Gear Rewards from Eternal Championship

[annabethchase]

Thanks for posting this early on while it still could be modified.

 

I must express that this reward system is shockingly bad. Why are these rewards lower than H2's? If you're following the KotFE storyline then you'll be doing hundreds of these and buying better gear than this with all the crystals. I feel like this just completely trashed the Eternal Championship into being a every once in a blue moon side quest instead of something that had immense potential to truly be difficult and rewarding.

 

As it stands now, the end boss in round 10 sounds like it's easier than the easier SM ops bosses. That's what the first 5 bosses were supposed to be. The final boss should be proof you are ready to Pick Up Group any SM ops and contribute. I don't see how this is going to train anybody if 99% of people will complete it week one.

 

At a bare minimum can this reward Decorations or Alliance Crates? If it has a good piece of furniture I might want 50 and keep repeating the content but even the coolest mount I only want 1.

Edited January 23, 2016 by annabethchase

[Joefjr]

So...even the aimed audience won't do it more than necessary to get Bowdaar...what if you gave moddable entry level gear (208 set bonus gear for example) for new player to be interrested in group content and made a 8 or 16 men version for raiders to be interested ? Why not an HM version so that more hardcore raiders are interested as well ?

 

WoW did the same thing with their LFR set gear, it would have to be something like...

 

DPS

2PC +100 Mastery

4PC Increase all critical damage dealt by 2-5%

6PC Activating any damage ability increase dmg done by 1% for15 sec 30 sec cd

 

Heal

2PC +100 Mastery

4PC Increase all critical healing dealt by 2-5%

6PC Activating any healing ability increase healing done by 1% for 15 sec 30 sec cd

 

Tank

2PC +100 Armor

4PC Increase shield chance by 2-5%

6PC Resisting or Shielding an attack reduces all damage taken by 1% for 15 sec 30 sec cd

 

 

These bonuses are class neutral, would work with every class for the given role and would be replaced by class specific sets at the 216 rating. They would probably fine tune numbers from the bonuses, but the bonuses them selves are enough to make it worth repeating for any one who isn't doing SM+ OP's also for those who need that help to do better in SM

[JennyCharmers]

As with any of these types of discussions, all the different types of players all have their own barrow to push, and will very rarely if ever come to any sort of agreement.

Quite simply, it is impossible to set a reward that will keep everyone happy, and it's for that reason that there shouldn't be a set reward.

It should be like a flashpoint with 3 different modes with its solo, tact and hard mode.

For this you could have the standard mode, with the rewards you have outlined here already, a challenge mode, with better rewards like optimised 208's with a set bonus. and a hard mode, to challenge the better players of the game with appropriate rewards with something like optimised 220 pieces without a set bonus.

Edited January 23, 2016 by JennyCharmers

[MasterSpatula]

"Static gear," huh? Thanks for clearing that up so I don't waste any more time paying attention to this.

[JainaShan]

No challenge and no reward? Why?

 

204-208-216 is NOT a reward. If you cosider EC a 1-time activity - well its OK, its not about reward. But if you want it to be a repeatable content you have to provide decent reward. If you dont want to give good gear as a reward. its OK i understand, but then give OTHER rewards, decorations, mounts, good looking armors etc.

 

I can remind you:

- you get tons of green and blue crystals for running heroics now (we all do as they are part of Alliance grind, 50+ heroics, each gives 5 green and 2 blue crystals)

- you get tons of green and blue crystals for running daylies\weeklies (like 15-minutes CZ weekly gives you around 40 green and 20 blue crystals, there are also Oricon\Yavin\BlackHole\SectionX\Ziost\Belsavis)

- you can get 2x 208 gear pieces for running Black Talon tactical FP solo (its very easy and fast run and can be repeated any times you want, basically you can run it like 5-10 times and get full 208)

- you get 208 gear piece + 2 mods (possible) for running heroic Star fortress

- you can craft 208 gear, hell you can even craft 216 and 220

That all above is SOLO content already existant in the game that let people have at least 208 gear after they finish Kotfe (actually after a bit of Alliance farm you wear mostly 216 with some parts of 220 and 208). And all that make your new EC irrelevant as gear farming activity.

 

And im greatly dissapointed that instead of interesting and challenging new activity you created another stupid(cause of easyness) and useless (cause of no reward) one-time quest "Kill X standard helpless mobs".

