Gearing Changes in Eternal Throne

[Tanitha]

I don't care, there was nothing wrong with having pve gear and pvp gear. You have to understand dude that for me

there's not just one thing I don't like about these changes. I don't like any of it.

 

Same here, I don't like the changes at all. And they are not interested in actually addressing any concerns: the fact that it will be like a Korean grindfest, the fact that we are asked to play 2+ year old content, with no new content in sight, and whatever they say, Uprising are probably going to be as easy as SFs v.2.0 and not group content.

 

I stopped watching when they started talking about the Dark vs. Light thing, which is of no interest to me, nor will it affect my playstyle at all.

 

Why not leave the current system in place, and add the GCX crates as well? So people who don't play ops, can still get BiS gear if they want.

[AdjeYo]

You are all missing the point. If you are dead set on these loot boxes, please let them drop a gear token. That token can then be turned in for any piece of gear. This eliminates all of the rng that everyone hates. Nobody wants this rng factor. Nobody. It isn't a good idea. You claim to listen to the community. The majority of the community do not want rng for the gear. Please address this. Take measures to fix this, because no content is going to make a lot of the endgame community leave. This rng factor will drive more people away.

 

As a side note, do these boxes have a chance to not drop a piece of gear at all? Because if that is true, then it is rng on top of rng which is completely unacceptable.

 

Pretty much this. Alternatively just give us set pieces at set levels of Galactic Command, we don't need RNG in gearing.

Edited October 20, 2016 by AdjeYo

[ahnog]

I like it. Raiders still have the advantage.

[Sareeph]

So now it's Discipline not Advanced class, Whatever spec you are in at the time you open the box determines the gear that is in it.

[Ligurio]

I like it. Raiders still have the advantage.

Well ... I just read on Dulfy :

"The goal for a regular player getting a crate every hour, and maybe hour and half."

and

"If you are doing Nightmare ops you are getting them faster as well – maybe 2-3 crates per op."

 

Sure I'm far from the best player in game but I know that when we were still raiding in June it took us more than three hours to finish a NiM operation.

 

So .. doing heroics during 3 hours (the regular play) to get 3 crates or spend 2 evenings on a NIM operation to earn 3 crates.

[Dyrusion]

what if you hold the chests till you hit the high level will you get top gear ?

[JainiaDral]

Why not leave the current system in place, and add the GCX crates as well? So people who don't play ops, can still get BiS gear if they want.

 

Can this solo player sign on to your plan instead of GC? I don't care about set bonuses, but having top-tier base stats would make the tedious money-making aspects of the game (dailies, heroics) go by a little faster, and with a lot less burnout. I'm already sick to death of heroics, but it's pretty hard to fund a big stable of alts for the fun parts of the story without doing at least a few of them.

 

The RNG aspect of the system makes what's already a terrible system for solo players an impossible grind to get even base level gear. We're at a disadvantage already because we don't group. But now, instead of having enough comms or credits to get starter endgame gear at the end, we have to grind through multiple levels. Even then, we probably won't end up with a full set.

 

We've already had a small sampler of what can go wrong with those heroic boxes pre-level 61. Even the "sure bets" like Sentinels still suffer from bad boxes. My sent probably got about 10 focuses leveling because the offhand boxes are wonky.

 

I've seen some projections elsewhere about what the point-weights are for various endgame activities, and I'm guessing I won't even make it to level 1

[DRMM]

I think the worst thing that came out of this stream is that fact that they stated that they are not sure yet if you'll be able to rip out armorings. Mods yes, armorings not sure. If that's the case Legacy gear is dead.

[Sareeph]

I think the worst thing that came out of this stream is that fact that they stated that they are not sure yet if you'll be able to rip out armorings. Mods yes, armorings not sure. If that's the case Legacy gear is dead.

 

Back to the Baked armoring days of Tionese, Columni, Rakkata.

[Kaze-Yama]

I think the worst thing that came out of this stream is that fact that they stated that they are not sure yet if you'll be able to rip out armorings. Mods yes, armorings not sure. If that's the case Legacy gear is dead.

 

I'm pretty sure they meant whether or not the set bonus was tied to a specific slot. Like you can't put your boots armoring in your chest and you can't transfer a set bonus.

