Love for PBs and their epics

Hi:

I had a PB for the longest time, and somehow I am not nearly as excited with it, as I am with my Villain side epics.

The reason for my low excitement for the PB is that they are weak when alone, they do get stronger as their team is larger, yet do nothing for the team on to itself, they can't learn teleport pool powers, have no choices for epic powers as well, and worst of all my team mates are punished by having mean extra aggroe thanks to my presence.

When I play my Widow or Soldier, I am kinda weak when alone; so from that aspect I am at par with the PB. The widow and soldier, has no longbow extra spawn to hunt you down, that puts me ahead of the PB and thier obnoxious penalty spawns. the Widow and Soldier gives the entire team added Defense which increases as there are more team mates and yes both the team and I get better; that is far better than "just" the PB getting stronger.

So what changes to the PB would make sense to make them a little bit more effective in teams or even solo?

1. My thoughts are that just like the Villains give defense to all, let the PB give a damage bonus to all, to include themselves.

2. Remove the added spawn penalty for just being a PB, thus making it easier for them to get into PUGs and TFs. I must confess, to my great shame; if I am attempting to do any Master type TF in a team and a PB gets on the team, I drop out, I feel pretty certain we are going to fail it, the TF is hard enough as is before adding more BS to it.

3. Let the PB have access to any other blue side AT epics; that should really help them feel epic and balance out in a way a role-player may really get excited about.

4, Give PBs access to TP auxiliary pool, so they can learn teleport friend (handy team power for TFs)

Hugs

Stormy

1. *shrug* I'm already able to take on multiple roles, thanks. I don't need to be a "veat-alike." And leadership's available, if you so choose to do so.

Of course, the other question is "How do you balance this" with having already high-damage classes on a team? Besides, the team's already being given a benefit - aside from the multi-role ability in many Khelds. Namely... they are seeing things defeated faster, because one or more of the members are (depending on team makeup) not being mezzed as much and/or defeating things even faster.

2. No. The extra spawn is NOT that big a deal, and has a place in the storyline.

I'll also say I've *never* had an issue getting onto a team - certainly not "And I'm bringing some extra XP in for you in the form of an extra mob." You're overreacting by dropping out.

3. What about warshades?
3a. "Epic" = tied to a storyline.
3b. Mine don't require them to feel "epic." And this as an RPer.
3c. APPs are designed to help normal ATs fill in holes - squishies get defense/resistance, tanks get holds (for instance.) Controllers get ranged and AOE damage. Khelds, by design, *don't have those holes.*

4. What about Warshades, who get this as an inherent already?

See my Guides and Tutorials

And Kheldians already get a ton of powers in their primary and secondary to make up for the fact that they don't get access to Ancillary Power Pools.

I do think Peacebringers need some work, but none of these is the answer, IMO.

Veats don't have a tank form, a blaster form and a mixed mode either. The best part of the HEAT and the most difficult to get it right is the option to change roles from hardy tank to squishy blaster.

/insert required disagreement with EG here.

See my Guides and Tutorials

The Kheldians do get more powers than anyone else, but it's restricted to the specific forms. Adding the ability for an Epic Pool would only increase that at the cost of the slots which many Kheldian players make note of, and I don't think the slots should ever change. Adding an Epic would add more options to the Kheldians for powers but also means they have to plan slotting even more. I honestly wouldn't see many players taking the epic aside from human only Kheldians.

As for the buff change I think only from a concept standpoint should it happen. I find it odd that the heroic class is leaching power from its teammates to boost itself while the villain class is giving power to its teammates. It's backwards conceptually. I'm not saying change the VEATs, they're fine as they are, but I would add team buffs based on form to the Kheldians.

Again to give the perception of balance between the HEAT and VEAT I would also add Longbow spawns to teams where a VEAT is present. I wouldn't worry about Cysts or anything like that, just add Longbow mobs as they are.

I do agree though that the strength of the Kheldians over the VEAT is the ability to serve multiple roles in a team. I've defended that before in the HEATs suck compared to VEATs threads. But changing the buff to team based, even at lower numbers, fits better with the hero concept, the epic pool add would fit fine with the dev montra of risk vs reward, and adding the travel pools I don't think hurts much as I don't see them being taken much, at least not the travel power as the Kheldians have an inherit travel power they get early. It would mean more power choices for hover, tp friend, whatever and again falls in risk vs reward as you lose a primary/secondary power and possibly have to worry about slotting.

Hm.

Both Villain and hero "epic" archetypes were designed for the team experience. It's kind of obvious that many lessons were taken from khelds in how to make a multi-functional team archetype viable, but there is still an obvious difference in HOW the two work on teams.

Arachnos' team bonus comes from what they give other team members, knowing that with their leadership buffs the team will be stronger, and capable of doing more than elsewise. The buffs are their direct contribution.

Kheldians' team bonus comes from what the team gives them, upping their performance. This leads many to look sideways at the archetype and say "really? a team AT that takes but doesn't give?" This is a misnomer, as the team bonus is actually there to boost the real 'team bonus' khelds are supposed to bring: their performance. The more team members a kheld has, the more beneficial it is to have a kheldian around due to how much better they become. It's an indirect value.

Part of the issue peace bringers have that warshades do not is the way their performance scale. Warshades, due to their AoE self-buff abilities, become stronger and stronger with more mobs around, something directly associated with bigger teams. Thus, in bigger teams with more buffs and more targets, they shine brighter and brighter performance-wise. Peace bringers don't have the scaling buffs from enemy groups to stack with the scaling ally buffs, as such they do not increase their performance to the same degree on a big team.

I do not think the question should be as much about extra direct contribution to team members, but about making peace bringers' performance contribution better.

I personally would like to see some of the current self buffs from cosmic balance inherently added to you as you level as well as a damage buff for human form. Once this is done take cosmic balance and turn it into a buff for team mates where you give your team mates buffs for standing near you. If you have blasters you give your team mates damage resistance, etc.

Team mates would get all of the old buffs that you normally would have gotten. These are team mate buffs only and not buffs for you. Since you will be getting a moderate inherent buff from the old cosmic balance buff values.