I believe this is the best argument I've seen so far, for allowing easy full respecs in a game:

I'm for easy full respecs at any time without a cost or time requirement. Want to know why? Well I am a hardcore Guild Wars vet and the devs in that game allowed full respecs anytime you were in town. This led to ALOT of customized builds and experimental builds from anyone because they weren't stuck with one build and they didn't follow the FOTM builds because the freedom allowed players to customize their own build to their own style without frustration of re-leveling. One great advantage to this is that it allows the devs to easily take a close look to see what exactly the FOTM of the month is and allows them to adjust the abilities accordingly. This led to one of the most balanced "mmos" in existence.

I see the endgame for many people in CO to be about the team arena and running prebuild guild teams. This is exactly what Guild Wars is and allowing people to respec completely easily in the training area will not only help the devs balance the game much easier and better, but will pretty much let anyone come up with character builds on their own without much time dedication and frustration. There are literally thousands of character builds in Guild Wars made famous by even the most casual of players because they were allowed to experiment, and even though many were one trick ponies, it did not lead to FOTM builds at all.

Of course there will be FOTM builds, but if we are allowed to easily respec the devs not only will have an easy time adjusting skills but as players we will get to enjoy changing dynamics in the power abilities rather than being left with stagnant abilities that pretty much won't be changed since launch.



Think of it like this, lets say Guild A is number 1 on the server and running a current FOTM and is dominating the arena. Guild B (who is in 2nd place) can either spend weeks releveling alts to compete with the FOTM, or they can easily respec and counter the build that Guild A is running and thus keeping the arenas from becoming stale and boring. This changes Flavor of the Month into Flavor of the Moment.

Written by TheKommissar
http://forums.champions-online.com/showpost.php?p=730938&postcount=12

In a PvP environment, being able to quickly and easily change tactics and power choices can dramatically enhance the meta game, and greatly increase the speed with which new tactics and counters are developed.