no need to subscribe. its better if you do, but it has almost no restrictions especially compared to swtor. subscription only gives you acess to couple of awesome conveniences and acess to all the DLC's as long as you stay subscribed, plus crown(cartel coin equivalent) allowance, but you can also just buy individual DLC's as you go. it IS buy to play though, however, if you didn't like Skyrim (which lets not call it names - not your cup of tea=/=bad) you probably won't like ESO. using abbreviations is very much a common practice online.

Elder scrolls online. becasue typing 3 letters is faster and most people are aware what all these abbreviations mean

not sure if defiance still going, I think it is? the only sci-fi mmo I could think of ,off the top of my head that's not on console. personaly I'm mostly playing ESO nowadays. I love how genuinely open it feels thanks to scaling UP. there is a story there you can follow - well its personal story, then there's zone stories that continue from zone to zone, there are small sometimes unconnected minor stories within little quest areas and there's DLC stories. but you can also just.. go in just about any direction like you would in Skyrim. I actualy enjoyed GW2 for a while and still occasionally play it. it has its moments and its issues. worth trying at least, since its essentially free to try for original game. Secret world is interesting and different. you character is silent and you cannot really make story choices 99% of the time, but its very interesting if you like modern settings with strong lovecraftian/hidden societies undertones. Star Trek online.

oh definitely. one of the things I appreciated about it (and partly its what inspired me to subscribe) is that ESO doesn't treat its non subscribers like leppers. yes you would need to buy every expansion pack separately and crafting mats clog up the inventory like there's no tomorrow, but otherwise even with slightly slower leveling and gold acquisition - there are no restrictions. and subscription comes with the same amount of crowns as just buying them directly for $15. I do feel that its more than worth it to subscribe and that bonuses are fantastic (especially crafting bag) but while I was playing without subscription, I felt slightly inconvenienced and gently encouraged, but NOT penalized. swtor free/preferred restrictions are just... ridiculous. I know, I know - ESO is buy to play, but honestly.. I wish that's what SWTOR had gone with. B2P, buy expansion packs separately, etc. /shrug I'm enjoying myself in ESO right now, and while I missed out on getting a boost from vet levels - given how quickly I'm gaining champ levels right now, it actualy feels like I'll be able to at least be on par. (I did start to play again, just before they switched over to new champion system, but was too distracted with Thieves guild to make any actual leveling progress ) GC system I don't even want to keep going anymore.

how is "alts don't need to level through CG from scratch but still need to earn their own crates for upgrades" not reasonable amount of gameplay?

I pre-ordered it, but I don't know what it was between Beta and live, but... I ran out of steam very quickly back at release so I didn't pick it back up well after f2p went live. by that point it was practicaly a different game. of course, it also meant that I'm starting well behind everyone else, but I feel like I have a chance to actualy catch up, at least to the point of max gear. I do love it that champ system is accountwide and that even my lowbie alts are benefiting from it and one tamriel is amazing, I love how it literally opens up the entire world to me, regardless of what levelmy character is (and at first I was actualy worried about scaling crafting nodes, but I've come to love it). haven't tried healing since launch and back then - I actualy didn't like it? I enjoy healing in swtor, usually, in part because of full control over triage that I have. but... I put one healing staff ability onto my dagger bar (I'm playing dual wield/bow nightblade right now ) so its leveling up slowly. just need to get around to collecting more skyshards (I'm that crazy nerd who decided to have all 6 crafting professions on a single character which is very much possible to do, but also means I pretty much need ALL the skyshards), just keep getting distracted by other stuff especially stealing. totally saving my crows for housing. not as broke as I used to be, but not exactly rich either, so... just in case but aaaaanyways. I don't think SWTOR should completely emulate ESO. its a different kind of game with a different tone (although ESO gives SWTOR run for its money with the storylines and then some, IMO). as cool as I am with having to use specific crafting stations, one of the things i do appreciate about swtor and had since release is that I don't need to be next to crafting station to craft, that I can send companions off and then keep playing. but there are so many ways that current system could have been made better - up to and including tokens instead of specific gear items (and if they were going to copy way, they could have copied the whole "click on token - chose which item to turn it into without going to vendor" system), chests that say every 5 for the first 30 levels, then every 10 - guaranteed a set token, legacy wide leveling of the GC, etc. what they have chosen to do is the absolute worst possible thing they could have done, short of selling gear on cartel market outright

