I'm looking forward to non-ops players complaining about some solo aspects of the game not being balanced around crap gear, and having the fully optimized raiders going on and on about how easy it is and how everyone who isn't a NiM raider need to learn to play. /s

I'm preparing by tracking down quest armor for incomplete sets before they get rid of it all. I joined a conquest guild because I won't bother trying to get conquest on more than one character any more. Hopefully they will be a good source of HM flashpoints so I can work on the new social levels without going outside of my guild. I probably should work on optimizing my 306 gear better since it's better for 99% of content than anything I'll be able to get until Bioware flip flops again. Right now there is far more I'm not looking forward to than I am looking forward to. The only things we got to try out on the PTS were negatives, we didn't get to see any of the changes that might be positive.

I'm holding out some hope that there will be one for the anniversary, but gosh it would be nice if they'd just tell us! I budget for this, and there is no guarantee I'll hold onto this cash for two more weeks while I finish up my Christmas shopping. By now shouldn't they be trying to get us excited for the big anniversary?

When I was on the PTS with my little lvl 12ish warrior, I did a quick peek at what the conquest objectives were before I headed off to do the Korriban heroics, and I didn't see any that were for completing a planetary heroic. I saw objectives for rampages and for mission completes, but not the heroics themselves. I took that to mean they are reworking objectives. (I do not rule out the possibility that I overlooked them, but I was intentionally looking for them)

When you read the Facebook comments on any SWtOR post, invariably about 1/3 of the comments are about the topic, 1/3 of the comments are amazement that SWtOR is still around, and 1/3 of the comments are wishing it were on console. I am confident they will get a good influx of players when it first ports to consoles if it remains free to play. How many will stick with it and spend money on it is anyone's guess.

Wait! Are you saying Kai's random loot box isn't completely random? That the loot roll looks at what is in your inventory and won't give duplicates? Does it also factor in class, or will one armor mule work? Does Kai only have set armor, or will my mule also have to have every weapon, ear and implant on them as well? (As a solo player, tech fragments come at a slow trickle, so I've only been buying the crafting schematics from Kai. I've never had the luxury to gamble with them.)

How many people are going to rip out augments and buy new kits every time they upgrade gear? Considering max iLevel will be a continually moving goal post, I can't see ever augmenting gear again. What a silly design! Is this supposed to be a new credit sink? Or did they come up with a clever design where your existing gear is upgraded, rather than being replaced with new, higher tier gear?

Adding in those extra tiers for everyone doesn't take away from any content either. NiM raiding should get it faster than other routes. If HM Hammer Station earns top gear faster than NiM ops, then there should be a balance pass. There is no need to gate gear. What does it hurt if a solo player eventually reaches that top tier if it took them 10x as long? Presumably people run NiM ops because they enjoy the challenge. If people have to be bribed with lots of exclusive goodies, then they really aren't running them because they enjoy them.

This is a big question for me too! I only tested Korriban and I would very much like to know if it holds true for the rest of the planets. On Korriban the main pieces of the old sets Apprentice Pummeler 1 & 2 were replaced with half of a Korriban set that looked similar to this. Since they are replace 2 sets with 1, the new set was lvl restricted to 7, so you can't equip it until you are half way done with the planet. On the PTS the side quests still dropped the old Apprentice pieces, but the main pieces were no longer available. I assume on live those will be replaced with the missing pieces of Korriban gear. The Korriban heroics continued to reward Requisitioned gear (which matches the quest gear from Dromund Kaas). I did not run any flashpoints at that level, so I do not know if they currently drop the same gear or not. Quick primer to current leveling gear: The starter planets have 2 gear sets per class. Some are reskins, some modified reskins, some unique. They are bind on pickup. Toward the end of the story you receive a modifiable legacy weapon, which was still being rewarded on the PTS. Each planet has a set of green gear for each class acquired from quests. (for example Requisitioned) The main pieces are from the class quests, but the rest are in planetary arcs and side quests. They are bind on pick up. Most of the time the sets are the same for all advanced classes, but on occasion there are differences. Heroics & conquest rewards have matching blue gear based on your level. They match the level appropriate planet. (for example Requisitioned MK-2 for lvl 10-16) Also bind on pickup. It can be extremely difficult to collect sets from heroics since the rewards are random and leveling is so fast. Heroics do not have the matching main hand weapons, only off hands. Flashpoints drop purple sets that match about half of the leveling sets. For example Requisitioned MK-3, but not Tarnished) They are bind on equip and do include the main hands. You will be lucky to get one or two pieces before out-leveling the level bracket, but since they are boe they can be bought on the GTN. ( I thought TorFashion had a list, but Exile changed the format awhile ago and I can't find it. MK-3s: Requisitioned, Aftermarket, Decorated, Thermal, Crystalline, Fractured & Yavin.)

