That is incorrect. It always had the same armor rating, you could just change the mods and enhancements as you leveled up. It always always always had an armor rating of 160 though

I dont particularly care that they added armorings with the set bonus, as it was probably necessary to fix the issue with the bolster in pvp. What irritates me is losing the BiS 224 mods and enhancements I had inside the gear for leveling level 65 toons. I do not think there is anyway to get those mods or enhancements anymore, nor should I have to because bioware majorly screwed up

I would really like to see the ability to directly purchase mods and enhancements with unassembled components like you used to be able to do with warzone comms. If all I need is enhancements or mods to min/max my gear then it would be really really nice not to have to spend an absurd amount of unassembled components to go from tier 1 to tier 3 just to get a specific enhancement.

If you assume the only reason people play is to get gear, then yes you are correct I assume. The point of getting better gear is so you can progress through content. Right now, it is impossibly to do progression raiding because there is no true defined way to get better gear. Gear is not the end goal, progression is the end goal. You just need the gear to do it, and by making it impossible to have a clear and defined way to actually get the gear that isnt completely based on RNG it means there is no progression

When you have a system that, after you hit Rank 300 and every single box you open has been a duplicate of the same either ear piece, implant, or chest piece, and im talking 40-50 crates now where ive gotten the same exact purple or blue implant or ear or chest, and are still missing multiple actual set pieces that are still at 230 or 236, the system is a pile of junk. There should be some sort of check to ensure that isnt happening. Everytime I open a crate, I almost want to place bets on which of those 3 items I am going to pull this time.

Considering they said they wanted to get full raid teams in so they could get feedback off the PTS and then failed to invite full raid groups, I very seriously doubt they actually care about any feedback. They are pushing forward with this crappy gearing system regardless of how negatively its received even with their lackluster improvements that have done little to nothing to actually fix whats broken with the system.

I am not sure I understand what you are saying. You turn the tier 1 into the vendor with unassembled components and that gives you an unassembled token that you can trade for any piece of gear for that slot. For example on the chestpiece, once you get the tier 2 unassembled token by trading in your tier 1 shell and components, you aren't limited to only purchasing one specific chest piece but you can purchase any chest piece from any of the available tier 2 chest pieces. It doesnt even have to be for the same class. So how are you unable to upgrade?

Honestly, all 5.1 changes have done is shown how terrible Galactic Command is currently and the unassembled tokens from operations or unassembled components from pvp/GSF doesnt do much to counter those negatives. It takes 50-100 matches to get just one piece of gear because the devs decided to make it excessively expensive to purchase these items with pvp/gsf comms and made the drop rates excessively low. The tokens on bosses wouldnt be terrible, if there were drops guaranteed on every single boss but you can run all of the current operations and only ever see tokens on one boss per op if your RNG is terrible. Then theres the gamble boxes themselves where you can go from 180 to 300+ and see tons of duplicates of the same ear or implant (my luck ive gotten the same exact implant or ear piece out of a majority of my boxes in teir 3) or 238 gear that you do not need and never see an actual set bonus you can use. Its a ****** loot system that kills progression, at a time when bioware is claiming they want to focus on group content again. You cant progress through HM and NiM content if you cant get the gear to do the content. Since Bioware seems intent on keeping this system that the majority of people seem to hate or at least complan about, at least find a way to positively reform it so it works. It currently does not. One thing that would help is potentially adding tokens to the command crates themselves that you can use not to purchase a specific piece of gear but rather any piece of gear so you arent stuck with duplicates of the same tokens over and over. Put unassembled tokens on each boss, not just a chance for a token but a guaranteed drop. Remove the stupid requirement that you have to spend both "command tokens" and unassembled tokens in order to buy gear. Command tokens are great for alts so you can use them to buy boosts and such but its idiotic to require them to purchase gear when you are already also requiring unassembled tokens. Its a ridiculous requirement. Lower the cost of gear with unassembled components and increase the amount from matches as well as rewarding components for completing the daily and the weekly. All 5.1 did was increase the amount of gamble boxes a person was getting and show just how stupid a gearing system that is completely 100% dependent on rng and luck really is. You all should go back to the drawing board, and if you arent going to remove the system at least revamp it so its not so terrible

The fact that I have opened 25 boxes or so today and got duplicates of the same ear or iimplant or ****** 238 gear I do not need, and have not got a single piece of 242 setpiece gear (ive had to get the 2-3 pieces I do have with unassembled components) is complete bs. The only thing 5.1 has done is shown just how terrible RNG is. Open way more gamble boxes and get absolutely no gear worth using. Can't even do NiM ops to get the 242 gear I need cuz you cant get the gear you need to start progressing on it. This is the biggest piece of fail I have seen in a long time

It would definitely be nice to be able to actually do the op with full raid teams, like they claimed they wanted before inviting half of a group of an app while ignoring the other half

<Despair> is looking for a permanent tank for our Weekend Raid Team. We raid on Saturday and Sundays from 6pm to 830 Pacific. We are currently working on getting geared to start HM/NiM progression again post-5.0. I only require that you know how to play your class, be willing to learn and have fun, and have mumble. Prior experience is a plus but is not required. You can message me in-game by whispering Auraña or you can visit http://www.despair-gaming.com and fill out an application.