 

p.s. cmon, give us the challenge and fun repeatable content.

Let EC be endless where each new wave of mobs is a bit stronger (dmg and hp) that previous, create 10-15 REALLY different mobs (tank-mobs\Dps-mobs\Heal-mobs. mobs that debaff you, mobs that stun\slow you, big mobs with huge hp pool, week mobs that swarm you like zerglings....) and mix them together. Add some randomness to mobs spawn. Make different baffs randomly spawn on the arena, add some architecture to the arena to let player kite\los mobs and overall "play smart".

 

Create a ladder similar to PVP that shows how far people could reach, best of the best players survived most waves.....and after that create 4men arena.

Edited January 23, 2016 by JainaShan

[AriosVolXanath]

I like the concept of Eternal Championship, thank you.

But, like others, I am baffled by the rewards. If we can get 208 mods from Data Crystals just by doing our class storyline and weekly heroics, how is 204 static gear supposed to entice us to do this content on a weekly basis?

Am I missing something here? This makes absolutely no sense. Someone please explain this to me. Thanks.

[Belegnole]

Hi everyone,

 

I’d like to share some additional details on the Eternal Championship with you.

Thanks everyone!

 

Thank you Steven,

 

I am the "Casual" that many talk about, though I am not a total newb. What you are offering up sounds great from a story concept, but fails to deliver with the actual experience for the gamer. First off it is quite easy in 4.0+ to be in 208 gear shortly after the end of chapter 9. Seeing how easy it is to get outside this new event, 208 should be the first gear reward. Honestly outside doing this once to say I have I don't see this as worth my time.

[Cicgnar]

Hi everyone,

 

I’d like to share some additional details on the Eternal Championship with you. This will touch on several topics as follow:

 

1. What is the story behind the Eternal Championship?
   
   • The Eternal Championship is the latest trend in entertainment among Zakuul’s decadent upper class, who happily “tour” the lower levels of their capital to watch their social underlings engage in brutal death matches for fortune and glory.
     
   • More details regarding the backstory will be revealed next week in the Developer Live Stream with Charles Boyd!
     
   • Leading up to the launch of Game Update 4.2, we’ll also post a Developer Blog about the Eternal Championship.
     

 

[*]How does the Eternal Championship work?

• You start the Eternal Championship by picking up an access Mission, similar to a Flashpoint. You begin at Round 1, and then attempt to complete as many rounds as you can. Completing each round will grant you a certain number of Common Data Crystals. After every round, you check-in to decide whether you want to continue or cash out. The total number of Common Data Crystals you obtain depends on how many rounds you complete.
  
• You can repeat the Eternal Championship as many times as you wish by picking up the access Mission again.
  
• There are 3 weekly Missions to defeat Boss 5, Boss 7, and Boss 10 respectively. Completing each of these will grant you rewards, which will be explained later on.
  

 

[*]Composition of the fights for each round.

• Each round consists of a single fight with a boss encounter. In most cases, they will involve adds.
  
• For Rounds 1-5, they involve a single major mechanic in addition to other combat abilities. These rounds are catered towards players that have just finished Chapters 1-9, and are intended to guide you towards more complex fights. This could involve defeating mobs in a specific order, stepping out of AoE indicators, managing multiple mobs at once, interrupting abilities, etc. As you get further in the rounds, you might see a combination of these at the same time. The goal is to show these mechanics, rather than punish you for failing to deal with them. You will see the impact and cause the fight to take longer, but you won’t be one-shotted because of it.
  
• Once you step into Round 6 and continue on to Round 10, unsuccessfully dealing with these mechanics has a more significant impact. Because the Eternal Championship is being catered to a wider audience, we have to strike a balance between being challenging versus frustrating. Hardcore raiders with full 224 gear will most likely not have too much trouble beating these fights, but hopefully they’re interesting enough that the consensus is that they’re cool to play through.
  
• There were multiple posts asking if these fights will be tuned for each class, or even change depending on what class you play. The answer is that it’ll be the same for each class, but we’re aiming to balance it so that all classes will be able to get past it. Some will undoubtedly be easier than others, but we’re trying our best to make sure that it’s not too frustrating for the others.
  

 

[*]Gear drops for the Weekly Missions.

