When to spend influence on Enhancements?

Should I save all my influence till I hit 50 and then use it to get enhancements, or should I get new ones each time I level out of my old ones as I go? 

Part of me wants to save, so I can get a ton of them at max level right away.  On the other hand, I may not be doing my teams any good as I level with them without good enhancements.

I do put end saving enhancements into Fitness/stamina to keep my gun barrel hot in a fight.  Other then that, I've been slotting whatever RNG throws my way on everything else.

How do most of you handle influence consumption?

Yeah sort of in this boat as well. kind of forgot this was a problem having multiple level 50 sugar daddies back when the game was live that I could feed my alt inf and never have to worry about it. Now I'm wondering whats my best choice...

Don't bother with enhancers AT ALL until level 12 at least.

From 12 there are three schools of thought:

Screw enhancers until level 22 (this is fine on powerful powerset combos, or if you're teaming a lot and burning through levels super fast).

Keep DOs fresh until level 22 (The most popular approach, doesn't cost a lot of influence and it keeps you stocked in enhancers as you level, downside is you have to refresh them again at 17)

Start on IOs now, and replace the lower level IOs at 27 or 32 (my personal choice. It means some of your powers have suboptimal enhancers in them for 5-10 levels, sure, but they still never go red and you can recycle them by doing a respec and storing the 15-30 IOs in a SG base)

There's a couple good guides on making influence easily in the guides section, and it only requires a couple mil to deck yourself out with 35 basic IOs.

Once you hit 50, start working on your final build of IO sets. Preferably respeccing and tossing the 35-50 basic IOs in your base, so you don't have to craft them all over again.

You don't need to be a level 50+ to give adequate help to a lowbie.  Even for a level 30-something, a layout of 250,000 is not a huge burden.  Emailing that inf to yourself to be picked up by the lowbie can start them quite well.  What you should be doing is pooling all the lowbie salvage, making level 15 IO enhancements.  At level these are just as good as DOs.  And they never turn red and die, either.  Once you slot them, they are as good as they ever were until you replace them with something better.  Then either the character herself, or your badging character who's memorizing recipes, turns that stake into common salvage on the AH and makes needful generic IOs for the lowbies: accuracy, endurance reduction and endurance modification generic IOs chiefly; damage can usually wait.  Go ahead and buy everything that might be useful at the table, but make what you have the recipe for first. 

You will eventually get higher tier salvage, generic recipes close to your level, and the means to replace these lowbie IOs.  But there;s no deadline, and not even a rush; the lowbie IOs were slotted into lowbie powers in any case. 

And by all means Frankenslot the recipes that drop and that you have salvage for, even if the set bonus is not something you want to chase.  It's still a good thing generally to improve both damage and endurance cost on just one slot.  And if you have the dropped recipe and the shared salvage, it is probably a bargain just for what it does.

Generally what I'd do:

• Until 22 I make do with whatever drops for me.
  
• At level 22 I craft myself a full set of (or as many as I can afford) lvl 25 IOs. This costs maybe 2-3 million inf, but you should have a couple of rare salvage drops at this point that will fund most of it.
  
• Post 22 I keep making new 25 IOs for any slots I couldn't fill at 22 or new slots that I get as I level up. Level 25 IOs are, in my opinion, the best returns for inf spent as they cost roughly half of lvl 30 IOs but are only ~2 percentage points worse.
  
• If you're rich and have a good idea about your final build start getting attuned IO sets early on. I did this with my Ill/Cold controller just now and it was pretty fun to play a character that had 70%+ global recharge by lvl 30. I ended up using all these IOs in my final build too so not only is it now more exemp friendly, I didn't waste any of the enhancements I bought and had a better leveling up experience.
  

