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I can see where you're coming from but at the same time I feel like you're asking for a lot. You say you're doing a lot of low level content and have lots of alts ... so why do you need any sets? Why aren't you using mostly generic IOs and maybe a few special pieces. Karma: Knockback protection costs a mere 20 merits! When you say you need 100 merits for a "good one" are you talking about the level scaling archetype enhancements? Those are like the crown jewels that used to cost 400-500 merits. PVP IO recipes also can cost 100 but as far as I've seen the normal set recipes are 20 for an uncommon and 50 for a rare, and that is a serious price reduction from live when uncommon set IO recipes were 50-75, and rares were 125-275. Here is the list of Original Dev prices for things bought with merits: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Merit_Rewards#Rewards_Purchases
If you feel you can't buy specifically what you want still, maybe a better tack for you would be to spend 10 merits on a random roll and then just sell the most valuable recipes and use that to buy modest replacements for yourself. But it really does feel like you've chosen to stretch yourself very thin and want to still be able to gear up in the same way someone who focuses on just a couple characters can.
Hey, thanks for the reply. It is a valid argument. But I've always viewed CoH as a game for those who want light play and not power game. Imho, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to get the builds I want or the special IOs that go for bazillions simply because I don't constantly play 50s and get tons of influence. My argument is why restrict and force the playstyle? I don't' want to play the same character over and over again. I do want to be able to tweak my characters. It is just too much to expect me to do three TFs worth of content to get one IO. CoH has always been the game you could just jump in and jump out of and I love it for that, I just wish its advancement system matched that. It doesn't.