What about the unique Dxun gear sets? Was that not a "small gear improvement attained through those operations". Horizontal progression is a thing in many, many MMOs. Why did it fail for this one? (Let's be clear, it only failed for NiM raiders, the rest of the player base seemed quite happy with a horizontal gearing progression.)

Are they killing solo play? No. They are not removing any solo content (that we know of), and they are adding a little bit more. Is it limiting solo players? Yes, depending on your playstyle. We won't have the gear for short-manning uprisings or flashpoints. We'll see if we have the gear for Eternal Championship and MM chapters. Solo players won't be able to gear up to do the occasional group content either. That will deter a decent chunk of solo players from doing occasional group content. (That's something Bioware and the raider community simply don't understand. A large chunk of solo players want to be over-geared for group content before they ever try it to give themselves confidence. The gear isn't the reward, it's the experience.) What it does do is greatly reduce the rewards for completing solo content. You can still do most, if not all, of that content, but there is much less reason to repeat it.

Since they are removing the ability to earn DvL tokens, I think they should add in a legacy unlock. (Gating them behind downing rare world bosses is not a reasonable way to earn tokens!)

I have heard a rumor that more options will be available. I don't know how reliable that rumor was, if it will just be a new skin or two, or when in the 7.x cycle it will be. The rumor included customization for Nico too.

I get a few from crafting missions and some resource nodes. I haven't paid enough attention to which ones though.

Umm... Theron gets maybe 1/4 of the screen time Lana does. That is hardly "at the same rate". If Theron and Lana actually had equal screen time past SoR, there wouldn't be nearly as many complaints. They sidelined him long before the kill option. So the whole "2 main companions, 1 male, 1 female" went out the window years ago. It's the Lana show, with occasional guest appearances from Theron and others.

That might have been my gladiator Skadge, though I have seen some other nice ones. You inspired me to update the outfit! Guss didn't want to be left out, but his tastes run Sithy. He's rather jealous of the fans beefcake Skadge has. I think if a companion has a unique skin, show it off! (That doesn't apply to Vector and Scourge's lack of skin...) Anyway, enjoy! https://i.imgur.com/o0a539R.jpg

This makes me want to cry! Every time I check for profitable dyes to sell, there are a ton on the market and the prices are down. Last batch of red and black I made I ended up using myself because there were so many listed under 100k. Sigh. I just don't have the persistence or savvy to become a crafting/GTN mogul.

