Timeshadow

Chiming back in to say this is incorrect. Quantum and Void enemies can be a pain, especially before you have access to Dwarf form, but they're nowhere near as dangerous as this. PBs and WS both have ways to deal with them effectively. For PBs, that's some combo of KB and damage. On a WS, you can Hold or Stun them before applying...well, damage. If you get caught off guard (Which you shouldn't because you have a bind that specifically targets them) just Dwarf up and go for the kill. Once you get the Tier 9 from the secondaries, they become completely trivial. It's a shame Quants and Voids spawn randomly instead of being gated behind a certain level requirement (Ideally 20+). Running into one early when you don't have the tools to handle them can give you the wrong impression about the ATs, as seems to have happened here.

Seconding what Doomrider said. The biggest threat to PBs is -Recharge debuffs as they kill your main survivability mechanic, the low cooldown heals. Psi damage can be a problem but you should have enough damage to deal with any potent Psi-based enemies before they become a real issue. I exemp a lot too and I've always found Dwarf to be enough to get by when I'm locked out of Light Form so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Welcome to the fold! 😄 I'm an old hand when it comes to Khelds. My main on live was a PB (That I recreated here on Homecoming) and my namesake is a WS. I've logged a lot of hours playing both ATs and I've built several variants. I even wrote a Peacebringer guide (Check my signature). As others have said, the main difference between the two HEATs (Hero Epic ATs) is their playstyle. PBs are self-contained, meaning the effectiveness of their powers doesn't vary based on environmental conditions. WS, OTOH, are dependent on having enemies (Alive or dead) around in order to fuel their key abilities. That leads to WS having a higher skill cap and performance ceiling, while PBs sacrifice some top end performance for more consistent output. You can build either flavor of Kheld as a TriForm (My preferred and recommended type), a BiForm (Human + Nova or Dwarf), or a Human-only. For a total novice, I'd recommend a Human-only PB as its the closest to the standard ATs (The Sentinel comparison is pretty accurate). If you decide to use your forms, you definitely need to know how to slot the powers they offer and how to use keybinds for efficiency. I cover some of that in my guide but everybody's binds are a little bit different. In terms of build goals, the #1 thing is getting enough +Recharge so the Tier 9 power in the secondary is perma. For PBs that's Light Form and for WS it's Eclipse. Following the nature of the ATs, LF doesn't require enemies to get its full effect and comes with a mitigated crash (Half your HP and Endurance). Eclipse's effect stacks based on the number of living enemies it hits and has no crash (I think you need 9 stacks to max it out but it's been a while so forgive me if that's wrong). Both powers cap your Resistance to all damage except Psionics so you can basically ignore incoming hits while you blow things up with cosmic power. Once you've got them perma'd you can focus on whatever else strikes your fancy build-wise. Again, my PB guide is in my signature. If you'd prefer to run a WS, I recommend checking out the old guide by Dechs Kaison, The MFing Warshade. Dated as it is, it's still one of the definitive guides on how to build, bind, and play the darker side of Khelds. Enjoy!

So I'm looking to build a Stalker but I've got a few questions. I'm hoping those of you who've mastered the shadows (😎) can help me out. My experience with Stalkers is pretty limited. I took an Elec/Nin up to 50 way back in the day but I haven't really messed with the AT since. I definitely wanna do Kinetic as my primary but I'm torn between Ninjitsu and SR. From what I understand, SR's big advantages are the scaling Resist and better DDR whereas Nin has a few more tools with its heal and Blinding Powder. I'm not looking to solo any AVs or get crazy pylon times. I just want something that'll let me survive while I stealthily eliminate hard targets. Also, I've read that Kin's best ST chain is basically Quick Strike -> Body Blow -> Smashing Blow -> AS, with Focused Burst and Concentrated Strike being unnecessary. Is that right or should I expect to take them?

Absolutely. Dealing with Quants and Voids is all about remembering that a good offense is the best defense. Very interesting. My only concern is the maxed out Unbreakable Guard. I exemp pretty frequently so I like to be sure my IOs are functional down to the lowest possible level.

