Need help getting IO's for my blaster

After nearly 6 years of service, I think it's time for my L50 blaster to move to IO's. But where do I start?
What IO's are good for an energy blaster?
What do I need to buy and from who?
What combinations would I need?
What should I avoid?
How much will it cost me?
Do I need to be VIP to get IO's?

So many questions...

Any advice or maybe a good up-to-date guide on IO's?
Anyone out there playing an energy blaster using IO's?

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Powersets
Primary : Energy Blast (all powers)
Secondary : Energy Manipulation (all powers)
Ancillary : Force Mastery - PFF, Temp. Invul., Force o'Nature
Pools : Flight - Fly, Afterburner
(can't check for other pools atm)

I'd like to use IO's to get combined buffs. (don't know much about IO's yet so don't be mad at me for saying things that are entirely impossible)

Something like 1 IO that increases Damage and decreases Endurance Costs
or...
Increases Damage and Range
or...
Reduces Endurance Costs and Recharge Time

The point is that my blasting still costs too much endurance even though I've slotted every power with 1 (or even 2) reductions. And I'm hoping that IO's will solve this.

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You don't need to be VIP to use inventions. You need to:

a) Be VIP, or
b) buy a license from the market for 160pp per month, or
c) own 27 reward tokens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

At nearly six years of playing, you're probably going to be really close to 27 tokens if you don't already have them.

Assuming you have access to IOs....

IOs themselves are described well here : Link

Once you've got your head around what they are, you need to start thinking about using them in your build. This guide will get you started with downloading the Mids Hero Designer, and building the toon the way you want.

The key thing to using IOs is having a destination in mind. You may want to reduce endurance issues, so you could build for +Recovery set bonusses as well as more -End cost in your powers. You may want to play a Hover-Blaster and try and maximise your Ranged defence so you get hit less. You might want to build for more damage.

Building with IO sets is a balancing act, because rarely can you have everything. That's why it's a good idea to prioritise what you need.

My Energy/Energy blaster went for speed and defence, picking +Recharge set bonusses as well as +Defence. My End costs are a bit ragged but I half-plugged that with my incarnate powers, which unfortunately are unavailable to you as a Premium player (so giving advice is difficult!).

Give the wiki page a read, and the Guide, then have a play with Mids, put up some builds (in the Blaster forums is probably better) and get some feedback. You'll be on your way in no time!

-H

I'd give Thunderstikes a good look. Really solid set with nice damage, nice recharge, nice end reduction, and the set bonuses are pretty great, too. +Recovery, and + Def to ranged and E/N. Also, they aren't super expensive.

Before you go into throwing IOs into that build, I'd have the build itself looked at so you're not trying to throw a racer's engine into a yugo.

Once it's tuned up a bit, decide where you want to go with the build. Since your requests at the bottom are basically ... well, using IOs, by which I mean most *do* enhance multiple aspects, even without looking at set bonuses. For instance, if you go to the IO wiki page, you'll see Thunderstrike listed as having these individual IOs:
Acc/Dam
Dam/End - so there's "does damage and lowers endurance"
Dam/Rech - and your "does damage and lowers recharge "
Acc/Dam/Rech
Acc/Dam/End
Dam/End/Rech

... without even looking at set bonuses.

If you don't know how to get your build (or have no idea what those blocks of data are you may see in some builds,) go to the Titan network and grab Titan Sentinel (which will let you grab the build directly from the character) and Mids Hero Designer (which will let you see and play with builds.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

I'd spend a little time on the Market and Inventions forum, there are a number of good basic guides there. Rule of thumb, there are 4 main types of IO you can craft, common (white), uncommon (yellow), rare (orange), and purple/pvp (purple/orange). Generally speaking the rarerer, the more expensive. As others have said, you need to either be VIP or have a certain amount of tokens to use IOs. Additionally, there are some typical ways to earn IO recipes in game that require either VIP status or a certain amount of tokens (earning AE tickets, reward merits, or alignment merits). As a rule the most valuable commodity on the market is patience. Some folks pay a premium to have something *NOW* but if you can wait a day or two, it is available at a great price.

Buying pre-crafted IOs on the market can be expensive. Most of the time it is cheaper to craft them yourself. If you are setting up for crafting, if you have the veteran reward that lets you use the auction house by typing /ah you are in luck. Otherwise blueside I'd recommend setting up shop in Steel Canyon because the University and the Auction House are nearby.

Here's a fairly cheap way to upgrade your toon.

1.) Some powers where you only have one type of enhancement, you might be able to go ahead and replace them with generic IOs. You might be able to get them cheaper than crafting them yourself. The difference won't be much, and it might be a good idea to learn to craft some easy stuff. If you buy pre-crafted ones, remember that if you don't leave a bid up for 24 hours, you didn't really try to buy it!

