Peacebringers SUCK!!! (A Guide to PBs)

Peacebringers SUCK!!! Wanna know why?

Because they’re misunderstood, built poorly and played against their strengths! That’s why!

Hey all. It’s me, Timeshadow, your friendly neighborhood Kheldian fanatic. I’ve been wanting to write a Kheld guide for a long time but could never get through it for one reason or another. Hopefully this time’ll be the charm (Was that a pun? I’m not quite sure ).

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UPDATE HISTORY 03-05-2011 Original posting 03-16-2011 Slight alterations made to main body and binds appendix added 04-06-2011 Added suggested IOs appendix 05-08-2011 Completed suggested IOs appendix, added table of contents (see below) and made some minor format changes 05-15-2011 Added links to the Kheldian Binds and Strategies Thread and www.cohplanner.com in the binds and IOs appendices respectively 11-12-2011 Updated guide and suggested IOs appendix to properly reflect the Issue 21 changes EXTRA GOODIES Appendix I: Binds You Should Have Appendix II: Tricky Tips (and Tricks) Appendix III: IOs For Any Occasion

Before We Get Started

Keep in mind that this is a guide to building a successful TriForm PB. I’ve seen quite a few human only builds both in game and requested on the forums. I’ve always found that particular route unsatisfying. That’s not to say it’s ineffective but I’m an advocate of all Khelds, be they Peacebringer or Warshade, taking and using their forms.

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A note on form philosophy: The reason for the above statement is simple, forms are a major part of the Kheldian design. They bring a level of versatility that’s the hallmark of the two ATs and is only rivaled by the Soldiers of Arachnos Villain Epic ATs.

I won’t be listing and describing each power in detail or running through a market analysis to get you the cheapest prices on IOs. Those are things you’ll just have to figure out for yourself. Instead I’ll be giving an overview of powers that I consider worth taking to build a great Peacebringer. This guide will take you through the leveling process in a series of phases and provide some insight on strategy.

“Why Peacebringers?” you ask. Good question. After all, everyone knows Warshades are better, right? Nope, not the case if you ask me. Both Kheldian variants are great ATs but they excel at different things. Peacebringers are steadier performers than Warshades because they’re not dependent on baddies, alive or dead, to fuel their various buffs and abilities. When built and played well a Peacebringer can perform feats just as impressive, albeit different, from their dark cousins.

The lighter side of HEATs (That’s Hero Epic Archetypes for those who aren’t in the know) excel at fighting hard targets like bosses and making short work of troublesome enemies. They pack enough firepower to do the job while also having enough mitigation and survival tools to not get flattened. Don’t get me wrong here; I think Warshades are great. But when all the minions are dead and there’s no more fuel for all those shadowy powers they’re likely to find themselves in a tight spot when the angry big boss hones in on ‘em. A Peacebringer, on the other hand, is just as prepared to take on that Rikti Chief Soldier or Greater Devoured as they would be to wreck face against some random stooge.

So as you read this guide keep in mind that the aim isn’t to build a Peacebringer to compete with your friend’s purpled out ‘Shade (Oh Castle or BaBs or whoever made that joke, how I miss you ). The two ATs function differently so that’s not even really possible. Rather, this is about building a PB that does what it’s intended to do better than anyone else. Now, without further ado, let’s get down to business.

Phase I: Starting Out Right (Levels 1-5)

The early life of a Peacebringer is much like that of any other character. You’ve got your standard tier 1 and 2 blasts that may or may not be important to you throughout your extraterrestrial life. Of the three available before level 6 I prefer Glinting Eye. The reason being because shooting beams of white hot cosmic power from your eyes is FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!! The Tier 2, Gleaming Blast, is a solid ranged attack and worth picking up as well.

Peacebringers also get some nice defensive powers during this phase. Essence Boost is a big deal. The boost to your maximum HP is great when combined with other powers you’ll get later on. For the time being it works well as a big heal on a long recharge. Shining Shield is your basic Resistance toggle. In a TriForm build the shields' various Resistance components are largely overshadowed by Dwarf form. However, they will allow you to maintain the higher damage output of Human form while having more survivability than you would otherwise.

This early in the game it’s best to use your inherent flight powers to stay at range and blast your enemies from afar. It’s not the most exciting way to do things but a good sewer run or Architect team (Notice I said team, not farm) will make it go by pretty fast. Before you know it you’ll be ready for…

Phase II: Go, go gadget tentacle death machine! (Levels 6-19)

At level 6 your Peacebringer’s going to change drastically. Why? Because that’s when you get access to Bright Nova Form. This is a game changer folks. It grants a 45% buff to Smashing and Energy damage (The two kinds your attacks do), a 9% toHit buff, and 15% Resistance to Energy and Negative Energy damage. It also comes with a slight Recovery buff, just enough to cover the Endurance usage of the form itself.

