Arctic Soul

Thanks for the comment. You definitely have some refined points. At the same time you also agreed I was more interested in the general point which was also right on. I just wanted to point out that my overall fact in this was to know how to program the power to the best of its ability without waste and not looking at bonuses, procs, or the use of generics. When I’m able to beat a melee in arena, it tells me they simply don’t know how to slot. I’m not seeing the DMG priority on CI though. Maybe I’m missing it because it might be a repeating effect of DMG. As I recall it was crazy low like 79.5 in PVP and 31.8 in PVE (unslotted). It just seemed like the 5-7.1s mag (1-32.9s in PVE) in immob and the 111% slows outweighed the DMG idea. I did actually have it slotted for DMG along with a chance proc in there and ended up selling it for 700 mill. The DMG aspect did nothing it seemed. You are right about still being able to target needed bonuses. One of the things I failed to mention was that in frankenslotting you can almost always swap the same values with different cards. This of course could offer different bonuses. For example using a mix of two from Red Fortune and one from Luck of the Gambler, versus using Two from luck of the Gambler and one from Red Fortune, might give you better bonuses you were needing. I was however looking at the premium cards in my ideas. Of course the better bonuses are usually placed on the higher priced cards. I also may not have mentioned that at one point my GRAV / RAD had 30 Ho’s and I’m much better off frankenslotting.

No, your right, I wasn't exactly trying to dismiss bonuses but I think most peeps think they are the highlight while in my opinion they aren't. Can they help, yes they can. An extreme example is a scrapper I just talked to today that put an endurance set in Stamina. That set includes Rch, End, and ACC which the power doesn't even take. So they got 101.47% End Mod while the 73.78% ACC / 26.50% End / 73.78% Rch wont do anything to the power. But they did it to get the 13.6% HP / .03 End / 10% regen / 2.5% Dmg buff / 5% Rch. Do these out weigh the cost of the 215.70% lost in wasted and unused slotting in addition to the four slots you didn't have to use to get acceptable value in addition to some other areas that suffered from the wasted slots you used. No way. And its often like this. I rarely see bonuses matter that much. The shocking part is how I hear peeps argue with me over the 1,2,3,5, or 7 or 10% bonus they are clinging onto so dearly. I know they all are different, some are global, and do different things but come on. A good example for my controller is Mez, Hold, and immobilization. Is 3% Mez resist or the effects of the Mez really going to make a difference? No it wont. But often times in Frankenslotting you end up putting 2 to 3 sets in one power and find the same bonus repeated as the first bonus in alike sets. At one point that mez bonus was up to 45%. Would that make a difference, sure, at least a noticible difference anyhow. I would much rather have 45% from repeated bonuses rather than 3% bonuses scattered across 20 fields.

I just had to comment about your post on "Stupefy: Chance for Knockdown (Recipe)
Stupefy: Chance for Knockback (Enhancement)
This actually does KnockBACK, and the recipe description says that, but the recipe name is misleading." Are you sure its missleading because this is a Proc. A proc will always do something the power is not normally able to achieve through standard slotting. I'm not sure if your complaint was that Knockback shouldn't be listed in with the set or the fact that its out of catagory since it's with listed in a Stun set. Thats what procs are suppose to do, give you something you otherwise wouldn't be able to get. Probably the best way to understand why is because its going to give you KnockBack in a power that you couldn't slot KB in if you wanted to with regular slotting. The only time I have even heard of Knock Down is in the power Air Superiority. Then you have Knock Back, and Knock Up. If its slotted in a power thats not used to knock someone down, I can see that it might knock them back.

Years ago when my Ex got me into this game, she went online read up a little about this. Three years later it’s defiantly the focus of what I do. I'm only posting this because all to often it ends up being a lengthy discussion while I’m on a team or trying to PVP. Not that I mind helping, I probably spend more time explaining this to peeps rather then playing. It helps if you have or understand the MIDS Hero builder, which you can download for free.

