Invention Origin Enhancements
General
Invention Origin Enhancements (IOs) are Enhancements that are crafted from a recipe—thus the ‘Invention’ part of their title. Whereas regular enhancements would drop as usable enhancements (if they were of the right level or origin for your character) from the defeat of a foe or from the end of a mission or could be bought from a contact or store; Invention Origin Enhancements, on the other hand, drop as loot as recipes or the recipes are bought from a Merit Vendor. The player must then craft the recipe into an enhancement (using Invention Salvage and paying Influence or Infamy) in order to slot it.
Since Dual Origin and Single Origin Enhancements got nicknamed DOs and SOs, Invention Origin Enhancements are regularly called IOs.
IO recipes have levels based on the level of the enemy or mission that awarded them, and the Enhancements built from them will have the same level as the recipe. Both Invention Recipes and Invention Enhancements can be bought and sold at the Markets or traded with other players. Stores won’t buy crafted IOs, however.
IO recipes start at level 10 and can go to 53. They start dropping along with Invention Salvage at level 7. There is a tutorial for using and crafting IOs at the Universities in Steel Canyon and Cap au Diable.
There are two major types of IOs: Common IOs and Set IOs.
Common IOs
Like regular SO or DO enhancements, Common IOs buff a single aspect of a power that they are slotted into: aspects such as Damage, Recharge Reduction, Accuracy, Range, etc…. However, there are differences between a regular enhancement (SO, DO, or TO) and an IO:
- Regular enhancements can only be slotted if they’re within 3 levels higher or lower of the level of the character; Common IOs can be slotted if they’re within 3 levels higher than the character – there is no lower limit. A level 40 character can slot a level 20 IO.
<br\> - The amount of buff that regular enhancements give to a particular aspect (range, damage, etc…) varies by its relative level to the character. A +3 regular enhancement provides more buff than a -3 enhancement. Not so with IOs – their buff is constant and does not change with the level of the character, only with the level of the IO. A level 40 IO will give more buff than a level 20 IO, but the amount of that buff will remain the same whether the player is level 40 or level 50.
<br\> - Regular enhancements stop working if you out level them by more than 3 levels – they ‘turn red.’ IOs don’t stop giving their aspect buff ever – you can’t out level them. If you are 10 levels higher than the IO, it will still provide the same aspect buff it did when you were the same level as that IO. If you exemplar below the level of the IO, however, the strength of its aspect buff will scale down. See the page on Exemplar Effects on Enhancements to see what exemplaring will do to the strength of an IO’s aspect buff.
<br\> - Regular enhancements of a certain type always give the same amount of buff for its relative level – an even level SO will give a damage buff of 33% if it’s level 30 or if it’s level 50. The strength of the aspect buff of IOs, on the other hand, increases with its level. A level 30 Damage IO is not as strong as a level 50 Damage IO. See the page on Invention Origin Enhancement Scaling to find out level of the aspect buff of IOs and how they compare to DOs, SOs, and TOs (Training Enhancements), and this comparison of IOs with the other enhancements.
From Positron:
Lower level IO’s are strengthened around that of Training Enhancements, mid level IO’s are about the power of Dual Origin Enhancements, and IO’s level 25 and above have about the same punch as current Single Origin Enhancements. Of course the power of the Enhancement is better with level, so high level invented Enhancements are slightly more powerful than the equivalent SO.
IOs do not improve at a constant rate as their levels increase. They improve less per level after 26 than they do before.
Recipes for Common IO Enhancements can be purchased for a standard price from an Invention Worktable, or from other players through the Consignment House. Common IO Enhancement recipes also drop from defeating enemies. Common IOs exist only at multiples of 5 levels.
Set IOs
Set IOs in General
Set IOs work like Common IOs in that they can buff one (or more!) aspects of a power into which they are slotted, but they differ from Common IOs in these important ways:
- The Common IOs mentioned above have generic names – they’re named after the aspect they buff, e.g., the Common IO that buffs Accuracy is called the Accuracy Common IO. Set IOs, on the other hand, are a group of three to six IOs that have a colorful name for their grouping, e.g., Positron’s Blast or Luck of the Gambler.
<br\> - Common IOs buff one aspect of a power into which they are slotted. Set IOs may buff one to four aspects of a power.
<br\> - Set IOs provide an additional benefit beyond what the aspect buffs do, this is called the Set Bonus. Set Bonuses start when you have two or more Set IOs from the same Set slotted in a power.
<br\> - Some Set IOs provide a benefit all by themselves! It sort of runs counter to the idea of bonuses from a ‘set’, but, that’s the way it was set up. These singly-acting Set IOs are called Special IOs (previously they all were called ‘Globals’ or ‘Uniques’, but those are now the names of subcategories of some of the Special IOs, see below).
<br\> - Set IO Enhancement recipes belong to four ‘Pools’ which determine from where they drop as loot: Pool A recipes have a chance to drop from the defeat of foes; Pool B from mission completes; Pool C from Task or Strike Forces; and Pool D from Trials or Raids. In Issue 13, the drops for Pools C and D were replaced by Merit Rewards which can be used to buy a chance for a drop from one of those pools, or, more expensively, buy a specific recipe in a specific level range from an NPC Merit Vendor. Arc Completion, Ouroboros Flashback ‘Task Forces’, and Giant Monster defeats also give Merit drops and, thus, are a source of IO Set Recipes. Set IOs and their recipes can also be bought from, sold to, or traded with players and at the Markets.
