Gear Rewards from Eternal Championship

[SFDebris]

I was rather hoping EC would be treated as solo progression; that wave 10 will be genuinely hard for most players. There is no reason solo play can't have progression as well. Give us solo players a reason to wear the gear we want! (And yes, many of us who solo do want better gear too. Need and want are two different things.)

 

This is my opinion as well. Last night I was determined to get my Midnight Rakling and there was no one else interested, so I threw myself at that boss over and over, trying out different tactics and wiping probably eight times before I worked out how to handle it. It cost me a mint in repair bills but was a real rush, much like getting One and Only. I like the idea of being pushed like that in solo in order to attain the gear needed to overcome the next challenge that's thrown, rather than waste an hour wiping and having nothing to show for it but a repair bill because the people I'm grouped with give up.

 

In addition, I like the nostalgia of the original Tionese Columni Rakata, which certainly had it's problems but earning set bonuses in flashpoints gave a sense of accomplishment that the crystal system lacks. I have a full set of 220 gear but would trade it without hesitation for a lower level one with set bonuses, those feel far more like accomplishments than just higher numbers.

 

Finally, being able to work towards gear with set bonuses provides incentive to continue because with legacy gear as common as blues and the outfit designer there is little reason not to fill one legacy suit with high level DPS gear and share it among all your DPS alts even of different classes. Earning set gear would give EC greater longevity; if I fill out my sorc with 220 armor my merc can use it just as well, but if my sorc earned 218 with set bonuses that's no longer the case, I'd have incentive to keep doing it now to gear up the next character.

[Torvai]

The Eternal Championship provides an alternative way for solo players to get higher tiers of gear, albeit at a slower rate compared to Flashpoints/Operations. The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players.

 

Hey Steven, you didn't get the memo that says the easiest content should award the highest rating gear, did you? Because if the bolded underlined part is really true how comes that EV and KP HM drop 224 when Brontes NiM only drop 220?

I mean seriously, even Nefra SM is harder than Soa HM and Soa drops a 224 Mainhand? Yeah, so much for "better gear in harder content".

[CheaterLL]

One-Time Mission:

Defeat Encounter 1

• 1 random item modification of rating 208 (Armoring, Mod, Enhancement)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Achievement
  

Defeat Encounter 2

• 1 random item modification of rating 208 (Armoring, Mod, Enhancement)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  

Defeat Encounter 3

• 1 Offhand Hilt/Barrel of rating 208 for Classes with Offhand Weapons, 2 random item modifications of rating 208 for all others (Armoring, Mod, Enhancement)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  

Defeat Encounter 4

• 1 Hilt/Barrel of rating 208
  
• Common Data Crystals
  

Defeat Encounter 5

• 1 random item of rating 208 (Head/Chest/Hands/Waist/Legs/Feet/Wrists/Implant/Ear)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  
• Achievement
  

Defeat Encounter 6

• 1 relic of rating 208 (choose one)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  

Defeat Encounter 7

• 1 random item modification of rating 216 (Armoring, Mod, Enhancement)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  
• Achievement
  

Defeat Encounter 8

• 2 random item modifications of rating 216 (Armoring, Mod, Enhancement)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  

Defeat Encounter 9

• 1 random item of rating 216 (MK-2 (Head/Chest/Hands/Waist/Legs/Feet/Wrists/Implant/Ear)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  

Defeat Encounter 10

• 1 relic of rating 216 (choose one)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  
• Radiant Data Crystals
  
• Achievement
  

Weekly Mission:

Weekly: Defeat Encounter 5

• 1 random item of rating 208 (Head/Chest/Hands/Waist/Legs/Feet/Wrists/Implant/Ear/Offhand)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  
• Achievement (x5, x10, x25)
  

Weekly: Defeat Encounter 7

• 1 random item of rating 216 MK-2 (Head/Chest/Hands/Waist/Legs/Feet/Wrists/Implant/Ear/Offhand)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  
• Achievement (x5, x10, x25)
  

Weekly: Defeat Encounter 10

• 1 Legacy-Bound modable Offhand (choose one)
  
• Common Data Crystals
  
• Glowing Data Crystals
  
• Radiant Data Crystals
  
• Achievement (x5, x10, x25)
  

 

That way, players can have a full set of decent 208/216 gear in legacy shells before entering operations.

