Simple Enhancements Question

[Spotlore]

I've been out of game for years and years.  I just wanted to ask if the invention enhancements and the set bonus ones are what I should work the hardest for.  Or should I be trying to get Hammy dual enhancements or something like that?  Currently I have all invention enhancements with 2 or 3 full sets slotted in.  I just wanted to know if there was a higher step to take in endgame or if I'm already there.  I just want to be the most useful I can be for my group.  

[sponazgul]

It all depends!

 

Hamis allow you to boost several attributes per hami per slot with SO values, but IOs tend to eventually give better bonuses than SOs but just in one area per slot, and there's the benefit of the set bonuses.

 

If you have a bunch of hamis, you can slot them, but only if you think it's good.

 

You don't have to be The Most Useful, and no one can really tell you how to be the most useful.

 

I've slotted Hamis on powers where I don't have that many slots, and put IO sets in powers where I have lots of slots, to get the most bonuses, but again, it's kind of an art and not a science.

Edited Sunday at 10:07 PM by sponazgul

[Spotlore]

That is a good answer.  Thank you.  

[Maelwys]

 

[GM Crumpet]

Hami are good for filling in holes where you don't really need sets, but sets give bonuses the more of a set you have in a power. for some power sets you have to fudge and do some frankenslotting to get the bonuses you want though. Things like recharge rate can make a powerful power like Phantom Army or light form "permanent" meaning they recharge before the power runs out so you can basically keep them up all the time. If you get the set attuned you basically don't need to worry about them losing effectiveness as you level, or if you do a lower level TF or missions. They always act as your level (or the min/max level range they work at).

 

Lots of powers benefit from set bonuses, even if it's only something like damage bonus or defence or resist. It's surprising how awesome your character can become with the right set bonuses. That's why Mids is so popular. with set IO's being so much cheaper than live you can have any build you like for a comparatively cheap price. For a given value of cheap. for a new player 20 million inf is an inconceivable amount of inf. for a player who's been playing for a while it's back of the sofa change 🙂 

[Ukase]

4 hours ago, Spotlore said:

I just want to be the most useful I can be for my group.  

The good news is except in the case of Advanced mode taskforces, almost nobody is going to care what you have slotted. 

I think the folks that just use common IOs (and maybe reuse them for alts) have about the same amount of fun as those folks who use invention IOs. (and maybe reuse them) 

It really doesn't matter that much. 
Now, there are some IOs that I would suggest are worth focusing on, but they can be AT and powerset dependent to a degree. 

I personally think the Panacea +hitpoints/endurance,(PvP heal category)  the Shield Wall Res (all) - which is a defense pvp category and the Glad armor 3% defense (all) and chance of teleportation protection (PvP resist category) are worth squeezing into your build if you can. 

The Performance Shifter +endurance is roughly equal to an end mod IO. But, that infusion of endurance can work when your end recovery is debuffed, so that makes it an interesting thing to have, and in most cases, worth having. (Opinions may vary) 

The Kismet 6% ToHit is a really nice one. 

The Miracle +recovery is also nice to have. 

I'm not the greatest fan of Numina +hitpoints/endurance, but if you have the slot to spare, it can be useful. 

There are a few others, like the Blessing of the Zephyr 4pts of KB protection that I slap into Super speed, and the Celerity Stealth that I put into sprint, but you might be playing a stalker - you wouldn't need either of those in most cases. 
 

[Clave Dark 5]

Welcome back!  I think I remember that avatar (how could one forget it).

 

The answer is, it's all very complex and there's no easy pat answer.  It all depends on context:

• What slotting does this power need to be effective? 
• What set bonuses do you need to be effective, or to at least work towards that goal?  Chances are you'll need the cumulative effect of a handful of similar bonuses to make things get great - "+6.25% Recharge" starts to add up after you get it a few times, for example.
• What powers do you choose to take and choose to slot or underslot?
• How many slots do you have to spare or to NOT spare?

The question is kind of like asking which color you need to paint a painting with.  😃  Best thing you can do is check out builds other people have made and consider the choices made, ask questions, read other people discussing these things, etc.  It's terribly complex, but I enjoy treating making builds as a complex puzzle to wrap my headbone around.

[Uun]

A lvl 50 Hamidon Origin (HO) or D-Sync* enhancement provides a full SO's value for each attribute. Schedule A attributes (acc, dmg, end, rech, mezz, movement, -def) get 33.3% and Schedule B attributes (def, res, tohit, -tohit, range) get 20.%. A lvl 50 2-attibute IO will provide 26.5% for each Schedule A attribute and 15.9% for each schedule B attribute. A lvl 50 3-attribute IO will provide 21.2% for each Schedule A attribute and 12.7% for each Schedule B attribute. If you're only going to slot 1-2 enhancements in a power, HOs/DSyncs are much more efficient. If you're going to slot 3 or more enhancement, you can probably hit the values you need using IOs (and get set bonuses too).

 

There are also combinations you can get with HOs/DSyncs that aren't available with IOs (i.e., def/tohit/end, acc/-def/-tohit, dmg/mez).

 

*DSyncs are functionally the same as HOs but are obtained by running the Dr. Aeon SF. 

[COH Radgen]

There are some builds where you might want to use several slots for Proc (% chance to hit for various types of damage) IOs.  In that case you might not want to build for sets but a Hami-O would be very useful. 

 

An example from my most recent alt, I have a Psi melee stalker and in Greater Psi Blade I have 4 slots: 1 Nuceolus Hami-O for accuracy and base damage, then a Superior Blistering Cold (winter set) for Recharge and Chance for Hold, Lockdown chance for Hold, Gladiator's Net Chance for Lethal Damage and Unbreakable Constraint Chance for Smashing Damage.

