Peacebringer: Stated versus Apparent Design

Historical Information - I created Celmor the Peacebringer the day that Issue 3 went live and introduced Kheldians to City of Heroes. Back then, Kheldians had a persistent dam-res debuff on them, voids and quantum gunners were actually a threat, you couldn't shift to dwarf while mezzed, all your human form toggles were shut off by mez instead of suppressed and human form damage was worse than it is now.

I pushed Celmor to 50 before Issue 5 landed. Possibly before Issue 4. During that time he was changed from tri-form to bi-form to human-only and back again several times in an attempt to find some combination that I didn't consider substandard for soloing. All the while being told various combinations of "they're a team based AT." I've never accepted that. I continue to find no reason to accept it now. Celmor was wiped from existence twice. Once at 50 and again at 30.

As per recent changes and statements made by the devs, the latest view pushes nova/dwarf use as the "intended" playstyle for Kheldians.

In this post, I plan to show that this belief is flatly untrue when concerning the Peacebringer Archetype by showing that the forms are, instead, nothing but supplemental and situational.

The Primary Form for the Peacebringer is the Human Form. It is the form you have at level 1. It is the form you drop to when you turn off all your powers. It comes packaged with everything one would expect a standard damage dealer to have for a character in this game in order to get through the provided content. Almost.

Like a blaster, it has both single target and aoe ranged attacks and lacks mez protection. Like a scrapper, it has both single target and aoe melee attacks and has damage resistance toggles, a hit point buff and a self heal.

Unlike its counterparts, it has also been given a single target heal ally. This last addition appears to be a nod toward the "jack of all trades" concept. Some might argue that the PB also has control with Pulsar, but there are many damage sets that also have a pure control power. Super Strength has Hand Clap, Stone Melee has Fault, Dark Melee has Touch of Fear, and so on.

More than anything, the Human Form Peacebringer can easily be described as a Blaster/Scrapper hybrid that's been given a superior version of Aid Other and Aid Self as part of the archetype's power sets.

This brings us to the two powers that make the Peacebringer stand out from its blaster/scrapper cousins: Bright Nova and White Dwarf.

Bright Nova is a toggle power assigned to the Peacebringer AT that is available at level 6. Using this power grants you a damage buff, a tohit buff, a recovery buff that just surpasses the cost of the toggle, permanent fly and 4 attacks that use a slightly better than blaster level AT ranged damage modifier. While this toggle is activated, all of your damage mitigation abilities are shut down. Any passives you have in the human form cease to function. All other primary form powers are blocked from your use.

White Dwarf is a toggle power assigned to the Peacebringer AT that is available at level 20. Using this power grants you considerable damage resistance to all but Psi, a substantial hit point buff, 3 attacks at the VEAT melee damage scale, a self heal, a taunt and teleport. It is saddled with the same negatives that come with the nova toggle.

As stated earlier, current developer statements along with some player agreement state that skipping these two powers out of the 26 available to the Peacebringer is akin to a Mastermind not taking the three powers that grant the mastermind his 6 henchmen. Such a statement implies that a Peacebringer is not only gimped without those two toggles, but that he Should be gimped without them.

I don't share this viewpoint. I feel that given the other 24 powers accessible to the Peacebringer, skipping the two form powers is more like a claws/sr scrapper skipping Focus and Quickness. Yes, there will be lessened performance in doing so, but gimp is hardly an accurate description of what you're left with. Or at least, Should be hardly an accurate description.

Due to the fact that the PB human form has so few powers that carry over to the forms, unlike its cousin the warshade, I believe the case can be made that the belief that the forms are integral to the PB rather than supplemental and situational is an invalid belief and should be tossed aside to allow for changes to be made to the Peacebringer to bring it more in line with the other archetypes this game offers or at least more in line with its cousin, the Warshade.


Dwarf and Nova: Integral or not?

