The Stamina Crunch

OVERVIEW
I have seen so many people complain about having to skip over a bunch of powers in order to have Stamina and a travel power (in this example, we're using Super Jump) by level 20-22. I felt it was time to throw things at people. How could you guys have missed it?! I thought of this tactic immediately when announced...before we could even play with it!

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Multiple_Builds

This feature was added in Issue 13. This allows your character to have more than one build (currently it is limited to two, or "Dual Builds", but could be expanded in the future, though no dev comment says yea or nay).

EXAMPLE BUILDS
Let's pretend we have a Fire/Fire Blaster. First we'll build up the "normal way", taking Stamina and travel power prerequisites, then we will build up with the intention of switching over at level 20 or 22 to the second build.

The Stamina Crunch
We'll build this character up to level 22 the "normal" way first:

NORMAL: Fire Blast (Level 1), Ring of Fire (L1), Fire Sword (L2), Combustion (L4), SWIFT (L6), COMBAT JUMPING (L8), Fire Sword Circle (L10), Fire Ball (L12), SUPER JUMP (L14), HEALTH (L16), Blaze (L18), STAMINA (L20).

This means that a whole THREE POWERS are taken up by utility powers that don't really do very much for you, they're just lead-ups to TWO MORE powers that aren't available until 1/5 the way into your character's career! (Yes, level 20 is generally considered about 1/5 the way through progression...progression is heavily weighted toward the higher end levels...the halfway mark for XP is somewhere around level 40!!)

No Crunch Here
Well....Issue 13 introduced Multiple Builds! This means, since players have access to a fly and jump pack from Safeguards/Mayhems, and villains have access to the repurchasable fly pack in Grandville, you can skip your travel power for a little while. And since all Swift/Hurdle/Health do is lead up to Stamina, and that doesn't come until level 20, they're kinda just taking up space, right?

Let's build a character from 1-20 with the intention of switching over to the second build at level 22! We have up to FIVE! extra powers to play with!

BUILD ONE: Fire Blast (Level 1), Ring of Fire (L1), Fire Sword (L2), Fire Ball (L4), Combustion (L6), Rain of Fire (L8), Fire Sword Circle (L10), Aim (L12), Fire Breath (L14), Build Up (L16), Blaze (L18), Blazing Aura (L20)

Then at level 20-22, you can switch over to Build Two, which is a copy of the build above:

BUILD TWO: Fire Blast (Level 1), Ring of Fire (L1), Fire Sword (L2), Combustion (L4), SWIFT (L6), COMBAT JUMPING (L8), Fire Sword Circle (L10), Fire Ball (L12), SUPER JUMP (L14), HEALTH (L16), Blaze (L18), STAMINA (L20).

How much more fun would that list of powers be than the previous one? More things to do, faster killing speed, and you don't really lose a WHOLE lot. Heck, you can even substitute SWIFT in for one of the powers if you like the movement speed bonus, or play with random power pools...because it doesn't matter, at level 20 or 22, you're just going to switch over to your second build anyway, so who cares about taking weird options you wouldn't ever have at level 50?

PUSH IT BACK
REMEMBER YOUR "POTIONS"!
Three inspirations of the same flavor and level can be combined to create one of another flavor of the same level. Three small reds (or whatever) combine into a small blue, and small blues recover 25% of a character's endurance in one click! Medium blues recover 33%, and big blues recover 50%!

UTILIZE ALL YOUR OPTIONS!
Slot endurance reduction enhancements in your powers, especially low level when you're doing piddly damage, and therefore damage enhancements don't increase damage output by much. Invention Origin Enhancement Sets include set bonuses to boost recovery and boost maximum endurance. Remember, more endurance means the same percentage of recovery rate recovers more at a time! There are special IOs that boost recovery or have a chance to grant endurance to the target of the power. There are accolades that boost maximum endurance. There are Day Jobs that boost recovery and maximum endurance. There is an Empowerment that boosts recovery.

SWITCH WHEN YOU WANT TO!
Feel free to push back the switch by as many levels as you like! One of my characters (plant/rad controller) STILL hasn't picked up Stamina, and she's level 44! She may or may not spec into Stamina sometime down the road, but right now, she has no true need of it. Stamina is useful, it's not required!

THE END
MULTIPLE BUILDS...learn it, live it, love it!




This guide exists on the Paragon Wiki, and that version contains pertinent links to important information contained in this guide. Further updates of this guide will only be made at Paragon Wiki, with responses here to notify of updates.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I'd argue this point:

[ QUOTE ]

This means that a whole THREE POWERS are taken up by utility powers that don't really do very much for you,


[/ QUOTE ]

I'd assume, from your italicization, you mean swift, health, and combat jumping. While yes, these are utility powers, they most certainly *do* do something for you, and shouldn't be ignored.

Swift, surprisingly, is probably the biggest one. Why?

