Smiling_Joe
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Posts
1131 -
Joined
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E is for "Ew, dude, you kissed your sister!"
Do you like bluegrass music? I know I do.
Do you like Star Wars? I know I do.
Well, someone has gotten their Star Wars in my Bluegrass, and I think I like it.
If my totally random quote above *that is actually from the song* hasn't put you off, give the link a click and you'll see what I mean.
You might even like it. I know I did.
And I had to share it with my favorite community on the interwebs. You're welcome.
EDIT FOR THE BENEFIT OF DECHS KAISON: Don't worry - it's not a rickroll. This time. -
Quote:Quite frankly I've found that - since the changes to my 2nd (human form) build that brought light form and inner light perma (and essence boost by default) I'm watching my buff bar more than I'm watching the game even with human form only, which I find mildly annoying.Originally Posted by Timeshadow
You won't be at any significant disadvantage other than having to watch your buffs a lot more carefully so you can downshift at the appropriate time to reactivate LF and Inner Light.
I placed Light Form on Auto, and now - instead of enjoying a well-designed mission and getting into the thrill and visual spectacle of large-scale combat - I'm mashing attack buttons with barely a glance at who or what I'm attacking because I'm glued to the blinking Light Form icon in the buff bar and scanning my power bars to see which required power (Hasten, Light Form, Essence Boost or Inner Light) is recharged.
On the plus side, it really doesn't matter who I'm fighting - if they don't have psionic damage, I'm going to (eventually) win.
Meh. Maybe with enough investment to make LF Perma without hasten it might get better, but right now the whole "Perma LF" playstyle isn't suiting me.
But to your point, I've found that I'm watching buff bars and power icons just as much in human form as I would on a triform. But maybe that's just me. -
My sister got busy recently and forgot to re-up her VIP subscription. When she remembered, (after I think a week or two) she applied the payment and logged in...
...to find that her previously incarnate level 50++ characters no longer had ANY slots, powers, salvage or shards. Zip. Nada. All of her level 50's could access the incarnate system as before, but everything they had earned was taken away and reset to zero.
...or so she claims. She's three states away, and I can't see her computer screen (and logging into her account would break the EULA). Now I haven't the foggiest idea what the real story here is, since her account is her account and all, but now it's nagging me: what happens to your Incarnate slots and powers if you temporarily drop to Premium status for any reason?
Not that I intend to drop sub or anything, just curious. (and times being what they are, you never know if I might need to take a month's unwilling break)
...and yes, most of my family plays. My wife, sister, brother-in-law, and both parents (in their 60's) all play and enjoy incarnate content. Go figure. -
Quote:With the changes to Build Up/Inner Light and the shortened recharge on Photon Seekers, Human Form can almost equal Nova's AoE potential right now. Throw in IO's and you've got many more powers in human form to proc out than Nova could dream of, and you've got combat flight to provide defense for those so inclined. Nova's value plummets in the face of all of that even before Cosmic Balance comes into play.Originally Posted by Timeshadow
Actually I did say. Nova for AoE, Dwarf for tanking and human for ST. It's true that the inherent does a lot to complicate things. Balancing the AT in general is harder because of Cosmic Balance. We have that conversation every time changing PBs comes up.
Check my post again. I said myself that human form having its own AoEs does a lot to trivialize Bright Nova. That's just a consequence of designing Khelds in a way that gives players a choice in how to build them.
In other games shapeshifters use their forms because they each do something that another flat can't. Kheldians, on the other hand, have several redundant powers. They allow anyone who plays a Kheld to decide whether they wanna put emphasis on the forms or not. (Un)fortunately, especially with the changes, human form can be perfectly viable without the forms.
Uh...because you wanna be able to tank for a team? You're right in saying that Dwarf is of little benefit to the Kheldian themselves. Human form is just better for damage and survivability. But when teaming (Assuming you do team) it has no means of holding aggro other than pure damage.
