Done correctly IO Sets will increase the capabilities of a character. Most IO builds aim at increasing the recharge and/or defense of a character (although a few have other goals such as health/regen). This can be particularly useful for a Willpower tank since Willpower comes with a moderate amount of defense already and adding additional defense (generally Smashing and Lethal defense) can have a large increase in survivability.
The downside is that this can get very pricey, very quickly. The most popular set for boosting S/L Defense is Kinetic Combat which due to the nature of the drop system is rather pricey (the Dam/End/Rech goes for about 100million and even if you skip the others are still a tad pricey). You can look for cheaper sets instead (Smashing Haymaker, for example) but these will generally have less useful bonuses. Realistically if you want to do this right you should plan the build out in mids and will probably need a respec to, at the very least, shift a few slots around. Also you might find you need to wait to earn the cash to complete the build.
An intermediate option you might want to look at is Frankenslotting. IOs that boost two or three aspects of a power provide more total enhancment than regular IOs. For example slotting two level 50 Damage/Accuracy IOs (form different sets, obviously) will boost both Damage and Accuracy by 53% as opposed to the 42.4% you'd get from slotting one Damage IO and one Accuracy IO. In this manner you can get more enhancement from each slot increasing the potency of the powers or allowing you to shift slots to other powers. Since you don't care about set bonuses you can focus on cheaper IOs (most uncommon IOs sell very cheaply) all that matters is how many aspects the IO covers (the more aspects the IO enhances the higher the total bonus, triples and quads are obviously the best but they tend to be rarer and more expensive).
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When you mention the "frankenslotting" I did notice the certain IOs at WW last night while on the game (I am at work right now and don't remember the names of the IOs)|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Done correctly IO Sets will increase the capabilities of a character. Most IO builds aim at increasing the recharge and/or defense of a character (although a few have other goals such as health/regen). This can be particularly useful for a Willpower tank since Willpower comes with a moderate amount of defense already and adding additional defense (generally Smashing and Lethal defense) can have a large increase in survivability.
The downside is that this can get very pricey, very quickly. The most popular set for boosting S/L Defense is Kinetic Combat which due to the nature of the drop system is rather pricey (the Dam/End/Rech goes for about 100million and even if you skip the others are still a tad pricey). You can look for cheaper sets instead (Smashing Haymaker, for example) but these will generally have less useful bonuses. Realistically if you want to do this right you should plan the build out in mids and will probably need a respec to, at the very least, shift a few slots around. Also you might find you need to wait to earn the cash to complete the build. An intermediate option you might want to look at is Frankenslotting. IOs that boost two or three aspects of a power provide more total enhancment than regular IOs. For example slotting two level 50 Damage/Accuracy IOs (form different sets, obviously) will boost both Damage and Accuracy by 53% as opposed to the 42.4% you'd get from slotting one Damage IO and one Accuracy IO. In this manner you can get more enhancement from each slot increasing the potency of the powers or allowing you to shift slots to other powers. Since you don't care about set bonuses you can focus on cheaper IOs (most uncommon IOs sell very cheaply) all that matters is how many aspects the IO covers (the more aspects the IO enhances the higher the total bonus, triples and quads are obviously the best but they tend to be rarer and more expensive). |
that there were certain IOs that had like the damage/accuracy aspects.
They had odd names and were not part of "common" IOs but they didn't seem like they were part of any "set" either.
So they ARE particularly useful then?
I must admit after 4 years on the game I have never tried any of them but they DID seem rather interesting.
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!
"Frankenslotting" is the forum's slang for mix and matching individual Set IO pieces, focusing on maximizing attribute enhancement (preferably achieved with less slot allocations) rather than trying to assemble the Set for set bonuses.
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
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Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
"Frankenslotting" is the forum's slang for mix and matching individual Set IO pieces, focusing on maximizing attribute enhancement (preferably achieved with less slot allocations) rather than trying to assemble the Set for set bonuses.
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So the Frankenslotting can be as effective (if not more) than getting the whole set of something then?
I have bought a few sets in the past for other toons (KB resistance, etc)
but it never occured to me to nab an IO enhancer from one set, another from another, etc, etc
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!
