Attuned enhancements question

[liveevil4000]

I am wondering if I should have attuned sets on my toon. 
I like doing TFs which exemplar me down from 50, and I lose set bonuses. 

I already know AT sets and purples are already attuned. 
I also know the sets won’t work at a level they don’t exist. 
 

is it worth getting them?

what are the disadvantages to having them attuned?

or is it better to enhance them and deal with not having set bonuses at lower level?

[GM Crumpet]

I generally buy attuned as I play, and at level 50 use catalysts to turn ATO's and winter sets into the superior versions. The disadvantage is you can't boost them, but the advantage is they work all the way down to their minimum level. Players who only play level 50+ content will often use boosters, but for the rest of us who like to do Ouroboros and lower level TF's it's more useful having them attuned. They all come from the same bucket on the auction house so there is no difference in price.

[Without_Pause]

This is why you can have more than one build. I personally haven't created a second build so I have one exclusively for level 50 content. This obviously increases the cost you put into a build which is why fewer people do it. I would rather put the currency on another character versus having two builds for the same character. 

[Bionic_Flea]

38 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

I generally buy attuned as I play, and at level 50 use catalysts to turn ATO's and winter sets into the superior versions.

 

This is exactly what I do.  You can get more enhancement value slotting SOs until the 30s, but I save time and influence by slotting once and done.  The only thing I have to do at 50 is make the ATOs and Winters Superior and add any purples if the build calls for it.  The other bonus is that you get some nice set bonuses early and often as you level up. 

 

But if you are going to farm all the way, then you are better off slotting at 50 with the highest level of IO your build calls for and boosting them if needed or wanted.  I find that usually boosting is not needed unless you need just a little more oomph to get to softcap, or perma-something, or maybe cut some endurance cost out of that purple set or single slotted power.

[tidge]

1 hour ago, liveevil4000 said:

I am wondering if I should have attuned sets on my toon. 
I like doing TFs which exemplar me down from 50, and I lose set bonuses. 

 

is it worth getting them?

what are the disadvantages to having them attuned?

or is it better to enhance them and deal with not having set bonuses at lower level?

 

It's been a while since I've seen this bit of advices offered regarding how to (relatively easily) get attuned enhancements: The market house (/AH) buckets/auto-converts an enhancement at a specific level with enhancements that are attuned. It is possible to "convert" a non-attuned enhancement to an attuned one by putting a non-attuned piece on the market and buying an attuned one in its place. You do have to pay the price of the auction house's "vig", and any buy-it-now inefficiency of course.  Once a character is level 50, Enhancement Catalysts will drop one-per-24 hours, assuming the player is actually defeating enemies to get drops (it doesn't take many defeats, maybe 50).

 

If there are set bonuses to be had, I almost always go attuned (or use sets that don't need to be attuned). The times when I don't attune but use boosted (max level)+5 pieces instead are:

• There is no set bonus I want, and I simply want as much enhancement as possible. Common examples from my builds include Healing/Recharge, Accuracy/Endurance reduction.
• Every once in a while there is a power that only takes a certain type of enhancement, and the set bonus simply isn't something I care that much about (as much as I want the actual enhancement values). Examples include the Adjusted Targeting Recharge piece (a ToHit Buff set) in Link Minds (also falls into previous category) or when using only a couple of pieces from a set like Analyze Weakness (Accurate Defense Debuff)
• I don't feel like spending Inf on the market for something like a Hami-O or D-Sync for the equivalent set of enhancements.

I don't object to shelling out Inf for Hami-O's or D-Syncs, but in order to get the maximum boosts from those, it typically becomes necessary to buy multiples and combine them. A Merit Vendor can be used to buy boosters. IIRC the enhancement values of a boosted 50+5 piece are just above the enhancement values of an "equivalent" level 50 Hami-O. The gap widens of course for higher-level HO/DS.

 

[Uun]

Don't buy attuned versions of Very Rare (purple) or PVP sets. The lvl 50 versions (which can be boosted) retain their set bonuses down to lvl 10.

[arcane]

I buy attuned purples when I don’t want to boost them (because recharge/proc concerns) because an enhancement that is neither attuned nor boosted just looks unfinished.

[Onlyasandwich]

7 hours ago, arcane said:

I buy attuned purples when I don’t want to boost them (because recharge/proc concerns) because an enhancement that is neither attuned nor boosted just looks unfinished

I do this with purple procs! It pleases me. 

[FupDup]

9 hours ago, Uun said:

Don't buy attuned versions of Very Rare (purple) or PVP sets. The lvl 50 versions (which can be boosted) retain their set bonuses down to lvl 10.

Attuned PVPs can be very useful in leveling builds (unless you want to keep unslotting and replacing them every few levels), but when you reach level 47+ then the crafted variants are indeed superior. 

[macskull]

17 hours ago, tidge said:

IIRC the enhancement values of a boosted 50+5 piece are just above the enhancement values of an "equivalent" level 50 Hami-O. The gap widens of course for higher-level HO/DS.

You've got that backwards. For dual-aspect enhancements a 50+5 provides 33.1% bonus to both attributes while a level 50 Hami-O provides 33.3%, and a level 53 Hami-O provides 38.3%. Of course, once you go into combining certain Hami-O's it's really a question of whether that extra boost is worth it, and there are still some cases where a 50+5 is more cost-effective than a level 50 Hami-O.

[tidge]

4 hours ago, macskull said:

You've got that backwards. For dual-aspect enhancements a 50+5 provides 33.1% bonus to both attributes while a level 50 Hami-O provides 33.3%, and a level 53 Hami-O provides 38.3%.

 Thanks for the correction. I remembered the 50+5 and 53 being close.