err. This specific player is attempting to use a class that's currently underperforming in higher level content. If it's elitist to suggest "don't use x spec use y, that will give you the best chance of success" or "if switching to y spec doesn't yield the results your after try a, b, or c" then sure I'm Elitist. It's hardmode and nightmare mode content. You don't go into ranked PvP without knowing your class at a high level it's also presumed. To me, being an elitist would mean I actively go about limiting who can join lower level content runs like story mode operations, or master mode flashpoints or unranked pvp. I'm someone who has stuck with a sub optimal class before. My suggestions are what got me into the higher level raiding scenes, and furthered into nightmare content consistently. I don't claim to be anything more than an average nightmare raider. I'm not farming components level, nor do I try to be. Regardless, if any player wants to be in a higher level raiding situation being flexible with what classes they can play is ultimately a huge positive. After all, it's not about story at that point. It's about experiencing and beating the bosses. Sometimes yes Bioware take the bat to your favorite class and spec. It happens. The question is "what are you gonna do with what you still have". That's a question only the player can answer. Or they can wait for Bioware to do something about it...which let's be honest they take a very very very long time to do balancing. Why wait on the sidelines when a player wouldn't have to.

I've seen this stuff happen with operative healers, powertech tanks, snipers, now mercs (I guess). Sure it's not ideal, or great. But, not everything will be good for all operatiions bosses. It's why I know merc, sniper, sorc, and now working on Marauder. There's nothing wrong with a player being required to know their class to even greater detail for a hardmode or a nightmare level operation. Sometimes it IS on the player. It may not be fair, but it is what it is. If a player wants higher level content, then they need to achieve the minimum standards for that content. Uf that means they need to really nail down the class they play because its underperforming or learn something new then that should be fine. . If they can not meet a check or something then they should not be participating until they can. I struggled to pull my weight before I got my legendries. Some classes require more investment. Now things we don't really know: Was this OP in a group that kept failing, then looked at starparse and saw they were pulling sub bar numbers and asked to leave so the group could get a new person in that might help the group kill the boss? If so, the OP shouldn't be here reporting on their experience since that group would have been correct to do what they did, And the OP should be upgrading their gear, or working through what they were struggling with so they can help a group clear content Was the OP trying to join something that already had set standards? I've seen guilds say "Hey, I know everyone is interested in this kind of stuff, so in order to make it the most fair please have a 18=20k parse handy to show that you can potentially meet the checks in the content for hardmode, and a 23-25k parse to show you potentially can meet the check in nightmare. If the player can't meet that standard and told sorry try again later then that's fine too. Every group, guild, entity, should be able to set their own standards and enforce them as they see fit. If the player who gets told no doesn't like it, or isn't ready for the content, then maybe the guild their in isn't the right fight (totally ok there's plenty of guilds out there some work for some others work for others).

well...I can no longer say ive never encountered this. It just happened to me and man is it frustrating

I GSF a lot. I've never encountered that issue with the gear boxes not containing anything. To troubleshoot: Are you wearing any gear on your character to start? If you aren't wearing gear then when you open the box the gear piece will be auto equipped. If it's auto equipped and you're not looking at your gear sheet but your inventory then it won't show up in the inventory. Are the boxes you're talking about the daily boxes? Those do not contain gear, but 5 tech frags, and 1 minor requisition grant. If those things are all not the culprit then woof.

I main a Merc, and not once have I been told no due to class. While Mercs aren't in a good spot right now, IO can still be used. Arsenal is a big fat no. If you're running Arsenal, you need to change to IO at the very least. You won't be parsing in some crazy high fashion. When a class you play is suffering from balance problems, you'll need to really know how to push it to its limit. You can practice that by hitting the ship dummy and playing around with different ways to optimize things like your sub 30 rotation when you should be using adrenals, on what abilities you need to use your power ups, which version of the rotation to use to get the most back etc. You'll absolutely need your legendaries, and you'll need to invest heavily to get your gear as high as possible noting that you'll need your alacrity to end up over 2800 (preferably what Rekui suggests with like 2866). This may mean you need to get gold augs to get the class into the happy zone (I do not use gold augs. I use purple. But, they can be helpful if you need the exra push). If you're still at a bottleneck consider learning something new for the time being in Madness Sorc or Virulence Sniper.

