Enhancements / Inventions - lost...

Hey, new player here and my character is at level 25 now. I have a few questions about Enhancements and Inventions.

- Enhancements -

I'm not sure what I should be doing at the moment. I'm finding that slotting is difficult to keep up on and I'm oblivious to the cost/benefit of really doing it.

On one hand, I imagine it is easier to make Inf at 50 so maybe I shouldn't worry about spending now and be willing to pay more in order to hit 50 faster. On the other, it seems that replacing them every couple of levels costs quite a bit and may not even matter that much.

Specific questions:

1) What type of enhancements ( should I be buying (if any)? SO, DO or IO?
2) Should I keep all of my slots filled?
3) If yes, I'm finding this pretty difficult to do... any suggestions on the best way to do this? Maybe I'm leveling too quickly at the moment and it will be easier once I hit a higher level...

- Inventions -

I have a weak understanding with what I should be doing with Recipes and Invention Salvage. I usually have a bunch of salvage and recipes but not the combinations to actually make stuff.

Again with the cost/benefit thing. On one hand, I could just sell the extra stuff... on the other hand, I'm looking at that Field Crafter Badge for the portable table.

1) Should I just sell everything?
2) Should I sell on the Market or just to vendors?
3) What about IOs that I can use? I understand they don't have to be constantly upgraded... maybe these are the answer to my Enhancement problems?

Thanks for any assistance.

First off, yes you should be slotting Enhancements, they make a HUGE difference. In general 3 enhancements of the same type will double the effectiveness of a power (and more than 3 of the same type are wasted).

At 25 you're pretty short of slots (don't worry once you hit mid 30s you'll get more slots and fewer powers). But in general try to slot at least 2 damage and 1 accuracy in all of your attacks. If you can spare the slots you'll probably find that adding a endurance reduction to your attacks helps a lot.

For non-attacks slotting is a bit trickier, but in general add recharge if required until you're happy or at 3 recharge enhancements then slot for whatever bonus it gives.

As for what type to use. You definitely want to slot SOs or IOs. MY personal preference is to wait until level 27 then start slotting IOs. Level 30 and above IOs are better than SOs and never ware out which saves you a lot of money in the long run.

As for which IOs, personally I just use generic IOs (the ones called Invention) at low levels because I'm horribly lazy. You can get better performance using set IOs, but it takes more effort. Most set IOs boost the performance of multiple aspects of a power by a smaller amount than generic IOs. But the total boost is higher. So for example adding two Damage/Recharge IOs is better than adding one Damage and one Recharge of the same level.

As for your money related issues, yes it's pretty tricky to fill all of your slots at low levels without either using the market or having a level 50 to pass inf to your low level chars.

To that end I recommend using the market. A lot of the mid and low level salvage can sell for a decent amount (especially arcane salvage so try and fight magic using enemies rather than technology ones).

Another useful trick that I use to get Inf on low levels is to look for items selling below the price NPC vendors buy them for. Level 49 and 50 SOs can often be purchased for about 1,000 Inf and then sold to a vendor for 15,000 Inf. Similarly high level recipes can be bought and sold to a vendor but it requires more effort to find the right ones, so I like to use SOs to get some seed money.

There are quite a few more advanced marketeering techniques you can use to make insane amounts of inf if you want to. If you swing by the Market forum there's some useful advice there.

That was the type of detailed response I was hoping for! You rock, Dispari - thanks again.

edit: Also, good advice from Adeon.

edit 2: And Thaumator ;D

I tend to start using Common IOs at level 22 (using lv25 IOs); they're about the same as an SO (the best enhancements available before the invention system and before you were level 47), and I don't have to replace them *ever*.

However, IOs are more expensive than SOs are. I recently got a character up to 22 on a new server, and at 22, I couldn't afford to get IOs in all of my slots. I put what IOs in that I could, and continued playing, adding more IOs as I could afford them. By 25 (and a couple lucky sales at Wentworth's), I had every slot filled with a level 25 common IO.