(It gets boring running Xeno and the Gree H2 for the thousandth time to get every char a legacy offhand...)

[Halinalle]

Hey Steven, you didn't get the memo that says the easiest content should award the highest rating gear, did you? Because if the bolded underlined part is really true how comes that EV and KP HM drop 224 when Brontes NiM only drop 220?

I mean seriously, even Nefra SM is harder than Soa HM and Soa drops a 224 Mainhand? Yeah, so much for "better gear in harder content".

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8684134

[AlrikFassbauer]

Sorry my Englsich ist not Very God, i Speak German :

 

 

So noch einmal entschuldigung dafür, ich kann leider nur Wortfetzen Englisch .

 

 

In der Itemprogression des Ewigen Wetkampfes könnte man ja eigen Level einbringen. Das heißt wenn da 20iger drauf steht hat das durchaus noch mehr Ausdauer als das Markengear .

 

What he says is this :

 

He is apologizing for his bad English, and has the idea to "brin in an own level" in the "item progression". His example is that of items having a gear rating of "20", but having more (even more) endurance than gear which can be bought through Commendations (now data crystals). I think he means with the word "Markengear" gear that is better than normal gear in general.

[phalczen]

Nobody cares about the "nightmare mode issue"

 

Highlighted Hard Mode is the right choice to give guaranteed BiS.

 

The last boss of nightmare is fine.

 

Get over it

 

This is so off topic, but the post is so ignorant even I as a casual ops player feel obliged to respond.

 

The idea of progression is that, yes, you start at a lower tier of gear than the loot drops, but that the op becomes progressively easier as more of the ops team acquires more of the newest tier of gear and reaches the final bosses where the most desirable loot (both vanity and gear) are located.

Moreover, this progression is further facilitated by the presence of suboptimal/non-set bonus gear drops of the same tier.

This had been the modus operandi for the hard mode to nightmare mode progression until 3.0:

NiM EC recommended having 146 Campaign/Black Hole, but dropped 150 Dread Guard/Hazmat gear; NiM TFB/S&V recommended 168 Underworld/?? but dropped 174 Kell Dragon/Shadowed gear; NiM DF/DP recommended 180 gear but dropped 186 Dread Master/Dread Touched gear. In these examples, Black Hole, Hazmat, Shadowed, and Dread Touched where all suboptimal and lacked a set bonus unlike their equivalent item rating counterpart tokens.

 

First of all, there are no set-bonus-less suboptimal gear drops of rating 224 to aid in progression, but the lack of a guaranteed chance of 224 gear on anything other than the final boss plus the lack of unoptimized 224 gear breaks the MO of nightmare operations previously. It purposefully diverts progression raiders from NiM ops to the highlighted HM. This defeats the idea of "progression" and makes it so that the only benefits to running NiM ops are the vanity items, many of which are also random chances.

 

Why? Why break precedent? Why should the harder operation drop worse gear? I might be ok with a chance for a 224 token IF unoptimized 224 gear drops existed, but since they don't, even as an extremely casual raider I am left wondering WHY? What is the rationale?

 

Your reply only shows ignorance. This is important for the health of the game as a whole, for reasons that have been extensively outlined elsewhere in other on-topic threads by authors of more skill or knowledge than I. Its not the most critically important thing affecting the game without which the game would crumble and die. But poke enough holes into the "MMO bits" and the game will bleed.

[xkcurtisx]

Wow that almost seems like you are confirming that Nightmare content should be dropping the highest tear of gear.

 

And yet we are only going to have a "chance" to get 224 drops from NIM ops when somebody can be bothered to get round to fixing it :s

 

mvp lol

[KrukPL]

For completing all challenges you should reward players with legendary gear (like crossbow in chevin event).

[Chemmie]

"The Eternal Championship provides an alternative way for solo players to get higher tiers of gear, albeit at a slower rate compared to Flashpoints/Operations. The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players. "

 

Except there IS NO new operations or group content.!!????

[DarkSaberMaster]

I still haven't had anyone answer the simple question ...

