perwira

(*thud*)

That's what I call "Uber luck!"

How I would have answered this question would have depended on when I was asked.

When I first started playing this game almost a year ago, 1m inf seemed like quite a lot and I was ecstatic when I made my first 3m inf sale. Over time, though, as my first characters rose up in level and I learned how the market and IO system worked, I set my sights higher. And even after almost a year, I am still setting my sights higher. What I've learned in a year is that it's not so much a question of how "rich" or how much inf a character has as it is how effective they are, with much of the inf they earned invested into their builds. A character's worth in an invested build may far exceed what inf they have in hand.

I still have only seven characters, all of them active, both in play and in the market. As such, their wealth is constantly increasing. At certain stages of their careers, I'll invest some of that wealth into more expensive and more effective IO sets. Typically they will start with cheaply-acquired franken-slots and 4-sets that I know will eventually be replaced with more advanced full sets and specialized IO's and I plan their power selections, slotting and IO set purchases accordingly. As such, much of my characters' wealth is invested in the characters themselves, with the surplus inf being invested and accumulated for an envisioned purpose.

Current wealth figures (actual inf, plus IO/recipe/salvage stock and open bids):
Defender 50: 2.5 billion, with low bids on 2 purple sets, partially acquired
Scrapper 50: 2.0 billion, with low bids on 2 purple sets, partially acquired
Mastermind 45: 1.2 billion, with no major bids, but expect to bid soon for level 50 respec build
Corrupter 43: 1.2 billion, with no major bids, but expect to bid soon for level 50 respec build
Corrupter 37: 1.4 billion, with no major bids
Peacebringer 26: 220 million, to invest in future IO sets
Controller 26: 180 million, to invest in future IO sets

Total, 7 characters, after almost one year of play: 8.7 billion in ready inf.

I'm not sure what the market worth of their current builds are (I'm too lazy to count it all up), but I would estimate that roughly 2-3 billion has already been invested into their existing builds. That would make the total 'net worth' of these seven characters over 10 billion inf.

My basic philosophy is that inf not used or not planned for use is inf wasted. A 2 billion inf stat is just that - a resource stat. What matters is how it is applied to improve a character's effectiveness.

Wow, it took a while to read through this thread. I'm playing a 30+ PB and still thinking on how to build her in future levels along tri-form lines. As a relative PB beginner (and even game player at just under a year), I find the discussion here quite interesting.

From what I've read and experienced so far, PB's can be built quite a number of different ways with different foci using human-only or a bi- or tri-build. If I was limited to a bi-build I'd almost certainly go with the Nova form rather than the Dwarf form. Perhaps this observation alone gives an idea where the PB's weaknesses lie.

Face it. PB's can be a clunky AT to play, so much so that macros and/or binds are a necessity. At the very least, power trays have to be switched along with the forms. The delays in shape-changes takes a lot away. As mentioned earlier, the human-form build-up times are partially (and significantly) lost in the delay. So, first, smoother transitions between forms without activation delays would be nice.

A number of suggestions were made about modifying Nova power effects, including -DamRes instead of -Def (wouldn't -Regen be nice!), along with the potentially mitigatory benefits of KB. As it is, the Nova form, with a consistent attack chain combining AOE with single target attacks coming straight out of the box at level 6, is very nice. And slotted up as the levels go up, a PB Nova can dish out some highly reliable (95% hit prob) and serious damage while debuffing the enemy for the party to strike as well. Also, inherent flight gives the Nova form the additional ability to maneuver and place the KB's effectively. Damage is solid, although I agree with those who have mentioned that it'd be nicer to focus on one damage type instead of two versus enemies' damage resistance. Given the nature of the PB's attacks, though, with its KB's and visuals, I wouldn't expect the devs to change the dual energy/smashing effects of the Nova long-range blasts.

Where I see more of a problem instead is the Dwarf form. Sure, it's defensive as heck, mez defense, +HP, +taunt, and all, but the problem is, it still doesn't deliver. Almost every time I've gone into Dwarf form, eventually the enemy would deliver more HP damage on me than I on them, contrary to what I have experienced with the Nova form. I've experimented a lot with this and almost every time come up short with the Dwarf or Dwarf/human pair than I have with the Nova or Nova/human pair. The Dwarf attacks look and sound cool, but... the DPS is so weak that to take out a large group of enemies a PB will almost certainly have to jump back into human and/or Nova form (perhaps unless they are playing the group role of a single tank, something I've never done). Human form itself can be scary good with the best of the melee attacks, but even with shields can be vulnerable in the thick of battle.

It takes a fair amount of practice to quickly switch between these three forms and play them smoothly. (A tip of the hat to you PB guide writers for all of your suggestions on how to do this.) The discussion so far in this thread has piqued my interest and curiosity, as well as giving me a few new ideas about how to play and slot a peacebringer. I enjoy playing her a lot, as difficult as she can be to play.

(ed.) Reposted original post in different discussion thread.

Thanks for your guides! They've been very helpful.

Already ongoing discussion of same here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...196861&page=10

(Niviene's post is the third one on this page.)

Yeah, I appreciate the positive comments I've gotten so far during some interesting game discussions, and I'll miss reading future positive comments. And given the nature of the few negative rep comments I got, they were best voluntarily ignored anyway, although I called one of them out.

I understand the mods' position in that it gives less cause for them to have to intervene due to rep comments made in violation of the forum guidelines.