How many lowbies do you see running around with Sprint or some variant on - or even a travel power - while in missions? Slot it, get some faster, non-END-using movement... and isn't the path to Stamina started specifically because of END issues?

Combat jumping, aside from the (very tiny) bit of defense, gives immobilization protection. That, of course, also ignores being a place to put in a KB IO should you get your hands on one.

This also ignores that people may not *want* leaping. Teleport? Here's Recall Friend - still a staple among some support characters. Fly gets another attack in Air Superiority. And Speed gets Hasten. Yes, you mention "space to pick something else up" later in the guide anyway, but it needed saying.

As far as the gist of the guide itself - no argument. <3 dual builds, and yes, I actually do use them this way (among other ways - "Heavy scrapper" vs "Tank" builds, "Solo" vs "team" and more. They're a $deity-send.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

[ QUOTE ]
How many lowbies do you see running around with Sprint or some variant on - or even a travel power - while in missions? Slot it, get some faster, non-END-using movement... and isn't the path to Stamina started specifically because of END issues?

[/ QUOTE ]I said near the end of the guide, "Heck, you can even substitute SWIFT in for one of the powers if you like the movement speed bonus".

[ QUOTE ]
This also ignores that people may not *want* leaping. Teleport? Here's Recall Friend - still a staple among some support characters. Fly gets another attack in Air Superiority. And Speed gets Hasten. Yes, you mention "space to pick something else up" later in the guide anyway, but it needed saying.

[/ QUOTE ]I also said "in this example, we'll be using Super Jump" in the overview...which means, um, well, this is an example only, and you're not limited to doing it this way. @_@

And mentioning Hasten is silly in the context of this guide - Hasten causes bigger endurance drains since everything recharges faster, not to mention the 15 point endurance cost when it drops.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How many lowbies do you see running around with Sprint or some variant on - or even a travel power - while in missions? Slot it, get some faster, non-END-using movement... and isn't the path to Stamina started specifically because of END issues?

[/ QUOTE ]I said near the end of the guide, "Heck, you can even substitute SWIFT in for one of the powers if you like the movement speed bonus".

[ QUOTE ]
This also ignores that people may not *want* leaping. Teleport? Here's Recall Friend - still a staple among some support characters. Fly gets another attack in Air Superiority. And Speed gets Hasten. Yes, you mention "space to pick something else up" later in the guide anyway, but it needed saying.

[/ QUOTE ]I also said "in this example, we'll be using Super Jump" in the overview...which means, um, well, this is an example only, and you're not limited to doing it this way. @_@

[/ QUOTE ]

I realize that. It's more along the lines of "If you're reading this, consider.... "

I don't argue with the suggestion or conclusion at all. Just - I suppose the best way is "putting in a reminder of what all the powers do besides fill a prerequisite" for someone reading it later.

See my Guides and Tutorials

While we're picking on things that are nearly irrelevant, your "normal" build gives me an ice cream headache.

Combustion at 4, Fire Ball at 12, BU, Aim, Fire Breath "sometime after 20"?

Ow. My head.

Even the "alternate" build- Rain of Fire and Combustion before Fire Breath?

It's like a hangover and I haven't been drinking.

(Irrelevance #2: Travel powers can often be delayed, what with jump and flight packs.)

Do you people not understand example? I don't really care what powers you take, when...it's not a real build. It's not like you can only do this if you're a Fire/Fire Blaster! That's what I used in the example, right? Don't build it this way if you don't want to! I was just throwing powers out there as I remembered their names. Can we talk about things that actually matter to the guide?

(Also, I don't like Fire Breath, or most cones, that much because of alignment issues. I am too impatient to line up enough dudes to cover the high endurance cost. I like to push buttons. Pushing buttons is fun!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you people not understand example? I don't really care what powers you take, when...it's not a real build. It's not like you can only do this if you're a Fire/Fire Blaster! That's what I used in the example, right? Don't build it this way if you don't want to! I was just throwing powers out there as I remembered their names. Can we talk about things that actually matter to the guide?

[/ QUOTE ]

Pfft, what fun is that?

See my Guides and Tutorials

I actually did this with my Kheldian. I argued with myself over whether I wanted to take Stamina or not, because he was based on an earlier character that didn't have Stamina, but since he was a Kheldian now, I figured I could "fudge" it if I wanted to. I finally decided to use the multiple builds to switch out Stamina if I wanted to and in fact found the alternate build to be much more useful getting to 20, since I didn't have the prerequisites.

The thing is, though, I agree with those who said earlier that Swift and Hurdle are, if not useful combat powers, useful travel powers that make up for not having a stronger one at that level. Hurdle specifically is something I consider very carefully before I skip it, because the necessity to go around an obstacle instead of jumping over it can add a lot of time to getting to a mission. Particularly on the hero side. (For some reason, walls don't seem to be as high in the Rogue Isles. Either that or the walls are just SO high that you'd have to get around them anyway...)