Please make Quest rewards worth the time and effort

[Sempronos]

I just find it frustrating to do a long chain quest and turn it in only to find the reward is an item that your class cannot use, or its lower than the level requirement to do the quest.

 

I am not sure if its like a random generator, but how hard would it be to give class specific rewards or items you might actually want to use? I sometimes find better random drops off quest mobs than the actual quest reward.

 

Thanks.

[Vandicus]

Quest rewards aren't rng(except for loot boxes). For the most part the quest rewards are for the same level at which you do the quest. Except for 50-55 experience, where gearing gets a bit wonky in regards to the quest rewards.

[StrikePrice]

I don't think they ever re-evaluated quest rewards since they made the change to the way planetary comms. work. It used to be that you would arrive at a planet and have 0 comms for that planet. Only after leaving that planet, would you have enough comms to buy anything. So, you were always one planet behind with comms.

 

Now, since they are combined, you are always one planet ahead in comms. I get quest rewards now and say "Wow! they must think I really have crappy gear!" I think when the system was designed, they were upgrades, but now they are just a joke.

 

Every quest should just give out comms ... nothing else, always comms. Problems solved.

[JimG]

They've never gone back and revised the quest rewards. Since they added the CM and changed the planet commendation system, leveling gear from quest rewards is pretty useless. Also, those rewards were set up before all the XP boosts (legacy, guild and consumable) were added and I think before we even had rest XP. So people are usually over-level for everything and the quest rewards become pretty useless. It would be great if they went back and re-vamped all those quest rewards, but I don't see that happening.

[trancejeremy]

While I agree, a good number of quests give out planetary commendations. So it's better than it could be.

 

A lot of games suffer from this.

[Sempronos]

I like your idea of quest rewards being changed to either loot boxes for coins and comms, then you can save up for that one item you need to fill your current template without doing all the leg work for an item worse than you already have.

 

I have no idea how many times after lots of running around and endless mobs I finally get to the end of a quest chain and I am pumped thinking after all this, I bet the reward is awesome. Only to find it would have been awesome 5 levels ago for another class. Rage!

[Arkerus]

Not sure what game you guys are playing. Quest rewards are almost always appropriate for the programmed difficulty level of the planet (and as starter gear for the next planet). I have 5 or 6 alts and i still find quest rewards to be (for the most part) an upgrade. You know when they AREN'T an upgrade? When I purposely run HARDER content than the planet I am on. The harder content (FPs, heroic areas) drop better gear than what planet I am on.

 

If you are finding the gear from quests to be worse than your gear its because you have purposely geared up beyond what is needed on that planet or area. That's not Bioware's fault. They don't need to re-design quest drops.

 

Anyone playing the game in the appropriate LINEAR fashion (which I don't always do) will find quest rewards are a steady upgrade. With the change to planet comms, its very easy to buy gear and mods way better than your current planet.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Arkerus

[Heal-To-Full]

Most quest rewards are green.

 

I don't even look at greens' stats even when leveling anymore, if it's green and it's not a crafting mat etc, to the vendor it goes. Never worth the trouble.

[DawnAskham]

Every game I have played has provided basic rewards for most leveling missions / quests, and 99% of the time, especially on your second or later character, they are worse than the gear you already have through other sources.

 

And while I wouldn't mind if every mission provided an option for gear or a planetary commendation, I think it would be a better use of time for them to clean up the old individual planet commendation vendors.

 

Ever since the game launched, there are some rather silly discrepancies and poor itemization on the commendation vendors.

 

At various player levels, none of the vendors will have a main stat armoring / main stat mod for one stat user while providing one for all other stat users (in other words, by playing class X, you have gaps in what is available from the commendation vendors that another class does not have).

 

There are way too many high endurance armorings, barrels and hilts at all levels, which are perfect if you are leveling a tank, but not for dps and some modifications, like Patron (high endurance cunning armoring / barrels), shouldn't even exist. Sometimes you have to wait four to six levels to find an actual upgrade for armoring and mods as what is available at the next level or two up provides a huge boost in endurance at a loss of main stat.

 

There are no tank mods and very few enhancements with defensive / mitigation stats. At the same time, there are many redundant mods and enhancements between the vendors and sometimes on the same vendor.

 

At least one of the equipment vendors sells a helm with cunning + defense mods, which is either a mistake / left-over from a thought of having a cunning based tank, or Bioware is seriously trolling the player base.

 

No relics are available for commendation before 50, and the ones that are available through the alignment vendors still have alignment restrictions, as do all the ones that come from Treasure Hunting missions.

 

I'd like to see them set up class / main stat vendors to sale leveling mods for by class, with the primary main stat / tank version armoring, mods, barrels and hilts available every two levels to replace the Planet X Modifications vendors, and basic enhancements available for all roles every two levels.

