Guide: Introduction to Inventions 1.0

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO INVENTIONS

By Terradraconis

This is designed to be an introductory guide to inventions. For extensive details you can check the player resources ParagonWiki and City of Heroes . I have broken this guide into a couple of major sections. Part one covers the basics of inventions and the casual player information. Part two will cover the advanced power gamers information. If you are just wanting to dabble your toes in the system then the casual player information package is for you. The power gamers information package introduces the more advanced aspects of the system. There are and will be plenty of guides that can and will go into this section in far more depths than I intend to cover it.

Invention Basics.

The first important thing is that this entire system is optional. You are free to sell all of the invention salvage and recipes you find at most stores for the infamy or influence. Not using inventions will not make your character weaker than they are now. If you are interested in dabbling with inventions then the casual players section is for you.

To make inventions you need four basic things.
* 1) An Invention salvage.
* 2) A recipe
* 3) A workbench
* 4) Infamy or Influence.

Invention Salvage

You collect invention salvage simply by defeating all foes. Around level 4 you start receiving it and do not have to do anything to actively get it other than defeat foes. This means that you do not need to be in a supergroup or supergroup mode to get invention salvage.

Recipes

You collect these in four different ways but for general players you are only interested in getting them by defeating foes. The common invention origin enhancements are awarded at random for defeating foes. Occasionally you will get other types of recipes that fall into a more advanced category, you can simply sell it or look into how the advanced system works. You can sell any salvage or recipe at most stores or you can try The Black Market or Wentworth's Consignment House.

Workbenches.

These are found at Universities and can be built for a base. These are used to actually make the Invention Origin enhancements. They also permit you to purchase common recipes from them.

Infamy or Influence.

Making an Invention Origin enhancement requires an expenditure of infamy or influence.

Using all of this to make an invention.

Open your recipe menu and click on the name of a recipe you have. It will tell you a couple of things, first what salvage it requires to make, if you have any of the right salvage, and cost. If you hover your pointer over the IO's picture you will see details on how it can be slotted, what types of bonus and the strength of the bonus given by that recipe.

Opening your management screen and hovering the pointer over the bar with the powers name on it will bring up a detailed list of what can be slotted into a power.

Having all of the components you can click on a workbench and simply click create to make the IO. At this point you have something that can slot into a power.

The casual Players Information Package

Keep in mind that the basic system is very simple and consists of just the Common Invention Origin enhancements. They are useful for a couple of basic reasons. First they never change in value. Regular enhancements change in value depending on if your lower level than they are or higher level them they are. If you let a regular enhancement go until you are more than 3 levels higher it stops working and if you are more than 3 levels lower than it you can't use it.

Common IO's have the benefit of never changing their value. This basically means that they never turn red and become useless for you. So if you make a level 15 Accuracy it will always give a 19.2% bonus. If you are level 12 and slot it you gain the 19.2% bonus and if your level 50 and slot the same level 15 Accuracy IO you will gain a 19.2% bonus. This benefit extends to all types of IO's including the set ones. Schedule A IO's range in power from 11.7% at Level 10 up to 42.4% at level 50. Common IO recipes are available in steps of 5, ie. Level 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. You will never find a common IO recipe that doesn't have one of these levels on it.

Skipping all the math there are really 2 ranges of IO to worry about. Start with level 15 and freely slot them or higher level ones. If you can bear to wait to replace them until you can use level 30 IO's and then slot them when you get around to it.

I'll go into a little more detail for those who want it now. If you are confused by all the numbers skip this bit. Common IO's increase in power every 5 levels until they reach a very superior 42.2% bonus at level 50. At level 15 IO's are better than matching DO's so it pays you to use them instead of DO's if you can. The level 25 ones are 32.2% bonus versus an even levels SO bonus of 33.3%. Thus the recommendation of replacing the lower level ones starting with level 30 ones for a better bonus. But if you are willing to take the slight percentage hit on power you can just slot the level 25's in new slots and when you get the chance replace other IO's with higher level ones.

That is essentially all you need to know about IO's to just dabble with them. The next part is more advanced material where people start pulling their hair out in confusion.

