*gasping for breath* Help save my PB.

So, I have a level 38 Peacebringer I really like the concept for. He's a blast to roleplay, and his powers look and feel cool.

Of course, he's about as powerful as a limp dishrag. He dies faster and more often than any other character I have, deals less damage than my Trick Arrow/Dual Pistols Defender, and gets his *** handed to him by a single Quantum if I'm not extremely careful (and sometimes even then).

I know nothing you tell me will turn him from a gimped AT into an unstoppable badass (like every other character I HAVE), but... I'm not willing to give him up. He needs to be able to solo and not risk dying in a -1/x1 mission. He needs to be able to provide value to a team.

And I don't know how.

Please. Tell me something. Help me save my Peacebringer.

How I solo on my PB:

-Knock things down to 1/x1 or 1/x0, no bosses.
-Open by running in, Pulsar, Incandescent Strike on any key targets, beat everything up before Pulsar ends.
-Healing with Reform Essence and Dwarf Reform Essence.

Basically, don't use Nova or Dwarf at all for soloing. Carry about three bars full of nothing but Break Frees and the other bars can be whatever you feel will be necessary.

In short: you really, really should group as a PB.

Sounds like you need to respec. What build are you using now? And by that, I don't mean "what do you wish-list to be at 50" ... I mean, what are you using NOW ... at 38.

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

Plasma's guide for Kheldians should still be able to help you: it has some good info on tactics. There is also no way you should be having more difficulty soloing than with a Defender, so I'm guessing you might have some build issues or have some tactics you could adjust. I've often found Nova to be okay soloing, actually: lead off with the massive KB attack, then whatever makes sense for the mob next (the cone is nice with more targets, etc.).

You can also lead in with Human well if you are soloing (like Vermain noted). Dwarf should be a backup heal or "oh noes!" power for when you are soloing, but it can be okay for when you are taking on something tough: you can take down bosses with it, albeit not as fast as in human if you have a decent amount of recharge. Dwarf is usually best on a team, though.

Make sure your attacks are slotted well, that you are picking up some recharge, and that you are leveraging your heals and inspirations as needed.

Bring Breakfree's, abuse inspirations, conserve energy, and Lightform. Especially Lightform, don't try and save it till you really need it, preempt needing it and keep an eye on it for when its going to drop instead. It lasts a good while, and as long as it runs you shouldn't have end problems, your resistance should be almost capped to everything but psychic, you've got mez prot, and thanks to the model shift your power animations dont root you.

Keep your mission adjustments low. You just aren't going to be running around at +4x8 like your brute/scrapper/whatever does. Find something that's comfortable, personally I run on +0/+1x5 because I feel better about my kheld beating up lots of weaker enemies than I do beating up a couple strong ones. Just personal preference there. I also have self-rez, so I don't much care about dieing really, I suggest you learn to not care either. With just one recharge in it, and my various set bonuses providing recharge, I rarely find myself with it NOT being up. Debt is the mind killer, Debt is the little death...

Know thy enemy. Keep in mind what you're fighting and adjust to compensate. Malta Sappers are the bane of your existence, Carnies can be as well if you don't watch your end bar. They have the added bonus of control out of the illusionists. Rikti can stun, but otherwise aren't too big a threat thanks to their heavy use of energy damage. Cimmerorans on the other hand just hit hard in melee and debuff your defense. IDF have a whole slew of bad things, but you wont really run into them except in trials, teammates will help mellow them out a bit.

Dwarf Form - Change early. Don't let yourself get too low too fast, because the difference between an alive kheld in dwarf and a dead kheld in any other form is a very short amount of time or bad luck with controls hitting you.

Nova Form - You've got fairly fast flight, and superior range, abuse it. Duck around corners, find the sweet spot where some enemies may try and flip back and forth from trying to close to melee, and running to range. Use Nova against enemies you know don't have a mez user in the cluster, are mostly minions, or when you're in a group and want to hang back.


Break into Incarnatedom at 50 like the fist of an angry god. Just about all of the slots will provide you a HUGE boost in some of your problem areas...

