Can we also get the caps on OP-1 catalyst raised? Since you can't bring any currency over, it leaves you the only option of deconstructing Operations gear to get OP-1 catalysts to test buying stuff with. The hard cap of 2000 is less than what is needed to buy more than a full set of gear for a legacy. I can't test tank gear until next week, because I hit the cap and spent all most all of it on DPS gear.

Chapters are solo content. Some of the chapters are fairly easy to solo even on master mode. If you want to have a group of people get OP-1 Catalysts, run a weekly HM operation. You current get 65 Catalysts from the weekly mission and another 7 from various boss drops.

Columi and Rakata boxes aren't behaving as expected like live. They are rewarding a random slot and not necessarily an upgrade. Sometimes you get an equivalent slot piece when you have lower level pieces that should be upgraded by the boxes. This happened on the previous version of PTS as well.

Doesn't work that way now. Only the one who started the chapter gets credit for the chapter. I don't imagine it has changed. I did check, the 8 OP-1 catalysts reward is tied to the chapter quest.

Hyde and Zeek do not offer a quest for 340 gear. I tested on a character who has previously done all the Hyde and Zeek quests. He simply states to check back later. I don't see 340 mods/enhancements on the vendor either.

I noticed that on one of my characters but deconstruction worked correctly on another.

The mode was said as Master which is NiM. Rakata gear (except relics, and ear) probably won't be dropping in Veteran (Hard) Mode.

You can answer most of those yourself if you logged into PTS. Stat targets appear to be the same. They don't usually change unless there is a level increase. You gain a whopping +30 to tertiary stats per piece when going from 340 to 344. I can confirm that 1 Blue token is currently needed to upgrade any one piece of Virulent (Purple Gear) to 342 from 340 with OP-1 catalysts. Yes you will need to probably mix and match different pieces of Rakata gear for BiS. Drops behave the same way the currently do. Pieces will drop and be the same level as your current slot. So if you had a blue 336 columi piece in a slot, you would potentially get a 336 purple Rakata piece if that slot dropped. This means that if you went got drop in Master Mode operations and your had 340 Virulent gear, you would have 340 Rakata pieces dropping.

I'm not saying the blame belongs on secondary combat classes. I am saying that secondary combat classes are simply magnifying the issue of the stealth meta. Most people will play a main character due to aesthetic choices or because of the valor grind. While they may normally play it is a primary class, they are forced to flip to a secondary stealth class (be it a secondary combat choice or another character) to compete with the current stealth heavy meta. I would also agree forcing people out of classes they prefer or perform better in to counter the amount of stealth is the real problem.

Secondary combat styles just allows people to use their favorite character more with stealth. You are correct that they would just be incentivized to play another character with stealth. I think the solution is to account for the number of stealth classes in a match and limit it. It would increase queue times if you were a stealth class and decrease them if you were another tank, healer, or dps class. This is really the biggest problem. And there is still a problem with role mirroring. This is definitely true of warzones.

I haven't seen too many premades in Arenas on SF. If they are, it is usually 2 people and the rotation does well enough to put me against them in one match but with them in another. Premades are definitely much more common in warzones with them averaging 4-6 people. I constantly find myself on the opposite team almost every single match. I do agree it is starting to incentivize players in warzones to just stealth the match away once they see it is going to be a loss. In a lopsided warzone loss you are lucky to get 2-3 medals depending on your class. It is just easier to take 1 medal with your loss and AFK in a corner for 5 minutes. That is a whole other complete discussion on medals though. They definitely put in more effort to balance teams in arenas than warzones. If my team has a tank the other team almost always has a tank. Same with healers. Problem is that the stealth meta is pushing DPS Guardians/Jugs, Sentinels/Marauders, Sages/Sorcs, Commandos/Mercs, and Gunslingers/Snipers out of matches now. Most arenas now have 6-8 Shadows/Assassins and Scoundrels/Operatives. I think we will see it push even further with Shadows/Assassins getting pushed out due to the effectiveness of Scoundrel/Operative mobility, cross-healing and cross-cleansing. That isn't healthy. Group ranked was more focused on building a complete team to compete. It never devolved in to stealth vs stealth. Solo ranked was such a mixed bag where you did see quite a few stealth classes but it never devolved in to complete stealth vs stealth matches either. Reg arenas were a complete hodgepodge of classes before 7.2. People played their primary class/spec and it was more fun. Sure it made for some instant losses when they didn't match compositions, but you still had a near 50% chance of winning playing whatever you liked. The current system with such a heavy requirement on winning to advance the season, or complete weeklies quickly enough for the 3 achievements that reward currency has pigeonholed everyone into playing a stealth class in arenas.

I think the matchmaking system needs to limit the amount of stealth class per match though. I do think combat styles have made the problem worse because most people picked a 2nd combat style with stealth to make things easier. Talking to people in arenas they have verified they aren't playing their primary combat class because of the stealth meta. The meta has pushed stealth to the forefront in PvP and you now hinder your team if you don't play stealth. That isn't healthy for the game.

Since just about everyone has taken a stealth class as a secondary combat styles, most arenas have now become a matter of 3 stealth and 1 non stealth vs 4 stealthers. Which ever team doesn't have 4 stealthers usually loses as the poor non stealther gets globaled so fast that the 3 team mates can't stun fast enough. It becomes an instant 4 on 3. Games of 4 stealth vs 4 stealth have become a game of chicken with one team trying to bait the other team to pop out of stealth. People have been able to front load enough points the first week to skip arenas. Arenas have just become so boring and aren't going to make it through the entire season. Queue times are getting longer and longer each day. I don't know what the best solution is, but something is going to need to be done. Warzones are also suffering from the same meta as most of them are becoming more about disruption of objectives instead of playing objectives. It's also boring and maps are not being played the way the were intended.

