Some thoughts on builds and the use of purples

So we get three builds now. Ever since that happened, I started planning what I think of as a "Never Exemplar," or "True 50" build. In this build I would use 5 purple sets (when I could eventually afford them all) and fill everything else with lvl 50 set IOs or high level uniques since these are pretty affordable/easy to come buy.

In addition I'd have an "Exemplar" build filled with more expensive Set IOs in the 30-35 range, and low level uniques.

Then I started thinking, that's kind of dumb. A build with purples, set IOs in the 30-35 range, and low level uniques would be the best bet for an exemplaring build since purples don't lose their effectiveness or set bonuses when exemplaring (something I honestly just learned this week).

So then, knowing I'll never (in a reasonable time) have the Inf for two sets of all the purples I want, I started thinking about making a "True 50" build skipping the purples and just using lvl 50 Set IOs and high level uniques.



Does that last part make sense, or would the build with 5 purple sets and lvl 30-35 Set IOs still be more powerful at level 50? I know it depends to a degree on what sets I'm going for, but this is a Mind/Fire dom, so the purples would be the less expensive hold/sleep/confuse sets, and then hopefully an Apocalypse, and either an Armageddon, Hecatomb or Ragnarok set.

What about PvPIOs?

WARNING: I bold names.

Honestly for a Dom I would say you want the Purples in whatever build you plan to use at level 50. Dom's really benefit from recharge and that is the main reason to use Purples at all.

For the other IOs the power loss in going from 50s to 30-35s in a fully slotted power drops you from about 9.5 SOs of enhancement to about 7.8 SOs (pre-ED) which is painful but not to bad. In general you'll notice the loss more in powers that are not 6-slotted so what you might want to do is use lower level IOs in those powers even if it costs you a few set bonuses when exemplared.

Almost all purple sets are give you great bonuses for recharge, recovery and a few other useful things, but don't give you anything in the defense area.

So, if you really benefit from recharge (like a dom), the more purple sets the better. If you are trying to get your defense up you might not want any purple sets at all. Purples aren't a "must" for all good builds, that's for sure.

I'm pretty sure the L35s with purples will come out better.

1) If you think about what "people slot for" in attack powers it's more or less Acc, Dam, Rech, End Reduction and [some sort of mez]. With the hold/sleep/confuse/ [some attack set] purples, you're adding like 45% Accuracy, 50% recharge reduction, 20% end recovery, and some Damage in there. You're covering Acc, (some) Rech and [effectively] End Reduction right there.

2) Most sets have enough Damage built in at level 35 (unless you need the 6-slot set bonus, and even then many are softcapped]. You're going to have plenty of Acc [unless you're doing crazy stuff] built in with your purple set bonuses plus whatever the set happens to bring by accident. Recharge, well, you're not going to lose much recharge compared to the 50% from the purples, and endurance is very, very easily solved. For six Thunderstrikes, you go down 9.1% in Acc, Rech and End: so if you have no other global modifiers you're going from 113.9% to 104.8% Acc, 118.9% to 109.8% Rech, and 68.9% End Red to 59.8%.

Purples are nice, but not a necessity really. I io'd my new fire/psi dominator this week for about 1.7 billion, and she only has one purple - the armageddon proc in hotfeet. She has 88.75% global recharge bonus , and perma-hasten, and perma domination. Majority of the price was two basilisk gaze sets, 5 lotg 7.5's, 1 obliteration set, and the one purple proc. But in your case, getting the "cheaper" purples definitely helps with recharge and if you can slot them, then go for it. I just new personally I wasn't getting sets of grav anchors, absolute amazement, and unbreakable constrainsts for "cheap" anytime soon.

I have drain psyche up every second mob, and with domination filling my endurance bar every 90ish seconds or so in between, she easily solo's anything I throw her at at +1 x 8 so far anyway. So she would definitely be more effective with purple sets, but right now, she is decent enough that I'm not worried about her performance, or even considering upgrading her at all.