oh nice retort there, very constructive. and I already did. I'm just using the last of my subscription time to make my point. here's what developers could do to make us happy. BRING BACK THE 4.0 GEARING SYSTEM. make CG legacy wide. make it supplementary to 4.0 system where you earned currency to spend at vendors and could get drops from bosses. make it so that boxes have a chance of a tier TOKEN. not a specific piece, a token that can be exchanged for any piece that you want. thus eliminating the frustration of grinding for 20 hours, finally getting another set piece... that is the exact same thing you already have. not to mention - ability to buy gear for other characters on the legacy. oh and make GC levels go faster. last but not least.. edited to add becasue I remembered. instead of tokens being rng based... how about... making them level based! hit a milestone level, get a guaranteed token. at first every 5 levels. then, to stem the tide a bit - every 10 levels, I would say around... lvl 40 start making them every 10 levels - this way you can gear your main spec, take longer to gear off spec and if you want to keep going, maybe even get something for alts. rest of the boxes would have random chance at other things, just like they do right now.. but milestone boxes will have guaranteed token plus chance stuff. bam. people who don't raid - still get an opportunity at set gear. people who raid? are not bugged down by rng on top of rng, unable to do anything but story modes, becasue key members of their team have awful luck with rng. pvpers get to catch up quickly even if they took a break, making pvp more fun for everyone (getting 2 shot by a veteran is just as unfun as being a veteran who can just kill everyone quickly and gets no challenge) tada! system fixed but if you mean nothing developers are willing to do right now makes us happy? you are correct. becasue they are willing to do very little, they are too stuck with their heads in a sand, thinking everything is fine.

yep, same to all. i love it that I can craft a full set gear for myself. it takes a while to get to a point of champ 160 (though from the way I'm leveling right now, even when all I'm doing is running around Kenarthi's roost, lockpicking chests, not nearly as much swtor is taking), but there is a clear set goal, rng is actualy minimized since I don't even have to rely on drops to learn the traits I want - I can just buy EVERYTHING from guild traders and learn it that way... relatively cheaply too. its seriously nice. but honestly.. I wouldn't mind crafting gear in SWTOR like that, I would be happy actualy - I enjoy crafting as a rule. but this rng + ridiculously long grind nonsense is making it even less fun that gearing in ascended gear in GW2. to be honest, as questionable as those crates are.. they are still fluff. I admit. I bought a pack of 15. actualy got lucky and got most of the things I wanted out of them - no astronach mounts, but I wasn't too keen on them anyway, so... (I love my wolfies too much). but.. they are still fluff and a chance of getting items no longer sold directly (I missed out on this high color dress they used to sell, but got it from one of the packs, so - happy). most of the stuff though is still sold directly. its not awesome. but fluff I'm a lot more willing to give a pass on than actual gameplay. its why cartel packs don't bother me nearly as much as CG crates bother me

they are not BiS. they are tier one - best in slot doesn't happen until galactic command 180+. learn the goddamn difference. also.. how much did those people grind? can regular, casual players grind that much? more important question - is it fun? and lastly... how is LUCK fair. its funny. before super casual players didn't have easy acess to BiS gear, but at least they had steady acess to second best. no matter what you did - you got currency out of it, that you could spend on specific pieces. and if you really wanted/were good at making gold - you could buy a run off progression guild where you got to keep all the drops. nowadays... casual player's chance at getting good gear is as bad as ever, worse arguably. we didn't make their lives better, we made progression player's lives worse. and by extension casual players well end up eating the cost as well. becasue it will take far longer for hardcore crafters to get the schematics. which will not only male them available far later - it will keep the prices far FAR higher than before. this is artificial extension of very sparse content except... guess what? most people,when faced with this new system? will not stick around. they will say screw it and move on to other games. or there will be a few casuals left, playing for the story and the like, but guess what? they don't even need to be subscribers to do so? subscription locks away uprisings and GC behind a pay wall, but if you don't care for those? you are all set! but please, do continue telling everyone how they are wrong and how awesome this system is that vast majority of people across the board are leaving the game for. yes. they are. people who post here still have some subscription time left. but its not the only place. there's MMO champion. there's reddit. there's dulfy. and they are even MORE negative than the forums.

