Confused about what to do about gear with 12k boost.

[Lord_Robert]

I don't understand that last. In your view, why ought everyone be able to enjoy anything equally? Individuals value different things differently, therefore will enjoy different things from one another. If we were to have to try to enjoy everything equally we would have to all be the same person, and I don't think that should be thought a realistic expectation.

 

There's a difference between enjoying things equally and enjoying things in exactly the same way.

Everybody should have an equal opportunity to enjoy the bonus buff, regardless of how many alts, creds or even hours available they have. Bioware states that they want players to be able to have the opportunity to immerse themselves exclusively in exciting class story missions, but only through December 1, 2014. (Quoted from the press-release)

 

For everyone to be able to enjoy such an exclusive immersion, everybody ought to be able to do so on an equal footing. Thus there should not be any requirements of high-level alts, crafter-alts, spare creds or other such things, to allow a player to keep within a reasonable gear-level of the story-mission they are currently doing. Not everybody enjoys having to struggle to get basic gear either and that too, should not be a requirement, to enjoy this bonus fully.

 

And please note that I am not talking about steamrolling content, or staying ahead of the gear-curve or anything alike. I am talking about being able to actually complete the story-missions without having to do other content, exactly as Bioware wants us to be able to do.

 

Allowing everybody to enjoy that on an equal footing, means simply that what you get, earn, find, etc. during the leveling process, should be enough to get you through the class missions without too much trouble, thus allowing a player to immerse themselves exclusively in the class story missions. It doesn't mean that a char leveled like that should reach 55 with awesome gear, a million creds and max'ed crew skills.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Lord_Robert

[EranofArcadia]

So the whole "class skills are now free to train" thing is definitely a feature, not a bug? I was wondering.

[LordArtemis]

I can speak from experience when I say that a character can level just fine all the way to level 50 with just green drops from quests and loot. I have done so twice.

 

Your outfit might be a bit clownish, but you can do it. Color match helps. You also get plenty of boosts and meds along the way.

 

Treek helps immensely at lower levels.

[Heezdedjim]

I can speak from experience when I say that a character can level just fine all the way to level 50 with just green drops from quests and loot. I have done so twice.

Under normal conditions, when you're doing side quests as well as class missions, sure. The problem with 12x XP is that the class missions alone only give about 1/10th of the pieces you normally would pick up as you go, so you wind up at level 35 with level 15 gear on.

 

It may still be "possible" to get through with gear that is lagging 20 levels behind, but the class missions were scaled to the premise that you would be wearing gear equal to or better than what all the content before each one had to offer, which means you would have more or less on-level green quest drops. They weren't designed to be possible for characters at 30+ that haven't seen a new chest piece since level 9.

 

One way or another, you're on your own to fill in those gaps if you're using the 12x bonus time to do what Bioware meant you to do with it, which is level a bunch of alts on class quests alone.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Heezdedjim]

So the whole "class skills are now free to train" thing is definitely a feature, not a bug? I was wondering.

I haven't seen any mention of it being a bug, and I'm sure Bioware knows about it by now. It's such an obvious solution to what otherwise would be a huge problem that I can't imagine it was unintended.

[LordArtemis]

Under normal conditions, when you're doing side quests as well as class missions, sure. The problem with 12x XP is that the class missions alone only give about 1/8th or less of the pieces you normally would pick up as you go, so you wind up at level 35 with level 15 gear on.

 

It may still be "possible" to get through with gear that is lagging 20 levels behind, but the class missions were scaled to the premise that you would be wearing gear equal to or better than what all the content before each one had to offer, which means you would have more or less on-level green quest drops. They weren't designed to be possible for characters at 30+ that haven't seen a new chest piece since level 9.

 

One way or another, you're on your own to fill in those gaps if you're using the 12x bonus time to do what Bioware meant you to do with it, which is level a bunch of alts on class quests alone.

 

I see your point. Perhaps, if they could see this was an issue, they could increase comm drops or decrease comm cost for mods.

[Lord_Robert]

I see your point. Perhaps, if they could see this was an issue, they could increase comm drops or decrease comm cost for mods.

 

In another thread, I suggested making a gear-lvl buff like the KDY one scaled to your current level.

Bioware's idea seems to be to let us immerse ourselves in the class stories and thus, gear isn't really part of the equation anyway..

 

Though as others have suggested elsewhere, making the buff toggable for those, who prefer not to have it, makes perfect sense to me. And it should be limited to the same timeframe as the xp-buff of course.

 

That way, they would hardly need to change anything and it would be easy to undo, once December 1st hits.

[Brewski]

Don't bother using orange armor until you hit 55. Until then, use drops and quest rewards you get as you level. To make up for the gaps caused by skipping planetary and FP content, just supplement with the occasional green item purchase off the GTN or green item crafted by your crafters.