I'm not a fan of builds going up without any explanation of the rationale behind them either. It's fine for experienced players who just want feedback from other vets but those builds are basically useless to anyone who doesn't know much about the AT/Powersets/IOs in question. As for Pulsar, take it if you like it. The beauty of playing a Kheld is in how much variety they bring to the table. I've always found the power underwhelming but I agree that it looks hella dope! To answer your question, base Recharge on Light Form is 300 seconds. I always frankenslot it with five Resist/Recharge IOs, which cuts that number roughly in half before adding in any additional Recharge from Hasten or set bonuses.

All of this. For somebody who's "bad at the game," playing a buff/debuff toon isn't a winner. Playing that role well requires knowledge of power mechanics (Yours, your teammates', and the mobs'), situational awareness, and a decent understanding of which strategies are useful in what content. On top of all that, support toons in CoX, like in any other MMORPG, are relied upon to be doing their jobs correctly at all times. That can mean some pretty harsh scrutiny if things don't go well. A DPSer is gonna be much friendlier in terms of responsibility. Your job is to kill things, preferably as fast as possible. As long as HP bars are moving towards empty, no one can complain. The only way to screw it up is by getting overzealous with pulls or not listening to the team for tactics. Sentinels' combination of armor secondaries and ranged damage will let your friend(s) enjoy the ride while giving them a wide perspective of what's happening during a fight. Hopefully, that broad view of the battlefield will help them get an understanding of what's going on and let them see how other ATs work. Once they've seen more experienced players in action on those other ATs, they might even be inspired to roll one for themselves.

Recommended IO Bonuses So you've read the guide and now you're planning to build a Peacebringer. That's awesome! Big ups to you, my soon to be energy sea critter! 👏👏👏 But now you're staring at Mids, trying to figure out which Enhancements you should be aiming for. No problem! I can help with that too. The thing is, there's no one build that works for PBs (Or Khelds in general). A lot of what goes into your build is down to personal preference. That being the case, I'm not gonna post a build you can just copy and paste (Yeah, yeah, I know. You can leave all the hate you want in the comments😣). Instead, I'll be covering some sets and individual IOs that'll be helpful in your build. Keep in mind though, the game wasn't made more difficult to account for IOs. With the exception of some content that was added later in CoH's life cycle, you can run just fine on standard SOs. Let's get into it, shall we? Set Bonuses Okay, so here's the deal on set bonuses for PBs. Basically anything with +Recharge is good. That covers a lot of territory so I'm not gonna list each and every one. What I recommend doing is downloading "Mids Reborn", a character building program that just about everybody uses. It can do pretty much everything, including showing you each individual bonus a particular set provides. It even displays the total amount of each bonus your build contains and it'll warn you if you go beyond the limit (You can only have five instances of the same bonus on a toon). If you're interested in getting more in-depth advice on set bonuses, feel free to leave a comment below. If I can't answer your question for whatever reason, some of the other Kheld pros are bound to have suggestions. Procs and Unique IOs Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff (Category: Defense Debuff; Level Range: 10-20) Every single attack PBs have does -Defense as it's secondary effect so there are a lot of potential recipients for these. They're not unique so you can slot more than one in your build but the debuff they apply doesn't stack. That means you'll only ever get one instance of -20% Resistance on the same target. I prefer to put these in Gleaming Bolt and its Bright Nova equivalent. Their quick Recharge means its easy to keep the debuff running on hard targets, provided the proc decides to cooperate. Celerity: +Stealth (Category: Running; Level Range: 15-50) With the room Khelds have for pool powers, it only makes sense to take a travel power that's a little faster than Energy Flight. If you're gonna do that anyway, why not give yourself the ability to zip around unseen? Super Speed is the obvious choice for this one because it provides its own small amount of Stealth. Combine that with one of these and you'll be completely invisible to any mob that doesn't have +Perception. Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Global Recharge (Category: Defense Buff; Level Range: 25-50) If you're going for perma Light Form, these guys are gonna be your best friends. They provide a +7.5% Recharge increase to all of your powers. PBs don't have much in their primary or secondary that can take these. In fact, the only places you can put one are Combat Flight and Quantum Acceleration. But that's where pool powers come in again. Personally, I pick things from the Concealment pool solely to use as LotG mules. Overwhelming Force: Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown (Category: Universal Damage; Level Range: 1-50) Remember that part in the first section of the guide where I covered Solar Flare and said there was an Enhancement that could address the KB it does? Well, this is one of them. Put one of these in Solar Flare and you'll never have to worry about ruining the death ball again. What's more, these are scaling Enhancements so you'll never have to worry about exemping below their level and having them stop working. These are really easy to obtain since you can select a random piece of the set as a reward for completing the Summer Blockbuster event. Note: The Sudden Acceleration set has an IO with an identical effect. Performance Shifter: Chance for +End (Category: Endurance Modification; Level Range: 21-50) This proc is great for literally everybody. Having the chance to recover a bonus 10% of your max Endurance is a great way to keep your blue bar from going empty. It's a little more expensive than some of the other procs on this list but it's well worth the investment. Put this in Stamina as soon as you can. Rectified Reticle: Increased Perception (Category: ToHit Buff; Level Range: 10-20) I love this IO but it's one of those things that you won't notice 95% of the time. -Perception is a pretty rare debuff to come across. You primarily see it coming from Arachnos Night Widows and Tarantula Mistresses. That being said, you'll be pretty grateful the 5% of the time it does come around. No more getting hit with a Smoke Grenade and watching helplessly as the invisible, untargetable mobs proceed to destroy you with impunity. It's also kinda fun when you go into a mission with mobs who have Stealth and you're able to see them clearly while your teammates blunder into whole spawns. I recommend putting this in Bright Nova since it really doesn't need anything else and you'll want Recharge in Inner Light. Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection (Category: Resistance; Level Range: 10-30) This is a big one for any AT that doesn't have some form of KB protection built into their powersets. In the case of PBs, it's something you kinda need to use Human Form efficiently. There's nothing worse than running up to something and getting ready to use a big melee attack, only to get knocked flat by an attack you didn't see coming. On top of that, the KB recovery animation can prevent you from activating your self-heals. That can and will kill you if it happens at the wrong time. Fortunately, this IO is pretty cheap to get your hands on. I recommend putting it in Incandescence, the PB Inherent Power. This is far from a comprehensive list of all the useful IOs you can grab for your PB. Rather, these are the ones that I personally use and enjoy. I'm sure some of my fellow Khelds will be along in the comments to yell at me for not including their favorites😆

