What is the Kheldian surprise?

Shifting gears for a moment, I wanted to ask something. Are Kheldians not allowed to partake in the new tutorial or do any of the new low level arcs?

I just made a new Warshade on Beta because I was curious about where Shadowstar was (My Warshade is a Villain) and I didn't get sent through the tutorial. I might have not been paying attention and clicked a skip button, but I don't think I did.

Assuming I didn't just goof up, is the assumption that the tutorial and the new arcs are designed to teach people how to play the game, and since Kheldians are gated AT's it's assumed that people who have access to them already know how to play the game?

If that's the case, I would hate to be a returning player who decides to come back as full VIP because of all the new goodies, rolls up a new Kheldian, and misses out on all the new low level content (and training for using some of the new features that this content provides.)

Again, this is all assuming I didn't click a wrong button somewhere in the beginning. I didn't check to see if I had another contact besides Shadowstar either, but I don't think I did. You would think Kheldians would have gotten a direct low level arc tie-in anywho... Heck, those Shivans who destroyed Shadowstar's hangout spot also used to strap us to ships and use us as fuel. We have a bit of a vested interest in the situation, Yknow?

As well as the starting Kheldian contact have you not tried speaking to the new hero contact too?
Both have the (v) mission marker, and having just made a new PB to test this, yes they both give missions.

Not overpowered, at least that's not what -I'm- saying. I'm saying -Wasted- power. Makes the shields and/or Dwarf form redundant, which is a shame.

Lightform would be fine as is, if the rest of the set was jiggled around it. Maybe the shields or Dwarf gave some defence, for example.

hey ya'll i just wanted to say

buff peacebringers they're still a joke

ok thanks



p.s. the new light form is great and all but the crash sucks and also more importantly everything else about peacebringers still sucks

seriously are we back at the point of discussion where we're going "no ya'll it's ok!! just be happy we got ANY buffs it's ok, stop asking for things!"

the light form discussion is great, but the constant derails of "hush up you fool, what if they nerf x!!", or "stop complaining or else they'll never buff us!" does nothing for the discussion and contributes nothing for the devs to read other than i guess something for a good laugh (shoutouts to the folks going "ugh peacebringers too good, NERF PEACEBRINGERS" in this thread..)

to make it clear, again:
the buffs are good.
obviously.

but they don't address the issues peacebringers have.
they bring the pure numbers up without doing anything about the problems with peacebringers, whether it's the knockback, the severe underperformance of the forms, or the overall lack of damage and utility of peacebringers in comparison to the archetypes that they're supposed to be imitating.

tell me what role other than "space filler/damage filler" that a peacebringer occupies even with these new buffs.

a tank? the crash on light form makes it so consistent tanking isn't achievable without severe workarounds and even then the ability to tank requires high-end slotting in the first place.

a scrapper, blaster, or blapper? the damage output isn't comparable in the slightest when working on even levels.

the categories peacebringers fall under in the new power selection screen are ranged damage and tanking. they don't do any of these effectively. in fact i'm pretty sure these placements are based entirely on the existence of the now mostly worthless forms (in terms of hassle and effectiveness vs. staying in humanform) so that's pretty funny in it's own right too.

the discussion on how peacebringers should be improved always ends up centering itself around "peacebringers vs. warshades", when it really should be "peacebringers vs. the respective archetypes they are imitating".

so far from this thread once that line gets brought up, it always ends up stalling the discussion with pissing contests of "but oh no you see, peacebringers are actually better at X than warshades!" when that shouldn't even be the primary concern or focus of the discussion.


it would help a lot if the devs posted what they expect peacebringers to function as, and how they fulfill that role. otherwise we end up running into the wall of playstyle differences when it comes to suggesting improvements.

Little, hypothetical question for the thread.

A new player comes up to you. They're interested in buying access to Peacebringers and/or Warshades in the Store, and want to know if you think it's worth it.

Would you advise them to spend their money on unlocking Peacebringers and/or Warshades?

If this question were about Controllers, or Masterminds I would say yes, no question. Warshades and VEATs, I don't have enough experience on, but I wouldn't advise against it.

Peacebringers... I don't know. I wouldn't want to say "don't bother," I like my PB, but any answer I give would have to be heavily qualified.

I think the comparison to Warshades is simply to show how far behind Peacebringers are, but that's a good point. I think I implied it earlier in this thread, but I care far less that PB's and WS's be equal than wanting PB's to fill a role - any role - well. To be a Jack of All Trades, then one would not expect a PB to be better than another AT at what that AT does, but then it must be significantly better at some other role that makes the PB worth having around.

I've always looked at PB's human form as the AT Blapper fans should love to play. They have great melee skills with some ranged attacks and better survivability than a Blapper.

But, the melee comes with knockback and the ranged damage is poor. Now, with the newer mobs out there, Resistance based defense also seems less valuable. ***

If a PB's supposed to tank than at least Rhino needs to be able to survive tanking AND do a better job of agro management. Perhaps make the Rhino Defense themed to add to the Resist it's getting from the inherent, etc (instead of just more resist) + Punch-Voke or an agro aura. Even if the damage remains poor (Rhino should not out-shine tanks), at least it's a function the Rhino could do well enough to make getting that form worth while and actually useful to teams.

If a PB's human form is supposed to Blap, then it needs to do decent damage compared to scrappers and blasters. Again, I understand and agree that a "jack of all Trades" should not out-shine true tradesmen, but it's damage out needs to at least be in the same league.

If the PB's supposed to be an offender, than it needs to be able to apply some heals (or debuffs) and some crowd control. Pulsar and Glowing Touch don't cut it.

My Invulnerability / Super Strength / Pyre Mastery Tank is three times better at every facet of game play than my PB is.

Now, I think the changes made will help close that gap considerably in all avenues except survivability and agro management - so that's great - but it still leaves the PB without a role. Matching a tank in damage is not a "wow" factor unless it does something else - crowd control, healing, debuffing, agro management - anything. The PB's still do not do any of these things competently.



(***I don't have numbers to prove that, just impressions. Praetorian Clocks shred resistance based armor as do most level 50+ AV's, new and old. I used to be able to stand up to Lord Recluse in the STF with my invuln tank all day long with a little assistance from a healer. Now that I am uber-Incarnate with extra armor, I/O's, etc - he two shots me.)

EDIT: I will miss old lightform, too. It was the one facet of my PB that helped me prove I was valuable to teams. When some poor fool runs into a room and agros all 5 groups, I could pop Lightform and run around like a screaming idiot dropping mobs left and right while the rest of the team died. The fact that Lightform didn't root meant I could position myself for the follow up attack before the mobs landed from my KB or I could move on to the next target knowing my still-animating Incandescent Strike was going to finish the job on the other side of the room. It made for some wild, fun combat that entertained the PC's while their toons lay dead until I could give them enough breathing space to pop a wakie. Those instances were the only times I really felt like I was contributing more than a scrapper or blaster who might have filled my slot otherwise.