Grey Pilgrim

You'd be insane NOT to take it. Putting one recharge IO in it will bring it up plenty often, as in less than two minutes. Sure, more slots will bring it up even faster, but you don't need them if slots are tight for you. As for power picks, it will boost each and every one of your attacks for twenty seconds, based on their slotting for damage and your other damage buffs. How is that NOT a worthwhile power to take, especially when you are wanting to drop stuff better faster and stronger? Take it and stop debating whether it's worth it, because IT IS.

People do complain about it some, but I haven't found Sonic to be very popular for Blasters (at least on the boards), even with its -res. And that -res makes up for the longer duration a bit.

I usually include Shout in any analysis of the heavy blasts, mostly to note Executioner's Shot isn't that far off from where others sit: it's not like it's on its own in duration by a second or more.

Elektro, a chain is a chain, so you try to cycle through it for the best DPS performance. Your post kind of points out why I dislike chains, though, as the game (especially on teams or for Blasters soloing), things are fluid enough that it isn't worth cycling through the same attacks in the same order. But I'm not a numbers guy, so that's part of why I think like that.

At any rate, I would think of Piercing Rounds more as an opener than anything else... it's easier to line up two targets that way (though you can do it mid-fight... I've gotten fairly good at pulling back suddenly when two foes are running at me and tagging them both with it). Your other attacks are more of the meat and potatoes that will get you through after using it.

Yeah, I'm not sure why this isn't possible, especially since some badges require doing Praetorian content. I'm not sure how else you can do 5 Praetorian morality missions (and that's even hard to cram in if you solo over there most of the time... I haven't done it yet).

Greatest force for good? Really? They're nice and all, but I don't think they're all that great. Nice to see people wanting to play and all the events it encourages, but it isn't really needed that much anymore and, well, rushing through stuff just ain't my cup of tea.

Yikes, you really moved. I'm going to try to focus on my Ill/Rad a bit until I get him to level he can solo better, lest he be stuck in the 20s forever like my Grav/Kin, hehe.

No worries. The game is fun, not work!

Glad you and everyone else could join in. After a slowish start with just me and Vanum, we got up to a group of 8 and stayed there most of the night (when people were not having issues with DC's, etc.). My Controller made it from 8 to almost 19, which was a good run. Made it to Phantom Army at least.

Did have one newbie to the game with us. Kind of a hard weekend to start and be new, but hopefully he had fun. He was dc'd or something when I left for the night, so hopefully that went well enough for him.

Sounds good. I'll look for you in a couple hours!

Hurt and betrayed. Hurt and betrayed.

You know, I've had that stated to me before (I think Alien One said it when I first was planning my all Human with Dwarf for a backup Warshade build), and I really don't agree. You mentioned Essence Boost and its long duration, but things like Conserve Energy and Hasten are on long timers too, and they're best fired up before a fight, really. Build Up is unfortunately short for formshifting, of course, but that's best used before a fight as well. So none of those fairly key powers negate Peacebringers being in a form during a fight. The only thing that you need to be in human to take advantage of are Reform Essence and Light Form.

Then, you have to take into account the mitigation PBs and Warshades have in human. PBs can make it work, but Solar Flare and Pulsar are a bit too chaotic and unreliable to make me say that human form all the time could be the best way to go. Whereas Warshades have more reliable and consistent ways of mezzing while in human form, allowing them to not get mezzed themselves and just focus on damage. In all honesty, my PB gets a lot more mileage out of initiating a fight in one form, then dropping to human (when I know I'm not mezzed) to finish things off with a quick Solar Flare, Radiant Strike, etc., on what is left over.

If anything, this is why I have argued for improvements to Solar Flare in the past for PBs. Warshades get a lot more benefit out of their aoe stun than PBs do (guaranteed Mag 3 over Mag 2 is enormous in how this game works, unless you're fighting stun resistant foes, and there are only so many of those), and that difference makes zero sense to me. I honestly do not know how Castle could see that Warshades needed a little help in Dwarf form and made adjustments to their mire there, and completely ignore the issues for PB Human form powers.

