Random thought for Kheldian power alterations.

A thought popped into my head today about Kheldians while reading LX's thread about proposed alterations to Peacebringers.

Now, this most likely violates the ambiguous cottage rule, but what would you think if the human form shields offered defense instead of resistance?

As it stands, you could stay human with three toggles for resistance, adding up to significant endurance drain, or go dwarf for even better resistance and mez protection, all at virtually no endurance cost. As far as survivabilty is concerned, the decision is a no-brainer. Having defense based shields would offer even more versatility to Kheldians.

Obviously to account for balance the shields would offer half the defense that they currently offer in resistance, but is that enough of a reduction? There is a lot of defense available through IOs, which could easily lead to softcapped human builds... On second thought, as I'm typing this I realize it's probably a terrible suggestion. But what do you think?

I just thought of something else though: Even with softcapped defense, all it takes is one lucky mez to die. Thanks to suppression, the defense powers no longer add anything while mezzed, and with no protection, this situation wouldn't be uncommon. Maybe it's not too overpowered.

This is an interesting idea, however, I think that PB's would be quite annoyed because Warshade would gain your defense-shields plus Eclipse which may as well mean they're nearly invulnerable to almost anything because with defense shields a lot of mezzing attacks will miss, and what doesn't miss will be resisted, and what's not resisted can be wiped clean by smart use of Stygian Circle and/or the life-drain attack.

If however the Kheldians shields offered a +Def bonus to teammates around a Kheldian, now that I'd embrace even though I never take these shields on any of my Kheldians.

The way I see it, the balance factor for Human Form shields being weaker than Dwarf protection is a) you can fire ranged attacks in Human Form, and b) you have to retoggle if you form shift. So except for the Smash/Lethal shield (or any one of them, which you can turn on as you form shift) you aren't really getting the full efficiency out of them unless you are a Human Form only Kheld. And if you're Human Form only, you don't HAVE Dwarf Form.

The only real advantage I see in it is that you can't be mezzed by attacks that miss, so there would be some mezz protection that Khelds lack in Human form. But you WILL be hit, and so you would be mezzed, and it would likely be randomly, when you can't prepare for it. So I don't think in the end it would really be an advantage.

I wouldn't really oppose it, but it is as it is, and I think it works fine as it is. It feels somewhat different from my experience with Force Fields, but then there is a heal, as well. The devs may be somewhat less inclined to combine Def with healing as to combing Res with healing. (Because it counters the big weakness of Defense, that you can be hit hard randomly for a lot of damage)

Thematically, I like Resistance better (a sort of sturdy toughness instead of attacks just missing you altogether), but Defense seems to be better supported and more effective in the game (plus you can slot LotG +Rchgs in Defense ) Resistances should be beefed up a bit, IMHO

However, fx-wise, I also think Bubbles are more appropriate looking for Defense than Resistance, so I wish the Kheld Shields were not Bubbles and instead just Auras. Heck, call them Auras (Thermal Aura, Quantum Aura...)

And once again, I'm in complete agreement about the Kheld inherent boosting team stats...

Here's how Castle could recode the Kheldian inherent power to be more team friendly:

Take the current effects and ... chop them in half ... and then apply them twice.

Half of the effect is a large radius PBAoE team effect. This boosts the Kheldian plus all of your teammates within range. If a teammate is within your PBAoE radius, they "fuel" the buff for you and you in turn give back to them. This half of the effect is ALWAYS ON ... even when in Nova and Dwarf forms.

The other half of the effect is self only. This half of the effect is only on when you're in human form. Since the only one who "loses" the effect when you're out of human form is yourself, there is no whining from teammates to "get back in human form so I can get your buffs!" dynamic constricting how Kheldian characters are played.

Power levels remain exactly where they already are ... but half the benefit we currently get remains available in forms *and* is shared with the team.

S imple
E asy
E ffective

Not being done ...

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Why go backwards to give human only builds a bigger buff than forms?

Quote:

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