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TIP: Don’t make the mistake that many newbie Khelds do and slot your forms for Endurance Modification or Endurance Reduction. There’s absolutely no need for it and it won’t carry over to the powers the forms grant. Those have to be slotted separately.

Bright Nova’s ability to hover over the battlefield and rain death is fantastic. But there is a downside. It's one that plagues not only Bright Nova, but Peacebringers in general. I'm talking about the unpredictable knockback they bring to the table. Now I’m not against KB. Hell, I love watchin’ things ragdoll around a room. But it requires control and forethought to use well and absolutely nothing to use poorly. So take the time to learn how to position yourself in order to get maximum coverage for Bright Nova’s AoEs and maximum mitigation from the associated knockback.

Level 6 is also when you should set up your first form shifting bind. It’ll keep extraneous powers off your trays and make your life as a Peacebringer much easier. I keep Bright Nova bound to the W key and place the form’s powers on tray 3. So I use a bind that looks like this:

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W "powexec_toggleon bright nova$$goto_tray_alt 3”

This is also the time when you’ll gain access to Radiant Strike and Incandescent Strike, two hard hitting melee attacks that I absolutely love. In addition to packing a punch, they also come with some nice control effects (Knockback for Radiant and Hold for Incandescent) that’ll really come in handy. I like to open with Radiant Strike because it’s quick to animate and doesn’t give the enemy an opportunity to attack while it goes off.

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TIP: If you’re quick on the keys you can activate Incandescent Strike right after Radiant and it’ll land while your hapless foe is soaring backwards. They’ll take some nasty damage and have a chance of being held after they get up.

Inner Light also comes along during this phase. It's a great power that does things its predecessor, Build Up, never could. Inner Light starts off by providing a big boost to your damage and ToHit (72% and 18% respectively) for the first ten seconds of its duration. After that the buff diminishes to 28.8% damage and 6.93% for another 30 seconds. Inner Light's longer duration means its effects will carry over into your other forms, allowing you more flexibility in its use.

The AoE blasts that become available during this phase are entirely skippable since you'll be using Bright Nova. Also, for the sanity of your teammates, don’t even think about Group Energy Flight. If you’ve ever experienced the ridiculous ToHit debuff (-25% ) it applies to anyone in its radius you know full well that it’s not worth the waste of a power pick.

I’d really like to be able to recommend Pulsar but, sadly, it’s not all that. As an AoE Stun it seems great but it takes too long to activate and only applies a Mag 2 Stun with a chance for Mag 3. That means it’ll only reliably Stun Minions. Anything with a higher rank won’t even notice it and you don’t have any other Stuns to stack it with.

Phase III: Totally Phenomenal, Semi-Cosmic Power!!! (Levels 20-31)

Ok, this is where the real fun starts. Grab White Dwarf Form at 20 to add another fantastic power to your ever more impressive repertoire. It increases your maximum HP and has 37.5% unenhanced Resistance to all damage except Psionics. Fully slotted with normal IOs the Resistance caps out around 60%. Just like Bright Nova, White Dwarf comes with a slight Recovery buff that covers the cost of the form so no EndMod or EndRedux enhancements are needed. Most importantly, while in White Dwarf you have Mag 15 mezz protection!!!

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TIP: White Dwarf can also function as a Break Free. That’s right; you can activate the form while controlled to breakout But there's a catch to this little trick. The mezzes don’t go away; you’re just protected against their effects. So if you revert to human form before they expire you’ll be mezzed again.

White Dwarf is more defense oriented than Black Dwarf, its Warshade counterpart. It has no means of boosting its own damage. Instead it features a very potent self-heal and White Dwarf Flare, an AoE knockdown that consumes a considerable amount of Endurance but serves as a great source of mitigation when in a crowd. Those two features make the form great for frontline tanking and dealing with annoying mezzers. White Dwarf can also teleport so getting into and out of combat is a breeze in most situations.

Now’s the time to set up another couple of binds. I use the E key to shift and keep my Dwarf powers on tray 4. I also have a bind setup to make teleporting around in this form much easier. They go as follows:

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E "powexec_toggleon white dwarf$$goto_tray_alt 4” SHIFT+LBUTTON "powexec_name white dwarf step"

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TIP: Remember, your forms work best when used on the fly. Team make up and the situation at hand will play a role in determining what form does the most good at any one time but never presume that you’ll be sitting in one or the other for a long period. Pay attention to what’s going on around you and don’t be afraid to shift in the middle of a fight.

Reform Essence should be your next pick at level 22. It’s your bread and butter self-heal and you’ll come to instinctively know when it’s available for use. The thing to remember about this power is not to wait until you’re in dire need. Using it when you’re close to 50% HP is a much better choice than waiting until 25%. Considering you’re likely to still be taking damage, by that time you’ll need more than just Reform Essence to keep your face off the floor.