Really, a lot of the argument comes down to perspective. In terms of what works for the Kheldian, yeah, human form is the best choice just about all the time. Do I think that's a good thing? No, I really don't. But when you're talking about the ability to change their focus as is required by a team the forms are still perfectly viable.
Now, if Nova offered some sort of defense bonus to go with its flight (on par with Combat Flight at least) and if the 45% damage buff could be baked into the base damage of the powers, I'd find ALOT more reason to take nova.
And with Dwarf's pathetic damage output and kludgy attack chain, I can take Provoke and damage-tank to hold aggro almost as effectively as Dwarf. My white dwarf very rarely gets aggro rings in BAF trials and has had every archetype short of defenders pull aggro off.
That's not to say White Dwarf can't tank, but due to the duality of an aggro system that takes both taunt effects AND damage into account all you need is a couple of moderately good damage dealers on your teams to make the white dwarf's job twice as hard.
Killing faster in human form then becomes a MUCH more appealing option than the impotent roaring of a white dwarf.
White Dwarf needs something to help its tanking ability out, because better damage is always a better alternative to bad tanking.
EDIT: TL/DR Version: Nova is the AoE specialist, but isn't good enough at AoE. Dwarf is the Tanking specialist, but isn't good enough at Tanking. Not after the current changes. -
Quote:Saying they excel in a particular area now more than ever without actually specifying the area of their excellence is the same as saying they excel "just because..."Originally Posted by Timeshadow
On the contrary, I think the changes gave each of the forms a unique role. Prior to i21 you had Nova for AoE, Dwarf for tanking and human for...uh...self-buffing? Now each form excels in a particular area. Nova and Dwarf are still great at their respective specialties and human is the definitive ST choice.
Of course, human having the toughness of perma LF and AoEs of its own make it a viable replacement for both but if you wanna talk sheer effectiveness TriForm is, now more than ever, the way to go.
There's still some reason to take Nova if you count unsupressed and non-endurance-using flight and slightly better aoe potential, but if you team even a little with support characters human form's damage potential goes up dramatically verses Nova, which will have its damage cap out 45% sooner than human form's.
Dwarf is laughable. If you can give me even ONE reason why I should take dwarf over human after the I-21 changes, please do. And no, auto-hit taunt doesn't count. With a 2.4 accuracy (if memory serves) I never missed with it in the first freaking place. -
Quote:Not my idea - I just liked it.Originally Posted by Microcosm
Having one pet that periodically summons a photon seeker is something Smiling Joe has mentioned in the past, and I think that could work.
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Quote:Assuming this question is directed at me (as the O.P.)...Originally Posted by Wavicle
I'm just curious what it is you liked about the PB that went away with this issue?
The only thing I can think of is the puffball animation...
For a couple of seconds I considered flippantly responding "A reason to take dwarf," but that's not entirely true. It's not so much that something I liked was taken away (Except the puffball and the footstomp animations, nothing specific was taken away) as it is that the changes are along a completely different paradigm for a form-shifting archetype.
Oh on the surface Inner Light lasts longer and so it benefits the forms, but it still gives the bulk of its bonus to human form, and players who don't have it perma are in fact rewarded more for staying in human form than for switching to nova. Unlike Warshades, Peacebringers do better against single hard targets than they do against large groups, and when human form already outperforms nova form in single target damage I find that my nova has become very much more situational. Not completely obviated, of course, but it's a step in a direction that heavily favors human form.
Same for Light Form. On the surface it's a massive buff. No, that's not true. It IS a massive buff. But I didn't really need it buffed. Now, even if I don't perma Light Form, making Light Form a mez-protected clone of Eclipse all but neutered dwarf form and made the shields MUCH less appealing.
Are Peacebringers stronger now than they were before? Sure. I'll happily admit that. But when one form is made strong enough that there's no noticeable advantage to switching to either of the other two forms - on a shape-shifting archetype - then IMHO it's a step in the wrong direction.
So what did I like that went away? I guess I liked being a true shapeshifter that had distinct advantages and disadvantages to each form.