• As mentioned in an earlier post, the Eternal Championship is intended for players to have an alternate way to gear up to a higher tier of gear other than grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation. I’ve seen several posts about gear suggestions, and here’s our current plan based on the input we’ve seen so far.
   
  Weekly 1 for defeating Boss 5: Rewards choice of 204 rating static gear.
  Why: The first 5 rounds are intended for players coming straight from the chapters, and as such rewards you with gear that is higher rating than what you’ve been getting so far (190).
   
  Weekly 2 for defeating Boss 7: Rewards an “Arena Token” that can be exchanged for a choice of 208 rating static gear.
  Why: Rounds 6-7 are catered towards players working towards Tactical Flashpoints, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
   
  Weekly 3 for defeating Boss 10: Rewards multiple “Arena Tokens” that can be exchanged for a choice of 216 rating static gear.
  Why: Rounds 8-10 are catered towards players working towards HM Flashpoints and SM Ops, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
   
  
• What exactly is static gear? They’re gear pieces that have pre-determined stats that cannot be changed. The other type of gear is moddable gear, which have modifications that can be swapped out to change the stats and get the best build possible for the player’s respective class/discipline. Moddable gear can be purchased using Data Crystals from the vendors found on the Fleet and Odessen.
   
  
• Now some of you might be thinking “Why reward static gear?” The main purpose is to help solo players gear up, not necessarily be the most optimized stat-wise. Getting an upgrade would generally help improve the player’s damage/defense/healing output, but not necessarily hit the best combination of numbers/stat modifiers. Also, we didn’t want to diminish the moddable gear that you can get from the Data Crystal vendors. Again, the intent is to allow players to gain higher tiers of gear over a period of time. Grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation will gear you up faster, but we didn’t want to limit players who don’t frequently group from getting the gear altogether.
   
  
• We are introducing a new “Arena Token” (final name TBD) that can be exchanged for 208 or 216 rating static gear from a vendor. Completing Round 10 will give you enough tokens to get a 216 piece off the bat. If you’re only able to clear Round 7, you can get a 208 piece or save up to get a 216 piece. The tokens are Bound to Legacy, so you can trade them to your alts if desired/needed.
   
  
• The 3 weeklies also reward you with Common and Glowing Data Crystals. So for players who are so inclined to delve into modifications and change the stats for your gear, you have the option of getting the moddable gear from the Data Crystal vendors once you’ve saved up enough.
   
  
• Gear with set bonuses are still reserved for Operations. Those are unique to that content and will remain as such.
  

 

[*]Other than Data Crystals and Gear, what else can you get from doing the Eternal Championship?

• Boss 7 has a chance to drop a new minipet.
  
• Boss 10 has a chance to drop a new mount.
  
• New achievements and titles.
  
• If you have any ideas for achievements or titles, definitely share those. I saw one particular post about giving unique titles for each class that completes Round 10, which is great! We’ll be looking into it.
  

 

I hope that this gives you a better idea of what the Eternal Championship is all about. Definitely appreciate all the feedback on gear ratings and difficulty. If you see anything that you have suggestions on or have an alternate opinion about, please share it.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

You certainly, undoubtedly must be kidding. This... This is silly!

 

I don't have that many alts but... I've only done original content and RotHC, Solo content, and already gearing 208+

on my newest alt, who didn't even recieve anything from any other character. Just on her own, my BH made enough crystals to buy the basic orange set, mod every piece between planets, get ziost gear at 60, and still got enough crystals to buy three 208 pieces right away! Even my insta-60 got better equipment!!!

 

Who's the target for these rewards? You can't give worse gear than you're supposed to have by then!!

 

I understand the need of training people for group content but... come on... this is pointless!! The way it is right now, I'll do it on my main, get the companions and if it's not much effort, the pet, mount and title.

 

My suggestions are:

 

- Main Hand rewards, available through tokens or direct loot from quest. 216, or at the very least, improvements over the 208 which are roof outside operations.

- The third kind of crystals, the one that lets you buy 220 gear. Any other kind is obsolete by the SF, the Heroics and the different Daylies and Weeklies that still are there.

- Moddable gear as reward (With 208+ mods in it). That is at least nice visually. I understand you still want to sell CM sets (I guess, since you're always taking them out) but you could make us work for a set we actually liked the looks of.

