archgemini24

You are likely going to take most of the powers, but not all (You cannot: Luminous/Umbral Blast/Aura are not just 9 powers apiece. Blasts are 14, Auras are 12. You only get 24 total power* choices in your career, period.). From an effectiveness standpoint, there is nothing to stack with the stun of Peacebringer's Pulsar, so it is* very lackluster, and Glowing Touch you might only keep around long enough to get the healing badges. If you plan on pegging out a Kheldian and dancing between forms, the base-form Toggle Shields are mules, at best, since you will be leaning on Light Form/Eclipse.

And there are usually powers that are ripe for letting go to help facilitate that. Confronts (not Taunts) are always skips. T9 armors are usually skips. After that there are either some duds (PB - Pulsar or Regen - Revive) or a level-1 primary power (Dark Melee - Shadow Punch on a Scrapper or Brute) not likely to be needed in that character's end-game build.

45 seconds would be amazing, even at only half its current strength. That said, I would probably use it the way I do now, just with a little more buffer: juggling it with Shadow Meld and Barrier. I am probably too attached to my PB right now, but I feel like the reworking of the high-mitigation T9s could take inspiration from the Khelds: Light Form's magnitude of primary effects, uptime-ratio, and crash make it a better version of Unstoppable, imo. Eclipse does not have a crash, but has to be leveraged for maximum effect and does come with some initial risk (you have to jump into the fight without the extra resistance, first). The T9s with fixed recharge seem a bit weak for their effects and uptime, but the sets those are in don't need a whole lot on the mitigation front. Unless I have nothing to take at 49, these are usually skips. The self-rezzes are a fun concept, but just not one that appeals to me unless they can be modified to do something if used before the player is defeated. Born in Battle is enough.

I agree with everything else you said, but to answer this question, specifically: Offensive/Support parity? Some sets pay a lot more for their extra tricks than others, if they even have them, at all. I know not every set is going to get Against All Odds, Grant Cover, and Shield Charge and/or have the bulk of its mitigation wrapped up in 4 powers (Regen's not the strongest or most IO-friendly, but Fast Healing, Reconstruction, Dull Pain, and Integration at least means you can get other powers quickly), but seeing sets like SR that require 7 powers, waiting until 35 to get a core power, and only getting Quickness (which is another power pick) and near-capped DDR out of the deal just does not seem right. Complementary T9s rather than stacking T9s might also be helpful, but I think the devs are at least still trying to respect the Cottage Rule for folks who did take them for a specific use. Clicking Overload and having it act like Unstoppable might be useful for Energy Aura players, but they may have wanted the extra Defense for Incarnate content, or picked EA because its T9 did not have an HP crash.

Quartz are particularly nasty to SR since it has no other form of inherent mitigation save the scaling resistances, which can get leapfrogged at the levels you see DE.

Are Kheldians their own beast or do Luminous and Umbral Auras count as Armors? Asking because I feel like the best handled Armor-based T9s are Light Form and Eclipse. The biggest knock on those is that they somewhat fall into the "more of what the set already does (except for Psi-resistance in Eclipse)," but they are so good at it that once you get them slotted you don't have to run the other shields at the same time (which is also a good thing because the shields don't stay toggled through forms, but that is a different conversation). - Solid base effects, especially for Human and Nova - Good baseline uptime ratio (90/300 base and 90/155ish on just SOs), and permable with enough investment (so the T9-state reflects steady-state play). - A fair crash for what they do, and even this can be leveraged. The only other T9 I look at taking on sets I have played (have not rolled Rad or Bio, yet) is usually MoG. It supplements what Regen does not do well (eating alpha strikes) without invalidating the rest of the set, and is a space for any of the Resistance and Defense uniques, but its uptime ratio leaves a lot to be desired. What would have to change about the power to get a 30s duration?

- A full review on all powers with a consistent design and effectiveness philosophy in mind. There are some sets that, while still fine and playable, show their age next to more modern sets. I very much understand this is a "be careful what you wish for" request, but I am really interested in what some powersets would look like if they were all looked at together, especially since the performance bands between them can be quite large. - A little love for inherents that have certain aspects overlooked (i.e., Kheldians solo or proactive Defenders), underpowered and/or cumbersome (Sentinel, Kheldians with certain teammates), or have other ATs with the same inherent, but better by such a degree that they may not even count as the same anymore (Assassination beats up Critical Hit and takes its lunch money). - Toggle Suppression with form changes if the idea is not to run certain toggles in certain forms. - Retention of all the QoL changes, especially the AH stuff.

With my apologies if I missed it earlier in the chat, but do I even want to throw in the consideration of Primary and Secondary powersets, or does the origin depend on one, the other, or reconciliation of both? I ask because I see the Superman discussion as an attempt to reconcile all of his powers, but I am thinking of something like a Sword/Regen Scrapper or sort of Pre-Cog Pistols/Nin Sentinel. Would training with the tool make the character be Natural? Would the use of a tool at all be potentially Tech or Science to cover the Special Types or Rounds? And then all the shenanigans that can be an option with recovering from damage/fatigue or vector-based dodging. If the character naturally has abilities, but uses a tool as a means of focusing them, is the origin based on the tool? What about if you have a costume option that reflects character development and being able to use the abilities without the tool, anymore (I have a PB whose original costume uses gauntlets)? OMG, the rabbit hole goes so deep! I'll be back to check on this later, but if I don't get out now I am going to spiral in theory-crafting madness!

The passive Inherent on Kheldians leaves a lot to be desired for solo play (where it does nothing) and seems fairly underpowered with a third of the available roster for teammates (other Khelds, SoA, Controllers, and Dominators). Would 2 points of mez resist per Mez teammate and 10% Recharge (rather than just Slow resist) per EAT be that overpowering?

