City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

PeaceBringer is Weeeiiird . . .

Barata

By Barata,
Posted on: 2009-06-13 11:43 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion

 

Posted

Peacebringer is by far the weirdest class i have played so far. it seems like mostly none of the powers can be used while your in a shifted form.

with that said ... how do i know where to put my skills points lol ...

so after level 50 do you not really use the shape shifted forms?

~thanx

 

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Personally I prefer using the squid form. It's like a blaster on steroids... steroids that make you more vulnerable to damage though.

Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!

 

Posted

I strongly recommend you head down to the Kheldian specific forums. We can offer a ton of advice there. Since you seem to be coming from MMOs that use a different system of enhancing abilities (I'm inferring based on your use of the term "skill points" as opposed to "ehancement slots"), slotting Kheldians is gonna be a challenge for you.

I highly recommend taking a look at this excellent guide written by Plasma. It's a bit dated but no less relevant. It's considered the unofficial Kheldian bible by most forum residents. Plasma's Guide

 

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I'll second both reading Plasma's guide as well as heading to the Kheld forums. Browse first, then post.

You are correct in that your human form powers are not available while in Nova or Dwarf form. That said, anything with a duration on it (pool powers such as Hasten, or human powers like Essence Boost or Conserve Power, will still be active for the full duration. (Warshades take advanatage of this by using both Human and Dwarf form mires.)

 

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PinkLady brought up the exact thing I have a hard time with when I play my PB..... how to slot. There's so many powers and not enough slots to go around. I love playing them, it's just such a difference from the other ATs.

Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break

The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens

 

Posted

Coming from other MMOs, it might help to think of Kheldians as a shapeshifter class, like Druids from WoW. (I said the 'W' word! ) While shapeshifted, you have a limited selection of powers, but built-in abilities that put you on a par with other ATs to fill that role.

In other words, you have the ability to transform from a Blaster to a Tanker to a Scrapper/Defender/Controller at will. Most of your powers are in your Human form, but that's what gives you the flexibility, while you can't really alter what your Nova or Dwarf forms can do, it's up to you to decide how your "transition" form complements the other two.

You essentially have three choices when building a Kheldian. There is no way you can slot all of the Powers that you will have available and be at full strength, you simply have too many Powers, and too few Enhancement slots. So more than any other AT, you have to make decisions about which Powers you will emphasise, and which you will keep around only for emergencies. As you've probably noticed, Nova form adds four Powers to your list in addition to the Nova power itself, and Dwarf form adds six powers. So if you want to slot Nova well, you have to take slots from Dwarf or Human, or vice versa.

The three strategies are to limit your options by not taking one or both of the forms. (The third strategy is actually taking both forms, but then you basically sacrifice the Human form) These are referred to as the Human Form, the Dual Form, and the Tri-Form respectively.

Human Form is essentially like any other AT. You get Powers just as other ATs do, and slot them as you normally would. A Peacebringer in Human form is kind of a cross between a Defender and a Scrapper, while a Warshade is more of a Controller. One big advantage of Human Form is that since you aren't shifting shapes all the time, you don't have to keep turning on toggles. You can take all three of your shields, and keep them up all the time. (Once you have the End for it) With Essense Boost and Reform Essense, you can get pretty tough, and Incandescent Strike is a great melee attack.

Dual Form obviously you would have two choices, either Nova/Human or Dwarf/Human. Since you have only half the extra powers you would have with both forms, you can slot up your Human form powers and use it to complement your alternate form. For instance, for Nova/Human you might grab all your shields and slot them up, so you can psuedo-tank if you need to. As mentioned, any click powers you have with a duration will last into your alternate forms, so you can use Build Up and then shift to Nova to do more damage, or shift out of Nova and use Essence Boost to heal up, and then when you shift back you will have more HP, even in Nova form. You just have to remember to shift back to Human to use the power again when it wears off.

The Tri-Form option, again, comes in two "flavors". The easiest is simply to slot both the Nova and Dwarf forms, and either play Blaster or Tanker depending on what the team needs. Your Human form would get the minimal slotting needed to support the other forms. You would never stay in Human form, dropping into it only to use the buffs as above. You might take the Human form Ally heal, so you can use it in emergencies, but for the most part your human form will be non-combat, just supporting the team and your other forms.

The second type of Tri-Form, though, is the most fun, and a lot of Kheldian players swear by it. The idea is to slot the three forms as evenly as possible, sticking with powers that will be useful to the Human (for instance, you wouldn't take any of the shields but the first, since you would never be able to keep toggles up) but switch between them constantly. The idea is that you are a Jack of All Trades, good at everything, but excellent at nothing. You can't do the damage of a Blaster, or take damage like a Tanker, but you can switch to Nova form from Dwarf form mid-fight, and take out a foe that's been hitting you hard with a blast, or switch to Dwarf form from Nova form, and take a blow from a Boss that has just closed to melee with you. By using your forms to adapt to the fight as it happens, the idea is that you make up for the lack of specialization in your build.