While the last point may not be relevant to most players, I still did the no sugar daddy slog on my first 50 on who used lvl 25 generic IOs until level 50. I funded all of those IOs by selling random drops I had accumulated by lvl 25 (a few pieces of rare salvage and some ~100k recipes), then followed some very generic marketing practices (find an enhancement whose price is 500k more than the recipe+salvage+crafting cost, make those and build a bankroll) to fund the rest of the IOs on the way to 50 and most of my set IO build.

  When I joined the game again the very first thing I did was create a character who would be my influence farmer (namely a spines/fire brute) with whom I have been running AE missions since around level 12. She is level 40 now and even with just very casual farming on fire maps she makes enough influence and salvage to sell to fund my Alt-itis. It's already been mentioned but level 25 IOs are the way to go, they can carry you to 50 with a nominal influence investment compared to upgrading SOs every few levels and they can be recycled via a respec to hand down to other characters.

 

If you're rich and have a good idea about your final build start getting attuned IO sets early on. I did this with my Ill/Cold controller just now and it was pretty fun to play a character that had 70%+ global recharge by lvl 30. I ended up using all these IOs in my final build too so not only is it now more exemp friendly, I didn't waste any of enhancements I bought and had a better leveling up experience.

 

/this

not even if you're rich really, i tend to play lots of alts but only really seriously level one at a time. I tend to therefore buy attuned enhances for levelling and then respec at 50 to unslot them and use them on my next toon. (obviously you'll get limited mileage depending on what the set type is - eg def is of limited use to a defender say) but sets of melee and ranged are definitely worth investing in.

This was my leveling build until I hit about 45 and then I started saving and buying set enhancements. Common IO enhancements are better than SOs by level 25 and you can't out level them so they're more cost effective than SOs as well.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962

http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Murcielago: Level 50 Natural Scrapper

Primary Power Set: Dark Melee

Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense

Power Pool: Leaping

Power Pool: Leadership

Power Pool: Fighting

Power Pool: Speed

Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:

Level 1: Smite -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(31), Dmg-I(31), Dmg-I(43), RechRdx-I(45), EndRdx-I(50)

Level 1: Deflection -- Krm-Def/EndRdx(A), Ksm-Def/EndRdx(3), DefBuff-I(3), EndRdx-I(5), ResDam-I(5), GldArm-3defTpProc(7)

Level 2: Shadow Maul -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(23), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(40), RechRdx-I(40), EndRdx-I(40)

Level 4: Battle Agility -- Krm-Def/EndRdx(A), Ksm-Def/EndRdx(15), DefBuff-I(17), DefBuff-I(42), EndRdx-I(42), EndRdx-I(42)

Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Krm-Def/EndRdx(A), Ksm-Def/EndRdx(13), DefBuff-I(13), EndRdx-I(15)

Level 8: Siphon Life -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(43), Dmg-I(43), Dmg-I(45), RechRdx-I(46), EndRdx-I(46)

Level 10: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11)

Level 12: True Grit -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(17), ResDam-I(19)

Level 14: Maneuvers -- Krm-Def/EndRdx(A), Ksm-Def/EndRdx(19), Srn-Def/EndRdx(21), DefBuff-I(23), EndRdx-I(27)

Level 16: Kick -- Acc-I(A)

Level 18: Dark Consumption -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(46), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48)

Level 20: Tough -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(21), ResDam-I(29), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(31)

Level 22: Weave -- Krm-Def/EndRdx(A), Ksm-Def/EndRdx(25), Srn-Def/EndRdx(25), DefBuff-I(27), EndRdx-I(48)

Level 24: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)

Level 26: Soul Drain -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(29), EndRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(34)

Level 28: Phalanx Fighting -- DefBuff-I(A)

Level 30: Super Speed -- Clr-Stlth(A)

Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(34), Dmg-I(34), Dmg-I(37), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39)

Level 35: Shield Charge -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), RechRdx-I(37), RechRdx-I(37)

Level 38: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50), RechRdx-I(50)

Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)

Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), PrfShf-End%(45)

Level 47: One with the Shield -- ResDam-I(A)

Level 49: Grant Cover -- EndRdx-I(A)

Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)

Level 1: Critical Hit

Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Run-I(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Run-I(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Run-I(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Run-I(A)

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Run-I(A)

Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)

Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)

Level 4: Ninja Run

Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)

Level 2: Health -- RgnTss-Regen+(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(9), Pnc-Heal/+End(11)

Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)

Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(7), PrfShf-End%(9)

------------

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Ok ignore most of what you hear, especially if you don't have tons of influence.

