Why do people recommend WS over PB?

In one of my threads asking for a fun AT, I got a lot of recommendations to try out a WS but nobody said PB. What is it about WS that makes it more fun than PB? Also, does PB involve as much form dancing as WS?

I can speak for myself why I love my warshades and not so much my PBs.

The secondary effect:
WS is to slow your enemies meaning they cannot attack you as often.
PB is -def to them. So yes, you can keep hitting them. But they can keep hitting you until you kill them.

The pet:
WS you can easily get 2 and sometimes 3 Extracted Essences going as little cannons traveling along with you even when you die.
PB you get photon seekers.

WS gets Eclipse which you can easily get to cap your damage resistance.

WS can double mire (human and dwarf) but the PB has a buildup power which doesn't last that long.

WS gets Stygian Circle meaning that pile of dead enemies can fully restore my endurance and health after each fight.

Where I prefer my PB to a WS: against ghosts.

Just read this.

My warshade has been, hands down, the most amazing ride to 50 of any character I've played.

^^ Agreed ^^

probably the main reason is the 2 mire's. Even if you just compare the WS dwarf mire to the PB Footstomp, the WS is gaining a mini build-up each use.

I guess if you plan to spend most your time in Human or Nova form, then PB and WS's are pretty equal..hard for me to say cause I never played human form. Also all my knowledge is based of the old kheld numbers.. today they have higher damage modifier's and can switch to dwarf form even when mezzed.

as far as form dancing goes, the type of kheld doesnt really affect how much you change. Personally i only went to human form after the battle to click buffs like hasten/heal/dullpain/conserve power/stygian circle etc.

btw I'm not saying human form is bad now, in fact it sounds kinda interesting.

I would vote for the stygian circle. A previous poster said you could use it after every battle. There is nothing to prevent you from using it DURING a battle either. They both have a lot of tools. It's certainly a matter of taste, but for me it's hard to argue with a self-heal self-endurance refill.

Warshades have made me want to delete and reroll my PB as anything else. I only recently, as in, within the last 3 months, taken my WS to 50 and he was my 22nd level 50 to boot. I wish he had been my toon 20-something alts ago. He is friggin' sick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic. Well done.

Because unlike Peacebringers, Warshades offer a whole new play experience unlike any other Archetype. Sure, some of thier powers are based on certain Dark X powers but many of them are quite unique or have an extra something added rather than the Copy+Paste list Peacebringers have.

The power of a warshade is directly proportional to the number of enemies it fights. In this game, that's an enormous advantage most of the time.

Edit on further thought: Actually, it's better than directly proportional: the more enemies the warshade has to fight, the more enemies it will hit, and the harder it will hit each one. So Warshades actually scale up in damage output as a function of the square of the number of targets. And that's insane.

Of course, it's not necessarily easy to get this level of performance from the AT.

Here's a counterpoint - for a first Kheld, I'll tell people to consider the PB for the simple reason that all buffs, heals, etc. are completely self contained. You always know what you'll end up getting, your heal will always work for the same amount at the same level/slotting, your build up will work even if nobody's around, etc, etc.

Warshades are variable - but that variability is why it can get more powerful, etc, etc.

See my Guides and Tutorials

I play both humanform PB and WS characters. Folks have pretty well covered the combat differences. One other key difference is green and blue bar management.

Both have self-heal powers -- PBs have garden-variety self heal and +Max Health powers, WS heal powers are targeted off enemies. PBs imo have just a slight edge in this category because they don't need targets and have a +Max health tool.

Endurance management is different matter. WSs can replace used endurance with two different end-drain tools; PBs can only conserve what they have left with one, repeat one, tool -- Conserve Energy. Definite advantage goes to Warshades. Not even close.

My personal preference are Peacebringers, but I do wish they'd pull an Electric Armor Energize fix with Peacebringer's Reform Essence and add Energize's endurance discount to get even close to parity with human-form Warshades.

Thanks everyone. This answered my question entirely.

I'll be doing Tri-Form for now but I like the idea of a generally all-human Warshade somewhere down the line. Perhaps one that still occasionally relies on forms for a few things, but generally remains human. I initially felt it would be stupid to play a form changing class and not use the forms, but I really like the way human form Warshades look with all their interesting powers.

/echo the good Doctor.

An all human warshade is tough and expensive to pull off, and in my opinion a TriFormShade of any expense will outperform a human form on the same budget. Again, that's just opinion and depends far too much on the person behind the wheel anyway.

Dwarf grants you mez protection. That alone makes it worth taking. Bonus HP and resist is great, too. The ability to double and even triple mire is such a decadent icing on the cake. There's also the seldom but greatly appreciated advantage of being an off-tank. When the team's tank drops, and ambush hits, or when things just get ugly, you can lobster up and help keep attention off the squishies.

Nova form grants you the ability to fling negative energy on a large scale. Eclipse and mire beforehand turns you into a veritable flying gunship that just doesn't die. Warshade forms in particular benefit from the human click style buffs that last a long time.

I'll echo Memphis Bill's comments somewhat by saying that PB's are steady,
known quantities, and thus have few surprises in a fairly straightforward style.

Triforms of either flavor are more involved than normal AT's, but generally,
imho, WS's have higher highs, and lower lows. PB's generally cruise along
on a much more even keel.

Additionally, if there is any thought of PvP in your future, PB's are a much
better choice in the current PvP 2.0 implementation (again, imho).


Regards,
4

Warshades remind me of my Brutes...once I get Fury going I can't stop...the same goes with a WS...except replace Fury with Bodies :3.

I honestly can't stand playing my peacebringer. My warshade though... Oh my gawd I love that char.

In my experience (highest Warshade 50, highest Peacebringer currently 22), Peacebringers seem to be easier to manage and more fun at low levels. They seem to be quite blastery.

I've had some trials over time with my 50 Warshade, so that might color my opinion that they're especially difficult to play well... I don't seem to have done as well as others in this thread, at least. Still, it's a unique and very interesting AT... worth trying just to see stacked Mires, Stygian Circle, and the glory of Eclipse.

A Peacebringer may be consistent, but the performance level of said consistency is too low for me. The average performance of a Warshade is much higher and more fun.

Warshade just has more Fun Stuff(TM) than Peacebringer does. PB's powers are relatively vanilla, being mostly duplicated from other sets. Warshade has a lot of this too, but comes with a lot more interesting and unique powers: stygian, pets, corpse explosion, eclipse. And mire is quite a bit more awesome than the PB buildup-ish power.

Tri-form PB is probably ahead of tri-form WS because PB's group bonuses make it better equipped to fill the needs of the group, but the difference isn't so huge that you can't get your tri-form fix just as easily from your alternate WS build.