New Augments

[rebbieforever]

Hi friends,

 

With Game Update 6.1.4 we are introducing a new tier of augments to the game, with materials added to our prestige game modes.

 

For a little background, we try to strike a balance between the right time to introduce new power to chase into the game and respecting your time invested in getting to the current maximum level of gear. We also want to refresh interest in our prestige modes by adding a very clear incentive while we work on the next batch of new content.

 

We have a few goals here. First, in PvE, it has been several months since Dxun Master Mode released. Top-end guilds have cleared the content and achieved the timed run achievements. Guilds still progressing in Dxun could use a slight boost to help get over the hill of that next boss, and a slight power bump should help. We don’t want progression to stagnate, and we would also like to make it worth people’s time to farm older Master Modes in order to gear up the next batch of recruits for the most current content.

 

In PvP, we want to continue to foster more high quality matches in Ranked, especially Group Ranked. So far this year we’ve boosted rewards to that end, but haven’t seen as much movement there as we would like. So, in addition to boosting conquest rewards for Ranked (as indicated in David’s post), we are introducing an additional exclusive reward which is required to build the new augments.

 

To be clear, these augments will require BOTH the PvE material (only available in Master Mode Operations) AND the PvP material (only available in Ranked) to craft. We acknowledge that many players prefer one mode over the other, however we have a robust trading economy that rewards those who make these scarce materials available either via the Galactic Trade Network or simply trade chat.

 

Basics

 

The new Augments will require materials from Master Mode Operations, Ranked PvP Missions and Boxes, and the Cybertech Crew Skill to assemble the new materials. They will be Item Level 300, and named “Superior _____ Augment 77”, depending on the augment. Crafting is split between Armormech, Synthweaving, and Armstech (like existing augments), and those schematics will be available from the Crew Skill Trainer for 35,000 credits.

 

Details

 

• Master Mode bosses will drop a new material: OEM-37
  
  • Most bosses drop 1 in 8-person, 2 in 16-person
    
  • Final bosses drop 3 in 8-person and 6 in 16-person
    
  • Dxun bosses will drop 2 in 8-person and 4 in 16-person
    
  • Apex Vanguard in Dxun will drop 6 in 8-person and 12 in 16-person
    

  [*]Ranked PvP Missions and Boxes will drop a new material: RPM -13

  • 50% chance in weekly group ranked box
    
    • 5 on Weekly Group Ranked Quest
      

    [*]10% chance in daily group ranked box

    • 1 on Daily Group Ranked Quest
      

    [*]25% chance in weekly solo ranked box

    • 0 in Weekly Solo Ranked Quest
      

    [*]5% chance in daily solo ranked box

    • 0 in Daily Solo Ranked Quest
      

  [*]Cybertechs will craft a new material: CM-1337

  • This schematic can be purchased from the Crew Skill Trainer for 15,140 credits
    

  [*]The 300 Augments ingredients are:

  • 5 Artifact Combo Materials
    
  • 3 Artifact Secondary Combo Materials
    
  • 5 Solid Resource Matrix
    
  • 1 CM-1337
    
  • 5 Processed Isotope Stabilizer
    

  [*]CM-1337 ingredients are:

  • 15 OEM-37
    
  • 25 RPM-13
    
  • 5 Legendary Embers
    

 

These will be available in the upcoming PTS to try out, so don’t hesitate to pop in and let us know what you think!

 

-Chris

 

Terrible design choice

 

Its practically gating crafting behind advanced difficulty PVP or PVE instances taking away a lot of the freedom the game had

[elimatorxv]

why add new augments when 99% of the game is capped content to begin with?

[FlameYOL]

Let me preface this by saying I don't really care if there are gear in the game I cannot obtain due to not participating in the hardest modes available for either PvE or PvP... WITH THAT BEING SAID, this in my humble opinion is not a good change. I don't mind newer augments for those want to min-max (though the crafting for them is quite ludicrous as I experience it myself crafting a set of 286, crafting is too grindy) however why force either ranked PvPers or Prog PvErs to do the opposite type of content? "Oh but the in-game market", the in-game market is horribly inflated and those poor sods who can't optimize their gear to both ends of hardcore content in the game will probably have to sell themselves on Nar Shaddaa in order to be able to afford enough materials (which again brings the issue of how grindy crafting has become since Onslaught) to craft the augments, please reconsider lowing the costs of materials and letting the prog raiders or hardcore pvpers get all they need from their respective activities. Despite the elitism and salt within both communities, neither deserved to be forced to play an aspect of the game they don't wish to in order to get better at what they're currently doing.

