Why is Bioware so silent on major gear issues from 5.10?

[PennyAnn]

Okay maybe I am the minority but I normally don't mix and match my mods and enhancements. When I want to increase something on my gear, I just make an augment and use them so for me (noticed I said for me ) I don't see this as a big deal.

 

You don't play tanks, I'm guessing. For tank gearing (which has been completely screwed since 4.0 launched), swapping mods and enhancements is absolutely 100% essential. For instance, there is now "defense" stat on everything: mods, enhancements, it's just EVERYWHERE. If you do not swap out some of the defense on your gear for something else (most tanks do this with mods, using the DPS variety to help them deal a little more damage and generate better threat), you will more than double the cap of usable defense stat, meaning more than half your defense stat is doing absolutely nothing for you. Slot might as well be empty. There are also many who find great value in using the "B" variety of mods on tanks because they offer better endurance, a crucial stat for tanks. Given that the tank relics in the game have absolutely no endurance stat on them, and most of the set pieces for tanks offer less endurance stat than the DPS variant of set gear, it is essential that you be able to tweak your stats by replacing mods and enhancements. Bottom line: Bioware has NO IDEA how to gear tanks and has been doing it poorly for years now. But, tanks had the ability to fix that and soldier on, right up until the point that they made this change. This change will lead even hard core tanks to quit, and the last thing this game needs is fewer tanks available. Not to mention that tank stats in PvP are still completely useless because they have not fixed the mitigation stats working in PvP even though they have long been promising to do so. Instead they screw tanks over even MORE. Believe me, it IS a big deal.

 

This impacts healer specs the least, but is still a terrible idea. Healers though are the one class type in the game that can mitigate the overabundance of crit enhancements/ear/implant/relic drops with some alacrity augments. But this is only true because if you open crates in healer spec you are only going to get crit or alacrity enhancements on your pieces. Throw even just one more stat into the mix (Accuracy) and you have a nightmare on your hands that will never allow you to reach your potential, much less the stat allocation that is required for high level end-game play.

 

For DPS players, you might be able to adjust with some augments, but not when you have too many accuracy pieces with no way to replace those accuracy enhancements with something actually useful, especially in PvP where accuracy is all but useless. Not as big a deal as tanks, perhaps... but still a very big deal indeed.

 

Worst Bioware decision in this game, perhaps ever. And that's saying a lot.

 

Do yourselves a favor, Bioware and listen to the overwhelming amount of feedback: This is bad. Change it back.

 

.

Edited December 21, 2018 by PennyAnn

[dipstik]

bioware has stupefied me with their stupidity once again... so if we want different mods and enhancements we have to get them crafted...? or use the offspec gear if its a dps/heal class? Edited December 21, 2018 by dipstik

[Aelenthir]

bioware has stupefied me with their stupidity once again... so if we want different mods and enhancements we have to get them crafted...?

Yes and no, you can craft only 258 gear and right now you need to grind for 252 gear, then you exchange the same 252 piece into 258 piece of gear and you can only swap encht and mods from boots -> boots , chest -> chest etc.

[dipstik]

Yes and no, you can craft only 258 gear and right now you need to grind for 252 gear, then you exchange the same 252 piece into 258 piece of gear and you can only swap encht and mods from boots -> boots , chest -> chest etc.

 

so crafters cant make single mods or enhancements? only entire pieces of gear which wont allow you to swap the gear piece type for mods and enhancements? so bad...

[Battouuusi]

The silence from Bioware on gear issues from 5.10 is ridiculous. There are two major issues with gear right now:

 

https://imgur.com/a/TzELWea

 

#1 - Mods and Enhancements are bound to a particular piece of gear (ie main hand, chest, etc). I understand the armoring pieces being piece bound but mods and enhancements being bound makes zero sense and doesn't allow anyone to min / max their gear.

 

#2 - The new set pieces do not mix and match with the old set pieces. Now, we basically have to farm six new pieces of gear before we can upgrade any of our armorings.

 

Whose brilliant ideas where these?

 

I don't know whose brilliant idea it was, but unless the gearing situation gets fixed soon. Bioware is going to initiate another exodus from the game and possibly be the final blow to SWOTR.

[kukumburr]

so crafters cant make single mods or enhancements? only entire pieces of gear which wont allow you to swap the gear piece type for mods and enhancements? so bad...

