Titan_III

See my comment on flight simulators and "But its an awesome driving game" above.

I don't care if I can pick superspeed or superjump or get by on ninja leap. Its NOT flight. You can not be a WS and soar through the air unless you're a squid. THAT is so much of a deal-breaker for me the AT holds zero interest for me.

I also have never been able to get a tanker past level 16 or a defender past level 32 (admittedly this was before the recent solo damage buff so I may have to go back and try them again) or any but my first blaster (my first toon ever) past level 3.

What I enjoy are PB's, Scrappers, Controllers, and MM's in approximately that order... and there's NOTHING wrong with that.

Ironically, I can survive x6 spawns of Malta and Carnies on my 50 PB without too much trouble. Of course I ignored any and all guides and just built for what I felt was important and kinda lucked into something that laughs at large spawns of Rikti, Malta, and Carnies (and most everything else).

But just because I CAN doesn't mean I do. Mainly because it is a boring slog that takes probably 2-5 minutes per spawn to finally beat stuff into submission. Spending over an hour solo on an instanced mission dealing with all that chaos just isn't fun. At. All.

So I usually play at x2 and can actually use forms other than dwarf/lightform while dealing with spawns. Its a LOT a more fun that way.

QFT.

I love my PB and I have never been able to get a WS past about level 6 and I've tried at least a dozen times... sometimes using various guides that ultimately don't help because the problem I have is far more fundamental.

The reason? I HATE HATE HATE teleport (even with the point and shoot mouse bind) and I don't want to have to be a squid to fly (which is my preferred travel power by roughly eleventy billion percent). All of the "phenominal cosmic power" fails in the face of a movement platform I can't stand.

It's roughly the equivalent of saying "I like flight simulators" and being given a driving game because "its an awesome driving game." But I don't LIKE driving games, no matter how awesome. I like flight simulators. They're completely different things.

Because she can't grow her own hair out that long until they get it in the game?

For you. I happen to like it just fine. Though I more typically use it as part of a bolt, blast bolt, eyes, bolt, blast, et cetera chain. Its up after every attack that I make without the need for insane +recharge in my build (because the primary focus of my build is ranged/energy/negative defense which vastly helps my survivability).

Which again highlights the importance of the cottage rule. What is not a big deal to you is a big deal to others... which is why all of my suggestions are for additions or flat-out improvements to the existing powers, not weakening them in some area (that someone else might find important) in order to add a buff elsewhere.

If the argument is that PB damage is too weak then it makes no sense to argue that we need longer recharge times to justify increasing the damage. We just need more damage at the SAME recharge. My suggestion is to add damage via a stacking resistance debuff because that would also allow the PB to give back something to an entire team (as would a to hit and/or regen debuff if necessary to get things balanced), but if you really wanted to you could just flat out increase the damage and leave it at that (I think that would be a bit boring though).

The problem with that is it kills my ranged/energy/negative defense that I get a large part of from having four full sets of Thunderstrike (I used to have a fifth, but I sacrficed that for the Apocalypse and Achilles Heel procs in Bolt). This way its up half a second after I last used it so I can go Blast + Bolt + Eyes + Bolt + IS + Bolt + RS + Bolt + et cetera in an endless mixed ranged/melee single target chain which keeps the resistance debuff on the target pretty much continuously while only needing it in a single slot.

Or more simply... I don't play like you and you don't play like me... and that's perfectly acceptable.

I got a purple drop once and sold it for just enough to afford the Apocalypse IO. I've gotten a total of four purple drops since they were introduced and all the money for those has gone into my PB build.

And I hate it because I find it PAINFULLY slow (a 5 second recharge for me, unless hasten is up to make it a 4 second recharge) for my taste. You can't do a pure melee chain with a human form PB and because of the base 10 and 20 second recharge times respectively.

This again comes down to differences in playstyle. I came into the PB from the perspective of my first 50... a pre-I6 fire/energy blaster where the first two fire attacks had base recharges of 2.18 and 4 seconds (vs. the 4 and 8 seconds of the other blaster types). Before that I had made it to level 20 on a tanker with super-strength (with 2 and 4 seconds recharges for its first two attacks as well). My favorite scrapper currently is a claws/willpower (1.7 and 3.2 second recharges for the first two attacks).

In short, I gravitate to powersets with very rapidly recharging attacks. It is my preferred playstyle. You are suggesting taking away one of the things that I most love about the Peacebringer because you don't think its a big deal. But my existance proves that others do think its a big deal. For me doubling the recharge times would be a deal-breaker that would have me quit PB's and possibly even the game as its my PB main that keeps me playing consistantly (all my other toons are filler).

