How playtested and refined are your builds - are they just right or overkill?

[SaintD]

.....build?

[Clave Dark 5]

1. Grab a build from these forums, avoiding ones that limp along on "this isn't a leveling build so you'll need that Incarnate power before this can really work" BS.  That's weakness showing, I hate that because I level my toons.
2. I usually strip out the Boxing/Tough/Weave too, sometimes even Leaderships (unless a Defender or an MM). I hate wasting a choice, and having toggles I might not be able to afford End-wise for a long time.  Now to find something else more fun and fitting for my concept.
3. My Mids take on it doesn't look too bad?  Off to the races.
4. The end.  I don't have time for play testing.  Seriously, I work 40 hours a week, have friends and family, etc.  I don't have the time to throw away on that.
5. If needed, I might go back and and re-tinker a bit to make the build less awful if it's not working out, but that's doesn't happen too often, usually it's good enough.

 

 

[tidge]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:33 AM, DougGraves said:

So do you  playtest and refine your builds repeatedly or do you just make sure it is good enough and not worry about making it perfect?

 

I am constantly tweaking builds as I play them, at least until they hibernate. I play them up to 50+, with a couple of respecs along the way. This is the path that helps me decide if a power gels with my playstyle or not. While leveling, I am usually relying on globals and slotting specifically to keep Endurance under control. At 50, I can have set bonuses such that I can remove "training wheels".

 

At 50, I do a LOT of tweaking without resorting to respecs:

1. Unslotters can remove pieces, this lets me see how the power behaves without certain pieces, or with different enhancement sets.
2. I'm often on the lookout for powers I don't use (they often get dropped) or toggles I don't activate (they get delayed in a build)

(1) has helped me decide between certain %procs, and example that comes to mind was a Robotics/Traps MM that was considering a variety of different Hold %pieces in Poison Trap as a 3rd %something, I settled on the %Absorb from the Entomb set after a lot of experimentation. I often try this sort of experimentation with %-res pieces.

 

(2) is complicated. It often turns out that a power like Hasten ends up not making any difference in defeat times of "clear all", it's become a power I never add by default and only consider it if I can't otherwise get global recharge where I want it to be. Paying attention to such powers has helped me make choices about how many slots to dedicate to them, and if a power is something like an early primary power, it might just make better use as a mule and not ever be toggled on (even if forced to be taken early).

 

At level 19, aside from a Panacea, and the later-slotted Performance shifter, I'm just slotting whatever drops (including from recipes).

 

[kito]

My process seem to be a little odd or so I have been told. I normally start with a idea for my toon.  Then pick powers that match it best I can.  From there I LVL them most of time I try to stick to one part of the city. 

 

But for powers I stick to what fits the RP and try to stick to deffence over offence if they make it to 50 I'll then go to mids and make a build for them.  And then split there builds. First build will be there RP build it might have powers that are sub optimal but work for how there supposed to work RP wise. Build 2 will be there pve mobs build this is the one I try to make as optimal as possible something to swap to if I'm going to try harder things. Or a tf falls apart and I need to try and solo it.

 Build 3 used to be PvP but most often is a pve gm/av killer build now so if I do clear the map I can then solo the av or swap to it if I go gm hunting  

 

For slotting I will often slot things as I need. SO more or less from LVL 10+ and IO sets where I can if needed but again more leaning on survivability over anything.   I try to start 6 new toons a year and might see two of them get to the end of the year. 

 

But the pve but build are probably respected every few weeks just to tweek something or make something work just a little better or push the dmg just a bit more.  For the RP build I just want it to have a decent attack chain and not die.

[DoctorDitko]

The only thing that I hate more than Mids is respeccing. Like resource management sims, that stuff is too much like real life!

(NB: I would very much love a way to move a slot or two without a full respec!)

And I make liberal use of the unslotting salvage items. But for me, respeccing is admitting I chose... poorly.

 

So, yeah, concept is king. I pick powers by feel. Yeah, this feels right for this character. That said, I can't resist a beautiful shiny like the Panacea, Performance Shifter, or Numina specials. Specials are queen?

 

So, I guess I blunder along, making choices as I go, informed by experience and the advice of others, but not limited by it.

Just like real life, I guess. (Inconsistent/Hypocrite badge for the Doc, woot!)