Bushpig,
The respec TF only has about 3 or four missions to it. That's not a huge time commitment -- 1-2 hours, perhaps? And considering it's something you can do only once every 10 levels, starting at level 24, it shouldn't be putting that huge of a dent in your play schedule. And I have a hard time believing that respec teams are so hard to come by -- I was invited to both respec teams I served on, and I wasn't even looking to do it at the time.
And, of course, you could always plan out your hero correctly the first time around. 
NewScrapper
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Give them time. This is a good decicion but it's not just a roll back to what it was before... It's sort of that plus stuff from I3 combined in a new way, and even some totaly new stuff like recoding to have Lt level HP and Damage output combined with the Name costume and powers of bosses from every single mission. It's gotta be done slowly and carefully or you'll wind up with more misions with black holes, or mobs under stairs and what not.
Give them time folks. In the mean time if your having trouble at particular hours finding teams, you know once your past level 10 you can even sk someone way lower to assist you in a mision. They ramp up to near your level just have fewer slots and lesser enhancements... But may have powers that can still help. I know, I know some of them may be total noobs but I think you will find them more willing to listen to advice from you level 40 well established hero then your new level 6 experimental alt. Granted having TP friend helps here or you'll have to sk and walk the street with them but still... If your having trouble finding someone your level.... Even checking to see if theyre's some higher level hero out there willing to help with that one mission via request channel might not be a bad idea.
Good luck,
Demon Hunter
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You just dont get it man ... Having more teamates makes missons even more deadly because the real damn problem with bosses is that they do so much damages that they can kill you with one single hit ... Having more teamates increases chances to find even more of these ridiculous bosses in any mission instance so it really isnt a good idea to ask for help .
Roll back the bosses please . It really is that simple.
I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire
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To be frank, I think this problem has less to do with Team vs. Solo play and more to do with how long people can sit and play the game in one stretch. I personally team all the time but I cannot do Trials or TFs because of the huge time commitment.
Bushpig.
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With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials - you really dont have 90 minutes to spare?
Not even on a weekend? Holidays? During a leap year??
Also, consider the amount of time and work it would take to implement a soloable respec trial. It would have to balanced enough so that any lvl 24 AT could accomplish it. At that level, most AT's are only starting to come into their own. And some ( namely non Illusion controllers ) still have a ways to go power wise. So, what I believe you would end up with is a watered down series of boring missions. Ending with the Oh so scary Lt. Whatevername as the final encounter, because most lvl 24 AT's cannot effectively deal with waves of villains solo.
Having to form/join a team to experience content that is outside the scope of your normal contacts is IMO, not excluding anyone. If your goal is to be a solo only character, then you must accept the fact that by doing so, you make the decision to skip some of the best that this game has to offer.
If it aint fun, why bother playing?
I have read posts where players that solo because they have limited time to play. There sessions last about a half an hour. Some would love to team and have tried to do so and do a mission within a half an hour. But they said in their posts that it took them a half an hour just to get a team together.
What I am looking for is an improvement or someone that could tell me how to get a team together so I would be able to have a team and do one of my missions in a half an hour session. If the devs need to make an improvement to make this happen then fine. I have played on team that was more interested in doing street sweeping that doing missions, for the one hour I was on the team they never did the leaders mission.
As far as super groups I have read posts that have said that there needs to be a better way of managing super groups, and changes to the super group window. I know that this is true but I have no idea on what type of improvement would help. I do know this, that when players say that they can easily find the type of super group they are looking for and have a lot of fun being on a super group. And when solo players can find a team and do a mission in half an hour if they want too. That is what I am looking for. What changes need to be made or what forums need to be visited is unknown. The players will tell me how good it is as far as teaming and super groups.
Ebony Fists: Level 50 DM/Regen Scrapper, Gloom Piston Robotics/Dark mastermind level 34, QueenFireMare: Level 34 Fire blaster (pure fire),
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With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials - you really dont have 90 minutes to spare?
