Zuhara <Tomb of Sorrows> Madness Assassin 1.5mil HP Dummy 3216.69 DPS - TTK 7m45s

Think he insulted you bro. Challenged you to forum PvP and everything.

Zuhara <Tomb of Sorrows> Deception Assassin 1 mil HP Dummy TTK: 5m 7.486s, DPS: 3223.07 EDIT: Zuhara <Tomb of Sorrows> Deception Assassin 1.5 mil HP Dummy TTK: 8m 6.002s, DPS: 3075.38 Zuhara <Tomb of Sorrows> Madness Assassin 1.5 mil HP Dummy TTK: 7m 59.509s, DPS: 3124.73 wtb 4 piece set bonus

This game still has, what, 9 years left on their license?

Pretty sure DoA also took a hit recently in their raid team, from what I've heard.

Go away, he's ours now.

Umm, a mechanic that, IE, requires you to time cleansing the mine from CZ NiM is going to be as difficult no matter what the damage output and total health of the boss, and it's going to wipe people all the time and still create an instance where not everyone is going to clear it. Let's not even go into the additional mechanic changes with Brontes, as there are very few mechanics in there that are designed as purely just checks in DPS, healing, or mitigation. Mechanics are mechanics; the instance is still going to be difficult. It's not like all the HM heroes are going to clear it the day the game gets patched. it'll take them a month or two before the first ones really start downing it. Calm down, you have enough challenging content. But it's just that: your own conclusion. In other words, an assumption that you did not draw from any facts. I apologized for making one myself, you might wanna do the same. If you can, that is. Course I did. If you want to get into HM level ops, all you have to do is be a very mediocre player skill wise and have the right friends. HM ops do not require extensive skill level individually, all they take is having the competency of a normal human being and being able to understand mechanics. The problem there though, is having the right friends. Many people don't need to run more content or have more challenging aspects to the game: they need better tools to access the content already there. How many pug groups do you see tackling NiM TFB? NiM SV? Even HM DF and DP? On my server, you couldn't even run anything beyond SM TFB and get very far with true pugs. Like I said, there's plenty of challenging content to keep people entertained. Only problem is that the current system of gearing and social superiority dictating who you get in with makes the PvE scene way too exclusive. And how did you get that gear? You probably got it by sticking with a group, running with people who are looking to gear out a team and tackle the content. That's the only possible way to get it, unless you had the patience to grind out gear for more than a couple of months before you even touched the content or got really lucky rolls in pug groups. Take a step back from your own little world and look in the eyes of a fresh pug: -You don't really know any good groups that will take you along, you don't have many credits (This argument will extend down below). So what do you do? Spend the first few 2 weeks grinding all of the daily zones to get 69 gear, the only level of gear you can farm. 2 weeks, given it takes 1000+ Basic comms for a full 69 set of Black Market and the weekly cap for Basic comms is 500. -Ok, now you're set with full 69s, ready to run some SM content. Only one problem: no one queues for SM Ops in GF. You have to be on the lookout, watching gen chat on Fleet and making sure you are on at the times when people are forming for ops. Add about a week looking to find a group that has space for you, add another if you want to be more realistic. And to be more realistic, the story can easily end for people here who may have conflicting schedules with others. -Ok you finally got into a pug operation group, you run the content with other players. You have to deal with a variety of people, some who are possibly overgeared and looking to be benefactors to noobs. Others in the same boat as you, and even just blatant bads that can't get a mechanic down. Pug success is dependant on server, as my server's pugs fail after two bosses in something as trivial as SM SV where the group is a pure pug team, and I've been in 16 man pug groups on Harbinger that down DF and DP SM with one shots on every boss. Gonna lean more towards the negative side of things, and add in about 2 full months to gear from loot if you consistently run with people where you're trying to upgrade 69s to 72s. -Now, you're sitting in 72s, ready to try your hand at HM 55 ops. New problem, if you find yourself on a server that isn't like Harbinger and like mine, this is where the story ends. I can count on one hand the amount of groups that run any HM 55s, and the guilds that have the skill to do them are too inclusive to include someone that they know nothing about into their already committed team of 8, and not nearly enough recruits to consider forming a second team/converting to 16 man. So what do you do? -Crafting. Spend more than a few million modding out your gear to get the 78 craftables, effectively placing you in the second BiS gear without a set bonus. Cost? Since you can't get the MMGs anywhere outside of operations and it would take 7560 Basic comms to get enough Isotopes for a full set (you have to start from zero, since you've been grinding out basic comms for your 69 gear), gonna assume the basic price for them based on their GTN sale: 2 mill per modification. Total price: 84 million credits. That's the true price to be a raider on my server, around 84 million credits if you want to have gear people will trust you in and possibly spending over 2 months pugging operations that, in all reality on my server, will fall through before they even make it half way into the op. Meaning, skill as a raider developing in those stages is very low. No one is going to spend that much time in the game just to even have a shot at trying the HM content, NiM is a dream for people on my server. The few remaining people have so little to recruit from in the pool because of this: it's easier to treat the game as just that, a game, instead of wasting so much time to follow down a path that won't guarantee any success. Get the right friends though, and the process gets much easier. People will devote time to helping people they know and like, farming them gear instead of fighting off other pugs to get loot you need to just get a chance for a raid team to look at you. Hence, social initiatives grant more rewards than real skill can. And even then, this is assuming that the person following down that path had the potential to be a NiM level raider: skill wise, the story could end anywhere based on how much of a noob the player was. Bolstered GF that allows HM Ops would be good, same as allowing HM FPs to be queueable even if you haven't run the SM. The important thing is getting people in there so they can fight things, and instead of making the game reliant on what grade of gear you have, making the game more reliant on how much skill you have as a player. Instead of this contradictory "you need to learn how to play before you go into HM, but you can't play without gear that you can't grind. You have to get it from other operations, where the people who can get it for you have moved on to bigger things, and pug runs have people that will fight over loot pieces to force you to spend more than a few months gearing out just so you can play the mode you want to play." Where you also against the idea of HM FPs being queueable, unless you had played SM when they first came out with GF? I wonder, how much your argument would change in regards to that, how much you would cling this attitude that only completionists down HM and NiM content.