 

WHY do these players need this gear? You get gear more than good enough to achieve the 3rd most difficult content in the game and that is storymode operations ( plus it's bolstered for people even way back on level 50 ).

 

Now from there are only TWO other areas where you need better gear and that is HM and NIM operations with NIM becoming a thing of the past based on previous dev posts in terms of future development.

 

Now you can't seriously be suggesting people who have never run an operation before get gear that is good enough for HM from running solo eternal championship and then have them jump straight into HM operations because there is good enough right?

 

They will get utterly slaughtered and lambasted when they cause wipes from having no idea what they are doing.

 

So now have established that the gear can't be for HM operations because that's what SM is for and SM you already get gear more than good enough from just playing the story ( plus there is bolster ) ...

 

WHY GEAR?!

 

Seriously it makes NO logical sense to give solo players stronger gear when there is effectively no solo content for them to do outside of the ETC itself.

 

I get it, you want a carrot on a stick ... then make it a carrot people actually want like mounts/decorations etc. etc. otherwise quite honestly you are wasting your time in developing this content as repeatable content because you are effectively rewarding people with either items they already have ( or better gear ) or gear they have no real use for.

 

Finally somebody with some sense.

[GoldenHornet]

Hello everyone,

 

This is Steven Chew and I’ll be coordinating as well as working on the Eternal Championship. Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for providing their input. It’s very encouraging as a developer to hear from players who are engaged in the content that we create. I’ve been going through the posts on this feature for Game Update 4.2, and wanted to give some insight on what we’re trying to achieve with this.

 

As mentioned in the stream, this is meant to give the solo player (with companion) a series of challenges that gets progressively harder. The goal is to have the first 5 rounds be achievable by players who have just completed the first 9 chapters of KotFE, but with some additional elements. By successfully completing Round 5, they will get gear that is better than what they’ve been able to get from the story content. Beginning in Round 6, the challenges will start increasing in difficulty and building up to the final encounter in Round 10. We are still in the process of fine-tuning what the difficulty increase feels like.

 

The Eternal Championship provides an alternative way for solo players to get higher tiers of gear, albeit at a slower rate compared to Flashpoints/Operations. The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players.

 

Looking through the posts in the thread so far, I’ve seen suggestions that match some of what we’re trying to do, some beyond the scope of this feature, and some additional ideas that are “that’s cool, we should consider that”. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread so please keep those suggestions coming. I won’t be able to reply to each person individually, but will post an update when we have something substantial to share.

 

Again, thanks for taking the time. See you in game (from the shadows, you never know when a developer is stealthily following you around).

 

Might I humbly suggest that as part of your "fine-tuning" you actually utilise the test server and see how it's tuned BEFORE dumping it on live?

 

Just a thought.

[Loki_]

Might I humbly suggest that as part of your "fine-tuning" you actually utilise the test server and see how it's tuned BEFORE dumping it on live?

 

Just a thought.

 

That would mean they would need to have somebody that could actually play the game on their staff.

[Sukothai]

So, if each encounter is suppose to be harder, does the mean the conversation choices will be different or the same? Because, it seems it was the same outcome, for all roles no matter what choices were/

[JMCA]

This is so off topic, but the post is so ignorant even I as a casual ops player feel obliged to respond.

 

The idea of progression is that, yes, you start at a lower tier of gear than the loot drops, but that the op becomes progressively easier as more of the ops team acquires more of the newest tier of gear and reaches the final bosses where the most desirable loot (both vanity and gear) are located.

Moreover, this progression is further facilitated by the presence of suboptimal/non-set bonus gear drops of the same tier.

This had been the modus operandi for the hard mode to nightmare mode progression until 3.0:

NiM EC recommended having 146 Campaign/Black Hole, but dropped 150 Dread Guard/Hazmat gear; NiM TFB/S&V recommended 168 Underworld/?? but dropped 174 Kell Dragon/Shadowed gear; NiM DF/DP recommended 180 gear but dropped 186 Dread Master/Dread Touched gear. In these examples, Black Hole, Hazmat, Shadowed, and Dread Touched where all suboptimal and lacked a set bonus unlike their equivalent item rating counterpart tokens.

