I'm not paying money for this. I came back to SWTOR as a refuge from a worse MMO, yet somehow you're designing the next patch to be worse than anything I left behind. Congratulations, you've ensured your competitors get my money while you do not.

Have you felt at any point that you were restricted to specific content to max out your gear? Or did you feel like playing the game as you always have gets you there reliably?

Question in title. So far I've met exactly one person who thought these were positive changes, particularly on gear. Every other person in my guilds explicitly do not plan to hang around when these changes go live. So what's the reading of the room from folks who've been testing?

Gear progression and progression content aren't the same thing. 6.0 has demonstrated these can coexist independently and still be effective. Being able to gear in this manner makes raising alts to fill needed roles much easier and whittles down player difference in content to skill rather than rng drops. And you can't get max level mods unless you farm them on a max level character. This is a good thing. By your logic, gear shouldn't be legacy bound either. The point of doing the raid is to farm the gear and gear currency for alts after your main is set, get pets , crystals and decorations, mounts, achievement, and... Brace for this one... because they're fun. It's a good system that doesn't make players forced to do them. As for SWTOR pandering to solo players, I hate to break it to you, but that's been the status quo of the game since launch. That's part of the problem- they're shifting their focus away from what helped them standout, and they're using a trashy, compartmentalized method to do it. "There is a reason ALL mmos struggle with gearing, you make it pointless and you just pander to the 10% of the player base thats the most vocal as they dont understand why they cant have the new shiny gear or you put a wall between the low lvl gear / mid lvl gear / hi lvl gear, thus making your player base do content they would not normaly do in the hope they will try something new." ... lmao what? You said you played WoW until end of BFA. Legion and BFA employed rng based progression drop methods that were unreliable. You have also needed multiple full gear sets for different content types since the end of WoD, multiplying the farm slog multiple times. It's terrible and nobody in that game likes it. They revamped gear for SL to have an even lower drop rate and players struggle to get necessary gear to progress on content and be competitive. It doesn't make them feel more engaged, it makes them angry they can't get what they need to perform competitively. There's a reason the WoW population has consistently defined since Legion (based on population sites as it's so bad Blizzard no longer shares the data). FFXIV doesn't have content schedule lockouts so you can farm the gear you need to your heart's content. Your defending the principle of a system that has been demonstrated to fail in practice in its current form. "The sad truth is the new system works for everyone" So far you're the only person I've seen suggest this. Even if you weren't wrong, the fact is nobody I've seen experience the system or learn about it wants it. That's enough to reject it outright. The developers shouldn't be locking players into specific content or telling them what the right way to play is. And they shouldn't be trying to shift the main demographic they've appealed to for a decade. Or trying to force the game to be something it's not Taking away player freedom hasn't helped a single mmo.

Well, you're wrong. In WoW I do heroic raiding and was on the prog team for quite a while before the game started to suck. I also make a habit of doing all their solo challenge modes. The gearing system in WoW has been a dumpster fire for at least 3 consecutive expansions now, making it very difficult especially for progression players to optimize. Everything that's wrong with WoW gear is resolved with SWTOR's current state. It respects your time invested in playing- if you don't get a gear piece you need as a drop, you can buy it with a single currency you can from from any content. If you have a piece you don't need, you can shuttle it over to an alt. You don't have to live and die in every piece of content to hit gear cap, you can just do what you want. That's freedom to progress. There's nothing wrong with this system, and as I've said, it's been one of the strongest selling points to anybody else who I've recommended the game to, especially the ones who like group content. This is particularly crucial because finding consistent progression ops groups in this game is leagues more difficult than other mmo's. The opportunity to find a situation to get that best gear is low as it is, so being prepared enough to play at that level when the opportunity rises is crucial. There's a fine line between criticizing what is objectively a convoluted mess and gear gating (and objectively inferior to the status quo design for the game) versus wanting everything handed out for free.

Google "public test realm." This post isn't a complaint about not playing the PTR, it's about the poor gearing changes that are on it.

First off, I haven't actuality played on the PTR so this is just based on the feedback I've seen. But it looks like gearing in 7.0 with be several massive steps backward. One of SWTOR's greatest strengths is your ability to gain set pieces through a combination of drops and purchasing with a single farmable currency. Another strength is being able farm mods and send whatever your main character doesn't need over to alts. This has always been a strong selling point to the game for myself and anybody I've recommended it to because it genuinely respects your time as a player. Changing this system is a mistake. From what I understand, 7.0 will have gear with preset stats that you will need several content-type-exclusive currencies to gain. This looks extremely alt and casual unfriendly. It looks like an attempt to copy the worst parts of WoW format. Please keep the gear system similar if not the same and do not bring this experiment to live...

