Companion Change Feedback

[Ghisallo]

It is not solo content just because it can be soloed. If you're in 190s, group up and get your upgrades.

 

See this is the issue, the mind set. People are used to a little "gearing up" in the solo world BUT usually its designed around planets. So you did he Revan Prelude, followed by Rishi, then Yavin. Here we do not have those bright lines. Once you are done the story, if you don't want to see the intent/need to gear up for H2 SF you quite easily can ignore it.

 

My only issue is that people clearly did not read the OP completely because if they had they would no longer be able to ignore it.

[Ghisallo]

A random person and I attempted the Tattooine Heroic Star Fortress. While going through, we attempted to defeat one of the paladins. We were defeated by him numerous times. We tried putting our companions in DPS, Heal, and Tank spec and several combinations of the three. We were both DPS classes and specs and it was absolutely impossible to defeat the paladin. The companions heal specs could not heal through the damage, and the companions' tank specs couldn't withstand enough damage for us to kill him.

 

We were both level 65. His companion was around influence level 40 and mine was at influence level 25.

His gear was mostly 208/216 gear and My gear was mostly 216 with three pieces at 208 and two pieces at 220.

I am not new to my class and certainly not new to the game. I've been playing a long time and have followed the knowledge of how to play my class very closely and have always made sufficient changes to continue playing my class with sufficient skill to perform well in minor and major aspects of the game.

 

After we gave up on the Tattoine Heroic Star Fortress, I attempted a heroic Alderaan Star Fortress with another random person and we skimmed through it, including defeating all of the paladins, with no problem.

 

The heroic star fortresses are completely unbalanced to begin with. Secondly, the companions are of no help. They are weak and their influence seems to have no affect at all.

Before the companion nerf, I was happy to have finally been able to solo all the content and play through it with little to no hassle and enjoy the experience of the content and missions without being challenged to a point where it felt like a job.

 

I have no desire to sit in front of my computer for 36 hours straight and only get a 3rd of the dailies/weekly's done on a single toon. I have multiple toons that I would like to do these things on.

The change in the companions has made it impossible to juggle all of this on multiple toons.

 

This game has become a job. It has become world of warcraft. This game has become tiresome and tedious.

 

Before the companion change, I was able to enjoy the game. I have read dozens upon dozens of posts and dozens upon dozens of threads of people who feel the exact same way.

 

I respect the fact that you want your game to be a certain way. However, if people don't enjoy the change, then that really says something. When people openly state, "I was finally able to enjoy the game and play casually; getting plenty of content done and still have time to put dinner on the table"...then that really says something as well.

 

What roles were you both? Was one of you interrupting? Were either of u using Crowd control? Now simply calling this a "l2p issue" is certainly condescending but these questions do need to be asked if you read the OP in it's entireity because there for a H2 SF BW specifically states its plan is to

 

At this point we expect players to really understand their class

 

You have 2 Star Fortresses. One who want to do the alliance stuff without it feeling like "a job" and one for those who want more of a challenge. So if you don't want to "really understand your class" and grind significant gear upgrades you are not intended to do the H2 SF. Don't yell at us for reminding you, yell at BW for designing the content like this in the first place.

 

That said what choice did they have. They did not have the time or resources to make new FPs related to the Story so they needed to do something for that portion of the player base. The answer to that is the H2 SF. I find it almost sad that people are talking about their fun and using the term "compromise" when it comes to some of the difficulty when their idea of "compromise" in many respects actually exists already, they just don't want to acknowledge that the compromise may be that they have their own version of a H2 SF.

 

Maybe BW will reduce the difficulty of them. If they do please don't call it a compromise though, because it already existed. What it was was catering to a vocal group with an over inflated sense of entitlement.

[Nwmoon]

What roles were you both? Was one of you interrupting? Were either of u using Crowd control? Now simply calling this a "l2p issue" is certainly condescending but these questions do need to be asked if you read the OP in it's entireity because there for a H2 SF BW specifically states its plan is to

 

 

 

You have 2 Star Fortresses. One who want to do the alliance stuff without it feeling like "a job" and one for those who want more of a challenge. So if you don't want to "really understand your class" and grind significant gear upgrades you are not intended to do the H2 SF. Don't yell at us for reminding you, yell at BW for designing the content like this in the first place.

 

That said what choice did they have. They did not have the time or resources to make new FPs related to the Story so they needed to do something for that portion of the player base. The answer to that is the H2 SF. I find it almost sad that people are talking about their fun and using the term "compromise" when it comes to some of the difficulty when their idea of "compromise" in many respects actually exists already, they just don't want to acknowledge that the compromise may be that they have their own version of a H2 SF.

 

Maybe BW will reduce the difficulty of them. If they do please don't call it a compromise though, because it already existed. What it was was catering to a vocal group with an over inflated sense of entitlement.

 

On your first reply to this particular post, you ask "what roles were you both?",,, they clearly stated they were both DPS.

 

As for the other section you wrote, you say one Star Fortress is for those who wish to do the Alliance stuff and one Star Fortress for those who want more of a challenge.

 

The solo mode Star Fortress is only part of the Star Fortress Mission. The H2+ Star Fortress is actually needed for the building up of ones Alliance, example would be, you can't get Deadeye Leyta in your Alliance and as a useable Contact/Companion until you defeat the Exarch on the Tatooine Star Fortress H2+.

 

With that said, if one wishes to, (which I'll venture a guess anyone building up their Alliance Camp would want to), have all possible Contacts/Companions available, then the Star Fortress H2+ is not targeted at only those who wish to have a little more challenge

[Pcina]

Your level: 65

Roughly : Item Rating: 220

Discipline:Jedi Guardian,Jedi Sage,Sith Sorcerer,Sith Juggernaut

Companion:Lana Beniko,Ashara Zavros,Jaesa Willsaam

Companion role:healer,Tank,DD

Companion Influence level:50

for me all h2 and Star Fortress Solo/Heroic no problem only one h2 makeb.

I am an experienced player, .the patch 4.0.0 has given me a lot of joy.

what the patch 4.0.2 has taken away from me again.

for heavy content I go hard FP/OP that's why I do not understand why that nerv ?

