Confused about the use and effectiveness of Enhancement Boosters...

[Story Archer]

I really have two questions:

 

1) Can anyone point me to where I can get a comprehensive education/explanation/understanding of how Enhancement Boosters work? I've managed to find a hodge-podge of posts, most from 5+ years ago, and they tend to be confusing, contradictory or both.

 

2) I have always  defaulted to attuned set IO's with a handful of generic IO's for all my characters. I've pretty much topped out my main as best as I know how to, but I've never used Enhancement Boosters and I've got merits to spare. Where in this build should I be looking at taking advantage of this option? Just wherever I have generic IO's? I'm currently trying to run all of the content for all levels Blue/Gold/Red side via Ouroboros, if that matters.
 

[Veil of Blades] Current 2.mbd

 

 

[Octogoat]

If you're a timeskipper you might want to +5 your purples and attune everything else

[the1egend1ives]

You want to use enhancement boosters on any generic IOs, so definitely use them on the recharge IOs in Hasten. They will boost the recharge of Hasten quite a bit.

 

I can't speak for everyone, but using boosters on set IOs is a waste. 5-6 set IOs is usually going to max at their soft-cap. And you won't get the set bonuses if you play lower level TFs or Ouroboros mission. That's why most people attune set IOs.

[tidge]

You can attune  boost the non-proc pieces of PVP and Purple sets to improve the individual values. One common Purple piece to boost in the Damage/Endurance reduction piece in attack sets, as that is the only piece in those sets with an Endurance Reduction component, so Enhancement Diversification isn't a factor. You will want to read up Enhancement Diversification too.

 

I often boost pieces when I don't care about the set bonus (Accurate Defense Debuff is a common set for me) and I want both Accuracy and Recharge as high as possible. I often boost pieces when I have "franken-slotted" a power.

 

You can Attune (most) Winter Sets and (all) ATOs. This makes them behave like 50+5 pieces for Enhancement Values and they provide improved set bonuses.

Edited Friday at 10:59 PM by tidge
fixed

[Riverdusk]

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Enhancement_Booster_Salvage

 

Most common use as said is on normal recharge IO's in hasten,  You can then get to 95%+ recharge in hasten with only two slots instead of three.

 

I tend to also sometimes use them on set IO's that have set bonuses I like that cap out at level 30 instead of 50.  Boost them and they have enhancement values better than a normal level 50 and they still exemp down to level 27 anyway.

 

Purple IO's exemp down to level 1 anyway, so they are also common to get as level 50's and boost, although most of their stats are already hitting 95% so often there isn't much use (except for maybe the endurance reduction piece often doesn't hit cap in a purple set).  No reason to ever attune a purple though.

 

PvP IO's are the same (once you can use level 50 ones), so often those are good candidates to boost as well.  Although sometimes I will use attuned ones as I level up and then swap them out for 50+5's once I hit level 47+.  I rarely use an entire 6 set of a PvP set, so it often helps a lot to boost if you are only using 3 pieces of it.

 

For your build you could boost the purples in power slice, sweeping strike, and blinding powder if you wanted without negatively affecting your build or set bonuses in any way (although it might not make a lot of difference for most stats except as I said maybe endurance reduction).  Definitely could boost the endurance mod piece in your level 18 power,  and of course as said, probably the most impactful would be boosting the recharges in hasten.

 

Keep in mind procs can't be boosted.

[Jacke]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

You can attune the non-proc pieces of PVP and Purple sets to improve the individual values.

 

Do you not mean boost the non-Proc pieces?

[GM Crumpet]

The problem with boosters is they are expensive, so you have to use them wisely and not just try to boost everything when it's not necessary. I personally don't use them a lot, mostly on things like hasten if I'm trying to get perma something like phantom army or light form. 

[shortguy on indom]

5 hours ago, Story Archer said:

I'm currently trying to run all of the content for all levels Blue/Gold/Red side via Ouroboros, if that matters.