Alpha - Helps take some of the edge off our lack of slots.
Judgement - AoE damage on a fairly short cooldown, you'll be able to bump your mission adjustments up a couple team mates worth on this alone.
Destiny - Human form mez prot, lotsa regen, def/res, recharge...all are useful, mez prot in particular, though I run regen on teams.
Interface - For soloing I recommend going the fire dot proc on reactive. For grouping, I suggest keeping around one of the others as well.
Lore - Pocket Buddies!


For Slotting? It really just depends on what you're after, we've got such a broad range of powers that can take a broad range of IO's. I suggest recharge myself, with a side of smash/lethal/melee defense. Our best attacks in human form are all primarily melee or PBAoE, and dwarf is what you'll be shifting into for survival, so the melee/smash/lethal is probably your best bet. Recharge is just plain nice for all the various cooldowns we have, a 16 second click heal, perma essence boost, hasten, being able to juggle Conserve Energy with Light form for end management...Id link my build, but I'm not at "my" computer at the moment.

Hopefully, you'll find some of this useful. Really, to enjoy your kheld it's gonna take an adjustment in your mindset. You can't go into this trying to find something to be "as good as <insert alt here>" at, because you just aren't going to find that. You're gonna need to fiddle with your playstyle, and start finding whats fun about the character regardless of his power level compared to everyone else. You do have some strengths in that you're a toolbox with a tool for just about any situation you can think of. Play to that, fill gaps as they happen, go Nova and AoE the cluster's your tank/brute gathers. Pick off minions fast, or focus down a boss. Go dwarf if you get in over your head. Use your Cooldowns, Use your inspirations, use all the tools in your toolbox and just find a way of playing your kheld that makes YOU happy. Im first in line to argue for changes and claim PB's are lacking, but I still enjoy my kheld in spite of his shortcomings. He's just fun to play for me. I hope you can find the fun in your PB in spite of it's problems too.

Yeah. You're doing something, or a lot of things, very wrong if you're having THAT much of a problem.

If you're trying to play like a scrapper or a tank - you're not.
If you're trying to play like a blaster, you're not taking advantage of everything.
If you're trying to play like a controller, what the heck, man?
If you're trying to play like a Mastermind, well, now you're just being silly.

Serious side, though - post the build. If you don't want to try to recreate it, grab glycerine from COHTitan, load, go to utilities and have it export the build.

Difficulty-wise, Peacebringers are a mirror of Warshades - Warshades like lots of enemies (X#,) Peacebringers will handle fewer, tougher enemies (+#). And Voids/Quantums just shouldn't be an issue, really.

I don't agree with "You have to use Light Form as often as it's up!" - no, you don't. Running pre-IOs with truly nasty Voids, I didn't need to. Should be even easier now. And if you like the character enough to sink inf into it, I'm sure an IO build to make things even easier could be whipped up - I tend not to mess with them much. (Only things I'll tend to try to fit in are a Winter's Gift on a build with Dwarf and a KB IO. You've got Incandescence at level 1, after all.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

Alright, reading some of the responses makes me see what powers I'm lacking, or not using correctly. I didn't take Light Form, for example. Had no idea it was so good (I try to avoid "godmode" powers on most characters).

I don't like posting builds for characters which clearly need a respec - he doesn't have a "build" so much as he has a lack of a build altogether.

He's Human/Dwarf form right now. I want him to be Human only, but the lack of Mez protection is so crippling that I needed Dwarf, at the very least, to feel like I was even able to fight anybody with a Mez. Maybe with Incarnate stuff I'll make him a monoform, but for now I've got to keep the Dwarf.

I care more about him being useful than about being monoform though.

Should I take Nova?

Yes. Take Nova.

You are every form. At once. Bind Nova to 1 and Dwarf to 2. You are immune to mez. You are a close combat tank and a long range hovering gunship. Build up carries through to every form. So does hasten and dull pain. Both of those two are your friend.

Become every form, all the time.
You are...THE MF'ING PEACEBRINGER!

Really, it worked for me Loved my concept for my PB gal, but was terrible to play as only human form. So I took Dechs advice that had worked wonders for my Warshade/Nictus and applied it to her. Different AT, same results. Win/win

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I never had a trouble staying alive with a PB. I was usually one of the last players to die. I never played my PB like any other AT, but a PB. On teams I usually wait for the tanker or whatever AT to take lead and grab agro. When that happens I am usually the second one in the mob. If there is no control and the mob will fly everywhere if I use my Target AoE and PBAoE then I will to single targets attacks. If I am blessed with a controller/Dominator on the team then I just wait for an immob to begin my Target AoE and PBAoE attack chain. I try to be considerate and not spread out the mob when players are trying to keep the group tight to focus on using AoE powers for mass killing.