Patch 4.0.2 dd Companion Ashara Zavros, I killed 4 gold adds Ashara killed 0 silver 70%:mad:

[Ghisallo]

On your first reply to this particular post, you ask "what roles were you both?",,, they clearly stated they were both DPS.

 

As for the other section you wrote, you say one Star Fortress is for those who wish to do the Alliance stuff and one Star Fortress for those who want more of a challenge.

 

The solo mode Star Fortress is only part of the Star Fortress Mission. The H2+ Star Fortress is actually needed for the building up of ones Alliance, example would be, you can't get Deadeye Leyta in your Alliance and as a useable Contact/Companion until you defeat the Exarch on the Tatooine Star Fortress H2+.

 

With that said, if one wishes to, (which I'll venture a guess anyone building up their Alliance Camp would want to), have all possible Contacts/Companions available, then the Star Fortress H2+ is not targeted at only those who wish to have a little more challenge

 

Role means melee or ranged as well they each have different strengths and weekness.

As for the place, again look at the complete context. It fits into progression BUT the H2 SF is for people who really know their class... That is what BW says is their expectation. It is essentially the same as going from SM FP/OPs to HM. If you think it "work" to do this, and this was also part of their post, then it is not expected by BW, not me but the devs, that you can complete it. As you say that challenge can be mitigated BUT they have the H2SF and The one and only seperate, so even with the buffs there is an intended challenge level.

 

The reason I mention solo is because you still get the experience within the story, so that isn't a reason to ask for a reduction.

 

This is where my "entitlement" comment comes from. People keep avoiding BWs expressed concept. If you want to challenge their concept cool but shout at BW for their plan not those of us happy with the plan who just happen to be reminding you of it.

Edited November 22, 2015 by Ghisallo

[DarkSaberMaster]

Well you have my sincerest apologies for not having a video to show you.

So you can take your L2P and shove up your fat ***. I don't like people like you and your response is absolutely unnecessary. You obviously have no brain. My post explains the issue quite clearly and in no way warranted your troll.

Now lie down before you hurt yourself, little lady.

 

Lol. Obviously, I am the one with a brain. I can figure out what my interrupt, dcd's and medpac buttons are. Call me what you like, doesn't hurt my feelings. At the end of the day, I can perform basic MMO mechanics and win. Unlike you who is over geared for the boss and had another live human player with you. Not to mention two companions with over 20 influence.

 

If you can't figure it out with all that overwhelming firepower, then obviously I'm not the one without the brain. Maybe Bioware does need to bring back the 4.0 companions. If people are really this terrible, even with another player with them. Then maybe Bioware does need to give you all the help that you can get.

[BlevatToshnit]

1. I have 3 toons 65 lvl

2. 216-220 item rating (but mostly i wear pvp gear which is 204-208 item rating)

3. Sorcerer / madness; Mercenary / innovative ordnance; Sniper / engineering

4. Ranged companions

5. Companions role - dps; at the end of heroic Star Fortress i switch them to heal role

6. 15-20 influence level

7. Heroics, Star Fortress (both modes)

8. I'm bored to death with heroics and solo Star Fortress. I'd say theyr challenge level is very very low even after 4.0.2. Heroic Star Fortress - i'm bored - chalenge level is low.

Edited November 22, 2015 by BlevatToshnit

[Akeashar]

8. I'm bored to death with heroics and solo Star Fortress. I'd say theyr challenge level is very very low even after 4.0.2. Heroic Star Fortress - i'm bored - chalenge level is low.

 

So the easy answer is that Bioware should target and nerf specific players rather than companions?

[coille]

Your level: 65

Roughly Average Item Rating: 216

Discipline: Merc innovative ordinance

Companion: Veeroa Denz

Companion role: healer, also tried dps and tank

Companion Influence level: 17

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing ( Heroic Mode) H2 Voss

Your personal experience while playing this content: I first tried the H2 star fortress before the nerf in 192/198 gear with no buffs and got close to the finish wiping pretty much everything out except the exarch. Had no problems with the paladins or any other boss. I thought I'd come back and try it again when geared in level 65 gear. I did that yesterday and could not get the paladins below 12% before getting killed. I tried the comp in healer, DPS and tank mode but the paladin just chewed through both us every time. When I was healing the comp in dps and tank mode I couldn't heal faster than the incoming damage. I couldn't see anything to interrupt in the damage coming from the paladin and the damage being dished out was to heavy to get healed through. I really don't think it's do-able after the comp nerf.

[Joefjr]

During the IA class line SCORPIO is a melee but once you get her back in KOTFE she is a range, right now we have T7, 4X, ship droids, and HK that are ALL range she was the only melee droid in game and it was nice.

 

Please make her melee again.

[Nwmoon]

Role means melee or ranged as well they each have different strengths and weekness.

As for the place, again look at the complete context. It fits into progression BUT the H2 SF is for people who really know their class... That is what BW says is their expectation. It is essentially the same as going from SM FP/OPs to HM. If you think it "work" to do this, and this was also part of their post, then it is not expected by BW, not me but the devs, that you can complete it. As you say that challenge can be mitigated BUT they have the H2SF and The one and only seperate, so even with the buffs there is an intended challenge level.

 

The reason I mention solo is because you still get the experience within the story, so that isn't a reason to ask for a reduction.

 

This is where my "entitlement" comment comes from. People keep avoiding BWs expressed concept. If you want to challenge their concept cool but shout at BW for their plan not those of us happy with the plan who just happen to be reminding you of it.

 

Fair enough on the role meaning Melee or Ranged class, I humbly accept that yes, there is a difference between Melee and Ranged DPS and when I first read their post, the DPS was enough for me to get a visual of how they were attempting to get it done vs say, "I was DPS and the other player was Tank" and so on, definitely makes a difference.

 

And to be fair also, I'm not trying to downgrade nor get into a debate with you on the Star Fortress missions, but on that note, I fully accept that the H2+ Star Fortress is more of a challenge than the Solo Star Fortress. It is after all, per the mission, when you are putting that particular Star Fortress out of commission, and getting the bonus of another Contact/Companion, so yes, it in no way should be at the same level of difficulty as the Solo Mode Star Fortress, but also cannot be overlooked if you are attempting to do all the Alliance build up and get all possible Contacts/Companions that go along with the completion.

