Thoughts on Respeccing

Every so often, there's a change to the game that instigates a wave of respecs. The most recent, of course, is the change to the Fitness pool. Some players have literally dozens of characters to respec after such changes.

Some players even fear or dread the respec process because it's easy to get confused or make mistakes. Undertaking a respec shouldn't be something that a player does with no consideration, but the process itself is often so stressful that players who should use it fail to do so.

I've personally been listening to friends and teammates as they've been respeccing since i19 came out and have heard a few key requests over and over again. These are usually in the form of 'I wish the game did x'.

- Respecs, Enhancement Management, and the Costume Editor shouldn't hide your chat bars

- You should be able to save your progress in the middle of a respec and return to it later without committing.

- The game should output a list of your build order-- what powers you took at what level and what slots you took at what level, and possibly even what enhancements you have in which slots. Titan Sentinel is currently filling this need, but in the past players have either had to keep track of this themselves or reverse engineer it.

- The respec should not rearrange all the powers and macro buttons in a player's power tray.

- If a player is happy with a respec they've done on the test server, they should be able to import it without going through the entire build process.

(The simplest way I personally can think of for this to happen is, again, the game to export a list of your current build. It would also import the same kind of list to 'automatically' spec a character if the list is 'legal' in terms of selection order. This also opens the door to allow 3rd party planning utilities like Mid's to create the same kind of list.)

- The various different kinds of respec tokens can be confusing. Jack Wolfe and Arbiter Lupin should act as 'Respec' assistants. They should explain the differences between the different tokens, allow the player to choose which token they're going to use, Veteran, Earned or Free, and possibly offer some help dialogue about respecs-- particularly on how to copy the character to the test server. Jack Wolfe is easy enough to reach for all heroes, but Arbiter Lupin is in a somewhat harder area. Additional respec assistants could be added to other easy-to-reach places like Pocket D's Tiki Lounge, the Port Oakes Arena, or even Oroborous.

Yes, yes... A million times yes!!

I've never used any of those handy hero creator programs or such, I barely even use guides... I pick what feels right at the time and slot based on what needs boosting or such. I try to mimik such when I respec but for the most part I'm not as happy with a character after a respec as I was before it.

Based on that, I really avoid respec'ing... But the stamina thing basically made it neccessary... Anything to make it easier and simpler for those of us who don't study builds/crunch numbers would be GREATLY appreciated!

I use Mid's simply to keep track of what I'm doing. I'm a visual learner, and it's a good 'lookalike' for the build screen. I'm also OCD about testing, so I typically take everything to the Training Room before the live server.

The thing that bugs me most about respecs is finding powers after the infamous 're-sort' of all your buttons. I've gotten in the habit of arranging all my powers in a certain way across my alts so that when I have to respec, I know more or less where to put everything after using /cleartray.

The second biggest irritation is the fact that the respec window (and other windows) hide chat.

I agree with nearly all of these things.

I myself have been dealing with respecs by writing down what powers got what off-hand on paper. Old-fashioned, I know, but it works. There is also something else that I would like to be added:

Whenever I respec due to game changes I also like to try and fix minor build issues that I had that weren't really worth the effort before. But, while slotting enhancements, I can't see exactly how much damage has been boosted from it's base, so I can't see if I'm over-slotting or if it needs slotting.

It would be great if, during respec, there was a way to see how much each of your enhancements are boosting each power.

I am Techbot Alpha.
I approve of this OP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I would like the option to respec and totally skip the powers/slots portion. I very often respec because I am moving more powerful versions of IO Sets into my character and want to save the old ones for other characters. All I want to do is swap out IOs between my inventory and my character - nothing else (probably half my respecs are like this). In that case doing the full respec is extremely annoying.

I would like to suggest as a way of doing what you are suggesting that the power/slots you picked before for that level is/are highlighted. That would allow you to quickly pick the same powers or know exactly when to change out one power for another. That doesn't sound too hard to do.

Real problem is that this takes up time they could be doing other cool stuff. A harsh reality.

Yeah. The system is clumsy at best. Heck, just changing the screen so we don't have to use scroll bars to see all the powers and enhancers left to be placed would be a big help.

I hate respeccing. I've been with this game since it was released, and respeccing is something that makes me cringe. When respeccing was first released, it was a nice little feature so that players who made a mistake could fix their character, or if a power changed you could choose another. But the developers never intended for it to be a common activity. That's why you only got three respecs through trials, and got a free token only when powers were changed.

But now they give out respecs left and right. You not only get them as free tokens when new issues are released, you sometimes get more than one (like with the inclusion of Fitness as a standard pool and they gave you a second free token weeks after the first), and you even get them as recipe drops and veteran rewards.

What I despise about the current system is that it's not even really a system. They simply roll your character back to level 1 and you have to run through every single action you ever had to do all over again. It's as difficult and user-hostile as it could possibly be! There's not a single thing in the respec system that offers ease of use or saves the player even a single step. (Devs, you reading this?)

I've decided that on my level 50 blaster (my favorite character), I'd like to change that very last power I took. Instead, I'm living with it because I just can't stand the thought of having to go through all that work again to make such a minor change.

The only reason I'm doing respecs now is to compensate for the inherent Fitness. The advantages of freeing up multiple power choices is too great. But after I respec a character, I'm living with whatever choice I make because I don't feel like going through all that work again just to move a slot or change a single power.

The current system is an atrocity. A bandaid. It's crude and should have been upgraded years ago.