[Famous Last Words]

Seen in group chat before wipes:

 

We don't need to CC (after my tank asks who can CC?)

Does everyone know this fight?

Hard Mode is just like Story Mode, but with more hp

My guild has done this tons of times

 

and the dreaded:

Leroy Jenkins!!

[The weird people you meet in Group Finder.]

Running a Monday night EV HM for comms. Tuesday nights after the reset seems to have strong groups with good knowledge of the missions. Sunday and Monday nights are a real mixed bag of working folks (my case after a business trip for most of the week), alts of alts, and novices who had been unable to complete it in earlier tries. The general chat call for the run sounded like a quick dash for comms, but in this case turned out to be a guild run to help newer folks get gear. No problem, I help many folks get started. We have 12 level 55s and the rest at least 50, with health stats from 35k to 14k. We get through the first few bosses slowly, with bodies scattered all over the battlefield after each fight, but we are progressing. Loot goes almost exclusively to the leader's guildies, which is not a biggie as I am slumming here for the comms.

 

When we get to SOA's army for the one-on-one fights we are two folks shy due to drops, but no replies are coming from the ops lead who has sole invite control. After 3 wipes, I start looking at my teamates and private telling the ops lead and the individuals. A dps knight has no items in her saber, none. No hilt, mod, etc except a green crystal from many levels ago. Her reply was that she knew and that was why she was on the run. My reply that she stick something, anything in there was rebuffed as telling her what to do. The next sage I looked at had a level 34 saber. Purple 66 and 69s in her armor, but a 34 saber. Again a private tell was answered with "that is why I am on this run".

 

Look, I understand double exp has had some folks level quickly, but your weapon, especially the hilt or barrel slot is the sngle biggest effect on your damage, healing, or tanking ability. Purple 66 barrels are under 40k credits, saber hilts are around 60k. If you are going to run Hard Modes, please show up with some semblance of gear to accomplish your role. My main is a DPS armstech, so I bring and hand-out trooper and smuggler barrels. In the same run I got a gunslinger from a 52 to 66 barrel (free to a good home), but it looks like I may need to start carrying hilts as well.

[Datacron codex still at 67 after picking up the two datacrons on Makeb]

I can confirm we ran a guild function this weekend to collect the two Makeb datacrons. Several mambers had complete sets of datacrons, including the Fleet one, and ended with our codex showing 67 of 69 (I have 2 toons where this was the case). Got the Makeb collection title and verified that the stat increase occurs, but the codex talley appears bugged as of 6/16/13.

[Player Housing]

I suggest we think outside the box, the box in this case being our ship or a house in the middle of Tatooine. The Star Wars universe has thousands of inhabitable planets. A world set up for player occupation would be very straightforward and require little in the way of new coding if it borrowed elements from other already existing digital artwork. Don't want to have to drive around buildings on your way to complete a class quest? Put them on a planet that hasn't existed before.

An even simpler way to introduce housing in a short coding time would be to offer apartments on the fleet station, our homeworlds, or Nar Shadda. They are already literally coated in apartment blocks for billions of nameless inhabitants. Coding would be shuttle stops, elevators, hallways, and front doors. I seem to recall seeing a few of those already in the SWTOR palate. Inside the apartment would be Cartel Coin heaven, or maybe simply crafted pieces from synthweavers (drapes, rugs, wall hangings, plush furniture, etc.). Cybers can make the electronic toys, Armorsmiths can make the hard furniture, Crystal crafters the lighting, etc.

So you are only into hardcore pvp and raids? NP, no need to drop by, but for the tens of thousands of subscribers who get home late from work or finally get the small ones to bed and just have half an hour to putter for the night, jumping into a pug TfB raid is just not practical. When one honestly looks at who makes up the majority of paid subscribers, they are more mature folks looking to have some quiet escapist fun inbetween saving the galaxy (again). The endgame folks need a reason to keep logging in beyond grinding for ever better loot. BioWare's acceptance that their market base includes a significant number of folks who will pay for appearance items, different colored mounts, clothing dyes, pets, and saber crystals, also want a place to publically show them off. Front door access can be controlled by the same friend/guild/ignore lists that your ship or other places are.