Some things I do when I'm running close to the max: -Move to another character and begin working on their gear sets. I have 5 characters I'm using in 7.0 as of now. 1 Assassin Tank/ Sorc 1 Pub Side Gunslinger/ Merc 1 Merc/ Sniper 1 Merc/ Gunslinger 1 Operative/Vanguard With these, I know I have access to, and should build towards having (depending on character) DPS set (potentially multiple for sorc, sniper/gunslinger, and merc) Tank Set (potentially 2 for vanguard and assassin) Heal Set (potentially 3 for operative, merc, and sorc) So I'm rarely maxed or capped since I'm usually spending in some fashion or another. If I am capped, I look towards what weeklies I haven't finished whether they be master mode flashpoints, ground pvp, gsf, operations etc. Since I can repeat many of these 3 times on every character I use then I typically have something left to strive for. And, if I'm capped, to me, that's ok since the true value of the weeklies in most cases are the gear boxes that contain the possible gear upgrades, and my focus becomes more on tech frags and building points to unlock or upgrade the legendary implants. If all else fails, I have a project character at level 71 that I would then start progressing on for the purpose of being another back up character to my main if I need it for my raid team or some random farm like a Nefra. If those fail, I can take a character from the shelf and start progressing them (that allows me to have a fall back of 3 more characters to work on) If I'm totally 100 percent out on every character, well, maybe I branch into stuff that I don't normally do like a world boss group, or story mode operations, or head off to my strongholds and further their progress, or consider touching some of those Alliance Alerts I avoid like the plague (and I will still never forgive BW for killing companions like they did in Kotfe/Kotet. I hate it still to this day). And if all that fails, there's still achievements out in the open world I might keep going on. Hope any or all or some of these help with feeling like there's nothing left.

Le sigh. This is the type of post that just doesn't help. There is an alternative. That alternative is improve your skill level so that the reduced companion becomes less of a focus. See here's the issue with this post: both sides want to use a companion for whatever reason from effectiveness to connection by way of story experience or gameplay experience what have you. There are those that say hey well if you think companions are too strong you have options like using a lower level companion (thus saying to that player hey you can't use the one you want to or have that connection with thus lowering the quality of their experience). This shouldn't be seen as some ideal fix. When someone in your shoes says there are no alternatives that's actually quite false. Just as there is nothing stopping a player who deems companions too powerful from "making things harder" by way of sacrificing their companion by way of not using them or power level, there is nothing stopping someone in your shoes from putting in the time to improve the base skill of you as a player to compensate. Either way, compensating here is the heart of the issue. The importance of the poster that I had shaken my head with should be of greater notice to you. They brought the conversation or the argument or the discussion whatever we want to label what's in this thread PAST player skill by showing how the effectiveness does not change when examining the influence level of the companion in each scaled environment. That is literally huge since when the discussion does not move past player skill or player sacrifice then this whole discussion becomes one subjective "way" vs another subjective "way" that puts one player's experience at a loss regardless of suggestion. I freely admit when I initially engaged in this thread I was firmly planted in player skill. That's why I went and beat the Eternal Championship with a level 30 companion. It took me 30 minutes. I died once because I forgot about the hostage droids on Batman and Robin. Otherwise, it was a breeze. That, to me at the time, provided evidence that companions were working fine or at a sufficient level. I still do believe that the game does an absolutely terrible job of guiding players in an organic way through the process of learning one's class and abilities and how they mesh together. But, the analysis that poster put is something that can not be debated. And, it does seem that there is an issue in scaled content with companion effectiveness. They were able to change my mind because they were able to show something that did not involve player skill at all. Hugely important. That's how we should center debates. But, I'm sure it won't last since we can't seem to not insult one another anymore.