Lol, it could be worse. You could be on the highest population density server and not have a single guild or group that has even downed NiM Brontes yet. *cough* BC *cough*

Again, spoken like a true HM hero. Your current system is flawed, dedication to the game does not always groom the best players nor should there be such a dramatic emphasis on how much time someone places into the game to build a raider. Gear isn't something you can grind out while developing your skill as a raider like you can in PvP, you either get the gear from crafting without ever PvEing or you find a group/multiple groups where you can spend months battling other people for loot to gear yourself out. If you want a system where people earn their ability to play through hard work over talent, that's your own little viewpoint. But at the end of the day, this is not a game where you can dedicate hours to gearing and learning the ops to be better; you have to succeed in them before you can even get the experience. You also have to be good at making friends, you have to have the social initiative to go out and make your own connections. GF was the first step in attempting to make pairing and creating connections easier for people, and it's done a relatively good job in improving the overall problem with how people queue up. Did you argue against HM FPs being in that queue too because people should put in the dedication and work in the SMs to queue up for HM? It's the same argument really, the only difference is the FP has four people instead of eight. Social superiority does not make a good raider, all it does is get you chances to be in a group of people. I know plenty of groups that have died because of the fact that we had someone in the group that could crack jokes and have a good time with people, but didn't care at all about bettering themselves and weighed the team down overall to the point where there was a boss that they simply could not be carried through. I'd rather not have a system that rewards social initiative, and having the gear you won either randomly or at the grace of another, be the measures of who "makes it" in the game. I'd rather skill and experience be the true areas of being a raider, simply because people will have to work just as hard for their gear bolstered in HM ops than they would if they made it into a group of people willing to help them develop as players. Notice, how also, I never stated that social constructs be removed from the equation entirely. I merely stated that the game take away such a massive importance on "social initiatives", as the problem isn't that you have to be social in general, but that you have to go out and be the social "alpha" in society to earn a raid spot. That you have to start every single connection on your own, no one has the means to reach out for long to players/no means to recruit talent that you may see in an ops group because pug groups rarely happen anymore. You are selfish because you are only listening to yourself, you aren't reading any of my posts and then attempting to argue with me whenever your emotions decide that the time to argue is now. My proof is simply that a rational person, who was following this conversation with their logic, would've at least posted a response that would argue an area I haven't brought up. Since you made not one, but two posts of ignorance, it's clear you chose to be ignorant on the matter, and selfishly argued with me now of all times only because you didn't like being wrong/someone actually disagreeing with you.