 

With that said, I don't read what people are complaining about in the same manner as some other folks are reading them. I see people saying things like, "I shouldn't be dying 5 times", or "my Healer Companion just stands there", or "my Healer Companion is only healing for (enter amount of heals here) as opposed to pre 4.0.0 they healed for (again amount of heals here)" and so on. I see what I am reading as, something is wrong, I've played since launch, subbed since launch, have founder title, you name it, never been un-subbed, play all classes, Legacy 50 for, I don't remember, 3 years now, and so on, but when I do the H2+ Star Fortress on a character with 208 to 220 gear and find myself being overwhelmed at times, then yup, I tend to fully understand the frustration people are going through.

 

It's really not a matter of, at least in my opinion, that I think people are looking to get it done blind folded, or go AFK while their Companion does the work, I think everyone just wants it to be less of a self deflating experience. Bear in mind, if they are soloing it, and having a reasonable, keyword, reasonable challenge to it, then that can only be a good thing for the game in general. Players, Subscriptions, Money towards future content, etc.,

 

I ran the Star Fortress H2+'s several times before 4.0.2 and still had a few occasions where the Droid Boss at the mid-way point, knocked my Companion off the edge and left me literally solo. It made me take a closer look around at where I can stand before engaging the Boss in battle, if he's going to do the knockback, I need a wall, or large enough area to stand where his knockback, should he catch me with it, won't knock me off the edge. And yes, that particular Cast he does, cannot be interrupted, it's quickly get far enough away, or take the hit. There were even moments of Lana for example, unless I micro managed her, would stand in AoE areas, then tell me, "I'm fading" or "I need help", so it wasn't without it's moments of panic, just easier on the nerves because you knew once you helped your Companion out of that situation, they would at least be able to heal back up.

 

The fights were still long enough, you still had to interrupt for example, the Alderaan Exarch's self healing ability. I guess I'm just saying, you couldn't exactly go in and tell your Companion, sic him, then watch. At least I don't think it was that bad, never actually tried that one

 

So I'm not in the crowd of roll back the patch to 4.0.1a or before, I'm with the crowd of you need to fix companions, somehow, someway. If I was gearing my Companions like always, before KotFE, believe me, they would be in 208 to 220 gear, then it would be on me if they didn't perform well. But since they decided to take control of our Companions abilities or strength, well, it seems they broke something in the process. At least mine were doing better in Shadow of Revan then what they are doing now.

 

All in all, I'm not against some challenge, believe me, I have a lot of patience, for example, I remember about 6 or so years ago, running Stratholme Dungeon in WoW on my level 62 Paladin Tank solo 147 times, just to get the Baron Rivendare's "Deathchargers' Reigns", a pretty cool mount that not everyone had. That was just one of my many WoW characters. I got that mount on 9 characters before Cataclysm was released and Stratholme was totally changed. If I recall, that mount didn't drop anymore, not sure.

 

Point to that is, I'm one who plays and learns every class possible, and completes and tries to get everything available for each character. Sure, I have characters that have been collecting dust for a while, and when I get on them, I say "oh crap, what was my rotation again?", but like riding a bike, it comes back to me. I'm an old time gamer, and I'm old. I have always been a gamer since Coin Op Video Arcades and even before then. If you ever heard of Tel-star TV Tennis, I have that in it's box in the basement, still works, just don't have an old TV for it But I play video games to keep my hand eye coordination working, my mind thinking, trying to stay sharp,,, where was I?,,, oh yeah, God willing, I will continue till the day I drop.

 

So in closing, I have no argument with either side, I believe we only live once, enjoy what you enjoy, and how you enjoy it. But for God's sake, enjoy it while you can. I've had a lot of people near and dear to me pass away, it has to be wonderful where we're going from here, because nobody has ever come back.

[Soteirian]

My general thought: the game is inconsistent with its original intention, and each adjustment further amplifies this issue.

 

From the get-go, Bioware was clear that the game is intended to encourage replay through alts. There are many different classes, each of which has different stories. Each classes also has different options that led to different story paths. The idea was supposed to encourage people to create new alts and play through the various contents. This was brilliant and I, for one, am one of the people who switched from WoW to SWTOR for this reason (I love stories).

 

However, it is not realistic to gear and learn each and every different classes extensively. There are only 24 hours a day. Even the best players have a limit. Usually, you have 1 or 2 toons you focus on and power up, and the rest are just 'alts'. You play these alts casually, for story purpose, or for a change of pace (it's nice to be able to take it easy and just enjoy the content).

 

I used to play these alts over-leveled so that they can reasonably solo the lower-level contents. When level-sync was introduced I was dreading the idea that I could no longer do this. The companion power were decent enough that I could still do it reasonably, so I accepted it. However, with the latest nerf, this became a chore. I just spent almost an hour soloing the Ilum Heroics, died numerous times. My toon was L65 Mercenary, in L208 gear, with a iLvl 25 Lana in Heals.

 

Was it my lack of good skills? Probably. However, this was an alt that I only created to learn the Bounty Hunter story. My main is a different toon, and I will never spend the same amount of time to gear and learn this alt. So for now, she will be relegated to the back burner and not be played again for a very long time.

 

I think if Bioware really wants people to play alts like they say they do, they need to make it possible for people to solo all the contents without extensive gear and skill set for the class. It's OK to make them hard, so that we need to be at over-leveled state to be able to do so, but it needs to happen. Right now, with the latest change, alt-playing is not an enjoyable activity like it was before.

