Limited range enhancement sets

[Techwright]

A question that has often bugged me but I previously never remembered to ask:

 

What was the thinking behind the creation of enhancement sets that only exist in certain security level ranges in the game?  Why were not all sets designed to run the full range?

[Greycat]

Possibly so some would be cheaper, or to avoid people just grabbing the "best" sets starting at level 10 and ignoring everything else. I'd wager there was some idea of "the economy" as well at some point, with having lower level sets dropping for lower level characters and still having trade/auction house value - and/or just being cheaper while still giving reasonable bonuses.

[tidge]

That is a good question!

 

My first guess: Since so many of the "lower-level" sets have less than 6 pieces, I suspect that for the "lower-level" sets there was an intent to avoid a single enhancement set allowing a lower-level player to be "too good" (whatever that would mean)

 

Second guess: The 6-set pieces that can be slotted at the lowest levels and cover the "full range" are ones that were tied to some sort of time-intensive reward/rare drop/investment (including special packs for ATO/Winter) that may have aligned with the Live thinking about subscribers/players. The "weaker" sets can drive this home, I suppose.

[Jacke]

I know that back after IOs came out and long before SOs were extended (beyond the difficult-to-get and limited Yin's Market Talisman Enhancements and the limited source low-level SOs off of the Death-from-Below Trial), I put a lot more effort into IOs than I do now.  Had some of those crappy low-Level IO sets just to improve things a bit.  In retrospect, I think even before SOs were made more accessible, it actually wasn't worth the time investment.

 

Now the only IOs with a max-Level lower than L40 I commonly use are the Steadfast Protection Res/+3% Def Attuned and other special IOs, usually at minimum Level.

 

EDIT: From @tidge's post below, that reminds me:  I do slot 4-sets or 6-sets of Clouded Senses because of the good bonuses.

 

 

Edited August 20 by Jacke

[Greycat]

... hmm, might be an interesting challenge for the build types. "Build with only low-range IOs" - what are they normally, 10-35 or something, roughly?

[tidge]

9 hours ago, Jacke said:

Now the only IOs with a max-Level lower than L40 I commonly use are the Steadfast Protection Res/+3% Def Attuned and other special IOs, usually at minimum Level.

 

From memory, the "don't reach to level 50 pieces" I use are:

• The Uniques
• %damage procs
• Cloud Senses, because of the schedule for -ToHit, I don't sweat the difference between 30 and 50 values for 4-slotting (3 plus %damage)... besides, this set often goes in a pet power.
• Rarely: a second piece of a (Recharge Instensive) Pet damage piece like Accuracy/Damage *if* the henchmen is already in ED territory and I *really* want a bonus from a set with a henchman unique.

On the flip side, I rarely find myself slotting any Sniper set except Experienced Marksman. I'm not thrilled about the set bonuses that disappear below level 32 and for damaging attacks I want as much Enhancement boosting as possible, at all levels. It helps that Ranged damage sets can be placed in all the Sniper powers AFAIK.

 

Very rarely, I will use a single boosted piece from a "doesn't go to 50" set if that sole piece offers an attribute boost that I can't get from another piece *and* any other combination of attributes can benefit from "a little more" (so lowish ED ranges). This is such a rare circumstance (for me) that I can't think of a specific example but I am sure I have done it when a HO or IO wouldn't do what I wanted.

[FFFF]

This is just supposition from my part since only the original devs would have the actual reasoning. However, I think it's probably related to spreading out the wealth a bit. There are some recipes that are valuable for higher level characters that drop at lower levels (Steadfast Res/Def, Kismet +ToHit, Reticle Increase Perception, etc.). Also before Attuned IOs, levels of IOs used to matter a lot more. I remember trying to get IOs at specific levels so they would still be valid when exempting down. 

[Riverdusk]

Basilisk Gaze is probably the most common low level set I use.  A defense bonus and a 7.5% recharge bonus with only 4 slots is pretty good and usually 4 is good enough for a hold power to get the job done. 

 

Also much more likely to go ahead and boost rather than attune the sets that cap out at level 30.  Getting the set bonus down to level 27 isn't too bad.  And, surprisingly, a 30+5 actually beats an attuned level 50.

[srmalloy]

26 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

Basilisk Gaze is probably the most common low level set I use.  A defense bonus and a 7.5% recharge bonus with only 4 slots is pretty good and usually 4 is good enough for a hold power to get the job done. 

And if you can afford a fifth slot in your build, the Lockdown +2 Mag proc is always a solid choice.

[Jacke]

Also, before Enhancement Converters, Low-Level IO recipes and enhancements were really not that useful.  That Enhancement Converters were introduced indicates a lot of IO recipes and enhancements are not worth it.

[AlwaysAPrice]

It made a lot more sense when IOs debuted, because it was quite normal then to spend weeks (or months on less frequently played alts) in those lower level ranges, between the slower rate of levelling and fewer options for on-demand efficient grind. Before purples and Reward Merits existed, just Rares were actually slow to come by and expensive on the auction house, something to work towards filling your build out with. (When purples came along those were so rare and expensive I don't think they were even something most people seriously considered when building, they were for the "this would be nice one day" fantasy build you might marketeer towards piece by piece for one main over months. maybe years.) So back then you might legitimately make a carefully frankenslotted build out of those lower level sets around level 22 or so to tide you over until the 30s or 40s, and that would actually be a worthwhile investment of your time to get something that would outperform SOs and also not need complete refreshing every 5 levels.

 

As for why have limited sets at all, crappy common sets are still useful to low-level characters, and since higher level richer ones have better options from higher level sets that aren't available to lower level players anyway, those limited lowbie sets stayed available at prices low-level characters could actually generate from play and/or selling their own lucky drops.