- Crafting Schematics worth a damn. Statwise or appareance-wise.

 

I honestly think that anything less, it's not worth it. And the worst part is, I may be part of the target objective of this. Not been playing for that long (despite my account existing from before the Beta), not that expert in this game group content, and played mostly solo, so I still have mechanics to master in my toons.

 

And yet, I see myself doing this a couple of times before forgetting about it and go back to SM Operations to try and learn how to play group content there.

 

I have zero hope of anybody actually reading this post, but... this has been a MAJOR letdown. Come on BW, give us something fun and rewarding to do... It's not so hard! Just pay a little attention to you community!

[Damask_Rose]

I'm going to echo what pretty much everyone else has said. There is no point to the static gear rewards unless they are only meant to be cosmetic. (And I've got more than enough pretty legacy gear as it is!) I'm a solo player who doesn't grind for gear and my alts have better gear than that the minute they ding 65. There needs to be a lot more vanity rewards than 1 pet and 1 mount if this is going to have any longevity since no one will be using this to gear up.

[JediMord]

Another echo here.

 

You can get 208 gear very easily already.

 

They are saying this will cater to those who don't do ops? Uhh if they don't do ops they're already PVE'ing standard content and have enough crystals for 208s.

 

I think what they really mean is, this is for the free level 60 characters only. Because you don't get 800+ comms from KotFE.

 

Phrasing was very very poor acting like it was "instead of doing ops for armor do these".

[Mubrak]

Static 216 gear has only one purpose: selling it.

 

Please give us a choice that matters™:

1 Radiant Crystal, 10 Glowing crystals, 50 common crystals or one static piece of sh^J^J gear.

 

With little challenge and no gain, Eternal Championship will be about as popular as the PVE space missions. Don't waste too much resources on this, better fix a bug instead.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Mubrak

[tanerb]

wow, I didn't think it would be this bad. Do they know something we don't know? who is this targeting, certainly not he casual player. I ma one and these rewards are awful. It can only be for the new players who started with level 60 but even then it does not make sense Edited January 23, 2016 by tanerb

[SootyTX]

Hi everyone,

 

[*]Gear drops for the Weekly Missions.

• As mentioned in an earlier post, the Eternal Championship is intended for players to have an alternate way to gear up to a higher tier of gear other than grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation. I’ve seen several posts about gear suggestions, and here’s our current plan based on the input we’ve seen so far.
   
  Weekly 1 for defeating Boss 5: Rewards choice of 204 rating static gear.
  Why: The first 5 rounds are intended for players coming straight from the chapters, and as such rewards you with gear that is higher rating than what you’ve been getting so far (190).
   
  Weekly 2 for defeating Boss 7: Rewards an “Arena Token” that can be exchanged for a choice of 208 rating static gear.
  Why: Rounds 6-7 are catered towards players working towards Tactical Flashpoints, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
   
  Weekly 3 for defeating Boss 10: Rewards multiple “Arena Tokens” that can be exchanged for a choice of 216 rating static gear.
  Why: Rounds 8-10 are catered towards players working towards HM Flashpoints and SM Ops, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
   
  
• What exactly is static gear? They’re gear pieces that have pre-determined stats that cannot be changed. The other type of gear is moddable gear, which have modifications that can be swapped out to change the stats and get the best build possible for the player’s respective class/discipline. Moddable gear can be purchased using Data Crystals from the vendors found on the Fleet and Odessen.
   
  
• Now some of you might be thinking “Why reward static gear?” The main purpose is to help solo players gear up, not necessarily be the most optimized stat-wise. Getting an upgrade would generally help improve the player’s damage/defense/healing output, but not necessarily hit the best combination of numbers/stat modifiers. Also, we didn’t want to diminish the moddable gear that you can get from the Data Crystal vendors. Again, the intent is to allow players to gain higher tiers of gear over a period of time. Grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation will gear you up faster, but we didn’t want to limit players who don’t frequently group from getting the gear altogether.
   
  
• We are introducing a new “Arena Token” (final name TBD) that can be exchanged for 208 or 216 rating static gear from a vendor. Completing Round 10 will give you enough tokens to get a 216 piece off the bat. If you’re only able to clear Round 7, you can get a 208 piece or save up to get a 216 piece. The tokens are Bound to Legacy, so you can trade them to your alts if desired/needed.
   
