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.

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