An argument for a better respec system

Having been with this game for quite some time now, I think it's about time that the respec system was revamped to be more intelligent. I'll list the reasons why....

When respecs were put into the game, it wasn't envisioned that players would respec very often. Whether it was believed players wouldn't want to respec often, or that there was a desire to keep players from respeccing too often, I don't know. But it was created with the idea/goal that respecs wouldn't be numerous. Three trials were created to allow respecs, and it was felt that those three trials would be sufficient (along with free respecs added in because of power changes).

It's obviously very clear now that respeccing is much more desirable than it was previously thought. Besides the three trials, we're given respecs as veteran rewards (and we get several respecs as rewards), and there's also respec recipes that drop. Looking at the price those recipes command on the market, they're indeed very coveted. There's no argument that respecs are highly desired by a large number of people.

But look closely at our current system. The current system is barely a system. All it does is wipe out everything from character creation on and force you to totally rebuild your character. Not a single thing was placed into the system to aid in this process. You have to carry out every single leveling action you ever performed on your character, make every single decision you ever made when assigning powers or slots, and reapply every single enhancement. It requires as much work as possible, and doesn't do a single thing to save even a single step on the player's end.

Besides this, the advent of the invention system has made respeccing even more cumbersome and difficult than it was before. Before, all you had to do was take a screenshot to see what TOs/DOs/SOs were in a power. Now with the IOs, you can't easily tell by a screenshot. If you have three melee powers, all with Pounding Slugfest, they all look the same. One power though may have Accuracy, Acc/Dam, Dam/End, and another one may have Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam/End, Acc/Rech, or something like that. But unless they are all different levels, they all look the same unless you hover over them with the mouse.

Devs, please, it's time to give us something more intelligent. We have to carry out every single step just to drop a single power or move a single slot. Veteran players and power players who respec often will say "I can breeze through it in five or ten minutes because I've done it so much, it's no big deal", but the point is that they can only breeze through it that quickly because they've already spent so much time doing it so many other times. Unless you have a low-level hero, respeccing is a long arduous process in which it's easy to make mistakes. Even during the process, if you see towards the end that there's something you have to change (you have an IO left over and realize you forgot to assign a slot), you have to back up and start all over again.

Simply, it's as difficult as it could possibly be. There is not a single mechanism in place to streamline or facilitate the procedure. None. It is as basic and stripped-down and threadbare as possible. It was a nice bandaid when it was released, but after many years, that bandaid needs to be changed. What would be nice is a system that lets us target individual powers and slots and enhancements, changing them without the need for changing/touching every single power and slot and enhancement you have. The recommendation people make to use the 3rd-party designer programs just reinforces this argument. Sure you can respec in five minutes once you spent an hour in some program figuring it out. It's still a time sink.

On a personal note, I hate respeccing so much, all my characters have most of their reward respecs, their granted freespecs, and still haven't done all of the respec trials. It's why I won't make any more Soldiers of Arachnos (you're actually forced to respec at one point). I want to play, not spend 20 to 30 minutes, or even an hour at times, juggling slots and enhancements and worried that I missed something.

If I may, I'd like to propose something on short notice. It may not be perfect, but hopefully, it'll be better than what we got.

1) Typing "/respec" or otherwise triggering the Respec interface will take you straight to an option window:

current respecs are a little annoying if you are only doing minor changes like you only wanted to move 1 slot or 1 power around

what i hate the most about respecs right now is throwing my power bar out of wack and dumping EVERY temp power ive gotten into the bar so i have to removed like 20-30 powers every time i respec on top of reorganizing powers that i want (this is especially annoying if i only wanted to do minor change mentioned above)

If we get Fitness as an inherit, like what I read they're working on, then most likely it'll be most characters that will have to respec to take advantage of that. That's a lot of time players will have to drop into respeccing. I've been wishing for a real respec system, rather than just a power reboot, for years now and only hope it'll be something that the devs will realize can be one of the biggest QOL features possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master current respecs are a little annoying if you are only doing minor changes like you only wanted to move 1 slot or 1 power around

They're a LOT annoying. If you want to drop a slot from one power to move to another, or drop one power and pick up another, then you have to choose every single power, every single slot, and reapply every single enhancement, just like you did on every single training level-up since you created the character. It couldn't be more time- and effort-consuming than it is now.

