Luck of the Gambler

[JJDrakken]

On 2/17/2025 at 1:59 AM, desarix said:

I see so many builds with 5 Luck of the Gambler for the recharge. This makes it 37.5% recharge which seems essential. Everyone plays like this I guess but it depresses me to see every build I check having this as a standard. No point in this thread except to see  if you all play like this too or this is your ideal build.

 

You can be "sad" over it.  But end of the day the 3 R's still holds true for the game

 

+RECHARGE, +RECOVERY, -REGENERATION.   First two are obvious, with third for higher end of the game.

 

Every game, no matter it's type.  Usually has a set core rules that once you figure out and understand concepts, math, etc... Will become the norm for best bang for your buck builds, mechanics, etc...

 

Does that mean YOU have to follow it no.  But many folks want an optimal play.

Edited Tuesday at 06:52 PM by JJDrakken

[Maelwys]

36 minutes ago, JJDrakken said:

+RECHARGE, +RECOVERY, -REGENERATION.   

 

-Resistance ? 😉

[JJDrakken]

45 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

 

-Resistance ? 😉

 

Is nice, but everyone can over come that with just consistent DPS.   

 

Without other 3 I mentioned, you can't keep up that up.  If you got no blue bar, your standing around picking your nose. If your recharge is 0 to negative, your standing around picking your nose(waiting for stuff).  

 

Without the -Regen for AVs, GMs, Heros, etc... It's going be a very uphill battle that could very well hit that wall.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, JJDrakken said:

Without the -Regen for AVs, GMs, Heros, etc... It's going be a very uphill battle that could very well hit that wall.

Ehh. versus Giant Monters maybe.
I'd much rather have -res versus AVs/Heros/EBs.
(30677.2*0.05)/(15) = 102.2573333 HP/Second regeneration for a level 54 AV.
102 DPS is pretty trivial to outpace these days; and any -Regen debuff would be working against both AV inherent debuff resistances and the Purple Patch.

Versus Giant Monsters/Monsters?
(70679.18*0.05)/(10) = 353.3959 HP/Second for a "regular" level 50 one and more of the -Regen debuff is likely going to land on them due to the level scaling.

[UltraAlt]

On 2/17/2025 at 2:59 AM, desarix said:

Everyone plays like this I guess

 

Not me.

I rarely use hasten or luck of the gambler.

 

On 2/17/2025 at 2:59 AM, desarix said:

I see so many builds with 5 Luck of the Gambler for the recharge.

 

I have never used Mids.

I don't use other people's builds.

 

I'm a character conception player. My builds happen organically through leveling while trying to be true to the character conception. I rarely /respec (I think I have /respec under 5 times since  Homecoming. I can't immediately remember doing it more than twice since being on Homecoming servers.

 

 

[Stormwalker]

54 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I'm a character conception player. My builds happen organically through leveling while trying to be true to the character conception. I rarely /respec (I think I have /respec under 5 times since  Homecoming. I can't immediately remember doing it more than twice since being on Homecoming servers.

 

 

I play and build to concept, too, but I use Mids', frequently (but not always) take Hasten, and often use LotG's.

 

For me, building to concept means that the powers I take have to fit within the character concept.  Usually I still have to pick between several powers which reflect things that fall within the scope of the character's abilities, and if one option isn't clearly more suited to the character than the others, I'm more likely to choose the "optimal" one - I refer to this as "optimization within concept".  In many cases, there are a number of powers a character "ought to have" and I couldn't cram into their build because other powers they also "ought to have" were better choices.  Very few times do I get to the end of a build and not have to make tough decisions on "which one of these powers am I going to take?"

 

As for enhancements, in my personal headcanon, enhancements aren't a thing.  That's purely a game mechanic, and generally its effects are things that I chalk up to "my character has spent time training and become stronger/faster/tougher/more mentally resilient because of it".  Only rarely is an enhancement's effect so overt that it causes concept problems (one example that does is that I currently have two Lockdown Chance for +2 Mag Hold procs slotted in my Ice/Ice blaster's freeze attacks and I'm going to have to remove them because the obvious electrical effect of the proc doesn't mesh with her concept.  So pretty soon I'll be replacing those with something else).