Because this specific OP has a differing view point does not make them a troll. People who don't agree that presence should be uncapped across the board are not trolls. Their opinions are valid, just as yours is. Most of these arguments deal in strawmen anyway. Let's be honest with ourselves here, those who hate 7.0 have been just as nasty to those who don't hate 7.0 as the reverse. It's a pot calling the kettle black scenario each and every time. Your post is wild because it deals in something that is concerning (the linked analysis). But tossed in is a bunch of hogwash that waters down what should be the important aspect of your post. Edit: Had you said "Companions that are gruesomely busted/nerfed. They are slow to heal. They heal, tank, or DPS worse than ever. Presence and influence level are broken and have very little benefit/effect - especially when scaling down. See attached analysis" Man nobody would be able to argue you on that point. You'd have nailed it. Instead, you thought it was more important to insult or throw in additional subjective stuff that lessens your main point. Some don't see companions being super effective as fun and enjoyable. Some would argue that your connection to those companions comes more from the stories you experience with them than their performances on a battle field. And spending money is a total choice that any player (myself included) has to understand that hey there could be a change here to screw this up if I go this route. It happened to me with KOTFE and the removal of my highest level companions entirely. It sucks, but there's always a risk with taking the shortest path available.

I truly wish people like the OP were having fun with 7.0 since I've been pleasantly surprised by it. There are definitely some things I would like to see added such as a currency conversion tool to help make things a bit easier to deal with if a player has more of 1 currency over another and a gear piece not of that currency type. Or the rotations including more instances like the group finder master mode flashpoints being raised from 9 to 15 and the operations moved upwards to like 5-7 instead of 3/ ability to deselect instances and have the progress keep moving forward. For 6.0, I was one that hated it. I hated having an inventory full of junk to disintegrate even though it got my more tech frags. And, I really hated trying to get best in slot mods and enhancements through strict RNG. I absolutely hated hammer station farm (to which I think I know why I didn't like it now by comparing it to world boss farm: world boss farm groups form on fleet outside of the group finder which means a guarantee of getting a group of players who are on the same goal of farming and not forcing random people to sacrifice rewards). Also of note for 6.0 was how the gear was not as good as people really thought it was. Players were fooled that because it was gold it was great when in reality a lot of players wearing that gold gear really only had the equivalent of green gear. Now that the color coding is back it's more accurate to the player but the game has trained players to hate green gear for a decade so that's been a rough change for a lot of people regardless of if the green gear is passible or not. I hope beyond hope you OP, and others, find that balance point and find some enjoyment in 7.0. I don't like to see people become frustrated. I hope you all stick with it, and if you don't I hope you find enjoyment with whatever it is you do or go to.

The currency tab currently is incredibly disorganized containing too many currencies that are no longer in the game. It would be a great quality of life change to do the following: Remove: Light Side Tokens Dark Side Tokens Unassembled Component 2nd Request: Have each category start out as closed, or allow the player an option to reduce/close a category and have it stay closed.

here you go: https://imgur.com/gallery/JScdcVN

The bickering back and forth between the two "tribes" that we have here on the forums does need to stop. But, it won't so it's whatever. The forums will continue to be populated mostly by people unhappy with changes because well that's what people that are unhappy do: voice their concerns. And, those that don't have an issue or are enjoying have no real cause to come here. Calling everyone who doesn't agree with you one side or the other a troll is meaningless. Throwing strawmen out there is meaningless. Boiling down a concern to an individual "Well for me alone I don't agree!" is meaningless. The truth of this matter is a bit more complicated. The game does a woeful job of preparing players in an organic way to play their classes effectively. It's actually incredible to see, for example, how low some players dps are or how tanks don't understand how to manage threat or healers having zero idea what to do when they enter something like a master mode flashpoint. I don't necessarily blame players for this complete lack of skill. I'm sure there's a small segment that actively don't try to learn their classes. But, I would guess most just have no idea that they're not as good as they can or should be at max level. The game needs to keep getting players to that minimum skill level. I do believe that this training needs to start in the leveling process, and continue through to end game. The game experience for all improves a whole lot if players are more able to play their characters rather than less able. Changing things in game like companions being less effective, ability tree improvements, etc. are totally necessary. But, I do think that if the balance point hasn't been reached than more work needs to be put in to keep things going at that organic path that makes sense and doesn't over encumber players.