Or you know when they say they want full raid teams and then only give access to 4-5 people on the raid team and then their response is "just apply again and hope you can get in later" even though you met all the criteria for being eligible and triple checked all the account names when you applied.

I have an interesting question on this. I applied for my raid team as a group. Several people got invited off that team but several didn't. The ones who got in said they did not apply themselves and they assumed since they had gotten the nda popup, and they knew I had applied for the entire team, that that meant we were all in together. How can raid teams test this for you if you only give half of the raid team pts access?

That is ridiculous. GSF has gotten nothing new in years and isnt even on any developers radar for new content, at least it doesnt appear that way. At least CXP, and then unassembled components, were getting more people into it. If you leave it at the bottom of the barrel, its going to go back to hardly anyone playing and long que times. What exactly is the reasoning for not increasing it? Also for all of us who have reached Tier 3, why cant we get a boost that works in tier 3? Its all good and well to go play alts, and I probably will on at least some of them take advantage of it. But if what I need is Tier 3 gear, what is the reasoning for me not being able to get similiar boosts while working on getting gear in Tier 3?

So my question is if the developers are truly looking at ways to increase CXP gains so that on average you can get a crate every half hour, why exactly has it seemed like even with 5.1 the only thing they have really done is nerfed how much CXP you get from different things? Nerfing Arenas, and I have even noticed Ranked seems to give significantly less than it used to, just confuses the hell out of me when you consider they "claim" they want to increase the rate we gain CXP at. And it really sucks now because as soon as some people see its an Arena and not a regular Warzone, they just quit the match which means we end up either having it shut down or one side loses simply because a team mate left the match. And keep in mind this particular change came with 5.1, where they claimed this was the starting point for making cxp gains better, and the only thing they did was make it worse. I was forced into 4 arena matches back to back, and either had to just spend the time playing the match undermanned teammates on our team kept quitting as soon as they saw it was an arena or leave myself. If you are going to make Arenas reward so little that no one wants to do them, then at least give us the option and the ability to not have to que for arenas in unranked. And as another point, I think its ridiculous that the rewards for unassembled components are so low. I get that you dont want people to get the gear too fast or that its just an alternative but really for one piece of gear from 230 to 242, i should not have to play a minimum of 60 GSF/Ranked matches or 95 unranked matches (and thats assuming you get lucky and win every single match). Thats one piece of gear. In the extreme case that someone ended up needing a full set of gear from 230 to 242, you are looking at needing 6,065 unassembled components which is a minimum of 760 GSF/Ranked matches or 1,213 unranked warzones (assuming you got really really lucky and won every single one of THOSE matches). Now I know that people are going to be earning command ranks while playing all those matches, and they also have the option to go into operations and get tokens as well, but that still seems extremely ridiculous to me not to mention that not all pvp'ers like or want to have to do operations to get gear. I could udnerstand the cost of the items if we were getting more of the unassembled components per match. I also think the daily and the weekly should reward unsassembled components, like the old missions used to do for warzone commendations. Yes, make getting gear take effort but dont make it excessively difficult. I opened over 50 Tier 2 Crates and did not get a single piece of Set Bonus 236 gear. I am now in Tier 3, only got 2 pieces of Set Bonus Gear and an implant at 236 form Ranks 91 to 180 so I think its very easy to see people not getting any gear at all and being forced to use the components and token drops to get their setbonus end game gear. Why make it so difficult?

If we are applying for our raid team do we have to have the actual account names for all individuals? I am trying to get my raid team applied but I do not have everyone's account name but I do have their server character names

I would just like to know why it was thought to be a good change to nerf RANKED PVP. You already have to wait long enough to get a pop as it is so those who want to do ranked are actually penalized for doing ranked over non-ranked. Seems slightly unfair

<Despair> is currently looking for active players of all roles to join our guild in both PVP and PVE. We have a fully unlocked Guild Ship, a Guild Stronghold, and 10% Experience boost. We also offer Mumble. Join today! No raiding experience required! We are also looking for a Tank to join our Weekend Raid team on Sat/Sun from 6pm Pacific time to 830pm Pacific Time. All we ask is that you know your role, experience in s not required. It is required that you want to have fun and hang out with fun people as we kill things and enjoy the game together! Please visit http://www.despair-gaming.com or message Auraña ingame if you are interested in joining our guild

My raid team has killed this boss 3 times now in Karagga's Palace, twice in story mode and once in hard mode, and the only item we received was once it dropped 2 Refined Istotope Stabilizers. No one has been given their operations CXP tokens. I do not know if this is happening on any other operations bosses, but its kind of frustrating seeing how quickly the Devs are to patch in nerfs to CXP gained from Elites and Champions but have done nothing to fix this bug which has been present since launch and which we have reported through the in-game bug report system every time it has happened. Especially when we are told every time that there is nothing that can be done except to pass it along, and then we watch it be ignored in two patches now while nerfs on other stuff in that same operation have been put into place

