It's kind of clear in their post: "One of the ways that we’re adding this depth is with an entirely new type of gear slot – Tactical items" It is a 15th piece of gear. It is not a mod, doesn't have a cooldown (unless they work stuff in like clickable relics), it is not a consumable. It is in a way kind of like the utility system. However, utilities are not "build defining", these items will be. They modify how an ability works. Utilities buff some abilities, but don't (in nearly all cases) redefine how they work and when they are used. In essence though, I guess those items will be some kind of ultra-meaningful utility. Another main difference is since it's gear, you got to obtain it (and utilities are just there to be selected).

Tactical item: - Death from above to single target ability (kinda boring cause it's the same as your example, but I just want to see this awesome animation more). Maybe make it so each hit applies small DoT that stacks up. - Make missile blast more useful than sub 30. Maybe make it an AOE ability that can dotspread? Set bonus: - Every time you apply a bleed, you get the sanguinary buff for 20 seconds, which gives some offensive buff (power or crit) - Every time you apply a bleed, you offensive ability cooldowns are reduced by 3 seconds - Same as last two but for burns (and replace sanguinary with pyromaniac or something, and make it a different buff)

Tactical items: - Instead of healing, recuperative nanotech refreshes probes on everyone it hits (might be op, some tuning maybe required here, like only add half the duration or something) - Instead of refreshing kolto probes, surgical probe make all the stacks of kolto probe instantly heal the target for the amount left on the heal over time (once again might be op, maybe make it so it only heals for x% of the healing left) - (dunno if I like this last one but wild idea) If a kolto probe (with 1 or 2 stacks) heals someone that is already at max hp, it jumps to another ally. Not sure how to select this ally, here are ideas: (1) Ally with lowest hp that doesn't already have probes (stay on target of none apply) or (2) Ally with lowest hp, if he already has probes add whatever time was left on the jumping probes Set bonus: - Give DR (or other passive bonus, like power or soemthing) for every ally buffed by you (not counting class buffs)

Some ideas for tactical items (not putting numbers in cause I don't know how to balance the game): - Kinetic ward gives defense instead of shield - Change shroud to an evasion instead of a resist (M/R vs F/T damage) - 3 stacks Depredating Volts heals (like the good old days) instead of giving DR - Change the mechanics of discharge (maybe move from AOE to single target to make it relevant when fighting one thing) - Any way (can't think of any) to sacrifice defense for offense Set bonus: - Taunt cooldown reduce is still useful in some situations and I would keep that somewhere - Some way to reduce defensive ability cooldowns upon taking damage - Flat DR increase (against all or certain types of damage) - Movement speed increase

Hey, Thank you for opening the discussion on gearing for the next large scale update. Here are my general wishes for gearing: - High-end gear needs to be accessible at a reasonable pace for people that only raid, which has been the case for pretty much every update except 5.0 (there was a small part before 5.10 where it was in an ok place, but most of 5.0 was bad for raiders). Token drops is the obvious way but how it worked pre-5.10 is also ok to me (currency, in this case UC, that allows to buy gear). - While removing PVP gear was an idea I personally appreciated because it meant I wouldn't need to grind two different sets for each class/role, I think it was an overall bad move because it requires balancing the speed at which PVE and PVP players acquire gear, and in the end punished both type of players at different stages of 5.0 (even players like me who do both). I don't see any genius way to balance those two type of plays out, so 2 solutions I see: go back to expertise gear with lower rating or make gearing not that relevant in PVP. My call would be for PVP go back to how 4.0 worked, but people who PVP more than me can probably have better insight. - I think giving people who don't PVE or PVP at the highest level access to the best gear was a good idea. It shouldn't screw the others though (like how early 5.0 and 5.10 did). - Forcing people to do weeklies/dailies or grinding content they don't like in order to compete at a high level (PVE or PVP) was never a good idea. As a player who leads a team that pretty much only raids, NiM gods is not doable because people don't have time to farm the gear for it. If doing operations was the way to gear, then we would do it, but that's sadly not the case right now. - The crafting of 252/258 gear is stupid because of the charged matter grind. TLDR: (I still suggest reading the whole thing because it explains my propositions) 1. Doing high-end PVE content should be the fastest way to acquire high-end PVE gear. 2. Bringing back PVP gear is probably the best way to solve the issue of balancing pacing for PVE and PVP ways to acquire gear. 3. Keep making good gear accessible for casuals through long weekly/daily farms, just don't make it the only way. EDIT: Major point I forgot, binding mods/enhancements to pieces was a terrible idea and makes it very hard to tune our gear like we want to.

