(snip)
A week ago Zen was around 600 Diamonds per and today it's below 400.
(snip)
It's hard-capped to range between 50-500 per.
0
redefinitionMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
Are the people who complain about respecs 60 by any chance? On my CW, I've got every useful power for PvE and PvP with three points in it... meaning I could swap between PvP and PvE abilities whenever I want, for free. The only tree that really needs a respec for changing roles is the "Feats" section, which can be respec'd with Astral Diamonds.
Finally, when you click "Respec Powers" you get prompted to redeem a free respec or use a purchased one. So I believe there is a system in place for free respecs when they do significant talent changes.
I notice, most corporations dont understand D&D fans.
In the game of D&D, the whole purpose of the game is character customization. (And world-building.) Unlike MMOs, you can customize in D&D - EXACTLY the way you want it.
"The only limit is your imagination."
The whole point of D&D is character creation. (And world building.) This is a game of imagination where you can get the hero exactly the way you want. It is a story-telling game. In stories, character concepts are fundamental. Other formats simply cant compete, but technology is making it more and more possible.
The last D&D effort by Atari, Daggerndale, pretty much failed in the D&D community because it lacked sufficient character customization and world building.
For D&D fans, the following are must-haves: character customization, lots of options, tweaking, and respecking - both for physical appearance and for statistics.
No F2P game should charge RL money for respecs. Its a crappy model and one of the many things I hate about f2p games. MMOs should be encouraging creativity and not stifling it since the game is changing constantly. I bet a lot of players like me would rather quit than pay money to respec or as an alternative, start all over.
I notice, most corporations dont understand D&D fans.
In the game of D&D, the whole purpose of the game is character customization. (And world-building.) Unlike MMOs, you can customize in D&D - EXACTLY the way you want it.
"The only limit is your imagination."
The whole point of D&D is character creation. (And world building.) This is a game of imagination where you can get the hero exactly the way you want. It is a story-telling game. In stories, character concepts are fundamental. Other formats simply cant compete, but technology is making it more and more possible.
The last D&D effort by Atari, Dragondale, pretty much failed in the D&D community because it lacked sufficient character customization and world building.
For D&D fans, the following are must-haves: character customization, lots of options, tweaking, and respecking - both for physical appearance and for statistics.
If you want MMO fans, do whatever.
But if you want D&D fans, respec is a must.
I'm calling BS. You have to have one slack DM to let you respec your feats, or anything else, for that matter, without some wizard casting a wish spell for you. D&D is about freedom of choice, but also about accountability after you choose. Tell me otherwise after you lose a character you've been playing for months and there ain't no coming back for him/her.
By the way, I plan to use the avatar generator to make the portraits for heroes in the in-person table-top D&D games too. If it has lots of ways to alter the appearance of the hero, Neverwinter will be a vital tool, even for D&D players who dont play MMOs.
I notice, most corporations dont understand D&D fans.
In the game of D&D, the whole purpose of the game is character customization. (And world-building.) Unlike MMOs, you can customize in D&D - EXACTLY the way you want it.
"The only limit is your imagination."
The whole point of D&D is character creation. (And world building.) This is a game of imagination where you can get the hero exactly the way you want. It is a story-telling game. In stories, character concepts are fundamental. Other formats simply cant compete, but technology is making it more and more possible.
The last D&D effort by Atari, Daggerndale, pretty much failed in the D&D community because it lacked sufficient character customization and world building.
For D&D fans, the following are must-haves: character customization, lots of options, tweaking, and respecking - both for physical appearance and for statistics.
If you want MMO fans, do whatever.
But if you want D&D fans, respec is a must.
Horse puckey. Real D&D fans know that respec is an aberration caused by computer games. In PnP, you make a bad choice, you're stuck with it.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
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professorzMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 0Arc User
On Dragon, if you want to respec without actually paying cash you have to buy Zen with Astral Diamonds
600 Zen = 240,000 AD @ 400 AD per.
Right now, getting this much AD wouldn't be that difficult using the AH and selling items you get from Epic. ( Refining 24,000 a day is pointless )
---
I paid $60 for the Founder pack and its goodies. I am not sure if this is why I got a free respec on my first 60 ( A GWF ) And I was happy with that.
