Re-read my post. While I have a personal opinion, I made it clear that while my primary focus is protecting the level of effort players have put forward already, that a catch up mechanic is possible. Considering that, I've already removed my like or dislike for such a mechanic out any equation. You're also assuming things that require effort are by nature also hard. It should be noted that while I did say the word tough it was meant to describe the volume of matches, not the actual difficulty. I'll be sure to add detail to those types of comments so that when read by others there can be no confusion on the intent. I would also say, and this can be taken as a jab against you, is that you're doing the credit game all wrong. Spending real world money to obtain billions of credits is a terrible way to make a ton of credits. I also have billions and billions, but I have not done anything more than simply pay a monthly subscription. Save your money, and put it into a stress ball. /end jab You do make a point that I do think has merit even if it's buried inside your wall of text: the game does need credit sinks. If a credit catch up mechanic is Bioware's answer for the short term, that's probably not a bad thing overall.

Completely agree that if there is a season 2, I hope they change some things too. The amount of arenas per week I'd definitely like to see lowered. Oddly enough though, I ended up enjoying the arenas way more than the warzones. But, still a lot of arenas it was.

TBH my personal opinion is that completing the pvp season is tough. To get the most out of the season, it was a ton of effort. The two weekly achievements were difficult to complete. I'm not quite sure how I feel about allowing players to simply buy their way up the ladder after seeing how much effort was needed. That feels like it invalidates the amount of effort I put into this thing. With that being said, if they were to include a pay to catch up method it probably will arrive when the current galactic season ends. And, there has not been an announcement on an end date to the pvp season to my knowledge. Lastly, it still would require tremendous effort to get all the pvp medals so the effort level is at least protected.

I honestly think Madness is in a good space. While yes I can put out good numbers both damage and heal you kind of need the mobility and healing to survive. Without that mobility the class gets wrecked. IMO there's only one spec right now that's over performing and it's not a damage dealing class.

I haven't really noticed a total drop off of medals. If anything, I can get significantly more medals in matches. It feels as if the risk/reward is higher for medals. So it's possible to get even more medals than before, but also possible to get even less medals than before. From a philosophical stand point I absolutely approve of this. I do not believe any player should be awarded medals for simply existing in a match. Nor do I believe that medals should be easy enough to max out so that in a loss or if a player performs poorly they should be at the maximum allowed If you have a bad match you have a bad match and medals should reflect that as well as good matches, but I would prefer we not reward everyone for having a bad match. Bad matches happen. If a player consistently has bad matches that may not be a game problem, but a player problem. Often we conflate the two. And we shouldn't. If we're concerned about the pvp season achievement's overall ability to complete for medals I would have to disagree that it's not attainable. It should not be increased, but it is 100 percent in the realm of possible to complete. Many have already completed it, and many more have already completed it multiple weeks ago.

In my experience, premades are no more a problem than they were before. Where I sit, my win rate is hovering right around 60 percent in arenas, and a little lower in warzones. I've played a ton of matches. I que mostly solo, but will group if asked. Most of the time if I'm in a premade none of us are on voice and we just type in chat at the beginning of a round or something. It's all about sample size for this kind of complaint. If you que a lot, you'll find premades are there but not really as impactful as one might suspect. If you're basing the opinion on only a few matches then if you run into one multiple times then yeah it'll feel like its more impactful. The moral of the story is that if you want to complete the pvp season then you'll have to que a lot, and understand that losses will happen just like wins will. Expecting to win every match is the wrong attitude to hold. Just keep queing. And unfortunately, there is a huge learn to play portion of things. I don't say this to offend people, but it is there. The way around this is to stay positive, keep trying to do better and take steps forward, not blast other people for calling it out for what it factually is. Everyone can always get better, and it can be a lot of fun to travel that path and actually see results. You'll start winning a lot more by just improving one's own play.

I have qued solo now for quite a few matches. As a dps I'm 11-4 As a tank I'm 19-14 Win rates are going to be wildly different. Maybe it's just easier to win as a support class? If so...maybe people who are winning at such low percentages should think about support classes instead (if they aren't already)?

