What is Frankenslotting?

... in what situations is it appropriate, and what are its pros and cons? Thanks!

Frankenslotting is when you taken multi-aspect IOs from multiple sets and combine them in a single power to maximize the enhancement %. The pros that you can get by with less slots for the same enhancement amount, or enhance more for the same amount of slots, with the cons being that you sacrafice some/all of the set bonuses (which may or may not be a big deal).

It's a great way in the lower levels to get the most out of powers with cheap low level enhancements, and it's a good way at the high end to get add a little bit on top of sets that only need 5 or less to get the bonus you want (say, slot 5 from the set, than another from another set to push everything to the ED cap).

Edit: Also, check out ParagonWiki's explanation.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Basically it's mixing and matching IO's in different sets to get the most bang for your buck. The downside is since you never have all of one set in a power, you won't get the set bonuses.

Whoa... cool. Thank you.

Sometimes Frankenslotting is the only way to get certain effects.

For instance, if you look at any single Targeted AOE set, you've got terrible recharge. If you want to get tremendous recharge on, for instance, Thunderous Blast, you should frankenslot with three dam/rech (one from each set), and "Whatever else" to get some accuracy, some damage and some recharge (I'd use one acc/dam and an EndMod acc/rech). Results: around 95% damage, 95% recharge, and 50% acc in five slots. It's a bit high on accuracy for a nuke, but I already capped what I cared about.

Usually it's a way to get 6-7 slots of "stuff" into 5 slots for cheap, and in most cases you can get close -to-as-good effects with a single, expensive set (and maybe a 6th slot from something else.) For instance, Crushing Impact or Thunderstrike can get you to something like 60% recharge, 95% damage, 60% acc and 40% end in the mid-30's for five slots. You're not going to do MUCH better (unless you need near-100% recharge for some particular attack chain) by frankenslotting. You can maybe trade some accuracy for some recharge. But you can use cheap things like Ruin and Focused Smite to do it.

Sniper powers is a good example of something you might want to Frakenslot because there are so many aspects that you want to enhance: ACC, DAM, Interrupt Reduction, Range, Recharge, and even some Endurance Reductions. But the Sniper sets don't cover it all (at least, not as much as I want it to). And so, if you use the triple aspect IOs from different sets, you give up you Set Bonuses, but you gain *a lot* of enhancing.

E.g., my Dark Defender has the snipe power, Moombeam slotted, <ul type="square">[*]Extreme Measures: ACC/Interrupt/Range[*]Extreme Measures: ACC/Range/Recharge[*]Executioner's Contract: Damage/Range[*]Executioner's Contract: Damage/Recharge[*]Sting of the Manticore: ACC/Interrupt/Range[*]Sting of the Manticore: DAM/Interrupt/Range[/list]
This gives:<ul type="square">[*]ACC: 63.6%[*]DAM: 73.7% (pre-ED 74.2)[*]Interrupt: 76.4%[*]Range: 52% (pre-ED 54%)[*]Recharge: 69%[/list]
That's 334.7% worth of enhancement.

Six IOs (ACC, DAM, Recharge, Range, 2xInterrupt) would have only been 252% worth of enhancements.

Sting of the Manticore would have been 293% worth of of enhancements looking like this:<ul type="square">[*]ACC: 47.7%[*]DAM: 91.78% (pre-ED 95.4%)[*]Interrupt: 50.9%[*]Range: 12.75% [*]Recharge: 42.4%[*]End Redux: 42.4%[/list]
Which is a lot less Range, Recharge, and Interrupt Redux that I wanted (with a lot of Interrupt Redux, a snipe can be used often in battle rather than just a lead-off shot).

Besides, my Frankenslotting still gives me the bonuses of: 1.5% Recovery; 2% Recovery; and, 12% Regeneration. That extra Recovery is worth not slotting for End Redux.