 

Either way they need to clarify because that is pretty much make or break on whether you can actually get the gear you need or not. You should be able to remove armoring from any gear and put it on any other piece of legacy gear.

[DarthZaul]

If you are in an Operation you will get CXP for the following things:

• Killing any enemy which is "Gold" or higher (this includes any bosses).
  
• Killing the boss will grant each person in the Operation a BoP consumable which grants a burst of CXP.
  
• If you queued through group finder, you will receive bonus CXP for completing the Op.
  

 

I hope this is enough to encourage guilds to actually do full operations instead of lockout farming the last boss like they do for conquest. Last boss farming is so boring and just plain sad. It's not even raiding. The total CXP from the first 4 bosses needs to be equal to or more than the group finder bonus so we can finally stamp out this terrible form of gameplay.

[Sareeph]

I'm pretty sure they meant whether or not the set bonus was tied to a specific slot. Like you can't put your boots armoring in your chest and you can't transfer a set bonus.

 

Either way they need to clarify because that is pretty much make or break on whether you can actually get the gear you need or not. You should be able to remove armoring from any gear and put it on any other piece of legacy gear.

 

From what I remember, they said specifically that armorings being removable was still up in the air. I may have misheard.

[Wayshuba]

Well ... I just read on Dulfy :

"The goal for a regular player getting a crate every hour, and maybe hour and half."

and

"If you are doing Nightmare ops you are getting them faster as well – maybe 2-3 crates per op."

 

Sure I'm far from the best player in game but I know that when we were still raiding in June it took us more than three hours to finish a NiM operation.

 

So .. doing heroics during 3 hours (the regular play) to get 3 crates or spend 2 evenings on a NIM operation to earn 3 crates.

 

To help get newer under geared players up to gear level with those that are well geared, we can run EV and KP SM in roughly 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Letting the person we are gearing have all the drops gets them 10 pieces of NON RNG gear in 2 hours. With the system they are proposing, it will take roughly ten hours to do the same. 5 times as long. And, of course, that is assuming the RNG gods favor you that evening.

 

I am finally going to call a spade a spade, this system is nothing more than a way of trying to extend the grind on already existing content. It seems BW would rather develop new systems to make players grind the same group content over and over again than actually develop new group content.

 

After today's stream, I am now convinced this will have a chilling effect on the player base after launch. They are not listening AT ALL.

[Wayshuba]

From what I remember, they said specifically that armorings being removable was still up in the air. I may have misheard.

 

No, they said armorings were removable so you could put them into new gear like you do today. The thing is, belt armoring can only go in belt armoring slots - so it does NOTHING for you when you are looking for the chest piece.

[JainiaDral]

Is the update on Reddit accurate?

 

We were planning to do it by having gear drops based on advanced class but we have decided based on community feedback that we would do it based on your discipline instead. When you open a command crate it will now give you loot based on your current discipline.

 

If so, that's slightly less extremely terrible. Now it's only marginally catastrophic.

[Wolfiry]

I watched the live feed and well one thing they said that current gearing was hard so they wanted to make it simplier to gear up. But imo it's not so hard to gear up and not really a need to change it. For me it feels they could used the time it took them to develope this new system to come with new Ops, WZs and FPs instead...

[Shwarzchild]

Very happy with the discipline specific loot drop instead. I'm still unhappy regarding the non legacy approach. I believe the crates should be legacy bound at the least. Having this not be available across the legacy is something that hinders flexibility, and experiencing different classes. Currently, because of the token to vendor system, I have many classes that are geared because no matter the character I play the most on, I can grab any set bonus piece I may be after which is a serious strength of the current system.

 

As an example: I may play my sawbones scoundrel the most which means its the most geared. It sounds as if I can send the gear from that scoundrel to a second scoundrel. But, what if when I use that scoundrel for a group, but we want to run again, or another group forms. I can not switch to say a Sage and carry forward with the same content thus limiting flexibility. The loss of flexibility in a raid setting is an unwelcome side effect in my opinion.

 

 

Also for clarification: Let's say I have a level 50 sawbones scoundrel that I've geared in hard mode + gear, can I legacy that gear over to another sawbones scoundrel/ medicine operative with only a command rank of 5?

