The three things I'd change about PBs...

This is an attempt to redirect a discussion that's... well, gotten a bit out of hand in another thread, in my opinion. Short form is that there's an opinion that peacebringers are lacking - to one degree or another.

So, I'm going to lay down a few ground rules here. Please follow them.

1. This is for PBs specifically. If you want to mention "sure, it'd help 'shades," great, but try to keep the focus on Peacebringers. (Edit: If you want, put in an additional "All khelds" line.)
2. "Gut them and start over" or "Make them like X AT" - no, just don't. Give three specifics.
3. Say why. Just so we understand your reasoning.
4. Respect. No "You're insane," "you're stupid for not agreeing," etc. Yeah, we can be a rowdy bunch with these... but let's try to keep it as a *discussion,* not a fight. If there's a point where there's disagreement and nobody wants to budge... just acknowledge it and move on. Please.

See my Guides and Tutorials

So, I started it, what would I change:

1. Give another melee attack, specifically a PB-style Air Superiority.

Why: It's the one thing I miss from not getting the Flight pool. It's knockdown, which will make some people happy. More importantly to me, it's another source of -fly. Having just the two just feels... lacking.

2. Give another attack in White Dwarf.

Why: I think Nova's fine. But Dark Dwarf's heal also works just fine as an attack, giving a more solid attack chain. The three for White Dwarf just don't cut it without recharge. Plus, the WS version gets a second buff - so give the PBs, I don't know, a decent cone. Or have it stun to go with Pulsar. It makes the Dwarf stronger, more viable. (I hate standing around waiting for it to have *something* recharged.)

3. Photon Seekers

How long have we gone on on these? Personally, I still like an idea I proposed quite some time ago - instead of three seekers, make one with a taunt (that does the same-ish total damage, or drop it slightly) with a single ranged blast pet that follows for some time afterward. (This also does the same thing longer term that Extracted Essences do on a warshade - 1, give another damage source, and 2, divert some aggro from the player character, enhancing survivability. It's also an acknowledged difference in damage between the two Kheld types.)


Khelds as a whole:
Form attacks come with two slots at the start, not just one.

See my Guides and Tutorials

1. Make toggles suppress in forms, not deactivate.

I know people hate on the shields cause of perma LF, but thats a long way away for fresh PBs that don't want to powerlevel and its just annoying especially in regards to powers like hover. Sometimes i feel like i have to toggle a bazillion things on, which really takes the fun out of shapeshifting.

2. Pulsar is just bad. Its already approaching useless in solo and it IS useless in teams, besides if i invest in a 3 sec cast minions should be dead, not stunned(and i don't mean turning this into a damaging power, just that its alot of casttime for taking out minions for a limited time). Maybe give it +1 mag like the WS version, which is awesome solo and in team, or a decent -tohit effect from the bright flash it supposedly creates.

3. Access to ancillary to be able to address holes in the powersets without having to rebuilt them entirely.


Personally i have some issue with many abilities the khelds have, which are just plainly not fun. Like Luminous detonation or the first two attacks. MMs primary attacks are stronger than those.

Im not saying increase the max damage of the AT(in nova form, though i wouldn't complain about it). But it would be nice if some human form attacks where a little bit more like radiant strike, and a little bit less like brawl.

1.) Less powers with knockback. At least for the crash one.
Makes the team happier when not every enemy is flying across the map because of you.

2.) More survival in tri-form specs without relying on dwarf all the time.

3.) Better looking Nova form .... ?

1. An ally rez.

• We have "glowing touch" thrown in there. Either that was a half-baked attempt to make PBs more supportive, or someone trying to fill up a power slot after they finished making warshades as awesome as they are. If we're going to have an ST heal, it would be nice to have an Ally Rez to go with it.

• A 3 second animation time is NOT worth it for a low mag 2 stun. The power itself has a low chance of hitting every target, and only works on minions. We have nothing to stack with it to make it effective.

• Kheldians are supposed to be the "jack of all trades..master of none" AT. As it stands, warshades have a controlling human form, a close defensive dwarf form, and a ranged offensive nova form. Peacebringers have a Ranged offensive nova form, a close defensive dwarf form and a...*Knockback everything* human form. 'Shades have their melee range controls, why can't peacebringers have a melee offensive form [in the form of a scrapper/stalker.] Since they are both two different ATs it would make sense for them to have differing areas of expertise. *whispers*like a tiger, or a panther or something >.>*

1. Add -Fly to Gleaming Blast, Luminous Detonation, Radiant Strike, Incandescent Strike, Solar Flare, Dawn Strike, Bright Nova Blast and Bright Nova Detonation.

2. Add Mag 1 Stun to each Human Form Attack Power that does Damage when the Inner Light buff is active. This gives Peacebringers something (anything!) to synergize with Pulsar. Set the Stun duration to exactly match the Defense Debuff duration on all of those powers.

