I give up... What about Inventions?

Oh, and for Knock-out Blow, since you've got that six-slotted, I like

Crushing Impact: Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Dam/End/Rech
Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam/End/Rech

That gives 60% Accuracy, 100% Damage, 85% Recharge, and 85% Endurance Reduction.

Sam,

Have you looked at Hamidon enhancements? They dont have recipes, but they exist in the auction house under enhancements -> special -> enhance multiple. Or something like that. One of them enhances both accuracy and stun. I forget the name. I think it is called Endoplasm. You should see it in Mids. It gives 33.3% to both accuracy and stun, so with ED you would hot around 94% to each in 3 slots. In your fourth slot you could place generic endurance (common slotting). Then move the 5th slot elsewhere.

Lewis

Sam,

It is also the case that if you keep all 5 slots in handclap, you could get the following which exceeds your common slotting:

Stagger lvl 30 acc/stun/rech
Stupefy lvl 50 acc/stun/rech
Rope-a-dope lvl 50 acc/stun/rech
Rope-a-dope lvl 50 acc/end
Rope-a-dope lvl 50 end/stun

That gives 86.3% to acc, 86.3% to stun, 53% to end reduction, 59.8% to recharge. Also, three rope-a-dopes give set bonuses to regen and fire/cold resist, which will be somewhat helpful for an invulnerability brute.

Still, you may prefer the 4-slot option of 3 hami Endoplasm HOs and a common end, which saves you a slot.

Lewis

If you kept 5 slots in handclap, and you dont care about recharge in it, you could use four items from rope-a-dope (stun/end, acc/end, acc/stun/rech, acc/stun) all at level 50, with slot number 5 being fillled by the stupefy acc/stun/rech at level 50.

That gives 95.8% acc (pre-ED), 95.8% stun (pre-ED), 53% end reduction, 42.4% rech, and it still gives the regen bonus and the fire/cold resist bonus from the set. It then gives the next rope-a-dope bonus for having 4 rope-a-dopes, which is a stun duration bonus (which ignores/exceeds ED).

Lewis

I really don't want to mess with Hamidon enhancements quite yet, to be honest. Granted, my feel for supply and cost has been proven wrong so many times I might as well have been rolling dice, but for the moment... Nah. I want to stick to Commons and see where this takes me. I'll worry about broadening my horizons further once that's done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon If you kept 5 slots in handclap, and you dont care about recharge in it, you could use four items from rope-a-dope (stun/end, acc/end, acc/stun/rech, acc/stun) all at level 50, with slot number 5 being fillled by the stupefy acc/stun/rech at level 50. That gives 95.8% acc (pre-ED), 95.8% stun (pre-ED), 53% end reduction, 42.4% rech, and it still gives the regen bonus and the fire/cold resist bonus from the set. It then gives the next rope-a-dope bonus for having 4 rope-a-dopes, which is a stun duration bonus (which ignores/exceeds ED).

On the other hand... That's not a bad idea. See, I need four extra slots from somewhere to enhance my attacks to six slots each... Though I'm not sure if I really should, and I suppose those could come from the passives, from various miscellaneous places an so forth. Like, one from Health, one from Superior Conditioning, one from Hasten and one from Unstoppable.

I wonder, though - is it really worth spending so much effort to make such a crap power work slightly better? If Hand Clap were knockdown instead of knockback, yeah, I'd use it. I love Fault from Stone Melee. Bur as radial knockback, it hurts me as much as it helps.

---

Hmm... You know what I WOULD like to take for this build, though? Leap Attack? Not sure where I'll find five slots for it, but it might be cool to have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I would drop Hand Clap also, at least for Invuln and Willpower and other sets that become more survivable when foes remain close. If Sam is willing to flat-out drop Hand Clap, then Leap Attack would be a sweet substitute.

Lewis

I would keep the 4 slots on those.

Anyway, there are TONS of places in your build to drop slots from. However, there may not be many you are WILLING to drop them from. I mean, from what I know of your preferences (dare I say: quirks? ).

You could drop the Acc/Dam Crushing Impacts from all your punches. That saves you 4 slots. With rage on, that lowers your KO Blow damage from 418 to 412. Will you even notice 6 points, in terms of overall effectiveness, considering that you'll be using the slots to pick up a massive AOE?