 

They can make individual mods and enhancements that are not bound to a slot (not sure if they become bound once you put it in a piece though). To get the schematics you have to pull one out of a 258 gear piece and RE it and you have a 60% chance to learn the schematic. And then to make a single mod/enhancement costs 1 of the NiM GotM crafting mats plus some CMTs (I think it was 5?). This is from when it was on PTS, they may have changed it since then but I doubt it.

 

This is for 258 only, I don't think you can craft 252 anything.

Edited December 21, 2018 by kukumburr

[DarthSpuds]

I don't know whose brilliant idea it was, but unless the gearing situation gets fixed soon. Bioware is going to initiate another exodus from the game and possibly be the final blow to SWOTR.

 

Well that appears to be exactly what they want.

 

All The Best

[morfius]

These are good questions, so let me try to address them.

 

1 - This is an intended change. That being said, we know there is definitely some friction from this change and so keep raising your concerns/feedback which I can pass to the team. We have made no secret of the fact that we know we are due for some big itemization changes to address a variety of issues around gearing. Please keep telling us what you would like to see in the future from gearing in SWTOR. We will continue to gather feedback and as we get into the next year, we will have active conversations with you about future gearing plans.

 

2 - This is a bug, I acknowledged it here. The reason we didn't fix it with today's patch is that addressing this issue is actually pretty substantial from our side. It will involve us not only fixing the items to work properly going forward, but we need to actually "change" the gear already in the wild to work together. That is the part that is challenging as we need to touch armorings that players are wearing without impacting the rest of their gear. We are working on a solution for this, but it is not something we could turn around in time for 5.10a.

 

Thank you all for your continued feedback. Bigger itemization changes will come and we will definitely talk through them with you when they get here (not soon™). Thanks all.

 

-eric

 

I just don't get the idea of mod able gear if you lock all the mods in their pieces, why exactly do we have mods if we cann't change their places.

For set bonus bringing ones it is clear - to not grind only one part for all slots but for the rest?

Where am I supposed to get different kind of enhancements if cannot move one from other piece .. or we are supposed to change our set stats with augments/ear/implants only?

 

One more reason to not even bother with new gear at all ... making grind too hard will not make me grind more, no it will be my excuse to grind even less.

Only thing that still keep me around is that most of new mmo got even more stupid ... console control on PC and forced soloing on phases (ouch you did that too with last FPs story mode) - how about no.

[TechTheHic]

This is Technohic on my sons account which I pay for and I check in pretty regular to read up, often times wanting to play the game again and I would like to chime in here to give my feedback as someone who is put off every time I consider coming back. I intend to be constructive as there is nothing for me to quit, and I would not threaten anything as my son still enjoys the game.

 

I left when PvP gear went away and I feel got replaced with a god awful RNG grind. At some point, I can remember some of the RNG parts got addressed and it seemed like for the better but as I read up, it just got more confusing to me. Every time I think about coming back because I have not been able to find anything that feels like sniper/gunslinger did that I love; it seems like yet something else has changed and its even more convoluted and confusing, or in this case; just plain out off putting.

 

To say SWTOR has a gearing issue is an understatement. Its not just a slight downside to the game for people to complain about. If am any indication; it turns people away who would actually like to play. To see you say "Keep giving us your feedback" is frustrating as I feel I have seen plenty point out just exactly how they feel only for any means to address it as actually being just kind of shuffling the cards to make it look improved at times when it really doesnt seem like it from the outside looking in.

 

I have watched so long; hoping for positives and I just felt I'd share. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I'll remain watching quietly

[KendraP]

And as usual, silence all day today.

 

You knew new gear was not popular.

 

You knew slot locked enhancements was not popular.

 

And yet you proceeded with it anyway, and now refuse to deal with the consequences. People are leaving, Musco, many not to return. Is this the direction you want to take the game?

[Batwer]

They are all already in the holidays and laugh about their stupid customers.

[Screaming_Ziva]

And as usual, silence all day today.

Of course. I wouldn't expect anything else and we probably won't see a single yellow post until January 7th at the earliest.

[DanNV]

I'm just gong to quote this for emphasis. The misguided (at best) decision making team for SWTOR needs to read it, over and over, until it sinks in. (Or as I have said since 4.0 dropped, they should ALL be replaced, every last one of them.)