Side Note

Those other recipes that can be found as regular drops include costume items such as wings. They work essentially the same as making common IO's. But when made they must be collected from The Facemaker or Icon. Only the character who uses the recipe gets the costume item.

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO INVENTIONS

By Terradraconis

Advanced Invention Basics

The invention system can be very complex as you learn the advanced features. Here I will go over these features of the system leaving detailed discussions for other guides. My intent here is simply to give you an overview of what inventions can do.

Invention Salvage

Invention salvage drops can be magic based or technology based. Some groups only drop magic salvage, some only technology salvage, and some both. You can right click on a foe and select info to see a list of salvage that foe drops. If you have any recipes in your inventory then you will see if that foe drops any salvage you can use for those recipe.

In addition salvage drops come in level based groups or bands of salvage. Each band of salvage is required to make recipes in that level range. So to make a level 30 IO you will need salvage from Band 2.

*Band 1 - Level 4 - 25
*Band 2 - Level 20 - 39
*Band 3 - Level 35 - 54

Your chance of receiving an invention salvage drop varies depending on what rank of foe you are fighting. Minions have an 8% chance, Lieutenants and Snipers have a 10.64% chance, Bosses and Elite Bosses have a 25% chance, and Archvillains that drop rewards have a 43.22% chance of dropping invention salvage.

Invention salvage comes in three rarities; Common, Uncommon, and Rare. When invention salvage drops you have a 78.5% chance of getting common salvage, a 17.86% chance of getting uncommon salvage, and a 3.57% chance of getting rare salvage.

Additionally you can trade with others or buy them from a consignment house. You can sell invention salvage to most stores or at the consignment house.

Recipes

Recipes come in four different pools.
* Pool A - General enemies, this is any foe you defeat in combat. The exception is Giant Monsters and Archvillians that do not give any drops. The level of the recipe that drops is tied to the level of foe you fight. Recipes start dropping from level 10 foes.
* Pool B - Completing missions, any time you complete a mission there is a 10% chance of receiving a recipe from this pool.
* Pool C - Task Force or Strike Force - on completing a TF or SF there is a 100% chance of receiving a drop from this pool.
* Pool D - Trials, on completing the trial there is a 100% chance of receiving a drop from this pool.

Most of the recipes are in Pool A, a much smaller group of recipes are found in Pools B, C, & D. Pool A contains all Common IO's, most set IO's, all costume items, and all temp powers. Pools C & D contain most of the Unique recipes.

Pool A drops from foes. Minions drop 2.66667%, Lieutenants & Snipers drop 5.333333%, Bosses & Elite Bosses drop 7.999999%, and Archvillains who give rewards drop 100%.

The rarity of the pool A drops is common recipes 78.05%, uncommon recipes 19.51%, and rare recipes 2.44%.

One last point is that the recipe pools change every 5 levels. This means that what recipes drop from each of the pools is different in each of these bands. 10 - 14, 15 - 19, 20 - 24, 25 - 29, 30 - 34, 35 - 39, 40 - 44, 45 - 50.

You can also trade for recipes or buy them from the consignment houses.

IO Sets

In addition to the Common IO's another category exists called sets. This is where IO's become complex. A set consists of three to six matched enhancements. Each enhancement in the set is different than the others and there are special bonuses associated with slotting two or more of the set. Further there exists a subcategory of Set IO generally referred to as Special IOs.

For my first example here is a set with only three enhancements one of them a special one.

Freebird:
* (A) Endurance
* (B) Fly
* (C) +Stealth {Unique} [Special IO]

Set Bonus:
* (2) + 8% regeneration
* (3) + increase maximum health by 1.5%

You may only slot one of each member of a set. That is why the Freebird example has the A, B, C in it. You can only slot one of each in the same power. The {Unique} indicates that you can only slot one +Stealth IO in your character. So if I slotted Hover with the full Freebird set I could only put Freebird(A) & (B) in flight. Fortunately there is another flight set I could use to fill in any extra slots I might have in flight.

