When do YOU give up on a character?

[Luminara]

Last week, I started a sentinel.  I was really excited, because the archetype is giving me the opportunity to create the one character I never could on the original servers, a classic Amazonian fitting with mythology.  Not just a punchy-punchy or stabby-stabby Amazon, but a ferocious warrior woman armed with a bow and a sword and not hesitant to use either.  I was especially keen to get this one moving, too, because my first 50 since the original servers were shut down is a Staff/Willpower brute (yes, i know, but it's the bladed staff, so it's still a sharp, pointy stick!) who I'd envisioned as an easily frightened, comparatively weak, small young woman trying to prove that she was as tough as anyone.  This new character was to be a member of her tribe, scouring the world in search of her to bring her home.  For some reason, this fired me up and drove me to really push forward with the idea, instead of starting the character and sticking it on the "when I get around to it" list.

 

I couldn't do this with a blaster.  The survivability was too low.  As a defender or corruptor, it would've meant only TA/A or A/TA, which I'd already done, and it still would've lacked that last, perfect touch, a sword to whip out and start hacking on anything moving.  And not one of the mastermind primaries works with the concept.  But the sentinel?  Yeah, that checks all of the boxes.  A bow, damage mitigation, and (in an APP) a sword.  And when I was combing through the sentinel secondaries, I noticed that Shinobi-Iri (Ninjitsu) had +Jump.  Everything I wanted, plus more bouncy boingy happiness?  I couldn't put my name on the dotted line fast enough, even with Hurdle double-slotted with 50+5 Jump IOs!

 

The problems didn't really become apparent until much later.  First was the Stealth component of Shinobi-Iri.  All of the time I spent in the costume creator, perfecting a look which was similar to my precious, perfect Legionette (my brute), but not identical, and I couldn't see it.  I even made this character just a hair under 6' tall, which is highly abnormal for me (i've always settled somewhere in the range of 5'1"-5'5"), and found just the right balance on the sliders so she looked toned without being bulky and awkward.  But, hey, I could always turn off the power to see the character, right?  No big deal, just push on and get her to 50.

 

Then the irritation really set in, at 17.  I had one of the sentinel ATO sets fully slotted, half of the other, and Shinobi-Iri with a level 20 Recharge Reduction IO.  At first, it was just what I called it in the first sentence in this paragraph, an irritation.  I'd be launching arrows en masse, and suddenly find my attack sequence disrupted.  By Shinobi-Iri.  And instead of finishing off a last-sliver-of-health critter with Aimed or Fistful (lined up to pincushion everything else within range), I'd fire off Blazing or Explosive, because the attack chain I can perform by muscle memory, asleep, was thrown off by a 2-3s animation.  Now I'm burning through endurance twice as rapidly as I would be if I were in control of my attack chain, I've wasted my hard hitter or my AoE finisher, and I've still got 2-5 critters trying to give me a make-over with baseball bats (clearly not fashion conscious foes).

 

I tried taking Shinobi-Iri off of auto and working around it by using it when I needed it.  I tried to ignore it when I put it back on auto.  I tried to live with it.  And I've tolerated some seriously frustrating crap for some of the characters I created, because the concept I had in mind was so urgent, it felt worth the hassle.  But I hit my limit last night with this one.  Having that interruption in my attack chain was where I found my line in the sand.  She's at level 26, and I'm in the middle of working up an Archery/Invulnerability build to start over with.  At 2 a.m. EST, when I can finally log in, I'll transfer all of her IOs and inf* to e-mail, save the costume and power customization, and go back to level 1 with another build.  I just can't go through one more mission like this.  I won't.

 

So what did it for you?  What one thing pushed you past your limit and forced you to redesign a character with the same concept, but different powers?  What's your breaking point?

[FoulVileTerror]

What's my breaking point before rerolling a character which doesn't fit my initial concept plans?

With 1000 character slots per Shard per free unlimited account?

A stiff breeze.

 

Of course I never delete a character.  Just rename 'em, and plan to come back to them eventually when I come up with a concept which -does- fit that Combination.

[Greycat]

I don't think I have one - though when VEATs were new and shiny, the godawful story "arcs" they had just about made me delete the one I was working on around... 30 or so.