Not even on a weekend? Holidays? During a leap year??
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How long does it take to organize a respec team? Add that time cost to the actual mission. I have small kids. I have a job. I have a wife. So, the answer is no. I really do not have the 2+ hours it takes from start to finish in one seating. Also, I am not alone in this.
Bushpig
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With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials - you really dont have 90 minutes to spare?
Not even on a weekend? Holidays? During a leap year??
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How long does it take to organize a respec team? Add that time cost to the actual mission. I have small kids. I have a job. I have a wife. So, the answer is no. I really do not have the 2+ hours it takes from start to finish in one seating. Also, I am not alone in this.
Bushpig
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Second that. The "freespec" provided as part of Issue 3 is the first (and probably only) respecification I've had for any of my characters. I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it would not be a feature I'd be able to enjoy. 
Hello--
I find it ironic that one poster suggests that the team-oriented nature of the respec trial prevents triviality. Another poster suggests that the "90 minutes" required is trivial and anyone should be able to make that investment. Regardless, you can create solo missions that are substantial in challenge and time investment to compensate for the subjective need to make the respec "earned".
Please do not underestimate the positive nature of the most recent "Free Respec". Everyone was given the ability to respec their character (regardless of need) and the world did not spin off it's axis.
I strongly urge everyone to re-examine the need to keep this game mechanic married to team only content.
Bushpig.
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This Boss thing is seriously becoming a major pain. I played my L34 Blaster on a mission. No warning about a Boss, was to find 3 Blinkies, and the enemy was suggested as being DE.
Lo and behold...CoT was also in the mission...guess what so was a CoT boss. Knowing that most of the CoT Boss were controlers..I poped two mental deffense, two normal deffense, one ACC, poped my Aim and Buildup..and went to work. Lost big time. Got the Boss down to 1/4 and ran out of healing inspers. The boss had no problems putting me to sleep and on hold even with the added deffeses.
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Disciplines don't stack. If they were just disciplines, even a normal CC power has a chance to bust through them, the same way a player controller can penetrate a boss's resistance occasionally.
Also, and I know this sounds rather picky, did you try just snagging the blinkies without fighting the boss? I've ninjaed my way through many a mission in a vain attempt to finish them all before I outlevel the contacts. Yeah, even at level 46.
--GF
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
Any update on when the boss rollback will happen? My scrapper has gotten to the point where he can deal with the bosses in regualr missions, but I was on a Terra Volta trial last night and it was just ridiculous.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
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With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials - you really dont have 90 minutes to spare?
Not even on a weekend? Holidays? During a leap year??
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How long does it take to organize a respec team? Add that time cost to the actual mission. I have small kids. I have a job. I have a wife. So, the answer is no. I really do not have the 2+ hours it takes from start to finish in one seating. Also, I am not alone in this.
Bushpig
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I've got a wife, small kids, and a job, too. And I have a cat and a dog, too! 
I've managed to do all the TF's and trials that were available prior to I3 (except the Cavern of Transcendence). Some of the new ones that have come out are too low-level for my characters, and I have stability issues that make RSKing risky at best, or I would have done all of those, too.
I just make the time to do the trials/tf's/etc. on Friday or Saturday evenings, and/or during naptimes on weekends. Small kids take naps - at least, mine do. And we had the foresight to establish specific, near-immutable, simultaneous naptimes for both kids. In other words, they sleep at the same time, and naptime is almost always the same time every day. Great time to play CoH. My wife goes shopping, or watches TV, or does something around the house, or plays on the playstation. Of course, I don't spend every weekend night, or every naptime playing CoH. But there's enough occasions where I *can* put together a 3-6 hour stretch of time that I've been able to do all the group stuff.
Sorry... the "I have a life" card doesn't cut it. I have a life, and I've had the time to do the long, group-oriented stuff, too.
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I strongly urge everyone to re-examine the need to keep this game mechanic married to team only content.
