Young_Tutor

1.) What are you trying to accomplish with this level 33-locked character?

2.) Is there a particular type of content that you plan on running with it?

3.) Are you personally invested in the idea of a TW/FA brute, or did you just think it would be really effective for whatever goals you have?

You might want to think about swapping out Perfect Zinger for Mocking Beratement. Slightly less s/l, slightly more +rech, but bonus of extra +end and some f/c def thrown in.

I didn't see where you had any of the accolade powers that give +hp or +end, but those would make an impact on a */regen.

Dark Melee would have great single target damage and all the +recharge would be useful for keeping Soul Drain up as much as possible. The to-hit debuffs would also be nice. Kinda light on AOE damage. You'd have an end recovery power, so problems with endurance ought to be minimal. Touch of Fear would give you a little bit of control for annoying LTs. Siphon Life would be another heal (still slot it for damage) to go along with your regeneration arsenal.

Glad the Miracle helped! Putting in the Numina ought to seal the deal as far as your end woes go.

As far as the whole recharge/def debate goes, I don't see the need to be all or nothing. You can get LOTG recharges via Alignment Merits and just not worry about Red Fortune. Basilisk's Gaze has ranged def, recharge, and recovery, Malaise's Illusions has recovery, recharge, and ranged def, Stupefy has recovery, +hp, recharge, and ranged def.

You didn't mention whether or not you had Numina/Miracle/Performance Shifter slotted in Health and Stamina. If you are VIP and have re-affirmed your hero alignment, at your level you can run SSA 1-4 and get alignment merits in short order. If you were going to pick up Cloud Senses or Basilisk's Gaze, those sets top out at 30 and give +end and +recovery bonuses. Call To Arms also gives +rec and is a level 30 set.

If any of those were on your long term buy list, might as well get them sooner than later.

1.) So you have 4 resist powers. 2 of them are 5 slotted w/ Aegis. 1 (auto-power) has the default slot. 1 (Tough) has the gladiator +def and the steadfast +def. Aegis 3 slotted gives 3.13% defense and 5 slotted an extra 1.56%. If you moved 2 of the slots over to one of your other shields, you could have a bit more fire defense (or allow you to forgo another 1.56% fire def bonus somewhere else).

2.) Get the Force Feeback: chance for +recharge proc in footstomp. It's just that good. If you adjusted your shields as above, you could keep fire defense the same.

3.) You might have some issues with your endurance bar. I'd go Miracle over Numina, and if this is a fire-farm build a generic End Mod IO might be better than the Performance Shifter since you won't be facing sappers.

From an exemping standpoint:

You have CJ and SS taken early. That will give you plenty of mobility, but perhaps almost too much? Fly at 22? That's a lot of travel powers early in the build. Jetpacks are cheap. Squeeze Weave down lower.

Make sure your LOTG +recharge globals are level 25.

If you use level 41 IOs for the sets that go up to 50, you will keep most of the bonus and get a huge amount of flexiblity for exemping.

1.) Strike: not sure what Kinetic Combat is bringing to your build. I'd go with Crushing Impact (recharge) or Mocking Beratement (recharge *and* fire defense).

2.) You 5 slot many of your armors with Aegis, but you are only getting +1.56% Fire Defense more than just leaving it at 3 slots.

3.) In your pbaoe attacks, you have Obliteration in Blazing Aura and Multi-Strike in Burn. Oblit has a lot of recharge in the enhancements and very little end reduction; its a toggle. Multi-Strike has very little recharge and a lot of endurance. This strikes me as backwards.

4.) Spin is a moderate PBAOE, Consumer is a minor one. You have Consume slotted for damage, and Spin slotted almost as a set mule. You'd be more effective if you did it the other way around.

5.) If you are going to farm AE maps, you can easily get a Steadfast Protection +3% defense by rolling 10-14 bronze. You should include that one, and the Gladiator +3% def IO has come down in price some too (relatively).

1.) Double XP weekend is coming up soon (March 16-19). That will speed up xp gain for all of you, and if y'all are able to set up a bit of free time to play then so much the better!

2.) If the Weekly Task Force is one that is open to folks in your level range, you'll also get xp faster from that. To be honest, the current WTF is Statesman/Lord Recluse, which is open to level 45-50. Your friend who is level 45 would get a huge part of the way to 50 if they did STF a couple of times this weekend (especially if they had an XP booster temp power active).

3.) Your friend who is level 43 would need a bit of help to get 45 if he wanted to do STF this weekend for the bonus XP. My advice would be to roll an Emp/Fire Defender and have one or both of them exemp down and kill LT Hellions in the park in Atlas until you hit level 4. Train, then try an AE cave farm map with both blasters at -1x4 or 5. If that goes well, take it to +0 and then +1, then gradually increase the number of players its set for. If you play smart and use inspirations, an emp ought to be able to keep them on their feet, and as /fire you'll have some extra AOE attacks to help fuel the slaughter.

