Enhancements and IOs

[OverkillEngine]

15 hours ago, Ultimo said:

So... I was looking at one of my characters today, he's outleveled all his SOs once again, and hasn't enough Influence to be able to replace them.  So, I thought, he's L30 now, perhaps I can upgrade them to IOs, and not have to worry about all this nonsense.

 

I started looking at the IO recipes, just the generic ones, and they're on the order of 45k, just for the recipe.  THEN there's the cost to MAKE them, AND the cost of the salvage... they're ridiculously expensive, there's no way I'd be able to get them made.  When I asked how people are getting the billions of Influence I keep hearing about, I was told to play the market, selling this or that or what have you... which left me feeling rather depressed.  First of all, I have nothing of particular value to sell.  Secondly, and more importantly, I'm playing a game to be a super hero, not a day trader.  I really don't have any inclination to fiddle around with the market every day.  I HAVE a job, I don't need another one.  I just want to zap the bad guys.

 

Is all this really necessary?

Using the market and making decent money off of it is far simpler in this game than many other since it is a type of double auction. Though if you want to make truly disgusting profits, listen to @Yomo Kimyata just like @Snarky said.

But if you want to keep it simple and fast to the point of being the digital equivalent of a piss break between several missions:

* Play your characters. Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.

* Sell white salvage and white recipes at a vendor.

* Sell yellow salvage at a vendor.

* Any recipes yellow tier or higher dump them on the /AH for 5 inf and the highest bidder will take them off your hands shortly. Do the same for orange salvage.

* Buy generic crafted IO's from the /AH.
 

You'll miss out on a lot of profit optimizing but influence will still be rolling in, more than enough for the level of engagement you appear to be seeking at the moment. What I do for myself is barely more involved than that and I make enough on my level 30+ characters to gear all my alts in lvl 25 generics the second they hit 22. And I am a filthy casul with 33 characters since I too have altitis. And this way you aren't even touching things like enhancement converters so you'll still have them around if later you want to dip your toes into the more involved aspects of crafting/auctioneering.

Edited June 6 by OverkillEngine

[tidge]

The Auction House probably has common IOs, crafted, available for far less than the cost of buying the recipe and crafting it yourself. I'd just put some bids in on level 30s. Common IOs don't expire, 30s will be better than trying to stick with SOs. SOs are and old, mostly out-dated concept that only has relevance for low-level characters without access to Influense, Merits or already crafted recipes.

 

There are useful crafting badges for level 25s, 30s, 45s, and 50s, so there are often A LOT of those on the market.

 

Some advice for 'stubborn' players who think old school(*1): If you are REALLY starved for Influence at level 41: Run Ouroboros content at lower levels without using the XP boosters... sell your drops. If you run content in the level range 20-30 you should get useful common recipe drops as well.

 

(*1) This is not meant as an insult. The Homecoming setup with the Market and the Merit conversions makes it really easy and inexpensive to kit out characters... but it is not "page 1" thinking. If the game was the same as the early days of Live, we'd all be (re)living what @Ultimo is living.

[Psyonico]

8 hours ago, Ultimo said:

That's fine, but the SOs provide a 33% boost.  I'm not seeing much benefit to the IO there... especially when I see that higher level SOs are MORE EFFECTIVE.  The SOs on my L41 character provide about 36%.

SOs provide a bonus relative to your level, so yeah, at level 41 a level 44 will provide more, but once you’re level 44, a level 30 IO will provide more benefit.

 

IOs provide a static percentage and never expire.  At level 41 you can still slot level 25 IOs (which are almost as good as even SOs) and you’re good to go

 

 or you can spend a little more and get level 30 IOs, which are better than even level SOs

[Ghost]

I’m thinking an intervention is needed here.

 

Devs, please lock OP out of creating any new alts until he/she has at least 3 50s.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6 by Ghost

[Hedgefund2]

I've always like this chart from the wiki

 

[macskull]

Checks watch

 

Is it time for another Ultimo thread already?

Edited June 6 by macskull

[MTeague]

None of this is necessary. 