<br\> - Set IO recipes can occur at any level in the set's range rather than just multiples of 5, and each set's range is usually only a portion of the full 10-50 range.
<br\> - Common IOs’ recipes have a drop rate of ‘common’ (white). Set IOs have drops rates that can be ‘uncommon’ (yellow), ‘rare’ (red), or ‘very rare’ (purple).
Multi-Aspect Buffing IOs from Sets
Both Common and Set IOs that boost a single Schedule A aspect are set to give a 11.7% bonus at level 10, up to a maximum of a 42.4% bonus at level 50. Single-aspect Schedule B IOs go from 7.0% at level 10 up to 25.5% at level 50. Schedules C and D are twice and three times as strong as Schedule B, respectively, just as they are with non-crafted, regular Enhancements.
For Set IOs that boost two aspects, each aspect gets 5/8ths the normal bonus – which is more than 1/2 as would be expected, which means a dual-aspect IO gives 5/8 + 5/8 = 10/8ths or 5/4ths or 25% more of a buff in total. Though each individual aspect gets less boost than a single-aspect IO would give, the total combined bonus is one-and-a-quarter times as large.
Similarly, triple-aspect IOs boost each aspect by half the normal amount, for an aggregate total of one-and-a-half times, or 50% total buff compared to a single-aspect IO. Quad-aspect IOs boost each aspect by 0.4375 times the normal amount, for an aggregate total one-and-three-quarters times as large (75% extra buff in total).
Enhancement Set Bonuses
Once you slot a second member of a Set into a power (and it has to be a different member of the Set – you can’t put two or more of the same member of a Set into a specific power), you start getting bonuses from slotting Sets! The bonuses could be extra defense or resistance or recharge or accuracy or speed or any one of many other possibilities.
Slotting any two members of a Set gives you the first bonus of the set. Slotting any third member of the set gives you the first bonus of the set plus a second. A fourth member gives you the first two plus a third bonus and so on up to five bonuses for six members of a set. (Remember some Sets don’t have a full six members – sets come in packs of 3 to 6).
These Set Bonuses are always on, even if the power in which the Set is slotted isn’t activated, and even if that power is greyed out due to exemplaring! However, you do start to lose the bonuses if you exemplar more than three levels under the level of the IOs in the Set.
Let’s give an example: Let’s say you have a full set of six Set IOs in a level 40 power. Three of the Set IOs are level 30, the other three are level 20 – so, you’re getting 5 Set Bonuses from the six Set IOs. Now, if you exemplar down to level 35, the power is greyed out because you’re under the level of the power. However, all five bonuses are still working! Level 35 is higher than the level 30 and level 20 IOs. Now, if you exemplar down to 27, you still get all 5 Set Bonuses because you are within 3 levels under the level 30’s. However, if you exemplar down to level 26, you’ve gone too low for those 3 30s, and so, it’s like they don’t exist. However, at level 26, you’re still over the level of the three 20s, and so they still ‘work’ and are giving you the first two bonuses of the Set.
For a listing of the Enhancement Sets, go to: Invention Origin Enhancement Sets. And for detailed information on the set bonuses, see Invention Origin Enhancement Set Bonuses. These two pages need to be read together to understand all the bonuses.
For a listing of sets broken up into categories, see Set Categories
Set IO Categories
IO Sets are divided into about 30 categories. Individual powers are marked to allow IO Sets from only specific categories. E.g., Hover only allows IO Sets that are from the Fly, Defense, or Universal Travel Set Categories. Some powers only allow one or even no Set Categories. The powers that don’t have any Set Categories will not allow you to slot any IOs from an IO Set.
Duplicating Sets in the Same Build
The same IO Set can be slotted into a character as many times as the build allows. If you have six powers that take IO Sets from the Defense Set Category, then you can slot the Karma Set six times over. However, you’ll wind up running into the Rule of Five and the sixth set won’t do anything for you.
Some of the Special IOs of an IO Set are marked as Unique (see below for Special IOs), and you won’t be able to slot that particular one more than once in your build (and that means not getting the last bonus of that set more than once).
Very Rare ‘Purple’ Sets
Each and every IO in the Very Rare Enhancement Sets (colored purple, and sometimes called ‘Purple Sets’) is marked Unique.
The Purple Sets follow their own rules:
- They are all level 50 only. Their recipes drop from Pool A (defeat of foes) very rarely whenever you would normally have a chance at level 50 drops (usually starting when you’re level 47).
<br\> - The aspect buff part of the Purple Sets are immune from scaling down when you exemplar, they always remain at their current buff strength.
<br\> - The Set Bonuses of Purple Sets never shut off due to exemplaring more than three levels lower than the level of the IOs (which are level 50).
<br\> - The Special IOs of the Purple Sets which are ‘Procs’ (see below) have a higher chance of firing (33%) and do more damage that the Procs of the other Sets.