Far more lucrative and long term suscriber retaining than any new flashpoint, player housing (or apartments) needs to move up the priority list. TfB and S&V have amazing graphics, mechanics, and gameplay, but cost a fortune to code, test, and release. In-between the hard-core threaten to fold or flee at any moment. Not wanting to slow the rate at which their demands can be met and knowing they would pour hot oil on anyone who slows their progress, I suggest the player apartment idea could be addressed by the Cartel Coin/art side of the house with minimal disruption to the rate at which new content is released.

[Cademimu: Stop Standing on the Taxi Ship]

I agree with your comments and the tactics, but for my money whether I tank or DPS the fight, it is squishies on the shuttle. In PUGs or with novice 55 guildies, someone is going to aoe, guaranteed. Many level 55 DPS have to have the term aoe explained to them as we come back from cloning. It may take 30 seconds longer to hunt down the little stragglers, but we win almost every time as opposed to the "I told you not to do that!", followed by "stop running away! I can't agro them from here", followed by "type /stuck healer", followed by "anyone have a healer droid?"

[The weird people you meet in Group Finder.]

I have noticed a disturbing trend since the raising of the level limit to 55 where "overgeared" folks find no need to use any sort of tactics at all. It is as if there is a special collection reward for zerging. My main is a well equipped rDPS, so I have "stolen" a few agroes in my day (sorry tank guild), but I also have endgame equipped tank and heals. When I tank, I watch the healer for unusual furry growths (agro pulls) and I wait for their force/health bars to recover after a fight (I know, novel idea, but he continues to heal me when I do that). The new trend is for the DPS to think this is taking too long and leap onto the next mob boss. While crowd control may seam to take longer, I have found in speed runs with my guild that strategic moves including CCs can seriously shorten fight and recovery times.

 

Last night, I am trying to run a heroic with a radom selection of folks. Since reaching level 55 shortens folks attention span, I simply ask "Does anyone have a CC?" A healer says yes, no reply form the other two, who promptly leap into the fight. In the ensuing furball we all survive, but the healer has lost over half his force bar. Ok, second try, I ask " Any other tanks here?" Both leap into the next fight, one replies DPS, the other directs profanity at me as I agro one gold and pull a previously stunned second gold off of the healer (DPS hit him twice and moved on). Dispite my full 69s, the profane DPS calls me a noob amongst other things and starts the next fight. I type "bye", /ignore the profane DPS, and send a private tell to the healer saying I have reached my limit, but it was not his fault.

 

Standing outside the instance and having my vocabulary return to words with more than four letters, I see a forelorne level 55 DPS spamming for help to run the same heroic. I send a tell saying I will help him if he uses tactics. He replies "What are tactics?" I log for a while to watch the season ending episode of "Game of Thrones".

 

After the show, I log into my toons one more time to send off my lazy companions. When I log into my tank, again at the heroic entrance, another forelorne DPS is building a heroic group. I accept his invite and ask in group chat "Does anyone have a CC?" The group lead replies "Dude, we are level 55, we don't need CCs" I wish them Good Luck and log for the night.

[please stop telling people to " Go look it up online"!!]

Sorry, I normally sit on the sidelines, but I have to reply to this one. I agree with the replies that suggest reading up on it first, then ask when you get there in game. I have helped so many folks in-game I have long lost count, and yes in voice is so much easier, especially when the person you are trying to explain it to is literally bouncing around the screen while they sort-of wait for you to type. I find I can't send paragraphs or even complete sentences many times before the novice has triggered the fight intentionally or accidentally. I have quit doing the early ops of KP, or EV because of all the novices who don't bother to study the run before hand. As the Gree ops encounter proved over and over, the veterans grow tired of explaining and "disconnect" so we bring in more new folks and start the typing all over again. The Toborro's Courtyard run yesterday was a classic. Novice tank with purple 66s and a 69, but a blue 58 saber hilt, had it explained to him twice with insta- wipe results when he couldn't even turn the boss away from the rest of the group and we stole agro on multiple occasions.

