Frankenslotting tutorial?

[Papaschtroumpf]

Wow, I forgot almost everything about this game, especially the later issues. I still expected my toggles to go down on mezz.

 

I don't want to invest a lot of time right now figuring out the "perfect" slotting for my character yet. Part of the reason is that I like to get a sense of how to use each power and what I like, and then decide how to slot then for bonuses.

 

In the meantime I want to "frankenslot", but I'm not sure how to do it intelligently and how to not waste I fluence doing it. Do you have tips for frankenslotting on the way to 50?

 

For example, at 32 I can slot all lvl 35 standard IOs, but I think I can get higher numbers by slotting dual and triples?

Are standard IOs always cheaper than set IOs to craft or can I save money by frankenslotting (first character so not rolling in inf yet)

I can probably figure some of this in Mids/Pine but I'm hoping someone can out me in the right path.

[srmalloy]

Frankenslotting doesn't really pay off at the lower levels, because you can't hit the ED limits as easily. Yes, two Dam/Acc IOs from two different damage sets will give you a better improvement than one Dam and one Acc common IO, which beats the same two as SOs, but this isn't where frankenslotting shines. At level 50, a single-aspect IO in group A is 42.4% bonus; a three-aspect set IO will give you 50% base in each bonus, so if you can slot four different level 50 Dam/Acc/End set IOs, they will give you the effect of having two each Dam, Acc, and End IOs -- six slots worth of bonus that only uses four slots. And it stays just under the point at which ED starts grinding the boost down. If you do the same slotting with 35s, you'll be starting with a lower value for the base improvement, so you'll get around 70% bonus instead of 84.8%.

 

The other use of frankenslotting is to stack specific set bonuses -- for example, putting two Cleaving Blow and two Armageddon into Burn to get the two-piece Recovery bonus from each set.

 

Sometimes you can do both, but more often you'll need to pick one or the other -- optimized enhancement percentages or neatly stacked set bonuses -- and accept that you can't get a 'perfect' build.

[Erydanus]

I don't agree with SRMalloy's post, especially about it not being valuable at low levels, but I'm not going to debate it; just acknowledging the difference of opinion and moving on.

 

To me Frankenslotting is about cramming as much enhancement as you can in as cheaply as you can. Sometimes you can snag a first or second tier set bonus but that's just gravy. At low levels when you maybe only have 4 slots in a power, using a bunch of 2part and 3part IOs may let you get as much enhancement as 6 conventional IOs if you're lucky and the sets you have to work with offer good pieces. Some IO sets are formulated in a way that they don't have the breakdown of pieces you may want for Frankenslotting; but then, there are sets formulated in such a way that they actually work very poorly in a particular power and you'd never be able to full set them at endgame without great waste anyway. 

 

Frankenslotting also allows you to maximize enhancements by mixing in pieces of sets you might not use, saving you money; or getting you enhancements when you otherwise might not be able to afford them. Right now a lot of melee and ranged set pieces even in the 20s are going for multiple millions. Suppose your attack has a bonus effect like defense debuff or chance to sleep.  You can dig out useful bits from non attack sets and then finish with generic damage IOs. For example I used to have an electric melee/elec armor brute. His attacks had a tiny chance to sleep so they took sleep sets, taunts, and endmod sets on top of melee damage. A typical slotting I'd use for him would be a sleep set Acc/Recharge and a sleep set Acc/Endredux, a single melee set Dam/Endredux, 2 damage IOs, and a proc for fun. The sleep set pieces were cheap and let me get an SO worth of accuracy and end redux in the attacks in a time I was really short on money.

 

I also like just using multiple copies of the same 3part in powers. Like for a spammable area heal, if you can get the Heal/Endredx/Recharge bit from 2 different heal sets you just got 1 SO of enhancment for each of those 3 parameters in just 2 slots. (Using level 25 IOs, that's 32% of each which I consider equivalent to an SO.)  The catch here is that if you use rare sets then the cost typically goes up both for the recipe and the salvage they take.

 

To continue the example of slotting something like healing aura, if you got 4 mixed heal/endredux/recharge pieces you'd up with 65% of each of those parameters which is like 6 slotting in 4. However, it would probably be quite spendy to do that. An alternative would be to combine the heal/end/rech and the heal/rech piece from 2 different sets, probably Triage and Harmonized healing. You'd end up with 32% endredux, 73% heal, and 73% recharge time. That's still the equivalent of 1 end, 2 1/5 heal, and 2 1/5 rechage. That's still the equivalent of more than 5 slots of enhancement in 4 actual slots, plus you do get 2 set bonuses. If you do it with higher level than 25, you will get better results but even doing this fairly low level you're getting all the bang you would from SOs and then some.