 

To be clear, I'm not saying you or anyone else should to do it this way - you should absolutely play the way you want to play, not the way anyone else wants you to play - I'm just observing that building to concept and some degree of optimization are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  Though, obviously, building to concept rarely allows for full optimization (for example, many Scrappers can improve their DPS by taking a Snipe from an epic pool, and I almost never do this because it rarely suits the character concept I have).

 

Probably the one character I have whose build is closest to fully optimal is Kitten America, my Claws/SR/Energy catgirl scrapper.  But that's because pretty much all of the optimal powers (Fighting, Leaping, Speed, Concealment) she could take are all very easy fits for her concept.

 

Basically, I want my characters to be as capable as I can make them while remaining true to their concepts.

[shortguy on indom]

6 hours ago, JJDrakken said:

Without the -Regen for AVs, GMs, Heros, etc... It's going be a very uphill battle that could very well hit that wall.

• I.E. REICHSMAN.

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

I play and build to concept, too, but I use Mids', frequently (but not always) take Hasten, and often use LotG's.

 

For me, building to concept means that the powers I take have to fit within the character concept.  Usually I still have to pick between several powers which reflect things that fall within the scope of the character's abilities, and if one option isn't clearly more suited to the character than the others, I'm more likely to choose the "optimal" one - I refer to this as "optimization within concept".  In many cases, there are a number of powers a character "ought to have" and I couldn't cram into their build because other powers they also "ought to have" were better choices.  Very few times do I get to the end of a build and not have to make tough decisions on "which one of these powers am I going to take?"

 

Are you talking about picking power sets to fit the character conception or picking individual powers to fit the character conception?

 

I'm talking about not only picking primary and secondary power sets that match the character conception but also the power picks including START, power pools, and epics.

 

Do you run the leveling content or PL/doorsit to 50?

 

8 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

As for enhancements, in my personal headcanon, enhancements aren't a thing.

 

😕 ... but ... oh, never mind....

 

8 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

Only rarely is an enhancement's effect so overt that it causes concept problems (one example that does is that I currently have two Lockdown Chance for +2 Mag Hold procs slotted in my Ice/Ice blaster's freeze attacks and I'm going to have to remove them because the obvious electrical effect of the proc doesn't mesh with her concept

 

👍

 

8 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

To be clear, I'm not saying you or anyone else should to do it this way - you should absolutely play the way you want to play, not the way anyone else wants you to play - I'm just observing that building to concept and some degree of optimization are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

 

mini-maxing is min-maxing.

Using a cookie-cutter is limiting how far you take character conception.

I agree that you should play the game the way that you enjoy playing it.

 

Obviously, by hardly ever /respec-ing a good number of my characters are what others would say were suboptimal. Even from my own perspective, some of them have some slotting issues that gimp them a bit, but, to me, that just makes it challenge to play them when I, hopefully, get around to paying them again. 

[I really enjoy crafting characters.]

 

8 hours ago, Stormwalker said:

Basically, I want my characters to be as capable as I can make them while remaining true to their concepts.

 

It sounds like you have found your happiness in it.

Have fun.

 

Hopefully, we are all here to have fun.

I know I am. I love this game.

[Stormwalker]

3 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Are you talking about picking power sets to fit the character conception or picking individual powers to fit the character conception?

 

I'm talking about not only picking primary and secondary power sets that match the character conception but also the power picks including START, power pools, and epics.

 

Do you run the leveling content or PL/doorsit to 50?

 

 

Every individual power taken has to fit the concept (with the minor caveat that if a power that doesn't suit the concept is required in order to access another power that does suit the concept, I can take that power as long as I don't actually use that power.  This mostly applies to opening up power pools).  That said, fitting the concept is generally for me a matter of, "Is this effect of this power something this character could do/within the scope of their abilities?"

