peterpeter

The big question I had about damage procs was: "Am I better off slotting a damage proc or a regular damage enhancement?" The answer is that it depends on how much damage the power does, and how many damage enhancements I have already put in.

On average, the amount of damage a proc will do is equal to that number from the chart in your post, based on level, times the odds of the proc happening, usually 20%. So for a level 50 character, a Mako's bite proc will add an average of 14.2 points of damage to every hit. In other words...

(level dependent damage from chart) * (0.2) = average damage from a proc with a 20% chance of activation

The amount of extra damage you get by adding a damage enhancement depends on the damage the power does, and on what percentage you get from the enhancement (which depends on relative levels, current slotting, and what kind of enhancement it is).

If you have no damage enhancements already in a power, and you are using an even level SO (33.33%), then you will be better off using the damage enhancement in any power for which the base damage is more than the proc damage divided by .3333. For a level 50, the magic number is 43. If a power does 43 points of damage, then adding an even level SO will increase your damage by 43 * .33 = 14.19.

For any power that does more than 43 points of damage, as a level 50, you are better off enhancing the damage than adding a damage proc. For comparison, a level 50 /rad defender does almost 22 points of damage with neutrino bolt. A level 50 broadsword scrapper does 163 points of damage with Headsplitter.

As you hit the soft cap on damage enhancement from ED, you are pretty much guaranteed to be better off adding a damage proc than trying to shove in more damage enhancements.

IO enhancements are trickier, because we aren't just talking about 33.3% increases. The principle remains the same though: figure out what % bonus you will get from the enhancement (easiest to see if you can hover the enhancement over the power without actually slotting it) and multiply that by the base damage (which you can get from Red Tomax's excellent City of Data, for level 50's) and compare to the proc damage from the chart in the OP.

Of course, sometimes reducing the recharge on an attack will end up increasing the damage you can get out of it by more than any direct damage enhancement, but that's a another ball of wax entirely.

(Oh, another question you might want to address in the guide: what happens with the proc when a scrapper gets a critical? I think the answer is nothing, but I'm not sure.)

Nice guide! One thing you might want to add is how multiple targets are affected. For example, in a toggle AoE like Quills, when the proc fires (once every ten seconds) does it have a 20% chance to hit all enemies in range or a 20% chance to hit each enemy in range? I believe the correct answer is that the proc rolls once for each of the targets in range at the time it activates, with a 20% chance of hitting each one. That's one of the questions people often have.

Oh, and I thought proc was just short for procedure.

As an aside, does anyone know why Touch of Death only has a 15% chance? I'm hoping that was an oversight and it will be pushed up to 20% one of these days. Sure, negative damage is less resisted than smashing or lethal, but psionic isn't resisted very often either, and those are all 20%.

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So, if I have this right, a plausible plan might be (...snip actual plan...)

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Yup, that sounds like a good plan to me. The price of IO's is still fluctuating a lot. I bought some level 30 damage IO's for 5k apiece the other day. That's a lot less than a level 30 SO would have cost. Other days I haven't had such good luck. Patience helps. Prices tend to randomly bob up and down during the day, or over the course of the week, so putting in a bid and letting it sit can sometimes snag you a good deal.

If you want to obssessively min/max, that's another ball of wax. But you aren't going to get a perfect min/max build without using numbers! I'm glad this guide was helpful to you. I'm afraid parts of it are already getting painfully out of date.

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1. To get the set bonus, lame as they may be. Something like 1.25% lethal or energy defense is technically better than .9% smash/lethal resist.
2. Because that bit of recharge will help me more than 4% of 22.5% (comes out to about .9% resist). As rare as it is, I do get detoggled occasionally, and the longer you have to wait to get your armors back up...well, you know.

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I agree that waiting for your armor to recharge can be quite stressful the few times that it really matters. I'm not quite following your math, though. Where does the 4% come from?

