So I stroll past Kai Zykken, Merchant of Mystery...

[Electricdawn]

… and I think, sure thing. Let's have a look. Well, he told me to wait. Wait, I can do that. But the stalls opened immediately, so I asked him why he would send me away in the first place. He stammered in his usual fashion, that at first he didn't know who I was, yadda, yadda, but of course he would open his store right away for such an illustrive person, yadda, yadda…

 

Yeah, didn't give much of a damn and pushed past him to check the wares. Hm. Some gloves. I liked me some new gloves, except… they didn't show stats. And they would set me back a hefty 1,500 tech pieces, PLUS one million credits! I asked Kai for a return guarantee. He just grinned.

 

F... this. Let's just give it a try. Can't be worse then what I got right now, right?

 

Well... I got severly disappointed. I have 270 augmented gloves, and the new ones were 272.

 

They were worse.

 

Did I really just paid ONE F...ING MILLION credits PLUS 1,500 tech pieces for this… piece of slightly better then junk? And I CANNOT return it with a full refund?

 

Sorry, BioWare. Fool me once. Can't fool me twice. Should've known better to trust anything Kai Zykken is selling. BioWare, you just lost a lot of trust I had in you. This fiasco, plus the totally ruined crafting system is not really pushing me to resub again next month.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Electricdawn

[Lhancelot]

So, what you are saying is you did not find the RNG magic that Kai Zykken is casting "exciting?"

[Electricdawn]

To be honest, I don't even know what RNG stands for. But if it means getting sucky equipment like this, then yeah. I don't like it.

[sharkfishman]

To be honest, I don't even know what RNG stands for. But if it means getting sucky equipment like this, then yeah. I don't like it.

 

That equipment is still valuable because of the set bonus, not the mod level.

 

To help you raise your gear level, use the other vendor (in the middle of the room). Kai's stuff is just for the set bonuses.

[Gelious]

Why are you even using Kai if you are 270?First you get to 306, then you start worrying about what gear to buy.

[Tsillah]

To be honest, I don't even know what RNG stands for. But if it means getting sucky equipment like this, then yeah. I don't like it.

 

Random Number Generator.

[Nebdar]

To be honest, I don't even know what RNG stands for.

 

To be honest for most of people it stand for:

 

Rubble Not Gear

Really Not Gear

Random Not-useful Gear

 

or something like that

[Electricdawn]

Why are you even using Kai if you are 270?First you get to 306, then you start worrying about what gear to buy.

And I know that how?...

But thanks, now I know better. Not that it is any useful to me... Well, I tried the other vendor as well. Didn't look much better there… Sorry, BW, but this sucks. Don't put vendors on the fleet that charge you an arm and a leg and then don't make it immediately obvious it's the same crap you already have. Worse still, don't allow a refund.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Electricdawn

[Rolodome]

To be honest, I don't even know what RNG stands for. But if it means getting sucky equipment like this, then yeah. I don't like it.

RNG (Random Number Generator) is a staple of RPGs that goes back to tabletop games with dice rolling and has to do with simulating the randomness of real life. Things don't always go how you want them to in real life, quite how you planned, and simulating randomness creates a certain unpredictability that can mimic the need in real life for adapting to evolving circumstances. RPGs are known for using RNG in combat, along with various stats like attack power, such that each swing of your sword will hit for some random amount within a given range and it might have a chance at things like a critical hit, to hit for significantly more.

 

In modern gaming, RNG has become a term synonymous with game designers purposefully making it statistically improbable to get what you want in a timely fashion, so that you'll stick around for longer, pay more, and look good on things like login and subscription numbers (e.g. all about that real life money). One of the primary criticisms of using RNG to artificially gate how long it takes for people to get what they want (while giving them the impression that they theoretically could get lucky and get what they want much faster) is that there's always a curve and some people are going to consistently be significantly more unlucky than others, leaving them to struggle and suffer to get anything that they want at all, much less get it in a timely fashion. This is where some people fight for "RNG protection" (e.g. if you roll the die enough times, you collect a number of doodads that can be traded in for your desired whizbang, rather than purely relying on the die rolling you a whizbang).

 

However, I would argue that "RNG protection" is often an act of putting lipstick on a pig. If the gear system is already so painful that the statistical outliers are going to suffer horribly simply because they got unlucky, maybe the system needs to be reworked to not use RNG in the first place. After all, RNG in gear systems is not something where the "simulating real life" argument necessarily applies. Gear is usually obtained after combat has ended, when you have time to kill. For the most part in systems like that, there is nothing to adapt to within the context of the game. You just got crappier gear than someone else might have gotten and have to deal with it. It's not as though there's a specific strategy you can employ in response other than rolling the die again and again and again.

