Enhancement Boosters

I don't know if this was due to it being Beta or not, yet when I boosted some purples, I didn't see much an improvement.

I have 5 purples in Blazing Arrow. Normally against a level 54 Minion I saw I did 180 damage.

I boosted my purples to all +5 and my damage went up to... 182. Is this right or was it a bug on Beta? Are the boosters even worth it? I have like 500+ so figure maybe I'd use them on my build but on Beta it seemed not to do anything.

Welcome to the world of ED

A +5 enhancement is 1.25x stronger than an unboosted enhancement. However, it's still subject to ED. A purple set is usually at or near the ED-cap on damage to begin with, so most of the damage increase from boosters will be eaten by severe diminishing returns.

So basically, +5ing a whole build is usually minimally useful, and not worth it. It can definitely be useful to boost a few strategically-placed enhancements in a build, though. For example, two 50+5 recharge IOs in Hasten will ED-cap the recharge slotting, saving you a slot compared to the usual 3 enhancements.

Yeah, Boosters work best on IOs that have not hit the highest ED reductions yet.

So, e.g., if you had a Purple set where the Range was just in two of the IOs of the Set and the total Range enhancement is not in the greatest Diminishing Return bracket, then those are the two to Boost if you want more Range.

I slotted a whole Hecatomb Set with 25 +1 enhancers. Result is I was able to increase the Damage number to well over 60% instead of the base 53% . Yes it is expensive on the dollar side but if you want to do it. feel free. That's what I think of the game. If you want to enhance it go for it. We are here having fun anyways.

I've found that the best uses for the boosters for me was to +5 any sets I like to use that cap out before level 50. (Decimation, Kinetic Combat, etc.) There are also cases where I only use 2 generic IO's of the same type (like say in hasten). If I +5 those two generic recharge IO's they ED cap the power without any additional slots. I've done the same with endurance IO's in stamina when endurance isn't an issue for the character or they already have quick recovery for example.

What happens when you respec? I enhanced the accuracy-related IOs of the purple Absolute Amazement set, because the accuracy is not great in Flashfires (due to a built-in accuracy penalty in the power).

I want to do a minor respec where I swap out a pool power. But will I lose the enhancements to my +5 purples? Or do they stay on the absolute amazements so long as its a respec?

Basically, I heard that you can lose the bonuses, but unsure if its when you respec, or when you use an unslotter, or if it is simply untrue.

Thanks,

Lewis

Awesome! Thanks for the info!

Lewis

The best use I've found for enhancement boosters is toons with single slot hasten. lvl 50 IO at +5 makes it much easier to get perma hasten with just 1 slot and doesnt suffer from ED.

My troller just has a numina heal/rech(+spiritual) in Earth's Embrace, so +5'ing that was nice too, even though it was easily perma without it.

It's also nice in long recharge powers like Benumb and Heatloss, the bit of +rchg from the +5 makes it a bit easier to perma.

Other uses I have found:

• When you want a set's bonuses, but can't spare a slot and the set doesn't provide full enhancement. This is especially true for exemplar friendly builds, using things like 4 basilisk's gaze @level 30, call to arms at 4 slots @level 30, kinetic combat's accuracy, etc.
  
• Frankenslotting the pure damage purples. Damage purples over enhance damage, so you can 5 slot with the proc and boost up that set for the 5 slot bonuses, then use the single damage elsewhere. A pure damage purple with +5 boosts it to 66% damage in one slot. For control characters with decent damage in their holds, I like using 4 basilisk's gaze, one +5 purple damage, and a dam/acc HO. This caps damage, and gives really good hold, really good accuracy, and good recharge.

Nice tips. Thanks!

I was wondering something else. Am I correct in assuming that enhancing a "proc" such as steadfast global defense, miracle recovery, karma -knockback, etc, is entirely pointless, since the proc does not vary with level?

Also, do you think Cinders with only 4 basilisk gaze IOs, each given the +5 treatment, is sufficient for the power? I lean towards no, but I am looking for places in my build to skimp slots.

Lewis

As for Cinders, my build is just shy of perma-hasten, so I guess the recharge numbers arent as big of a deal. I also suppose the extra 2 or 3 seconds of duration loss in not having a 5th slot acc/hld/rch might be ok. I do question the accuracy, given that at least half the time I use Cinders, it is an opener. The other half of the time, I have already cast freezing rain so acc isnt a big deal.

Still, losing that 5th slot for the acc/hold/rech concerns me. However, if you think +5 on the a/h, a/r, r/h and the quad would be sufficient, then that would rock.

I also wonder if I can get Hot Feet down from 4 total slots to just 3, maybe using a dam/end purple, and the 2 normal a/d/e IOs, all given the +5. I dont have Mids close, will check tonight.

If I can shave from both of those, I will be well set!

Thanks,

Lewis

Since the Boosters are not free I find when doing a generic IO 2 slot with Lvl 50's I find that +5 and +3 on the second is actually most efficient to hit ED max benefit suppression. The last two boosters to +5 both are pretty much wasted. When boosting in a set for a single aspect like Endurance Reduction or Defense the same thing may apply, depending on the exact structure of the set. It takes very little time to add and remove boosters one at a time in Mids to look for this sort of thing.

As for purple damage sets, +5 to the 4 enhancers with dual and triple aspects totally wastes some damage, but the other internals benefit greatly, especially Endurance Reduction (which really is inferior in purples) and Recharge. And if you do the 5 slot with the proc and no single damage, that rocks.

Another set I find that does great with a +5 across all 5 is a 5 slot Crushing Impact. On a power like Greater Fire Sword which has an inherent Accy bonus but is a terrible endurance hog, I dropped the Accy/Dam to 5 slot and was able to get both 84.51% Endurance discount and Recharge bonuses with 101.86 Damage, where the +5 Hecatomb in Incinerate has only 41.41% Endurance reduction and just slightly better Recharge at 97.39%. Really helped my endurance useage in my ST attack chain. I suspect other sets with all doubles and triples like Thunderstrike will do similar things.

Jak