The definitive word on end game itemization in 1.2

[Delillo]

All of this information has been available for weeks. You just needed to know where to look.

 

100% wrong. 1.2 patch date was released yesterday. Before that notification we had no idea how many more rounds of PTS changes we had to go, but I could wait and decide what to do with the 800ish champion commendations I had because we were assured we would get some lead time between 1.2's patch date announcement and the actual date.

 

The fact that they announced that 1.2 was scheduled for thursday and then TODAY announced that ranked warzones would not be in 1.2 but that there would be an "alternate means" to get War hero gear (I don't now what that means yet) means that the situation is still very much in FLUX.

 

There was no reason to spend commendations until we knew what the implications would be and now that window to do so is tiny.

 

There is no question that the 1.2 rollout has been handled in such a way as to infuriate much of the player-base. What I find amusing is how careful Bioware is in giving corporate flack answers at any possible Q&A for fear of giving out premature information and now they simultaneously give a hasty 1.2 patch announcement and then follow up the next day with pulling the (arguably) main feature of 1.2 out.

 

Poorly done.

[Zeita]

You screwed your game, and your subs with this patch. Good luck finding a new job.

 

PS a notice of a day isn't good enough. Should have been at least a week.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Zeita

[WrecklessMEDIC]

100% wrong. 1.2 patch date was released yesterday. Before that notification we had no idea how many more rounds of PTS changes we had to go, but I could wait and decide what to do with the 800ish champion commendations I had because we were assured we would get some lead time between 1.2's patch date announcement and the actual date.

 

The fact that they announced that 1.2 was scheduled for thursday and then TODAY announced that ranked warzones would not be in 1.2 but that there would be an "alternate means" to get War hero gear (I don't now what that means yet) means that the situation is still very much in FLUX.

 

There was no reason to spend commendations until we knew what the implications would be and now that window to do so is tiny.

 

There is no question that the 1.2 rollout has been handled in such a way as to infuriate much of the player-base. What I find amusing is how careful Bioware is in giving corporate flack answers at any possible Q&A for fear of giving out premature information and now they simultaneously give a hasty 1.2 patch announcement and then follow up the next day with pulling the (arguably) main feature of 1.2 out.

 

Poorly done.

 

If you had played on the PTS for the last few weeks or did any reading on the upcoming changes you would have known what was going on.

 

They told you to spend your Champion commendations. You don't need them. You can buy War Hero gear with Warzone commendations. Same as it has been on the PTS for weeks now.

[Delillo]

If you had played on the PTS for the last few weeks or did any reading on the upcoming changes you would have known what was going on.

 

They told you to spend your Champion commendations. You don't need them. You can buy War Hero gear with Warzone commendations. Same as it has been on the PTS for weeks now.

 

Look at what you wrote!

 

"IF you had played on the PTS" !!! This is a requirement to playing the game???

 

"I would have known what was going on"- like ranked warzones being dropped?

 

They told us to spend our champion commendations TODAY. Yes Dulfy recommended this a while back but since when is she the official anything?

 

You are defending the indefensible. As it is, spending warzone commendations under the old system is not that big of a deal for me. I'll convert them into crafting mats as planned. But IF I had wanted to do another direction- buy tank gear for example, I do not have the option. A 36 hour heads up on the 1.2 patch is not close to sufficient.

 

What is in bold in front of every PTS patch?

 

The patch notes published for the Public Test Server are not final and are subject to change.

 

You don't get to say "these notes are not final and subject to change" and then say "well, you should have known this was coming".

 

So, again, this was handled poorly.

[pharex]

Pretty fail BW, i was looking forward to new Item stats for rakata and HOPING for new set bonuses for Tier2 but no luck for us espeically for classes that have set bonuses that are garbage for rakata. I WAS looking forward to 1.2 but the these last second changes you are making are just making it worse and worse...

[Superawesomerman]

Sorry, wasting 300000 of what exactly?

 

Credits, obviously.

 

Nice orange text there, renegadeimp.

 

I do feel kinda bad, you have your work cut out for you trying to spin this unmitigated disaster of a patch.

 

I wonder which was worse for you guys, 1.1 or 1.2?

 

Lemme know in a few days.

[Qhue]

Hey,

 

First off, some colors of expertise crystals are crafter only - the schematics and materials are obtained through the PvP vendor.

 

We've added a low level and endgame version of the magenta crystals, with the schematic available through a number of sources in game (not just Operations).

 

The crystal vendor from 1.1.5 was removed and several of the crystals are now exclusive to artifice. See the complete 1.2. patch notes for details.