Sent you a PM, if you have some free time this weekend I could roll up a lowbie and run some DFBs with ya! I enjoy weird projects like this.

I agree with you about Kinetics having a great 1-2 punch with Transfusion and Siphon Power. I rolled an ice/kin controller and had great fun wrecking faces. Ice Control's AOE get's crap damage, but I've got it loaded with procs and its nearly always up. I don't have to aim or move around so it makes it really easy. Good insight about Ice Blast's greater base accuracy. With the Acc bonus from the DFB trial, you'll be doing well. The scourge effect would be nice on frost breath, too.

The GR starter IOs give 16.7% dam/16.7% recharge plus procs. 2 of them in a power would give 33.4% to dam and rech (before the exemping tariff) vs 38.3% from +3 SO. Are the procs worth the difference in damage/recharge? I'm not sure of the chance to proc or the damage done to really crunch the DPS. The lost %s would be less visible on the first levels, where you aren't getting as much of the raw enhancement value anyway.

So I think this is the skinny on how exemping affects enhancement value, as calculated by my from the charts on paragonwiki:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar...n_Enhancements

If you lock at level 5, you get the 2 level 1 powers, the level 2 and level 4 power, each with their default slot. You get 4 slots to spread around. Your SOs are full value (38.3% for +3s) for the Hydra level, 30% on the Lost level, 22% on Vhaz level, and 14% on the Hellion level.

If you lock at level 6, when you are on the Hydra level you are getting 31% out of +3 SOs, with that dropping to 24%, 18%, and 12%. Locked at level 7, the numbers are 26%, 21%, 15%, and 10%. Skipping ahead to level 10 you'd have 18%, 14%, 10%, and 7%.

You get more slots, and powers, but the value of each enhancement gets weaker. At level 10, you basically start DFB with TOs that gradually improve to DOs. The higher you level above 10, the more worthless the enhancement value of your SOs become. There's probably a tipping point, that would depend on how valuable your level 8 and 10 powers were. If they are pretty nice it might be worth it to get the extra level and take the hit. If they weren't critical, you'd be stronger to just level lock at a lower level.

A head's up about exemping and the value of your enhancements . . . when I exemped from 10 to 5, SO value dropped from 36 to 17. At level 3, it was around 10. Didn't check level 2, but I imagine it was even greater degradation of value. Depending on what power you would take at level 10, it might be worth capping at 8 or 9 to keep most of the value of the SOs intact. Doesn't make sense to add more levels for extra slots if the value of the SO keeps dropping.

For accuracy and to-hit, there's the DFB hydra bonus and the natural lowbie to-hit bonus. You could also slot the kismet +to-hit in combat jumping to help out with all your attacks.

Here are links to the GR enhancements and the bonuses for the DFB trial.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Pre-Order_%28Going_Rogue%29

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/DfB

I am not sure how the GR enhancements scale down when you have a natural level of 20 but are exemped down to levels 2-6. It may be that the extra slots you gain by leveling from 11-20 are eclipsed by the hit to enhancement value while exemped. Don't have time to pop on live and see how that works right now. Obviously the procs would still work, however. And the prospect of having up to 5 procs (4 damage, 1 knockdown) in an aoe immobilize is fun. To be honest, it might be almost as easy to level 2 characters and lock one at 10 and one at 20 and compare the enhancement values to see which one has better enhancement value.

The DFB bonuses will give you +12% to-hit, +12% damage, +5.25% defense, and +15% recovery. If you had a bunch of purple/pvp sets laying around, then perhaps going to 50 would be better, but that's a ton of extra work and billions of influence. Going to 20 (or 18) would open up some of the level 20/21 IOs, but that might not be worth it if the overall enhancement value of your powers gets severely diminished.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar...n_Enhancements

Twilight Grasp and Transfusion do the same amount of -regen, 50%. Howling Twilight does -500% regen. I personally think that the -regen is very useful in AV fights. Howling Twilight is autohit, and also has a stun component (won't affect the Hydra Heads, but would affect the minions) and by the way, its a rez :-) Kinetics has Repel, which might be interesting to use for reverse herding or in conjunction with your aoe immobilize.

Ice Control vs Electric Control doesn't seem to be a huge deal to me. Hellions vulnerability to cold is nice, and the slow effect would help mitigate damage, but ultimately its all about fun. Electric brings some other tools to the table as well.

A key question: do you envision leveling the character up to 50, or level locking it at 20 such that it could benefit from the GR starter enhancements as well as the bonuses from DFB? I could see pros and cons to each. If you went whole hog with purples and/or PVP sets, you could keep the bonuses, but that might be a little more than you wanted to do.

I'd choose Magic origin for the minor -res debuff effect.