Conserve Energy comes up during this phase. I’ve got a split opinion on this power. While having a 134% Endurance discount for 90 seconds is great it’s somewhat offset by the fact that you shouldn’t have a need for it if your powers are slotted well. Whether you pick this up or not is really a matter of taste.

At level 26 Solar Flare comes along. It's a PBAoE with a wicked animation and pretty good damage to boot. Balancing all that is its knockback component. Now I know what you're thinking, "A PBAoE with knockback?! Definitely skipping that. No way I'm dealing with the scatter!" That's a valid opinion. Plenty of requests have been made to change the effect to knockdown instead. The Devs have responded by directly stating that Solar Flare's knockback is intended to keep the power balanced. Still, its a solid choice, especially if you're looking to increase your damage output in Human form.

Available at level 28 is Quantum Flight, a personal favorite of mine. It’s Intangibility and flight rolled up into a single Endurance guzzling power. You heard me right; this power sucks down more Endurance than a Hoover. That means it’s not something you wanna be activating just to look cool. I find Q-Flight functions best as an emergency escape tool for when things are really going south and there’s no way to turn the tide.

Phase IV: The Future’s Looking So Bright (Levels 32+)

Level 32 begins a very interesting phase in your Peacebringer’s life. At this point you already have all the essential powers to be a great shapeshifting deliverer of cosmic justice. So what’s left to do? That’s largely a matter of personal opinion. First off, you’ll wanna make a choice as to whether you prefer exploding in a shower of cosmic energy or creating three nasty little self-guided pets who’ll explode for you. I’m speaking, of course, about Dawn Strike and Photon Seekers.

Dawn Strike is your standard nuke. Like all powers of its kind, it packs a wallop (216 points of damage unenhanced) and it'll deal that damage to everything within a 25' radius. It also comes with a Mag 18 knockback. If you've ever seen this power used or, better yet, used it yourself you know that it'll leave you cackling in delight that's probably unbecoming of a hero (But with Going Rogue you could be an evil PB so who cares?). On the downside, Dawn Strike does all that at the cost of all your Endurance and hits you with a temporary -100% Recovery debuff. That's enough to make me avoid the power but I've seen plenty of builds that include it and can't deny that it makes for a very impressive light show.

Photon Seekers, on the other hand, creates three pets that will follow you around until they detect an enemy. Once that happens they’ll zoom in and detonate themselves, dealing damage and knocking back anything within their small blast radius. I like Photon Seekers quite a bit but they too have their cons. In addition to having a small AoE (10' to be exact) their AI isn’t the best. When targets are too spread out the Seekers have a tendency to go after individual mobs instead of concentrating on one for maximum effect.

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TIP: Photon Seekers’ AI can be helped by simply taking it out of the equation. By summoning the Seekers as close to your desired target as possible (i.e. right in its face or directly overhead) the little buggers will detonate almost immediately and are sure to deal maximum damage.

Once you’re past that agonizing decision you can pick and choose more powers as you see fit. However, you’ll probably still be trying to get slots into more essential powers that you took earlier but haven’t been able to adequately enhance until now. So it’s best to choose powers that provide you with their maximum benefit for a minimal amount of slot investment.

Restore Essence is one of those powers. Some people dislike self-rezzes. Their philosophy is, “What good is a power if I have to be dead to use it? Besides, I carry Awakens.” While Awakens are all well and good (I always keep a full column of medium ones) they’re better suited for out of combat duty. In the heat of a fight rezzing with less than 50% HP, even less Endurance and a Mag 5 Stun is far from ideal. Restore Essence will bring you back with a nearly full green bar and 50% End.

At level 38 Light Form becomes available. It’s your Tier 9 defensive power and has seen some very beneficial changes recently. It now has a much shorter Recharge and its effects will carry over into your other forms. At the baseline Light Form provides 52.5% Resistance to all damage except Psionics unenhanced. With enhancements it easily beats White Dwarf for sheer toughness. In addition, it also removes any rooting effects that are built into your powers. That means you can launch any attack you please as you see fit. No need to worry about getting stuck somewhere you don't wanna be. Kite to your psychotic little Blaster heart's content

Of course, any power with those kinds of benefits has to come with some disadvantages. When Light Form's duration ends it'll take half of your Endurance and maximum HP. That's actually much improved from the total crash it used to have prior to Issue 21 but it's still a bit of a bummer.

