Theorycrafting: what if HEATs weren't an archetype?

[BazookaTwo]

So I like theory crafting weird ideas, so this is my challenge to the Kheldian crowd.

 

What if you had to build something as close as possible to a Peacebringer or Warshade, but those weren't available, how would you approximate human form and what AT?

 

My thoughts are that Energy Melee and Blast are the closest to Peacebringer powers. Photon Seekers and Seeker Drones are functionally similar. So for human form Peacebringer mimic, I would likely make an Energy/Traps corruptor or Defender, I guess?

 

I feel like Dark is as close as we get to a Warshade, but maybe a Defender or Corruptor there?

 

I know stats-wise it wouldn't come close, but having played 30+ levels on a PB, and taking a WS all the way to Incarnates, my brain has these sort of goofy ideas.

 

 

[SeraphimKensai]

Kheldians in human form are similar to Sentinels, except they don't get mez protection. You can kinda use punch/cross punch/(havoc punch from electric mastery, smite/engulfing darkness from dark mastery, or midnight grasp from soul mastery) to give you some of melee attacks as well.

[Laucianna]

21 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Kheldians in human form are similar to Sentinels, except they don't get mez protection. You can kinda use punch/cross punch/(havoc punch from electric mastery, smite/engulfing darkness from dark mastery, or midnight grasp from soul mastery) to give you some of melee attacks as well.

This lol, I am still in the mind that Sentinels were made due to Kheldians being too complicated to develop as they both fill a similar role

 

 - Lauci x

[Dungeoness Eloora]

I actually had this same ponderation a year ago, for Warshade mostly. I even made a spreadsheet, and listed all of the shade's abilities down the left side, poured over Mids to find a handful of primaries and secondaries that provide even a fraction of them, and listed them along the top. I decided I was going to stick to scrappers, since they defined the mix of melee impact + protection that I wanted to focus on. I knew full well that this would limit my ranged capabilities, but so be it.

 

I highlighted all the similar skills between the various sets. Dark Melee, Rad, Elec and even Kinetics all had quite a few similarities when you just consider target count, range, cooldown and the like.

 

For secondaries, I focused on keeping the resist types very close. I was also very keen on having a damage aura, which kicked out strong sets like energy and bio, but also rad, which was otherwise a very appealing set. Dark Armor is of course a fantastic analogue as well, but doesn't have endurance management, nor an ultimate ability worth taking. Fans of self rez may disagree, but builds are tight!

 

I ended up making a Dark Melee/Rad Armor scrapper. DM is kind of a no brainer, having siphon-type attacks including Soul Drain which is quite a good analogue for Sunless Mire. For secondary I went against popular opinion and went with Rad, as it provided some extra AoE capabilities with Ground Zero, and an Eclipse-adjacent ability in Meltdown, putting it ahead in terms of useful analogous skills for my arsenal.

 

I played it to 50 and modest incarnates, and it was overall pretty great, and did feel a lot like a Warshade in spirit. It's hard to go wrong with either of these sets. I colored Rad to look more like the umbral tendrils we all know and love. It was EZ-mode, to be honest, and got a little boring. I didn't have to work very hard to achieve top numbers in resists, with solid defenses to boot. With fewer skills available, I didn't feel as dynamic or versatile as when I'm on my 'shade.

 

As far as Peacebringer analogues go, I did the same comparison since I also have one, but never ended up creating a character for it.

[archgemini24]

On 11/13/2023 at 3:34 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

Kheldians in human form are similar to Sentinels, except they don't get mez protection. You can kinda use punch/cross punch/(havoc punch from electric mastery, smite/engulfing darkness from dark mastery, or midnight grasp from soul mastery) to give you some of melee attacks as well.

 

I had always envisioned my Human-only build to a Lumi-Lumi Sentinel that had to wait until super late to get any sort of Mez Protection, but got some melee abilities to make up for it similar to Dominator Assault sets.

 

As far as existing sets: I would say Energy/Invulnerability Sentinel, with Fighting and Flight pools: Energy-based attacks, some melee in Air Superiority, Punch, and Cross Punch, Resistance Shields, Dull Pain, Resist-based T9 (Unstoppable is a step down from Light Form, though).

 

Warshades? Dark Control/Dark Assault Dominators or any Dark Armor/Dark Melee/Blast, Dark Mastery combination with Stealth and Teleport pools, perhaps? Covers the Melee, Blast, and Control, and mitigation (resistance, mostly) bits that Warshades offer.