Greetings, fellow Khelds!🐙🎩 After running around in-game and here on the forums for a while, I decided to recreate my old Peacebringer guide and update it for Homecoming. The game may be a little different now but I wanted to give prospective PBs a place to start as they consider rolling one of our beloved energy sea creatures. I'll try to keep an eye on this post in the future to address any feedback or questions. Anyway, let's get into into it! Peacebringers STILL SUCK!!! (v. 1.1) You wanna play a Kheldian? Great! They’re challenging ATs to learn but super fun once you get the hang of it. So, to start your Warshade you should…What? You wanna play a Peacebringer? Why? They’re trash. Weak damage, no survivability, and they’ve got those lame light effects instead of the shadowy black and purple tendrils that make you a true edgelord! No lie, I’ve heard all of those arguments against playing a Peacebringer (Okay, maybe not the last one😅). I’m here to tell you that none of them are true. Peacebringers are a great AT and well worth the time it takes to learn, build, and play one well. But before we get into how you should go about doing any of that, let me fill you in on what my deal is. "Who are you, bro?" Name’s Timeshadow. I’m a player from the olden days of the live servers. I first picked up City of Heroes in 2007 after I found a box copy in a game store (They were kind of a big deal for us nerds back in the day🤓). I played consistently until the shutdown in 2012. During those 5 years, I fell in love with the interstellar seafood we know as Kheldians. I ran my first toon, a Scrapper, up to 50 just so I could unlock them (They used to be gated behind the level cap). As soon as I dinged that sweet last level, I immediately rolled a Warshade (I know, I know. Just bear with me here). I’ve got nothing against the darker side of HEATs (That’s Hero Epic Archetypes for those who aren’t familiar), my WS is still my namesake, but I found they’re just not for me. There are a few reasons for that but the main one is their lack of self-sufficiency. Everything that makes a WS great depends on having enemies, alive in some cases and dead in others, to draw on for fuel. I’m more of an independent kinda guy. "...Ok, so why should I listen to you about Peacebringers?" Well, you clicked on this guide so you’re obviously pretty desperate😜 Seriously though, I’ve logged hundreds of hours playing PB. I ran my main, Sunsquall, through plenty of TFs, PUGs, and Incarnate content back on live. When Homecoming went public, I recreated him and he’s still my main to this day. Through all that, I’ve redesigned him dozens of times. Defense builds, Human-only, you name it; the AT is special to me and I’ve invested a lot into making sure my PB can perform at the top of his game. Anyway, that’s enough about me. Let’s get into the guide. We’ll start off with a leveling walkthrough, then I’ll cover some IO sets you’ll wanna be on the lookout for once you’re ready to start dropping some Influence on your build. Levels 1-5: Just Getting By Honestly the first five levels are pretty trivial. You’ve got a couple of attacks, a Resistance toggle, and self-heal on a long cooldown that also boosts your MaxHP. I recommend taking Gleaming Bolt and Glinting Eye to give you something like an attack chain (They'll also be nice when you get your forms later on since they can be used while those forms are active). Shining Shield, your Smashing/Lethal Resistance toggle is okay but at this level the incoming damage you’ll be facing is so low that you really don’t need to worry about it. Essence Boost is a pretty big help if you do get into trouble but its long cooldown makes it kinda tough to use until you can get some slots into it down the road. At this level, you’re gonna spend most of your time using the inherent flight powers PBs get to stay out of danger while you blast from on high. The levels will pass pretty quickly so you won’t have much to worry about. Level 6: Tentacles of DOOM! Reaching level 6 is the first milestone of a Kheldian’s journey. Why, you ask? Because that’s when you get access to Bright Nova, otherwise known as Squid Form. This squiggly little thing is gonna be your primary form of ranged DPS. It’s a floating artillery platform that comes pre-loaded with two single target attacks (Bright Nova Bolt and Blast), and two AoEs (Bright Nova Scatter and Detonation). The best thing about Nova form is that it’s powerful enough to chew through most mobs’ HP at this level without any investment at all. That’ll change later on but for now you should enjoy being able to rain death from the sky at the click of a button. The other big thing about hitting level 6 is that it’s the time to start using some binds. Why do you need binds? Good question. See, Kheld forms come with their own set of unique powers that can only be accessed when in the associated form. In practice, that means you’re gonna have a lot of powers sitting in your trays. Using binds allows you to make sure you have quick, intuitive access to those unique powers whenever you change form. Let’s take a look at what your Nova bind should look like: That’s your basic bind to activate Bright Nova and switch one of your power trays to the one where you keep your Bright Nova powers. You just need to replace [Number] with…well, a number. In my case, I keep Bright Nova on my main tray (The one at the bottom of my screen) in slot 8 and my Bright Nova powers on tray 8. So, I just replace [Number] with 8 and I’m good to go. I also highly recommend that you use individual bind files for each form. Otherwise it can be difficult to make shifting in and out of your forms nice and smooth as it should be. Here’s what that looks like using the above bind as a base: With that first bind in place, you’ll have one bind to toggle Nova on, switch your tray, and load a file with whatever Nova binds you wanna set up. The second bind will turn Nova off and load the file that contains your Human form binds. The one snag with that set-up is if things get confused, either by input error or some kind of quirk in the game itself. It’s very realistic to assume that at some point you’re gonna be in one form with the binds for a completely different one having been loaded. It’s happened to me plenty of times but I deal with it by keeping a set of macros on an extra power tray that function only to let me load the bind file for whichever form I’m trying to use. They look something like this: Another thing about Bright Nova (And forms in general) is that they come with a built-in boost to your Endurance Recovery that negates the cost of keeping them on. That being said, you’ll probably notice that you can also slot them for End Reduction. Don’t ever do that. A lot of newbie Khelds make the mistake of thinking slotting EndRed into their forms will help manage the costs of using that form’s