You are free to ignore the market and even ignore IO's altogether.

 

But as stated above, either using the market, OR, getting a few characters up to lvl 50, either or both,  can make Influence a LOT easier to come by. 

I am also a big fan of "Converter Roulette". 

 

That is,

• whatever IO set recipes drop for you during the course of play?  Craft them. All of them. Without exception.  If you wish, you may also choose to buy recipes or even some finished set IO's from the market. But starting out, just craft the recipes that happen to drop for you.  If it needs rare salvage, spend the money and buy it. You'll make it back easy peasy.
• spend some Reward Merits to buy enhancement converters. I buy 30 at a time, 3 times. 
• open up the convert window, and put your set IO's into the converter.
• almost never convert in-set.  Use the radio button / dropdown over to the right.
• if it's already orange, convert by Rarity, to get a different orange IO set piece.
• if it's yellow, convert by Type, until you get an orange IO set piece, then if it's not a valueable set category, convert by Rarity until it is.
• Some set pieces are worth Way More than others.
  • Anything that's a Damage Proc, keep for your own use, or sell for a bunch.
  • else, other unique pieces like Reactive Armor Scaling Resists, or Preventative Healing Absorb Proc, or set pieces with Knockback Protection, sell pretty well.
  • else, other pieces that are Melee, Ranged Damage, Defense, Resist Damage, and healing sets, tend to sell good. 
  • else, keep converting. 

That is the Quick and Dirty version, and is not intended to cover every nuance. Just the very basics to get you off the ground. 

But seriously, individual set pieces can easily sell for 1-4 million influence each. Sometimes they'll fly off the shelves. Sometimes you leave them up for sale overnight. 

 

Before you'll know it you'll be decking out a character with ridiculous amounts of set bonuses, not even caring if you just spend 200 million to do so.

 

 

[lemming]

14 hours ago, Ultimo said:

So why am I spending all the time and influence on IOs I'm going to have to replace?

For basic IOs, They start outperforming SOs.

 

A +3 SO will give 38.3% bonus.  A +0 33%.

 

Level 25 IO will give 32%

Level 30 IO will give 34.8%

Level 35 IO will give 36.7%

Level 40 IO will give 38.6%

Level 45 IO will give 40.5%

Level 50 IO will give 42.4%

Level 50+5 is 53%

 

 

And they continue giving that.   I tend to fit them in starting at level 25, and either replacing them with sets (unslotting for other chars to use) or replacing them at level 50.

[BlackSpectre]

22 hours ago, Ultimo said:

When I asked how people are getting the billions of Influence I keep hearing about, I was told to play the market, selling this or that or what have you... which left me feeling rather depressed.  First of all, I have nothing of particular value to sell.  Secondly, and more importantly, I'm playing a game to be a super hero, not a day trader.  I really don't have any inclination to fiddle around with the market every day.  I HAVE a job, I don't need another one.  I just want to zap the bad guys.

 

Is all this really necessary?

Nope. Playing the market is the only way to get BILLIONS of inf. I took 15 min of my day and played the market every day for 3 months to get 7 billion. But it usually takes inf to make inf. Before that I farmed.

 

Farming won't earn you billions, but you can earn hundreds of millions. Essentially do this... delete or remove your Double XP buff. Using it prevents you from getting inf. Join a team of 8 doing level 54 missions. Ask if it would be OK to sit at the door for the entire mission so you can level up. You can do this in Architect Entertainment (AE) or in Perigine Island (PI) on a radio mission team. You'll rake in the inf like crazy!

[tidge]

I'm a lil bit confused... mostly because I can't reconcile these concepts:

• Not getting past level 40+
• Wanting to have a ton of characters at 22-25
• Wanting most of the characters to have +3 enhancements (or better!)

... without having established a source of inf. I can imagine "pick any two, but not all three", it's just that the way the problem is constrained it is no surprise to me that there is some frustration.

 

I can see why someone who isn't inclined to use the market would avoid it... yet... there has got to be a favorite character that is just itching to go through level 40-50 content... and once that character starts 45+ content... enough Inf will roll in to either kit that character or kit out the alts.... *IF* those alts even need to be kitted.