By now you're probably noticing that you've got the powers you want and can't really think of anything else to grab that doesn't require significant slot investment to be any good. I recommend looking into pool powers for some utility. I dipped into Medicine for Stimulant so I could do something about mezzed, squishy team mates and Grant Invisibility from Concealment because there's nothing worse than a Stalker who forgets to turn Hide on Seriously though, this is the time to have some fun with your power selections. Grab a few that seem interesting and try 'em out. If they're not to your liking you can always respec.

By this time your Peacebringer should be fully capable of performing whatever role a team needs at any particular moment short of dedicated healing. On top of that, it can lay down nasty AoEs to vaporize crowds or pulverize hard targets with a mixture of ranged blasts and melee fisticuffs. Combined with an experienced player at the controls (That’s you ) it’ll be a true force to be reckoned with whatever the task at hand may be.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my guide and found it helpful. Be sure to check out more binds, tips and IO slotting advice in their respective sections.

Appendix I: Binds You Should Have (Binds...duh)

Are you tired of having to press five or six different keys to get your PB to do all the things it's capable of? Sick of having to keep clicking those little arrows to switch your power trays everytime you change form? Well then you came to the right place. In this section I'll provide a list of neat and helpful binds that'll make your PB experience much, much better.

First off, every Kheldian should have a bind to target Quantum Gunners, Void Hunters and Shadow Cyst Crystals. These things aren't nearly as dangerous as they used to be but they can still kill you if you're caught unaware. To make sure that doesn't happen, set up a bind that targets those particular enemies by name. The one I use works just like the normal targeting system unless there's an enemy with a particular name. Then it overrides the usual function and locks onto them (It works well when you're looking for a particular enemy of any kind as long as you know their name). It looks like this:

Targeting Quants, Voids and Cysts

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WHATEVER KEY YOU WANNA USE "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next enemy alive quantum$$target_custom_next enemy alive void$$target_custom_next enemy alive cyst"

Next, you're gonna need a set of form shifting binds. These are made up of two parts. The first toggles the desired form and the second switches your power tray to whichever one you have that form's corresponding powers on. They should look like the example below:

Form Shifting

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WHATEVER KEY YOU WANNA USE "powexec_toggleon NAME OF FORM TOGGLE$$goto_tray TRAY #"

Here's a cool little trick. You can create a bind that'll detoggle either Bright Nova or White Dwarf and activate a human form power. That'll save you a few seconds in the heat of fight. But what really makes this method interesting is that it can be used to bypass mezzes when shifting out of Dwarf. You see, the bind executes almost instantly, faster than the game server refreshes. So if you activate it it'll drop Dwarf and use whatever human power you wrote it to with no interference from control effects. I'm talking about something like this:

Dropping Form and Using A Power

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WHATEVER KEY YOU WANNA USE "powexec_toggleoff White Dwarf$$powexec_name Reform Essence"

Another useful bind to keep handy is one that allows you to detoggle Bright Nova without dropping out of the sky. Things can get pretty nasty down in melee range and its best to stay out if that's not specifically where you wanna be. All you need is something like this:

Dropping Bright Nova While Sustaning Flight

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WHATEVER KEY YOU WANNA USE "powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$powexec_toggle on Energy Flight OR Combat Flight"

And who can forget the importance of making teleport less of a pain in the ss. That's a simple matter of binding the power to your mouse. That way you'll teleport to wherever the cursor is pointing as soon as you click the assigned mouse button. For this task, my bind is set up as follows:

Teleporting In White Dwarf

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SHIFT+LBUTTON "powexec_name white dwarf step"

Those will go a long way to making your Peacebringer even more awesome, in addition to reducing your risk of carpal tunnel from pounding the keys There are even more great binds in this thread on the Kheldian boards.

*Reserved for Tips and Strategies section

Appendix III: IOs For Any Occasion (IOs...also duh)

Man, there's a lotta potential here. Kheldians are, by design, extremely versatile. That applies to IOs as well as powers. A lot of determining which IOs will do you the most good is heavily dependent on your build and personal playstyle.

That being said, the recent changes to Kheldians have made one particular direction much more attractive. I'm talking about high Global Recharge. With enough investment in this aspect you can actually make Inner Light and, most importantly, Light Form permanent That's right, you'll be running around at or near the Resistance cap all the time! If you've got the influence to spend and plan your build accordingly. So, to start this section off, here are some sets that'll help you reach that goal:

Crushing Impact:

Good read and I agree with most of what you said. I would like to interject a few things based on my own observations though.

First, and this is especially true with the new incarnate stuff, I feel the shields have situational uses and are not bad choices. At least Shining Shield I feel is worth taking even if you only leave it as one slot. What you put into that slot is further up for personal preference but if one is taking the Cardiac Radial Alpha slot then this shield powers up nicely with just a single slot.

However, that's not the only reason why I believe taking it is a good thing. All of the shields can be toggled on with Lightform which I also believe is worth taking even with minimal slots (read 1 or 2).

