Why won't people respec their fitness powers?

Disclaimer: I know that plenty of perfectly effective builds exist that spend power slots getting stamina. I don't really have strong feelings about this issue, it just tweaks me the wrong way and I must comment.

[minor rant]

I am shocked and a little disturbed by how many people still have 3 powers spent on fitness pool. I thought maybe they didn't know, so I've asked a couple times and in both instances, the person responded that they just didn't bother respeccing, or obstinately refused to respec.

Come on... if you're running Apex or something and can't figure out how to use 3 entire power choices to make your character better, I'm a little disappointed. You're willing to grind away for incarnate shards, but not .. I don't know, pick up medicine pool, or fighting pool, or recall friend, or leadership. All these things would help the team, and some of them wouldn't even require spending more enh slots.

I can understand some builds not taking power X, saying they don't need it and justifying it, and that's fine, but giving up 3 whole power slots just so you can NOT have one of the fitness powers is dumb. Fortunately, the game isn't really hard enough that it REALLY matters anyway, but it bothers me on some fundamental level and I don't know why.

Obviously, before the fitness was free, these characters were viable. Every time I see them now, I consider them to have roughly the same level of familiarity with the game as someone who uses jump kick and team flight in combat.

Just... go respec now, and we will speak nothing further of it.

[/minor rant]

Too many alts to create MIDS builds for. I'll do it later and, for now, focus on my main.

Respecing is a PITA. Even with Titan Sentinel to export your current bid to at least have a starting place, it's still a pain. I've gone and done it on a few, but it's not an enjoyable experience.

They leave their characters the way they are because:

a) They don't see any powers they'd want over what they already have

b) The respec process is a PITA, especially when you're a 50

c) RP/concept reasons

d) See letter b , when you've got a stable of characters.

e) They don't care what other people think of their builds, and if they were viable before the change, they're still viable now.


Any of these, as well as any I've missed, are perfectly acceptable reasons, because they want to play the game their way. It's usually best to keep one's nose out of other people's builds. They're doing it for a reason.

I've got a better idea, how about you stop telling people how to play the game?

On some of my toons I just haven't gotten around to it. And yes, I am going to tell you that I can't figure out which 3 powers to pick. With no extra slots to spend on them, there's not much of interest. For my Elec/Elec Blaster, for instance, there's not much that's very interesting from his primary or secondary. I guess he could pick up Zapp for pulls, or Voltaic Sentinel for kicks. But nothing that matters enough for me to respec immediately. My Inv/SS Tanker is another matter. Inherent Fitness allowed him to take Resist Elements and Resist Energies, along with Laser Beam Eyes because I didn't have anything else I wanted to take and it's a cool power.

Seriously, lighten up. There's a whole world of difference between not taking Dull Pain on your Invuln Tanker and not respeccing from Legacy Fitness into Inherent Fitness.

I'm lazy and I hate respeccing.

It takes me at least half a week to prepare for using a respec on one character. It's not just a matter of choosing additional powers. I have to decide which powers can sacrifice slots to reallocated to these new powers. Many of my builds were tight already with compromises already taken. And I don't create fantasy builds with Mids. I set up my builds on the fly based on the Set IO pieces I have on hand or could reasonably afford to buy, assuming it's available to be bought at all. This means time checking my 6 Bases, checking my bids on the Market, checking which character has enough Reward Merits to use if I had to settle for that, etc. In addition, each time I use up my resources means the next character will have less to work with.

This is a lot of work to impose on myself when my existing build, which I had been considering to be "the final build" all this time, is still serving me well.

Some alts I don't want to respec. I don't care for 3 more powers on them because they work just fine the way they are. Adding 3 more powers won't improve them and I don't want to waste game time for respec just to take some power I would never put to tray.
I have wasted a week in respecing alts that could use improvement - why should I waste more time for something that is good the way it is?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it?

Most of my characters got a respec or two to accommodate inherent fitness but there are a few that just... don't need anything else. They have all the powers they want slotted how they want them. The build COULD be reworked to include a few new toggles from the fighting pool or leadership but that just messes with their current endurance sustainability for no useful reason.

Before my second monitor and the sentinel build export feature I did a grand total of three respecs, and two of those were mandatory VEAT respecs.

I despised respecing before, and now it's still a complete PITA.

And yes, some characters I can't decide what to take ... my PB already has a bunch of powers with no slotting.

The easiest explanation is a respec is time consuming, especially on 50s. Now imagine doing respecs on all your characters, some that may have alternate builds, and multiply that number by the time to put together a respec plan that a) takes into account the extra powers that may need slotting; b) what powers to take to to replace the Fitness pool powers you had and c) and still make it exemplarable, that is taking powers in a specific order so you don't gimp the character if you are doing Ouroboros missions or simply playing on a low level team. Then you do the respec and usually end up short on one or more types of enhancements due to the juggling of slots so you have to go to the market and see what's available or to a store simply to toss a couple of SOs for the short term.

A lot of times, I'm just happy I have the free time to log in and run a mission or two with one character for an hour or so.

