Flashpoints...why dont you do them?

[Flain]

In order to keep playing HM FP's after you got all the columi gear there needs to be more incentives. An idea would be to earn so many FP commendations per each HM you complete, when you have enough of them you could buy Rakata gear off a vendor. There should be a cap on how many points you can earn in a week.

[Rynis]

No body wants a guardian dps QQ...

 

But I have more fun doing pvp and wrecking people then waiting around LFG...I'll get my gear from OPS :9. More fun than FP imo

[dcgregorya]

If I could find a group consistently I would. Even as a healer or tank though, pugging takes forever and even though our guild is the largest on the server my alts rarely coincide with other people's alts of the same rank.

[johnduane]

Too difficult to travel to FP

Not going to live long enough to find a group

Group members show up without quest

 

fail

[lobotaru]

To draw an equivocation, it would be similar to if someone were trying to play CTF or deathmatch in a First Person Shooter and they had to wait in queue for 45 mins to do so. It wastes too much free time just trying to get into the match. Its generally the same problem here.

There are also the people who get tired of playing the same role all the time, but don't want to invest time into a new character. After frequent respecs, they just sort of burn themselves out. The dedicated healer/tank/dps way of dealing with group encounters is very old at this point and doesn't have the kind of staying power it once did.

[GenericallyNamed]

Pre-50

Rarely did these. Wanted to do them to see what they were but quickly had no real desire to try and run them.

 

• Only went to the fleet between planets. Takes too long to leave a planet then wait at the Fleet and hope a group of your limited level range wants to do your level of FP. When questing on a planet people, and myself, want to the the quests there instead of all the walking and loading for a FP.
  
• About an hour of work (Only counting the FP itself) for the chance at some gear you'll probably replace by next planet. If you get really lucky and every boss drop goes to you and your class then it's work it. Otherwise you could have just been collecting the commendations on your level's planet.
  
• You get like 2 quests worth of experience but spend way more time on it.
  

 

Post-50 (HMs)

Did a lot of these actually. Go through for Tionese-level gear and then chance at Columi and Biometric crystal. But now that I know better it's a between Operation thing only for that one specific Columi piece you want, or Biometric. However I rarely see public Operation groups so unless you are in an active guild HMs may be your best bet.

 

• Normal Operations provide 5 HMs worth of gear per person. You get something at almost every boss, sometimes Columi pieces. Way more Biometrics as well.
  
• Much like pre-50, you spend a lot of time for a chance at getting your gear. Very quickly all you really want is the last drop for your chance at that Columi piece.
  
• I was into PvP so I had Centurion and Champ gear to cover the holes in my PvE gear.
  
• Can only be done once a day.
  

Edited March 15, 2012 by GenericallyNamed

[Dazon]

Another reason is that people are to low level or to high level for the flashpoint.If you're to low level then you can't get into said flashpoint and if you are to high level the rewards are useless and the flashpoint is trivial

[killerwookie]

I think the reasons for doing them differ dependant upon whether u are 1-49 or 50.

 

Pre-50, if i could get a grp I would do them for the xp and chance at loot. Having said that, I didnt go outta my way to do them as there are so many levelling options.

 

At 50 they just seem pointless, especially if u are running raids. I do alot of pvp so aquiring Tionese lvl gear (Centurion pvp armour) is far easier and more enjoyable to me.

 

But even if u dont take part in regular raids or pvp, the Belsavis/ilim daily q's give u mods that tend to be better than the 1st tier Tionese/Centurion armour anyway.

 

also, I've noticed that the class that gets the 1st loot drop tends to get the most loot drops.

[Buttered]

i do my 3 a week for the weekly, easy mode way to gear companions or practice before a raid...lol practice, ok stretch my fingers out

 

edit: oh pre 50, yeah i only ever did BT and maaaybe foundry/bp for the story and xp

 

i guess its just a pain to find groups sometimes, so you end up losing alot of time waiting around for that instead of just questing

Edited March 15, 2012 by Buttered

[gunnerforever]

Ever tried looking for a group on Crevasse City?