I am surprised and shocked to learn that there are ******es on the internet and in an MMO who would kick people for whatever reason they decide to do it for. That is completely and totally shocking to learn that is something that exists. Hold on while I look for the sarcasm button. Yes, there are groups out there that refuse to let people run with them if they do not know the fights or have the achievements. It's their group, their criteria. But there are plenty of guilds that are actively recruiting for new people to join them and run with them to learn the content. The guild I am in on the harbinger, and the raid team I run, have no problems whatsoever teaching people fights and helping new people out. The thing is, you have to be up front and let people know that you haven't done it before. And if you find one of those groups that won't take you because they want to get it done fast and therefore want people experienced, then move on. If you can't find groups on your own that are willing to teach you, join a guild that can and will help you out. But simply because you refuse to take the time to find a guild or a group willing to do that doesnt mean the entire gearing system should be changed to suit you, or that all raiders are elitist ******es or special snowflakes or whatever insult you want to throw at them. I have no problems with Galactic Command except that there should be some way to guarantee a way to get gear for certain tiers if you arent getting it because of RNG. What I have a problem with is devs saying we can play the game the way we want and earn cxp, and then turn around and nerf stuff because it isnt how they think the game should be played. I have a problem with the fact that if you run a flashpoint that takes as long or longer than a pvp match, you aren't getting an equal amount of cxp. I have a problem with the fact that operations do not reward an amount of cxp that is equal to the amount of time invested in it. If I can run 3-4 warzones or more in the time it would take me to do one operation and get at least twice as much cxp, thats ridiculous. The CXP system is flawed in the way it rewards experience and that SHOULD be fixed. Otherwise, what is the point of doing anything other than PVP/Ranked PVP if you are wanting to grind CXP levels? The system does not currently reward you for playing the game the way you want, it forces you to play a specific aspect of the game if you want to actually earn a chance at gear. I am sure that those who do ranked pvp and enjoy it dont want to have to be lumped in a group with me because I am forced to do ranked in order to get the best shot at leveling GC.

My problem with the whole Galactic Command System is basically we were sold a bill of goods as one thing and its turned out to be something completely different. In the 10/20/2016 Livestream we were told that we should expect to see at least one crate for every hour of content, maybe an hour and a half. It seems like that is ONLY true if you are doing PVP non-stop and even then only at the very early levels. My raid team did 2 Operations on Saturday Night, and after 3 hours of raiding most of us who had already been leveling GC were lucky to get 1 crate a piece. AFTER 3 HOURS. The next night, we did a HM Operation and took about 2 and a half hours because most of us were still undergeared and most of us didnt even get 1 crate. A big part of that is no doubt the nerfing to the Elites Bioware did because they want us to play the game the way they think is fun but a system that is going to take at least 6 months if not longer to start getting into the tiers where we can actually start to see the real end game gear and not this crap we are getting now is not fun. My raid team wants to do PVE Operations because we find them fun but right now that is not the way to actually get gear. It's great that Bioware is going to raise the rewards for flashpoints and uprisings so that they are equal to PVP but from what I can see they are doing nothing to fix the fact that Operations take a lot longer than PVP and they have made it so that it is not beneficial at all to actually do that PVE content if you want to actually level your GC and get the gear you need to start doing HM and NiM Operations. Further why does it seem like HM Operations bosses still only drop the very small operation cxp boxes? I do not mind the GC System in general, its not a terrible idea but the implementation of it and the way we were sold it are two completely different things and the Devs nerfed the one way to keep Flashpoints/Operations at least on par with PVP by nerfing the elite mobs the way they did. Who the **** cares if you get all your CXP from farming elites for 18 hours or not, especially when the way you fixed it directly harmed the rest of the PVE stuff we could do to gain CXP and made it so the only viable path to quickly leveling your GC was to just PVP all day long.

While its nice to know you will be investigating the issue, what are you going to do for those of us who leveled toons to 70, learned several new schematics, farmed a ton of mats, AND earned several CXP levels and now lost ALL OF THAT? This is freaking ridiculous

What is really annoying about that is while paying customers are waiting for long periods to be able to access the content we paid for, there are probably plenty of the moochers and preferred who dont spend a dime on the game now that are on the servers playing.

The problem is that if its this bad now for what is essentially entry level gear, how bad is it going to be when we get to 180-300? I could have sworn also that they said they had designed it so that we wouldnt see people getting the same gear multiple times but that doesnt seem to be the case. Also what the hell happened to *if you run operations you should expect to see yourself getting 2-3 boxes*? We did 2 operations last night and I barely had enough CXP earned to get 2 boxes because I was halfway through the rank I was on when we started. The Grind they made with this system, and the fact that it takes so long before you even start getting actual end game gear is freaking ridiculous, and to find out you might not get any set pieces because of RNG or if you are lucky enough theres a decent chance it will be the same pieces is ridiculous. They should have freaking tested the hell out of this system and tweaked it before ever going live with it.

Both are at 600. NVM relogged and went back and they were there. Odd