Maelwys

Typical regen scrapper wisdom says 3-slot them both.

Fast Healing FIRST. Then Health if you have slots left.
Fast Healing is about twice the +regen bonus of Health.

With IOs, well... You have a fair bit to play with.
+ Scirroco's Dervish (PBAoE damage) is good, with +10% Regen for 2 Slots.
+ Devastation (Ranged) is good, with +12% Regen for 2 Slots.
+ Numina's Convelescence in your heals is great, with +12% Regen (2 Slots) and 1.88% HP (3 Slots).
+ Mako's Bite (Melee) and Crushing Impact (Melee) are fairly good, since on the way to the damage/accuracy (4-Slot) bonus you'll pickup some +HP... which will indirectly boost your regeneration rate.

The BEST POSSIBLE slotting I've seen for Health is:

Numina's Convel: Heal (level 50, 42.4% to all)
Numina's Convel: Heal/End (level 50, +26.5% to all)
Numina's Convel: +10% Recovery/20% Regeneration
Miracle: Heal (level 40, 38.6% to all)
Miracle: +15% Recovery
Regenerative Tissue: +25% Regeneration
= 107.5% Healing Enhancement (+78.5% Regen)

Set Bonuses: +2.5% Recovery, +12% Regen, 1.88% HP.
Procs: +45% Regen, +25% Recovery

Total = 135.5% Regen, 27.5% Recovery, 1.88% HP.

Having tried them both on Maelwys back when I was levelling him (i6... seems a long time ago now... >.&gt I got far more milage out of Air Superiority than Tough. And I barely used Air Superiority outside of fighting +5s.

That's not to say that Tough isn't nice to have, but /regen can cope with just about anything, between /regen, and DA there shouldn't be a Boss you can't solo (or even an EB... some GMs were doable in i6 with just DA!).

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what if you have 5 x 20% reduced duration on mez? Doesn't that technically mean unstoppable protection?

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Nope. It'd mean the duration of mezzes on you would be halved.
100% mez resistance = half normal mez duration.

It's like 100% -recharge rate enhancement = the power's recharge time is halved.

You still get tetoggled, which will then drop your mez resistance... unless you slot them in the Kheldian level one inherent passive damage resistance power!

+ Mag 100 Knockback protection (so you should NEVER get Knockbacked)
+ Mag 2 Hold Protection (enough to protect against a Blaster hold, but not a Controller one)
+ About 45% Hold Resistance (cuts down time spent held by about 22-25%)

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I was just wondering people's view's on using Single/Dual/Tri Forms as a Peacebringer .. i currently use Tri but i was thinking of maybe changing to 2 forms. Obviously Human and something else but im not sure what to use .. is the Human form good as a stand alone set?

I was basically thinking of Human/Squid forms.

Any views and thoughts would be most appreciated

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Human is good as a stand alone once you have Light Form, before that I'd say that you were handicapping yourself unless you took Dwarf Form or 6-slotted Pulsar. If you were thinking of dropping from a tri-form PB to a bi-form PB, I'd certainly recommend keeping Dwarf Form for backup tanking, or as a "Panic Button" (it's fantastic to be able to pop a blue and switch to dwarf after you nuke, for example).

TBH Nova is pretty sub-par at higher levels if you have your human form attacks well slotted. It's only used for AoE damage as Human will easily beat it in terms of single-target damage, and with Cosmic Balance coming into play Human is no sloutch at AoE damage either.

Human form really has a nice mixture of ranged/melee/single target/AoE attacks, and Solar Flare, Photon Seekers and Dawn Strike are generally sufficent for all your AoE damage output needs... I've never missed not having Nova Form on my Human/Dwarf, but I missed Dwarf Form enough when exemping for TFs that I burnt a respec in order to move it back earlier in my build.

If I was able to pick five things to change about Peacebringers:

(i) Make the ToHit/Damage buffs slightly higher on "Build Up" (on par with Scrappers perhaps?)
(ii) Make Dwarf Antagonise auto-hit in PvE.
(iii) Raise human form's base damage slightly, decrease the endurance cost of that form's attacks slightly.
(iv) Give us some kind of buff for having other Kheldians on the team.
(v) FIX PHOTON SEEKERS!!!