That hasn't gone away completely, but these changes don't do anything for it. -
Quote:That's the last thing you want to do. Someone creating a character at the start of the game is going to use those playstyle subclassifications as a tool to help them make their decision regarding what archetype to roll.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I think refining the AT forums would bring them in line with the way ATs are grouped in the avatar creation screen in the game.
By contrast, someone coming to the forums has already made that decision and just wants to find information regarding the archetype they've already chosen to play, and having to sift through the whole playstyle sorting again is only going to confuse them, especially when they land in their archetype's forum only to find that many of the topics about their particular powerset might be in reference to that same powerset on a different archetype that just happens to share the same forum.
Use>>>Ascetics where support forums are concerned, and merging the AT forums to bring them in line with the in-game character creation screen is more about ascetics than usefulness. -
Quote:If players have to read some sort of guidelines post to understand the support forums and find the help forum for their archetype then you've already failed at making the forums easy to understand at a glance.Originally Posted by Zwillinger
While I certainly appreciate your viewpoint:
What if we provided guidelines so that posts were easily identifiable within each forum?
I don't particularly view it as pigeonholing, simply as...well...simplifying. There's a rather large amount of forums to sift through here on our boards, and to a new, or even veteran player who hasn't spent time on the forums, it's a bit confusing.
Forums should be easy to understand at a glance.
I don't see what's so hard about looking at the forums and finding the archetype about which you're wanting to read. After all, if I'm already playing a scrapper and need help, I come to the forums and find the scrapper forum. If I have to go through a bunch of threads in the melee dps forum I'm likely to find information about the powerset I might be playing, and have it be WRONG because it was instead a question about the stalker version of that same powerset. There will be MUCH CONFUSION in forums where several archetypes share the same powersets, mark my words!
Unless you want to mark each and every thread title according to what archetype to which it relates, and in that case you might as well keep the AT specific forums as is!
Or are you more concerned about there being so many types of archetypes that new players might be intimidated? Because - correct me if I'm wrong, here - new players likely won't even come to the forums before creating an archetype, and you've already got the whole archetype-by-playstyle merging thingie already set up at character creation.
Again, I'm not getting your concern, and am totally against merging the archetype forums. It's pointless and it actually achieves the OPPOSITE of what you're intending, in that it makes things more CONFUSING.
Please don't do it. -
Quote:Bah! It has been what? Six years since he posted that? I had to go back and re-read it myself.Originally Posted by Microcosm
That would be me misremembering a quote
And TBH while it's a good read if you're interested in the original intent for Kheldian design, so much has changed in the game that it's really not what I would consider gospel.
Especially now for Peacebringers.
..But it is interesting. There's another interesting read on the last page of the kheldian forums - a thread started by Statesman about issues that players were concerned with back in the day. Any time I get frustrated with the state of Kheldians now, I go back and skim that thread to remind myself of what it was like then.
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I'll say this for the Praetorians - they are downright courteous when waging inter-dimensional war.
Giving us a schedule to pencil in on our day planners? That's just nice, right there! I'll have to move some things around, but I think I can make it....
Hey great! Looks like we have a war. Thanks for calling. -
Quote:Unless you can provide a quote stating this explicitly, I'm gonna have to disagree. Just a little. Discussion regarding the developers' intent when designing Kheldians crops up periodically, and - leaving aside for the moment that this is a different developer team with different goals and the ever-changing nature of MMO's - I can provide a quote:Originally Posted by Microcosm
The devs have said many times (especially castle) that it was always their intention that you take and use the forms.
This was quoted from a post by Geko that has since been lost in one of the great forum purges, but a full transcription of it can still be found on Warcry.Quote: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.
For context, Geko was talking about the slot crunch, and the possibility of adding more slots. The whole reason we didn't get more slots than other archetypes is because they wanted the slot crunch to lead to specialized builds - including human form only. This is also the reason we have duplicated powers between the forms and human: human form was always considered a viable option for building kheldians.