<br\> - You cannot buy them from Merit Vendors. They only come from Pool A drops. The recipes and crafted purple IOs can be put up on the Markets.
Special IOs from Sets
Some of the IOs from IO Sets single-handedly, all by themselves provide one or more benefits to the whole character, without requiring any of the other members of the Set to be slotted. Some of these also buff an aspect of a power (usually Defense or Resistance), but the majority provide a rather unique extra benefit or bonus which may or may not be related to the Set they come from or the power into which they are slotted.
See Table of Special IOs for a complete list of all the Special IOs.
Special IOs are of two types: Special IOs that act like Set Bonuses, called Globals, and Procs.
Globals
Set-Like Special IOs
The IOs that act like Set Bonuses give a benefit that most often applies a continuous effect globally to the character. This has led to these Special IOs being called Globals. Like the Set Bonuses, Globals do not rely upon the power in which they are slotted to be activated in order to work. In fact, just like Set Bonuses, the power in which they are slotted can be greyed out due to exemplaring and the Global will still work. However, just like Set Bonuses, the Global stops working when the character is exemplared more than three levels under the level of the Global IO.
So, for example, a level 20 Karma Knockback Protection Global slotted in a level 50 power will still work if the character is exemplared to level 17 and the level 50 power is greyed out. But Karma’s Knockback Protection will stop working when exemplared to level 16 – more than three levels under the Special IO itself. If that level 20 Karma was put into Hover which was picked up at level 6, then the Karma would still stop working if exemplared to level 16, even though Hover is still working.
Procs
All the other Special IOs are called ‘Procs.’ The term comes from Positron:
I’ll talk about the Enhancements. The last one in the list is a Proc, meaning a procedure that has a chance of happening. Every time you fire your sniper power with the Toxic DoT Proc Enhancement slotted in it, there is a chance your target gets hit with a Toxic Damage over Time effect as well as the normal damage and effect of your Sniper attack.
The term Proc originally came from the days of some of the MUDs which used the term ‘spec_proc’ or ‘special procedure’ to denote game events the player could possibly trigger. The term was popularized by EverQuest as ‘procs.’ Those who come from the World of Warcraft have given the ‘proc’ the backronym “Programmed Random OCcurrence.” But since Positron and CoH preceded WoW, we use the term and definition our Developers use.
Unlike the Globals, Procs depend on the power they are slotted in to be activated in order to work. If the power isn’t activated, then no benefit from the Proc. Consequently, exemplaring lower than the level of the power means the power is greyed out and can’t be used (even passive powers follow that rule), which means the Proc won’t work. However, the upside of Procs is that if the power is active, the Proc always work, even if you exemplar way below the level of the Proc. Procs don’t follow the -3 level rule that Globals and Set Bonuses do.
So, e.g., if you slot a level 50 Run Stealth in Sprint (a level 1 power) and then exemplar down to level 15, you will still get the Stealth bonus when you turn on Sprint even though you’re 35 levels lower than the level of that Special IO.
Since Procs work when the power is activated, then they continuously work when slotted in a Passive Power or in a Toggle that’s turned on. Procs that are in continuous powers cycle or pulse on once every 10 seconds. This is also true when they work in certain pseudopets like ‘rains’ or ‘patches’ that have an enduring effect. If slotted in a click power, Procs activate just once for the duration of their effect.
Most Procs have an effect that is immediate (like the chance to damage Procs) or last a few seconds (like the mez Procs). Some Procs that provide a self buff have a duration of 120 seconds and will last a full two minutes past when the power is clicked or the toggle is turned off.
Procs which affect targets have a chance of activating for each target the power ‘hits.’ This makes Procs slotted in area of effect powers very beneficial; more so if it’s a continuous area of effect like rains and patches.
Procs that have a chance to do damage, do so based on the level of the character and not the level of the Proc. The damage is not modified by ArcheType. See Table of Proc Damage for specifics.
Terminology: Special IOs, Globals, and Uniques
The fact that some Procs give a global buff to a character and are continuously on if slotted in a passive power makes calling the other type of Special IOs ‘Globals’ somewhat of a misnomer, but since the Devs never gave us terms to distinguish these Special IOs from each other, the players have struggled to find agreed upon terminology that wasn’t misleading. At one time, all Special IOs were call Globals, or Procs, or even ‘Unique IOs’ (‘unique’ meaning only one of its kind can be slotted in a build). The fact is that some Globals are unique and some are not. Some Procs are unique and some are not. The only official name we’ve been given is ‘proc’ meaning ‘procedure with a chance to happen’ and that certainly doesn’t apply to Globals which are always on, nor even to some of the Procs which always go off when the power is used (unless one wants to argue that 100% is a chance… which is indeed argued). So, be aware that there will be differences in terms players use for Special IOs.
In addition to the Special IOs which are Unique – only one of its kind per build, the Stealth Procs are Exclusively Unique, in that if you have one Stealth slotted, you can’t slot another Stealth, even if it comes from a different Special IO.
See Table of Special IOs for a list of Special IOs that are Unique and is sortable by type, range, pool, and Set Category.