After reading this you might see a respec close in your sights but I would strongly recommend you slow down and just put some thought into some things I say in here before doing so. If your reading this, its probably because I directed you here because I ran into you in the game and you didn't understand the term.

Frankenslotting is a term that’s used when you mix match sets or parts of sets to achieve better slotting values. Almost always this will entail the use of IO's that for no reason I refer to as cards. Not SO's, not DO's, not generics, the ones you find in matched sets. Matched sets are usually horrible because they usually never give you good values, while some values are over, wasted, and others suffer. People buy them because they are sold on the idea of skimpy bonuses. I feel that bonuses are usually a gimmick in the game. When your totalling 3,6 or even 9% in a given bonus, I don’t think its going to really help. At the same time Frankenslotting can yield accumulated bonuses of 30% or more in a specific bonuses because they frequently are repeated.

I realized some odd things about slotting after playing with the MIDS program for several months, and basically got the whole overview down on what’s good and what’s not. While I am a PVP'er, frankenslotting is the same, with only some differences in recharge. In PVP, battles can start and end in just a few hits while PVE is usually drawn out more.

Lets start with Frankenslotting the Fly power, but its almost identical to super speed or even run. These come in a set of three.
Lets use the "Soaring" set. You get .....
42.4% fly
42.4% End
Which is the same as using generics without the bonuses at this point. But the third one is 26.5% fly & 26.5 End.
Using this set yields 68.90% in both fly and end, in three slots.
Frankenslotting would yield 78.55% in both fly and end in the same three slots minus any would be bonuses in the matched set.
To achieve this you use fly/end from Soaring, fly/end from Winters gift, and fly /end from blessing of the zephyr.
You don't have to use MIDS to do all this but it does help.
If you didn't already know the game has something called Diminishing Return. It means that after a certain point, your slotted value decreases in gain. Here is what it looks like using a 42.4% generic as an example......
1 = 42.4% you get your full slot value.
2 = 83.32% you lost a very small acceptable amount of 1.48%
3 = 99.08% you lost an unacceptable amount of 28.12%
4 = 105.44% you lost an unacceptable amount of 64.16%
5 = 111.80% you lost an unacceptable amount of 100.20%
6 = 118.16% you lost an unacceptable amount of 136.24%

So you can see from slotting 6 of the same generics, after the second one its pretty much downhill. The MIDS program would show the first slot in white telling you its below tolerance, 2nd slot in the green meaning its ideal, the rest in red meaning you got much less for your slotting but your also using valuable slots that could have been used elsewhere, meaning other powers are suffering for this small gain. You only got 15.76% in that third slot, but remember you placed 42.4% in there, you got jipped, and your performance will show that. It might end up in your ACC or your DMG or RCH, but something is going to suffer.
Its very important to remember something I realized about this value of slotting two Generics, it also seems to be the value you want to try to hit and not go over. So what I’m saying is you don't have to use or understand MIDS, if you can add up the value of two Generics, that tells you where you want to be and not go over. Another example is my controller takes Knockback. Those actually come in 75% each, so that tells me right there 150% is ideal. Defense comes in 25.5%, so 51% without going over is ideal.


If your smart enough to look at the base values of a power and make a personal decision as to how much if any needs to be slotted on it, then go for it. For example if a power has an unslotted ACC base value of 200% or higher, then you probably can get away with putting no ACC in there and still never miss. Most start at 70% or 90%, so 200% is very high, slotting it would only make it higher and you might not need that. One of the cool things about using MIDS is it tells you the base values right off the bat. The other nice thing is you can open up the Generic IO section to slot a power and instantly know what needs to be slotted and pretty much what the power does. Getting comfortable with it, you would almost know how many slots and exactly what to put in there in seconds.