As far as IOs go, you won't get any set bonuses since you'll be capped at level 5, but you can benefit from enhancement value from IOs as well as procs. You could slot -KB IOs, Miracle Recovery, Performance Shifter +End, Kismet +to-hit, as well as chance for damage procs.

When it comes to support, I would go with Dark Miasma (Dark Affinity for Controllers). At level 1, you get Twilight Grasp . . . a powerful heal that also does -regeneration. You get Tar Patch at level 2, a location slow and -res debuff. I'd skip Darkest Night (you'll be moving too fast for it to really matter) but you could take it if you wanted. Your level 10 power, Howling Twilight, is a fantastic combo stun/group rez/-regeneration power. The massive amount of -regeneration in Dark Miasma is what puts it over the top. You can spam Twilight Grasp on AV fights and take them down that much faster. Howling Twilight will always be useful. I'd overslot Tar Patch and Howling Twilight if possible since at that level you won't be in ED territory with just 3 slots.

I'd consider Ice Control. Hellions are vulnerable to ice damage, they resist fire. Vhaz zombies resist smashing. Sample powers would be:

1: Block of Ice
1: Twilight Grasp
2: Frostbite
4: Tar Patch
6: Combat Jumping (-KB, Kismet +to-hit)
8: Chilblain (or maybe something else)
10: Howling Twilight

Some rough tips for moving from SOs to IOs:

1.) Craft stuff yourself. You'll typically save a bundle and make your inf go further. In general, patient bids will get you more stuff than buying things *now*.

2.) The difference in enhancement value for level 50 set IOs compared to stuff 41-49 is not huge, but the difference in price may well be. If you exemplar a lot, having level 41 IOs will ensure that you keep your bonuses for many of the most frequent Weekly Task Forces. Having everything level 50 looks nice, but I'm not convinced its worth a premium if you can snag cheaper recipes of slightly lower level.

3.) If you have a character who can farm AE missions, level 10-14 silver ticket rolls will generate Basilisk's Gaze recipes (as well as some other valuable recipes, which can be crafted and sold to extend your influence).

You'll want Basilisk's Gaze 4-slotted in your holds, that's a given. As many LOTG +recharge as you can afford and fit into your build. The LOTG +7.5% bonus counts as its own bonus for the rule of 5, so you can get quite a few +7.5% bonuses. I'd 3-slot Hasten. Other sets of note:

Glimpse of the Abyss: 5-slotted in a fear power, gives +6.25% recharge
Malaise's Illusions: 5-slotted in a confuse, gives +6.25% recharge
Call of the Sandman: 5-slotted in a sleep, gives 6.25% recharge

These sets are not terribly expensive, especially if you bargain hunt. That's quite a few 6.25% bonuses right there (remember, you can only benefit from 5 6.25% bonuses). Eventually you might want to pick up a "cheap" purple set like sleep or confuse, but that might be out of your price range right now. You'll also get some solid bonuses other than +recharge.

Positron's Blast 5-slotted also gives 6.25% recharge. Its more expensive than the sets above, but the TAOE purple set is quite expensive too. You might want to initially slot the cheaper mez sets for your 6.25% bonuses, and try to bargain shop for Positron's Blasts over time to slot when you start slotting purple mez sets.

Crushing Impact 5-slotted gives 5% recharge. You didn't have a melee power in your build, but you could get a bit more global recharge if you did.

Obliteration 5-slotted gives 5% recharge. Again, no PBAOEs, but the option is there. Oblits can be pricy.

Sting of the Manticore: 5-slotted gives 7.5% recharge. Same as with Crushing Impact and Oblits. Not especially pricy.

5x LOTG recharge gives you 37.5%. 2 Basilisk's gives 15%. 5 6.25% bonuses gives you 31.25%. Put it all together and you are at +83% global recharge before hasten. Hasten's +70% takes you to over 150%, and while you can't count on that being up all the time, it will be up enough to take you close to Perma-Dom (123% I believe) most of the time. Hasten itself is perma at 110% global recharge (not counting Hasten's 70% bonus). If that is not enough for you, maybe incorporate a couple of more bonuses via Crushing Impact, Obliteration, or Sting of the Manticore and/or go Agility or Spiritual with the Alpha to make Hasten recharge a bit faster. Obviously if you get 2 "cheap" purple sets that will also push Hasten's recharge to the point where you'll have perma-Dom.

I'd go with Thunderstrikes in your ranged attack powers. It gives solid, all around bonuses (ranged defense, accuracy, and recovery) as well as solid enhancement value. I don't think I can say this enough, but if you aren't picky about the levels between 41-49 and weren't in a hurry to get it done, you can kit yourself out at quite a discount.

A couple of other things you may want to put in for quality of life purposes. Kismet +Acc (actually +to-hit, which is even better) will help you hold your own until you get your level shifts and lots of +accuracy bonuses. Winters Gift Slow Resist will help you against foes with -recharge.