1. Powerlevel to 22 through DFB then group SC missions or positron.

2. Hopefully you'll have 1 piece of orange salvage, sell it for 500k.

Buy and craft all the level 25 IOs you want. Don't replace them at all until level 50 then start saving and replacing them with sets.

Only replace the 25 IOs if you have recipe drops or tons of money, replace them as it's convenient or you have plenty of cash. But even then replacing 25 IOs with highler level IOs is barely worth the TIME it takes to go to university and play around with it. Unless you only have one IO of a type in a power, the difference between level 25 and 50 IOs is counter intuitively borderline pointless.

Don't listen to anyone talking about 'different schools of thought' it's all BS. just look at the numbers.

Perfect example is High Pain tolerance:

3 level 25 IOs = total of 8.68% res

3 level 50 IOs = total of 8.91% res

Ok ignore most of what you hear, especially if you don't have tons of influence.

 

1. Powerlevel to 22 through DFB then group SC missions or positron.

2. Hopefully you'll have 1 piece of orange salvage, sell it for 500k.

 

Buy and craft all the level 25 IOs you want. Don't replace them at all until level 50 then start saving and replacing them with sets.

Only replace the 25 IOs if you have recipe drops or tons of money, replace them as it's convenient or you have plenty of cash. But even then replacing 25 IOs with highler level IOs is barely worth the TIME it takes to go to university and play around with it. Unless you only have one IO of a type in a power, the difference between level 25 and 50 IOs is counter intuitively borderline pointless.

 

Don't listen to anyone talking about 'different schools of thought' it's all BS. just look at the numbers.

 

Perfect example is High Pain tolerance:

3 level 25 IOs = total of 8.68% res

3 level 50 IOs = total of 8.91% res

Except High Pain Tolerance isn't a great example because it has a fairly low resistance percentage boost to start with. The greater the base level % effect of the power the more you benefit from a 50 io over level 30.

Plus you're looking at Schedule B there whereas Schedule A would actually have a greater effect.

and lastly you're ignoring diminishing returns. You can have 2 level 50 Res IOs in High Pain Tolerance and only have slightly less Res than if you slotted 3 30s.

A level 50 Schedule A IO gives a roughly 42% enhancement a level 25 gives a roughly 33% enhancement

I don't have exact stats for a 25 RES IO to hand but level 30 Damage compared to 50 Damage gives:

Level 30 Damage IO 34.8%

Level 50 Damage IO 42.4%

Purple 50 Damage IO 53%

Boosting them enhances the difference:

Level 30 Damage IO +5d 43.5%

Level 50 Damage IO+5d    53%

Purple 50 Damage IO +5d 66.25%%

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement_Booster_Salvage

Further details (Schedule A Enhancements) here:

Ok ignore most of what you hear, especially if you don't have tons of influence.

 

1. Powerlevel to 22 through DFB then group SC missions or positron.

2. Hopefully you'll have 1 piece of orange salvage, sell it for 500k.

 

Buy and craft all the level 25 IOs you want. Don't replace them at all until level 50 then start saving and replacing them with sets.

Only replace the 25 IOs if you have recipe drops or tons of money, replace them as it's convenient or you have plenty of cash. But even then replacing 25 IOs with highler level IOs is barely worth the TIME it takes to go to university and play around with it. Unless you only have one IO of a type in a power, the difference between level 25 and 50 IOs is counter intuitively borderline pointless.

