IO's, what level do I start?

So, I'm kind of a noob when it comes to IO's and enhancement sets. I left right as inventions were coming out, and am just now returning. I have been trying to learn as much about them as possible, though, and at this point I feel like I'm at a comfortable level of understanding their mechanics.

However, I'm really not sure when I should start investing in IO's with my characters. At what level should I start getting involved? Late 20's? Mid 30's? I know they can be really expensive.

Also, what level IO's should I buy? Is it necessary to buy all level 50, or will between 30 and 50 be fine? I'm not really a min/max person, but I don't want to have a build that is noticeably lacking because my enhancements should be a higher level.

If anyone could help me out here that'd be great.

Thanks!

functionally, i think that from around lvl 30 or so the differences between enhancement effects of lvl 30 ios and lvl 50 ios is all eaten up by enhancement diversification effects

A lot depends on HOW you slot as well.

It's entirely possible to build a toon with lvl 30ish IOs and not see any noticeable difference in performance. Also you can build one that really takes advantage of the increased performance of lvl 50 IOs.

My advice is to add piecemeal as you need or can afford. In the meantime check every drop for unmet demand in the market and see if you can sell it for more than the vendors pay and check your recipes to see if you can craft them and sell the enhancements for a profit.

Also place bids on things you want for less than the going rate and let them sit for a few days to a week. The reverse for selling here is you check to see if you can buy the crafted IO for less than the recipe plus salvage plus crafting cost.

Common IOs get dumped from time to time and you can get bargains there to tide you over until you get the set ones you want.

Me? I start IOs at level 7 as I can afford them since they don't expire like TOs, DOs and SOs.

For some people, using SO's first then buying generic IOs at 27 or 32 (level 30 or 35 generic IOs) and then waiting until 50 to fully IO out your character with set IOs is the way to go. This has the advantage that a level 50 toon can make a lot more influence simply playing the game, level 50 IOs will give you the most enchancements possible, and seeing all of those shiny IOs all at level 50 probably makes people feel better. It has the disadvantage that level 50 IOs are always more expensive (sometimes ridiculously so), you lose your set bonuses as soon as you exemp more than 3 levels down, and you don't gain any benefit from set bonuses before you hit 50.

For me: I skip enhancements in the early game except what falls to me; I use generic IO's at 17 or 22 (level 20 or 25 IOs). Then I usually start working on a set IO build by 27 or 30. I am a big fan of using level 30-33 IOs, because I can exemp down to 27-30 and keep my set bonuses, the enhancement difference between 30 and 50 is not really that great, I get set bonuses to use from 30 to 50, and IOs at 30-33 are, as a rule, MUCH cheaper than the level 50 versions. They are, mind you, not nearly as plentiful, so you'll have to learn to place bids and wait in some cases... but that's how I like to do it.

But there's no one way to do it that is obviously superior to any other way. You'll get a lot of different answers. If you plan to farm/play your way to the money needed to finance your build, you probably need to get to 50 first. If you plan to market your way to the money needed to finance your build, you can start working on that at level one. ^_^

Every one of my characters starts slotting basic IOs at level 12. The levels fly by up to that point (even if you aren't pl'ing, which I never do), and this around the point where you start to notice that the beginner's luck bonus just isn't cutting it anymore. For attack powers I start off with 1-2 ACC, 1 END-RED, 1 DAM. From there I just continue adding basic IOs as I get new slots. None of them are replaced until at least the mid-20's. At this point I start contemplating sets. If I have powers that I don't want sets in until the later levels, I will generally replace the lower level basic IOs with level 25s or 30s, as there is a big difference between the enhancement at that point.

Like Organica, I tend to slot around level 30 set IOs, so I usually starting thinking about a few cheaper sets when I start getting close to level 27. Then I continually buy and slot things as the character progresses all the way up to level 50, and sometimes beyond as I continue to tweek my build.

I like to have some set bonuses as I level, so this is the way to go for me, although as mentioned, since the supply around level 30 is a lot lower than at level 50, it can take some patience and planning to buy everything you need.