 

Now? If they don't fit the concept I have in mind, they get renamed and a new backstory while I roll an alt that does.

[kiramon]

If endurance can’t be sustained I say bye. Hate it.

 

ive only had doms and a tanker that I hated and was just like NOPE.

 

mind you I only try them after I plvl and spend 400m - 600m on the build +alpha

[Coyotedancer]

If I get them to 35-40 and they just are *NOT* fun to play, for whatever reason?  They're toast. Goners. Ghost material.

 

I don't clutter my list with abandoned characters, so I do delete them when that happens. If I like the name and the look I came up with, I might keep those and just try something else completely different with them, though. 

[gamingglen]

Rolling a sentinel and I keep wondering why things are not dead yet after a few attacks. I strip it of whatever enhancements it has, store those, send INF to email, delete, reroll as blaster and have a lot more fun.  Every time.   I also cuss at the special ability of sentinels, every time they activate (why does the offensive one fire when that enemy is near dead, and the defensive one heals such a piddly amount?)

[Xeres]

I don't know if I have a set time, but I can tell quickly if the character is for me.  My frustration factor is primary.  Like when i tried my human Kehlidan (sp?) and got into the 20s and felt like I'd be better off taking boxing than using his powers.  A lot of times it's character concept.  A good concept one day doesn't mean a few days later the char losty his/her appeal.

[Ironblade]

I don't recall ever giving up on a character.  The only thing that even comes close was when someone pointed out to me that a character's powers didn't really fit his name so I re-rolled him.

 

I mean, I've made characters based on a silly name and taken them to 50.  Remember the April Fool event with visual sound effects?  I made Captain Freem and took him to 50.

[Six-Six]

My cut off is level 15-20. I usually start with a concept which is a name + AT + powers and some notion of how they should be played. Once it's out of the costume I usually take it out for a test drive to level 10 (unless RL cuts it short). Usually by level 15-20, I can tell if it will hold up against the idea in my head. If not, it's either rerolled to a more fitting AT/power set, or set to percolate (as to why it's not working), or parked... waiting for a epiphany. (I've had toons that have sat in wait for almost half a year, and I'm playing them now). Now, I do have "rough drafts" or brain farts which are character concepts that are kinda meh. I keep them for a while until I "edit" them to a better version of the concept. I have names waiting for costumes, costumes waiting for AT/Powers, powers waiting for names. I suppose those get deleted even though they are re-rolled into a better version right away. Once a toon has passed level 20, however I commit to go all the way to 50 sooner or later.

t's funny, but sometimes, the only thing wrong with the toon is the costume, or the name, which makes it unplayable for me. 

[cranebump]

Slow animations usually turn me off. But I don’t give up on characters. Just can’t play more than one at a time.:-)

[Yomo Kimyata]

I only have one rule:  Everyone fights; nobody quits.

 

Ok, I guess that's two rules.

 

 

[EmmySky]

Mostly Human was 40, but dark armor was still proving problematic, so she got a reroll and is now full incarnate.  Sometimes you just gotta tweak your vision a little bit.

[Sovera]

Slow animations I can stomach for a while and eventually it becomes too much and the camel's back breaks (not you, @Camel). This was a distinct thing with my Rad Melee Scrapper and Tanker.

 

Trying to live through Rage's crash was also something I stomached for a while but after the Nth's time of jumping into a group and suddenly taking a lot of damage while unable to kill them (Fire Armor is about killing them first during the leveling) eventually got to me despite giggling at tearing half an even level's boss' HP with one double stacked Rage Fiery Embrace empowered KO Blow.

 

Low damage also eventually becomes too tiresome. Fire/Katana Tanker behaved nearly as well as Fire/Claws with much better slotting, but Lotus Drops being half the damage of Spin sapped my will to play. It would have been fine if I hadn't played Claws, but having done so I knew there was much equal ST and much better AoE waiting for me. Started a Katana/Rad Scrapper expecting Scrapper and Katana to carry me and then no, oof, whittling enemies until level 26-32 with no damage push from the secondary made me go nah. Didn't even get past level 25.