Just as an update on the kb protection IO's, I was fighting a lot of BP Masks recently and I did get knocked back a few times. I also fought some avalanche shaman, but I don't remember them knocking me down or back at all. Not enough for me to notice, anyhow.

Yeah, what Fulmens said. When I talk about SO's, I generally assume even level SO's. A level 30 IO has a fixed benefit. A level 30 SO changes in value as you go from level 27 to 33. Roughly speaking, a level 25 IO is almost as good, pretty much, as an SO, give or take a little. A level 30 IO is mostly better than an SO, roughly speaking, depending on relative levels, more or less. A level 35 IO is always better than an SO no matter what the relative levels. I think.

I slotted one kb protection a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been knocked back since. I was knocked down once, but not back. I've been fighting a lot of council, and they used to bounce me around a lot. I think I spent half a million on it, and for me it was well worth it.

I don't see the benefit of having recharge reduction in the shields. I'd rather use a common resistance IO than a res/rech set enhancement.

Favorite Feature: The Market. I wish we could see a longer price history, and a 30 day average. I wish things weren't so expensive and that I was richer! But I love the market because it means that I have a chance to get anything. As a casual player (though I've been playing a lot since I9 came out) it's just not possible for me to participate in some parts of the game. Any reward tied to that content was unobtainable for me. Now, I at least have a chance to buy absolutely anything, although some things are too expensive to be practical.

I haven't done the new Hami yet, and I don't know anyone who has.

I haven't done the STF and I don't know if I'll be able to, due to time restrictions. I'd like to try it at least once, but from what I've heard it sounds like there is way too much time and risk for the reward.

The invention system is cool, but I have two problems with it. First, I don't understand how salvage was assigned to sets. If there is some rhyme or reason to it, I haven't seen it yet. Second, after all of the hard work the devs did designing each set and calculating the numbers and deciding on the bonuses and balancing everything, the community as a whole took about two days to decide that 90% of them were crap. Almost all of the set recipes I have gotten as drops have been worth next to nothing on the open market. Why do the devs keep offering us bad choices and then acting surprised when we don't take them?

New Shiney: I can't vote for the costume options, although I do like the look of some of them, because I haven't gotten any of them and can't imagine getting any for months to come.

I don't care about the badges, but I'm glad other people do because it means I can buy cheap pre-crafted common IO's.

If we could put enhancements in our personal storage, I'd be excited. Being able to store recipes would be nice. Being able to tell what we have in storage without having to write it down on a piece of paper, or travel somewhere to look, would be nice.

Salvage isn't exciting in and of itself. It's only useful for sets. Also, the plethora of salvage is a bit confusing. If we could use salvage items as base decorations, that might be cool. Otherwise, salvage is not inherently fun.

That leaves new IO sets, which I do like, even if there are so few that are worth using and they tend to be so expensive. Mixing and matching good enhancements from unpopular sets has been an affordable way for me to increase my overall enhancement level. Actually getting good set bonuses is still out of my reach.

I like the market just because, as I said, it gives me a way to buy stuff that I can't directly earn. The huge gap between "stuff no one wants" and "stuff everyone wants" is a problem, though.

The invention tutorial was fine. Given that it is mostly big blocks of text, I think it might be nice if we could go back and refresh our memories later by clicking on the professors again, or the books/computers near them.

Overall, four stars.

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I would have to say that the announcement at the last minute of the last day indicates that the last thing they are doing is taking the contest seriously. If they were working fervently and needed another couple of days - I guess I could understand the late announcement.
The fact that they needed 3 more weeks and couldn't be bothered to let people know ahead of time seems more like they just forgot they had to do it.

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Yeah, you could be right. I would like to think that it is absurd to imagine that they could possibly forget all about their own contest... but it isn't.

Still, if they hadn't finished their judging, for whatever reason, then I would rather they postpone announcing the winner than just grab a comic at random and declare it to be the winner, without bothering even to read it.

I probably should have put this in the original guide. People get confused by it a lot.