 

You're going to level so fast you'll be OP in all your class missions anyway even without gear. If you hit a tough boss fight, trip your heroic and boom, you are set.

 

What Bioware has basically offered is a way to play a class story with little to no effort, resulting in a permanent level 55 character at the end. No need to over complicate it.

[Lord_Robert]

Don't bother using orange armor until you hit 55. Until then, use drops and quest rewards you get as you level. To make up for the gaps caused by skipping planetary and FP content, just supplement with the occasional green item purchase off the GTN or green item crafted by your crafters.

 

You're going to level so fast you'll be OP in all your class missions anyway even without gear. If you hit a tough boss fight, trip your heroic and boom, you are set.

 

What Bioware has basically offered is a way to play a class story with little to no effort, resulting in a permanent level 55 character at the end. No need to over complicate it.

 

Again, crafters shouldn't be necessary. That aside, with the game being as gear-dependent, as it is, being over-leveled just isn't enough, as I've seen it.. Even leveling a stealther, ordinary mobs (even a pair of standards) sometimes wipe the floor with me and my comp, because of the stat-difference. (And most powers are stat dependent more so than level, at least to a degree.)

 

I do use my heroic on bosses. But even they are not always enough.. And when it's on CD for the mobs, what then? The idea of playing a class story with little to no effort just isn't the experience I've had (and again, I am not alone in this) and while I think that is what Bioware intended, it is not what is happening, for a lot of people..

 

It is not a question of over-complicating it. Rather it is a question of asking for a way to make 'reality' (in the game) fit with Bioware's stated purpose for the buff.

[magicallypuzzled]

Again, crafters shouldn't be necessary. That aside, with the game being as gear-dependent, as it is, being over-leveled just isn't enough, as I've seen it.. Even leveling a stealther, ordinary mobs (even a pair of standards) sometimes wipe the floor with me and my comp, because of the stat-difference. (And most powers are stat dependent more so than level, at least to a degree.)

 

I do use my heroic on bosses. But even they are not always enough.. And when it's on CD for the mobs, what then? The idea of playing a class story with little to no effort just isn't the experience I've had (and again, I am not alone in this) and while I think that is what Bioware intended, it is not what is happening, for a lot of people..

 

It is not a question of over-complicating it. Rather it is a question of asking for a way to make 'reality' (in the game) fit with Bioware's stated purpose for the buff.

i disagree it's suppose to be easier not easy. it isn't suppose to be spoon fed to you and it really isn't all that hard to get a few credits to buy a little bit of gear.

[Sorwen]

I've never really paid attention to quest rewards for class quests. Honestly I find it odd that the rewards are not good enough to get by on. That means that every other side quest is what is pushing your gear progression. With Legcy xp and boosts you could already cut much of that way down(which was supposed to be the whole point to them in the first place). It looks like class rewards have needed a looking at for a long time and was ignored because people were still getting by other ways.

 

I do have to say the people that say just craft are disingenuous or not in touch with what it means to get many crafters up. All costs involved a person could buy better gear many times over for less credits then crafting.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Sorwen

[Brewski]

Again, crafters shouldn't be necessary. That aside, with the game being as gear-dependent, as it is, being over-leveled just isn't enough, as I've seen it.. Even leveling a stealther, ordinary mobs (even a pair of standards) sometimes wipe the floor with me and my comp, because of the stat-difference. (And most powers are stat dependent more so than level, at least to a degree.)

 

I do use my heroic on bosses. But even they are not always enough.. And when it's on CD for the mobs, what then? The idea of playing a class story with little to no effort just isn't the experience I've had (and again, I am not alone in this) and while I think that is what Bioware intended, it is not what is happening, for a lot of people..

 

It is not a question of over-complicating it. Rather it is a question of asking for a way to make 'reality' (in the game) fit with Bioware's stated purpose for the buff.

Crafters aren't necessary at all, as you can get by using rewards and greens you buy off the GTN and from planetary vendors. Crafting is just an easy way to supplement your own equipment. If you make your toon a synthweaver or armormech and gather mats as you pass them, you can craft your own greens as you level for virtually free. That's how I leveled my first toon through the game back at launch before the orange revolution. I crafted my own armor (usually green sometimes blue), and used planetary comms to keep my weapon upgraded where drops needed to be filled in.

 

Bioware reduced the time to level by giving you a 12x boost to class missions. They also reduced the cost of leveling by removing the cost to buy skills. Keeping a toon outfitted in green equipment should not be too much to ask the player to contribute. If they are going to give you a bolster as well, they might as well just make it a big button that says "give me a level 55" that you can press to get everything.