 

One final note: companion heals is definitely broken. For most of the fight, Lana just stood there. For the rest, she DPSed more than she healed. Even when I killed the rest of the mobs, and the only one left was in CC, she still wouldn't heal me. My health was at the bottom, and I couldn't do Recharge and Reload because technically I was still in combat, so I needed my healing companion to do something, but she didn't. She just stood there. I had to stand around and wait for naturally healing (and small self-heal) until the CC wears off, and fight the mob w/o 100% health. This is definitely a problem.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Soteirian

[Caldonia]

Your level 65

Roughly Average Item Rating 212

Discipline immortal

Companion Lana

Companion role heal

Companion Influence level 32

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Completed all including one and only

Your personal experience while playing this content

Even before the companion nerf the Star Fortresses were to long and not worth it and it doesn't help they are all mostly the same thing. I like the idea of having to defeat a threat on each planet but this just seems like the lazy way to do it. I think you could have added some things on some of the planets themselves or something just to boring to have to do the same star fortress over and over.

The rewards don't match the time or effort to complete the one and only achievement . you say you want to to be challenge and rewarding its more like tedious and annoying a title does not really express your goal for what you wanted at least not for me .

Edited November 23, 2015 by Caldonia

[Banditks]

Based on these statements above, do you think that these are true after Tuesday’s changes? What content is more or less difficult than you expected? Is there something that is just flat out impossible?

 

Your level

65

 

Roughly Average Item Rating

208

 

Discipline

Trooper - vanguard- shield spec

 

Companion

"Deadeye" Leyta

 

Companion role

Group - DPS, Solo - Healer

 

Companion Influence level

26

 

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?)

Both

 

Your personal experience while playing this content

I really enjoyed the star fortresses, even dying wasn't normal, you get sent to the detention level which was such an awesome and wonderful change. It was great making a run at the shield generators just like from the movies. It would even be better if there was a bit more meat on the story side bones of those missions, a longer mission trying to take down the shield generator, assign extra companions to attacking other parts of the star fortress, more divergent optional missions with more story, maybe even tied into helping your companions progress more easily to their targets. [[shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!!]] Maybe even meeting up with your 'strike group' of you and your companions you assembled from the alliance missions and get like the same 5 assignments for the fortress but be able to assign them differently to different companions and yourself so even though you are doing the star fortress for the 5th time you aren't doing the exact same thing.

 

Lots of opportunity here bioware, take advantage while you have it. Also watch all the movies again and really just pull mission set ups from those guys, give us some space PVE star fighter missions dealing with the star fortresses, have to fight and keep your alliance fleet alive while your companions are below taking down the generator, then go in and land or try to destroy the fortress from the outside like the death star. heck or make a 2 to 4 man flash point where each of the 4 players leads a different strike group against the star fortress, one on the planet, one in a star fighter, one on a cap ship fending off boarders, and the last leading a strike group inside the star fortress to raid for info and high end tech to steal.

 

The only negative thing i have run into is "Soloing" the heroic mode of a star fortress with no buffs and not in a group, i did that and never got the achievement

 

Also i guess by now you aren't reading these posts anymore

Edited November 23, 2015 by Banditks

[JasonThDi]

Hey folks,

 

First off, we want to thank all of you for your feedback about Companion balance following 4.0.2. As we go into the weekend, we wanted you to know that we have gone through this thread, the forums, Reddit, and social media to gather everyone’s perspectives. We have come out of this with quite a few action items that we are going to take, including buffs for Companions. On Monday, we are going to release a forum post highlighting our plans to address current Companion balance, along with the state of Heroic Missions and Star Fortress.

 

Thank you all once again for your feedback.

 

-eric

 

Does this mean you'll answer the character restoration request tickets? Because It's been about a week, and still no response.

[Ghisallo]

Fair enough on the role meaning Melee or Ranged class, I humbly accept that yes, there is a difference between Melee and Ranged DPS and when I first read their post, the DPS was enough for me to get a visual of how they were attempting to get it done vs say, "I was DPS and the other player was Tank" and so on, definitely makes a difference.

 

And to be fair also, I'm not trying to downgrade nor get into a debate with you on the Star Fortress missions, but on that note, I fully accept that the H2+ Star Fortress is more of a challenge than the Solo Star Fortress. It is after all, per the mission, when you are putting that particular Star Fortress out of commission, and getting the bonus of another Contact/Companion, so yes, it in no way should be at the same level of difficulty as the Solo Mode Star Fortress, but also cannot be overlooked if you are attempting to do all the Alliance build up and get all possible Contacts/Companions that go along with the completion.

 

With that said, I don't read what people are complaining about in the same manner as some other folks are reading them. I see people saying things like, "I shouldn't be dying 5 times", or "my Healer Companion just stands there", or "my Healer Companion is only healing for (enter amount of heals here) as opposed to pre 4.0.0 they healed for (again amount of heals here)" and so on. I see what I am reading as, something is wrong, I've played since launch, subbed since launch, have founder title, you name it, never been un-subbed, play all classes, Legacy 50 for, I don't remember, 3 years now, and so on, but when I do the H2+ Star Fortress on a character with 208 to 220 gear and find myself being overwhelmed at times, then yup, I tend to fully understand the frustration people are going through.

 

It's really not a matter of, at least in my opinion, that I think people are looking to get it done blind folded, or go AFK while their Companion does the work, I think everyone just wants it to be less of a self deflating experience. Bear in mind, if they are soloing it, and having a reasonable, keyword, reasonable challenge to it, then that can only be a good thing for the game in general. Players, Subscriptions, Money towards future content, etc.,

 

I ran the Star Fortress H2+'s several times before 4.0.2 and still had a few occasions where the Droid Boss at the mid-way point, knocked my Companion off the edge and left me literally solo. It made me take a closer look around at where I can stand before engaging the Boss in battle, if he's going to do the knockback, I need a wall, or large enough area to stand where his knockback, should he catch me with it, won't knock me off the edge. And yes, that particular Cast he does, cannot be interrupted, it's quickly get far enough away, or take the hit. There were even moments of Lana for example, unless I micro managed her, would stand in AoE areas, then tell me, "I'm fading" or "I need help", so it wasn't without it's moments of panic, just easier on the nerves because you knew once you helped your Companion out of that situation, they would at least be able to heal back up.