Castle's concern with dwarf being obviated by human-form mez protection wasn't that dwarf would cease becoming a requirement - it was that no one would ever take dwarf again, thus obviating not just one form, but an entire specialist build option.
If you read further down the article (and it is an interesting read; every kheld driver who doesn't remember those days should take the time and read into some of the development history of kheldians, if only to see just how bad we were at the start) you'll also see where Geko emphasizes that:
Now, we can take that "shapeshifters by nature" sentence and pull it out of context to say that the forms were meant to be part of every build, but we'd be wrong. The key words there are versatile and challenging (in the next sentence). If you take the time to read the whole article (assuming you haven't already) you'll see that they (rightly or wrongly) saw our inherent as a third and equally strong component of what made us shapeshifters. Even one-formers were considered shapeshifters, because the inherent could change their role based on team makeup.Quote: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.
And again - that's why I was so taken aback by the current changes: they favor human form almost to the exclusion of the others. Kheldians were designed to be versatile, and that versatility was - at least originally - intended to come not only from individual builds, but from the variety of builds you could make. That versatility has been hurt by these changes.
But it is an MMO - and visions change in MMO's. I'll adjust, even if I'm not terribly happy with it. -
Quote:This is my thinking as well.Originally Posted by Zamuel
Considering the devs seem to be reluctant to boost damage, would it be a better course of action to request a greater ability to buff/debuff? I've seen a few rather interesting suggestions here and there for buffing some powers.
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Quote:....did someone complain that warshades never have to drop to human form?Originally Posted by FallenValkyrja
As for the changes and some of the gripes. I have to drop to human form on my warshade in order to get hasten to fire off. Oh and to max my resist. To massively heal up and rebuild end. Oh and to get my fluffies. And for my awesome gravity crushing power that drops a foe pretty quickly (for more fluffies) or at least holds them in place. Oh and to fire off one of my two mires. And yes, I do admit that the powers (such as the mire) encourage the shape shifting dance quite a bit with the WS and not as much with the PB.
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With set bonuses, (you know, where you slot two or more of a given set) they are global. You slot them, you get them regardless of whether or not the power is activated.
With procs (like for example the performance shifter proc you have in stamina) it's a different story, they are only activated when the power is active, and even then some of them only activate periodically. There are exceptions, however. Usually these carry the "global" moniker.
For example, Luck of the Gambler gives you 7.5% global recharge, so it's always on, regardless of the state of the power in which it was slotted. By contrast, Force Feedback chance for +recharge only has a chance to give you recharge, and so it only activates when the power in which it slots activates. (note that by "activate" I don't mean that it actually fires - it only has a chance to fire, and so by "activate" I mean it rolls for the chance. It may or may not fire, based on the result.)
Miracle and Numina's procs are another example you should note. In the description, it says they give you a bonus to regeneration and/or recovery for a set amount of time (I think it's 120 seconds). If you slot these in a click power like a heal, you'll get the benefit for - you guessed it - 120 seconds. If you slot these in an auto power like health, you get a continuous bonus. Slotting them in a toggle will have them active when the toggle is active.
The performance shifter proc you have in stamina will activate once every ten seconds (I think) because it is a chance to award 10% endurance. Slot it in light form (like I had mistakenly planned) and it'll only activate once, when light form activates.
Good luck with your build! -
IMHO the best way to plug a psi hole is to keep it moving. In other words, those psi resist IO's aren't doing you much good. Better to build for defense from IO's. Since most Psi damage (and status effects, for that matter) come via ranged and aoe powers, I'd recommend building for Ranged and AoE defense.
As a resistance-based character, you really don't have to soft cap (although builds that can are very, very nice) and you won't, on a budget. But if you don't mind taking a hit to the melee position you can get your defense to the other two up close to 40-ish, and that's enough for one small purple insp to soft cap you. Your resistance and heals should cover the rest.