I just finished leveling a Control Wizard and I do not have a free respec.
Respecing is a core element of any RPG/MMO. Having to wait 10 Days through refining Astral Diamonds is the MOST ABSURD THING I HAVE EVER SEEN.
Please make noise about this. Loud Noise.
Well, seeing this is neverwinter. a D&D game, i think them giving us the option of 1 respec is more than generous.
This is a MMO, which means there is alot of game to play. not be the best of everything within a month.
You are complaining about converting astral diamonds each day, get use to it. the market is only flooded because of the people with money to spend and like to spend it, coupled with the millions and millions of astral diamonds from both founders packs.
i also love how your not even sure of why you got the free respec. guess you dont look into much stuff before you buy, but here you are. complaining about how much stuff costs.
Maybe play the game for 2 months. farm up some stuff. do some dungeons or pvp, whatever you like.
But to say that paying for a respec is ABSURD is ABSURD in itself.
complain less and do some reserch before thinking this is World of Warcraft.
derp
I'm new to this game company, and to the game, and to the "Universe" in which it's set. I last played D&D around 1991 so my memory of the original and subsequent editions is hazy at best.
It's a free game, I don't mind paying SOMETHING for services, but I'm not sure exactly what a "respec" means. From reading the thread (as much as I could) it seems that the "powers" have a real money cost -- so if you want to take your str/dex/cha etc. points an reallocate them, that costs money. That seems reasonable, although $6 seems a bit high since I'm not really sure what actual difference it makes to my characters abilities but since I read that (in the case of my only toon, a Rogue) that dex is primary and cha/str are secondary, I've spent my points in dex/str/cha as I leveled and probably wouldn't notice a huge difference if I tinkered much, so... meh. Don't really care.
If the cost is to change points that I put into clicky abilities, I have a problem with this in a HUGE way, and here's why.
I'm new to the game! How on earth am I supposed to know what ACTIVE abilities do if I don't tinker with them?
Reading a description of how a thing works is entirely different than experiencing how it works FOR ME with my play style, skill level, group-mates, situations etc.
Having the ABILITY to respec at all means there is a necessity for it for at least half of the population (multiplied by the number of possible combinations). Paying for that, every time, sucks.
If there is only one good combination, why have the ability to choose at all? If there are possibly "worse" combinations, charging real money for it just doesn't make sense at $6/attempt to find one that you like and works. It makes finding the right combination for your own personal enjoyment/skill level/circumstance potentially ridiculously expensive. And that makes for a bad taste in my mouth about a company that would do it.
The server is down, so I can't even log in to try to find out how this all actually works, so I'll leave my opinion at this:
If I can make honest mistakes, or if refusal to use google to find the "best" build because I WANT to actually learn everything my toon can do by experience, costs money, it had damned well better be reasonably priced, or I'm off like a locust to the next ripe field.
Is $6 reasonable? I have no idea, but I've budgeted $60 to try this game. If I find out that it's not reasonable I'm gone. Forever. And will never buy another product by this company.
If it turns out to be a never/once/once in a blue moon thing, and I can spend the rest of my budget on other things to make the game more fun, I'll hang around.
In D&D, you can always respec as much as you want. Experienced players rarely need to respec, but new players must often. Even officially, you retrain while leveling. The only constraint is story continuity, and most DMs will work with the player.
Worst-comes-to-worst, you start a new character at any level. So a “replacement” can walk into the story at any time, who is exactly the way player wants.
I don't think we should have to pay for the first couple, sure if you keep respecing then make people pay but people need a couple free ones, its not like theres any reliable tools out there to pre-plan a character. At the very least they make respec scrolls drop off of certain encounters, or rare mobs, I don't think we should be able to farm them but make them obtainable even if it is difficult.