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I almost wonder if you're talking about Hamidon Origin Enhancements here. (I'd expect a 4-year vet to know about them but it's also not inconceivable to me that you wouldn't have encountered them before.) Did they have names like "Centriole Exposure"? As far as I can recall, these, Hydra Origin and Titan Origin Enhancements are the only non-set IO multi-aspect enhancements.
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Originally Posted by Magellen
When you mention the "frankenslotting" I did notice the certain IOs at WW last night while on the game (I am at work right now and don't remember the names of the IOs)
that there were certain IOs that had like the damage/accuracy aspects. They had odd names and were not part of "common" IOs but they didn't seem like they were part of any "set" either. So they ARE particularly useful then? I must admit after 4 years on the game I have never tried any of them but they DID seem rather interesting. |
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
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Yup those were the ones |
Originally Posted by DarkGob
I almost wonder if you're talking about Hamidon Origin Enhancements here. (I'd expect a 4-year vet to know about them but it's also not inconceivable to me that you wouldn't have encountered them before.) Did they have names like "Centriole Exposure"? As far as I can recall, these, Hydra Origin and Titan Origin Enhancements are the only non-set IO multi-aspect enhancements.
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LOLHeck.......I have never even been on a Hamdion Raid before
(this is with 12 non-pl'd or AE'd) 50s also I might add
Closest I have come is the Hami encounter at the end of the LGTF
LOLBut naaaah......
in the past once I hit 47 with my toons I just buy lev 50 IOs for them and slot them accordingly (usually pretty well for balance of what I want to accomplish)
I just thought recently about trying some "sets" or even the "Frankenslotting" that has been mentioned earlier with my favorite & toughest old tanker of mine
In recent months I have been pre-occupied with side-switching, spacing toons out from Infinity and the Freedom servers and a LOT of soloing since I work about 60 hours a week all the time with my job.
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!
Synthetic Hami-Os (functionally equivalent to the real stuff, just the name is different) can also be obtained from the Statesman Task Force and Lord Recluse Strike Force.
I've gone from being completely confused by the Invention system (I took a break shortly after it was released in Issue 9) to really delving deeply into sets and their bonuses, and they can definitely make characters tougher. The only thing with this is that it does require you to take some time and sit down with Mids Hero Designer and work out a build. This can take a lot of fiddling though, as well as sifting through all the different sets and bonuses available (this takes a little less time once you start remembering which is which). If you're too busy for this, Frankenslotting is probably your best bet.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
400m is too little to seriously consider IO'ing a toon.
Take those 400m, invest them on the Market and turn them into 2 billion, and then you can make a nice build with typed defense bonuses, +health, +regeneration and +recharge (in that order)
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In general Frankenslotting is more effective than full sets at enhancing a single power since you can pick and choose the aspects you most want to enhance. The downside is that this way you don't get the set bonuses which can potentially increase the effectiveness of all your powers. To use a simple example on my AR/Dev Blaster I have 5 pieces of Positron's Blast slotted in four different powers. This gives me set bonuses totaling 10% recovery, 36% accuracy and 25% recharge which is roughly equivalent to slotting an accuracy SO and two-thirds of a recharge SO in every single power.|
Originally Posted by Magellen
So the Frankenslotting can be as effective (if not more) than getting the whole set of something then?
I have bought a few sets in the past for other toons (KB resistance, etc) but it never occured to me to nab an IO enhancer from one set, another from another, etc, etc |
Now the actual enhancement the powers themselves get is (after ED) 47.7% Accuracy, 95.1% Damage, 47.7% Endurance Reduction and 26.5% Recharge (plus a damage proc of varying usefulness). Alternatively with Frankenslotting I could, for example use the same five slots to give it 54.5%/96.12%/63.6%/53% (stats in the same order) giving a large increase in recharge and small increases in the others (although I do lose the proc). This isn't a brilliant example since the Targeted AoE Damage sets have a limited selection of enhancement varieties (the only IO without a damage component is a rather expensive PvP IO which limits my options) with other powers. The downside is I'm losing the set bonuses I listed above.
The big advantage of Frankenslotting is that it allows you to fit about 1.6 SOs of enhancement in each slot.
Regarding Hamidon Origin enhancements (which Dark Gob mentioned) they are also useful as part of a Frankenslotting build. They are equivalent in power to 2 SOs which can add more power than Frankenslotted Set IOs. The price is very variable but some useful ones are reasonably cheap. In particular Nucleolus Exposure can normally be had for about 30million and boost damage and accuracy which is always handy.
