Merit ATM SO levels

[CyberWoLfman]

When checking the Merit ATM inside one of my bases, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it would sell me SOs (Single-Origin) enhancements at the cost of 1 merit each, down to level 20.
 
First off, thank you for that, so that characters don’t have to wait until level 22 to purchase SOs.  :-)
 
But, could you maybe have it sell SOs at levels 15, 10 and 5, as well?  One of the reason some players do the DfB so often is to get the SOs which they cannot get at those levels from anywhere else (except for via AH, if they’re available at all for the levels they’re looking for, as other players try to sell the ones they don’t need).
 
Either that, or perhaps seed the SOs of those levels into the AH like other things you already do?

[kenlon]

Dear sir:

 

 

You may want to have a look over these beta patch notes, as well as the ones from 4/4.

[SwitchFade]

Please, I beg you... Don't waste merits on SOs

 

I cried a little just thinking of it ...

[Nefertari]

4 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

Please, I beg you... Don't waste merits on SOs

 

I cried a little just thinking of it ...

i cringed a little as well, lol

[FrauleinMental]

2 hours ago, Nefertari said:

i cringed a little as well, lol

Never Have I Ever:  Needed SOs before level 20.  (I do recall my main on Live using a respec at level 37 just to sell everything and supplement the inf I had so I could afford to slot 40 SOs, but this was before IOs or Merits.)

 

Seriously, level 5 SOs?  Such a waste because those levels run so quickly even without DFB.  The main reason people run DFB is to get to 15-20 (1) quickly and (2) without running the same low-level mission arcs on every alt.

 

Now, I generally just slot whatever drops until level 22, when I slot 25 IOs to do me until 50.

[MTeague]

I just tend to sugar daddy my alts with four ATO's from each of both of the two ATO sets, and slot them at level 10.  Well. Start slotting them at level 10 anyway.  I don't always have 4 slots in particular powers by then, but usually my bread-and-butter powers have 3 slots each by then.   Then DO's for the rest until i hit 17, and by then my characters have earned enough merits to do some Converter Roulette to start filling in with attuned's in other powers.

 

EDIT:  that said, if you really WANT to use your merits on SO's... hey your merits your choice.  SO's are NOT what I consider an efficient use of merits.  But I can only criticize just so much with a straight face, knowing that sometimes I will drop 600 merits to buy all 6 recipies for a purple set Now-Dammit-Now when I really don't want to wait.

Edited April 21, 2020 by MTeague

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 4/21/2020 at 11:25 AM, FrauleinMental said:

Seriously, level 5 SOs?  Such a waste because those levels run so quickly even without DFB.  The main reason people run DFB is to get to 15-20 (1) quickly and (2) without running the same low-level mission arcs on every alt.

 

Not everyone zooms past the single digit levels.  Not everyone runs DFB.

[FrauleinMental]

13 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

 

Not everyone zooms past the single digit levels.  Not everyone runs DFB.

I didn't say everyone ran DFB:

On 4/21/2020 at 2:25 PM, FrauleinMental said:

Seriously, level 5 SOs?  Such a waste because those levels run so quickly even without DFB.  The main reason people run DFB is to get to 15-20 (1) quickly and (2) without running the same low-level mission arcs on every alt.

Even "taking it slow" isn't that slow for single-digit levels.  The last time it took me more than three hours to hit level 10 on a new character, it was because I had to Sprint across The Hollows for solo missions.

 

You'd almost have to turn off XP to make level 5 SOs last meaningfully long, though I've occasionally heard rumors of people running "street level" characters locked in the level 10-20 range.  Even then, it's a non-problem because the sub-10 content typically assumes you're running TOs (if anything), and 10-20 content typically assumes you're running DOs or a TO/DO mix.