[-Kelerak-]

im from a pvp server so.. yeah is hard to find people for fp... people are to lazy to make them... lolol

Is not a game problem is a Community server problem lol, happens in all games depends what people want.. PvP or PvE...

Edited March 15, 2012 by -Kelerak-

[ONDEE]

I've done a few of them, and they are a ton of fun. Some are really long though. That's not an issue for me, when I sit down to play I make sure I have a few hours to play. For a lot of people I really do think the length is a problem for them. Had the same issue in other games with long instances...lack of attention span.

I have to agree with some of the others though, trying to get a group together can be a pain sometimes, so I just skip a lot of them. I don't want to skip them, I love how it adds to the story/lore. It will get better eventually though. I hope it does anyway

[MithrilSoul]

On my first character, I hit maybe 2/3 of the flashpoints ("at level," give or take) along the way to 50. On my alts I have mostly skipped them.

 

I think this thread has highlighted most of the roadblocks. I think more people would do them if you could get a group together and then when you had your four, hit one button and would instantly be at the FP beginning (much like queueing for PvP). As it is now, it takes freaking forever to run through about 8 loading screens just to get from wherever I am on a planet to get into a flashpoint. Needless hassle.

 

And I also agree that with some (both pre-50 and HM versions at 50), there is just waaaayyyyy too much trash fighting in between bosses. Again, it needlessly lengthens the fp without serving any meaningful purpose. I mean, when you look at one like Kaon Under Siege, for example, you can literally spend HOURS fighting trash in there just to get to boss fights that last 5 minutes.

 

Finally, regarding lvl 50, as others have pointed out HM FP's drop so little loot useful loot as compared to easymode ops, despite taking roughly the same amount of time, that it is really an inefficient way to gear up. You time is much better spent doing regular mode EV or KP, even if your group can only clear one or two bosses in those places, than it is to run really any of the HM's.

[killmaimburn]

I do them for the weekly quest now. 3 a week, that's it. My main is 2 pieces short of full rakata, 2 pieces bm. It's hard to find players at my gear level willing to do them, and when I group up I find fresh 50's still wearing greens. Or pople that leveled up in warzones, never noticing their rated 98 armor doesn't cut it for lvl 50. I've just recently started to try to duo all the HM's, I'm an arsenal merc and I work with a marauder, not sure what his spec is, assuming annhiliation. We dropped BT, FE and BP so far with just us 2 and our healing companions. For the time invested in them, the rewards are crap. I've been in raids where we clear 16 man ev normal in 45 minutes, maybe even less than that. 16 man hm ev takes 1.5 hours. Whereas Foundry and BP both take 40 + minutes with way less rewards. Not even mats or blues for companions I havn't geared yet. Once you get your toon geared, there is absolutely no reason to run a HM. I equipped a fresh 50 with 124 rated gear from the GTN so he could come to a raid. At the end of the raid he had 3 columi pieces. Why would he bother doing HM's now knowing gear is that easy to get? And even more importantly, the interesting ones take SOOO DAMN LONG to complete no one wants to do them. Instead I run bt hm 3 times a week in under 15 minutes and I'm good to go.

 

If HM's dropped ENHANCEMENTS, AUGMENTS or ARMORING I would be more inclined to do them. Or if there were nightmare versions of the flashpoints, they would make it interesting.

[Lxkane]

General reasons:

 

Too much trash - there are so many trash mobs in Directive 7, Boarding Party, Kaon, etc. That my mara feels more like a garbage man in a flashpoint than a warrior.

 

Low credits per kill - while in a full group the credits per kill are measly at best.

 

Pre 50 reasons:

They take to long to finish

 

FPs take at least one hour to finish and will give you about 5 to 8% of the xp you need for 1 level with a chance at some gear.