[LeMage]

Why. Why have you done this.

 

They want to drive more people to Anthem?

[DarkTergon]

They want to drive more people to Anthem?

 

even if they have chauffer driven star ships, people from here won't go the anthem, we'll all go the FF15, or GW2 or the new one by amazon, heck, they'd probably go to mylittlekitty online before that....

[rebbieforever]

They want to drive more people to Anthem?

 

They are more likely to go to a more traditional mmorpg that offers more freedom, example ESO rather than a looter-shooter mmo.

 

Personally if this update comes probably I will still play SWTOR but by far less as secondary game. For 4+ months now I played it as primary game

[KendraP]

This is almost too stupid for me to fathom.

 

-No new content in a year for casual PvE endgame players.

 

-No changes to the conceptually idiotic amplifiers in a year

(seriously, to be optimized (min/max being a lazy idiots way of saying optimized), either they make a difference (and thus should be included in balance goals) or they dont and never should have existed in the first place.)

 

-The ops situation is still atrocious, with no motivation to do a multiple boss op over simply TC

 

-The ops situation is even more ridiculous considering that only 1 op (and one FP) that drop endgame gear are also endgame level, and the 1 that is level 75 is difficult to walk the average swtor player through via chat (since the average swtor player can only push 2 buttons and can't break 3k dps).

 

-To add to the previous point, the level 70 "endgame" ops are downscaled in the dumbest way possible (i can only assume owing to BWs stupidity or incompetence). Why did I grind level 75 gear to play level 70 content? Oh thats right, because it was designed so that you were a hindrance to your team unless you did have level 75 gear in level 70 content. But BW was too lazy, stupid, or incompetent to raise the level cap or design enough new content to have a level 75 endgame, so we got the worst of both worlds.

 

-finally, I wish to renew my protest from the introduction of ossus about adding gear with no new content or level cap. Its just an artificial stat bump and new grind with no purpose other than to nerf the existing content for no reason. This is yet another idiotic move by BW.

 

Seriously, could I just have a refund for my remaining game time?

Edited September 18, 2020 by KendraP

[SaykenGG]

Forcing PVE players into ranked just because there isn’t enough traffic in that game mode is such a ridiculously lazy fix. I’m a new player (came from steam), but I can already tell this implementation isn’t the move. If you want players to play pvp, make pvp fundamentally worth playing. Bad idea.

[DarthFixxxer]

if all players you end up playing with are toxic towards you, I am sorry but the problem might be you if you are not doing many nightmares content then I guess you don't really nee these augments based on towards which players Bioware described they were made for

 

 

Regarding your first sentence, this is not what I said, but I am also not surprised by someone like you twisting someone else's words. In fact, I rarely get aggravated while playing, cause I am a very patient and chill person. It doesn't mean I embrace the toxicity or that I want to be exposed to it.

 

If you don't agree that there is a pretty significant amount of toxic players in the NiM community, then you are just ignoring the truth. I have zero tolerance with toxicity when playing a game, because I play to relax and have fun. And while doing the hardest content is very interesting, and I have had the most fun when doing Gods and Dxun HM or DF/DP NiM, I have also had the worst experiences during the latter.

 

Your logic for augments is unfortunately nonsensical. If the players that can get their hands on the mats needed for augments are the ones that will have to farm NiM operations for months, then they don't really need the augments, do they? The players that are mostly in need of the highest tier augments are the ones that make the transition from HM to NiM.

 

But you are right about one thing. I won't get the new tier of augments and I personally don't need them, nor is it a big problem for me. I parse 22k and I do about the same on single target non level synced fights, so I couldn't care less. This doesn't prevent me from expressing an opinion about the game, and my opinion is that if a game caters to a very specific crowd, opposite of what it has been advertising for years, then that is a horrible development for the game. You can disagree if you want of course, and that's fine. You can't invalidate other people's opinions with your elitism though.

Edited September 18, 2020 by DarthFixxxer

[Zarf]

It honestly seems like a cash-grab to me. Either you go through a nightmare grind to get these new augs or you wait for someone else to go through that grind and buy them via cartel-GTN exchange. Not interested, if it goes live I'm out.

[JattaGin]

For the lulz...

