Why do we have to have an inspiration tray?

[Octogoat]

Lately I find that inspiration trays are useless. They get filled up with things I don't use or don't need. Why not replace the inspiration tray with an applaud button that grants a random beneficial buff to your teammates? When I was first starting out inspirations were useful but I quickly outgrew them as I got SOs. (I only use SOs because they help me kill Frostfire more quickly). I'm sure more people would team for an applaud button than a chance at random inspirations for selfbuffs.

[lemming]

I'm constantly using them in challenging content, but there are team inspirations if you want to "applaud" I suppose.

[Ukase]

When I'm zipping through content for mission objectives only, I don't need or use them. But - when I'm playing at +4/1 on a level 5, I use them all, and wish I had more. 
As for why my level 5 is playing at +4, it's a stupid idea I got from Yomo. Matthew Habashy's arc is great for it, because you really aren't fighting that many mobs. And when you call in the last mission, it's a nice chunk of XP. 

[Hopeling]

Inspirations are a fundamental game mechanic. Even when you don't need anything else, you can still combine them to make reds for more damage. But if you have no reason to use inspirations at all, that probably just means you can turn up the difficulty instead.

[Snarky]

sell all your insp drops and donate the funds to @Snarky  Where we are making tomorrow better!

[Forager]

Please tell me how you outgrew reds! I keep a lot of the others disabled on some characters to avoid the tray filling with trash, but how did you kick the red habit? 

[JKCarrier]

I'm genuinely glad for you that you don't ever need extra help in your missions. But some of us do.

[Erratic1]

7 hours ago, Octogoat said:

Lately I find that inspiration trays are useless. They get filled up with things I don't use or don't need. Why not replace the inspiration tray with an applaud button that grants a random beneficial buff to your teammates? When I was first starting out inspirations were useful but I quickly outgrew them as I got SOs. (I only use SOs because they help me kill Frostfire more quickly). I'm sure more people would team for an applaud button than a chance at random inspirations for selfbuffs.

 

It is a slow motion game of Tetris. Delete things you do not use or save them up until you get three-of-a-kind and then convert to something useful.

[Logansan]

I trend not to use inspirations much at all, only when they are really needed. Nothing to do with the mechanics of this game but I developed a pet hate from other games about needing to use consumables all the time. With early games it was just an annoyance, but later many games started to give you no real choice but to constancy use consumables and those consumables either required in-game currency or real money. Not to mention requiring microtransactions to buy the space needed to hold them.

 

With COH this was never the case, but I never got out of the habit of not spending consumables where possible.

[WumpusRat]

48 minutes ago, Logansan said:

I trend not to use inspirations much at all, only when they are really needed. Nothing to do with the mechanics of this game but I developed a pet hate from other games about needing to use consumables all the time. With early games it was just an annoyance, but later many games started to give you no real choice but to constancy use consumables and those consumables either required in-game currency or real money. Not to mention requiring microtransactions to buy the space needed to hold them.

 

With COH this was never the case, but I never got out of the habit of not spending consumables where possible.

I'm fairly similar. I rarely use them, and usually too late when I do.

I'll end up face-down looking at my tray of purples and greens and think "Hm, I should have used some of those, I guess. Oh well."

[MoonSheep]

edit: almost certain this is a troll post, a good one @Octogoat 😛

Edited 10 hours ago by MoonSheep

[tidge]

I've long thought the only way Inspirations "break the game" is when a high-level character exemplars down to PUG with low-level content. Obviously set bonuses from slotting helps, but I can run relatively poorly slotted high-level characters through something like a Synapse with relatively little issue. It's pretty easy for just about any AT to "take the alpha" after popping one (or more) Inspirations.

 

The Inspirations are a HUGE help solo, especially when leveling up. There are a handful of bosses/EBs/AVs that come up in story arcs (some low level, like Mr. G) where at at-level character will probably need one (or more) inspirations to finish a fight. The Kheldians get a couple of level 30ish arcs where a Council transformation of the map's final boss can be a dream-wrecker,

[Maelwys]

I "save" most of them for later; and chug the rest.