 

For example:

Some things, like the Fighting pool, are matters of training.  Anyone who is willing to devote the time to improve their combat abilities and has access to someone willing to teach them can learn those skills.  All my heroes are members of the same supergroup in-character (except for my one vigilante, who would not get along with my heroes).  Several of them are skilled martial artists, and one of them (my Street Justice/Willpower scrapper Nanodrive) is a martial arts instructor who is more than happy to give the others lessons in how to dodge, how to roll with a fall, etc.  Therefore, the only ones of my characters who I would consider restricted from taking the Fighting pool are the ones who either 1. don't have time for the lessons (my Rad 'fender is a cosmic type, she's away from Earth a lot, so she hasn't had that training) or 2. who don't feel they need them.

 

This also goes for Leadership - it's a matter of learning it - but that learning is not nearly so ubiquitous.  Unlike Fighting (which is a skill pretty much every hero is likely to see a use for), Leadership is something that only a few pursue.  My blaster Ember Soulfire has it because she's the leader of the supergroup.  Another blaster, Skylancer, has it because she's one of the group's captains.  A few of my other characters who are in notable leadership positions or who have spent time mentoring others take it.  Most of mine don't.

 

A third pool which theoretically anyone could learn, but very few of my characters do, is Concealment.  In theory, anyone can learn to be sneaky, given enough training and practice.  But most of my heroes are straightforward types who "prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around".  Thus, the only characters I've taken Concealment on so far are Kitten America (she's a catgirl, and cats are ambush predators) and Bladewhisper (who has been trained as a ninja).  Note that if Stalkers had been available on hero side back when I created Bladewhisper on Live, she might have been one... but they weren't.

 

Sometimes justifying taking a power involves re-fluffing it a bit because the name and description of the power doesn't suit the concept, but the effect of the power is something they can perfectly well do within their concept.

  

As an example of this:

My flying blaster Skylancer has Combat Jumping.  She took this power for Immobilize protection, and the justification for her having it has nothing to do with "Combat Jumping" and everything to do with her being difficult to Immobilize because she is capable of generating immense amounts of thrust (part of her concept is that she's capable of hypersonic flight) and is thus her movement is very difficult to restrain (this is the same reason she slots the Hypersonic Fly Protect IO - having protection vs. -Fly is in keeping with her concept).  As a note, my headcanon justification for the Fly speed cap in her case (and others of my heroes who ought to be faster than 102mph) is that there's a flight speed limit in the city zones of ~100mph.  This actually comes up as a minor plot point in the story I'm writing about her (because she exceeds it by a lot, and her supergroup leader is not very happy with her about it until she finds out the circumstances).

 

As another example of "refluffing" a power - or in this case, a power set, my Kinetic Melee/Willpower scrapper Impulse Drive - her defenses are not "Willpower" at all.  In fact, Energy Aura would be much closer to what her powers actually do as I envision them (though still not quite right).  But at the time that I originally created her on Live, Energy Aura was not available to Scrappers (and, in fact, I didn't know about the set at all back then).  So I decided that the Willpower set with its layered mitigation did a reasonable job of describing the kinds of defensive effects that her powers allow her.  Or at least, it was the closest option available to her at the time.   So I went with it.  When I remade her on HC, I stuck with the original powersets because I'd grown comfortable with using them to reflect her powers as they exist in my vision of the character.

 

Sometimes even a power that I can look at and say, "Ok, this character definitely could do that, but would they?" becomes an issue.  In my original build for my DB/Energy scrapper Seladri (who is Technology origin - she's an alien whose powers all come from advanced alien technology), I had planned for her to take Laser Beam Eyes.  There were a number of reasons for wanting to take it from a mechanics perspective, and... she's a Technology origin.  There were any number of ways I could have justified it.  But most of them would have required modifying her costume to give her some kind of eyewear to generate the blast, and I didn't want to do that - it's not her style.  At the same time, she's just not someone who would have cybereyes.  Or any cyberware at all.  Utlimately, I ended up removing the power from her build plan (just yesterday, in fact), not because she couldn't have it, but because she wouldn't have it... if that makes sense?

 

3 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Are you talking about picking power sets to fit the character conception or picking individual powers to fit the character conception?

 

I'm talking about not only picking primary and secondary power sets that match the character conception but also the power picks including START, power pools, and epics.

 

Do you run the leveling content or PL/doorsit to 50?

