Power Respecification

This article is about ways to acquire a respec and how to use them. For the slash command, see respec (Slash Command).

Overview

A power respecification, or respec, is a means for a Hero or Villain to respecify, or change, the powers he or she has available for use, as well as how those powers are slotted with Enhancements. Power respecifications are gained in many possible ways:

1. By completing a power respecification trial
2. By crafting one from a Respec Recipe
3. During Winter Events, purchased with Candy Cane Salvage at the Candy Keeper
4. By having one given to him or her by the developers during a special event or after a significant change in power mechanics
5. By subscribing for a specific number of months and receiving one via the Paragon Rewards Program
6. For villains only, by completing the first Patron arc and unlocking a Patron Power Pool
7. For Soldier of Arachnos villains only, by reaching Threat Level 24 (this respec is mandatory)
8. By purchasing one from the in-game store for $9.99 USD

Respecs are typically used to trade unwanted powers for more useful ones and/or to rearrange hard-to-obtain Enhancements between powers.

• During a power respecification, a character may choose different powers within his or her primary and secondary powersets, as well as completely reconfigure his or her selection of Pool Powers, Ancillary Pool powers, and Patron Pool powers (for villains that have unlocked PPPs). Respecs also let a character reallocate Enhancement slots and redistribute all Enhancements that were either in a power or in his or her inventory tray.

• Respecs cannot change a character's Origin, Archetype, primary powerset, secondary powerset, or Paragon Rewards Program power selections.

• Respecs don't allow a player to take a power or add slots in an order that isn't possible for a character leveling normally. An exception to this is Warshades and Peacebringers who, during a respec, may add slots to their Nova- and Dwarf-form-specific powers before the Nova and Dwarf forms themselves are available.

Types of Respecifications

Though there are many ways of acquiring respecifications, the respecs themselves fall into only two types: earned and free. The type depends on the method used to achive it:

• Trial Respecs - earned, up to 3 possible
• Veteran Respecs - earned, up to 5 possible (at 69 months)
• Patron Respecs - earned, 1 possible (Villain only)
• Soldiers of Arachnos Respec - earned, 1 possible (Villain only)
• Purchased Respec - earned, theoretically unlimited
• Free Respec - free (A character can only have 1 at a time and they do not stack)
• Respec Recipes - free (These cannot be crafted if the character already has a free respec available)
• Holiday Respec - free (These cannot be purchased at the Candy Keeper if the character already has a free respec available)

A character can accumulate any number of earned respecs, but at most one free one. Any more gained while a character already has one are lost.

An earned respec is used by visiting a special contact.

• For heroes: Jack Wolfe, located in City Hall in Atlas Park; James Frost in Fort Trident.
• For villains: Arbiter Lupin, located next to to the AE Building in Nerva Archipelago; and Arbiter Sawyer, standing near the Pocket D entrance in Port Oakes.
• For Praetorians: John Snow, in Imperial City, inside Studio 55. He is on the third floor of the club all the way past the gambling area.

A free respec is used by either visiting the above contacts, or by typing the /respec command on the chat command line at any time or anywhere, though it is still subject to limitations:

Respecification Limitations

There are a few limitations on claiming a Respecification.

• A character must be at least level three.
• A character cannot currently be part of a task force.

Trial Respecifications

There are two respec-granting trials:

• The Terra Volta Respecification Trial for heroes, and
• The Tree of Thorns Respecification Trial for villains

Each trial has three versions: one available to characters of level 24 and up, one for 34+, and one for 44+. There are also limits on how many respecs a character can earn from these trials: a character is eligible for a respec choice at levels 24, 34, and 44, for a total of three respec claims, regardless of the trials completed. Note that the respecification rewards are not linked to which trial is completed, but to the character's level. For example, a level 48 character who has never done a respecification trial can do the first (lowest level) trial three times, or the last (highest level) trial three times, or any combination of the trials, and gain all three respecification awards.

One other point: a character can do a respec trial even if he or she can't get any more respecs from it. The character will only be able to choose the Reward Merits as the completion reward at the end.

Veteran Rewards Respecifications

Several levels of the Veteran Rewards System award respecs to all characters on the account. Specifically, the 9 month, 21 month, 33 month, 45 month and 69 month rewards all include respecs.

Veteran respecs are earned respecs and are claimed the same way as trial respecs.

Patron Power Respecifications

Each villain character that completes the first Patron arc and unlocks a patron power pool will also receive an earned respec.

Soldiers of Arachnos Respecifications

A Soldiers of Arachnos respec is used upon a Villain Epic Archetype reaching Threat Level 24. When visiting a trainer for the first time after reaching level 24, the player will immediately be taken to the respec screen due to the extra powersets being unlocked.

Purchased Respecifications

Character Respec Tokens are available in the Paragon Market for 800 Paragon Points.

Starting on July 31, 2008 and until City of Heroes Freedom, players could purchase a respec from the Character Select screen. It cost $9.99 US. Players selected the character they wanted to respec, then selected the "Enter Store" icon in the lower right, and followed the prompts.