 

Look, I get it. Mr. Kanneg wants everyone to play what he likes to play: NiM OPs and ranked PvP.

 

There is a very easy way to achieve that: deactivate all other activities in this game. Did you think about that? Might be worth a try. Would certainly bring those numbers he wants to achieve.

 

If you don't want to go that road, now would be a good time for Mr. Kanneg to understand that the vast majority of players want to play THEIR OWN WAY and not his way.

 

Looks like the next patch will "fix" a lot of things which I actually like in this game as they are right now. I am not looking forward to it at all.

 

Good day.

[Red-GT-Turtle]

Well it's no wonder those gold farming sites still spam gen chat and mail. It's cause BW actually wants it to be pay-to-win. They WANT us to go spend money on credits, and get banned because it's against the terms of service. GG Bioware. GG..

[Tsillah]

Well it's no wonder those gold farming sites still spam gen chat and mail. It's cause BW actually wants it to be pay-to-win. They WANT us to go spend money on credits, and get banned because it's against the terms of service. GG Bioware. GG..

Yeah this. As if every NiM raider is rich enough to spend many more millions on new augments or else do ranked pvp in the time they actually want to raid for example.

 

And I mean how many times can BioWare say one thing and then do another afterwards? First they want to make all BiS gear available to the average player, now they want to make BiS gear unattainable for most players but that carrot is still there in front of everybody. I mean either way can be fine but please make a frikkin choice will ya.

 

And to add insult to injury they present it as something for people who do NiM raids but then they set the biggest mat requirement in PvP content... it's just going back and forth and for seemingly no reason than to go back and forth.

[hillerbees]

Others, cleverer than me have worked out the maths on all this but to me it seems like you are making people:

1) Run multiple NiM Ops to be in with a CHANCE of being the team member that gets MAT A

AND

2) WIN Ranked matches against the best PVPers in the game to get MAT B

AND

3) Collect most expensive materials in the game

THEN

Use 14 of these precious items to allow you to participate in 1) and 2) successfully!!

 

Have I got it right?!!:eek:

[KendraP]

Others, cleverer than me have worked out the maths on all this but to me it seems like you are making people:

1) Run multiple NiM Ops to be in with a CHANCE of being the team member that gets MAT A

AND

2) WIN Ranked matches against the best PVPers in the game to get MAT B

AND

3) Collect most expensive materials in the game

THEN

Use 14 of these precious items to allow you to participate in 1) and 2) successfully!!

 

Have I got it right?!!:eek:

 

Yes 100% accurate. I hope Mr. Schmidt just got to be the unfortunate soul to present this information and is not the one who came up with this nonsense.

 

Also, what happened to Mr Musco? Did we chase him off?

[TrixxieTriss]

even if they have chauffer driven star ships, people from here won't go the anthem, we'll all go the FF15, or GW2 or the new one by amazon, heck, they'd probably go to mylittlekitty online before that....

 

Star Wars Squadrons launches next month

[Elssha]

Others, cleverer than me have worked out the maths on all this but to me it seems like you are making people:

1) Run multiple NiM Ops to be in with a CHANCE of being the team member that gets MAT A

AND

2) WIN Ranked matches against the best PVPers in the game to get MAT B

AND

3) Collect most expensive materials in the game

THEN

Use 14 of these precious items to allow you to participate in 1) and 2) successfully!!

 

Have I got it right?!!:eek:

 

Nope.

 

Like I said elsewhere, these will be a great way to make credits as a NiM raider, or for teams struggling in NiM it'll be a good way to get that extra boost to kill Dxun while farming legacy ops.

 

The caps in Legacy (all ops BUT Dxun) don't go away, so the only stat these augs will boost is the tertiary; most of my teams still use old (5.0) blues because the tert stat isn't much lower and it wasn't worth the cost to get the new purples for legacy content. We got them later, when prices fell.

 

If a group prevents you from going into Legacy content over some measly tertiary stats you're delusional, or they're looking for an excuse to drop you.

If you can do the content now, you'll be able to do the content then... if you're progging it now, you'll be progging it then. If the group is hard-stuck they'll invest in these to help them make up for the issue they have (low DPS/Heals/squishy tanks).

 

This is not a new tier of gear that's required for a new raid tuned to that gear (i.e. NiM Gods - 258 gear).

 

Also, as was always the case (back in the good ol' days when ops dropped gear) a team gears their members on a set roster, with those most in need/who will gain the greatest benefit getting them first. It's not a 'chance', it's a 'wait your turn for the good of your team'.

