NO RESPEC ... how feasible?

[Herotu]

I find that I play this game underpowered most of the time and then become insanely OP once I redo my entire build at level 50. I'm interested in trying something different ...

 

I would like to build a character from level 1 with endgame enhancements (where possible - obviously you can't slot purples as they are level 50). So the notion is that when you get 2 slots at level 3 or whatever, you put attuned enhancements in them. 

 

How feasible is this (assume I have infinite inf)?

 

 

The reasons for doing this are;

1. I want to feel like I've made a natural progression and not some enormous artificial BUMP once I hit 50.

2. I want to get a taste of that level 50 OPness when I need it - i.e. while levelling,

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Herotu

[Hyperstrike]

I've had friends try to take end-game builds and level them organically that way.
The experience was pretty uniformly terrible.

[Apparition]

I level all of my characters, from my second now to my sixth, that way.  It is not the most effective way to level, but it has worked fine for me so far. 

[Vanden]

Slotting attuned enhancements at the minimum level works, but it leaves your powers pretty anemic until you hit the 30s or so, especially in accuracy enhancements.

[AboveTheChemist]

I would think this would be feasible, depending on how familiar you are with the powers beforehand. I always work up a rough build to start with from level 1, but there are inevitably some powers that I end up not liking and respec out of them. If you had some familiarity with the powers going in that wouldn't be an issue. The other issue I see is if you were planning to start with lower level sets and then once you hit 27 (or whatever the minimum-minus-three level is of your endgame set for any particular power), unslot those and slot in your endgame set. Also, you won't be able to slot any sets below level 7.

 

I am playing/have played my last 3-4 characters more or less this way. I respec around 30 to tweak my powers and start adding IO sets. Then I generally respec at 50 to make a final power tweak if needed. So far I have not felt the need to do a wholesale power redo. It's more along the lines of swapping out a power or two.

[Call Me Awesome]

I generally level to around 20 then respec with decent sets to carry me into the 40's.  A few things get slotted ASAP like the Miracle +recovery, usually the +tohit defense IO (name escapes me ATM) and a Stealth IO... all of these get slotted in the teens.  By the time the character's approaching 30 I'm usually mostly slotted with sets that will see me most of the way to 50.

 

Unfortunately with different sets having different minimum levels it's not easy to have an endgame build while leveling up.  Usually my builds have about 75% of their capabilities once they hit 35 but there are going to be sets I'll replace while leveling.  You could get by with Unslotters, they're cheap enough and I frequently use them for that to avoid the hassle of a complete respec.  Still, it's not unusual to need to shift slots around in the build as you level up.  I don't often need to respec at 50 though, usually the build is mostly complete in the mid-40's

[Hopeling]

6 hours ago, Herotu said:

How feasible is this (assume I have infinite inf)?

Extremely feasible. It's how I level most of my characters. I often end up doing a respec at 50 anyway, but that's just because playing the character more has made me rethink their build, not a serious power-up.

 

A lot of sets have minimum levels, so you'll probably want to slot commons at 12 to hold you over until Crushing Impact at 27 (for example), but that's just overwriting one with another, no respec required.

[DSorrow]

I generally start slotting attuned sets at 22 but I still respec at 50. The power up isn't massive that way but often I want to get rid of at least one low tier attack and sometimes I'll make adjustments to the build depending on how it actually plays.

[Lines]

I usually 'feel out' a build up to 50 rather than plan ahead, with the exception of my Warshade who uses the popular human-only build found here and a nearly-petless MM where I wanted to make sure it could work. I usually eat through at least two respecs per character.

 

That MM needed high end IOs slotted as soon as possible in order to be effective. She needed a respec around about lvl 38, but even so I could keep most of the stuff i had slotted and either store/sell anything that I'm no longer using. It's pretty expensive for a casual player, but it's really fun having access to bonuses and that extra 'oomph' from sets.

