frankenslotting?

There used to be a thing when io's first came out called frankenslotting. that is when you slot, not for set bonuses, but you slotted to put io's of same advantages in a power, example: in a melee attack a slot my have - acc/dam, acc/dam, dam/recharge, dam/recharge, acc/dam, dam/recharge. all of them from different io sets. does anyone still do this? and how do you like it.

Blackmlee out

I tend to do it while levelling, starting with level 25-30 IOs. It's pretty cheap (compared to going for complete sets at least) and gives you some very effective powers. Once I get close to level 50 I start thinking more about going for full sets, though even then some powers - particularly those with a lot of attributes to enhance - often stay Frankenslotted.

Slotting a complete set will often get you values comparable to frankenslotting anyway, but sometimes frankenslotting is still very useful. I find it best when mixing low-level sets while leveling, and for powers where you're trying to enhance more than one thing. For example, making Siphon Life good as both an attack and a heal.

I use this technique while levelling, and it is the core way I build my exemplared characters.

Because small bonuses never get reduced when you drop, if I have a cahracter who goes to low level very often, I like touse triples and quads to ensure they have SO-level performance.

Cheap and very effective if not that exciting for the build porn fanciers

Frankenslotting is very practical, I think. Since the game is based around TO, DO and SOs, you're getting an advantage over conventional slotting. By not worrying about sets you can get some real deals, your drops become potentially more useful, and you can get to where you want faster.

For example; if you've got a melee character, then you know melee sets can get expensive quickly. But if you frankenslot? Hey, see if you can get some of what you need from your secondary effect's IO sets. Accuracy, Recharge and End Reduction aren't that hard to get. Damage can be put in using Common IO's, too.

And as mentioned, frankenslotting can be very nice for exemplaring. I personally do that a LOT. I got shown just how nice it could be when doing a little experimenting myself.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=190479

From Catwhoorg's post to me:

Hell yes. Frankenslotting is awesome, especially when you have few slots to spare. Most of my characters get frankenslotted at 22-25 and slowly get decked up on sets if it's worth the expense.

I also like to semi-frankenslot two sets for 2 and 3 piece bonuses. For instance, 3 Touch of Deaths (two triples and dam/rech) and 3 Mako's Bite (quad, triple and the dam/rech) get's you 3% +HP and near ED capped values on rech, dmg and endred with about 60% acc to spare. Good stuff.

I frankenslot all my toons -- typically with L25-L30 set IO pieces.

If you slot IO's in pairs (ie. an Acc/Dmg, and an Dmg/Rch from the same set),
you can still get some fairly substantial bonuses, (regen, recovery, +dmg, etc.),
depending on what exactly you use. You can usually maximize the core
power attributes and gain an SO or more worth of other benefit (say,
recharge or end reduction, for instance).

As others have mentioned, it's usually cheaper (over the long term), and
you don't get the up & down effectiveness swings like you can with SO's.


Regards,
4

I find it's harder to do than it used to be, because there's no money in selling those [sic] - heroside, it tends to take a whole weekend AND some level-spread (bidding on level 31,32,33,34 for instance) to get what you want.

Used to be I could easily do some frankenslotting at 22-ish, and full frankenslotting at 32-ish, filling 80% overnight or faster blueside (and within a week or two redside...) Not so much now.

I still use it, as it's helpful for getting odd combinations, like both +100% Recharge and +100% Damage on Follow Up.

I tend to do it before level 27. At that point Thunderstrike and Crushing Impact become available for attacks, and generally work just as well for attacks with good set bonuses on top.

For some powers it works better than sets. My Pain Domination corrupters have 4 x Res/Rech in World of Pain for example, to max out recharge and resistance in only 4 slots.

Similarly ShadowFall and Steamy mist get 2 x Def/End, 2 x Res/End and a Res IO and Def IO to get close to maxing out Def and Res and End reduction.

I've often gone 4 x Dam/something for slot-hungry characters for their AoE's.

eg 2 x Acc/Dam, 2 x Dam/Rech, or swap one out for a Dam/End depending on global accuracy and End management tools and so on.

Frankenslotting will make you character about 50% more effective easily, over plain IOs, SOs. This is the biggest bnonus you get from using inventions. The leap from frankenslotting to using sets is smaller, maybe an extra 25% efficiency with good sets.

Frankenslotting is very useful in the mid levels (25-40 or so). It can make a huge difference, especially when you only have 3-4 slots in many powers. In fact, it's better than slotting full sets at those levels since you generally don't have enough slots in a given power to get the good bonuses like recharge or defense.

I usually try to start grabbing cheap set IOs in the mid to late 20s so I can get some endurance reduction and recharge in my attacks while still having good damage and accuracy. I've tried frankenslotting in the teens but unless you have major endurance issues (like some Brutes) it's really not worth the hassle since you have to do it all over again in 10 levels or so. Level 26+ IOs are full SO strength or more (and the dual / triples are better than singles) and can easily be kept until your endgame build. You can play all the way to 50 on a mix of level 25 and 30 generic IOs and cheap level 25-35 set IOs and be stronger than you would have been with SOs while spending less inf than replacing SOs would cost.

Building a Hero/Villian is, IMO, the most fun aspect of this game, and IO's made it that much better.

Frankienslotting, or going set bonuses. I do both. Often times in the same builds. (It depends on the powers really.) I frankenslot at 22, and continue to fill in powers with patchwork IO's until around lvl 40ish. Then i'll respec, and add in the sets i think will add the most to my hero, and that i can afford. Power that would require a huge monetary investment are normally just frankenslotted, unless it's one of my "pet" projects. Other powers that would get decent bonsues but aren't super expensive get slotted. (smashing haymakers, thunderstrikes, ect ect.)

What i end up with are very functional charaters, at a reletively cheap price. And I have a hand full of guys, about 4, i'm starting to spend some bigger bucks on, in antipasation of them seeing alot more play time once GR hits. (End game content FTW.)

So... for me... it really boills down too a power by power basis and how much i'm willing to invest. Which, means building one hero can be a tottally different build exparince then aother. Which is prolly why i have so many alts. Heh.

A lot of my characters are frankenslotted and stay there... I find that there's a pretty big price gulf between an SO build and a dream IO build, and that's more time and money than I usually have any inclination to sink into a character... especially when there's nothing hugely effective that they need IO bonuses for. For characters like that, I tend to just frankenslot them out well and leave them there.