 

Hello Eric,

 

The slot specific mods and enhancements adds insult to injury, with this new tear of gear. I understand that the team wants to somehow justify the forthcoming lack of content for what will be another 4-5 months of minimal content added to the game, but at the same time I do not understand at all why you would alienate the player base so badly.

 

Throughout 2017 and 2018, the most important issue that was addressed by the vast majority of the players, was the RNG way to acquire gear, with the Galactic Command system and the Command Crates. How is it even possible for you to go back to the RNG system to gear, with the Artifact Lockboxes, after this whole mess last year?

 

So far I have completed the Ossus Weekly 11 times across various toons:

 

- I have received 2 Accuracy implants across 2 toons, for which I have no use

- I have received a Boundless Ages relic on 1 toon, that is utterly useless

- I have received Gloves with 1 Accuracy enhancement, which is also useless

- I have received 2 Bracers with the same toon

- I cannot use Masterwork Crystals to upgrade a 252 implant or relic to a different relic of my choice (either at item 252 or 258), therefore all these pieces are wasted time and effort.

 

This means that 44% of the gear I acquired was completely and utterly useless and worthless to me.

 

Do you think that players have fun when they open an Artifact Lockbox and get something worthless? You have been told hundreds of times to eliminate the RNG factor from gearing, and yet, you go back to it.

 

Adding slot specific mods and enhancements in the mix, this is just outrageous. It means that I will have to choose perhaps even 10 Artifact Lockboxes, just to get the left side of my character optimized (IMPLANTS + RELICS + EAR), if not even more than that, because I cannot modify the other enhancements on my character.

 

This is literally a malicious move, and I am very disappointed in these changes. The fact that you did not tell players and shadow nerfed the gearing process, does not look good, and it alienates the player base. The only reason that I have not quit this game yet, is because I have a small and dedicated core of guildies that play this game, but I can predict our guild falling apart if this keeps happening. You do not have any respect for the players, and quite honestly, I am wondering if there is someone in Bioware Austin who thinks this is good marketing and good business.

 

Finally, this new gearing process makes all SM and HM ops completely worthless when it comes to gear. What is the point of trying to get 242 or 248 gear, when now a grindfest on Ossus gives you 252 gear? It removes every incentive to run ops at these difficulty levels.

 

 

If you want people to enjoy and be satisfied with gearing beyond 5.10, you should:

- remove slot specific limitations for mods and enhancements

- remove the RNG factor from lockboxes, seriously this is OUTRAGEOUS

- have vendors that can trade any Implant - Earpiece- Relic with a different kind

- add Masterwork crystals as rewards from Ops, even if it's only from HM ops.

 

Respectfully,

A customer who is baffled by 5.10, which disrespects the player base to the utmost degree.

 

My wife and I still pay for this game only because we have a small raid team we play with. But that team has a hard time making a full group more than once or twice a month. Once it finishes dying, and the current gearing changes aren't going to help it at all, we're out. I spend money on ESO. I will continue to do so. I am down to only spending the monthly sub on SWTOR. I haven't purchased cartel coins in ages and have no intention of ever doing so again. All the changes since 4.0 have done is make me spend less money and time in SWTOR. From the looks of server populations I am far from the only one.

[zhezvya]

Send them feedback with your wallets, that's the only languauge these folks understand. It has been said many times before and still worth repeating. Why bother with something that you detest? Unsub and monitor forums for the signs of real positive changes.

 

In my personal opinion the game is in the worst state ever in terms of gearing, balance and bugs.

[WhiteOsprey]

I’m going to follow DanNV and quote this for emphasis also because it’s how my entire guild feels. We are a small core group of what I guess you would call casual nim raiders. We used to take it more seriously but real life combined with an overall apathy for what the game has become has most of the guild playing far less.