Ah, is that the title then? Conqueror of the Dread Palace?

Then why are you against bolstering players up to the required gear level of 72s? All Bioware would be doing by that is two things: -Giving people, who aren't socially successful, acceptable motivation to try out for any ops, NiM still being exclusive and unbolstered as a means to encourage the social interaction of joining a raid team. -Setting a standard. And who actively benefits from this situation in the real long run? -Elite raiders, looking to gear out alts. That's it. Full pug groups going into DF HM will wipe continuously with the current knowledge and standard they have, even with bolstered stats. However, unlike PvP, they are losing the main excuse that they usually point to whenever they fail in an operation: "oh, my DPS is low because my gear isn't that great". You want better raiders? You need a solid standard being set by developers, stating: "This is what an average level player can do in this level of difficulty with this gear." The only current standard being set is that requirement line in the Weekly ops missions, and clearly, it isn't doing much when there are still people that will argue with you in General chat that you NEED 78s to clear HM DF and DP. Bolstered HM 55s solves the problems in regards to extended time to gear that many people with lives may not be able to do, as well as making a step towards setting a real standard of player skill that no one can actively deny. That's the whole point, no one is going to down HM Brontes in 72s without actual skill, nor will anyone be able to carry people through that operation. My old raiding group fell apart for that very reason: we couldn't pull people through fights such as Corrupter Zero and the Dread Council, and most of them were nearly BiS Dread Forged. But at least people will be able to try their hand at it, and giving them the chance to actively try and try on a boss without such exclusive requirements that currently exist gives some people enough motivation to possibly create something bigger and become better. More raiders, more PvE content being touched. I know you guys might not think so, considering you might be privileged enough to have multiple groups of people on server clearing content like the Harbinger. But for some servers, we'd like to actually see if we can motivate some of our casuals to change, by at least "leading them to the water." Because on some servers, we may have lost what few elite players we had left to abandon a sinking ship, and are trying to find ways that may help encourage people to change their mentalities. Metaphorically, sure, they may not drink. But I'd rather try and help them out and do my part of at least "leading them to the water", and a bolstered GF HM 55 Op queue would definitely help in that regards. The more excuses you eliminate that people can make, the better.

They are, but they haven't announced what exactly the title will be for downing it. Pretty sure it's also gonna be "Conqueror of the Dread Palace", but who knows. It might be something really cool.

I will apologize, because your post originally seemed to, in my eyes, have a sentence structure indicating as if the NiM DF nerf occurred too soon and that there was possibly an intended shock value in regards to that, which would imply that the nerf occurred because of complaints. Your complaint is in regards to a lack of challenging content, I never argued the term "nerfed". I argued the difficulty remained the same, which the mechanics and challenging aspects of still failing against NiM mechanics with better gear will still offer a level of content that many will not be able to clear. Kind of like how there are still people who will swear up and down that Kephess NiM from EC is still one of the most difficult fights in the game, even if the gear and level caps have made him a lot easier. After all, like you said: Difficulty is still the same mechanically, and they are removing the title for clearing it now "Conqueror of the Dread Fortress". I hope you actually can understand it this time, I can't spell it out for you any other way. Did you read my post? I never argued against the idea of a HM Tactical, I never argued that adding more challenging content would hurt the game. Ironically enough, here is my argument against your point about how the developers should focus on creating HM Tython, and just generally focusing on more content: If I had my way, I'd see a bolster for running any HM 55 operation in the game, especially Dread Fortress and Dread Palace. Why? Because in this game, the only real modicum of success and how you earn it in anything that isn't a NiM level raiding guild is simple: your social connections and having the skill level of someone who can push three buttons. Social constructs and connections are the current measure of real skill in operations, not how good of a raider you are or taking chances. Mainly because the gearing system in regards to granting people the ability to run certain content is unbelievably exclusive: one of 14 pieces per boss kill, that 8 people can fight over. Bolster in GF PvE solves that, and that's why I want it. But at the end of the day, I think it'd be more beneficial if the game allowed HM 55 ops as well, only cutting the aspect of bolster and GF queueing for NiM level content. Which would solve the problem of "social superiority" being the reason why so many HM heroes even exist, and also give people a chance to gain gear and experience necessary to tackle operations of NiM level quality. There aren't enough players out there to back the argument that there isn't enough challenging content to run, because quite frankly, there are a multitude of operations that can challenge players. Maybe not to the very top 10%, but to the majority, there are plenty of unattainable goals that they'd like to tap into but can't because of their lack of resources and social connections. So again, no, this game doesn't absolutely NEED more challenging content, as the race to satisfy the content hunger will never actually be filled. It needs to give players more opportunities to become raiders based on potential skill, rather than focusing on social capabilities and how much time in game you've basically wasted to fully gear out your toon (which until recently with crafting, you couldn't really achieve the highest level of gear unless you had success in operations).

