The Trouble

You are correct in that your shields stay "on" but their effects are suppressed when not in Human form. Your instinct to save mules for the end of your leveling career is also a very common way to go (certainly what I did.). I'm with Laucianna's suggestion in selecting mules that have some sporadic utility. I slapped a +Stealth into my Sprint to pair with my Infiltration mule. Whenever a team lead says, "We're stealthing this mission." I'm able to run ahead with my Stalker companions to click through stuff. Clever power picks can open up even more versatility on this already broadly successful AT. If you spend enough time in Human form, Weave can add a good chunk of durability as DEF layers nicely on top of your RES. But no, you do not "need" it. Not even Hasten is "needed". My Lightform is permanent without it. Welcome to the fold! I have plenty of alts that I would love to move ahead with, but Peacebringers are so fun that I just can't stop playing mine.

I recently did a Dr. Quaterfield PUG Taskforce on my Peacebringer. At 85% Psi Resist, I was practically invincible. I was defeated only once when trying to extract a Blaster that got in over their head (Blaster solidarity!). As usual, I forgot to fire off Quantum Flight. Anyway! Every 1:30, my health drops to half thanks to Light Form's crash, which triggered my team to react almost every time. I kept getting handed greens, or folks would rush from across the map to help me out. I have started some PUG's, with a warning that "I live at half health, don't panic." But the best support players are pro-active. If I ever get in the weeds after giving this warning, there is zero time for a teammate to run in and help me the handful of times that I actually need it. So Post-Crash PB's, and Pre-Stygian Circle/Eclipse Warshades, how do you communicate that you're okay without discouraging future rescues?

A Scrapper is designed to be a better damage dealer. Warshades were designed to fit whatever gap the gameplay threw at them, but at about 75% the effectiveness of the archetypes designed for those roles. The most extreme builds push classes beyond their design. That’s generally really challenging to do. Now you’re going even further into the fringe by choosing a strictly human Warshade, which is a hardmode within a hardmode in my opinion. What you’re looking for is viable, but only with an extreme familiarity with your powers, enemy types, and situations. I suggest moving to an alternate build that’s tri-form for now. Don’t respec, just switch. Check out the Mfing Warshade guide to learn how to roll through enemies like an ever-shifting black hole of fiery death. Once you’ve done the deep-dive into what Warshades are capable of overall, go respec your human-only build to see how far you can push your limits. Because only then would you know what tools you’ll need to emulate that Black Deathfire as a human. Don't give up on this character!

Want Perma Lightform without Hasten? I put together a derivative “GD Peacebringer” build that I finally feel confidant enough in to share. (Thanks Whitest Light!) There have been some great discussions about a Hasten-less Peacebringers with perma Lightform, but I haven’t seen any actual builds posted. I know there are talented folks out there that just need a jumping-off point to get their own build going, so here we go... A few things to note about my goals and method: Lightform permanent without Hasten (this build is a half-second away from that goal*). Every slot went into powers I actually use. No slot mules outside of one-slot-wonder power picks. Fully embrace the spirit of Jack of All Trades. Some cool features: With Lightform, all resistance is capped except Psionic at 80% (which will scale up to 85% as you lose some health). AoE focused, but a strong single-target chain is available in Human form. Infiltration + Stealth in Sprint make you almost invisible to everything for those times that you want that. LOTS of wiggle room for different approaches. *The Big Caveat: “A half-second downtime means this isn’t Perma Lightform.” So true. That split second can really slam you if you’re not careful. Your crash hits, and suddenly all those status effects plopped upon you go off all at once. Flip to Dwarf right before the crash like you did in your 40’s. You can heal up, then drop to human so Lightform fires off immediately (because you have that on auto...right?). If you don’t want to deal with that nonsense, then just Dwarf up at any time during Lightform’s duration. The Force Feedback procs set into both single-target Dwarf attacks pretty much guarantee at least one activation...and just one gets you permanently Lightform-ed. THE BEST OPTION: Make the Kheldian’s Grace enhancements the inferior version, instead of the three slots of Essence Transfer in Bright Nova Blast. You’d sacrifice just 2% of your Psionic resistance, and Lightform would be perma without any additional effort. “Why isn’t the build like this already?” reasonable people will surely wonder. Well, I’m a pedantic weirdo who values seeing that 80% in Psionic resistance more than the value of fire’n’forget Lightform. I’m getting help, promise. **Please note that getting some recharge from your Alpha Incarnate renders all of these compromises moot in 50+ content.** I also sacrificed a chunk of damage potential to get here. I wanted to turn all my melee knockback into knockdown, and because I was also chasing high recharge, there are two full sets of Sudden Acceleration utilized. I’ve never felt weak, though. Chewing through +2/x8 would be trivial for practically any player. Skilled players could very easily take on +4. Room for Customization: The last 4 powers are one-slot flavor powers. You won’t need Glowing Touch, Conserve Energy, Photon Seekers, or Quantum Flight. Pick anything you want. I use Photon Seekers as a PBAoE knockdown to mitigate damage. Quantum Flight is there for when things go really bad. I forget I have it because this build is so survivable… I never got in the habit of leaning on it. If you don’t care about Psionic resistance, then you’ll have so much space to personalize this one. Instead of Shining, Thermal, and Quantum shields, you could go with Boxing, Tough, and Weave. Just a little bit of defense for your Human form will make you beastly. Then you can do yourself a favor and pick up Cross Punch as one of your one-slot flavors. Force Feedback +Recharge was built for this power! Also, not chasing Psionic will allow you to ignore the 6th slot of most of these sets. Use the slot(s) in a different power (Weave?), or put whatever procs you want to make this build more your own. The exciting customization differences are going to be the things I haven't even thought of. The Build (DataChunk): The Build: Special Thanks! This thread convinced me to try Peacebringers. I had a MF-ing Warshade back on Live that would melt groups of baddies like all proper Warshades can, but I’m now finding the Peacebringer to be more fun. I hit Veteran level 50 with them this week. I have other Supers that could use attention, but this one is so much fun that I keep playing them. This thread also inspired me to learn how to best utilize the Auction House just to afford becoming a GD Peacebringer. That’s knowledge that’s let me trick out my entire stable of supers. I'm so grateful for this community. It's about time I gave something back. I hope this build helps someone!