Purchased respecs are earned respecs and are claimed the same way as trial respecs. Is this still true? Or are the tokens claimed via email then the same way as trial respecs?

Free Respecifications

If a character receives a power respecification due to having one given to him or her, it is a free respec. A character may have only one free respec available at any given time. If a character has a free respec when another respec is given out, he or she will not receive the new respec.

Free respecs are usually given out after significant changes to game mechanics involving powers. For example, when Enhancement Diversification was released on the live servers, a free respec was given to all heroes due to a significant change in the effects of enhancement slotting.

This type of respec is commonly known as freespec (free + respec).

Respecification Recipes

As of Issue 11 characters may buy Respec Recipes from other players or find them as rare drops from defeating enemies. Crafting this recipe awards the crafter with a free respec. These cannot be crafted if the character already has a free respec available.

Holiday Respecification

As of 2009, the Candy Keeper sells a respec option. It costs 500 Candy Cane Salvage and 5000 influence/infamy per level of your character. It cannot be purchased if the character is holding a free respec and each character can only purchase one per event.

How Respecifications Work

When a respec is used, a character will be presented with the power selection screen to select his or her powers. The choice will be limited to the powers available when he or she first selected powers at level 1. After selecting a power, the character will be asked to select another power, this time with the powers available when he or she selected powers at level 2. For each subsequent power selection, the powers available will be the powers available for the next progressive level of the character.

For example, when the sixth power is selected, the powers available will be the powers available for selection with the character attained security level 10 (i.e. when he or she selected his or her sixth power).

After the power selection is complete, the character is then presented with the enhancement slot selection screen. Again, the powers available for slotting are the powers that were available at the time that the character attained the level for that particular round of slots.

For example, when the sixth set of slots is selected, the powers available for slotting will be the powers available for selection when the character attained security level 13 (i.e. when he or she selected his or her sixth set of enhancement slots).

After the enhancement slotting is complete, the character will be presented with a screen in which he or she assigns all of his or her currently assigned and held enhancements to those slots. Until an enhancement is assigned to an enhancement slot or to the enhancement inventory, it is considered unassigned. Unlike the normal enhancement management screen, enhancements may be freely moved around between enhancement slots, the enhancement inventory tray, and the unassigned enhancements tray.

After all enhancements are placed into appropriate slots or into the enhancement tray, all unassigned origin (SO,DO, TO) enhancements will be sold for their full purchase cost. Invention Enhancements will be sold for the crafting cost (the price does not include the purchase cost). Hamidon and Synthetic Hamidon Enhancements are not assigned any value. They will be lost with zero influence/infamy gained if they are unassigned at the end of a respecification. Enhancements combined with another of the same type(+ or ++) can be put in the tray but cannot de sold or traded.

Notes

• Important! Keep in mind that unless a character finds or purchases a Respec Recipe on the Consignment House, or a player spends $10 on a purchase recipe, earned recipes are finite and free respecs are somewhat rare. If a character runs out of earned respecs, bad choices are semi-permanent!
• Because the maximum number of respecs available is limited and the time between gaining respecs is typically very long, it is highly suggested to test new builds on the Training Room server before actually committing to the respec on the live server.
• Because a character may have a maximum of one free respec at a time, it is highly suggested that these respecs be used before earned respecs by typing the /respec command on the chat command line.
• A player may see how many unclaimed respecs his or her character has at the time of logon. A system (green text) message is displayed in the chat box stating, "You have x unclaimed respecs available," where x is the number of available respecs.
• Remember that the order in which a character's powers are selected determines which powers are available when that character is exemplared or malefactored with lower-level heroes and villains. In general, the most wanted or most often-used powers should be selected first.
• The word "respec" is often misspelled "respect" by those unfamiliar with the term, by speed touch-typists, or sometimes even by some in a deliberate satirical manner. The word is an abbreviated form of the word respecification, however, and "respec" is the correct spelling. In addition, "respec" is sometimes incorrectly expanded in-game to "respecialization", such as in the badge text for respecs given as Veteran Rewards, leading to further confusion among players as to what "respec" is actually short for. Upon completion, your character has been "respecced."
• The names of the villain respec trial contacts, Sparcetriel, Trepsarciel, and Ractespriel, are all anagrams of "respec trial."

See Also

• Respec (Slash Command)
• Terra Volta Respecification Trial
• Tree of Thorns Respecification Trial
• Jane Hallaway, the contact for first hero power respecification trial
• Captain James Harlan, the contact for second hero power respecification trial
• Major Richard Flagg, the contact for third hero power respecification trial
• Sparcetriel, the contact for the first villain power respecification trial
• Trepsarciel, the contact for the second villain power respecification trial
• Ractespriel, the contact for the third villain power respecification trial
• Respec Recipe
• Post-respec build
• Candy Keeper
• Candy Cane Salvage