0
terradraconisMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 17Arc User
In D&D, you can always respec as much as you want. Even officially, you retrain while leveling. The only contraint is story continuity, and most DMs will work with the player.
Worst-comes-to-worst, you start a new character at any level. So a “replacement” can walk into the story at any time, who is exactly the way player wants.
Never had a GM who interpreted the rules to allow complete retraining at leveling. If you did that is great but not accurate to any 1st Ed - 3.75 Ed rules.
As for bringing in a new character sure. If you want to be 2 levels behind everyone with worse gear. I never had a GM allow me to just swap out a character because I didn't like it. There always was a level, gear, and money cost to doing it.
"Having the ABILITY to respec at all, means there is a necessity for it for at least half of the population (multiplied by the number of possible combinations). Paying for that, every time, sucks.
... If there is only one good combination, why have the ability to choose at all?
If there are possibly "worse" combinations, charging real money for it just doesn't make sense to find one that you like and works. It makes finding the right combination for your own personal enjoyment/skill level/circumstance potentially ridiculously expensive.
And that makes for a bad taste in my mouth about a company that would do it.
If I can make honest mistakes,
or if refusal to use google to find the "best" build because I WANT to actually learn everything my toon can do by experience,
costs money, it had damned well better be reasonably priced, or I'm off like a locust to the next ripe field."
At the sum of it is, D&D (and other roleplayers) NEED the characters to be exactly how they like them. It is a personal thing. There is no “one size fits all”.
Each D&D player creates a unique character, each time.
I'm new to this game company, and to the game, and to the "Universe" in which it's set. I last played D&D around 1991 so my memory of the original and subsequent editions is hazy at best.
It's a free game, I don't mind paying SOMETHING for services, but I'm not sure exactly what a "respec" means. From reading the thread (as much as I could) it seems that the "powers" have a real money cost -- so if you want to take your str/dex/cha etc. points an reallocate them, that costs money. That seems reasonable, although $6 seems a bit high since I'm not really sure what actual difference it makes to my characters abilities but since I read that (in the case of my only toon, a Rogue) that dex is primary and cha/str are secondary, I've spent my points in dex/str/cha as I leveled and probably wouldn't notice a huge difference if I tinkered much, so... meh. Don't really care.
If the cost is to change points that I put into clicky abilities, I have a problem with this in a HUGE way, and here's why.
I'm new to the game! How on earth am I supposed to know what ACTIVE abilities do if I don't tinker with them?
Reading a description of how a thing works is entirely different than experiencing how it works FOR ME with my play style, skill level, group-mates, situations etc.
Having the ABILITY to respec at all means there is a necessity for it for at least half of the population (multiplied by the number of possible combinations). Paying for that, every time, sucks.
If there is only one good combination, why have the ability to choose at all? If there are possibly "worse" combinations, charging real money for it just doesn't make sense at $6/attempt to find one that you like and works. It makes finding the right combination for your own personal enjoyment/skill level/circumstance potentially ridiculously expensive. And that makes for a bad taste in my mouth about a company that would do it.
The server is down, so I can't even log in to try to find out how this all actually works, so I'll leave my opinion at this:
If I can make honest mistakes, or if refusal to use google to find the "best" build because I WANT to actually learn everything my toon can do by experience, costs money, it had damned well better be reasonably priced, or I'm off like a locust to the next ripe field.
Is $6 reasonable? I have no idea, but I've budgeted $60 to try this game. If I find out that it's not reasonable I'm gone. Forever. And will never buy another product by this company.
If it turns out to be a never/once/once in a blue moon thing, and I can spend the rest of my budget on other things to make the game more fun, I'll hang around.
My (virtual) $.02
There is a common recurring misconception in this thread that you MUST pay with real $$ to buy items from the ZEN shop (like the respec token). This is not true, there are many ways to earn Astral Diamonds in game which can be traded for ZEN at the in game ZEN-Diamond exchange which you can then use to purchase items from the ZEN shop. This requires some playing time to get items to sell but no real cash money. The alternative is to pay cash for ZEN for those who lack the patience/drive to earn what they want in the game by just spending time playing the game.
