As a tldr I would like to say that it would help if the devs will explain why this shift from GC and UC to credits for gearing is a thing.What is the reasoning behind this. It is always possible that this new gear will be BoP, that will throw the P2W argument out, but it would be a not clever desicion. We would have the good old problem back aka raiders having also the best PvP gear.

If it doesn't have a set bonus they wouldn't refer to it as tier 5 nor would they state that it will make the content easier.Set bonus alone is responsible for 5% of your dps/hps. Tier 5 having set bonus is not an assumption, is a conlussion.

All the tier related gear had set bonus so far so there is no reason to assume this tier will be any different than the previous. Saved for future reference, when tier 5 will be introduced with set bonus btw.

/facepalm Tier 5 means one tier above tier 4 so it will be BiS, what is so hard to understand about it? In their recent stream the devs mentioned that this gear will be a MM drop and it will make the rest of the content easier. You are in full denial mode.Hilarious.

So the rewards for having a "wealth plan" and playing the economic side of a game is...BiS gear for a content they may or may not do.Wow! And here I was, thinking that running a certain content must give rewards for said content. Some cool hard logic in there dude. Impressed as always ...

That is exactly what me and another guy were arguing in general forums but the usual forum warriors claimed that since you can't directly buy gear from CM it isn't P2W (oops), narrowing the definition to meet their claims. The fact is that if you can convert real money into in game credits and buy BiS gear with these credits, then it's a P2W, even if there are other grindy ways of acquiring said gear. Zero game time + a way to convert irl money into credits --> BiS gear = P2W.

The question in mark here is : Can i create a new toon, throw money on CM , sell the stuff on GTN, use the credits to buy BiS gear? The answer here is absolutely yes. Am i forced to do it? Absolutely not. Some people will do it though, as they already have with the new augments. The fact that "they don't need it" is irrelevant. Next question is : what is the fastest and easiest way of making credits? Converting real money into in game currency is by far the least time and effort consuming way there is. To put things into perspective : I only pvp, i don't craft, i don't have millions of credits( and when i say "I", i use the word generally). The new gear will be a reward from MM gods and it will require you to craft it on top of it. Now what are my options in here? A) Run weeks and weeks of heroics, burning my brain and slowly buy the new gear. B) Throw money into CM, convert them into credits and buy the new gear from the GTN in a couple of days. C) Uninstall the game. P.S. If you guys are getting triggered by the use of words such as 'white knight" and "P2W", i digress. Craftable and sellable BiS gear with very limited supply is as far as P2W as a P2P game can go though (since it's easy to convert irl money into in game currency).Not understanding it, means that you are either a white knight (), or naive, or a crafter yourself waiting for the billions to drop like rain, or there are other physical limitations involved. The end.

Way to completely miss the point.

IF you craft them yourself. Ok i guess?

Can you name any P2P mmo that crafted gear is BiS? The "essenstial" argument is that since the augment experiment worked pretty well for the studio cc wise, they expanded the method in hopes for more cc success.Bying rare items from CM and sell the to GTN is the fastest way to make credits by far.

Who said anything for mats? What tf.

I understand your argument but not everyone is into crafting (which by itself requires you to farm the mats or buy them) and certainly not everyone has a few hundreds of millions of credits to gear his alts. If a new or returning player comes and asks what is the fastest way to get BiS gear, the honest answer is, buy a hypercrate, sell it on GTN and then buy the new gear.That is a very strong arguement for P2W. EDIT : I am personally not into crafting btw, but after 7 years in this game i have more than 2 billion credits. That doesn't change my point of view about the malicious way of thinking the studio has in this case of the new tier of gear.

P2W has many definitions and interpretations.Not to my surprise, you chosed the one that fits your narrative. Could it be that you are cherry picking . https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pay-to-win

Pay To Win AKA P2W. when you are paying for advantage which normal players don't have access to unless they either pay too or will have to grind very long (weeks and months). ...is one of the definitions so skip the 'i will educate you what P2W is". What is interesting here though, which most people seem to completely ignore, is the reason the studio made this decision. They clearly have metrics showing an increase of cc purchases since the introduction of the new augments. What worked well for them with the augments, they hope it will work even better with the new gear.It's a cash grab.

It will be worse now though because the price of a piece of this new gear will be higher than a single augment.

It's not a direct P2W but it is a P2W nevertheless.It encourages players to buy cc in order to obtain the new gear from GTN and i would argue that this is what the studio aims for. White knights will tell you that it's not though, as the second poster, ignoring the obvious encouraged customer behavior

If you have no interest on crafting there is another way of getting the new gear. Buy cc, sell on gtn, buy gear from gtn. P2W all the way boys ( and girls) and i am not overselling this.

What a bunch of bs.When you pvp you absolutely need BiS gear.There are so many problems with the idea that the best gear will be craftable i cba to mention.It enforces behaviors like,buy cc,sell on the gtn and buy gear from gtn. There will also not be a push down in prices, you are just making **** up to defend the studio here like you always do. Go back to your white knight hole.

Craft gear or buy them from GTN to pvp sounds legit .I guess the augment experiment worked well according to your metrics. No, i don't want to craft or pay millions on GTN to pvp.I am getting tired of this.Introduce cheap pvp gear or allow us to purchase the new tier with our unassembled components. https://i.imgur.com/uQ3SwJF.png

The tears of the superqueuing, stacked with tanks and healers, usually pub premades are delicious. That said, matchmaking can really screw you sometimes, pairing you with the absolute worst of pugs, and a few bad players have greater impact in 8's than a few good ones.It is what it is though, it's just regs so I am not complaining really, just making an observation. I do understand though, that people who were used to winning by stacking the deck and not by skill can be irritated from this reality check .

Yellow is correct.RNG can only go so far.Over the course of hundred games it will balance out. It's like the flip of the coin.You can be unlucky for a few flips but if you flip it 1000 times it will look more like a 50-50 split. Damn, you have alot of time to spare!

The situation that leads to faction imbalance is exactly as I described, everything else is in your head. SF is the odd man out but isn't that the server that absorbed the RP pub dominated ebon hawk and another PVE server while the pvpers had migrated to the west coast PVP server which was absorbed in SS? (Forgetting the names here duh). Funny that you mention skank tanks, sorc healers and mercs though, because pub premades were stacked with them while "easy ride" imps played a variety of classes, at least most of them.

You can absolutely pass to a stealthed player but he has to leave stealth to receive the ball or else it will miss and reset.

No young pvp generation created faction imbalance don't make **** up.Pub side attracts more story focused players which, as the game ages and many pvp players from both sides quit, leads to an imbalance inside the factions themselves.That on pub side translates into many story focused players periodically queuing for pvp. Now, the few pub pvp players that remain can only handle so much.Eventually one by one will play their imp alts seeking enjoyment as you said.This has nothing to do with work (what does that even mean, that I have to struggle in every game because I have seven clueless people on my team?). That on its turn means : a) Faction imbalance as most pvp players are on imp side now. b) Better quality games between one faction (more enjoyable ). c) Factor b is what makes pvp players stay on imp side permanently. d) Faction imbalance is reinforced as any new pvp players will join imp side too for all the above reasons (including some lazy ones, these scrubs that refuse to work ).

It's not matchmaking that is failing.It's crossfaction.