Rather than go power by power, I just tweaked on that unfinished build you posted and came up with something that does exactly that, plus gives you a little recharge on the cheap. If ya want a build real bad, here's a real bad build:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Level 50 Natural Peacebringer
Primary Power Set: Luminous Blast
Secondary Power Set: Luminous Aura
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Hero Profile:
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Level 1: Gleaming Bolt
(A) Empty
Level 1: Incandescence
(A) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection
(3) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
(3) Impervious Skin - Status Resistance
(5) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
Level 2: Shining Shield
(A) Aegis - Resistance
(5) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
(7) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge
(7) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge
(9) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
Level 4: Essence Boost
(A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
(21) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge
(31) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
(36) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
(40) Doctored Wounds - Heal
Level 6: Radiant Strike
(A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
(23) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
(25) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
(25) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
(27) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
(31) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
Level 8: Combat Jumping
(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
(9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
Level 10: Thermal Shield
(A) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
(11) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge
(11) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge
(13) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
(13) Aegis - Resistance
Level 12: Hasten
(A) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 14: Quantum Shield
(A) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge
(15) Aegis - Resistance
(15) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
(17) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
(17) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge
(37) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
Level 16: Boxing
(A) Empty
Level 18: Incandescent Strike
(A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
(27) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
(29) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
(29) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
(31) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
(33) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
Level 20: White Dwarf
(A) Resist Damage IO
(21) Resist Damage IO
Level 22: Reform Essence
(A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
(23) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge
(37) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
(37) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
(40) Doctored Wounds - Heal
Level 24: Conserve Energy
(A) Empty
Level 26: Solar Flare
(A) Eradication - Damage
(34) Eradication - Accuracy/Recharge
(34) Eradication - Damage/Recharge
(34) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(36) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
(50) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage
Level 28: Pulsar
(A) Stupefy - Accuracy/Recharge
(36) Stupefy - Endurance/Stun
(40) Stupefy - Accuracy/Endurance
(43) Stupefy - Stun/Range
(43) Stupefy - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge
(46) Stupefy - Chance of Knockback
Level 30: Tough
(A) Resist Damage IO
Level 32: Photon Seekers
(A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
(33) Blood Mandate - Damage/Endurance
(33) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance
(39) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(42) Blood Mandate - Accuracy
(43) Blood Mandate - Damage
Level 35: Restore Essence
(A) Empty
Level 38: Light Form
(A) Recharge Reduction IO
(39) Recharge Reduction IO
(39) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 41: Weave
(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
(42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
(42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
Level 44: Inner Light
(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
(45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
(45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
(45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
(46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
(46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
Level 47: Gleaming Blast
(A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
(48) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
(48) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
(48) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(50) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(50) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
Level 49: Maneuvers
(A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
------------
Level 1: Brawl
(A) Empty
Level 1: Cosmic Balance
Level 1: Energy Flight
(A) Empty
Level 1: Sprint
(A) Empty
Level 2: Rest
(A) Empty
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 10: Combat Flight
(A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
Level 2: Swift
(A) Empty
Level 2: Health
(A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
Level 2: Hurdle
(A) Empty
Level 2: Stamina
(A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
(19) Performance Shifter - EndMod
(19) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
------------
Level 20: White Dwarf Antagonize
(A) Empty
Level 20: White Dwarf Flare
(A) Empty
Level 20: White Dwarf Smite
(A) Empty
Level 20: White Dwarf Step
(A) Empty
Level 20: White Dwarf Strike
(A) Empty
Level 20: White Dwarf Sublimation
(A) Empty
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There's an extra LoTG recharge in there, but you can get that fairly quickly with hero merits, so the only things that might hurt your account are Eradication and Gaussians.
Even without them, though, your ranged/aoe def is in the middle thirties. If you don't mind hover-fighting in human form, you can just bump 40%.
Slotting a few extra doctored wounds and the one extra LotG also netted you enough recharge to (in conjunction with liberal use of hasten) almost perma light form and inner light, but not really. Nonetheless, they should both be up pretty regularly.