7.2 has been, so far, a good experience for me personally. At this point in time, I'm quite happy with things. I would even go as far as to say I'm excited to get back home later today, and start queing to complete my second arena weekly after getting the two warzone weeklies out of the way yesterday. Pre 7.2 I would have classified myself as a player too good to be in regs, but too inconsistent enough both in skill and time available to be a quality ranked player. I primarily raid in the game, so pvp was a secondary focus. When news of 7.2 dropped, I was....concerned? I did enjoy queuing for solo ranked in seasons past so the removal of that entire game mode did raise the ole eyebrow. Now that 7.2 is here, I actually am finding myself queuing as much as possible outside of my raid times when before ehhh.,.I was more raid logging than anything else. What I've also found out, and this is strictly as it applies to only me, I have started to understand why ranked pvp didn't take hold with me like it did others. Ranked would always give me a level of anxiety I wasn't totally comfortable with which is more likely why I didn't que more for it, or if I did that desire was fleeting as time went on. Ranked by itself (excluding any real or perceived toxicity since I have never cared what people yelled about etc.) had some issues that now make more sense to me. The previous ELO system, strictly my opinion here, had a real flaw where losses where punished at what I would consider an extreme whereas wins were not rewarded at that same level of extremity. So the pressure to win was so high that it caused me that higher level of anxiety. Ranked also seemed to me to be a much more full time activity in game. It required effort and time to study your class(es), perfect strategies for dealing with different pressures from other composition of classes, or how you'll want to deal with certain classes etc. Since I am a raider first and foremost, I didn't have that full time ability to dedicate myself to that craft. But...being "too good" for regs meant that regs were boring and no fun so in reality, it was que for ranked or don't que at all. Queuing ranked meant that I had to pick the time of day to que, be overly conscience of winning and loosing, and potentially ending my time in game if say there were more of a certain class type in que that I was structurally a bad matchup for me no matter what. Now, I feel like with the removal of that specific ELO system I'm able to que as much as I may want. The anxiety is gone, and I can play for love of the game. I'm still super competitive in match, and still try to play perfectly no matter what. But...it feels more fun. I can que whenever I am free from real life burdens, and losses are not overweighting my game experience. So grand scheme of things for me has been overly positive. I've gone from queuing rarely to queuing daily, and logging in two to three days a week to everyday. I do agree with the OP that the medal system seems a bit too hard, but on the other hand I'm actually happy that they are hard to get. It's the incentive to perform at that high level that works for me as the correct carrot. I would add to the OP's list of things that are negative by adding that the arena weekly at 24 seems too high. Doable sure, but can be argued it's too high. The season itself seems a bit limiting with the point cap (although I don't know what to do with this one. If no cap then people would finish it too quickly, and engagement would drop. So how to solve that? Maybe it's as simple as add more levels? Meh?)

I do think we are bordering on something that isn't intended. I do not expect anyone to become a nightmare level raider or anything that is involved in becoming one. I do however believe it is essential for a player to understand their classes in that they should know that x ability leads to y ability glowing and to press the now glowing ability. I do not expect them to know some optimized rotation where they never miss a beat. Errors are accepted in story mode. But I do absolutely believe that a base level of knowledge should be required when it comes to stepping into what is the top level of endgame pve content. Story mode should be forgiving...absolutely agree there. But, I do not agree that it should be so forgiving that a player should expect to one shot every boss the moment a new raid comes out. I believe that mechanics are important to help players take the steps to higher content if they so choose to. I do not believe that things should be completely avoidable. That would cheapen the content itself. When I say "get good" or "get good enough" that can be variable in the sense that I'm not saying "get nightmare good" or even "get hardmode good". But, I do believe "get prepared to step foot in a raid good" should be a thing.