The Set Bonuses are a special feature of sets. What the (2) and (3) indicate is how many IO's of that set I need to slot in a power to gain that bonus. For example I could slot B & C in a hover and gain +8% regeneration. I could also slot A & C or A & B to gain the same bonus. If I slot all three in the same power I will gain both bonuses thus having a boost of 1.5% to my maximum health and +8% to my regeneration rate. Set Bonuses stack up to 5 of the same type so I could have up to a +40% regeneration bonus just from +8% bonuses stacking. Additional gain can be had through stacking up to 5 of other ranked bonuses. I.e. 5 5% bonuses for a total of +65% regeneration. One last small note, Set Bonuses are not subject to ED. They are global applying to your character or every power you have as appropriate and being added to the powers percentage bonus after ED calculations are done on it.

Special IOs are an unusual category of IO's within sets. There are some special ones like the above +Stealth bonus. There also ones that give a global bonus to hit, defense, regeneration, or recovery. Any of these state that they have a 120 second duration. The way this works is that if the IO is slotted in an always on power then the effect is always on. If it is slotted in a toggle power then it remains in effect as long as the toggle is on and for 120 seconds after the power is turned off. Last if it is slotted into a click power it will last for 120 seconds after the power is clicked. The other category of special IO is the proc or process IO. These add an additional power or effect that has a percentage chance of going off when the power it is slotted in is used. These generally are slotted into an attack.

For a second example lets use the PBAoE Set Cleaving Blow. This is an uncommon level 10 - 53 Pool A set.

Cleaving Blow:PBAoE: 10-53: (A) Acc/Dam; (B) Dam/End; (C) Dam/Rech; (D) Acc/Rech: (2)+ 1% Recover; (2)+1.25 Energy Defense; (3)+1% Damage

This translates into 4 set IO's and 3 bonuses. You gain the first bonus when two of the set are slotted. When fully slotted at level 30 you gain the following bonuses.

*Accuracy: (L30) 21.8 + 21.8 = 43.6% | (L50) 53.0%%
*Damage: (L30) 21.8 + 21.8 + 21.8 + 1 = 66.4% | (L50) 80.5%
*Endurance: (L30) 21.8% | (L50) 26.5%
*Recharge: (L30) 21.8 + 21.8 = 43.6% | (L50) 53.0%
*Recovery: +1%
*Energy Defense: +1.25%
*Damage Bonus: +1% - Note added to the above damage bonus.

Ideal use of this would be to add a fifth slot and put another damage or better yet another Acc/Dam or Dam/End IO from a different set, Multi-Strike would be a good choice, to gain best use of this. If you look above while it is a touch short on damage it gains over a matching 1 Acc/3 Dam SO slotting with extra accuracy, endurance, and recovery. And for the addition of one slot you can bring the power easily in line with the expected bonus level while gaining the additional bonuses.

This is where the system becomes incredibly complex, how you mix and match Set IO's, Hamidon IO's, and SO's will give varying levels of bonuses. Another simple example would be an a different alternate slotting to 1 accuracy and 3 damage. We will use level 30 again and 4 slots. Slot 1 Accuracy 34.8, 2 damage 69.6%, 1 Acc/Dam set IO 21.8%/21.8%. This gives us a 56.6% Accuracy and 91.2% Damage. Compare this to the 33.3% Accuracy and 95% bonus for 1 Acc/3 Dam SOs. This allows you to reach very close to the 2 Acc/3 Dam slotting favored by some. And again the bonuses improve with IO's as you use higher level ones, additionally mixing in Set IO's allows an amazing amount of flexibility for your final build.

Personal Salvage Storage

Issue 9 introduced the ability to use the vault service to store salvage for you. They are found in Pocket D and Generally near consignment houses and Universities.

Consignment House

The consignment houses are a way to trade salvage, recipes, inspirations, and enhancements between players. They also sell a one shot temporary power that permits you to teleport to any consignment house. It costs 5% of the price you set to list an item for sale. You do not get a refund on this unless you sell the item, then you receive a refund but are charged a 5% fee instead. Items and bids are listed for up to 60 days if you do not login to confirm your self. After that they can become lost.