 

And as for it being practical, I ran a second trooper through Nar Shadaa last night wearing green level 15 armor without dying once. I triggered my heroic on two separate fights, but otherwise I just ran through it. This is totally doable without any further intervention needed.

[DarkDisturbed]

I've level 34 sorc and finally hit a wall where i can't progress in my level 12 greens Gear really isn't a problem unless you get this far behind like me lol

[Halinalle]

I've been using quest reward greens and world drop greens, but I have to say, it's a lot harder than I expected in places. I actually died four times trying to complete the class story for my Consular on Quesh... Qyzen just couldn't tank the damage the mobs were putting out, and only some pretty embarrassing kiting on my part actually let me finish it off.

 

Really?

 

Now I really want to know how we did it 3 years ago. All we got was green and blue drops. No adaptive gear and even orange gear was difficult to keep upgraded because commendations were limited to specific planets (basically when you arrived to Belsavis your Hoth Commendations became obsolete etc.).

[Meraxos]

I'm a newer player. When the 12xXP hit yesterday I had 8 characters, one of each class, all between 17 and 32. I found that, as long as you are willing to do some gathering and crafting, gear is not really an issue even with the turbo leveling.

 

Leveling with the boost means that cybertech and salvaging are even more essential than they already were. If you give your character cyber, scavaging and UW you can make mods and armorings as you go with fairly minimal effort. Use your other companions to run UW missions and make blue mods and armorings for sale while just equipping yourself in greens if you want to make some extra cash. Or you can just equip the blues too if you like to be stronger.

 

On a second character you don't even need the cyber since you can drop off mats at your legacy storage and the first guy can make the items. Of course, if you dislike all the drop offs and mailings and switching characters it's perfectly valid to have cyber on every leveling character.

 

The only thing this requires is that, while running around the various zones for your class quests, you veer off and grab every scavaging node you see even if it means fighting a few mobs. Also scavage every dead droid you see.

 

It's possible to get by with armor that is far behind your level but I dislike feeling weak and vulnerable. With this system you can stay strong all the way as long as you are willing to do a little gathering and crafting work.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Meraxos

[Ferrety]

I every planet or maybe even second planet I just head back to my Stronghold, fire up the GTN and buy some random greens for 500-2K creds a slot. Doesn't cost much and keeps you level appropriate.

 

You can finish the whole storyline easily in greens.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Ferrety

[Heezdedjim]

Now I really want to know how we did it 3 years ago. All we got was green and blue drops. No adaptive gear and even orange gear was difficult to keep upgraded because commendations were limited to specific planets (basically when you arrived to Belsavis your Hoth Commendations became obsolete etc.).

Three years ago you were doing all the planetary stories and side quests, which all together, along with the class missions, will give you a full gear refresh for you and your companion on pretty much every planet except Quesh.

 

This is not hard to understand. By doing class stories only, which is the sole, entire, advertised point of the 12x bonus, you are getting only about 1/10th of the quest drops that normal leveling would give you (which makes sense, since you're leveling in less than 1/10th of the time).

 

That's how you end up at level 35 with level 15 gear on, or worse. And that's a problem.

 

It's the same problem we would have had if they had not reduced ability costs to zero for those with the pre-order buff; sure, you can level at lightning speed, but the huge credit sink of ability training, which was scaled toward normal leveling incomes, would have crippled the ability of most players to level more than one or two characters before going broke.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Halinalle]

The only thing this requires is that, while running around the various zones for your class quests, you veer off and grab every salvaging node you see even if it means fighting a few mobs. Also salvage every dead droid you see.

 

This is pretty much what I do when I'm leveling. I run around and try to find every destroyed droid or dead monster. If I see someone fighting strong/elite droid/monster I stand around and wait. If the other player isn't going to take it I will.

 

By doing class stories only, which is the sole, entire, advertised point of the 12x bonus, you are getting only about 1/10th of the quest drops that normal leveling would give you (which makes sense, since you're leveling in less than 1/10th of the time).

 

So, it's still most important to get to level 55 as fast as possible?

 

I only have the "must get to level 50 as fast as possible" when I don't have any level 50+ characters on that server. As soon as I get one character on server to 50 then it just disappears. They say I'm a bit weirdo. I guess they have a point...

Edited October 8, 2014 by Halinalle

[LordArtemis]

I wanted to be clear, since I am not sure I mentioned it before.

 

As I said, in the past (before RotHC) I leveled two toons to 50 using only drops and rewards, all green gear. No mods, just pure green gear. Now, that did include a few purchases on the GTN AND a few pieces of gear from the planetary vendors. Most of the gear was from drops and rewards though.

 

That is why I believe it is likely possible to do so now....at least to 50. Cant speak to post 50, but the Makeb buff should help considerably.