And that's why the devs have the cottage rule. We bought into certain power sets with certain playstyles that were available to us. Making those powers work differently (ex. changing a set from weaker rapidfire attacks to slower higher damage attacks) can ruin our entire conception of a character that we may have put hundreds (if not thousands as is the case with my PB) of hours into. Wasting hundreds or thousands of hours of someone's time does NOT make them happy.

So if you want to argue that the damage should be increased, I won't disagree. But saying some other aspect of the powers should be worsened as part of the deal is something that I could not possibly hate and reject more.

If you can't guess by my likely over-repetition of certain points above, I feel VERY strongly about this point.

I don't think you have to worry. Unless someone has an ownership stake in a business, turnover at all levels of an organization is inevitable and, in the long run, a good thing.

While legacy code can be a PITA if its not documented properly, most creative endevors... especially one with as massively varied an audience as this one... benefit from getting fresh pairs of eyes looking at them. If the old hands say that something is utterly impractical or impossible, let someone new take a look at it and they might find a way to make it work. This game benefited immensely from getting out from under Jack's original concepts (players don't need to know hard numbers... three minions should be a challenge... etc), and who knows what ideas some new hand might come up with that might make the game even better?

As long as the turnover happens at a measured pace (i.e. senior people stepping aside so that the rungs beneath them can move up the ladder and make room for new hires at the bottom) this is the healthiest model for an ongoing business that plans to be in the business for the long haul.

Then let me suggest, as an alternative, Kinetic Melee/Willpower as a possibility... especially if survivability is the goal. Like claws it has a strong PBAoE, a knockback cone, and a short single target ranged attack (which combined with darkness mastery has allowed me to create a respectable ranged attack chain for my scrapper).

But the big advantage of KM in terms of survivability are that the main attacks in the chain inflict a damage debuff on your targets (which can be stacked to about -20% to -25% in my experience) which stacks very nicely with Willpower's multilayered mitigation by providing it in yet another form.

Likewise, KM has the advantage that all of its attack either inflict knockdown (including the PBAoE and ranged attack), stun, or both to the point that it is quite possible to keep a boss continuously stunned or flat on his back (or both)... and every second you can keep the foes around you from attack is another second for the set's regen to act as mitigation.

While you stated that Willpower seemed only faintly praised, I have to say that for your purposes (survivability without panic buttons) Willpower is probably your top tier choice as, with the exception of the self-rez and the easily skippable "crashless" teir-9, the set is entirely toggle and autopower based... as close to fire and forget defenses as you can possibly get.

The final advantage of Willpower from my personal experience is that it offers protection from a number of more exotic attack types (such as stealth/perception debuffs, confuse, and fear) and offers good defense/resistance against psionic damage which is prominant in the late game.

It also has its own built in super-stamina so that you never need worry about endurance (with three slotted stamina and quick recovery you're looking at 3.5 End/sec recovery before adding in additional set bonuses or endurance boosting accolades).

Willpower is one of those sets where the whole is more than the sum of its parts, but that also means there's not a lot that's skippable either. But with Fitness now inherant you can easily pick up the whole array without sacrificing any of the primary attacks and its rather unique version of build up.

On a purely cosmetic note, the default gold color of both KM's attacks and WP's auras look great with each other without any need for customization. The only thing that might get to you are KM's sound effects, but I actually found them useful in that, after a little experience I could tell which attack I was using just by the pitch changes in the "revving engine" and the Tai-Chi inspired animations make the set feel very dynamic (and perfect if you've got some sort of combat spellcaster theme in mind as I did).

So that's my pitch for Kinetic Melee/Willpower as the sets for you.

And such changes would probably make me /ragequit my PB. The incredibly quick recharge on gleaming bolt makes it a great carrier for procs (I have both the Achilles Heel defense debuff, and the Apocalypse damage proc in it) and its cast time (1s) plus recharge (.53s) on my build is actually LESS than the activation time of my other human-form ranged attacks (which have 1.67s activation times).

When you're able to fire off a proc between 20-40 times per minute (depending on whether I stick it between my other attacks or just set it to auto) you're looking at a sustained resistance debuff of between 15% to 26% (the average amount over the course of a minute or more with the actual value swinging between 0% and 40+% from a possible multi-stack) while the damage proc is adding 700 to 1500 damage per minute to your chain (more when you consider that the debuff is taking place at the same time) because its going off so often.