The human form PB has three dam-res toggles that when slotted with SOs amount to 35.1% dam-res to S/L/F/C/E/N as well as a passive that slotted provided another 17.55% dam-res to E/N. It also comes with a dull pain clone that provides dam-res to T with a value of 23.4% when slotted.

With all taken and slotted, we are left with:
35.1% DR to S/L/F/C
52.65% DR to E/N
23.4% DR to T

This is on top of the heightened HP from Essence Boost and a considerable self heal from Reform Essence.

In times of need, Light Form can be used and stacked on the existing dam-res, pushing the human form to the dam-res cap to all but psi with a single dam-res SO slotted. Even without that SO, all but psi are capped except toxic which would be at 75.9% if Essence Boost is also up.

When White Dwarf is enabled and fully slotted, you have 58.5 DR to all but psi. If Essence Boost is stacked on that, toxic DR is pushed to 81.9.

I find these numbers interesting. The human form can attain higher levels of damage resistance than the "tank" form provided. While it does also gain mez protection from the form, its damage output is drastically reduced mostly due to losing access to buildup and partly due to having 7 less attacks to work with. Couple that with the fact that it loses all ranged damage capability and you even lose the mitigation provided from range. Even without the use of lightform, the human form's DR to Ene and Neg is only ~6% less.

And yet I'm supposed to find this single power/form integral to my survival? I don't even have access to it for the first 19 levels of my existence.

Integral? No. Can it help? Absolutely. The extra S/L dam-res on top of the heightened hitpoints, further heightened if you pop Essence Boost prior to shifting into Dwarf, on top if the Dwarf's own self heal and mez protection obviously make the power desirable as a way to keep yourself standing when things get rough.

Please note those words: Desirable when things get rough. Situational and supplemental. Necessary? Hardly.

We move on to the Nova form. Available at level 6, this power is possibly closer to a "necessary" toggle due to the primary form's low damage output. Why is low damage an issue for the Peacebringer's primary form? In the early game, the mechanics of success are extremely basic, especially for an AT with a damage primary and mitigation secondary. You have to be able to dish out enough damage to defeat your enemies before the incoming damage surpasses your mitigation and you suffer defeat instead. That's all there is to it.

Nova form's inherent tohit and damage buffs coupled with a higher ranged damage modifier allows the PB to drastically increase his damage output but at the cost of his damage resistance. The question is whether the loss of the dam-res shields, access to temp powers and necessity to shift out of nova to gain the two powers available for carryover, essence boost and buildup, are actually worth the extra damage output and whether the disparity between nova and human damage is wider than it should be.

Buildup is a 72% buff for a PB and lasts 10 seconds. It takes about a second to cast. Down to 9 seconds of buff. I'm attempting to get all of the animation times for shifting, but the general consensus has always been 3 seconds for going into nova or dwarf form. Down to 6 seconds of buff. Not factoring in Arcanatime for any of this, that means I'm going to get a single round of nova blasts off before the buff period is over. Factoring in arcanatime, we're probably going to be lucky if we can get off a single blast after the two aoes.

Essence boost is obviously a much larger boon due to its much longer duration, but it is also coupled with an extreme recharge time making it near useless before level 22 and SOs.

But is it necessary? No. Even as is, one can solo a Peacebringer from 1 to 50 on the lowest difficulty. Does the Nova form supplement the AT's damage output? Yes. Is it also situational?

There's the rub. As it stands, the human form damage output is so low that not taking nova form to carry you to level 22 for SOs, or possibly level 18 for Incandescent Strike, while not gimped, isn't fun. Being stuck at the minimum difficulty and running out of end and nearly meeting defeat every spawn where you must rest between each spawn is not fun. Perhaps it is for some players, but I'm not one of them. Not when I'm attempting to play and enjoy a damage dealing archetype with a mitigation secondary.

With Issue 13, the human form damage modifiers for melee and range were increased to .85 and .8 respectively. While many of us were happy with this buff, I don't feel that it was enough for the Peacebringer.