A few tidbits. Quinn having divided loyalty is still loyalty, but, you know, divided between two people and above all, he was loyal to the Empire. Quinn is the one who searched for the warrior until he was imprisoned for it, not Pierce. Pierce's loyalty was never tested. (In light side Jaesa's companion conversations it is clear neither she, nor the Warrior trust Pierce.) After the warrior went missing, Pierce took a cushy office job and abandoned the warrior right after they went missing. Sure, he grumbled about it, but he sure didn't resign to keep searching. He didn't even look for the warrior in his spare time. Doesn't sound very loyal to me. More like he viewed his post with the warrior as just that, just another job assigned to him, albeit one that let him blow up whatever he wanted to. Quinn was a bridge officer until he got banished to Balmorra for his heroic, but unauthorized actions which saved an entire fleet. He repeatedly proved himself a man of courage and action. (Single-handedly tracking and capturing a Republic spy. Single-handedly liberating Ovech's ship.) The story made the point, over and over again, that Quinn was an exceptional officer who was held back by the animus of a deranged, but well-connected moff, something Baras took advantage of. Nothing in Pierce's bio demonstrates that he was perceived as exceptionally valued by the army. He sure complains about that! That's his schtick. He moans and groans about how unappreciated he is and how everyone else is incompetent. Heck, he was even grousing about Quinn before he even said one word to him. He was an insubordinate, loose cannon. If he was as talented as you say, he could have found another way to get the forces he needed without whoring out a former subordinate. He was just too lazy and cruel to bother. Perhaps there was a reason Vowrawn and the Dark Council praised Quinn for his valor on Corellia, and not Pierce? Perhaps there was a reason Acina made Quinn her advisor and not Pierce? Perhaps there was a reason the writer of the story intentionally left open the possibility Quinn sabotaged the droids and wasn't actually trying to defeat the warrior on the transponder station?

This is where I ended up. I liked Lana just fine in SoR and planned on keeping at least one character in a romance with her, but the overwhelming favoritism the developers showed her leading up to KotFE and beyond has thoroughly soured me on her. There needs to be some quality content with a non-Lana character and soon if the story is going to be worth playing through even once. I am bringing fewer and fewer alts through the new stories because this current writing team doesn't seem capable of writing relationships, and relationships are the core of most good fiction. I am resigned to never seeing the vanilla characters again, but damn it, they promised the kill option on Theron wouldn't "brick" him, and it most certainly did!

You failed to demonstrate how reducing and removing rewards from much of the game and limiting them to a few activates at a time encourages diverse play and player retention. Only a slice of the playerbase participates in those farms, and yet the rest of the pie has to suffer for it?

There is no way they can go live with what is on the PTS. They probably won't act on anyone's suggestions for improvements, but they have to finish all of the unfinished systems and UIs and fix the worst of the bugs. I don't expect they will put the final version on the PTS, they will just shut it down when they think they are ready.

Not for combat styles I won't. They will al get their second style, which is good enough. I might make a new character for new hair though. It's disappointing how few new character creation options are being added. Too bad they spent so much time revamping the UI, but so little time on anything important (for character creation).

You still get the 3 piece grey set from character creation. (I think. I didn't think to test that.) They didn't inform us of the starter planet quest reward changes, but it is on the PTS. What is there now is a mess. There are a couple pieces of a new, fairly generic set, but it's not a full 7 piece set. The side quests still give bits and pieces of the 2 old 6 & 7 piece sets, but now you can't get the main pieces. Who knows what they intend to go live with since they completely ignore every question and comment on the PTS. It is all so unfinished and buggy, I don't know what they were thinking putting it on the PTS in that state and then asking for feedback.. The current starter planet sets incase people forgot.

I'm going to try and get more of the sets. Gambling with Kia is a horrible way to try and finish collecting sets. But terrible odds are better than nothing I'm too far way from renown 100 to bother with. I need to double check that all of my younger alts have finished their starter planet sets. I need to decide if I'm going to keep testing on the PTS. Is there any point? Nothing looks finished there, so I don't want to submit anything to TorFashion yet.

I'm happy to hear the achievements will still be available and I do love legacy fluff! However, could you please lower the fragment cost? With 68 sets of 7 pieces, the odds of getting anything we need to complete a set we don't already have are astronomical! The changes to conquest make it take significantly longer to gain fragments and these sets will just be cosmetic. Putting them on a random vendor is already sadistic enough without them having a high fragment cost. You need a good credit sink, but this isn't it with the 3k fragment requirement.