Some have discussed whether or not, if COH comes back, will we have our old characters or will we be starting from scratch? Gearing up a new character could be tough. Back in the day, you could always transfer INF from a more established character, but if we all had to start from scratch, for many folks it would be a daunting task. Just to see if what it was like, I had a couple of characters that I leveled without transferring any influence just to see how hard it was to start a new character from scratch. If COH comes back from scratch, the economy will be different, but I thought people might be interested in how I did it and what I would do if I was truly starting from scratch.
1.) Training origin enhancements are kind of useless. They don't affect your powers that much, and you level so quickly that their enhancement value quickly degrades and you'd have to replace them. I would pretty much just sell all TOs. You'll get slightly more influence if you sell them to the Freedom Corps stores (similarly, with DOs and SOs you'll get a premium selling them at the appropriate shops). The cash shop extra enhancement trays are very, very useful and I'd highly recommend them.
2.) There was a lot of junk on the Auction House that you could purchase for less than their vendor sell price. While this would be different if everyone was starting from scratch, it wouldn't be that different. I would deploy all my influence in lowball bids on junk, and then when the bids filled, vendor for profit. It was a slow, tedious, and risk-free way to build up a bankroll.
3.) I thought that there was a reasonable amount of stuff to do in the early levels. Death From Below was fast and fun, plenty of story arcs, leading up to Posi 1 and 2. Doing radio missions/safeguard missions could net you a temporary travel power, a useful way to get around if you weren't keen on spending early power picks on travel powers.
4.) Mr. Yin in Faultline had a store that sold a limited number of level 13, 17, and 21 SOs. This was not bad.
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mr._Yin I usually played magic origin characters, and pre-SOs there wasn't really a better alternative. The level 17s were nice for if you were running missions/TFs in that range, you could slot them at 14 and they'd be functional until you hit level 21.
5.) DOs were more useful than TOs, but you still level quite rapidly and the enhancement value isn't super. I focused on recharge and accuracy in this stage. That meant I could use Yin Enhancements for ACC (magic origin). For recharge, I found level 15 and 20 generic IOs to be acceptable value. The level 15 was slightly superior than a +3 DO, and the level 20 was better than a -3 SO but worse than a -2 SO. Strictly speaking it isn't a budget move, but I like doing TFs and hate having enhancements expire. I like crafting and like badges, and if my vendor trash scavenging strategy works I'll won't be pinching pennies.
6.) The archetype specific sets could be very useful. Depending on your archetype, they might be out of your price range. They are attuned, so they will scale with your level, and you'll keep the set bonuses even when exemplared as low as level 7. If you have some spare influence, the bonuses tend to be just what you are looking for in a set. You might not have the slot spaces to fully take advantage of them till later, but worth keeping your eyes open for a deal.
7.) At level 20, tips starting dropping. If you run 10 tip missions (you can do max of 5 every day), you can get a morality mission. If you reaffirm your heroic (or villainous) alignment, you get 50 reward merits. After you have reaffirmed your alignment, you can choose to receive Alignment Merits when you do morality missions. You can also select Alignment Merits as the reward for doing a Signature Story Arc. SSA's have a one week timer per reward, but the first time you do a SSA it does not count towards your timer. Once you hit level 20, you can run tip missions, reaffirm morality, then do SSA 1 and 2 (earning 2 alignment merits not on the timer) then repeat one of the SSAs for a 3rd merit.
I found AMs to be a great way to purchase expensive IO recipes. The Performance Shifter +End proc costs 1 AM, and the Miracle +recovery IO costs 2 AM. Both IOs are not affected by level . . . they work the same whether they are level 21 or level 50. Both go a long way towards sorting out any endurance issues your character might have. The LOTG +7.5% global recharge IO is another one that I liked to slot early and often. Other IOs that are useful early are the Steadfast Protection +3% defense and -KB, the Karma -KB, the Kismet Accuracy (actually +to hit, which is better), and the Numina's +regen/recovery. If you can work them into your build, they add a lot of quality of life.
8.) At level 22, you can slot SOs. COH was designed around SO level power. SOs are fine, but there are other options that you can take advantage of. Here's a link to a table comparing the relative values of various enhancements:
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancements#Relative_Enhancement_ValuesLevel 25 generic IOs are slightly less powerful than even-level SOs. I find them reasonable to use in powers where you only want to enhance one aspect of a power. As noted above, I like crafting, I like badging, and if you earn the crafting badge for each level 25/30 IO, you memorize the recipe (can craft it w/o recipe for half cost) and (only for the 25/30 badges) you get an extra +2 salvage space. I would not pay a premium to craft level 25 or 30 generic IOs, SOs are better if you keep them from dipping below even level. On the other hand, I would not pay a premium to keep my SOs even level. Especially if you like teaming and don't want to outlevel your enhancements in the middle of a TF, generics at this level are perfectly fine. Level 35 generics are nearly as good as +3 SOs, and level 40 generics are better than +3 SOs.