In D&D games, I DM and play with many other DMs. I have never seen a DM be jerk to a player who really wanted a specific concept. Every DM tries to figure something out. Each setting has its own story constraints, but every time, the DM and player arrived at something they are both happy with. The negotiation shows both the DM and the player care about the game.
I like this game a lot. I'm fine with all the costs for the other things, like the bag, mount, and companion. My only beef with this game is the respec cost. It's too much for a game that is just in it's so called beta phase.
There is a common recurring misconception in this thread that you MUST pay with real $$ to buy items from the ZEN shop (like the respec token). This is not true, there are many ways to earn Astral Diamonds in game which can be traded for ZEN at the in game ZEN-Diamond exchange which you can then use to purchase items from the ZEN shop. This requires some playing time to get items to sell but no real cash money. The alternative is to pay cash for ZEN for those who lack the patience/drive to earn what they want in the game by just spending time playing the game.
By many ways you mean do dailies.. 3 skirmishes, 1 dung, 4 pvp's, 4 foundries... With 2+ hours on dung/skirmish que (TR) makes it a whole days staring at the screen with not much HAMSTER to do with yourself. Also getting a que does not in any way mean that the group you end up with will be competent enough to actuallly finish it. So unless you have 4 friends who make a nice team or a guild with nice class diversity you are slowed down dramatically.
LOL! The amount of times I need to reedit my post because of forum malfunctions or to clarify a point, this number of times of reediting proves the need to respec complex character creation.
"Having the ABILITY to respec at all, means there is a necessity for it for at least half of the population (multiplied by the number of possible combinations). Paying for that, every time, sucks.
... If there is only one good combination, why have the ability to choose at all?
If there are possibly "worse" combinations, charging real money for it just doesn't make sense to find one that you like and works. It makes finding the right combination for your own personal enjoyment/skill level/circumstance potentially ridiculously expensive.
And that makes for a bad taste in my mouth about a company that would do it.
If I can make honest mistakes,
or if refusal to use google to find the "best" build because I WANT to actually learn everything my toon can do by experience,
costs money, it had damned well better be reasonably priced, or I'm off like a locust to the next ripe field."
At the sum of it is, D&D (and other roleplayers) NEED the characters to be exactly how they like them. It is a personal thing. There is no “one size fits all”.
Each D&D player creates a unique character, each time.
But they don't *re-create* that same character for each play session. This is an argument against respecs, not for.
You should create the character that you want to create without regard for whether it is the 'best' possible. *That* is what is in the spirit of D&D.
Honestly, the only reason people feel like they *need* respecs is because they aren't choosing to fit a concept - they're trying to min-max, and I have no sympathy for that. If they want to charge people for min-maxing, that's fine with me.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
There is a common recurring misconception in this thread that you MUST pay with real $$ to buy items from the ZEN shop (like the respec token). This is not true, there are many ways to earn Astral Diamonds in game which can be traded for ZEN at the in game ZEN-Diamond exchange which you can then use to purchase items from the ZEN shop. This requires some playing time to get items to sell but no real cash money. The alternative is to pay cash for ZEN for those who lack the patience/drive to earn what they want in the game by just spending time playing the game.
+1.
Less 'omg plz 2 halp giv free stuff' and more playing the game, learning it better, finding ways to benefit char from ... playing. omgoodness, this is new thing. Amirite?
WTB Big-Giant Robot Camels, tbh...
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goodoloakMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 8Arc User
edited May 2013
This is a major problem IMO. I believe that there should be some mild gating mechanic to respecs, but I think that the "right" to respec is implied in any kind of point allocation/tree mechanic.
I feel that PW's respec token is a major flaw for the following reasons:
1) It's pay to win. If you can afford real $ to gain advantage in a particular situation while a non-money spender cannot, then it is by definition PTW.
2) Tokens can be carried and used anywhere which encourages respecing on-the-fly for advantage. This further encourages PTW.
