That is a very good point!

I feel your pain too DrathSpuds. I can't count the number of toons that have been renamed or how many times we were forced to rename our guild. On top of all of that, how many times has our 'progress' been reset to ZERO on some aspect of the game?

I hear your sentiment quite often. A lot of returning friends are logging in, trying the new content and sending me their real life email so we can keep in touch. A few of them who, like you, are going to see if the devs fix this in a couple of months but like you, if they see that the changes are going to stick, they will leave as well.

I am seeing a much faster drop off than at any other time in the game and I have been around since the very beginning. I am seeing returning players login for the first time in a year or two, try the play the new content, hate the changes, dislike the story, mention how tough of a grind it all is and tell me goodbye before they even finish. People are returning to the game, their characters are much weaker than before in solo content and not logging in again.

I disagree, forcing group has been tried many times before and it ends with people unsubscribing. This was an unwanted move, returning players are hitting the new content, becoming very frustrated and leaving the game. By the time the devs notice anything, those players will be gone for good. This was SWTOR's last change to get some of those players back and the devs by listening to people like you, blew it.

I agree with the OP. The story is so bad that I have little to no interest to finish it and that is a first. Normally the story was enough to carry me through whatever bugs or such I encountered. However, with the mess they made of the story, plus the mess from gear, with the balance issues and a mediocre at best story, I am really not motivated to play much or at all.

It feels like the cost of everything went up. I have a 5k repair bill for for every 30 minutes of play now.

I and many in my guild disagree. I have many returning players try to pick up where the left off story wise and feel like they hit a brick wall. The story mode quest and flashpoints are long drawn out slugfest that are tedious.

The whole thing is a confusing mess.

Agree with the OP, the gearing is total garbage. There are also a ton of other issues that need resolving.

I agree with the OP but I will not be playing in PTS. The changes for me are rather depressing. When I talk to my old inactive guild mates about the changes in discord, they lose their interest in returning. So, I think these changes are going to put the final nail in the coffin of this game.

I disagree, I want to be able to solo, solo content. With this change that is not the case. Also, this debate has happened many times before and for those who want to group up there is always the Heroic and Veteran modes etc.

I have had this experience as well. I am seriously considering just unsubbing and telling me inactive friends to forget it all.

Unwanted and unneeded change. Who asked for this? Why are you wasting dev time on something like this? What problem did you believe you were solving?

Completely agree. They pushed the date back a month so I hope they address this.

Yeah, that is exactly what I amm experiencing, my companion's influence is in the high 30's and the story content in live was ok but now it's impossible for me to solo a lot of the solo content.

I had forgotten that Ben Irving went over to run Anthem where the dev antics ran me out from a game I would have loved otherwise. Like I said, I am very encouraged by the fact that they pushed back the date by a month. I sincerely hope that they resolve these issues. I am a guild leader and I would love to be able to convince many of my inactive friends to come back.

While I would love to agree with you on this, their own past behavior has burned too many which lead us to where we are today. Granted, a lot of the changes over the past few years have made huge improvements to the game. Honestly, the gearing system post 5.0 was good enough for me, I was hoping for some improvements but this but this really feels like a huge unnecessary step back to me. Add in a companion healing nerf, plus the expected but unwanted equipment nerf, throw in a whole lot of balance issues with the new content and you have a huge mess just as the new players start with the old players returning. I am encouraged by the fact that they pushed the rollout back a month. I think this is was correct decision and I applaud them for that. I just hope they fix this... even if it takes more time.

I think you nailed it! I pretty much agree with and feel the pain from the points that you made.

I agreed with both the OP and this post as well. Honestly, the current system is better and more clear. While I am looking forward to the new content, I am NOT looking forward to these changes and will likely just unsub. The devs keep making the same mistakes. Changing a bunch of mechanics just before new content release, breaking both at the same time. Breaking game balance, everything is either too easy or way too hard. Making previous max gear practically worthless as a bunch of inactive players return in old gear. Gear grind is not fun, is not content and by itself does not keep the majority of subscribers in game. Listening to the small percentage of high end players and not the majority. Fixing things that weren't broke to begin with. Adding new things that are not fun and no one ever asked for. Replacing an old grind to zero, creating an identical grind with a new name and resetting old progress to zero. Nerfing companion healing yet again after upsetting the community last time. Upsetting the community because something we love or enjoy that doesn't match up to the dev's vision. Dev's vision not aligning to community desire or needs. Believing that dev's vision trumps community desire or needs Repeating the above since the alpha.

I reported this in another thread, I too noticed that my companions healing is much less than it was in Live. To me, this nerf is really unacceptable due to the size of the nerf.

I pretty much agree and have experienced the Bad and Ugly from these posts. Seems the devs have never learned anything from past mistakes. They are making the same mistakes as inactive players return to the game for the expansion. It is critical that these issues be addressed and quickly, else people will quickly leave just after coming back.

I think you are right, it will also kill the game for me too. Additionally, a lot of inactive players will return, make this discovery, see what the new gear grind is like and NOT stick around for very long. It would seem the devs have never learned from the mistakes of the past.

Ok, that makes sense and I have to say that to me this was yet another unwelcomed change,

Copied a character to PTS, companions healing is much weaker than it was before. This is unacceptable as I am doing the exact same missions in PTS as I am doing in live. All factors related to companion rank, buffs etc should be the same.