Again, I've already addressed this aspect: The problem isn't that they aren't playing it easy mode first. The problem is that gear wise, it is nearly impossible to get ready for that kind of content and run it unless you have made the correct connections to other players and have spent the time preparing your gear for more than months of gameplay. Gear that you can't get on your own, and gear you have to be successful to gain. Again, PvP gear grinding is the exact opposite, as you can get it on your own and you can get it even if you are unsuccessful in the WZs. Which, there, skill is not being tested. Only how well you perform socially and a level of unnecessary patience. That is a problem, one that shouldn't restrict people access into HM content because you don't need to have the very best team in there, only 8-16 decently geared players with a skill level above or right at average. The rewards in that mode aren't even very exclusive either, the vanity items that drop as rewards are given to players capable of downing the hardest bosses in that instance. I even used the analogy to other video games, where most only restrict access to the hardest level of difficulty in the game (Very Hard, Veteran or whatever the COD term is, etc.) based on if you've played through the content before, all other modes are accessible. I would ask that you go back and read please. I've addressed every single one of your attempted counters in the main posts above, it's starting to get frustrating having to argue with someone who's lack of consideration and selfishness calls for my repeated points.

Go ahead and report me then if you feel as if I did something wrong. Because if you actually read the rules of conduct, here is the definition that is outlined: "Harassment is also any behavior that is incessant, inescapable, derogatory and directed specifically at you or your group. Before reporting, a genuine attempt to alleviate the situation should be made by leaving the area or the offending player, or asking them politely to stop. If a sincere attempt has been made to solve the problem and the offending player persists in the behavior, it should be reported." Let's take a look at the four phrases being used here: -Incessant -Inescapable -Derogatory -Directed specifically at you or your group Which one of those words above would actually counter the argument that vulgar and abusive chat is "harassment", which is the specific act that violates the ToS? Easy enough: -Inescapable Why? Because you have the /ignore function to remove the typing of another player, therefore you can "escape it". Same with one or even two whispers, depending on the content of said whispers. Trash talking and vulgar chat in general will never be a type of action that the devs will warrant intervention in, simply because it isn't harassment if it is escapable. Not to mention, CS can't be bothered to stick their nose in every little dispute someone has with another, only to take action against arguments that go too far which always evolve into real harassment. Again, get some thick skin please. Source: http://www.swtor.com/legalnotices/rulesofconduct

Or better idea: If you don't like someone being vulgar/venting in a chat, put them on ignore so you don't have to see it. Instead of wasting resources, effort, and time to create a channel that you essentially are trying to argue for as if there is a need to police general chat. Get some thick skin please.

The problem is the combination of gear and skill, and the only way to get gear in PvE within a realistic time frame is to be successful with skill at a level above noob status, where no one will give them a chance to practice at that level unless they have the gear. By eliminating the gear issue, you solve the main problem you just stated: overall, people believe gear is more important than skill, and there is no standard being set other than the gear requirement line in the ops weekly mission. Bolster with HM ops solves BOTH, granting people the ability to play in HM ops without prerequisites and still work towards gear, as I have never seen a real pug group clear HM Zero, let alone doing it at what the old elite players cleared it with: full 72s.