[phalczen]

Why are you even using Kai if you are 270?First you get to 306, then you start worrying about what gear to buy.

 

Because he does sell pieces that might otherwise not be easily obtained (increased drop chance from specific content), so it is worth your while to browse his wares. Why deal with random chance in the Dxun operation when you can mitigate that because Zykken is carrying one of the pieces you need? Besides, its pretty easy to hit the cap of 5000 tech fragments long before you are at 306. So, I see nothing wrong with buying a set bonus or tactical from Zykken that is on your short list or even your long list of priority acquisitions when its available, even with the knowledge that you'll need to replace the mods. Also, he is apparently the only place to obtain the schematics to make all the craftable tacticals and set bonus shells, regardless of whether or not those schems are working correctly.

 

So, always check Kai Zykken. I had saved 4700-something tech frags up for this weekend and it was worth my time because I got three set bonus pieces I needed, two of which got me to a 2 piece bonus.

[phalczen]

And I know that how?...

But thanks, now I know better. Not that it is any useful to me... Well, I tried the other vendor as well. Didn't look much better there… Sorry, BW, but this sucks. Don't put vendors on the fleet that charge you an arm and a leg and then don't make it immediately obvious it's the same crap you already have. Worse still, don't allow a refund.

 

I'm sorry, you already had those set bonus shells?

[Pirana]

… and I think, sure thing. Let's have a look. Well, he told me to wait. Wait, I can do that. But the stalls opened immediately, so I asked him why he would send me away in the first place. He stammered in his usual fashion, that at first he didn't know who I was, yadda, yadda, but of course he would open his store right away for such an illustrive person, yadda, yadda…

 

Yeah, didn't give much of a damn and pushed past him to check the wares. Hm. Some gloves. I liked me some new gloves, except… they didn't show stats. And they would set me back a hefty 1,500 tech pieces, PLUS one million credits! I asked Kai for a return guarantee. He just grinned.

 

F... this. Let's just give it a try. Can't be worse then what I got right now, right?

 

Well... I got severly disappointed. I have 270 augmented gloves, and the new ones were 272.

 

They were worse.

 

Did I really just paid ONE F...ING MILLION credits PLUS 1,500 tech pieces for this… piece of slightly better then junk? And I CANNOT return it with a full refund?

 

Sorry, BioWare. Fool me once. Can't fool me twice. Should've known better to trust anything Kai Zykken is selling. BioWare, you just lost a lot of trust I had in you. This fiasco, plus the totally ruined crafting system is not really pushing me to resub again next month.

 

Unfortunately you learned the expensive way. Here's a quick guide Trixxie drew up a few weeks back. It pretty much has all the ins and outs in regards to how gearing works now.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=970390

 

I haven't read the whole thread, so if it was mentioned, ignore the following. The primary reason that gear is no longer refundable from those vendors is because people, including myself, were buying pieces of gear and returning them until we got the Amplifier we wanted on the shell, nullifying their Amp slot machine, aka their credit sync. In addition to people buying and storing gear for a refund of Frags down the road due to how low the Frag cap is.

[cibacrome]

It sounds like you might not understand SWTOR gearing in this expansion. No problem, plenty of people here and in-game that can help clear that up. Vertical progression is only the first part of gearing, and it's really the easiest. There is no need to buy any gear until you reach 306, just group up and do flashpoints (fastest way to get to 306) and story mode operations (more fun to me but depends on what you like), gear will drop so fast you'll spend more time organizing your inventory than clearing content.

 

Once you hit 306 it's time to get a tactical and some set bonus gear - that's when you visit the vendors. There's nothing wrong with getting a tactical (should be your first priority) or set bonus gear before that if you have enough fragments (you'll want to buy _something_ just to avoid hitting the currency cap), but just know that vertical progression is based on your current irating (avg gear level), so always wear the highest numbers no matter what the stats are, until you hit 306, then min-max and horizontal progression takes place, like getting different tacticals/sets to play different ways in your class, etc...

[Electricdawn]

Thanks everybody for trying to explain this to me. So, I do know the good ole' D20, but wasn't aware of the abbreviation RNG.

 

I'm not one of those players who's hot to just run one FP after the other to gear up. I'm very casual, and yes, I know you will ask me now: "Why even bother with Kai then?"

 

Well, I just wanted to see what he has, and I'm not one of those guys with gazillions of credits, nor am I inclined to spend hours and hours on heroics and FPs. I do like to visit flashpoints and operations if they're new to me, so I learn the story. And, yes, I DO go through the story completely, I don't skip dialog, and I'm deliberately taking in the scenery. So, I'm not for the rush kiddies.