 

The fights were still long enough, you still had to interrupt for example, the Alderaan Exarch's self healing ability. I guess I'm just saying, you couldn't exactly go in and tell your Companion, sic him, then watch. At least I don't think it was that bad, never actually tried that one

 

So I'm not in the crowd of roll back the patch to 4.0.1a or before, I'm with the crowd of you need to fix companions, somehow, someway. If I was gearing my Companions like always, before KotFE, believe me, they would be in 208 to 220 gear, then it would be on me if they didn't perform well. But since they decided to take control of our Companions abilities or strength, well, it seems they broke something in the process. At least mine were doing better in Shadow of Revan then what they are doing now.

 

All in all, I'm not against some challenge, believe me, I have a lot of patience, for example, I remember about 6 or so years ago, running Stratholme Dungeon in WoW on my level 62 Paladin Tank solo 147 times, just to get the Baron Rivendare's "Deathchargers' Reigns", a pretty cool mount that not everyone had. That was just one of my many WoW characters. I got that mount on 9 characters before Cataclysm was released and Stratholme was totally changed. If I recall, that mount didn't drop anymore, not sure.

 

Point to that is, I'm one who plays and learns every class possible, and completes and tries to get everything available for each character. Sure, I have characters that have been collecting dust for a while, and when I get on them, I say "oh crap, what was my rotation again?", but like riding a bike, it comes back to me. I'm an old time gamer, and I'm old. I have always been a gamer since Coin Op Video Arcades and even before then. If you ever heard of Tel-star TV Tennis, I have that in it's box in the basement, still works, just don't have an old TV for it But I play video games to keep my hand eye coordination working, my mind thinking, trying to stay sharp,,, where was I?,,, oh yeah, God willing, I will continue till the day I drop.

 

So in closing, I have no argument with either side, I believe we only live once, enjoy what you enjoy, and how you enjoy it. But for God's sake, enjoy it while you can. I've had a lot of people near and dear to me pass away, it has to be wonderful where we're going from here, because nobody has ever come back.

 

Well I guess it is a matter of Perception. I am an anal rentive person, I admit it... It can be as much a weakness as a strength. No before this post when people were saying everyone should be able to do an H2 SF right now, this minute, my anal retentive nature had already shown me this was not the case. I saw all the H2 mission weeklies, the fact the SF weekly clearly starts you in the solo version (twice the rewards for finishing the Heroic) the alliance stuff in the H2 SF, and I said "guys and gals be logical. Why all that stuff if the H2 SF is not at the end of a grind.

 

To boot I had no raid gear, no maxed out alliances but was soloing them. Was it harder? Yeah. If I did not interrupt or CC did I die? Yeah. What did people say? They pointed to where Eric said Heroic missions should be soloed by anyone and everyone and said I was an elitist and that video games should not require work.

 

So now we have Eric specifically saying that THEY expect people to be good at their class and have done a grind. What is the response there? The people, like the one I was responding to completely ignore the OP here, and still talk about having to work and a grind and how that's wrong. Others have specifically said in this thread "I dont want to know my clas I just want to look at Theron because he is so hot " (not exaggerating there) So I would respectfully submit that there are some people who indeed think ALL of the content in this expac should be a face roll for no other reason than A) it is solo content and solo content should be a face rol by definition and B) because of the overpowered state of companions at launch the actual plan BW had for this expac was obscured.

 

Now that BW has revealed their plan in what is the most open manner I have ever seen they avoid it. Why? What do you do as a gamer under these circumstances? It's easy to maintain your pride by calling out a player, who asks how you play, as an elitist BUT can you do that if the Devs themselves are saying they expect you to know how to play? In essence you have players finishing it, though needing to "know there class", and BW bluntly saying this is WAI. This is the problem. Every MMO has that group that says " I don't play video games to 'work'." Here they added "and look BW made this expac for us...just look they said it was all about the story!!!"

 

Well now this player does not know what to do or say because BW just said "hey yeah, this expac is for you. There is also ONE instance that is for that guy over there who wants a challenge." The Devs in one post just blew their rationalization out of the water and they don't know what to replace it with.

[ViSioN_BCN]

All my toons are level 65, mostly in 216 with a few using 208, all vendor bought.

 

Toons with higher defenses and/or good off-heals can cope in most things.

 

Static, low defense DPS (Marksman Sniper is my experience) are struggling with planetary heroics past level 40, companions cant heal fast enough, tanking isnt working right and dps is too low to blow mobs away in a dps race.

 

In addition, healing companions have been broken since 4.0. They stop healing mid fight, wander off, do a crossword, anything but heal. Before this patch, they would spark into life and burst heal me for 20K, so this poor coding on your part was covered by the powerful heals.

 

Now, after scratching their backsides, they decide to heal for about 6K instead, which doesnt make up for your poor AI coding and I die.

 

Why did you not fix actual bugs before the ridiculous 75% cut in healing power? How can a professional development team even attempt to balance something that is actually broken already and not working properly?

 

Above all, adding time to a long grind for alliance, which is all your changes do, simply makes the game not fun.

 

Well done in taking the fun out of a game. I'm sure it meets all your goals and metrics.

 

Totally agree, normally in all mmo´s lately EVERYBODY play solo and...of course I dont care about hardcore player because they are minimal in all the world, so for the hardcore player´s....ok PLAY SOLO without companion and without team mates and feel the POWER. PERIOD. And for the rest of normal human´s please let companion´s like they was because they was good but nothing special too just a good healer (hard to find in all mmo´s as well) , but now they suck and of course they are not companion´s, only another piece of decoration of the game. PERIOD.

 

I like it a lot KOTFE single player storyline, but without help ???? You Bioware think the normal human player are God´s ??? Comon, So I will leave subscriber too if companions still the same nerfed. PERIOD.

[Ghisallo]

My general thought: the game is inconsistent with its original intention, and each adjustment further amplifies this issue.

 

From the get-go, Bioware was clear that the game is intended to encourage replay through alts. There are many different classes, each of which has different stories. Each classes also has different options that led to different story paths. The idea was supposed to encourage people to create new alts and play through the various contents. This was brilliant and I, for one, am one of the people who switched from WoW to SWTOR for this reason (I love stories).