 

As far as cost efficiency I would just start Frankenslotting at 22 with level 25s generic and set IOs, and as I level I use any I could make from that level up through the current level. Since you're not worrying about set bonuses exemplaring isn't a factor and you can just use whatever you can get. Even mostly using generic IOs and filling in just a 2 or 3 parters to shave waste off the build is great. (I am SO a fan of 1 acc, 2 damage, and 1 acc/dam in a favorite attack.) Then, at 50 you can redo it all from the top, sell off the IOs you leveled with and upgrade. At 50 you're probably going to be looking more at either true set slotting or what I call hybrid slotting. Hybrid slotting is when you're sort of Frankenslotting but you're doing it more seriously and trying to get some set bonuses. Like using the same 3 pieces of 2 different or comparable sets. You might even be mixing in Hami-Os at that point but using the splits of set IOs lets you hoard the slots to put them in.

 

For example if I were a dark defender at level 50 I might slot Shadow Fall - which provides significant defense to all as well as resistance to cold, negative, and psi - with 3 pieces each of a resistance set and a defense set. Resistance/End, Resistance/End/Recharge, and Resistance from a Resistance set; and Defense/End, Defense/End/Recharge, Defense from a defense set. The totals are about 52% to both defense and resistance (and thats in the ED range for those parameters with 56% being the cap you'd land on if you 3-slotted it plainly), 91% endredux (and it's an expensive group wide toggle so this isn't overkill), as well as 42% recharge time. (Bringing it down from 15 to 10 seconds to reactivate if something goes wrong). You also get 4 set bonuses.

[Papaschtroumpf]

Thanks to both of you. This helps a lot.

[srmalloy]

You don't get the full benefit for reducing the number of slots you need in a power at lower levels; that's not to say that it has no benefits, only that you can do better with higher-level enhancements. this page describes frankenslotting a Hold with six level-30 set IOs; doing the same thing with level-50 versions could get you the same result with one fewer slot. As many tweaked builds are tight on slots, being able to pare a slot out of one power to use in another.

[Heraclea]

I use frankenslotting to take advantage of exotic sets that do useful things that are in low demand.  E.g. my bio/spines tanker will eventually have a Pacing of the Turtle recharge slow proc in every Spines attack that will take it.  That recipe tended not to be in high demand in 2012.  If four slotting an exotic like Pacing of the Turtle gives good bonuses I will use them as well, preferring accuracy, recharge. and endurance, and then slot maybe one accuracy and one damage IO for the other two slots.  Powersets that take exotic debuff sets are the best candidates for frankenslotting. 

[Erydanus]

Yes but my point is that at level 25 I probably only have 4 slots in my typical power like a hold so I want to maximize THOSE slots. (I spread my slots out while leveling and add them as I need them.)

 

At level 50 I will have 6 slots in my hold and I will completely redo my build complete with the fortune I will have made by beating up skulls and taking their enriched plutonium (what?).

 

So I say, don't wait. Start immediately and save yourself the SO costs and take advantage of the flexibility now. And if you have the $$ to overwrite lower level IOs with higher level IOs while leveling, go for it.

[_NOPE_]

Yes but my point is that at level 25 I probably only have 4 slots in my typical power like a hold so I want to maximize THOSE slots. (I spread my slots out while leveling and add them as I need them.)

 

At level 50 I will have 6 slots in my hold and I will completely redo my build complete with the fortune I will have made by beating up skulls and taking their enriched plutonium (what?).

 

So I say, don't wait. Start immediately and save yourself the SO costs and take advantage of the flexibility now. And if you have the $$ to overwrite lower level IOs with higher level IOs while leveling, go for it.

+1 Inf

[Papaschtroumpf]

There was a guide somewhere in the old days that roughly said "think of multieffect IOs and half of a normal IO for each effect". At first glance it doesn't make a lot of sense, because two slots of Acc/Dmg would be the same as one slot of Acc and one slot of Dmg. Then the guide talks about triples and quads being "small halves" and duals being "halves with gravy".

So  is the main reason to get access to "halves" so you can slot 1.5 Acc and 2.5 Dmg for 4 slots (not a bad idea actually). Or you mostly want to slot triples for the most benefit of frankenslotting?

Looks like I need to play around I'm Mids or Pine and compare between standard IOs and combinations of sets to get a better feel for it.

 

 

 

 

[srmalloy]

Two doubles is 1.3 of each, three triples is 1.5 of each, four quads (are there four different sets in a set type with the same quad? I don't think so, but...) is ~1.7 of each. Three doubles is a little less than two of each (1.825), four triples is two of each. This last is fairly easy to do with damage sets, giving you six IOs of improvement in four slots.