Severith Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 7.0's best gear is being locked behind Ops. Credits are almost worthless at this point, requiring hundreds of millions to buy mediocre cosmetics. People are already buying Op carries from guilds, for hundreds of millions, for exclusive raider cosmetics. It's pretty easy to see that 7.0 will feature a lot of Guild's carrying people for profit, and as credits become more and more worthless, ultimate packs and hypercrates (or specific purchases the guild asks for) are going to be the real currency in those transactions. So who benefits? Follow the money. Whales < Raiding guilds selling carries < EA. I humbly submit to you, the real reason renown is getting axed, conquest nerfed, crafting reduced to uselessness, and a host of other questionable decisions for 7.0. Just like Blizzard made huge bank on people buying Wow Tokens to pay for carries in raids, the 7.0 gearing structure will push non-raiders into spending real money to get hypercrates, and trade those for carries from raiding guilds. These players won't need the gear of course, objectively speaking from a game mechanic point of view. Yet they will need this gear, from a psychological point of view. We all know what it means to stand in front of the Stormwind bank, on a raid tier mount in raid tier gear, don't we? And we all know what it feels like to be a plebian in an mmo, staring up at those bastards thinking, someday that will be me looking down on the common folk. Finally, Bioware Austin understands the mind of a gamer. Finally, you too can stand with the elite, while the scrubs stare at your item rating in jealousy. All it will take is a mere 300-400$ worth of hypercrates. If you've got a few billion credits, buy a few now and take some of the sting off your real wallet. Buying carries isn't just a gaming option. It's a lifestyle. You're not roleplaying a bum in the gutter, are you? No one's going to believe you're good at the game with that 316 item level. It's 326, or off to the dumpster with you, even in groups doing content that doesn't even benefit from 326. Because that's how the mind of an online gamer works. You're either the best, or you're nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixxieTriss Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Or you could just forget about it altogether and save your money and credits. Like you said, no one needs the highest irated gear to clear the content. Not only that, but as the year progresses, the irating on ALL gear will increase. The only reason for doing the Ops (if you don’t normally do them) is to get access to the mods vendor earlier in the year. And the only players, besides Ops players that actually need access to the mods vendor are pvpers. They are the real losers in all of this because their gear is also the lowest irated, which means it will take the longest to get access to the mods vendor. There by proving yet again that BioWare has no regard for the pvp community and it’s no wonder it continues to die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eabevella Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 (edited) I've seen a person on fleet gen chat on SF LF 2 tanks for like an hour. The lead was offering 2 ultimate cartel packs each for each tank who x up but no one answered. It's for a SM operation and not even Dxun. Granted it was during the wee hour but that's a deal too good to be passed for an hour. I would have taken the offer if I had tanked that operation (I think it's EC) before lol Back to the topic: Most Solo and SM operation players won't give a damn to the highest gear. Yes, it would suck, but whatever Bioware was thinking, forcing "casual" players into "hardcore" contents by gear gating won't be effective at all. If anything, it will repel most casual solo players from trying SM OPs and casual SM OPs players from trying HM OPs. If that's what Bioware actually wants, then so be it. No one who play casual would spend billions of credits just for some gears. Edited December 13, 2021 by eabevella Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toraak Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 (edited) Or you could just forget about it altogether and save your money and credits. Like you said, no one needs the highest irated gear to clear the content. Not only that, but as the year progresses, the irating on ALL gear will increase. The only reason for doing the Ops (if you don’t normally do them) is to get access to the mods vendor earlier in the year. And the only players, besides Ops players that actually need access to the mods vendor are pvpers. They are the real losers in all of this because their gear is also the lowest irated, which means it will take the longest to get access to the mods vendor. There by proving yet again that BioWare has no regard for the pvp community and it’s no wonder it continues to die. I keep seeing this on the forums, but how do we know this is true in 7.0? have people who claim this tested NiM Ops on the PTS? I'm not saying it's wrong, but from what I see it usually comes from players that don't do NiM, so haven't actually tested how the balance is going to be on the PTS. All I'm asking for is confirmation from someone who has actually done the proper testing of NiM on the PTS to confirm or deny this. what are the NiM Ops actually being balanced around? Since BW did say most content is balanced around 318, does that mean NiM is as well, or is balanced around 326-330 irating Edited December 13, 2021 by Toraak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Spectre Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 (edited) 7.0's best gear is being locked behind Ops. Credits are almost worthless at this point, requiring hundreds of millions to buy mediocre cosmetics. People are already buying Op carries from guilds, for hundreds of millions, for exclusive raider cosmetics. It's pretty easy to see that 7.0 will feature a lot of Guild's carrying people for profit, and as credits become more and more worthless, ultimate packs and hypercrates (or specific purchases the guild asks for) are going to be the real