Selling: You list the item for a given price. The CH immediately goes through all of the existing bids for that item. If there is any outstanding bid for at least as much as your asking price, then your item sells instantly to the highest bidder at their offer price. If nobody has placed a bid for the amount you are asking, then your item just sits there until someone does place a bid which is equal to or greater than your ask price. Even then, your item won't sell unless it is the lowest priced item for sale at that time.

Buying: When you place a bid, the CH will immediately compare your offer price to all of the ask prices for that item. If your price is higher than one of the ask prices, then you will immediately buy the item, for the amount you offered, from the person who put in the lowest asking price. If no one has listed the item for as low as you are offering, then your bid will just sit there until someone does list the item at or below your price. Even then, you won't buy it unless yours is the highest bid in the CH for that item at that time.

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Are there special "set IOs" that go into the powers or are the standard IOs you make the ones you need?

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There are special set IO's. The regular IO's you make only enhance one thing at a time, they don't have cool names, and they don't give you set bonuses.

You can also make set enhancements. The recipes are uncommon or rare. The set's have cool names, and the enhancements in those sets often enhance multiple aspects of a power. Just because an enhancement comes from a set, though, doesn't mean it's always better than a common IO. Only set enhancements give set bonuses.

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-Do all the IOs need to be the same level for the set effect to work?

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No. They can all be different levels. You will still get the exact same set bonus.

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Does it matter what order you put them in the power?

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Nope. Doesn't make any difference. The set bonus depends on how many of the enhancements from that set you have slotted into a single power. The order in which you slot the enhancements doesn't affect the set bonus at all.

They will announce the winners on June 15th.

I'm disappointed by the delay, but I'm glad they are taking the judging seriously.

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Are there any "reverse" recipe guides out there?

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Ask and ye shall receive! E_R_A created an online tool where you can put in a piece of salvage and get back a list of stuff that uses it. Check it out!

I'm still confused about these damage procs. Just how much damage do they do? I can't figure out the trade-offs. If you are giving up accuracy in order to fit in a damage proc, are you sure that your overall damage is going up?

We're getting close. A quote from the official rules:

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Contest begins March 27, 2007 at 2:00pm (CDT) and ends at 11:59pm (CDT) on April 27, 2007. Entries will not be accepted after this deadline. Winners will be announced no later than Wednesday, May 25.

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Wednesday is only a few days away. Of course, Wednesday will be the 23rd, not the 25th. The 25th will be Friday. But then, they didn't say what year. The next time May 25th will be a Wednesday is in the year 2011. Gee, I hope we don't have to wait that long to find out who won!

Brilliant! As always, a wonderful resource for players. One little detail, though: when I look up a piece of salvage, it gives me a description of the item, but not a list of recipes in which the item can be used. I noticed that "recipes" is there as a heading, so perhaps this information will be added soon?

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Are there any "reverse" recipe guides out there?

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Not that I know of. I'd love to see one, though. Red Tomax's cookbook seems to have all the data. If you look up a recipe, it will tell you what the ingredients are. If you look up the ingredient, though, it does not tell you what recipes it is used in. There is a heading there for recipes, but no text. Hopefully that feature is coming soon.

ParagonWiki has a list of invention salvage, and again there is a place to list recipes, but again it is blank. The nice thing about a wiki, though, is that you can add to it yourself.

I would love to see something like this made available to players. Heck, I'd like to see it in-game. You should be able to click on the info for a piece of salvage and get a list of all the recipes that use it. I don't know if the devs plan to add that feature, though, so I guess we players are on our own.

Wow! I am amazed not only by how cool this is, but by how quickly it was done!

EDITED: Now if only I could print it and read it on the bus on the way home! What's up with that?

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Overall an excellent guide, but I've never seen these two bits to be true.

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I did, a week ago when I was writing the guide. That part of it is getting outdated pretty quickly, though.

When I was writing it, I went through the list and couldn't find a single piece of rare salvage that sold for less than 5,000 inf. Few, if any, were under 10,000 inf. Uncommon salvage was similar but with smaller numbers. Times change.