 

Don't listen to anyone talking about 'different schools of thought' it's all BS. just look at the numbers.

 

Perfect example is High Pain tolerance:

3 level 25 IOs = total of 8.68% res

3 level 50 IOs = total of 8.91% res

 

Except High Pain Tolerance isn't a great example because it has a fairly low resistance percentage boost to start with. The greater the base level % effect of the power the more you benefit from a 50 io over level 30.

 

A level 50 IO gives a roughly 42% enhancement a level 25 gives a roughly 33% enhancement

 

I don't have exact stats for a 25 IO to hand but level 30 compared to 50 gives:

 

Level 30 Damage IO 34.80%

Level 30Defense IO 20.90%

Level 30 End/Def IO 21.75% / 13.06%

Level 50 Damage IO 42.40%

Level 50 Acc/Dam IO 26.5% / 26.5%

Purple Damage IO 53%

 

 

Further details here:

 

That's why it's a perfect example to my point. Your counter doesn't address diminishing returns where the difference shrinks significantly at 2 and then to the point of irrelevance at 3 for many powers.

I even say "Unless you only have one IO of a type in a power, the difference between level 25 and 50 IOs is counter intuitively borderline pointless" so if you just have one IO of a type, yes it can be worth going to a higher level IO in some cases. BUT again we are stuck in the theoretical because the noticeable difference even there is between 25 and 50, you can't get 50 until level 47 right so it's irrelevant to practical reality. Once 47 just wait til 50 and get sets.

Yes, slot your character as you go with IOs. The inf you're earning now is nowhere near enough to gear you out at 50. Even if you earned 10 million inf and saved it, you could then maybe buy a single set enhancement at level 50. So yes, absolutely gear out on what you can afford, especially if you're leveling the legit way.

That's why it's a perfect example to my point. Your counter doesn't address diminishing returns where the difference shrinks significantly at 2 and then to the point of irrelevance at 3 for many powers.

 

I even say "Unless you only have one IO of a type in a power, the difference between level 25 and 50 IOs is counter intuitively borderline pointless" so if you just have one IO of a type, yes it can be worth going to a higher level IO in some cases. BUT again we are stuck in the theoretical because the noticeable difference even there is between 25 and 50, you can't get 50 until level 47 right so it's irrelevant to practical reality. Once 47 just wait til 50 and get sets.

It does, I was just editing as you replied. You can slot 3 Res lvl 30 Ios and get only slightly better res than if you just slotted 2 lvl 50 IOs

You're assuming that slotting 3 level 50 Io's is worthwhile when you can actually slot 2, marginally lower the % bonus vs 3 level 30s, but free up the slots for use elsewhere.

I completely agree with what you're saying for 3 slotting but not for dual slotting.

That's why it's a perfect example to my point. Your counter doesn't address diminishing returns where the difference shrinks significantly at 2 and then to the point of irrelevance at 3 for many powers.

 

I even say "Unless you only have one IO of a type in a power, the difference between level 25 and 50 IOs is counter intuitively borderline pointless" so if you just have one IO of a type, yes it can be worth going to a higher level IO in some cases. BUT again we are stuck in the theoretical because the noticeable difference even there is between 25 and 50, you can't get 50 until level 47 right so it's irrelevant to practical reality. Once 47 just wait til 50 and get sets.

 

It does, I was just editing as you replied. You can slot 3 Res lvl 30 Ios and get only slightly better res than if you just slotted 2 lvl 50 IOs

 

You're assuming that slotting 3 level 50 Io's is worthwhile where you can actually slot 2, marginally lower the % bonus vs 3 level 30s, but free up the slots for use elsewhere.

But why would you ever slot 50 IOs? You'd have to wait til 47 and then it's pointless. Theoretical math not taking reality into consideration isn't helpful. Slot 25s at 22, grab whatever as you level up that's easy and affordable if you even want to spend the time, then sets at 50.