I'm going to be a contrarian and make the case for the Miracle. You don't have problems with endurance . . . except for long fights. So most people are saying go for the Numina's, because you'll get +regeneration *and* +recovery. But unless you have some other sources of +regeneration, that +20% from the Numina's isn't going to go very far. Might as well just take the slightly higher +recovery bonus as it addresses the minor endurance issue.

Very good guide!

How To Make Your Hero (or whatever) AWESOME!

This guide is intended to help folks pick up on the little (and not so little) things that separate the average COX characters from the awesome ones. I’m assuming that folks reading this are VIPs (I don’t have any experience with F2P characters). Hopefully there will be tips that are useful to both people with 50s and to new players. There is a lot of good information expanding on these tips in greater detail at

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

Additionally, the map pack from Vidiotmaps can be very useful in helping you get exploration and history badges.

http://www.badge-hunter.com/index.php?/page/maps.php

Get to 50

One of the most important things you can do to make your hero awesome is get to level 50. You don’t have to powerlevel (in fact, there are many things you can do on the way to 50 that will make your hero more awesome that you’d have to go back and do via flashback anyway). That said, playing a level 50 will give you more influence and better rewards than goofing off at lower levels. There are many things you can do with a level 50 that you cannot do with a lower level hero. Keep that in mind, but enjoy the ride.

Death From Below

Many people run DFB over and over because its good xp. If you do this, you might have to double back and get content you outleveled. One thing to remember about DFB is that it gives you a boost at the end as a reward that lasts one week or until you hit level 22. These boosts can be selected once, so if you run it 4 times you’ll have all of them. They help make you more powerful until you get to level 22 (when you can slot single-origin enhancements).

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Death_From_Below

Get to the O-zone

The Ouroboros zone is an extradimensional space where heros (and others) can access “flashback” mission as well as level 50 incarnate content. If you earn the badge “Entrusted With The Secret” you will get a temporary power that allows you to access the O-zone. You can use this to travel between different zones, which makes travel easier. You can gain access to the O-zone at level 14, most folks would be happy to meet you somewhere to open an O-zone portal for you. You can obtain the “Entrusted With The Secret” badge by flying up to the top of the spire in the O-zone and getting the Chrononaut exploration badge .

Get a Jetpack

If you don’t have fly or hover, you can purchase a jetpack for 10,000 inf from a jetpack vendor located in Firebase Zulu (access via a portal in Peregrine Island) or in Grandville. You can also earn a temporary power Raptor Pack by doing the level 5-10 safeguard/mayhem mission. To get safeguard missions, talk with the police detective in KR and do scanner missions (villains talk with their broker and do paper missions).

Become a Midnighter

You can earn the badge Midnight Squad once you’ve reached level 10 by doing a story arc by Montague Castanella (Ashley McKnight for villains). This allows you access to the Midnighter Club, which you’ll need in order to access the zone of Cimeroa (where the Imperious Task Force is run).

Join Vanguard

At level 35, you can earn the Member of Vanguard badge by doing the introductory mission from Levantra in the Rikti War Zone. This will allow you to earn Vanguard Merits by defeating Rikti.

Run Tip Missions

Starting at level 21, you can earn tips by defeating foes level 21 or higher. If you click on your contacts tab, you’ll see a tab for “Tips”. By selecting tips, you can choose missions that will allow you to change your alignment or reaffirm your alignment. You can get credit for doing up to 5 tip missions in a 20 hour period. After you’ve earned 10 points toward the alignment you are working towards, a special tip for a “morality mission” may drop. By doing that mission, you can change your alignment or reaffirm your alignment. The first time you reaffirm your alignment, you get 50 reward merits, and afterwards will earn hero merits (or villain merits) which can be exchanged for stuff at Ft. Trident in Atlas Park or The Crucible in Cap Au Diable.

Run Signature Story Arcs

Signature Story Arcs are special story arcs that give extra rewards. The first time you run each arc on a character, you get a “free” reward. Afterwards all the story arcs are on a timer so that you can get each reward only once per week. If you have reaffirmed your hero/villain status, you can choose a hero/villain Merit as the reward. Currently there are 4 SSA’s in the game.

Do Task Forces or Story Arcs

Task Forces and Story Arcs give merit rewards upon completion. These can be exchanged for other rewards at vendors. Each week there is a different Weekly Task Force (Strike Force) that gives double bonuses. Many Task Forces will allow you to easily earn various Defeat Badges for defeating certain foes. Some of these badges are necessary for accolades which give you useful powers.