 

Squishyness also makes me drop characters. After dying a few times on my Stalker or Scrapper I moved on (probably not fair since I could do something about it). Claws/Bio Scrapper is the best thing since sliced bread, but it does not handle hard content very well (TW/Bio does, but because it does so much damage with KDs and defense boosting skills that things don't last long enough to hurt back).

 

Exemplaring is also important and a few attempts at playing some characters with all the important powers out of reach (sole AoE, set defining powers) I also said no.

[The_Warpact]

When they stop being fun, and it seems more like work.

[Saikochoro]

I give up on characters when I find something that does their job better. I’m much more about powerset combinations than about themes or backstory. 
 

I gave up on my dual blades / bio scrapper when I found that my dual blades / energy aura scrapper was much much better. 
 

I gave up masterminds completely. Tried several into the 20s. Took one to 50 with a full build and incarnates. Just couldn’t get used to them.  Partly because it is hard for me to figure out how to build them in terms of their pets (getting Pets to softcap defense hard cap resist). I haven’t figured out how to see that in mids so that doesn’t help. 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Ukase]

For me, there are a number of things that make a character irritating to play. 

Slow animations. Like TW. I don't care how awesome it is at 50. It stinks at level 5, so why play a character that stinks? I don't want to PL - although I will for a particular event like a super team. 

It's like dating. She may have all the traits of a great wife - but if she's a miserable date, I'll never know and the joy at the end I am unaware of isn't worth the misery on the front end to risk it. 

This is probably why I liked blasters. With the proper IOs, and experience playing them - you simply do NOT die very often. If you do - you learn from it, maybe delete the character and reroll it, depending on the synergy of the primary and secondary. 

Scrappers are good, as are stalkers and brutes. The 4 ATs come out of the gate with good damage. I'm certainly glad other folks like to play all the other ATs, but I prefer these 4. 

I have more than a few characters that are not level 50. They ranges from level 1 (good name, holding for my next character) to level 47. The level 49 Dom, I just finally said, "This is just not fun. I can't see grinding through the content to get the requisite vet levels to t-4 it. So, I stopped playing it. Haven't played it in ...200 days? 

Got a Dark/Cold Corruptor at 49. I just don't care for it. I much prefer the fire/rad, the fire/time, the Fire/Sonic, and water/time corruptors. It just stopped being fun. I can't really pinpoint why. I think it was because I pl'd them to 17...and from there, despite having a build already in mids... the attack chain just never developed organically. And that's a big part of the reason why I don't like to pl my characters. Playing them needs to be a learned experience, and if I miss those "formative" levels, the rest of the character never really quite develops with me. 

The PB I have is level 15. I only rolled it because of all the game's content, it's Sunstorm's and ...Shadowstar's arcs that are the ones I'd like to play, having only done Sunstorm's arc once. But even though I've got Dech Kaison's build (for the warshade) from way back when, I remember having to really be on my toes to play it well. They're a fair bit of effort to play and be effective. I just don't want to put that much effort into a game. I know it's just a matter of getting used to it - and I will one day play it more - just not today. It's been idle for 5 months. I'm sorely tempted to just fully slot the Nova and the Dwarf form and let the human form get zip. However, the lure of 85% resist cap and all the photons dishing out damage...hard to turn your back on that, too. 

[Crater Kate]

I only ever truly 'give up' on a character, as in delete it and banish it from my sight, if I realize I'm not in love with my concept AND I'm not in love with mechanics. If my character concept just isn't fun, or I struggle to invest in playing them, they're gone. My rule of thumb is "would I have fun in a light RP team with this character?" I feel like if I can't even manage that, then it's just going to be too much of an unpleasant experience.

 

If I like their character OR their mechanics but not both, they get shelved indefinitely. This is the state of most of my characters. If it's a character I love with mechanics I hate, I'll save some costume designs and start re-rolling a bunch to try and hit something that clicks. The most I've gotten is like... 8-9 different versions at once, I think. These are characters I try to reboot ASAP, but if I bounce off the character too many times I'll get frustrated and walk away from them until I get the spark I need.