As far as leaving out slotting because base values are already acceptable, I haven't gotten this deep into leaving things out. What I do is slot the power to the best of its ability and that’s that. If the power still performs poorly then I know it’s not because of my slotting, there are simply powers that are just not good. Some miss all the time, or have low DMG or suck End real bad. You will either have to swap the power out in a respec or learn how to use it differently so that it works for you. I establish a priority when I set out to do this, and there is a combination of things to think of. I'm using a GRAV/RAD controller when I first did this. I set my priorities like this....
ACC then END then it depends on what ever the power does followed by RCH then RANGE The reason why I think ACC should be first on everyone’s list is because if you strike and miss it will still cost you END and you can be attacked while your missing. It's just wrong on so many levels. The great thing about slotting good on ACC is it also helps you hit those purple guys easier as well.

Choosing your cards is probably the most important thing in slotting. While most are buying matched sets, you can beat them for sure. My controller has beaten melee guys in pvp in solo situations that are embarrassing to say the least, and its not because I'm a better player. It's also important to know what NOT to slot. I have found that to often sets include things that actually don't apply to the power, but will let you slot it. Like an Endurance Mod set that includes ACC. The power I put it in doesn't take ACC, but I paid for it in more ways than one. Cramming the highest amount of applicable slotting value (without going over) into each slot is the name of the game and the only time you want to use Generics is when its the only thing it takes. In addition to that you will probably always leave out something that could be slotted (if not more) in each power, all the more reason to establish a priority. Of course all this is necessary because we don’t get 6 slots in all the powers.

Here is an example. Take a shield for example, Defense / End / Rch. The base value in the RCH is usually 1 or 3 seconds. Think about it, do you really need to slot Rch? Probably not. The only time your shields will go down is when you lose all your end, which in my case I’m dead either way. You certainly can’t turn them back on without END either, so why slot it. I would slot….
Luck of the Gambler
DEF / END
RedFortue
DEF / END
DEF / END / RCH Only because it allows me to get my values up to par even though I could careless about RCH, the alternative is to buy a $2 Billion card from Shield Wall for DEF / END

If I failed to mention at this point, I'm assuming most only have two to five hundred million to spend and not a few billion. If you are lucky and have that type of money, my ideas here still work with the exception that purple cards do actually seem to give pretty good values all the way around. They give higher values to start with; they are more even or planned out better to appear to cover all areas in a much better value with little to no waste in addition to having much better bonuses.

Choosing your cards gets tricky. Lets look at a melee card that offers 26.5% ACC / 26.5% DMG. This card is worth 53% plus bonuses, which is better then a 42.4% Generic right? Well the more they split, the higher they are, but the harder it is to slot and the more slots it will take and the more they will cost. Mako's bite has a card that is split 4 ways 18.55% ACC / 18.55% DMG / 18.55% END / 18.55% RCH, well do the math, that card is 74.2% plus any bonuses. That’s a hot one. However it’s spread out so not only will it take more slots but also more split cards as well to hit your acceptable values. I try to use two to three sets in each power, this way I’m still getting bonuses.
Some peeps are smart enough to target bonuses in addition to all this, if your that good, knock yourself out.

Here is another slotting example...... in the power Air Superiority. 5 slots will slam that power with EVERYTHING you need. I used ......
From the crushing impact set....
ACC / DMG / END
DMG / END / RCH
ACC / DMG / RCH
From the Mako's bite set...
ACC / DMG / END / RCH
ACC / END / RCH
Which gives me ....
80.94% ACC In the green
80.94% DMG In the green
80.94% END In the green
80.94% RCH In the green
Which is pretty darn impressive. This mix gives you a total of 323.76 (plus bonuses) / Divided by 5=64.75% average per slot, in addition to bonuses. Peeps have argued with me on this because they worry about losing there 3% or 5% global bonuses do the math and realize your better off frankenslotting.

Lets compare this to a matched set....Using 5 out of set of 6 from Crushing Impact, leaving out the Proc.
The Proc is that oddball card that does something not possible with generic IO's, like chance for recharge, or extended dmg etc....
Those 5 give you ....
68.90% ACC In the white meaning its low
98.29% DMG with a loss of 23.62%
47.70% END In the white meaning its low
47.70% RCH In the white meaning its low
For a grand total of ... 262.59% divided by 5= 52.51% average per slot, plus bonuses. Do those bonuses make up for the 61.17% loss, certainly not. Not to mention you still get some bonuses in frankenslotting. Technically you will lose one bonus per two sets used and two bonuses per three slots used in each power.

