of enemies, alive or dead, to fuel their buffs. But with the new difficulty settings it's all good.

Resurection of an extremely pointless argument. "Bring enough" is an entirely subjective thing and Khelds make their contribution differently than VEATs. Sure, a Peacebringer can't passively boost the Damage, Defense and ToHit of the team. But when the Tank goes down and the bad guys are blitzing the squishies that Widow can't turn into a Brute and fill the gap.

According to you perhaps but I've never had an issue with the damage on my 50 triform PB. But what constitutes enough damage is extremely subjective.

These kinda suggestions ran rampant back in i12 when VEATs first came onto the scene. People were clamoring for changes to Khelds that would make them function more like the SoAs. But over time people came to the conclusion that the EATs were different beasts and one group shouldn't be shoehorned into the workings of the other.

In regards to your actual suggestion

That's 72% Damage and 18% ToHit for 20 seconds at the current values. While that sounds juicy it probably wouldn't make it into the game. It's just a bit too good to maintain balance. 20 seconds is a long time to have that big of a boost.


Sparing the usual pleasantries, that's just ludicrous. You're talking about AoEs that can floor the Regen of Minions and Lieutenants without any sort of slotting. As if that's not enough, with Hasten and decent IO slotting Warshades could abuse the hell out of Eclipse. Again, way too good to be true.