City Of Heroes: Geko Gives Info on the Kheldians

At 2:35 AM, that's right... AM, Geko peered through those heavy eyelids long enough to answer the community's concerns on the Epic ATs. No doubt he gained sustenance and energy from a batch of Christmas cookies...

Geko writes:

Hello guys,

Thanks for all for your die hard testing and reporting. Rest assured that we have been reading your posts, and considering your opinions.

My apologies for not posting sooner, but these threads have gotten huge, and we are up to our eyeballs in getting expansion 3 out, planning expansion 4 and 5, holidays, events, training new people, and all sorts of things. Please do not take a lack of response as inaction, or that you are being ignored.

Again, let me say thank you for all your hard work. I have to say I have enjoyed working with you on the Kheldians. I can see that there is a lot of debate on the Archetypes, with multiple arguments on multiple subjects. This is good. Let me make something clear. Kheldians are supposed to be a challenge. They are designed for the most experience players... the players who analyze and dissect an archetype. You are given a lot of tools to work with and a lot of dials to turn. It will be up to you to figure out the best way to spec out a Kheldian. Hopefully, there is more than one way to achieve that.

That being said, let me take a few moments to address some of your questions. There are too many to answer all of them. ParagonSentry did a nice job of summing up the top issues (Big Thank you to ParagonSentry) so I will start there...

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Quote:
-Slotting

A large portion of this thread has been dedicated to the discussion of the current slotting setup. Many people have expressed concerns about the lack of slotting for the Kheldians. We have speculated (wildly I might add ) about the reason for the current slotting setup and have come up with everything from oversight to intent to create diversity.
Q: Are you planning on modifying the current slotting design for the Kheldians?
If so, how? If not, can you give us an insight into that decision?
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We have given this a lot of thought, even before Kheldians were ever released. I don't think it is likely that Kheldians would get more slots than other archetypes. They may have more powers to choose from than other Archetypes, but they only get about 10 additional powers that need slots. Of those 10, 1 is the Dwarf Teleport and another is the Dwarf Taunt, neither of which require much slotting - so really, 8 more powers.

I think some of the issues that have come from the "slot" discussion is that players always want to 6 slot most of their powers. But that is not required to be a successful Kehldian. When in Nova form, Kheldians do base 20% more damage than Blasters. They also have an inherent 50% damage boost from the Nova power itself. That means without any Enhancements, a Nova attack does about 80% more damage than a typical Blaster attack. So you don't "have to" 6 slot the Nova attack powers to be effective.

We have considered not allowing slots in the shape shifting inherent (attack) powers, but let the Enhancements from the Root Shape Shifting power trickle down to the attack powers (like pet powers do). But internal testing proved that to bee too powerful. It made each Enhancement 4 times as effective. In the end, we want you to have to make sacrifices and tough choices when you build your Kheldian. Hopefully, this will result in many different viable Kheldian Builds. This might mean shape shifting specialists, Human form specialists, Nova/Humans, Dwarf/Humans, or maybe players who start out one way, and respect out as they advance in level.

This is not a dead issue. We will continue to test and monitor results, especially at higher levels.

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Quote:
-Overly vulnerable

We have performed multiple tests in an attempt to determine what type of vulnerabilities the Kheldians have. The question of over vulnerability has also been a hot topic. With the inherent resistance vulnerabilities coupled with the very common anti-Kheldian type enemies, as well as the need for heavy use of toggles to approach the base resistance of 'classic' ATs and with no protection from toxic damage, many people have asked the question, "How much is too much?"

Q: Can you confirm/refute our numbers on resistance for the Kheldians?
Q: Are you planning on reducing or modifying any of the afore mentioned concerns?
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Kheldians do take 30% more damage from all damage types except Energy and Negative Energy. But Kheldians also have 13% more HP than Blasters, Defenders and Controllers. So, in reality, they only take about 17% more damage total. Why not just give them more More HP and no Damage Resistance Debuff? Well, since they have more base HP, they actually regenerate more HP than a Blaster (Regeneration rate is a percentage of your Max HP).

Now, due to their Cosmic Link or Dark Sustenance, only one additional Teammate of the correct Archetype is required to bring your Damage resistance to -20%. With 13% more HP than a Blaster, that's equates to about only 7% more damage.
Also, if you turned on one Toggle damage resistance power, you immediately cancel most of the penalty (all Toggle powers give you a base 27% damage resistance). Now consider how much base Damage resistance you can get with multiple teammates. Kheldians start weaker, but have a potential of having much more powerful damage resistance than scrappers. Again, you will have to be smart to make this work for you.

Regarding Toxic Damage resistance, Khedians do have it. The following powers give Kheldians resistance to Toxic Damage: Cosmic Link, Dark Sustenance, White Dwarf, Light Form, Essence Boost, Penumbral Shield, and Eclipse. Some of these may not be on the Training Room yet, but will be soon.