Sometimes you have to use Generic IO's because its all a power will takes; sometimes you have to give up certain things a power can slot for as well.... Here is an example.
Lets look at the pet offered in the GRAV section of my controller. It's important to know that PVE peeps especially melee guys hate it when you use KnockBack. Its because they have to be close up to hit them, and your knocking them away. My Singi pet takes the following for slotting.....
ACC/ DMG / END / HOLD / IMMOBILIZATION / INTAGIBILITY / KNOCKBACK / RANGE / RCH. Probably going to use 6 slots if you want to use most of these but your not going to be able to max all of them. The end is only an issue when I summon the pet, so not to big of a deal. Singi never dies (when he does, I get scared) so Rch is probably not a big deal either. But in PVP I die a lot so Rch is important that direction. Singi is excellent at holding groups so hold is good. Ill share my PVP slotting keeping in mind KB is maxed because I want it in PVP......
Endoplasam Exposure x 2
ACC / MEZ
Kinetic Crash
DMG / END / KB
DMG / KB
Force Feedback
DMG / END / KB
Blood Mandate
ACC / DMG / END giving me....
86.02% ACC
88.07% DMG
63.60% END
123.74% KB
66.60% mez
This is a rare example where Hamidons worked out good because on one hand they do offer high values; on the other they don’t cover everything, making it harder to slot good.

A PVE example might be better as….
3 x Endoplasam Exposure
Call to Arms Dmg / End
Expedient Reinforcement
End / Dmg / Rch
Dmg / End
ACC 94.93% in the yellow, has 4.97% of loss.
DMG 69.45% in the white
RCH 21.20% in the white
Mez 94.93% in the yellow, has 4.97% of loss.


Sometimes you have to pick and choose what to focus on and leave other things unslotted, and it just depends on what you want. The aforementioned did not slot for Range or Intangibility or KB, so I felt those were the least important in the way I use Singi in PVE. Since I don’t really care about DMG being a controller, it only got slotted because of split cards I used to get End and Rch.

Lets take one last look at leaving things out and prioritizing. I’m looking at a power I have, called Crush. It takes ACC / DMG / END / IMMOBILISATION / RANGE / RCH / SLOW. You can tell from how many there are that you are going to have to have some things either not max slotted or not slotted at all. Since I’m a controller, DMG is not a priority, slow and immobilization is. Here is what I came up with in 6 slots….
Trap of the Hunter
END / IMM
Enfeebled operation
END / IMM
ACC / IMM / RCH
Pacing of the turtle
ACC / SLOW
END / RCH / SLOW
Tempered Readiness
ACC / SLOW
Giving me ……
73.78% ACC in the green
73.78% END in the green
73.78% SLOW in the green
73.78% IMM in the green
42.40% RCH in the white

I decided to write this because there seems to always be one person on team with me that I can tell is suffering from DMG or END in battle. I might be in the same boat, with the exception that I’m face to face with a purple and they are standing way back, and I’m jumping over to them every 10 seconds to heal them at the same time. You don’t have to be a math major to understand this, just know how to add is all. Let me know if this helps anyone, I’d like to know.

I’m open to any comments or feedback, as I’m always learning as well.
Arctic Soul

I have considered writing something about my Grav / Rad for sometime now, so I guess to add to the response, now is a good time. Personally I think Singularity is the best pet in the game. This pet offers inherent Mez, Dmg, Intangibility, and of course Knockback. I have been able to slot it with anywhere from 3 to 6 slots depending on what you want it to do. Possibilities are: ACC / Dmg / End / Hold / Immobilize / Intangible / Knock back / Range / and recharge. Knock back is usually not preferred in PVE but you need it in PVP. The problem is that it really comes down to how you play, how you use this pet, and what levels your fighting. This pet can also help you solo. What I do, is summon Singi, then super speed stealthy past a group, Singi starts to follow me, and I let him take the aggro. I play in both PVP and PVE but know how to adjust for PVE.