Perhaps so. But again, that isn't the problem, you have to force people to be more open with their criticism. You have to question, pry, and demand they continue on. And if they won't then you should either figure out the issue yourself, as you did, or just ignore it completely and move on. The mannerism of presentation won't change the capability of someone being able to relay important information. The problem with people though is that even when they see helpful tips, they'll still throw them away simply out of the egocentric "I don't like the words they used" attitude. That, is a major problem, one that is very rampant because of this game's casual majority mentality. They expect people to cater to their standards, and won't improve their own game at points to even spite others. Egos are always a problem, but the only ones that really cause lasting issues are the egotistical casuals, as those types of players like the mentality mentioned above develop real hatred and are the real petty people of society. Is this considered helpful? If you can't find a single bit of information that benefits you as a player in there, you have an ego problem. And if you can, there's your example of helpful verbal abuse.

Nope, because as I said, PvP is a separate game mode that differs because standards of play are never set in stone. Basically put, the players may be the same on one team over and over again, but they could face an entirely different opponent that varies based on two levels: skill and tactics. Having a system, that actually nerfs people based on some gear, in a game mode where you are directly competing against another does not solve anything besides making the loss not as dramatic if they had no PvP gear. In terms of setting a standard, it does nothing. Which is perfect for that particular game mode: setting standards should only be done by the players themselves. Also, in PvP, gearing works differently. It doesn't matter how many times you lose or even how hard you fought; you will still get gear as long as you queue for WZs, and skill only determines how long it will take. Now head back over to the PvE world, where we start with the bosses: Bosses are the opponents in PvE, and they are static. They may have a mechanic or two that is RNG, but everything else is plannable in that stage. Setting a bolster that will not nerf people (why would you need to nerf any gear that goes into an op?) to meet a level of standard is different because unlike PvP, it is only a question of your skill, not another player on the other side. Secondly, gearing in PvE. Set bonus gear is different than store bought, possessing better stats and crucial set bonuses to play in the ops. You have literally one weekly that you can complete for comms to buy higher level gear, a few more for the 72 store boughts, and 69s are the only items you can actively farm. Everything else drops as loot, and it doesn't matter how much time you spent wiping on bosses: you don't kill it, you don't get the loot. So gearing out in PvE is way more exclusive than PvP gearing is, and ultimately provides no real way to get items that people will trust you in without not just playing in ops, but succeeding in them. Unless you want to spend over a half year, grinding ultimate comms from the FP weekly.

The problem with your friend there wasn't that he was being a douche: the problem is that he didn't explain it enough for you to understand. Overall, if you take away whether or not he was being a dick, you change nothing: the valuable information he gave you was "stop capping with one minute left in the round". That wouldn't have changed, even if the only thing he said was that point or put it in a nice manner. You can still be a douche and make sense. You can still curse people out and sew in useful information such as: "Hey dips***, stop capping their node when there's still a full minute left in the round." Had he been committed to giving criticism, he would have given you the response of: "If you cap it when the rounds almost over, you don't give them a chance to take it back. Instead of being a f****** moron and taking a node you can't defend for a full minute and giving them free points." The only thing that would demand you reject that entire line above is because you wouldn't like the way you address someone, an egocentric motive. Which, of course, would actually create a problem if you tried to put the information in a nicer manner: you unintentionally teach people that they can get their way on how they take criticism, ultimately creating a system that eventually adheres to emphasizing more players who believe others should "cater" to them. While on the other hand, you do more good shoving the criticism down their throats because a) the major separation between the elite and the bads is the fact that the elites know they can't control the game. and b) because you allow people to express frustration, as everyone has a breaking point for their tolerance capabilities.