 

I think my 50 defender, however, is yet to use a respec but since they were my first 50 on HC and I've barely touched them since, they're still on an SO build. They'd need a respec if I wanted to kit them out properly.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Lines

[Yomo Kimyata]

Frankly, I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do it this way.  The cost of buying attuned sets is relatively small, certainly when compared to various ways of earning influence.  Also, you get so much more bang for your buck and playing time.  I’d much rather spend 25mm on two sets of Kinetic Combat for my level 17 than spend it on one purple for my 50, who is arguably already overpowered as it is.

 

I have a handful of 50s and haven’t respecced any yet, since I’m lazy and I don’t feel that the time and effort to do so would markedly improve performance or my playing experience.  

[Eva Destruction]

That's how I do it.  I start using attuned IOs in the teens, starting with the pieces that have accuracy.  I usually end up respeccing a few times anyway, but that's build tweaks and sometimes getting rid of an attack I needed to fill out my attack chain at lower levels, not a full-blown power-up.

[Darkir]

I'd say this is quite feasible to do, especially on a support toon with higher base modifiers (like a defender). I'd make sure to take maneuvers and tactics early though in order to hit things well. Slotting tactics could be problematic though, 6 slotting it with gaussians isn't exactly ideal, but at least when you are on an 8 man team it would proc a lot (according to some proc testing tactics checks procs on a per target basis, yourself and teammates being the targets in this case).

[boggo2300]

I very very rarely respec my toons at all

[Heraclea]

I don't respec very often either.  I tend to forget to leave stuff out when I do respec, especially stuff like travel powers.  Some characters are created with a view towards endgame usefulness.  More, though, are whole game characters, that do fine when exemped down to run a Synapse because they have the best powers available for the level when they do.  I will use catalysts on enhancements  I want available at the broadest level spectrum; usually this means Numina and Miracle if nothing else. 

 

The only characters I have respecced on Homecoming were my Archery/Devices blaster, to get rid of Time Bomb, and a scrapper where I wanted to reassign her enhancements to different powers. 

[Clave Dark 5]

I guess I'm crazy in that I rarely respec toons.  On the other hand, I often don't play them past 50, or just never take the time to do the homework to make a build.  I have followed builds from first level and up and started slotting whatever set soon as I could, while just filling in "the purple slots" with some crafted level 25 SOs.  I dunno, nine times out of ten I just go with my gut and a few passes over write-ups of the power sets with "take this but not that, slot it roughly like this" and call it good. 

 

I have noticed a lot of builds are awful if you exemplar down; one tank build I'm working towards took taunt at level 49.  I had to adjust that obviously as my tank's still only 30 or so.   I just respecced my first 50 and her build probably won't exemplar down half as well as she used to (too few slots in her heal at lower levels, for one thing), but it's better than what they had in the build originally.

[Herotu]

6 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I have noticed a lot of builds are awful if you exemplar down; one tank build I'm working towards took taunt at level 49.  

Okay we're off-topic here, but this is definitely a bugbear of mine. I really wonder what they're thinking... this game is ALL about the exemplaring down - why on earth would I take taunt near the end? It's not like I can just do level 50 content!

[Six-Six]

I have a lot of hand-me-down attuned IOs that I slot my alts when they can. Then I take them out (like some sets that only work until 20, 30, 40 etc.) and replace them with no ceiling attuned IOs when the alts outgrow them. I also experiment with different combination frankenslotting as well as slot allotment to powers, like t1-t4 primaries don't really maximise 6 slots even as mules. 

However, I look at respec in a different way. Some primaries and secondaries that I take are useful for a certain level range, but not for endgame. So I end up dropping say Empty Clips when I don't need it any more -- especially around 35-45 when the Epic Pools are available. I feel my present alt isn't performing as well as it should -- respec.

Also, as a noob, I've been taking advantage of respec to learn which powers to take/try and which to skip. So thank god I don't have to do respec trials. 😃