IO'S

[bnellons89]

Hey guys trying to find out about IO's enhacements that last till 50. never did ios before so if anybody can give me good information on the best way to get io's it woul be much appreciated. Can i get them from auction house? E.C.T.

[Caulderone]

Here is the related information on the wiki:

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Invention_System

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Invention_Origin_Enhancements

 

The first link points to the University where you can craft them.  There is an Invention tutorial you can do there, which is discussed in the third paragraph of The University subsection.

 

You can also buy them on the Market, too.  That isn't necessarily the cheapest way, unless someone is dumping them cheap after working on crafting badges.

 

Edit:  Forgot to quote you so you got a reply notice, so I'll ping you instead, @bnellons89.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Caulderone

[SurfD]

On 5/11/2020 at 2:25 PM, bnellons89 said:

Hey guys trying to find out about IO's enhacements that last till 50. never did ios before so if anybody can give me good information on the best way to get io's it woul be much appreciated. Can i get them from auction house? E.C.T.

A few things to mention:

IOs (Invention Origin) Enhancements can not be "out leveled".  That is to say, they never turn red and stop granting an effect when you exceed the IOs level by 3 like DO/SO enhancements do.   So in this sense, ALL IOs will "last till 50" once you slot them, as they never stop working or must be replaced.   You could slot a damage IO at level 10, and the effect will continue to work all the way to level 50.

 

That being said, the "sweet spot" for Generic IOs (non set stuff) is generally around the level 25 range.  A level 25 IO will generally almost always give you an enhancement bonus that is superior to an Equal level SO enhancement all the way up to 50 (ie, at level 45, a level 25 Damage IO will still give you a better bonus than a level 45 Damage SO.)  So most people usually wait till level 22 and then slot out with level 25 generic IOs or better from that point on.  For Generic IOs, you can either buy them off the AH, craft them yourself from recipe drops, or buy the recipe off the crafting interface and craft that way if you don't get the drops you need.

 

For the Advanced IOs (the special stuff with Set bonuses) you craft those from drops, or can buy recipes from the AH or just buy them directly from the AH.   They will usually be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than Generic IOs, so don't expect to be fully slotted out with Sets very easily as a new player unless you are willing to play the market for a bit to build up some capital first.

 

lastly, in regards to "Last till 50", there is the advanced option of using "Attuned" IO's for sets.  While you can't "out level" an IO, the IO will normally be fixed at its given level of effect.   Obviously, a level 10 Damage IO is going to give you much less of an effect than a level 45 one.   "Attuned" IOs level up with you, always giving you the effect of the IO as if it was your current level.  Note: Only Set IOs can be attuned.  Generic IO's can not.

 

Hypothetical Made Up Numbers Example: At level 10, your Damage IO gives you 9% increase.  When you level up to level 25, a non attuned IO still only gives you 9% bonus (though you never out level that bonus).   An Attuned IO however will give you the appropriate bonus that IO would give if it was level 25, so it improves from 9% to say 22%.

 

If you have the money to afford Set IOs, and are using them for leveling purposes, ALWAYS buy them in their attuned versions off the AH if you are buying them off the AH, as the cost is the same as the non attuned versions on the Homecoming Servers due to some AH tweaks that were made.

 

Final note, it is almost NEVER worth it to buy anything IO related using Merits (even the Archetype Specific IOs) as Merits are MUCH better spent on things like converters, but that's an entirely different discussion, and you really should check out the guides to making easy money for more info on that topic.

Edited May 13, 2020 by SurfD

[Hyperstrike]

2 hours ago, SurfD said:

Final note, it is almost NEVER worth it to buy anything IO related using Merits (even the Archetype Specific IOs) as Merits are MUCH better spent on things like converters, but that's an entirely different discussion, and you really should check out the guides to making easy money for more info on that topic.

Maybe.  But sometimes things just aren't available any other way.  And I generally have HUGE surpluses of RMs when it comes time to lay in a "final build".

[SurfD]

The only IOs you should ever occasionally need to purchase with Merits are AO sets, and even then, buying them with merits is always going to be a massively inefficient waste of the merits.

 

An AO set IO costs 100 merits.

- For most sets on my server, they go for between 8 and 10 Mil each per AO.

3 Converters costs you 1 merit.

- Converters sell for between 80k and 100k each.

Even lowballing it at 80k:

- 100 merits worth of converters (300 converters) auction for ~24mil (minus ah fees) (Sell 100 merits worth of Converters, buy your AO for 10k, pocket ~12 mil profit).

 

If you buy an AO IO for 100 merits, you are essentially saying "It was worth paying 24 mil for something I could have bought for 10". 

 

Unless there are literally No AO Sets of any kind, for any archetype available on the market, there is almost never a reason to buy them with Merits.

And even if there were literally no AO sets of any kind available on the market, it still would probably be a more efficient use of your merits to sell 10 mil worth of converters, buy a Hero / Villain pack off the AH for 10 mil, and use the remaining converters to convert any AOs you get to what you want than it would be to just buy the AO for 100 straight merits.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by SurfD

[FourSpeed]

I'm with Hyperstrike on this one.

 

It's a definite Maybe.