A lot of whether to use generic IOs vs SOs depends on how comfortable you are with crafting, your INF, and whether or not you care about badges. I would certainly not advise upgrading generic IOs every five levels. Some folks just wait until 50 to slot generic IOs, and from a pure power perspective there's nothing wrong with that. In my opinion the small decrease in power from using 25s and 30s or the slight increase in power from using 40s and 45s is basically a wash. Obviously when you hit level 47, the level 50 generic IOs are a strict upgrade over SOs. The other piece of the puzzle is that while sub-40 generic IOs are less powerful than +3 SOs, all 25+ generic SOs are more powerful than -1, -2, or -3 SOs. Unless you take special effort to keep ++ing your SOs, you won't always have +3s.
9.) For powers that reasonably use more than one type of enhancement, however, frankenslotting is amazing. Frankenslotting is essentially using set IOs for their enhancement value, mostly ignoring set bonuses. For example, a level 25 ACC/DAM IO gives +20% ACC/+20% DAM, while a level 25 ACC/DAM/RECH gives +16%/+16%/+16%. If you use 2 ACC/DAMs (from different sets) you get +40% ACC and 40% DAM. If you use 2 different ACC/DAM/RECH you get +32%/+32%/+32% . . . 3 slots of power in 2 slots. To have that kind of flexibility, especially in your 20s when slots are scarce and you begin to have access to some of your highly effective powers is huge. Especially for a power that has high damage, high endurance cost, and relatively slow recharge, the ability to cram a bunch of extra goodstuf into it really shines.
The key is to not overpay. Mid level rare salvage tended to be expensive. You aren't looking for the sweet sets for this strategy. You are just looking for better value than SOs that will never expire at a reasonable price. You can use the same buying strategy as with junk salvage, put up some lowball bids on level 25 recipes suitable for frankenslotting (including cost of salvage), and just wait to see if they fill. If they don't, no worries. Put up the bids before you need the recipe, especially if you are going to be away from the game for a day or two. Eventually you'll slot over these IOs, but a well-frankenslotted build can be pretty powerful. Plus, lower-level IOs actually hold their value while exemplaring better than higher level ones.
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements10.) If you don't mind running AE missions, you can get some good rewards with your tickets. Many of the "junk" recipes from ticket rolls make nice frankenslotting fodder.
11.) Once you get into your 30s, you have access to pretty nice non-rare recipes. Thunderstrike, and Crushing Impact aren't necessarily sets that you would want in your end game build, but they offer a wide range of useful bonuses that apply to most characters. Both sets offer several triple IOs and even the level 30s offer very good enhancement value. Some people look at the difference between level 30s and level 50s and can't get past the fact that the level 50s offer better enhancement value. To my mind, that's not how you should analyze it. There is value in having access to the bonuses while leveling. Plus, the difference between IOs in the low 40s and level 50s is minimal and often swallowed up by ED. As with frankenslotting, value is key. Don't overpay, don't feel like you *have* to acquire these sets ASAP. Put some low bids on a variety of recipes at a variety of levels. If they fill, fine, if not, no worries. If you end up with too many, you can save them for other characters or craft and sell for a tidy profit.
12.) When you can start slotting level 41+ enhancements (ie level 38) that's my sweet spot for trying to get end-game non-purple sets. The difference in enhancement value between 41 IOs and 50 IOs is small. The difference in crafting costs and acquisition costs can be large. For whatever reason, people don't like odd level IOs. They want 0s and 5s. Use that to get good value for INF. High level rare salvage tends to be a bit cheaper than mid-level stuff.
The other piece of the puzzle is that some end-game sets top out below level 50 anyway. So go ahead and kit yourself out with Basilisk's Gaze or Reactive Armor. Don't wait till you are 50 unless you have a really finely tuned leveling build or something like that. The more stuff you have in place by the time you hit 50, the less pressure you'll face in getting your end-game build together.
13. Level 50. This is where the roof really comes off as far as how expensive the IOs can be. And if you hit level 50 on SOs, there would be a pretty massive gap between your power level and the power level of a fully purpled out 50. The good news is, there's no reason why you have to hit 50 on SOs. If you use my ideas, you can have a fully serviceable level 50 build already and improve it from there as you see fit. You won't be as powerful as a finely tuned character with purples, but you'll be more than decent. And you won't have overpaid for your stuff, because you'll have bought it opportunistically as you leveled, rather than paying a premium to have it right now. Upgrade at your leisure.
Hope you enjoyed my plan! Feel free to add your own thoughts.