Anyone else wish IOs never happened?

I can't imagine the state the game would be in without IOs being introduced. Well, I can, I just don't think I really like the image it conjures. Without IOs, what are we left with? TOs, DOs, SOs, and HOs. So up until level 50, your pretty much looking at SO builds. With the introduction of ED way back when, the number of truly "viable" combinations for slotting using non-IOs is limited, to say the least. Once you have the HOs you want, what is there to spend inf on? Nothing...ever. Also remember, without IOs, there would not have been a market, so acquiring those HOs you would be looking for would mean taking the time to find players to trade/buy/sell with or running Hami raids repeatedly until you got what you were looking for.

That's precisely how this game was prior to the introduction of the invention system. You got to 50, you got your enhancements, and after that, you just started racking up cash until you hit the cap. By the time CoV came out, there were tons of people on the hero side, who were already at the inf cap. The release of Issue 6 and CoV didn't really do much to change that. The only thing introduced as a "money sink" was the ability to convert inf into prestige for building SG bases. So okay, you had several SGs immediately have fully stocked bases on the Blue Side, and there were STILL a ton of people who were at, or near, the infamy cap.

Truth be known, I think they should come out with new IO sets once or twice a year. By doing this, they would rotate what's "hot" in both recipes and salvage. Doing this would make it more of a "constant" sink instead of a situation where "okay, I finally got this guy purpled out, now I can just accumulate cash."

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Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

Nope, I never wish for that. IOs make characters unique. In each powerset, there are always some powers that are always better than others so it requires characters that take the same powersets to be almost similar. With IOs, each powerset can alter what their character is. For example Crab Soldiers, I can make my Crab Soldier into a Ranged Fighter with lots of AoE and defense, Melee Fighter with pets, a pseudo-Mastermind that is more durable, or some other variation.

No I cant say that I miss the old days. IOs and the market have made it possible for my characters to be much stronger and much richer. Yeah I remember the old days .. in fact at one point I went to an old server I used to play on to take advantage of a free transfer period. Some of those old characters had been dorment for a year or more and when I checked the slotting I was shocked to find thirty levels I was still slotting with training origin enhancers because back before salvage and recipe drops and the market that was all a lot of us could afford. NOW.. at level 22 every slot on any build I have has nothing but the highest possible single origin and around 37 level I switch from SOs to IO to maximize my powers.

Ive been around long enough to recall when having a million in inf was rare and now I have three billionaires and several more closing in on that amount.

As for teaming.. they are still out there and I personally love to join pugs and run radios, tips, etc.. and now we can even add the SSA content to that list.

I know there are players out there that do almost nothing but speed run through one tf after another or even live in the AE doing farms but thats what they want and they are welcome to it. I still solo, still join teams and do the TF and Trials as well. There are a lot more otions on how to play now and I see that as a good thing.

I think I would have quit playing CoH if I hadn't started min/maxing some of my builds with IO's. (Also switching servers made the game more enjoyable...) That in turn, led to me building more toons. Building a perma-dom Dominator, or building some quirky builds, and giving it a shot with dipping my toes into PvP. By getting more out the toons I built, I got more out of the game.

I used to run on just SOs, but then I took an arrow in the knee.

Now I run on IOs and all those arrows miss me because of my softcap Back to adventuring for me! \o/

I don't mind IOs as much as I mind Incarnates - hence why I didn't get one single Alpha slot on my toons.

I do understand your point though - I also dislike seeing 80% of the 50s soft capped for defense. Some sets lost its identity or uniqueness due to IOs.

On the other hand, this game is also a business. And the only reason why CoX (or any other MMO with this many years of existance) still exists is because of the tendency of making the game easier and more noob-friendly. If it still took a casual player 2-3 months to get to L50, the game would be long gone. If we were still in the SOs era, the game would be long gone. If we didn't have the Incarnates and Freedom, the game wouldn't have half the population it has now. And, let's face it, most people who try Freedom will eventually try at least 1 month VIP. Tching-ching.

If IOs never happened this game would have never been fun for me, IOs are a huge chunk of the fun imo.

In my hypothetical perfect MMO all characters could achieve the maximum level of power and ability through casual play. Only skill would set players apart. There would be no high-priced uber loot and nothing that required hours of grinding away at specific tasks. We actually did have that system for a while, before Hami-O's came along. But that's not to say everything was perfectly balanced in the pre-Hami world either. In that hypothetical perfect game, all the customization available from IOs would be built in to the powers and would not require crafting or trading.

However, in the game was actually have to work with, I do like the IO system. I like the level of customization it provides, and I don't think that the uber loot is too extremely damaging to balance. Certainly not as bad as Hami-O's used to be. The style of gameplay has changed, and not always in ways I like, but I don't blame the IO system for all of that.

I can say without a doubt if IOs never happened I would have left this game a LOOOOOONG time ago> Heck I'm still waiting for the devs to wake up and realize they need to add 1 or 2 sets to Targeted AoE. Preferably sets with decent recharge this time.

Also: status resistance: why are those values so low as well? I'd like to have the option to slot (in a meaningful way) for that please.

P. P. S. Also, powers that do both damage and control seem to have few options. My Fortunata had a tough time slotting Domination (Hold+Damage). There are hold IO sets, and Damage IO sets, and nothing like Targeted To-Hit Debuffs for that set. I had to frankenslot.

I'd like to see a Hold set that also enhanced Damage. I think a lot of controllers would like that one.

If IOs hadn't come a long... I'm sure I'd be playing another game by now.