It is my personal experience using the resistance debuff proc in such a rapidfire power and how significantly it effected my damage output (I went from 64.3 DPS to 89.3 DPS with my human form ranged attack chain just by adding those two procs) that led to my suggestion of adding a resistance debuff to all the PB's attacks as a means of both buffing damage and allowing it to "give back" more to the team.

Indeed, the more I've pondered ways to buff PB's while sticking to the cottage rule, the more I think answer to the problem is to add stacking debuffs to it via its attacks because this not only helps the PB, it also allows the PB to "give back" to the team (via debuffing foes) while not changing how it goes about doing so (i.e. blasting them to hell and back).

So if adding a resistance debuff isn't enough of a boost, then lets looks at adding some others. Brilliant light blinding a target makes sense, so adding a to-hit debuff (on top of defense and resistance) to the equation would not only help a PB's surivability but the teams as well (especially if nova form is spamming its AoE's on whole mobs). Likewise, the plasma blasts of the Praetorian clockwork inflict a regeneration debuff (as opposed to ongoing damage... both simulating that you're continuing to burn) so if those aren't enough throw in some minor amount of that as well.

The idea being that while a PB is blasting away they're helping the team by making each foe they strike a softer target for both the PB and their team to deal with and the debuffs can be tuned up or down relatively innocuously until the devs get the balance they feel is best for them... all the while keeping the current playstyle fundamentally unchanged for those who are happy with things as they are.

From my experience my human form is better at single-target DPS (which is why I tend to stick to human or light-form when soloing EB's) while nova is far better at multi-target DPS. In essence human form is "pocket scrapper" part of a tri-formers arsenal.

Not directly, no.

But the vast majority of lasting mez effects (a half-second stun isn't usually an issue for a Kheld) in this game fall under the ranged positional defense (with some few AoE) and are either psionic, energy, or negative energy for type defense.

Loading up on IO sets like Thunderstrikes and Makos Bites with their Ranged/Energy/Negative Energy defense buffs mean that those mez effects land and deliver their mez effects far less often and a couple of break-frees can handle the rest. As an added bonus the ranged and energy defense is also effective against Sappers and Voids/Quantums.

Is a human-form Kheld build ever going to be top-tier? Unlikely. But for a concept build of an Iron Man like character it should more than cover you.

This is probably one of the most underrated benefits of the PB.

Between set bonuses, my own slotting, and even moderate damage buffing (a few assaults and maybe an AM) while on a team with four or more tankers/defenders/MM/corruptors has my PB sitting near or even at the damage cap in Nova form with one or the other of their AoE's going off on wide swaths of foes every three seconds for well over 200 damage per target a pop (with single target blasts in between).

By the same token, any team with three or more blaster/scrapper/brute/stalkers is going to have my dwarf form at its resistance cap with at least a 30% resistance to psychic damage to boot (better against psionic damage than anything outside of a dark armor or willpower tanker). Throw in my set bonuses for mid-thirties defense against ranged, energy, and negative energy and my strong self-heal and... for a team that lacks one... I am a passable tank.

More often I'm on a more balanced team where I can do either of those at that level of effectiveness as the needs of the group dictate at that moment.

The PB, even moreso than the WS, is designed to be at its best on a team... and the best part of the PB is that you can count on being able to bring what the team most needs. It may not be quite as good as one of the dedicated AT's but it can cover the role well enough to pull their weight on any TF I've taken mine on.

The fundamental problem with that idea is SLOTS. If you're a tri-form you've probably already got your slots spread thin. My build has just barely enough slots to cover the necessities. Having to slot additional attacks would mean either less effective slotting on the attacks I already do have or being forced to specialize in one form or another (in which case you're better off just building a blaster or tanker or scrapper)

Frankly, I've never encountered this massive hole in the attack chains of my forms... and I'm not even built for recharge. In Nova form I can spam "bolt, blast, bolt, scatter, bolt, blast, bolt, detonation... repeat" without any gaps indefinitely. In dwarf form I can spam an endless "strike, smite, strike, flare, strike, smite, strike, antagonize... repeat" chain without gaps as well.

The only thing that MIGHT be needed in that regard would be an increase in recharge speed for the white dwarf flare if you felt that using your multi-target taunt power (and its 75% range debuff effect) was not an important component of playing a pocket tank.

If the PB were to see any buffing I'd much prefer it to be incremental improvements where we get a change to evaluate their effects... rather than completely changing everything at once and then having to figure out what to nerf (and possibly killing something that makes PB the AT they most prefer in the process).