But ok, I see your point. If I was out of slots at 50 and couldn't afford sets yet, I could swap three of something into two 50s and have an extra slot. Fair enough,

I roll with whatever Training enhancements drop until level 7.  At that point, what I do depends on my Influence supply.

At level 7, I check the market and place some low bids on generic level 10 IOs.  A lot of people craft these for badges even if they don’t use them, so you can get lucky and pick them up cheap.  If I’m flush with cash, I just start buying attuned set IOs from sets that start at level 10.  That gives me a boost that will level with me, so I don’t have to reslot later.

At level 12, if I haven’t found cheap level 10 IOs or bought attuned set IOs, I bite the bullet and start buying or crafting level 15 generic IOs...and if any are selling cheaply enough, attuned set IOs.  I’ve played to 22 using nothing but drops...it can be done, but starts getting annoying at this point.

At level 22, I start slotting with attuned set IOs, filling gaps with level 25 generic IOs.  If I’m low on cash, I leave the previously slotted level 10 and 15 generic IOs in my powers until I have the influence to replace them.  For reference, Level 10s are better than training enhancements, Level 15s are about the power of a DO enhancement, and Level 25s are the equivalent of a SO enhancement.

At level 32, I start putting level 30 set IOs in my level 32 power, and use merits to boost them (+++++), since I haven’t been spending merits up to this point.  I purchase IOs for any power I acquire after this point at 2 levels below the level I got the power, since a power can be used when exemplared up to 5 levels below, and IOs can be used at up to 3 levels below.  IOs that aren’t level dependent (like procs) are the only things I buy attuned at this point, unless I’m adding slots to a lower-level power.

I’m sitting on 300 million influence with my main, so usually I just get attuned IOs starting at 7, but hopefully sharing my thought process on what I was doing with my first few characters helps.

Here's what I've been doing.  I don't claim it is the best, but it made sense to me.

• First 50 character I just slotted whatever dropped.  Sold whatever salvage and recipes dropped that I didn't intend to use.  Only slotted IOs when it made sense to craft them as in I already had the salvage and recipe.  Left some slots empty.
  
• At 50 started slotting whatever sets I wanted.  By this time I had around 45 million.  Not enough to fully go all 50s but enough to get functional just buying off the AH.  I'll continue to slot as I make more inf and continue on with incarnate content.
  
• Going forward for alts I plan on slotting attuned sets when I can afford them.  This to me makes the most sense once you have the inf to do it.  Those level with you, give those nice set bonuses, and never need to be replace.  The only caveat there is at some point I may replace them (well remove them via merit reward or respec) and put in boosted ones instead.
  
• The attuned sets also have the added benefit of keeping their bonuses when I exemplar down which I do constantly.  So eventually on my main I will most likely have one build that is attuned enh and one build that is all boosted.  That way I am good when doing 50+ stuff and when running that Posi 1.
  

So to answer the original question, I think it is better to just slot as you go and sell everything else.  Do NOT under any circumstances buy TO, DO, or SO.  When the devs originally added IOs it made all the other purchased enh pointless.

Slot level 25 common IOs at level 22.

Do:

Earn level 25-30 crafting badges for a type of IO enhancement, ie damage.

Once you have the badge, you don't need the recipe for it.

Create level 25 enhancements for your characters.

Create and sell the level 30 versions.

Even casual use of the market will get you enough to outfit all of your characters.

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Memorization_Badges

As you are leveling, you are always getting inf, salvage and recipes. Use them. Look on the AH to see the price of a recipe or its resultant enhancement. See if it's in demand and put it up on the market. You're not only helping yourself by making inf but you're helping others who are trying to make their builds better.

That being said, I can't believe people would even dream of waiting until level 50 to get enhancements. Even waiting until 30 is horrible. The time it takes to get there on non-farm terms is to long. My advice :

* Do whatever for the 1st 17 levels.  If you want, buy DO enhancements but I'd recommend just using what drops for you.