^ This. People seem to forget that a good bit of the argument is similar to how "the game would be so much nicer if there weren't any trolls". Which they are right, but only to a degree. Because their own selfish, egotistical thinking believes that the best way to approach trolls is to have the devs just go on a happy banning spree and eliminate them all, just like the people who swear violently at others for failing miserably in PvP. In case some of you really missed the basic concepts of human interactions, let's take a look at how the basic troll works: They will do anything, and say anything to derive an emotional and irrational response out of you, no matter what they may be. A negative example is a troll who slanders your family on the internet to make you mad, a positive example is a comedian trying to make you laugh at his jokes/satire. However, every single one of these is a basic character test, especially in the negative example. It's basically asking, "Are you petty and arrogant enough to get offended by the words of another over the internet? That there are a few combination of words that no matter who or even what says it, that it will replace your rational thinking process with uncontrolled emotion?" That at the end of it all, the act of being trolled tests you, as a person, if you are really that much of an egotistical self centered individual that you can't tolerate simple text from someone you will never meet? This isn't the real world, you are not going to be face to face with anyone. So why do you have to get all worked up as if your own mother was the one who cursed you out? This is essentially the problem, where these two types of players are mixing: -Someone who is upset and frustrated over whatever fallacies occurred within a team based situation. -Someone who is upset about mean words being directed to them. In the real world, both of these complaints have legitimate stances, thanks to the inclusion of face to face aspects of social interaction with other human beings. Who is expected to be the bigger man in the situation can be varied, as the fact that either side has equal rights to complain makes it easier for one side to respect the other overall. However, on the Internet, the face to face interactions and even personal connections are eliminated. There is no looming presence, no human connection with another, and if someone actually tries to make the threatening connection personal and IRL, the devs step in. While the concept of why a person would get frustrated by another's direct actions remains unchanged in a game mode where stupidity and disregard can still exist unhindered. Meaning, the people who should be expected to "bigger" are the ones who only have to worry about negativity from text, versus the people who still have to experience the same level of disregard, ignorance and stupidity in a different medium. And what do we have in response? People expecting others to treat the game mode as just a game, yet are so petty and egotistical themselves that they can't even handle a few mean words over a chat box on the Internet. It's completely backwards, to say the least, as how we should be functioning as a higher level of society. So the whole point of verbal abuse to other players is the very same point to trolling: it reveals character. Sometimes, it reveals the character of the troll themselves, who actually isn't a real one and is doing it out of displacement of their own insecurities. And then, there are the real ones, who expertly pick and pull apart the lies people desperately put up to protect their own overly rampant and unwarranted pride. It's not the troll's fault that they have so much negativity to feed upon, it's actually yours. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you will begin understand how little you will have to use that /ignore and /report function. And the sooner you realize the actual reasoning for making threads like these is useless.

An overwhelming majority, I agree. But there are a few of us who still want decent competition and hard fought battles. Complaining about a lack of those seems to get mixed up with complaining about losing though, unfortunately.

Correction: it doesn't happen. I have yet to see a true pug clear one of the HM Dread Ops, and no one pugs even HM 50 ops on my server. Well let's see: -People who don't have optimized gear. Bolster gives them confidence if the only prerequisite they need to fill is in regards to their own player skill. -People who don't have the "right" friends for a HM level op. -People who don't take social initiatives -People who have the confidence in themselves, but not in others because they see terrible stats in gear. -People who are just plain lazy and want a system to sync them up with others. -People who like the idea of pugging and want to put faith in it. Gear and overall pre planning of raid teams is why pugs fail every single time, hardly ever do they fall apart because the overall team as a whole can't possibly down the content. Someone leaves, someone has real life come up, someone DCs, players need to switch roles, not enough people in the right roles, not enough reputable players as friends online, don't know enough of the player pool to gain attention, not enough players reading general chat to get a replacement, not enough decently geared players responding to the general chat message. So a tool that basically eliminates the various problems of social flaws and prerequisites such as a bolstered GF queue would be something I would label as "popular". Simply because it eliminates every single one of those problems above.

