Acquisition Changes: Next PTS Patch

[phalczen]

Eric, another suggestion which might ease the concerns surrounding RNG. Corellia will have specific drops, why not have each flashpoint have a specific drop as well? Or at the very least a higher chance of X drop. Like for example maybe Hammer Station drops X set bonus or Y Tactical item.

 

As for the raids, why not have specific, or higher chance for raid drops in other raids as well? With each boss dropping a piece? Adding those might ease the concern of the playerbase. Only reason I can think of is that you guys want endgamers to mostly gear through Dxun or that you guys really want the "play your way" philosophy into the game's design so people can get any gear from anywhere

 

I think you've answered your own questions. I can only imagine the threads complaining about how they have to run Flashpoint X to get tactical A over and over again. Or, people dropping from PUGs because they cleared boss #2 or 3 and didn't get the drop they wanted, especially if story modes have no lockout or even the 24 hour lockout like they have on PTS currently. As it stands right now, while I am glad I have incentives to run all forms of content, you know there will be threads complaining about why someone needs to run a warzone at all simply because they are interested in set bonus X or tactical A.

 

My one suggestion based on the original post is regarding the focused gearing with conquests and flashpoints. Since conquests will only drop two items per character a week, the loot table seems to have a lot of sets. I'm not sure conquest rewards are a good fit for multiple sets since it's going to take a lot of weeks to complete a set with conquests.

 

Now this is a criticism that has a lot of merit. Now, I didn't write down all the set bonus names that were on PTS phase 1.5 so I have no specific recollection of what the set boni are simply from the names Musco posted that were bonus drops from Conquest. But consider:

• You only have one opportunity to earn this per week per character
  
• Yes, you can do conquest on multiple characters, but ...
  
• Conquest personal goals are doubling with nerfs to other points gained AND lots of high point value objectives being once per legacy
  

These limitations scream out the need for RNG protection with these set boni.

[DarthSealth]

[*]Takatta will now sell mods by type.

• Reminder that anything you purchase from Takatta will always be for your current Discipline and of a higher rating than your character's current average.
  

 

Hey Eric, what if I don't want Discipline specific or Higher rating mods? I thought it was play our way and currently I feel restricted. Stop faffing around and just give us what we want, also just change drops to currency so we can buy what we want.

[Raansu]

Thank you, Eric. Although you and the developers might be tempted to believe that there is a massive backlash against the gearing process, please note that there are also people here who feel this is (a) perfectly reasonable and (b) fairly obvious already. I certainly don't think the sky is falling and that it's fairly obvious we're going to be getting so much gear as to make it kind of ridiculous... at least that's the intent. And I still have to wonder why getting max gear as rapidly as possible is so important to people, but that's just me.

 

You'd be in the minority on that one.

 

Also, its not the speed most have an issue with. Its the method of the system. This is even more complex than what we had in 4.x which BW seemed to think was too complicated for most even though it was extremely straight forward. Players lost a system that made sense to them with guaranteed drops from each final boss and knowing that their running of said content was worth the time compared to what we're seeing now with rng and a "chance" at a direct drop.

 

If people thought the 5.x exodus was bad......good luck with 6.x.

[Rolodome]

You bring up some good points and questions I want to try to address.

 

Overcomplicated - I realize that these really long posts about spoils of war make it seem really complex. Most of this is born out of the fact that we are just being very open about all of the workings under the hood, which we don't typically do. To address your feedback directly think of it this way:

Play whatever content you want, you will get constant gear for whatever you are playing. If you don't get the thing you want, go to the vendor and buy it.

It is just that simple. If you want to really get into the inner workings, then the info is there for you!

 

Learning from adding 248+ - Let me clarify. When I say adding new gear we are not talking about vertical (higher item ratings). I am talking about horizontal (more set bonuses / tactical options).

 

-eric

I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt on this one that you're trying to be communicative and understanding.

 

But... this ain't it, chief. KendraP gives you feedback that the system is overcomplicated. You tell them it's mostly due to posts going under the hood, thereby demonstrating that you have no intention of taking their feedback seriously and that they are generally wrong. Then you give them an expansion tagline.