currency in those transactions. So who benefits? Follow the money. Whales < Raiding guilds selling carries < EA. I humbly submit to you, the real reason renown is getting axed, conquest nerfed, crafting reduced to uselessness, and a host of other questionable decisions for 7.0. Just like Blizzard made huge bank on people buying Wow Tokens to pay for carries in raids, the 7.0 gearing structure will push non-raiders into spending real money to get hypercrates, and trade those for carries from raiding guilds. These players won't need the gear of course, objectively speaking from a game mechanic point of view. Yet they will need this gear, from a psychological point of view. We all know what it means to stand in front of the Stormwind bank, on a raid tier mount in raid tier gear, don't we? And we all know what it feels like to be a plebian in an mmo, staring up at those bastards thinking, someday that will be me looking down on the common folk. Finally, Bioware Austin understands the mind of a gamer. Finally, you too can stand with the elite, while the scrubs stare at your item rating in jealousy. All it will take is a mere 300-400$ worth of hypercrates. If you've got a few billion credits, buy a few now and take some of the sting off your real wallet. Buying carries isn't just a gaming option. It's a lifestyle. You're not roleplaying a bum in the gutter, are you? No one's going to believe you're good at the game with that 316 item level. It's 326, or off to the dumpster with you, even in groups doing content that doesn't even benefit from 326. Because that's how the mind of an online gamer works. You're either the best, or you're nothing. It's called discriminatory practices BioWare is employing in their game. It was this horse scat that forced me to quit after 6.0. Same bovine excrement. It would appear that the developers (especially those who have their own raid guilds in the game) cater to these one percenters with modable gear and the rest of us get stuck with the scat gear. Green from conquest? Blues from Flash Points and other Ops NOT NIM? You'd think after the uproar they caused with 6.0 they'd NOT pull this elitist stunt again. I have 306 gear on a number of my characters. I refuse to put them inferior green gear. I'll pass that around to those who can wear them. The others, who will not have access to modable gear, I'll delete them. If players cannot accept this, too damned bad. It is plain as day that the developers of this game are elitist catering biased people. They need to stop this damned nonsense. This is what Square Enix has 24 million active subscribers playing FFXIV. Square Enix does not gate gear. They make it available to everyone, they do not differentiate between casuals or hardcore players. That is exactly what these developers here do. This is one cardinal sin no business should ever do. And BW has committed this, going all in with this new gearing system. It is discrimination against non-NIM raid players. Edited December 13, 2021 by Ghost_Spectre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Spectre Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 7.0's best gear is being locked behind Ops. Credits are almost worthless at this point, requiring hundreds of millions to buy mediocre cosmetics. People are already buying Op carries from guilds, for hundreds of millions, for exclusive raider cosmetics. It's pretty easy to see that 7.0 will feature a lot of Guild's carrying people for profit, and as credits become more and more worthless, ultimate packs and hypercrates (or specific purchases the guild asks for) are going to be the real currency in those transactions. This should be a clear violation against ToS and the EULA. I do hope that someone puts together factual undeniable evidence of this happening. Then give it to BW and see if they will act or dismiss it. In my opinion, it will be the latter. Just like Team Blood Lust/NCSoft did when it was given to them. Then you will know that BW approves of this as they are benefiting from it because real money is involved. This is one thing that Square Enix acts on with impunity. They delete accounts, including accounts that have been around since 2.0 originally launched (ARR). It will also reveal the corruption in the company too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaryusa Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 7.0's best gear is being locked behind Ops. Credits are almost worthless at this point, requiring hundreds of millions to buy mediocre cosmetics. People are already buying Op carries from guilds, for hundreds of millions, for exclusive raider cosmetics. It's pretty easy to see that 7.0 will feature a lot of Guild's carrying people for profit, and as credits become more and more worthless, ultimate packs and hypercrates (or specific purchases the guild asks for) are going to be the real currency in those transactions. [...] These players won't need the gear of course, objectively speaking from a game mechanic point of view. Yet they will need this gear, from a psychological point of view. We all know what it means to stand in front of the Stormwind bank, on a raid tier mount in raid tier gear, don't we? And we all know what it feels like to be a plebian in an mmo, staring up at those bastards thinking, someday that will be me looking down on the common folk. While I completely agree there are people buying/selling carries for shinies that drop from ops or specific titles/achievements (and it costs a couple more 0s than you mentioned), I don't think full nim carries specifically for gear will become a thing outside of that already small community. As expac progresses, max gear rating to be obtained from other types of content will increase and players will be able to get it outside ops, so unless you want to get max tier on week 1, there's no need to worry. People flexing their 'raid tier mount' on the fleet and 'looking down on the common folk' as you said it is a very elitist mentality, and if it's done by people that got carried to the clear... it just says a lot about them. Not to say that nobody should be proud of their crests/wings/etc, those items are difficult