What's the point of Commendation vendors?

[lironBD]

I get to level 55 I min max some nice (66) mods set for my fresh character and then fancy myself into some end game pve.

 

Believe or not but due to lockout each week it may take you entire week or so to upgrade even 1 piece of gear let alone get set bonus.

 

So players use the commendations (Elite \ Ultimate) to get "Better Gear", Sorry but the gear sold by those merchant sucks epicly.

 

Tank gear with accuracy and alacrity, healer with crit... c'mon and the end\main stat distribution :X

 

Right now there is on GTN Dread Forged end game (78) mods and relics... more then that even implants and earpieces.

On avrage let's say I want my fresh dude to get oriconian implants and earpiece so I'll augment them... 300 ultimate tokens which will take me 3 weeks or so to get.

 

Just by doing Czerka \ Makeb \ Oricon dailies (weekly and stuff i get for basic cooms for sale not included) I can make over 1 mill in few hour a day so by my rough math according to prices on my server let's say I just got fresh 55 Sin tank I'll be able to get in those 30 days instead of 300 ultimate tokens for sub par oriconian earpiece and implants:

2 Dread forged implants

1 Dread forged Earpiece

8 Dread forged armoring

1 dread forged hilt

now those prices are after first 24 hours when people still have high demand for those mods and resources are getting used in huge amounts... I predict price drop into less of current in upto 2-3 weeks or so. And this are purchase prices on gtn not even mats u can get for free and trade.

 

Considering all of this why will I bother with end game content while I can just do my dailies and such few hours a day and get some of the best gear in the game?

Also considering this what is the point of endgame PVE content now ? why will I even bother?

Sensible player will get this gear in 2 months or so (full augmented set), and the completionest between us will run each ops and FP mode once for the achievment and then move straight to the harder versions of the content.

 

This entire situation is like the game shooting itself in the leg, I much prefer the old version of pve content when it was uncraftable and you could get the mid tier gear from flashpoints drops (including set bonus) while the top end rakata was only from ops.

[Vandicus]

In theory, people who do operations enjoy doing operations, and the gear serves as a combination of restricted access and reward(especially the credits).

[Reno_Tarshil]

Okay.

[kirorx]

As far as tank stuff having bad stats....totally easy to get around.

 

I buy gloves and rip the enhancment out and place them in the helmet which has alacrity.

 

Of course most people are not playing hardmodes but lots of 16 man SM going around so really just grab up the 69 drops and just keep buying the gloves over and over so you have all 72/78 mixed with the 69 armorings so you have the set bonus.

 

Lets be honest all 66/69 is all we need for SM ops....the 72/78 is over powered, these days SM ops are a walk in the park with the amount of over geared players.

Edited April 10, 2014 by kirorx

[XAtrophi]

As far as tank stuff having bad stats....totally easy to get around.

 

I buy gloves and rip the enhancment out and place them in the helmet which has alacrity.

.

 

Finally someone who gets it! So many people say they are terrible and not worth buying, but guess what if you have nothing else the Vigilant 34 enhancements are better then bulwark 30s they have more mitigation. The slightly higher end on mods is actually a plus when starting out doing the SM ops as it'll give a buffer in case your healers aren't great.

As for dps you get the best mods from your comm gear so when you're trying to min/max its best to buy boots or gloves to get rid of the crit that comes on dreadforged gear.

 

Comm gear is by no means perfect but i don't understand the venomous attitude towards it. Its enough to get you started doing HM SV/TFB. If you aren't in a raiding guild expecting to gear quickly isn't good since its common to go multiple runs while losing every roll.

The forums disdain for comm gear is really unfounded. Noone is or has ever, to my knowledge, said comm gear is the end-all of gearing it is a stepping stone to further your gear progression. Its also a cheap and easy way to fill that 5th gear slot that way you aren't taking a token from someone who would actually benefit

 

Back to the OP: Buying the armoring is a waste, buy enhancements and hilt that is the only place(sans set bonus but crafted dont get that either) that comm gear is lacking.

Also just by doing the weeklies for all the Ops, which you should be anyway, you'll get more then enough ultimates, assuming you do them 16m.