 

 

I powerleveled one character to 22 , only because I wanted to see how the Sentinel AT played before I actually committed to playing one (I didn't know about Brainstorm back then).  Powerleveling was boring as hell.  I hated it.  I'd never done it before, and I've never done it since, and I'm pretty sure I'll never do it again.  The game doesn't start at 50.  Heck, some of my characters I'm very tempted to turn off experience on because they're already as strong as their concepts really justify - if I want them to get any stronger, I will have to come up with justifications for where they are finding additional power.  This notably applies to a couple of my Natural heroes.

 

Usually I level by running story arcs., mostly solo but occasionally duo with a friend of mine, and sometimes I join a team for a TF.  

 

One of my redsiders levels only by newspaper missions, because she doesn't want to be a criminal (she's a fugitive, because she killed several people (they were Malta agents, though she didn't know that - she only knew they'd been doing terrible experiments on her and were trying to kill her after she woke up in the middle of one of those experiments and her powers activated for the first time.  She just wanted to escape and they wouldn't let her).  She'd really rather be a hero.  So I just look for newspaper missions that have objectives I can justify her doing for some other reasons than the stated ones.  Doing any of the villain story arcs would be wildly out of character for her.  She does do the mayhem missions, but usually only the bank robbery itself - girl's got to eat somehow, and her powers give her an unfortunately large appetite, so that's expensive.  But she's just trying to scrape by.

 

46 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

😕 ... but ... oh, never mind....

 

 

 

It's... the enhancement system really doesn't reflect my concept of how characters develop their powers.  My characters develop their powers by practice and by natural growth.  They aren't doing experiments on themselves, or installing cyberware, or inventing things (well, a couple of my technology heroes invent things, for certain, but the things they invent are not the things described by enhancements.

 

As far as I'm concerned, enhancements are a game mechanic and nothing more.  When my characters get better at using their powers, it's because they spent time practicing and training and sometimes just being a hero and using their powers and learning to use them more effectively.  Skylancer had the powers that would allow her to do everything she does at level 50 from the moment she was first empowered, before she was even registered as a hero.  But what she didn't have was the precise control to actually do all those things with her powers.  Learning to fly took time, and long hours of practice.  Learning to hover took even longer, because it requires very precise modulation of her energy outputs.  Now it's second nature to her... but only because she kept practicing it until it was.  That's how power growth and "enhancement" works to me.  It's very disconnected from the in-game systems.

 

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Obviously, by hardly ever /respec-ing a good number of my characters are what others would say were suboptimal. Even from my own perspective, some of them have some slotting issues that gimp them a bit, but, to me, that just makes it challenge to play them when I, hopefully, get around to paying them again. 

[I really enjoy crafting characters.]

 

 

It sounds like you have found your happiness in it.

Have fun.

 

Hopefully, we are all here to have fun.

I know I am. I love this game.

 

What I really enjoy is taking the character ideas in my head and bringing them to life in the game, and playing them and letting them tell their stories in my head as I do.

 

That's not to say I don't also enjoy the game itself, and I do want my characters to be effective.  But they have to come by their effectiveness in a way that is true to who they are.  Since the game mechanics and available power selection limit what I can do in ways that make it difficult to precisely match my vision of a character, this means sometimes I have to ignore what the flavor text says and do what "feels" right.  But it has to feel right.  If it doesn't, I'm not being true to the character.

 

And this game gives me the best platform for envisioning those characters and bringing them to life that I've ever had.

 

And yes, I'm having lots of fun, and it sounds like you are, too, and that's the most important thing of all.

[biostem]

On builds where the extra recharge really helps, I'll slot a few of the LotG uniques, but I rarely go out of my way to get the 5 +def powers to maximize the benefit.  I do have 1 dominator w/ perma-dom, and, frankly, I find it a chore to maintain, but to each their own.  That being said, I sure would like it, (since the bonuses don't stack beyond 5), if we had some other alternatives to get that particular +global recharge bonus, besides looking to +def powers...

[biostem]

1 minute ago, Stormwalker said:

It's... the enhancement system really doesn't reflect my concept of how characters develop their powers.