The balance point the developers must reach is whether that damage output versus mitigation is set high enough to remain fun for the player, but low enough to provide a worthwhile challenge while maintaining the premise put into place that team based ATs solo slower than ATs better designed for soloing.

The question is: What's a Peacebringer? Does it bring massive control to a team? No. Does it bring any team buffs/debuffs? It has a single ally heal. One that would be considered weak by the ATs designed with buff/debuff powersets. Does it bring aggro management? Some, yes. Its dwarf form comes with a taunt that requires a tohit check. Do the powers available to the PB tell us what the role of the PB actually is?

Yes. As stated throughout this post, the Peacebringer is a damage dealing AT. As a damage dealing AT, it is unique in that it has the OPTION to take one power that radically increases its damage output at the price of radically lessened mitigation and the OPTION to take another power that gives it mez protection, increased HP and dam-res at the cost of its damage output.

Those are handy options to have around but this particular archetype is NOT designed to have them be considered integral and mandatory.

If form shifting was the "intended design" plan for the Peacebringer, then the forms should have been inherent and accessible at level 1. Even with vastly reduced starting values that ramped up with level. The human form itself would have been designed to be properly integrated with form usage.

This is not the case. Rather what we have been given are forms haphazardly slapped onto a fully functional human form which was then "appropriately" nerfed in the name of "balance."

And now The Wall: Welcome to the Cottage Rule. No change is going to be made to Peacebringers that drastically changes the form and function they currently utilize.

We're not going to get mez protection in the human form. We're not going to get a Build Up overhaul to turn it into long duration buff more useful to to forms. We're not going to get human form toggles on the squid or any of the other Many ideas we've thrown out here.

This leaves our options VERY limited.

And that's where I find myself back at square one. How do we alter the Peacebringer enough to bring it on par in overall performance with its cousin the Warshade without drastically altering the set itself?

The answer comes from the archetype's role: Damage. Should we buff nova damage more? No. It already surpasses blaster damage before SOs.

Should we buff dwarf damage? Can't. That goes against the "give up damage for more mitigation" role of the power.

That leaves the Peacebringer Primary Form as the area we should buff.

No nerf to the inherent needed.

No reason to give the same buff to Warshades since they are the superior tri-former and thus the superior Kheldian when working as designed.

Buff the Peacebringer Human form Ranged and Melee damage modifiers to VEAT levels and call it day.

Thanks for your time, everyone.

This I can fully support.

I would go into details as to why but I have been told by my SG/Coalition members I'm far to longwinded on kheldian matters as it is.

So I will simply say I can find no downside to this proposal.

OF2, are you SURE you can find nothing wrong with this post? Even THESE statements?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba As stated earlier, current developer statements along with some player agreement state that skipping these two powers out of the 26 available to the Peacebringer is akin to a Mastermind not taking the three powers that grant the mastermind his 6 henchmen. Such a statement implies that a Peacebringer is not only gimped without those two toggles, but that he Should be gimped without them. I don't share this viewpoint. I feel that given the other 24 powers accessible to the Peacebringer, skipping the two form powers is more like a claws/sr scrapper skipping Focus and Quickness. Yes, there will be lessened performance in doing so, but gimp is hardly an accurate description of what you're left with. Or at least, Should be hardly an accurate description. Integral? No. Can it help? Absolutely. Please note those words: Desirable when things get rough. Situational and supplemental. Necessary? Hardly. But is it necessary? No. Even as is, one can solo a Peacebringer from 1 to 50 on the lowest difficulty. Does the Nova form supplement the AT's damage output? Yes. Is it also situational? If form shifting was the "intended design" plan for the Peacebringer, then the forms should have been inherent and accessible at level 1. Even with vastly reduced starting values that ramped up with level. The human form itself would have been designed to be properly integrated with form usage. This is not the case. Rather what we have been given are forms haphazardly slapped onto a fully functional human form which was then "appropriately" nerfed in the name of "balance."