I run a Dark/Nin Sentinel and I can echo this sentiment. Dark Blast has an extra attack/heal in Life Drain, and the debuffs in the set effectively stack with Ninjitsu's mitigation, and there is some good headroom to boost performance with I/Os if you like the character later.

I rebirthed my DM/Regen Scrapper (my story-mode character) to a Brute, but my DM/Shield and ElM/Shield Scrappers have either been recreated or in process. They were jumped in line by my desire to create a PB with all the updates and KB->KD IO availability.

That and people who genuinely seem to be disappointed and/or annoyed that they can't throw money at the game for at least a month. Anyone recall what the record is for filling the donation target for a month? 40 minutes feels like rare form even for us.

I have gotten complimented on my other characters before, but the PB compliments will always hold a special place because I can almost feel the resignation from some teams at how messy they think fights are going to be, and feel like they are doing me a favor with a pity spot. Then they see how messy it's not and I can definitely feel the "Peacebringers can do that?!"

I was running a PuG ITF on my Peacebringer not too long ago and had the entire team say something to the effect of "you are a credit to Kheldians as a whole." The investments made into KB-KD IOs paid for itself in that one line, somehow... I was just trying not to scatter everything so my AoEs would not lose effectiveness, but I was discounting the soft-control and mitigation that chain-flopping provides.

Just made an attempt on my PB, and actually cleared the first spawn, but then I got the attention of a second spawn before I got a chance to breathe and got gibbed. Clarion for the extra mez protection might have helped more than Ageless, but that was not too much of a problem. Mostly, my tactics revolved around removing all the little people as fast as possible while chain flopping (Nova, Solar Flare, Luminous Detonation) harder targets in order to reduce the sheer number of debuffs flying around everywhere. That mission is nuts!

Yay! Made it this time!

I recognize this from a (potentially) different text: On the Care and Feeding of Your Pet Scrapper by CaptainAdept. https://web.archive.org/web/20120904203644/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=113100 Other popular types mentioned in the forum were derived from the main three: Neighborhood (Domesticated when they feel like being spoiled, and Feral when they don't), and Evolved (which is more like Domesticated with one long-term partner, and the partner starts to take on Scrapper-like tendencies).

I thought I was the only one. Maybe the Gladiator's Armor in Tough was supposed to be the 3% Unique, instead?

My PB only lacks it in Gleaming Blast, which I rarely end up using. Going KB->KD in all the AoE is too useful to me, let alone the rest of the team. Inner Light -> Solar Flare (KD), Dawn Strike (KD), Photon Seekers (KD), Solar Flare (KD), Luminous Detonation (KD), Clean-up.

The difference is definitely "Live" versus "Homecoming" with Energy/Fire. You may end up paying a very heavy slot tax for all the Sudden Accelerations, but chain-flopping everything with Explosive Blast and Nova, then continuing the shenanigans at 35 with Bonfire if you go Fire Mastery (and getting a better opener) is definitely effective at slowing down the rate of incoming fire and keeping things mostly in place for all the PBAoE.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the general (there are exceptions, I'm sure) design philosophy that Auto Powers be less potent than Toggles be less potent than Clicks? Meaning /Regen should be an absolute monster since a significant part of its mitigation (Dull Pain, Reconstruction, Instant Healing, Revive, Moment of Glory) are all clicks (please put aside the fact that the only Toggle, Integration, might be the linchpin of the set). My experience has been that it lags next to most of the other mitigation sets, be it due to synergy with IOs or Inspirations, or simply the time loss it has to take to click its powers. Even considering this all, I think the set only needs a few changes to bring it in line to the current meta, even if they do not address the IO synergy and lack of offensive augmentation aside from Quick Recovery. Revive needs the Sentinel Revive treatment, Moment of Glory could be buffed to 30 seconds (any offensive buffs could go here, maybe?), and IH could be left as a click, but moved to 38 and be 90-second duration/300-second recharge like Light Form and Eclipse (permable with investment). Moment of Glory would stay a Defensive Build-up, but IH would be restored as the crown jewel of the set. In hindsight, these changes would actually give Regen IO synergy... with +Recharge rather than +Defense or +Resistance like most of the other secondaries. A clickable, stackable Integration would be a thematic match, too (and put the entire set on clicks + 3 autos), but that might be a bridge too far given how accustomed to the set most players currently are.

Same for Regeneration's overall popularity next to the shinier, new, more I/O friendly and more capable sets and the absolute ridiculous popularity of Emps among the Defenders. All 13 combinations of Empathy are in the top 42 for Defenders, and 12 in the top 25.

Panacea Proc in Health?

Good catch on the Dwarf Techs. Should have known that. Thank you. Edited post. It would stink to have to still have to slot KB->KD enhancements in the Human and Nova Blasts (also agree that the Melees/PBAoEs should be changed inherently) if the option to turn them all was available (to save the slots), but at least it would be in parity with Energy Blast and other Novas. That is why I think it is a good idea to have a global option somewhere: other sets with lots of KB to convert would also be able to save on slots. A player could then use an enhancement or two bring their mag up or down for specific powers to their liking, rather than having to slot 5+.

And this is the biggest reason I would like to see an option (toggle or Gull) to turn all KB on a character to KU or KD. For PBs (and others, but PBs in particular), Knockback makes the set play against itself. Click Inner Light, run into a group and use any of the AoEs (Dawn Strike, Photon Seekers, Luminous Detonation, Solar Flare, or any Nova or Dwarf version of the same powers) and the rest of all those wonderful AoEs are immediately and substantially reduced in effectiveness due to the fact they can no longer hit the whole spawn. I know fun is a subjective thing, but I cannot see how impeding one's own abilities like this can be anything other than frustrating.