And OK sure, your accuracy drops (when rage is running, and it should always be running) from 224 to 194. You are STILL going to hit everything.

The biggest loss would be the 2.5% x 4 psi resistance. And its nice. But it will NOT save you if you are fighting more then 1 or 2 psi enemies. Spring Attack and Foot Stomp and the knock up in KO Blow will be your real mitigation for them.

Other places you can drop slots .... well, do you really need 3 slots in Resist Elements and Resist Energies? OK, you went for a wee bit of a hit point bonus, but by dropping to 2 slots and using generic IO dam resists, you will lose 0.4% (ZERO point four) on your elemental and energy resistances. A similar argument stands for Tough Hide. 2 generic DEF IOs should be almost equivalent, numerically. Set bonuses notwithstanding.

But you certainly could drop one from the slots you mentioned. There are lots of options. It just comes down to whether or not you can do it, mentally. I know you like the 6-slotted stuff, because of symmetry, appearance, completeness, or whatever else.

Maybe you'll become more comfortable with that kind of thing as you get used to IOs.

Also, if you are willing to frankenslot, you really only need 5 slots to make Spring Attack good. Two level 50 acc/dam/end IOs, and two level 50 dam/rech IOs, and a generic level 50 dam IO give 42% acc, 42% end, 91.7% dam, and 91.7% recharge. With acc and dam being boosted by rage, your actual results on acc and dam are even better. So if you can stand the frankenslotting, you could get by in 5 slots.

As an unrelated side note, you could also put 3 Adjusted Targeting IOs in Rage and get similar results (in terms of recharge) while also picking up 26% end reduction, 15.94% hit buff on rage (boosting your other punches and actions even more on accuracy) and the set bonuses for having 3 adjusted targeting includes a 2% global damage buff, and a wee bit of neg/energy resistance.

Lewis

I'd take the defense generic IO out of Invincibility. It only adds about .5 defense when surrounded by 10 enemies.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Crash McGuire: Level 50 Technology Brute
Primary Power Set: Super Strength
Secondary Power Set: Invulnerability
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Punch -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5)
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(31), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(40), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(42)
Level 2: Haymaker -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(9), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11)
Level 4: Jab -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(13), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15)
Level 6: Temp Invulnerability -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), ResDam-I(19)
Level 8: Knockout Blow -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(25), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Dct'dW-Heal(43), Dct'dW-Rchg(46)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(33), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Run-I(A)
Level 16: Unyielding -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(27), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(27), ResDam-I(29)
Level 18: Rage -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 20: Taunt -- Taunt-I(A)
Level 22: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 24: Resist Energies -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(40), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(42)
Level 26: Hurl -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(33), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 28: Invincibility -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(34), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 30: Resist Elements -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(31), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(40)
Level 32: Foot Stomp -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(36), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(37), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37)
Level 35: Tough Hide -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(39), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(43)
Level 38: Unstoppable -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(A), TtmC'tng-EndRdx/Rchg(39), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Superior Conditioning -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(42)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-End%(45), Heal-I(45), Heal-I(45)
Level 47: Spring Attack -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(48), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(48), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(48), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Fury
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(46)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(7), EndMod-I(7)


I removed Acc/Dmg from Punch, Haymaker, and KO Blow. I concur with the prior advice that on an SS Brute especially that's the correct choice. I also concur that the def IO in invincibility is probably less valuable than the slot could be elsewhere. I replaced Hand Clap with Super Jump, then put Spring Attack in place of Hasten and moved Hasten down to 49. This allows Spring to have 6 slots which I filled with Multi-strike for now. I added a slot to RPD and stuck a Steadfast in it, and also slotted out Combat Jumping. The net result is this build has about 4.6% more defense for not a lot of expense.

Now the mathy thing. I took the endurance common IOs you put into Superior Conditioning and PP and swapped them for Performance Shifter End and Performance Shifter +End. The net result is that your on-paper Mids recovery drops from 3.18 eps to 3.03 eps. *But* the procs are 20% chance for 10% end each, and in passives they will fire every ten seconds. That means on average, each proc will return 10.7 (in this build) end every 50 seconds, or an average of 0.214 eps each. That means your average recovery in this build is actually going to be 3.03 + 2 * 0.214 ~= 3.46. That's 0.26eps more than the original build which is substantial. On a brute, you don't want to run low on end and Spring Attack will, if you use it a lot, burn some end.