Because this is exactly what I've been saying all along... I may not be as thorough or as much "politically correct" in my presentation, but I've always said that the forms shouldn't be considered "necessary" in order to survive with this AT. Is it preventing one from reaching their "full potential?" Yes. Just as not choosing a specific 2ndary power like "Quickness" from the SR set would be preventing you from having that 20% extra global recharge, not picking the dwarf form would be preventing you from having that extra HP buff and "emergency-oh-crap-I'm-gonna-die" toggle. But is it gimping you? Is it absolutely necessary? I think not.

As Bill Z Bubba noted, the devs have chosen to make these form changes as toggles you pick as you level up. If they were supposed to be considered "completely integrated" into the *Kheldian experience*, they would have been something you got at level 1 to use as you leveled up.

I believe because of the aforementioned *fact*, that is why having different forms on a Kheldian (tri, bi, human) is considered "optional" and ultimately a "playstyle choice."

Is having a human-form Kheldian "not reaching your full potential?" Sure. Anyone I think could admit to that.

But, is nerfing it OR speaking out against a buff for it just because one might think that "if you don't play tri-form you're WRONG" the right way to go about things?

I would say the answer for that would be a "hell no."

Obviously, I'm not saying anyone is speaking out against it, so I'm not attacking anyone (and also think the fact that I have to state something like this in my posts because of the thin-skinned people out there is laughable)... I just feel that a point needs to be made (if or when Devs read this thread) that there ARE those of us out here who LIKE to play human-only builds, and actually quite enjoy them. I think voting for a "nerf" or changes to human-only builds just because you may think that playing a tri-former is the ONLY way to play is just BS.

Again, I'm not advocating changes to tri-formers. I'm not saying human-form Warshades should ALSO get buffed with this proposed change. I'm not saying that "the Dev's shouldn't change anything" or "leave it as is!"

What I AM doing is merely making a point (specifically to the Devs that may read this) that if there are considerations for changes to Khelds, that there needs to be a complete consideration given for ALL the Kheldian players out there, and how making any changes would affect them--not JUST the tri-former Kheldians out there.

Now, all that said, I will also say that I can't find anything wrong with what Bill Z stated in the OP... There IS a huge difference between PB and WS gameplay, and I don't think buffing the human-form damage would really negatively affect our tri's, bi's, OR human-only Kheldian communities.

"Alien"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

This is an extremely well-constructed argument, and one I can find little fault with. I've always been a proponent of Kheldians having more viable build options, of being the AT that gets away from the 'cookie cutter' builds that so many other ATs and powerset combinations fall into. While I've been aware of the difficulty in playing Human-Only variants for some time, this post brings the issues into sharp relief and makes a reasoned argument for change. Kudos to Bill.

While I've no idea what the current 'vision' is for Kheldians, I think a design goal of making this AT support as many variants as possible (while still retaining reasonable balance, of course) is a laudable one. While Kheldians of both stripes remain my favorite ATs to play, there's clear room for improvement here.

I'd be interested to see how the numbers come out when if the PB's human form damage is recalculated using the VEAT modifiers, just to get a sense of what sort of buff we're talking about here. I agree wholeheartedly that a buff is called for, but how much of one is always the sticking point. Based solely on subjective experience, I think using the VEAT modifiers would probably be just about right, though of course then we have to decide what an acceptable new level of DPS is, how much is too much, how little is too little, etc.

I'd also be interested to see how the buffed PB numbers compare to the current Warshade's. Granted, a Warshade is better equipped to play tri-form, but I'm not entirely convinced there's sound reasoning for buffing PBs and not WSs for purposes of human form viability. I agree that a Human-Only PB probably needs it more, but that alone to my mind isn't sufficient reason not to tweak the WS too. Very few people take the WS human form ranged attacks now, and generally powers that are widely panned indicate a problem (We won't even get into Group Energy Flight).