Use Global Channels

Most servers have one or more global chat channels dedicated to helping players find groups to do content with. Be polite and you’ll find plenty of people to play with and often some very, very good advice

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Global_Chat_Channels

Earn Badges

Most zones have 8 exploration badges, and if you earn all 8 you will receive an accolade and 5 merits as a reward. Many zones also have history badges which can be earned by clicking on different plaques or pedestals to learn about the history of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. I like to go back and pick off all the badges in a zone at once just to make sure I have them. Some exploration badges and history badges are necessary for accolades which give you useful powers.

Earn Accolades

Here’s a list of accolade powers:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Hero_Accolade_Powers

Of particular use are the ones that give you +HP and +END. This will help you be more sturdy and keep your blue bar from going dry as fast.

Earn Invention and Consignment Badges

Many people hate crafting and the market. Some of the badges you can earn, however, will boost the number of recipe, salvage, or auction house slots you have. Each level 25/30 Invention badge you earn will give you +2 salvage slots. Each 45-50 badge you earn will give you an extra recipe slot. Here is a link to the Invention badge page:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Invention_Badges

You have to sell a lot of stuff to get the extra AH slots, it sort of takes care of itself.

You can buy recipes on the Market, or you can buy them from a crafting table. Personally for the level 25-30 recipes I just buy them from a crafting table unless there are a ton for sale cheap. Level 50 recipes are best bought on the market. I like to knock them out one by one in my spare time so I can keep track of how many I need to craft. Some crafted IOs can sell well, others are basically junk and I delete them. If you do this patiently, you can make a little bit of influence or at least break even.

Day Jobs

You can earn Day Job powers by logging off in certain locations. This also gives you small bonuses. Once you’ve earned a day job badge, you can recharge the day job power by logging of in that location. Not game-changing, but not nothing. Might as well log out somewhere useful.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Hero_Day_Job_Badges

Empowerment Buffs

If you are in supergroup with a base and an empowerment station, you can use salvage to craft empowerment buffs. These are small bonuses that last for one hour. Not game changing, but some are useful.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Empowerment_Buffs

Shivan Shard and Warburg Nukes

There are several temporary powers you can earn in PVP zones, but IMO the most useful ones are Shivan Shards and Warburg Nukes

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Shivan_Shard

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Warburg_Nuke

These rock on hard missions, such as in TFs. Having these powers handy can make a difficult encounter easy. They can be earned again after you use them, so might as well earn them and use them.

Other Temporary Powers

There are lot of temp powers you can earn in game or buy recipes off the market and craft.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Temporary_Powers

Might as well craft them and use them. I like Envenomed Dagger for AV fights because it debuffs regeneration and can make them easier to defeat.

Inspirations

I always like to try and keep an open spot or two in my inspiration tray so that more inspirations will drop. You can combine 3 inspirations of one type into 1 of another type so you can get rid of ones you don’t want, or you can delete them or give them to teammates. Oh, and you can always eat them!

Incarnate Slots

At level 50, you can run Mender Ramiel’s arc in the O-Zone to unlock your Alpha Slot. You can craft incarnate abilities that will give you bonuses or extra powers. Slots beyond Alpha must be unlocked by running incarnate trials. Each ability has 4 tiers. If you have a 3rd or 4th tier Alpha ability equipped, you get a Level Shift making you 50+1 so that you fight as if you were level 51. If you have a 3rd or 4th tier Lore or Destiny ability equipped, you get an incarnate level shift (it only applies when doing incarnate content).

Getting a 3rd tier alpha ability equipped should be a priority once you hit 50. In addition to the level shift, you get bonuses (½ of which are not affected by the diminishing returns of Enhancement Diversification).

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Incarnate_System

Use IOs

There are many individual IOs and IO sets that will help make you more powerful. IOing your hero can be so specific that a general purpose guide would not even begin to scratch the surface. Here are some guidelines to pick some low-hanging fruit, and look at more specific guides for additional insight.

Special IOs

There are some IOs that give bonuses by themselves. Some of them act as procs, some as set bonuses. Some are unique, some can be slotted more than once. Here is a link for more information about special IOs:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs

Of general interest to all heros who have issues with endurance, there are 3 special IOs that will help. Miracle +rec (2 Hero Merits), Numina’s Convalescence +rec/+regen (2 Hero Merits), and Performance Shifter chance for +end (1 Hero Merit). You can slot them as soon as you reach the minimum level, higher levels do not mean higher performance. They can be very expensive so I would recommend using Hero Merits to buy the recipes and craft them yourself. Performance Shifter works best as a 3rd slot in Stamina, especially after you have earned the +max endurance accolades. Miracle goes in your default Health slot, put another slot in Health once you have Numina.