The issue is you have to eventually delay Force Melt because you won't have enough centering stacks to activate Zen by the time Force Melt comes off cool down. The rotation changes slightly every time you go through it. Right now the rotation is smooth because you have enough centering to activate Zen every time Force Melt is off cool down.

Except it really isn't. Melting Center wasn't properly updated. It is still doing 4x and not 2x. The tool tip matches what is above but the ability isn't acting the same. If it is fixed, then it will be 1-2k dps loss.

Why do you need 340 gear right now? They will eventually raise the tiers again like they did with 7.1. You will be able to get 340 gear then.

You do realize that what you are asking for is already in the game. Outside of Operations and Flashpoints, the gear is giving the same stats, and sometimes even worse stats. Operations gear scales the same as any other gear in level synced content. They effectively nerfed everyone's gear.

I don't really care about GSF and don't really play it. I went the Conquest and FP routes and then the OPS route to gear. However, I hope you remember this post once GSF gearing gets nerfed to oblivion and you are back to 20-30 minute queue times for GSF matches. People will always take the path of least resistance and will just move on to another route.

Except that there is no difference in 330 purple and 320 green in scaled content. Gear doesn't matter at all if you aren't running Operations, FPs, or PvP.

Why do you need another path to 330 gear when it isn't usable anywhere but in Operations? PvP Caps at 326 and planetary/heroics are all scaled so that your gear stats mean nothing.

Maybe check current PTS patch notes and Dev posts before you react all cranky? They are addressing the vendor upgrade for certain classes issue as well.

Yes. Stats are correctly budgeted on PTS. 330 Rakata Pummeler's Boots: Live: 1080 Mastery 1399 Endurance 845 Power 500 Critical PTS: 1104 Mastery 1304 Endurance 845 Power 554 Critical As you can see, Mastery, Endurance and Critical stats have been properly adjusted to match to other armor slots that have Accuracy or Alacrity as the tertiary stat.

Judging by PTS everyone is going to be playing Shadow or Smuggler in FPS and PvP. With even 2-3 stealthers in a group the tactical wouldn't be needed for flashpoints. It is also obvious they want to take stealth away as a utility as much as they can with the changes to escape mechanics being nerfed in flashpoints and operations. The new flashpoint is also full of ambushes that you can't stealth through. KOTFE/KOTET was also full of ambushes which you could just run through to the end and escape to drop it all. They really don't want anyone skipping trash as they use it as a way to increase time spent in content. Using trash to artificially inflate content is one of the lamest things ever next to NPCs using long duration stuns.

Please stop attacking everyone and provide actual data to your accusations. Please try to be civil and have an actual conversation. You do little to help your cause or prove a point by attacking everyone who is asking for an honest conversation. You are coming across as rude and dismissive. I am also guessing that English might not be your first language as we seem to have a communication barrier. No one ever said 4 Sentinels/Marauders is essential. I also brought up master mode and ranked because that is the only places where balance matters. Once again, please provides parses (plural) to back up your claims. It is obvious you don't play a Sentinel or a Marauder if you don't understand how it would be impossible to have 4 Marauders line up Zen windows to provide a level of sustainable healing that would allow them to replace a healer, or allow a healer to spend more time DPSing instead. You can theorize all day, but without actual proof, you have no valid claims that anyone will believe. I looked at the stream. Please explain, with detail, how it supports your belief that Marauders are overpowered. They did EC (the easiest master mode) with 1-2 players that was a Sentinel/Marauder. One switched to Sorcerer Heals after they wiped on Toth and Zorn (so much for Sentinels replacing healers). Hilariously enough, the Marauders weren't always playing Annihilation spec either. One played Fury spec on Kephess because of the adds. Their Sorcerer healer(s) were not out-healed by the Marauder. The single Sorcerer did 16 Million healing on Kephess. The Marauder who was actually paying Annihilation did 4 million. The 2nd Marauder was once again not playing Annihilation spec. Even with inflated group healing values vs. single target healing by the healer(s), it wasn't even close. The tanks also died a few times. So much for replacing healers. The tank who was the person who was streaming somehow even managed to do over half the healing that the *overpowered* Marauder was doing. Also, these mighty and overpowered Marauders were parsing a fair bit lower than one of the the Mercs. *GASP*. The other Merc was parsing about the same as the Marauders. How is the video evidence to any claim you have made? If anything, it displays evidence that is completely contrary to your claims that Sentinels are unfairly unbalanced. Please provide actual and constructive feedback based on the linked video, or actual parses showing your outlandish claims. Can you do that without attacking everyone? Otherwise, if you continue to troll everyone and not provide any actual evidence, then everyone including the developers will end up ignoring you.

You haven't provided any parsing links or anything showing 4 Sentinels wrecking content. Doing back of the paper napkin math doesn't provide any definitive evidence. You keep attacking everyone asking you to provide proof. Have you actually played a Sentinel on PTS? I have. Sentinel has been my main since Beta. I play all 3 specs. You linked a 3 hour twitch stream where the streamer spends the first hour jumping around on fleet and playing PvP matches as an Assassin while loud music blares. If there is some defining proof, at least provide a timestamp. You keep attacking everyone asking for actually proof, you profess everyone is dumb and hasn't played on PTS. Please provide hard evidence from parses or actual video containing 4 Sentinels trivializing Master Mode Operations or Ranked PvP.