3) The cost prohibitive nature of the respec token ruines experimentation and exploration of different specs. This hurts everyone. It hurts PW because problem areas in specs are left un-identified. It hurts players because they get stuck with sub-optimal builds. It hurts the community because less testing and evaluating occurs. It also hurts the community because it further enforces cookie-cutter builds because people will be only willing to switch to builds that have been super tested.
Should respecs be free at any time? NO.
Should respecs require real life money? NO.
Should respecs be tokens? NO.
My $0.02:
1) Respecs should be available only at a specific location in Protectors Enclave. (This would add a level of "hassle" to people trying to specs at any time for a specific situation.)
2) Respecs should be able to be purchased at any time and cost a moderate-to-low amount of gold. (Since gold cannot be bought with real money it is not PTW.)
3) Respecs should be able to be purchased with ZEN, but only once daily. (This allows people who really want to respec the ability to do so but the daily gate prevents it from being an advantage taking tactic.)
But they don't *re-create* that same character for each play session. This is an argument against respecs, not for.
You should create the character that you want to create without regard for whether it is the 'best' possible. *That* is what is in the spirit of D&D.
Honestly, the only reason people feel like they *need* respecs is because they aren't choosing to fit a concept - they're trying to min-max, and I have no sympathy for that. If they want to charge people for min-maxing, that's fine with me.
I didn't ever say "best possible" I said best for my playstyle and circumstances, which are both fluid and therefore (unless I was a robot) WILL change, and therefore require changes. I WILL make mistakes in my choices as I learn the game, the world and the character.
So you're saying basically, "Whatever you do is fine, in fact it's perfect the first time."
Um... not me. I make mistakes; I learn; I grow and change my mind.
I wish I was one of the people you're talking about.
0
professorzMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I think that the "right" to respec is implied in any kind of point allocation/tree mechanic.
Why?
I think any point allocation system implies that you're making a choice about character development, and meaningful character development requires that your choice have some weight. Readily available respecs make your choices meaningless.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
I didn't ever say "best possible" I said best for my playstyle and circumstances, which are both fluid and therefore (unless I was a robot) WILL change, and therefore require changes. I WILL make mistakes in my choices as I learn the game, the world and the character.
So you're saying basically, "Whatever you do is fine, in fact it's perfect the first time."
Um... not me. I make mistakes; I learn; I grow and change my mind.
I wish I was one of the people you're talking about.
No, I'm saying that the very idea of creating a "perfect" character is antithetical to D&D.
Perfect characters are, quite frankly, boring as all get out.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
Honestly, the only reason people feel like they *need* respecs is because they aren't choosing to fit a concept - they're trying to min-max, and I have no sympathy for that. If they want to charge people for min-maxing, that's fine with me.
Speak for yourself. I respec because I care about character concepts. Designing a concept is like shaping clay.
If a game wont let me design my characte, why play the game at all? I would rather be playing chess.
Comments
It's hard-capped to range between 50-500 per.
Finally, when you click "Respec Powers" you get prompted to redeem a free respec or use a purchased one. So I believe there is a system in place for free respecs when they do significant talent changes.
In the game of D&D, the whole purpose of the game is character customization. (And world-building.) Unlike MMOs, you can customize in D&D - EXACTLY the way you want it.
"The only limit is your imagination."
The whole point of D&D is character creation. (And world building.) This is a game of imagination where you can get the hero exactly the way you want. It is a story-telling game. In stories, character concepts are fundamental. Other formats simply cant compete, but technology is making it more and more possible.
The last D&D effort by Atari, Daggerndale, pretty much failed in the D&D community because it lacked sufficient character customization and world building.
For D&D fans, the following are must-haves: character customization, lots of options, tweaking, and respecking - both for physical appearance and for statistics.
If you want MMO fans, do whatever.
But if you want D&D fans, respec is a must.
