Kheld improvement ideas

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The problem with this is that if you can use Pool Powers while shifted, why can't you use Kheldian Powers while shifted ... namely the Bubble Shields. It rapidly devolves into a problem "If This, Why Not That" once you open that can of worms. The ultimate end state of that process then is that the Form Shifts need to wind up losing their signature defining powers (ie. you don't get 4 powers extra with Nova and 6 powers extra with Dwarf) and instead the Forms just wind up applying modifiers to the Base Human Powers instead.

In short ... there's a "you can't get there from here" limitation called The Cottage Rule that is preventing moving in the direction you're advocating, unless you're willing to pull out a Clean Sheet Of Paper and rebuild Peacebringers from scratch ... at which point you're not "tweaking" them anymore, you're engaged in Urban Renewal.

On what grounds? What is the supporting reason/rationale for such a thing, other than "I want it, GIMMIE!" Without a supporting argument, your request literally has no standing.

Quite unnecessary. If anything, Nova Form should have the +45% Damage Buff granted by the form "removed" from the Nova Form Power itself, and instead have the damage values of all of the attack powers used by Nova increased by +45% damage. Basically, "bake in" the Nova Form damage advantage into the attack powers, rather than applying it as a buff for being in the Form.

S imple
E asy
E ffective

... not being done.

Unnecessary ... again ... and also harkening back to the problem of "I want ALL of my powers in ALL of my Forms!" again, which would essentially (once again) require a Clean Sheet Of Paper approach to rebuilding Kheldians from the whiteboard on up into something playable (again).

I will however concede that it would be "nice" if White Dwarf Step were changed away from being a Travel Power copy, since Peacebringers "don't need" another Travel Power beyond Energy Flight, into being something far more akin to Shield Charge. If White Dwarf Step operated like a Shield Charge on a 20 second(!) recharge (as opposed to Shield Defense's 90 second recharge) it would go a tremendously long way towards giving White Dwarf its badly needed 4th Attack Power so as to smooth out the White Dwarf's Attack Chain relative to that of the Black Dwarf for WS.

This is just more extension of the "I want to access ALL of my powers at ALL times!" demand you made in #1. And as I have already said, the only way that is happening is if the Devs go for an Urban Renewal of Peacebringers that involves the Clean Sheet Of Paper approach to development.

Ironically enough, the necessary "tech" to do this sort of thing already exists within the game, courtesy of the Dual Pistols Powerset. It would (of course) require a recoding of pretty much every single Kheldian Power that grants Knockback (greater than zero) so as to account for/accomodate the changes though, but that is "doable" as a project.

Essentially what would happen is Kheldians would be given an Inherent Toggle which would function much like Swap Ammo does for Dual Pistols, which calls for different effects (damage, damage types, mez, debuffs, etc.) depending on whether the Toggle is ON or not. In this case, for Kheldians, it would simply be a matter of:

IF Toggle = ON
THEN Knockback = Full in Powers
ELSE Knockback = +0.67 Maximum in Powers (not including Enhancement)

The underlying game mechanics here is, much like in Dual Pistols, that the Powers Themselves contain the two alternates, and the Toggle "controls" which one of those two alternates is "active" at any given time. And because the controlling Toggle would be an Inherent Power, in the case of Kheldians, rather than a Taken Power, like Swap Ammo is for Dual Pistols ... it could also be coded such that Form Shifting does not "shut off" this Toggle, meaning it could be used not only for Human Form powers, but also for Nova and Dwarf powers equally.

It basically involves a bit of "trickery" and reprogramming/recoding ... but given the example of Dual Pistols, it would seem that this is something that is perfectly POSSIBLE TO DO given existing game tech. It would just require a place on the schedule for the Powers Team to implement it (and the Budget that that would require).

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

Post i21 Lightform CAN be made perma.


Something I'd kind of like to see for Khelds is for them to get 2 Archetype specific APPs, one with powers only usable in Nova form, and one with powers only usable in Dwarf form. So that those players who want to flesh out one form or the other can do so. This also could help solve the problem of Perma-Lightform Human PBs making White Dwarf kind of obsolete.

Nova form could get a tier3 blast, a couple soft/single target controls and a utility power or two.

Dwarf form could get say, a high damage melee attack, a bit more survivability, a taunt aura type power and a bit of utility.

So you've got power choices and enhancement slots to spare? I wish I did...

Its not a bad idea, but we just don't have the power choices or the slots to handle it unfortunately. Ive got maybe, 2 power's worth of wiggle room in my build, and no slot wiggle room at all. All that talk in the beta forums of an extra three slots had me seeing double rainbows, let me tell you...but thats not happening...

I think part of the problem is we HAVE to slot our form powers. Did you know at one point in time the form powers were intended to be unslottable? They'd have their enhancement bonuses baked right in from the start. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. They decided the lack of choice outweighed the good of not being slot starved so now we have to juggle our same base number of slots as everyone else with our Nine or so powers we get above and beyond everyone else.

I really think an APP or something like that wouldnt be horrible, something to "focus" the kheld and provide a greater boost while in one particular form...but at the same time I just don't have the wiggle room in my build for it. If it was one choice for a small pile of powers that didn't require slotting then that might make it a little more agreeable, but I just dont have that many powers I can drop, and I definitely dont have any slots I can spare.

Honestly on my warshade there were literally NO powers I wanted to get at level 41and up. So yes, I'd have had plenty of room in my build for them (granted this was pre-Inventions, so I wasn't picking powers to use a set mules).

Really the idea is to let people specialize as one of their forms, not to let them enhance the forms in addition to their current builds. So you would build specifically to include those powers and the slots they need, not try to just shoehorn them into an existing build.

I've always thought that Kheldian Human powers should have filled completely different roles than their forms. Support for Human PBs and Control for Human Shades. So that each of the 3 forms were really unique from each other. (Obviously it's years too late for that to happen.)

I was referring to the epic pools. I'd certainly have room in my Human Form builds for a Scorpion Shield.

SoA patron pools for me plz.

I have no experience with those... *shifts eyes* Other... EAT's. Which pools do they get access to?

Just the patrons, but that includes a pet in all of them, gloom in soul, shatter armor with -res in mace, and an AoE immob with -kb in mu.

I would honestly never use the pets, but the -res would be nice. I only see that in Leviathan though, and it would be hard to work in the Immob cone in a lot of places for me. Granted, I feel Gravimetric Snare should be made into a cone anyways, so .. All in all, I think I'd rather have the Defender pools. I'm assuming the -res power is on a long recharge and it comes at the cost of taking a power with a function that one of our primary powers should have.

edit: Just noticed a -res attack in Mace also, but it looks like a single target attack also on a long recharge.

Now giving white dwarf shield charge instead of that teleport power that i don't ever use would be an awesome idea. I'd give it high damage, and slow recharge.

Things that I agree with and would like to see, after reading this thread:
1. Power pools used in forms. I have both assault and maneuvers on my PB so i could get vengeance and I can't use either of them because im hopping between forms so often.

2. The option Zenyth suggested about Khelidian specific EPPs. I'd call the general power group "Form Mastery" and Have two choices, Nova Mastery or Dwarf Mastery.

A nice power in nova would be a single target hold of some sort. and for dwarf, again the shield charge idea would be VERY helpful.