This last part is an overreaction. All players have access to 330 gear whether it be from upgrading flashpoint gear, R4 token drops, or getting moddable gear from Hyde and Zeek. All players can upgrade their legendary implants to 334. There is nothing stopping a player who wants to play group content from upgrading their gear to help them meet the minimum required performance goals of each fight in R4. I do agree with people that certain fights in R4 should have have some changes to story mode specifically. Namely, the monstrosities in story mode should be removed or changed, and on IP the group in story should only be required to hit 2 consoles instead of 4. Mechanics are important so they shouldn't be totally abandoned like for example Kephess in TfB. The idea that there is this caste system between those who are terrible and those who are good is all in a player's head. Again, there is nothing stopping a player from "getting gud". Or at least "getting gud enough". One of the primary problems in this game is that the game doesn't adequately train a player on how to play their desired classes well. It is more on a player than the game to learn and improve which I would absolutely agree is an issue. Telling a player how to do something through a wall of text in a help menu is not efficient. Introducing a player to their abilities by forcing them to use the abilities (a la FF) is a way more efficient philosophy. That being said, this idea that story mode players can't improve is not correct. They can, and they should. I am someone who believes this game suffered from the dumbing down of the content over the years. Expecting a player to learn a little bit through failure should not be looked at as a problem. If in maybe 6 months from now R4 is still "impossible to pug" then it should absolutely be changed to allow more groups to progress through it. But right now, it's been out so short a time that it's normal to experience failure in it. I know patience isn't a virtue around here, nor is trying and failing and then learning and then trying and succeeding. But, I'd very much like those things to re-develop in the population.

R4 is definitely in need of a nerf on sm. IP- 2 consoles to click, not 4. Watchdog: I kind of think this is fine as is. Kanoth: Fine as is Lady Dom: Definitely no to Monstrosities in SM. It would be inherently easier in burn, but is that enough? The dps required seems too high. Would removing the monstrosities make that doable? I'm not sure.

Wanted to say a few things here: 1) To be an actual skilled gunship pilot is not easy. Good gunship pilots have to put in a lot of work to be good at it. It may seem easy to be a good gunship pilot, but it's probably one of the harder roles to do well. 2) Remember you have 5 ships to select from for a reason, and you can see the opposing team composition for a reason. If for example you're in an 8v8 and 4 of the enemy team are rocking gunships selecting a bomber as your ship of choice is an incredibly bad strategic choice. 3) Or more like 2b, make sure you're picking ships that have a purpose specific to you and your playstyle. Scouts absolutely wreck gunships. If gunships are your sticking point develop a counter to them by developing your own answer in a scout with burst lasers and rocket pods. 4) You are more than likely not getting one shot. You may not notice that you've already been hit and your shields are low, or you've already sustained damage. Or...you're getting attacked by multiple players and the rail shot is what finishes you off. 5) Learn how to fly defensively. Fly behind meteors as you approach a gunship. Don't give them a clear line of sight on you. Don't fly straight at them. Try to fly in a path that will get you behind them. Gunships lack the ability to get away. 6) Learn to identify where the biggest threat is in the battle. That's where you attack first. Don't get sucked into the fight that's going on in a gunship's kill zone. Pick and choose your targets wisely, and manage your resources so that you will be able to execute your plan of attack. Don't blindly fly forward and engage whatever is in front of you without knowing what else is out there. 7) Try to train yourself to quickly notice what your HUD is telling you. Tons of pilots, myself included at times, ignore things like your shields are toast, what effects you're ship is currently under. How much engine you have left. These things tell you whether you need to break off your attack and recharge and reload or if you can continue in the scrum.

We all like the game a ton. We all want the game to be as amazing as we believe it could or should be. But, it's just not there for myriad reasons. The simple truth is there just isn't enough new content being published and it's having a detrimental effect on the game's population. Usually when this happens, or at least when it has happened in the past, we had an idea of what was coming and when. So far, I do not know what is coming or when. I get that R4 is coming "sometime soon" but for me my raid team has already disbanded so too little too late there. Maybe we all will reconnect when that comes out but who knows. The daily area if that ever surfaces is just a daily area, and while nice to have not a real actual addition. It would be just something to spend some time while in the holding pattern that we're already in. After that...there's a lot of questions. That makes the game itself feel hollow and meaningless. In truth when I think about it entirely, the game was developed to achieve something impossible (8 class stories etc), and we all expected that level of story in perpetuity in some fashion. Bioware did find a way to provide an ever evolving story with other additional components such as raids, daily areas, and pvp maps in kotfe and kotet. But, their ability to tell an engaging story faltered, and their removal of companions along with galactic command ended up sinking what should have been a very viable strategy going forward in the monthly chapters. Onslaught had more than I thought it would, but still a bit lackluster. Getting 2 daily areas, 1 raid, a few flashpoints, and some story wasn't a bad amount overall. But, the drip of its release did hurt it. Basically, we're all here for the story above all no matter what type of player you or I am. And, we desire what the game was made as originally. Not what the game is now. We hold on to hope that maybe one day it'll show signs that it's like that old version again and that ends up clouding what we get at current. This game needs a massive influx of diverse story and more end game elements that are not half a decade to a decade old, But we aren't getting that it seems which means...who knows what it means. It's not positive.