Reasonable IO Sets

Thunderstrike, Crushing Impact, and Multistrike are uncommon set IOs that give solid bonuses and also give good enhancement value. Over level 30, the level of the recipe really doesn’t matter to terribly much (although you‘ll get more enhancement value out of the higher level recipes). Some people wait till level 50 and put everything with level 50 IOs, but depending on how fast you level it can be good fun to enjoy them earlier. You can get these on the market at reasonable prices if you aren’t picky about the level and are willing to put in lowball bids and be patient. If they fill, cool, if not, no sweat. You don’t need to use all the IOs in a set, you can slot 2 from one set and get the 2 slot bonus and put four in from another set, or 5 from one set and a random 6th one, etc.

Frankenslot

You can also basically ignore set bonuses altogether and get some extra oomph from your IOs by mixing and matching IOs from different sets to get maximum enhancement value. Often you can get recipes from “worthless” sets that lack nice bonuses for very cheap. Ruin or Focused Smite are great places to look for bargains.

Expensive IO sets

Rares, purples, or PVP IOs are extremely expensive. You probably need to do more research on your own before investing heavily in them. The exception that proves the rule is the Positron’s Blast set. There really aren’t any other great TAOE sets, the purple TAOE set isn‘t twice as good and is way, way more expensive. You can get bits and pieces of Positron’s Blast from the market at decent prices, filling in hard to get ones via Hero Merits if necessary.

Learn To Market

Read the market forums with an open mind and a willingness to learn. There are a number of ways to get lots of INF depending on what you like to do in the game.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, please add any suggestions in comments.

Creating a build to exemp down for TFs can be fun, although I do agree that strictly speaking it isn't *necessary*. A couple of design principles to think about:

1.) Doing a build with generic level 50 IOs is okay (especially if you haven't earned the crafting badges for all the level 50 recipes . . . you get bonus recipe slots as a reward for each badge) but for many powers you'd be better off frankenslotting over generic IOs. My assumption is that this would be a build for non-fire farm level 50 content, which would include incarnate trials, so why not kick it up a notch? If you are farming AE missions for tickets and rolling for recipes, you've likely been generating a lot of stuff that doesn't sell like hotcakes but would be perfectly fine for frankenslotting.

Take Focused Smite, its got an Acc/Dam/Rech and an Acc/End/Rech. Replace an acc and a rech with those and you get +19% Dam and +19% End thrown in for free (you lose 3.8% from acc and rech over the 50 IO, but its a net gain of 15.5%). What's the 2 slot set bonus for Focused Smite? Who cares? If you treat them like mini-HOs, you can get a build that's quite a bit more effective than just using generics.

2.) Next level would be using cheap sets that give decent bonuses. Take Crushing Impact or Multistrike. Would those be the go-to sets if you were planning your dream build out in Mids? Maybe not, but they give good enhancement value *and* have solid set bonuses. And again, if you are rolling tickets for recipes, you probably see a lot of these anyway.

3.) This isn't in any order, but here's a little trick that might help you out: Fury of the Gladiator gives you +3 points of KB protection when its 3 slotted. Its a PVP recipe, but its not insanely expensive, and you get that bonus no matter what level you are. Because I assume that as a /FA you want some KB protection.

4.) Anyway, back to my original train of thought. There are some single IOs that you are going to want to get for any build if you can afford them (and as a farming brute, you can afford them). KB protection (unless you use point 3 above), a stealth IO in sprint, the miracle and numina uniques in health, and probably the performance shifter proc in stamina. My guess is you'll want the Steadfast Protection +3% def, and some LOTG +7.5%s too. A-Merits are your friends for these. In terms of exemping, for many of them the level is near irrelevant for performance, so max level might not be a big deal (indeed, it might be undesirable). Here is a link to help you figure that out:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs

5.) You could use "real" IO sets (the expensive, desirable ones) but just not worry too much about losing the set bonuses when you exemp. The bonuses would be handy for Incarnate content, and lower-level content isn't *that* difficult. I mean, your main build is a farm build, if you like playing the character enough to want to take it through other content, why not do the 2nd build right?

6.) If you are using Kinetic Combat, Reactive Armor, Eradication, or other sets with a max level below 40, there are plenty of bonuses you would keep anyway while exemped (at certain levels) without making a special exemp build.

7.) You could choose to use level 42s where it would matter for set bonuses, and keep them down to level 39. This wouldn't gimp you at all for incarnate content (the difference between level 42 and level 50 set IOs is not huge when it comes to enhancement value) and you wouldn't have to worry about losing something while exemped for a fair amount of content. Blueside it would cover you for Numina, Eden, Sutter, Dr. Q, 2nd Respec, and the Abandoned Sewers Trial. Redside it would cover 2nd respec, Kal, and Ice Mistral. Since the Weekly TF/SFs started, these have been very common selections. You'd also be squared away for many of the flashbacks and SSAs. If you used 41s, you'd keep your set bonuses in Warburg.