1 is true, SM used to be a bit more challenging than it is now. I agree it should be harder. However I don't think it should have any influence on the difficulty of HM. 2 is about as false as it gets. Do you remember how gear used to work pre 4.0? The last pieces of gear were gated behind the hardest bosses, that's how it worked. Also between when you wrote the post and now, have you noticed how much easier the boss got. Lots of pugs are clearing it. Just need a bit more patience, a boss shouldn't be joke easy the first day.

Haven't read the full thread but just want to put things into perspective. Not a single HM ops was puggable 2 weeks upon it's release. Give more people time to clear it. Give people time to get good at mechanics. Calling for nerfs so soon after it dropping seems really weird to me. It will get easy with time, this boss is easier than a lot of HM fights (not only in gods/ravs/tos, it's also easier than brontes, draxus, council, even terror and styrak). It just seems harder because people are not familiar with it.

Are you really complaining about new content? How can a new boss release be sad... On another note, another day, still no release date news

Any update on when this 5.10.1 update will happen, I was hoping for Feb 5th but it's looking less likely by the day...

Well here is one: "***" "OMG" "WHYY?!?!?!?" On a serious note, I didn't say anything about it for 2 reasons: 1 I'm not on the PTS, and 2 I thought it was just a fun PTS experiment cause that's kinda what you said. Anyway, I'm against this 252 tuning because my raid group was looking forward to new content that didn't require us to run weeklies that aren't operations. I can't judge how hard it is right now on PTS with 248s, but I was really liking the thought that we were going to be able to play this content without farming for 252/258 gear (because let's be honest, this new gearing system is a step backwards after all the good changes that were done to salvage the whole command crates mess). Don't know if I'll be alone in this, but just wanted to let you know some people don't agree with the 252 tuning.

Anything on the set bonus issues (old one and new one not stacking correctly)

Defeated both, got the achievement but not the mission, please fix, we want our MW crystals (filed a ticket, hope they can grant).

Welcome back to the game. Let me start by saying DPS specs are in my opinion leveling the best for leveling. These following specs are generally recognized as the easiest ones and the ones that require little setup for a lot of damage, which is optimal for leveling: Merc/Mando: Gunnery/Arsenal Powertech/Vanguard: Advanced Prototype/Tactics Sniper/Slinger: Sharpshooter/Marksman Operative/Scoundrel: Concealment/Scrapper Assassin/Shadow: Deception/Infiltration Sorcerer/Sage: Lightning/Telekinetics Juggernaut/Guardian: Rage/Focus Marauder/Sentinel: Fury/Concentration, Carnage/Combat is also a burst spec but it's not in a good place right now. However, I would recommend trying other specs, cause this is a game and it should be all about fun. I personally level my marauder/sentinel using the dot spec (Annihilation/Watchman) because I like it more. That being said, if you just want easiest specs, take the ones in the list above. As for heals/tank, here is my rankings for ease of play (this is very personal though, and not my personal preferences): Tanks: 1. Jugg/Guard 2. Sin/Shadow 3. PT/Vanguard Healers: 1. Sorc/sage or Merc/Mando 3. Op/Scoundrel It mostly comes down to which class you feel like you want to heal/tank on.

Yes, master-mode has always been guild-only content (well guild-only meaning experienced group only, the "people in a group all being in same guild" thing hasn't been true for a good while now). However with 5.10, VM gods will become a lot more pug friendly, so there's that. PVE enthusiasts that are very strong have new content, PVE enthusiasts that aren't as good also get new(ish) content.