At this point, you shouldn't worry about set IOs or the Field Crafter badge. Worry about becoming effective first

Archani - sine your question has been pretty well covered, there's only one thing left for me to say:

Welcome to the game!

One thing people rarely expand on when they say to "sell your Recipe drops": you can sell them at a regular store, not just the Market. However, at the regular store, the Recipes are listed on the left side of the store's screen, UNDER the list of your Inspirations--which the store won't buy. I have come across many people fooled by this, because they don't scroll down past the list of Inspirations.

That said, for "common/generic" Invention Origin (IO) Recipes, if you're going to sell them, sell them at a regular store. They're worth a lot there and the stores pay a fixed rate. One of the paragonwiki links already provided gives you the chart. Whereas, if you try to sell them at the Market, you're selling to other players who are trying to buy them as cheap as they can.

For named "Sets" IO Recipes, the regular stores pay a fixed rate for them too, but it's a very low price. Well, it's ok, but not like a Common IO Recipe. However, for Sets IOs, there are many that are in high demand. You should make it a practice to go to the Market to check the going rate for them there. Note: check what players are paying for both the the Recipe and its crafted IO enhancement. Generally, the crafted IO enhancement is worth a lot more than the Recipe. This may be due to an expensive salvage component requirement or chronic low availability or a mark up for popularity. After a while, you'll get to recognize what's worth your time at the Market and what you can just sell at the regular store while you're selling the other stuff.

Note: for non-IO enhancements, ie the TO, DO and SOs (training, dual, single origins), you'll get paid more for them at the regular store whose origin matches the origin of the enhancement. If you take a Mutant origin enhancement to a Mutant store, you'll get paid the full sell value for it. However, if you take the Mutant origin enhancement and sell it to a Science store, the Science store will rip you off.

Note: if you're buying TO, DO, and SOs, buy them for a regular store. Don't buy them from your Contacts. Your Contacts sells them at inflated prices (you know, because you're his bestest friend for saving the world and all). The Devs have said that they'll finally be changing this idiocy (normalizing all prices), but it hasn't happened yet.

Also, another trick if you are short on cash for financing SOs/IOs is open Menu->Options->Earn XP->Disable. Especially if you are using SOs. Each TO/DO/SO has a 7 level range in which they can be used, which overlaps with the next set (if buying from stores at their 5-level increments) soon the last level for a given set of enhancements (lets say you buy some 25s, level up to 28), turn of XP, and that xp turns into extra inf, then you buy some level 30 SOs (slottable as early as 27), combine them with the 25s (which you can do at 28, at 27 you merely replace since a successful combine would give a 31 which you have to be 28 to use), and you have yourself some level 30 & 31 enhancements. Then when you're ready, turn XP back on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SerialBeggar That said, for "common/generic" Invention Origin (IO) Recipes, if you're going to sell them, sell them at a regular store. They're worth a lot there and the stores pay a fixed rate. One of the paragonwiki links already provided gives you the chart. Whereas, if you try to sell them at the Market, you're selling to other players who are trying to buy them as cheap as they can.

I go to market, put everything on there, and compare the vendor (npc store) pricing vs. what it's going for. There are various recipes that sell more on the market than at the vendor, even the common stuff. At the same time, it helps prevent you from wasting money when you could of gotten more at the vendor. Also, as a seller, it costs you a minimum of 10 inf to sell something on the market (might actually be five, but 10 is the "safe spot" due to minimum fees).

First off let me add another welcome to the game.

Personally I like to slot IO's as early as level 7, because I don't have to replace them until I'm level 25-27. I'm also selective about which missions I accept. Early in the game I choose to fight Hellions and CoT when playing my heroes because they drop magic salvage which sells for a lot of cash.

Also when placing bids in the market please remember this one bit of advice.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!

There are players out there that enjoy crafting enhancements and they sell them dirt cheap. A little patience almost always gets you what you want at a reasonably low price.