  
• The 3 weeklies also reward you with Common and Glowing Data Crystals. So for players who are so inclined to delve into modifications and change the stats for your gear, you have the option of getting the moddable gear from the Data Crystal vendors once you’ve saved up enough.
   
  
• Gear with set bonuses are still reserved for Operations. Those are unique to that content and will remain as such.
  

 

IMO, using static gear is a huge mistake for several reasons, most notably;

 

1) It's utterly useless for anyone that is using the EC for your stated intent - to move up to harder group content. These people will already be using moddable gear with augments that beat the stats of the static gear you intend to provide. Making this static gear makes it absolutely uninteresting to the vast majority of your primary audience - this makes zero sense.

 

2) It REDUCES replayability of the content. If I need to run EC multiple times to get armourings, mods and enhancements that I will keep for more than 3 days, you bet I will - and far far more often than re-running it to get another complete item that will be a total waste of resources to augment. As it stands now I'll do it once just to see how easy it is and move on, despite most of my toons being in 208/216 gear because I'm technically limited from doing ops atm due to hardware issues.

 

I also disagree wholeheartedly with the set bonus stance, as that makes zero sense with how easy SM is these days - if not for my internet issues I could have a full set of SM gear within a couple of hours on any toon I wanted.

 

Setting up EC to award static gear runs counter to its premise, I simply don't understand how this decision could be made, and I'm pretty good at understanding things even when I don't agree with them (just ask some of the posters around here). This one though...just...ugh....makes no sense at all.

[MishaCantu]

So, static gear for new players. Ok, lets say I started SWTOR today, I can level to 65 in say 2 maybe 3 weeks at the outset. Doing planet H2, SOR and KoTFE, I can get enough common crystals to get a set of 208 gear, and possibly a piece or two of glowing crystal gear. EC is not going to launch until March? That is almost 2 full months to level and gear up with crystals.

 

Maybe I am missing something? I see me doing this to get Bowdaar and much like Star Fortess, never go back. I don't get it.

[SootyTX]

Yep, the irony of that is thick.

 

That being said, mods and enhancements only help if you also get the armorings. Otherwise you'll end up with toons with 208/216 armoring and 224 mod/enhancement.

 

Easy to say "well gosh, get the 224 from HM/NiM ops! Yea, but then what you do you with the mod/enhancement from those? That is twice the work. If you can't get the armoring from the boxes, they are useless to me.

 

Have it drop all three, then you'll have something.

 

This!

 

@StevenChew - what you have given us makes no sense. I really appreciate the early details, but...I am stumped.

 

As others have said, trying to say that someone coming out of ch9 is going to be in 190 gear is just unrealistic. Even a brand new account using the level 60 token, and thereby absolutely minimizing their crystal income, is going to have enough to buy multiple 208 items right out of the gate in Odessen. After a week or two doing the alliance stuff they'll have full 208 and probably a piece of two of 216. For someone with alts - I have just been messing around KotFE with multiple toons, I certainly don't grind in any way shape or form, but I have every single alt (well over 20) with full sets of at least 200 static gear already sitting in their banks reading for use as soon as they hit 60/61.

 

Gear below 208 is a total waste of time - as in, don;t even bother putting it in if you don;t want to put anything better in it's place.

 

Static gear is a bad idea. It doesn't align with the intent (getting players ready to head into harder FP and ops). And it doesn't align with all you've been doing with the rest of KotFE with orange shells as rewards through so much of the extended content. Its as if the left hand and right hand have no idea what the other is doing, which is very disappointing.

[SootyTX]

What I hope for:

 

What I expect: Meh

 

What I get: facepalm

 

I have to admit, as utterly confused and pissed off I am about this atm, this made me laugh - so thank you SFDebris

 

(I'm picturing the Picard/Ryker double facepalm as I post this)

[Count_Mario]

[*]If you have any ideas for achievements or titles, definitely share those. I saw one particular post about giving unique titles for each class that completes Round 10, which is great! We’ll be looking into it.

!

 

Eternal Champion should definitely be a Legacy or character title for completing Round 10. Otherwise I would love to get this title on a Bounty Hunter, to move from Grand Champion to Eternal Champion.

[Cicgnar]

Another echo here.