associated powers. Pro-Tip, it won’t. The only way to reduce the End cost of form powers is to slot them for EndRed individually. Levels 7-19: Building Blocks This is typically a bit of an awkward phase for most ATs. You’re picking up a lot of powers but you don’t have the slots, the Enhancements, or the blue bar to use them all effectively. PBs aren’t much different. Your primary is gonna start filling out a lot here. You’ve got Radiant Strike and Incandescent Strike, two out of the three core pieces of your Human form melee attack chain. There’s also Inner Light, the reworked version of Build Up that starts off giving you a big damage and ToHit buff for 10 seconds, then continues to provide a less impactful buff to the same stats for the next 30. It might not sound like much but the power’s effects carry over when you switch forms. That can create some interesting opportunities when you need to be more of a heavy Scrapper or really want something dead right this minute. By contrast, your secondary doesn’t have a lot to offer just yet. You’ve got two more Resistance toggles (Both of which are made completely irrelevant by Dwarf coming up at level 20) and the abomination that is Group Energy Flight. With the P2W vendor selling various jetpacks and such to any schmo with a little Influence, ain’t nobody gonna need you to make them fly. On top of that, the power comes with a nasty ToHit debuff that the game doesn’t even have the decency to tell you about. Nobody takes this. No-bo-dy. Also, don’t mess with Pulsar. On its face, it seems like a great power. A PBAoE Stun? Who wouldn’t love that? Yeah, that’s until you realize it’s only a mag 2 which means it won’t affect anything but minions. Total waste of a power pick. Level 20: It’s Dwarfin’ Time! Ah! At last, the TriForm comes to life! Remember those Quantum enemies that have been blasting you for huge damage and stunning you to death at the same time? Yeah, they’re dead now. The arrival of White Dwarf (Also known as Lobster Form) makes Quantums (And their later incarnation, the Void Hunters) pretty trivial. Out of the box, Dwarf form gives you about 50% Resistance to all damage types except Psionic. In addition to that, it’s got a full suite of melee attacks, a very effective self-heal, and a taunt. This is your tanking form and it’ll absolutely save your teammates lives. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Dwarf doesn’t have a damage aura like full-fledged Tanks do. That means you’ll have to use active techniques to hold aggro. Basically, you’re gonna need to hit things and use the taunt whenever it’s off cooldown if you wanna keep that Archvillain looking at you instead of your squishy little buddies. An important thing to remember about Dwarf form is that it gives you mezz protection equivalent to that of the defensive powersets. However, that protection only applies while Dwarf is active. On the plus side, that means you can activate Dwarf while mezzed and keep moving. The drawback is those mezzes don’t go away so if you drop out of Dwarf, either by choice or because you run out of End, you’ll suffer the effects of those mezzes again. Be sure to check and make sure there aren’t any nasty enemy powers still affecting you before you try to switch to another form. Dwarf making its glorious entrance also means it’s time for some more binds. Thankfully, they’re basically identical to the ones you’ll have already been using for Nova (You are using them, right? Better be😒). I won’t go over them here since you can just scroll up and modify the power names. However, I should point out that you can switch between Dwarf and Nova without going through Human, provided your form bind files have a bind that will activate the other form. Levels 20-31: Slots! I Need More Slots! Any Kheld player will tell you that slots are the enemy. More than any other AT, Khelds suffer from having way too many powers and not nearly enough slots for all of them. The way to deal with this is by prioritizing what’s important to you (Emphasis on “to you”) and ignoring other stuff until you can afford to make it work. Personally, I recommend focusing on your Nova and Human powers and leaving Dwarf for last. Some players prefer to slot Nova and Dwarf first, then fill in the Human powers. There’s really no wrong way to do this unless you try to keep everything even. I’m telling you now, that doesn’t work. You’ll end up with three forms that are all underpowered and that might be enough to convince you PBs really do suck. I’m old enough to remember when we didn’t get Stamina as an inherent power. Just about every toon was sucking wind and dreaming of the day when they’d be able to get the sweet, sweet Recovery buff it provides. Having it as baseline helps a lot but you’ll still probably want to slot it up as soon as you hit 21. In terms of powers, be sure to pick up Reform Essence at 22. It’s a weaker version of Dwarf’s self-heal and you’ll be using it a lot. In fact, if you alternate between the two, you’ll always have a self-heal ready to go whenever you need one. Keep in mind that even though it’s not as potent as Dwarf’s heal it’ll still restore about half your health once it’s slotted. Don’t pop it when you’re at 75% HP since most of its power will be wasted. At 24, you can grab Quantum Acceleration, a toggle power that’ll make you fly faster. I know, it’s not that great of an effect but the power can serve as a place for one of the Global Recharge procs which will be critical if you’re building for what most PBs do, permanent uptime on your Tier 9 secondary power that gives you capped resistances. Level 24 also brings Conserve Power, a click power that gives you an Endurance discount on all powers for a decent amount of time. It’s pretty okay but if you’re slotted correctly you shouldn’t really need it. You’re definitely gonna want Solar Flare, which becomes available at 26. It’s the PB version of Foot Stomp from the Super Strength powerset. The difference is it comes with Knockback instead of Knockdown as its secondary effect. That’s a problem. The last thing you want is to be that person who scatters the mobs after the Tank has gathered them all up. The only real way to deal with this is to get your hands on a particular type of Enhancement but I’ll cover that later. If you want to, go ahead and pickup Quantum Flight at level 28. It’s a phase toggle that makes you completely invulnerable at 30 second intervals and lets you fly around really fast. Problem is, you can’t affect anything other than yourself and phased enemies while the power is active. This is basically an “OH SH*T!!!” button. Take it or leave it, your call. Level 32: Pretty Lights Go Boom! Level 32 brings you two big damage AoE powers that work in very different ways, Photon Seekers and Dawn Strike. Dawn Strike is your typical nuke. You run into the middle of a spawn, hit this power, and watch everything go sailing off into the distance with a big chunk missing from their HP. Some enemies will just straight up die when this thing goes off. It’s a great way to clear out the minions and lieutenants at a stroke and really hurt bosses. Keep in mind though that this does KB so you need to be careful about when you use it. Think of it as more of an opener rather than part of your attack chain. Photon Seekers are pretty interesting. On use, this power spawns three little pets that will follow you around until they detect an enemy. Once they get a whiff of the bad guys, they’ll make a beeline for them and activate their self-destruct protocol, exploding and dishing out big damage to anything caught in their blast radius. Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, it is but there’s a catch. Your Seeker bros are a little bit stupid. Once they come to life, you can’t really control which enemies they target so they’re apt to detonate at the edge of a spawn and potentially completely miss a majority of the mobs. You can mitigate this by summoning them when you’re standing in the middle of a spawn or hovering overhead (Seekers can’t fly so they’ll drop straight down onto the heads of those who are about to die). At this point, you’ve got just about all the powers you’ll need. You can blast with Nova, tank with Dwarf, and deliver some punishing melee attacks with Human. As I said before, you want to be using all three forms as they’re called for. Depending on the content you’re running and whether you’re solo or teamed up, you’ve got the tools to handle anything besides buffing and debuffing. What you should be doing now is learning how to play in a very fluid manner. Form camping is bad, m’kay? Levels 33-37: It’s All About How You Feel, Man Honestly, the best thing about these levels is getting three slots per ding instead of two. This is where you can really start pumping up those powers you’ve been ignoring up to now. Concentrate on making your powers effective in terms of damage, Recharge, and Endurance. If you’re using IO Sets (Which you don’t need to but really should be) try to cram as many bonuses in during this stage of your PB’s life as possible. +Recharge set bonuses are particularly valuable here because you’ve got the PB crown jewel coming up and getting it off cooldown as fast as possible is what most Peacebringers (Myself included) aim for in their builds. The only power of note in this bracket is Reform Essence, a self-rez that becomes available at 35. Some players argue against self-rezzes under the premise that a power you can only use when you’re dead is worthless. They’ll tell you all about how easy CoH is and the ready availability of rez inspirations. There’s some merit to that stance but I like having this power on my tray in case something goes wrong and I end up dying in a crowd of enemies or the support ATs on the team have their rezzes on cooldown. More self-sufficiency is always better, IMO. This particular bracket is pretty open in terms of power choices. You can dive into the pools for whatever seems interesting (A lot of players seem to like the Force of Will powers these days) or pick things that are passable with the built-in single slot. Your playstyle really won’t change here and you should be settling into the AT quite nicely by now. Level 38: The Glorious Light (Form) This is it, the power that really makes PB a standout, Light Form. This power is a click that gives you 85% Resistance to all damage except Psionics for 90 seconds. When it ends, you lose a good chunk of your HP and End but that’s really no problem since you’ve got two beefy self-heals at your disposal. As I mentioned earlier in the guide, one of the main goals for a lot of Peacebringer players is getting perma-Light Form. Having the power available again before its duration runs out lets you basically ignore incoming damage and focus solely on killing whatever’s trying to hurt you with its feeble attacks. Like Inner Light, Light Form’s effects carry over when you switch forms, meaning your Nova form is now just as tanky as Human and Dwarf. You get all the survivability with none of the drawbacks (Except that you still don’t have mezz protection). Until you get enough +Recharge to make Light Form perma or close to it, think of the power as something to use when you’re (a) dying or (b) up against something that can potentially kill you in a few hits. Levels 39+: Filling in the Gaps You’ve come far, my young sushi. This is the home stretch and, strangely, there’s not much to talk about. Due to the sheer number of powers in their primary and secondary, Khelds don’t get access to Epic Power Pools like other ATs do (I’m looking at you, VEATS😡). Fortunately, we really don’t need them. There’s so much to manage in our two main power pools that stacking Epics on top of that would probably just be overkill. Power choice here is entirely up to you but what you should be prioritizing are slots. Again, Khelds often suffer from slot starvation in a way no other AT does so this is a great time to take a look at your build and figure out which powers you want to finish slotting. Do you prefer to run at max level? Then you don’t have to worry about getting those slots allocated in any particular order. Do you wanna be able to help your friends run lower level content for XP, badges, etc.? Then you need to be thinking about how far down you’ll be exemp’d and what that means for your slot choices. This is also the point where I recommend beefing up your Dwarf powers. It’ll never be a DPS monster but having the ability to put out some respectable hurt while also keeping your team safe is always good. I’d advise against trying to go for anything crazy but you’ll definitely want the standard boosts to Accuracy and damage, maybe Recharge if you can fit it in. Beyond all that, you can grab powers that help you do things you otherwise couldn’t. Glowing Touch, the ally heal from your primary can make for a nice little surprise when somebody on your team is getting low on HP. Some players take the Leadership Pool on their Khelds. Nothing wrong with that but because most of its powers are toggles that can only be used in Human form, you might have a tough time keeping these running for your team. The click buffs are pretty good though. "Wow! That was actually kinda helpful man, thanks!" Kinda?! You son of a-😑 If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. You now have a solid grasp of how a Peacebringer evolves as you cruise through the levels and, hopefully, are ready to roll one for yourself. Up next, I’ll cover some slotting recommendations for IOs that’ll help you really maximize your PB so you can get out there and sling light with the best of us. If you’re not interested in that or are just worn out from reading this wall of text, I’ll see ya in Paragon City. Take care😁