3. Edit Cosmic Balance to be 3/4 self buff and 1/4 team within 60 ft PBAoE buff. The net result will still be the same as far as Peacebringers are concerned (because you're always on your "own" team), but they'll "share" some of their buff(s) from Cosmic Balance with the team they're on rather than keeping everything *just* to themselves. Note that the same revamp could be done for Warshades as well, to everyone's benefit (not just the Kheldians!).

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

Most important:

1. AIB's Photon Seekers solution, plus the KB changed to KD.

2. Solar Flare changed from KB to KD.

3. Pulsar's mag, cast, recharge and endurance cost normalized to Gravitic Emanation.

Would be nice:

1. Base s/l/e/n/f/c/t resistance granted with Light Form cut by about 30% in order to add 25% psionic resistance.

2. Base recharge of conserve power lowered to 90s.

3. Reform Essence base recharge doubled and made into a PBAOE heal.

4. Glowing Touch base recharge doubled and the base heal increased by 50%.


For all Kheldians:

1. Toggle suppression.

2. Nukes made crashless with a 60s base recharge and only accessible as nova form powers. RoA damage scale.

3. A tanker storm kick mechanic for both t1 Dwarf attacks- 10% defense to all, unstackable.

1.) Toggle suppression. We all know what this is.

2.) Knockback changed to knockdown for PB abilities.

3.) More healing/buffing skills. I always saw the Warshade as the destroyer. Why not have the PB be the Blappender? Adds more diversity between the two AT's. besides, it would make sense for a light-wielder being able to heal/buff. Just a thought

1) Toggle suppression

2) KB changed to KD

3) Remove the crappy human-form AoE's and replace them with hard-hitting melee attacks. Radiant Strike is great. IS is great.

Err, I need four, please.

1. Toggle Suppression while form-shifted.

Actually, I bet EVERYONE would like this, for the new movement powers and shape-changed powers. My Tanker hates having to re-toggle when accidentally de-volved into a monkey. It's scary enough already, without the panic of 'Oh gods, toggle, toggle, toggle, toggle, toggle, toggle, toggle!!!'

2. One more ST attack in each non-human form.

3. Two initial slots in each form power, instead of one.

4. Some intelligent improvement to Photon Seekers, please.

Be Well!
Fireheart

As someone who does not have any khleds (that I actually play) I like some of these suggestions. Was talking to a friend about her PB, and I agree the forms could use something..extra.
Sure, it is nice to suddenly pick one power (nova or dwarf) and magically have acess to all those powers..but after you level up some more..they dont grow with you.

VEATs have their arc and can unlock patrons..give Khleds the same. Which may require the arcs being updated..they are verrry long, compared to the veat arcs. After doing the arcs, let khleds unlock some more powers. Maybe a ranged attack in dwarf, a basic shield for nova?

Whenever I had tried to build a Khled in Mids, I always always run out of slots. Considering the huge amount of extra powers they can have..I just dont think it is quite fair.

What about when the player picks a Form, each new slot they get (from leveling up) is also duplicated to the form(s), but the slots are not interchangeable? If that makes sense. This would also stop people simply picking forms and shifting the extra slots to human powers.

There, my opinions. As someone who doesnt like khleds at all.

Oh wait, 3 ideas. Feel free to skip these ones (they may be a bit silly).

1. An auto death button. Because a khleds primary role is that of veng bait, and it is unfair to expect everyone playing a khled to have the Self Destruction power. Sometimes it is just not practical to run ahead into a mob and die for your team, so let them be able to die, anywhere, anytime.

2. AT form changing stealth power. No one wants khleds on the team. With the voids, tentacles and silly kb. This handy power would let them morph into the appearence of a decent AT, showing up as them in the search window, AT icons etc etc.

3. A new BIG title option, with flashing lights, that shows other people how much you spent on your Khled (more so for WS's) just so they can be impressed by teh fact you lashed out 20 billion and still suck.

Sorry Bill, I could not resist.

I would add additional power choices that have different secondary effects so those that want the original KB as intended keep it and those that want different powers from other non Kheldian AT's can choose those.

Here is a question? What exactly does a Peacebringer do? What are they jacks at?

I would like to see a human form Peacebringers have some elements of defender, with a bit of control. This means maybe a small PBAoE heal for your team, and -fly baked into all powers. Or using the arrows of jeleousy type mechanics so if you use your heal power on an ally, it it does a single target heal for a large amount. If you use it on an enemy it gives your team a PB AoE smaller heal or maybe a res based around that enemy.

Maybe another mechanic that gives PB's resist based on heals or baking a +absorb into all their powers that heal

Two ideas that improve PB's without massivly changing them.

I like PB's. I like their form changing. They don't need to be SoA's. They don't need to be warshades. Their design isn't broken, just a little poorly implimented.

1. Change all KB to KD.
2. Give -Res to all human form attacks.

These two would allow PBs to fill a support role by contributing to team defense and offense.

3. Toggle suppression while shifted

My human level 41 PB plays like an energy/energy blapper. I love the knockback because with combat flight I can control most of it, so I can turn it into knockdown if I want.

Solo I have enough damage and enough defenses to run -1/X5 at level 39 with near perma light form.
On a team I am even better at taking the alpha, and putting out near blaster damage. RO teams tend to have a bunch of defenders so I get alot of damage buffs.