Obviously this would take a bit more patience and dedication than just using 50s (especially since as a farmer you can generate a lot of level 50 recipes yourself whereas to get 42s you'd need to use the market) so you'd have to decide for yourself whether this was worth it in terms of time and effort. But ignoring time and effort, I do think the gains of keeping your set bonuses down to level 39 outweigh the small amount of enhancement value you lose by not using 50s if you plan on exemping at all.

8.) Here's where I get crazy: if you have a 2nd build that can do level 50 content with good enhancement value and exemp down to the high 30s with set bonuses intact, and is probably good enough to do lower level stuff even without the bonuses . . . what do you do with your third build? Make a *crazy* good lower level exemp build!

The way set bonuses work, if you are within 3 levels of the IO, you get the bonus no matter whether you have access to it. You only have access to powers that are no more than 5 levels higher than when you selected them. So if you have a build that you never plan on playing above level 29, your choice of APP/PPP is only relevent in terms of the set bonuses you can get from muling IOs in those powers. And the enhancement value you get out of those powers doesn't matter. So while (for example) you might never ordinarily take a pet from a PPP, if you put 4 level 18 Call to Arms in there you would have some +rech, +HP, and +recovery. Level 20 Positron's Blast in a weak AOE? No problem, its greyed out anyway.

For the powers you *do* plan on using, frankenslotting might be the way to go if there weren't any decent sets that would give you reasonable enhancement value. You might want to *overslot* and break the ED rule of 3, since enhancement value scales down when you are exemped. You might want to use more procs (not sure if the GR dam/rech plus proc special IOs work while exemped, but if you can exemp down and get the proc then they would be fantastic).

Again, that might not at all be worth the time and trouble to implement.

Not to be a total build, but a couple of things I'd do. (Buy recipes and craft yourself to save money is generally the best idea).

1.) I'd grab the Numina and Miracle uniques and put them in health. Both will give you some extra +recovery. You might as well get those via A-merits.

2.) I'd put the Performance Shifter Proc in Stamina as the third slot. A-merits are good for this, too.

3.) Positron's Blast 5-slotted in your TAOE powers. If you are flexible about level, this won't set you back too much (anything 41+ is basically fine).

4.) Thunderstrike (6 for ranged defense) or Decimation (5 for recharge) in ranged attacks. Thunderstrikes same as Posi's, but might as well get Decimation at max level.

5.) Basilisk's Gaze 4 slotted in your holds. Might as well get max level.

6.) -KB IOs are nice, as is the Steadfast Protection +3% def if you can stack it with extra +def from power pool picks or set bonuses.

7.) If you have the powers to put them in, the LOTG +7.5% global recharge is nice (you can get its bonus up to 5x, and also get 5 other 7.5% bonuses from other sources). I'd get them with A-merits.

Pretty much any build you get is going to include some form of the above sets. Bidding patiently will get some some of them, but for others doing tips or SSA for alignment merits is the way to go.

You also want to make sure you get the +endurance and +HP accolades (as well as any of the other ones that look fun)

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Hero_Accolade_Powers

Recieved the Atlas Medallion is pretty easy to get. The others are a little tougher, but definately worth seeking out.

Seconding what others have said, if you are level 50 and newly-returned to the game probably the *last* thing you would want to do is buy all your IOs @ level 50. The crafting costs of level 50s vs level 49s (or really anything from level 41-49) is a lot more than the extra enhancement value. [Needless to say, if you want to IO out a newly returned level 50, you want to craft stuff yourself]. Here's a quick and dirty IOing guide:

1.) Some powers only take one type of IO and don't take sets. Buy recipes and craft stuff for these powers @level 50. There are badges for memorizing level 45-50 recipes and you get +1 recipe slot for earning them. I find it worthwhile.

2.) You can earn hero merits (villian merits redside) for doing the Signature Story Arc (1 the first time, and 1 per week afterwards for a total of 2 the first week you do it per character). You can also gain hero merits for doing ten tip missions (5 per day) and then running an alignment mission. The first alignment mission gives 50 regular merits, each subsequent one gives 1 hero merit. This can be a solid way to get expensive recipes on a budget; if you are like many characters you have stamina 3 slotted. 2 level 50 end mod IOs plus a Performance Shifter +end proc (I like level 21 because the salvage is less expensive and level makes no difference) is better than 3 level 50 IOs. If endurance is at all an issue, you could also slot Miracle +recovery in Health (and eventually Numina's +regen/recovery). With a decent amount of attention, you could have all 3 of those within 2 weeks (2 hero merits from SSA, run 10 tips 50 merits, run ten tips 1 hero merit, run SSA a week later, do tips second week).

Depending on your character, you can get some nice bonuses this way. LOTG +7.5% recharge global bonus IOs are expensive, but they are only 2 hero merits. Do you have alts? They can help earn hero merits for you.