to obtain and require a lot of time progging and I'm always happy to see people that put a lot of their time and effort succeed. But I'm going off topic here. Buying carries isn't just a gaming option. It's a lifestyle. You're not roleplaying a bum in the gutter, are you? No one's going to believe you're good at the game with that 316 item level. It's 326, or off to the dumpster with you, even in groups doing content that doesn't even benefit from 326. You probably wouldn't believe it but I've seen tons of players in 280s random gear do better than those in fully augged 306 set gear, so I don't judge them by what gear they use but whether they let the group know they're new to a certain mm flashpoint or sm/hm ops and whether they listen to explanations/follow mechanics. You can still max out your gear and have a reputation for being a bad player. Example from the other day - my guild was doing a lblo (last boss lockout) run of a certain hm ops and we had to pug a dps. We got a person with 306 gear with gold augs. When we asked if he needs quick explanations on the mechanics he said he's cleared it and got the achievements, so we were good to go. Then he continued wiping on the first phase because he was standing where he shouldn't and died to the aoe. The pug we replaced him with was in sub 300 gear but was willing to listen and learn and although we didn't one shot the boss we cleared it and gained a new guildie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JediQuaker Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Hmmm, it used to be that when you saw someone with a particular 'shiny' you could think "that person is a PvP'er or a NiM raider". Now all I think is " that person is probably just a whale." 🙂 "Shinys" from OPs have become essentially meaningless. 😏 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MystyqeofXev Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Carries for credits. Been saying that for a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severith Posted December 15, 2021 Author Share Posted December 15, 2021 I've seen a person on fleet gen chat on SF LF 2 tanks for like an hour. The lead was offering 2 ultimate cartel packs each for each tank who x up but no one answered. It's for a SM operation and not even Dxun. Granted it was during the wee hour but that's a deal too good to be passed for an hour. I would have taken the offer if I had tanked that operation (I think it's EC) before lol Back to the topic: Most Solo and SM operation players won't give a damn to the highest gear. Yes, it would suck, but whatever Bioware was thinking, forcing "casual" players into "hardcore" contents by gear gating won't be effective at all. If anything, it will repel most casual solo players from trying SM OPs and casual SM OPs players from trying HM OPs. If that's what Bioware actually wants, then so be it. No one who play casual would spend billions of credits just for some gears. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is an acknowledged and integral (and integrating) factor in the monetization of video games outside of initial purchase prices and online subscriptions. In fact, it applies in multiple degrees. It's not about "most" or "casual" players, it's about extracting money from payers. The 80/20 rule, in economics, states that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers. Applied a second time, 64% of revenue is generated by just 4% of a playerbase. This is exactly how free to play, mobile, and in this case, hybrid sub/f2p online games work, and that 4% (probably more as time goes on) is exactly who is going to be buying hypercrates to pay for op carries in SWTOR. I don't think "most" people, or casuals in WoW paid for raid carries, but 100% of them in the past few expansions saw the spam in general chat and LFR selling carry services, and close to 100% of them knew friends/guild members who purchased carries on a regular basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severith Posted December 15, 2021 Author Share Posted December 15, 2021 (edited) While I completely agree there are people buying/selling carries for shinies that drop from ops or specific titles/achievements (and it costs a couple more 0s than you mentioned), I don't think full nim carries specifically for gear will become a thing outside of that already small community. As expac progresses, max gear rating to be obtained from other types of content will increase and players will be able to get it outside ops, so unless you want to get max tier on week 1, there's no need to worry. Thanks for the very articulate response, but from what I've read, that's factually incorrect. Yes, gear drops item level from activities outside operations will rise as the expansion gets patches, and those will eventually match gear drops from 7.0 operations, however..... New operations, introduced in 7.1 and 7.2, etc, will offer a higher tier of gear than available previously. In other words, more difficult operations will always the be the only source for the best gear for the entire expansion, not just the 7.0 launch. I'd also state that the main "intention" of the 7.0 gearing mechanics is clearly to get more people to participate in operations. It's a smaller part of the community now, but if the devs achieve what they're working towards then it's going to be a lot larger for the next couple of years. All your other comments, I agree more or less. The best skill any player, of any game can have is the ability to listen and learn. But that's easy for a lot of people to forget, and it takes a very special community culture (like FF14) to push back against the gamer mentality of "numbers first". In SWTOR, the critical mass for maintaining a community of players with that healthy attitude is pretty small. (Ex. A guild can only get so big before toxic behavior creeps in, and maintaining positive relationships between larger and larger groups of individuals begins to require exponential effort.) Edited December 15, 2021 by Severith added "dev's intentions" for 7.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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