Purples - Really?!?!

Have you ever slotted an IO set with a set recharge bonus, such as for example, Crushing Impact, Decimation, Positron's Blast ?

If the answer is "yes", then purples should be worth it for you, seeing as they give the same bonuses, only bigger.

For me, purples are definitely worth it seeing as the recharge and accuracy bonuses on most of the sets let me focus on other things with the rest of the build. The purple procs are also a big boost in DPS, each of them being ~250% as effective as a regular proc.

Of course, that doesn't mean you should add purples for the sake of adding purples. You obviously want to look at each build and look where (and eventually if) it fits.

I'll just throw out the two cases where I use purples.

In my bots/traps, I use the purple pet proc, and other purples in pairs for the recovery bonus. I also use the pet set damage enhancement in protector bots because of it's superior enhancement value on a tight-for-slots power. Most set bonuses don't benefit my MM, since the bots are doing all the damage. I just taunt and stay alive. Getting all the recovery bonuses allow me to skip stamina and still have the endurance to drop AVs and GMs. If I had to take stamina, I'd either lose my ability to taunt, leadership pools, hasten, or the softcap in ranged/AoE defense. The pet proc fires incredibly often and results in a ton more damage than I've ever been able to do.

On my warshade, I'd like to have five sets of purples for the recharge time bonuses. They are what will push eclipse into the realm of perma, they are what allow me to scrank in dwarf with stacked mires, and they will allow me to exemplar much better than I do now. As it stands, I hate losing most of my recharge bonuses when I exemplar.

The point is, purples have a marked ability to improve my effectiveness. They allow me to do things I previously couldn't. It's not about the numbers to me, it's what I can do. This is proof enough that purples aren't simply vanity.

I have one character with purples slotted - Catwhoorg (claws/regen).

The +recharge was my main build aim with them, though the procs really help up his DPS due to the fast animation and recharge of the claws powers.

He also has quite a few PVP IO sets which also stay active when exemping, in fact once I finish out his build (Im about a billion inf from doing so) every set bonus he has will be active from 1 to 50. Making him a very powerful character when exemped.

And I exemp a lot, on TFs and Flashbacks.

I've got a Human Only PB with 5 complete Purple sets. Do they make her more powerful? Absolutely! Was that extra power worth the time (about 4 months) and Inf (not sure, couple Billion at least)? No, the power alone wasn't. I decided to Purp Out (and Accolade out) because that was the only real challenge left for that toon. I *really* liked playing her, so...why not, eh?

Purpling out is expensive in Time and Money, and if you're not having fun during that time, I'd say it's not worth it. If you like playing a single toon alot though, it certainly is.

In general, I don't find purples to be worth the money because so many of my characters use rare sets with substantial amounts of +defense bonuses. That those rare sets tend to be 1/10th to 1/4th the price is a happy bonus.

The exceptions are my controllers who get really good bonuses for comparative bargains.

As for Thirty-Seven's argument, I do find it funny when people so aggressively oppose powergaming. Seems to me that petty jealously plays a not small part there. Because honestly, if you REALLY don't care about purples, then you wouldn't even bother to have posted in this thread. Because the OP isn't talking about Inventions v. no inventions. He's discussing purples compared to other IO sets (as demonstrated by his reference to +def).

Any toon with powers that are < strike > gimped < / strike > balanced off of recharge benefits incredibly from the purple sets.

Blasters
AIM
Buildup
Rain of arrows
Full Auto
Drain Psyche
Consume
Ice patch
Etc

Controllers
AOE holds
AOE stuns
Ilusion pets

Shared with defenders
Benumb
Heat Loss
Adrenalin boost
Fulcrum shift
Transference
Accelerate Metabolism
Lingering rad
etc


If you use any of the above purples are great. If you like fighting +con enemies purples are great the extra accuracy is more than great its a must.

EDIT: Just in case you didn't realize blasters solo at the pace of aim and buildup with the exceptions of /devices and Assault Rifle.

I don't particularly like base building. I don't particularly like badging. I don't like SALAD DRESSING. And that is why it's a good thing that I don't get to set the rules based on what "I don't like".

Edited to talk to Gilia:

Purples often aren't the best if you planning on a specific build.

Typed defence for your Invuln or Willpower Tanker/Brute/Scrapper...they're useless since they offer almost no typed defence bonuses other than Psi.

Want to go beserk with runspeed bonuses up the wazoo for your Granite tank? Again they offer very little (though having your Granite + Rooted tank being able to run 15mph means you can also skip a travel power since you can sprint at around 60-70mph with Granite and Rooted turned off).

Defence soft-capping builds also have very little use for Purples since they don't tend to offer much in the way of positional defence either.

However where they come into their own once you've completed those goals, they allow you to add extra 'tweaks'.

They aren't the be all and end all of builds though.

If that's what you want to spend time working towards, sure, it's worth it. I'd certainly do it if I wanted to play my 50s rather than different characters. Gives you something else to strive for. I could see putting together all the pieces as something like putting together a collection - some satisfaction with each piece acquired. I do this with normal sets on my way to 50, I would see this as the next step - a chance to keep building a character. Do you *need* to? Nah, of course not - you're already at or near 50. You don't need to do anything. But you have that option.

I sell any purples. I would have to have some intention that I find irresistable for me to try to place them into my build. Some people produce grand builds with them but I think most people should be realistic. I am more likely to be bored with a character before I min/max that far or be bored with the character having min/maxxed that far. I like some weaknesses. Immortal characters are boring.

Purples aren't worth it to me, because of how i play the game.

I'm the type of guy who has fun building the hero, and the concept, more then min maxing out his/her/it's powers. I enjoy having a small army of heros and villians i can play, instead of one or two really really powerful ones.

I've got 30 level 50 heros/villians. (20 heros 10 villians) They are all IO'ed out. But not min/maxed to the extream. The money and time it'd take too purple all of the out... I tend to franken slot, and by cheaper IO's, focusing on getting the most out of each individual power then more then getting a ton of set bonuses. Set bonues to me are a secondary priority, nice, but never at the expense of a powers effectiveness.

This approuch allows me to have 30 "good" playable toons to pick from, at the expence of having one really tricked out toon. All of my guys play at a level i'm happy with, in a teaming enviroment. None of them can solo AV's or GM's, but that's not really something that intrestes me.

but all of the above is how i enjoy the game. Others, like Bill, find more enjoyment in having one over the top kick @$$ powerhouse that can do nearly anything by himself. And that's great.

It's kind of nice to have a game that allows two people with differents tastes to enjoy different aspecs of the same game now isn't it?

So, my advice is, if your into Min/Maxing, Purples are worth it. If not, then, it's prolly overkill.