Bushpig.
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/signed
I still don't understand why people even consider a respec to be such a major deal. It's not a change of AT, or even a chance to change primary and/or secondary powersets. It's just a way to rebalance our preselected powers and slots.
It should be treated the same way that costume changes are. Since we are "known" for our powers, any changes to them should cost Influence, and the price should increase with level.
We should be able to go to any Hero Corps. Training Center and adjust our skills whenever we need to, provided we can afford it.
The developers are given an infinite number of chances to make any change to powers they feel is necessary. Influence is overly abundant at higher levels (or so I am told. I'm still a poor L41 ). Power adjustment would be a VERY effective influence sink if priced right, and does not discriminate against any playstyle (except for a monk with a vow of poverty, perhaps ).
Player advancement should come in many flavors: solo, group, task force, super group.
Player adjustment should not be tied to advancement, IMHO.
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Sorry... the "I have a life" card doesn't cut it. I have a life, and I've had the time to do the long, group-oriented stuff, too.
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"Well la-di-da". Good for you. But please realize that EVERYONE is not YOU. 
Regardless of what you may think, everyone may not have the time - esp when you consider that some AT's are not considered "worthy" enough to team with. "RU empathy?" gets real old, real quick. Sometimes I can't even get a simple 2-person team together to do one of those stoopid "click 2 blinkys at once" missions.
The way I see it is if I have to waste a quarter of my available play time JUST to get a team together, what's the point of playing?
Respecs should cost influence only. I mean a trial to determine if I can ungimp my toon? Respecs are generally for gimped toons, and you want them to pass a trial to be able to ungimp? Where's the logic in that???
That's like the bank asking you to prove you don't need that loan before they will give it to you.
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With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials - you really dont have 90 minutes to spare?
Not even on a weekend? Holidays? During a leap year??
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How long does it take to organize a respec team? Add that time cost to the actual mission. I have small kids. I have a job. I have a wife. So, the answer is no. I really do not have the 2+ hours it takes from start to finish in one seating. Also, I am not alone in this.
Bushpig
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Well.....that sucks. I'm really sorry you dont have the time to fully enjoy something you pay a monthly fee for. ( there's something really important to consider in that statement *shrug* )
But I still have to disagree with the suggestion of making the respec TF soloable. It would trivialize respec itself. Look at how much you're fighting to get respec at anytime. The free one that was given out was like gold. If anyone could do it, whenever they wanted, it would no longer have the value it does now. It would be "trivial".
I'm really am sorry you, and others like you, are unable to find the time to do the things that you want in CoH. However, that isn't a flaw in the game design, or an oversight by the devs. Time consuming activities are a mainstay of MMORPGS, and have been for years. The reason being - most people who play these types of games have the time to fully experience the content. Those whose time is limited make the time to play.
If it aint fun, why bother playing?
Can anyone confirm if the Bosses difficulty have or have not been rolled back on the Live server?
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With a good team, it takes around 90 minutes to start and complete any of the respec trials -
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It's funny people are talking about soloing the respec trial. If it wasn't for the respec trial, I probably would have not found out just how good teaming can be and how important each AT is to a team.
Whether the devs made it this way or not, I personally feel the respec trial was designed for a team of 5 - one of each AT. With every AT doing thier job, the respec trial can be done efficiently and it's fun. I tried 6 times to do the trial and numbers 5 and 6 were the best because we were the one of every AT mix.
The interesting thing is that neither team had an AT "perfect" build, nor did we have a bubbler or a primary Empath. (#6 was successful, #5 we all bit it on the last wave in the reactor and time wouldn't let us continue.)
Doing the Respec Trial with a team made me want to go out and build a hero specifically for teaming.. so now I have 2 controllers that I play with as my main alts. My controllers very rarely lack for a team and usually have a request within minutes after logging on. (Maybe because it is the fact that I am on Victory.. a good team server in my mind.)
