How do I enhance my character for lower level content?

[DougGraves]

I have a crab.  I am allowing him to level up to 50, but I mostly play lvl 10-30 content. 

 

I know when you exemplar down your enhancements get less effective.  Is that based on my level or the enhancement level?  Do I want max level enhancements, or should I slot level 25 enhancements?

[Heraclea]

I never played a crab, even in the old game, but I did have a widow who never would have been my first choice for lower level content, if only because she was heavily invested in recharge buffs. 

 

Designing a character to play lower level content begins with power selections.  There are defense sets like Regen that (IMO) play like a dream in under-30 content but start to struggle the closer you get to the endgame.   Fire and Regen are the armor sets I'd recommend to lowbie content players.  Everything in Fire that directly keeps you alive is available by level 12 on a tanker.  Generally speaking, resistence and regeneration do better low than high; in the upper levels defense takes charge.  Defense sets are often strongly dependent on set bonuses that disappear when exemped.  Resistance based sets rely more heavily on self-heals, and that works better the more basic your attacks are.  The other thing you want in your lowbie build is an endless pool of endurance.  Slot Miracle and Panacea at 17, slot Numina and Performance Shifter at 27.  Burn some catalysts to max their availability. 

 

If you are building around set bonuses, take a serious look at the ones that peter out at 30 or 35.  There are some very good ones there: Kinetic Combat is a mainstay, it maxes out at 35, and most of my level 50s slot several.  Catalysts, again, get the max spread out of your set enhancements with bonuses you rely on.  When you're buying with merits, dial down the slider to the target level and take a look at what's there.  Never slotted up a crab so I don't know what they take. 

[GM Sijin]

Enhancements effects, besides set bonuses, are reduced by a certain percentage when you exemplar below level 32, so higher effective enhancements will be better even when exemplaring, up to a 41.5% bonus if exemplaring below 45.

 

More specific details can be found here: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements

 

Note that the chart listed on the above page does not mean if you're 25 and exemplar to 15 that your enhancements are dropped by ~61%. You divide the value of your exemplared level on the chart by your character's real level, so in that case it would be 0.391 / 0.733 = ~0.533. You multiply the enhancement's value by that. IE a 33.3% SO is reduced to ~17.75%

[EmmySky]

9 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I have a crab.  I am allowing him to level up to 50, but I mostly play lvl 10-30 content. 

 

I know when you exemplar down your enhancements get less effective.  Is that based on my level or the enhancement level?  Do I want max level enhancements, or should I slot level 25 enhancements?

Crabs, all VEATS, have a forced respec at 24 which can utterly and entirely change the way they play as a character.  I wouldn't bother with fancy expensive enhancements until after you do the respec and decide which powers you want to keep and which to go.  I was informed that common 25 IOs function as SO-- as you level and common 30 IOs function as SO++ as you level (without having to replace them like you do SOs) so if i were you  i'd slot common 30 IOs or sets.  Attuned sets and purples will scale down with you if you exemplar a lot, if you plan to exemplar a lot I wouldn't waste time/inf boosting any of them.  

 

Good luck!

[tidge]

9 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I have a crab.  I am allowing him to level up to 50, but I mostly play lvl 10-30 content. 

 

I know when you exemplar down your enhancements get less effective.  Is that based on my level or the enhancement level?  Do I want max level enhancements, or should I slot level 25 enhancements?

You only want 'max level' enhancements for 'generic' IOs, and once you hit 50: (some) Purple and PVP(*1) IOs. For almost everything else(*2) you should consider having the catalysed version of a set IO.

 

If you are going to exemplar, generally you want catalysed versions of IO sets. Note that Purple sets 'automatically' exemplar. 'Generic' IOs and PVP IOs will 'auto' exemplar up to the level of the IO. IIRC These should work as low as lvl 7. The 'set' IOs really ought to be catalysed, but they will have lower limits (below which they will not work) and often an upper limit (beyond which the bonuses will not grow).

 

(*1) I always catalyze PVP IOs when leveling up,  because I spend a lot of time with a character before it gets to level 50. This lets me slot it ASAP. If I want 'more' from a PVP set at level 50, I will just unslot the catalysed version (for use by another alt) and get a fresh lvl 50 version (to boost).

 

(*2) For non-PVP pure 'proc' IOs, the minimum level is adequate.

 

[DougGraves]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

If you are going to exemplar, generally you want catalysed versions of IO sets. Note that Purple sets 'automatically' exemplar. 'Generic' IOs and PVP IOs will 'auto' exemplar up to the level of the IO. IIRC These should work as low as lvl 7. The 'set' IOs really ought to be catalysed, but they will have lower limits (below which they will not work) and often an upper limit (beyond which the bonuses will not grow).

 

What are catalyzed versions of IOs.  I only use basic IOs.

[tidge]

32 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

What are catalyzed versions of IOs.  I only use basic IOs.