Depending on the AT and power, I frequently get low level IO's (10 - 15 level) I need for as low as 10, 50, 100 influence. Things like Accuracy, Endurance, Heals I regularly get for 2,000 - 5,000. Just from being patient.

AT higher levels you'l of course be paying more but again patience will get you what you want for a fair price, and once slotted you won't have to replace it for quite some time. That means everything you earn from missions and drops just keeps piling up.

The outrageous sold prices you see in the market are made by people that have no patience. They have to have everything immediately.


I have found that by slotting IO's early and then just focusing on getting and selling magic drops heroside, I can easily have at least 1 million influence by level 10. That's a huge help once I leave those zones and I have a nice size bank account waiting for me when I need to replace my IO's at levels 25-27.





Also when playing pay attention to any holiday events. Special salvage drops like Candy Canes and Halloween Costumes (4 types) can be sold for a fortune.

Candy Canes can be traded in for a Universal Travel Power recipe set that can be sold for millions. Especially if you sit on them for a few months. You can sell the recipe or craft it and sell the enhancement.

Halloween Costume Salvage (a set of 4) is used to unlock a fifth costume slot, and while everyone has them right now, in a few months they will have become scarce and will sell for top dollar at the market.



I hope you've gotten some things you've found useful from us and they help make your online experience more fun. Cya in the City.


Forbin

I'd just like to throw in a comment about the field crafter badge. The wiki information about the badge is nice but I think inaccurate. Yes if you follow the instructions on the wiki it will cost you 11 mil, but if you don't care when you get the badge it can cost nothing and you can probably make money getting it.
I made acc, dmg, rchg, end mod (or end red), defense buff (or resist), and heal instead of what was suggested and either broke even or made money on all but lvl 10 items (actually end mod and heal are suggested but you get my point). On the lvl 10 IOs and for "Taunt" and "Fear" categories you will have to "eat" most of the cost, but this should be offset by the nice profit you will make on everything else. Jump is mostly a loss, but you can make a profit on the lvl 25 & 30. I did all these recipes up to lvl 40 and although I didn't keep careful track, I'm about 99% sure I at least broke even.
BTW, I still haven't got the badge because of the 1000 crafting requirement - another reason I don't understand how or why you would try to "quickly" get the badge. If you don't mind taking your time you can make money and have a very cheap way to get IOs as you level.

Most of the stuff has been covered very thoroughly. I'm going to give you a quick lesson on, "if you can't be patient" ways of making money on the market. These are BAD WAYS - you can do a lot better doing almost anything else- but if you just need a million influence to get a set of SO's, and you need it now, this will work.

1) Buy up unpopular dirt-cheap set recipes on the market (things with names, like "Ruin" or "Maelstrom's Fury") and run them to a nearby store or contact. Look for snipes, confuses, slows, things you don't have any way to use in your build. Look for things with 10 or more for sale and zero bids. Bid really cheap on them.

A yellow recipe sells for 100 inf per level, an orange recipe for 200. You can bid on a stack of 10 at a time and hold (something like) 10 recipes at a time. So if you buy- I haven't checked in game to see if this SPECIFIC one will work- if you buy ten level 42 Lethargic Repose Sleep/Range for 500 inf each, you spent 5,000 inf and you can sell them to any store, any contact, for 42,000 inf. Profit: 37,000 inf. Do that twenty times and you've got 3/4 of a million, and you are bored out of your tree, and you never want to do it again. Which is OK. Because 3/4 of a million should be enough that you never run out of money buying SO's ever again.

IO's are better than SO's (potentially MUCH better) but they are a ton more work to learn about, and SO's work well enough for most purposes. Don't worry about IO's until you have a handle on the rest of the game.

Sorry, that was me overediting myself. Set recipes have names. Like Ruin. (I love Ruin and Maelstrom's and Smashing Haymaker and Focused Smite and all the other cheap,useful IO's. Frankenslotting for the win.)

Unpopular dirt-cheap set recipes have names, plus they only fit into snipe, confuse, slow, immobilize, confuse, things like that. Here's a good start...