How confident are you that your build is properly slotted?

[sbloyd]

17 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I stop my characters at level 19.  Builds are very tight at 19, so I fuss with them a lot.

 

For tankers I play rad mostly, it is well rounded and sturdy at that level (WP also works).  As I was fiddling with a rad/claws I discovered that I only needed 1 EM slot in Stamina.  I had been 3 slotting stamina because I just got used to doing that.

 

So now I can go back and redo my other rad tankers to get 2 slots out of Stamina.

 

So how confident are you that you have the right amount of END, recharge, ACC, etc. slotted in your powers?  Or do you just go with the idea that more is better and you have slots to burn?

 

I'm 100% confident that my Warshade is not.  I just find respeccing a PITA.

[Cyrickain13]

17 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I stop my characters at level 19.  Builds are very tight at 19, so I fuss with them a lot.

 

For tankers I play rad mostly, it is well rounded and sturdy at that level (WP also works).  As I was fiddling with a rad/claws I discovered that I only needed 1 EM slot in Stamina.  I had been 3 slotting stamina because I just got used to doing that.

 

So now I can go back and redo my other rad tankers to get 2 slots out of Stamina.

 

So how confident are you that you have the right amount of END, recharge, ACC, etc. slotted in your powers?  Or do you just go with the idea that more is better and you have slots to burn?

 

 

MIDS - I use Mids unless I am using non-set IO's cause if I use non-set IO's do I even truly care about that character. 

 

My main fire farmer is slotted very well and has no issues. 

 

Most of my mains 50's have MIDS for slotting as well. 

 

I just recently figured out that I did not have to have Set Inventions on every character that reached 50. I can just use regular IO's which are super easy to slot and use. 

 

Most attack powers - DMG X3 - Range X1 - Accuracy X1 - recharge X1

 

Most travel powers I add the +stealth to. 

 

Hasten is usually a 3 slotter. 

 

I am pretty sure I am doing it correctly. 

[Oubliette_Red]

I am 100% confident that characters are properly slotted, because the game won't allow me to slot a Slow in Run or Exploit Weakness in Healing Aura. Other than that, all bets are off.

 

[tidge]

I want to believe that my 'level 50' build will be nearly optimal... For me... But I still experiment with taking out certain pieces via unslotters to see if something is making a noticeable difference.

 

I will also run with toggles off to check how important those powers are. There are a handful of powers that have very vocal proponents, but via my own experimentation have found to have value only in corner cases. e.g. Hasten is a power that I'll include only for reasons specific to a particular build rather than plan to include it on EVERY build.

 

I make an effort to experiment with powers as I level characters. Sometimes this affects my plans for slotting, sometimes it affects my choice of when/if I take a power.

[Andreah]

IMO, a build's slotting can only be optimal in the context of the purpose for which it's intended. Do you have different slottings for different purposes?

[Duckbutler]

I'm not really doing endgame builds yet, just leveling alts and tinkering. I've laid out some general rules for myself that come down to "Accuracy, endurance, then damage, then everything else." First you want to make the character reliable. That means slotting accuracy first, then endurance so you can keep going. Then worry about making the attacks strong. So the first three slots on attack powers are accuracy, then endurance, then damage. By the time I have enough free slots I'm looking to add a 4th slot to a power, I'm probably wading deep into purple enemies, my DFB ToHit buff has worn off, and I need accuracy again.

 

Defensive powers tend not to have as many variables so they tend not to benefit from additional slots as much. Also, when looking at reducing endurance costs, consider not just the cost per cast of some abilities, look also at the amount you're using that power on a per-minute basis. Somewhere on these forums there's a thread that compares various ways to improve endurance recovery and translates everything into a per-minute gain. Regardless, any two attack powers used on cooldown likely cost more endurance than your entire load of toggles over that same minute. I did an analysis on my Street Justice, Super Reflexes Scrapper and found that the SR toggles were like 50-ish endurance per minute while Initial Strike, cast on cooldown, was like 69. Now, that particular example, it's a Tier 1 power, it's mostly a filler attack, I'm probably not keeping it on cooldown at all times. I personally didn't even take it! But I think most of the attacks in that set were consuming above 50 endurance per minute.

 

I guess to answer the original question... I'm pretty confident! And what I'm doing seems to really be working for me. 