You see when I started hitting my late 30's and early 40's I was looking very hard at powers I could take that would provide at least some usage for me without the need for any additional slots. I really needed those slots for powers I had taken when I was in my 20's and lower. Several powers fit that bill but the shields and lightform both seemed to synergise well in this regard. I also started to find a niche use for Lightform but suffice to say that Lightform combined with any of the shields will bring your resistances to their respective caps, or at least close to them, unenhanced and solo.

I don't know about you but I find a huge survivability difference between when I am solo and at 65% resistances in Dwarf and when I am at the cap of 85% on a team. Lightform is a tool you can use to get yourself to that cap solo for hard targets. This works best against a single target but if you have a few AoE attacks in Human form you can probably handle a decent crowd before Lightform expires. Your single target dps is actually greater cycling through Radiant, Incandescant, Solar Flare, and whatever blast you took as your level 1 power pick than you can get by shifting forms anyway. This is mostly due to Radiant and Incandescant being really strong powers but there it is.

Another neat trick you can use to really decimate an entire spawn sitting around one big nasty target like an EB or somesuch is to eat a purple insp or two, summon your photon seekers, hit build up, shift into bright nova and lead out with proton scatter and detonation. Then fly into the half dead spawn and land to cast Dawn Strike. Eat a quick Blue and then shift into Lightform to go stomping on the EB who by this time should be about half dead. From this point you have 3 minutes to stomp said EB into the ground before you have to worry about a crash.

However, in the event you can't finish off whatever it is you are fighting before Lightform crashes you are still ok. If you can get some distance between yourself and the bad guys for a few moments before the crash this is where conserve power really shines with a single blue inspiration. Lightform crashes, you eat the blue and hit conserve power. Use reform essence and or Essence boost then you are good to go. I usually shift back into Dwarf at this point and go from there as the situation warrants but whatever works for you. That said if you have a few purples in your tray you can stay right there in the thick of things for the crash and not retreat. Just eat them before the crash actually happens and more often then not you'll be fine.

Anywho just my 2 cents on a few powers and how well they can work together to accomplish some things (especially when you can use your alpha to provide all your enhancing needs for some powers.)

Lemme start by saying thanks for reading and the feedback. It's always appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Moonlit_Whisper I don't know about you but I find a huge survivability difference between when I am solo and at 65% resistances in Dwarf and when I am at the cap of 85% on a team. Lightform is a tool you can use to get yourself to that cap solo for hard targets. This works best against a single target but if you have a few AoE attacks in Human form you can probably handle a decent crowd before Lightform expires. Your single target dps is actually greater cycling through Radiant, Incandescant, Solar Flare, and whatever blast you took as your level 1 power pick than you can get by shifting forms anyway. This is mostly due to Radiant and Incandescant being really strong powers but there it is.

I can see that approach being very effective. It's true that ST DPS is higher in human form thanks to Radiant and Incandescent being on fairly short recharges and dealing "Superior" and "Extreme" damage respectively. I use 'em as my alpha strike and often drop form when they're available to knock another big chunk of HP off whatever I'm fighting.

My personal build has about 30% Smashing/Lethal Defense so one small purple inspiration puts me a pithy 2% away from the softcap. Survivability's not really an issue for me so I can afford to get away without using Light Form. That being said, the power's still great. It just doesn't really work for me and my playstyle.

Good read! Always good to see another Peacebringer enthusiast.

Some feedback:

I'm a huge fan of supplementing my white dwarf with macros that activate human powers. Two that I can think of right off the top of my head that are really helpful:

macro heal "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$powexec name restore essence$$goto_tray 1"

macro flare "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf%%powexec_name solar flare$$goto_tray 1"

By executing a power command in the same string as you toggle off dwarf, you bypass server lag AND EVEN PERSISTENT MEZ EFFECTS, guaranteeing that the power will execute.

That's right. If a Rikti Magus throws a hold on your white dwarf and you need a second heal, you can hit the "heal" macro in complete confidence, because even though you will be held when you drop to human form the heal will still execute, leaving you free to hop back into dwarf and keep on pounding. The "flare" macro is the one I use as a general "get off me" tactic to buy time for some of the other mitigation powers (giving me time to benefit from essence boost's delayed heal, for example).


You totally lost me on Phase IV (the level 32+ part), I'm afraid. As the title says, the future's looking bright, but then pretty much the only powers you endorse are photon seekers and reform essence. Doesn't sound terribly bright. In fact, it sounds like I need to take restore essence so I can rez during the loooong downtime of photon seekers.

And using Photon Seekers as a mini-nuke in place of dawn strike is highly overrated, imho. Photon Seekers don't benefit from build up, so enhanced they're always going to do right around 400 points of damage. Built up and enhanced, Dawn Strike will do close to 900.