IIRC, the natural SOs are all about training.  The word "enhancement" is just a naming convention - it's not like your character is actively utilizing a dozen cybernetic eyes simultaneously or anything...

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, Stormwalker said:

sometimes I have to ignore what the flavor text says and do what "feels" right.  But it has to feel right.  If it doesn't, I'm not being true to the character.

This is kind of a "Rule Zero" when it comes to creating your own characters.  The inverse of this, which you touched upon, is that no game, (at least none created by someone else), can really capture or account for everything you want to see realized, so you are going to have to make some concessions - whether you are willing or able to accept that is, once again, up to you...

[Stormwalker]

1 minute ago, biostem said:

IIRC, the natural SOs are all about training.  The word "enhancement" is just a naming convention - it's not like your character is actively utilizing a dozen cybernetic eyes simultaneously or anything...

 

That's kind of my point.  I just view enhancements as a game mechanic that loosely approximates the effects of a character's growth in power and skill but doesn't really describe the method behind that growth at all in most cases.  Natural SO's are kinda the one exception to that rule.

 

[kelika2]

On 2/17/2025 at 2:59 AM, desarix said:

I see so many builds with 5 Luck of the Gambler for the recharge. This makes it 37.5% recharge which seems essential. Everyone plays like this I guess but it depresses me to see every build I check having this as a standard. No point in this thread except to see  if you all play like this too or this is your ideal build.

a lot of people do not like thinking for themselves, this is why most MMOs only have a few options for talents and such these days.  same for gacha games, same for single player games.  so they google a guide or something and follow it word for word.

City of Heroes is pretty complicated.  and the people who can tolerate clicking a few hundred times in mids tend to do stupid shit like frontload their builds with pool powers and play only at level 50 and post it for others.

 

anecdote time: i lost my fucking mind when i realized i can get all my firefarmers to like 44% fire defense using cheap sets without the need for winter enhancements.  i saved and "refunded" so much money rebuilding my 9 or so firefarmers because i found the fabled third braincell.  and switching to Agility(rech/def/endmod) alpha instead of Musc alpha

 

Do I have permahasten characters?  yeah but not as much these days.  I been getting more and more comfortable without it and realizing I have too many attacks at some point with a lot of characters lessening the need for permahasten, or even 5 lotgs.  like for my melee what little room i have 40+ for mule powers tend to favor the resist globals

And there is some psychology behind it.  back then everyone did have perma hasten before the ED, and when they took it away and placed inventions and a way to get it back most people flocked to that.  shutdown happened.  12 year gap.  homecoming happened.  they defaulted back to permahasten only builds.  i did it as well for like the first 2 years or so.  then said people only take like 3 powerhouse attacks that you can only get at level 25+ and complain about low level task forces being boring.

 

im not saying everyone should think outside the box because i like having cheap touch of fear/kinetic combat and cheap thunderstrike/artillery/makos for my growing growing up alts

[Seed22]

I end up with 2 or 3 these days usually. Used to chase 5 when I made perma hasten builds way back even before shutdown. 
 

But now I proc bomb more, so thatll mean a good deal less slots for LoTG mules. 
 

People who are good at the game optimize the hell out of it, so builds can look very similar even if they don’t even look at each other. This game is very solved, with people trying to reinvent the wheel sometimes and making abominations in the process.

 

As far as CoH being complicated? Not really. It looks like it on the surface to new players but its very simple as a game. Especially compared to modern games. 

[mistagoat]

I always aim for 5 but only if it fits and doesn't cost me utility. That recharge bonus is always beneficial (especially when leveling) and something I keep in mind when building but it's not so valuable that I'll sacrifice something useful to get it. I don't think that I have any toons with zero 7.5s, probably a couple with only 1 but most have 2-5.

 

Doms are a different story because huge benefits are realized when perma-dom is achieved.  I (personally) don't feel a Dom is worth playing without perma-dom so in that case I might sacrifice some utility in order to stack enough recharge to achieve perma-dom.

 

I guess it all comes down to what your build goals are, there is no universally correct way to do it.

