Returning Players Question on IOs

I played Coh at release and am trying to get a handle on IOs vs SO. When I quite there were only SO, no Consignment houses, no salage and no soft caps.

Is there a basic guide on getting started with crafting and slotting. I understand the basics of accuracy bonuses, damage bonues, endurance reduction, attack speeds but not sure how to select IO sets that would work well together.

Also is there a list of IO sets? Currently my favored characters are inthe 18-25 level range (I don't really have a main, play about 5 characters equaly and ocationally play the others for a change of pace)

Finally is there a good guide of what salvage I should be keeping vs dumping in Wentworths and/or Selling to nearest vendor?

All my characters are Science Origin (except for 2 naturals and one Magic)

Read these:

wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invention_Origin_Enhancements

wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements

wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invention_Origin_Enhancement_Set_Bonuses

wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invention_Origin_Enhancement_Sets

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs

XI. INVENTIONS – ENHANCEMENTS, RECIPES, “LOOT,” & THE MARKET

Market Guide and FAQs in the Market Forum

If you have any questions after doing so, please shoot.

Hope this helps.

Absolutely great lists (and list of lists), I think I have a handle on it.

I was going to throw in ONE of those with a note saying "more info than you probably wanted". . .

I see IOs as [roughly] a three tier system. This system exists only in my mind; there's no official support or anything for it.

Tier one is generic IO's- use like SO's, remember there's a softcap at 95% for most things and 60% for a few - the equivalent of 3 SO's, generally.

Tier 2 is frankenslotting (miniguide in my sig, somewhere around post 20). This means using set IO's only for the fact that they work slightly better than regular IO's of the same level- two "triples" equal three singles, for instance. If you saw Hamidon-Os in the original game, these work like them, but worse. Frankenslotting is a little more expensive than SO's- maybe twice the cost, depending on how much time you want to spend shopping- but gives much better performance.

Tier 3 is set bonuses and VERY expensive builds. It is worth noting that there are certain specific, usually unique IO's that are nearly as good as an entire pool power. The famous "big ticket" items are these:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Miracle:_Recovery
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Numina%2...ation/Recovery
(together, those give you the equivalent of unslotted stamina if I recall)
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Luck_of_...Recharge_Speed
(This can stack up to five times, giving you the equivalent of one SO of Recharge Reduction in every power. )

Note that being FAMOUS doesn't necessarily equate to being NEEDED BY YOU. I've slotted maybe half a dozen, all told, of those. On twenty or thirty IO'd out characters.

Tier 3 is big enough you could probably split it into several tiers, one for "regular very expensive things" and one for purple IO's and PVP IO's and ... whatever else people slot when they are making only one character, and making them as perfect as they can imagine, and time and inf are no object.

I'm cheap. But I love making inf on the markets. I have a lot of surplus money as a result.

Edited to give a rough "bracket" for costs:

A character that hit level 50 with SO's and retired, back in the old days had 10-25 million inf more than they could spend. That would be a lot more today, because you can sell your salvage and whatnot.

Level 22, your first character-full of SO's, cost 1 million inf. Your last character-full of SO's, around level 50, cost 5 million inf.

A character-full of level 35 generic IO's probably costs around 10 million inf (depending on how carefully you shop) but never needs to be replaced. Level 35 generics are very slightly better than +3 green SO's.

A character-full of "frankenslotted" IO's costs probably 10 to 20 million inf and gives you "about two extra slots" in each power.

A character-full of Tier 3 IO's can cost 200 million inf to ... I don't even know. Ten billion inf? More? The sky is really the limit.

(The good news is, you don't need Tier 3, and you can make a lot of money on the market with a little patience and education.)

I am think pretty set on influence, thanks to aggressively collecting and selling candy canes (and mask during halloween) I have about 20 million influence on each of my level 20's. Might actually need to buy a set of winter's gift enhancements.

Where would I find info on "Frankenslotting"

Check the guide in Fulmens' signature (he posted above in this very thread).