Hope that helps! -
Quote:I could just as easily say that You also have a respectable blast in Gleaming Blast, the first and second most heavy-hitting melee attacks in your arsenal - all three human powers, and an inner light damage buff that gives the lion's share of its maximum buffage to human form. Yes, you can buff up your forms with light form, inner light and (although I take a dim view of using pool powers to define a form's role) hasten, and maybe you might get some control out of pulsar and the knockback in solar flare (snicker- just had to throw that in) but just as much of your human form is dedicated to single target damage. The notion that human form is nothing more than a buff-bot was erroneous even before these changes, and I did the math to prove it.Originally Posted by DukeRustfield
Perma inner light and lightform are both human powers--made possible with Hasten, another human power. Humanform IS a buffbot.
And I'm not saying human form isn't a buff bot. I'm just saying that it isn't - and never was - its only role.
Which is your right. The "inhuman" (credit for the name: Memphis Bill) playstyle was always effective, and one I subscribed to previous to the current changes. And I am in complete agreement that Arbiter Hawk turned that playstyle right on its head. I hate that, but I had to deal the cards I was played and changed my playstyle accordingly.Quote:I don't want to use it. I was a Nova/Dwarf who popped into human when hurt (often via a panicked quantum flight) to heal and buff, then back to my real forms to fight or tank. That's been turned on its head and I can't see a whole lot of reason to use Nova or Dwarf.
Agreed x1000! The current changes stripped the forms of much of their relevance, and I came *this* close to respeccing out of them entirely. I have faith that Arbiter Hawk isn't done, however, and it's my fervent hope that he will revisit the design of the forms at least partially, and so I kept them in my build.Quote:Yes, you can find reasons to use Nova and Dwarf, if you squint and go out of your way, but for a shapeshifter, there's really not a ton of reason to shift shapes. You're going to have to be a human anyway, and have to be kicking off those buffs regularly, you save yourself a lot of grief, hassle, downtime, etc just staying human and you don't give up a whole lot to do it.
But you're preaching to the choir when you tell me the forms are suffering under the current changes.
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Quote:Actually, you're quite right. I'm not giving enough credit to the efficacy of a perma inner light, and should have said as much. But there again, it's only with perma inner light that peacebringers will see any significant power increase.Originally Posted by Socorro
Well said - my heavily IOd PB is lovin' it. My next comments really only apply to Heavily IOd PBs...
I differ with you a bit in that the changes only effect a PB's toughness. Yes it does that, and improves it. My PB was tough, but never resist-capped Tough all the time.
But these changes also indirectly help my PB's damage significantly, in the form of Recharge. With Perma Lightform, I gave up my shields completely (well, kept shining shield single slotted). That's 2 full powers and 11 extra slots I can put somewhere else. That's 2 extra mules for LotGs and enough extra slots that I can use high recharge IOs in powers that I normally wouldn't (such as glinting eye). I probably get an extra 30% recharge just from having these spare slots.
So, I have enough recharge that Inner Light is perma and overlaps, meaning I have +100% extra damage (+130% during the overlap) a significant amount of time. Also, since my recharge is plenty high, I can get Muscular instead of Spiritual for some extra Kick.
When soloing, it finally feels like I'm dishing out serious hurt on enemies. I've never been able to solo my PB at +8 settings, even with lots of Purples, but last night I did the Morality Mish "Rescue the Bane Soldier", giant map chock full Arachnos, at +8 w/bosses. It wasn't a cakewalk, but it was doable; a feat in the past that was only reserved for my Brute, Scrapper, and Mastermind.
I see your point with SO builds. PBs that cannot get perma lightform will have to still invest in the Shields and/or Forms for protection. I guess it just doesn't bug me that much. I haven't started a New PB with these changes, but it still seems to me they will have it significantly better than they did before. Your better now, but to be Uber Awesome you have to IO out.