[tidge]

8 hours ago, kelika2 said:

Do I have permahasten characters?  yeah but not as much these days.  I been getting more and more comfortable without it and realizing I have too many attacks at some point with a lot of characters lessening the need for permahasten, or even 5 lotgs.  like for my melee what little room i have 40+ for mule powers tend to favor the resist globals

And there is some psychology behind it.  back then everyone did have perma hasten before the ED, and when they took it away and placed inventions and a way to get it back most people flocked to that.  shutdown happened.  12 year gap.  homecoming happened.  they defaulted back to permahasten only builds.  i did it as well for like the first 2 years or so.  then said people only take like 3 powerhouse attacks that you can only get at level 25+ and complain about low level task forces being boring.

 

Years ago (in the HC era) I came to view Hasten (and the inevitable pursuit of perma-Hasten) as a character design trap. I know not everyone sees it this way, but initially (on HC), I saw that it was possible (yay easy to acquire enhancement set pieces!) and straightforward... I remembered the long recharge times of some attacks (and other powers) on Live, so: Why wouldn't everybody go for perma-Hasten? Here are some things that contributed to me changing my mind, such that I now very rarely ever take Hasten.

 

I find the Speed pool to be underwhelming. Super Speed is my second-to-least favorite travel power. I don't need/want anything else the set offers... so taking Hasten was minimally burning one of four pool choices and possibly forcing me into a travel power that I can make work but don't like.

 

I can get respectable global recharge from slotting set enhancements (including the LotG pieces) that are easy to acquire and make the powers they are slotted in better (i.e. Purple Very Rares) I have taken (accurate!) criticism that I "chase Global Recharge, why not just take Hasten", but then the criticism is followed with "How to get perma-Hasten"... so irony-poisoning sets it.

 

I often have another power that I want on auto (more than Hasten). I know how to juggle auto powers, but I find it to be clumsy.

 

I don't like relying on a proc for "perma" anything; sorry Force Feedback %+Recharge. I certainly can build for perma-Hasten without it, but with some of the positive press this piece gets, you might come to believe it single-handedly is granting auto-wins on all content. This is a precious slot that could almost certainly be better used (in whatever power it is placed in, or elsewhere)

 

Finally, I'll be somewhat judgemental. I think it is crazy to take Hasten at level 4, and it is probably a bad idea to take it before level 18. I recognize that there are some ATs with primary/secondaries that might have four powers from both the T1 and T2 choices where only two are needed... but the way I see it, taking Hasten as the third power pick pretty much tells me that they player is not really focused on low (for arbitrary values of "low") level content, and might be the kind of player teammates will be waiting for as they magic carpet around the zone. Who knows what other oddball compromises will be in that build? This is not a criticism of builds that explicitly are only going to play level 45+ content... but I can't recall ever seeing a build with Hasten at level 4 that was advertised as such.

[Stormwalker]

18 minutes ago, mistagoat said:

I always aim for 5 but only if it fits and doesn't cost me utility. That recharge bonus is always beneficial (especially when leveling) and something I keep in mind when building but it's not so valuable that I'll sacrifice something useful to get it. I don't think that I have any toons with zero 7.5s, probably a couple with only 1 but most have 2-5.

 

Doms are a different story because huge benefits are realized when perma-dom is achieved.  I (personally) don't feel a Dom is worth playing without perma-dom so in that case I might sacrifice some utility in order to stack enough recharge to achieve perma-dom.

 

I guess it all comes down to what your build goals are, there is no universally correct way to do it.

 

For me, it's generally a question of "How much recharge do I need for the attack chain that I want to use?"  Which isn't always a question of optimization - sometimes it's also a question of "What attack chain feels right?".  Even though BF -> AS -> SS -> AS is widely considered the best Dual Blades attack chain, I don't like to use it.  It feels clunky to me.  This is one of the reasons I'm experimenting with a build that has absurd recharge on my DB/SR (to try out BF -> SS -> AS), while my DB/WP is settling for BF -> Attack Vitals. 

 

Getting the attack chain I want may or may not require 5 LotG's, depending on how much recharge I need, and on what is in the rest of the build.