[Loc_n_lol]

I just don't understand why Absorb+Alacrity (and other speshul combos) enhancements even exist. Nobody wants to use these. The artifice crew skill trainer even sells schematics for those pieces of junk. Why ?

[SW_display_name]

I just don't understand why Absorb+Alacrity (and other speshul combos) enhancements even exist. Nobody wants to use these. The artifice crew skill trainer even sells schematics for those pieces of junk. Why ?

Rather than BW just deleting crap stats off gear (and deliberately creating gear with crap stats as a 'punishment' for taking 'easy' routes to gear up), it would be much more interesting to bring up the value of crap stats to make them worthwhile choices.

 

You see in eg, WoW's current Tanking model, that when DPS stats can convert to higher uptime on defensive abilities, you end up with more engaging gameplay and more interesting stat choices.

 

(preferably not taken to the extreme WoW has, though, where it just inverted instead, and 'real' defensive stats have become unwanted garbage compared to DPS stats)

[XAtrophi]

I just don't understand why Absorb+Alacrity (and other speshul combos) enhancements even exist. Nobody wants to use these. The artifice crew skill trainer even sells schematics for those pieces of junk. Why ?

 

You'd be surprised i've seen tanks actually take the accuracy enhancements purposely over the mitigation ones.

My guess they exist to weed out the truly bad players. That or BW really assumed people would want these.

[Jeweledleah]

vendors exist to supplement your gearing, not replace it. BIS implants/earpieces even while being craftable - will remain pretty damn expensive, by sole reason of them being not a guaranteed drop and as a result - painful as hell to get, let alone RE to craft.

the point of gear is it being the means to clear content. if gear is you end goal? by all means - do grind those dailies and buy it. I don't understand why would you, but whatever floats your boat. me I'm in it for the raiding, gear just allows me to be more effective and as a result - help my ops group progress further through content, it is the ONLY reason i bother optimizing. personally.

 

and vendors are still useful, be it gearing alts, companions or getting an occasional mod/enhancement here and there. (believe it or not, you CAN occasionally find optimized stuff on a vendor, it just might not be a vendor for your class and/or item originally designed for your spec.)

[ShmickB]

 

Considering all of this why will I bother with end game content while I can just do my dailies and such few hours a day and get some of the best gear in the game?

Also considering this what is the point of endgame PVE content now ? why will I even bother?

Sensible player will get this gear in 2 months or so (full augmented set), and the completionest between us will run each ops and FP mode once for the achievment and then move straight to the harder versions of the content.

 

 

I'm by no means a hard-core raider, but my answer to this is "I do Ops and stuff cause they are fun.... Running around with my other non-pro Guildmates is FUN".

 

I always look at the gear drops as a possible REWARD for doing the content, not as the PURPOSE for doing the content.

 

Having said that though there is no reason why you can't do as you propose and just focus on doing the HM & NiM content once you've bought your armourings/mods/enhancements off the GTN. Each to their own I suppose.

 

[JimG]

Considering all of this why will I bother with end game content while I can just do my dailies and such few hours a day and get some of the best gear in the game?

If you're not running the end game content, then you have absolutely no need for the best gear in the game. So what's the point of running dailies to get the best gear in the game if you're not going to bother running end-game content?

[ShmickB]

If you're not running the end game content, then you have absolutely no need for the best gear in the game. So what's the point of running dailies to get the best gear in the game if you're not going to bother running end-game content?

 

^^ QFT

 

I'm in 72/78 Gear on my main (72 Amourings for set bonus, not particularly min/max'd.) and any non HM-Raid content (CZ198/Oricon/FPs/etc) is a doddle...

[Fantazm]

If you're not running the end game content, then you have absolutely no need for the best gear in the game. So what's the point of running dailies to get the best gear in the game if you're not going to bother running end-game content?

 

 

Because?

[BrintoSFJ]

healer with crit

what are you going on about? crit is very important for healers, resource management of healers are based on how much they crit. yes for merc/commando it is more about power than crit but for both sage and scoundrel crit is very important. try looking at both scoundrel and sage healing tree carefully.

