No New Slots Make Respec Hard

I thought inherent fitness was a great idea, but now that I have actually begun the process of respecing, I am not sure that I like it at all.

So I get 3 new power, but I get no slotting? It feels like my respecs (I have only done 2) will just end up being a lot of things like medicine pool or concealment pool, both of which could still be used with no slotting. I certainly can't do a lot of adding the fighting pool because I have no slots to give it.

Maybe the answer is the new power I get with the Alpha slotting--if I get extra endurance, for example, maybe the fighting pool does make sense? Has anyone done any numbers on this?

Do I feel like pizza, or a cheeseburger? Thankfully, I can now get a bacon double cheese burger pizza and never be faced with such a quandary ever again.

You on the other hand, are SOL. I start wishing for less powers and more slots at around 40 or so...

It requires more thought.

Some of my chars are picking up one hit wonders (recall, clarity). But a few chars are being rebuilt ground up. New sets/new powers/completely different slotting.

It isn't impossible whether it's a minor change or a rebuild but it does require some thought and pre-planning.

Some people are no double stealing slots and covering the gaps with Incarnate. Me, I'm making solid builds and using Incarnate to increase what is already good rather than cover holes.

I'm delighted with inherent fitness, and slots would have been nice especially for already-tight builds such as VEATS and HEATs. However, chucking in a load of extra slots could be seen as making the game too easy.

I guess you can't make everyone happy.

Even if you can't slot stuff and don't have any powers to pick you'd use all the time, your character will still be more powerful than before, if not always but at least situationally. Why do people complain?

I've been fine thus far. Sure, slots are a bit tight, but I think they're supposed to be, by design. I don't think they're any worse than they used to be, really. Sure, I can't add as many slots to a hypothetical new power as I had on average in my old powers... But overall, I'm enough better off that I don't mind. I think the intent is that we specialize some; I can't just six-slot everything.

On most of my 50s, I had all the powers I wanted, and only about 5 slots I wanted to move around. So I just picked up mules. I now have 4 LotG: +Recharge enhancments as opposed to my previous 2, and Hasten is becoming less of a "necessity" on those characters. So maybe try approaching your respecs from that angle?

More effort towards frankenslotting and set bonuses will help a lot to make up for that -- many powers are pretty decent with four good IOs.

There's loads of powers useful with one slot you can cram in there. Assault, Tier 9 defensive powers, Hasten (if you don't have it already), etc etc etc.

There's no way you're worse off with inherent Fitness.

inherent stamina has been an absolute boon to all my lowbies, and all its done for my higher level guys is open up more build possibilities (for example, now my ar/dev has a spot to pair a PvP +3% def IO with the Steadfast he already had slotted, plus another couple of LotG +rech).

I've also seen the slot-crunch with the cool new powers, but realized one thing: Even if I only one-slot the power and NEVER use it, I'm no WORSE off than I was before.

Quite a few of my chars never had Fitness anyway, so I slot their powers as before and one-slot the new Inherent Fitness. Just cuz you have Stamina doesn't mean you HAVE to 3-slot it.

And finally, when I have been faced with a true embarrasment of riches, I have found that very carefully managing my IO slotting and frankeslotting, I can generally get nearly the same bonuses from 5 slots as I did from 6 before, even though I may give up a small set bonus here and there.

So careful work with Mids and IO sets may give you some of the extra slots.

The choices have been great for me. It's opened up a whole new front on the min/max war between me and the game.

Places to squeeze:

Fly is at max speed with single defaulted slot
Try putting just range in teleport
Hasten with 2 lvl 50 recharge IOs isn't that much slower than 3 lvl 35ish IOs (or SOs) esp if you are getting other recharge sources for set bonuses and LotG.
Don't over-slot slow in snow storm, tar patch, etc.
3 slotting acc or damage in powers can be trimmed using split feature set IOs.(2 Acc, 2 Dmg, 1 Acc/Dmg is better than 3 Acc with 3 Dmg for example)
Put running and jumping stealth procs in sprint.

I am not saying anyone is stupid, just some tricks to remember.

If all you can do is add a power like grant invisibility, stimulant, vengeance or some other one slotter, you have added a lot to your build and your team. Blaster love grant invisibility.

The one thing that I find I miss with the old Fitness is the capability to add more Auto powers to my build. I like to have a more limited selection of powers, and more attacks in particular are a problem, especially without slots. Fortunately, very few powers in the Pool are attacks, and many of them are usable with only a single slot.

I would have liked to see a Pool added to the selection to replace Fitness, with either more Auto powers, or as once suggested, the option to take more Enhancement slots. (So in other words you would get the option to place the "free" slot you get with that power somewhere else) It seems unlikely that will happen, though, or if it ever does it will likely be after several more issues.

As it is, I would point out that most people considered either Swift or Hurdle to be a wasted power choice to get Stamina, and in some cases Health was as well. So in a sense you are not getting three more power choices, you are getting one power choice and two to allow you to earn that third Pool choice. So if you look at it that way, you are no more wasting those two power picks than you were before. If you want to pick up Boxing or Kick to open up the Fighting pool, then take one of them, pull it out of your tray, and never use it again.

Another way of looking at it is that now you have the choice to slot Fitness the way you used to, or to pull slots out of them to use in your new powers. Stamina is still as useful as it used to be, but you can pick up powers like Combat Jumping or Aid Self which are just as useful to you as Hurdle or Health, and which can get those slots. They can even get those IOs if you have a set in there.

The way I see it, I'm not getting three more powers for free. I'm finally getting Fitness for free on my characters that never had it, with one slot each. If I HAD Fitness, then I now have the choice to pick up three other powers. But again, I get one slot each, because that's all my non-Fitness characters get with THEIR new powers. And that's all I really want. I don't want them to be slotted like a truly fit character would be, that's where the differences in the builds come in.

I will say that I have seen some standard choices coming up in all my respecs, Hasten, Teleport Foe/Recall Friend, and Leadership have all been fairly common additions to my more "complete" builds. For my lower level characters, they've been able to pick up choices that they were having to put off until after 20, before. And in some cases that has led to some redistribution of slots, but they're still all the better for it.

Thanks guys. Mostly I just needed to give up the idea that I am getting more powers (and somehow in my mind, miraculously, more slots).

I do *LOVE* that my lower level toons no longer have to struggle to 20 or 21 to be any fun.

Heck, even if I just take teleport or invis, that's something I didn't have before. Also, the couple of tanks that I had that didn't have taunt will now get it.

There are some creative ways to squeeze more slots from some builds. For example, on a build where you are getting set bonuses for Defense, you can take Maneuvers, even with one slot, and maybe give up a set bonus or two to get more slots to spread around.

This is nothing but good . . . except I have spent most of my game time for the last week respecing my many character instead of playing the game. Almost done . . .

BTW, anyone got any links to other threads discussing the common choices folks are making for these new one slot powers? Or is it just discussion in general over the last few weeks? Maybe I could start a new thread?