(Which is the main reason why I'm not planning to make a list of what is hot and what is not when selling on the market. Boresights were huge for the first few days, and aren't worth anything now. Arcane stuff is a good bet now, but it depends on specifics, and I don't count on them to stay still long enough for me to write them down. I think it would be great if someone else made a market watching guide. I have something along those lines in a very rough draft, but I think others could do a better job of it than I).

A big piece that is missing from this guide is some suggestions on how to pick out what IO sets to go for. I wanted to put something about that in there, but I'm glad I didn't. I've learned a lot in the last couple of weeks, and I'd probably be embarassed now by whatever I had written then.

I'll probably let things settle down some more and then revise this guide. One thing I'm thinking about now is dividing IO acquisition into three stages.

1. Switch from using DO's/SO's to using common IO's, starting at level 22. This isn't as cheap today as it was last week, but is still a worthy goal.

2. Use set IO's which benefit 2 or more aspects of a power at once to increase your overall level of enhancement. For example, slotting two DAM/ACC enahancements gives you more damage and more accuracy than slotting one DAM and one ACC. At this stage, ignore set bonuses.

3. Building sets. The final step would be to look at sets and set bonuses and work to really optimize your build. You could start sooner, but getting the best recipes and the rarest salvage is so hard that I think casual players would be better off not worrying about it until later in their character's life. Getting a full set of Scirocco's Dervish, for example, is vastly harder and more expensive than getting a full set of Multi-Strike. The actual benefit from the enhancements is almost identical. The big difference is in the set bonuses.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Some of the "common" salvage is insanely expensive right now. It really is common, though. If you are fighting magic enemies, then you'll probably get a few Luck Charms eventually. Of course, at level 15 you can always just buy a few DO's and upgrade them later. You can try buying regular DO's at the Consignment House, but I haven't had much luck with that.

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The problem I'm having right now is that, even as a casual player, there are simply not enough crafter-grinders out there to support only buying enhancements from the shops. Seems they tend to just delete them or something, because I regularly see bids 5-6x more than what's actually available, which is too bad.

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What levels are you looking at? I've had very little trouble shopping at level 25 or 45. The difference between a level 25 and a level 30 IO doesn't bother me. Same thing with the difference between 45 and 50. Buying level 30 and level 50 IO's seems much harder. Last night I found a shortage of pre-crafted IO's, so I bought recipes instead. I was getting the level 25 recipe for 500-1000 inf, and the required salvage was about the same. For some things I had to go up to 5k or 10k, but it was still a good value.

PeterPeter's No Numbers Guide to I9 for the Casual Player

This whole inventions thing got you down? You're getting salvage and you don't know what to do with it? You're afraid of being ripped off at the market, or of gimping yourself in ways you can't even understand? Relax. I've got your back.

I've put together a simple level by level guide to help you get the most out of this new issue with the least amount of work, or even comprehension. And best of all? No numbers. Well, maybe one or two, but absolutely no decimal points or percentage signs. I promise!

Obviously, this guide isn't intended for the hardcore powergaming number crunchers. It's for us casual types, who only play a couple of times a week, if that, and usually not for long chunks of time. Here's a simple test. Take a look at this page. If your eyes glazed over, than this is the guide for you.

First, the good news: Issue 9 doesn't hurt. Ok, maybe a bit of a migraine the first time you see the user interface for the Consignment House, but this issue really doesn't hurt casual players. It helps us. Sure, it helps powergamers even more. They have more and better ways to be more leet than us, but we're used to that, right? We're not the ones who were already soloing giant monsters with one powerset tied behind our backs. The important thing is that Issue 9 gives us tools to help us be stronger and better heroes (or villains) than ever before, with less grind and grief. (Except for the migraine from your first trip to the new market, but that will fade with time.)

