When do you use inspirations?

I've noticed something in a lot of good CoH videos is effective use of inspirations.

For me, I hit off the odd purple to help keep my defences high in iTrials. Greens when I need a bit of a health boost. Reds when soloing SSA to make it go faster. Sometimes blues for a bit of power when I did and break frees whenever I have stuns/confuses/holds on me.

So when do you use inspirations and when and do you have any advice on when and where to use them? Or if any inspirations work well with any power sets or ATs especially?

I know the conventional wisdom is to use them often since they supposedly "drop like candy". However, I continue to use them situationally, only when I really need them. I've had way too many cases where I had to run with a half-empty tray after a hard-fought battle with an EB or AV and no new insp drops to fill the tray back up to rely on the "drop like candy" mentality to save my butt in times of need. So I tend to be a hoarder.

I mean, I should probably use the accuracy and damage ones "like candy" since they aren't Oh-Crap-I'm-Gonna-Die type inspirations and since I can easily live without them I might as well just eat them and make room for more important ones. But I just never got into the habit, so I often have a few yellows and reds just sitting around collecting dust, taking up space that would be better served with purps, greens, or oranges (CoX is all about defense, after all).

"Use early and use often."

I usually keep a few purples and oranges for situations, but everything else is either used immediately or converted to a red. Basically, I run every mission like its a farm. Max speed, powers blazing, things dying too fast to kill me.

Little ones I burn as fast as I get them, just to clear space for something bigger and better to drop. I tend not to use the big ones at all unless I encounter something especially tough, then I burn them like mad.
If no emergencies come up, I may discover that my collection of large inspirations is too big and impressive. Then I start converting them to Phenomenal Luck and selling them to make room for more things to drop.

My standard tray is: 1 row of greens, 1 row of blues, 2 rows of purples, 1 row with break frees.

The blues and break frees get changed for more greens and purples respectively on characters that don't need one or either of them.

I eat the greens, blues and break frees as I need them. I pop a couple of purples before fights that look like they might get a bit tricky.

All the stuff that drops and isn't one of the above gets eaten as I get them (or right before jumping into the next group after I got them) or converted when possible.

On Trials or TFs with powerful teams I often don't use any insp at all and end it with my tray still full with the same insp I neatly filled it with before we started.

When soloing I'm hardly ever fighting without any sort of insp buff going.

I don't.

The game was designed for you to eat them. They expect you to eat them which is why they drop so often.

On high level characters I tend to ignore it too, but I've found that if I am farming, I now eat them regularly JUST because they drop so often and I figure that I should be rolling through enemies even faster.

In combat.

All the time.

I have some binds that combine them for me.
Sometimes I just eat them out of spite.

Depends on the mood for me. Sometimes I'll play for an hour and then realize "wow, I didn't even have my insp window open". Other times I will use them constantly. Overall though, I'd have to say that I'm a hoarder. The "what if I need them later" mentality gets me quite often. Although I will say this...with time, I have learned to use them more. Where I was a total hoarder a few years ago, now I am more likely to use them instead of hoarding.

I used to keep a giant stockpile of phenomenal lucks on every character which I never used so they were basically pretty purple window dressing. After inventions came out I noticed that little things add up to a more impressive whole, so I tried to keep just four columns of phenoms and one to actually use.

After getting inner inspiration, I can go from an empty tray after a harrowing session to a full tray just by hitting the power whenever I log that character in for marketing purposes or whatever, so now holding onto them seems a tad silly. And hey, it lets you punch way above your weight. TF team going slow? Hit a big purple and go clear the next spawns by yourself. Oh, that didn't motivate them? Keep doing it, it will only take four or five before the mission is over!

That's the theory at least. I still tend to hoard two or three columns of big purples or oranges, as applicable, but freeing myself from the "must save all inspirations..." nag was probably one of the more significant improvements in my playing skill lately.

Some time after trials were launched, I started carrying trays of all large/super insps with a row of small purples to stay softcapped. I rarely use them at all, so I'm missing out on a lot of +dmg, but they've helped in some tricky situations. I've basically traded peak performance for reliable performance.

My definition of "sucky league" has now been updated to "any league where I have to use the whole tray".

When I'm not doing my silly "solo AVs without Inspiration usage" of course!

If I'm paying attention, I will continue combining for break frees on my troller, purples on my scrappers, or if I run low on endurance I will prioritize blues instead. (it really depends on the toon I'm playing and his needs)

I've gotten very good at predicting when the carp is about to fly (picture that XD) since my first main toon was a Spine/Regen scrapper. When I see that something big is going to happen, I will eat a purple or two as well as some oranges. Other than that.. I really usually forget I even have insps.

Whenever I need them. If I haven't gotten stamina issued worked out on a character yet I'll usually convert everything I get into blues. I usually like to have at least 3 purples and a few blues on me otherwise.

I either eat some right before a big boss fight or when I'm starting to get clobbered as an "oh %$#&!" maneuver.

I've tried going through them "like candy" and invariably end up with a near-empty tray facing down a big bad. "Like candy" my foot! I hate it when that happens.

The times I play "above my level" - you know, team facing all purple-con foes, a team wipe or two each mission, slow going due to really serious fights - I fall back on the Insps like mad and then they never drop again for the rest of the mission. Or the next one.

And yellows always make you miss!

Two words:

Leroy...


Jenkins...

If you see me start popping a bunch of skittles...chances are my sanity has slipped a little.

To quote myself..."This is either gonna be really cool...or really dumb. Either way...BANZAI!!!!"


Heh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

I hoard medium/large purples. Anything small I burn to make more room (except maybe a break free). I'll burn or combine medium reds/yellows/oranges, and I'll combine greens into purples.

I really need to burn or sell more large insps, especially with the inner inspiration power available.

I use macros to turn things into purples, which I use whenever I realize Im in over my head or Im about to jump into a big battle. I also pop whatever reds and yellows I have before taking bosses.
Any other insps I will eat to just get them out of the way if my tray is full and I cant combine anything. I tend to avoid ATs that can get mezzed.

Before big boss fights...like a boss.

In PvP zones...like a boss.

When friends are trying to hit me with snowballs...like a boss.

I've always had the problem of stockpiling insps, but I've tried to moderate that lately and use more of them.

I still keep a reserve stock (mediums/larges); this always includes one column of purples and one of greens. The other 'reserve' columns can vary by character; damage dealers often have a column with a pair of yellows and reds, squishies might have a column of breakfrees, and characters with endurance issues might have a column of blues (although I usually end up spending those faster than I get them, on characters which need them). (A wakie usually resides at the top of one of these columns, as well, but that's less of a 'stockpile' as just a convenient place to stick one.) These are usually held in reserve, to be used when I judge the fight at hand is both important and difficult enough to justify it. Purples, especially, are prized since a pair of them can make you effectively invincible for 60s; they tend to get used a bit more often as a result (especially on squishies) since they're so good, so they generally end up as the first priority for replenishment from combining drops.

The difference between this and what I used to do is that this leaves at least the first column free (and often the first two), and whatever falls into that space is always either used (either immediately or before the next fight) or moved/converted into one of the 'reserve' columns to fill a hole, so that I always have free space to receive new drops. One the one hand this means that I usually end up receiving and using many more inspirations per unit time, so my overall combat effectiveness goes up. Additionally, being in the habit of using inspirations makes it easier to remember to actually *use* the reserve stock when needed.

Unfortunately, this works best above 40 when you get the largest tray, and really doesn't work at all until you hit the medium size tray at 25. Below that you just don't have enough space to keep much of a reserve *and* open space simultaneously.