Seems like the right place to put this: My thoughts so far on 7.0 Story was short. I enjoyed the republic side more than I did the imperial side. The first big time unacceptable moment for me is here in the ruins of null Malgus fight. This should not and things such as this can not be broken upon release. This fight not working as intended is unacceptable. I like combat styles quite a bit albeit the limitations around being able to freely swap back and forth can be frustrating. As I play more the UI gets less shocking visually, but still could use a tone down. What ultimately makes me annoyed with the UI is that it's inverted compared to the previous version. I am a big fan of the rotation for flashpoints and operations, but I do believe they need to be expanded a bit. The operations being at only 3 choices feels very limiting, and the flashpoint list being so heavily truncated means too high a probability for the same instance to pop multiple times (I got Meltdown 4 times in a row. Not upset about getting some achievement work done, but I did breathe a heavy sigh at the 3rd and 4th times). I'd suggest something like 10-12 flashpoints available per week, and something like 5-6 operations per week. Otherwise, I'm greatly appreciative of not seeing TC spam or Hammer Station pop up all the time. While I know there are players that had no issue with that, I did. I really love the weekly mission 3x repeatable (when it works). Gearing system...so the more I play the more I don't mind it. I started out being highly skeptical about non moddable gear. But, I'm at a level where I am able to get into more challenging content and still be successful. The non moddable part I thought I would definitely mind, but I haven't. I don't neccessarily love the gearing upgrade system, but that is more due to things like the cap on medals should be raised. I don't really have an idea of what it should be raised to, however I do think 999 is too low, and a player like me that's playing 1 character fully and 2 others as back ups shouldn't be maxing out that section in less than a week in the play time that I do (full time job, play about 1-3 hours a day. Sometimes on weekends I can get a splurge of time and go for a marathon). I don't mind this, but I do find it interesting that players, including me even though i disliked them, were critical of bioware for the removal of amplifiers and that the game still needs good credit sinks. It seems the new credit sink is augmenting gear. Which, in a sense is fine, I have ended up crafting basically all the time to stock pile mk-11 kits. Content scaling, as someone who is challenge oriented I am actually thrilled with how hard the content can be. But, if I judge that on my own personal desire then it becomes a bit too skewed. Judging by the parses from starparse that now shows me everyone no matter if they are in parse with me or not) the skill level of the average swtor player is depressingly low. So the content probably should be scaled down to match in certain areas or some form of training guide needs to be added so that those same players can perform at the level the content is tuned for. edit for a few other thoughts: ability pruning: **This only applies for IO Merc since that's the spec I decided to focus on this expansion** I originally hated the change to vent heat and the consolidation of TSO into vent heat, but as I play more my hatred of this change has lessened. I may not love it, but it hasn't affected me negatively. The removal of 2 stacks of supercharge on Jet Boost was initially frustrating, but this change simply meant that the class was more dependant on the legendary implants to get the amount of supercharged gas up enough so the class can function more appropriately. Having to choose between reflect and hydraulic overrides is a tough one, but I've found I still go back and forth depending on the fight. I don't mind having to make a strategic decision. Regarding the new "ability tree" I have ended up liking it a great deal. It feels like I can change my proficiencies more quickly than before, and the improvements it offers to some abilities are welcome. Being able to quickly change them feels better than before. Conquest: I am hitting conquest easily still with all of the characters I'm choosing to use this go around, albeit I have decided to bench a few that I won't be playing due to combat styles making them somewhat obsolete. I do miss experience being given on completion of conquest. Overall, I have enjoyed 7.0 so far much to my surprise. I thought I'd remain somewhat ambivalent towards everything, but I've had a positive experience so far. And I am looking forward to additional playable content in the future. I am even happy to say that my guild is active again. I used to be one of maybe 2 people online at a time. Now it's normal to see 12 -16 on at a time which is a huge improvement.