 

To be sure, it's almost never worth it "financially". At 3 converters per RM, and assuming ~85K per converter on the AH, the 100 RM's you'd spend for many IO's is too expensive. Those RM's exchanged for converters and sold on the AH would net appx. 25.5 Million.  Very little is worth that amount of inf, even in the AH. So, in that regard, I agree with you.

 

However, and this is the rub, most folks don't do the math. Marketeers, like myself, and many others know we can do it better (ie. more effieciently, more cost effectively) using the AH, but I don't believe the playerbase, as a whole thinks that way. They certainly did not back in Live. The vitriol surrounding the AH there was nearly legendary.  Here, it's much less so, but I believe there is still a substantial number of players that will avoid the AH like the plague. They avoid AH, don't know the relative pricing exchanges, and largely, seem to be ok with that.

 

Mathematically, we can tell them they're overpaying, but emotionally, they really aren't. Avoiding a perceived hassle (AH Marketing) covers that price difference for them (if they're even aware there is one). Additionally, for some players, it is easier for them to earn / use RM's than it is to spend time in the AH.

 

That's especially true in cases where they're looking for LotG's, Steadfasts, and several other desirable IO's they might want. Those RM costs are significantly lower (20-30 RM's iirc). Sure, 25 merits still translates to roughly ~6 million to you and I, but for some players, 20-60 merits is a Theoden/Alastor run + some Tips. That may well be more convenient (and possibly even quicker for them). Emotionally, too, that may be a pretty fair trade for avoiding "Ebil Marketeering". Additionally, in some of those cases the net price difference is only a million or two, even compared to converters, and if they're anti-AH, they might not even be aware of that -- and even if they were, the convenience of using RM's in that case is actually probably "cheaper" in their minds - despite the actual AH price differential. 😉 

 

Mathematically, you're probably right, but for a significant number of players, I think "Maybe" is a much likelier answer.  YMMV.

 

Regards,

4 

[Hopestar]

On 5/13/2020 at 8:56 PM, SurfD said:

The only IOs you should ever occasionally need to purchase with Merits are AO sets, and even then, buying them with merits is always going to be a massively inefficient waste of the merits.

 

An AO set IO costs 100 merits.

- For most sets on my server, they go for between 8 and 10 Mil each per AO.

3 Converters costs you 1 merit.

- Converters sell for between 80k and 100k each.

Even lowballing it at 80k:

- 100 merits worth of converters (300 converters) auction for ~24mil (minus ah fees) (Sell 100 merits worth of Converters, buy your AO for 10k, pocket ~12 mil profit).

 

If you buy an AO IO for 100 merits, you are essentially saying "It was worth paying 24 mil for something I could have bought for 10". 

 

Unless there are literally No AO Sets of any kind, for any archetype available on the market, there is almost never a reason to buy them with Merits.

And even if there were literally no AO sets of any kind available on the market, it still would probably be a more efficient use of your merits to sell 10 mil worth of converters, buy a Hero / Villain pack off the AH for 10 mil, and use the remaining converters to convert any AOs you get to what you want than it would be to just buy the AO for 100 straight merits.

 

 

Definite no on using the remaining converters to convert ATOs. There's far, far too many in the pool for you to ever get the ATO you want. I spent over 300 converters trying to get one that wasn't on the market and it never happened. I tried this several times before deciding RNG is too unforgiving for this to be worth it (probably wasted 100mil in the process).

[discokat]

On 5/13/2020 at 11:08 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Maybe.  But sometimes things just aren't available any other way.  And I generally have HUGE surpluses of RMs when it comes time to lay in a "final build".

True. It's really a time sensitive matter. If a person doesn't have all the time in the world to spend converting it is definitely worth it to use RM on certain IOs and attuned enhancments. 

 

It is far less efficient to spend RM on enhancements, if everything is equal, but if you can only get onto the game to play then by all means use them for enhancements. If I could spend two hours a week playing the game the last thing in the world I would want to do is be converting. 

 

[Myrmidon]

On 5/13/2020 at 7:19 AM, SurfD said:

If you have the money to afford Set IOs, and are using them for leveling purposes, ALWAYS buy them in their attuned versions off the AH if you are buying them off the AH, as the cost is the same as the non attuned versions on the Homecoming Servers due to some AH tweaks that were made.

 

Final note, it is almost NEVER worth it to buy anything IO related using Merits (even the Archetype Specific IOs) as Merits are MUCH better spent on things like converters, but that's an entirely different discussion, and you really should check out the guides to making easy money for more info on that topic.

This cannot be stressed enough.

[Doomguide2005]

For me it's much as @discokat has eluded to.  A combination of limited game time, particularly quality teaming time and knowledge (last played in issue 23) of what converters and attuned IO's were and how they worked meant using reward merits was simply faster, easier and didn't require immediately learning a bunch of new information.  I had plenty of old stuff to relearn already. Now that old stuff is refreshed and new knowledge acquired I'll probably start using converters (and no doubt learning more) but there's still that matter of game time or lack thereof.  I can earn merits, xp, inf and most importantly levels while running missions and tf's.  I can't do that while sitting in the auction house and/or using converters though over time I'm sure that process would get easier and faster the more I did it.  Worth or value, in other words, is very much in the eye of the beholder.