 

Play whatever content you want, you will get constant gear for whatever you are playing. If you don't get the thing you want, go to the vendor and buy it.

Imagine if you said, "Programming seems pretty complicated."

 

And I said, "Yeah, I can see how you'd think that when you go to learn, but it's really just like this: Type up some code in a compiler, hit build, and viola, you're a programmer. If your program doesn't run, just debug it."

 

To me, your response here communicates that you pass along feedback based on assumptions about what people mean/desire and don't actually listen to what they are saying. It's not a good look, g. You take in feedback on assumptions, you're just going to be wrongo, wrongo, wrongo, time after time.

 

You gotta hear people, man. This feedback isn't being sent to you in a bottle, from across the ocean. You can ask people questions. Like, "What about the system do you feel is overly complicated?" They tell you, maybe it turns out there's nothing under that rock, but you might find something important under there too. If you just say, "Nope, I know what's under that rock, I am magic," you aren't gonna get anywhere.

[Darev]

Eric,

 

A couple questions right off the bat here.

 

If I don't get the drop I want you're saying we can go to a vendor and buy it.

If I want a chest piece is what I see 100% what I get?

The set bonus?

The armoring rating

The mod rating

The enhancement rating

 

Are they all the same (IE - item rating 300)

 

OR

 

by "buy what you want" do you mean get the chest with the specific set bonus but the rest of the above will still be RNG

 

OR

 

Will it be an empty shell?

[Darev]

You bring up some good points and questions I want to try to address.

 

Overcomplicated - I realize that these really long posts about spoils of war make it seem really complex. Most of this is born out of the fact that we are just being very open about all of the workings under the hood, which we don't typically do. To address your feedback directly think of it this way:

Play whatever content you want, you will get constant gear for whatever you are playing. If you don't get the thing you want, go to the vendor and buy it.

It is just that simple. If you want to really get into the inner workings, then the info is there for you!

 

Learning from adding 248+ - Let me clarify. When I say adding new gear we are not talking about vertical (higher item ratings). I am talking about horizontal (more set bonuses / tactical options).

 

-eric

 

I'm confused by this.

You say it's more horizontal in that we have a wider selection of set bonuses...which is true, and those are independent of the "IRating" of the gear, which is also true.

 

But there are now...let's count...19 levels of gear....19 complete IRating that we must complete, to get BIS.

 

Previously...going from 230 at the start of the previous rounds of expansions.

 

230 > 236 240 > 242 246 > 248

 

Then

 

252 > 258

 

With 6.0 you're going to have us get full sets for every 2 levels with the way you've previously explained how raising the iRating works starting with 6.0.

 

That is most assuredly a VAST leap up the vertical axis.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Darev

[NikSunrider]

Will GSF be dropping gear, either in Weekly/Daily quests, or through matches?

 

Technically speaking, normal gear is not required to partiicpate in GSF, so it doesn't really make sense for GSF to drop gear, however in 5.x GSF was a large source of CXP (and hence, gear).

[Darev]

I don't know what you guys were trying to accomplish with these changes.

 

You've (the generic 'you' at Bioware) created a 10000 piece multi layered jigsaw puzzle with very little explanation as to what the new pieces even do.

 

Tacticals...are they like the clickable relics that do something when you click on them, like a new attack, or defense skill? Or just extra stats? I must have missed that on PTS the first few times.

 

Amplifiers...I think I get the idea of these. Great idea, honestly. The multi layered RNG system involved with them is horrible and completely makes me not interested in them.

 

Lots of varied set bonuses. Ok I'm honestly not the best person to talk about those. I barely understand the ones we have in game now...I don't raid at a high enough level to where I need to worry about them. I'm not going to start now.

 

This is a game, it's supposed to be fun.

 

These changes make it look like calculus class

 

Please keep it fun.

[Raansu]

I don't know what you guys were trying to accomplish with these changes.

 

You've (the generic 'you' at Bioware) created a 10000 piece multi layered jigsaw puzzle with very little explanation as to what the new pieces even do.

 

Tacticals...are they like the clickable relics that do something when you click on them, like a new attack, or defense skill? Or just extra stats? I must have missed that on PTS the first few times.