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I have to admit I am going to look into further detail about the Hamidon Origin enhancers once I get home later.|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
In general Frankenslotting is more effective than full sets at enhancing a single power since you can pick and choose the aspects you most want to enhance. The downside is that this way you don't get the set bonuses which can potentially increase the effectiveness of all your powers. To use a simple example on my AR/Dev Blaster I have 5 pieces of Positron's Blast slotted in four different powers. This gives me set bonuses totaling 10% recovery, 36% accuracy and 25% recharge which is roughly equivalent to slotting an accuracy SO and two-thirds of a recharge SO in every single power.
Now the actual enhancement the powers themselves get is (after ED) 47.7% Accuracy, 95.1% Damage, 47.7% Endurance Reduction and 26.5% Recharge (plus a damage proc of varying usefulness). Alternatively with Frankenslotting I could, for example use the same five slots to give it 54.5%/96.12%/63.6%/53% (stats in the same order) giving a large increase in recharge and small increases in the others (although I do lose the proc). This isn't a brilliant example since the Targeted AoE Damage sets have a limited selection of enhancement varieties (the only IO without a damage component is a rather expensive PvP IO which limits my options) with other powers. The downside is I'm losing the set bonuses I listed above. The big advantage of Frankenslotting is that it allows you to fit about 1.6 SOs of enhancement in each slot. Regarding Hamidon Origin enhancements (which Dark Gob mentioned) they are also useful as part of a Frankenslotting build. They are equivalent in power to 2 SOs which can add more power than Frankenslotted Set IOs. The price is very variable but some useful ones are reasonably cheap. In particular Nucleolus Exposure can normally be had for about 30million and boost damage and accuracy which is always handy. |
I will do the math with the available influence and see if it is "worth my while".
Frankenslotting seems like a lot of possibilities.
Especially since it seems as though I can add certain anhancers that I want and save some space so to speak with slots.
Makes me think if it will be more challenging once inherent stamina hits the newstands next issue too
LOL
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!
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Not even close to being true. On average I spend around the 300 mill mark to apply full sets to most powers. I will always buy recipes rather than crafted when available but it is certainly doable with that amount of money.|
Originally Posted by Silverado
400m is too little to seriously consider IO'ing a toon.
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Now this of course doesn't mean you can't spend billions setting out a character but you certainly fill up a toon with decent sets for under 400M. No purples obviously or the odd really expensive unique but enough to make most toons able to waltz through missions.
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This. You might not be what the forums consider "tricked out", but for well under 400M inf you can have a fun, effective, and powerful tanker. You might think twice about running +4/x8, but +0/x4-6 is still an awful lot of enemies to arrest.
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Originally Posted by ricktu
Not even close to being true. On average I spend around the 300 mill mark to apply full sets to most powers. I will always buy recipes rather than crafted when available but it is certainly doable with that amount of money.
Now this of course doesn't mean you can't spend billions setting out a character but you certainly fill up a toon with decent sets for under 400M. No purples obviously or the odd really expensive unique but enough to make most toons able to waltz through missions. |
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400m can buy you a grand total of 2x Kinetic Combat triples and maybe an LotG +rech.
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Originally Posted by ricktu
Not even close to being true. On average I spend around the 300 mill mark to apply full sets to most powers. I will always buy recipes rather than crafted when available but it is certainly doable with that amount of money.
Now this of course doesn't mean you can't spend billions setting out a character but you certainly fill up a toon with decent sets for under 400M. No purples obviously or the odd really expensive unique but enough to make most toons able to waltz through missions. |
If you have Going Rogue, work on your character's alignment to affirm their choice as either a hero or villain, so they can start earning Alignment Merits. With those, you can buy orange recipes fairly cheaply. Yellow ones will still have to be obtained by drops, the market, or by Reward Merits though. :3
Ideon's Paragonwiki page
Member of Paragon/Rogue Knights
Arc: 60092 - Supa Rumble in the Park
"Keep living the dream, and never let any jerk tell you what to do."
-- High-Roller
my main is a wp/wm tanker, and without IOs, he performed quite well.
I started tinkering around with cheap IOs, and his performance is improved. (Frankenslotted, probably spent about 100 mil, but got a few lucky rolls)
Now that I have more fundage, I am working on a more extensive build.
