Newbie Question: IO Levels.

As I'm considering (finally) selecting a main, I have a question as someone who was always too lazy to play the market, and just settled for SOs --

When do you slot IOs? What level?



Some builds (not necessarily designated a "leveling build") have various level IOs slotted; while others only have level 50s.



Are the lower ones smaller, more affordable ways to get to the cap of things?



I'm sorry if it's a noob question, but it's burning my simple soul.

Some people will argue my logic, but here is how I usually slot.

Up until level 12, I slot TOs that I find. I don't actually PURCHASE any though.
From 12 - 21 I slot DOs
From 22 - 31 I slot SOs
From 32+ I start moving over to IOs as I can afford them.

The reason for this is that IOs don't surpass the bonus of SOs until about level 35, which you can start slotting at 32. If you slot IOs before level 32 and then decide to replace them with SOs, you're throwing away that money. The ONE exception where IOs would be better below 32 is SET IOs. On the other hand, most of the low level sets don't provide significant set bonuses, so even then, it's iffy whether or not is better to take lower enhancement bonuses in favor of picking up the set bonuses. That's something that you need to consider for yourself based on your own playstyle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

Instead of using (or buying) TO/DO/SO enhancements like I had done in the first few months of playing CoX, I now straight away start buying and crafting set IO recipes to frankenslot. For example, a set of three frankenslotted dual or triple aspect IO's (for example, acc/dam + acc/rech + dam/rech/end, possibly from different IO set names) is way better than three single aspect generic IO's (much less TO/DO/SO's), even at 15th level. The total percentages often come out to the equivalent of getting a 'free slot' or 'a free bonus' that you wouldn't otherwise have. And early level set bonuses, if any, are icing on the cake. Many of the recipes and salvage at the lower levels are dirt cheap and will hold their value at least several levels until upgrading them, which I usually do about every five levels. Done carefully, having enough inf to do this shouldn't be a problem.

Granted some folks like to zoom past the early levels anyway and don't consider IO's until about 22nd level and full sets well after that. But as I play quite a bit of solo and duo/trio with friends, the levels go a bit more slowly and there's actually time to take advantage of what set IO's can provide - even starting at character level 7. And I follow this IO-set enhancement only philosophy throughout the characters' careers as they rise in levels all the way up to 50. It gives even the lowest level characters an extra (and significantly noticeable) boost, although it does take time to do some research into what will fit into your build as you go and the time to acquire the recipes and salvage and then craft the set IO enhancements. Most players don't want go through the time and trouble of doing this until their builds flesh out during the later levels, typically at levels 22, 27, 32... and even waiting until 47 or 50.

Sure it costs a bit more, but generating inf isn't a problem for me (preferring to market it than farm it) and I enjoy taking the time to 'polish' my characters throughout their careers so that they can perform a few levels above their actual level, whatever level they might be.

Other people do it differently. I slot Lvl 15 common IOs starting at Lvl 12, swap them for SOs at Lvl 22 and then slow Lvl 30 common IOs at Lvl 27. I may slot parts of IO sets when I encounter something good. I've stayed away from trying to go uber with IO sets, don't have the time to farm for inf, recipe drops or AE tickets to get them.

I generally use TOs until about level 12 and then swap to common invention origins. I replace the common IOs every ten levels until I start buying sets. I find this much less hassle than messing around with dual and single origins.

Once I reach level 30 I start buying sets. I always create a build in Mids Hero Designer. I find it invaluable for choosing sets.

I never replace set IOs with the same IO at a higher level. The reason is that level 35 IOs tend to hit the ED soft cap. Upgrading them to 50's makes virtually no difference. It's worth replacing level 20 set IOs but I don't bother with them in the first place.

I will occasionally replace a cheap set by a more expensive one when I'm rich enough. I might do this with 1 set in a build.

This strategy can be surprisingly cheap. Most sets are not very expensive. They're even cheaper if you leave bids in for a day or two and bid on a range of levels. I get most of my IOs for between 50k and 300k and rarely pay more than 1 million. The only exceptions are the 4 or 5 high value uniques in each build but you can skip them.

I you want to be really cheap just frankenslot. It's almost certainly cheaper than using SOs 'cos they never expire.

If you look on the Titan forums, there's a mostly-updated version of Mids available. Additionally, a fully updated, tweaked version is in beta testing, to be released hopefully soon. (No promises on deadlines.)

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.

Since I can afford it now, I craft and use Common IOs until the level 25s which are close enough to SO value for attribute boosts. As new powers are added, they'll get the most appropriate level Common IOs until the powers have enough slots allocated (typically at least 4) to make switching over to Set IOs practical (ie I won't have take a big hit in the attributes boosts just to get some set bonuses).

Overall, any powers I've picked up up to level 35 will be slotted with level 33-36ish Set IOs. Once I reach level 30 and can see what powers I'm using and have a feel for how I'm using them to predict how many slots I'd need, I will start laying out low-ball bids for individual Set IO pieces that I want to have. I generally shop for one or two power at a time to keep things manageable and so I can reslot the power all at once. This way, I can enjoy having the Set bonuses for over a dozen levels as I play my characters. Powers that I pick up after 35 will get level appropriate Set IOs. Again, I will slot with Commons until I have enough to switch over to Sets.

I hardly use level 50 Set IOs except as an individual piece that won't have another to pair it up with to get a Set bonus. In which case, any "high" level Set piece would work just as well since the difference in effectiveness is minor while the cost savings is significant. That said, since Set bonuses are not involved, any cheapo/crappy Set piece is prefered as they will be significantly cheaper and is just as effective.

Basically, it depends on how much money you have, how much you wanna spend, whether you want to sugar-daddy your alts, how numbers-crazy you are and if you just happen to have an obsession with getting full sets and lots of interesting bonuses.