Aside from balance issues, the problem I see with that idea is it strips Kheldians of their unique identity. Shapeshifting classes in RPGs are typically designed to imitate the rolls of some other classes without overshadowing them. The tradeoff for not being as good in a particular role as a more specialized class is the ability to perform said role adequately in addition to others. That combination makes the shapeshifter its own thing instead of just an imitation of a specialist class. Giving Khelds a straight up copy of another AT's primary or secondary would make them less of their own AT and more of a watered down version of whatever other class the player chose.

Definitely agree with you on putting Nova first. Its damage output and relative safety as a floating artillery platform is just way too valuable in the early levels. Where we differ is on the Human vs. Dwarf slots. I can definitely see the validity for a WS since Dwarf Mire is part of the one-two combo that gives the AT it's punch, but for a PB I'd argue that the Human attacks are more important. As a PB, the forms work more independently of each other and bear more of a resemblance to the ATs they were designed after. Rather than being the heavy Scrapper that Black Dwarf is, White Dwarf is more of a pure tank. You can and should slot it for damage but the lack of an actual damage buff (Aside from Inner Light) makes it less capable than Human form in an offensive role. Playing it defensively really only requires slotting in the heal and the form itself so I'd say there's less of a need to push those right away. But that's just my opinion. YMMV.

The ancient days when all was shadows and mist 😆(You probably remember my old guide, Peacebringer's SUCK!!!) The big difference between the original reroll and this new one is slot priority. Rather than trying to keep all three forms on pace with each other, I prioritized getting slots into the human and Nova attacks while keeping Dwarf as a pure tank until much later. I realized that the former strategy left everything feeling underpowered. I had perma Light Form, sure, but I'm a DPSer at heart so the general weakness really turned me off. I was remembering my PB at 50+, when everything was set as opposed to the frustrating slot starvation at the lower levels.