Also the problem with upgrading your IO's.
If you slot IO's at say level 30 then reslot with better IO's at say level 50 (for arguments sake) then you have to do multiple respecs to swap out the older IO's.
A lot of time, money and effort goes into IOing a character and loosing all that is a real pain.
With SO's they are not that expensive but when a single IO recipe (im not talking about the uber IO's like Numina, Obliteration, Procs or Uniques etc) can cost 250,000 INF, then the salvage say another 150,000 INF and crafting cost (say 55,000 INF) thats 455,000 INF for a single Slot. Level 30 SO is what 35,000 ish.
Take Serendipity (level 30). Recently I looked at slotting my /SR Brute with them at level 30. I then plan on reslotting with LotG when I get to 40-45+.
For a set of 4 Serendipity the cost to buy crafted IO's was around 3.5 Mil Inf.
Recipes and Salvage was around 1.4 Mil Inf. This is taking an average of the cost for the last 5 sales (not the most accurate I know but dont have anything better to base it on).

Someway to unslot IO's and not waste them, but also not requiring 3-4 respecs would be great.

Thanks in advance

It would ne nice to be able to make minor tweaks w/o having to redo everything.

Let me spend my limited in game time smashing things instead of doing inventory and accounting.

An overhaul of the respec system to replace or supplement it in order to simplify character tweaking and overhauling would be a great thing.

I have Enhancements that I'd prefer to slot, but the current overly-tedious respec system is too much of a disincentive to do so for the amount of return.

Simplifying the respec mechanic (or adding an Enhancement modification system, perhaps for a fee) in order to tweak character builds would increase my continued interest in playing (and adjusting) said characters.

I'd rather be doing anything else in the game than going through the steps of the current respec process.

I'm... generally neutral on the idea. The interface could use more work, and "mini-respecs"(undo last level-2 levels-5 levels or some such) could be useful, sure. I'd argue that this:

Quote:

It's obviously very clear now that respeccing is much more desirable than it was previously thought. Besides the three trials, we're given respecs as veteran rewards (and we get several respecs as rewards), and there's also respec recipes that drop. Looking at the price those recipes command on the market, they're indeed very coveted. There's no argument that respecs are highly desired by a large number of people.

is a huge assumption, though, as far as the number of people who want multiple respecs. I'd be more willing to wager that most of the people who have played the game have no idea what a "respec" is, and don't particularly care. The other end - the ones who love to min/max, tweak builds to a razor's edge, worry about every single hundredth-point of DPS, END use, softcapping, etc. and spend a ton of time on IOs, are burning through those respecs.

(Me, I'm in the middle. Some things will make me respec, yes, but most of my characters still have all their vetspecs, a good portion still have their freespecs - even without the one we got this issue - and very few have run the trial in the last year. Actually, I don't think I've run the respec trials in the last year at all.)

Respecs are desirable? Yes, to some. To a majority? Ehhhh...

In any case, a nitpick:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barata But look closely at our current system. The current system is barely a system. All it does is wipe out everything from character creation on and force you to totally rebuild your character.

This isn't exactly true. Run a VEAT to (say) 26, post forced-24-respec (something I find irritating on them, but I won't get into it.) If it wiped out everything from creation forward, like you were leveling from level 1, you'd be redoing it again, hitting 24 and starting from level 1. You don't. (You DO do that if you open up your second build, however. But only the first time you take it to 24.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

BBQ Pork:
Oh god, yes. I'm a vet, I have plenty of respecs banked. I rarely have the need to use them, but when I do, the huge pain of redoing a 50 always gives me pause.

Diggis when I respec I can already "swap" my IO's and resell the ones I dont slot (well up to 10 of them anyway ).
Im simply asking for a way to temporarily hold more than 10 Enhancements.

As to how this would work well im sure that are many options but need to find one that isnt unbalanced.
[spitballing]
Maybe something like when you respec you can hold more than 10 but you cant get any new ones or craft new ones until you have less than 10.

This allows you to retain more than 10 from your respec but not craft new ones or get new Enh until you do whatever you want to do with them (sell/email/trade/etc).

I'm all for a better respec system. You accidently click on one wrong power and you're stuck with it until you can wipe everything or start over in a second build. It's rediculous how unforgiving this system is and if you mail to ask to get this fixed, the devs can't do anything about it. You'd think after all these years, they would have implimented some kind of system that at least lets you tweak your current level, a minor adjustment, rather than a full all out redifinition of your toon from scratch.