Is Hasten a "Must Have" Power?

Ever since I've been playing this game as of Jan. 09', I always seems to end up picking the same Power Pools for "all" my 14 toons. I will always take Flight as I find that the most beneficial based on maneuverability. I will always take Hasten, as I find that extra recharge boost very helpful. I always take Leaping for Combat Jumping for that extra resistance against immobilization. And may even take Acrobatics later on to help with knockbacks. Also now that Fly, Sprint, Leaping and Stamina are now all inherent powers to start, it seems the dev's also knew what was being used the most to make these inherent powers.

Of course for some of my toons, I have no choice in the matter on travel powers, case in point my Warshade Rhino with TP as the travel power. And I would never need Concealment or Invis for my Stalker or Widow being that have that stealth/hidden ability or any other Archetype that may have ability to somewhat stealth themselves based on what their primary or secondary power sets might be to not have to pick-up a power like Concealment or Invisibility.

With all that being said, it would seem that Hasten has always been a "must have" power that I cannot think of any legit reason no one would ever pick this up? Who wouldn't want to reduce the amount of time their powers recharge? This would also leave me with extra slots for other powers that I would have had to use for recharges. Once by accident in respec'ing my Blaster, I forgot to add my Hasten in. (doh!!). So it was definitely noticeable not having it. If someone can tell me why they would not take Hasten and give me a good solid reason, then by all means, the floor is your sir.

No, it isn't.

Why would I not take hasten? Because I don't want to. That's all the reason I need.

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Yes.

I have several characters that have Hasten, and several that don't. It really depends on the powersets. For example, my MA/SR scrapper does not have Hasten, because she already has Quickness (which provides a recharge boost) and a long attack chain. No need for Hasten because I always have an attack ready to go. Additionally, she has Practiced Brawler on autofire, and I won't take Hasten on a character unless I can set as the autofire power. On the other hand, my Rad/Sonic defender does have Hasten, because of the synergy with Accelerate Metabolism. My Energy/Energy blaster also has Hasten, because after I took all the powers he "needed" I had a few power picks left, and I said "eh, why not".

So yeah, Hasten is a great power, but by no means necessary.

Hasten isn't a must have power in my book by any stretch of the imagination.

I have several toons that don't have it, and don't want it. Actually, as I
think about it now, I'd estimate that fewer than 25% of my toons have it.

Perfect case in point: None of my (several) stalkers have it. No Need. A
standard spawn of 3 mobs is dead in one pass (or less) of my attack chain.

Everything will be set to go again by the time I get to the next group.

Also, with sets and frankenslotting, it is easily possible to have key powers
recharge "soon enough", which leaves me with a different pool or power pick
instead of Hasten.

That said, I do have a few toons where Hasten IS a cornerstone. My
SS/WP Brute, for instance is one. For him, it's critical for stacked Rage,
and enough DPS to solo pylons - you know ... Crazy Stuff

I have a few blasters that use it, because they're blasters - their entire
way of life depends on "Kill them before they Kill Me", so more attacks is
directly equal to fewer hospital trips.

In general though, they're the exceptions rather than the norms and few
of my other AT's bother with Hasten.


Regards,
4

Simply put: Recharge gives you diminishing returns. The more you have, the less even more will do for you.

If you're not going for making a cornerstone power permanent (Phantom Army, Eclipse), then you just need "enough" recharge to have a steady attack chain. It's quite common that the difference between an optimal attack chain and a sub optimal by 5% DPS is on the order of 150% recharge. If you can't get all 150%, then don't bother getting any.

This isn't to mention the largest downside of hasten, which is the increased endurance consumption. The largest reason stamina was thought to be "mandatory" was due to the same thought that hasten was "mandatory." Funny how endurance reduction never got its mandatory status.

I have nearly 50, 50s and every single one has taken Hasten. I tried to build a couple without it and it just felt off. I am hopelessly addicted to hasten and I need my fix!

I have Hasten on one character (my Warshade) and I never play him anyway. So no, I don't feel that Hasten is mandatory. From a numbers point of view it is useful to have but this has never really been a numbers game.