Thank you, Champion.
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You can do an effective slotting without the really high end stuff. Obviously it's not as effective but it can still make a character more effective than using generics.
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Originally Posted by Silverado
400m can buy you a grand total of 2x Kinetic Combat triples and maybe an LotG +rech.
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For the most part I think 400 will do the trick somehow, someway for me quite nicely.
I am just interested in seeing if the Frankenslotting the mixed bag of damage/accuracy or defense/endurance, etc, etc IO enhancers
will be a measurable difference for me. 
Like I said before I have always been quite pleased with that tank of 3+ years of mine.
It almost always takes a damn mountain to fall on him to stun him in some way and he is pretty nifty at dishing out damage with accuracy (while doing well endurance & stamina)
I originally modeled the toon after Thor and want to do something special with it in the months leading up to the movie
For your viewing pleasure: http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=thor
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!
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Actually I believe a tanker especially could do well Smashing Haymakers instead of Kinetic Combats, but A) a LotG +rech is nice but not needed, and B) if you're willing to buy below level 50 and be patient with your bids, you can manage a LOT more than two KC triples here.|
Originally Posted by Silverado
400m can buy you a grand total of 2x Kinetic Combat triples and maybe an LotG +rech.
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Heck, I outfitted a WP stalker yesterday and was spending money quite freely and employing the "buy it nao" strategy simply because I have the money, but I used level 29-33 IOs, bought recipes and crafted, and I got four full sets of Kinetic Combats plus a lot of other stuff for probably less than 400 million. I do think I bought one triple for 70 million, but I was wanted it NAO.
And yes, to the OP: You'd be amazed at how much tougher you can be with a good IO set. I'd look at what 5 sets of 4 pieces Reactive Armor and 5 sets of 4 pieces of Smashing Haymaker get you (or a mix of sets -- some Kinetic Combat some Smashing Haymaker). Plan a build in mids, buy IOs that are not level 50 or top level for their type (because those are much more expensive), and work towards 45% smashing/lethal defense. That plus everything else that WP gives you is very nice indeed.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
As Silverado said, if you want to really get the top-end, maximum-effectiveness IO sets (like Kinetic Combat sets in melee attacks for the huge defense boost, and Luck of the Gambler +Recharge IOs), you'll likely be looking at a budget in the billions.
That said, you can do one heck of an impressive job with 400M or less, even with today's market prices. Frankenslotting for max enhancement bonus per power using the cheapest set pieces available to do so means that you can effectively squeeze 7 or 8 SOs into 5 slots, and can be reliably done for well under 1M per slot. Adeon Hawkwood already mentioned how well this can work for even bargain-basement heroes.
Given that you have a healthier budget to work with though, you can easily expand into getting some real sets as well. As a simple example of what cheap sets can do for you, 5 pieces of Crushing Impact (a melee damage set) can get you 68.9% accuracy, 97.5% damage, 42.4% endurance reduction, and 68.9% recharge - about 25% more acc/rech than you could get with 6 common IOs. However, since you have (almost) the full set, you also get global accuracy, recharge, and +HP set bonuses on top of that. If you had five melee powers, all slotted with 5 Crushing Impacts, then (adding the set bonuses they grant to their straight enhancement values) your attacks would be slotted for 103.9% acc, 97.5% dam, 42.4% end, and 93.9% recharge - in effect, you've got more than 10 SOs worth of enhancement in only 5 slots, and you get 5.6% higher max HP to boot!
Crushing Impacts can typically be had for under 1M per piece, including crafting fees - one or two pieces might go up to 2M. Most power types have an uncommon (yellow) set like this that give very solid enhancement values and set bonuses, but can be obtained for almost any character with a few million to their name. With a couple hundred million, you could also get a handful of the rarer (orange) sets, and/or a really nice unique or three.
Edit: As Organica said, some Smashing Haymakers and Reactive Armors would probably be awesome additions for a WP looking to add more durability to their build instead of just more offensive oomph. They give bonus defense as a set bonus, along with some other minor perks.
Rule number six of an empathy defender is NEVER underestimate a blaster's ability to die. I don't care if he has CM, Fort, both RAs, bubbles (both FF and Sonic), and is fighting next to a Storm defender with hurricane on. If there is a way to die in that situation, the blaster will find it.
