6.0 Gearing and Content - An explanation from a PTS player

[kunderam]

Two questions for OP (or anyone else):

 

1. Does the tech fragment vendor sell shells for credits as well as tech fragments?
   
2. For the armor shells from the tech vendor, are they a random slot, or just a random set bonus?
   

 

This could be different on live, I know, but from what you’ve seen, would be interesting to know.

 

Depending on those answers, this actually seems fine to me. Although its more “fine” if you have a lot of credits.

It’s a big shift in mindset, however. As things are now (and have always been, really), it’s possible/preferable to do some min/maxing in lower gear tears. With 6.0, seems like you should just shut off that part of your brain until you’re in the higher tiers. Just forget about itemization until 306+, then buy shells and get Ok-ish mods through crafting/GTN, then work on min/maxing.

[ZionHalcyon]

Two questions for OP (or anyone else):

 

1. Does the tech fragment vendor sell shells for credits as well as tech fragments?
   
2. For the armor shells from the tech vendor, are they a random slot, or just a random set bonus?
   

 

This could be different on live, I know, but from what you’ve seen, would be interesting to know.

 

Depending on those answers, this actually seems fine to me. Although its more “fine” if you have a lot of credits.

It’s a big shift in mindset, however. As things are now (and have always been, really), it’s possible/preferable to do some min/maxing in lower gear tears. With 6.0, seems like you should just shut off that part of your brain until you’re in the higher tiers. Just forget about itemization until 306+, then buy shells and get Ok-ish mods through crafting/GTN, then work on min/maxing.

 

So in terms of shells, the only shells you will find are on the Kai Zyken vendor, which will have set bonuses for Tech fragments and I believe half a million credits. That is per piece.

 

Otherwise, there is a plethora of shells with all the Cosmetic items from the Cartel Market or that you can get off the bazaar.

 

Now if you are talking about about the armorings, modifications, enhancements, barrels, and hilts that go into the shells, those you can find on the regular Spoils of War vendor, purely for Tech fragments, ranging in cost between about 135 to 300 Tech fragments.

[Darev]

So in terms of shells, the only shells you will find are on the Kai Zyken vendor, which will have set bonuses for Tech fragments and I believe half a million credits. That is per piece.

 

Otherwise, there is a plethora of shells with all the Cosmetic items from the Cartel Market or that you can get off the bazaar.

 

Now if you are talking about about the armorings, modifications, enhancements, barrels, and hilts that go into the shells, those you can find on the regular Spoils of War vendor, purely for Tech fragments, ranging in cost between about 135 to 300 Tech fragments.

 

There are class specific set bonus (empty shells) vendors in the next "room" over. 3k tech frags and 1 million credits up to the last day of PTS.

 

The price "could" change for live. No way to know until it launches.

[TrixxieTriss]

There are class specific set bonus (empty shells) vendors in the next "room" over. 3k tech frags and 1 million credits up to the last day of PTS.

 

The price "could" change for live. No way to know until it launches.

 

Sorry Zion, but Darev is correct.

 

Hopefully the 1 mil credits and possibly the tech frag cost will be less, but I’m not holding my breath for either of those to change.

[Darev]

So, in my other thread here(yes, the title was meant to be facetious), I saw a lot of concern over gearing, some valid, and a lot based on bad or outdated information.

 

What I want to do here is to give people the correct information. I won't tell you how to feel about it - that's on you and to each their own. But at least, I want everyone working off the same playbook.

 

 

First the gearing system.

 

Once you hit level 70, throw out EVERYTHING you think about gearing.

 

In the past, it used to be each tier of gear had a green, blue, purple, and in some cases yellow/gold tier.

 

THAT IS NO LONGER THE CASE once you hit 70.

 

Now it goes like this (using fake numbers because I can't exactly remember off the top of my head):

 

Green tier: Pieces with Item Rating 270-278

Blue Tier: Pieces with Item Rating 280-288

Purple Tier: Pieces with Item Rating 290-298

Gold Tier: Pieces with Item Rating 300-308 (306 is the highest level)

 

Numbers are rough but convey the concept.

 

**Also, the system looks at your current item rating per slot and drops only offer you gear equal to or better than what you have.** (Let me expand on this.)