The most striking difference, however, is the area of effect. Dawn strike will do those 900 points to everyone in a 25 foot radius, while photon seekers only have a 10 foot radius.

The crash is the main reason people choose Photon Seekers and don't choose Dawn Strike, but these days fitness works in the forms, and a Performance Shifter proc in dwarf and stamina will fire pretty often. Dawn Strike's crash is also the main reason I took conserve power. Popping conserve power in anticipation of dawn strike means you don't have to wait to go into dwarf.

Whether you recommend skipping dawn strike or not, however, it would be good to let people know about the ten foot radius on photon seekers, so they can maximize the blast potential on tightly packed spawns.

Me? I'd say take'm both. Why choose between 900 and 400 points of damage when you can double nuke for 1300 (and reliably hit more than each power's target cap)? Even though photon seekers doesn't benefit from build up, hit build up before photon seekers as you're running into a spawn (or after dropping dwarf). Then hit photon seekers and cue up dawn strike while photon seekers is animating. Those immediately around you will be in the air and be flying away from you when dawn strike hits, but they'll still be in its area of effect, and the minions will likely be dead anyway, leaving you with that much more fodder for the target cap for dawn strike. Pop a blue (or hopefully you've already hit cp) and go dwarf or nova to finish off the stragglers, but I doubt there'll be many. That combination has gotten my teams through many a double-spawn aggro situation.

Now you do have a good point about light form locking out the forms, but there's one thing you might mention: when in light form your attacks don't root. This means that you can hit incandescent strike on the run and keep right on running past to the next guy while it's animating. Hitting photon seekers/dawn strike will hurt much less also, given the resistances you've got.

Hasten will no longer leave you wheezing, and if you've taken and slotted even four of the human attacks, you'll be almost out-damaging nova, because IS and RS are powerful enough to bring human form's dps within 3-4 dps points of nova's best chain. Light form gives you infinitely more survivability as you do so.

Light form is more than just a survival tool- it's combat on crack.

That's all I have time for for now; look forward to seeing your binds section.

Thanks for the input Joe. You were right, the last section did fall a bit flat. I've made some alterations to give a less biased view of the level 32 powers and included a bit more about the possibilities for power selection post 32.

EDIT: I've also started on the binds section. I'll be adding more binds as I think of them/they're suggested to me.

Any advice on the slotting of powers like which to six slot and which to leave as one slot?

Personally speaking, I like to 2-slot all three of the shields and Light Form. Shields get two common 50 Resistance IOs and Light Form gets two common 50 Recharge IOs. Combined, that's four powers, and four (extra) slots spent ... to get you capped resistance solo when exemplar to level 33+ in Light Form, and gets you "some" worthwhile resistances solo at every other level below that (including the Positron TF, among others).

I'm also, personally speaking again, less supportive of building an attack chain around Radiant Strike ... simply because it does knockBACK (always bad in a Melee Attack, imo) and because without an insane amount of recharge it's difficult to build a continuous attack chain with it. Radiant Strike makes a good 1-2 combo alpha opener in combination with Incandescent Strike, for reasons as documented above ... but after that, you've got to "wait" before being able to use it again, which is less than ideal.

Furthermore, concentrating on Radiant+Incandescent pushes your Human (and Light!) Form(s) into being more of a Blapper style combatant. To be honest, if I'm going to be engaging in Melee Combat, I'd much rather be using Dwarf Form. I personally prefer to use a combination of Gleaming Bolt (not Glinting Eye!), Proton Scatter (the Cone attack) and Luminous Detonation (the Target AoE) and Incandescent Strike (Melee Hold!) ... because of how much AoE damage these attacks can throughput. Yes, you'll do more damage using Nova Form for these purposes ... but if you need to activate Light Form to stay alive, then Nova Form is "inaccessible" for a time.

The way I see it is, if you're going to be taking Light Form at all ... you NEED to have some Human Form attacks selected and enhanced in order to give you something to do while you're in Light Form. And since you'll "need" to have some Human Form attacks to use in Light Form, you need to basically decide what you want your Light Form to be more like ... more like a Dwarf, with heavy hitting, single target melee attacks? ... or more like a Nova, with fast recharging area effect attacks? Though in game experience, I discovered that (with my preferred playstyle) the scrapper/blapper answer didn't work out quite so well since it meant that I couldn't take on HORDES, which were often the biggest reason I had to use Light Form. Yeah I could take things out "fast" with heavy single target melee attacks ... but I had to do so in series, like a Scrapper, which ultimately took longer.