 

For the vendors on the planets, they could simply clean up their lists to cover the level range for the planet (both starting level and the ending level) or even leave them as is as with the best place to spend commendations still being at Fleet.

 

For the Planet equipment vendors, they could simply gather them into a smaller area, and other than cleaning up the few absurd items like the cunning / defense helm, leave the gear as it exists today. The items like ears and implants should probably all be gathered onto a consolidated 'accessories' vendor or places on the class / stat vendors based on main stat.

 

Players could then easily find the highest modifications available for their character without having to run back and forth between different vendors (Planet A has level X main stat armor, Planet B has level X mods and enhancements), and every class would have basic main stat and tank modifications available every two level without having to wonder 'why can't I find an armoring for my 33 sentinel but I find one for my 33 sniper'?

 

I'd also like to see them ditch the alignment requirements from all relics, and / or add non-alignment relics to the commendation vendors and / or add relic schematics to artifice.

Edited April 16, 2014 by DawnAskham

[Drudenfusz]

While I agree, a good number of quests give out planetary commendations. So it's better than it could be.

 

A lot of games suffer from this.

Bonus series on Nar Shaddaa does not for examply, which is why I skip that always. My characters get moded as soon as possible, so all the green and sometimes blue gear is pretty much useless to me (even my complanions get moded as soon as I get them)... so I would like to see every quest which doesn't belong to the elder game dailies and such things to have a planetary commendation option.

[branmakmuffin]

Doesn't it show in the quest log what the reward will be? In any event, if you view playing a game a matter of "effort," you are doing something wrong. Edited April 16, 2014 by branmakmuffin

[KyaniteD]

I'm actually not really bothered by it (anymore). Class quests and planet quests I do for the story. For the rest I have a rewards preview in the mission log that lets me decide whether it's worth the effort or not.

 

What I would *love* would be if those missions that offer companion gear actually offered moddable pieces, maybe even of the companion's (iconic) default gear. But by now I have resigned to that never happening.

 

Besides the low-quality mission rewards there are also inconsistencies in rewards for different classes in the same heroic (orange gear for some classes, blue items for others), which give the impression that not much attention was paid. It's just one of many things in the game that weren't done right the first time and aren't important enough to be revised.

 

The reality is that revising the mission rewards will not yield any extra revenue. Even the cartel market items, which actually are meant to yield extra revenue, apparently don't warrant proper quality control and in many cases don't get a second glance once they have been released. Seeing that, I'm not holding my breath for world drops and mission rewards to be looked at again, ever.

Edited April 16, 2014 by KyaniteD

[TUXs]

Every quest should just give out comms ... nothing else, always comms. Problems solved.

Decent idea actually. I'd support this.

[DomiSotto]

Can one even play this game in the level-appropriate green gear? I sure will not be able to. Heck, even overlevelled and in all blue gear I die sometimes. And there was that last Class Quest that made me drop my jaw to the floor on Quesh. Are you kidding me? A Consular is supposed to be able to handle 6 groups of heavy duty Sith fighters???? How on Earth in the light armor? I mean, it took non-stop healing, 4 or so levels above the quest level, even for a JK with 2 DPS companions to get through! Edited April 16, 2014 by DomiSotto

[DawnAskham]

Can one even play this game in the level-appropriate green gear? I sure will not be able to. Heck, even overlevelled and in all blue gear I die sometimes. And there was that last Class Quest that made me drop my jaw to the floor on Quesh. Are you kidding me? A Consular is supposed to be able to handle 6 groups of heavy duty Sith fighters???? How on Earth in the light armor? I mean, it took non-stop healing, 4 or so levels above the quest level, even for a JK with 2 DPS companions to get through!

 

Most should be possible as I know the first couple of times I leveled, I used whatever I got as rewards, drops, or could buy from the planet vendors, and while some parts were certainly challenging and I did die more than I do now, it wasn't terribly difficult.

 

I do think there are some class story missions that would be very rough or difficult depending upon the advanced class, spec, and companion you choose.

 

To do so you'd probably need to get creative and do things like kite mobs in a circle with dots running while using force speed (and force slow on the mob), strafing obstructions to break line of sight with ranged mobs (pillar humping), or strategically kiting and then knocking mobs off platforms to kill them or drop a lot of their hit points.

Edited April 16, 2014 by DawnAskham

[Vandicus]

Can one even play this game in the level-appropriate green gear? I sure will not be able to. Heck, even overlevelled and in all blue gear I die sometimes. And there was that last Class Quest that made me drop my jaw to the floor on Quesh. Are you kidding me? A Consular is supposed to be able to handle 6 groups of heavy duty Sith fighters???? How on Earth in the light armor? I mean, it took non-stop healing, 4 or so levels above the quest level, even for a JK with 2 DPS companions to get through!