 

However, it is not realistic to gear and learn each and every different classes extensively. There are only 24 hours a day. Even the best players have a limit. Usually, you have 1 or 2 toons you focus on and power up, and the rest are just 'alts'. You play these alts casually, for story purpose, or for a change of pace (it's nice to be able to take it easy and just enjoy the content).

 

I used to play these alts over-leveled so that they can reasonably solo the lower-level contents. When level-sync was introduced I was dreading the idea that I could no longer do this. The companion power were decent enough that I could still do it reasonably, so I accepted it. However, with the latest nerf, this became a chore. I just spent almost an hour soloing the Ilum Heroics, died numerous times. My toon was L65 Mercenary, in L208 gear, with a iLvl 25 Lana in Heals.

 

Was it my lack of good skills? Probably. However, this was an alt that I only created to learn the Bounty Hunter story. My main is a different toon, and I will never spend the same amount of time to gear and learn this alt. So for now, she will be relegated to the back burner and not be played again for a very long time.

 

I think if Bioware really wants people to play alts like they say they do, they need to make it possible for people to solo all the contents without extensive gear and skill set for the class. It's OK to make them hard, so that we need to be at over-leveled state to be able to do so, but it needs to happen. Right now, with the latest change, alt-playing is not an enjoyable activity like it was before.

 

One final note: companion heals is definitely broken. For most of the fight, Lana just stood there. For the rest, she DPSed more than she healed. Even when I killed the rest of the mobs, and the only one left was in CC, she still wouldn't heal me. My health was at the bottom, and I couldn't do Recharge and Reload because technically I was still in combat, so I needed my healing companion to do something, but she didn't. She just stood there. I had to stand around and wait for naturally healing (and small self-heal) until the CC wears off, and fight the mob w/o 100% health. This is definitely a problem.

 

First you can solo all the content without extensive skill and gear. The only difference between Solo SF and H2 SF is difficulty and rewards. You really don't see anything different. It's the same methodology with the new FPs and OPs. Tactical/HM, SM/HM/NiM.

 

They had to do this. I mean seriously. One of the complaints, now that Companions are not OP, is about the level sync. The solo players complaining about having to do the same stuff they did over and over before. Before many of these solo players saw this applied to them too they had no problem dismissing this complaint when raised by the FP and OPs fans. Well since everyone is in the same boat there, and their explanation of difficulty its pretty clear why they did what they did.

 

They wanted at least one piece of repeatable new content for both the solo player who does not care about maximizing their class AND for those who did. When the OP companions were pointed out fans of them tried to talk about compromises. Now many of the suggestions were not compromises BUT they called them that none the less. Is this NOT a true compromise? Exact same instance...exact same place in the story BUT with different difficulty levels...a difficulty slider of sorts. Wasn't that one of the suggested compromises even?

 

This I think shows the hypocrisy and selfishness of the argument. The hypocrisy is in the fact that rehashed content was fine for everyone else when they did not know "their" content was on the list as well. The selfishness is there because now they want something that is simply of benefit to them. Why should that "elitist" be able to gear up fast than me? Give me a slider so I can do what is supposed to be challenging too... Don't notice that identical instance with lower difficulty that uses the same door. The slider is unneeded based on BW's own design intent.

 

As for the alt bit. That is actually one of the reasons they NEED that grind. If half the problem is rehashed content via level sync being boring how does that not apply to doing the same exact SF on another character. The minute this game did away with class stories the ONLY mechanic that made running alts worth while is the legacy unlocks. This is not new to this expac.

 

maybe it was for financial reasons, maybe for smoother development, whatever the reason is after 2013 SWTOR went from being a game that could appease the dedicated SP story fan and MMO fan to just an MMO with a single story like every other one out there. They want to try and still sell it as what it used to be, string along those SP story people, BUT that boat sailed with the end of the class stories. People need to realize that this expac is a phase in reseting an MMO and appeasing SP story players BUT with all the work the did releveling FPs and OPs and the fact they said they would be making new elder game content once the expac was dropped, its pretty clear that whether BW is right or they are wrong, this is an MMO and people need to decide "do I want to play an MMO." This means as a story player who does not care about how you play there will be stuff you can't do and at least for now that may also include ONE instance.... one. how is this so frustrating? ONE.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Soteirian]

First you can solo all the content without extensive skill and gear. The only difference between Solo SF and H2 SF is difficulty and rewards. You really don't see anything different. It's the same methodology with the new FPs and OPs. Tactical/HM, SM/HM/NiM.

 

They had to do this. I mean seriously. One of the complaints, now that Companions are not OP, is about the level sync. The solo players complaining about having to do the same stuff they did over and over before. Before many of these solo players saw this applied to them too they had no problem dismissing this complaint when raised by the FP and OPs fans. Well since everyone is in the same boat there, and their explanation of difficulty its pretty clear why they did what they did.

 

They wanted at least one piece of repeatable new content for both the solo player who does not care about maximizing their class AND for those who did. When the OP companions were pointed out fans of them tried to talk about compromises. Now many of the suggestions were not compromises BUT they called them that none the less. Is this NOT a true compromise? Exact same instance...exact same place in the story BUT with different difficulty levels...a difficulty slider of sorts. Wasn't that one of the suggested compromises even?

 

This I think shows the hypocrisy and selfishness of the argument. They want something that is simply of benefit to them. Why should that "elitist" be able to gear up fast than me? Give me a slider so I can do what is supposed to be challenging too... Don't notice that identical instance with lower difficulty that uses the same door.

 

I have no idea why you quoted my post for your post, as none of the things you accused the "solo people" applies to what I said. I never said it's not OK for the "elitist" to be able to gear faster than me. I even said it's OK to make them harder, so that the "alts" need to be over-leveled to do the work.

 

I also never complained about having to do the same thing over and over. If anything, I'm saying that I'd like to be able to do the same thing over and over, with different alts that are of different classes. I just want to be able to do it at my own pace. The changes made it difficult for me to do that.

 

As for solo vs heroic mode, we are not talking about only SF. We are talking about all Heroics. The example I gave was Ilum. I didn't talk about SF at all.