Oh I didn't assume you were some kind of PVE god, you wouldn't be posting in SW discussion if you were a very experienced player. Yes, quite a few MM bosses are accessible in 242 gear, but some apex bosses aren't (I'm sure some people would gladly prove me wrong, but people that would be able to do that are people that have done timed runs more times that they can count). Also I want to appease your concerns, 258 gear won't change the fact that the great majority of players won't be able to clear MM operations. Back in 3.0, everyone overlevelled and overgeared every operation (except Ravs and ToS) and even then, only a small part of the players were able to kill MM Brontes. Yes, a lot of VM players were getting MM kills, but still. I'm sorry if after 5.10 is released a bunch of players in your group get a lot of gear and everything is easier than you would like it to be. Mechanics will still be the hardest part of the bosses though, new gear will only allow slightly less optimal play, and you can lose a GCD here and there and still do enough DPS. In my experience, a new tier of gear doesn't really change which players are able to do or not do bosses, it just allows players to progress faster, which can then allow them to do the new content (MM gods) faster. Anyhow if you don't agree that bosses should become a bit easier through an expansion cycle then I guess you won't agree with my points anyway, but wanted to add those points anyway. Have fun progging through MM, there are a lot of very fun bosses along the way, and even more repair costs than you can imagine.

Dunno why you're posting here and not in the operation sub-forum, here's my answer anyway. Bioware didn't say anything about changing the difficulty of old bosses, and in my opinion they shouldn't change anything. I'm not sure how you define "quite accessible" and "really easy", the number of people running MM is pretty low, and the number or VM apart from EV and KP that I see pugged on fleet is low enough to know that most people don't think they are really easy. Yes, for a seasoned group with good players and a lot of experience, VM is really easy and MM is easy enough. However, tuning those ops again because of new gear makes no sense. These good groups will just gear again and still find those operations easy. It's just adding to the grind with no value/challenge added whatsoever. If these players want those ops to be harder, then can just put 230 gear on and try. Also, top groups are getting new content (finally) with MM Gods. It's not much, but still a lot better than just changing Hp values on an old boss, and the new gear is for those new bosses, not for old MM. Moreover, for anyone who is progging VM or MM at the moment, a tuning change would be a slap in the face. Wiping to bosses you cleared a week before because new gear was released sucks big time (experienced this with the 2017 DPS nerfs when 248 was released). Having to grind for weeks to get gear to be at the same place as you were before doesn't make sense (except when a full expansion is released and level cap is changed, but that's another subject). It's ok that content becomes easier with time so that more players can experience it. Anyway those are my thoughts on the subject.

My thoughts: Considering you're asking this question, my guess is you have 0% chance of even being close to downing MM Tyth. I don't mean that to be mean, I just want to be honest. The only Pugs I can see downing some MM gods bosses are pugs composed of people that already cleared it with their respective team, and from what I heard from the PTS, it will be a minute before you can find any of those pugs around. It's already close to impossible to pug VM Gods (except in high end PVE guilds), and MM is a lot harder. Don't expect to be clearing any bosses anytime soon unless you join a team that is very competent and actively working on it. As for the last few questions. I guess success chance and failure rate was covered. How good do you really have to be to clear MM ops? How long does it take to learn the mechanics? Depends how you define good. You must understand and master your class and role, have optimal APM (and rotation) at all times, know which cooldown to use when, move where when, adapt when stuff doesn't go as planned, predict damage incoming, know every mechanic, etc. Some people say it isn't too hard, but it is very overwhelming when you start, and it can take a while to get used to all that. Depends if you play with people that already know everything, then you can learn very fast because they can compensate for your errors. A new group progging can take weeks to learn a single boss, depending on how much you raid and how fast you learn.

While I completely agree that those boosts are huge, so is the boost you get from a Nightmare crystal. Does that mean everyone is using crystals now? Not at all. Pretty much everyone that is progging for real isn't using them, and they are mostly tools for sale runs. If the ops are tuned not taking those buffs into account, then I don't see how it will change or force people to grind and get them. That being said, you can be against both those things, but I don't think they will really change how raiding serious raiding guilds work, or even the NiM raiding scene in general.