 

Im sorry this is just not acceptable. Having the best end-game stat item that a Crew Skill can make be available for purchase on a vendor is just bad game design. Furthermore the best Enhancements in the game are available from doing 1 daily quest. One. Daily Quest. Better than the result from maxing out reverse engineering on Crew Skill items. On top of this there are ZERO operation dropped recipes for Artifice. You completely undermine the entire existance of the Crew Skill by making not only the same but even BETTER gear available in trivial ways. Sloppy and amateurish.

[Kurfer]

You screwed your game, and your subs with this patch. Good luck finding a new job.

 

PS a notice of a day isn't good enough. Should have been at least a week.

 

I think James Ohlen will be the first one to get wacked once EA pulls the funding...

 

He seems worthless.

[Jarvus]

These changes to the stat distribution are a result of issues fixed with the original Battlemaster set of mods. As mentioned before, we will automatically update your Battlemaster items to the new version when you log into the game the first time after 1.2 has been deployed, provided that the items still contain their original mods. Reinserting these mods into the existing gear will suffice for this purpose.

 

I gotta say this is really disappointing. I mean, I like almost all players who've had their BM gear for a while, even many with only 1 piece, had swapped out mods and enchants long ago to complement my class and get the combo of set bonus I wanted. I am not inclined to log in and find those mods changed. I am not inclined to log in and find the set bonus for the full BM gear I have is not transferrable because I decided to swap out mods months ago like most people. And I'm certainly not inclined to re-grind that same gear again, even tho it seems it'll be a good bit cheaper this time around. Is this really the best you can do? penalizing anyone who played before 1.2 came out?

[Patrickgf]

Existing PvE gear will not change, no. Basically we found that way too many people have modded their PvE gear in a lot of different ways and there is no clean way for us to make changes to that gear without causing serious trouble for a large number of players (see Battlemaster for a small taste of the problem).

 

Since existing PvE content is also balanced for that gear, there is no pressing in game need to change the stat distribution on the gear apart from 'it is certainly not optimal' and, as you said, a lot of players have taken the matter into their own hand and already adjusted gear to their liking.

 

Going forward, the stat distribution on gear (Black Hole, Campaign) is significantly improved.

 

This information comes a day before the patch after spending time and creds to restore all Rakata items to their original state ... the way you were going about it in the first place was piss poor, but this is even worse. This is total DOG**** you are bad and you should feel bad. Can anyone remind why the **** I pay you guys $15 a month to sit there *********** **** up all day long changing your minds back and forth and frustrating the ever loving hell out of your playerbase to the point entire guilds are just saying **** it and unsubbing. Piss poor job guys as usual grats.

[Jiink]

when you mod your UGLY columi armor you lose your set bounse , why isnt the bonus linke d to the mods and not the look of the armor? modding the look of your armor was in my top 5 for this patch.

[VulcanLogic]

As I stated back on page 10, there is now defense rating on all Tionese DPS and healing gear boots and chest slots. This is a change from 1.15. It is, in my opinion, a bad change. Edited April 12, 2012 by VulcanLogic

[Drakainen]

As I stated back on page 10, there is now defense rating on all Tionese DPS and healing gear boots and chest slots. This is a change from 1.15. It is, in my opinion, a bad change.

 

Centurion too

[operationalex]

Hi Georg,

I'm sure you're swamped now but I appreciate the time you take to respond to our questions. You mentioned that the diminishing returns on expertise have changed, have the diminishing returns on any primary or secondary stats changed with 1.2? If so, can you divulge how they have changed? I've searched high and low for information on this topic and cannot find anything solid. It would help me craft my ideal sets.

Thanks for your time.

[Mikebono]

AE you did it.You killed SW for me.Supported you guys since beta.BW actually tried to manage it for 4 months,I know its not easy to make mmo's but every update characters look less SW alike,i'm going to get bashed i know,but its no more fun to grind in order to look silly,social & valor useless now.Also had enough playing against same players 4 months now.

 

I will stay 2 more months only cos of Lucas & his vision

[Comfterbilly]

War Hero Gear

 

War Hero gear is the new tier of PvP items introduced with patch 1.2. It is acquired through trade in of 'ranked warzone commendations' and the corresponding Battlemaster Shell (empty appearance, mods may be extracted before trade-in). Some items do not require a Battlemaster trade-in but instead can be acquired by warzone commendations. War Hero gear does not require a valor rating.

 

I found this community created image to be a nice visual summary of the situation (although prices may still change as we put finishing touches onto the patch).

 

Just as with Campaign gear, War Hero items carry their set bonus on the armoring and all mods, including the armoring which may be extracted and moved into any custom (orange) shell in the game.

 

An additional upgrade option exists for players who wish to benefit from an additional augment slot but retain their Battlemaster or War Hero appearance: It is possible for crafters to obtain the schematics to create orange (and potentially augmented) version of the armor through 'schematic boxes' on the PvP vendor and sell the resulting items to players via the GTN.

