lvl 30 Dark/shield scrapper

So I have a lvl 30 and I am looking into switching from SO's to IO's as the "normal" ones are now equivalent to SO's.

I was trying to make sense of the "special" IO sets, but there is information overload. are there any suggestions on which I should use?

Which sets for the powers would be best but not cost me all my inf buying. I know there are some mega sets, but they also cost a fortune. Am I better just going with the "normal" IO's?

WIth a /Shield scrapper, you will probably want to prioritize sets which give a bonus to your positional defenses, ie.. Ranged, AOE, and Melee defense. In terms of your survivability, these will have the biggest impact. Your goal, if you check your defense ratings in your Combat Attributes tab, is to get all three of these defense areas up to 45%+. 45% is the 'soft cap' for defense. Without getting too deeply into the numbers on how defense works, getting to 45% is what we call "Good".

AOE Attack Sets to look at:
Multi-Strike -- Usually available and affordable. Isn't great on recharge, but it's adequate.

Scirocco's Dervish -- More expensive, but generally a better set. Usually you'll want to 5-slot this and use the last slot to shore up whatever element of the power you want to emphasize.

Obliteration -- If you've got the inf, it's got awesome set bonuses, and great recharge. But it'll cost ya.

Melee attack sets to look at:
Touch of Death -- Only goes up to level 40, but that's really plenty. Gives good bonuses and boosts melee defense. Can be pricey.

Crushing Impact - Very popular. Gives good numbers, but doesn't help your defenses. Does help recharge, which is always nice.

Mako's Bite - similar to TOD in pricey-ness. Gives ranged defense. Goes all the way up to Level 50.

Other sets that give good bonuses:
Peformance Shifter -- You can get much of this set for fairly cheap. The last couple of IOs will cost you, though.

Gaussian's Fire Control -- If you take the Leadership toggle 'Tactics' or 'Focused Accuracy' from the epic power pools after level 40, this is a great set to slot in that power. A full set boosts your defense in all three areas by 2.5% and gives other great bonuses as well.


There are lots of other sets, but these are a few suggestions, at least.

Beyond sets, There is one single enhancement you want to be sure you get, and probably slot into True Grit, and that's Steadfast Protection: Resistance/Defense. It boosts your defense to all three areas by 3%. That's HUGE.

For more complete info, check out the Scrapper forums on these boards. Lots of good help available there, and lots of people post their builds, which would let you see what other Dk/Shd scrappers are already using in the way of IOs.

If you're confused about set bonuses, the thing I'd recommend is to frankenslot stuff first and worry about set bonuses later. Frankenslotting, or mixing and matching IOs from different sets to achieve the attributes you want, will yield you a stronger character than just going with vanilla IOs.

This is quoted from something I wrote for another forum, so I'm cutting and pasting it here:

Continuing with this, let's talk about dual, triple and quad aspect invention enhancements. I read from the responses that many of you use level 30 or 35 generic IOs and maybe don't bother with set IOs. I'm writing this to try to convince you otherwise.

Let's look at a level 50 generic IO.

At level 50, an IO provides 42.4% enhancement of one aspect. So, 42.4% accuracy, or 42.4% damage, etc. At level 30, a generic IO outstrips the value of a similar level SO, providing 34.8% enhancement, compared to the 33% provided by an even level SO. You all pretty much know that, and Prole mentioned earlier that level 35 IOs are the equivalent of green SOs three levels higher than your character. That is also true.

However, dual, triple and quad aspect IOs provide even more punch, even if you're not going for a set bonus.

Let's look at some of the pieces in the Ranged Damage set, Devastation.

The set contains an Acc/Dmg, a Dmg/End , a Dmg/Rech, an Acc/Dmg/Rech and an Acc/Dmg/End/Rech. The set also contains a Chance to Hold proc, but let's ignore that for this illustration.

Let's take a close look at the enhancement values of these pieces. We'll assume they're all level 50 pieces.

Acc/Dmg - provides 26.5% accuracy / 26.5% damage
Dmg/End - provides 26.5% damage / 26.5% end redux
Dmg/Rech - provides 26.5% damage / 26.5% recharge
Acc/Dmg/Rech - provides 21.2% accuracy / 21.2% damage / 21.2% recharge
Acc/Dmg/End/Rech - provides 18.55% accuracy / 18.55% damage / 18.55% end redux / 18.55% recharge

If you've slotted these enhancements, you'll end up with:

66.25% Accuracy
119.25% Damage, which with Enhancement Diversification will be rounded down to about 97%
45.05% End Redux
66.25% Recharge

That's pretty good, and you get those bonuses with just 5 slots. If you slotted up the power with level 50 generics, you'd get something likes this:

1 Accuracy - 42.5% Accuracy
3 x Damage - 113.5% Damage, which with Enhancement Diversification will be rounded down to about 96%
1 x End Redux = 42.5% End Redux
1 x Recharge = 42.5% Recharge

You'd be spending 1 additional slot but would get less accuracy, equivalent damage, less end reduction and less recharge. Plus the Devastation set would provide global set bonuses of 12% Regneration, maximum health increase of 2.25%, global damage boost of 3% (which exceeds limits for ED, making your damage 100% not just 97%) and a reduction on hold duration effects by 3.75%.

The reason why you get so much out of the Devastation set is because of the dual, triple and quad aspect IOs. These provide much more enhancement value than single aspect enhancements. See the total enhancement values below given at level 50:

Dual aspect IOs provide 53% enhancement value (26.5% twice)
Triple aspect IOs provide 62.6% enhancment value (21.2% three times)
Quad aspect IOs provide 74.2% enhancement value (18.55% four times)

If you don't care about set bonuses, a great way to save on enhancement slots is by taking double, triple and quad aspect IOs from many sets and combining them to give yourself 6 slots worth of power with only 3 or 4 slots.

Let's for example, slot up a ranged power with 4 slots. Again, assume level 50 IOs.

Devastation Acc/Dmg - 26.5% enhancement for each aspect
Devastation Acc/Dmg/End/Rech - 18.55% enhancement each aspect
Thunderstrike Dmg/Rech - 26.5% enhancement each aspect
Thunderstrike Acc/Dmg/End - 21.2% enhancement each aspect

Totals:
Accuracy - 66.25%
Damage - 92.75%
Rech - 45.05%
End Redux - 39.75%

If you're unsatisfied with the damage, you can also opt to replace the quad aspect Devastation with an Acc/Dmg/Rech IO which would make the damage exceed the ED limit. However, I think you can agree that the totals you can achieve by mixing and matching sets are quite impressive. If you were trying to achieve the same amount of enhancements with SOs, you have to use 5 slots even to get to the equivalent amount of just accuracy and recharge. All told, you get about 8 or 9 SOs worth of enhancement with just 4 slots!

This is why I love cheap sets. And why I think that sets like Ruin (level 40 ranged damage), Maelstrom Fury (level 35 ranged damage), Focused Smite (level 40 melee damage), Smashing Haymaker (level 35 melee damage) are so *undervalued*. Just mixing and matching these (that you can grab and craft for ludicrously low amounts of inf) can save you many slots over your character's life and provide a better and more powerful character even without worrying about the nuances of set bonuses. Best yet, you can do it very cheaply...almost as little as buying one or two full sets of SOs.

Thanks that was really helpful. i hadn't thought about using acc/dam from different sets.