[Ironblade]

Eh, it comes down to experience.  I've made so many of every AT that I have a pretty good idea how everything should be.

How confident am I that the character is slotted very well?  100% certain.

How confident am I that the slotting is optimal?  Don't know and don't care.

[Water]

One staple I have in slotting is six slotting health and stamina on every toon. End can deplete immediately so I have to mitigate that, apart from that anything goes which will facilitate a more effective toon.

[cranebump]

My toons are probably slotted okay, but I myself could use much better slotting. At level 60, I seem to be having problems with endurance, recharge, health...well, every gd'ed thing.:-)

Edited February 8 by cranebump

[tidge]

7 hours ago, Water said:

One staple I have in slotting is six slotting health and stamina on every toon. End can deplete immediately so I have to mitigate that, apart from that anything goes which will facilitate a more effective toon.

If this is the strategy for EVERY character, I highly encourage doing some analysis.

 

Specific to Endurance, it is entirely like that moving two of those slots to a power to get a +MaxEnd bonus yields better results than a fraction of a percentage point of more Recovery.

 

For Regeneration, if a character has relatively low HP those fractions of improvement of time-between-ticks may not be noticeable.

[SeraphimKensai]

On 2/6/2024 at 9:03 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

My criteria change over time.  I really enjoy pulling out an old 50 and say to myself, "What the hell was I thinking back then?!?"

This right here. My favorite part of the game is building out and slotting my characters, but there's been a number of times I've looked at a character that I've drunkenly respec'd and threw in a bunch of IO's that don't make sense later on towards what my build goals are for a toon, leaving me to scratch my head and having to respec it again.

 

[DougGraves]

1 hour ago, SeraphimKensai said:

This right here. My favorite part of the game is building out and slotting my characters, but there's been a number of times I've looked at a character that I've drunkenly respec'd and threw in a bunch of IO's that don't make sense later on towards what my build goals are for a toon, leaving me to scratch my head and having to respec it again.

 

This is why I would really like a notes section for characters in-game.  A place you could add comments to a character to know what you are doing with it.  Ideally that would be visible in the character select screen.

 

With 50+ characters it is hard to remember which character needs a respec, which one has END problems, etc.

[lemming]

14 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

This is why I would really like a notes section for characters in-game.  A place you could add comments to a character to know what you are doing with it.  Ideally that would be visible in the character select screen.

 

With 50+ characters it is hard to remember which character needs a respec, which one has END problems, etc.

Why I have a spreadsheet...   Though at this point, it should be a DB

[Water]

4 hours ago, tidge said:

If this is the strategy for EVERY character, I highly encourage doing some analysis.

 

Specific to Endurance, it is entirely like that moving two of those slots to a power to get a +MaxEnd bonus yields better results than a fraction of a percentage point of more Recovery.

 

For Regeneration, if a character has relatively low HP those fractions of improvement of time-between-ticks may not be noticeable.

 

Not going to happen, this is a game not a job, I get by very well with it. You play by numbers all you want to. If I played by numbers it would suck all of the creative joy from the game.

[DougGraves]

4 hours ago, lemming said:

Why I have a spreadsheet...   Though at this point, it should be a DB

 

I have a spreadsheet as well.  But that's not nearly as convenient

[MrAxe]

With my main, 100% confident. Over the course of 3 years I tweaked it. OCD tends to take over. Luckily the changes currently in beta only mean that I have to swap out one enhancement. Respecs at 50 are a pain in the arse.

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Water said:

 

Not going to happen, this is a game not a job, I get by very well with it. You play by numbers all you want to. If I played by numbers it would suck all of the creative joy from the game.

 

You don't need to "play with numbers", you literally could use one unslotter to test. I'm not even sure it is "creative joy" to slot every character's Fitness pool the same way, but if that is your yum so be it... but it is almost certainly bad advice for anyone else.

 

My point is: You are almost certainly NOT getting any Quality-of-Life improvements by sinking 10 slots into Health and Stamina. Consider moving a couple of them to Swift, Hurdle or Sprint.

[Luminara]

[Doomguide2005]

Initially it's mostly by experience and feeling.