Lol, what? Half of the problem is because people need to put time and effort into an operation to get the gear, and if you are not apart of a consistent team, success as a player will not come because: 1) People hardly ever will take others into ops if they are new and fresh. How many random pugs do you actively see on your own server that don't require/demand experience to run with them? Now take that knowledge, apply it to servers that aren't established PvE successful such as the Harbinger, and understand that on some servers such as my own, no one in their right mind would pug anything above the level of SM TFB. Simply because people refuse to spend their precious time helping others, as no one is going to waste weeks and weeks of grinding to help another, no matter how much they may even want to. 2) Gear ultimately dictates if you're ready in the eyes of a noob. If there is a standard set of "this is what an average player can do with this kind of gear", then people who seek to better themselves as players will strive to meet that standard. However, the only precedent being set in PvE at the moment is the little requirement line in the Weekly Operations mission and EVERYTHING ELSE is set solely on what the population as a whole says. And if that population, because they have no clue what the real standard is, deems that you NEED FULL 78s to run HM DF and DP, then it will be so. Removing gear from the equation basically sets the precedent needed for HM level ops, something people are so confused about it's no wonder no one touches content in HM outside of a raid guild. Having a bolster doesn't hand people victories, it sets the bar for what people should actively expect from themselves. Ironically enough, it's a complete counter to your belief that somehow, it hands people success when it's not deserved. The only measure of success in regards to HM ops currently is how good your friends are, and how many social connections you can make. It doesn't matter how exceptional of a raider you are; all you have to do to be a successful player is have the right friends and be competent enough to know the very basics of raiding 101. That, in regards to social success being the strongest key to being a good PvEr, is silly and needs to change. And that's what Bioware would do by implementing a bolster system and allow HM queuing for GF: changing the game away from making friends into bettering yourself as a player. Benchmarks in what? There is no real grounds being established from pugging an operation currently: you get in with people, they forget all about you the next day. Either that, or because of lacking initiative or social skills, you never set up an operation with them again. Active social constructs and struggling methods of developing ties with other people is the reason why operations as a whole fail so dramatically in this game, where people struggle to find a team of 8 to fight something while other games have successful 40+ member raids. The system currently designed demands players have immense initiative in regards to forming social connections and making the right friends, there is no real progression in regards to HM content being made outside of how hard it was to get in with a group capable of downing the content. To force people to develop those ties AND spend months and months farming gear that really only serves to better your stats for the next level of the operation is silly. I'd rather see the devs bolster SM and HM, give people a chance to play against challenging content not as social climbers, but as actual players, and then reserve NiM level as a means to demonstrate true elite level play, where the actual vanity rewards such as the unique mounts are sought and achieved. How's your progression on Brontes coming? I know you haven't downed a single NiM boss in your guild on your server, I know you also have yet to clear HM Brontes and HM Dread Council, the two bosses in this game that I would be willing to argue are close to the level of difficulty presented by NiM level content. You're a HM hero, beliving you've earned the right to difficulty. But let me ask you this, in all the games you played, especially ones that have a riveting campaign, tell me: How many of them forced you to play the Easy/Regular mode of the game before you could touch the Hard difficulty? Now taking that a step further, you know what level of the game you weren't allowed to access in most story driven games? Very Hard. Whatever super elite level of difficulty there was, a lot of video games would allow you to play the Hard (ironically enough, most games even let you play whatever mode you want from the start), but would restrict access to the highest level of difficulty in the game unless you had completed the game before. Your argument, as a HM hero, is essentially that you've earned the right to play in HM ops because you made the right friends and you got the right gear, having played the "Easy mode". You didn't manage to do anything exceptionally skill wise such as lead a raid team from ground up, all you did was essentially state that because you've done things on "easy mode", you have the right to access "hard" and no one should have a shot at it unless they've played through the easy mode and dedicated so much game time like you have. Even if they are a better player, and even if they have more potential as a raider than you. No sir, social connections and gear are the true analyzations of what makes a good player in PvE. Please stop.

For starters, lol. They stated they were going to be removing this buff before NiM DF went live, as a means to give elite NiM players a chance to earn something that could be a permanent symbol of their worth. The nerf to NiM DF isn't because people whined too hard. Secondly, you underestimate the difficulty of how hard NiM DF will still be with the nerf. It's kind of like how challenging NiM TFB and SV still are when you roll in there with full Dread Forged, where the gear requirement is BiS and augmented 72s. Most groups still aren't capable of downing those instances, and would take a significant amount of familiarization with the mechanics to clear, let alone the amount of practice to be able to gain a title from the timed run. Bolded for irony, as that's what they are basically doing. This game doesn't really need more challenging content, the race to fufil that never ending need adheres to a very small and loud minority of elite level players. What this game really needs is a better system of inclusion for players to have the opportunity to experience that end game content, without having to dedicate months and months of preparation and developing connections with the right people just to even have a shot at running the content. Because as it stands, all you need to do to get more raiders and players who are capable of downing the toughest content is to give them a chance. The bads will still fail with bolstered stats, the good players will still succeed. The only difference between a non bolstered PvE and a bolstered, GF dominated PvE is the amount of required social success you have towards others. So if you want success in PvE ops to be defined solely on how many good connections you can make, then I suppose that's your burden. Personally, I'd rather see a game where players earn spots on raid teams not because they managed to get that "once in a blue moon" connection with a good raid team, but because they have the capability of being a great raider.