Anyone Got a Good PB Build ??
I'd agree with you Hammerfall. I like my toons to be able to save the day when needed and my PB never felt quite powerfull enough in any area for that. On the other hand it is possibly my favourite toon as it is so different from everything else. Such a large selection of powers to choose from and so many ways to play. I like being able to shapeshift too - makes me feel epic when posing in Atlas.
I play my PB as a dual personality, which it is really, an alien cohabiting one body. In my case, an ancient intelligence cohabiting the body of a homeless girl abused by her Hellion pimp, the kheld freed the homeless girl from this bondage. The roleplaying from that, the feel of the character is quite diverse. I know my PB can never be the dmg dealer that a scrapper or blaster is, but I like the "feel" of playing a human and an alien at the same time, very thrilling. In human form shes a child in action and in what she says, in nova, she is quiet and wise.
No vanilla floating blaster platform spouting leet skillllz for me!
@Boerewors
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You know, everytime I post to Kheldian threads I get forcefed how and why I should be having great fun with my PB. It irritates me to a great degree. Especially since it is in such a contradiction with my own experiences. Thank you for ruining my day again.
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My work here is done!! ((strikes heroic pose))
I'm with Maelwys on this, its the adaptability of the kheldian ATs I so enjoy.
As Gunny Highway says in "Heartbreak ridge" to his marines, "Adapt and overcome"
Or as Major Kusanagi in Ghost in the shell as to why they have a human in their otherwise 'all-cyborg' team: "Overspecialize and you become predictable, its a weakness that kills you slowly from within"
Imagine yourself as being part of a real life tank crew, where everyone is specialized to their role in the tank to the point that they have no training whatsoever in the other positions in the tank.
They may be the greatest tank to ever roll on the face of the earth, with a superior driver, marvellous gunner, fastest loader, brightest commander.
But what do they do if one in the crew is taken out?
If its the driver, the tank is gonna be a sitting duck since it can't move, if its the gunner it wont be able to shoot, if its the loader it has only one more shot left...
And thats why in real-life tank crews everyone trains to take over any of the other positions if need be.
Or to use another analogy. Apply enough pressure to a piece of wood. If its rigid, it will break, if its flexible, it will bend.
UNION
Officer Cuffz lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tank
Badge lvl 50 dwarf/human Peacebringer
Dark Air lvl 50 Ice/Cold Corruptor
Ayre lvl 50 Storm/Elec Defender
Total Cat: @Officer Cuffz
"When I say interview, I mean engage in combat and defeat..." -Laura Brunetti, on how to deal with Warriors.
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Such a large selection of powers to choose from and so many ways to play. I like being able to shapeshift too - makes me feel epic when posing in Atlas.
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Well my opinion is that the PBs choice of powers is extremely limited especially taking into account the amount of power pool powers you need to make playing even remotely enjoyable. Not to mention that you have to sacrifice effectiveness in enhancement slots if you want 'versatility'. And shapeshifting.. well it doesnt help much that I hate the appearance of the transparent energy aliens which are the only options you can transfrom into. Not to mention they look exactly same as everyone elses nova and dwarf.
I respecced away from nova recently because playing nova was sinking deep into my chair with eyes closed and my right hand going through target_closest and attack buttons in sequence. Opening my eyes only to chekc where the rest of the team had went. Such a limited form.
Versatility regarding kheldians seems like a big illusion to me. Every character out there has attacks. Lots of them have buffs and debuffs and other powers necessary to get the job done if someone dies. The only jobs a PB can actually swap between are those of a tank and damagedealer. That is the only thing unavailable to other toons.
Can I ask why you play a Kheld if you don't like how they look, think the powers are limited, don't enjoy the challenge of slotting effectively and don't feel they are powerful?
Personally I don't like playing scrappers - so I don't.
if you tri form a pb you dont actually need any additional powerpools at all, it has it all.
i've currently got two on the go (after i enjoyed the challenge of the warshade so much), ones triform and has it easy, the other is human only so far (will take dwarf) but shes quite tricky to play.
i think warshades have more reason to swap forms than peacebringers; which is probably where the monotinany (sp!) comes in, once in squid theres no reason to drop back to human other than to heal and a tiny duration build up.
i find them quite a high contrast to my warshade playing.
@ExtraGonk
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Can I ask why you play a Kheld if you don't like how they look, think the powers are limited, don't enjoy the challenge of slotting effectively and don't feel they are powerful?
Personally I don't like playing scrappers - so I don't.
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Actually I don't. My PB being about 18 months old and being lvl 27 should give a hint. Every once in a while I try to pick it up again and see if I had been mistaken, and end up explaining why it is on bottom of my 'characters that Id want to play' list.
Gonk, you mean two-form as in nova and dwarf? All the so-called versatility is found from the human form whereas nova and dwarf are the respective one-trick ponies after different tricks and having the limited power options.
Sorry to butt in again, random point but I saw that level 27 reference...
My PB pretty much sucked until level 35 when I was finally able to slot him decently. Incandescent Strike at 18 made him slightly easier than he was from 1-18, which was just plain abysmal, but I didn't really enjoy playing him till the mid-30s when I had all my heals and attacks slotted up, together with perma-pulsar.
I first rolled my PB as a "challenge" after taking my first toon to 50 (regen scrapper). I wanted to experience a toon that got easily mezzed and was far weaker to solo, and it was the challenge aspect that really kept me going till the late 30s. I now find him fantastic fun, but he certainly wasn't an early developer.
tri form as in human/nova/dwarf - i didnt think people counted nebulous form as a real form anymore.
the variety i find is you can build up nova blast loads and then drop to dwarf to catch the incoming damage and go foot stomp them over, nova and blast some more.
on the PB unless i explicitly go out of my way to use a human power then it has not much to offer, this will probably change around 30+ as Maelwys says, certainly thats when my warshade really took off too.
@ExtraGonk
Thanks for all the replys guys, they have help alot, i respected my PB now only have 1 Sheild, and i got Pulsar and build up, also got a new costume and now im back playing again and realy enjoying it, now all i need to do is get to 42 so that i can fully slot all my powers with 45 SO's
Cheers All
Aye, the pre-built background's definately a problem. It's something I didn't like about the AT, and although I obsess over my character's backstories I'm really not much of a roleplayer in-game.
![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
I rebelled, ignored the kheldian idea completely and made Unit Omega into a guyver clone. His bio does have a note saying he often gets mistaken for a kheldian though... Staying in human form most of the time can offset the "big glowing energy beastie" giveaway!
I think I understand where you're coming from about the contribution factor... your other toons specialise in their roles and a PB doesn't fit into that trend? Variety occurring between different toons but not within a single toon? (I remember you telling me that Hammerfall sucks at damage output but tanks very well, and you enjoyed playing Captain Skyfire because he's the complete opposite).
I guess my take on PB's is an extension of my "Red Mage" job which I played for three years in my previous MMO. That was very much a "jack of all trades, master of none" character too (well... technically it was a master of debuffing, but decidedly a jack overall!)