Conversely ... I found it *much* more profitable, and useful more often, to use the AoE attack powers to decimate HORDES in parallel rather than in series. By switching to the AoE attacks, I had a "Human Form Nova" playstyle made possible, which gave me the option of functioning as a Nova with dramatically increased survivability (especially in Light Form). And Human/Light Form permits me to run Leadership toggles (all of them) so as to dramatically close the gap in overall performance between Human attack powers and Nova attack powers. That's because with Assault running, I'm adding +13.5% damage to my entire TEAM ... which on TFs usually means 8 people ... as opposed to just adding +45% damage to myself only. And in a great many circumstances, that Team Damage Buff yields more damage throughput than the Nova Damage Buff ... and I can't run Assault in Nova Form.

And that's before factoring in you need to be in Human/Light Form for Hasten to autofire.



I like the fact that you have the choice to skew your Human Form powers more towards melee (Dwarf-like) or ranged/AoE (Nova-like), since that accommodates more than one playstyle.

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

{kidding}
As someone who knows Timeshadow in IRL, I can tell you any advice that would have him NOT constantly switching between forms is going to be ignored. I'm pretty sure he's petitioning to have the "Rest" ability be a new form for Kheldians.
{/kidding}

Great guide, D. Read it a while back, never posted it on the forums, but it makes me wanna play that ol' 1300+ day offline PB, Falcon 7, all over again. Even if people disagree, I've talked to people who've used this build and says it works out great for them! Keep up the good work, 27.

Nice, some substantial replies since I last checked the guide. I'll just go down the list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capwn Any advice on the slotting of powers like which to six slot and which to leave as one slot?

Like most things with Kheldians, that really depends on your playstyle. Whatever powers you use most often should take priority. If your build is similar to the guide those are gonna be your forms and their corresponding powers. Without more detail its difficult for me to give specific suggestions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlynne The way I see it is, if you're going to be taking Light Form at all ... you NEED to have some Human Form attacks selected and enhanced in order to give you something to do while you're in Light Form.

Yes, you're absolutely right. You won't be very effective in Light Form with Radiant and Incandescent Strike alone. So if it's a power that you use often I endorse taking some other things so you'll have enough attacks to make your DPS worthwhile.

Personally speaking (See what I did there? ), I don't use Light Form enough for it to matter. My damage comes from Nova. I may not be able to use Assault but I've got Achilles' Heel -20% Resistance procs slotted in Bright Nova Bolt and Detonation. So I've got a good chance to do 20% more damage to mobs without spending anymore Endurance than I would by blasting as usual.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phantasm {kidding} As someone who knows Timeshadow in IRL, I can tell you any advice that would have him NOT constantly switching between forms is going to be ignored. I'm pretty sure he's petitioning to have the "Rest" ability be a new form for Kheldians. {/kidding}

Only half kidding. I play Kheldians because they can shapeshift. I'd never give that up. I've got nothing against everyone playing their Khelds as they see fit (That's what makes them so great) but I'll always endorse TriFormers.

Thanks Timeshadow for a great read. I don't play my PB much as I am unhappy with the build and her squishiness. I posted to my friends on our private channel asking for help.. a mids build.. anything to improve. I dislike it so much, I was ready to reroll. But before doing so, I decided to put what I thought would be a better build into mids, however, I skipped dwarf form this time. Just building for human/nova.

Played her this evening, her attacks performed well, but she died way too often to suit me.. just reminded me why I dislike playing that toon. So I respec'd to my new build.

With the exception of Dwarf Form, my build is right on track with what you have for human/nova form. I took the fighting pool for a little more def/resist.

She still needs her slotting finished, and is at lvl 48 now, so I still have 1 power left to choose. Reading your post and the posts of others, now that choice is going to be a bit tougher than I thought. But if this build doesn't work for me, I have respecs left.

Again, great guide to use for comparison purposes or for ppl that want a tri-form build. I had nearly given up and rerolled my PB into a troller.

Glad you enjoyed and even more glad you decided to stick with your PB

It's tough to figure out what works for you as a Kheld because there are so many different options. My Peacebringer is, by far, the character I've burned the most respecs on. I've tried everything from SOs only to high recharge IO builds and everything in between. I finally settled on 30% Smashing/Lethal Defense because, like you, I found the toon to just be too damn squishy a lotta the time.

On the subject of what to take when you're looking for extra powers, the possibilities really are endless. Frankly, I don't use most of the extra stuff I picked up but it comes in handy sometimes and it fills up my trays Hope you can find just as much enjoyment in your PB as I've found in mine. Just wait until you start getting compliments from VEATs on TFs. It's oh so satisfying

Celebratory post for breaking 1,000 views! WOOHOO!!!