 

I'm referring to the crafted IOs which belong to Enhancement Sets, such as Bonesnap (for Melee attacks)

[DougGraves]

So are you saying any IO in a named set is a catalyzed IO?

[EmmySky]

No.  You can use a catalyst on an IO from a named set and this will make it attuned, which gives it the ability to scale down with you when you exemplar.  If it is a purple IO (look at color of name) it will already do this and doesnt need the catalyst.  

[Frunobulax]

Do not ever use Catalysts on anything but ATO's

 

If you want an attuned (what people are calling catalyzed in this thread) IO, simply buy one from the AH.

 

I have trouble explaining how the AH works, maybe somebody  can make a better run at it but basically when an IO is sold to the AH it becomes available for sale at any level that the IO can be used at, including attuned.

So to make an IO attuned you would sell it on the AH and buy the same IO in attuned form. The auction fees are much smaller then what you would pay for a catalyst.

 

You will want to save your catalysts, they turn ATO into superior versions and the set bonuses between superior and regular do not work, so you will want to superior all of a set at once.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by Frunobulax

[Heraclea]

8 minutes ago, Frunobulax said:

Do not ever use Catalysts on anything but ATO's

 

If you want an attuned (what people are calling catalyzed in this thread) IO, simply buy one from the AH.

I have a fairly large pile of catalysts sitting in a salvage rack.  Using them for ATOs is a given, of course, but the pace of acquisition of ATOs is always going to be outpaced by the catalysts incoming.  I usually try to play a bit on my DPS 50s every day and swap when a catalyst drops. 

 

So the other use I make of catalysts is to turn that level 40 Miracle: Recovery into something a level 17 character can slot, and so forth. 

[DougGraves]

35 minutes ago, Frunobulax said:

I have trouble explaining how the AH works, maybe somebody  can make a better run at it but basically when an IO is sold to the AH it becomes available for sale at any level that the IO can be used at, including attuned.

 

So if I buy an IO for a named set from the AH it is automatically attuned?  I can buy a lvl 10 named IO and use it on my lvl 50 and it will act as a lvl 50 IO?

[OrtRestave]

10 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

So if I buy an IO for a named set from the AH it is automatically attuned?  I can buy a lvl 10 named IO and use it on my lvl 50 and it will act as a lvl 50 IO?

Not exactly; for any given enhancement, it's available at all possible levels for that enhancement under the Crafted Enhancements category, and also as an attuned IO in the Attuned Enhancements category. It will only be attuned if you buy it from the Attuned Enhancements category.

[Rathulfr]

8 hours ago, Frunobulax said:

I have trouble explaining how the AH works, maybe somebody  can make a better run at it but basically when an IO is sold to the AH it becomes available for sale at any level that the IO can be used at, including attuned.

So to make an IO attuned you would sell it on the AH and buy the same IO in attuned form. The auction fees are much smaller then what you would pay for a catalyst.

When enhancements are posted for sale in the AH, they go into a common inventory pool, effectively stripped of level or attunement. 

 

For example, a level 30 Miracle +Recovery goes into the same inventory as a level 40 Miracle +Recovery. In the inventory database, they're both considered simply "Miracle +Recovery", without any associated level value.  Later, when someone successfully bids on a level 35 Miracle +Recovery, the AH adds the level 35 value when it delivers it to the recipient.

 

The same is true for attunement: it's just a special kind of level value, one that's dynamic, instead of fixed.  So when someone bids on attuned enhancements, they're bidding on the same inventory as the non-attuned enhancements.  You can see this reflected in the quantity and bid history values: they're exactly the same.  So when one successfully bids on an attuned enhancement, the AH pulls from the same inventory, and delivers it as attuned automatically.

 

The only exception to this rule are the ATOs, which come in two different types: regular and superior.  Each type is technically a different SKU, so they don't share a common inventory.  And that's why you want to save your catalysts for ATOs: the AH doesn't automatically attune them for you. 

 

This is also why you can't mix and match regular and superior ATOs without breaking their set bonuses.  And it's why you want to catalyze all 6 of each ATO set at the same time, so you don't break the set bonuses.

[tidge]

On 11/29/2019 at 1:48 PM, Frunobulax said:

Do not ever use Catalysts on anything but ATO's

 

If you want an attuned (what people are calling catalyzed in this thread) IO, simply buy one from the AH.

The second statement is very good advice; the first is subjective.

 

You can always sell crafted non-attuned IOs and try to buy back the same IO at the same price, and you may only be out the 'vig'. The vig should be less than the roughly 2.5M inf you might make by selling a catalyst. However: that (approximately current) selling price for catalysts is actually depressed compared to other things that can be made from merits(*) so it isn't irrational to use an accumulated pile of catalysts to convert crafted IOs that are normally farm more than the sales price of the same IO as attuned.

 

(*)There are many different opinions on what to do with accumulated merits. If you affiliate with one of the schools of thought that you should just convert merits into Enhancement Converters, it shouldn't be hard to convince you that the (current) market for Catalysts seriously undervalues them, and not just because of the auto-attuning.