As for your topic why comm vendors have trash stats like alacrity on tank gear; it is because our end game is trash; we have only 4 proper ops at 55; one of them TFB was 50 ops now converted to 55. at 55 all the HM FP except for czerka are re skinned old fp. we simply don't have enough end game pve so it is eaware's idea to put trash stats on gears so that for proper build we have to play the tiny end game for several light years. it is as simple as that.

[lironBD]

You guys didn't get my point though many of you have much valid opinions.

 

The time it will take me as non-professional raider (means I don't do daily raids or even on my guild progression team) to get 300 Ultimate cooms for merely 3 oriconian unmodable items I can use to get credits in the slow hard way (there are much faster ways) and get the better stats dread forge stuff from the market instead while using meanwhile the basic cooms gear (69) to do some casual operations and other activities for fun in between.

 

Doing oricon for example with a buddy took us like 20 minutes with all bonuses and netted me over 120 k not including the cooms (which I can use for Iso-5).

 

So overall all those vendors feels now kinda useless to me..

my 2 creds...

[Jeweledleah]

You guys didn't get my point though many of you have much valid opinions.

 

The time it will take me as non-professional raider (means I don't do daily raids or even on my guild progression team) to get 300 Ultimate cooms for merely 3 oriconian unmodable items I can use to get credits in the slow hard way (there are much faster ways) and get the better stats dread forge stuff from the market instead while using meanwhile the basic cooms gear (69) to do some casual operations and other activities for fun in between.

 

Doing oricon for example with a buddy took us like 20 minutes with all bonuses and netted me over 120 k not including the cooms (which I can use for Iso-5).

 

So overall all those vendors feels now kinda useless to me..

my 2 creds...

 

becasue not everyone wants to do dailies? because if you DO raid, you are going to have ultimate and elite coms anyways, so there's some choices to spend them on. options are good! its kinda like an option of getting pvp relics instead of paying millions to buy crafted pve ones.

 

vendors may be useless to YOU. but it doesn't make them useless, period. you =/= everyone.

[XAtrophi]

You guys didn't get my point though many of you have much valid opinions.

 

The time it will take me as non-professional raider (means I don't do daily raids or even on my guild progression team) to get 300 Ultimate cooms for merely 3 oriconian unmodable items I can use to get credits in the slow hard way (there are much faster ways) and get the better stats dread forge stuff from the market instead while using meanwhile the basic cooms gear (69) to do some casual operations and other activities for fun in between.

 

Doing oricon for example with a buddy took us like 20 minutes with all bonuses and netted me over 120 k not including the cooms (which I can use for Iso-5).

 

So overall all those vendors feels now kinda useless to me..

my 2 creds...

 

What does "non-professional raider " mean? If you mean you don't do ops period then what is the point of this thread? If you just mean you do the odd raid here and there, wouldnt you rather supplement your gear grind and save credits for other things?

I only do PuG raids mostly now maybe join my guild for the odd HM and still cap out on my 150 weekly limit.

While im waiting for ops i do my dailies on czerka and oricon. There isnt much reason you cant do both, if your playtime is limited well, you wont be raking in credits either so moot point.

[lironBD]

It means I don't queue with team speak oriented team min maxing my stuff doing HM\Nim o the hardest content in constant way...

 

And at any rate doing few weeklys you'll cap your cooms.

[morfius]

I just don't understand why Absorb+Alacrity (and other speshul combos) enhancements even exist. Nobody wants to use these. The artifice crew skill trainer even sells schematics for those pieces of junk. Why ?

 

BW in their calculation can see that there is no enough tanks for all DPS rolling around ... so they made tank gear grind at least twice (or 3 time if go for dps set for off spec) longer so those tanks will be forced to longer supplement queues/groups for all DPS.

No other role is so screwed with crafted (low level mods/enhancements, Makeb reputation implants for aim/will tanks) or commendation items (in leveling only 2 level ranges have tanking items, end game is multiplied grind)... stats for DPS and healers may not be optimal but yet work, alacrity/accuracy for tanking is big pile of crap.

So most needed role got punished instead of rewarded... new players got bad examples with this crap and spoiled players instead of explaining simple things prefer to insult and ignore - sane tanks got annoyed, baddies ignored ... no wonder queue times got longer.