 

 

[SteveTheCynic]

To be clear, these augments will require BOTH the PvE material (only available in Master Mode Operations) AND the PvP material (only available in Ranked) to craft. We acknowledge that many players prefer one mode over the other, however we have a robust trading economy that rewards those who make these scarce materials available either via the Galactic Trade Network or simply trade chat.

Did you guys learn nothing from the last time you put in a requirement for top-tier materials earned in PvP *and* in PvE? All the complaints about poor players in Ranked just there to farm materials? All the complaints from PvPers about mats for their gear having to come from PvE? Did all that go by you like so much hot air?

Basics

 

The new Augments will require materials from Master Mode Operations, Ranked PvP Missions and Boxes, and the Cybertech Crew Skill to assemble the new materials. They will be Item Level 300, and named “Superior _____ Augment 77”, depending on the augment. Crafting is split between Armormech, Synthweaving, and Armstech (like existing augments), and those schematics will be available from the Crew Skill Trainer for 35,000 credits.

A little intricate for my taste, but (as far as it goes, and ignoring the sources of the materials), OK, I'll let it ride.

Details

 

• Master Mode bosses will drop a new material: OEM-37
  
  • Most bosses drop 1 in 8-person, 2 in 16-person
    
  • Final bosses drop 3 in 8-person and 6 in 16-person
    
  • Dxun bosses will drop 2 in 8-person and 4 in 16-person
    
  • Apex Vanguard in Dxun will drop 6 in 8-person and 12 in 16-person
    

Clarify please. Is that 1/2/3/6 and 2/4/6/12 per person or that many per boss?

• Ranked PvP Missions and Boxes will drop a new material: RPM -13
  
  • 50% chance in weekly group ranked box
    
    • 5 on Weekly Group Ranked Quest
      

    [*]10% chance in daily group ranked box

    • 1 on Daily Group Ranked Quest
      

    [*]25% chance in weekly solo ranked box

    • 0 in Weekly Solo Ranked Quest
      

    [*]5% chance in daily solo ranked box

    • 0 in Daily Solo Ranked Quest
      

So... Basically nothing compared to what's required to make the objects.

[*]Cybertechs will craft a new material: CM-1337

• 
  
  • This schematic can be purchased from the Crew Skill Trainer for 15,140 credits
    

[*]The 300 Augments ingredients are:

• 5 Artifact Combo Materials
  
• 3 Artifact Secondary Combo Materials
  
• 5 Solid Resource Matrix
  
• 1 CM-1337
  
• 5 Processed Isotope Stabilizer
  

[*]CM-1337 ingredients are:

• 15 OEM-37
  
• 25 RPM-13
  
• 5 Legendary Embers
  

Methinks the rates of production aren't well balanced compared to the requirements for the schematics.

These will be available in the upcoming PTS to try out, so don’t hesitate to pop in and let us know what you think!

My best guess seen from a distance (neither MM Ops nor Team Ranked is even slightly interesting to me, and I'm on general Warzone strike anyway because of the Unranked Deserter Lockout) is that there won't be enough material-sourcing activity to really show anything interesting.

[omaan]

You gotta allow at least team ranked daily and weekly to be completable by losses, at least at half rate. With how it looks currently, only the apex team in the queue will be able to finish the weekly, or at their winrate, even the daily.

 

edit: I mean, nobody will queue for team ranked if losses don't count for daily/weekly too. It is imperative that solo ranked retains the wins-only daily/weekly completion condition.

 

This person is right, no one will even try to play team ranked if losses won't count. Devs should make quests to work as in ranked season 10

[omaan]

Absolutely terrible idea. There is no need for new augments. Every bit of content is very doable with the current gear. If you want to introduce new Augments then make them craftable by using either pve or pvp materials. This way you won't punish players who only play pve or pvp and incentivise it for those who do both modes.

 

Side note: So much to "Play what you want". GJ Bioware forcing players to do pve and pvp to get best in slot gear.

 

Play what you want policy ended when they started to force pvp players to play dxun for getting certain set bonuses which drop only in dxun. Now they need to save nearly a dead game by proper incentives since NiM ops and team ranked can't remain dead

[Huskernutz]

Man where to start with this, there are so many ways in which this iteration of "grind for augments" is terrible

 

I'll start off with the one thing that I think is positive about this; augments are probably the best way in which you could have given a power increase to players without arbitrarily recreating the 306 grind so that's good. Besides that though as the requirement exists right now this will be a colossal failure in regards to all the reasons that you gave.