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Warshade Powers

A lot of discussion has been centered around the viability of many of the warshade powers. I'll make a short list:
-Lack of "Crowd Control" powers
-Lack of "Class Defining" powers
-Dark Nova seems to lack the endurance recovery buff

Q: Are there any plans in the works to add/remove/modify current warshade powers?
Q: Can you confirm/deny the endurance recovery issue?
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We have no plans to make any large changes Warshade powers. They are not "Controllers", even though they have some control capability. Gravitic Emanation is a cone Disorient, Unchain Essence does an AoE Disorient, Inky Aspect is a toggle AoE Disorient, and of course there is Gravity Well and Gravimetric Snare. Additionally, all their powers Slow their foes attack and movement speed. For a non-controller, that is a lot of control capability.
Regarding "Lack of "Class Defining" powers"... I am not sure how to address that. Warshades control, slow, can extract pets from or explode defeated foes and can drain life and power from live and defeated foes. This sees like a lot of class defining powers and abilities.

I have double checked Dark Nova, and its Recovery Boost is identical to Bright Nova.

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Quote:
- Peacebringer Powers

Again a short list:
-Quantum fly accepts flight speed enhancements with no speed change.
-Endurance recovery in dwarf form does not seem to be equal to nova form.
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Quantum Flight is near Max Flight Speed. I have removed Flight Enhancements, and boosted the flight speed of Quantum Flight to ensure it is always at Max Flight Speed.

Regarding Dwarf Recovery... Again, double checking all 4 forms, they are all identical. Everything looks ok.

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Quote:
- Dwarf Form

Many posts centered around the discussion of the Dwarf form too. The concerns seem to range from a lack of defense with the resistance cap of 75%, to the low damage output.

Q: IF the changes to the resistance cap go live, will the Dwarf form cap be raised to the 90% cap of the tankers?
Q: Will the Dwarf form receive the modified version of provoke & hatred from attacks?
Q: Are you considering adding a defensive power (toggle/passive) to the dwarf forms?
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Kheldians are not supposed to replace Tankers and Blasters, or any other Archetype. They fulfill a unique role. A metamorphic one, if you will. That is, they have the ability, at your discretion or skill, to fulfill many roles within a team. So Kheldians can Blast, Tank, or Control... they can even Scrap or Defend a little. But they were never meant to be better than Tankers, Blasters, whatever. They are meant to be the best at, let's call it, adapting. They are ShapeShifters by nature. We want them to be versatile, and challenging, but not perfect or all-powerful.

That being said, it takes less than 2 SO Res Dam Enhancements to reach your 75% Max Damage Resistance, and Dwarfs have solid Mez protection, so they are not chumps.

The Damage resistance cap will likely go forward for all Archetypes except Tankers. Raising the Max Damage Resistance while in Dwarf form is worth considering, however. Let me give it some thought (no promises).

Should Dwarves get an AoE Taunt. With less defense than a Tanker, would you really want it. I don't know. I'll bring this up for discussion and consideration.

We are not considering adding more defensive powers to the Dwarf forms. As mentioned, they have 50% Damage Resistance (Enhancable) to all Damage types (including Toxic) except Psionics, and they have solid Mez protection.

Ok, now let me bring you up to speed on some recent changes to Kheldians (forgive me if you are aware of any of these):

*Decreased Kheldian base Threat level (how much villains hate/attack them). This level will increase while in Dwarf form.
*Added a jump buff to Warshade/Nebulous Form (about half the speed and height of Super Leap).
*Reduced Mez Protection for Peacebringer/Light Form. Increased its recharge time.
*Increased Warshade/Unchain Essence Recharge time.
*Added Damage Resistance to Warshade Eclipse power.
*Gave the following Powers Toxic Resistance: Cosmic Link, Dark Sustenance, White Dwarf, Light Form, Essence Boost, Penumbral Shield, and Eclipse.
*Removed Flight Enhancements, and boosted the flight speed of Quantum Flight to ensure it is always at Max Flight Speed
*Fixed some Light Form Bugs.
*Fixed Kheldian Text and tool tip bugs.
*Lots of other Bug Fixes.

I hope I addressed the most pressing issues. If there are any questions/issues, let me know, and I will try to address them. And remember, this thread is huge, and it is filled with lots banter, and repetitive rants (you know who you are). This makes my job much more difficult. Please try to keep your posts short and to the point, and don't repeat yourself with multiple posts and rants. It makes it far more likely that we will miss something valid and important.

One last thing. Kheldians are a very complex Archetypes. They are also exclusively played by our most diehard fans. We are committed to bringing you the best experience possible. As such, even when Kheldians Leave the Training room, I am sure they will continue to grow and evolve as needed.

He reappeared moments later with the following summary:

Thanks again for all the feedback and testing. Let me bring you up to speed on some recent changes to epic powers:

*Removed HP drain from Blaster/Epic/Force of Nature. Added End Recovery Debuff. - So it drains End, and leaves you unable to recover End for about 15 seconds, but it does not drain HP.
*Increased Damage for Tanker, Scrapper, and Controller Epic attack powers.
*Tanker Epic/Arctic Mastery/Block of ice now does damage (damage was missing... its now fixed).
*Added inherent Taunt to Tanker Epic Powers.
*Added inherent Criticals to Scrapper Epic Powers.
*Fixed Charge Armor so it resists Energy (it was also giving double resistance to Lethal, so that was removed).

Sleep tight, Geko!