 

If it's mechanics I love but a character I don't like, then they just sit there until something comes along that'll fit. These are less urgent characters to flesh out and are more placeholders for "hey, you liked playing this" and so I don't have to rework any slotting I've done on them. These'll get iced for months at a time, but still not deleted.

 

I also have no problem in taking time away from a character if I suddenly stop enjoying them. Characters who I used to dedicate most of my playtime to I haven't touched in weeks or months. Crater Kate herself is one of those, actually. She's there with the others whenever I get the hankering for them again, but I don't feel like I force myself to play anything if I'm not having fun. Life's too short for that. But even so, I rarely delete.

 

[Twisted Toon]

5 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I only have one rule:  Everyone fights; nobody quits.

 

Ok, I guess that's two rules.

 

 

If they don't do their job, do you shoot em?

[Myrmidon]

Rage. After spending so much time with it on live, I will not bother with the crash when other sets are more enjoyable for less bother. That changes when Super Strength changes and not a moment before then.

[MTeague]

I have deleted a lvl 22 Elec/Elec Blaster to reroll him as an Elec/Elec Dominator.

At the time, I was feeeling too damn squishy, and just kept dying Over and Over when soloing at +1x2 with bosses.

 

If I had that back, I probably would have kept the Blaster.  After 28 levels on my AR/MC Blaster (whos now 3/4 way through the First Ward stories), I'm far more comfortable with a blappy mix.  I have a better feel for when to burn and live, and when to invoke Expiditious Retreat.

[Replacement]

I abandon a lot of characters (but never delete) if I'm not enthused with the fiction.

 

The real issue is like what the OP discusses, where I like the fiction and power set themes, but not how the character actually plays.

 

Pulp Noir, my StJ/DA scrapper, is my greatest letdown. I love how well the name, theme, and powers flow together.

 

But he is not fun to play. Every time I see him in my list, I get sad. I don't want to give up on him, but I sure as hell ain't logging in with him.

[Sir Myshkin]

Generally speaking a character won’t ever make it into the creation screen until I’ve kicked around a build in Mid’s for a while. Even before that program I would just stare at the powers selection screen until the path became clear in my head.

 

Back on Retail I had maybe a dozen characters roaming across the servers that were started for one reason or another and that reason ceased (a group plan, costume/theme costume, whatever) and I would leave them just for historical log, less abandonment.

 

Here on HC, I reattempted Kheldians (PB/WS) by making twin mirror costumes with contrasting colors, had a look I found very interesting, nailed down their builds, but both teetered out by 25, I just couldn’t get into it. I struggled with them on Retail too and only ever managed to get a PB to 50 for RP reasons, and never greenlit a WS. Right now I feel I’ve abandoned them but I may get them bumped to 50 at some point just to say I have them. I mean, come on, check out these costumes!

[Bill Z Bubba]

Strip, nuke and move on. I'm currently on Warp Core number 10 or so. Think I finally found a keeper as a fire/rad corruptor.

 

Something has to leap out as "yes, this works" for me to keep going with a character. If that doesn't happen, I have zero issues with deleting them.

[Six-Six]

I don't mind slow animations, although some animations I like better than others (like Fire Breath alternative from the hand) even when the power is one of the weaker ones -- it's all about making it look good to the adoring public 😃

What bothers me is the sound and other effects like Water Blast's screen shake, absolutely disorients me when I play it. Unfortunate because it's one of my best costumes and themes as well as one of the stronger Sentinels in my roster. It's also strange because Earth Dom's shake don't bother me as much. Thankfully for the audio, I've found some SFX mods (by @Solarverse) that have really made the toon better... stronger even.

[Clave Dark 5]

Funnily enough I had a devices Blaster that I liked the look of but stopped play right around the time he got Cloaking Device, too; any and all powers that "make you invisible" or "armor" you should have a minimal FX option

 

I have yet to fully level any melee toon this go round as well.  I don't know why, I used to do well enough with them in the before times, but now, I have a VEAT that, following a build, was like sleep-walking through foes, yet never bothered to get him past I think 46?  Martial Arts scrapper was fun, but... I haven't touched him in a couple of months now maybe, he's in the 30s...  Some of this could be COVID burn-out though, I played a LOT when all this started, and my play-rate hasn't returned yet to per-pandemic levels.