Am I the only person who plays by ear?

I poke and fiddle with builds in Mids all the time, but when it comes to actually implementing them, I only do that on 50s. I have two 50s that I'm "actively" (read: submit lowball bid, check back in a couple days, repeat if necessary or build IO if purchased) slotting out. All of the rest of my characters have one (or two or three or seven) builds made up in Mids, but none of them are actually following them.

I do not ever follow builds made on the forums. I just don't do cookie-cutter. Closest I've come is a build my friend made for my lv50 ill/ta controller, and even then I made some considerable changes before I started implementing it.

I have two other 50s that don't have a Mids build and won't be getting them. Agge, my namesake, is completely slotted out in HOs (before SHOs and almost all obtained through actual raiding), so I am not undoing all that damn work. And Atom.Ac. I just don't care about enough, he is only brought out to farm with friends.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

The only planning I do on the toons I create is seeing what kind of powers they can bring... what is the sets "flavor"...

Only thing I do about power-picking is trying to get Stamina as fast as I can (but that not always means level 20... sometimes the toon is performing so well without stamina that I can hold back it a little) and choose a travel power (if I get one of those). I also dont take a power only because I have to get one... If I get a power, its going to be taken to the 6th slot (there is a few exceptions - no rule is absolute).

The slotting I do based on performance... If I feel that a power needs some extra damage, then it gains a new slot for it... same thing for all the other parameters... When I start fiddling with Sets for the toon, I try to see what is the sinergy about the set pieces, and if some frankenslotting will bring me to my goal for that specific power...

I want to let my toons grow by thenselves... Sometimes I end doing some kind of mistake... I try to live with most of then... when I find that it isnt possible, then I respec the toon...

I don't follow other people's guides/builds, but I do often plan my characters' progressions out in Mids and follow said progression. However, I've also had a few characters I just played to 50 with no set plan. It depends on what I'm trying to accomplish, what my mood is at the time, and whether that darned butterfly halfway across the world flapped its wings just so.

I only plan respecs with a planner. I may look ahead a level or two to make sure I can take the prereq for my travel power while still getting my anti-mez power ASAP but that's pretty much it, even though I don't need to anymore, the travel power prereq. Old habits and all.

And as for guides, I'm not looking to make the uber character, I simply make a character as I imagined them to be. I that means I pick a less than great power from a power set I never played with the first time, so be it. That's what respecs are for.

I plan a new character to the extent of looking at the powers in the sets it has, seeing what sounds fun to me, and making sure I don't have more than 24 written down in total. After that, I just take them when they are available/it seems like the right time, and throw slots in as they seem to need them.

And half the time I'll change my mind anyway.


The important thing to remember about CoX is that it's extremely difficult to totally gimp your build. And if you somehow do, respecs are easier to come by these days.

I plan my builds out ahead of time, but I create almost all the builds myself in mids. I've only ever copied two builds directly from a post on the forums, and both of those were high-end builds with very specific intent (a softcapped perma-hasten fire/sr scrapper and a perma-PA ill/rad controller). Even then, the build I copied was essentially someone improving on a build I had already posted. I tend to follow the builds I create fairly closely after I create the character, but if I realize that something isn't working or isn't going to work, I change them as I go along.

Mainly the reason I do this is because I like to IO nearly all my builds starting when my character is in their 30s. I create a build for them so that I can start buying and crafting the IOs they'll eventually need as soon as I start the character, so that by the time I want to slot them, I don't have to wait to buy a bunch of stuff.

I never plan out a character either. I pick powersets, a costume and a name and goto town. If I still like all three, then then I expect they will get to 50.

I never look at build guides, but I always make a plan on Mids and I usually follow that plan.

When I first played the game, whenever I leveled up and got to select a new power or new slots, it always took me five to ten minutes just to decide what to get. As a solution to this I started making builds in mids and haven't stopped doing so since.

I've been playing for almost two years now, so I guess I probably could play by ear now, but at this point I just feel comfortable with having a plan I can follow. Plus, I wouldn't dare touch EATs without a build planned out.

I've loved every minute of this game for the past six plus years. I couldn't wait to get my first 50 it took me around eight months and that was with some serious PLing toward the end. But after that first 50, I've slowed way way way down, I play the game to have fun. I've never planned a character out till level 50, I don't look at numbers, I play what I feel is fun. Getting a new character to 50 in under a week just does not seem like fun, more like lots of tedious work that has little reward.

So in short I still play by ear, and change the character as needed along the way, or leave him and play him with his "problems" and make them part of his story.

Rich the Ear Guy

I don't usually plan ahead. If I get 15-20 levels in and I'm really struggling, I might go to the guides section and find someone's build to copy. I tried using Mids' builder once, but it just confused me.

I have what powers I'll take on a character and when I'll take them planned out upon creation, but as far as slotting goes, I'm usually only looking a level or two ahead.

I have a vague idea in my head about what's coming up. Like Whisper said, you will get people looking for precise advice here- especially if they're coming from a game where you need a very optimized build to get picked by the cool kids.

Me I take on board advice given but I don't treat it like it was gospal, I'll
use it but I'll in the end go by what feels right and is fun for my style of
playing and how I Enjoy playing.

True I like to have a plan or road map but I also know I probaly wont
follow it exactly but that's part of the attraction of games like this playing
it how you want to and having fun in the process.

It's when people demand and try to force you to follow a strict style of
doing things and what to take that is when a game stops being fun and
frankly it's why I cancled my subscription to WoW as to many people
telling me how I must Play or how I must do this or that like I was to copy
them exactly......Hell No!

I never play from power pick to power pick. When I start a character I tend to have a plan of at least which powers I'll take to 20, usually so I dont get caught flat-footed and miss Stamina. If the set has good powers at 16 and 20 (eg Corrupter Traps) I plan accordingly so I cna get them and Fitness.

From 20 on I'm usually making sure I'll have slots for come sets that open up at level 27, eg Thunderstrike, Red Fortune, Crushing Impact and Doctored Wounds.

At regular points through my character's career I'll write down and plan what i want for the next ten levels if not more, so I can fit in the powers or set bonuses I really want.

If I'm doing something a bit odd (eg my MA/SR Stalker with no mez protection who needs soft-capping as quick as I can) I'll probably have the entire build planned out to make it work.

But, I'm a number-cruncher by nature, and wouldn't expect everyone to do this.

Once upon a time, I had one of my 1st toons burn through all possible respecs then had to wait on an issued respec a long while back. Don't even remember if I had the option to buy a respec recipe then. That taught me not to deplete these things the harsh way.

Don't take this post as a bashing on playing by ear. It was fun while playing the toon to figure out things for ones self. Just keep a thought somewhere in the back of your head, there is a possibility one can get stuck with a frustrating build if not established well. Hence mids turn out to be a lifesaver.