That's part of the fun of Kheldians, really, in any build but Human Form. You don't stay in one form for long. It takes time to get the hang of it, to wait for a knockdown from one of your Dwarf attacks, so you can shift to Human, get off a heal, (or an Incandescent Strike ) and then shift back before the foe can get up and hit you. Or to blast away with an AoE into a group with Nova, fly into the middle of them and drop in Dwarf form for a Flare. (Or for a Warshade, to drop in human form and Mire, then Mire again as Dwarf )

 

Posted

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The second type of Tri-Form, though, is the most fun, and a lot of Kheldian players swear by it. The idea is to slot the three forms as evenly as possible, sticking with powers that will be useful to the Human (for instance, you wouldn't take any of the shields but the first, since you would never be able to keep toggles up) but switch between them constantly. The idea is that you are a Jack of All Trades, good at everything, but excellent at nothing. You can't do the damage of a Blaster, or take damage like a Tanker, but you can switch to Nova form from Dwarf form mid-fight, and take out a foe that's been hitting you hard with a blast, or switch to Dwarf form from Nova form, and take a blow from a Boss that has just closed to melee with you. By using your forms to adapt to the fight as it happens, the idea is that you make up for the lack of specialization in your build.


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This is the one I naturally gravitated towards. Now that I'm in my late 30's, it's very satisfying. Early on though, spreading out those slots amongst all those powers leaves them very weak. IOs do help a lot in that dual-aspect or triple-aspect IOs give you more enhancement per slot. As rewarding as it is, it's still a bit rough as it blooms late because of the lack of slots in your powers.

Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break

The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens

 

Posted

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As rewarding as it is, it's still a bit rough as it blooms late because of the lack of slots in your powers.

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Yeah, I've found even with that kind of build, you still have to sacrifice a lot from your Human form. I basically slot my Nova form to do all the damage, and my Dwarf form for healing and resistance, just giving him the minimum damage to make him workable. (Which usually means slotting his attacks almost as well as the Nova :/)

For my Peacebringer, as I sort of implied, I rely on Incandescent Strike to make a massive hit while still staying mainly in Dwarf form. On my Warshades, it's more like double Miring to get the Dwarf damage up. Most of my Human form powers stay unslotted, though. They're either there as backup, a second heal in case my Dwarf's isn't enough, or they're utility powers, like my Warshade's Shadow Cloak. Sometimes I'll just pick a power to get it out of the way, and not intend to use it until past 30.

 

Posted

When building a PB, you have to make decisions and sacrifices. They are not meant to be "easy mode." Some may argue they are "hard mode" with the addition of Void/Quantum enemies and Shadow Cysts.

Dual builds could come in handy, as it increases your options.

www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.

New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
The Mentor Project: Part of the New Player Council.

 

Posted

It's the shortage of slots that makes playing a PB so hard. They used to be fairly underpowered compared to everyone else, but recent changes to Cosmic Awareness and the onset of IOs have made them on par with everyone else, when built properly.

One thing you might want to do is pick only one of your peacebringer transformations and forgo the other (though I know some Warshades who only keep their nova form for a flight power). We nerds on the forums call that a Biform, and call a Peacebringer or Warshade with all three forms a Triform. Focusing on one transformation will give you extra slots, so you can focus on building up your Human powers and those of the transformation you've picked.

Also, picking powers at random may land you in hot water, and make you use up a respec before you really want to. Before choosing a power, think about how it might work in relation to your other powers, and the powers in your forms.

Oh, and I suggest not playing a Human form only Kheldian unless you respec into it later on. The forms are what make you strong in the early levels. Without them, you're just a squishy character with Defender-level damage.

Too many alts to list.

 

Posted

Mandatory reading for all new Khelds:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...n=0&page=0

(Okay, not really but it should be)

Its kinda old (i8), but even with the recent Kheld changes 90% or more of it is still completely valid. To see exactly what was changed go here and scroll down to the part about Peacebringers and Warshades.

 

Posted

First of all, I think we forgot to say: "Welcome pinkLady"!

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Peacebringer is by far the weirdest class i have played so far.

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Very true... especially for TriFormer Kheldians.

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...it seems like mostly none of the powers can be used while your in a shifted form.

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Human-form powers are inaccessible in the forms and vice-versa. It's one of the AT's limitations, but also what makes playing a TriFormer challenging and interesting.

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how do i know where to put my skills points...

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Like many have said, read the guides, but also, play your PB at least until level 20 and get both Bright Nova and White Dwarf so you can gain an appreciation of what sort of PB you want yours to be.

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...so after level 50 do you not really use the shape shifted forms?

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I have both a Lv50 TriFormPB and a Lv50 TriFormShade™ and could not imagine playing them without their form, especially at Lv50. For me personally, the forms and the array of tricks Kheldians can pull off thanks to the forms is what makes me still play them, and still use my forms.

In summation, welcome, read the guides and enjoy your Kheldians, they can be very special with proper care and grooming.

I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!

Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati

 

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"You...filthy...yellow...squidy..." - Requiem on Kheldians

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Ooooooh, something new to ask for: color-customizable Kheldians!

Storm Summoning is great because it makes you better than everyone else in the game. - Camma

Knockback is mitigation. It won't be removed just because meleers ***** and moan. - Chaos Creator

 

Posted

Dual Builds will be very useful for a Kheldian, I'm guessing. You have a lot of options to choose from, it can be overwhelming.

 

Posted

And I'll note that Kheldians are very useful on a team, and I'm always glad to have one, especially if they can fill a gap. The battlefield in this game can change quickly, and so can Kheldians.