 

Amplifiers...I think I get the idea of these. Great idea, honestly. The multi layered RNG system involved with them is horrible and completely makes me not interested in them.

 

Lots of varied set bonuses. Ok I'm honestly not the best person to talk about those. I barely understand the ones we have in game now...I don't raid at a high enough level to where I need to worry about them. I'm not going to start now.

 

This is a game, it's supposed to be fun.

 

These changes make it look like calculus class

 

Please keep it fun.

 

Tacticals are basically just more utilities. They add to specific skills like one tactical for marauder activating blade blitz resets the CD on force stealth. Basically they are going to break the games balance, especially pvp.

 

The amps are just RNG stat buffs for min/maxers to reroll the item over and over in hopes of getting higher stat buffs. Honestly I think they are pretty stupid and clearly only exist as a credit sink which imo sucks since they also took gear sets off of armorings and put them on the shells so that's going to be a credit sink in and of itself. AMP's seem like a waste of time to add into the game.

 

All the set bonuses I've seen so far are pretty much trash. They should just stick with the current set bonuses instead of giving us 5 billion different sets and tiers.

 

I think its funny that galactic command was supposedly created to "simplify" gearing, yet it became more complicated that what 4.x did and somehow 6.0 is even more convoluted. I dunno what's going on anymore at BWA.

[commanderwar]

I don't know what you guys were trying to accomplish with these changes.

 

You've (the generic 'you' at Bioware) created a 10000 piece multi layered jigsaw puzzle with very little explanation as to what the new pieces even do.

 

Tacticals...are they like the clickable relics that do something when you click on them, like a new attack, or defense skill? Or just extra stats? I must have missed that on PTS the first few times.

 

Amplifiers...I think I get the idea of these. Great idea, honestly. The multi layered RNG system involved with them is horrible and completely makes me not interested in them.

 

Lots of varied set bonuses. Ok I'm honestly not the best person to talk about those. I barely understand the ones we have in game now...I don't raid at a high enough level to where I need to worry about them. I'm not going to start now.

 

This is a game, it's supposed to be fun.

 

These changes make it look like calculus class

 

Please keep it fun.

 

Tacts, easy to explain, basically

Tacts= utilities that can change one of your skills some more drastically more then others

 

For set bonus you could just look up guides and see which one is the best for your play style or don't about it if you don't care

Edited September 20, 2019 by commanderwar

[WhiteOsprey]

I'd really like to know why all of this can't be supplemental and we can have the following:

 

Ops/Fp's- Unassembled Tokens...I need a chest piece so i need to kill boss X, kill the boss then take token to my class vendor. Have never heard one complaint from anyone I've raided with about this system. You've already had to move back to this once after the disaster of 5.0

 

Pvp- Tech Fragments(or whatever currency) acquired through matches, daily and weekly PvP missions that i can then take to a vendor and buy what i need. I'm not a big PvP'er these days but most i know don't have any interest in running dailies, flashpoints or ops just to gear up so they can compete in PvP.

 

I'd be totally fine with that flow chart you showed in the live stream you did for the new gearing system if it was supplemental to the above options.

 

On a side note i have a question hopefully someone can clarify for me as i haven't been on the PTS for the last couple weeks. I'm reading people talk about the many different lettered mods (used to be just non lettered, A's and B's). Is that really a thing, how many different variations are there and what kind of stats do they have?

Edited September 20, 2019 by WhiteOsprey

[phalczen]

On a side note i have a question hopefully someone can clarify for me as i haven't been on the PTS for the last couple weeks. I'm reading people talk about the many different lettered mods (used to be just non lettered, A's and B's). Is that really a thing, how many different variations are there and what kind of stats do they have?

 

Lots. I think 20 variations so far discovered?

 

On a theorycrafting note, I'd just like to point out that people assuming we only need the three current types of mods may be incorrect. This has often come up in a lot of tanking theory crafting, the relative balance between having higher mitigation vs higher health pools. Since 1.0 all we've had are the three versions of mods, unlettered, A, and B. But with more gradations, it is possible that a better distribution of mastery, endurance, and power/defense could be worked out. Everyone is correctly observing that the new stat formulae are showing dps/heals will be carrying a lot less critical rating if they want to maintain a 1.3s GCD. Perhaps with new gradations of mods with varying levels of mastery, dps players can sneak in a little more critical rating via a higher mastery on their mods. I have no doubt the theory crafters will come up with models showing new optimal points and one may be able to get closer to goals with the new mods. While I fully recognize the RNG problem inherent to multiple variations, I just wanted to point out some potential upside to having more customizability. Of all the problems with 6.0 gearing, this seems, to me, to be the least of them.

