Quoted from gorditas:I think the goal with modelers should always be to find your base tone, and stick with it. That is what you do with a real amp, isn't it? With my Kemper, my method has been assigning a profile to each guitar, and I add the effects as needed. There are some guitar/profile combinations that just have a magic. Where people get into trouble, and it is easy to do when you have nearly unlimited options, is to find oneself in endless choice purgatory. If you haven't found your base tone after 2 years with the Helix, maybe it is time to try something else. The good news is that you can probably sell your Helix for a high percentage of the cost you paid. I am sure that there is more than one band you like that is using some modeler live: find out what they are using, and how they are making it work. Even people with amps on stage are often only using them for stage volume: FOH is from a modeler.
That's what I do - everything to FOH is from the Helix. I do occasionally use amps on stage, but the more we move to in-ear monitors and an A/V component to our shows, I have just ditched the amps. load in is WAY easier!
Totally agree on sticking to a tone - that's pretty much what I'm doing, but I am used to being able to just dial down my volume and change technique to get real big changes in my sound. With an amp, this works great. With the tones I'm using on the Helix, not so much. I've gotten some AMAZING tones out of amp plugins when we record, so I know it's possible - but I can't take those out to shows... yet!