 

 

What is it exactly we will be able to learn and reverse engineer? Why does end game crafting have to be so redundant compared to level 40-49 crafting? IMO besides almost having TOO much versatility, 40-49 crafting is excellent.

 

WHY? I can customize my armor to fit any focus. My jugg has no use for 'crit' but needs surge, for instance; and I need endurance and power. So I am crafting enhancements and I can choose between 2 different versions of these stats; one with low endurance but high power + surge; another with high endurance and surge but lower power.

 

If I want to experiment with defense, there is for example "Sturdiness Enhancement 22": +16 Endurance + 34 shield rating + 24 Absorbtion rating; just equipping blues my shield chance jumped 10% and the amount of damage it absorbed hit 35% from 20. To me, that is very interesting, very versatile gear crafting.

 

BUT all my crafting skill is completely useless after 50 - all I can do is craft what is already available from PVP vendors. [or not???]

 

Personally I think it sucks to go from level 49 having an endless variety of crafting stats available where you can literally spec your character to fit any, any capacity of strength .... to level 50 only being able to equip a small number of mods and enhancements; mods and enhancements that are full of junk stats that I don't need.

 

So obviously I'm artifice. They say you get recipes from Rev. Engineering. Is that really it? Op Drops and RE's?

 

If we are really forced to be stuck with junk stats, the obvious question is: Why?

Edited April 13, 2012 by Comfterbilly

[mhydrick]

What in the world do i do with all these Champ comms i worked for?

[neyobi]

In terms of the schematic boxes you can buy is there a reason they still have the valor requirement but the crafted ones have a valor requirement? Its not like the craftable ones have the mods and such.

[Tridius]

Is it intended to get ~ 10 - 20 warzone commendations when you are on the losing team? This seems quite low and a impossible grind to get better pvp equipment. Should I quit my PvE raiding guild to join a PvP guild for premades since this seems to be the only way to win? Advice, opinions?

[KostonxEld]

WHY is columi and rakata set bonus tied to the shell?!!! I DO NOT want to wear the god awful looking consular t1 anymore! I was so looking forward to remOving the mods and placing them into some crit crafted oranges! Now will have to wait till I get full T2? So lazy BW!!! Your armor is hideous and I am still tied to wearing it even after your patch that was supposed to fix this!! Fail

[Demolitionlover]

Huge fail.

 

I thought the patch was supposed to make it so we could use the set bonus on all my raid gear in whatever orange gear I WANTED.

 

Just wasted a ton of credits, and no set bonus. Pretty close to rage quitting this game. HELLO DIABLO III and Tera. Too many bugs and a lot of speaky speaky and no delivery.

 

Sadpanda.

[-Korrak-]

Is there a reason why we can't reverse engineer the Orange gear crafted from the PVP Kits?

EX: Battlemaster Eliminator's Chestguard.

Usually when I'm crafting, I'll reverse engineer anything that doesn't crit. But in this case we can't. So I'm stuck with a useless orange item that may or may not sell =/

 

I am correct in assuming that I will eventually crit an Augment slot on said gear, right?

[Comfterbilly]

I am correct in assuming that I will eventually crit an Augment slot on said gear, right?

 

Yes you are.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Comfterbilly

[JointMaster]

got directed here but still dont see why they put purple crystals on dark side.

 

mace windu = goodside and pruple lightsaber

any person ever on dark side = never seen a purple light saber

riddle me that bioware..

 

time for me to quit and play guild wars 2

.. and yes i would quit a game just because of 1 item.. just as i quit runescape because they change the veracs helmet after playing for 6 years gotta keep your customers happy and im not the only one saying *** to the pruple crystals

Edited April 25, 2012 by JointMaster

[Kakgumu]

Let me throw my 2cp in as well. Let me start by saying that I don't want to make an "argument from authority" but I've been playing MMO's since Eq1 in both casual and hardcore guilds. Additionally, I actually AM a software engineer working for a very well known processor and video card manufacturer. Now, for the sake of keeping my initial comments brief, I'm going to limit my discussion to the Imperial Agent Class in PVE.

 

Let's focus in on Implants as example as they can't be modified or have their armor/enhancements/mods/crystals ripped out for other stats. Here's the data, I know it's a bit of a "wall-o-text" but bear with me...