 

What happens is the system looks at the total average rating of ALL your gear slots. If you have a low piece, any piece, that's 270 and a high piece that's 290 and 280 for everything else, then your average will be 280. Any gear slot you get will be 282 until the overall average gets bumped up. If that 290 piece was a helmet, no helmet you get will be above that until the rest of your gear catches up. You MUST increase your gear level nearly completely to get up to the next i-rating / level.

 

You will on occasion get a loot that does have mods you can strip from it, but say you are tier 274 - the gear you get may have 2 274 mods and one for 276. So you can use one to pull out. This is also based on averages. Meaning your barrel could be 270, the mod could be 274, and the enhancement could be 276. Each of those slots has it's own RNG independent of each other, as long as they average out to something equivalent, or slightly better, than your current total iRating.

 

However in most cases, you will get unmoddable gear drops.

 

 

Spoils of War vendor:

There are reports that this only gives unmoddable armor - while yes, the armor is unmoddable, this isn't entirely correct. This vendor also give Armorings, Enhancements, Modifications, Barrels and Hilts.

 

EVERYTHING on the vendor is random, BUT it uses the same system as loot in that it will NOT give you gear worse than what you got. The stats may not be ideal, but it will be either the same gear tier or one up from what you have.

 

From what I saw during phase 3 PTS, this is pretty much true until you get to around irating 302 or 304. Once you're near the end of your gear grind the RNG formula doesn't change, so you can, and will, get worse gear than what you have. Maybe not by much, maybe not under 300, but even at full 306 you will not get 306 every single time. That didn't happen, ever, for me on PTS.

 

 

 

Operations:

I saw a lot of people worried about not having the right gear to get into operations now.

 

The ONLY operation where that will be a concern is the NEW one on DXUN.

 

The developers actually went back and used a type of Level sync to down-level the Operations currently existing to their original levels, and also used a reverse level sync to down-level the players to that level.

 

It's my understanding that due to player feedback they reverted the downsync and put everything back up to level 70. Maybe I mis-read the notes from Eric that day.

 

In practice, it worked out a lot better than it sounds and if you were geared to run NIM operations prior to 6.0, you can still run NiM operations in those same places after 6.0 - the gear change won't affect you at all.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Sorry, I just got home from work and some of this has been bugging me all day since I saw it. I am, however, going to do my best to be neutral and provide "corrections" w/o bashing the system as there is really no point to doing that now.

 

Notes above by relevant sections

[kunderam]

There are class specific set bonus (empty shells) vendors in the next "room" over. 3k tech frags and 1 million credits up to the last day of PTS.

 

The price "could" change for live. No way to know until it launches.

 

Gotcha, thanks Darev and ZionHalcyon. That's what i wanted to know.

[Flying-Brian]

Two questions for OP (or anyone else):

 

1. Does the tech fragment vendor sell shells for credits as well as tech fragments?
   
2. For the armor shells from the tech vendor, are they a random slot, or just a random set bonus?
   

 

The vendor that sells the set bonus shells (and tacticals). The cost is 3k tech fragments and 1 mil credits per item. The shells are empty, so you will have to get mods for them.

 

The Kai vendor sells (random) set bonus items and tacticals on weekends. The cost is 1.5k tech fragments and 1.5 mil credits per item. The gear that he sells does have mods in the shells.

 

But.....

 

The iLvl rating of each mod in moddable gear is determined by RNG. In the last patch on the PTS, mods were within 2 levels of your gear rating. So if you are at 306, moddable gear can have 304 or 306 mods in each slot. If you were at 298, mods would be either 296, 298, or 300.

 

When you are at iLvl 306, the best way to play RNG roulette is to buy from the Kai vendor either bracers or a belt. Keep buying, returning, and rebuying until you are able to pull a piece that has both a 306 armoring and mod (and both have the stats you are looking for, as the gear from Kai can have the unlettered version of mods in it, unlike the RNG single mods).

Edited October 14, 2019 by Flying-Brian

[Darev]

The vendor that sells the set bonus shells (and tacticals). The cost is 3k tech fragments and 1 mil credits per item. The shells are empty, so you will have to get mods for them.

 

The Kai vendor sells (random) set bonus items and tacticals on weekends. The cost is 1.5k tech fragments and 1.5 mil credits per item. The gear that he sells does have mods in the shells.

 

But.....