 

Even for SF, there is a definitive difference between Solo mode and Heroic mode, in that the alliance story is not progressing in Solo mode. The alliance story is only progressed in Heroic mode. So able to do solo mode doesn't help there.

 

Finally, it's not true that solo mode and heroic mode have the exact content. Even for SF, the solo mode ended with the Ephermis, while heroic ends with Exarch. The real fight in Heroic happens after the solo ends.

 

I never understand why people feel that forcing others to group is a good idea. As a person who prefers to group to do difficult contents, I would imagine you would want to play among players of your own competency, so that you are not being dragged down. Solo players, for all intents and purpose, don't exist in your world. You don't need to interact with them, and your game play won't be impacted by them. Forcing them to have to group actually creates situations where you may end up grouping with someone who's not good at grouping, and thus compromises your game play. I don't understand what forcing others to have to group gains you.

[Ghisallo]

I have no idea why you quoted my post for your post, as none of the things you accused the "solo people" applies to what I said. I never said it's not OK for the "elitist" to be able to gear faster than me. I even said it's OK to make them harder, so that the "alts" need to be over-leveled to do the work.

 

I also never complained about having to do the same thing over and over. If anything, I'm saying that I'd like to be able to do the same thing over and over, with different alts that are of different classes. I just want to be able to do it at my own pace. The changes made it difficult for me to do that.

 

As for solo vs heroic mode, we are not talking about only SF. We are talking about all Heroics. The example I gave was Ilum. I didn't talk about SF at all.

 

Even for SF, there is a definitive difference between Solo mode and Heroic mode, in that the alliance story is not progressing in Solo mode. The alliance story is only progressed in Heroic mode. So able to do solo mode doesn't help there.

 

Finally, it's not true that solo mode and heroic mode have the exact content. Even for SF, the solo mode ended with the Ephermis, while heroic ends with Exarch. The real fight in Heroic happens after the solo ends.

 

I never understand why people feel that forcing others to group is a good idea. As a person who prefers to group to do difficult contents, I would imagine you would want to play among players of your own competency, so that you are not being dragged down. Solo players, for all intents and purpose, don't exist in your world. You don't need to interact with them, and your game play won't be impacted by them. Forcing them to have to group actually creates situations where you may end up grouping with someone who's not good at grouping, and thus compromises your game play. I don't understand what forcing others to have to group gains you.

 

 

I think if Bioware really wants people to play alts like they say they do, they need to make it possible for people to solo all the contents without extensive gear and skill set for the class. It's OK to make them hard, so that we need to be at over-leveled state to be able to do so, but it needs to happen. Right now, with the latest change, alt-playing is not an enjoyable activity like it was before.

 

This was why. Yes your reason is different, to encourage playing alts... Now maybe you started your response before my edit. If so my bad... I got interrupted mid post by my wife and hit send too early. In my edit I noted...

 

As for the alt bit. That is actually one of the reasons they NEED that grind. If half the problem is rehashed content via level sync being boring how does that not apply to doing the same exact SF on another character. The minute this game did away with class stories the ONLY mechanic that made running alts worth while is the legacy unlocks. This is not new to this expac.

 

In essense I was explaining WHY things are the ay they are. For whatever reason most of the content in this expac is recycled content, for EVERY single play style. You can not expect people to wait around for a month on the next story chapter if that is all they have to do though so you need to try and give at least one new thing that is repeatable to these same players... hence the difference between solo and H2 SF. That is the one new thing. If the H2 does not have it's higher difficulty level then the entire point it serves is eliminated. You may as well have spent the resources properly balancing companions in the first place. The fact remains that BW decided that they would make the h2 Sf soloable BUT only soloable if you put some effort into it. You do not need to group for it.

 

I will say time and time again the problem is NOT that BW is forcing you to group. It is that BW said... things like..

 

but once the player earns better gear, a few levels of Influence with their companion, and has a greater understanding of the game, they should be able to solo the hardest of these missions.

for missions

 

To complete this content, we expect you to have level-appropriate gear, a good understanding of your class, a companion with a few levels of Influence, as well as being in a role that supplements the player’s

for solo sf

 

and

 

At this point we expect players to really understand their class, their companion, and their gear. Players should have sought out gear upgrades, as well as increased their companions’ Influence level. These are meant to be challenging and difficult to do solo.

 

So it can be soloed it just can't be soloed on the individual terms of every single player... you have to solo it with the terms of BW's plan.

 

Now I am not saying that their ideas and the direction they chose is right or wrong but I think it's pretty clear.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Thunderstriken]

My feedback about companion strength is, "YOU chose to make companions fun with the release of 4.0. Companion strength wasn't a hack or exploit, it was what YOU decided it should be."

 

How do you come back a month later and say companions are significantly stronger than you intended them to be when they were only as powerful as you decided to make them?

[Cruxa]

I don't know if it was mentioned already, but I think also DPS companions could use a slight buff.

 

Level: 65

Gear: Implant/Ear 216, rest 198 (with exception of the armorings, some of them are 192 for the set bonus)

Discipline: Sorcerer, Corruption (Heal)

Companion: Khem Val

Companion role: Damage

Companion Influence Level: 21

 

So, the influence level is not that high yet, but still...

I'm specced as a healer, wear healer gear which is optimised for ops-healing, and in general don't play anything else, so I rely solely on my companion for doing damage. Unfortunately, I'm easily out-dpsing all of them by far, even though I'm mostly just using dots in between healing my companion. At least, that's the way I'd like it to be, but by dealing more damage than my comps I get the aggro of every single mob in every fight. Especially in later heroics like the Belsavis ones, that's not that funny as a sorcerer in light armor. Therefore, I'm constantly healing myself in order to stay alive, while I wait for my companion to finally kill the mobs. But as the DPS is so low, that seems to take forever.

 

Additionally, the AI is pretty bad too. Most of the companions are focusing elites instead of weakest enemies first. Also I observed Khem constantly switching targets, sometimes even when the mob he was hitting was nearly down already. That's especially annoying in the mentioned Belsavis heroics, as the enemies there are dealing quite an amount of damage and therefore I can't help my companion with damage, because when all are still alive there's no way I can do anything but heal. You can overcome that by constantly ordering the companion to attack a specific enemy, but by that you always have to supervise, which can become quite challenging when you have to make sure you're still alive in the meantime.