That's why I am proposing only minor tweaks at this point. Things like one or more of the following;

- Add a resistance debuff to all the PB's attacks.
- Improve the recharge time on the dwarf form attacks (most specifically White Dwarf Flare) so that a full attack chain is possible with moderate slotting for recharge.
- Shorten the time that changing forms takes considerably.
- Add debuff resistance to dwarf form.
- Adjust the numbers on cosmic balance so that it adds mag 2 mez protection per controller/dominator.
- Improve the Mag on Pulsar to a solid 3.

Implement some of these and then see how they work and, if needed, then add a bit more, and keep going until you get things worked out.

You're also using a sub-par build. You admitted that you'd gone past the ED cap on your attacks, effectively wasting an entire slot per power that could have gone into something like recharge, accuracy, or to-hit debuffs, or endredux. You overslotted stamina (4 End Mods) as well, then slotted your Nova form with even more End Mod that was completely un-needed.

In short, you have a horrible build that, for some reason, you expect to perform as well as an optimized IO'd build, when its actually underperforming even by SO build standards. Please fix your build so it's not wasting half your slots before claiming an AT is so horribly underpowered.

By way of contrast, my tri-form PB was built with non-wasteful slotting and a decent array of set IO's (no purple sets, but several of the rare uniques earned on the cheap via A-merits). My PB slammed through the Mender Ramiel arc without even slowing down (the Honoree was a speedbump) and has been among the most survivable when running any of the high-end TF's or raids (amusingly... even more so than a WS in one case).

Do I think PB's could use a little buffing? I wouldn't mind it, but nothing radical.

I stand by my initial suggestion that all they really need is a little resistance debuff (say a 5% debuff for 6-8 seconds on each attack) added to their attacks (either in addition to or in place of their current defense debuffs... which is not as noticable since nearly everyone is already hitting most targets 95% of the time).

This would not only allow them to do better damage (as the mag of the debuff builds with each hit), but it will also "give back" to their allies by making their attacks do more damage too.

I think a much better solution would be to instead buff the build-up power so that it both provides a larger damage buff and lasts longer. Perhaps something more akin to the Rage power from Superstrength.

This is mainly because when you adjust the damage modifiers you also adjust the maximum level of damage. Right now Warshades and Peacebringers have their damage levels capped at the same level (Warshades just have an easier way of reaching those caps).

Thus, a better solution is to improve the damage buff without moving the ceiling of effectiveness (your solution would allow a PB to actually outdamage a WS if it were say, on a team with a kinetics defender/controller).

A related solution would be to add a -resist debuff to the PB's attacks (as well as the already extant -defense debuff). This would not only allow the PB to do more damage, but would also be a way to help it "give back to the team" by making all its targets squishier... effectively increasing the damage of everyone on the team against them.

I've had the same impressions. The big reason I suspect is that the PB version of Cosmic Balance is designed to fill in weak-points whereas the WS only reinforces strengths.

If you're on a team where you don't have a good tank or defender to help keep the team upright, a PB gets tougher to compensate. Three damage dealers on a team and you're sitting at capped resistance (and 30% resistance to PSI... bane of many a tanker) in dwarf form with no crash. By comparison the +60% damage that WS gets likely will not make that much difference since their mires (and various team buffs) already let them nearly cap their damage.

By the same token, if you're on a defense heavy team, the PB is pretty safe and gets a damage bonus to help finish foes faster (and this is a steady-state boost that does not require large mobs to maintain, so its better for AV fights). Meanwhile the WS gets even more defense which probably just means he'll cap out faster, but not get significantly better than he would otherwise be. This also means that the team may lack the Oomph to actually drop the things that are pounding on them quickly and that the WS is basically nibbled to death by ducks.

Cosmic Balance is just a much better tool for teams than its WS equivalent because it helps a PB do what the AT does best... shape-shift to fit the needs of the team its on.

The main reason I think it should be co-op zone is because Fire Base Zulu is being run by Vanguard (they just don't have the spiffy uniforms) in an effort to keep an interdimensional invader from conquering our world.

In other words, its the exact same scenario as the RWZ (which also has some other factions like Nemesis hiding out in it too).

That screams co-op zone to me.

The major revamp I'd do on the Shadow Shard is spread the levels out so that FBZ is a 20-30 level zone, Cascades are 30-40, Chantry is 40-50, and Storm Palace is a 50+Incarnates zone. Each zone would have a series of story arcs (9-15 missions per zone) and a revamped TF that moves the story of the Shadow Shard forward to a final Incarnate-level TF as you face off against Rularuu himself to keep him from escaping his prison and devouring the Earth.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking (at least in that toon's storyline) that it'll be MY Praetorian after I get all my Incarnate slots and then go back to kick his spandex covered hiney.