 

First of all, there are no set-bonus-less suboptimal gear drops of rating 224 to aid in progression, but the lack of a guaranteed chance of 224 gear on anything other than the final boss plus the lack of unoptimized 224 gear breaks the MO of nightmare operations previously. It purposefully diverts progression raiders from NiM ops to the highlighted HM. This defeats the idea of "progression" and makes it so that the only benefits to running NiM ops are the vanity items, many of which are also random chances.

 

Why? Why break precedent? Why should the harder operation drop worse gear? I might be ok with a chance for a 224 token IF unoptimized 224 gear drops existed, but since they don't, even as an extremely casual raider I am left wondering WHY? What is the rationale?

 

Your reply only shows ignorance. This is important for the health of the game as a whole, for reasons that have been extensively outlined elsewhere in other on-topic threads by authors of more skill or knowledge than I. Its not the most critically important thing affecting the game without which the game would crumble and die. But poke enough holes into the "MMO bits" and the game will bleed.

 

Progression raiding is not what most SWTOR players want.

 

It's so obvious at this point.

 

Quit acting like it's so important when it's clear that KotFE was an attempt to breathe life into them, not to feature them.

 

If participation goes up, maybe progression raiding is justified in the future because the raider population will grow, but as of pre-KotFE it's not worth featuring as a main focus.

[Zair_Zetross]

I've decided since gear is such a controversial thing that I would like item modifications instead, specifically hilts and barrels. Solo players currently have no way to get hilts and barrels that I know of because the only modded weapons drop from raids making our cartel pack weapons stuck at the 190 mods they gave us at the end of chapter 8. So I think it should be.

 

1-5 208 Mods, Armorings, and Enhancements.

1-7 208 Hilts and Barrels.

1-10 216 Mods and Enhancments.

 

The lack of 216 Armorings, Hilts, Barrels should be enough to keep you raiders happy and still provide a tiny gear upgrade for solo players.

[FlyingUsPoo]

You want these things to be truly worthwhile, make the highest level be something that requires the highest gear levels in the game and a level 50 influence companion.

 

Reward that rank with a legacy offhand shell that is selectable similar to what was given in the pre-4.0 Yavin weekly.

[Halinalle]

Reward that rank with a legacy offhand shell that is selectable similar to what was given in the pre-4.0 Yavin weekly.

 

Gree event.

No, it doesn't take long to get enough things for those.

 

Since you are talking about last encounter requiring 224 gear I'd assume you are already in full 224 so doing Xeno during Gree event isn't going to be a problem for you.

[Joel_Eisenlipz]

Since the question was specifically asking what gear should be rewarded, I'll stick to answering that question, rather than going on a philosophical rant like so many others already have.

 

I would like to echo the suggestions for this gear to be parts rather than whole pieces. It could even be staged in a way that entices veteran players to happily jump in and participate.

 

My guess is that the easiest way to accomplish this would be by having each encounter drop increasing amounts of credits, crystals (comms), and reputation items. Then the gear rewards themselves could be available from a reputation vendor that sells a variety of boxes. These boxes could then be purchased using the existing in-game currencies, but be restricted by various reputation levels and currencies. I think is where the real appeal could come from, for all types of players.

 

For me as an example, I raid every week and would happily blow massive amounts of blue/purple crystals, to get my choice of unlettered mods and low-endurance enhancements. But I do think set bonus armors (and whole tokens for that matter) would be too much for anything beyond 216 -- unless of course Encounter #10 is something that would make full-time raiders pause.

[TUXs]

Hello everyone,

 

This is Steven Chew,

 

The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players.

Yet NiM drops worse gear than the weekly HM Op.

 

How can you possibly make the statement above, yet at the same time, double down on your studios instance that NiM Ops just have a 'chance' to drop 224 gear?

 

Do you not see how ridiculous this seems?

 

I'm 100% in favor of average players like me getting a shot at 224 gear, but for Gods sake, give the people who do NiM content the same thing.

Edited January 21, 2016 by TUXs

[Kejoga]

Just thinking.....but what if it did not drop items or crystals at all. What if you added a new slot to our characters and introduced a "Soul Stone" (or call it something else if you want).

 

As you complete more encounters, your Soul Stone Increases in value.....ie: for each encounter your soulstone added one endurance. (with a weekly cap of 10 endurance.)