I use my photo seakers as a crashless nuke (I only summon them when I have a bunch of mobs around me). Works great as is.

So far my PB is more consistant than my warshade for offense and defense. If my pets die on my warshade my damage output goes way down. If I am fighting 1 hard target my warshade has trouble with defense and offense. Not so with my peace bringer.

So what I would recomend:
1. Toggle suppression while form shifted.
2. Conserve energy recharge = 300 instead of 600, to assist the PB prior to light form because the attacks are very expensive in end relative to the damage they do.

I think I am fine with the Psy weakness. Without that my PB seems near unkillable.

I WOULD GUT THEM AND START ALL OVER IN ORDER TO MAKE THEM MORE LIKE SOA!

To accomplish the above I would be seeking to make Peacebringers actually accomplish their design, which is the ability to take on various roles for a group like tanking and blasting. Right now, Peacebringers are crappy tanks, and crappy DPS whereas SoA are excellent support and excellent DPS.

1) Change the forms as follows:

Remove attacks from Nova Form, but allow all human form attacks to be used in Nova Form. Nova Form would be a damage buff, a knockback buff (more on that later), a recovery buff, and flight. It would cease removing access to all your powers.

Dwarf Form would similarly be a taunt aura, resistance buff, a health buff, and a recovery buff. Dwarf Form would lose its three attacks, but retain the taunt and the teleport. Radiant Strike, Incandescent Strike and Solar Flare would gain +taunt while Dwarf Form is active.

No attacks would suppress.

2) Change Human Form as follows:

Human Form would gain Air Superiority;
Incandescence would gain 3 pts of protection to Hold, Sleep, Disorient.

3) Various attack changes

Gleaming Bolt would stats would change to: Damage Scale 1; Recharge 4 sec, endurance 5.2.
Glinting Eye: Damage Scale 1.64 Recharge 8 sec, endurance 8.5
Gleaming Blast: Damage Scale 2.12 Recharge 10 sec, endurance 10.4
Luminous Detonation: Damage Scale 1
Radiant Strike: KB reduced to .67
Solar Flare: KB reduced to .67
Incandescent Strike: Animation exchanged to 1.5 (Bone Smasher animation)

1. Reduce pledge drives

2. Less British dramas

3. More hard science shows.

I would love to see toggle suppression, and wouldn't mind seeing Photon Seekers and Pulsar brought in line with Dark Extraction and Gravitic Emanation. Other than that I actually would prefer Peacebringers stay how they are. I don't want or need my Peacebringer to be an SoA.

In fact, things I wouldn't change:

1.) Knockback to knockdown. It's really not very difficult to control the knockback in most of a Peacebringer's powers. Knockback is actually highly useful in a lot of situations since Peacebringers have no defense but high resists. Most enemies lack a substantial number of ranged attacks, and attack much less often when they are at a distance. That ends up increasing surivability substantially and doesn't have to be a huge inconvenience to everyone if you use corners and walls to your advantage. The sole power where I can see some merit to the argument for changing it to KD is Solar Flare. However, with instant form changes I'm no longer willing to listen to that argument. We now have two versions of that power available to us without a 2 second wait - the high damage KB version in Human form and the lower damage KD version in Dwarf form. It's been said that the KB is in Solar Flare to keep it balanced, and I'm fairly certain that a KD version of Solar Flare would just be a clone of Dwarf Flare. I'd rather have it how it is now.

2.) An added attack to White Dwarf. It's no longer necessary. Convenient maybe, but far from necessary. All this would do is steal slots from my other powers to deal not a lot of damage. If you need a lot of damage, you shouldn't be in Dwarf. Even if you need to be, in most cases you are now able to drop Dwarf, hit Radiant Strike, and instantly turn Dwarf back on. It leaves you vulnerable to mez and damage for an instant, but you can heal back pretty easily with Sublimation and even if you get mezzed it won't stop you from shifting back to Dwarf.

3.) Making the nuke a crashless Nova power. I can see the merit in that, but I like the higher damage devastation we can cause with Dawn Strike right now. Something is just insanely satisfying about flying into a group of enemies and exploding into a giant white energy blast of insta-death that sends the few survivors soaring away from me so I have a second to pop a blue and finish them off.

@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian

Things that I would alter,

1. KB becomes KD, or else remove KB from human form powers

2. change the forms so that they act as buffs but let human form powers be used when transformed. Squid buffs recharge and damage, Dwarf retains teleport and taunt and acts as a break free when held or stunned in human form, plus if buffs damage to all powers.

3. If suggestion #2 cannot be done, then how about at L39 and above instead of 3 slots for our powers when we level we get four? I foresee PB and WS benefiting from that

4. Toggle Suppression, or better yet just don't disable pool powers when transformed. Let them function normally. I really can't see a PB or WS becoming "overamped" if this were to be done.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I think the KB/KD issue should be turned over to Null the Gull. Turn it into an (inconvenient) toggle.

Be Well!
Fireheart