Dude, you have got to take that tin foil hat off. Now, if we revert to discussing the amount bioware is offering for the removed items, then yes that's a potential talking point since they do seem low. But, holy geebus mate. The nim crowd is just not what you think it is.

you do realize that your classification can be put towards basically all of us. People disagree with some of the points. It is what it is. They're generally no more trolls than those who come to any thread and say "The NiM Coven did it!"

Let's think about this shall we? You were annoyed that I posted about a poster being inflammatory to someone that held an opposing view point. That view point is below: "After reading all the panic, doom and gloom, I leveled up a character on my favorite class on the PTS and honestly, I liked the changes. I'm not sold on the slower progression of abilities as you level, but the end result was that I enjoyed that class at least as much as before. I had to choose between a couple things I was used to having, but some of the choices made other abilities even better. I didn't really take the time to experiment with all the classes. I figure there will be plenty of time to figure that out between 7.0 and 8.0." What that poster said is completely true. Some of the abilities that you can choose in the new skill tree do make those abilities better than they currently are. They definitely do have to choose one between things they currently have in some cases. The biggest one for me when I was playing around on the PTS was sniper shield or orbital or hololocate. An example of something being better would be the change to Laze Target. So that poster took the advice of people such as yourself, and leveled up a toon on the PTS. They posted their thoughts in a thread that is related to 7.0 with their experience. Because they didn't agree with people such as yourself who have been as loud as they can be about their concerns with 7.0 they're labeled as some sort of conspirator instead of an example that not everyone may agree that 7.0 is the ending of the game. That labeling is what I commented about. It's unneeded, and serves zero purpose. Your posts responding to me calling that out look to be attempts to discredit me too since I don't really agree with you or people "in your camp" either. I don't think 7.0 will be some epic bomb of an expansion. I do believe there are parts I'm concerned with sure. So you said I should quit if I don't find enjoyment, well I did. Since I literally practice what I preach I'm somehow a victim. I am not a victim of anything. This is just a video game, and our options both you nd me and everyone else is to either grit your teeth and hold your nose and play or simply do something else and leave. Play or don't is literally all we can do. And, if you honestly need to continuously vent your frustrations feel free to keep yelling at me. I'll keep listening. You seem to need the release. Legit everything you're talking about isn't related to the post from a poster I was defending. I'd suggest, honestly, that you look in the mirror and think about if you want to play this game. It's a game that's it. From your posts you seem so worked up that maybe it is best you just leave. Take that break and see where it leads you. You've provided your feedback. Your mission is done here.

I did quit. I returned to the game at the end of November. I missed virtually all of 6.0. I only came back after getting a text from a friend asking me if I wanted to fly some GSF with the old crew. Then, somehow, that turned into raiding again, and that turned into getting asked to join a raid team clearing content I enjoy playing. I think it's completely fine to post, or be a contrarian. What I do not like, and specifically what I was referencing, were posts like "you being paid by bioware?!" simply because they don't see something exactly like you or others. By all means, if you don't like the expansion from what you see or have experienced on the PTS post about it. Maybe it will get read. Maybe you'll provide the feedback you and others are looking to provide. And if it doesn't go the way you want you can follow what I did and quit, and if you get the itch again I do encourage you to pick the game back up. You never know if it'll grab ya again. What I think is ridiculous are those posts that try to ignore the other side, and make it seem that if they don't agree with you they are somehow wrong and less than you. Which you seem to be trying to do in your round about way to call me goofy. For the record: I quit this game at the end of April of 2018. I got my HM Izax kill for the wings then headed on to pasture.

Why is an entry level player going into hardmode EC? If the question is "can an entry level player still participate in operations knowing how gearing will change" then the answer is clearly an entry level player will be able to participate in operations regardless of the gearing in 7.0. Trying to label an entry level player a hardmode player and thus a veteran raider...I think that's trying to move the goal posts to answer a different question entirely.