 

The iLvl rating of each mod in moddable gear is determined by RNG. In the last patch on the PTS, mods were within 2 levels of your gear rating. So if you are at 306, moddable gear can have 304 or 306 mods in each slot. If you were at 298, mods would be either 296, 298, or 300.

 

When you are at iLvl 306, the best way to play RNG roulette is to buy from the Kai vendor either bracers or a belt. Keep buying, returning, and rebuying until you are able to pull a piece that has both a 306 armoring and mod (and both have the stats you are looking for, as the gear from Kai can have the unlettered version of mods in it, unlike the RNG single mods).

 

I didn't try that during phase 3

Aren't they slot bound? the armoring and the mod?

Edited October 14, 2019 by Darev

[Flying-Brian]

I didn't try that during phase 3

Aren't they slot bound? the armoring and the mod?

 

No, they are not slot bound.

 

It look longer, but it was easier for me to get all of the 306 mods that I needed (unlettered version of armoring, mods, enhancements) this way to have enough to fill the shells for my set bonus gear on the PTS.

 

When buying the single RNG mods, I had ok luck with armorings, getting around 1 correct version out of 10 bought (after they fixed it and removed the tank drops). But for mods and enhancments, it would take between 20 - 40 bought to get 1 that was usable.

[OlBuzzard]

Pretty sure they work up to lvl 74 and it’s the empty shells. If you are using the Armoring, they don’t work.

 

I have asked Bioware if there is a possibility they can make them active at lvl75 because you can “see” the set bonus on the Armor shells, even at lvl 75. But they are red and disabled.

 

It’s why I am keeping my empty shells for the mean time.

 

I think you are right. IIRC someone posted in PTS that up to and including 74... but at level 75 pretty much all of those bonus stats flat line. Also IIRC that same person my have made a comment about wanting to stick to level 74 ????

 

Bottom line: I think you are right about level 74.

[ceryxp]

Sorry Zion, but Darev is correct.

 

Hopefully the 1 mil credits and possibly the tech frag cost will be less, but I’m not holding my breath for either of those to change.

 

That is one consistent theme for 6.0. Ridiculous inflation to the extreme. The cynic in me says that the only reason they increased the F2P and pref credit cap to 1 million is so they could price everything at 1 million.

[OlBuzzard]

I didn't try that during phase 3

Aren't they slot bound? the armoring and the mod?

 

I was unable to test that too ! BUT I do remember at one point a member of the dev team suggesting that mods could be used in different components. I did rip a couple of components out of some gear where I already had in place and used them in a weapon (since the values were slightly higher).

[TrixxieTriss]

I didn't try that during phase 3

Aren't they slot bound? the armoring and the mod?

 

They aren’t slot bound, at least they weren’t on the pts 2 and 3

 

Edit: I also wanted to add that I did get 4 moddable gear drops from the RNG vendor (not Kyz) and not set bonus gear. So they do drop, just rarely. I think I must have purchased around 100 x 306 sets till I got those 4.

Edited October 14, 2019 by TrixxieTriss

[DreadtechSavant]

Unless they changed it, it worked until 74 last I saw someone state on the PTS area.

It's 75 when it quits working.

 

That was my understanding too, as the new gear does not start until you hit 75. Which probably mean everyone who does story will have done so before that. Still it's 7 days away not sure we need all this. Some will like it others will hate it, very few will change there minds once it's in full swing.

[Storm-Cutter]

And so basically all those weeks and months getting Masterwork and monumental crystals to gear up counts for practically nothing in this new system? Is that correct or is it at least a small head-start?

[Darev]

And so basically all those weeks and months getting Masterwork and monumental crystals to gear up counts for practically nothing in this new system? Is that correct or is it at least a small head-start?

 

they will be converted to credits from what I remember reading.

[Darev]

They aren’t slot bound, at least they weren’t on the pts 2 and 3

 

Edit: I also wanted to add that I did get 4 moddable gear drops from the RNG vendor (not Kyz) and not set bonus gear. So they do drop, just rarely. I think I must have purchased around 100 x 306 sets till I got those 4.

 

That's a nice change, the things not being slot bound. I hope that stays that way.

[TrixxieTriss]

And so basically all those weeks and months getting Masterwork and monumental crystals to gear up counts for practically nothing in this new system? Is that correct or is it at least a small head-start?