* 17-22 either buy SO enhancement or craft lvl 20/25 Basic IOs. If you don't use them, sell them.

* 22+, start slotting level 25 or above until you decide you want to slot set IOs

* You get a free respec every 10 levels. When you decide you don't want your basic IOs anymore, respec and put them in your inventory and put them on the market or mail them to another alt.

There is absolutely no reason to go without enhancements for longer than the first 22 levels.

Just a quick note if you need Inf for enhancements there are two things you can buy with merits that are generally good sellers: Enhancement Converters and Enhancement Boosters.

Converters are 3 per merits and generally sell for 90K-110K each at the moment.

Boosters are 5 merits each and are selling for around 1.5million at the moment.

So if you need some inf for enhancements trading merits for those and selling them on the market is a good way to get it.

Other than that I'll echo what others have said, level 25 IOs are a screaming good deal when you fact in that they're about the same strength as SOs but you don't have to replace them every 5 levels.

I roll with whatever Training enhancements drop until level 7.  At that point, what I do depends on my Influence supply.

 

At level 7, I check the market and place some low bids on generic level 10 IOs.  A lot of people craft these for badges even if they don’t use them, so you can get lucky and pick them up cheap.  If I’m flush with cash, I just start buying attuned set IOs from sets that start at level 10.  That gives me a boost that will level with me, so I don’t have to reslot later.

 

At level 12, if I haven’t found cheap level 10 IOs or bought attuned set IOs, I bite the bullet and start buying or crafting level 15 generic IOs...and if any are selling cheaply enough, attuned set IOs.  I’ve played to 22 using nothing but drops...it can be done, but starts getting annoying at this point.

 

At level 22, I start slotting with attuned set IOs, filling gaps with level 25 generic IOs.  If I’m low on cash, I leave the previously slotted level 10 and 15 generic IOs in my powers until I have the influence to replace them.  For reference, Level 10s are better than training enhancements, Level 15s are about the power of a DO enhancement, and Level 25s are the equivalent of a SO enhancement.

 

At level 32, I start putting level 30 set IOs in my level 32 power, and use merits to boost them (+++++), since I haven’t been spending merits up to this point.  I purchase IOs for any power I acquire after this point at 2 levels below the level I got the power, since a power can be used when exemplared up to 5 levels below, and IOs can be used at up to 3 levels below.  IOs that aren’t level dependent (like procs) are the only things I buy attuned at this point, unless I’m adding slots to a lower-level power.

 

I’m sitting on 300 million influence with my main, so usually I just get attuned IOs starting at 7, but hopefully sharing my thought process on what I was doing with my first few characters helps.

Commenting here so I remember this

It was pretty ghastly when someone asked on Help if they should just wait for level 50 to even begin using enhancements. Someone a couple weeks ago who was DFB/PLd to 50 did in fact not slot enhancements to 50. This is no different than having no equipment at all when playing a WOW type game.

DFB does grant a temp power choice at the end and "accuracy" buff is one of the options. This is enough accuracy to carry you to within striking distance of SOs as it lasts a week or until level 22. A few select accuracy DOs in powers that need them should let you get to 22. 20 to 22 might be a little rough but if you are this poor it will be ok, it's just two levels; maybe drops will carry you.

At 22 raise funds in any of the ways outlined above such as selling salvage; another possibility is if you got any set recipe drops, then they might be worth selling on the AH. Most attack, heal, defense, and resist recipes sell well even as low levels (because the AH scales them up to the higher levels most people want). I did a cost breakdown between the cost of a full set of SOs at 22 (about 875K at store price) and crafting IOs (2.1million).