 

That said, however, it is reasonable to assume that only using class quests, and considering the much lower level of mobs you have to kill, as well as the reduced amount of comms you could collect you might run into some kind of gear shortage at some point.

Edited October 8, 2014 by LordArtemis

[Drockter]

Already had problems even 4 levels above boss cause of crappy gear. Do i go back and do heroics for comms? Use green gear that drops? ETC. I have adaptive gear, but dunno if i should hold off till i hit 55.

 

Thoughts?

 

Yeah OP... this has been brought up in guild chat.. I think the perk was really designed for those with multiple characters already, with some cash or stashed gear. I'm not concerned because I have multiple toons that are crafters so I can feed the leveling alt with gear.

 

I dont think the perk is really good for brand new subs/pre-orders leveling their first character. Too much is passable (comp gear for example, credits, gathering skills, etc). I also think it can do the newer player a disservice (part of leveling is about learning to play your character/role... leveling too fast kinda hurts that learning curve).

 

For someone with multiple characters... its a great perk... I think that is what the intention was.

[Brewski]

This is not hard to understand. By doing class stories only, which is the sole, entire, advertised point of the 12x bonus, you are getting only about 1/10th of the quest drops that normal leveling would give you (which makes sense, since you're leveling in less than 1/10th of the time).

Which is why you need to supplement with basic greens purchased off the GTN or crafted by your own toon as you level. Keeping your toon in green gear as you level is not hard.

 

I every planet or maybe even second planet I just head back to my Stronghold, fire up the GTN and buy some random greens for 500-2K creds a slot. Doesn't cost much and keeps you level appropriate.

 

You can finish the whole storyline easily in greens.

This. Exactly this.

[Lord_Robert]

Which is why you need to supplement with basic greens purchased off the GTN or crafted by your own toon as you level. Keeping your toon in green gear as you level is not hard.

 

Except that for me at least, keeping the crafting levels adequate proved virtually impossible. I tried running biochem on an assassin, I just dingen 50 with.. They are still below 150 in all three skills, even though I've virtually run those missions non-stop.. (Which required me to feed the char creds from another one.) With the leveling speed, which is WAD, you cannot keep the crafting levels up, unless you constantly stop progressing. Likewise, purchasing gear on the GTN is not really an option, unless you feed the char creds from an alt, something not everyone are able to do and which should not be a requirement. You simply do not earn enough creds to buy gear at any sustainable rate..

 

Not even the combination of crafting, using comms, buying greens on the GTN and using whatever drops you find, has proven enough for the two toons I've just run to 53 and 50 respectively. Crafting cannot keep up, loot drops are too few and far between, quest rewards add too little and even with the creds earned along the way, it just doesn't add up to something useful..

 

In essence, you pretty much HAVE to use crafter alts or transfered funds, both of which should not be a requirement, since not every player can be expected to have it available.. You should be able to get by (reasonably, though not in a cakewalk manner) with what you gain from the class story missions and the loot drops alone. Otherwise the the ability to be 'leveling by immersing oneself exclusively in class story missions' is unavailable. And it is the explicitly stated purpose of the buff to enable leveling in that way.

[Arkerus]

I wish Bioware would actually create a sticky called "How to keep your gear updated during 12x XP."

 

It has one line:

 

Go to the GTN and buy green gear.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Arkerus

[AlixMV]

So the whole "class skills are now free to train" thing is definitely a feature, not a bug? I was wondering.

 

It's a feature.

 

This is intended! With the 12x XP boost, we made skills free in order to compensate for the lower credit intake.

[Elyx]

yup. gear is an issue. i found that the "speedy leveling time" is deceptive. your gear loses its potency very fast. 10 levels even with blues and your struggling with mobs. that and the travel make it feel slower then it really is.

 

best solution I think is the idea for making green mods. pick up scavenging and a second gathering skill of choice (like archeology for force users), and cybertech. start an alt with artifice. mail all the arch materials over to alt, and craft up green mods as you go.

 

I initially was working on trying to keep myself in blue mods, but its so much effort for how fast you outpace them i just make greens as I go, and make them twice as often. far easier then having to stop every few hours and hop over to an alt and spend just as much time as you were leveling crafting your items

 

An alternative if your leveling an alt on a server where you have all your crafters: pre-craft ahead of time. make the gear gap between 8 and 10 levels, and craft the next few tiers ahead of time (like start them at night before you go to sleep). then you have all your mods ready to go when you hit that level.

 

EDIT: Not to advertise WoW (haven't played it in ages), but their "legacy gear" mechanic would have been great with this upgrade. gear that levels it's stats with you! once you reach a certain level before cap (I think it's first iteration was 10 levels below cap), it stopped leveling with you. then all you had to do was enjoy the game

Edited October 10, 2014 by Elyx