You don't hit smiling monsters - Sister Flame
/agree
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How long does it take to organize a respec team? Add that time cost to the actual mission. I have small kids. I have a job. I have a wife. So, the answer is no. I really do not have the 2+ hours it takes from start to finish in one seating. Also, I am not alone in this.
Bushpig
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And that's the reason why my Altaholism / Sleep Loss is where it is. Still, *one* of these nights, I'm stayin' up late on a weekend to do a respec just to do it.
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"Well la-di-da". Good for you. But please realize that EVERYONE is not YOU.
Regardless of what you may think, everyone may not have the time - esp when you consider that some AT's are not considered "worthy" enough to team with. "RU empathy?" gets real old, real quick. Sometimes I can't even get a simple 2-person team together to do one of those stoopid "click 2 blinkys at once" missions.
The way I see it is if I have to waste a quarter of my available play time JUST to get a team together, what's the point of playing?
Respecs should cost influence only. I mean a trial to determine if I can ungimp my toon?
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Good for you. But please realize that EVERYONE is not YOU.
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Respecs are generally for gimped toons, and you want them to pass a trial to be able to ungimp? Where's the logic in that???
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This simply isn't true anymore. Respecs are now a tool that allow people to utterly rebuild their characters once they reach regular milestones. In fact, so many Invulnerability builds were respeccing to perma-Unstoppable as soon as they could that the developers felt they had to change the entire line.
Respecs are not just tools to rebuild broken characters. If they were just purchased with influence you would have people respeccing before every bloody mission. Think you lose time trying to build teams now? Imagine if half your team wanted to respec before every single mission.
WOW! Interesting thread. I thought this whole thread was about SOLO'ing and Team Play. Not about how Respec is. But hey! That's just me.
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But I still have to disagree with the suggestion of making the respec TF soloable. It would trivialize respec itself. Look at how much you're fighting to get respec at anytime. The free one that was given out was like gold. If anyone could do it, whenever they wanted, it would no longer have the value it does now. It would be "trivial".
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Please explain why solo missions are "trivial". Can you design a series of missions like a story arc that is non-trivial...at the end of which you earn a respec? How is this more "trivial" than finding a group and doing the exact same thing?
I am not suggesting that any player can have a respec at any time (although others have). I am suggesting that the solo missions have the same level requirements as the team-trials have. I am suggesting that you only get a few chances over the lifetime of the player just like the team-trials have. You can have the same amount of time needed to be invested or even ramp it up...as long as the time investment can be broken down into smaller increments.
Bushpig.
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It's funny people are talking about soloing the respec trial.
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What is being discussed is the ability to have access to a game mechanic as a solo player. The trial itself and all other trials/TFs would remain team-only content.
Bushpig.
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WOW! Interesting thread. I thought this whole thread was about SOLO'ing and Team Play. Not about how Respec is. But hey! That's just me.
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An important game mechanic is held hostage in team-only play. It is unavailable to the solo player who doesn't have time in large increments. Some feel that this is a major and unnecessary difference between Solo and Team play.
Bushpig
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Whats our goal? Simply put: if a player wants to do something solo, it should be CHOICE. Teaming shouldnt be required, but rather encouraged. If a player gets a mission with an Arch Villain, hell be able to drop it and get another.
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This quote is from Statesman. Access to a simple game mechanic does indeed REQUIRE teaming.
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But I still have to disagree with the suggestion of making the respec TF soloable. It would trivialize respec itself. Look at how much you're fighting to get respec at anytime. The free one that was given out was like gold. If anyone could do it, whenever they wanted, it would no longer have the value it does now. It would be "trivial".
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Please explain why solo missions are "trivial". Can you design a series of missions like a story arc that is non-trivial...at the end of which you earn a respec? How is this more "trivial" than finding a group and doing the exact same thing?
