Wakies: Newb trap or useful?

[Frostbiter]

I'm not sure if the problem is with me or not but I find myself disabling Awaken Inspirations on just about all characters because I find them to be less than useful. The third tier are moderately more useful but show up so late in the game that you should have something better to use by then. Part of that is the situation you find yourself in that needs one. Defeated, surrounded by hostiles and you pop one only to be disorientated (2 out of 4 tiers of them), low health, zero end and generally trying to stagger away before the mobs can turn and lay the hammer down again. They are more successful than not at this (again, this may just be me).

 

So what does the community think? Are Awakens a newb trap or are they useful?

[Greycat]

They're situational. *shrug* Nothing wrong with that.

[Sakura Tenshi]

awakens I find are more useful on teams which lack someone with a good res power and/or to hit if you were already running and thus away from a mob by the time you actually go down.

[Troo]

They are working as intended.

[ForeverLaxx]

If you think you may fall in defeat, go to an area that the mob isn't set to be "neutral" at and go down fighting there. They'll wander back to their original positions, hopefully outside of re-aggro range, letting you stand back up. The only time I find Awakens useless is when it's an ambush spawn that takes you down since they'll immediately come back for you if you hit that button.

[Frostbiter]

Defeat usually catches me completely by surprise. lol

[Yoru-hime]

Awakens work great if you are ready for their limitations. Awaken + Break Free + Blue + Green = Ready to go. I line them up in that order on my fifth column so I can just mash F5 and be ready to go again (or run like the wind).

 

For some high level characters where I just don't need them very often, I'll disable them so they don't clog up the tray, but I'll stop and buy one or combine one if I end up using the one I keep in reserve.

Edited June 19, 2020 by Yoru-hime

[Yomo Kimyata]

I always try to have one handy, because hey, if you are not eating floor occasionally, you aren't pushing yourself!  But I do try to move away from the spawn point if I see things are going pear shaped.

 

Although, lately I've just been buying all my inspirations for cheap.

[tidge]

I keep several in email. I also have them disabled and make the one in email by combining others.

[Frostbiter]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

I keep several in email. I also have them disabled and make the one in email by combining others.

Interesting idea. I'll have to adopt it. 😉

Edited June 20, 2020 by Frostbiter
Spellung

[MTeague]

I like having ONE.  Maybe two.  I rarely keep many. 

As @ForeverLaxx says, when I know I'm going to die, I try to get some distance between the spawn point and the mob I'm fighting so I can wakie unmolested.

Some of this is because, for immersion sake, i hate being "teleported to the hospital" and then the villians just stuck around after. 

Esp if it's a "rescue these guys from the devouring earth" or something, where they really ought to be Dead/Devoured before I return.

I've been known to look at the screen and say "That never happened". and literally restart the mission, no matter how much of the map I'd already cleared, so I can do it "right" without dying along the way.

 

The only real problem I've had with wakies is Praetoria, when what killed you is a laser-guided ambush and they WILL instantly re-aggro the second you rise up, no matter HOW far away they are.  But you can sometimes get enough time for rez sickness to wear off if you ran a good bit before you fell.

 

I like @tidge's idea of emailing them to myself.  Definitely going to do that. 

[SwitchFade]

Pie. I vote pie.

 

🥧

[Doc_Scorpion]

14 minutes ago, MTeague said:

But you can sometimes get enough time for rez sickness to wear off if you ran a good bit before you fell.

That's why you follow a wakie with a break-free, insta cure for rez sickness.  One everyone but my /regen scrapper, I usually follow those with a blue and a green.

[ImpousVileTerror]

The self-revive from the Super Packs is by far superior to the Inspiration, but sadly much more rare unless you're rolling in eternal Inf.

I have a stockpile of Bounce Backs and Emerges in my in-game email on each account.  However, it's kind of become a matter of having them and not needing them, and I've hit the email cap on my main account twice already from it.  (It's way over the "20" that's listed in the error message, by the way.)

[LiquidBandage]

5 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

Are Awakens a newb trap or are they useful?

They are useful. They make you realize the impact of a Primary/Secondary/Epic resurrect power. Plus if you have a power set that provides mez protection, it gives you an opportunity to use it when someone rez'es. Additionally, if you are soloing, try pulling a mob away from where they are standing to fight them. If you die they will leash back and you can more safely rez and survive the disorient.

 

In the early game it is more useful to have inspirations that cover your weak spots and Awakens shouldn't be a weak spot. If you die too often, there is a solution that isn't an Awaken (you need to team instead of soloing or you need to crank the difficulty down). I generally carry one Awaken while leveling, just in case. 

 

I personally carry 1-2 of the Awakens (varying rarity), 1-2 of the Emerge (varying rarity) to counteract the disorient, 1-2 of the big heals and 1-2 of the Second Wind. If I need to rez, I jam that column of insps and I am good to go (unless I need to turn toggles back on). If I see someone is dirt nap prone, I can gift some or all of those and keep going. 

 

Some may say that storing that many inspirations is a waste and from a certain perspective it is true because you are denying yourself potential drops. But way too often I find that people don't use inspirations because they are holding onto them for some mythical confluence of events that never happens.

 

[MTeague]

58 minutes ago, LiquidBandage said:

Some may say that storing that many inspirations is a waste and from a certain perspective it is true because you are denying yourself potential drops. But way too often I find that people don't use inspirations because they are holding onto them for some mythical confluence of events that never happens.

ah yes, the trap of "Too Cool To Use".

