You are level 50. What level are your (set) IOs?

Disclaimer: I am a returning veteran player, so this is my first time really tinkering in any type of IOs/set IOs/set bonuses/globals/procs/etc. Please bear with me if these are dumb questions. Also, please don’t just tell me “buy purples/PVP sets and be done with it”…you’ll see what I mean :]

That said, I have been tinkering in Mid’s lately, and reading up on a lot of stuff in the Controller forums on how to IO out my Ill/Rad, who is currently 42 (the Mid’s build was made for level 50). Whenever people post builds from Mid’s, everything is quite clear, except for the enhancement levels (Mid’s shows them, but the discussion on the boards never talks about them, as in why people chose a level 50 vs a level 32 IO, or whatever). It got me wondering to whether or not the level of the IO was arbitrary.

Anyway, the main point here is that: Exemplaring more than three levels below the level of the IOs renders the set bonuses non-functional acording to paragon wiki (http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invent...nt_Set_Bonuses).

That said: scenario….you are level 50. You want your character to be as effective as possible, all the time. What level do you slot your IO sets? What happens when you exemp to go help a lowbie friend? Or to go run Synapse TF? A couple examples that are confusing me:

1. Set IOs/Globals: Let’s take the Expedient Reinforcement set, specifically the Acc/Rech IO. It can range from levels 30-50. (+21.8% to each @ 30, +26.5% to each @ 50). Say you slot 4 of this set at L50 (not 4 Acc/Rech, any 4 of the set), which gives 3 bonuses in addition to the actual enhancement. If you go below 47, the set bonuses are lost. This is how both Globals and Set IO bonuses function. Would you rather slot it at 30 to make sure the set bonuses function for 20 extra levels (47 – 27) and lose some actual effectiveness in the powers themselves (lower level enhancements), or just keep it at 50 and say “I don’t care about the set bonuses when I exemp. I probably won’t need them anyway.”? Is there a rule of thumb? This is particularly interesting to me for Luck of the Gambler: + Recharge/Defense (goes from 25-50). Would you sacrifice a few % of DEF (in a power you may not even use, so the loss of DEF wouldn’t matter, since this is sometimes used in mule powers), to get a Global recharge bonus you could use for 25 extra levels (slotting 25 vs slotting 50)? What do you guys prefer/do?

2. Uniques/Procs: Let’s take Celerity: Stealth. This is Unique proc and goes from 15-50. Here is the text from Paragonwiki (link: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs) : “Obviously, if you are exemplaring and the power the Proc is in is greyed out, then you can't get the benefit of the Proc. However, the upside of Procs is that they continue to work even if you exemplar way below their level. E.g., a level 50 Stealth in Sprint will work even if exemplared to level 10.” So as long as the POWER is available to you, the proc will work. Sprint is available from the beginning. What is the difference between slotting level 15 vs level 50? (Reminder: This enhancement provides no % increase in run speed, less endurance, etc at all; it is just a proc). Wouldn’t a level 15 enhancement be cheaper to craft/get materials for/be useful for much longer in the game then waiting all the way to slot a level 50?

3. Stat cap/ED. If you have an IO set that is really maxing out one stat (can be any set on any power really), what level do you put your IOs? Do you keep them all at 50 to max out the other abilities as well (the stats not at the cap)? This kind of runs parrallel with #1 I mentioned above. If you do in fact decrease a few of them (because 50s tend to be the most expensive), do you set one lower? Or inch them down each one level at a time till you are JUST at the cap for the highest enhanced feature? Example: Set of 4, all 50s, over the cap. Do you go: set of 4, 3 50s 1 43? 4 47s? Or do you just slot all at 50 because “even though I went beyond the cap on one stat, I want to get the other stats as high as I can too” Of course, if you have tons of money, you will just buy/craft the 50s and not think twice. But that’s where my #1 comes into play as a thing that “money can’t fix.”

What is the "rule of thumb" or common way of doing it? Any opinions are much appreciated. I have the build I want (powers/slots), but this whole enhancement level thing is making me think twice and stifling me a bit. Thanks!

-MT

I have characters who have sets mostly at 50

I have other characters, who exemp more who have sets in the 30-33 range

Before offering advice, you really have to assess how much if any non-level 50 content you are likely to run.

I mainly slot level 39-44 set IO's, as imo.. there's no point to pay up mucho inf for the minuscule +% that higher level ones offer.

For powers picked up before level 35, I slot level mid-30s Set IOs (between 32->37, whatever I can pick up).

For powers picked up after level 35, I slot level appropriate Set IOs.

For things like the Stealth and Knockback IO, I try to slot the lowest level one I can find so I can have use it of as I level up. If necessary, I'll use Merits to buy one. Inevitably, I will pick up a high level one over the course of play. I'll craft it an store in in my Base. When my character is in their high-40s and I'm doing its final respec to adjust powers selections, I'll take the opportunity to pop out the low Stealth/Knockback level IO and put in one of the high level ones because it doesn't matter at that point. This way, the low level IO is available for a new character.

Keep in mind that a lower-level build may be significantly cheaper, but it will also take a LOT longer to put together, especially if you're using a lot of rares. You put in a lowball bid on a level 50 IO, and you have it within a day or two. With a level 35 IO on the other hand, even an uncommon, you could be waiting for weeks, even months, especially redside. It's bad enough if you're accumulating sets as you level up, but if you're already 50, it may stretch your patience.