[phalczen]

Will GSF be dropping gear, either in Weekly/Daily quests, or through matches?

 

Technically speaking, normal gear is not required to partiicpate in GSF, so it doesn't really make sense for GSF to drop gear, however in 5.x GSF was a large source of CXP (and hence, gear).

 

I can't recall the renown point value of the daily and weekly, but I think I saw 135 tech fragments as the reward for the GSF daily. I think it will become a nice supplemental source (well, nice for people like me who enjoy GSF), especially if people find themselves a few tech fragments short for that shiny on Kai Zykken's vendor. It may be even nicer if it drops the same gear box that a ground pvp match and daily drop.

[Raansu]

I'd really like to know why all of this can't be supplemental and we can have the following:

 

Ops/Fp's- Unassembled Tokens...I need a chest piece so i need to kill boss X, kill the boss then take token to my class vendor. Have never heard one complaint from anyone I've raided with about this system. You've already had to move back to this once after the disaster of 5.0

 

Pvp- Tech Fragments(or whatever currency) acquired through matches, daily and weekly PvP missions that i can then take to a vendor and buy what i need. I'm not a big PvP'er these days but most i know don't have any interest in running dailies, flashpoints or ops just to gear up so they can compete in PvP.

 

I'd be totally fine with that flow chart you showed in the live stream you did for the new gearing system if it was supplemental to the above options.

 

On a side note i have a question hopefully someone can clarify for me as i haven't been on the PTS for the last couple weeks. I'm reading people talk about the many different lettered mods (used to be just non lettered, A's and B's). Is that really a thing, how many different variations are there and what kind of stats do they have?

 

This is how it should be. All the spoils of war rng stuff would be fine if it wasn't the main way to gear. Just give us back the 4.x gearing system for both pve and pvp with pvp gear brought back and then add in the spoils of war rng gear drops on the side so that way casuals still can have progression as well.

[Beyrahl]

Hopefully with this extraction prices won't continue the trend of being as expensive, right? Could we maybe get a perk that costs credits to get free extractions or something? This would be incredibly useful for alts.

[WhiteOsprey]

Lots. I think 20 variations so far discovered?

 

On a theorycrafting note, I'd just like to point out that people assuming we only need the three current types of mods may be incorrect. This has often come up in a lot of tanking theory crafting, the relative balance between having higher mitigation vs higher health pools. Since 1.0 all we've had are the three versions of mods, unlettered, A, and B. But with more gradations, it is possible that a better distribution of mastery, endurance, and power/defense could be worked out. Everyone is correctly observing that the new stat formulae are showing dps/heals will be carrying a lot less critical rating if they want to maintain a 1.3s GCD. Perhaps with new gradations of mods with varying levels of mastery, dps players can sneak in a little more critical rating via a higher mastery on their mods. I have no doubt the theory crafters will come up with models showing new optimal points and one may be able to get closer to goals with the new mods. While I fully recognize the RNG problem inherent to multiple variations, I just wanted to point out some potential upside to having more customizability. Of all the problems with 6.0 gearing, this seems, to me, to be the least of them.

 

Thanks for the info, appreciate it. All things being equal i don't doubt you are right. It may be interesting to have all these options to fine tune your gear to that level, if you could specifically choose which mod you want. My issue is this sounds like its layering an absurd amount of RNG onto an already RNG heavy system.

Edited September 21, 2019 by WhiteOsprey

[Exly]

You bring up some good points and questions I want to try to address.

 

Overcomplicated - I realize that these really long posts about spoils of war make it seem really complex. Most of this is born out of the fact that we are just being very open about all of the workings under the hood, which we don't typically do. To address your feedback directly think of it this way:

Play whatever content you want, you will get constant gear for whatever you are playing. If you don't get the thing you want, go to the vendor and buy it.