 

Guess this is it, then. If I need 306 gear to see Dxun, then I'll probably going to see it never. Well, just like in WoW, where the most important stories are told in raids, which I never get to see, because you need insane gear to be "allowed" in a raid group.

 

Oh well, guess I'll go back to preferred status then.

[Tsillah]

I'm not one of those players who's hot to just run one FP after the other to gear up. I'm very casual, and yes, I know you will ask me now: "Why even bother with Kai then?"

Actually the opposite is true because Kai offers things that are not RNG based but come at a discounted price, so for casual players who don't have as many tech fragments to play around with he's much more interesting than the people who have to temporarily leave mid ops because they're at the 5k limit again and need to spend some before they earn more.

 

RNG stuff is exactly that though...sometimes it's good, most of the time it's meh.

[Electricdawn]

but come at a discounted price

I wouldn't necessarily call 1,500 tech fragments and 1,000,000 credits a "discount".

[Paziqi]

I wouldn't necessarily call 1,500 tech fragments and 1,000,000 credits a "discount".

 

It's discounted because the class specific vendors sell the same stuff for 3000 tech fragments and 1,000,000 credits. So, discount, just not cheap.

[Lhancelot]

Thanks everybody for trying to explain this to me. So, I do know the good ole' D20, but wasn't aware of the abbreviation RNG.

 

I'm not one of those players who's hot to just run one FP after the other to gear up. I'm very casual, and yes, I know you will ask me now: "Why even bother with Kai then?"

 

Yes, sorry "RNG" has become a meme thanks to SWTOR. My explanation of RNG for loot is it's fine when used properly. The problem here is BW has this obsession with RNG and are constantly having to "adjust" it to make it half-bearable.

 

As for you being casual, I'd suggest never buying from this vendor. If you play at a slow and smell-the-roses pace while playing, you really have no reason to even mess with the RNG vendor. You hardly get tech frags so spending them here isn't smart imo.

 

It's like a person that has a budget of 20 dollars a week. Buying a lottery ticket for a buck wouldn't be a smart investment, especially when the ticket wins a small amount which that's how I view this vendors items. Chances of you, especially being in low rated gears "winning" anything substantial from Kai is not going to happen.

 

I'd only use the vendor if I was rolling in tech frags, AND my gears were at a maxed iRating.

[Electricdawn]

Thanks, @Lhancelot. Yours (and others) explanations have made this clear to me. I will avoid the vendors from now on.

[Gelious]

Besides, its pretty easy to hit the cap of 5000 tech fragments long before you are at 306.

If you managed to hit TF limit before hitting 306, it means you dont use the normal vendor to replace the lowest pieces of the gear on your character. Which in turn means that you are gearing slowly then you can. Which is not a good thing.

 

The only reasons anyone shoud be hitting TF limit is if they a) dont pay attention and b) dont need any more gear even for alts.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Gelious

[Lhancelot]

If you managed to hit TF limit before hitting 306, it means you dont use the normal vendor to replace the lowest pieces of the gear on your character. Which in turn means that you are gearing slowly then you can. Which is not a good thing.

 

The only reasons anyone shoud be hitting TF limit is if they a) dont pay attention and b) dont need any more gear even for alts.

 

I was saving mine up, and then read this and thought, wow... lol this is a good point I didn't think of it.

[Lunafox]

Kai Zyken is Ben Irving pixel-fied.

[YVEXA]

Kai Zyken is Ben Irving pixel-fied.

 

Awesome. This expansion is worth it just for quotes like that !

[Transcendent]

Random Number Generator.

 

Really Narks Gamers.

 

Because that's all it really does, it certainly isn't fun or "exciting" or a "pleasant surprise" a majority of the time.

[phalczen]

If you managed to hit TF limit before hitting 306, it means you dont use the normal vendor to replace the lowest pieces of the gear on your character. Which in turn means that you are gearing slowly then you can. Which is not a good thing.

 

The only reasons anyone shoud be hitting TF limit is if they a) dont pay attention and b) dont need any more gear even for alts.

 

It’s true, on my main that I started out at the beginning of the expansion before I really understood how to use the random vendor. I increased my iLvl solely through FPs ignoring the Nitoo vendor guy because I thought TFs would be slow to come in. I certainly made mistakes during that first week. Now I know better, and I have enough extras I can usually gear an alt in 306 the moment they ding 75. I’ve leveled my last two toons via Vet flashpoints and having 1-2 bosses left to loot when you ding 75, taking the time to pull my 306 set out of storage and equip it, makes a huge difference.