And SO peacebringers that have to invest in the forms and the shields will still be almost as lackluster as they were before. For SO builds, the light form change took away as much as it added. Perma light form peacebringers can take as long as they want to kill an eb, but those on SO's will have exactly as long as Light Form lasts to do so, otherwise they have to heal and retreat (because dwarf form just isn't an option, and they'll have no mez protection from the shields)
Inner light will still help some, but the problem isn't that SO peacebringers didn't get buffed - it's that IO'd peacebringers got buffed exponentially in contrast.
Had the changes been balanced around SO's, they likely would have been very different, and I'm not buying the argument that IO'd builds would have abused SO-balanced changes, because every other arechetype in the game can use IO's to break the rules.
Apparently the same shall not be said for peacebringers.
EDIT - not that I want to break the game, or anything. As I said, I'm very happy with my IO'd peacebringer right now. BUT I wouldn't be a very good self-appointed advocate (and who asked me to be an advocate, anyway? what the hell am I thinking?) for peacebringers if I ignored those premium players who will suddenly have to buy access to the invention system if they want their newly-purchased peacebringers to perform as well as....
...well, pretty much everyone else. -
Quote:Hear, hear! I'm still using Plasma's gold standard build on my PB's third build. And when I needed a standard for a warshade and peacebringer SO build for all those comparisons I ran, it was Plasma's Gold Standard builds.Originally Posted by GenkaiFist
No blushing allowed Plasma! Your guide is what helped me create my awesome Warshade which I used to convince people who refused to make Kheldians want to try them out after seeing how awesome I was form dancing all over the map. Run into a group Eclipse Double Mire Nova BLAAAAAAAST Drop form raise a Fluffy pet eat the souls of the dead to heal up, rinse repeat. Goooood times. Sadly, like you, after the form shifting changes I didn't care to play anymore so my Warshade kinda is stagnating.
Plasma is one of those names that is a household word where Kheldians are concerned.
SO YEAH! No blushing allowed. -
I am against any and ALL design techniques that are overused to the point of ridiculous, and ambushes in this game are getting as cliche' as defeat-alls and kill the bosses.
Not that they're hard for me. Most characters I play can chew through them like boards through a chipper.
But they are BORING when I see them used ad nauseum. There are other ways to design missions - I find doppelgangers very fun and challenging (although they are being used a little often lately), for example. To use the example of the signature arc, having to fight around the lava with the enemies' penchant for knockback was something that added a great deal of fun for me.
And I didn't have any particular heartburn with the ambushes in that mission either. In fact, I liked that you could turn them off, and I liked that they have a timer.
I'd just like to see more variety in the surprises than just waves of ambushes.
SPOILER ALERT****
like the collapsing cavern in the same arc. FANTASTIC TWIST!! In fact, even with the waves of ambushes, the new arc was probably one of the most fun arcs I've played in a LOOOONG while! I look forward to doing that one again on every character.
Ad nauseum, even.
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Quote:That statement needs a bit of a qualifier. Too tough? Sure. Too powerful? Hardly.Originally Posted by DukeRustfield
I know it's weird to say but I believe the PB has become too powerful.
Obviously you're talking about resistance?Quote:-I'm flying around with capped defenses (except psychic) and the ability to put out a very solid amount of damage. Nothing damages me. Well, it does like 1,3,5 dmg. It's just silly.
If they added end drain or psionic resistance to dwarf, I'd have ALOT more reason to go dwarf. As it is, I've taken dwarf for the extra mez protection, but it's been stripped of all of its slots and will likely never be used unless Light Form gets overwhelmed with mez.Quote:-Dwarf is essentially useless now. You get your status protections in exchange for a MASSIVE decrease in damage and function. I was getting rooted and immobilized in Nova form--so what, you still can't hurt me.