Honestly, I have enough mez protection in Light form and Dwarf form to do me... The knockback/knockdown in my attacks and Pulsar's ability to perma-mez every minion around me makes more protection unnecessary.

With i9 you can even slot a Knockback Protection IO in our level one passive +Resist power!

So yes, it would be nice, but i'd consider it fairly far down my "most wanted" list of Kheldian changes.

I didn't take the shields on my Human/Dwarf PB either.

I'd like mez protection... but to be honest Human form mez protection would make Kheldians too overpowered. If you're that worried you can team with controllers, or pickup Dwarf Form and/or Light Form (PB).

The only thing that bothers my Human/Dwarf in normal gameplay is Malta Sappers. Anything short of a Boss level Void is also barely a challenge after you get your powers well slotted.

Looks like you forgot about "Enhancement Diversification".

Since i6, slotting more than 3 of any type of enhancement in your powers is a waste. You might want to try out Mid's Hero builder, it'll give you a far better idea of what slotting different things (like IOs!) will do.

If you're using SOs:
+ Minion Robots should be 2-3acc/3dmg.
+ LTs should be 2acc/3dmg/1endred (uses lots of end after the level 32 upgrade).
+ Boss Robot should be 1-2acc/3dmg.
+ Bubbles should be 3 defence + (Optional) 1 endred.
+ Dispersion Bubble should be 3 defence/3 endred.
+ Equip Robot only needs a single endred.
+ Upgrade Robot only needs 1-2 recharge, 1-2 endreds.
+ Detention field needs at least one accuracy.
+ MM's Personal Forcefield has a looooooong recharge time. Might want 3 recharges in there.

Aside from the slotting, it's not a bad build. I only have a few pointers about power picks:

+ Repulsion Bomb is generally thought of as a rubbish power, will scatter mobs a LOT and annoy teammates.

+ Get Swift instead of Hurdle if you're using the Flight pool. You can slot Swift with a +Fly SO and this will free up slots in "Fly" itself. IIRC one Fly SO in Swift and 2-3 in Fly will hit the flight speed cap.

+ Repair is not as good as Aid Other. You'd get far better milage from "Aid Other", as it recharges faster and can be used on teammates. It would also open up the way for you to get the self-heal "Aid Self".

+ You'll probably want to take recall friend. Bot AI isn't too bad, but quite often one will end up getting stuck in the geometry and need TP'ed out or resummoned.

+ You don't need to take stamina for a /FF, so that could free up another pool for you. I like the leadership pool on my masterminds, but that's really down to personal choice. Definately get Aid Other though!

I'd probably suggest the Black Scorpion patron pool since the +defence shield will stack with dispersion bubble. The Black Scorpion AoE Immobilise/-jump/-fly is also very useful for stopping foes running and keeping minions clustered together for your Assault Bot's burn patch missiles. And it's lovely in PvP...

Probably Regen or SR. Parry's fantastic with either.

Personally I'd opt for Regen because Broadsword is a bit more endurance intensive... but Quickness could help the recharge rate too, so it's a bit of a toss-up.

I'm not a big fan of INV Scrappers, but you could get it to work if you're careful with endurance slotting.

To be honest I'm looking forward to planning out what set IOs can do for my level 50 Human/Dwarf PB.

He currently suffers from a lack of slots and general endurance issues, which the combination set IOs will easily sort out. Any Set Bonuses I would view as icing since they're not active when exemped (this includes some global IO effects like Knockback protection) and virtually all my PB does now is exemp down for TFs/SG teams.