It is just that simple. If you want to really get into the inner workings, then the info is there for you!

 

Learning from adding 248+ - Let me clarify. When I say adding new gear we are not talking about vertical (higher item ratings). I am talking about horizontal (more set bonuses / tactical options).

 

-eric

 

If simple is what you are looking for, maybe you should skip the step where you give us gear that we don't want, and go directly to the part where we can just buy what we do want.

[nyrkverse]

I'd really like to know why all of this can't be supplemental and we can have the following:

 

Ops/Fp's- Unassembled Tokens...I need a chest piece so i need to kill boss X, kill the boss then take token to my class vendor. Have never heard one complaint from anyone I've raided with about this system. You've already had to move back to this once after the disaster of 5.0

 

Pvp- Tech Fragments(or whatever currency) acquired through matches, daily and weekly PvP missions that i can then take to a vendor and buy what i need. I'm not a big PvP'er these days but most i know don't have any interest in running dailies, flashpoints or ops just to gear up so they can compete in PvP.

 

I'd be totally fine with that flow chart you showed in the live stream you did for the new gearing system if it was supplemental to the above options.

 

All of the above.

 

and for emphasis:

You've already had to move back to this once after the disaster of 5.0

[Jdast]

I'm confused about why people are confused. My plain reading of what Eric wrote is the following:

 

Outside of the direct drops from the Corellia FP and the Dxun OP -- EVERY single shell, tactical, and mod (minus Crafting and Rep stuff) is available for direct purchase. And while the direct drops from the Corellia FP and the Dxun OP can't be purchased, you still have a chance to acquire those select items through questing and Renown Crates. This direct purchase gearing system also excludes Amplifiers, which I'll get to in a moment. Other Set items and Tacticals can be acquired anywhere, but certain activities make it more likely. Not that complicated.

 

Most significantly, Eric noted that we can now purchase Mods directly. Prior to what Eric just posted, it was just the Shells and Tacticals that were available for purchase (either through Kai when on sale or through new vendor).

 

Finally all weapons are now moddable which eliminates the problem of purchasing an item on the CM or GTN and having it just collect dust.

 

At risk of patting all testers and myself on the back (which I can't do since my Hutt arms are too short)...this is what the PTS was for, but now we need to focus on the FAR, FAR more salient issues.

 

Cost of items / ratio of drops / amount of tech fragments you can store.

 

For those of us on the PTS (and don't want to mindlessly bash BW), it should be patently clear: We have largely won the RNG battle since there is now a direct route to purchase. The battle now is different -- it is making sure the direct purchase route is not de facto irrelevant.

 

Salute to those who read (and comprehended) what Eric wrote and I look forward to testing this on the PTS when implemented. Current costs and tech fragment storage limitations, however, severely inhibit the direct purchase route. It's one thing to be expensive, it is another to have it be so ludicrously expensive that it isn't feasible (here's looking at you crafting 258 Ossus gear).

 

Dasty

 

P.S. On Amplifiers, I agree with previous posters: 1) the costs should be capped; and 2) there should be some RNG protection. If not both, certainly one or the other.

 

P.P.S. I can fully anticipate a certain poster coming in and saying that a lot of the new Set bonuses are uninspiring. I agree, but that's a different topic.

 

P.P.P.S. I agree the Amplifier system is a bit confusing. Since Xam Xam was recently acknowledged as super awesome, I feel comfortable linking...

 

https://mmobits.com/2019/08/27/game-update-6-0-amplifiers-guide/

Edited September 22, 2019 by Jdast

[TrixxieTriss]

Eric, when can we expect to see a similar post / thread about crafting. There has been a lot of feed back from players, but little to no responses from you detailing any changes. At least nothing as detailed as this thread.

 

Can you please give us an indication that crafting is also being substantially worked on or that you’ve heard our concerns. I specifically resubscribed to test because I think this is the most important expansion you will ever release. I’m not here to play the live game.

[Sandrosw]

Will the new gear drop also in:

- Uprisings? (Are they same as FPs? Bosses dropping loot for each player + last boss has a chance for tactical based on story/veteran/master mode?)