• HAVE DONE THIS.
• IF I WERE TO DO AGAIN, WOULD ONLY SLOT (TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE):  VERY RARE; ARCHETYPE IOS; AND PVP SETS.
• YOU HAVE QUITE A FEW NICE SETS IN UR BUILD, BUT SOME DO NOT SCALE DOWN FOR ANY LOW- LEVEL OURO AND WOULD RECONSIDER THE USE OF ABOVE.
• +5 EVERYTHING YOU CAN, JUST FROM COOMPLETING ONLY THE VILLIAN SIDE, YOU WILL HAVE MORE MERITS THAN YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH.
• FUN QUEST.  THINKING ABOUT DOING THIS AGAIN.  MOST OF THE OURO WORK ENTAILS SOLOING, SO WOULD MAXIMIZE UR TOON, SINCE ITS DIFFICULT TO RECRUIT FOLKS TO JOIN YOU.

[srmalloy]

9 hours ago, the1egend1ives said:

You want to use enhancement boosters on any generic IOs, so definitely use them on the recharge IOs in Hasten. They will boost the recharge of Hasten quite a bit.

You run into diminishing returns if you boost Hasten three-slotted with level 50 IOs (three are already into diminishing returns, and boosting to +5 caps out at, IIRC, 101%), but two are 84.8% by themselves and 94.1% with both boosted to +5, which is only a couple of percent less than three unboosted 50s.

[srmalloy]

9 hours ago, Octogoat said:

If you're a timeskipper you might want to +5 your purples and attune everything else

Boost your purples and PvP IOs (you want 50 PvP IOs for this), and attune your other sets IF you'll be playing lower-level content where you'll be exemp'ed down. If it's a farming character that's always going to be running at 50, go ahead and boost everything but ATOs and event IOs (i.e., winter sets), which you'll still catalyze to make them Superior. Which common IOs you boost depends on which ones make a noticeable difference (i.e., two 50+5 Recharge in Hasten).

[Uun]

In addition to the above, I often boost two-attribute set IOs in powers I am 1 slotting that a HO doesn't exist for (i.e., acc/slow). A boosted two-attribute lvl 50 IO comes very close to HO values.

[Octogoat]

12 minutes ago, Uun said:

In addition to the above, I often boost two-attribute set IOs in powers I am 1 slotting that a HO doesn't exist for (i.e., acc/slow). A boosted two-attribute lvl 50 IO comes very close to HO values.

I do this when I'm 1-slotting tactics with a gaussian tohit/end to save some inf

[Major_Decoy]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:58 AM, Story Archer said:

I really have two questions:

 

1) Can anyone point me to where I can get a comprehensive education/explanation/understanding of how Enhancement Boosters work? I've managed to find a hodge-podge of posts, most from 5+ years ago, and they tend to be confusing, contradictory or both.

 

2) I have always  defaulted to attuned set IO's with a handful of generic IO's for all my characters. I've pretty much topped out my main as best as I know how to, but I've never used Enhancement Boosters and I've got merits to spare. Where in this build should I be looking at taking advantage of this option? Just wherever I have generic IO's? I'm currently trying to run all of the content for all levels Blue/Gold/Red side via Ouroboros, if that matters.

 

1) An enhancement booster is a multiplier. One enhancement booster provides a 5% boost to the enhancement. It will take a 20% enhancement to 21%. These stack additively up to five: (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%) The higher the base value of the boosted enhancement, the better the booster performs. A level 30 IO that is 5 boosted will be stronger than a level 50 IO that is unboosted (34.8 * 1.25 = 43.5 vs 42.4)

 

2) It depends on how you like to play. If you want absolute peak performance at level 50, you'll get better performance by getting level 50 enhancements and +5 boosting them. If you exemplar a lot, then look at the level caps of the enhancements you're using. Sting of the Manticore, for example, has a minimum level of 35, so you're better off getting level 35 enhancements and +5 boosting them than you are getting attuned. If the set has a minimum level below level 30, like Luck of the Gambler, then if you got level 30 Luck of the Gamblers and +5 boosted them, you'd lose those set bonuses below level 27, whereas attuned you'll keep the set bonuses down to level 22. (So at the very least, the Defense/Global Recharge should be attuned in an exemplar build, there's a lot of popular content in the 22-26 zone)