I've started building a lot of characters with level 35-40 sets. If I need a higher level to ED-cap the primary attribute of the power (damage, defense, etc) then I will use it, and I use higher-level sets in my later powers since those bonuses won't be available when exemped anyway, but my characters built with level 35 sets are still function very well at 50.

Yes. Luckily, I'm a hoarder and don't have a strong case of altitis. A couple of years ago, I settled on a few sets that I liked (2 range Sets and 1 melee Set) and had some of the characters that I didn't play much low-ball bid on stacks of them. Email attachments has made it easier to pass them around to my newer alts.

1) I generally buy my IOs at lvl 40-49, or cap minus 5 levels to cap if they aren't capped to 50 (e.g. 35-40). This is mostly because I rarely exemp, I have new characters for that kind of stuff :P

2) The difference is only the level you can slot it at. Usually the lower level ones also cost more. At least that seems to be the case with Numina/Miracle uniques.

3) Whenever I plan builds on Mid's, I set the IO default level to 45 to represent an almost equal distribution of enhancements from level 40 to level 50. Then I just buy whatever happens to have the best price for a good availability.

Dsorrow - level matters for slotting and for globals, if you exemp. Globals are set bonuses, and are the specials that are always on when slotted (no "chance to" or mention of a duration). The KB Protection IOs, the pet set auras, and the luck of the gambler global rechargeIO are all such.

the Goat is mostly slotted with level 30-ish sets, PvP IOs & purples (which don't care about level). Supply of sub 50 stuff was better before merits and I gradually kitted him out as he leveled up.


Hero side my level 45 fire/ice blaster is likewise slotted for the mid 30's.


Nowadays level 50 is where the supply and the action is, so my recent projects are all slotted with higher level stuff.

I typically slot 30-35 IO's in most of my builds; the slight extra enhancement value that a 50 IO set has over a 35 isn't worth the price premium. Typically I start looking for sets when a character is 27-30 and plan to have most of the IO's in place by 35.

Let's see... Set IO's...

Mine are L28 - L30 for powers below L41. There may be the odd L26 or L27
in there if I it was easier to buy at the time I slotted it...

For powers above L41, they're L35-L45.

For things like hasten (that only take Common IO's anyway), they're
L45 and (maybe) L50 (I'd actually have to check if I have any L50's
in there at all...


Regards,
4

I try to get stuff like LOTG 7.5 as early as possible (25), the rest I just wait until level 50 unless I'm going for some crazy exemplar build such as my Mind/Bubbler's old Positron TF build.

I was IOing out my Martial Arts/Nin last night and some IOs weren't available at any level, or were so scarce as to lead to 'overpayment'....100 mil + for a Unbounded Leap + Stealth, heh.

Generally though, I don't worry about IO sets that much, preferring basic IOs which I slot at IO level 30-35.

Powers before lvl 41 get IOs in the range of 30-35. With the exception being any slot taking just a standard IO (ie not of a set) get max whatever lvl at the time I need to fill that slot. So a straight recharge or end red will get a 35 if I'm 32 or 40 if I'm 37. Ya should get the point.

Now, powers after 40 (41, 44, 47, and 49) get level specific IOs. Normally I go for keeping set bonuses for these in case I exempt. So the lvl 41 power is still available for use if you exempt to lvl 36 and therefore would get IOs of lvl 39 or lower. 44--> 42 and lower. 47--> 45 and lower. 49--> 47 and lower. Unless I slot purples in those of course. And sometimes the lvl 49 power gets lvl 50s.

Other people have covered almost everything. I'm going to mention this again:

Generally most powers get a mix of Level X to L50, where X=approximately the level the power was taken at or L30ish, whichever is greater. Often, the levels of IOs in each slot reflect the levels those slots were added, as I tend to enhance as I go. If the IOs I want are not available at that time (See: Redside Market complaints), I will toss a Common in there until I get what I want.
The power gets decent stats that way, and while the last set bonuses will fall off quickly when exemplaring, there will still be a few while exemplared into the thirties.

There are exceptions, sometimes, such as the Scrapper I built for exemplaring.

Common IO's, when used on a L50, will be L50.

The only character I exemplar with in any major way is slotted with HOs and generics, so I don't have to worry about exemplar effects on my enhancements for almost all of my higher-level characters.

Therefore, I slot my final set pieces of levels between 41 and 49 (because 50s cost exorbitantly more inf to craft than 49s, and have infinitesimally small benefit increase). During leveling, after level 35, I'll typically get lower level ones and then replace with higher ones when the character reaches 45 or so. Prior to 35, I generally don't use set pieces, instead just slotting level 30 generics and leaving them. I gather and craft usable set pieces via lowball market bids prior to being able to use them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

On the characters I care enough to 'properly' IO out, I intend on running lots of TFs with, so being able to keep set bonues at lower level is important, more so if i have a few set mule power choices which makes having the IO bonues important.

I learnt a good lesson on my first 50, my Dom who went from perma-dom doom bringer at 50, to almost no +recharge at 45.

Some sets are good and end at 30, or 35, so I often slot them on the way up. Plus I have a few more LoTGs and the like at lower levels.

A few other sets I have put in around lvl 40, depsite that they go to 50. I find the difference in enhancement value to be minor, but keeping that set bonus the be more helpful.

If I had a character that just stayed at 50, I;d think differently, but so much of my 50's time is spent on non 50 content.

And Master Templar - one thing I just noticed -

You are separating out "Globals" and "Uniques" in your first post - which is bad/misleading usage uniques are not just 120s/procs - any IO can be flagged unique.

Just making sure you realize this.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Table_of_Special_IOs