Second, the better news: Issue 9 actually gives us, the casual players, an advantage over the hardcore 24x7 powergamers. We've learned patience, and for possibly the first time ever in a computer game, patience pays. While some other players are bouncing up and down in their seats salivating at the prospect of getting a shiny new piece of salvage, and paying through the nose for it, you and I will be putting in modest bids and then logging off. A few days later, or maybe next week, whenever we get some free time, we'll log back in, check the market, and the new shiny will drop into our pocket. No fuss, no muss, and no outrageous prices. Well, maybe some outrageous prices, but we'll try to keep them to a minimum.

In short, this is a guide to getting 90% of the value out of I9, and only doing 10% of the work. Doh! Percent signs! Sorry, it won't happen again!

Here we go, a level by level guide of how to approach the brave new world of CoX:

Levels 1-4
Just play like usual. You won't be getting any invention salvage or recipes yet. See? So far it's easier than you thought! Personally, I wouldn't bother with any enhancements until you hit level 12.

Levels 5-11
Salvage will start dropping around level 5, and recipes at 10. Don't sweat it. Just let that stuff pile up until you are ready for your first trip to Wentworths. When you feel prepared, take a couple of aspirin, head to Atlas Park, find that WW symbol on the map, and then read the Selling section down below. (For villains, you'll be wanting the Black Market truck in Mercy Isle.)

Level 12
This is a big level for you! It's time to go to the university and learn about inventing! You could go earlier, but why bother? There's no rush. Besides, at level 12 you can slot the free IO the school will give you. Try to read all those chunks of text the teachers throw at you, and keep your eyes open for the little jokes and pop culture references the devs like to throw in.

Ok, now that you've learned all about inventing, it's time to do some shopping. Ordinarily, at level 12, you would be trying to fill up your power slots with those pricey DO enhancements. Instead, thanks to I9, you'll be wanting pricey IO enhancements. Why? First of all, they're just as good. Don't believe me? Just take another look at that chart I linked above. See? Hmm, well, maybe you should just take my word for it. Anyhow, those level 15 IO's are going to be just as strong when you reach level 17 as they are now. A level 15 DO would need to be replaced with a level 20 DO. The level 15 IO's don't need to be replaced ever (but we will, eventually, because we want to be more super).

Head to the CH (Consignment House). Start shopping. Don't look for recipes. Look for enhancements. Crafted enhancements. Narrow it down to level fifteen ones in the "other" category. See them? They are just like the one you got for free from the university. The market is constantly changing, but as of this writing you should be able to buy all of the most basic crafted enhancements at level fifteen for less than you would spend on DO's.

Now, if you need some of the odder sets, you may need to go with the recipes. Luckily, people sell these pretty cheap too. The salvage you need to craft a level fifteen ehancement? Again, cheap. Mostly. And if it isn't, either wait for the salvage to drop into your hands during regular gameplay, or give up and buy a DO for that one. Once you have a bunch of level 15 IO's, you're all set until level 22.

[Even as I'm writing this, the market is fluctuating. Some pre-crafted level 15 IO's are going for 250 inf. Others for 10,000 inf. Crazy times. I hate to do this, but maybe a few numbers will actually help, until things settle down. A level 15 DO costs roughly 1,000 to 2,000 influence, depending on what you are enhancing. Replacing it at level 20 will cost another 1500 to 2500. So an IO is probably worth at least 3000 inf, maybe more. If you can buy one pre-crafted for that amount, and you can afford it, go for it. If you are buying a recipe, check the prices on the ingredients before you commit. Some are cheap, some are outlandishly expensive. If you can only put IO's in some places, then I would suggest putting them in your least important powers. That way you can just leave them there. Your most important powers are where you'll be upgrading to SO's or level 25 IO's as soon as possible.]