Heck, that almost bugs me as much as how long Burn was nerfed to near uselessness.

Hmmm, it's hard to say. When I look at the two, I can honestly say that a Human Warshade seems more viable than a Peacebringer. That's actually why my PB is a tri-form, and the Warshade I'm slowly bringing along is human focused. The stuns and other controls seem more viable to make it work.

Not sure what all is behind the feeling, but Peacebringers just need some tweaking. People have to be a bit more careful about how they discuss things, I would say, as that's the biggest cause behind the issue.

I'd also say that Pulsar is too weak and deserves to be a guaranteed Mag 3. Even if the recharge was upped to compensate for it, the power would at least feel more worthwhile to use if a lieutenant is around.

I suppose I'd still like to see Build Up have a longer duration for Peacebringers as well, just so formshifting doesn't hurt it so much. But even just improving Photon Seekers and Light Form would be great.

Thanks for the overview of the spreadsheet stuff as well. I'll look it over more with that in mind. Spreadsheets are just... ugh, not so fun for me to look at. There's a reason I teach literature and writing, heh.

QFT. There really aren't any unplayable ATs or powerset combinations out there. People talk about things sucking or being uber, when in reality, most everything performs solidly, with some moving beyond dependable normal sedan territory into hot Corvette territory (and even then, people are swayed by powersets they prefer on a purely subjective basis).

There isn't anything bad about Peacebringers, at least in the way that most people use the word bad. Could they use some tweaking to improve performance and not have their steady performance be outshown by Warshades when they're at one of their peaks (and not one of the valleys Warshades have to contend with)? Sure. Suggestions for have been tossed out ad nauseum since the last Kheldian tweak back in I13 or so, and both Castle and BAB apparently left things on a backburner, at best. We have no clue what their replacements think about the issue (let alone overall design philosophy to balance, etc.), and whether they're even thinking about the issue. Personally, I'm not holding my breath for a change, even if it's as due as a tweak to Fiery Aura was.

In the meantime, however, Peacebringers offer more consistent performance than Warshades, and have flavor differences that can make them more fun for people. I know a lot of people in the Kheld forums love their Warshade and all, but they're not for everyone (I have a very, very hard time getting around the soul-sucking aspect... I have a character concept where I think of my WS as sucking the evil from a villain and using it against them, but it doesn't always work for me... he's still at level 20). Best thing I can say to anyone between the two is read about the two powersets, read how they are different, and go with what sounds fun to you.

You're not ever going to be bad with a Peacebringer or a Warshade, unless you can't play them well. That's the only determination there: it's not something ingrained from the numbers. Either one can add a lot to a team or be fun to solo, if you're willing to work with how the two sets work.

If you're one of the +4 x8 crowd, I'd be curious to look at your DM/Shield build to determine how it's drastically less expensive than a Blaster build. I've found almost all high end Scrapper builds to be heavy on expensive sets that should easily be more expensive than a ranged defense and a little recharge Blaster build.

Even if you're going for a heavy recharge Blaster build, it's probably going to be tapping a lot of the same sets as Scrappers for the +recharge.

For what it's worth, keep in mind most players (regardless of AT) are not going to be soloing +4 x8. The developers are certainly not seeing that as baseline performance (not even close). Not saying it isn't done by quite a few, but it's good to remember.

Dude... back when Burn caused Fear for Tanks, I didn't recommend taking it. You had to immobilize people to use it, and you might as well have just used another AOE from your attact set.

Not so with Ignite. Just because you don't use it much solo doesn't mean it can't be, and easily. Doesn't take a lot of work to use Cryo Ray on a lieutenant, then Ignite, then move on to something else. On teams for when you are fighting AVs, it's usually a nice boost to your ST damage as well, which is a tad lighter for the AOE focus AR has.