you have a LOW CHANCE to get BiS gear AFTER grinding for couple of hundred hours just to get to the point where you start getting that CHANCE at BiS gear that's not even remotely guaranteed drops. oh and its just for a single character. this is not even immediately. that's ridiculous to require all of those weeks, no MONTHS of investment just to get a CHANCE. moreover. depending on what you want to be doing? it make take you twice as long. or three times as long. and that's not counting sheer pure luck, since its all comes down to a CHANCE. if that's not being penalized and railroaded right back into doing specific content, but with far fewer rewards? I think you may need to rethink how you define that word.

pot - meet kettle.

thing is.. you can still have the conversation with her that you would via alert. the one character I did the alert on - just got some light side points at turn in of the quest. otherwise - conversation was EXACTLY the same as for the character that recruited her via holocommunicator and just clicked on her to see what happens on Odessen. there is no achievement associated with her, like there was with Nico, and unlike Shae Vizsla, you are not even losing out on costumizations. so.. meh?

not exactly. you can craft items that you can then trade at the vendor for chair, bed, thrones, statues. also. I can still craft things that are better and/or more consistently predictable then drops, so....

I would have to double check, but when I was looking at the mats needed to craft the robe schematic I got, it looked like I was 3/4 need for the purple mat. I may or may not have missed other stuff, but in any case - I honestly see NO reason to craft 230 items over 228 mods due to them being unmoddable.

I didn't say raids were unattainable. I said MODS from those raids were unattainable. you need to run a HM op. but then - you need to get LUCKY enough to win the recipe. you hope to the maker that its the right recipe that you can actualy use. you then need to be lucky enough to get mats for that recipe.. seeing as jawa vendors have not been updated for KOTET yet, so ops are the ONLY source of those mats. oh you can pug some of the hardmode ops. but they don't give crystals anymore that you could have used to buy gear, even if you didn't win any rolls. cxp crates are far more random than winning a roll on a guaranteed drop, btw, in addition to requiring a LOT of dedicated grinding and contrary to the claim of "you can do whatever you want!" certain activities are far FAR more efficient (especially after nerf to gold mobs).. and thus we are back to the old paradigm of being compelled to do specific things.. except with a lot less of a return. a player has a... chance of someday obtaining best in slot gear without stepping into a raid. someday. months and months down the road, IF they are lucky, maybe. how is this better than being able to get the next best thing from vendors and then being able to play various alts, exactly? I mean.. the fact that CXP is not even legacy wide is just... lets say. lets say, I decide to go through with it and grind grind grind and get lucky and get my main a bis set. I can't even send it to be used by an alt of the same class!! not before they grind their way to a minimum of 180 cxp. unless I'm misunderstanding something and GC doesn't work the same way valor gated items do. ok, fine crafting. which means I still have ti grind grind grin grind grind, for gold as well as luck so that I could actualy afford to buy those mods of GTN. so. much. fun. NOT. P.S. I started desintegrating those 230 schematics after withdrawing the first few. why? because they require all the same materials as the 228 mods.. but unlike 228 mods that I can slot into moddable augmented gear and then, hopefully replace with better ones without having to redo augmenting... 230 gear is non moddable. so you either keep paying for fresh augments for 2. TWO ilevels. or don't augments, while makes it definitely worse than just going with 228 modes + augments. and the fun part is - because jawas weren't updated.. even crafting those 228 items requires some luck with rng... you not since you can only get those purples, maybe not definitively by running crew skills missions.

