5.2 Gear Gap is Wrecking New Players

[Alssaran]

The old system of PvP commendations and alt sustainability wasn't broken. And as any IT technician in your office could tell you, there is a guiding principle in any kind of software or hardware development: Never touch a running system!

 

On a more serious note: The one time I actually had fun when PvPing in 5.0 was when bolster boosted everyone onto an equal level. When there is a small gear disparity, and skill can make up for a good percentage of that, then PvP is fun. When 248 gear simply hands you the warzone while being brain-AFK, then it's not fun.

 

And gear in PvP isn't even the issue. There was gear in 3.0 and 4.0, but the commendation system worked perfectly fine for most people. The issue is how long it takes to grind through four levels in this new GC system. I could equip four to five characters in BiS PvP gear and be ready for ranked with each of them within the amount of time it takes me to equip one character in 5.0. If components would drop more readily, the price of each tier was lower, and they were completely legacy bound like command tokens, then this wouldn't be this much of an issue.

 

I just did a quick addition of all the necessary components on the fleet. Assuming you need two relics and two implants during each tier, and always need the previous tier to progress to the next, you need ~9300 unassembled components to obtain all tier 4 BiS gear. That's a bloody lot of progression for a single character. And I'm supposed to do that all over AGAIN when I want an alt...?

 

Yes, you might get a piece or two from GC progression, but I wouldn't hold my breath. My sage is close to level 100 and has no full set by now. I receive so much green or blue gear during the lower levels and no set bonus gear during the higher levels that the entire system isn't my piece of cake.

Edited April 30, 2017 by Alssaran

[Kurj]

I am definitely not an expert on bolster, although it seemed like people in 242 were hitting much harder than those in entry level gear. If 246 would be better than 244, that's good by me. I'm not tied to a position. I just want this situation addressed before we lose more players.

[Josewales]

I have a few days left of my sub after years of loyalty to this game. I got better things to do in real now that the winter is over than grind gear again. The head fake for open PvP in 5.2 was the last straw. Cya BW!

[Soljin]

I have a few days left of my sub after years of loyalty to this game. I got better things to do in real now that the winter is over than grind gear again. The head fake for open PvP in 5.2 was the last straw. Cya BW!

 

We will be seeing a lot of this soon unless they put up something pretty solid in the "Road Map".

[Icykill_]

We will be seeing a lot of this soon unless they put up something pretty solid in the "Road Map".

 

I'm close now, the only thing that stopped me was when Keith replied to my post in another thread. If something isn't done regarding this I will be leaving too 😢

[merovejec]

I think Bleloch was joking ("difficult class like Sorc healer.")

 

Also, aren't you maining a Merc, merovejec?

 

Im playing most clases, but yes, for PVP i have a Merc and Sentinel, was also doing it on my assassin and shadow, but dont have so much time for all toons now.

[merovejec]

I will be leaving too 😢

 

o/

 

Anyway, people can buy 240s from GTN, its cheap now due to increased chanced of getting setbonus, tier 4 having blue gear setbonus, droping in every crate and increased chances of 246/248. Gear is just silly easy to get now. The only people that should be having issues are new players with GC rank 1, but even those can go farm credits or do SM ops and slowly gear.

 

Its an MMO, gearing still takes time, mainly for fresh players. But PVP/PVE veterans should be going into 5.2 with 1000 components on several toons and maybe even full 242s, with rank 300 on their mains and maybe alts.

 

Regardless of that you cant convince me of people getting litteraly wrecked in PVP due to gear! Thats just silly.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

o/

 

Anyway, people can buy 240s from GTN, its cheap now due to increased chanced of getting setbonus, tier 4 having blue gear setbonus, droping in every crate and increased chances of 246/248. Gear is just silly easy to get now. The only people that should be having issues are new players with GC rank 1, but even those can go farm credits or do SM ops and slowly gear.

 

Its an MMO, gearing still takes time, mainly for fresh players. But PVP/PVE veterans should be going into 5.2 with 1000 components on several toons and maybe even full 242s, with rank 300 on their mains and maybe alts.

 

^signed

[stoopicus]

^signed

 

Disagree. Post-300 246 drops are scarce and 248 are pathetically rare. The blues 244 gear, other than the armorings and enhancements (but definitely the lettered mods and the entire left side), actually have worse stats than 242 Iokath MK-5 gear. So just before 300, it's nice because 242 drop in like every other crate, but post-300 it's a sea of trash blues.

 

The set bonus part is nice, I did use one blue armoring to round mine out, but the rest is garbage - not really an upgrade from the 242.

 

tl;dr, 244 armorings and hilts good, the rest is disintegration trash.

Edited May 2, 2017 by stoopicus

[DavidAtkinson]

Disagree. Post-300 246 drops are scarce and 248 are pathetically rare. The blues 244 gear, other than the armorings and enhancements (but definitely the lettered mods and the entire left side), actually have worse stats than 242 Iokath MK-5 gear. So just before 300, it's nice because 242 drop in like every other crate, but post-300 it's a sea of trash blues.

 

The set bonus part is nice, I did use one blue armoring to round mine out, but the rest is garbage - not really an upgrade from the 242.

 

tl;dr, 244 armorings and hilts good, the rest is disintegration trash.

 

Love how you cry, but dont' think of the possibilities.

 

The 244 mods and enhancements or 246 are trash and good for disintegrate, but have you ever considered sending them to your new alt via legacy gear ?

Your fresh level 70 alt will have 230 armorings with 244-246 mods and enhancements. If you are rich enough u will buy 240 earpices implants and relics from the GTN or craft them which means you will have a pretty good geared fresh level 70 alt. It make s LOT of difference.

 

So consider farming 244, 246 mods and enhancements for your alts. DON"T DISINTEGRATE if you dont have to.

[merovejec]

Disagree. Post-300 246 drops are scarce and 248 are pathetically rare. The blues 244 gear, other than the armorings and enhancements (but definitely the lettered mods and the entire left side), actually have worse stats than 242 Iokath MK-5 gear. So just before 300, it's nice because 242 drop in like every other crate, but post-300 it's a sea of trash blues.

 

The set bonus part is nice, I did use one blue armoring to round mine out, but the rest is garbage - not really an upgrade from the 242.

 

tl;dr, 244 armorings and hilts good, the rest is disintegration trash.

 

Again its RNG, look at my 2 toons, im playing now. They both had 1000 components from GSF and i did some HM pugs. I didnt have cxp packs as i cant play that much during the week, but look at the gear i had after 4 days of 5.2:

 

Gear (Sentinel, Merc)

 

If a casual gamer can get that, then i dont wanna know what frequent players can get.

Edited May 2, 2017 by merovejec

[stoopicus]

Love how you cry, but dont' think of the possibilities.

 

The 244 mods and enhancements or 246 are trash and good for disintegrate, but have you ever considered sending them to your new alt via legacy gear ?

Your fresh level 70 alt will have 230 armorings with 244-246 mods and enhancements. If you are rich enough u will buy 240 earpices implants and relics from the GTN or craft them which means you will have a pretty good geared fresh level 70 alt. It make s LOT of difference.

 

So consider farming 244, 246 mods and enhancements for your alts. DON"T DISINTEGRATE if you dont have to.

 

1. I never said 246 was trash. 246 is great; the mods are unlettered and later will be craftable. Learn to read, all I said was 246 was scarce - which it is.

 

2. My alts are already swimming in grind detritus from my main. My two main alts are in a mix of 240 and 242 and are doing pretty well set bonus wise, amd the rest of my alts are in 240, and I have half a cargo bay full of shells with 240 to still pass out. So, no thank you, I don't need to think of any more "possibilities" there.

 

3. Additionally, even the 240 unlettered mods are better than the 244 lettered mods in the first place.

 

4. The 244 left side items do not have the bonus stat that the 242 do.

 

I stand by what I said; other than the armorings, hilts/barrels, and maybe half of the enhancements, the 244 is trash compared to the 242 gear and even some 240 gear. Even my alts are already in better hand-me-downs in some cases, save the armorings.

Edited May 2, 2017 by stoopicus

[Wimbleton]

It's horrible. Yes.

 

One thing tho that I need to give credit: purples are dropping like girls panties in the back of a fast car. Like every 3rd box. I have 2 alts fully suited in 246 purple mod/enh. I need crafted 246 left side tho.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

It's horrible. Yes.

 

One thing tho that I need to give credit: purples are dropping like girls panties in the back of a fast car. Like every 3rd box. I have 2 alts fully suited in 246 purple mod/enh. I need crafted 246 left side tho.

 

I just keep on getting blue relics and the occasional earpiece. Same ones over and over.

[stoopicus]

It's horrible. Yes.

 

One thing tho that I need to give credit: purples are dropping like girls panties in the back of a fast car. Like every 3rd box. I have 2 alts fully suited in 246 purple mod/enh. I need crafted 246 left side tho.

 

Dude I am so not seeing them. I only got one so far out of maybe 20 crates. But it was a mainhand, so at least I have that.

[Icykill_]

So Keith gets back to us about the road map and there is still no communication or fix for the gear gap or Bolster.

Ive posted in his thread about the road map to express my disappoint and many others.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=921404&page=20

If this issue is as concerning to you as it is to me, can I suggest you also post in his thread as he is more likely to see it there as he seems to read threads he creates.

[merovejec]

How about you people just farm gear, like everyone else??

 

Its an MMO, it should have a grind, you want to tell me that if you would get a 248 bolster you would just keep playing for years just cause every player in PVP is "on level" with gear? Where is the fun in that?

[stoopicus]

How about you people just farm gear, like everyone else??

 

Its an MMO, it should have a grind, you want to tell me that if you would get a 248 bolster you would just keep playing for years just cause every player in PVP is "on level" with gear? Where is the fun in that?

 

Um, the fun in that is that PvP is fun.

 

Your apparent addiction to the gear grind explains a lot.

[Stellarcrusade]

How about you people just farm gear, like everyone else??

 

Its an MMO, it should have a grind, you want to tell me that if you would get a 248 bolster you would just keep playing for years just cause every player in PVP is "on level" with gear? Where is the fun in that?

 

That's a fine solution, or maybe it is not. 70 pubs PvPers will I guess just have to do all NON PvP things until they have max BiS gear? Because sure as h*** not going to PvP to gain the gear, imps are too far over geared right now. So I guess your solution is PvPers should spend a year or 2 gearing doing everything except what they like to do....good solution.

[stoopicus]

That's a fine solution, or maybe it is not. 70 pubs PvPers will I guess just have to do all NON PvP things until they have max BiS gear? Because sure as h*** not going to PvP to gain the gear, imps are too far over geared right now. So I guess your solution is PvPers should spend a year or 2 gearing doing everything except what they like to do....good solution.

 

He's trolling. He's not dense enough to believe that gear grind is what should motivate PvPers.

 

Or maybe he is and it's just hard to distinguish from trolling, who knows.

[ARFett]

PvP is ****ed up totally.

 

With the bolster at 236 and the new gear 248 (12 grades higher!) it is a massive difference in heal and dps.

 

Add to that the premade factor and then you know why new people shun PvP more and more.

 

Needing to grind components or getting to 182 command rank to at least be viable?

 

Come on...

 

PvP as it is now should be called "Gear Wars".

 

With people doing alone 1k more in base attack damage or heals then buffed 236 you can add one and one how the difference wrecks with higher heal and damage abilities.

 

There was a reason that PvP gear was introduced.

 

And this total imbalance of 12 grades gear difference shows why.

 

Give us back seperate PvP gear.

 

The system now is so broken and will stay broken.

 

One gear for all does NOT fit all game aspects...

[EzioMessi]

PvP is ****ed up totally.

 

With the bolster at 236 and the new gear 248 (12 grades higher!) it is a massive difference in heal and dps.

 

Add to that the premade factor and then you know why new people shun PvP more and more.

 

Needing to grind components or getting to 182 command rank to at least be viable?

 

Come on...

 

PvP as it is now should be called "Gear Wars".

 

With people doing alone 1k more in base attack damage or heals then buffed 236 you can add one and one how the difference wrecks with higher heal and damage abilities.

 

There was a reason that PvP gear was introduced.

 

And this total imbalance of 12 grades gear difference shows why.

 

Give us back seperate PvP gear.

 

The system now is so broken and will stay broken.

 

One gear for all does NOT fit all game aspects...

 

"12 grades". You do realize "12 grades" is just 2 tiers difference right? 236 gear is tier 2, 242 (?) is tier 3, and 248 is tier 4. The gear gap isn't that large, the gear grind however is problematic, taking far too long to gear up fully. Imo gear "tier" shouldn't even be a factor for PvP, only min/maxing should be.

[Kurj]

Bolster is currently at 238, not 236. The real challenge is to get to Rank 300. Once you do, you can get to a basic level of gear parity pretty quickly, but 300 levels is a lot of grind for some playstyles. If you're an altoholic, it's a huge disincentive to play at all.

[stoopicus]

Bolster is currently at 238, not 236. The real challenge is to get to Rank 300. Once you do, you can get to a basic level of gear parity pretty quickly, but 300 levels is a lot of grind for some playstyles. If you're an altoholic, it's a huge disincentive to play at all.

 

The problem is that once at 300 the drop rates for 248 are abysmal. I have zero pieces of 248 on my main from crates. The two crate drops I have had were dupes, both belts, which I already had bought with UC.

[Kurj]

The problem is that once at 300 the drop rates for 248 are abysmal. I have zero pieces of 248 on my main from crates. The two crate drops I have had were dupes, both belts, which I already had bought with UC.

 

Yeah, 248 drop rates are terrible. I bought my MH on day 1, and I've been dreading every time I open a crate that I will get another one. Someone needs to explain to me how that is a desirable feature in a reward system.