Gearing Feedback

[Merkalto]

I completed the 322+ IR Gearing track for Conquests. My main takeaway was how abundant Medals of Commendation were in comparison to the Aquatic tokens. Completing one conquest gets you enough medals to buy a full set of 320 gear, completing two gives you enough for the 322 gear, etc. In contrast, you need 840 Aquatic tokens to upgrade all of your gear. This isn't terrible, however, it's boring to run the same heroics and dailies, especially since each daily and heroic grants you 3 tokens. While the weekly solo content missions grant a good amount of Aquatic tokens, there's no point in running off-cycle content (e.g. CZ-198 when the Activities panel wants you to do Black Hole). I assume that's intended, but playing through it doesn't feel great.

 

The PvP gearing track also feels rather slow for the same reason. PvP currency is pretty abundant, however, you still have to play solo content for the Aquatic tokens. The weekly heroic mission for unranked grants you 2 (or 3) Aquatic tokens. I know that gearing should take time, however, Aquatic tokens are just scarce for this process to be satisfying.

 

I suggest increasing how many Aquatic tokens are distributed through all content.

 

I also want to bring up Tech Fragments, as they've also become very scarce in this new gearing system. I really like that they've been reduced to only being seriously used for Kai Zykken's shop, the tacticals, and the old cosmetic gear. However, they just drop too slowly! I played a mix of Vet Flashpoints via Group Finder, unranked PvP, and solo content for about 2-3 hours, only to receive around 250 Tech Fragments, while almost everything costs between 1.5K and 3.5K tech fragments.

 

I also suggest increasing how many Tech Fragments are distributed through all content.

 

Otherwise, I enjoyed the Conquest (and some of the PvP) gearing tracks. It seems to be in an alright spot.

[HaevensT]

It's not too late to just not do this.

 

Sure, 6.0 showers you in rewards that may or may not be useful, but at least you could scrap them into fragments to then get the stuff you wanted. Plus, solo players with lots of alts like me could gear up their alts without too much frustration thanks to that.

The new system doesn't add anything of value to the mix. It just makes gearing much harder and boring to get.

Also, please do not remove mods from the gearing system. If you want to give us more room for customization, do not remove the ability to actually customize our gear !

[Taurax]

From what I've done on the PTS, with this new gearing system, and given history that you will come up with some new system for 8.0, I think I'm not really going to stress over getting gear upgrades, and wait for your next system. Grinding isnt fun for me.

 

I'll probably do the GS 2, get those rewards etc, but thats about it, then unsubscribe until new content comes.

[LordCamTheGreat]

Straight up, this new system is terrible imo. It sucks. REALLY sucks. Even when you're playing the content you don't want to play because you're being forced into it via activity finder etc, it's still grindy. We're going from a system which encouraged having alts, encouraged defining your own playstyle, to one that punishes solo players and punishes those who don't want to play the exact content that is available that week.

 

6.0 - play any content you like. Literally anything. Make progress towards getting better gear and getting tech frags, the one resource needed to get set bonus and tactical gear.

 

7.0 - you are not allowed to play the majority of the content in the game if it's not in the activity window this week. Sure you could manually find it, but you won't get any one of the 6 or so resources you need to upgrade your gear. What's more, there are now three different reward tracks that all have identical stats - which is stupid and pointlessly confusing especially for new players. Don't play ops? You are not allowed to have the best gear. Why? Who knows. I'm so sick of gatekeeping for character progression.

 

I played through a veteran mode flashpoint solo as I do on live to complete the weekly. Here's what I found - it doesn't count towards the weekly because I did it solo. That's right, solo players don't get rewarded for playing certain content anymore. Further, I got ONE item from two of the bosses. The last boss gave me nothing. One of the items was green "Elite" and the other was a blue "Supreme" - but both have identical stats to what I already have equipped and thus appear worthless to me. Sure I could upgrade them, but then I'd have to crack out an excel spreadsheet to keep track of what equipment I'm upgrading through flashpoints, what equipment I'm upgrading through conquests, which I'm upgrading through operations etc. Also, I got 150 tech frags total from doing the whole thing.

 

I then managed to get an activity finder pop and played through the new flashpoint (which tbf does look pretty cool) and got ONE gear piece. 320 rating, same as what I currently have. I also got a whopping 6 decurion isotope stabilizers from the final boss. I need 135 PER ITEM to upgrade from 320 to 322 iRating gear. The best part? Group finder rewards don't even give you the resources you need to upgrade your flashpoint gear.

 

This feels terrible considering each tactical STILL costs 3k tech frags and further, the new legendary implants which you have to do a long winded mission to unlock require, PER ITEM: 100 medals of commendation, 20 aquatic resource matrix and 6,500 tech frags...

I remember the devs saying that legendary implants would be somewhat easy to get. This is straight up not the case as the amount of tech frags you gain by playing content has been drastically reduced. That 100 you get every renown level? GONE. That excess gear you can breakdown into tech frags? GONE. The group finder operation gear box? GONE.

Just to unlock the ability to purchase legendary items requires you to complete a large amount of mainly group content per character. Then you need a large sum of materials that are no longer easy to farm. Bye bye easy alt gearing.

