Enhancement slots

[lordporkbone]

How many slots does it take before adding more becomes a waste? For example, my stone skin takes damage resist. The stone skin bar can take a maximum of 6 slots. is 6 slots with damage resist a waste? how many is too many? I dont want to waste my time adding 6 slots if something like say, 3 slots, is enough and anything after that is a waste of time and inf.

 

If there is a "rule of thumb" for enh slots please educate me thusly.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Wild Claw]

Trying to remember the rules... it's been too long.

 

Okay, as I remember it back in Issue 6 they put in place something called 'Enhancement Diversification'. It basically means there's diminishing returns as you slot more of the same enhancement into one power. I don't know the exact math behind it, but the rule of thumb I remember was any more than three of the same enhancement is a waste.

 

So, three Damage Resists in your Stone Skin is fine. Add a fourth and that last one just isn't doing enough to be worth it. You can slot something other than a Damage Resist in there, or put that slot somewhere else.

 

 

[lordporkbone]

Thank you. i vaguely remember something of that nature but i wasn't sure if i was remembering this game or something else. Thanks again!

[brian9824]

Thank you. i vaguely remember something of that nature but i wasn't sure if i was remembering this game or something else. Thanks again!

 

You also have to keep in mind sets and bonuses now.  So even if Stone Skin maxes out at 3 resist IO's it could be worth it to 6 slot it for the set bonus it can hold.  For instance a common strategy is to 4-5 slot it and mix resists and resists/endurance in it so you get a set bonus, resists, and lowered endurance cost. 

 

[_NOPE_]

It's pretty easy. When you go to add an enhancement to a power, and you're dragging and dropping, you'll see the stats of how much it will increase the power. If that amount is ridiculously lower than what the enhancement's info says it provides, then you've run up to Enhancement Diversification's limit, and it's probably not worth it to slot that enhancement, so you can just pull it away from the power before you actually drop it.

 

If you feel like you've added slots to a power that you didn't really want to add a slot to by mistake, you can always respec. You get a free respec every ten levels, and you can earn more in the Respec Trial.

[Erydanus]

If there is a "rule of thumb" for enh slots please educate me thusly.

 

Just to briefly explain how the system works, I'll summarize it:

 

There are actually a few different categories of enhancements but there's 2 major ones. Schedule A are the enhancements that are 33% each as SOs and they are the ones used for most things: accuracy, damage, endurance reduction, recharge time, healing, holds, immobilizes, and others. Schedule B are the enhancements that are 20% each as an SO and they are most commonly used for Defense and Resistance buffs, as well as to-hit buffs (like in build-up and tactics, not your personal power's accuracy, which actually IS accuracy).

 

The way the system works is at a certain point you start to lose just a little bit of your total enhancement, and then you hit a soft cap where afterward adding more enhancement only gets you a few percent. With the most common category of enhancements, the first cap is around 83% and the second around 92%. So instead of 3x33% adding up to 99%, it adds up to about 92%. With schedule B stuff, instead of 3x20% adding up to 60%, it caps around 56%.  If you did bull ahead and 4 slot something with SOs, the values would be 99.98% (down from 133%) and 59% (down from 80%). So as you can see, going over the threshold is really NOT worth it just in terms of the value. With IO sets sometimes you will, and it's up to you if that's worth it to you.

 

With IOs as well, at level 50 their value is much higher than SOs. The rule of thumb for slotting SOs is 3 max, but with level 50 IOs it can be considered s TWO slotting them. Or more like, 2 1/2 slotting them. Level 50 IOs are worth 42.4% or 25.5%. If you two slot them that minor diminishing return kicks in, you end up with 83.2% (down from 84.8) or 49.7 (down from 51%). If you three slot those, ED kicks in hard and nerfs them down to almost the exact same numbers as 3 SOs which is a huge waste! So for a lot of things at 50 you can probably get away with just using 2 level 50 IOs. Or if you really want to get up that next bit to being in the 90s, use a 2-part IO.

 

Suppose for instance you just don't want to mess with set IOs much but you're ok with using level 50 generic IOs. Suppose you start slotting a power with 1 acc, 2 damage, 2 recharge. For the 6th slot you just get a damage/recharge IO as filler -- you'd still take your damage and recharge right to about 95%. Efficient! In fact if you found a 3-part IO with Accuracy/Damage/Recharge you'd STILL take your damage and recharge to about 95% each but you'd also take your accuracy from 42.4% up to 59.8%.

 

So in conclusion shoot for 92% or 56%, and 2 and 3 part IOs are your friends. If you're using a lot of bits of different IO sets, you'll need to add them up; typically 2 1/2 assorted pieces will take you to the cap, but it might be even fewer pieces if you use a lot of 3 part IOs.

 

So that's basically all you need to remember: 92% for most powers but if they take the smaller value enhancements it's probably the 56% cap.

[The Fifth Horseman]

How many slots does it take before adding more becomes a waste? For example, my stone skin takes damage resist. The stone skin bar can take a maximum of 6 slots. is 6 slots with damage resist a waste? how many is too many? I dont want to waste my time adding 6 slots if something like say, 3 slots, is enough and anything after that is a waste of time and inf.

 

If there is a "rule of thumb" for enh slots please educate me thusly.

6 slots of resist is far too many. The exact figure depend not on the number of enhancements, though, but on the overall gain you get from them. See https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement%20Diversification