Edited October 20, 2016 by Shwarzchild

[Biermacht]

Hating the idea of rng gearing. DVL and alliance supply crates have been an absolute frustration and that's just cosmetic stuff. Can't imagine the frustration trying to complete an endgame armor set.

 

Discipline gear is a good start. They're going to roll with this, but hopefully they further tweak it. Like to see bonus set armoring compatible with other pieces. So you pull a wrist armor, you can put it in a belt. Pull a head armoring you can put it in a hand, chest, legs or feet. Hilts and barrels interchangeable mainhand to offhand.

 

For relics, earpieces and implants I'd like to see tokens so you can get the one you want from a special vendor.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Biermacht

[Eriamea]

RNG is bad enough as it is based on pure luck but why just drop gear based on class? What about classes that can have two roles? Why not a simple piece of unassembled gear; at least we could use it for the class we want and it would allow for more flexibility with the roles.

 

For organized/ hm/nim raid groups what you are proposing seems to be a mess as everyone will have to re-gear mains and alts (alts are very practical to help out other groups, switch roles on the spot if something needs adjusting or run thing more than once) to continue doing the same ops they are currently doing...those 5 levels are serving no purpose.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Eriamea

[Poshible]

I watched the live feed and well one thing they said that current gearing was hard so they wanted to make it simplier to gear up. But imo it's not so hard to gear up and not really a need to change it. For me it feels they could used the time it took them to develope this new system to come with new Ops, WZs and FPs instead...

 

Pretty much, it was never hard. I have brought in several new people and each of them has understood how to gear and or ask for help when optimizing for stats.

It is a time sink for players, this will naturally take longer to gear up than being able to jump into a SM OP/or "Crystals"

[RainenFyre]

I am a day one subscriber and have been a subscriber since I started playing. I have a few questions I would like Eric to answer please.

 

1. What is the plan for the RNG on crates, are they class specific or role specific? And will you get a full level for dismantling the piece if it doesn't suit your play style with that character?

Example: Vanguard can either be tank or dps. I only play a tank on my vanguard. If the crate drops an earpiece that has dps stats. I dismantle the earpiece to add more CXP to my character. If I only get say half a level for the piece I turned in, I am going to be pissed as a customer. If I get a whole level for the piece, I see a potential exploit to level to 70 quickly. You need to reconsider making it role specific or remove the RNG crate aspect. If you remove the crate and allow people to pick a specific item, you can then remove the dismantle option all together.

 

2. Have you considered doing the gear like you did for the DVL crates where your whole legacy has access to the BoE gear window?

I had 22 level 65's at the start of DvL and ended up adding an another 8 for a grand total of 30 characters. I like playing my alts, but this expansion seems to be forcing the community to play on single characters. With the option above I can take gear that does not suit the character I got it on and use it on one of my 30 alts on that server. Say I got a dps relic on my tank, I can leave it in the window and pull it out on my sentinel. This helps gear up my alts and it remains BoE instead of BoL.

 

3. What is the plan for crafters? How will a sage artificer be able to craft tank relics if they only have access to dps and healing relics? Same applies for earpieces and implants. Your outlined plan would force a person to have two different artificers one for tank and one for heals/dps to be able to craft the correct relics. Which doesn't align with the direction this Xpac is going to force players to limit their raiding characters.

 

I hope that the good folks at Bioware are really diving deep into this proposed gearing/loot system. It has the potential to make or break this game. I have seen what the gear packs from the heroics produce, and if these CXP crates function in any way, shape or form as those horrible RNG crates, it will destroy your client base. 500 crates later and I might get the earpiece I need...

 

Taking a persons ability to choose away is never a good solution to anything!

[Caulderone]

Question regarding the Command Crates...

 

Is the level/tier of the items from the crate based on your command level at time of acquiring it? Or, is it based off of your command level when you open it?

 

Example: You get 1 crate per level. You save the first 29, and only open them after you hit command level 30 (which gives you your 30th crate). Thus, you are opening 30 packs at command level 30.

 

Are all the rewards tiered for command level 30 at this point?

[Shwarzchild]

I am a day one subscriber and have been a subscriber since I started playing. I have a few questions I would like Eric to answer please.

 

1. What is the plan for the RNG on crates, are they class specific or role specific? And will you get a full level for dismantling the piece if it doesn't suit your play style with that character?

Example: Vanguard can either be tank or dps. I only play a tank on my vanguard. If the crate drops an earpiece that has dps stats. I dismantle the earpiece to add more CXP to my character. If I only get say half a level for the piece I turned in, I am going to be pissed as a customer. If I get a whole level for the piece, I see a potential exploit to level to 70 quickly. You need to reconsider making it role specific or remove the RNG crate aspect. If you remove the crate and allow people to pick a specific item, you can then remove the dismantle option all together.

 

2. Have you considered doing the gear like you did for the DVL crates where your whole legacy has access to the BoE gear window?

I had 22 level 65's at the start of DvL and ended up adding an another 8 for a grand total of 30 characters. I like playing my alts, but this expansion seems to be forcing the community to play on single characters. With the option above I can take gear that does not suit the character I got it on and use it on one of my 30 alts on that server. Say I got a dps relic on my tank, I can leave it in the window and pull it out on my sentinel. This helps gear up my alts and it remains BoE instead of BoL.

 

3. What is the plan for crafters? How will a sage artificer be able to craft tank relics if they only have access to dps and healing relics? Same applies for earpieces and implants. Your outlined plan would force a person to have two different artificers one for tank and one for heals/dps to be able to craft the correct relics. Which doesn't align with the direction this Xpac is going to force players to limit their raiding characters.

 

I hope that the good folks at Bioware are really diving deep into this proposed gearing/loot system. It has the potential to make or break this game. I have seen what the gear packs from the heroics produce, and if these CXP crates function in any way, shape or form as those horrible RNG crates, it will destroy your client base. 500 crates later and I might get the earpiece I need...

 

Taking a persons ability to choose away is never a good solution to anything!

 

To help answer:

 

1) The crates drop loot that is DISCIPLINE specific. So if you're vanguard is in shield specialist spec you'll get tanking gear only.

 

2) As of now, everything is character specific. The crates are not legacy bound. (This is a change I'd like to see though for sure)

 

3) Crafters can craft highest levels of gear, albeit without set bonuses, but I don't think we've gotten information about how we'll gain materials or schematics.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Shwarzchild

[thewitchdoctor]

... but I don't think we've gotten information about how we'll gain materials or schematics.

 

Apparently schematics are also a drop from GC crates.

 

It'll be a hoot if your Cybertech gets Artificer schematics (if they are BoP).

[Abarack]

I agree with many folks that RNG gearing needs to be removed. No one wants to spend 4-6 hours and get 3 belts for the Mercenary Heal set. Okay, so we can destroy the gear to maybe be able to level again. Let us say that 3 belts will give us enough XP to level and get another random box to get, another belt.

 

So, two options:

1) Remove random gear altogether and give us some sort of "Galactic Coin" instead. Let us spend those Galactic Coins to buy gear.

 

2) Or compromise and keep some RNG but give us an out. When we "destroy" the gear, have it give us a component. Let us spend 2-3 components to purchase whatever piece we want. Thus, the 3 belts don't just result in just another belt.

 

My preference would still be #1 because what I think is still missing from the Developers side is how some players enjoy the game. We enjoy it because we play it on different classes like Mercenary, Sorcerer, and Juggernaut. Do I have the time to invest 10 hours / week / character? No. Do I want to spend 2-3 months / character to get them end game gear? No.

 

Yes, I have been playing since back in the 1.0 days and gearing up back then was SLOOWWW because the raid bosses were tough and you maybe only killed a couple per week. Do I think gearing has swung in the exact opposite direction with 4.0 and is being handed out like Candy. Yes! Do we need a balance in how fast? Yes, but don't swing it back to taking 3 months/character. Why am I saying 3 months? Because it sounds like each character is going to need to hit level 70+ in Galactic Command before they get the top tier gear. If I can get a level / hour, that is 70 hours / character just to have them each qualify to top tier gear. Assume I play 10 hours / week, that's 7 weeks

 

How can you fix that? Make the Galactic Command be Legacy wide. Let me farm up my "tier" on any character. After that, the boxes will come on whatever character I am playing.

 

2 Changes that I think will really make the system work for the players.