So you have decided to IO your first toon....

So, I have been hesitant for the longest time to actualy get in to using the invention system beyond some generic IOs. I am by far not the best min maxer, or a very good one at that even, when it comes to number crunching like this. SOs, sure, IOs..... It makes my head hurt just thinking about all the percentages.

So I look to those more knowledgable than myself. I have a few options I am considering. I know I want to do this with a scrapper, no question it will be the best bang for my buck IMHO. I am still not sure on the power sets I want to run though. PVE is all I am thinking of in this build, not really interested in PVP.

Options I am considering, BS/Regen. This is mainly because I could dust off my I2 scrapper, my first ever 50. If I don't do the BS/Regen I think I would like to do something with massive AOE damage. I was toying around with Elecectric/SD, but I already have a brute I am running those on. Next would be either Spines/Electric Armor or Spines/Dark Armor. I have minimum experience with those secondaries though, so I don't know what the numbers are like. Any suggested builds would be appreciated, but don't just say "cause it's awesome", I would really like legit reasons as to why it would be the most fun PVE set.

Lastly I will need to tackle the daunting task of actualy picking the enhancements. I am not crazy rich, but I have been banking recipies and salvage for awhile. No all purple builds for sure, maybe a medium-ish priced build. I would like to try for soft capped S/L defense, and perma hasten if possible, but I am realistic on my price if that will be too expensive. I will have to put this part on the back burner though, considering I have not decided what sets to run. In the mean time though, and sample builds/guides people could point out to me with those sets would be cool. Maybe give me a rough estimate of how much it would cost. **Note this will more than likely be on Infinity. I don't remember if the markets are cross server or not /noob**

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

If you'd like the most bang for your buck scrapper build, I feel /SR is the way to you go. It costs very little to hit the soft-cap to all positional damage. After that, you can just try to pack in as much recharge/regen as you want (or get Aid Self and just go for recharge :P ).

My personal favorite is Claws/SR. Great single target DPS and I use Follow Up -> Focus -> Spin to great effect for AoE damage.

EDIT: I just re-read your post and noticed "massive AoE damage", and I'd probably then suggest Fire/SD. You don't get much more AoE-oriented than that, and it's only slightly more difficult to soft-cap than a /SR.

While I'll second the recommendation for Fire/Shield, I wouldn't put it at the top of the AoE heap. In fact, you really have to add Fire Ball and pile on the recharge before I'd consider it a good AoE combination, and Electric/Shield and the Spines combinations would probably still beat it.

What Fire/Shield has going for it is a nice balance between single-target DPS, AoE damage, burst damage, and survivability. Outfitted properly, it is very good in every category. DPS will suffer on Electric/Shield. DPS and survivability will suffer on Spines/Electric and Spines/Dark.

Markets are cross server.

How much influence are you willing to spend? If it isn't over 1 billion, consider the following.

A Luck of the Gambler: Global Recharge IO sells for 200 million on the AH right now. You can get one of those by farming for 2 Hero Merits. Do that 5 times, or on 5 characters at the same time and you will have enough INF to spend on a decent build.

I put that 1 billion number out there because the game's economy has been inflated a lot lately. It may only cost you 300-500 million for a build. Using Hero Merits to buy the expensive IOs will also save you INF.

If you don't touch purps and pvp IOs, you can really deck a toon out for under 1 billion. A dude in my coalition posted where he sold one purple for 700 mill. The market on purples and pvp ios has really gotten out of hand. On the other hand, as stated above, you can get lotg+ for 2 merits pretty quickly and easily. You'll probably have a few in your build anyways and can save on buying them. I do TFs and take the merits and do rolls, can get some good stuff there, or use them to buy lotgs. A lot of really good sets that used to be pretty high priced are now really cheap. From what I've seen lately, unless its purple, pvp, or kinetic combat, basilisk gaze, or a few others, most sets can be bought for 1-5 mill for the entire set.

Also, you can get mids (which I still can't seem to get on this comp) and spec a build out and post it and these guys will give you notes before you actually buy stuff and that can save a lot of money. They can probably ball park a price too. But it sounds like you've been playin awhile so you probably got a lot of money layin around.

Of those, that might potentially fuel your piggy bank to actually convert back to dusting off that BS/Regen you have: Spines/(Da/Ela/Fa). You can get reasonably high Res to S/L as well as either 32.5% Melee/Ranged/AoE or Softcapped S/L. Focus your efforts on selling off items of no interest as you take the pretty quick tour to 50, and you'll probably be able to afford a fairly decent build with around 400-500 million influence and maybe 12-18 A-Merits. Run some AE Missions for tickets and you can save Inf in that realm too, buying out rare salvage directly from vendors, this can cut anywhere from a few million up to 30-40 million off 9999 tickets, depending on how much effort you build into it. There's currently a thread within the first or second page that can flood you with a realm of build options, some of which even go so far as to cut costs by grabbing the Cardiac Incarnate shard (which is really probably a build goal for most Spines/Da anyway.

Otherwise, I'd encourage you put some love back into an old toon. With Parry you can manage some ridiculous tricks with building, get capped on Melee/Lethal (obviously) and focus your attentions in other places. Bringing Ranged/AoE into the 30's, as an example, and grab Tough can get you 20-ish S/L resists and really give your regen a chance to shine. IO's can put an old toon in a brand new light.

So, I am pretty sure I will be going with the Katana/Regen toon for my first IO build. With the changes to moment of glory this is the first time I have enjoyed playing a regen toon this much since IH was a toggle. I think MoG combined with IH and Shadow meld should make the build fairly survivable. It will not be the most powerful for sure, but I am looking for a build that I can have fun with not something to be the most powerful.

Does anyone have any tips for IOs on a Katana/Regen/SM? A sample build with soft cap S/L, and perma hasten would be sweet. I am working on going through all of my toons to find out exactly what recipies I have to work with, and how much in the way of resources. I do have some pretty pricey recipies on hand, like obliteration, LotG (like 3 +recharge), numinas (including at least 1 +regen + recovery). I am working on selling the few purples I have for the extra cash. I will likely start farming weekly TF/SF with my toons for the bonus merits so I can start having more reward rolls.

Hmmm... looks like I only have 29% ranged defense and 17% AoE defense on mine unless I failed to turn on a power. Haven't played him in ages so I might be confused. That's also an I12 build. There have been SO many ways to improve your character since then.

What I'd probably be aiming for these days is 33% ranged and 33% AoE. I'd want to soft cap melee with a single Divine Avalanche, but I'd settle for less. That puts you one small purple from the soft cap. Shadow Meld will of course also soft cap you, as will Moment of Glory. But what you're really after is recharge - massive recharge, perma Hasten kind of recharge. That's fairly straightfrward these days if you have the influence, and take the Spiritual alpha, of course. Doing it while ALSO getting the defense and everything else a build needs is the challenge.

I don't, however, have an example build. I suspect something like that is achievable these days with enough effort and influence, but I haven't tried to put it together.

I wouldn't be going for smashing/lethal soft cap, though. Go positional defense with a Katana/Regen.