Hey fellow Khelds, So I wanted to share a little story with you guys. Why? Because it's Sunday afternoon and I'm avoiding being productive for a while 😅 I came back to the game when Homecoming went public. Ever since the shutdown, I'd been looking for another game that felt as good as CoH. Nothing I tried fit and ParagonChat just wasn't for me. It felt like an imitation, a ghost of something that used to be. That being the case, I was ecstatic when I found out the game was back. I downloaded the client and immediately recreated my old PB main, Sunsquall. As I was rolling through the levels, something felt off. I couldn't put my finger on it but I just wasn't enjoying the toon like I used to. At around 36, I ended up sidelining him and working on other ATs. I got a Widow up to 50, remade my namesake WS, and even tried my hand at a Sentinel, but something was still missing. I thought that maybe I'd lost my fire for the game itself; that all those positive feelings I'd had in the years since the shutdown were just nostalgia. Before I gave up and uninstalled, I decided to roll Sunsquall again and run him up from scratch with a new build (I'd actually deleted him so a respec was off the table). Man, am I glad that I gave it one last shot. The new version of Sunsquall has been a blast! I led a Posi1&2 yesterday and had so much fun. We didn't have a Tank so I popped into Dwarf and crushed it. On teams where we do have aggro control, I can run in Nova or human and enjoy being DPS. This toon might originally be from the live days but it's really saved Homecoming for me and I just wanted to share the good vibes.