 

If you complete 7 encounters you would get the choice of added .25 to your crit chance or .25 to your shield chance.

 

If you complete 10 encounters you could increase your base speed by .5%.

 

Your soulstone would cap at +200 endurance, +5 crit chance, + 5 shield chance and +10% run speed. If your soul stone "capped" you would get an extra benefit (choose either +5 accurancy or +5 defense)

 

You guys can futz with the numbers, I am just ignoring doing my work and typing on the forum instead.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Kejoga

[GetPloughed]

Do people really struggle with gear that a potential fun idea like the Eternal Championship is going to devolve into something as trivial and boring as another piece of crap gear? I haven't touched my Marauder since mid December and with no effort at all is sitting at a mix of 216 and 208 gear with two 220s thrown in. That's commendations from just leveling the guy, no ops, no fps. I solo'd two star fortresses, one pre nerf, one post nerf + buff, no problems at all.

 

I see the Eternal Championship as something to do to test the ability of the player, it is pretty much Brawler's Guild from WoW. You don't get high end gear from that, in fact you don't really get anything, that's why it's a flop. Now you guys have a chance to take that concept and make it better, but yet you decide to turn into some lame gear lottery, and because of that, the balance is going to be off.

 

Remove all ideas of rewarding gear from this, it's for the better. Reward real rewards that feel rewarding to the player who puts effort into mastering the class. I'm a solo player, I don't have time to raid, I don't want to raid, I did it in WoW for years, don't feel like doing it now. I can already solo the Star Fortress, assuming I can finish level 10 in this as well, that means I can successfully finish all solo content in the game up to this point. So please answer me this, what do I need higher level gear for?

 

Cool looking armor shells, mounts, titles, pets, these are things I can use, these are things I need, 224 gear helps me nothing.

 

I'm pretty sure I made a post similar to this earlier in the thread, but that was a week ago + 40 pages. I hope this sort of idea catches on more with more people so that you guys at BioWare can see that it's IMO a far better idea than just another useless gear progression ladder.

[Jedi_riches]

"The Eternal Championship provides an alternative way for solo players to get higher tiers of gear, albeit at a slower rate compared to Flashpoints/Operations. The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players. "

 

Except there IS NO new operations or group content.!!????

 

Who said anything about new ops? ops in general should be the highest form of content in the game whether new or old hence drop the same gear.

[TX_Angel]

Yet NiM drops worse gear than the weekly HM Op.

 

How can you possibly make the statement above, yet at the same time, double down on your studios instance that NiM Ops just have a 'chance' to drop 224 gear?

 

Do you not see how ridiculous this seems?

 

I'm 100% in favor of average players like me getting a shot at 224 gear, but for Gods sake, give the people who do NiM content the same thing.

 

TUXs, please stop using logic and reason... that doesn't apply here... because... REASONS!

[Jedi_riches]

Yet NiM drops worse gear than the weekly HM Op.

 

How can you possibly make the statement above, yet at the same time, double down on your studios instance that NiM Ops just have a 'chance' to drop 224 gear?

 

Do you not see how ridiculous this seems?

 

I'm 100% in favor of average players like me getting a shot at 224 gear, but for Gods sake, give the people who do NiM content the same thing.

 

 

TUXs, please stop using logic and reason... that doesn't apply here... because... REASONS!

 

I only have a basic understanding of ops but I always thought NIM was the hardest content in the game? has Bioware ever stated why they no longer feel this is the case?

Edited January 21, 2016 by Jedi_riches

[TX_Angel]

I only have a basic understanding of ops but I always thought NIM was the hardest content in the game? has Bioware ever stated why they no longer feel this is the case?

 

It is...

 

No, they have not, and frankly I doubt this was an intentional decision. They just don't have anyone left to manage ops which is why the loot tables are still broken and we have the absurd situation where you get far more 224 gear from HLHM than from NiM.

 

Ops are history, what we have is what we'll get, I fully expect at this point to never see another one, and that's a shame. DF/DP/S&V were the highlight of the game when they came out, nicely done.

 

Rav and ToS are nice, but have always been a buggly, bloody mess. And never got NiM versions.