I have 2 characters that I really wanted Hasten on. My crab (between the pets and the all AOE build, I like the recharge), and my elec/dev blaster (his attack chain is fine without - but when solo (or when waiting for the rest of the team) I love it to pump out more and more mines.)

Most other characters that took it? often used as a 'might as well' pick while respeccing into inherrant fitness. Usually when there's a level (otherwise occupied by fitness) where there's no other powers from my primary/secondary/existing pools that I want.

I personally take Hasten on every character that has room for it. I hate being slowed. Fighting Psi-based enemies, Galaxy troops, ice enemies, etc. becomes a lot less painful with Hasten.

I consider Hasten a must-have on any character that is control-heavy and even a few buffing defenders, especially since inherent fitness. I only take it on other characters if I want to use Superspeed as a travel power (very rare).

Definitely not, at least not as an absolute "must have for all characters".

I'll list a few of mine, off the top of my head, that don't have it.

Sonic/Sonic Def - Only Liquefy really benefits from recharge and the /Sonic blasts are very quick to recharge.

DB/WP Scrap - Hasten for WP has no value whatsoever. I guess for the self-rez. The DB chains are seemless as is.

Crab - global recharge is high for my crab. With a seamless aoe and st attack chain, the only thing Hasten would give me is faster serum and pets. That's not chopped liver, by any means, but not as important to me.

FF/Energy Def - Like the Sonic/Sonic, nothing needs quick recharge.

Inv/SS Tank - Hasten would actually help, but in my primary build for heavy tanking, there simply wasn't a spot for it. Global recharge is sufficient anyway.

I'm sure I have others, those just were off the top of my head.

30+ toons and none of them have hasten (although a couple probably should)

I take hasten at lvl 6 on every single toon I make, and set it on auto the moment I get it. It would feel weird not having it :P

To me it is, along with Super Speed and Combat Jumping.

I was just thinking about Hasten last night and how my DP/Dev blaster doesn't have it and I don't miss it even a little. Same with my Claws Scrapper and my Dual Blades Brute.

So no, Hasten isn't a must have power; at least not for every power combo. Now my Broadsword Scrapper would be so slow without Hasten that I'd have time to order a pizza and do my laundry in between attacks, and I don't think I'd ever make a Dominator who didn't take the power.

For me, Hasten is a must. I'm not going to kick people off a team because they don't have it.

The beauty of the character customization here is, nothing is a must have. The "must have" opinion of hasten comes from mindset of many min/maxers who want their character to function in a certain way. Example: They want perma-phantom army, or perma-rage, or permanent Active Defense. These sorts of people only want to use three or four attacks in their chain, which is fine. That's how they want to play. Personally, if everything became an absolute numbers grind for me, I wouldn't enjoy the game, anymore; but don't let them goad you into believing that hasten is the be-all, end-all. Nearly everything is possible in this game without hasten, except for the minor things that I've mentioned, and a few, more obscure, others.

Truthfully, it could all be done -without- hasten. It depends on the investment you want to make on your invention sets. Almost all(maybe all, can't remember off the top of my head) of the very rare purple sets give 10% global recharge. Then again, you could slot a few of the Luck of the Gambler global +Recharge procs into a defense set; but that choice falls on you.

"Must have"?

HELL NO!

Essentially the only "must have" powers in this game are those you're assigned by default (Inherent, Tier1/2 primary, Tier1 secondary, brawl and your origin attack). Everything else is COMPLETELY optional.

Now would you be viable using such an attack chain? UH NO!

But that's not how I view "must have".


Now, is Hasten a very desirable power?

With the right builds? YES!
With the wrong builds, NO, it just causes you to chug-a-lug more endurance for no tangible gains.

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Most of my Kheldians and a few other alts have Hasten. Currently one or two of my frequently played alts do out of eight or so.

i suppose some people might consider Hasten necessary. i usually end up with recharge bonuses from sets that easily give me all the recharge i need without Hasten's endurance cost.

i've found that as time has gone by i've been using Hasten less and less in my builds.