 

Yep 👍

[Toraak]

And so basically all those weeks and months getting Masterwork and monumental crystals to gear up counts for practically nothing in this new system? Is that correct or is it at least a small head-start?

 

that's correct, as it always is when an expansion comes out. The old gear becomes outdated. This is normal in every MMO.

[DarthCasus]

This explanation helps, as someone who played with the gear in all 3 phases, tried some content in phase 2 not really feeling this 'exciting' feeling the devs are probably expecting from constant loot with minor upgrades and still came out of it wondering why it all had to be done at all. I don't see my friends sticking with this as casual players. They'll do the new story, ignore the gear and be off.

 

This game isn't meant to be a loot-based MMO, should have left the loot stuff to Destiny/Division/Borderlands.

[KendraP]

This explanation helps, as someone who played with the gear in all 3 phases, tried some content in phase 2 not really feeling this 'exciting' feeling the devs are probably expecting from constant loot with minor upgrades and still came out of it wondering why it all had to be done at all. I don't see my friends sticking with this as casual players. They'll do the new story, ignore the gear and be off.

 

This game isn't meant to be a loot-based MMO, should have left the loot stuff to Destiny/Division/Borderlands.

 

I agree but for whatever reason they insist on using gear as a substitute for content; or to shoehorn you into their content of choice.

[black_pyros]

I agree but for whatever reason they insist on using gear as a substitute for content.

 

The reason is quite clear, isn't it? They are short on funding and it's the cheapest "content" to make.

[ZionHalcyon]

The reason is quite clear, isn't it? They are short on funding and it's the cheapest "content" to make.

 

Please prove that they are short on funding.

 

They hired a bunch of people when Keith came on board, which debunks the whole "short on funding" argument.

 

Don't get me wrong - 6 months ago I would have ignorantly made the same argument.

 

But if you really want to know what's going on, read this. It's instrumental in understanding where BioWare is at and also knowing how they view the game themselves.

 

Cliff notes is that originally BioWare never wanted this game in the first place - they were forced to do an MMO. They've been trying to essentially go back on it ever since, until Keith came on board.

 

People have their reservations about Keith, but under his watch, even if you disagree with his decisions, they are finally starting to treat the game like an actual MMO.

 

Seriously though, go read the link. It gives tremendous context to the inception of the game and explains all of BioWare's decisions through the Ben Irving years and KotFE...

[phalczen]

And so basically all those weeks and months getting Masterwork and monumental crystals to gear up counts for practically nothing in this new system? Is that correct or is it at least a small head-start?

 

Its definitely not a head start. At least in previous expansions, the nightmare-level of gear was an edge to help you complete the hard mode of the next operation tier. This is no longer the case, as the free green gear you will get during the Onslaught story is reportedly item rating 268. Not to mention, the set bonus will stop working once you ding 75 ... all pre-6.0 set bonuses are going to require character level 50-74,

 

which is funny restriction considering that the set bonuses are moved to the shells, and the shells aren't retroactively going to be bound-to-legacy at the launch of 6.0, but I guess the Devs are preparing in the event that launch people come back at level 50 with Tionese gear equipped.

 

At any rate, there has not been an official forum update as to what's going to happen with UCs, MasDC, and MonDCs. The vendors on Ossus were largely unchanged on the final version of PTS from their LIVE counterparts. By that I mean that all the Masterwork armor sets and all the decorations still had their same prices, including the D3-C0 astromech droid that sold high end decorations for MasDC, MasDC+UCs, or MonDC. My hope is that the Devs will follow through with what they said months ago and that the decorations will be sold for credits, +/- Relics of Osus, +/- Tech Fragments.

[black_pyros]

Please prove that they are short on funding.

 

No need to prove anything. Common sense is enough. Just look at the amount of content provided in first half of life of the game and the second. Just a small example with operations: between 1.0 and 3.0 (included) total amount of 48 operation bosses were released. Between 3.3 and 6.0 (included) only 12 operation bosses. Too lazy to count other type of content, but with FP you would see similar difference in numbers. Daily areas, events...everything. 215 servers shrank to 5. Skill Trees converted to Discipline Paths for faster class balance that never happened, actually exact opposite did happen. Do I have to continue?

Edited October 15, 2019 by black_pyros