Why is Vigor Alpha so bad?

The main disappointment of the Alphas to me is the ultra-specific nature of some of the buffed attributes. In particular, the various mezzes (Stun, Confuse, Hold, etc) and some of the debuffs (in particular -Defense and +ToHit).

I would prefer that they be regrouped with the mezzes sorted into a single category like they are with IOs: Mezz Duration, period.

In Vigor's case, Confuse, Sleep, and Fear duration are a total dice roll in terms of which sets will have them. I can see possibly singling Hold duration away from the other mezzes since it's a standard mezz across Control types, [EDIT: and maybe the same for Immobilize], but the rest are at best haphazardly distributed, and that tends to create situations like my Mind Controller getting zero mezz lift from any mezzes at all from Spiritual, but my Fire Dominator getting a 45% Stun boost for no particular reason from the same Alpha. My feeling is that an Alpha should either give a Mezz boost to all Mezzes or none at all. Singling them out individually rewards some very specific combinations and shortchanges others.

Vigor may work better than Spiritual for /WP characters?

Vigor doesn't look bad at all. You get +recharge and -endurance. Those two very good attributes to have.


Nerve, however.... I can't justify myself to take Nerve. If I need acc, I'll take Vigor. If I need +defense, I'll take Agility.

I don't understand the design behind Nerve but it's just me. I've planned some builds in Mids to see the +defense improvement and it just doesn't seem good enough to me.

Nerve was the go-to for trollers and doms. Accuracy for those low-accuracy AoE mezz, increased hold duration, defense buffs to keep you alive, and confuse duration increases are nice.

Key word here is "was". Once intuition was released, Nerve lost almost all of it's purpose. It's easy to get enough accuracy and to-hit boosts with regular slotting alone (my troller has 1.74 global accuracy boost on accident), so the extra accuracy isn't needed. By contrast, you can always use more damage. Increased defense debuffs and tohit debuffs make the debuffing effects of many troller/dom powers more potent, and the range boost is something that you always wanted but never had the room to slot for.

I could see a use for nerve in a confuse-based set, but other than that it takes a back seat.


Now, I love vigor on my WP tank. I sacrificed 3 defense points for that extra healing, since a hit or two rarely matters when I'm recovering 200 HP a second. But, I have also have another toon that I'm going to equip with Vigor; a Mercs/Pain MM. I have been having endurance issues with him since he hit level 6, and I don't think that clever slotting will help since he only has around half the toggles I plan to give him. But with heals, endurance reduction, and an accuracy boost to the non-global affected henchman it should work quite well in him.

QR: I really like Vigor for many of my controllers. It gives many of them the exact boosts they need.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

I love Vigor on my Dark Armor character. But I am not a recharge freak on melee characters. For Dark Armor, specifically Dark Regeneration, accuracy and end reduction are vital, and bonus healing is fine. Also, the acc and end reduction really help with all the crazy toggles I run and with both my damage aura accuracy and with the passable-but-not-great accuracy on my single target attacks (they have 4 kin combats and a CI acc/dam).

So yeah. I love me some Vigor.

Lewis