Typically Column #1 is a Red, a Yellow, an Ultimate and a Wakey.
Column #2 is Purples.
Column #3 is a mixture of Greens and Blues (typically only 1-2 blues).
Column #4 is Breakfrees. Although on a melee toon I only tend to keep one emergency Breakfree; and use this for extra Reds/Oranges.
Column #5 is left empty, so it's where my free-use skittles drop.
I basically have my movement and targeting keys bound to "inspexec_slot 5"; so that as more skittles drop I immediately chug them.

If I'm fighting an GM etc I'll just start manually combining them and/or open the AH or my global email to fill half my tray up with Reds.

[lyra]

you can deactivate inspiration drops via p2w vendor.i do that with small inspis around lvl30.

 

[roleki]

I tailor my inspiration intake to whatever my use case is per-character; visit P2W and disable ones that I know I won't ever use on that character, then add a macro that combines the various ones that I *do* take into whatever I use most often (usually reds).  Goes like this:

 

**Disable Accuracy, Resistance, Endurance, Protection, Resurrect at P2W - leave only health, defense, damage **

/macro_image Inspiration_Damage_Lvl_3 RED insp_combine "Respite" "Enrage"$$insp_combine "Dramatic Improvement" "Focused Rage"$$insp_combine "Resurgence" "Righteous Rage"$$insp_combine "Phenomenal Luck" "Righteous Rage"$$insp_combine "Luck" "Enrage"$$insp_combine "Good Luck" "Focused Rage"

 

 

 

[Billbailey96]

Honestly Inspirations are a very clever mechanic for something I honestly ignore in other MMO's. Consumables are something I usually pass on or just flog as vendor trash. Since inspirations are auto-looted so to speak when you kill an enemy its not a pain to get. Also since you can combine up or to get something else its often easy to get rid of unwanted inspirations  during a mission without having to sell them. Can it be annoying at times? Yes. But its better IMO than other systems out there.

[mistagoat]

My esteemed goat brother I'm afraid I must disagree on this matter. I mostly duo and we keep enemy qty at x8 for most content after about lvl 20ish. When I see that surprise second group get aggroed it's time to pop 2 purps and 2 reds if I have em and kill arrest enough enemies to get the number of remaining enemies below my Brute buddies aggro cap before the purps wear off. Without the insps my only real option is running or taking a brief dirt nap.

Of course I do have to admit to all but ignoring my insp tray when things are going smoothly but boy am I happy to have them when the poop hits the fan!

 

I wouldn't mind an insp that was kinda similar to "incite the crowd" from the SBB. You click it and get a round of applause and a random buff!

 

Edit: yeah I think Octogoat is just bustin stones and I fell for it🤣. I lost the game today!

Edited 8 hours ago by mistagoat

[macskull]

There’s no way this is a serious post, right?

[RCU7115]

Just go to the P2W vendor and turn them off. Problem solved.

[Luminara]

We have an inspiration tray because we're civilized.  We don't eat our inspirations out of a bowl in the ground, like animals.

 

Use proper cutlery, too.

 

And wipe your mouth.

 

Savage.

[Raffzahn]

On 7/20/2025 at 8:25 PM, Octogoat said:

Lately I find that inspiration trays are useless.

 

Well, they are kind of - in fact 95% of the time they are. Just those remaining 5% are where they really make a difference. My main is a tank. Most of the time the job is about standing around and pull fast enough so DD get fresh fodder. Except those few moments when it isn't and healers can't keep up and buffs aren't enough. That's where inspirations come heaven sent.

 

On 7/20/2025 at 8:25 PM, Octogoat said:

They get filled up with things I don't use or don't need.

 

In some way yes, but that's part of their appeal: they are unpredictable!

 

They are exactly what makes CoH that irresistible super-hero-game, made it working quite like in a comic-book.  You're in a fight, it goes south and you'll just survive because of some freakish fitting combination of random Inspirations that dropped the right moment. Like Supe placed the right hit despite being dusted with Kryptonite.

They add spice to a game that's otherwise pretty much predictable. Inspirations are the secret sauce that made CoH work better then all other games.

 

Inspirations are what allowed characters to punch, every now and then, above their class and still survive. Of course that doesn't mean anything if one plays it safe.