I'm going to push back on this- mmo's don't sustain themselves by trend chasing. While SWTOR followed a very similar format to WoW initially, there wasn't much in the way of alternate models to follow at the time. That being said, if I wanted to play an ESO or New World style game... I would play either one of those games. WoW shifted extremely strongly toward a more passives/less actives based system for BfA and the players hated it so badly the devs were forced to de-prune for Shadowlands (although they didn't go nearly far enough). Taking away tools isn't the same thing as streamlining, and my concern here is the removal of tools for the sake of trying to appeal to the least common denominator of player who doesn't understand how to make a rotation greater than 4 abilities work.

Does anybody have info on where they are with the pruning right now? I don't pay every spec, but the handful I do play already feel more or less fine as is. Maybe one or two abilities I rarely or never use? Which is fine. The only other time I've experienced pruning is the multiple times Blizzard has done it with WoW, and it's never, ever, been better for it. I really don't want this game to suffer from WoW's mistakes. I got a bad feeling about this.

What's a good time of day to try to message you?

I see. I just purchased a new stronghold and I can see it on my page, but where do I reactivate my train stronghold from Umbara? I had to deactivate it at one point and I haven't seen it on my stronghold list since. That's actually what spawned this question: I have 3 stronghold currently active, but I don't see the mobile base on my list for some reason.

How do I activate more than three on a server at any given time?

I agree, more vertical half-mask options are needed for players. At this point in the game's life cycle, it should be doable and would really add another layer of customization.

I can get behind that. Black specifically is a long requested one I would love to see before any others though.

The whole zone had a lot of potential, a stronghold there might be able to take advantage of that. I would actually like to see two versions: a smaller apartment more reasonably sized for decorating, and a larger one that can take advantage of the zone more fully. Thank you!

It started off strong and had some really good elements... really drug out in some places and lost a lot of value in giving every single class the exact same story. They could have given some diversity in a lot of the filler. And Iokath is just... just terrible. I really wish Ziost was a full planet instead of a mini daily zone. Valkorian is definitely a highlight and his voice actor is absolutely superb. All things considered, I'm neither surprised nor disappointed by what came after SoR.

I left WoW in large part due to lack of transparency regarding their decisions, their flaws, and how they could improve. Despite my occasional hiatus, I keep returning to SWTOR due specifically to the transparency and responsiveness of the team on this game. Thank you for the insight folks. Maybe some day EA will actually invest significant resources into this game for contemporary content. At least it's in caring hands regardless.

So... if I own more than the separate individual strongholds...? Can I use more than three?

So... title. Is there any way to do this? I recently returned to the game and this is one of the few things I was going to see change. I like my stronghold locations, but having to pick three at any given time and lose all their decoration placements if I deactivate one is a real bummer.

So I saw part of an interview where the team was alluding to some big things coming to SWTOR this year. Possible rendering updates, possible expanding... Personally i would love to see a return to class stories... I know 6.3 and GS just released, but... is there any more info on what's yet to come? It's now June and I feel like the window of opportunity to get the hype train rolling is going to close soon. I really love this game, and the amount of love the dev team has for it too really shows. I just feel a little too left in the dark on this one.

Generally more attainable for your main AND alts (legacy binding is amazing) and overall more satisfying at max level. Obviously the limit on new content is an issue, but I haven't felt like my character was below baseline for most content for more than a couple weeks after hitting cap for any reason other than my own priorities. Exactly how it should be, thank you devs!

Hi there, So I recently swapped back over to Annihilation from Fury and I'm having an issue with my parses. I've got full gear although just shy of optimal stats (a variance of about 1-2%). Is there anyone on Star Forge who would be able to take me under their wing and help me get my numbers up? As it stands, I'm doing about 2/3 what I should be capable of in the best of circumstances. I feel like I've got all the pieces there, just putting them together seems to be an issue. Thank you!

It gave the overall story a lot of flavor and had massive replay value. As I level my alts these days, I just skip through every cut scene and stop doing the story once I hit level cap. Don't get me wrong, the story after SoR was okay the first time (although had a couple low points). After that it just gets monotonous and feels like a chore. I really miss the days of picking a class and being invested in the narrative as I leveled up. I know EA would rather milk microtransactions than put money into developing these stories, but the game would really benefit from shifting back to that narrative design.

Have you tried running it in windowed (full screen)? I noticed I had major drops in true full screen that were addressed by using windowed full screen.

Thing is, every class has 3 specs. Rather than break that mold, they would likely add another class entirely. ... If they had the money. ... Or manpower. ... Or money. But seriously though, as much as I love this game to pieces, it's pretty obvious EA and Disney give it 0 budget and the dev team is quite small. I doubt we'll see any major content updates of the sort before the servers go down.