I highly doubt the barrier of entry will change at all in 7.0. Really, what gear you have on is probably sufficient. I ran a Dxun sm the other day with a tank in 230s. They did fine. Cleared the operation, and gear was never a question. I always tell people the best thing you can do for yourself if you want to be part of an operation is to try to learn how your class works. Give yourself a foundation to grow from. Try to learn the rotation of the class you like if you're a dps. Try to understand how threat works as a tank. Try to learn how your healing abilities tie to one another and try to understand how you would heal someone quickly during a damage spike. Try to get your set bonus. Get 110 accuracy. Everything else will come with experience. The foundation is something that every new or returning raider can create that gives them the best chance. And don't stand in stupid. Have fun returning to the scene, and have fun with it in 7.0 too!

I think these are the worst posts on the forums. What some may find incredible is that the 7.0 changes may upset some, but they also are seen positively from others. Just because the loudest are the loudest does not mean they are the minority or the majority, just that they're loud. In every expansion there's always those who don't like the changes, and those that do, and then those that don't care either way. That person who likes the changes aren't wrong or "on the payroll" just like those who aren't happy aren't wrong themselves. Kudos to the guy who spoke their piece in this little stream of negativity. Me personally? I am in the don't care either way camp. I don't care about weapon outfits so that being delayed means nothing to me. New gearing? Still means nothing to me since new gearing happens every expansion and as a player I'll figure out how to make it work just like in every other expansion. I hated 6.0 and I'm glad it's going away. I'm not going to pass judgement on what I've seen on the PTS since it was what it was. I like the small changes they've announced to the missions. I still have concerns, and that's completely fine. Just like someone who isn't happy should post about it if that helps them. Play or don't. That's all we have at our disposal. If you find enjoyment great, if you don't leave. It's just a game.

I actually would disagree on the flow of the daily missions. I also like that the planet has me coming back to it for other things like Nature of Progress or harvesting. I find myself there quite a bit which is really what a daily area should be in my opinion. I think the feedback of "if there's a clicky don't make it the same color as the surroundings" is completely fair. I ended up doing all the achievements on this planet sans the PvP ones since there's just not many people ever in the PvP instance. I'd actually be ok if the 7.0 daily area mimicked Onderon. The poster is correct that once you find the route that works best for you it can be done quickly.

This is a ridiculous thread. In the spirit of this thread let's do the following: Ban selling all cartel market items on the GTN by making them bind on pick up!

Plenty of groups still form as they always have on the fleet and not through the use of group finder. If you are queing for an operation using the group finder then you will never ever get it to pop. Solo operations are an absolute no with the caveat of they really should be making additional solo content that mirrors a raid in a sense in the vein of the eternal championship.

We should be used to being excited for only a little bit of an expansion. I think the last expansion I was truly excited about in total was Shadow of Revan. Every other expansion has given me some things to be excited for, and stuff I really hated. After losing class missions, losing pve space (yeah im like the one person who loved it), losing my companions (I will never forgive them for doing what they did to companions) to command crates and now this 6.0 gearing I learned that It's probably best to find one thing in an expansion to look forward to and laser focus on that. If you cant find one thing, it's time to explore the world both real and digital. For me I can find a few things in this that I am excited about: 1 new flashpoint (I love flashpoints so adding a new one to collect achievements on will be good for me). 1 new operation (judging by my signature I do enjoy this aspect of the game). And I'll be happy with the double spec thing or whatever it's called (I'm excited to combine a few things into one character so I don't have to have so many toons for specific roles. I can consolidate which I am in favor of). Since I have things to look forward to, I'll stay and enjoy what I can. Everyone's decision is their own to make. Gearing has never been fun for anyone, in any expansion, so for me I'll treat it as a necessary evil and slog through like I've done with 6.0 (seriously F trying to get bis mods and enhancements in this tier.), 5.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0 1.0.

I think the bigger issue isn't premades, but the missions require wins only.