How gimp is human-form blasting compared to Nova for PB?

[Extor Prime]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but.

 

My ideal playstyle is staying at range and blasting while maintaining survivability, and meleeing only when enemies get close. Now, I know I should just go play a Sentinel, but I'm curious about what PB can offer in this regard. Specifically, I would like to blast while in human form, which seems not a favorite approach - people seem to prefer using the human form as a melee/close range fighter.

 

Do human-form blasts really lack so much punch that Nova is always preferable for this playstyle?

[Microcosm]

Melee range is favored because of the two heavy melee attacks and one pbaoe in human form. The strongest dpa attack for a PB is Radiant Strike, so people generally want to be where they can use it. Plus you should have zero problems surviving as a pb so using range as a way to limit incoming damage is really not a concern. If you really just want to play that way though you definitely can. You get three single target ranged attacks and two targeted aoes. It's just not the way to get the most out of your kheld, but whatever floats your boat. The bright nova single target attacks are not all that stellar (the aoe is the real reason to use nova imo) so you don't have to worry necessarily about that.

[egoprovince]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but.

 

My ideal playstyle is staying at range and blasting while maintaining survivability, and meleeing only when enemies get close. Now, I know I should just go play a Sentinel, but I'm curious about what PB can offer in this regard. Specifically, I would like to blast while in human form, which seems not a favorite approach - people seem to prefer using the human form as a melee/close range fighter.

 

Do human-form blasts really lack so much punch that Nova is always preferable for this playstyle?

 

I main a human-only Peacebringer and here's what I can tell you.  Human-form is like playing a really burly defender.  You don't blast as hard as a Blaster, you don't have all the tools of a Defender but you do have some shields.  And you'll get asked if you can tank on occasion.

 

This page: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Damage#Damage_Scale has the background scalar on damage attacks for each Archetype.  This is the background value on how attacks do different damage in the hands of different Archetypes.

 

Here we see that Blaster is at 1.125 and Defender at .550

Peacebringer (human) sits between those two at .850 while the Peacebringer (Nova) is at 1.2

 

So without a team, without any damage buffs and just by raw numbers, your Nova is nearly 50% more powerful in blasting than the human-form and a bit more powerful than a Blaster.  And then consider that Cosmic Balance will make you better for all the other teammates you're with.

 

Is it doable? Yes. I've leveled to 50 as human only and I continue to enjoy it in Incarnate Trials and TF's.  I would absolutely recommend it to everyone as a viable option.  It's not as flashy as Nova, it's not as tough as Dwarf but Human only can take some hits and dish them out.

 

And you get to wear your stylish and fantastic costume the whole time!

[Orivon]

The play my PB by changing forms all the time. I have Nova bound to G and Dwarf to V. The way I look at it is if I hit G I get a damage and tohit bonus instantly and if I hit V I get mezz protection, res and heal. I pop in and out of forms to get powers off cooldown like Light Form, Hasten, Essence Boost, and Inner Light. I even chain my human, nova and dwarf aoe attacks. I can get a good rotation with nova scatter, nova detonation, dwarf flare (repeat) and every now and then pop a photon seeker+dawn strike one-two punch. My ST attack chain depends on what’s attacking me but usually nova blasts, radiant strike, and incandescent strike.

 

Ever since they updated the form changes to become instant, I don’t really see a downside to them other than having to worry about slotting for IOs.

[egoprovince]

Tri-form is like playing another class entirely.  Human-form is akin to a hybrid Defender/blaster/scrapper.  Not fully one of any though more defender/blaster than scrapper.

 

Tri-form played in mental quality akin to the MF'in Warshade is probably fantastic.  I'm going to see about tweaking a second build that has that kind of power.

[Orivon]

Tri-form is like playing another class entirely.  Human-form is akin to a hybrid Defender/blaster/scrapper.  Not fully one of any though more defender/blaster than scrapper.

 

Tri-form played in mental quality akin to the MF'in Warshade is probably fantastic.  I'm going to see about tweaking a second build that has that kind of power.

 

Check it out!

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5139.0.html

[Generator]

On 6/26/2019 at 7:56 AM, Orivon said:

 

Check it out!

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5139.0.html

I actually used that as the starting point for my new PB's build, so thanks.  /hat_tip

[egoprovince]

This is my build, little more solid than Nova, doesn't hit as hard. 

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/3489-human-form-peacebringer-the-meta-blas-fender/

[SeraphimKensai]

If you want ranged damage with survivability but not play to play a sentinel, maybe checkout a crab spider?

[egoprovince]

2 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

If you want ranged damage with survivability but not play to play a sentinel, maybe checkout a crab spider?

I second this vote.  Crab have another stack of team buffs you can pull, some reliably good blasts and can double for a Brute or a mock Mastermind when built properly.

 

I'm a big fan of Peacebringer but there are just some problems I can't manage.  I'm no controller, something the Crab can manage in power selection.