 

Firstly, you mentioned that this kind of system fuels a robust trading economy which would absolutely be the case if I had any reason to give the mats that I get from NiM ops and ranked to anyone else until literally every character I have is fully auged (which based on the math people smarter than me have done will probably be in like 5 years). This kind of trading worked with Masterwork 258s because the materials gained from NiM Gods happened in parallel with the top-end guilds progression in the raid and from ossus gear, we we're able to fuel a good trading economy from the system because we were able to fully gear in 258s before mat farming really started. With this system that will never happen, we will simply horde the mats for ourselves due to how scarce they are.

 

Secondly, the requirement for players to engage with ranked pvp in order to get the mats is going to directly encourage the kind of gameplay that you have wanted to crack down on recently, that being wintrading. If the most efficient way to get the ranked pvp mat is from the weekly group ranked mission, then whats to stop my NiM guild or a large Conquest guild from just playing group ranked matches against each other until our eyes are bleeding and we have enough mats to make a few augments. We won't be playing to try to get rating or climb the ranked ladder, we'll simply just farm matches in the most efficient way possible to get the mats in the fastest way possible. This will be exactly like what people were doing in 5.0 to farm ranked mats for the 236 and 240 augments and it's simply not going to be fun at all.

 

Finally, the player friendlyness of this system. The motto you went into this expansion with was "play your way", you made it very clear you wanted players to be able to gear through whatever gameplay means they wished and while I didn't necessarily agree with it as a high-end raider I saw the massive benefits that kind of philosophy has for the greater player base, where is that here? If I'm someone who exclusive likes to player high-end operation content (which I am) and I barely touch ranked pvp because I don't want to engage with that content system why am I then being required to interact with that system to further my player power even though I don't play it?

 

Just make it so there's one universal material that drops from both NiM Operations and Ranked PvP that's required for the augments, because if you keep it this way we're just going to resort to degenerate gameplay in order to get the augments as fast as possible.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Huskernutz

[Kaveat]

... we have a robust trading economy...

 

if by "robust" you mean a poorly designed fixed price GTN that promotes and bloated pricing and market control wags (and has not had any serious attention since release), an inflation curve that would make Scrooge turn in his grave, and still in full on run away mode despite multiple poorly planed and implemented 'credit control "features"' (which btw has left the economy in worse straights than before the attempts), then yes.. "robust" fits the bill

 

...Crafting is split between Armormech, Synthweaving, and Armstech (like existing augments), ...

 

and yet the crafting "system" is still imbalanced and broken as hell.

for augments alone, when breaking down the 3 professions that can make augments, the base craft specific materials required to make augments is still very tilted against Armstech, and biochem, artifice and cybertech are completely in the cold.

 

Now, granted that biochem has the benefit of reusable's, but even this has always been seen as very slighted (at minimum, Cybertech should also have some sort of reusable, esp since you neglected to keep grenades in the current content.)

 

As for the tilted numbers, and not counting Ember's, Matricies, or Isotopes, the craft specific material counts are as follows:

276 Augments

Synthweaving: 180

Armormech: 180

Armstech: 336

 

286 Augments

Synthweaving: 1728

Armormech: 1728

Armstech: 3024

 

AT is just completely shafted in comparison to AM and SW, and Art and CT never even got let in out of the cold.

 

Needless to say, some re-balance is called for (and long past due) in respect to augments

[Pietrastor]

Did you guys learn nothing from the last time

NOPE. I think its fair to say this has been Bioware's main, general and overall problem for the past decade or so.

 

As for the whole 'new auguments' topic, my answer is simply LOL. Absolute nonsense.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Pietrastor

[Lord_Thorne]

Ranked PVP players: We hate this! You're forcing us to NiM PVE!

NiM Raiders: We hate this! You're forcing us to PVP!

Crafters who just want to make cool stuff and barely dabble in either PVP or Ops who were already slapped by previous crafting nonsense: *pained silent eyeroll*

[darthscotty]

I hate this, so you are making the new augments inaccessible to a majority of the player base. The people who do both ranked and operations is a very small number, with most doing neither. The prices to buy the matts will be astronomical and the actual augments even worse. Why introduce something that will be inaccessible to more than 90% of your players?