You're missing the point of human form. Human form is more than just a buff-bot, it's the single target damage king of all your forms. It does more single target damage than nova. If you're up against a boss/eb/av, human form is the way to go. Especially now.Quote:-Can't activate our key powers in other forms. I'm sure this is an old game issue not easily changed, but no matter what you want to do, Human form is your main form, because your main powers are in it and you have to turn them on and cycle back. You can't have them auto-fire from inactive trays or in different forms. You WILL be in human form at least partially whether you like it or not--unless you feel like giving up an absurd amount of resistances. This is probably the biggest annoyance for me, because I don't want to use human form and it's a hassle to click over consistently and cast 3-5 buffs, then click back and wait for the change.
From what I understand, the glowing ball is still on the table as an animation option once the animation team gets some time freed up.Quote:-I miss the glowing ball. I mean we're shapeshifters. Yes, we got costumes. But lightform was pretty unique. If I could change the colors I'd be happy.
So, yeah. Soon (tm), for whatever it's worth...
This, in a nutshell, is one-half of my heartburn with the changes. I like what they do for my perma light form-perma inner light 50+++ peacebringer, but he was already tough as hell. He didn't need more survivability, and the changes made him a little better at what he was already good at.Quote:Right now, I feel too tough. I suppose I can go get my butt kicked by some Giant Monsters, but for regular stuff, if it's not packing psychic or something wacky like End Drain, I'm going to be able to kill it with little effort.
The other half is that they were balanced around IO's while the rest of the game is balanced around SO's. Virtually any other archetype can excell on SO's alone. Some better than others, but for a peacebringer to even compete it has to have an IO build, and an expensive one at that. It's no coincidence that every single person singing the praises of these changes is extolling the virtues of perma light form and perma inner light, but when free players don't have access to the invention system, I'm betting there will be complaints by those who've paid 1200 points to unlock an archetype that they can't use effectively.
Not that I'm complaining. My lv 50+++ peacebringer is lovin' life with perma light form and inner light. I see many more hours of play in his future. My lv 26 SO peacebringer isn't feeling the love, and likely won't, even after he gets light form, since I don't have the funds or the desire to IO two peacebringers.
Eh, it is what it is. A small minority of VIP players who can afford high recharge IO builds and are willing to spend that influence on a peacebringer will have a very, very good time being uber, and I'm absolutely fine with that. After all, I'm one of those players. -
Quote:Want. Nao.Originally Posted by Plasma
Something like a right click "Show this buff in the middle of the screen when it is expiring" choice would be awesome, so I could get a faded outline of a light form icon in the center of the screen at, say, 10s to go.
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I can take or leave the glowing ball, but it would be nice if the new animation were significant enough to at least be obvious when it goes away. Not everyone has a perma lightform build, and relying on one small blinking icon can be problematic in high-combat situations.
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From the patch notes:
Quote:I translated this as: (to use the fighting pool example) Boxing and Kick are tier 1, since they could originally be chosen when the pool is first available, and Tough is tier 2.Power Pool Changes
The first and second tier powers in Fighting, Concealment, Leadership, Presence and Medicine are now available at level 4 instead of 6.
The fourth tier power in Fighting, Concealment, Leadership, Presence and Medicine is now available at level 14 instead of 20.
However, when I go to choose the fighting pool on live, Tough is still unavailable. Same with Aid Self.
I /bugged in game, but haven't received an answer from an obviously overwhelmed tech support. I have a number of respecs on hold waiting for the answer and thought I'd search here. When a search turned up nothing, I thought I'd post.
Can anyone confirm if this is WAI or a bug that's somewhere down what must be a gargantuan list?
(and I'll bet it's long) -
Quote:Yeah, but for what kind of chance of it activating?Originally Posted by IronAlex
Correct me if im wrong.. but the -res proc does not stack from the same castor and putting it in each attack would just be a waste of the slot.. instead you put it in 1 attack and apply when needed.
then you can still max out on purps but also have dmg proc in the mix..
The logic behind putting the proc in every power stems from wanting to keep up a more or less persistent resistance debuff on your enemy by loading the odds of the proc firing.
If you want to max out purples, that's one thing, but a -res proc in every attack - provided you can afford the slot - is never a wasted slot, IMHO.
Oh, and yay for finally being able to post.