Though 2.1 mil might sound like a lot you don't have to come up with it all at once. Back in the day we did not have instant SO sets until we were well established and carrying our lowbies. Often we'd just have accuracy and end mod to start and pick up more enhancements as we went along.  There's nothing wrong with buying or crafting what you can and filling in as you play, just try to be thoughtful about what you slot first. And you can use some of your dropped SOs as filler; SOs at that level don't sell to vendors for that much. But focusing on IOs will really help you save money. (Now I've had people be very disdainful of this cost savings saying that any 50 should be crapping out money like mad: but I think they missed the point this is how you save money as you get to 50 in the first place! And not everyone is interested in farming. A lot of people want to get to 50 and then do story arcs they've missed and so on!)

My full guide on the cost effectiveness of IOs and crafting them is here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,3042.0.html  and

Zolgar did a guide to starting money for enhancements here:  https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,3135.0.html

This whole situation with people feeling really poor reminds me a lot of RIFT. In that game you get a lot of leveling gear through gameplay and seldom need to buy any gear; money is used for very little beyond teleport fees and skill training. It's easy to completely ignore making any money. But, when you get to level 50 and want to buy a level 50 fast mount, you find out they cost 50 gold. The typical player who has never tried to make money only has 5 gold and they're shocked. But the reality is that if anyone picks up basic foraging skills as they exit the tutorial they'd have 2-3 gold worth of materials to sell just from the 10 minute walk from the starting area to the main city. I literally had 10 gold at level 5 on one character because the AH was out of low level mats that day and my stuff sold high. In TEN minutes I was richer than half the population of new 50s.

So the moral of the story was: if you put in 0% effort during gameplay from 1-50, you'd arrive at 50 with almost no money, but if you put in 1% effort during gameplay you'd arrive at 50 with a fair amount of money; and that's true of City as well. If you just take a few minutes now and then to sell your items, perhaps go so far as to figure out if a recipe would net you more money from selling it crafted. Nothing even complicated, just selling a bit now and then.

Should I save all my influence till I hit 50 and then use it to get enhancements, or should I get new ones each time I level out of my old ones as I go?

Your question is predicated on the idea of money for Enhancements being a worry. But, you know, it doesn't have to be. Making money by converting Uncommon Enhancements into salable Rares is really pretty simple, and doesn't have a whole lot of start-up costs when you start small. You could be making millions of Inf at level one, zero XP, before you even smack a single bad guy. Then you could buy any Enhancements you feel like, whenever you want.

But if and for as long as money is a worry, you can probably save a packet by placing low bids on Common IO Enhancements, which at low levels are often dumped on the market by people who craft them to memorize them for the badges, but don't have any earthly use for them themselves. Those Enhancements don't expire, though better versions do become available every five levels, so they could last you for a good amount of time.

or your badging character who's memorizing recipes

Are you saying recipes are not single use? Have I completely missed something? I had to stop playing CoH back in live around Issue 3 or 4, so IOs and recipes are all brand new to me. :o

Are you saying recipes are not single use? Have I completely missed something? I had to stop playing CoH back in live around Issue 3 or 4, so IOs and recipes are all brand new to me. :o

Right. If you craft enough of particular levels of particular types of Common IO recipe, you memorize them. You no longer need a recipe, and crafting costs drop in half, so effectively it only costs 1/4 as much to craft them as it did. Also, if you memorize all recipes levels 10-40, and craft 1000 items, you earn a free portable crafting table.

The real step 1 everyone is overlooking:  Go to the P2W vendor and buy the 5 prestige enhancements.  They're absolutely free, have pretty strong values, have a nice damage proc from 1-20, and never expire.  You can replace them at your leisure once you hit 22 and go for 25 SOs/IOs.

In the teens though, unless you're powering through them, I at least recommend slotting Accuracy DOs/IOs and maybe some damage and/or endurance reduction depending on your powerset.  Going through those levels with zero enhancements is a slog, especially without any accuracy, especially if you skipped the DFB accuracy buff.  It won't cost you very much and makes the 12-22 experience much smoother.  You don't need a full set of enhancers for all your slots, just accuracy and maybe damage/end redux will do.