 

1 warzone takes about 15 mins. and will give you same amount of xp plus: valor, warzone commendations and no repair bills.

 

Flashpoints and heroic quest slow leveling

 

In the time to finish one flashpoint or heroic quest for that matter I can finish 5 to 8 on planet, class and story quest; which would leave me with more money, more loot and more gear from commendations.

 

Post 50 reasons:

 

I will never ever ever ever pug a hard mode flashpoint unless I absolutely have to do so.

 

Why?

 

Repair cost

My mara is 1/5 rakata 4/5 columi with rakata weapons (main and offhand) and rakata bracer. Every death cost me 10k+ in repairs.

 

No LFG is ever going to make me want to pug anything ever. End of story. I have a lvl 42 Jugg atm too and when it's 50 I will not pug tank anything.

After you have your gear from HM there is no reason to go back in.

The lame daily and weekly missions are not incentive enough to spend a hour running a HM flashpoint. A few tens of thousands of credits and gearing companions isn't a compelling reason to incur the cost of running a HM it just isn't. The only I reason I do HM today is if someone my guild wants to do one.

 

TLDR - stop being lazy and exercise your brain and read for once. (no summary fo joo)

Edited March 16, 2012 by Lxkane

[Hi_Im_A_Sith]

I would love to do more flashpoints, but I have completely given up on all my chars.

It's just no fun to:

- Spend 10 min. traveling from quest area on planet to the fleet.

- Spend 45 min. spamming LFG in general chat for a group that never happens

- Spend 10 min. traveling back to quest area on planet

 

If I wanted to completely waste my time, I might as well go watch TV instead.

 

Exactly what Painstorm said. LFGing either takes forever, or it doesn't even get you a group in the end.

[Alric_Annondu]

Colicoid PTSD from the Colicoid war game.

 

YOU WEREN'T THERE MAN

[Bubalous]

Now i don't need any gear from them, before that (at 50 and while levelling) I couldn';t be bothered with the time it takes to find groups and at 50 I found operation were a much faster and easier way to gear up.

There is really no need to even run a single flashpoint when you hit 50 (or even while levelling , the time invested for the EXP you get is not worth it imo ), which is a major design flaw imo,

Edited March 15, 2012 by Bubalous

[Gorzh]

I try to do them, but sadly they are just a pain in the a*s to do.

 

1) Endless trash, there's just too many of them. And they ain't even fun, I bet most tanks(me included) cry when dealing with certain trash mobs, here's how it goes:

 

You pull, they stun you, you pop CD, they push you away, you get close again, they stun you, then root you etc etc. - It's very frustrating and kinda sad really, but if anyone think that's fun, then I envy you he he

 

Also, the mobs are very spread out, which makes it annoying for the tank trying to make every mob attack him.

 

2) Bugs, bugs and even more bugs. Almost every boss in a HM have a bug that can ruin the entire run(some are fixed, yes. But most isn't)

 

3) Perhaps the same as nr: 1, but time, they just take way to long to complete. Depending on the group some may take as much as 2 hours to complete. This alone makes it very unattractive for many people.

 

4) You don't get rewarded for the time spent, afew crystals and 1 columi commendation at the end(oh yeah, you need 56 of them to buy a single item). If you're really unlucky with may end up with a 50k repair bill( "stupid" group or bugs) and you get like what? 5k credit from trash?

 

5) This is for "leveling-flashpoints": You get way to little exp considering the time investment, and the first time you do a flashpoint(like first time in Esseles, first time in Hammer, first time in Athiss etc etc) You should get a blue item, just so people wanna do it. Many I know leveling alts just skip flashpoints all-togheter untill 50 because the exp loss from questing is high, and you might end up with 0 loot.

 

Well I've probaly forgotten something, but atleast this is how I feel bout' flashpoints. :/

[JediSolari]

I think its time we all told Bioware that we want a Cross server LFG for Flashpoints ..etc.