I figured now that you're more comfortable with inventions, tossing the Performance Shifter proc in there would not be a shocker.

I agree with the "no wrong answers". Once you have the basics down, I find most of the fun of Inventions comes from figuring stuff out yourself and creating your own combinations. If I asked for advice for my Inv/SS Tank, the suggestions I'd get would look almost nothing like the build I use, but I think it's great.

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of invented enhancements. With them, you will be able to push your character's capabilities to the limit and beyond by doing such simple things as increasing your recharge to the point where hasten is always on, softcapping defense on toons that have no defense powers in their primary or secondary, or increasing your damage output to the point that you too are able to destroy Rikti pylons in mere minutes with no outside aid.

Having said that, I've looked over your questions and, rather than read through all the other posts to see what has and hasn't been said, will try to answer all your questions to the best of my abilities. Okay? Okay!

Say hello to the incoming wall of text!

Question 1- Getting Recipes and Salvage

Recipes, and the salvage needed to craft them, can be collected in a variety of ways. While random drops are the slowest method of getting exactly what you want, it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand and it seems like the random rewards have been improving as of late.

By doing regular content, such as story arcs and task forces, you also gain a merits which can be used to buy recipes or can be convereted into Villain/Hero Merits at a ratio of 50 merits and 20 million infuence for 1 V/HM. I know this sounds expensive but, there are times when you can gain a recipe much quicker through converting merits than if you saved them up to buy that same recipe with regular merits. V/HMs are also awarded for doing the tips missions which you get through random drops. Personally, I like to do regular missions to work towards completing arcs for regular merits and then doing the tips that dropped while running those arcs.

In addition to this, you can earn tickets by going through missions at AE which can also be traded in for recipes but, the recipes you get from AE will be at random rather than ones you select to trade our tickets for, unlike the other rewards already mentioned.

There are also Astral and Empyrean merits which are earned in incarnate trials. Most recipes can be pruchased for about 32 Astral merits and PvP and purple recipes can be bought for around 40 Empyrean merits.

Many people will try to tell you that various methods are superior to others but, I like to use a combination of all the available methods depending on what it is I'm trying to get.

For example, I rarely pay more than 10 million influence for a recipe now thanks to merits and V/HMs since you can get almost any recipe for just 1 or 2 V/HMs (please note that purple recipes and PvP recipes cost much more and are 25 V/HMs or more for a single recipe) and the ones I can't get with a V/HM are available for purchase with regular merits. They usually don't cost too many regular merits either.

The cost of some salvage can get pretty high as well and rather than pay a couple hundred thousand influence for a single piece of common salvage, I like to go to AE and try to get what I'm looking for with tickets. The recipes and salvage earned this way is random but, you can earn 1,500 tickets in a single mission which is enough for 187 common salvage and around 20 recipes if you're rolling on the bronze table (the cost for recipes does vary based on if you're rolling for gold, silver, or bronze and the level range you choose to make ticket rolls on). Results at AE vary but, I personally have made over 2.2 billion influence at AE in just two days (I think I spent about 4 hours of actual farming over the course of those two days) so I know for a fact that it's possible to make a lot of influence there very quickly if you're lucky.

Question 2- Enhancement Levels

If you want, you can use only level 50 enhancements in your character's build but, here are a few things to keep in mind before you start crafting and slotting...

Not all sets go up to level 50 and there may be times when you want to use those sets for their bonuses. Kinetic Combat is a good example of that as it gives a sizable bonus to your smashing and lethal damage which is very useful for people trying to softcap against those damage types. Because of this, Kinetic Combat is a popular set that is somewhat expensive on the market though.

If you exemplar or malefactor and go more than three (it might be five now. I'm not sure) levels below the level of the set you have slotted you will lose the bonuses from that set. Some people will use a lower level version of a set if they think they'll be exemplaring a lot. I personally think the base percentages you get from invented enhancements is more than enough to carry you through and use the highest level I can find when slotting enhancements with one exception which leads us to my next point.