When solo I usually use the mission setting of +2/+1 or +1/+2. I use the pull method and worked my way up from the Min, then Lt, and then Boss. Sometime I set it up where I get no bosses when I solo. It depends on my mood and how long I want to be in some missions. If I am fighting an EB I usually hit my Reform Essence as my first heal, then Essence Boost, and then Reform Essence. It’s nice that Reform Essence recharges really quickly and I am able to have 3 back to back heals to help out with the EB alpha attack chain. As we know the Peacebringers range damage is really weak and it helps to have inspiration to make up the difference.

My attack chain is for a single target is: Build Up=> Incandescent Strike => Radiant Strike => Gleaming Blast => Glinting Eye => and Gleaming Bolt as an attack chain filler if nothing is recharged. I would lead with a melee then jump back for range. Gleaming Bolt is the weakest range attack, but with two acc/dam HO’s and slotting 4 damage procs you can turn that into a decent attack. It went from around 70 points of base damage to 310 with all procs hitting at once: 70(base dam) + 70(proc dam) +70(proc dam) + 100 (apoc proc dam) =310.

I hope this helps a little and thanks for not giving up on the PB. We are an endangered species and we need to survive and stick together.

Even if you're going with just straight SOs, you need to have a build with any character. Throwing stuff at your character is never going to be good, especially if you start increasing your settings. That goes even more for Kheldians, who have fairly tight build needs. You don't have to spend hours on this, but you do want to think through what powers and slots you are taking.

I'm with the others on this one...

OP, something clearly isn't right with your toon or playstyle (from an effectiveness
standpoint).

I'm primarily a solo player. My PB experiences greatly differ from yours.

I solo my PB on +1/0. It doesn't even *have* lightform... I run a forms build
(Nova/Dwarf along the lines of the guide I wrote way back in I-4).

It solos fine. To be sure, it isn't godly like my SS/WP Brute (who solos Pylons),
it doesn't put out as much damage as my Fire Blaster (PB is typically more survivable
than him though), but it's definitely *not* my worst solo toon (by a long shot).

In terms of tactics, I buff up, stealth in, and blow everything to smithereens in Nova,
and switch to Dwarf on the rare occasions when the crap hits the fan, and
typically only use human form to scout and buff up...

In terms of build - look at Frankenslotting - full capability, minimum slots.

Use inspies as needed - more will drop.

Pay attention to the spawn, Prioritize the Targets, Manage Aggro -- No Problems.

Khelds definitely have issues (stemming mostly from some debatable design
goals initially), but they can definitely solo without any major problems.


Regards,
4


PS> Oh, and a PB can be a pretty nasty customer in PvP (with a good build and
sharp mind at the controls)

I threw my build together as my PB leveled. After gaining Nova I decided that she would be human only and stopped using Nova in the 30s and stopped all together by the 40s. Respec allowed me to drop it all together and re-assign the slots. IOs were whatever dropped along with SOs. MOF, I still have yet to finish her build out and need to update my plans to take the new issues into consideration.

She is, to date, the fastest leveling toon I have had period. Solo missions, teams, TFs... she and I went through it all and before I knew it she had dinged. I never had that much of an issue. I rarely use inspirations and I play her as a blapper with a heavy emphasis on the scrapper part of that equation.

Take some time to figure out what you want out of her and then burn a respec trying to get there. Recipes are getting easier to obtain and the new Incarnate levels and abilities allow us to fill in any holes (Alpha = yay endurance!).

I am not some awesome PB or WS playing expert or fiend. Heck my builds are not even that strong but I do have a lot of fun and do not faceplant (much) while running through the new content.

I played my Human only Peacebringer for a bit today... I basically treat him like an nrg/nrg hover blaster/blapper that doesn't do as much damage.

ok guys lemme explain how kheldians r used u want to not shape-shift every single minute sometimes u get your shields and use em if your in a situation where everything is melee now is the time for nova form if your in all sorts of attacks go into dwarf form see the pattern kheldians r meant for whatever situation your in.