[Hedgefund2]

Just for yucks I wanted to remake the above chart to include SOs at the beginning (that chart starts them at 25, now they're available from stores when you're level 2) and I wanted to include +5ed IOs.  I have about 4 basic IOs that I've +5ed to use while leveling, like 2 level 35+5 recharge IOs to slot in something like Hasten, or a level 30+5 accuracy for something like Sonic Siphon that doesn't take sets and these have enh values greater than unboosted level 50s.  I'll unslot or respec these out at 50.

 

Note - this is not advocating for +5ing sub 50 IOs, especially in a thread that's lamenting a lack of funding, just informational.

 

[macskull]

34 minutes ago, Hedgefund2 said:

Just for yucks I wanted to remake the above chart to include SOs at the beginning (that chart starts them at 25, now they're available from stores when you're level 2) and I wanted to include +5ed IOs.  I have about 4 basic IOs that I've +5ed to use while leveling, like 2 level 35+5 recharge IOs to slot in something like Hasten, or a level 30+5 accuracy for something like Sonic Siphon that doesn't take sets and these have enh values greater than unboosted level 50s.  I'll unslot or respec these out at 50.

 

Note - this is not advocating for +5ing sub 50 IOs, especially in a thread that's lamenting a lack of funding, just informational.

I think it's time we readjusted IO scaling for IOs below level 27, since they were originally scaled based off an enhancement system that doesn't really exist anymore.

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, BlackSpectre said:

 

 

Farming won't earn you billions, but you can earn hundreds of millions. 

Huh?

I farm and am sitting on around 1.3 trillion.

Where did all that come from?

 

I farm for roughly 20-30 minutes a day.  Sometimes longer, but usually not.

 

 

Edited June 6 by Ghost

[tidge]

11 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Where did all that come from?

 

[Ultimo]

1 hour ago, lemming said:

For basic IOs, They start outperforming SOs.

 

A +3 SO will give 38.3% bonus.  A +0 33%.

 

Level 25 IO will give 32%

Level 30 IO will give 34.8%

Level 35 IO will give 36.7%

Level 40 IO will give 38.6%

Level 45 IO will give 40.5%

Level 50 IO will give 42.4%

Level 50+5 is 53%

 

 

And they continue giving that.   I tend to fit them in starting at level 25, and either replacing them with sets (unslotting for other chars to use) or replacing them at level 50.

Yes, I understand that.  What I mean is, if I put in IOs at L25, I'd be getting that 32% at L25 and on up.  By the time I'm L35, SOs produce more than 32%.  The big difference is I could leave the L25 IOs in the slots for as long as I like, and still get that 32% bonus at no cost until I'm ready to upgrade them.

[Forager]

OP I got a job for you that pays 10 mil if you want it.

[PyroNugget]

if you are DEAD SET on not learning the AH in any form-- and since your highest lvl alt is only 41

 

i suggest selling all ORANGE salvage and turning merits into convertors/boosters since its likely those are things you will not need.

 

but just learning to USE those convertors will get you an order of magnitude more INF!

 

but if thats not your nag sell those orange salvage and merits to convertors/boosters as you dont AH and boosters are min/maxy things which if you dont even have sets whats the point?

 

or get and play a lvl 50 the amount of cash is incredible--hard to do i know when the ALT calls,but if being broke is also affecting your gaming fun,pick a  road a drive.

 

** also help all your fellow heroes in need and take down any GIANT MONSTER you can--merits make the world go 'round

[Psyonico]

1 hour ago, Ultimo said:

By the time I'm L35, SOs produce more than 32%

you’re still getting this wrong.  SO strength is based on the SO’s level in comparison to your level.

 

if you are level 5 and slot a level 5 Accuracy SO it will provide 33.3% bonus.

 

if you are level 50 and you slot a level 50 accuracy SO it will provide a 33.3% bonus.

 

SOs don’t get stronger as you level up.