 

I COULD have slotted 4 of a melee IO set to enhance my accuracy, damage, recharge, endurance usage, but I have enough bonuses from other sets in the build that the advantages of damage types other than Psi and the multiple hold chances made more sense for my play style.  And I had enough inf/merits/etc that a HO, Winter and 2 PvP in a single power is within the build budget.  Your mileage will likely vary.

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

I use Hami-Os to give my melee powers more range! 

[Grasshopper]

Looks like a good place to ask a question that's been bugging me.

 

On those sets that permit more than one set to be used on a build, do the build bonuses of the second, third, etc.  set add to the build bonuses of the first set?  Or do you just receive the greater percentage on that specific power's details like accuracy, damage, etc.?

[Honorbridge]

You can stack set bonuses of the same value and type up to five, no matter the source.

 

Here’s an example: let’s say I have a Archery/Bio Armor sentinel.  If I put a Thunderstrike set in 4 of my single target powers (Snap Shot, Aimed shot, Stunning shot, Blazing arrow) I will get the 2% recovery from the 2 piece bonus on each of them for a total of 8%.  If I then slot Impervious Skin in two of my resist powers (Hardened Carapace, Genomic Evolution), I will only get one more 2% recovery from Impervious Skin’s 4th bonus because I will have reached 5 after one more bonus for a total of 10%.  But ThunderStrike and Impervious Skin don’t share any other bonuses, so I get all the 3 slot bonuses.  (10% energy/negative defense, 2.5% ranged defense and 3% HP.) If I feel I want more recovery, I could change one of the Impervious Skin sets into a Impervium Armor set.  That would give me a 2.5% recovery bonus, which counts because the value is different.  My total recovery from set bonuses in that case would be 12.5%.  I would also have the same energy/ranged defense as before, 1.5% hp and 1.88% psionic defense.

 

As you can probably guess, the challenge of making builds is finding the combination of powers and sets that gets you to your goal while respecting the rule of 5 limit and without crippling your ability to fight.

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, Honorbridge said:

You can stack set bonuses of the same value and type up to five, no matter the source.

You can stack set bonuses of the same name up to five times, no matter the source or value. If you have, say, eight "Small Smashing/Lethal Resistance Bonus" set bonuses, you get the biggest five, regardless of whether they're 2.5% or 1.25% or 0.625%. Kinetic Crash and Sudden Acceleration both have 7.5% global recharge as their six-slot bonus; this is "Huge Recharge Bonus", while the recharge bonus from the LotG global is "Luck of the Gambler: Recharge Speed" — you can have five of each for a total of 75% recharge bonus (and probably have a badly borked Energy Blaster build to get the right powers to slot that way to do this). 

 

From the Homecoming wiki on enhancement set bonuses: Blood Mandate has amongst its set bonuses both a "Small Increased Fire/Cold/AoE Def Bonus" and a "Huge Increased AoE/Fire/Cold Def Bonus". Both of these provide 1.88% to Fire and Cold defense; however, since they have different names, they are separately subject to the Law of Fives, and a character can slot this set up to five times and get both copies of the 1.88% bonus up to five times each (assuming no other sets with the same bonuses). 

Edited Tuesday at 05:09 AM by srmalloy
amplification and correction of the LotG bonus name

[UltraAlt]

On 8/31/2025 at 3:19 PM, Spotlore said:

I've been out of game for years and years.  I just wanted to ask if the invention enhancements and the set bonus ones are what I should work the hardest for.  Or should I be trying to get Hammy dual enhancements or something like that?  Currently I have all invention enhancements with 2 or 3 full sets slotted in.  I just wanted to know if there was a higher step to take in endgame or if I'm already there.  I just want to be the most useful I can be for my group.  

 

If you have been out of the game for so long, maybe play the game on at least one character before rushing to the end-game.

 

But, yeah, if you want the easy path to the end-game (other than just door-sitting on a farm) ... just use Mids to show you how to play the slotting game.

 

But this is coming from someone that isn't going to level any character to level 50 any more. I have my 3 level 50's that I don't play any more and several level-locked 49.

I find the game itself much more fun than the end-game. And so many alts that I have fun playing that I don't get around to playing because there are only so many gaming hours in a day/week/year.

[Uun]

16 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I use Hami-Os to give my melee powers more range! 

This doesn't work. Just about every melee power is flagged to disallow range buffs. There is a very short list of melee cones that are exceptions (Breath of Fire, Frost, Shockwave, Throw Spines, Repulsing Torrent).

[Scarlet Shocker]

2 hours ago, Uun said:

This doesn't work. Just about every melee power is flagged to disallow range buffs. There is a very short list of melee cones that are exceptions (Breath of Fire, Frost, Shockwave, Throw Spines, Repulsing Torrent).

 

 

I'm sorry. I thought it would have been completely obvious I was deliberately making crazy. I genuinely didn't think anyone would fall for this!

[Scarlet Shocker]

ok gonna hold my hands up here in light of Uun's response. He's an experienced player and thought I was being serious, so it occurred to me that a newbie might genuinely think slotting a hami-o like that would be a good thing. I'd genuinely hate to have given such bad advice that somebody unsuspecting player borked their toon. It was meant to be a lighthearted throwaway but in hindsight... 

[Grasshopper]

@Honorbridge & @srmalloy, thank you for that information.  That's actually more interesting than I originally thought.