4 IO slots at level 50 can now easily do the job of more than 6 SO slots (melee attack example below):

+ Damage Common IO (+42.4%)
+ Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam/End/Rech (+18.55% to all)
+ Crushing Impact: Acc/Dam/End (+21.2% to all)
+ Crushing Impact: Acc/Dam/Rech (+21.2% to all)
= 60.95% Acc, 103.35% Dam, 39.75% End, 39.75% Rech

And using a full 6 IO Slots, the numbers just get SILLY:

+ Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam (+26.5% to all)
+ Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam/End/Rech (+18.55% to all)
+ Mako's Bite: Acc/End/Rech (+21.2% to all)
+ Crushing Impact: Acc/Dam/End (+21.2% to all)
+ Crushing Impact: Dam/End/Rech (+21.2% to all)
+ Crushing Impact: Acc/Dam/Rech (+21.2% to all)
= 108.65% Acc, 108.65% Dam, 82.15% End, 82.15% Rech
(Plus +1.5% health/+3% damage/+1.125% health/+2.5% accuracy set bonuses)

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Personally im heading towards conserve power, do i really need a hard hitting ST attack on my defender?

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You're a Stormy. You have Repel, -Tohit, Lightning and Hurricane.
It'd totally mess with Hurricane and all that Knockback.

"No".

(This is also a reason against taking Power Sink actually, the radius is a fair bit smaller than Short Circuit.
Not to mention that Power Boost + Vengence = absolutely insane levels of short-term uberness... )

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You being a defender I'd recommend power mastery more, as you could still use power build up+short circuit to drain nearly same amount as with short circuit+power sink.

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It actually drains MORE since Power Sink's drain is considerably less than Short Circuits.

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Power sink however is autohit.

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True. Short Circuit gets a +40% accuracy boost though.
And /Elec gets Aim, and with PBU you know what Aim can do....

And you have to hit with Short Circuit ALONG with Power Sink in the first example anyway....

GAH! I wish I could get BOTH PBU and Power Sink... then I'd show 'em! I'd show 'em ALL!!

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You being a defender I'd recommend power mastery more, as you could still use power build up+short circuit to drain nearly same amount as with short circuit+power sink.

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It actually drains MORE since Power Sink's drain is considerably less than Short Circuits.

It can certainly drain a mob completely in a much shorter time frame. The downside is that you have to wait twice as long for Power Build Up to recharge than for Power Sink, so it's only better "spike" end drain.

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Plus power build up is extremely useful for a defender, doubling all secondary effects like def,tohit buffs, heals etc.

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Not so much for stormies though, since the effects only last on toggles for the duration of the boost (12 secs ish IIRC). However it's fantastic for bubblers since you can easily have Perma-Power-Boosted +Def Bubbles up. With the elec secondary I could certainly see use for it combined with Short Circuit!

Now that I've tried both, I'm still in two minds about whether to keep my Sonic/Elec Defender as /Power or /Elec epic. I'll probably end up going back to Power Sink since it's so damn useful in PvE...

Resistance shields are worth getting, definately.

Both Elec and Power epic shields offer about 45-50% resistance to S/L damage when 3-slotted. The elec one is a slightly better choice since it also grants large energy resistance (on par with Steamy Mist).

Realistically if you combine either epic shield with Steamy Mist you'll be a lot more survivable.
Providing, of course, that you can keep your toggles up...

PBU + Short Circuit is much more effective than Short Circuit + Power Sink for PvP. But nothing short of a Pocket Kinetic will keep you topped up like Power Sink in PvE. Conserve Power's recharge time is twice as long.

Power Sink would be good in PvP if the End Drain hit check happened as soon as you activate it instead of at the end of the animation, as it is your target can easily step out of range when they see you activate it.

The Patron AVs aren't THAT tough with Fortitude + a Rad, and a competent Blaster can pull them reasonably safely... Ghost Widow, as mentioned before is the one to watch. If you can beat her, the rest are easy.

Recluse is another story.... before you destroy the red tower, I'd be very surprised if an Empath + a Inv Scrapper could withstand his insane damage output.

An Empath, Inv Tank and a Sonic Defender combined had trouble with him on our first STF. Be prepared for the Inv and the Fire tanker to have to trade aggro, and whatever you do, DON'T let him out of melee range!