Anyway, that's probably enough from me. I hope this OP garners some well-deserved attention.

Ok, I'll grant 'ya that. :P

"Alien"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades The way you play changes your IO slotting..

Well written Bill. I can definately see your point of view as a soloist. With improving solo permormance in mind, I agree completely that Human form can use a buff....even though this is a difficult idea to wrap my mind around as a player who rarely runs without a team. In large teams, I find my PB quite powerful, and more than a boon to the team....as a Tri-Former though. I've almost no experience teamwise in human only.

Edit: Just another thought...if the Human only attack powers received a buff, I might actually invest some slots in them. As it is now, Nova and Dwarf are nearly completely slotted, with a few slots in the human self heals and in Pulsar for emergencies. I spend most of my PB time in either Nova or Dwarf. I switch forms considerably more often on my Warshade.

Signed...

Well written Bill. I know that Khelds just received a much needed update a few issues ago, but having the devs give them another looksee does not seem unreasonable. I think the proposals that Bill has put forth make good sense.

All I really want is solar flare changed to knockdown, chasing after mobs all the time on a melee (human PB) is a pain. If lightform also worked as a breakfree would be a nice addition.
If light form was like 'strength of will' or 'one with the shield' that would be sweet.

I agree that Peacebringers need a buff, but I don't think you're going in the right direction with a lot of this.

First of all, there are a few iffy premises in your post. According to you, Nova form and Dwarf form aren't really integral, so the solution is... to buff human form? Drop those forms and just focus on human? That seems backwards, and certainly not the direction the devs are going with the AT.

And it really does not follow that if Kheldians were really shapeshifters, they would have all the shapeshifting at level one. No AT is truly what it can be at level one, and they all develop differently. A low level blaster does not run the same as a high level blaster. And most people on the Tanker forums will tell you that Tanks don't really come in to their own until the 20s. Does that mean they're not supposed to be able to take damage well as an AT? No... and that's the premise of that point in your post. Also, something more minor: Kheldians already have slotting issues, so you want to exacerbate that by having ten powers to slot at level one? I don't. Power progression works okay for the forms. For a tri-form, it usually works to focus on a form at a time as you level up. By the time I have Nova to where it's decently slotted, Dwarf comes in, etc. That's pretty decent design, I would say (now if you want to change up some power orders for human form so it can work better at lower levels, that I could get behind, though it is harder to argue with the devs).

You're also making buffs to Dwarf, etc. seem too impossible... Dwarf form was buffed a good bit with the I13 changes, so it obviously can be done, if it is proven that it merits it. I would also agree with Muon that buffing the duration of Build-up for Peacebringers isn't necessarily breaking the cottage rule.

Another huge premise of your post is that Nova and Dwarf form are not integral. Just useful. In all honesty, that is how a shapeshifter AT should work. Usefulness in all areas, and you pick and choose what you want (either in your build, or as you're playing). But there is a leaning in your post that shows you don't really like the forms and rather would go without them, which is iffy as well (I would never talk about Nova and Dwarf as you do, as I use them all the time... they're integral to what I do with my triform). That's because people have different approaches to Kheldians, and they really should all work (human, bi-form, and tri-form). It really seems like the devs are okay with that, too: they improved all three forms with I13. So any changes should be made to work with that in mind.

So I agree that improvements need to be made, but not necessarily a straight buff to Human form for Peacebringers. In fact, I would say you are confusing two issues. 1) Peacebringer powers need some buffs to get them in line with Warshades. 2) The Kheldian AT has some continued wonkiness that needs improving to make them work better. And I don't think a straight buff to Peacebringer Human form will cut it, either. Here's my two cents on improvements for the two issues.

1) For Peacebringers, there are three main powers that need some tweaking (hopefully I'm not forgetting one). Photon Seekers could be okay for what they are if they had lower recharge. I can use them too little for what they do (they are a nice burst of damage, but it is random and uncontrollable, and in a small area).