 

I think if we are going to shell out money to play this than it should have features that make it more enjoyable to us.. a Cross server lfg que was implented in a popular MMO known as WoW.. and it worked great..

 

It is unacceptable that this feature was not considered? or that nobody in Bioware is taking our complaints seriously ... Its time to say Enough is enough.. im tired of playing this single player game and spending hours at a time in the Fleet spamming LFG in general....

 

If you have had enough than its time we start spamming Bioware's suggestion box forum asking.. no demanding this feature.... if that does not work than we should spam customer service.. make in-game tickets... soon they will get the hint.. if not.. well once your done playing your exspensive single player game.. i suggest canceling your account and going back to the Xbox... its much cheaper.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2012 by JediSolari

[Cichard]

acutally i found doing flash points makes leveling up so much easier you get loads of gear for you and your companions. What i did is my friend and I leveled up together we did 90% of the flash point leveling up just the 2 of us and 2 companions. the only one we couldnt do was colicoid. I was a tank he was a healer and we ran with 2 dps companions. Now that we are both 50 we have cleared BT FE Foundry in Hard mode using 2 dps companions.

[DamenX]

cant find a grp for anything. heroic 4 mans, flashpoints, pug raids anything. They really need to murge these servers. So sick of seeing almost all the server either low pop or medium pop at prime time. There is seriously only like 3 heavy servers. they need to combine all the low pops and put a couple low and medium pops together. If the game gets bigger(which i dont see happening even after 1.2) they can alwasy just put a couple more in.

[Ghira]

Leveling, I did every normal flashpoint as soon as I could get in the door (healer, so I got away with going early) until people stop asking me to go. Now, I run an average of five to seven hard mode flashpoints per week, plus an operation. I go every time someone from my guild asks me to heal, unless..

 

* I'm locked out of that particular flashpoint for the day or

* I need to log before we can reasonably finish it

 

I don't care whether I already have whatever piece it is. I don't care if I'm up to my ears in commendations and crystals already. I don't care if it's an all melee group, two of which are tanks. I like my guildies and I like healing 'em.

 

So why don't I run flashpoints with folks who are not in my guild?

 

People in my guild have passed the manners and maturity test. They don't pick at each other over gear, build, or rotation. They won't kick me from the group for going afk to answer the front door. They don't expect to finish a flashpoint at the speed of light. They don't expect me to watch a video of someone else having fun figuring out a strategy rather than getting to do so ourselves.

 

Strangers might also be this way, but they are just as likely not to be. Why take a chance at being miserable AND lock myself out of a flashpoint when I could have a guaranteed good time in with guildies?

 

What I don't understand is why folks that want to run flashpoints don't join guilds who run flashpoints. Or if in a small guild, why they don't form an alliance with other small guilds that want to run flashpoints.

[todorovh]

I can't see how not getting enough xp can be a reason not to do flashpoints or any other content. Unless you're powerleveling an alt for operations/ pvp, why is an extra day or two such a big issue ? When you hit 50 you'll be doing more flashpoints and operations and you won't be getting ANY xp

 

I like flashpoints a lot and I used to run them both while leveling and gearing my main, however it is practically impossible to find a group these days. I haven't been able to do some of them pretty much since release, especially Hammer Station as people just outlevel it and don't care much.

 

It's a shame really.. especially since not all of them have a hard mode.

[Bethivus]

I avoid flashpoints because I am not the best skilled player and I don't want a repeat of the nerd rage, yelling, e-peen measuring, and just overall drama from the "seriously elite" players that I experienced while i was doing random heroics in wow. It takes me time to learn the fights and what to expect, but the people that you group with expect you to know that THEY know immediately and your dps must be in the hundreds of thousands or they yell about that too. Since a game is supposed to be fun, I only do fun things. Eventually, I will get there. Just not looking forward to it. Edited March 15, 2012 by Bethivus