 

The few of us that still play frequently have encouraged the group to log in and put a bit of effort into Ossus to help with nim gods when people get back from holidays. I was running with one of our guildies, that doesn’t have the time or desire to play as much anymore, a couple nights ago. We finish up the weekly and he picks the lower body piece. What does he get? A relic of Ephemeral Mending. You could here the disgust in his voice, which only got worse when we had to break it to him that even if he grinds the rep to upgrade to 258 he couldn’t trade it in for anything but that same relic. This is only one example of many similar instances in the first 2 weeks from a small guild

 

I’m not sure what Keith was thinking signing off on one of the stupidest gear grinds this game has ever seen, particularly in the twilight of an expansion. Didn’t they just spend the past year trying to undue the ‘rng is exciting’ nonsense that Ben Irving brought us? We all know it’s to stretch out the grind because of the lack content but this seems so shortsighted to me. This is the kind of nonsense that pushes people to the exits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Eric,

 

The slot specific mods and enhancements adds insult to injury, with this new tear of gear. I understand that the team wants to somehow justify the forthcoming lack of content for what will be another 4-5 months of minimal content added to the game, but at the same time I do not understand at all why you would alienate the player base so badly.

 

Throughout 2017 and 2018, the most important issue that was addressed by the vast majority of the players, was the RNG way to acquire gear, with the Galactic Command system and the Command Crates. How is it even possible for you to go back to the RNG system to gear, with the Artifact Lockboxes, after this whole mess last year?

 

So far I have completed the Ossus Weekly 11 times across various toons:

 

- I have received 2 Accuracy implants across 2 toons, for which I have no use

- I have received a Boundless Ages relic on 1 toon, that is utterly useless

- I have received Gloves with 1 Accuracy enhancement, which is also useless

- I have received 2 Bracers with the same toon

- I cannot use Masterwork Crystals to upgrade a 252 implant or relic to a different relic of my choice (either at item 252 or 258), therefore all these pieces are wasted time and effort.

 

This means that 44% of the gear I acquired was completely and utterly useless and worthless to me.

 

Do you think that players have fun when they open an Artifact Lockbox and get something worthless? You have been told hundreds of times to eliminate the RNG factor from gearing, and yet, you go back to it.

 

Adding slot specific mods and enhancements in the mix, this is just outrageous. It means that I will have to choose perhaps even 10 Artifact Lockboxes, just to get the left side of my character optimized (IMPLANTS + RELICS + EAR), if not even more than that, because I cannot modify the other enhancements on my character.

 

This is literally a malicious move, and I am very disappointed in these changes. The fact that you did not tell players and shadow nerfed the gearing process, does not look good, and it alienates the player base. The only reason that I have not quit this game yet, is because I have a small and dedicated core of guildies that play this game, but I can predict our guild falling apart if this keeps happening. You do not have any respect for the players, and quite honestly, I am wondering if there is someone in Bioware Austin who thinks this is good marketing and good business.

 

Finally, this new gearing process makes all SM and HM ops completely worthless when it comes to gear. What is the point of trying to get 242 or 248 gear, when now a grindfest on Ossus gives you 252 gear? It removes every incentive to run ops at these difficulty levels.

 

 

If you want people to enjoy and be satisfied with gearing beyond 5.10, you should:

- remove slot specific limitations for mods and enhancements

- remove the RNG factor from lockboxes, seriously this is OUTRAGEOUS

- have vendors that can trade any Implant - Earpiece- Relic with a different kind

- add Masterwork crystals as rewards from Ops, even if it's only from HM ops.

 

Respectfully,

A customer who is baffled by 5.10, which disrespects the player base to the utmost degree.

Edited December 22, 2018 by WhiteOsprey

[Syal]

Please keep telling us what you would like to see in the future from gearing in SWTOR. We will continue to gather feedback and as we get into the next year, we will have active conversations with you about future gearing plans.

-eric

 

- Why just not call the current tier 5, Tier 4 bis, for those who want to do Gods from the Machine Nightmare ! as you said in previous podcast, it was intended for this purpose ! I don't understand than why you force base player to upgrade a stuff where 90% of players will never go in this operation and less more in nightmare mode.

 

- Next real tier 5 (in 6.0) should be like tier 4 system. We can regret the 4.0 gearing system, but the 5.0 gearing system have been improved since and is working very well, pleasing all type of player game type. No need to break something working well for a new 6.0 gear system.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Syal

[Khaleg]

I think a totally new gear system, especially this f.. up one, for 5.10/Ossus is as stupid as it gets, including the uselessness of tier 4 shells for upgrading and the slot binding. I wonder if the former producer responsible for the unthought through 4.0 disaster and grind somehow came out of his "grave" and came up with this stupid idea. It would fit... Edited December 22, 2018 by Khaleg

[Khaleg]

I just don't get the idea of mod able gear if you lock all the mods in their pieces, why exactly do we have mods if we cann't change their places.

