New ISO, new PvP season just around the corner... I think they'll be a huge impact at higher levels.
Yeah, ok, that last bit was a short blog post to begin with, just because I had a thought about the whole thing and wanted to get something scribbled down so I didn't forget about it. Here's the elaboration. The basic upshot of what I was thinking related to a post that showed up on the official forums discussing the impact of the new Iso-8 on PvP.
Up until now we only had the L4 ISOs to play with, and everyone was on a level playing field (unless, of course, they bought ISOs for Gold, but we're discounting that for the purposes of this post). All that changed with the release of Reactive ISO-8. This stuff actually grows in value with the agent's levels - it's essentially a Customized version of ISO-8. As such, at level 125 (when they first become available) they're not much better than the level 4 ISO sets. Once you get up to level 150 or so, the point difference starts to become apparent, and once you're into the 200+ range, they really start to become a force to be reckoned with. Here's an example, using some numbers that have been posted here on the Wiki:
- Focused ISO-8 Crystal - 197 Health, 39 Accuracy
- Level 135 - Reactive Focused ISO-8 - 232 Health, 46 Accuracy
- Level 152 - Reactive Focused ISO-8 - 258 Health, 51 Accuracy
- Level 184 - Reactive Focused ISO-8 - 322 Health, 64 Accuracy
- Level 223 - Reactive Focused ISO-8 - 403 Health, 80 Accuracy
As you can see, they scale up fairly well over the values of the original Lvl 4 ISO-8. They're definitely going to play hell with peoples' strategies in the higher levels, due to the sick bonuses they grant. The main downside I can see to using these is the prohibitive cost. Our previously mentioned Reactive Focused ISO-8 is going to run you 16,800 Silver AND four Shield Points. While that's not that much of a jump over the previous cost of the level 4 kit, if we look at the Chaotic ISO-8 that everyone loves to use we're looking at a price jump from 24k to 30K per gem. Multiplied by 8 and you're looking at 240,000 Silver (and 64 Shield Points!) to kit one hero out, if you go full-Chaotic. If you're looking at playing specific heroes in PvP, I highly suggest you only do them and your agent, otherwise the cost in Silver alone is going to bankrupt you pretty quickly.