I am not suggesting that any player can have a respec at any time (although others have). I am suggesting that the solo missions have the same level requirements as the team-trials have. I am suggesting that you only get a few chances over the lifetime of the player just like the team-trials have. You can have the same amount of time needed to be invested or even ramp it up...as long as the time investment can be broken down into smaller increments.
Bushpig.
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Solo missions are trivial for a number of reasons. They aren't very hard. The player, for the most part does not receive much beyond xp and influence. Not much strategy or thought is required in order to complete your regular contact missions. From the moment your character is created, they have the ability to run solo missions. Running solo missions is a fun and easy way to level up your character and experience some of what the game has to offer. - Hence "Trivial"
Now respec. While yes it does appear to be nothing more than a "simple game mechanic", it is in fact, extremely valuable to the player. Again, I point out how desperately you're wanting to be able to just talk to a contact, run a few missions ( in 30 minutes or less ) and then have the option to completely change the way your character operates . Being able to do just that would definitely "trivialize" the awesome feature that is Respec.
Now, lets look at the Statesman quote you posted, as supporting your argument.
Whats our goal? Simply put: if a player wants to do something solo, it should be CHOICE. Teaming shouldnt be required, but rather encouraged. If a player gets a mission with an Arch Villain, hell be able to drop it and get another.
You are indeed correct that the respec trial does in fact require the player to team in order to gain access to the respec feature.
However, what I think you missed in Statesman's quote is "If a player gets a mission with an AV, he'll be able to drop it and get another." Meaning, the player chooses to not kill the AV, not complete the mission, not receive the rewards, and....wait for it..... not experience the content created by fighting an Arch-Villain . To further clarify - the player makes the choice to forego game content because he/she is solo.
Following your logic, lets say respec was made soloable. It would have to be a really, really easy set of missions, because ANY archetye must be able to complete it. Now you have a powerful and valuable game feature within access to anyone who has 30 minutes to blow. What about the rest of the trials and TF's? Here we have a series of team oriented missions that dont give out half the reward that a solo player can receive from the respec trial. OK, lets make them soloable too.
Little Johnny videogameplayer says "Gee Statesman, you said I should be able to choose to do whatever I want in your game. How come I cant solo Hammidon? Why is Hammidon being held hostage by a level requirement and a team requirement? You said I should be able to solo anything!!"
Sounds silly doesn't it?
I really dont think Statesman meant to say a solo player should be able to do anything he/she wants. I think what he meant was a solo player should be able to do what he/she wants until they encounter something that requires a team. At that point, the solo player can choose to skip that content and move on to something else.
As a solo player, playing a "Team Encouraged, Solo Friendly" game, you are going to run into situations where you simply will not be able to experience what is offered unless you have a team. It is the nature of the game. I myself, love to solo. But I know there are things that I want to do that require a team, and some time. It's how this game is played.
If it aint fun, why bother playing?
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However, what I think you missed in Statesman's quote is "If a player gets a mission with an AV, he'll be able to drop it and get another." Meaning, the player chooses to not kill the AV, not complete the mission, not receive the rewards, and....wait for it..... not experience the content created by fighting an Arch-Villain . To further clarify - the player makes the choice to forego game content because he/she is solo.
...
I really dont think Statesman meant to say a solo player should be able to do anything he/she wants. I think what he meant was a solo player should be able to do what he/she wants until they encounter something that requires a team. At that point, the solo player can choose to skip that content and move on to something else.
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Very nicely put.
Hello--
If the rationale for keeping the respec mechanic in a team-only environment is to prevent triviality then you needlessly exclude a whole playing population.
You can create a series of missions that are not trivial where the reward at the end is the ability to respec. To exclude a whole player population on the basis of triviality is irrational.
You can continue to have the same limitations on number of respecs and level ranges when they can be acquired. All you would have to do is set up a series of missions to complete.
To be frank, I think this problem has less to do with Team vs. Solo play and more to do with how long people can sit and play the game in one stretch. I personally team all the time but I cannot do Trials or TFs because of the huge time commitment.
Bushpig.