 

Yes. And many of the class story fights were nerfed over time. Playing through it in level appropriate greens means you actually need to use a lot of your ancillary abilities though, and medpacs. My recollection is that fighting a level appropriate random gold while wearing greens without using defensive CDs or stuns would be a very close shave.

[DomiSotto]

Interesting, thank you! I tried using the lift ability a couple of times so far, but it never felt terribly useful. I am finding moving intelligently in a fight to be very difficult. I am still at awe that folks managed the game in green underlevelled.

Me, I am not stepping out of my Knight's shadow from now on, no matter how geared!

[Damask_Rose]

Presence really helps! If you haven't leveled a human to 50, buy the unlock so you get 100 presence. Every companion you max out gives you 10 more.

[Vandicus]

Interesting, thank you! I tried using the lift ability a couple of times so far, but it never felt terribly useful. I am finding moving intelligently in a fight to be very difficult. I am still at awe that folks managed the game in green underlevelled.

Me, I am not stepping out of my Knight's shadow from now on, no matter how geared!

 

Lift is one of the soft cc's in the game, which are incredibly useful for soloing(assuming you're a sorc/consular).

 

Say there's a silver with two normal mobs, or two silvers, or even two silvers and a gold, you simply lift the strongest enemy, and dispatch the weaker ones.

[NoFishing]

Can one even play this game in the level-appropriate green gear?

 

Yes, absolutely you can. I leveled a sentinel, shadow, and an scoundrel in a previous double XP weekend using ONLY the green gear drops they received, and reserved all my comms for their Treeks, which shared legacy gear.

[Khevar]

Can one even play this game in the level-appropriate green gear? I sure will not be able to. Heck, even overlevelled and in all blue gear I die sometimes. And there was that last Class Quest that made me drop my jaw to the floor on Quesh. Are you kidding me? A Consular is supposed to be able to handle 6 groups of heavy duty Sith fighters???? How on Earth in the light armor? I mean, it took non-stop healing, 4 or so levels above the quest level, even for a JK with 2 DPS companions to get through!

Attis Station right? It's been a long time since I ran that class quest on my Sage. I do remember it being pretty tough.

 

I was running a TK/Balance Hybrid (it used to be effective), and I had troubles until I read about the Kolto stations around the room. In addition to healing, they also provide a damage resistance. Balance also has the quick lift (although it was instant at that time) and I used my Herioc moment to reset my stun cooldown.

 

It took several tries but I pulled it off probably 2 levels over with a mix of green and blue gear.

 

It seems to me that this particular quest only seems like a brick wall because it surprises you with having to use your abilities to the fullest, where up until that point the game teaches you to faceroll everything.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Khevar

[DomiSotto]

Say there's a silver with two normal mobs, or two silvers, or even two silvers and a gold, you simply lift the strongest enemy, and dispatch the weaker ones.

 

Don't I have to hold the guy up in the air for the duration of the spell though? So, the companion will do the dispatching? And he won't shoot the Lifted guy?

 

Ooh, DR, thank you for the tip! I only have a single human and she is in the 3rd phase and I really don't feel like playing her (I did not know about the presence when I created the Legacy spread!), now I get it why people sell Human unlocks!!!

 

Yes, the Attis Station. I switched to Seer from Balanced a couple of weeks ago, as I play grouped, but we used to do most of the Class quests separately. I was lucky I asked my hubby to come over. I checked out those stations, but did not see what they provided apart from healing. Wish they had some sort of a tip about it He now expects his class quest to be all about Diplomacy.

 

I did find the end of Chapter 1 battle hard, because of the big Crash spell (Tharan as a tank was priceless). Unfortunately, I am hopeless with using interrupting abilities in time. I am trying, but I keep hitting the button at the wrong time

[branmakmuffin]

Can one even play this game in the level-appropriate green gear? I sure will not be able to. Heck, even overlevelled and in all blue gear I die sometimes

If, while leveling up, you can't do on-level, non-heroic quests in on-level green gear, that's a L2P issue.

[DomiSotto]

Yes, of course. I agree I am hopeless. I just don't have what it takes to play well. My reaction time is slower than needed, I do not have the dexterity to move the mouse well, I tend to get distracted by game animations, I am not cool headed and I am immediately bored when it comes to the explanation about how to stack the spells. So, I have stickies with the builds & rotations, I overlevel , try to keep gear to date and skip Heroics unless I see a Group invite, and if I group, I start with my profound apologies. Edited April 17, 2014 by DomiSotto

[trancejeremy]

It's amazing how every MMORPG community belittles players who find the game difficult.

 

"Everything's a face roll, hur hur, L2P!". I hear that in almost every game I play.

 

The reality is that players simply vary. Some are good at MMORPGs, some are bad.

 

As one of those people who are bad, I find a lot of the quests in this game pretty tough. The unlimited medical probes for subscribing has been a godsend, pretty much the only way I can handle some of the tougher story fights.

Edited April 17, 2014 by trancejeremy