 

Unless I'm playing a regenner, that is... and then I want as much recharge as i can reasonably achieve because of those all-important click powers.  Though a regenner can't live on regen alone, so I can't skimp on mitigation in the name of recharge, either.  There's a balance to be struck.  Of course, adding defense powers makes for convenient places to drop in LotG, so it tends to work out. 

 

There's a reason that, of all my Regen concepts, the one who has turned out to be most capable is a ninja (well, it would be more correct to say that she is a hero who has been trained in ninja arts from childhood - her backstory is very complicated). Her concept lends itself easily to a high defense, high-recharge build.   Hasten, Combat Jumping, Weave, Stealth, and Shadow Meld are all very easy powers to justify for her, especially when she also has Super Speed as part of her mutant powers, plus Katana provides Divine Avalanche.  (Why is she a Scrapper and not a Stalker?  When I first created her back on Live, Stalkers couldn't BE heroes). 

 

Similarly, my other fairly successful regenner is a Dark Melee/Regen Brute who is a Magic origin and whose combat body is a magical construct created by the artifact that is the source of her powers (her actual body is dimensionally elsewhere while the combat body is manifest), granting her a wide array of mitigation powers, including Rune of Protection. 

 

Most of my other Regen concepts have fallen by the wayside due to not being survivable enough to enjoy playing them (or in one case I just reimagined some of the details of her power mechanics and rerolled her as Willpower), because their concepts don't allow them to take the powers Regen needs to be really effective.  Of course, I don't delete those characters - I never delete a character unless I'm rerolling them - I just don't play them as often.  I have too many alts to play them all a lot, anyway.  I play my favorites a lot, and play the others occasionally.

 

 

[Naraka]

Complaining about LotG is like complaining about soft-capped defense.  It's all old news. Players gonna min/max, even if it makes the game play the same.

 

No point in fixating on what others do. Imposing challenges or limitations on yourself is another option over just aiming to max out the notoriety of the missions.

[Stormwalker]

40 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

 

Years ago (in the HC era) I came to view Hasten (and the inevitable pursuit of perma-Hasten) as a character design trap. I know not everyone sees it this way, but initially (on HC), I saw that it was possible (yay easy to acquire enhancement set pieces!) and straightforward... I remembered the long recharge times of some attacks (and other powers) on Live, so: Why wouldn't everybody go for perma-Hasten? Here are some things that contributed to me changing my mind, such that I now very rarely ever take Hasten.

 

I find the Speed pool to be underwhelming. Super Speed is my second-to-least favorite travel power. I don't need/want anything else the set offers... so taking Hasten was minimally burning one of four pool choices and possibly forcing me into a travel power that I can make work but don't like.

 

I can get respectable global recharge from slotting set enhancements (including the LotG pieces) that are easy to acquire and make the powers they are slotted in better (i.e. Purple Very Rares) I have taken (accurate!) criticism that I "chase Global Recharge, why not just take Hasten", but then the criticism is followed with "How to get perma-Hasten"... so irony-poisoning sets it.

 

I often have another power that I want on auto (more than Hasten). I know how to juggle auto powers, but I find it to be clumsy.

 

I don't like relying on a proc for "perma" anything; sorry Force Feedback %+Recharge. I certainly can build for perma-Hasten without it, but with some of the positive press this piece gets, you might come to believe it single-handedly is granting auto-wins on all content. This is a precious slot that could almost certainly be better used (in whatever power it is placed in, or elsewhere)

 

Finally, I'll be somewhat judgemental. I think it is crazy to take Hasten at level 4, and it is probably a bad idea to take it before level 18. I recognize that there are some ATs with primary/secondaries that might have four powers from both the T1 and T2 choices where only two are needed... but the way I see it, taking Hasten as the third power pick pretty much tells me that they player is not really focused on low (for arbitrary values of "low") level content, and might be the kind of player teammates will be waiting for as they magic carpet around the zone. Who knows what other oddball compromises will be in that build? This is not a criticism of builds that explicitly are only going to play level 45+ content... but I can't recall ever seeing a build with Hasten at level 4 that was advertised as such.