Starting out the gate in the single digit levels

1. Ensure I am hitting reliably on attacks.  Likely 2 Acc or equivalent accuracy buff.  Still missing then Kismet gets added asap or other To Hit buffs ... plan on early Tactics acquisition.
2. Next up is keeping end usage in check.  See #1 missing is bad for both your blue and green bars (out of end can't do damage, damage/defeat is the ultimate debuff and all that).  Everything gets at least 1 endred.  Still have issues I'll start looking to add Miracle and plan on a diet of recovery buffs (either p2w or empowerment or both buffs) as well as 'do I add a 2nd endred into costly powers'.   Lastly start contemplating adding +recovery and other low hanging IO bonuses (+end or end discount)  to help end usage
3. Going to tend to take attacks preferentially at this point in things.  Defense and Resistance to follow.  I want at least the start of 'attack chain' by late teens/20+.  What mitigation is built into attacks (kb/kd/ku, stuns, defdebuff etc.).  

     I've been known to use frakkenslotting at lower levels to boost multiple aspects.  For example 2 endred/to hit buff IOs in Tactics or a series of dam/rchg IOs in my Nuke or other AoE blast.  Or a series of def/endred IOs in my SR or other armor toggles.  If they are commonly needed aspects then I'm likely to use unslotters when shifting to a final build.  And store for use in another build.

     In the vast majority of cases nothing pre-planned in Mids until later probably post 40 (and often it's the 'final' lvl 50 build regardless of my current level).  Very rarely am I following a pre-planned build from early on or from the start.  I think only once among my HC characters have I had a pre-planned build from very early on and that was for a static 'super team' build where I anticipated massive end usage issues owing to power choices (a Fire/Sonic running Hot Feet, Disruption Field, Sonic Dispersion by 20th (2.08 end/sec prior to endred) then tack on Maneuvers and Tactics as well as attacks by mid 20's (pant pant written all over it)

 

Net effect is high confidence of a highly effective build by late game.  

[Spaghetti Betty]

Not at all! My builds usually get one pass and I just hope it turns out ok. Thankfully, I trust my understanding of the rules enough and I've had a lot of stuff turn out to be very fun!

[Intermipants]

I’ll build it out in Mids and then when I play it and certain powers or slots don’t fit my style I’ll adjust accordingly. I respec all of my characters multiple times and I also use multiple builds for the ones I really enjoy and so by 50 I’m really confident they’re a good fit for me. 

[Water]

7 hours ago, tidge said:

 

You don't need to "play with numbers", you literally could use one unslotter to test. I'm not even sure it is "creative joy" to slot every character's Fitness pool the same way, but if that is your yum so be it... but it is almost certainly bad advice for anyone else.

 

My point is: You are almost certainly NOT getting any Quality-of-Life improvements by sinking 10 slots into Health and Stamina. Consider moving a couple of them to Swift, Hurdle or Sprint.

 

I pore over the IO page in the wiki (here) - I got enough to do, that keeps me afloat - I don't need a test bed - my character is a test bed - when it's slotted right it shows, numbers don't tell real world operability and with each new toon I pore over the IO wiki page again and again - but I don't think I should be telling you how to build your toons because my way work's for me, my way obviously doesn't work for you because you are here arguing the toss of my 20 year proven methodology.

 

TOP TIP - ability take 6 slots, not 10.

 

EDIT:

 

Your point is incorrect. You don't have the information that you think you do. I only expressed my staple slotting so that I can benefit from my chosen set bonuses which far outweigh lesser useful bonuses. My 'game life long' anecdote which has occurred from retail to as recently as yesterday is that even with 2 tanks and 2 brutes on a team I am so well slotted by learned experience that I predominantly am the highest threat on most teams I play on. More so now with the recent boost in popularity.

 

 

Edited February 9 by Water

[Troo]

On 2/6/2024 at 2:18 PM, DougGraves said:

So how confident are you that you have the right amount of END, recharge, ACC, etc. slotted in your powers?  Or do you just go with the idea that more is better and you have slots to burn?

 

 

[Frunobulax]

I have made a lot of characters and I am way past slotting properly, now I just try to find the lines I am comfortable with for any given combo as they actually play out as far as non-damage considerations go, unless I am leaning into a gimmick/concept for the hell of it, and then I build for whatever that is specifically, and slap the basics on around it.

 

 

[nihilii]

99%. I play this game called Mids Hero Designer, then I use this side program called City of Heroes to make sure my builds perform as expected.