I'm calling BS. You have to have one slack DM to let you respec your feats, or anything else, for that matter, without some wizard casting a wish spell for you. D&D is about freedom of choice, but also about accountability after you choose. Tell me otherwise after you lose a character you've been playing for months and there ain't no coming back for him/her.
Horse puckey. Real D&D fans know that respec is an aberration caused by computer games. In PnP, you make a bad choice, you're stuck with it.
Well, seeing this is neverwinter. a D&D game, i think them giving us the option of 1 respec is more than generous.
This is a MMO, which means there is alot of game to play. not be the best of everything within a month.
You are complaining about converting astral diamonds each day, get use to it. the market is only flooded because of the people with money to spend and like to spend it, coupled with the millions and millions of astral diamonds from both founders packs.
i also love how your not even sure of why you got the free respec. guess you dont look into much stuff before you buy, but here you are. complaining about how much stuff costs.
Maybe play the game for 2 months. farm up some stuff. do some dungeons or pvp, whatever you like.
But to say that paying for a respec is ABSURD is ABSURD in itself.
complain less and do some reserch before thinking this is World of Warcraft.
derp
It's a free game, I don't mind paying SOMETHING for services, but I'm not sure exactly what a "respec" means. From reading the thread (as much as I could) it seems that the "powers" have a real money cost -- so if you want to take your str/dex/cha etc. points an reallocate them, that costs money. That seems reasonable, although $6 seems a bit high since I'm not really sure what actual difference it makes to my characters abilities but since I read that (in the case of my only toon, a Rogue) that dex is primary and cha/str are secondary, I've spent my points in dex/str/cha as I leveled and probably wouldn't notice a huge difference if I tinkered much, so... meh. Don't really care.
If the cost is to change points that I put into clicky abilities, I have a problem with this in a HUGE way, and here's why.
I'm new to the game! How on earth am I supposed to know what ACTIVE abilities do if I don't tinker with them?
Reading a description of how a thing works is entirely different than experiencing how it works FOR ME with my play style, skill level, group-mates, situations etc.
Having the ABILITY to respec at all means there is a necessity for it for at least half of the population (multiplied by the number of possible combinations). Paying for that, every time, sucks.
If there is only one good combination, why have the ability to choose at all? If there are possibly "worse" combinations, charging real money for it just doesn't make sense at $6/attempt to find one that you like and works. It makes finding the right combination for your own personal enjoyment/skill level/circumstance potentially ridiculously expensive. And that makes for a bad taste in my mouth about a company that would do it.
The server is down, so I can't even log in to try to find out how this all actually works, so I'll leave my opinion at this:
If I can make honest mistakes, or if refusal to use google to find the "best" build because I WANT to actually learn everything my toon can do by experience, costs money, it had damned well better be reasonably priced, or I'm off like a locust to the next ripe field.
Is $6 reasonable? I have no idea, but I've budgeted $60 to try this game. If I find out that it's not reasonable I'm gone. Forever. And will never buy another product by this company.
If it turns out to be a never/once/once in a blue moon thing, and I can spend the rest of my budget on other things to make the game more fun, I'll hang around.
My (virtual) $.02
Worst-comes-to-worst, you start a new character at any level. So a “replacement” can walk into the story at any time, who is exactly the way player wants.
Never had a GM who interpreted the rules to allow complete retraining at leveling. If you did that is great but not accurate to any 1st Ed - 3.75 Ed rules.
As for bringing in a new character sure. If you want to be 2 levels behind everyone with worse gear. I never had a GM allow me to just swap out a character because I didn't like it. There always was a level, gear, and money cost to doing it.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Having the ABILITY to respec at all, means there is a necessity for it for at least half of the population (multiplied by the number of possible combinations). Paying for that, every time, sucks.
... If there is only one good combination, why have the ability to choose at all?
If there are possibly "worse" combinations, charging real money for it just doesn't make sense to find one that you like and works. It makes finding the right combination for your own personal enjoyment/skill level/circumstance potentially ridiculously expensive.
And that makes for a bad taste in my mouth about a company that would do it.