After I came home tonight I went looking around WW and browsing the sets and such.
It occured to me that I haven't done a solo mish with that tank in a while....
so I went ahead and got the Dark Watcher's mish in the RWZ (at +2 x4) to refresh my recollection on what made this tank tick in the first place
In the mish vs. all those Nemesis Colonels (with Warhulk bosses and stuff too) it was a friggin breeze.
My green and blue bars barely moved the whole time.
Next mish in the arc I upped the diff to (+3 x5) and it went well.
Would have been even better if I weren't so dang tired.
Gonna sleep on it and see how my mind untangles this mystery before me in the regards of slotting, sets and what not.
Mucho confused right now.... but in a good way
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!
Someone mentioned it earlier, but I would really recommend getting a copy of Mid's Hero Designer:
http://www.cohplanner.com/
This will allow you to tinker around and see the effect of changes on your build without having to actually slot the IOs. You can make one build with your current set up, and then you can make other versions to see how much effect various IOs would have, and whether they're worth spending the inf to buy.
Arc#314490: Zombie Ninja Pirates!
Defiant @Grouchybeast
Death is part of my attack chain.
Nemesis is a bit of a one-trick pony. Vengeance makes them hard on purely Defense-based tanks, like Shield or Ice. On anyone else, especially something with Willpower's layered mitigation, try not to kill the lieutenants early and they're a total pushover. Not always fast, but an annoyance at worst. You might want to run it against one or two other groups. I find the Rikti give a good spread of different threat types, but that's just me.
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Well of course if you want to slot the rarest/most in-demand stuff in the game. You can easily and dangerously kit and frankenslot out a level 50 with good sets for just a few million. I would recommend against buying things like purples until you at least had a better handle on the system. Go for Mids character designer, and read the wiki. Frankenslotting will give you bonuses higher than you have now. Set slotting will give you set bonuses that you normally couldn't get with an enhancement.
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Originally Posted by Silverado
400m can buy you a grand total of 2x Kinetic Combat triples and maybe an LotG +rech.
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There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
400m can buy you 2 Kin Combat triples and maybe a LotG +rech.
It's been a while since I frankenslotted anything, but I did fill 93 slots on a level 50 for 15 million a while back.
That's 15 million, total.
There's a mini-guide to Frankenslotting in my sig. The basic idea is that you can get "extra slots" in your character- if you slot three Def/End IO's from different sets you get about two SO's of D, two SO's of End Reduction.
If you're just starting out on the road to IO's, it is a good way to learn and if you decide to change it up- you can trash your entire investment and still be out less than the cost of one solid gold IO.
Almost everything you'll be buying is cheap stuff, maybe 100K plus ingredients plus crafting cost. I recommend a couple of non-cheap things for a "Starter" set:
1) A Steadfast Protection Res/Def IO. This is 3% Defense, which will make you more than 6% tougher, and only takes up one slot. Currently running around 20 million for the level 30 recipe (or 40 million if you're made of money and want to pay someone to craft it.)
2) One or two sets with a global Accuracy bonus - say Crushing Impact around level 35 or 40.
After that, you can mix and match as you see fit. Slot a typical melee damage power like this:
Focused Smite Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/Rech, Smashing Haymaker Dam/End/Rech, Crushing Impact Dam/End/Rech, Smashing Haymaker Dam/Rech .
This should give you- I haven't done the math- around 40% Acc, 95% Dam, 35% End Reduction, and 85-90% Recharge Reduction . A little better than 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 1 End, and 2 Rech.
... in five slots.
... for probably under five million inf.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
I have a question concerning my lev 50 Willpower/War Mace/Energy Mastery Tanker.
I have been proud of the damage it can take, and the damage it puts out.....
it is generally real good with stamina/endurance issues also.
Long story short I have around 400 mil in influence to tinker with for it and I was wondering if certain IO "sets" would improve it much or no?
I have always used regular lev 50 IOs and stack them well I believe to match the needed damage/endurance/accuracy needed.....
to make the tank very much a force to be reckoned with vs pretty much any type of foe.
Any ideas?
I am always wanting to improve it, and I don't need a respec for any power changes..... just thinking that the possibility of re-slotting with sets MIGHT improve it any or not
Danke
@Patrick Magellen
Infinity & Freedom Servers!