Pulsar is far weaker than the Warshade's AOE control. It should be a guaranteed Mag 3 (like the Warshade), and maybe have its animation shaved a bit. Mobs still react instantly if you miss, so that's a long time where they can respond to you in melee range if this power misses them.

Build-up is an issue if you're going to use it in a form. I personally think formshifting should be made easier, but barring that, an easy solution would be to make PB's Build-up like Fiery Embrace. Increase the recharge and lengthen its duration (should buff all damage for 20 seconds, though). That's a fairly simple solution to that problem, that doesn't get into the AT issues of formshifting.

2) Which brings us to AT issues. How can we make the forms more usable, and keep human form viable? I suspect that the devs tried to make some things work for this, and the time/tech problem got in the way, but that is just speculation.

First of all, formshifting does allow you to be more adaptable. But current mechanics encourage and inhibit that. Why can we drop instantly to human form, but Nova and Dwarf take a few seconds? This animation time should be lowered dramatically. This alone would solve a lot of quibbles, I think (might not even need to change build up for Peacebringers if it is done).

Also, there are a lot of human form powers that being in the forms excludes you from. I would suggest that more of these powers should carry over to the forms, which would allow for the forms to be more viable, and for human form to work better as well. There's obviously a balance point in there somewhere, as things can't get too overpowered. But being able to use the human form heals in either Nova or Dwarf form would make them be more viable, but without making them overpowered, I think. Depending on the balance point, you might be able to give human form minor mez protection, because the forms would be able to do more things as well.

Though we might have to lower some capabilities for human form to get the mez protection. I don't know if this would come from the shields, or what.

I do wish we knew what the devs were trying to make happen and where they are at with it. Because I do think Kheldians need some adjustments, and Peacebringers need some powers tweaked. But we don't know what the devs thing, what they're working on, and what's on the back burner until after Going Rogue (as I don't realistically think any improvements to the AT overall are going to happen before this... maybe some Kheld powers, though).

I went on for forever, sorry. But it's a worthwhile discussion.

I'll try to quickly cover my thoughs more clearly but I am pressed for time as I work in about 40 minutes.

I do think PB's need a buff to get to where WS's currently are.

I do think there needs to remain enough benefit to form dancing to justify the forms use on what "IS" a shapeshifting AT.

I have never thought there was just one way to play Kheldians but there simply is ONE most effective way to do so curently and I would not like to see this change.

I do not believe everyone needs to build my way or anyway, but we do have to acknowledge for the new Khelds that the one way (with a few style choices) will on average give better results assuming a zero sum point of learning Khelds.

I believe Bill's suggestion would place PB's at the point WS's are currently at because on a PB the human form has enough front loaded damage where the squid form can actually be skipped and very little functionality will be lost.

In my opinion WS's are a whole different animal that would require a whole new debate reguarding any changes.

Thats all I have time for atm.

What's the biggest reason people (OP in particular) want to see the human form strengthened?

I am likely in the minority, but mine is purely style points. I simply do not want to flip flop around between my desired human costume and some fugly squid or lumbering dung beetle.

So give me power customization options something like :
Bright Nova changes form to {Squid, Ball of Light, Human with Aura}
and i'll be satisfied.

Yes when I solo I would prefer to do more damage in human form... i don't find switching to and from the other forms to be a smooth enough mechanic to be much fun when solo. But I do like the squid damage increase when on teams where I don't have to worry about my bright form weaknesses.

So yeah, i guess I agree with the OP regarding Human form being buffed for damage output, but, this desire mainly stems from the fact that I don't want to float around looking like a flying Coral Polyp to do decent damage.

