Episode 35 – News, i13, and IO Sets Feature

Today we have news, details on Issue 13, and Part One of Fantastic Foe’s feature on IO Sets! In This Episode: Announcing Issue 13: Architect Oversight with the Shield Powerset and Stalkers! Hero 1 on Mission Architect on the Training Room! Win a Freakshow Costume Code on w00t Studios! Want to get some ideas for Base Building? Winter Event Testing Sept 4 on the Training Room! IO Set Feature thanks to Fantastic Foe! New contest – win free PPD Hardsuit costume tokens! Promo: JC Hutchins 7th Son Obsidian Click through for the full IO Set Feature text IO Set feature, by Fantastic Foe [Awhile] ago, I suggested as a possible follow up to your IO feature that you present what IO sets to look into if you were to try and beef up a specific attribute of a character. You cleverly put the job onto me (my boss calls that reflection, an art form perfected by Wally in Dilbert) and suggested I submit something. For my first research attempt, I decided to target Movement and Recovery, two aspects that are probably better improved by picking powers, but I like having options… and you can still pick Stamina and Swift, and drop the bonuses from IO sets on top. Ignore ED! You know you want to! But I digress. Okay, my basic goal was to look into cheap set pieces that provide a bonus very quickly, only requiring 2 set pieces to provide the bonus. Here’s what I found. IO Set Pieces for Movement (in particular, running speed): For comparison’s sake, unenhanced Sprint provides a 50% running speed boost when toggled, unenhanced swift provides 35%. (If I’m wrong on these percentages, please point it out… I’ll handle the mockery as best as I can…) The following IO sets provide bonuses to Running speed when 2 or more set pieces are in a power: Ranged Damage: Maelstrom’s Fury +3 % Run Sniper: Exploit Weakness +2% Run Healing: Regenerative Tissue +4% Run Resist Damage: Aegis +5% Run Hold: Ghost Widow’s Embrace +5% Run Stun: Stagger +2% Run Knockback: Kinetic Crash +3% Run Melee: Focussed Smite +3% movement Ranged Damage: Thunderstrike +4% movement Pet: Brilliant Leadership +2% movement Sleep: Induced Coma +3% movement Knockback: Force Feedback +5% MOVE (Run, Flight, and Jump) Endurance Modification: Performance Shifter +5% MOVE (see above) To Hit: Gaussian’s Syncronized Fire Control +5% MOVE (see above) Melee: Kinetic Combat +5% movement (see above) Overall, there are enough large 4% and 5% bonuses that stacking can can yield some nice results, particularly the ones to increase all movement powers by 5%. Hover in particular is better when improved by 25% (that would be enhanced Hover, unenhanced hover would still be painfully slow…) The availability of the sets vary, the latest is available at level 25, and none of the sets were prohibitively expensive (in that at least 2 recipes where relatively cheap to purchase. I admit to not delving too deeply into the economics.) IO Set Pieces for Recovery For comparison’s sake, unenhanced Stamina boosts endurance recovery 25%. The following IO sets provide Recovery bonuses when 2 or more set pieces are in a power: Melee: Bruising Blow 1% PBAOE: Cleaving Blow 1% Ranged Damage: Thunderstrike 2% Targeted AOE: Positron’s Blast 2.5% Sniper: Calibrated Accuracy 1% Sniper: Executioner’s Contract 2% Sniper: Extreme Measures 1.5% Pets: Commanding Presence 1.5% Pets: Blood Mandate 1.5% Heals: Harmonized Healing 1.5% Heals: MIracle 2.5% Resist Damage: Steadfast Protection 1.5% Resist Damage: Impervium Armor 2.5 % Defense: Kismet 1.5% Defense: Gift of the Ancients 2% Confuse: Befuddling Aura 1% Confuse: Cacophony 1% Confuse: Malaise’s Illusions 2.5% Slow: Tempered Readiness 1.5% Stuns: Razzle Dazzle 2% Stuns: Stupefy 2.5% Flight: Soaring 1% Taunt: Triumphant Insult 1% Endurance Modification: Adrenal Adjustment 1% Endurance Modification: Energy Manipulation 1.5% The remaining +recovery set IOs are all in endurance mod sets, and require 3-4 set pieces, so Frankenslotting is possible, and can even be combined with +recovery bonuses from the 2-piece End Mod sets. Endurance Modification: Efficacy Adaptor (3 IOs required) + 1.5% Endurance Modification: Performance Shifter (4 IOs required) + 2.5% Overall, there are many sets that do provide an endurance recovery boost. Sadly, the percentages are very small, and the stacking limit of no more than 5 bonuses can hit fast and hard. That being said, it should be relatively easy to hit +10% recovery, and some sets that can frankenslot recovery boosting set IOs should easily hit 16-20%. Most of the sets are relatively cheap to get at 2 pieces, except for the Defense sets (which are usually small sets overall.) These seem like small bonuses for the effort. I’d have to do an in-depth analysis to support or refute that statement, and that is beginning to seem like real work, In general, this might be of value to people who despite triple-slotting Stamina still have endurance issues, or people who choose not to take the Fitness path and instead maximize endurance reductions and want even more endurance relief. Beyond the sets above, there are very very expensive Purple IO sets, available only as level 50 IOs that confer 4% recovery. These sets are: Melee: Hecatomb PBAOE: Armageddon Targeted AOE: Ragnarok Confuse: Coercive Persuasion Sleep: Fortunata’s Hypnosis Immobilization: Gravitational Anchor Stuns: Absolute Amazement Hold: Unbreakable Constraint These individual sets are Unique, so you couldn’t stack 5 Hecatombs, but with time, patience, and influence, you could (okay, depending on your build…) slot 5 from the above list and add +20% to your recovery. Nice. A quick clarification on what I mean by Frankenslotting: You can’t Frankenslot a power if you are slotting more than 4 IOs from one set. Obviously, you can 5-slot from one set, and then fill the final available slot with a set IO from a different set, that is still Frankenslotting. What I should have said: if you want to get IO set bonuses from more than one set placed in a single power, 4 IOs is the most you can slot and still be able to slot IOs from a different set and get bonuses, since you always have to slots at least 2 IOs from a set to get any bonus. That might be obvious, but from the way I was saying it in my emails, that 4 IOs was the max for frankenslotting, it was unclear. That’s all for now. Hope this is somewhat useful, let me know if you would like Combat Bonuses from IO Set features delivered in any other way, or at all, or with more or less detail. Thanks again for the great podcast. Pat aka Fantastic Foe