You guys may well find the AVs pretty difficult with that setup. The patrons (GW being the most dangerous) shouldn't be too bad with mainly Blasters rather than Scrappers, but dealing with Dr. Aeon, the Flyer reinforcements and the Towers/Recluse will be very tricky without any controllers and only two melee toons.

I strongly suggest you all farm for Shivans first, and the empath sticks like glue on the fire tanker at Recluse.

Best of luck Heroes!

Don't think anyone had mentioned PvP, but Power Boosted Aim/Buildup is basically an "ignore this guy's defense" button. Like the Geas Accolade.

The difference between 45% and 60% defence is not going to help much when a frothing mad /nrg blapper is running towards you with over +200% ToHit...

It MAY help against REGULAR "Aim" users though.

Update: Bridger has recently confirmed that +stealth is one of the few IO special bonuses NOT affected by exemplaring.

This means a level 50 Stalker can pickup a level 50 +stealth IO and still get full use of it in Bloody Bay.

Ghost Widow will be very tricky, but you should be able to do it with SRs (she can't leech-heal off you if you have high enough defence) or Warburg Nukes plus Shivans. Mako might be tough unless you all have good accuracy slotting plus Focussed Accuracy, or the Geas Accolade.

Recluse will need to be kited, probably by a few alternating regens since he can hit through SR's defences too easily for them to provide a sufficient distraction.

I think it could work, but I wouldn't want to try it unless all the scrappers work VERY well together.

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A Stalker can also be revealed by Autohit PBAoE debuffs such as Hurricane or Chilling Embrace, providing that there is at least ONE +perception buff in effect to see through "Hide". However usually the radius of Autohit debuff Auras is only 10 Feet, so there is no combination that will beat "Arctic Air" for effectiveness.

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Not true. Debuffs dont reveal stalkers anymore.

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Debuffs still drop every single +stealth power except hide. Therefore a stalker under the influence of an autohit debuff will only be able to attain a stealth of -500 feet (just outside the limit of "Base Perception").

An example would be an Ice Tanker running Chilling Embrace and with Ice's +Perception Armor. It'll see any stalker within 10 feet, because the Autohit slow drops everything but "Hide", and the +Perception beats Hide.

Regen's probably the best choice to be honest.

Not that I'm biased or anything....
(My first 50 was a kat/regen scrapper!)

Divine Avalanche is a great way to "turtle up" when you get in over your head, and the nature of regen means that when "turtled up" you will get back to full strength very quickly.

You'll not get a real feel for it until level 16 when you can grab integration, but from 16-30 it's one of the strongest toons you can play. After 30 the other scrapper secondaries will start to catch up, but really the only thing that a Katana/Regen should find difficult is fighting against AVs or GMs.

You'll be able to solo anything short of an AV, when teamed it's probably best if you stick to the typical "boss killer" role (although Golden Dragonfly and Flashing Steel are quite nice cone-damage when you get used to lining them up). Concerning the /regen powers, you'll want the usual: everything except Resilience, Revive and MoG. Resilience might benefit you if you plan on PvPing against Energy Melee users though.

A properly slotted Divine Avalanche (2Acc/1Recharge/3Defbuff) will let you Pseudo-Tank just about anything. That build will NOT need MoG by any stretch of the imagination!

You said you wanted to PvP though, so I'd suggest looking at Broadsword instead rather than Katana (unless your heart is REALLY set on Katana). They're virtually identical, except that Broadsword is geared more towards spike damage rather than speed and soft control. Good spike damage is very important in PvP.

The Goonies successfully finished their run at it last night, we got to the last mission late on Wednesday evening and had a few trial runs at it (didn't get past the Patron AVs). After a bit of preperation yesterday afternoon we started the last mission at about 8:30pm and were finished by about 10pm. We were figuring tactics out as we went along and we were far from being an optimal team, so there's definately room to get that time down considerably.