Too little too late unfortunately. I hope for success here, but yeah. 7.0 has just not been good enough. Some good ideas. Some bad ones. And, no where near enough content or communication (i.e roadmaps, correctly setting expectations etc). I'll check back with this game later on and see if you all improve. Until then...best of luck.

I wouldn't even say they are "for operations players" over anyone else. The truth is they can't produce any content at all for anyone. The "hated raiders" are not sticking around for this either.

Looks at post. Sees nothing about any kind of schedule for new content of any kind. Says "nothing to see here". Doesn't hit resubscribe. Walks away unsatisfied. Wishes they could produce more than bug fixes.

It's kind of a catch 22 it seems. I would gladly pay 40 dollars for a true expansion. Without hesitation. Here's my money. Do I need to gift wrap it? Add a card? I'd do it! But yeah I mean if the expansions are like this one, or if they can't actually produce an expansion that just in general of greater scope then no way would I pay for it. They would need to really really really prove it first since they've been unable to do much in the content release department. Paying for only a gear grind and one hour of story is a laugh.

I think you are right. Bioware needs to start describing their plans for the year. The community is not in a healthy space. We need actual playable content. Not just a gear grind. Players need something to look forward to, and at the moment we have the suggestion that "in the coming weeks" there will be a weapon outfitter. We have R4 on PTS or was on PTS, but no real actual suggested plan to release it live. This game needs new content badly. And it needs it pretty much asap.

what's the analogous mission on the imperial side? Cause...yeah...while I can agree they take a bit longer than I'd like I was not in any incredible danger. If I had all of my abilities like a level 80 would I have a very hard time believing this stuff is incredibly difficult as was claimed.

Well. I say you're over exaggerating to a very very large degree. I just went through all Nar Shadaa heroics on my level 25 Maurader. Level 11 companion. All completed. All did not seem difficult. If you're as good as you claim this discrepancy should not be what was found.

I don't think you'll get many "don't run PUG groups" comments on this issue since it really is an issue. It's one of two reasons, in my opinion, fleet pug groups are seemingly at an all time low. With starparse now able to show everyone regardless of if they have the application or not, there's more than a few people that have stopped pugging altogether because its too risky to do. It's far less risky to stay within one's smaller group of friends and contacts when it comes to operations than ever before which is a pretty serious problem for the health of the community at large. I have no idea how to change things if last boss lock outs are really that big of a problem (I've never really thought they were to begin with, but I am not a developer). The other issue is that Tionese gear is totally redundant and not worth the time or effort to obtain and upgrade. Realistically, Tionese should more than likely be the Noble Decurian sets. I don't really know how that would affect the rest of the gear upgrade paths, but more than likely it would mean that the true gearing path should be Tionese from Conquest; Supreme Decurian from Story Mode Operations and Master Mode Flashpoints; Rakata from Veteran Mode Operations or I guess the Columi can still drop here although that also feels redundant since Supreme Decurian and Columi are indistinguishable too; and the next step in the path should be the pieces that can be upgraded farther than 330 upon their release. That sounds kinda right to me, but I don't actually know if that would work or not.