I think people who tend to level really quickly might get more value out of level 50 IOs, since they get there so fast they don't really have any interest in what happens at lower levels. If you level slowly, like I do, it probably makes more sense to put up with the waiting game to get lower level IOs, since you can place and fill bids during the time you are playing other characters or whatever.

Another reason to get lower level set IOs is if you exemplar a lot, since you can keep your set bonuses at lower levels. Again, this is mostly a play style issue.

If I'm soloing a lot, I'll do a bunch of common IOs at level 7. Those IOs are better than TOs can ever be, and close to as good as DOs. At 12, I go to level 15 IOs, which are better than DOs. At 17, I get level 20 IOs, which are even more better than DOs.

Of course, that's if I'm soloing a lot, and thus levelling slowly. If I'm teaming a lot, I tend to pick up a few level 15 IOs (mostly accuracy) at 12 and not bother to replace them, but I do add level 20s when I make 17. A bigger deal is that I put in a kismet +accuracy as soon as I have either hover or CJ (or a defense power, but I usually get either hover or CJ pretty early). The +to-hit bonus (it's really to-hit, not accuracy) is worth the few million inf, easily.

For common IOs, I usually start slotting at lvl 12 (lvl 15 IOs until 22, then SOs until 32, then whatever IOs I pick up from there).

For sets, it depends on how fast you level. I generally don't "plan" a build unless I have frozen a character at a level or unless I'm 50'd. Frankenslotting usually works pretty well at any level, but I wouldn't do it until you are in your mid-20s because you're not getting a huge increase in performance, and levelling from 15-30 is extremely fast in my experience.

As a 90%+ solo player, enhancements are a key part of my builds.

In general, I completely skip TO/DO/SOs altogether...

Inf is also not an issue for my toons, so I typically get them as soon as I can.

This means Common IOs starting at L7 - L22, and then I start Frankenslotting.

My goal there is L28 IOs (so the bonuses are still valid in Bloody Bay), but heck,
even L25 duo IO's will outperform +3 SO's, so I'm usually ok with that, depending
on what's available.

For most toons, I'll also add a Kismet 6%, a -KB (Karma, Steadfast), and
often a Perf Shifter +End and/or a Regenerative Tissue +Regen.

For squishies & PvP toons, I'll also add a +Stealth IO, and a +Perception
IO.

Most of these toons rarely have IO's higher than L40 (L45 for powers like
Hasten that don't take set IOs).

On a very small handful of toons (3 so far), I'll look into Purples and PvP IO's
at L50, but that is quite rare (Most of my toons are retired when they hit 50)


Regards,
4

One thing I keep in mind when slotting IO's is what level the power comes available as to what level IO's I'll put in it.

If I'm working on making sure I can exemp down (L30 to 35ish io's for example) then I find it useless to put a L30 IO in a power that doesn't become available to you until L38 when exemping below the level of the power (by 5 of course). SO I Try to keep the IO's around the level of the power when the power comes after L30.

Example: putting L40 IO's into an epic power pool or any power taken at L41 is just fine for me. No need to try and get a L30 or L33 IO for that power.

I play villains, so I slot at Lvl 25 or 28 to improve my performance in the Silver Mantis SF which I try to play at a goal of 1 merit/min, ie, finish Silver Mantis in 45 mins or less.
Because I want to do Silver Mantis even if I outlevel it, I slot common IOs or set IOs. If I can bag cheap sets on the market, I'll buy them. If not, I'll check the market for cheap crafted common IOs. Anything I don't find in the market, I craft myself.
Here's an interesting observation when I did a lvl 45 mission on my brute. I was on a team with another brute which most likely had SOs because his power info didn't list any bonuses. My lv 40 brute was slotted with cheap (yellow/uncommon) lv 25-30 set IOs. Up against arachnos, the SO brute went down but my brute managed to hold out until the rest of the team got back from the hospital.
Based on this observation, I recommend getting the yellow/uncommon sets if possible. The small bonuses do add up. If not, common IOs are a good alternative. Furthermore, it doesn't have to be a high level IO. Crafting cost scales with level as well as salvage requirements. I do suggest a minimum of lvl 25. For example, Positron's blast Accuracy/Damage lvl 25 uses a Strand of Fate which can be bought under 50k while PB lvl 26 uses Empowered sigil which costs 2 mill.

