Two-ish Questions

Two-ish questions unrelated to each other.

1) In your opinion, is it wiser to sell low level salvage and recipes and stick to regular enhancements, or should I invest in basic IO's? Some say wait till 30-35 to do the IO's, but I'm not sure.

2) How long do the Imperious and Lady Grey task forces take?
2.b) Would a level 49 scrapper, who's 2 bars into 49, be able to make 50 by the end of one of these task forces?

Thanks.

1) I typically sell EVERYTHING - salvage, recipies and TOs until I can start using level 25 IOs. I use DOs until then if need be. ETA: The one exception is if I get a unique that may come in very handy later on - a Celerity Stealth or something for example. In that case I'll probably hold onto it, at least until I have enough inf earned to list it at close to the market price. I've been burned by listing 15-million inf recipies at 1-million because that's all I could afford, and that's what they sold for.

2) I don't know about the Lady Grey TF since I've never run that, but it's conceivable to make 50 on the Imperious TF in the scenario you posted. Time and how much exp you earn on the ITF depends on how you run it and at what difficulty. A "Kill-All" run at Invincible will take longer but you're guarateed to make 50 - assuming it's a level 50 mission.

I used to wait until 35 for all IO's but I found that I could make some cheap level 15's that have just as much of a boost as level 20 DO's at +3, so if I have what I need, I craft a couple in the lower levels. I'll usually dump them out for SO's depending on how fast I am leveling, but there is not a great difference in a 3 slotted 30 IO and a 35 IO depending on when you want to go for it.

You can be on an ITF that is as short as 30 mins and as long as an hour and a half depending on what team you are on, you may not even finish. It's possible to make level 50 in the TF, but some of that depends on what your team is doing, are they speeding through missions, or are they just fighting? Are the on the lowest difficulty or the highest?

There are a lot of different approaches to enhancements. The simplest is probably "slot level 25 generic IOs at 22, leave them forever, get to 50, play with sets." The most complex involves different sets of IO's at 17, 22, 32, and doing your "Final build" from 40 on.

I'm a big fan of "Frankenslotting"- that is, using lots of different set IO's, but not going for set bonuses. If you slot two Acc/Dam/Rech set IO's [from different sets], you get the equivalent of one Accuracy, one Damage and one Recharge in two slots. You can often get very, very cheap recipes if you don't care about set bonuses; things like Ruin and Focused Smite work quite well and are really cheap.

My method is probably overcomplex, but I like IO's. Generally I use DO's through level 22. At 22 I slot "mostly" SO's, but tend to use a pair of Accuracy/Damage IO's in each attack power. This gives me slightly better than SO performance and it never degrades with level.

At 27 I refresh my SO's.

Around 30-32 I start frankenslotting all my powers. This gives me results that are "Good enough to last until I get bored." In the low to mid 40's I start building for set bonuses- but mostly because I'm bored and rich, not because I need better performance.

The only exception on the "no set bonuses" guideline is that I like to get one or two global Acc bonuses, and if my character doesn't have knockback protection I'll put the money into getting it.

The benefit you'll get from slotting IOs at lower levels is as you level up, you won't suddenly outlevel those enhancements so there won't be as much of a need to take a break from playing and upgrade in the middle of a good team because you'll retain the bonus as you level up. The downside is they cost more money.

One thing I usually do is with my main lvl 50, I got all of the memorization badges. So at level 15 and 25, I'll run a AE mission or two to make some quick money and tickets, get the salvage, and craft the level 15 or 25 IOs for the lower toon and put them in the SG tables, then go pick them up with the lowbie. Those enhancements are chunk change really to a level 50, especially with the AE, but pricy for a low level character. By the time they get to level 30 IO range and up, I'm usually making enough money on my own to craft them with the lower character, but if needed I can repeat the process with my main.

Thanks for the replies, folks. I decided to sell till 30, then get into IO's. I'm usually a solo player (I like the storylines, and I find few teams who do these types of missions), so I shouldn't have to worry about it interrupting my playtime too much.

Also thanks for the TF info. My friend is now 4 bars into 49, and I want to do a taskforce with him to get him that last part. Unfortunately, we're not part of any supergroups, nor do we know anyone, so PuG's are all we have.

What server do you play on?

Virtue.

If you have a time you want to form it at, you can try posting down in the Virtue SG section, and asking for people who would like to join at this time. I'm reasonably certain that you'd fill up in no time...and you'll get a lot better team than a PUG.

You could also try joining a global channel like VU2009 or virtuebadges09, and recruiting from there.

Odds are that if you post to the Virtue forums you'll have a half dozen guild leaders arguing over who gets to invite you. I'd offer, but I'm a redsider. Do a little research, pick one that matches your goals, problem solved =)

1) I use this rule of thumb if I want to go with making IO's for my toons. I will make level 15, 30, and 45. I'll sell all the extra salvage once I've made what I needed for that teir. I sell all the set items that I don't need except for the procs. Those are always useful either to you or an sg member / friend. Once I'm at 50, I can start working on my purples.

(One side note - If I've already worked out a build or have taken one from the boards, I may start crafting some of the set items I need as I get them in drops just to save from having to buy them again later.)

2) It really depends on the group.