If I can make honest mistakes,
or if refusal to use google to find the "best" build because I WANT to actually learn everything my toon can do by experience,
costs money, it had damned well better be reasonably priced, or I'm off like a locust to the next ripe field."
At the sum of it is, D&D (and other roleplayers) NEED the characters to be exactly how they like them. It is a personal thing. There is no “one size fits all”.
Each D&D player creates a unique character, each time.
There is a common recurring misconception in this thread that you MUST pay with real $$ to buy items from the ZEN shop (like the respec token). This is not true, there are many ways to earn Astral Diamonds in game which can be traded for ZEN at the in game ZEN-Diamond exchange which you can then use to purchase items from the ZEN shop. This requires some playing time to get items to sell but no real cash money. The alternative is to pay cash for ZEN for those who lack the patience/drive to earn what they want in the game by just spending time playing the game.
Low levels is when respec is most important to establish the character concept.
By many ways you mean do dailies.. 3 skirmishes, 1 dung, 4 pvp's, 4 foundries... With 2+ hours on dung/skirmish que (TR) makes it a whole days staring at the screen with not much HAMSTER to do with yourself. Also getting a que does not in any way mean that the group you end up with will be competent enough to actuallly finish it. So unless you have 4 friends who make a nice team or a guild with nice class diversity you are slowed down dramatically.
But they don't *re-create* that same character for each play session. This is an argument against respecs, not for.
You should create the character that you want to create without regard for whether it is the 'best' possible. *That* is what is in the spirit of D&D.
Honestly, the only reason people feel like they *need* respecs is because they aren't choosing to fit a concept - they're trying to min-max, and I have no sympathy for that. If they want to charge people for min-maxing, that's fine with me.
+1.
Less 'omg plz 2 halp giv free stuff' and more playing the game, learning it better, finding ways to benefit char from ... playing. omgoodness, this is new thing. Amirite?
WTB Big-Giant Robot Camels, tbh...
I feel that PW's respec token is a major flaw for the following reasons:
1) It's pay to win. If you can afford real $ to gain advantage in a particular situation while a non-money spender cannot, then it is by definition PTW.
2) Tokens can be carried and used anywhere which encourages respecing on-the-fly for advantage. This further encourages PTW.
3) The cost prohibitive nature of the respec token ruines experimentation and exploration of different specs. This hurts everyone. It hurts PW because problem areas in specs are left un-identified. It hurts players because they get stuck with sub-optimal builds. It hurts the community because less testing and evaluating occurs. It also hurts the community because it further enforces cookie-cutter builds because people will be only willing to switch to builds that have been super tested.
Should respecs be free at any time? NO.
Should respecs require real life money? NO.
Should respecs be tokens? NO.
My $0.02:
1) Respecs should be available only at a specific location in Protectors Enclave. (This would add a level of "hassle" to people trying to specs at any time for a specific situation.)
2) Respecs should be able to be purchased at any time and cost a moderate-to-low amount of gold. (Since gold cannot be bought with real money it is not PTW.)
3) Respecs should be able to be purchased with ZEN, but only once daily. (This allows people who really want to respec the ability to do so but the daily gate prevents it from being an advantage taking tactic.)
I didn't ever say "best possible" I said best for my playstyle and circumstances, which are both fluid and therefore (unless I was a robot) WILL change, and therefore require changes. I WILL make mistakes in my choices as I learn the game, the world and the character.
So you're saying basically, "Whatever you do is fine, in fact it's perfect the first time."
Um... not me. I make mistakes; I learn; I grow and change my mind.
I wish I was one of the people you're talking about.
Why?
I think any point allocation system implies that you're making a choice about character development, and meaningful character development requires that your choice have some weight. Readily available respecs make your choices meaningless.
No, I'm saying that the very idea of creating a "perfect" character is antithetical to D&D.
Perfect characters are, quite frankly, boring as all get out.
If a game wont let me design my characte, why play the game at all? I would rather be playing chess.
So when you lose, do you ask your opponent to let you undo your moves until you can find a strategy to beat them?