IO sets thoughts and questions

[Uncle Yuan]

I really haven't gotten into IOs terribly yet, although I've been playing with them more.  I do have some questions about how they work.

Bonus cap aside, is there any reason you can't put set IOs under the same power (in different slots, of course)?

Is it generally more affordable to buy recipes or prepared IOs?  Is it easier to buy one or the other?

How closely do folks pay attention to the bonus cap?  Do you go out of your way to do one IO, one SO, one generic, (or whatever) or just say to heck with it and go the highest you can and not worry overly much about it?

When it comes to building sets, my observation is that is generally cheaper to build the minor sets than the major character named ones - with a corresponding lower set of set bonuses.  It also seems to me that constructing a completely level appropriate major set is nigh on to impossible.  Given the fixed bonus plus the set bonus (not mention the bonus cap), does it make sense to construct a set with whatever you can get your hands on and max as the opportunity presents?

[RTTingle]

   I have yet to be impressed with the IO's.  Thats just me though.  They are an interesting idea and they certainly offer you some incentive with the bonus' they offer.  Compared to what I like, want and enjoy on my character though --- they don't fit for me.

   I can see where they wanted ED, to make these more interesting to the players to work on and reward themselves with.  Funny thing is, it actually worked the other way around with me.

   I didn't like the idea of giving up what I really wanted --- range.  I was able to get just what I wanted with slotting, how I wanted with normal enhancements.  With the special IO's, I was giving up what I wanted and for a whole bunch of extras and bonus, I didn't want.

   Go fig.

RTT

[BlueBard]

I have yet to craft a single named IO enhancement.  They're too expensive and too hard to put together the necessary salvage, in some cases at least.  I'm sure high-level characters swimming in Inf don't have an issue.

The only sane way to build an entire set is going to be buying and selling via the Consignment House.  Recipe drops just don't cut it.  But again, at my level, it's just too expensive.  I don't really care for the auction house anyway.

The other thing is, it's difficult to figure out what sets are out there. I wish you could do that research at a normal workbench.  I know there's a wiki, but I'd like something in-game.

I know it would create more problems than it solves, but I wish it were easier to swap items between my own characters.  I've got one character with a costume recipe that another character could use, but no reliable way to get it to them without getting a third party involved.

That said, I have crafted the generic IO's and I'd fill my slots with them if I could afford to.  Excellent bang for the buck and with no expiration date.  Even my 20-22's have a mix of Training, DO and IO enhancements with the occasional SO.  I can't afford to do it any other way.

[Midnight]

To answer your questions Yaun;

Bonus cap aside, is there any reason you can't put set IOs under the same power (in different slots, of course)?

1.) Not positive what you're asking but I'll try to cover all the bases:

You can't put two of the same type of Set IOs in the same power. For example, if I have two Devastation Damage/Accuracy IOs, they can't go in the same power. You can put two different sets into one power.

Is it generally more affordable to buy recipes or prepared IOs?  Is it easier to buy one or the other?

2.) Depends on the IO really.

How closely do folks pay attention to the bonus cap?  Do you go out of your way to do one IO, one SO, one generic, (or whatever) or just say to heck with it and go the highest you can and not worry overly much about it?

3.) Depends on the cost and how important hitting the 90% mark is to me. I try not to go over too much with sets, because those are expensive.

When it comes to building sets, my observation is that is generally cheaper to build the minor sets than the major character named ones - with a corresponding lower set of set bonuses.  It also seems to me that constructing a completely level appropriate major set is nigh on to impossible.  Given the fixed bonus plus the set bonus (not mention the bonus cap), does it make sense to construct a set with whatever you can get your hands on and max as the opportunity presents?

4.) Personally, I maximize set bonuses. My stone tank has a 25% run bonus, a 10% recovery bonus and 40% regen bonus, with no real loss in power effectiveness. Building an entire set in one power is expensive and often results in a lot of random small bonuses that may or may not help.

Invention Origin enhancements and sets are really for the min-maxers. You can pump an impressive amount of bonuses out if you have the time and the money.

[Verfall]

When I9 dropped my brute had all of 7 million influence, and now after completing the RWZ mishes he's back up to over 20 million. I bought everything he has except for the Numina Proc, which is somewhat easy to get villainside if you run the Virgil Tarikoss SF a few times. At most I spent 5 million on one single piece. That money's easy to come by when you hit 50. Basically, I'd say screw getting named Io set's till the later levels, and instead go for the level 35 Common Io's. They give more of a bonus than SO's, and never degrade.

For 2-3 million you can outfit a toon at 32 and never have to buy SO's again. When you get to 47 you can get the 50 level IO's. For instance, 3 damage so's, all +3, would give you 95% in that power. Two damage Io's at lvl 50 would give 85%. So in EC's case, where he was talking about range, he could slot 2 accuracy IO's, two Damage Io's and 2 range IO's. That would give him an 85% bonus to all 3 of those aspects.

As an example, my original attack slotting for my elec/elec blaster was 2 accuracy so's, 3 damage so's and 1 end reducer SO. That roughly gave me 67% accuracy, 95% damage and 33% end reduction. But, if I were to switch to IO's, and only use ones I find I could do something like this: 2 accuracy Io's = 85% 2 damage io's = 85% 1 end reduction IO = 42% and a recharge IO = 42%. Now, for a loss of roughly 10% damage, I've roughly gained a 42% accuracy bonus, a 9% end reduction bonus and a 42% recharge bonus.

Of course there is the fact the schedule A IO's cost almost a half million influence to buyy and to craft, until you memorize them and they go down to a 1/4 million cost. But you have to remember this system was designed knowing that most players who have played 6 months or more and have one 50 usually had 30 million or more stored up. I'm probably under-estimating that number, since there have been reports of people with over a billion influence. I know Rain himself was packing over a 100 million when he left the game, and that was with giving out tons of influence to people. The newer people may find it difficult to do the IO thing, since many SG's are adamant about prestige gain, but us veterans often had millions lying around collecting dust. Even if someone wants to avoid the seemingly complicated process of learning all the sets and how to balance bonuses, and I will admit the learning curve is fairly high, they should easily be able to deal with common IO's and using them to enhance their characters abilities.

You could easily skip out on the named sets and still enjoy IO's.

As for my brute, I've roughly spent 50 million outfitting him to get these bonuses:

Regeneration 8%
reduces duration of Immobilize effects on you by 2.75%.
increases maximum health by 1.5%.
increases Smashing defense by 3.75%.

all x 5.

reduces the duration of Fear effects on you by 2.2%.
increases Fire and Cold resistance by 1.26%.
improves the Healing of all your powers by 4%.
improves the Recharge of all your powers by 5%.
increases Toxic and Psionic resistance by 1.26%.

Regeneration by 12%
20.0% bonus to regeneration rate and a 10.0% bonus to

endurance recovery rate
25.0% bonus to your regeneration rate

3.0% defense bonus to all attacks

Regeneration by 10%


Totaling:
Regen rate increase: 164%(includes healths slotted bonus)
HP Increase: 7.5%
Smashing Defense: 18.75%
Global Defense: 3%
Endurance Recovery: 10%
Immobilization Duration Decrease: 13.75%
Toxic, Fire, Cold and Psi Resistance: 1.26%
Recharge Bonus: 5%