I’m assuming you have him slotted between 71% to 95% in the ACC / DMG / and 150% in the Knock Back fields. Basically when and where you summon him will also depend on the intensity of the mob and the individual situation. If you drop Singi over a scrappers head and your at Medium Con levels, KB will throw the mob back and upset the scrapper. At the same time if the scrapper is about to die, you could save his life, or anyone else under him. I have told squishy players they can hide under Singi for close range protection. If your team is focusing on an AV or any purple con, KB is no longer an issue, place Singi right over them.

In instances where KB could be a problem, you place Singi about 15 feet from the mob and KB is not an issue, and you get Mez, and Dmg either way. The hold is great, because he can hold several at a time, with a slow Dmg giving you time to act and get credit for the kill. You can always right click on Singi to dismiss him as well. Singi is the best at getting guys out of the wall that are stuck. The KB pulls them right out. Anytime Singi is taken out quick and easy, is when I get scared.
My preferred slotting is 6 slots using:
3 x ACC / MEZ Endoplasm Exposure Hammies
Dmg / End / Knock Back from ForceFeedback
Dmg / Knock Back from Kinetic Crash
Dmg / Knock Back from Force Feedback
Giving me a total of:
94% ACC
73% Dmg
21% End, not a problem as its only when he is summoned.
132% Knock Back
94% Mez which includes…
Held, Immobilize, Untouchable or Intangibility.

The great part is that aside from the HO’s you could just swap the others at anytime if you wanted different values for PVP versus PVE. In PVP, I can stay close to Singi or even sit inside Singi to get great protection from those sensitive to KB. He’s also great at throwing all of a masterminds pets across the street for a few seconds and giving me the first attack edge to work on the the MM.

That's a fairly nice build.
My Grav/Rad is by far my favorite toon.
I still only play my Grav/Rad even though I have a few others, I also pvp my Grav/ Rad and do pretty good. I team up with some scrappers that just refuse to believe they would ever get a kill in RV. While my life bar is rather small like 1083 I use a fire shield and tough and weave to help with my squishiness. Packed with insp and experience I’m ready. I obtained my disruptor badge a few weeks ago which means I reached a pvp rep of 400. That doesn’t mean I made 400 kills. Probably a lot more actually. It works on a time table and it’s something like kills per a time table that’s ticking even when you’re not playing. So my rep is lessoning when I don’t play and kill, but I keep the badge right.

In RV the last hit gets credit for the kill so I’m sure this has added to me being able to earn most of my rep. You also get divided rep points when you are teamed up and someone kills. Oddly enough I can take on the brutes, some masterminds and corrupters but the ones that I just cant seem to even begin to touch are the dominators, unless I have help. I have my three favorite Rad powers, Radiation Infection / Enervating Field / Lingering Radiation / I’m not sure what they do but man, they work. Just kidding. They run, most of the peeps in pvp run when I toggle them with all three. And they should. I tested these powers to find what seems to be lowering there defenses to well over 60% making it much easier for me and other heroes to take them out. Of course I did the costume settings up so you can see these three different smoke colors spewing out of the target, basically advertising to other players to attack this guy quick. Slow is in there too so that helps catch them. These toggles will stay on them for what seems to be the limit of target distance, another words when you can no longer see them in the target frame; you lose your toggle lock. It’s a good way to bring those villains that have a 3 to 4 times larger life bar then mine down to size so I can fight him fairly. The radiation toggles can cost you a lot of endurance so I recommend either a set with good end or two end IO’s or three HO’s that have End in addition to another applicable category.