I have around 7 very active character, and 20+ more semi-active characters. I've not bothered to respec any of my characters in the ~2 weeks I've been back... I've looked at what I'd alternatively take on several of them, and the options just aren't that compelling to go through the effort. I'll eventually respec out of fitness, but, not today... and maybe not tomorrow.

Also, a huge chunk of my characters are close to dinging 50. It seems a bit silly to me to respec at 47, when I'll have to respec again anyways as I try to switch over to an IO'ed out, Incarnate-enabled final build. I might not even respec them until I already have the alpha slot filled.


In case you haven't noticed, CoX isn't like those other MMOs out there, that demand certain teams made up of people with certain builds, or you'll just be a total failure at life. Generally, the people that I see whining about others' builds are the ones that think this is yet-another generic fantasy MMO, where the holy trinity rules, and Heals are Gods' Gift To Elvis.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

I'm waiting for my 60 month Vet (in 3 more months) for the "free" travel power before I bother spending time on any respecs. That way I kill 2 birds with 1 stone.. And even then I might not even do it right away. lol

On a positive note, a few of my characters never even had Fitness to begin with (including my main), so it took no effort to simply throw an enhancement in the free slots that came with the new set and call it a day. It's a nice little bonus for those toons.

Well, I didn't really have a strong reason for it other than I don't care if my character is just slightly worse off than if I did the respec. Well, that and as others have said the current respec structure makes it a pita.

Now however I have a great reason for not respeccing. To drive you completely and utterly over the edge. Do you might if I global friend you so that I can keep you up to date on which characters I'm keeping the fitness pool on and what powers I'm missing out on as a result of this decision?

Actually I might respec those characters after all but if I do it will be to drop a couple powers in order to take jumpkick and group fly.

You asked and from what I read i think you got a pretty good idea of why a lot of people don;t bother....

1. A respec at level 24 when you can first earn one is not a huge deal because you really don't have that many powers yet and those you do have aren't heavily enhanced BUT at 50 level you have ever power you are/were ever going to get and in many cases as spent considerable amounts of Inf. IOing them and maybe even putting purples in slots.. Now you are supposed to tear all that apart and start over.. Some folks just don't want the hastle since between their IOs and their incarnates they are pretty dang nasty as is so why mess with things?

2. Okay unlike these mythical players you have seen I have done respecs on all 11 of the characters I am currently running incarnate stuff on. It wasn't a lot of fun but since I also hot the 5 year mark which meant i could aslo save a slot by NOT needing a 2nd pick to get the travel power i wanted adding 4 new powers made it worth the effort. Now I was determined not to screw up my damage potential, ect on any character so I really had to work to figure powers that didn't need a bunch of enhancemenets.. I came up with a) Hasten (not a huge game changer but when its available I can click it am all my powers recharge faster). b) Recall Friend (doesn't really help or hurt but comes in handy occasionally in getting team mates some place faster) then I got a little more situational on some I went with c) Grant Invisibility and d) Invisible.. having access to Superior Invisibility and Stalkers Hide i was not all that inpressed with these but neither required more than one slot. Now on one character I wanted a bit more defense so I hit the leaping pool and took Combat Jumping.. this did help out a good bit. But get real here my friend.. On Apex I hardly see where recall friend or even hasten will make a huge difference and Grant Inv and INV make none at all. Okay Combat Jumping helps a bit but if CJ is the difference between my team succeeeding or failing on an Apex its one seriously wacked out team.

and then 3. I agree with DarkGob.. That person or persons you have seen that didn't bother with a respec pay their $15 a month just like you do and as long as they are happy with their build and their build isn't so dorked up that teaming with them is a strain for all the other team mates then .. It is really none of your business.

Man, the OP would hate me. While I did respec most of my "mains", I have several characters that still have Legacy Fitness, including mid-level characters that would massively benefit from the respec. My main reason for not "fixing" them is laziness.

However, I was leveling up a lowbie the other day, and spent about 15 minutes waffling between three powers I didn't really want, and wishing I could take Swift instead, like I would have before.

I actually have the worst reason for not respeccing mine:

The two I have respecced I made worse. So, now the rest of them are staying in their i17 or earlier mode until I get someone else to give me a build for them. =)

players range from extreme powergamers to extreme casual. EXTREME. The other day I helped a level 41 returning player who had only swift and hurdle from fitness. But that's not all - he didn't know how to slot his powers. Not only that, he had one row of buttons, with the first 10 powers the game automatically placed in his tray. That's all he used. I spent a couple hours getting him a reasonable build, slotted powers, and 3 rows of buttons with all his powers in them. He went from having epic battles with a single minion to being a normal character, like 100 times as strong.

Compared to that, your fitness slackers are hard core

Nice list, White Hot Flash
Well summed up.
I'd say the most obvious reasons are that the respec process is a time-consuming PitA and that many people have a stable of alts.
Running Apex and getting shards isn't some big boy's club any more than beating up Tsoo to unlock your level 20 costume slot.

Also...
Amazing Ape, my level 50(+1) SD/SS Tank (who has indeed respec'd out of inherent fitness) occasionally uses Jump Kick in combat because it looks flippin' fantastic on him.