[Ultimo]

4 hours ago, Psyonico said:

you’re still getting this wrong.  SO strength is based on the SO’s level in comparison to your level.

 

if you are level 5 and slot a level 5 Accuracy SO it will provide 33.3% bonus.

 

if you are level 50 and you slot a level 50 accuracy SO it will provide a 33.3% bonus.

 

SOs don’t get stronger as you level up.

I wasn't aware of that.  Good to know.

[Major_Decoy]

And this is all about single attribute enhancement IOs. Two dam/Acc IOs will provide a better bonus than one dam and one acc. So even if you don't want to bother with set bonuses, there's a benefit to frankenslotting.

[BlackSpectre]

23 hours ago, Ghost said:

Huh?

I farm and am sitting on around 1.3 trillion.

Where did all that come from?

 

I farm for roughly 20-30 minutes a day.  Sometimes longer, but usually not.

 

 

Really, Ghost? How the heck are you doing that??? Let me look back in my old records, cuz I don't really farm anymore....

 

Using my level 50 Spines/Fire brute solo, looks like the last time I recorded my inf earnings I was able to earn 500,000 inf per minute. That's 15 million inf every 30 minutes, or 30 mil inf/hr. Does that match what you've been doing?

 

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, BlackSpectre said:

Really, Ghost? How the heck are you doing that??? Let me look back in my old records, cuz I don't really farm anymore....

 

Using my level 50 Spines/Fire brute solo, looks like the last time I recorded my inf earnings I was able to earn 500,000 inf per minute. That's 15 million inf every 30 minutes, or 30 mil inf/hr. Does that match what you've been doing?

 

On an avg, no hurry carnival map run - I’m hitting around 700k a minute.  42mill an hour (straight inf.  Drops not included) - and there are many farmers doing a lot more than that.

 

Now don’t get me wrong here. 
I’m not saying farming is better than marketing - just that it is very much possible to make a lot of influence doing either.

 

For reference, I’ve been farming for 3 1/2 years.  Usually solo, with the purpose of amassing influence to fund alts.

I have less than 50 alts and don’t buy IO’s for them until they hit 50 - which is roughly half my alts.

So basically I farm and stockpile influence.  

I didn’t even realize how much I had amassed until a few weeks ago, when I got curious.
When I first started farming, I would run for hours and hours.  Not so much anymore.

Its just a way to play the game until something comes along I want to join - or I decide to run my own TF.

 

 

[StompyOne]

This has been hinted at and referenced a couple of times in this thread. 

 

But take the 41, park it in Echo: Dark Astoria (the portal behind Ouro). Play your regular toon.  Wait for an Adamastor announcement in LFG. Swap toons to the 41 for 10-15 minutes. Tops. Get in on the monster kill. Get drops. Make oodles of inf from selling the drops. Repeat once every day.

 

Do that once and you've self funded a toon to 50. Buy IOs in the 20-30 range and don't touch them until you're ready for endgame slotting.

 

Do it once every day, and watch money pile up.

Edited June 7 by StompyOne

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

On an avg, no hurry carnival map run - I’m hitting around 700k a minute.  42mill an hour (straight inf.  Drops not included) - and there are many farmers doing a lot more than that.

 

This sounds about right.

 

FWIW, including the average proceeds from drops; an AE Asteroid Farming session with three accounts almost always works out at roughly 300-320m per hour total for me. That's with two toons AFK Farming and another one Active Farming (whilst most of my attention is on a movie or show of some kind streaming on another screen... so it's not exactly pushing any skill boundaries and could easily be pushed faster/higher at the cost of being less relaxing!). The two AFK farmers each tend to pull a little more than half of what the Active Farmer does.

 

I honestly don't farm that often though, as a billion inf per character feels "good enough" for me and I've never really bothered stashing more in endless global emails to myself or in placeholder bids on the AH.

 

And before anyone points it out, yes playing the market is still more efficient/faster/etc!! 😛

 

Edited June 7 by Maelwys

[Videra]

It's genuinely shocking to see an Ultimo thread in which he isn't getting as horrifically dunked on for once.