Levels 13-21
If you do manage to get all kitted out with IO's, then you can relax. They'll never turn red on you. Just sit back and watch the money roll in while you wait for level 22. Sell everything you get for now, with one exception: recipes and salvage for enhancements that give global bonuses or perform procs. Huh? Whazzat? I'm so glad you asked. The IO's we have now are the common type. As you play, you will be getting recipes for both common and set IO enhancements. We'll worry about sets and set enhancements later. But it isn't too early to learn about procs and global enhancements. The low levels can be the best time to get these special kind of enhancements.

While higher level stuff is usually better than lower level stuff, these global enhancements and procs are a big exception. They give a special bonus which is not dependent on level. For example, there is an enhancement in the Steadfast Protection set which can be slotted in any damage resistance power. It doesn't provide damage resistance, or help with endurance, or anything else that affects the power it's slotted in. What it does is give you knockback protection. The amount of knockback protection you get has nothing to do with the level of the enhancement and nothing to do with your level. You should always slot a special enhancement like this at the lowest level you can. It will be cheaper that way, plus it's more likely to be available when you exemplar down.

If you put one of these global bonus enhancements into a passive power, it will be available all the time. If you put it into a toggle, it will be available whenever the toggle is on. If you put it in a click power, like an attack, then it will be available for 120 seconds after each click. There are global enhancements which grant stealth, extra regeneration or endurance recovery, resistance to psionic damage, increased run speed, and a few other things as well.

There are also procs, or procedures. Instead of changing one of your attributes, these enhancements perform an action, like doing extra damage or a build-up or a self-heal. These procs are triggered whenever the power they are slotted in is activated, and they go off about 20% of the time. For example, one of the enhancements in the Call of the Sandman set is a proc which gives you a 20% chance of a self heal every time you use the power. Pretty cool, huh?

For a list of them, head to ParagonWiki and look around for the little globe symbol, or the symbol that looks kind of like a six sided die with a plus sign on the side. While you're there, feel free to browse around. There will be a quiz when you get to level 22.

Level 22
Remember all those great IO's you bought way back when you were level 12? They're still working just fine, huh? Nothing turned red, nothing lost power. You could keep those puppies slotted until you hit level 50. But we can do better, and now is the time. At level 22 you can slot a level 25 IO, and the level 25 IO's are pretty much just as powerful as an SO. Close enough. So take all that money you saved from not buying DO's at level 17 and go shopping again. Remember to look first for already crafted enhancements, and then go looking for recipes. Everything will be a little more expensive now, but guess what? You'll never need to upgrade any of these enhancements ever again.

Of course, you will, just because you want to. Because you want to be more super. And because, after looking over that list of IO sets at Paragon Wiki, you found some things you really want. Good. Once you get those perfectly adequate level 25 IO's slotted all over the place, ask yourself this question: what is my favorite power? Pick one or two and then go looking through that list of enhancement sets again. Find something you like. Now, try to get it. This is the little side-game you'll be playing for the next 28 levels. If you start to get discouraged, just remember: your level 25 IO's are just as good as SO's, pretty much, and they'll never expire. You're doing fine. The fancy enhancement sets are just extra nice. You don't need them to be super.

Levels 23-46
Whenever you get some fancy set enhancement slotted, pick out another one to aim for. Try to use recipes from around your own level. Recipes at your level require the salvage which is dropped by enemies of your level. That makes it easier, but you can always buy what you need at the CH if you have the influence. Whenever you get a chance, look into upgrading your level 25 IO's to something better. A level 30 IO is actually better than an SO, and a level 35 IO is even better than that.

Levels 47-50
Now you're in the end zone. I think you will find it much cheaper and easier to stay with level 45 enhancements than level 50, and the difference in effectiveness is tiny. Let those hardcore powergamers outbid each other for level 50-53 enhancement recipes at insane prices. We'll settle for the level 45's at a tiny fraction of the price and get almost the same benefit.







Appendix A: Wentworths

The simplest way to figure out Wentworths is to talk to the NPC standing in the middle of the room, read all of that, and then just play around with the interface until you get the hang of it. The sooner you do this, the less you will have to lose if you screw up, so don't put it off until you are level 30 and then accidentally spend every penny you have buying the wrong thing for the wrong price.


