Episode 40 – IO Sets Part 3

We are happy to bring you Episode 40. Well, half of it at least   As has been the case lately, this went very long, and this 1.5 hour chunk is the first to see the light of day. The second chunk is another hour+ of fluffy feedbacky goodness and will be out as soon as we can prod the edit monkeys back into action. Lazy monkeys… In this episode we disuss: Video of Issue 13 Powersets on MMORPG.com Castle Comments on Issue 13 Powersets on Massively Matt Miller talks with Gamezone.com about Issue 13 Issue 13 New Missions: Ten Ton Hammer Exclusive! Battle of Good vs. Evil Coming to the Mac! Existing Player Exclusive: Closed Beta Mac Test Issue 13 Enters Open Beta! No Heroics Promo: The Seanachai Bumper: Calls for Cthulhu Click through for the full IO Set Feature that covers Accuracy bonuses, Damage bonuses, boosting Endurance, boosting Health, and as an odd addition, set IOs that offer Debt Protection As usual, I order the sets from lowest number of pieces required to highest. As an additional reminder, the full text of this will be in the show notes, as I won’t be reading every single set name — only the ones that give the biggest bonuses. ACCURACY: Accuracy is an attribute that pretty much everyone understands, even if they don’t have the actual to-hit calculation memorized. As a frame of reference, an even-level accuracy SO grants +33% benefit. Except for two of the following sets, to get any accuracy bonuses requires 4 pieces of an IO set in a power, which makes +accuracy more expensive than the attributes earlier discussed, since the more pieces you need for a set, the more likely you will run into set piece shortages or high prices for the recipe or salvage. Accuracy bonus sets requiring only 2 IOs: Defense Debuff: Exploited Vulnerability +3% accuracy [ 2 pieces required out of 3 available.] Accuracy bonus sets requiring only 3 IOs: To Hit Debuff: Deflated Ego +3 % acc [ 3 out of  3 required, the full set. ] Accuracy bonus sets requiring 4 IOs: Melee:Crushing Impact +7% acc PBAOE:Scirocco’s Dervish 9+% acc Ranged:Thunderstrike +7% acc Target AOE:Positron’s Blast +9% acc Sniper:Exploit Weakness +3% acc Sniper:Calibrated Accuracy +5% acc Defense:Serendipity +3% acc Defense:Luck of the Gambler +9% acc Confuse:Perplex +5% acc Slow:Pacing of the Turtle +9% acc Immob:Trap fo the Hunter +9% acc Hold:Neuronic Shutdown +7% acc Fear:Nightmare +5% acc Fear:Glimpse of the Abyss +9% acc To Hit Buff:Adjusted Targetting +9% acc Defense Debuff:Undermined Defense +7% acc The following require 4 IOs, and are the unique level 50 purple sets, therefore very expensive and can’t be used more than once per character. Melee: Hecatomb +15% acc PBAOE: Armaggedon  +15% acc Target AOE: Ragnarok +15% acc Sleep: Fortunata Hypnosis +15% acc Immob: Gravitational Anchor +15% acc Hold: Unbreakable Constraint +15% acc Stun: Absolute Amazement +15% acc The good news, even though you have to invest 4 slots, there are enough power groups that accept +accuracy bonus set IOs and the percentages are in general high enough that getting +20% accuracy on all attacks relatively easy. I wouldn’t recommend changing your slotting strategy to stop slotting Accuracy SOs or IOs and compensating with bonuses (especially since bonuses aren’t guaranteed to be there if you exemplar down), but having +accuracy in general is nice, especially when fighting enemies that debuff your overall chance to hit, like spectrals and vampyrs. DAMAGE: Okay, everyone loves damage. Well, all the cool kids do. And damage bonuses are pretty handily available, in the form of inspirations, inherents, buffs, etc. so people may not be sweating using IOs to pump up the damage. But it is nice to break the Enhancement Diversification dampeners on damage, or beef up the damage of a power that is sacrificing a damage SO or IO for some other effect (which is not unreasonable with high end IOs, which get close to ED norms with only 2 IOs instead of 3 SOs.) Damage bonus sets requiring 