I personally start looking at IOs in the late 20s early 30s. Usually not with an eye at set bonuses, but even purely "frankenslotting" a mix of cheap IOs from cheap sets and generic IOs, my powers are significantly more effective than using SOs, and buying a set of cheap IOs at, say 32 and leaving them there is long run cheaper than replacing them every 5 levels anyway.
Frankenslotting sets include, for Fire/Kin, Essence of Curare, Harmonized Healing, Tempered Readiness (acc/dam/slow and acc/end for hot feet), Rope A Dope...you get the idea.
Then I'll replace the cheap stuff with sets that get better bonuses as I move through the forties. Really little reason in most powers to wait until you hit 50 unless you're slotting purples, the total enhancement for slotting 43s vs 50s isn't dramatic in most cases.
If you have a respec available, you can even respec at some point, pull out those cheap IOs you crafted early, and often resell them for far more than it cost make them in the first place.
set bonuses you should start at 30, using 33's, preferably those you can keep till you can enforce em with ho's.
i have tons of 50 workin pretty well this way.
as, for the op: there's a lil trick here: to be able to play in sirens pvp, do repeatable tfs,etc, you 'd rather not lose ur bonuses.
Meaning, as you may know, that set bonuses are available at the lvl you choose them, and vice versa.
So if you slot at 50 with 50 IO sets, you will lose your bonuses under 47.
only uniques, aka purps, or any uniques available, from any pool, will have their particular effect remainin under the lvl u slotted them.
an exemple: the allmighty useful 'stealth' unique you can find in leap or speed will remain under your lvl, so, if u play ouroboros, aka, the game from lvl 1 with a lvl 50 back again, you will be stealthed till lvl 1.
and so on.
[ QUOTE ]
only uniques, aka purps, or any uniques available, from any pool, will have their particular effect remainin under the lvl u slotted them.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not true. Several Uniques cease to function when under-level, and several non-Uniques continue to function when exemplared.
Purples always work, regardless of the levelyou exemplar to. Procs work as long as you have the power they are slotted in available. This includes procs with a chance to fire like damage procs and the performance shifter chance for +end proc, and procs which fire automatically when the power is used, like the stealth procs, and the Miracle, Regenerative Tissue and Numina procs.
Powers which give a continuous bonus have their effect listed in the Set Bonuses window, and cease functioning if you exemplar too low. The most notorious in this category are the Winter's Gift slow resist, the Steadfast Protection Res/+Def, and the Luck of the Gambler Defense/+Recharge.
@Roderick
Just got my first toon to 43.. at what level should I start looking at IOs and set bonuses and whatnot? Also, what is a good place to start farming for them? Im a fire/kin btw.