City of Heroes

i ran across the below post and thought i'd copy it over here.

Young_Tutor Informant Reged: 01/29/05 Posts: 46

Re: Set IOs at low levels [Re: _Laz_]       #10848167 - 05/24/08 11:27 PM Edit   Reply   Quote   Quick Reply

Set IOs are *great*. Set IOs can be cheap, they can be expensive. You can get some good value on the cheap if you think things through and plan ahead. Patience is the most valuable commodity on the market. Buying recipes and salvage and crafting your own stuff is typically the way to go, but be prepared to wait a couple of days for your bids to come in. Getting set bonuses from nice sets can be expensive. Getting awesome enhancement bonuses from set IOs can be cheap. At level 21, you can slot 2 level 24 acc/dam IOs from different sets and get the same bonus as having 1 +3 SO of acc and 1 +3 SO of dam . . . and the set IOs *never* expire. The triple set IOs you can slot are even better in terms of total enhancement value. While getting awesome set bonuses might be out of your price range, you can certainly get 6 slots of enhancement power out of 4-5 slots. And, not just power, but never-expiring power. For example, you could try smashing haymaker dam/end/rech and focused smite acc/end/rech and acc/dam/rech. Throw in an acc/dam and an dam/rech and you'd essentially have 1.5 acc, 2.5 dam, 1 end, and 2 rech. 7 SOs worth of power in 5 slots. You could shift things around if you wanted to max out damage. Do your research. Check out the prices of salvage. Plan ahead. My philosophy is that you are spending money on SOs anyway, so the sooner you can buy into IOs at a reasonable price, you are saving money in the long run. Set IOs take more planning but give you the most power available at a given level. You are now at the level where they are superior in power to SOs, so you really can benefit from some investigation.

now, i can understand people saying that prices for set IOs are too much, IF they go and try to immediately purchase set IOs for the going rate, versus creating their own, or putting in low bids and waiting.

as someone with numerous alts on many servers, i both create and wait and normally end up with cheap set IOs.

just throwing some numbers out there for folks and giving them food for thought.

for those who will whine at this post -- if you "don't have time" to do anything other than game for an hour a week, or whatever, then, how do you have time to read and post here?  you could easily be researching sets and plotting your build instead of whining about how you don't have time.

I start tossing bids in 5 levels ahead of when I'll need any enh -- it usually works out pretty well.

Also remember you can get back 10 slotted IOs into your hancie tray when you do a re-spec.

Just make sure the tray is empty and maybe check prices for the hancies on WW before doing this.

When you start at lvl around 25-30 with IO slotting you can even keep those up to lvl 47-50, then do a 1 time overhaul. Some *end-game* IO sets are capped at 40 so lvl 37+ might be a good break point too.

I remember there was some fantastic hero planner floating around .. Midnights or Mid's hero planner IIRC.

That helped me n my SG mates so much with getting the right sets and mix n match them for some powers.

I was lucky that all my SG mates were trustworthy and we kept the SG small so we all could use hancment storage in base for all our toons.

If you plan to farm missions for drops .. there's a mid/end 20's mission outdoor instanced with CoT.

Later on (PI) there's a mission with BP that has a AV/EB in the middle, also great for arcance stuff.

And if you need inf/pres, there's vanguard mission #5 (destroy 5 bombs, rescue 5 hostages, edit: name is *Stop the Bombing*) outdoor instanced where you can go on anything Heroic-Unyielding and let communication officers drop a portal, destroy the portals only (298 prestige each or about 40k inf). Setup a macro here to spot the officers, then just hit your key for *Follow* and wait a few sec's. Doesn't work for tankers with taunt aura.

They count as EB and used to drop good recipes/salvage (not arcane though)

Flight helps greatly here.

All farming missions must be w/o a timer ofc and make sure nobody you take on the mish will finish it *for you*

I think you're referring to suckerpunch's hero planner which is a part of the "titan" group.

I usually don't go out of my way to get IO till level 32. At 32, you can slot level 35 IO. Level 35 IO start to outpace SO 33.33% increase.

Soon as I hit 32, I respec, sell all my stuff and then buy IO or dip into the Supergroup's storage. I also sell all my low level salvage. Saving up mid-level and high level stuff.

Paragon Wiki has a nice breakdown of what salvage is considered low level, mid-level and high level.

Also, if your going for set IO and want that unique proc, I suggest looking at all the levels for that proc. I've found you can save a few mill inf. With IO, they don't wear out, so a level 10 IO will work on your level 38 character.

Damian is right, if you plan ahead, you can get some good deals. I've also found that if I shop during the week, the items go for less at the Consignment/Blackmarket.

Originally posted by therain93

I think you're referring to suckerpunch's hero planner which is a part of the "titan" group.

Mid's and Suckerpunch's planners are both great.

I just re-sub'd and there's a lot changes in game.

Cimerora offers a new opportunity to get Arcane salvage without the tedious mission resetting procedure of CoT or BP. Or Carnies if you favour their Illusionists :p

Also Rikti portals no longer give any rewards, if you plan to get recipes or for getting an easy startup for a *personal* SG you need to look somewhere else now.

I frankenslot medium priced IO until about 32 or so.  Kill stuff in Dark astoria in the 20's.  Makes you 20-25 million easy then you can slot up at half your stuff pretty well.  And since you are getting so much arcane salvage you can easily craft some stuff a long the way for cheap too.