2.) There are some single IOs that are near-universally regarded as useful for nearly every build. They are quite expensive to buy on the market and I usually prefer to get the recipes via alignment merits, which can be earned via tip missions/morality mission or by doing a Signature Story Arc. You can also use regular merits to get those recipes. 3 in particular will help you with your endurance concerns. 2 heal sets have unique IOs (you can only slot one of each in your build) that affect recovery, Numina's Convalescence and Miracle. I usually slot both of those IOs in Health (ie add one slot beyond base). Performance Shifter is an Endurance Modification set, it has a IO that gives a chance for +10 endurance every so often. I usually have 2 level 50 endurance mod IOs and the Performance Shifter +10 in Stamina (3 slots). There are other useful single IOs, but you can discover those on your own.

3.) Many folks have mentioned the Thunderstrike set, and I want to recommend it as well. This is a point of personal preference, but when it comes to set IOs, I am very open to using anything level 41+ rather than sticking only to level 50s. The recipes are usually cheaper to buy, and the crafting costs are less. If you are on a budget, you'll save money by getting whatever is available. I would try to budget about 100-200k a recipe for Thunderstrikes (plus crafting and salvage costs). If you exemplar a lot, you might want to go with level 41s in sets so that you kept your bonuses down to level 38.

Thunderstrike gives you great enhancement value from the IOs. The set bonuses are very useful too . . . 6 slots will get you some +recovery, +accuracy, +ranged/negative/energy defense, and a bit of +movement speed. Thunderstrikes can go in ranged attack powers. For melee powers I'd suggest Crushing Impact, and for PBAOE I'd suggest Multi-strike. You can choose how many of each set you want to put into a power, you can mix and match sets, and you can ignore set bonuses and just use the IOs to enhance the power.

If you have your IO license and you have enough influence I would go to the market (shop wisely. It is usually more efficient to by the recipe and salvage and craft yourself than buy the finished IO) or use 4 alignment merits and pick up a Miracle +Recovery Unique and a Numina's Regeneration and Recovery Unique and slot them both in Health.

That along with 3 slotted Stamina may cure your endurance issues. Its the easiest way to potentially solve the problem you are experiencing. I would start with that step first before planing an entire IO build.

Well as others have mentioned at 6 years you must be pretty close to having an IO license permanently so if you aren't it might be worth spending the cash to get the last few reward tokens.

Before making an IO build I find there are two questions you need to answer. First what is your goal with the build? Secondly what is your budget?

In terms of goals most Blasters focus on two things: Recharge and Defense (either Ranged Defense or Smashing and Lethal Defense). There are other options but those are the most popular (and generally the most efficient). It sounds like you could also use some Recovery bonuses but you can easily pick them up as well.

In terms of Defense picking either Ranged or S/L is your best bet. If you prefer to focus solely on your blasts with your melee attacks being for emergencies then go for Ranged. If you prefer to be in the thick of it using your melee attacks (a Blapper) then S/L defense is generally better.

You can find a full set of IO sets along with bonuses here:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/IO_Sets

Some good sets for you to look at are:

Thunderstrike: 3.75% Ranged Defense for each set, goes in single target ranged attacks.
Decimation: A decent alternative to Thunderstrike, this provides a strong recharge bonus. Be careful though since Positron's Blast has the same bonus and you're limited to 5 of them.
Positrons Blast: A nice Recharge bonus for your AoEs, you only need five pieces so skip the Damage/Range one since you have Boost Range and Positorn's is overlsotted for Damage).
Kinetic Combat: The Smashing/Lethal Defense equivalent to Thunderstike, goes in Melee sets. Somewhat weak in terms of enhancement so I recommend 4 slotting it without the proc and then adding a Crushing Impact: Accuracy/Damage or Crushing Impact: Damage/Endurance in the fifth slot depending on preferences.
Mako's Bite: A Ranged Defense set for your melee attacks.
Crushing Impact: A recharge set for your Melee attacks.
Stupefy: This is a stun set which boosts Recharge and Ranged Defense.

Anyway that should get you started. In any case I would recommend getting a copy of Mids and working out your build there before spending inf on it.

You all do realize that the first reply likely drove him away and they hadn't seen all the follow on posts disputing the first reply right?

Great then, since you hadn't replied again I was afraid that you didn't bother to check back, since you sounded disappointed, and simply moved onto investigating the next F2P MMO that caught your eye.

If you hadn't used it for some other purpose, every character has an alternate build that you can switch to at trainers and can use that for an SO only build. This way you can still play with the existing character without needing to respec out of the nonfunctioning IOs if the cost of the license ($2 a month) or you don't have enough Paragon Rewards to unlock them permanently.