3.) The incarnate system gives you extra abilities. You can unlock the alpha slot by running Mender Ramiel's arc in the O-zone. You can gain incarnate components by running various level 50 content. If you get your Alpha to Tier 3, you get a level shift which will dramatically increase your power @ level 50. You can get deeper into the weeds than your Alpha slot, but this will be a huge bang for buck. Regardless of the other effects of the Alpha enhancement, you'll be level 51. That's bigtime.

4.) You can use set IOs as mini-HOs by "frankenslotting" them. Ignore the set bonuses, buy cheap recipes that give you the enhancement value you desire and craft them. By frankenslotting, you can effectively 7, 8, or even *9* slot powers. This works really well for controllers; 4 acc/hold/rech IOs is essentially 6 SOs worth of enhancement value.

5.) You can also slot some solid sets that give decent bonuses. You might pay a little more, but if you can pick up some +rech, + hp, +end/rec, +acc without breaking the bank, why not? Thunderstrike and Crushing Impact are the two sets that I like a lot. If you aren't picky about what level you get, and you are willing to leave bids out for a week or so over several levels, you can pick up these recipes under 500k. There are some relatively cheap control sets that give good bonuses.

6.) Some IOs work the same no matter what their level. Other IOs work as set bonuses so generally the lower the IO, the better. Here's a list of them :

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs

7.) Finally, don't forget your accolade powers. Some of them (in particular the +hp and +end ones) are very useful:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Hero_Accolade_Powers

Welcome back!

@Ironblade, I could see slotting that way too.

Got my defender to 35, oh lordy but my patient bids have paid off! I had several bids out on each recipe in a range I could use, crafted all of the ones that filled, slotted the ones I'd prefer, sold the rest. Profit! I've moved it up a level to placing multipe bids on each recipe in a range, crafting the ones that filled slotting one and selling the rest. I've also been crafting and selling good drops.

I'm up to 200 million now.

I have obliteration 4-slotted (don't think I'll get a cheap proc or quad), doctored wounds 4-slotted, thunderstrike 2 and 3 slotted. I'm at level 35.

I've been teaming a bit more, and part of me wishes I had more slots in my primary. My secondary is strong enough that I can wreck stuff solo (for a defender) and I can carry my own weight on teams, but over the next few levels I really want to round out my primary to allow some more interesting things.

Part of me is a little conflicted on the shift in my marketeering strategy: crafting your good drops and selling them isn't exactly next level marketeering, neither is placing extra bids for the good stuff you want to slot and selling the excess. At the same time, it *is* a definite step up from the mundane strategies I had been using. I'm not devoting any more time to the market, I'm not using esotetic niche knowledge, etc . . . so I'm personally okay with it. It seems like a natural evolution that a noice would make if they were serious about using the market. I understand that people who *hate* the market and agressively don't want to use it might cry foul; I am intentionally *not* aggressively buying excess recipes at this point (for example, I'm not bidding 10x even though I have ample influence to so so).

I got to play a lot this weekend and made it to level 30! Highlights include doing Sister Psyche's TF and running all the First Ward Arcs. I also did some random teaming here and there, ran tips, etc.

IO wise I now have Positron's Blast 5 slotted with a level 25 common damage IO in the 6th slot. I had two bids out for the proc, and after waiting a week they both filled overnight at the same time for an average of 2.5 million. I crafted both, and posted the one I didn't slot for sale and got 20 million for it. Even afer subtracting crafting costs, I was *really* psyched for that. I also slotted the Numina's in Health (along with Miracle) and put a LOTG recharge global in Manuevers (I already had those, just didn't have the slots for them).

I picked up 2 Thunderstrike Acc/Dam/End and 2 Dam/End Rech recipes @ level 33 for around 100k each. I also got a couple of Oblit Dam/Rech for around 500k each, crafted the one I'll use, put the other one up on the market and we'll see how it sells. I think I also got an Oblit Acc/Dam/Rech but I haven't been to the market in a while due to camping out in First Ward.

When I log on tonight, I need to hoof it to WWs to see how I'm doing, restock it with some common IO recipes, and plan my next round of wish-list purchases. Minus the aformentioned Posi proc "flipping" (ie selling my spare) its been all selling drops at WWs and crafted common IOs. I'm up to about 100 million in the bank plus the IOs I have slotted.

To me, a lot of it has to do with "have they gotten a significant number of the easy badges?" Do they have a fair number of of the expore zone accolades? History badges? Have they done most of the TFs? Have they earned any Flashback badges? Do they have a fair number of defeat badges? Any history badges beyond those for accolades? If the answer is "yes" to *all* of those (as appropriate by level), then I'd call them a badger.

If you are level 50 and *don't* have Task Force Commander, I suspect you aren't a badger. If you are level 35 and don't have Gearsmasher, ditto. I might be wrong . . . everyone plays the game their own way . . . but the way *I* badge, I clear out the low-hanging fruit.