 

I think what they really mean is, this is for the free level 60 characters only. Because you don't get 800+ comms from KotFE.

 

Nope, not even those. My insta-60 marauder has enough crystals to gear herself 208, at least a couple of pieces, and I've not done a single heroic or SF with her. Simply unlocking the companions, not even grinding heroics, just the ones needed to unlock the different companions and SF, which is done in less than a week AT MOST, I could be fully 208 equipped, with even a piece or two 216.

 

I simply don't.... who's the target audience for this? The people who breezed through chapters I-IX and never went back? Anyone else, and I mean ANYONE, is sure to have better equipment. And, to add insult to the injury, modable!

[Halinalle]

As it stands now, the end boss in round 10 sounds like it's easier than the easier SM ops bosses.

 

It can't be easier than Gharj.

Snooze... oh, adds... snooze... oh, adds again...

[Ozkroth]

So many resources going towards content most people will do one time and not have any reason to do again. (This and the HK chapter.)

 

You can queue for groupfind SM ops starting at level 50 and because of the bolster do just fine if you know the class you're playing. Getting the 216 set bonus gear isn't difficult at all compared to grinding through 10 bosses every week for some static gear that isn't moddable and a complete waste to augment.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Ozkroth

[Tsillah]

You say that from a perspective of someone actually knowing what he's doing and ready for HM. Now imagine how destructive it'll be for HM PuG's. You'll have all those guys with 216 set gear that never set foot in an ops and that think because they have nice gear can skip SM because "everybody say SM are faceroll and I cleared EC several time so I should not bother and go directly to HM"

 

That is my perspective but it's more than that.

 

I don't believe for one minute this will improve the situation at all. People do tactical flashpoints before they do the EC since you need to be level 65 and do 9 chapters. That means they've got their bad habits well before they get to the EC.

 

For operations it will make even less of a difference because SM ops all have bolster. So gear is not required at all for these ops. Mind you, gear still makes a difference particularly in the tougher ops but people can ignore them and gear up to 216 gear easy via MK-2 drops, tokens and crystal gear which the game practically throws at you. Mechanics in SM ops have been taken out so aside from EV and KP all other ops are a rough awakening for such players.

 

So as much as I speak from the perspective I have, I am convinced that this EC gear will mostly go to people who prefer to avoid group content to begin with and merchant food for for mount hunters.

 

What's missing here also is cosmetic gear and decorations that might motivate more players to collect these championship tokens.

 

I really am not looking for gear in EC but if there is gear only unassembled gear will help me because of my alts. But I'd prefer more rewards that are not gear with stats. Let's be honest, Ranked PvP is a bust...not many people do it at all, but they've got some cool rewards like some awesome weapon skins and such. Why not have a similar type of rewards for this EC. It would make this activity so much more universal, but from the get go the devs here have been steering towards gear with stats as rewards. Ok for certain groups of players but not nearly universal enough to get a wider reach within the player base.

 

I am sure that it won't be as challenging for me as others, but isn't they idea of new content to try and reach as much interest for it as possible?

 

Right now it's like...ok I'll do it once to see what it's like and if the mount is cool enough I might try it a few more times and if it takes too long to get then I'll just forget about it altogether. I just think BW are aiming too low with this.

 

But if you think this is going to be the place where people are going to finally prepare for doing group content, I think you're kidding yourself. That will only work if you force the issue and instead of setting a gear requirement actually only let people in that meet the gear requirement....something tells me that BW isn't going to do that though.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Tsillah

[LordArtemis]

Hi everyone,

 

I’d like to share some additional details on the Eternal Championship with you. This will touch on several topics as follow:

 

1. What is the story behind the Eternal Championship?
   
   • The Eternal Championship is the latest trend in entertainment among Zakuul’s decadent upper class, who happily “tour” the lower levels of their capital to watch their social underlings engage in brutal death matches for fortune and glory.
     
   • More details regarding the backstory will be revealed next week in the Developer Live Stream with Charles Boyd!
     
   • Leading up to the launch of Game Update 4.2, we’ll also post a Developer Blog about the Eternal Championship.
     

 

[*]How does the Eternal Championship work?

