My Love/Hate Relationship with Hasten

I give you, Knockabout Nick, an Energy/Energy Blaster whose power is derived from an internal atomic powersource. His colors are green and black.



Not too shabby. I gave him Hasten because it works very well with Defiance. I tend to do that a lot with my blasters. And that's almost always when things go terribly, horribly awry:



Hasten has has always been one of those powers that can just completely ruin a theme. And yet, it's so incredibly useful that I feel almost crippled without it (which is, admittedly, my own darned fault).

I think these pics speak pretty loudly that Hasten is an abominable eyesore, and needs to be fixed, somehow, at some point in the not too distant future. If not Soon™, then Sooner™ rather than Later™.

I'd be really interested in seeing comparative shots of how Hasten ruins some of your toons and/or their themes. You know, kind of like the Roadkill Effect. Your brain screams "DON'T LOOK!" but you just can't help it. Your eyes are riveted to the gory details and you just can't look away.

I only have one character who uses Hasten regularly, an Ill/Rad Controller. For that character, Hasten comes in very handy, and the graphics seem to work all right with my color choices. I have one other character (Energy/Regen Stalker) who took Hasten at 49 and never uses it. None of my other characters has Hasten.

With I19, I might consider getting Hasten on some of my other characters. But there is that graphics problem. I also don't like the sound effects. Those are lesser concerns for me, though. Mostly I just didn't like the increased endurance drain from using powers faster, and by the time I had plenty of endurance to spare I just didn't need powers to recycle faster. My Ill/Rad was the notable exception.

I cannot remember......
but I thought I read it somewhere that they were gonna let the costume/color creator let players customize the power pool effects in the future?? (prays they do)

I think the vast majority of players would be somewhere between ambivalent and ecstatic if they toned down the visuals on Hasten. For folks, that like it and would argue to keep the current visual... send 'em to the moon.

Try
/bind KEY "SuppressCloseFX 1$$SuppressCloseFXdist 300"

and see if it keeps your other auras you DO want to see, and just kills Hasten's graphics.

If you don't like it, just type /suppressclosefx 0 and you will be back to normal.

The Fire glow is exactly, or almost exactly, identical to the Fiery hands aura. One of my first characters had that aura so I didn't realize Hasten even had a graphic for a while. I'd be perfectly happy to just have Hasten have no graphic at all. Especially if they kill that godawful sound effect.

I don't respec characters at the drop of a hat. I generally get things right the first time, after some careful thought. But I recently respecified a character (that really benefited from Hasten), mostly to get rid of Hasten. I found it increasingly difficult to ignore or explain away the fact that a pair of burning hands just didn't belong on that character.

I don't expect this to go on the top of the list for any of the devs. Completely understandable! It's a small gripe, compared with all the awesome stuff that DOES fit many of my characters. Nevertheless, it's a suggestion that I hope can go somewhere on someone's list.

It can be ugly on some characters, however I think that everyone knows what Hasten is and what it does. Unless there's some reason to think we SHOULD see it, I try to just ignore the effect when I see it on someone (same with Super Speed).

I'd love a "No FX" or color selectable version, but I'll just deal with the glow for now. If we do get a customized version someday, however, I can't help but think that they could do a better job of making the "flames" now.

I'd turn off the color when we get the chance, but for now, it doesnt bother me that much especially while in battle.

Been there, mate! My Grav/Rad troller relies on Hasten heavily, and it clashes sooo hard with his pale blue Radiation Emission. Especially since the particle shapes from Hasten are so similar to the ones from Rad.

I have been wishing for a long time now, that there was a "no effects" option for a number of powers where we already have customization. I can see a need for only a few effects to be deemed rather necessary/important, to allow teammates to see what's going on (like a healing aura, or the skulls when a fear power is on), or even to show you at a quick glance when a buff is still working, or if it's worn off.

I would LOVE to be able to get rid of ALL the effects on my dark armor tank. I find them really intrusive and, well... stupid. 'Course I love it on the dark scrapper, where it actually works with her theme. So I don't want to lose options, I'd just like to gain a few, and really be able to customize my look properly, to fit with thematically and conceptually.

To be able to customize pool and epic powers, now THAT would be a great and wonderful thing, even if done as customization is currently - I really shudder at all that ghastly pink on my psi epic-taking corruptor, who is an all-white ice/kin demon. But really, REALLY wish they'd allow an option for "no effects" with these as well. 'Cause honestly? I'd really like to see the boots on my super speed toons some day....