What to make...

I'm tired... of IO sets.

So many combinations across all ATs seem to need IO sets to either cover some critical weakness, or to fully take advantage of a power.

And I am tired of the whole thing. I am tired of trying to micromanage my Inf, my Merits, and maybe scrape enough Tickets together to matter.

I'm sick of playing toons up to their 40s, and finding I lose all the enjoyment as I start - and fail - to try and include IO sets into their builds. And always finding myself short on whichever currency I need at the moment.

I know part of this is my fault. I don't farm - I find that boring as all get out. Without farming, it seems I will never make the kind of Influence or Merits I would require. (Even the so-called 'Cheap builds' still seem to run in the hundreds of millions, and I've never gotten more than 30 mil on any toon before. And that by pure luck. And that's not even going into the mess that is the Red Side Black Market)

Theoretically, the game is balanced around using SOs. In practical terms, I know several of the power sets - especially some of the melee defenses sets - are pretty weak if not supported by set bonuses.

So what is a good AT and power combination for just slotting SOs (or generic IOs) and going to town? I want at least one toon I can play without having to worry about maximizing my merits, and hoarding my Inf to try to buy a single recipe...

Thank you.

You seem to think that IOs are needed and they are not needed, they are optional.

IOs are nice, but you do not and never have needed IOs to make a fun and enjoyable character.

Out of my 12 or so characters, 6 are 50. One of those is completely IO'd out, my Claws/SR, the rest made it from 1-50 using TOs, DOs, and SOs.

My claws/sr didn't slot a single IO until 47.

My katana/willpower made it from 1-50 without a single IO and he still doesn't have one slotted, yet he can still tank, dps and survive alongside every other scrapper and tanker with no problems.

Because of the variety of concerns, plain ole SOs/generic IOs work very well in a kinetic build. Accuracy, endmod, recharge on recharge. Take a good aim power or rad blast.

I have had a BS/Regen scrapper with only SO's since waaaaay back. When he's on teams nobody notices that he is not slotted. His dmg and regen are more than adequate to survive any TF or mission. You won't be soloing any AV's, but the build is safe, cheap, and fun.

Dm/sr or kat/wp scraps are beastly just using SO's.
You could also try dm/inv as well.

Each primary covering up a weakness of the secondary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

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Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

The only characters I have even started to IO are my two level 50s (bar the major annoying KB hole in Ninjitsu and Soldiers of Arachnos, which I plugged)

Pretty much any build you can just slam lvl 50 vanilla IOs in and it'll run nicely. I never touch the market, except for the afforementioned two, or to sometimes flog something shiny I got, or to get costume salvage. I dont have the patience/mindset/time for the market. I cant say Ive felt disadvantaged by not doing so.

Give a Bots/Traps MM a try. Me and a friend duod +2 Hero level Positron and Valkyrie with them Makes ya feel nice and super, especially on SOs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Should I answer your complaint or the question you asked?

For "the question you asked" Rad/Sonic defenders work exceptionally well. So do FF/anything defenders, with extra leisure in that you basically WORK for 45 seconds every 3-4 minutes and then spend your time essentially plinking what are normally considered serious threats. You do have to watch your aggro a little if you're an SO'd out FF defender, because everyone on the team is a tank except you.

For "the lack of wealth and shinies"- blah blah blah I make hundreds of millions while I sleep on the market and so can you blah. Blah blah frankenslotting for ten million gives you two free slots per power blah. Blah blah Frankenslotting guide in sig blah.

I would suggest a fire blast/kinetic corruptor. Kinetics has a handy way of being awesome on just SOs. Hell, I even suspect a kin would be good on just DOs haha.

As a few others have said- IOs are not needed. They are not a crutch. They can make you better, that much can't be argued, but they aren't required.

If you want to do something that could be thematically fun, roll a natural origin character that is devoid of any enhancements entirely. Personally, it sounds a bit excruciating, but some people are kinky like that.

IMHO the answer is to pick ATs that have great strength in one are and simplyu regard any weaknesses as inherent. A Granite Tanker is a good example -- you can use IOs to offset his run speed and recharge penalties somewhat, but you can also just regard them as part of the character, and frankly even yellow SOs will result in a massively tough Granite Tanker.

Also one of the good controller combos like Earth/Rad -- tons of flexibility and power even without IOs. No glaring weakness IOs can fix, either.

I'm thinking the gap between a generic IO'ed ice/kin and a tricked out ice/kin wouldn't be too large. As noted before, kin doesn't need or accept many sets. As for ice, aside from the purple proc in AA, there aren't any sets or unique enhancements I can think of that would make it leaps ahead of where it already is.