- Star Fortress FPs? (I know they are technically FPs, but different from others due to being solo mode)

- Eternal championship? (Now there are only some old lower tier drops sometimes randomly from bosses)

- World bosses? (They dont have updated loot list since.. forever? Adding new loot might make people want to kill them again more than once for achievement)

- Treasure chests? (Same story as world bosses - now it does not feel exciting to find a chest and often people just skip them as they contain nothing of value, save for maybe Ossus chests)

- Chests from digging sites using seeker droid? (Ok that is an obscure activity that few people do, but it is there...)

 

Overall I like the changes, since everything can be bought no one would be locked to do only conquest or warzones or fps - they can choose to do them for an increased chance to get an item from set they like, but if they don't want to, they can just play whatever and buy the items using tech fragments. That is really nice, as in other games like ESO I would have to run one specific FP or ops or pvp to get the set item I need, as it would not drop anywhere else (and running the same FP I did for years 30 times again and still not getting the drop for the slot I need is far more frustrating than anything else, as the only option is to run it again or give up on the set).

 

It would be nice to have some ingame tutorial for the Tactical slot (so people would know what belongs there) and maybe have a tutorial for amplifiers that would clearly state that amplifiers on shells and left side are upgrades for crafting and experience gains, mods for crafting, credit cost reduction, movement and companion upgrades, armorings for increased damage/healing or damage reduction and enhancements for modifying heals, health regeneration, threat and movement in combat. So people would not try in vain to get some damage bonuses on implant for example, as it is not possible.

 

For the sets - given that I also play ESO which has 349 sets now (and more coming), I am kinda used to not remembering each and every set by name. On casual level it does not matter (just use anything that sounds cool) - since most content will be scaled, those that quest or run heroics will never really need to think much about gear, they can just use anything that shows as upgrade in inventory and eventually they will get to highest tier without paying attention to it. Those that want to be more serious can look up list of set bonuses on some site and pick one or two that they like - or just go to the ingame set vendor and check them out there, but they wont see crafted and Correlian/Dxun ones.. which might not be a big deal - and then save set pieces of those sets and eventually spend tech fragments on buying them. Minmaxers will do what they always do and love to do - use math, spreadsheets, long heated debates, parsing tests.. until they find the best combination for them and then do the same thing for finding the most optimal tech fragment acquisition method and grind their hearts out to get their set of the dreams.

 

I think for a casual level gamer the gear acquisition now will be much simpler than tokens, components, unassembled and assembled shells, command crate tiers, moving mods and enhancement to legacy gear, grinding left side on each alt - we got used to this system, but when I had to explain it recently to the new player, after 20 minutes it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe it is not so obvious and new player friendly... as until lvl 70 they just used anything that dropped and showed better stats than what they have equipped, and then the endgame gearing was so completely different without any warnings...

Edited September 21, 2019 by Sandrosw

[Celizend]

Targeting Gear

We talked about this in the last post but just to reiterate: we hear your concerns about gear dropping too randomly and so we are introducing mechanisms to work towards exactly what you want (with one change from last post). Here is what is available in this patch:

• New vendors will sell almost every set tactical and set bonus for tech fragments and credits.
  
• The only items not included on the vendors are set bonus and tacticals that drop directly in Corellia and Dxun, crafted sets and tacticals, and the Onderon Reputation vendor set.
  
  • Corellia and Dxun items can still drop as personal loot anywhere in the game, but they are direct bonus drops in their respective content.
    
  • The Corellia and Dxun items will be added to the vendors in a future patch.
    
  • New items in the future will also appear as targeted drops before appearing on the vendor. These new items can sometimes coincide with new content, other times will just be used to give new drops to existing content (this can include anything: Warzones, Ops, FPs, Heroics, Events, etc)
    

  [*]Kai Zykken will sell a sampling of set bonuses and tacticals at a reduced price, so you have a reason to check his wares every week.

  [*]In addition, almost every content type in the game has targeted drop tables. The bonus loot that drops from that content pulls from a specific set of items. Massive info dump at the bottom of the post.

   

   

   

   

  Moddable Gear

  We have definitely heard concerns about the lack of mods and moddable gear as you progress through the vertical progression in Onslaught. There is one thing I want to reiterate as you consider your feedback for loot acquisition. It is our goal that your vertical progression will happen very quickly and consistently. We expect you are going to replace gear pieces very often until you hit 306, let us know if that is not the case.