For set bonus bringing ones it is clear - to not grind only one part for all slots but for the rest?

Where am I supposed to get different kind of enhancements if cannot move one from other piece .. or we are supposed to change our set stats with augments/ear/implants only?

 

One more reason to not even bother with new gear at all ... making grind too hard will not make me grind more, no it will be my excuse to grind even less.

Only thing that still keep me around is that most of new mmo got even more stupid ... console control on PC and forced soloing on phases (ouch you did that too with last FPs story mode) - how about no.

 

Exactly

[olagatonjedi]

These are good questions, so let me try to address them.

 

1 - This is an intended change. That being said, we know there is definitely some friction from this change and so keep raising your concerns/feedback which I can pass to the team. We have made no secret of the fact that we know we are due for some big itemization changes to address a variety of issues around gearing. Please keep telling us what you would like to see in the future from gearing in SWTOR. We will continue to gather feedback and as we get into the next year, we will have active conversations with you about future gearing plans.

 

2 - This is a bug, I acknowledged it here. The reason we didn't fix it with today's patch is that addressing this issue is actually pretty substantial from our side. It will involve us not only fixing the items to work properly going forward, but we need to actually "change" the gear already in the wild to work together. That is the part that is challenging as we need to touch armorings that players are wearing without impacting the rest of their gear. We are working on a solution for this, but it is not something we could turn around in time for 5.10a.

 

Thank you all for your continued feedback. Bigger itemization changes will come and we will definitely talk through them with you when they get here (not soon™). Thanks all.

 

-eric

Thanks Eric! The changes definitely add a new challenging element to the game, but the ability to optimize is still there.

Some people, as usual, and unadaptable and overexaggerate.

[Opiklo]

Thanks Eric! The changes definitely add a new challenging element to the game, but the ability to optimize is still there.

Some people, as usual, and unadaptable and overexaggerate.

 

if challenging means grinding repetetive 1 hit **** mobs in a daily area you are right... if challenging means challenging not to lose motivation to do the same daily area **** everytime you log in then yes it is indeed challenging.

if challenging means rng you are right....

 

there is nothing really challenging in this sytem.. not at all..

Edited December 22, 2018 by Opiklo

[olagatonjedi]

if challenging means grinding repetetive 1 hit **** mobs in a daily area you are right... if challenging means challenging not to lose motivation to do the same daily area **** everytime you log in then yes it is indeed challenging.

if challenging means rng you are right....

 

there is nothing really challenging in this sytem.. not at all.. if its a challenge for you it just tells bout your skill level

If thats how you interpret it, that is your discretion.

[addyusaf]

These are good questions, so let me try to address them.

 

1 - This is an intended change. That being said, we know there is definitely some friction from this change and so keep raising your concerns/feedback which I can pass to the team. We have made no secret of the fact that we know we are due for some big itemization changes to address a variety of issues around gearing. Please keep telling us what you would like to see in the future from gearing in SWTOR. We will continue to gather feedback and as we get into the next year, we will have active conversations with you about future gearing plans.

 

-eric

 

If you're listening, and if our voices matter, then I would like to add mine to those that say...this intended change should be intentionally reverted!

[DarthFixxxer]

Thanks Eric! The changes definitely add a new challenging element to the game, but the ability to optimize is still there.

Some people, as usual, and unadaptable and overexaggerate.

 

You obviously do not know how to optimize your character for maximum DPS or heals or best tanking. Because with these limitations, this is almost impossible to do for months to go.

 

There is nothing challenging or fun about having to discard more than 50% of the gear you get via RNG crates, especially when you can only get one piece of gear every week.

Edited December 22, 2018 by DarthFixxxer

[Dweessies]

Thanks Eric! The changes definitely add a new challenging element to the game, but the ability to optimize is still there.

Some people, as usual, and unadaptable and overexaggerate.

I do not think that word (challenging for those as slow as this poster) means what you think it means. The only challenge is staying stupid enough to keep feeding a dev team this dedicated to killing their own game.

[Dbohrius]

I'll not lie, Eric: finding out I can only upgrade a clicky 252 Relic into the same 258 clicky Relic and an accuracy piece into the same accuracy piece was... unpleasant. To say the least.

 

I think I'll stick to upgrading my 236s into 248s, thank you very much.