 

Thoughts on this:

 

1. I often (but not always) take Hasten.  Even on characters were I can easily justify them having it, I don't always take it (see: Skylancer.  It was in her original build, but I removed it, because she didn't need it (and also because there were other powers that were more important to her conceptually).  First because she has more attack powers selected than she actually needs, and Second because she's an Energy blaster and there are plenty of places she can slot Force Feedback %rech (she has four of them slotted, most of them in her AoE's - only one of them is in her single-target attack chain, in Power Burst), and while those won't always proc, they often do, and if they don't, it just means her AoE's take a little longer to come back up.  Her single target powers cycle pretty quickly already, and even when she had Hasten she couldn't just cycle her AoE's, she was always filling single-target attacks in between them.
2. Speaking of Force Feedback %rech: how useful it is really depends on what you are and what you are doing.  It's not useful at all for keeping a melee attack chain running.  That demands reliable recharge.  What it's really good for is bringing your long-recharge powers (see: Blaster nukes and Regen heals) back up sooner (it's going to proc at some point during that long recharge!).   Being able to Nova more often on an Energy Blaster (which is otherwise kind of AoE-deficient) is really helpful.
3. Re: auto powers.  On Kitten America and Aerofencer (both very-high-recharge Super Reflexes scrappers, characters whose concepts revolve around superhuman quickness and agility), I run Hasten manually and put Practiced Brawler on auto.  I won't forget to hit Hasten for more than a couple of seconds, because the fact that I suddenly have a gap in my attack chain will remind me.  Having my attack chain suddenly feel clunky is not something I'm likely to miss, because it drives me nuts.
4. On getting recharge from set bonuses: Yes, I usually get quite a bit of mine this way.  This is another reason Skylancer doesn't need Hasten.  That said, I frequently find a conflict between slotting purples for damage and recharge vs. slotting Winter sets for slow resistance.  Especially with the recharge bonus in purple sets too often being at 5 pieces.  I hate slows with a fiery passion, so I usually lean toward more slow resist.
5. I've definitely never taken Hasten at level 4.  I have taken Hasten below level 10 before (on rare occasions), but usually (when I take it at all) I take it somewhere in the mid-high teens or low 20's.  Hasten is something that makes your existing powers better (by making them available more often).  If you don't have enough existing powers, Hasten really isn't doing you that much good.

Edited Wednesday at 07:56 PM by Stormwalker

[Heatstroke]

This made me do a count of all my characters and LoTG's Global recharge IOs in builds

 

0-2

1-4

2-6

3-14

4-8

5-19

 

So basically its like Franks Red Hot.. I put that #&#%@ on everything LOL 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:41 PM by Heatstroke

[Championess]

Every defense power I get I slot a lotg in unless if its a defense based armor set then I get judicious where I slot the 5. 

 

Its the cheapest bang for your buck addition to your bonuses.  Usually I end up with 4-5 defense powers from pools alone so yeah typically I'd slot 4-5 and look to get kb resists if the character needs it.

[Display Name]

Fun fact!

 

If you're purchasing on the Auction House, check the enhancement price before you start bidding on the recipe price.  Many, many times I've ended up purchasing the enhancement because it was significantly cheaper than the recipe.  But if you're purchasing with merits, ignore this post.

[Herotu]

On 2/17/2025 at 7:59 AM, desarix said:

I see so many builds with 5 Luck of the Gambler for the recharge. This makes it 37.5% recharge which seems essential. Everyone plays like this I guess but it depresses me to see every build I check having this as a standard. No point in this thread except to see  if you all play like this too or this is your ideal build.

I like the idea of variety or having the option for specialisation, so it'll come as no surprise that I think it would be nice to have incentive to vary things up but ... that's something only the devs can decide. 

[Biff Pow]

The thing about Recharge is it's diminishing returns. The first 100% (usually just from enhancements) is great, the recharge time is halved. If you add another 100% you're down to one third, and over that you're just shaving off seconds. Now, those seconds might be important to you and that's fine, but sometimes you might be missing out on better build choices.

 

Like, my Energy Blaster can Nova every sixty seconds. I could take Hasten and slot LotGs and get that down to maybe 45 seconds, but I really like my build and also a Nova every minute is pretty great already.