So longer they got that BW decided to drop trinity and go for tactical.

 

Simple mistake to punish instead of reward needed role... so much bad results.

[frennky]

I'm not sure I understand what was the point of this thread. Comm vendors have their use. This more sounds to me as OP has some problem with the fact that 78 items are now craft-able and therefore accessible to all.

[Kourage]

Don't care if it's been said already, but the way they set it up, they expect you to buy all the pieces for the armorings, and then buy what you need just to swap out the enhancements, or buy crafted enhancements. If you are an Imperial healer, you should buy Warrior DPS pants for the power & alacrity enhancement in them.

 

It's a really stupid system.

[Oneirophrenia]

Don't care if it's been said already, but the way they set it up, they expect you to buy all the pieces for the armorings, and then buy what you need just to swap out the enhancements, or buy crafted enhancements. If you are an Imperial healer, you should buy Warrior DPS pants for the power & alacrity enhancement in them.

 

It's a really stupid system.

 

BW did this to artificially create "gear grinding" so people won't be able to get a full set of ulti comm gear within a mere month of release. Thus, people who care about min-maxing or doing hard mode ops can expect to spend an extra 300-500 ultis (depending on advanced class) to swap out the undesirable mods/enhancements. On the other hand, people who don't care about that can just acquire the stock pieces and be done with it while still being able contribute just fine in story mode operations. Ulti comm gear is already easy enough to get when compared to their equivalent gear in other MMOs so I don't particularly understand what all this fuss is about. It is really "much ado about nothing", to quote a certain English playwright.

 

------

 

As for the OP's suggestion of buying the armoring/mods/enhancement off the GTN is somehow faster or more efficient than actually running the operations for ulti comms, that's just absurd. If you don't run operations then you won't be able to obtain the mats. As such, MMGs are going for 700-800k on Shadowland right now (last I checked) and 2 of them is required to make those mods. Assuming that you have enough basic comms from grinding dailies to buy all the iso-5s you need, there's still the cost of EEEs (300-400k for 8 or 40k-50k each) to take into consideration. All told, that's nearly 1.8-2 million credits for just 1 armoring/mod/enhancements or 5-6 million for all 3 to fully slot a piece of gear. Even after the prices come back down to pre-2.7 level eventually (350-450k for MMG and 30k for EEE), it would still cost about a million in mats alone for each armoring/mod/enhancement. There is only so much time in a week for dailies or playing the GTN to make credits. In contrast, someone who runs about 8-10 operations a week (not including TC) on various level 55s will acquire enough ulti comms to purchase at least 3 pieces of ulti gear. This is not to mention they will also get to keep their credits to buy other goodies such as mounts, emotes or what not off the GTN.

 

Of course I won't preclude the possibility that there are people out there who can make 10-20 million credits a week without breaking a sweat so they could conceivably afford to go about upgrading their gear through the GTN. Still, that is simply not a realistic option for the vast majority of other players out there.

 

P.S: Operations also give an abundance of elite comms which I (as an example) use to outfit companions, fresh level 55 alts or alternate role gear. This is something that the "GTN purchase method" also won't allow.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Oneirophrenia

[errant_knight]

Comms are super useful. I got one character in full ultimate in a couple months just doing once a week Ops weeklies (including extra pieces for min/max) and geared another two characters with his unneeded elite comms. it's fairly easy to do all the 55 sm ops weekly bosses in one night. They're practically giving this stuff away. Edited April 10, 2014 by errant_knight

[BrianDavion]

as for ease or not of getting ultimate comms, all I'm gonna say is "16 man raids. do em" on a SM 16 man raid every boss drops 4 ultimate comms. meaning just by running 16 mode ops each week you can VERY swiftly gear up. in 78s. thats what my guild does.

[ivanhedgehog]

In theory, people who do operations enjoy doing operations, and the gear serves as a combination of restricted access and reward(especially the credits).

 

+1 I enjoy doing all the operations. not doing ev/kp/snv/tfb over and over and over just to get gear so that 1 person will be ready for df/dp