 

Before 4.0, with the ability to gear companions yourself, that wasn't such an issue. With Yavin gear they were dealing at least at most times more damage as a healer, even if I could also out-dps them occasionally, when I didn't need to heal at the moment and could just focus on doing damage. But right know, there's absolutely no way I could do less damage over the course of the whole fight, even while healing and not actually intending that.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Cruxa

[Soteirian]

As for the alt bit. That is actually one of the reasons they NEED that grind. If half the problem is rehashed content via level sync being boring how does that not apply to doing the same exact SF on another character. The minute this game did away with class stories the ONLY mechanic that made running alts worth while is the legacy unlocks. This is not new to this expac.

.

 

I don't like the fact that they did away with the class-specific stories. However, I still don't see what the change solves. This is not a question of need to grind. I don't mind grinding. I did it when the first version came out, before all the changes. However, between level-sync and comp-nerf, I am unable to solo Flashpoints and Heroics. That's the problem.

 

I used to be able to grind my way to the higher level, and then grind my way to gear myself and my comps (not Ops level gear, but just at-level gear), and then I would go back to the lower level heroics and flashpoints and solo them.

 

Now despite the fact that I am L65, I am level-synced down to only a couple of levels higher than the Heroic/Flashpoint I am attempting. My comp's gear doesn't matter. So I am essentially stuck. This is not a problem that grinding can solve.

[BloodangelTU]

I'll make this short and sweet for you...as a melee dps character i have cancelled my sub. Have a nice day!

[Nwmoon]

Well I guess it is a matter of Perception. I am an anal rentive person, I admit it... It can be as much a weakness as a strength. No before this post when people were saying everyone should be able to do an H2 SF right now, this minute, my anal retentive nature had already shown me this was not the case. I saw all the H2 mission weeklies, the fact the SF weekly clearly starts you in the solo version (twice the rewards for finishing the Heroic) the alliance stuff in the H2 SF, and I said "guys and gals be logical. Why all that stuff if the H2 SF is not at the end of a grind.

 

To boot I had no raid gear, no maxed out alliances but was soloing them. Was it harder? Yeah. If I did not interrupt or CC did I die? Yeah. What did people say? They pointed to where Eric said Heroic missions should be soloed by anyone and everyone and said I was an elitist and that video games should not require work.

 

So now we have Eric specifically saying that THEY expect people to be good at their class and have done a grind. What is the response there? The people, like the one I was responding to completely ignore the OP here, and still talk about having to work and a grind and how that's wrong. Others have specifically said in this thread "I dont want to know my clas I just want to look at Theron because he is so hot " (not exaggerating there) So I would respectfully submit that there are some people who indeed think ALL of the content in this expac should be a face roll for no other reason than A) it is solo content and solo content should be a face rol by definition and B) because of the overpowered state of companions at launch the actual plan BW had for this expac was obscured.

 

Now that BW has revealed their plan in what is the most open manner I have ever seen they avoid it. Why? What do you do as a gamer under these circumstances? It's easy to maintain your pride by calling out a player, who asks how you play, as an elitist BUT can you do that if the Devs themselves are saying they expect you to know how to play? In essence you have players finishing it, though needing to "know there class", and BW bluntly saying this is WAI. This is the problem. Every MMO has that group that says " I don't play video games to 'work'." Here they added "and look BW made this expac for us...just look they said it was all about the story!!!"

 

Well now this player does not know what to do or say because BW just said "hey yeah, this expac is for you. There is also ONE instance that is for that guy over there who wants a challenge." The Devs in one post just blew their rationalization out of the water and they don't know what to replace it with.

 

"because he is so hot " (not exaggerating there)"

 

I knew you weren't, and I don't remember which page I saw it on, but I did see that original post at some point through my reading. Mind you, I haven't read each and every post, but I did, for some odd reason, seem to remember reading that one

 

I fully understand stuff like that irritating to someone, or anyone for that matter, who either a) hasn't had issues with the changes, b) even if they have issues with the changes, don't mind working through them, c) enjoys the game testing their skills to the furthest reaches, or 4) <---just kidding, or d) wants to be proud of their accomplishments in game, because for them, they have accomplished something that they worked hard at.

 

I myself am a middle of the road player. I do get good at the characters, rotations, abilities I have with each, figure out a tuff encounter, even if it takes 3 or 4 times to get it down, and so on. I get lost sometimes in the storyline, that's not a complaint, that's a good thing, I was about 16 when Darth Vader first lit up the big screen and I was one of the kids that paid to go see it probably about 5 times, of course it was only .75 cents in 1977, so I didn't break the bank. But, I play for both reasons, storyline, and gameplay, I just don't get into the OPs or PvP aspect of it. At the same time, I don't question why others do. I guess if I was still a teenager and we had this stuff, heck yeah, I'd be jumping in with those guys too.

 

Anyway, back to topic, I do see that some of the reasons given in the threads are for what could be considered over the top requests, though I say that loosely, because I don't know who is behind the post. It could be a 10 a year old who is just trying to have fun and doesn't want, or have, the time to invest in between homework and chores around the house, or even worse, Bedtime or it could be an adult who has many responsibilities and uses his/her game-time as an escape from reality. So I read those posts, take it for what that person may or may not be feeling, and onto the next. I found many posts along the reading of pages that actually very closely resembled mine. I won't go into detail again, but in short, mine is that I just want my Companions to seem to be close to me in level, like Shadow of Revan and all content before it. But that's when I geared them myself and always kept their gear on even keel with mine.

 

And then of course on the negative posts, the ones that do nothing but tear down the previous post, I just and move onto the next. In all fairness, if I gave it much thought, I'd probably just feel bad for the poster being trolled, put on my Superman Outfit, if I had a Phone Booth close enough, and defend the original poster. Which as you know, opens up a whole new back and forth,,,

 

Here's another of my bottom liners, I may or may not agree with 75% of the posts/reasons for or against, but I've completed my mission if I find a few that are on the same page as me.