Some enhancements, like the one from Luck of the Gambler that increases your global recharge, the procs from the sets for heals, and the knockback resistance enhancement from Blessing of the Zephyr, give a static bonus that never changes no matter which level the enhancement is. The +3% Defense enhancement from Steadfast Protection always gives 3% defense whether you use a level 10 or level 30 version of it. In these cases, I like to use the lowest level version of that enhancement that I can find so I still get the bonus from it when exemplared.

Question 3- Cost

What is expensive and what is cheap is dependant on what you think is cheap or costly. In terms of the combined market value of the enhancements I slot on a character, anything with a total influence cost below 1 or 2 billion influence is cheap to me. You may think spending 500 million influence is expensive. I don't know. It's entirely subjective. The only other way I can think of to determine the cost is the amount of time spent on gathering what's needed to complete a build and since I regularly alt multiple times during a single gaming session, I don't really even notice how much time I spend finishing a single character's build.

Question 4- Builds Part 1

No. You are not required to try to increase your character's defense. On many characters it's a good idea to if you believe you can get a substantial amount on your character but, there are times when it's not needed or even disadvantagous to do so because you may end up with your character performing poorly in other aspects of it's build or they may already have a rather high rating in whatever stat it is you're trying to increase in which case you may be better off trying to improve your character in some other area.

If you don't have it, I highly recommend downloading Mids Hero Designer and spending some time just playing with it to see what kinds of builds you can come up with for your toons before you start respeccing and reslotting. Once you get a feel for it you'll find yourself coming up with character builds that you would have thought impossible before. I've gotten so bad that I don't even make a character now until I've come up with a build for it on Mids. I also refuse to make one until I've come up with a name I like and a costume to go with it but, that's outside the realm of this discussion.

Question 5- Builds Part 2

This is part of why I recommend downloading Mids. Once you get a feel for that program, you'll be able to come up with character designs rather quickly since you'll already have a fairly good idea of what you'll be attempting to create and how to go about making it.

One example of this is what I consider my generic method of slotting toggle powers that give defense. I usually put a level 25 Luck of the Gambler (LotG) +7.5 global recharge/defense, a level 50 LotG defense, level 50 LotG defense/end reduction, level 50 Red Fortune defense, and a level 50 Red Fortune defense/end reduction on all my defensive toggles. Doing it that way allows me to focus the slotting entirely on defense and endurance reduction (the two stats that matter most on a defense toggle) while letting me hold onto the global recharge bonus as long as I don't exemplar below level 22. With 3 enhancements from LotG I also get extra hit points and regeneration while playing at level 50.

Question 6- Effort

Just like the cost, how much work it takes is entirely subjective and is also greatly subject to what build you intend to use. If you're asking how long it takes, I could completely slot out a level 50 character in an afternoon if I had 2 billion or so influence and just went to Wentworths and bought up all the recipes and salvage with little concern about the prices I was paying to get the enhancements right then and there.

As I said earlier, I tend to be a little alty and stretch out building my characters over a period of time. While it does take longer to do it this way, it has it's advantages as well. If I were to try and slot out just one toon all at once I'd probably burn through a lot of influence in the process. Instead, I'm always earning things I need for one character or another no matter which one I'm on and thanks to being able to mail items to yourself it's no trouble at all to get the enhancements I've crafted to whichever toon it's needed on.

For example, right now I have two level 50 blasters and a level 50 tanker that I'm trying to finish slotting out. If I tried to complete any of their builds just with what's earned on those individual characters I'd use up all their influence and get pretty sick of forcing myself to play them constantly. Instead of doing that I'll do something like run tips on a lowbie and use the V/HMs earned to buy low level procs for my higher level toons before grabbing a 50 to do a high level TF or some incarnate trials and if I get recipes as drops on my level 50s that I know I'll be using down the road, I craft them and throw them into storage to save for another character when it's higher level.

There you go! That's about the best I can answer the questions you asked. Hopefully, I managed to give some advice that hadn't been brought up by previous posters so this is more than just a wall of text that wastes people's time without actually helping. Good luck with IOs!