I don't mind helping, but you have to put some effort in yourself. The double points weekends put many seriously undergeared folks to level 50, and now they are showing up in the levl 55 flashpoint and ops runs with minimal class skills, and a carry-me-through-this attitude. Start by buying or crafting a purple 66 barrel or saber hilt. Most of these are gear check runs with serious enrage challenges for undergeared folks. That barrel or hilt costs less than the payouts from a single weekly Black Hole or Section X run. It isn't the only determiner of damage, agro, or heal ability, but it sure helps. Do some homework, get properly ready with some Basic gear, and let's go have some fun!

[mk-9 kits]

Sorry guys, but a big boo hoo to the whiners out there. A few days into the new update and folks are saying where's my easy button? To the pvp guy, realy? I don’t want to craft, I don’t want to pay, I just want the best, and I want it handed to me. Life ain’t that kind. Rare items can and should be just that. It should take time, and talent to become the best or folks get bored and leave. Now for each challenge you have an opportunity. Rarer mats mean higher value. Instead of Molecular Stabilizers for 150 to 200k each to raid guildies only, we now have a new system where any moderate crafter can send their companions out for that will be worth 60 to 80k per unit. I for one think this is an improvement, moves some of the wealth from folks who make gaming a job to quiet crafters who can operate independently.

 

I like that we can craft level 28 items where the average crafter couldn't make better than 22 in the past without a guild funneling you REable gear and mats. For the average gamer to get a better barrel or hilt took 5 million+ to get a 27, and outfitting to a full 27 set took over 30 million. Now I am giving purple 28s to my guildies for free right now (yeah, yeah, I am just another greedy crafter). I like that there is something more challenging to collect and work for. I have three mk-9 augs on my primary toon. With a mix of purple 26, 27, and 28 gear, he made it through a level 55 HM flashpoint this weekend just fine. The purple 69 gear that dropped is sooo much better than the craftables, that the 66s will just be a stepping stone for the raid, ops, and pvp folks in the next few weeks to months. The mk-9 augs will be the where crafters make their lunch money.

 

Just like Darwin said, those that can rapidly adapt to changing environments thrive and reproduce, while those that cannot become extinct.

[Profitable skills going in to 2.0]

From my limited experience from PTS, it appears we will level to 55 much more rapidly than our gear will keep up. The Hard Mode Flashpoints for 55 took full purple 69 gear and augs, with the rewards being blue 62 and 66 gear from the underbosses and one purple 69 from the final boss. The grinding guilds may get there, but the vast majority of players will be starving for the gear necessary to run the HM FP and new ops. There is new level 52 stims and meds, 53 weapons, 53 augs, and several sets of armor that can be learned from your skill vendors (be sure to talk to the underskill vendors to unlock the missions to get to 450 and be able to send companions out for the new and "improved" materials).

 

While the difference from level 61 gear or mods and 63 was small enough to ignore for the vast majority of casual players (2 or 3 points per skill per item) the new gear has 12 to 14 points of difference per level. My tansferred commando went from 1100 dps and 24k health at 50 with a mix of level 61 and 63 gear to 1900 dps and 32k health at 55 with purple 69 gear and same augs he started with. These kinds of stat jumps will be impossible for pvp or pve folks to ignore. Crafters will be the helping hand to the better gear only available through the Hard Modes. Folks can whine about the lack of an easy button for instant crafting wealth or Demigod pvp status, but for the patient casual player with some crafting alts, there is a lot to be worked on here.

 

As a final note, I am pleased to see the top gear not being reverse engineerable. It would be a license to print money for the top grind, I mean raid, guilds at truely turn this into an MMOJ rather than MMOG.