Team was:
Hammerfall - Inv/Mace Tanker
Shadow Fury - BS/Dark Scrapper
Tinya - Katana/SR Scrapper
War Rock - Earth/Kinetic Controller
Bog Monster - Earth/Storm Controller
Jackie Sparrow - Mind/Empath Controller
Red Noise - Sonic/Elec Defender
Blackfox - Fire/Energy Blaster

That's no Phantom Army, no dedicated healer (though Jacks did a great job against Recluse!) no Rads, No FF bubbles, no Stone Tanker and mostly melee damage dealers. Far from the "optimum team".

On the first night we didn't even have vengence (I was playing the defender, and respecced in vengence and power boost for the second evening. It did help, we ended up using it a few times).

Spoilers:
We had no trouble at all with Dr. Aeon. War (the only one who'd done the tf before) said he dropped in record time. A combination of Earth Controls and Elec Short Circuit/Power Sink meant that any Elite Bosses he summoned were completely drained and going nowhere... and Fury had the Thorn temp power on autofire!

We had trouble with the Patron AVs on Wednesday night, but we took them down without much trouble on Thursday. Going in with Vengence + Shivans really does make a big difference to surviving their alpha, and once Ghost Widow is down it's remarkably easy. I know at least one Chemical Warhead was used (after vengence wore off) but I honestly don't think it made much difference. We left Mako until the end and had slight trouble with his +defence, but we had at least two levels of Tactics running and some melees had Focussed Accuracy (or the Geas accolade). We could probably have used Vengence again if we had really needed extra +ToHit to take him down, but although the scrappers dipped into the red a few times I don't think anyone actually died during the Patron fight. We didn't bother pulling them back to the longbow boat for extra support.

Recluse was a different story, but with a small tank team (INV, Empath, Sonic) we found we could hold him indefinately whilst the rest hit the towers. We had problems when he started summoning level 54 Bosses at us, but we only had one "full wipe" so we must have been doing something right. After the wipe we used another vengence rush in order to kill off his multiple boss pets.

Initially we attempted to pull him away from the towers to past his statue, in order to see if his buffs would shut off once he broke line of sight. This didn't work and he kept Teleporting/Running back to aggro the tower teams. We eventually got him down by solid tanking + killing three of the four towers (we left the blue one) and then dogpiling on him!

Very fun TF. I came away with a level 50 Dam/Acc SHO reward, as well as a level 50 Jump "+Stealth" IO Recipe which dropped from Recluse.

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You can count myself and Mrs. Sparrow in and I know a number of other Goonies have been keen on the idea of regular raiding come I9. We have TS and a ready supply of Jaffa Cakes.

Though if I get yet another Damage/Range I may well cry

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Can't speak for the rest of Gooniedom, but I should be able to chip in providing the raids don't end up running on Sunday evenings every time. I'll get teamspeak working somehow, though it may be a bit laggerific.

I was meaning to respec Maelwys anyways... will probably make him into a yellow mito tanker since the US have found flying /regens with resilience do fairly well at it. Or I can always break out the ol' Sonic Defender...

Hmm, yeah. I saw Arcanaville's post about a Perma-Hasten SR scrapper build on the US boards a while back. But IOs have been rejiggled since then, the 5-bonus-cap has been added, some have been made unique, etc.

You could certainly make some inroads into that 105% required recharge with 5 LOTG +5% IOs and Quickness (45% ish +recharge total). However you'd have to make sure you weren't gimping yourself in other areas in order to achieve the extra recharge, and Stalker Builds are fairly tight.

And you have to ask yourself... is spending all that effort in order to get a pet which gets 2-shot regularly, does mediocrce damage and gives away your position in PvP really worth the hassle?

I still think that the best pet for Stalkers is Mako's "Water Spout"...

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Actually, after issue 9, it may be possible to make patron pets perma.

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Not going to happen outside of external super-buffs. Far too much +recharge is needed: 3.75 Recharge Total.

You can get just about 2.0-ish from slotting (ED) and 0.7 from PERMA Hasten. That leaves 1.05 (105% +recharge) from other buffs. Just not going to happen, especially on Dominators who can't get quickness.

You'd need more than two constant defender-level Speed Boosts (+50%) on your character in order to make that up. A few IO set bonuses along the lines of +5% recharge here-and-there wouldn't cut it...