Thanks to everyone who's checked out the guide so far and I hope its been helpful to you. I know I haven't updated in a little while. Been distracted by RL stuff. I hope to finish the extra sections soon so keep an eye out.

hi,

for a long time I didn't make a PB but then finally did and I'm like... why'd I wait so long! I love it! I love the options and the shape shifting! I have to say slotting effectively can make my head spin... I'm still working with that lol. My question is this... ancillary pool skills such a fight, concealment etc all offer defense which is why most other ATs take them, but in a PB you only need def in human form (but then you can use your human for skills in light form)... so how much defense do I need in my ancillary skills? If I'm in human form my PB shields provide all DR and no def. So should I take weave, combat jumping and stealth? If that is done it consumes a lot of slots. So how does a good PB work around this? Just wondering... and I have nothing better to do since the server's been down all day... thanks =)

Actually, Weave with 6 Red Fortune IOs (level 50) slotted provides 5.91% defense, plus an extra set bonus, so over 8% to ranged defense total, close to 9%? It's a good chunk, that's for sure.

Read your guide, thanks for the tips.

I still find my PB to just about the most worthless AT ever designed. I played tri-form since they came out (see no reason to NOT take all the forms...that's how they are meant to be played). But unless I'm teaming with players who really just don't know how to play their own toons, the "jack of all trades" role of a PB is just not enjoyable for me. I like to excel at one or two things and this AT excels at nothing. Sorry, just my opinion.

Nicely written guide though. And the binds do help (have had similar ones since the introduction of the Khelds several years ago). I bind the heal to a change into human form that also activates my shield at same time.

Hmm...been a little while since I've looked at this thread.

Glad you liked the guide even if PBs aren't your style. I really need to go back and overhaul it for the i21 changes. They've done some really nice things for the AT as a whole.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crysys I like to excel at one or two things and this AT excels at nothing. Sorry, just my opinion.

Damage my friend, damage. Kheldians in general have DPS as a part of their makeup. Admittedly, they didn't really have the tools to capitalize on that aspect until recently. With the conversion of Build Up into Inner Light you can do a lot more. And since it has a long enough duration to be worthwhile in forms (Which Build Up never was) you can really put a hurt on enemies no matter form you choose.

Kheldians are like the swiss army knife of the game, you might rather a proper can opener, knife and fork, corkscrew but the swiss army knife can get things done. You can't have a bit of everything and one solid thing that equals some AT.

What my PB isn't though, is that Glass Cannon Blapper, when going in to nuke the bleep out of everything every so "often" she is pretty hard as nails, she has time to double nuke, photon seekers plus dawn strike = sings *here I am*.

Edit: The range of the Nova Blasts is also another absolute asset.

I like the guide, though I think it's missing the fundamental difference between EATs and normal ATs: slotting. EATs have more powers than they know what to do with and then are forced to slot a lot of powers that are screaming to be enhanced.

For me, the trick is to figure out what you want your priorities to be. Everyone wants to be everything at once but that just isn't possible with a PB, especially not early in your career. If you're going solo, you're going to have to prioritize damage and survivability. Utility and team support just won't fit. If you want to be a mostly team-player, you can rely on Cosmic Balance (while in Human) and be jack-of-all trades with the Forms because you don't know what team make-up will be. It's best to be slightly prepared in all areas than overprepared in some and underprepared in others. Let your teammates do their AT's job and you supplement what isn't there.

A way of helping you determine how to slot is by "defining" your human form. Nova and Dwarf make the choice for you but Human form really needs to be reigned in if you want to be effective among all forms. Decide if you want to be more of a Scrapper (mostly melee with the shields/heals), more of a Blapper (ranged and melee, less survivability), a Teamer (ranged and melee, support abilities like Touch, Leadership, etc) or a defensive Blaster (all ranged, shields/heals). If you can nail down what you want to be, you can skip powers, slot your human form "enough" and still save slots for your forms. Just like your Nova/Dwarf forms, your human form needs to have a role that isn't so generic that it is a mile wide but only an inch deep.

I made my Human form what the other two forms can't be: a melee powerhouse. Dwarf doesn't have the damage/attack chain and Nova fulfills my ranged damage so I have the fast firing ranged attacks (Bolt, Glinting), Radiant, Incandescent and Flare and all 3 shields (since I'd be in melee a lot). Dwarf is slotted for Resists and I have two slotted the attacks. Nova is pure damage and I have 3-slotted all attacks (at 31 that's an accomplishment) and plan on continuing to add slots to that in the 30s. With IOs, it's possible to reach respectable levels of Acc/Dam/End with just 2-3 slots and that's been working out for me so far. I haven't touched recharge on any attack powers yet.

I plan on taking Photon Seekers, Restore Essence and Light form throughout the 30s but don't plan on slotting any but Light form heavily until the rest of my earlier attacks get slotted. 40+ is really where all my slotting will get filled out and my PB will start coming into his own. I'll see if I want to go human-only at 50 but I plan on Tri-Forming until 50.