Like the post above, I like QoL perks. Not sure about the changes that affect Operations and PVP, but I guess (at least for Ops) it's kinda like the NiM crystal. You can use it to make your life easier, but you don't need it at all and if you don't want to spend tim e on conquest just don't. For PVP I see a problem though, like the 5/10% reduced damage stunned makes a difference, and a few other 1h boosts. As a casual PVPer I don't really care, but I can see a problem in ranked, maybe make those perks not affect ranked? I mean there are already complaining about the gear grind, I see this conquest grind being an issue also. Overall I think guild perks and leveling are a good thing though, and I wish that happened when I was still a lot more invested in this game.

While I agree the meta since the 5.4 (and on) DPS changes has moved towards melee DPS, Slinger/Sniper DPS is very good right now, undoubtedly the best range DPS. Best range burst (the competition is kinda sad), awesome AoE spec and the dot spec can rival with pretty much anything in a sustained fight. Awesome raid utilities. Tbh I think sniper is in a good place, it could maybe use a 1-2% buff (mostly cause I think the 5% gap between range and melee they are aiming for is too big), but that's pretty much it.

If you think this is a ranged meta in PVE you're wrong. Melee DPS have dominated PVE since this 5% rebalance thing they did, even on every single boss you just mentionned. 2-3% would be a lot more fair. Please don't talk like you're a NiM player saying that kind of things: "You are a NiM level player so it would be impossible for you to come to this conclusion [...]". Pretty much every single MM player agrees this 5% gap is too big. As for PVP, I don't see snipers and mercs dominating because of their DPS. No one really dominates because of their DPS, its mostly the other utilities that shape up PVP. A 2-3% difference is not really important in PVP and doesn't change the meta. Side note on that last paragraph I quoted. You just showed with that how little you understand how high end PVE is played, you should refrain from commenting on something you obviously don't know too much about. Thank you

So I haven't read past the first 2-3 posts so apologies if it has already been said, but when I see Grim's walls of text it kinda makes me not want to read a thread. You have something wrong in your understanding. Gear doesn't get more expensive (component wise) as you gear characters. It gets more expensive as you convert UC to shards through the week. Every week the progress resets. It is a way to slow the gearing so people can't get full set on day 1 if they have a lot of UCs.

Hey, Can't compare to Wow cause I barely played it, so I'll let someone else do it. For the other questions: - Rewards are decent, but top tier gear is no longer locked behind operations like 3.0 and before. Operations is probably the fastest way to gear though. - Lots of groups form on fleet for story modes every day (especially whatever op is on group finder that day). Some easy veteran modes (EV and KP) are pugged a lot. For harder veteran mode pugs lot of it happens on discord channels of servers. There is still an ok amount of guild that runs veterans pugs or guild runs. Master mode community is pretty small, but if you are good and willing to put the time, you'll find a place. - Starparse is the way to track DPS/HPS/whatever in game. Has lots of good timers and tools: http://ixparse.com/ - Parsely is the place where people share top parses and such, can be a good way to compare rotations and numbers in general: http://parsely.io/ - For ops guides (and also any guides in general), this is a pretty usefull tool, tracks pretty much everything: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=947159&page=2. Lots of ops guides are not up to date, but in most cases, mechanics ahven't changed at all, just HP amounts. Even though the amount of content is far from what Wow has, I think a new player can have a lot of fun for a good hwile in swtor ops, I enjoy them very much (and through the years I've raided at pretty much every level).

It is pretty clear the nerfs were not intended, nor were the buffs. I think it is safe to assume there is some work being done on Gods right now, and probably the changes pushed on live by accident. For some reason not all the fixes were pushed in 5.9.2a (and yes, the patch notes should have said something like "fix errors" more than "fix buffs"). From what Eric said it is pretty clear what is to expect in 5.9.3: all the bosses will be back to their state before they accidentally messed things up (5.9.2). My personal guess (and we are purely in speculation here): - They are looking into adding master mode gods - Considering the state of VM right now, they are looking into some small nerfs for VM, because it's not accessible enough - MM will be harder than VM is now, VM will be easier than VM is now This might be a load of crap, but it would explain why various changes (buffs and nerfs) were accidentally live.

I'm guessing that means at least two weeks from now, since 5.9.3 is on PTS right now, I'd be surprised if it was released next Tuesday. Don't see why there can't be a 5.9.2b. Anyhow, bad news is still better than no news, thanks for the update, helps to plan our raids.