2 IOs Knockback:Explosive Strike  +1.5% dam [needs two of the three available] To Hit Buff: Adjusted Targetting +2% dam To Hit Debuff: Deflated Ego +1.5% dam [needs 2 of 3 ] To Hit Debuff: Dampened Spirits +2% dam Defense Debuff: Achilles Heel +1.5% dam  [2/3] Defense Debuff:Undermined Defenses  +2% dam Damage bonus sets requiring 3 IOs To Hit Buff: Encouraged Accuracy  +1.5% dam [needs 3/3, complete set] Damage bonus sets requiring 4 IOs Melee:Pounding Slugfest  +2% dam [ need 4 of 4 ] Melee:Touch of Death  +2.5% dam Melee:Makos Bite  +3% dam PBAOE:Cleaving Blow  +1% dam Ranged:Tempest  +2% dam    [ need 4 of 4 ] Ranged:Devastation  +3% dam Sniper:Extreme Measures  +2% dam Sniper:Sting of the Manticore  +3% dam Defense:Red Fortune  +2% dam Confuse:Malaise’s Illusions  +2.5% dam Immob:Rooting Grasp  +1% dam Purple level 50 sets requiring 4 IOs Ranged:Apocalypse  +4% dam Pet:Soulbound Allegiance  +4% dam Confuse:Coercive Persuasion  +4% dam Damage  bonus sets requiring 5 IOs: Knockback: Force Feedback +2.5% dam End Modification: Efficacy Adaptor  +2.5% dam End Modification: Performance Shifter +2.5% dam To Hit Buff: Gaussian’s Synchronized Fire Control  +2.5% dam To Hit Debuff: Dark Watcher’s Despair +2% dam Defense Debuff: Touch of Lady Grey +2% dam It doesn’t seem like you can rack up huge +damage %, but +10-15% damage seems pretty easy to reach. ENDURANCE Endurance is another thing that everyone pretty much learns fast that you must have. Except for regen scrappers. Anyway, the game offers several forms of endurance breaks, and IO set bonuses is another tool to help manage endurance. Simply, the more Endurance you have not only increases the overall pool of endurance you can use, but also the rate at which it comes back. Two great tastes that taste great together. Or whatever. Enough talk. Action! (Which is  hard to do without Endurance.) For comparison’s sake, the Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey Accolades both offer +5% endurance. Yes, I know you won’t see % in the descriptions (at least I think you won’t.) To talk more about this would get into a long talk on changes in Endurance over the years, and I’m not sure I’m qualified to get all the facts correct here. Entertain me and accept for now that AM and PJ offer +5% endurance for comparison to bonuses below. If I’m wrong, that could be a great seed for a feature on Endurance in general. Endurance bonus sets requiring 2 IOs Taunt: Mocking Beratement  +1.8% endurance Endurance bonus sets requiring 3 IOs To Hit Debuff: Dampened Spirits + 1.8% End Defense Debuff: Undermined Defenses + 1.8% End Endurance bonus sets requiring 4 IOs Ranged:Entropic Chaos  +2.25% End    [need 4 of 5] Ranged:Decimation  +2.25% End Pet:Unquestioning Loyalty  +0.9% End    [need 4 of 4] Pet:Commanding Presence  +1.35% End    [need 4 of 5] Resist:Impervium Armor  +2.25% End Defense:Gift of the Ancients  +1.8% End Sleep:Call of the Sandman  +2.25% End Slow:Tempered Readiness  +0.9% End Hold:Ghost Widows Embrace  +2.25% End The percentages are not huge, there aren’t a lot of Endurance-contributing sets, and since many bonuses are the same value, you probably can’t wrack up too high a bonus. But, it looks like you could score higher than +5%, which is accolade level. HEALTH By my count, there are 56 IO sets that offer +Health. Yes, the percentages are small, but if you want to boost health, you have a lot of options to choose from, a lot in the 3 IO range which could allow all kinds of frankenslotting, and remember, +Health not only == more hit points, but it improves the rate at which you gain hits back. By way of comparison, the Freedom Phalanx accolade offers +10% Health, Portal Jockey and Task Force Commander each offer +5% to hits. Health bonus sets requiring 2 IOs: End Mod:Efficacy Adaptor  +1.13% health To Hit Debuff:DarkWatcher’s Despair  +1.5% health Defense Debuff:Touch of Lady Grey  +1.5% health Health bonus sets requiring 3 IOs: Melee:Bonesnap  +0.75% health      [ need all 3 of 3] Melee:Bruising Blow  +0.75% health    [need all 3 of 3] Melee:Smashing Haymaker  +1.13% health   [need 3 of 4] Melee:Kinetic Combat  +1.5% health Melee:Touch of Death  +1.5% health Melee:Crushing Impact  +1.13% health Melee:Mako’s Bite  +1.5% health Ranged:Far Strike  +0.75% health    [need all 3 of 3] Ranged:Voley Fire  +0.75% health    [need all 3 of 3] Ranged:Ruin  +1.13% health     [need 3 of 5] Ranged:Decimation  +1.13% health Ranged: Devastation +2.25% health Target AOE:Air Burst  +0.75% health   [need 3 of 4] Sniper:Extreme Measures  +1.5% health Pet:Unquestioning Loyalty  +0.75% health    [need 3 of 4] Pet:Comnanding Presence  +1.13% health   [need 3 of 5] Pet:Edict of the Master  +1.5% health Heal:Triage  +0.75% health    [need 3 of 4] Heal:Regenerative Tissue  +1.5% health    [need 3 of 5] Heal:Miracle  +1.88% health Heal:Numina’s Convalescence  +1.88% health Resist Damage:Steadfast Protection  +1.5% health   [need 3 of 3] Resist Damage:Impervious Skin  +1.5% health    [need 3 of 5] Resist Damage:Titanium Coating  +1.5% health Defense:Karma  +1.5% health    [need 3 of 3] Defense:Serendipity  +0.75% health Defense:Luck of the Gambler  +1.13% health Sleep:Hibernation  +0.75% health    [need 3 of 5] Sleep:Induced Coma  +0.75% health Sleep:Call of the Sandman  +1.88% health Immob:Rooting Grasp  +0.75% health Immob:Trap of the Hunter  +1.88% health Hold:Neuronic Shutdown  +1.5% health Hold:Ghost Widow’s Embrace  +1.88% health Fear:Horror  +0.75% health Fear:Glimpse fo the Abyss  +1.88% health Stun:Razzle Dazzle  +1.5% health Stun:Stupefy  +1.88% health Flight:Soaring  +0.75% health Flight:Freebird  +1.5% health Leaping:Springfoot  +0.75% health Leaping:Unbounded Leap  +1.5% health Run:Quickfoot  +0.75% health Run:Celerity  +1.5% health Teleport:Jaunt  +0.75% health Teleport:Time and Space Manip.  +1.5% health Knockback:Volley of Velocity  +1.13% health End Modification:Adrenal Adjustment  +1.13% health End Modification:Performance Shifter  +1.88% health To Hit Buff:Gaussian’s Sync. Fire Control  +1.88% health Purple unique level 50 sets requiring 3 IOs: Ranged: Apocalypse  +3% health Pet: Soulbound Allegiance  +3% health Health bonus sets requiring 5 IOs: Defense Debuff: Undermined Defenses  +1.5% health DEBT PROTECTION No one wants debt (except for debt badgers or people who want to have slower leveling so as to not outpace content) but I’m not sure if people really worry about minimizing potential debt via IO set bonuses. The majority of sets that offer Debt protection require an investment of 4 IOs in a set, which seems steep when I might rather slot something that would increase my chance, even marginally, of not being defeated at all. Still, here are the sets: Debt protection bonus sets that require 2 IOs: Defense:Karma +1.5% debt protection  [ need 2 of 3] Knockback:Volley of Velocity +1% debt protection  [need 2 of 3] To Hit Buff:Encouraged Accuracy +1.5% debt protection  [need 2 of 3] Debt protection bonus sets that require 4 IOs: Melee:Focussed Smite +1.5% debt protection    [need 4 of 5] Ranged:Ruin +1% debt protection    [need 4 of 5] Target AOE:Detonation +1% debt protection Sniper:Executioners Contract +2.5% debt protection Pet:Brilliant Leadership +1% debt protection Resist Damage:Impervious Skin +2% debt protection Resist Damage:Aegis +2.5% debt protection Defense:Kismet +1.5% debt protection    [need 4 of 5] Sleep:Induced Coma +2% debt protection Immob:Debilitative Action +2% debt protection Hold:Paralytic +1% debt protection    [need 4 of 5] Fear:Unspeakable Terror +1.5% debt protection Again, not a giant amount of sets or high percentages. It might be worth it in the long run if you’re insanely brave, unlucky, or playing a beloved concept build that just has some gaping weaknesses (I might have a few of those…) That’s it for this third installment. The next will be the final grouping of IOs by benefit. The next category will be all the damage resistance and defense bonuses status effects.