• You start the Eternal Championship by picking up an access Mission, similar to a Flashpoint. You begin at Round 1, and then attempt to complete as many rounds as you can. Completing each round will grant you a certain number of Common Data Crystals. After every round, you check-in to decide whether you want to continue or cash out. The total number of Common Data Crystals you obtain depends on how many rounds you complete.
  
• You can repeat the Eternal Championship as many times as you wish by picking up the access Mission again.
  
• There are 3 weekly Missions to defeat Boss 5, Boss 7, and Boss 10 respectively. Completing each of these will grant you rewards, which will be explained later on.
  

 

[*]Composition of the fights for each round.

• Each round consists of a single fight with a boss encounter. In most cases, they will involve adds.
  
• For Rounds 1-5, they involve a single major mechanic in addition to other combat abilities. These rounds are catered towards players that have just finished Chapters 1-9, and are intended to guide you towards more complex fights. This could involve defeating mobs in a specific order, stepping out of AoE indicators, managing multiple mobs at once, interrupting abilities, etc. As you get further in the rounds, you might see a combination of these at the same time. The goal is to show these mechanics, rather than punish you for failing to deal with them. You will see the impact and cause the fight to take longer, but you won’t be one-shotted because of it.
  
• Once you step into Round 6 and continue on to Round 10, unsuccessfully dealing with these mechanics has a more significant impact. Because the Eternal Championship is being catered to a wider audience, we have to strike a balance between being challenging versus frustrating. Hardcore raiders with full 224 gear will most likely not have too much trouble beating these fights, but hopefully they’re interesting enough that the consensus is that they’re cool to play through.
  
• There were multiple posts asking if these fights will be tuned for each class, or even change depending on what class you play. The answer is that it’ll be the same for each class, but we’re aiming to balance it so that all classes will be able to get past it. Some will undoubtedly be easier than others, but we’re trying our best to make sure that it’s not too frustrating for the others.
  

 

[*]Gear drops for the Weekly Missions.

• As mentioned in an earlier post, the Eternal Championship is intended for players to have an alternate way to gear up to a higher tier of gear other than grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation. I’ve seen several posts about gear suggestions, and here’s our current plan based on the input we’ve seen so far.
   
  Weekly 1 for defeating Boss 5: Rewards choice of 204 rating static gear.
  Why: The first 5 rounds are intended for players coming straight from the chapters, and as such rewards you with gear that is higher rating than what you’ve been getting so far (190).
   
  Weekly 2 for defeating Boss 7: Rewards an “Arena Token” that can be exchanged for a choice of 208 rating static gear.
  Why: Rounds 6-7 are catered towards players working towards Tactical Flashpoints, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
   
  Weekly 3 for defeating Boss 10: Rewards multiple “Arena Tokens” that can be exchanged for a choice of 216 rating static gear.
  Why: Rounds 8-10 are catered towards players working towards HM Flashpoints and SM Ops, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
   
  
• What exactly is static gear? They’re gear pieces that have pre-determined stats that cannot be changed. The other type of gear is moddable gear, which have modifications that can be swapped out to change the stats and get the best build possible for the player’s respective class/discipline. Moddable gear can be purchased using Data Crystals from the vendors found on the Fleet and Odessen.
   
  
• Now some of you might be thinking “Why reward static gear?” The main purpose is to help solo players gear up, not necessarily be the most optimized stat-wise. Getting an upgrade would generally help improve the player’s damage/defense/healing output, but not necessarily hit the best combination of numbers/stat modifiers. Also, we didn’t want to diminish the moddable gear that you can get from the Data Crystal vendors. Again, the intent is to allow players to gain higher tiers of gear over a period of time. Grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation will gear you up faster, but we didn’t want to limit players who don’t frequently group from getting the gear altogether.
   
  
• We are introducing a new “Arena Token” (final name TBD) that can be exchanged for 208 or 216 rating static gear from a vendor. Completing Round 10 will give you enough tokens to get a 216 piece off the bat. If you’re only able to clear Round 7, you can get a 208 piece or save up to get a 216 piece. The tokens are Bound to Legacy, so you can trade them to your alts if desired/needed.
   
  
• The 3 weeklies also reward you with Common and Glowing Data Crystals. So for players who are so inclined to delve into modifications and change the stats for your gear, you have the option of getting the moddable gear from the Data Crystal vendors once you’ve saved up enough.
   