This thread is amazing on many different levels. To pay a subscription to this game allows the player to play the game under no restriction. We are allowed to explore the entirety of the game, and not be locked out of parts of it. We all, by paying a subscription, can choose our own path through the entirety of the game. Paying a subscription does not mean that we will always get everything in the game only that we are able to chart our own paths through the game. The gearing system is flawed in a few ways. The first is that if you play a dps class for example, you'll need to gather gear that is meant for another dps class in order to "fully" gear your character. The second is that the methods of obtaining the gearing currencies seem out of balance in that some things should award more of the currencies, or the vendor should require less of the currencies. The gearing system is not flawed because a player may not agree with the philosophy behind the system itself. Yes there is entitlement shown on both sides of the isle. No a player who exercises their subscriber rights to explore the game and then decide on their desired pathway for enjoyment is not entitled to rewards of all content. They are entitled to the rewards that their desired pathway gives. If those rewards are not acceptable to the player then they have further choices: branch off to include a new direction, or accept the rewards for their desired path. The game has decided that their desired gearing philosophy is higher level gear for higher level content. They have had an expansion that allowed access to higher level gear through easier avenues in 6.0 and they have gone back on it. Has anyone stopped to ask themselves why they would do that if it were so successful? Perhaps it was not as popular or as successful as those in this thread claim. If it were successful...why change it? The answer is...they wouldn't have changed it if it were successful. Just because someone liked 6.0 doesn't mean that it was overall a popular expansion. Love it. Hate it. Doesn't matter. 6.0 is gone. The only thing you can do as a player is adapt or cancel your subscription. And no the game will not suddenly die because you decide to cancel your subscription. What absolutely floors me about this thread is gearing is something that has always been viewed as a "get this done so I can enjoy the content I want to play." If the content you want to play is of the solo variety then congratulations your gear treadmill is available to you go forth and complete it so you can enjoy the content you want to play. If you want to pvp congratulations your gear treadmill is available to you. so go forth and complete it so you can enjoy the content you want to play If you want to experience story/ veteran/ master mode operations congratulations your gear treadmill is available to you. Go forth and complete it so you can enjoy the content you want to play. Either way, get off this site and go play the game or don't. Either way, pay your subscription or don't. This whole yelling and screaming at the moon is only good for those of us sitting on the sideline eating popcorn and shaking our collective heads at the idiocy contained in this thread. And then we go back after and go play the game we like to play. Keep making yourselves look foolish though. It is highly enjoyable to read.

This isn't entirely true here. It is on the player to decide, yes. But, moreso, it's the content the player decides to play that decides the gear level for the player. If the content calls for X gear level and the player has Y then the player should focus on getting their gear to that X gear level. The devs created a gearing path for each "mode" for the game, and as such have tuned each mode to their own specific X gear level, and provided a pathway for the player to reach that X level. This statement does not include any bias or opinion on my part on if the pathways are logical or not, just that they do exist. To answer your secondary question: "Why do nightmare raiders need the best gear in the game?" As said above, the content dictates what level of gear the player needs to have in order to perform at the level the content is tuned for. Nightmare/Master Mode operations are tuned at the highest levels therefore a nightmare focused player will need to have or have a pathway to the highest level of gear so that their performance in said content will reach at the very least the minimum required. I would assume the same can be said for ranked pvp as well. So if the content is not tuned for the highest levels of performance using the highest levels of gear then the answer is simply no the player does not require that level of gear for success or enjoyment and thus shouldn't require a pathway to that higher or highest level gear. With that said, the psychological feeling of progression for all players is important, and even though the pathways do exist for players to improve their gear through their desired track I would agree that there needs to be something done to make that feeling of progression more evident. edit: I do believe that one area where a player can focus their progression on, this includes all players, that will increase performance is augmenting. It may not be a popular thing to do, but it does seem often overlooked. If a player feels capped out on progression, but doesn't have augments in their gear yet, then why not work towards the end goal of getting purple 286 augments through crafting? This allows the use of more of your characters if you have more, allows the player to enter into a solid part of the economy to make credits, and provides another path to achieve higher results. This gives the player another thing to do (please don't buy them on the GTN, just learn to craft them) that will give them those higher results.

You do not know what elitism is. Elitism is based on the concept of unequal distribution of a thing. To claim that someone wants equality in a thing is the very opposite of elitism.

I haven't missed a thing. You call it "showing empathy". I call it being a realist, and what I did was offer suggestions to the OP so that they can join groups and do the content. Those suggestions are based in the truth that I have also been playing sub optimal classes both right now and previously. I have found that in order for me to consistently not be asked to leave any group required me to do the things I suggested. I could have sat back and blamed bioware, and then not been able to play the content I wanted to. Instead I chose to do something about it. Blaming bioware and also doing something about it yourself are not mutually exclusive.