I know right? freaking augment kits are going for 300k plus per kit right now, and ANYONE can craft them, multiple crew skills in fact. mods that only few can craft and that require materials that ALSO drop in ops? given that average player has maybe a few mil on them at most at any given time? but hey, apparently its better than running a bunch of solo/easier content for a week and buying a piece of gear from a vendor with crystals.

but.. but.. I thought this expansion was all about inclusiveness? giving all players a chance at best gear! casual players being able to get the best gear in a game "aftergrindingformonthsnonstop" schematics OP mentions are ops only. aka - not only unattainable by average player, but what they craft is also unnafordable. and... we are back to square one, with inclusivity argument flying RIGHT out the window.

you know... you are not doing yourself any favors, acting like a jerk. guess what. I'm a clicker. I'm also very vocal about how HORRIBLE this new system is, and how much it sucks that they lied about more ops. stop. making. shallow. assumptions. oh and btw? this new system is AWFUL for a casual player. you know, the kind that doesn't have time for a part time job of a game. to OP. damn. you don't play around.....

what in a world did you do with all the crystals (and before crystals - commendations) you were getting off each and every boss kill??? because even when my luck was crappy when raiding, I still bought upgrades with crystals. all the time.

average player? needs the buffer of better gear to do anything other then story content. they NEED that margin for error. and there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes people want to progress through harder content. its not the gear. its sense of accomplishment and in case of ops - teamwork paired with accomplishment. gear? is means to an end.

this post is perfect and honestly? nothing more needs to be said.

other then to run crafting missions and pick up rewards? no. honestly, I'm just about done with my main as well. and when I say done, I don't mean that she is geared. I mean I'm done how did they say it before 5.0? testing for myself just how bad the system is.

its oversight. yet another sign of "we cannot be bothered to account for all the variables we set up". I beleive its oversight in part becasue there is a moment where my sith COULD acknowledge that yeah, she has fond memories of killing korslugs on Korriban. and yes it was bloody annoying on my sorc, whenever she would suddenly forget that she is a fellow Darth and respond to Acina's explaining what sith is about, as if my sorc is an outsider :/ its also funny when she remembers that we have met before one moment (this character finished the macrobinoculars quests) and completely forgets the next.

actualy its worse now. you may not have had easy (relatively speaking - highlighted hardmodes were a great way, when it was easy ones, and as far as I saw, groups were hopping for those - and at a bare minimum, you would walk away with enough crystals to buy one or 2 pieces of gear) way of getting set bonus - getting vendor gear could be easily done solo through crystals. just about every activity awarded crystals, and not just green ones either. now? you have to grind, grind, grind for quite some time, before you get to the point where you can start getting 216 equivalent of crates. even worse if you want 220 equivalent. in 4.0 as a casual - it was EASIER and FASTER to get gear upgrades in 4.0 than it is now. the minority of people are the ones NOT affected by the system. just about everyone else? gets to suffer under it. (P.S. to that offer of marriage - I'm flattered, but not into polygamy so as someone already married, would have to decline )

we must have a different non raider perspective, because even without raiding, I find this system entirely abhorent. someone who is casually playing whatever they want - will end up barely getting rewarded for it. so eventually if they feel like they are struggling with content they want to keep playing... they either give up.. or are forced to grind whatever content is most efficient for xp gain.. and still barely get rewarded. few months down the road, maker help them if they want to pvp - they are not catching up with anyone else, they will continuously get squashed with casualy speaking? months of grind ahead of them - per character, before they could even start getting a CHANCE at upgrades that would put them on equalfooting with someone who'se been grinding since the start. the only way this system is "inclusive" if you concider that everyone but the most dedicated grinders and maybe roleplayers/people who run through story once on story mode and are done - are screwed by it. altoholics? screwed. raiders? screwed. casual solo players who want to try anything above story mode and are of average skill so they NEED the gear to compensate? screwed. pvpers? screwed. new players? screwed. veterans? yep. rng. is. awful. rng as THE ONLY means of upgrading your character's performance? even worse. rng gated behind a time wall? THE WORST. as for giving them a break? no. people have been telling them for WEEKS about the pitfalls of the system. they didn't listen and made it go live anyways.