As you gain levels and certain badges your number of buy and sell slots increase. Also you can put stacks of buy or sell orders into the system.

Memorization

One last aspect that I will cover is memorization. This is the ability to permanently learn common IO's. There are 5 level ranges 10, 15 - 20, 25 - 30, 35 - 40, 45 - 50. Within these ranges are 9 groupings you can learn.

*Group 1 - Defense debuff, ToHit debuff, taunt, and confuse
*Group 2 - Heal
*Group 3 - Defense Buff, Damage Resist, and intangibility
*Group 4 - Sleep, Snare, Hold, Stun, Immobilize, Fear
*Group 5 - Endurance Modification and Endurance Reduction
*Group 6 - Recharge Reduction and Interrupt Reduction
*Group 7 - Accuracy and ToHit Buff
*Group 8 - Damage and Knockback
*Group 9 - Run Speed, Jump distance, Fly speed, and Range

It generally requires you to make 10 of a group to master that group for that level range. For the 2 level range groups you must do 1/2 from the lower level and 1/2 from the higher level to master the group. The benefit of memorizing a recipe is two fold. First you no longer need a recipe to make it and second the infamy/influence cost to make it is 1/2 of what someone who hasn't mastered that group spends.

Thus a person who has spent the time and effort to master a group only spends 1/2 to 1/4 of the amount someone who has not spends.

Additionally you earn a badge each time you master a group. Thus there are 9 badges for each grouping at each level. Make enough of these and you unlock an Accolade that gives you instant access to a workbench for 5 minutes of every hour.

very nice.. helps me understand it all abit more.
can i hire you to io my guys?

Good stuff. A suggestion, though - the blue section titles will be tough to read in the CoH blue background here, and the section in orange will be tough to read in the CoV red colors of the forum. Might want to go with something to give a better contrast so it's easier to read.

I was not sure about the blue. So we will see how green works.

Great post! It helped clear up a lot about IO's that I didn't know about, and frankly, I was a bit unnerved about the grandiose nature of it all.

Only suggestion would be to fix the "your" and "you're" errors. Threw off my reading here and there. Good job!

Great post Terra, thanks for the information.

*Prints it to read later on during the day!*

Wow...this is what I was looking for. Short, sweet and to the point. Thanks for all the effort.

<AR>

Thank you for the feedback. All of the you, your, you're problems should now be fixed. And if there is anything to confusing let me know. The intent is to give you the basics to understand the system

I guess this may sound like a dumb question after all your detailed explanations, but if an IO increases in effectiveness as you level, what is the point of creating higher level IO? Can you not slot a level 25 IO at 50? If you slotted a lv 25 IO at level 25 and it increases to the (approx) 44% cap mentioned, it seems like you could slot a 25 IO at 50 and it should automatically adjust to your level. If you do slot a lv 25 IO at level 25, does the number on the IO change with your level or does it still show 25 when you are 50, even though its effectiveness has increased?

A level 25 IO gives the same % when you're level 25 as it does when you're level 50. The IO itself doesn't increase in effectiveness. Each individual level of IO is a little better than the last. A level 26 IO is better than a level 25 IO is better than a level 24 IO, etc etc.

Yes, you can slot a level 25 IO at 50. However, the level 50 IOs are considerably better in %. What you need to decide is whether you'd rather save money (level 25 single-aspect IOs are approximately the same as having a white SO) or have uber percentages.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Awesome guide! I really am amazed at the technicality of it, it's truly shaping up to be a "game within a game". I can see myself spending hours just planning how I will IO my toons!--lol

[ QUOTE ]

Memorization

One last aspect that I will cover is memorization. This is the ability to permanently learn common IO's. There are 5 level ranges 10, 15 - 20, 25 - 30, 35 - 40, 45 - 50. Within these ranges are 9 groupings you can learn.