 

Name Cunn End Crit Acc Power Surge Alacrity iLevel

 

Tionese Enforcer's Implant 83 68 34 40 0 0 0 126

Tionese Field Medic's Enhancer 68 79 40 0 0 0 40 126

 

Columi Enforcer's Implant 80 93 48 48 0 0 0 136

Columi Field Medic's Enhancer 97 80 41 0 0 0 48 136

 

Rakata Enforcer's Implant 85 98 0 0 51 51 0 140

Rakata Field Medic's Enhancer 103 85 44 0 0 51 0 140

 

Black Hole Trapper's MK-2 Package 84 121 49 0 0 57 0 146

Black Hole Trapper's MK-4 Package 102 87 0 57 71 0 0 146

 

Hazmat Mender's MK-1 System 89 128 52 0 0 60 0 150

Hazmat Targeter's MK-1 System 108 93 0 0 76 60 0 150

Hazmat Targeter's MK-3 System 108 93 0 60 76 0 0 150

Hazmat Trapper's MK-2 System 89 128 0 60 52 0 0 150

Hazmat Trapper's MK-4 System 108 93 0 0 76 60 0 150

 

Legionnaire Mender's MK-1 System 95 136 0 0 56 0 64 154

Legionnaire Mender's MK-3 System 115 98 0 0 80 0 64 154

Legionnaire Targeter's MK-1 System 115 98 0 64 80 0 0 154

Legionnaire Targeter's MK-3 System 95 136 56 0 0 64 0 154

Legionnaire Trapper's MK-2 System 95 136 0 64 56 0 0 154

Legionnaire Trapper's MK-4 System 115 98 80 64 0 0 0 154

 

 

Running under the assumption that for all classes, Primary Stats are ~10% better than Power point per point, some of these combinations are absolutely baffling. There are 2 "main" builds of Operatives...DPS and Heals. yes, I'm fully aware that there are several different DPS builds. However, their stat weights and preferences are all pretty similar...at least enough so that we can group them together for this discussion.

 

First, Alacrity. This is almost entirely worthless to the DPS builds and only marginally useful to the healer builds. If you guys are using the "WoW model" of gear building where there is a stat budget defined at each iLevel, then this is a HORRIBLE waste for Operatives period. If you want to have one offering for the healers and one for the DPS classes so be it. But, take a look at the 4 implants that have Alacrity. the Tionese is Endurance heavy...but has Crit with the Alacrity...OK, not terrible. The Columi then flips the primary stat weights and have more Cunning than End...Good! this still has Crit and Alacrity like the Tionese, so accepting the marginal value of the Alacrity, this is pretty darn good. THEN, you guys got it right on the Rakata and didn't have EITHER option with Alacrity. the End heavy option has Power and Surge...OK, solid offering. The other Rakata option has 103 Cunn, 85 End and Crit and Surge...PERFECT!!

 

Then we get into the 1.2 options and things are a mess. the two Black Hole options continue this patter of one End heavy option and one Cunn heavy option. The Cunn heavy option is obviously the more preferred stat distro for DPS builds across the board, everything else being equal. Yet, This one has 57 Acc and 71 Power. You guys DO realize that after +10% Accuracy, it becomes a nearly worthless stat for us right?? Now, the End heavy option has 49 Crit and 57 Surge...GREAT! But, it's too bad that I have to sacrifice 18 Cunn, my PRIMARY stat, to get more appropriate distro of secondary stats!

 

Without getting too long-winded, the same type of issues exist with the hazmat (iLevel 150) and Legionnaire's (iLevel 154) gear. In fact, if you did a look up of tghose dozen or so option to find which ones had #1 - more Cunn than End, and #2 had no Acc, you'd only find 1 option...and it has no Crit, just Power and Surge, which aren't bad but NOT optimal for the DPS builds.

 

All of this brings me to my suggestion. I understand limiting the stat budget to only 2 Primary Stats. For Operatives, this is obviously End and Cunn. But, do you ALSO have that same limitation for Secondary Stats?!?! There's no good reason for this. Take that same exact budget and spread it across 3, 4, or in some cases even ALL of the secondary stats that are most beneficial to the Advanced Class in question?!?! For DPS Operative builds...give us SURGE, CRIT, POWER, a small amount of ACC, and a tiny amount of Alacrity. Giving us a HUGE chunk of Acc or Alacrity IN PLACE OF surge, crit, or power does us a huge disservice.

 

So, instead of having the Legionnaire Trapper's MK-4 System looking like this:

Cunn: 115 End: 98 Crit: 80 Acc: 64 Power: 0 Surge: 0 Alacrity: 0

 

You might have something like this:

Cunn: 115 End: 98 Crit: 80 Acc: 10 Power: 29 Surge: 25 Alacrity: 0

 

If the other pieces are similarly balanced, you have multiple sets of gear that play nice with each other without the player suddenly "losing" a huge block of surge or power, or crit, when they "upgrade" to the next tier of gear...which should NEVER happen. This fictional implant is now a beautiful fit for every DPS build and likely a much better piece for the healer builds as well.

 

Respectfully,

Kaewodi

50 Sniper on Lord Praven

Full Rakata - Now stripped out into Aug-able Orange gear.