Very nice! It's good to see Khelds (Especially PBs since they're generally considered the weaker of the two types) performing pre-endgame. One observation about the difference between PB and WS is the "independence" PBs have in their form usage. All three of a Warshade's forms have to work together for maximum output. As a PB, you can use whatever's appropriate w/o worrying so much about which drains/buffs/heals are about to need refreshing. That creates a sense of freedom and adaptability that's always drawn me to PB as opposed to WS. Again, great work showing off what Khelds can do before the perma-X goodness kicks in later on. Big ups 👍

Interesting. I don't think I had no redraw set when I first used the power but I definitely do now. I'll try going back to the original animations and see if that fixes the display issue at least. Thanks for the reply 👍

Just grabbed Sting of the Wasp on my DP/Nin and realized it's not showing my sword. The animation works, the power works, but my toon just swings air. There's also no option for weapon customization at the tailor. Is this a known bug or should I go ahead and report it?

I really don't recommend going Human only, especially on a WS. You lose out on the extra damage boost from Black Dwarf Mire (A shorter duration copy of Human form's Sunless Mire). Stacking both Mires together is what gives Warshades a lot of their crazy burst DPS potential. On top of that, you lose the utility from the other two forms, which is kinda the point of running a Kheld in the first place. Granted, I've always been biased toward Khelds taking and using their forms as a default way to play the AT. I even wrote a guide about it back in the live server days. YMMV.

I'm talking about these guys: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Model_Replacement_Costume_Powers For those who aren't familiar (And don't feel like clicking the link 😅), these powers basically let you run around looking like an enemy NPC. They basically came in two categories: the temporary ones you got from the Halloween Trick-or-Treat event and the permanent ones you got at cons, won from forum contests, or bought from the Paragon Market. They didn't grant any special abilities and didn't lock you out of your regular powers. They were just fun little things to mess around with while you were chatting under Atlas or waiting to get rolling on a mission. I was a little surprised when I didn't see them at the P2W Vendor and I'd love to see them come back. Maybe let players choose one for free and pay influence for additional ones. Of course, to maintain the uniqueness of ToT, the powers granted exclusively by the event shouldn't be available for purchase.

Timeshadow reporting in! I was usually roaming around on Sunsquall, my old PB, or Sangria, my Night Widow. Both characters will be making a comeback as soon as I get the time to level them up.

These were typically the rewards for the Halloween trick-or-treat event. They replaced your character model with a villain group NPC. Some of them were available on a permanent basis via the Paragon Market (Knife of Artemis, Malta Gunslinger, etc.) but I notice they're not included with the new P2W vendors. The shapeshifting travel powers are there but these aren't. Are they not available in the current build and, if not, are there any plans to add them back in the future? Here's the full list of them in case anybody's not familiar: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Model_Replacement_Costume_Powers

Wow, never thought I'd see this again. It may be outdated now but it's still an excellent guide for anyone looking to pick up the AT.