  
• Gear with set bonuses are still reserved for Operations. Those are unique to that content and will remain as such.
  

 

[*]Other than Data Crystals and Gear, what else can you get from doing the Eternal Championship?

• Boss 7 has a chance to drop a new minipet.
  
• Boss 10 has a chance to drop a new mount.
  
• New achievements and titles.
  
• If you have any ideas for achievements or titles, definitely share those. I saw one particular post about giving unique titles for each class that completes Round 10, which is great! We’ll be looking into it.
  

 

I hope that this gives you a better idea of what the Eternal Championship is all about. Definitely appreciate all the feedback on gear ratings and difficulty. If you see anything that you have suggestions on or have an alternate opinion about, please share it.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

5 encounters - 208 non-moddable Prototype gear, Alliance packs, random material packs.

7 encounters - 216 non-moddable Artifact gear, random Cartel certs, level 6 companion gifts.

10 encounters - 220 non-moddable Artifact gear, 25 Cartel Coins, 5 Exotic Isotope Stabilizer and 1 Strategic Resource Matrix

 

All three should be a source for weapon/offhand drops IMO.

 

Although the bonus items you are providing are not bad, I think this would have provided a better carrot than what you propose. Considering that 208 gear is fairly easy to get I am puzzled as to why you would choose to go with 204. I am also confused about yet another opportunity to offer a small CC stipend (something that actually interests casual players) passes you by.

 

So you want to offer titles? Ok, though I am almost positive you will likely offer titles based on the system itself, I will still attempt to suggest titles that would actually get casuals to play IMO.....

 

Titles

These titles would only be available to use once you hit level 50. Some would have dark or light side requirements. The one use items would act like any other titles sold in the market. Some titles are available as class story or achievement items, but this would provide the titles to those that can not gain them based on game circumstances and/or choices (such as a dark alignment jedi that wishes to carry the darth title, or a level 60 instant character).

 

Prefixes: Master, Darth, Lord, Moff, Grand Moff, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, Major, General, Admiral

Suffixes: Dark Lord of the Sith, Master Jedi, Mandalorian, Imperial Fleet Commander, Republic Defense Forces

Edited January 23, 2016 by LordArtemis

[Xo-Lara]

Although the bonus items you are providing are not bad, I think this would have provided a better carrot than what you propose. Considering that 208 gear is fairly easy to get I am puzzled as to why you would choose to go with 204. I am also confused about yet another opportunity to offer a small CC stipend (something that actually interests casual players) passes you by.

 

Alright. I'm one of those casual players that would have almost no interest in this beyond Bowdaar if there are no decorations. However, I admit I would learn how to survive this thing if there was a chance of a repeatable CC award, even if it were less than 25. Now that's a dangling carrot I can get behind.

[Aries_cz]

/snip explanation

 

Thanks for explaining it Steven.

However, are there going to be some other things purchasable for the "Arena Tokens" for people who already have equivalent or better gear (or do not want static gear)? Even if it is just some cosmetic or decoration things.

[ZeroPlus]

[*]What exactly is static gear? They’re gear pieces that have pre-determined stats that cannot be changed. The other type of gear is moddable gear, which have modifications that can be swapped out to change the stats and get the best build possible for the player’s respective class/discipline. Moddable gear can be purchased using Data Crystals from the vendors found on the Fleet and Odessen.

 

[*]Now some of you might be thinking “Why reward static gear?” The main purpose is to help solo players gear up, not necessarily be the most optimized stat-wise. Getting an upgrade would generally help improve the player’s damage/defense/healing output, but not necessarily hit the best combination of numbers/stat modifiers. Also, we didn’t want to diminish the moddable gear that you can get from the Data Crystal vendors. Again, the intent is to allow players to gain higher tiers of gear over a period of time. Grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation will gear you up faster, but we didn’t want to limit players who don’t frequently group from getting the gear altogether.

 

 

I was going to wax lyrical about how rewarding static/non-moddable gear was the wrong way to go, how it is bad enough that you have removed *ALL* moddable gear rewards from the levelling flashpoints, how moddable gear was what really drove people to do content, etc...

 

But I won't. Others have done it for me over the last 10 pages of replies.

 

All I'm going to do is ask that your reconsider your position on rewarding static/non-moddable gear and instead reward moddable/custom gear.

 

Thanks for reading.