Dude. Figure it out and bring it to Praetoria. We'll beat up some ghouls. It'll be fun. The more the merrier!

Really? How are you building your Blaster? The builds I've seen you put up should not be drastically more expensive than most Scrapper builds I have seen out there. As it is, my Blasters spend far less on their builds than my Scrappers do. I don't have to worry about recharge too much on my Blasters, as it doesn't take much to let them have a solid chain that does good damage. Ranged and AOE defense is also significantly cheaper to get from sets than S/L, something most Scrapper builds are going to do. And Scrappers love recharge. Even if you don't need the most uber chain like some Scrappers do, it's usually worth going for more recharge on a Scrapper than on a Blaster... and sets with +recharge are generally on the spendy side.

I can see the issue if you're thinking you NEED a Panacea set. I don't have have anyone with a PvP set (Tanks, Scrappers, Brute, Controllers, Blasters, etc.), so that makes me wonder how much of this is really a build difference between the ATs, and how much of it is your approach to your own builds.

I don't solo any x8 missions with my Blasters, but I don't do that with any of my characters, either. I'd find those missions to be far too long, to be honest. My Blasters do solo missions set to x3-x4 quite often (though I turn it down when I fight Resistance in the 40s... darn phase cheating buggers), which is about how I like all of my characters to play. My Tanks and Scrappers are obviously far more survivable than the Blasters, but I know their builds are far more expensive. I usually am able to buy stuff for my Tankers and Scrappers from merits my Blasters save up, as I save my merits for really expensive recipes like Numina's Unique, LoTG +recharge, Kinetic Combat, etc. My Energy/Energy Blaster is 46 right now and has purchased a Numina's and two LoTG's with his merits, and he'll be able to help my 39 Kin/Dark Scrapper buy some more Kinetic Combats by the time he's 50. That Kin/Dark has a quite expensive build, so he needs the help.

So you can see I'm not exactly skimping on my Blasters, either.

Really? I think of VEATs more like support characters that are well rounded. I know they can do good damage, but... I do see them as more of a leader or support role. But I can see how a lot of their design decisions came out of suggestions for Blasters. They sure did that with Tankers and Brutes... there are people still smarting over how Statesman gave Fury to Brutes rather than Tanks. Really, almost all the villain ATs are clearly learned from the successes and mistakes of the hero ATs.

Anyway, I'd still say the two ATs are quite different. I don't think I would have liked Blasters if they had ended up where VEATs are. I've tried VEATs... and while I can see why people like them, I just find them bland. Different variation on the damage and support concept, I guess.

Flattered? I'm fairly sure that Ham has a collection of these he can resort to in about .5 seconds!

You in Praetoria? My Ill/Rad will want teammates Saturday night.

I just started a Fire/Fire Dom not too long ago that I love, but he's a fairly easy soloer that I'll play when I feel like I think. Ill/Rad is proving easier to solo than Earth/Storm was, but I think I'll still have an easier time of soloing with him after level 18 and 32.

I know she's going to school or something full time, but I'm a little confused as to why they keep her doing it when she obviously does not have time for it. You'd think she could manage a once every month or every other week, but it's hard to look forward to stuff she does when it's so infrequent, and that very infrequency keeps her from being very entertaining with it.

The Critic has hits and misses, but even his misses strike me as better than what the Chick has been doing for about the past year. She had a good start, but she's kind of ground down. 5th Element is edge enough on how bad it is, too. It has flaws, but it's fun as well. Movies that have a little bit too much going for them are harder for them to review as well... the Critic even had to admit that Waterworld isn't terrible, just not what it should have been for how much cash went into it. I'd agree with that, but it does kind of make a "poke fun at this movie" review fall flat.

Heck, I actually wouldn't mind him doing more reviews of good movies, to be honest. I actually enjoyed his favorite movies video more than some of his goofy videos. He has a good take on movies, for the most part.