Selling Salvage

Common: Common salvage tends to fall into two categories. Stuff everyone wants, and stuff no one wants. Look up the salvage you want to sell. If there are 150 for sale and no bidders and the last five sale prices are 10 influence, then just sell that salvage to an NPC store. They'll give you 250 influence for it. In fact, you can make tiny bits of pocket change by buying common salvage cheap and selling it to NPC's. For common salvage it's probably not worth the effort, but for a level 45 common IO recipe, the same principle applies, and the profit margin is potentially much larger. Anyhow, the second category of common salvage is the stuff everyone wants. This can sell for thousands, even tens of thousands. If you find one of these in your inventory, I recommend selling it. List it for 250. It will probably sell very quickly for much more than that, but if it doesn't you have lost anything much, really.

Uncommon: There are some uncommon salvage items which are so unpopular that you shouldn't bother selling them at the Consignment House. An NPC store will give you 1000 influence for any uncommon piece of invention salvage. Usually, though, you can sell them at the CH for ten times that, and a few are worth much much more.

Rare: Again we see the division between popular and unpopular pieces, but the NPC stores will only give you 5000 influence for rare salvage and you can always make more than that on the open market.


Selling Recipes

Common: There doesn't appear to be any market for common IO recipes. Just sell them to NPC's. You get a few thousand influence, more at higher levels.

Set enhancements: There's just no way to know what one of these is worth unless you look it up. NPC's don't pay particularly well for these, so you might as well try to sell them at the CH. Some are in enormous demand, others none at all. If there is no market for your recipe, then you might want to turn to the NPC's and get a few thousand quickly and easily.

Costume and Temp powers: These tend to sell very very well. Keep them if you want them, or sell them for a huge profit.


Buying Salvage
Common salvage is either so cheap that you can buy it easily, or so expensive that you're better off just playing until it falls into your lap. After all, it is common. The uncommon and rare salvage is just plain hard to get, but eventually, if you keep playing, you will either get enough influence to buy it or else it will drop for you, as long as you are fighting the right enemies in the right level range (and you can learn that either on the forums, or the paragonwiki, or just by clicking the info about the guys you are fighting).


Buying Recipes
You can buy recipes at the crafting table for common IO's, but they are almost certainly cheaper to buy from other players. Set recipes are generally expensive, so either save up and buy them from players or else keep arresting bad guys until you get what you want. For casual players, it may be impossible to get some recipes, since they only drop from completing task forces or trials. That's the wonderful thing about the auctions. You can buy anything there, even stuff that you could never earn on your own due to schedule limitations or other real world issues. Of course, some of those things will be expensive. As of this writing, some of them are insanely expensive. I can only hope that prices will drop over time, after the hardcore players are all kitted out. They have the time to sink into the game, but we have the patience, right?

Thanks EG. So if the +healing improves integration, what about the +regen?

I think there is something about IO's and regen that confuses me, but I'm not sure what it is. (How is that for confused?)

Bonuses you can get from IO's:
+ maximum health
+ regeneration
+ healing

I think what I'm confused about is the difference between regen and healing. They are distinct game mechanics, but the ideas are mixed up in my mind. When I turn on Integration, that boosts my regen rate? But when I click reconstruction, that's healing, right? But some things are unenhanceable, or only partly enhanceable, I think.

Doctored Wounds, for example, has a set bonus of improving your healing. Does that affect integration, or dull pain, or reconstruction, or all of the above, or none of the above?

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Wow... your cubicle has a window? I'm so jealous.

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My cubicle has three windows. It's kind of annoying. They don't look outside or anything; they are all facing other cubicles.

I just read Not A Hero. Nice work. It reminded me of something Edgar Allan Poe once said about writing. I don't have the exact quote, but something like, "In a short story, every sentence, every word, every letter, every piece of punctuation must contribute to the emotion of the story, or it should be cut."