Human form PB - mez woes

Yeah, just sitting there "satisfied with everything" never does anything to actally ADD to the game, nor give the Devs any reason to work. And we DO want them to earn their living, don't we? :P

"The One"

Yes, it didn't work at all, it did however reduce the hold time.
(yes I know the numbers do not work out but 15 levels of human only being held almost non-stop with acrobatics isn't something I would forget)

And just out of curiousity, how is dwarf form any different from the -70% move speed and --60% recharge speed and the ugly look of granite form and rooted?

I don't want my costume obscured and I dont want my attack chain limited either.

So whats the difference?

OK... I'm pulling back from this discussion guys. Kheldians will not get solo-friendly Human-form mez-protection other than Break Free inspirations and the Devs have made that clear that's a design decision they simply do not want to break.

Being an avid TriFormer with every Kheldian I make has shown me one thing: we (TriFormers) are TankMages in fact, even when we solo, until such time as something goes wrong (95% of the time because we simply miscalculated, and probably 5% of the time its lag) and the transformation doesn't happen before we die.

I suppose I could believe that someone who has mastered a Tri-form Kheld would see better numerical performance vs. someone who has mastered a Human Only. However, I simply do not believe that the descrepancy is as great as some of you are suggesting, nor would I be surprized if it turns out that a High Level Human Only (I'll yield that low levels probably lean more toward formers) can actually perform better in more overall situations than a Tri-Form.

What do we use to judge these things: Calculators or actual Performance?

My Human Only PB can solo a PI Bank Mish, chock full of Malta and Carnies (some of the worst mezzers in the game), stop the robbery, halt all ambushes, complete all the side missions, then clear the entire map and have 10+ minutes to spare when done. I've done this more than once...

How fast can a Tri-form PB do it? I have no doubt that a good Tri-form build with a player who knows what they're doing could also do this (and has, I'm sure), but do they do it that much faster and more efficient? What's the threshold here?

Fighting EBs? I've taken down Carnie and Rikti EBs (remember that PBs have no Psi damage resistance).

How well can a Tri-form farm the Cimeroran wall? I play on virtue (populous server) I've never encountered another Kheld doing the wall besides me, and I do it routinely. I can hover above the Romans and blast them with impunity with my Ranged Attacks and AoEs, and with my Shield and Heals, they literally cannot touch me. In those moments, I become what this game doesn't want - a Tankmage. If I switch to lightform, I herd up two or three mobs, then wail with my AoEs. I have a lvl 50 Tanker, Brute, and Scrapper: my PB can mow down these Romans every bit as quickly as they do (sometimes seems quicker since I have more AoEs). It's so easy, almost like stealing, that I feel guilty for doing it too long...

Note that all of the above is when soloing. On teams it just goes up from there. On large teams, I'm right there with the Scrappers and Blasters when dealing damage, but unlike the Scrapper I have a boatload of AoEs and unlike the Blaster I have Shields and Heals.

And yet I hear that the Tri-Form is, in the hands of a master player, supposed to be obviously head and shoulders above and better than this???

As I said, I'll yield that *maybe* a Tri-form is, in the hands of a master play, more efficient numbers-wise than a Human Only - but I'm afraid I have think the degree of difference is not all that much - and it may just be the other way around.

Maybe I'll really try to master my Tri-form alt. build and find out for myself, but it's almost like taking a test in school. My classmate might be a bit smarter than me, but if I'm smart enough to score a 100 on the test, well, how much better can she do than that? If both builds can score a 100, what will we have proven?

I find the discussion as a whole, kind of pointless.
Aside from the humorous bits, those can continue...

I'll admit that a Forming Warshade seems to have more potential than a Human Only Warshade (don't know from experience - never got one past lvl 14). But Peacebringer's Human Only, esp. at high levels, seems every bit as effective as a Former. My lvl 50 PB's 2nd build is Tri-Form, and it's pretty good, but I can just arrest things faster (and without the shapeshifting clunkiness) with Human Only.

There is one aspect, though, where a PB Tri-form is perhaps better, and that's when a team needs a Niche performer. Say, all a team needs is extra DPS or can't find a Tanker, a Tri-form can fills those rolls. I played someone's AE arc (something about the Marines). Team had a Tanker and 3 Scrappers haha. Star asked me if I could switch to my build that had Nova for the extra AoE DPS. I did, and that's pretty much all I did, hover back and blast clumped mobs. I was pretty effective, but I still think my Human Only would have been effective in that situation (or at least as good). A Human PB, with those single target Melee attacks, shields and heals, is better against bosses and above - and this arc was chock full of them...

And let's be honest, no Niche-player is ever a *Must Have* in today's CoH world.

I have ALOT less experience on the PB side (one 44 PB I rarely ever play), but my experience is on a PB not having the squid is not alot of a loss, the PB's focus is on single target damage and hard targets, while a WS's focus is mainly AOE damage on soft to medium targets.
This is why my PB is mainly human with dwarf for heavy tanking situations while the WS uses mainly the squid and dwarf forms and human for the buffs and heals.

A PB can AOE but it's not it's forte, human form single target heavy hitter attacks is, and the reverse is true on the WS. In my opinion the force multipliers on a WS simply make the squid form AOE's too good to pass up.

While Ascendantia was leveling up to Lv50, she used to have a strictly solo build. On it, her Cone and AoE Bright Nova blasts were proc'ed so much that she usually didn't need more than a one-two combo. On teams — that were not All Kheldian teams — she usually obliterated most things before the rest of the team even got there. When the difficulty was raised and enemies would survive her "alphastrike", Solar Flare, Photon Seekers and White Dwarf Flare would finish the job.

Bright Nova's definitely not a great kiter or bomber like Dark Nova is, but it still is the best tool in a PB's arsenal for pulling mobs and if you know what you're doing, you can stay in Nova and still defeat a full mob without getting hit to badly, and that's while solo and without any shields.