[Strawberry]

6 hours ago, Yoru-hime said:

Awakens work great if you are ready for their limitations. Awaken + Break Free + Blue + Green = Ready to go. I line them up in that order on my fifth column so I can just mash F5 and be ready to go again (or run like the wind).

I do exactly the same with one row on my inspirations.

[ForeverLaxx]

1 hour ago, MTeague said:

ah yes, the trap of "Too Cool To Use".

It's the "99 Elixir" problem. You think you'll only need the consumable for the really tough stuff, so you hold on to all the ones you find while you wait for the tough fight. Before you know it, you've beaten the game and didn't use a single one (and probably even left a few dozen laying on the ground due to running out of space).

 

I'm very guilty of this, but I like to think it made me a much better player of those games. Being able to beat tough encounters without using items makes you think harder or optimize better. Usually.

[Peacemoon]

I just wish you could use them while not dead to get rid of them. I don’t do much inspiration management and they’re usually more hassle than they’re worth blocking my tray!

[Peacemoon]

Also, slightly off topic but my Defender has Rise of the Phoenix self rezz and it’s one of my most unlikely favourite powers. I don’t die very often but when I do I pop right back up! I usually get rid of any debt slaughtering the villains that defeated me.
Death is now just a bump in the road.
 

If you have access to this type of power I’d recommend giving it a try.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Peacemoon

[Frostbiter]

Great responses so far. I do kind of feel like I need to reassure everyone that I don't die all that often these days. 😛

 

I do see people not leveraging their Inspirations enough though. I keep a full tray myself but I keep one or two slots open and just pop them as they drop. It makes running anything a bit easier and you can exchange and swap out lower tier ones you're holding for larger ones. Pop those pills people!

 

 

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

If your facing such tough odds, you likely should be using more tactical thought in where you engage your foes. For example in offices try to pull enemies up to ledges so should you be overwhelmed and downed, they wander away and your in a nice safe secure location.

 

Likewise, in a team. a power like recall friend is very useful for getting a downed ally out of harms way.

 

An insp after all shouldnt be better then the self rezzes in powers like Regen. Which takes timing, and MoG being used right as you activate to have any real chance of just getting right up in the middle of a fight and keep going.

[GastlyGibus]

As others have said, they are incredibly useful on teams. You go down in a fight, your team most likely helps clean up the mobs, then when the fight is over you pop a wakie so a team member doesn't have to use up their rez on you. 

 

Resurrection powers are useful during big fights, like arch-villains, where you need to be up right now and ready to keep fighting. Wakies are good for standard mobs where you can wait a few seconds for the coast to be clear. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by GastlyGibus
Typo

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

7 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

It's the "99 Elixir" problem. You think you'll only need the consumable for the really tough stuff, so you hold on to all the ones you find while you wait for the tough fight. Before you know it, you've beaten the game and didn't use a single one (and probably even left a few dozen laying on the ground due to running out of space).

 

I'm very guilty of this, but I like to think it made me a much better player of those games. Being able to beat tough encounters without using items makes you think harder or optimize better. Usually.

Im afraid you have that backwards. Those who know how to make consumables work to negate challenge are the better strategists and players. What your referring to is typically seen as overpowering content usually by grinding out extra levels in random encounters. A very common approach on virtually all JRPGs( and the source of 1 character challenges in such games meant for groups) Batman is literally the best at what he does because he uses consumables liberally to negate the advantages of large groups, and meta beings.

 

Example, classic Neverwinter nights by BioWare. Based on the D20 rules system I naturally excelled at that game as I know that set of rules from a wide range of D20 based PnP systems . Even at max dif I tear through the game, because I will leverage buff pots in a smart manner. Early example a fight with a little brain on legs called a thought devourer. Ive seen this fight wreck so many friends Ive watched play the game over the years. Yet one protection from evil potion, which makes you immune to charm and other such effects by evil creatures completely takes the fangs from the fight because he cant charm you or your companions to turn on each other, and in a pure beatdown the poor thing has no chance.

 

Even here in CoH, those who keep up the use of reds for example will drastically out dps those who dont bother eating them constantly over the course of any mission. I myself always keep a stock of super insp in AH storage so that I can just /ah before a fresh map to reload if I need to. And will constantly eat insps even if not needed as I mass murder just to keep my tray having space for more.

 

Hell its why I and no few I know have returned to classic street sweeping rather than farming AE. a blaster that can eat all the reds he wants to and keep his dmg buff at cap does levels of dmg blasters normally only dish out on raid teams.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

10 hours ago, ImpousVileTerror said:

The self-revive from the Super Packs is by far superior to the Inspiration, but sadly much more rare unless you're rolling in eternal Inf.

I have a stockpile of Bounce Backs and Emerges in my in-game email on each account.  However, it's kind of become a matter of having them and not needing them, and I've hit the email cap on my main account twice already from it.  (It's way over the "20" that's listed in the error message, by the way.)

USe email for only emergency in map resupply, use /ah for a stash to resupply in between maps.

 

I also want to say frankly, while the above has long been around, I do see this as far far more impacting to the game than the /base teleport command. Outside of cheating death on a master run, such only impacts the speed of our travel around the city. Being able to store extra insps in email and /ah to instant access its storage anywhere in the game world actually gives us extra power in combat.

 

Personally I think anyone saying /base tp is game breaking, while never mentioning the above is not really being honest about which actually impacts the games balance worse.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Bentley Berkeley