Thanks for the help everybody. I think I'm going to try making my way to fifty on some basic IO's, and when I get enough inf I'll start jumping into the enhancement sets and what not.

One more question, though. What's a good way to get influence? I hear about people "farming" missions, but I never know exactly what they're talking about. Do they just re-run missions that have large, easy mobs in them? I have a level 36 ar/dev blaster, so I'm just trying to find a good income.

Personally, and I know this isn't for everyone...I start sloting IOs at level 12. I put in lowball bids for level 15s, and move on from there. Once I have my 15s, I start lowballing on 20s, then 25s etc I rarely swap them out until I get level 50 though. At that point, I'll respec and start slotting io sets. The benefit for me, is that I don't have to keep replacing them as I level up, once they are slotted. And typically...the powers slotted with the level 15-20s etc, are the lower tier powers anyways. When I get my T9 at level 32...It's getting slotted with 35s anyways which is only going to be marginally less efficient than 50 IOs.

The thing with Generic IOs is that they look expensive, but can sometimes be bought quite cheap. I've gotten a ton of level 20-45 generic IOS for about 11-22k each. Just place your bids, and walk away. You'd be surprised how many you can sometimes pick up for less than 50k each, while other people are paying 300-500k or more. Just takes patience, which is why I do bid several levels ahead of where I will slot some.

I sell the first Luck Charm I get from a level 4 and put in bids for 3 Accuracy, 6 Damage and 4 End Red level 10 common IOs with the proceeds. And put them in play as soon as I hit level 7. Then I sell two Luck Charms and buy the same numbers of level 15 common IOs and put them in the empty slots at level 12. After that I frankenslot cheap sets or good drops I get until the upper 20s. At that point I start converting common IOs to good sets.

Oh dear. Someone's hitting my "monologue" buttons.

Well, pretty much all the relevant monologues are in the link in my signature- so I don't have to repeat them over and over.

For "IO'ing", the short version- Everyone does it differently. As you've seen.

Generic IO's: Slightly better than SO's, nearly as cheap [with clever shopping], never go red. Many people put those in at level 30 or 35 and don't change 'em till 50.

"Frankenslotting" (throwing in a bunch of cheap stuff like they were miniature Hami-O's) gives you significantly better results- five slotting a power and getting seven slots' worth of bonus, things like that. Slightly more expensive than SO's- figure a million inf or so per slot, and you'll probably have plenty of money left over. I'd estimate you can get 40% better performance, by whatever your metric of choice is, than generic IO's or SO's.

Sets- prices go from "ten million a slot" to "partially fused with infinity". Benefits can range up to, potentially, another 40% better performance. With enough money you can make a blaster tanky, a granite fast, or an empath solo.

For "marketing" - look at the top level of any recipe you think you might want. There's going to be something that you can buy for X, craft, and sell for X + millions. Basic warnings:
1) Don't forget to count the "extra" costs. Salvage has costs. Crafting has a cost. Wentworth's charges 10% of the final sale price. Buying a recipe for 55,000 inf and selling crafted for a million sounds good, unless the salvage costs 1.5 million .
2) Sell for considerably lower than the "last 5" prices. People bid like [at best] "1 million, 5 million, 8 million, 10 million" so if you list for 8.1 million you will get 10 million. And if you list for 10 million it won't sell until everyone ELSE who lists at 9 million sells theirs. Which might be months.
3) Don't get carried away. Don't list at 100 inf unless you're willing to sell at 100 inf.
4) You will screw up and lose money. Don't stress about it. Everyone does. I decided to buy a snipe recipe for 500,000 inf [way over the last 5]. If I remember correctly, I bought the wrong recipe. And I bought ten. On the other hand, I've sold things for 14 million when the intended price was 1.4 million. It'll all work out.