*Group 1 - Defense debuff, ToHit debuff, taunt, and confuse
*Group 2 - Heal
*Group 3 - Defense Buff, Damage Resist, and intangibility
*Group 4 - Sleep, Snare, Hold, Stun, Immobilize, Fear
*Group 5 - Endurance Modification and Endurance Reduction
*Group 6 - Recharge Reduction and Interrupt Reduction
*Group 7 - Accuracy and ToHit Buff
*Group 8 - Damage and Knockback
*Group 9 - Run Speed, Jump distance, Fly speed, and Range

It generally requires you to make 10 of a group to master that group for that level range. For the 2 level range groups you must do 1/2 from the lower level and 1/2 from the higher level to master the group. The benefit of memorizing a recipe is two fold. First you no longer need a recipe to make it and second the infamy/influence cost to make it is 1/2 of what someone who hasn't mastered that group spends.

Thus a person who has spent the time and effort to master a group only spends 1/2 to 1/4 of the amount someone who has not spends.

Additionally you earn a badge each time you master a group. Thus there are 9 badges for each grouping at each level. Make enough of these and you unlock an Accolade that gives you instant access to a workbench for 5 minutes of every hour.


[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, let me see if I have this right. If I want to memorize the 25 - 30 range Accuracy Enhancements. I need to make 5 of the level 25 and 5 of the level 30? Do I need to make 10 of both? And that will give me the badge and memorize both Accuracy and To Hit Buffs for that level range?

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, let me see if I have this right. If I want to memorize the 25 - 30 range Accuracy Enhancements. I need to make 5 of the level 25 and 5 of the level 30? Do I need to make 10 of both? And that will give me the badge and memorize both Accuracy and To Hit Buffs for that level range?


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes your reading that correctly, though checking Paragon Wiki I see that the 25 - 30 Lt. Colonel badge takes 18 recipes to learn. So you need to craft 8 level 25 and 8 level 30 Accuracy or To Hit Buff IOs. You can actually mix and match the two types of IOs to count for the badge.

This is a dumb question and I'm pretty sure I know what the answer is, but I'd like to get it confirmed:

Can you slot the same IO set in multiple powers on your character? ie have the full Devastation set in every ranged damage power that you have?

Yes. Up to five times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Actually you can slot the set more than 5 times but the set bonuses only stack 5 times so your better off using a different set after the 5th one.

Thanks for the info - I think I know what I need to plan out my IO sets now.

Oops, one more question:

I know you can put IOs of different sets into a power to get various bonuses, but can you slot multiple versions of the same set into the same power?

Example - I'm looking at Devastation for both Burst and Slug (AR ranged powers). However, I don't really care about the final two bonuses in the set, I'd rather just get up to the fourth level set bonus (a +DMG set effect) then slot two more Devastation IOs to activate another first level set bonus (a +Regen). I'd end up with a set of four IOs and a repeat set of two IOs from the same set in the same power (and I say *repeat set* since I wouldn't want to complete the set, so I'd get a repeat of IOs I already had slotted).

Can you 'half-set' IO sets this way?

No, if you already have a Devistation: Acc/Dam slotted then you can't slot a second Devistation:Acc/Dam. But you could slot a Mako's Bite:Acc/Dam.

[ QUOTE ]
No, if you already have a Devistation: Acc/Dam slotted then you can't slot a second Devistation:Acc/Dam. But you could slot a Mako's Bite:Acc/Dam.

[/ QUOTE ]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for the help TerraDraconis.

Ack, to be clear that is slotted in the same power. You can have two different powers slotted with the devistations set.

Got a question for you. Is there any point to using inventions higher than level 50? The bonuses seem to be the same as level 50 you just happen to be paying more.

[ QUOTE ]
Items and bids are listed for up to 60 days if you do not login to confirm your self. After that they can become lost.

[/ QUOTE ]

So if I put up something for sale and don't claim it (or the influence someone paid for it) within 60 days, it could disappear into limbo?

BTW, nice guide, Terra.

<QR>

Very nice guide. One piece of information that I think is key that is missing is the level range around your character for which you can get salvage. Now, I've seen mixed reports on this, so I'm not even 100% sure on what it is. For defeating foes for Salvage, can you get it from any foe -4 on up to you? Or is it only foes that, at least, con Green to you (which means minions are -2, lieuts -3 and bosses -4)? I've seen both explanations, and don't know which one is correct.