I know personally I am spending about 1 hour to decided on what power to pick or removing several powers to do a mini respec.

I know several times it has taken me a bit to figure out what is the right spec or direction to go with a character before I leave the Power House.

I know for sure it just never is go in to Power House and pick a power and move on. That include Advantages that I might save for an up coming power as well.

I find it difficult to foresee into the future to know which powers will come up or which might be the best direction to take.

There where several times I THOUGHT a direction was good, until some changes where made in power sets that did not provide a Retcon by Devs as they where not considered big enough changes or just required number crunching and / or testing to see if it really was as reliable as it appeared on the character sheet.

Someone mentioned this in the past and I am starting to think it was a better idea then what is currently out.

Everyone has the same powers, just the cosmetics are changed. Mine is a gun, yours is electric but they do the same DPS. Beyond the cosmetics the advantages is what makes it unique.

Just have a big list of advantages for each power, so instead of just 1 special to pick maybe a list of 7 or 8 advantages. And exclude some advantages based on what you picked thus preventing someone from taking every attack with a hold advantage or Knock Back advantage.

I know some or many will say use the character builder, and I agree. But I just can't get a feel for the power without testing it out in PH as this game changes faster then character builder can keep up or it just just not list the changes to advantages. Simple example Incisive Wit in the character builder description. Again not the character builders fault. That person did a GREAT JOB with the builder.

Finally, though character builder is great, that should be an in game thing. Same way you can save a costume, you should be able to save your character build. And maybe the system should flag if a power has changed since the date you created the build so you know as your other powers might be effected as well..

I know isn't it great!

I know you wrote a bunch of other stuff, but instead of reading it I'll just comment that you summed up what is awesome about this game. The fact that you can spend so much time finding the next way to add onto your character is awesome.

I have to agree here, the strength of CO is the amount of choice and diversity beyond cosmetics.

That being said, I'm not sure why its so difficult to choose a new power. There are a few powers grossly underwhelming, but most are pretty solid. If you have a clear concept for your character the next power choice should be pretty simple. If you don't want to have to spend a lot of time picking a power, just stick to a framework or 2 that you like. CO is not particularly hard, you can pick sub-optimal powers and advantages and still play fine.

I was able to pick my powers, and I haven't even passed my qualifying exams yet ;)

This. If you maybe think about playing the game to have fun, maybe you wouldn't be so stressed about what powers you pick. Not only that, but you might have more fun actually playing, seeing as how you might be challenged a bit, because we all know there are certain powers out there that make the game totally trivial.

To sum up, you can spend an hour picking a power in the powerhouse, then spend 5 minutes completing missions because they are so trivial, or you can spend 5 minutes picking a power and an hour completing missions because they are challenging and fun.

Perhaps, but if you pick the wrong power, you're stuck with it, and it is going to suck for you. So you're there trying to do these quests with a power that you hate and therefore do not use.

This is very true, and I doubt many will disagree that the retcon system is still a bit flawed. Thankfully, you can get a decent picture of what you're going to be fighting with the new battle room, and figure out if you've picked something that's bad.

How are you stuck with it? I've picked many powers that didn't work the way I wanted or needed them to work. And I've been able to afford to get rid of them.

You usually find out if the power isn't right for you after a little bit of questing. Which means it's the most recent power taken. Which means retconning that is dirt cheap.

If you're going multiple levels with a power and it is sinking further and further down your list of things purchased, then either you're not using the power or it IS working for you.

I had the same problem about 3 weeks ago but after testing a lot of them already, I pretty much know what I want. It's the "order" of taking those powers that frustrates me sometimes.

Remember back when MMOs didn't have retcons of any kind?

I'm sure glad it's not like that any longer. Not that we really need a lot of know-how to come up with a competent build in this game. There's a single rule that applies to every ChampO player: Respect Da Henchmen.

That's it, the sole secret. Little buggers will drop you faster than you can imagine, so you either need to A) Drop Them First, or B) Outlast Them All. Two directions for the same goal. The first means grabbing an AoE of some sort, whether circle or cone or cylinder. Second method is something defensive in nature, passive or otherwise. Heck, get both and you're golden, preferably around 8 through 11. Start out with this basis and the game is fun.

No PhD necessary. Honest.