I don't think the Cottage Rule applies to either Build Up or mez protection here. First of all, changing Build Up so it provides a different duration of build up is NOT a change in Build Up. Remember, the example was changing Build Up so it "builds up a cottage". Giving Build Up more duration or magnitude, with a proportionate change in recharge and End cost, of course, would be akin to increasing the damage of an attack, with an increased recharge and End cost. Those kinds of "tweaks" happen all the time, and aren't considered violations of the Cottage Rule.

As for mez protection, as we don't have a power that provides that (outside of Dwarf Form) the Cottage Rule doesn't apply since it applies to Powers. All the Cottage Rule says is that Powers cannot lose existing functionality. That doesn't mean additional functionality can't be added. The real issue with mez protection is whether its essentially binary effect would make the Human Form TOO powerful with respect to the Dwarf Form. That doesn't mean a partial mez protection effect like Defiance or Domination couldn't be added.

I don't think the base damage of Kheldians should be any different from each other, any more than I think the base damage of SoA should be different from each other. I would rather add any damage to the Human form through its Powers. And I will point out that while Warshades do have the better control capabilities and the longer duration build up, they really don't have the same melee capability. Their melee attacks are pretty powerful, I have found, but they're more utility powers, giving heals and build up and holding the foe instead of just pure damage.

Maybe increasing the duration of Build Up is really all that is needed, if the duration of Mire is what gives Warshades the advantage.

I think I'll also add that as the better direct damage dealer of the two, the Peacebringer is also likely closer to what the devs think of as a "tank mage", that is, a ranged damage dealer with defenses. Which the devs have shown they greatly fear, perhaps to an overexaggerated extent. Warshades have control powers and get stronger against more foes, SoA have debuffs and provide more of a team role, Peacebringers have nothing to fall back on but more damage. The devs seem to consider extra damage the last possible option for a range/defense AT.

When I play my human form Peacebringer, what always stands out to me is the fact that my ranged attacks are considerably weaker than my melee attacks.

Given that I also have a sonic/fire blaster, a fire/ice blaster, an electric/electric blaster, rad/rad defender... Well, if the damage scalar for peacebringer human form ranged attacks was brought up to .9 or even 1.0, I'd start feeling like they weren't a waste of my time to take.

Right now it just feels like I'm using the attacks to fill in the attack chain until my melee attacks recharge.

Overall, playstyle feels more like a tanker with scrapper level defenses. It's very meh.

I still love the character though.

Boosting PB Human Damage to VEAT levels: that seems the most likely possibility to help even the playing field. /signed

Jade_Dragon,

I agree with your view of the Cottage Rule. As I stated earlier, I overstated it. Add mez resistance to the shields, for example, would not break that rule, but as Dechs Kaison reminds us, it will not happen because it steps on the dwarf form.

Here's another point to ponder regarding whether it will be acceptable for PBs to have a higher damage modifier than a WS.

Dark Extraction versus Photon Seekers. As a warshade, I can have two of these out at a time while running my way through a mission. They increase my ranged damage output *considerably.* Photon Seekers, on the other hand, are a one shot deal. Fired off and gone. Not to return for a considerable amount of time.

Increasing the PB human form damage modifiers will also help correct That disparity.

So now we're up to:

WS: Eclipse can allow capped dam-res for both nova and dwarf forms.
PB: Can increase HP for both nova and dwarf forms.

WS: 11.25% to 112.5% damage buff for 30 seconds every 120 seconds (loses 1/10th duration for a single shift)
PB: 72% damage buff for 10 seconds every 90 seconds (loses 1/3rd duration for a single shift)

WS: 1 to 2 (3 in extreme recharge builds) floating gunboats vastly increasing ranged damage output
PB: 3 dumb drones for single massive damage burst

Okay so I'm in the middle of NanoWrimo, which - along with the preparation and prewriting required - has kept me pretty much away from the forums since late September. Took a break today, saw this great thread, and it looks like a good discussion is brewing. I don't have a huge amount of time, but I did go through and read the whole thread. My feelings on the subject - which are generally best taken with a grain of salt - are as follows: