could we please get a straight answer?

[omaan]

In this interview I think:

 

"Cross server never happening, data center upgrades (1 of 3 upgraded) will enable server merges in the future, technical limitations relating to guilds, ships, and banks. If happening, likely to a new server with a new name."

 

So they just destroyed player"s hope saying there wont be any cross-server queues by just stating that they will "be able" to merge servers without even stating that they actually will merge servers? Thats why this game has no future.... cross-server queues is mandatory, and they just throw it away.

[Lundorff]

So they just destroyed player"s hope saying there wont be any cross-server queues by just stating that they will "be able" to merge servers without even stating that they actually will merge servers? Thats why this game has no future.... cross-server queues is mandatory, and they just throw it away.

 

I suspect they are going to remove all the servers and basically start over at some point. They will probably create 2 for the US and 2-3 for Europe (based on language) and completely start over. But that is merely speculation on my part. Cross server queues are only relevant if many people are playing on multiple server, and I think these "mega server" might be their future solution.

[Transcendent]

Putting Bolster back to 250 is the fastest, simplest, cheapest and IMO the best solution as it will be set like it was pre 5.x, which was higher than the ranked gear.

Ranked gear still gave you better stats than regs too.. so people with BiS would still have the best gear and stats, but it would be a smaller gap

 

Wouldn't 244 Bolster make more sense? Essentially that still leaves the smaller gap of 4 (as in previous cycles) and gives players something to work towards (248 gear). It'll mean you can go into warzones not being at a major disadvantage and still get some enjoyment out of them while working towards better gear (of which I think the costs are still too high compared to how it was prior to 5.0 for PvP gearing).

[GrandLordMenace]

Are there any plans to either:

 

1) Raise bolster in warzones to 248 or beyond.

2) Or to reintroduce PVP gear and expertise.

 

These are the only viable options I can think of. Increasing the rate of UCs in warzones is not really an option: too small an increase and it would not solve gear disparity for PVP, and too large an increase and it would rival Operations as a means to get gear.

 

Are these options currently being considered? And if the answer is a solid no, then please just say so.

 

And I can only urge you to re-read your own past reflections on gearing for PVP.

 

To be brutally honest, I hated expertise. I hated having two sets of gear that I needed to lug around in order to do OW pvp, I hated all of it. I do like that expertise is gone, as I enjoy PvP and PvE and swapping between them constantly was highly irritating.

 

However, having such a long gear grind in PvP is ludicrous right now, it's PvP. Several other major MMOs do not factor gear into PvP, you pick a few gear presets and/or stat allocations. I'm pretty sure pvp gear doesn't exist in WoW, or at least doesn't affect your stats more than 1% in an actual battleground. Guild Wars 2 lets you choose runes and stat allocations, and has separate PvP balanced versions of all the classes, but you can work towards getting your PvE gear with different reward tracks, and get special skins. Same with Blade and Soul. Not sure about Final Fantasy.

 

Just remove gear entirely from PvP, or make the bolster bolster to the highest available gear tier. It can still reward gear, but the "gear grind" becomes a nonissue. Give cosmetic rewards and extra gear to PvPers, special titles (cheap!) and decorations, whathaveyou. If the golden era of PvP was where people geared out near instantly, why even have gear at all? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if gear was essentially meaningless for PvP? Ranked would be way better, no idiots who run it without augments or in 230s against people in 248s.

Edited June 25, 2017 by GrandLordMenace

[Lundorff]

Wouldn't 244 Bolster make more sense? Essentially that still leaves the smaller gap of 4 (as in previous cycles) and gives players something to work towards (248 gear).

 

I think it comes down to individual taste. I certainly like the idea of working towards a goal, but not at the expense of balance. By 244 bolster I suspect you mean 242, and it would still be too wide a gap to 248 in ranked.

 

Just remove gear entirely from PvP, or make the bolster bolster to the highest available gear tier. It can still reward gear, but the "gear grind" becomes a nonissue. Give cosmetic rewards and extra gear to PvPers, special titles (cheap!) and decorations, whathaveyou. If the golden era of PvP was where people geared out near instantly, why even have gear at all? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if gear was essentially meaningless for PvP? Ranked would be way better, no idiots who run it without augments or in 230s against people in 248s.

 

This is what I have been advocating for years, literally. They could easily create mirror stats for each advance class and be completely done with old bolster and gear. It would do away with gear disparity once and for all.

[Yezzan]

I do not want them to go back to expertise and PvP-ers should stop asking for that. It will make your lives worst. People will join your PvP games in PvE gear, like before, and kill the fun in PvP. The gearing system is better than it was before. Yes, it's grind-y, but we cannot honestly say that any old "scrub" could get BiS top-tier, pre-5.0.

 

I, fully, understand that PvP-ers got the short-end of the stick, where gearing is concerned, and that a suitable remedy needs to be found. However, you must remember that PvP-ers could never get top-tier, BiS gear before, unless they did Operations.

 

That being said, I think bolster is where it's at, as well as, PvP crates. Now, this is my recommendation:

 

1. Bolster to 242

 

2. PvP crates should drop gear tokens for 234 artifact and 236 legendary ( delete the schematics). They could be universal tokens that can be traded for any piece of gear, to remove RNG.

 

3. Bolster looses its effectiveness on gear above rating 242 ( similar to how it was not as effective on gear that did not have expertise pre-5-0).

 

If they increase the UC values in PvP then that would make doing NiM ops obsolete, and OPs should remain the most sure-fire way to gear up.

[Lundorff]

I do not want them to go back to expertise and PvP-ers should stop asking for that. It will make your lives worst. People will join your PvP games in PvE gear, like before, and kill the fun in PvP. The gearing system is better than it was before. Yes, it's grind-y, but we cannot honestly say that any old "scrub" could get BiS top-tier, pre-5.0.

 

No I will not stop asking for that. The gearing system with expertise was not the problem, but rather a badly implemented bolster system and a general lack of interest from PVE'er to take 2 minutes and learn how to gear correctly. And yes I will absolutely say that anyone could at the very least get 204 gear in the old system. It cost about 4000 WZ comms and you got about 120 comms for each warzone which amounted to about 30-35 warzone. Anyone not willing to spend that amount of time in warzones should either read up on bolster or stay clear in the first place.

 

 

I, fully, understand that PvP-ers got the short-end of the stick, where gearing is concerned, and that a suitable remedy needs to be found. However, you must remember that PvP-ers could never get top-tier, BiS gear before, unless they did Operations.

 

Nor do we care about BiS PVE gear.

 

 

1. Bolster to 242

 

2. PvP crates should drop gear tokens for 234 artifact and 236 legendary ( delete the schematics). They could be universal tokens that can be traded for any piece of gear, to remove RNG.

 

3. Bolster looses its effectiveness on gear above rating 242 ( similar to how it was not as effective on gear that did not have expertise pre-5-0).

 

I would prefer bolster to 248 or more and be done with it - especially for ranked. Yes it would largely nullify the gear grind for PVP, but there really shouldn't be one to begin with. It's a relic, a misunderstanding from past MMO concepts.

 

 

If they increase the UC values in PvP then that would make doing NiM ops obsolete, and OPs should remain the most sure-fire way to gear up.

 

As I said to begin with, yes they can not really increase the UCs rate.

[Eshvara]

. I, fully, understand that PvP-ers got the short-end of the stick, where gearing is concerned, and that a suitable remedy needs to be found. However, you must remember that PvP-ers could never get top-tier, BiS gear before, unless they did Operations.

 

I don't want BiS PvE gear, I want PvP gear. What's the point of having gear for a certain type of content you'll never do? I'll never do ops or NiM ops, I barely do FP's I just want to PvP! Now I'm basically forced to grind PvE for my PvP gear unless I want to accept to do it as slow as possible and just do warzones.

[Transcendent]

I think it comes down to individual taste. I certainly like the idea of working towards a goal, but not at the expense of balance. By 244 bolster I suspect you mean 242, and it would still be too wide a gap to 248 in ranked.

 

No, I meant 244 bolster, it shouldn't be hard for BioWare to adjust bolster to reflect values equivalent to that, it means a very small gap between 244 bolster to 248 gear that doesn't cause major imbalances, as we saw between 204 and 208 gear during 4.0 players still remain competitive as long as they know how to play their respective class. It doesn't detract from allowing players to improve their gear by obtaining 248 gear (if dedicated) and promotes participation in PvP by doing so (otherwise some players might not find any kind of draw into PvP due to lack of rewards or new content).

 

And it really should be said, ranked should require a player to have 248 gear (much like it should have required 2018 expertise pre 5.0) or bolster should be 248 (plus augments) in ranked.

 

These are instanced areas, so it really shouldn't be causing problems for BioWare to implement something like this.

[omaan]

I suspect they are going to remove all the servers and basically start over at some point. They will probably create 2 for the US and 2-3 for Europe (based on language) and completely start over. But that is merely speculation on my part. Cross server queues are only relevant if many people are playing on multiple server, and I think these "mega server" might be their future solution.

 

Yeah but the problem is that we can only predict lol. Players desperately need it now, and needed long time ago yet bioware pretends to create "discussion" threads where most part lf the players says " YES, we need server merges" except for those who are playing on rp servers, and still ignores these demands. Iam tired to see same players in warzones, even on tre you can fight same players 2-3 times. And nerfed bolster + slow pvp gearing progression... this hame has serious problems in conjunction

[omaan]

I don't want BiS PvE gear, I want PvP gear. What's the point of having gear for a certain type of content you'll never do? I'll never do ops or NiM ops, I barely do FP's I just want to PvP! Now I'm basically forced to grind PvE for my PvP gear unless I want to accept to do it as slow as possible and just do warzones.

 

Yeah, we didnt need to get pve bis gear, we just needed pvp bis gear, which we could obtain pretty fast to become competitive. Now, it is a joke since farming UC takes year lol

[Lundorff]

No, I meant 244 bolster, it shouldn't be hard for BioWare to adjust bolster to reflect values equivalent to that, it means a very small gap between 244 bolster to 248 gear that doesn't cause major imbalances, as we saw between 204 and 208 gear during 4.0 players still remain competitive as long as they know how to play their respective class. It doesn't detract from allowing players to improve their gear by obtaining 248 gear (if dedicated) and promotes participation in PvP by doing so (otherwise some players might not find any kind of draw into PvP due to lack of rewards or new content).

 

And it really should be said, ranked should require a player to have 248 gear (much like it should have required 2018 expertise pre 5.0) or bolster should be 248 (plus augments) in ranked.

 

These are instanced areas, so it really shouldn't be causing problems for BioWare to implement something like this.

 

For ranked it is still too large a difference. I don't want to spend 3-6 months gathering UCs just to be on the same level as a level 248 player. It only worked for 204/208 because the difference in time was something like 2 weeks of casual play.

[Toraak]

Just gonna put this here, cause it needs saying again.

 

Unless youre a dedicated nightmare ops junkie with a team that can clear them efficiently, IE an hour or so, on the regular, without fail, youre wasting your time gearing through OPS. (10 hours of failing to clear bosses vs gaining 300+ comps in the same amount of time + the RNG boxes is a no brainer)

 

There are only about 10 or so guilds on harb that seem to be able to do this, and there are very limited slots on their teams, most are full up, and youll struggle with frustration trying to teach a new team how to run the mechanics, its absolutely abysmal how few options one has down this path.

 

PvP on the other hand is a steady guaranteed source of gear, albeit requiring you to participate in PvP, and probably do well if you want to be efficient, but at this juncture of the game, warzones and starfighter are the ONLY way to gear efficiently for most of the game population.

 

Only the elite raiders will find gearing "easy" through OPS, those of us that do OPs casual or non-hardcore get left out.

 

I do not believe the current gearing system for PvP is bad, I have several characters fully geared (one is tier 4, two are tier 3, and several others tier 2), and thats only playing a few hours during the week with some grind sessions on the weekends. (hammer runs and the like for boxes, pvp for comps)

 

The RNG sucks, but filling in the gaps with the comps system is pretty good if you actually work at it and dont try to just do one or the other.

 

 

This is complete and utter nonsense. Getting a group of 8 people to clear EV/KP HM in a couple of hours doesn't require a NiM group. then upgrade those 242's to 248's like 90% of the PvE population does, through PvP. There is very little difference from a 242 geared player in PvP, and a 248 geared player (unless your trying ranked perhaps).

Edited June 25, 2017 by Toraak

[Toraak]

No I will not stop asking for that. The gearing system with expertise was not the problem, but rather a badly implemented bolster system and a general lack of interest from PVE'er to take 2 minutes and learn how to gear correctly. And yes I will absolutely say that anyone could at the very least get 204 gear in the old system. It cost about 4000 WZ comms and you got about 120 comms for each warzone which amounted to about 30-35 warzone. Anyone not willing to spend that amount of time in warzones should either read up on bolster or stay clear in the first place.

 

 

 

 

Nor do we care about BiS PVE gear.

 

 

 

 

I would prefer bolster to 248 or more and be done with it - especially for ranked. Yes it would largely nullify the gear grind for PVP, but there really shouldn't be one to begin with. It's a relic, a misunderstanding from past MMO concepts.

 

 

 

 

As I said to begin with, yes they can not really increase the UCs rate.

 

Do you really believe that if they reintroduced expertise you'd would have all those PvE players who are farming unassembled components to upgrade 242's-248's, (which is the easiest way to get BiS for PvE players that do not have NiM groups)? Remember 248 drops only on the last boss of NiM raids. Most PvE players would come out in PvE gear, and with so many farming UC's to do that, that'll be more players in PvE gear during warzones then ever before. Personally I think that would be a terrible idea to put back expertise for PvP gearing.

[HuaRya]

I do not want them to go back to expertise and PvP-ers should stop asking for that. It will make your lives worst. People will join your PvP games in PvE gear, like before, and kill the fun in PvP. The gearing system is better than it was before.

 

1000% this ^

 

I guess a lot of the other people in this thread haven't PVP'd 2012-2016 because the number 1 complaint was pve geared players in warzones. Happened every day on a daily basis.

 

FYI anyone can grind it 246-248's now. Before the average player either had to grind two separate sets of gear. And how many times someone forgot to switch out their gear. "oh my bad, we wiped because I was in my pvp gear from earlier"............

[Lundorff]

Do you really believe that if they reintroduced expertise you'd would have all those PvE players who are farming unassembled components to upgrade 242's-248's, (which is the easiest way to get BiS for PvE players that do not have NiM groups)? Remember 248 drops only on the last boss of NiM raids. Most PvE players would come out in PvE gear, and with so many farming UC's to do that, that'll be more players in PvE gear during warzones then ever before. Personally I think that would be a terrible idea to put back expertise for PvP gearing.

 

Yes it is a problem, but if it could probably be mitigated if they added UCs to various types of PVE content and removed them from warzones.

[Lundorff]

1000% this ^

 

I guess a lot of the other people in this thread haven't PVP'd 2012-2016 because the number 1 complaint was pve geared players in warzones. Happened every day on a daily basis.

 

FYI anyone can grind it 246-248's now. Before the average player either had to grind two separate sets of gear. And how many times someone forgot to switch out their gear. "oh my bad, we wiped because I was in my pvp gear from earlier"............

 

Yes it caused problems before because PVE-players didn't care to spend 2 minutes to educate themselves on the bolster rules, and yet they expected anyone doing PVE to know all mechanics and have so and so gear etc.

 

And it wouldn't be a problem if the devs made bolster work correctly.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Lundorff

[Lundorff]

*crickets chirp*

[Lundorff]

And still no answer. I will keep bringing this back until we get some semblance of a reply, it really shouldn't be that hard.

[Icykill_]

And still no answer. I will keep bringing this back until we get some semblance of a reply, it really shouldn't be that hard.

 

Yes I too would like to know... the silence about the gear gap in pvp is worrying.

[Kiesu]

How about no. And instead, implement a gosh darned matchmaking in regs. So tired of running WZs where one team is half full of healers and the other has nada.

[micnevv]

How about no. And instead, implement a gosh darned matchmaking in regs. So tired of running WZs where one team is half full of healers and the other has nada.

 

Why not? Having "balanced" teams is irrelevant unless both sides are equally geared. You can have all the healers you want, but they aren't going to save a squishy with no gear from dying to a maxed out merc. And your DPS won't even be able to scratch their healers.

 

PVP gearing needs to be sorted out before anything else. One step at a time.

 

Oh and it's easier to fix gear than it is to create an entire back-end Qing system for PVP that automatically changes based on people playing at the time. We all know Bioware does not have the resources to create something like that.

 

That's not to say that I don't want such a system, I'm just being realistic with my expectations.

Edited June 27, 2017 by micnevv

[RagnarAugustus]

I would like expertise back as well, but if that wouldn't work out, maybe there should be another way to separate PvP from PvE players.

When I came back with my old content PvP set there was no fun to be had in warzones. I PvP'd for a while as I decided to just accept it but it became way too frustrating not standing half a chance!

 

Now I'm farming solely PvE with a friend and our two companions to get geared to use it in PvP. It's extremely mind numbing to do the same fp 3 times a day for 4-6 hours, but it works.

 

Someday I'll have all the right gear for PvP through PvE!

 

Funny because my raiding guildies are running PVP to gear better for Operations. I find it funny how the PVP community spouts off about "skill" for years and then when it's finally a level playing field after expertise is removed they cry foul because they don't have their Expertise crutch to pwn new ungeared players in warzones.

[Eshvara]

Funny because my raiding guildies are running PVP to gear better for Operations. I find it funny how the PVP community spouts off about "skill" for years and then when it's finally a level playing field after expertise is removed they cry foul because they don't have their Expertise crutch to pwn new ungeared players in warzones.

 

You seem to be confused as to why the PvP'ers are actually "crying" now.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Eshvara

[Icykill_]

Funny because my raiding guildies are running PVP to gear better for Operations. I find it funny how the PVP community spouts off about "skill" for years and then when it's finally a level playing field after expertise is removed they cry foul because they don't have their Expertise crutch to pwn new ungeared players in warzones.

 

You're confusing skill with gear. Just because you run PvE content and get better gear faster, doesn't mean that you have skill. Just because pvpers are complaining about a gear gap does not mean that you are instantly better than pvpers with lower gear. I challenge you to beat any dedicated pvpers in equal gear.

Expertise always gave everyone a lvl playing field, it's not our fault you didn't understand how it worked and always wanted to wear your top pve gear in pvp. Blame Bioware for not explaining it if you want to blame anyone.

It's not like people in the community didn't try and help pve guys. I always tried to help with advice on Bolster, expertise and how to gear. I even went so far as to write a gearing guide that was a sticky in the pvp forum section.

Most of the time I was met with open hostility and told to go F myself.

The really sad thing was you could be fully geared in pvp gear in 2 weeks. Even then pve people refused to wear it and would complain that expertise should be removed,

Also don't confuse the people currently in pvp as being full of all pvp people. Most are like your guildies who are in there farming gear for pve.