   

  We know many of you use modded armor pieces (often with augments) and so will have a desire to move mods around through your gear. This is especially true for weapons since they are currently not in appearance designer. Here are the changes we are making:

  • All weapons will now be moddable, and drop with mods included.
    
    • This includes both drops and purchased weapons.
      

    [*]Takatta will now sell mods by type.

    • Reminder that anything you purchase from Takatta will always be for your current Discipline and of a higher rating than your character's current average.
      

    [*]The starter gear you receive for completing the Onslaught story (full 268 set) was previously static, it will now be moddable with mods included.

    [*]More mods will be dropping in general.

   

  Thank you for your continued feedback! Look for our next PTS patch early next week - all of these changes will be implemented with that patch.

   

  -eric

   

  PS - If you want to target specific item drops, this list covers what items drop from what content types. Reminder, this is not fully implemented onto PTS.

 

Is there any possibility to for example add a vendor to sell old models of weapons now lost due to changes in gear acquisition? Due to level scaling a lot of favorite weapons were lost. For example "Stygian Battlemind's Lightsaber" or make all weapons and gear bound to collection or legacy bound so they can at least be transferable between characters. Best would be adding a vendor to Coruscant for weapon models and gear that got lost.

Edited September 21, 2019 by Celizend

[Mageraah]

Moddable Gear

We have definitely heard concerns about the lack of mods and moddable gear as you progress through the vertical progression in Onslaught. There is one thing I want to reiterate as you consider your feedback for loot acquisition. It is our goal that your vertical progression will happen very quickly and consistently. We expect you are going to replace gear pieces very often until you hit 306, let us know if that is not the case.

 

We know many of you use modded armor pieces (often with augments) and so will have a desire to move mods around through your gear. This is especially true for weapons since they are currently not in appearance designer. Here are the changes we are making:

• All weapons will now be moddable, and drop with mods included.
  
  • This includes both drops and purchased weapons.
    

  [*]Takatta will now sell mods by type.

  • Reminder that anything you purchase from Takatta will always be for your current Discipline and of a higher rating than your character's current average.
    

  [*]The starter gear you receive for completing the Onslaught story (full 268 set) was previously static, it will now be moddable with mods included.

  [*]More mods will be dropping in general.

 

I probably know the answer but will the "all weapons will be moddable" be retroactive as in older gear not from onslaught? as well as things legacy binding will that extend to older gear? there is a lightsaber I have that I want to use on another character and it no longer drops so only way I can get it is to reuse. I don't expect an answer to this but hopefully I do.

[bladech]

No changes for pvp gearing progression?No expertise gear? No fast drops? This is not acceptable

[phalczen]

Will the new gear drop also in:

- Uprisings? (Are they same as FPs? Bosses dropping loot for each player + last boss has a chance for tactical based on story/veteran/master mode?)

- Star Fortress FPs? (I know they are technically FPs, but different from others due to being solo mode)

- Eternal championship? (Now there are only some old lower tier drops sometimes randomly from bosses)

- World bosses? (They dont have updated loot list since.. forever? Adding new loot might make people want to kill them again more than once for achievement)

- Treasure chests? (Same story as world bosses - now it does not feel exciting to find a chest and often people just skip them as they contain nothing of value, save for maybe Ossus chests)

- Chests from digging sites using seeker droid? (Ok that is an obscure activity that few people do, but it is there...)

 

Great questions, especially since we know lots of things on that list are broken!

• Conquered Exarch bracers no longer drop from paladins in any difficulty of Star Fortresses
  
• Decorations stopped dropping from mobs in Veteran (heroic) difficulty of Star Fortresses
  
• Datacron decorations stopped dropping from elite golds and champions in the planetary heroics
  
• On PTS prior to Friday the 20th the alliance supply crates were missing from the mission rewards of planetary heroics
  
• 4.x tier 1 blue prototype exotic crafting material Exotic Isotope Stabilizers still drop from the Eternal Championship bosses, instead of the 5.0 version Refined Isotope Stabilizers