One of the things that I noticed in the first couple of weeks of playing COH is the slotting option. My girlfriend at the time was just getting into MIDS and even at that I noticed something she totally overlooked. Of course we all know we don't get 6 slots in every power, so that immediately caused a problem in my mind. Speaking strictly level 50, I have my Grav/Rad troller slotted with about 30 HO's.
I can't believe how many people overlook this important little option. This is all a numbers game, getting the max out of your limited slots. With sets there always seems to be a compromise. There might be a better set type that works better with the rest of the way you have slotted but the fact is if you can slot 3 HO's in that power, you certainly would be a fool not to. The other thing is that the standard two rule with IO's changes to three with HO's. Unlike IO’s where 42.4% times 2 yeilds like 83% and that’s as far as you want to go because another one would be a waste and a severely decreased amount due to the 100% cap.

Ho's usually cover you 33.3% in two sections like Dmg and Acc so you would get 66% total out of one slot. Find an IO that does that. More importantly using three pays off unlike an IO. Any more then 2 generic IO's turns out to be a waste where as three HO's works fine.

Heres a sample of the difference.
IO's percantages with each slot using heal IO's versus heal / end HO's in radiant aura. The base appears to be 117.8% unslotted.

Slotting 42.4% IO's
42.4% / 83.32% / 90.08% / 105.44% / Heal only
Slotting 33.3% Heal & 33.3% End reduction HO’s
33.3% / 66.6% / 94.93% / 99.98% / Heal
33.3% / 66.6% / 94.93% / 99.98% / End reduction

The way I see it is using 4 is a waste because you only get 5% times two in that one slot. It makes more sense to use that other slot for 42.4% somewhere else.
Since 100% is max, you yeild 95% improvement with 3 HO's. More then 3 HO’s would place you over 100% which is a waste. It drops off so much that it’s not worth it. You have to also consider that your getting Endurance included with these three slots as well.
Three HO's would add up to 33.3 x 3 or 99.9% above base heal and 99.9% from End base, but it only yields 95% in both.

The big loss after two IO’s is also where I learned that an endurance modification set of 6 did nothing for me like 2 IO’s and using the other four slots for End reduction in the most frequently used and highest End sucking powers.

In my opinion its much better to save three slots to only lose a total of 10% and bonuses. I'm not fond of the skimpy 1,2,3,5,or even 7% bonuses that are offered from sets. If a set of three could ever yield more then 190% grand total then you need to look at it. If you feel there is something that your toon is lacking and just has to have from offered bonuses, you might also want to consider the fact that you now how three more slots open to do it with.

Hamidon HO's come in many packages available at level 50 and up.
At the time I'm writing this, they are costly at Wentworths, but the prices can vary from time to time. I have found them costing from 110 thousand to 200 mill each, of course depending on what they are. On the average around 20 to 30 mill. Some HO's cover several things at different percentages. Like you might have one that offers 33.3% in ACC and 33.3% in defense and 20% in tohit debuff. Some can cover many areas like mez that covers about 7 or more areas and offering 33.3% across all of those categories. Understanding what to use is the key to benefiting the most from their use.

If a HO covers say 33% in Dmg and 33% in Acc, any power that utilizes Acc will allow you to slot it, but you wouldn't get Dmg out of a power that doesn't have Dmg. So you wasted the HO and only get the 33% Acc benefit. Make sure you benefit from at least 2 or more of the things that the HO covers otherwise its a waste.

While 3 Ho’s may not cover everything that a set would, I have also found that slotting the other 1,2 or 3 slots with either needed IO’s or sets still yields a better power. I will admit though that there is always something that just ends up with no improvement like (range or recharge, only because that’s what I chose) reduction that might have had a slight improvement with a set. But math wise the large difference from using the HO’s still outweighs that small cost. In addition to the free slots. Planning this out, I would consider what all the weak areas are, and which powers simply can’t use HO’s. Then the cost of the HO’s Some might argue the trade off but as an example I used HO’s which saved me a lot of slots and in turn allowed me to add another slot in Hasten which significantly speeded up my recharge time for all powers. It seems that with my toon I’m getting about a 30% increase in the majority of my powers by using them wherever I can.