 

So, not only is this new system grindier, it's split between 3 needlessly complicated systems with multiple different reward tracks that cap out at different iRatings and require different quantities of the same or different new endgame resources. But hey, at least it's not galactic command right?

 

If you want to grind out things like daily areas for the small amount of aquatic resources you get (because there aren't really any other places to get them), you are limited to only being allowed to do a few of them because the activity finder won't let you otherwise. I manually went to the black hole and saw that you can't even do the weekly when it's not in group finder. Terrible

 

I am not at all looking forward to this new system. Not one bit. I wasn't when it was first announced and having played through it a bit, I'm even less convinced about the new gearing plan. What we gain in reduced RNG, we lose in practically everything else. I don't think I have a single good thing to say about this system. Reducing RNG is nice in theory - but then I look at the fact that without modded gear I literally cannot gain 110% accuracy, which is the minimum requirement to be considered operations ready. I just don't get it.

 

 

TLDR:

How does the flow of acquiring gear feel?

 

Slow and unsatisfying with needlessly grindy and complex upgrade paths especially considering the restrictions on content you are allowed to play.

 

What are your thoughts on the pace to acquire gear?

 

Far too slow and grindy. Multiple new endgame resources + multiple new endgame tracks with no statistical difference = BAD.

[JakRoanin]

Straight up, this new system is terrible imo. It sucks. REALLY sucks. Even when you're playing the content you don't want to play because you're being forced into it via activity finder etc, it's still grindy. We're going from a system which encouraged having alts, encouraged defining your own playstyle, to one that punishes solo players and punishes those who don't want to play the exact content that is available that week.

 

6.0 - play any content you like. Literally anything. Make progress towards getting better gear and getting tech frags, the one resource needed to get set bonus and tactical gear.

 

7.0 - you are not allowed to play the majority of the content in the game if it's not in the activity window this week. Sure you could manually find it, but you won't get any one of the 6 or so resources you need to upgrade your gear. What's more, there are now three different reward tracks that all have identical stats - which is stupid and pointlessly confusing especially for new players. Don't play ops? You are not allowed to have the best gear. Why? Who knows. I'm so sick of gatekeeping for character progression.

 

I played through a veteran mode flashpoint solo as I do on live to complete the weekly. Here's what I found - it doesn't count towards the weekly because I did it solo. That's right, solo players don't get rewarded for playing certain content anymore. Further, I got ONE item from two of the bosses. The last boss gave me nothing. One of the items was green "Elite" and the other was a blue "Supreme" - but both have identical stats to what I already have equipped and thus appear worthless to me. Sure I could upgrade them, but then I'd have to crack out an excel spreadsheet to keep track of what equipment I'm upgrading through flashpoints, what equipment I'm upgrading through conquests, which I'm upgrading through operations etc. Also, I got 150 tech frags total from doing the whole thing.

 

I then managed to get an activity finder pop and played through the new flashpoint (which tbf does look pretty cool) and got ONE gear piece. 320 rating, same as what I currently have. I also got a whopping 6 decurion isotope stabilizers from the final boss. I need 135 PER ITEM to upgrade from 320 to 322 iRating gear. The best part? Group finder rewards don't even give you the resources you need to upgrade your flashpoint gear.

 

This feels terrible considering each tactical STILL costs 3k tech frags and further, the new legendary implants which you have to do a long winded mission to unlock require, PER ITEM: 100 medals of commendation, 20 aquatic resource matrix and 6,500 tech frags...

I remember the devs saying that legendary implants would be somewhat easy to get. This is straight up not the case as the amount of tech frags you gain by playing content has been drastically reduced. That 100 you get every renown level? GONE. That excess gear you can breakdown into tech frags? GONE. The group finder operation gear box? GONE.

Just to unlock the ability to purchase legendary items requires you to complete a large amount of mainly group content per character. Then you need a large sum of materials that are no longer easy to farm. Bye bye easy alt gearing.

 

So, not only is this new system grindier, it's split between 3 needlessly complicated systems with multiple different reward tracks that cap out at different iRatings and require different quantities of the same or different new endgame resources. But hey, at least it's not galactic command right?

 

If you want to grind out things like daily areas for the small amount of aquatic resources you get (because there aren't really any other places to get them), you are limited to only being allowed to do a few of them because the activity finder won't let you otherwise. I manually went to the black hole and saw that you can't even do the weekly when it's not in group finder. Terrible

 

I am not at all looking forward to this new system. Not one bit. I wasn't when it was first announced and having played through it a bit, I'm even less convinced about the new gearing plan. What we gain in reduced RNG, we lose in practically everything else. I don't think I have a single good thing to say about this system. Reducing RNG is nice in theory - but then I look at the fact that without modded gear I literally cannot gain 110% accuracy, which is the minimum requirement to be considered operations ready. I just don't get it.

 

 

TLDR:

 

 

Slow and unsatisfying with needlessly grindy and complex upgrade paths especially considering the restrictions on content you are allowed to play.

 

 

 

Far too slow and grindy. Multiple new endgame resources + multiple new endgame tracks with no statistical difference = BAD.

 

This is the truth! I finally got the 100 whatchya-ma-call-its to get access to the vender for the implants, (a grind so tedious I got, ) then I can't afford them! :mad: What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is this? The cap on the tech fragments is frustrating enough on Live, but with this new gearing system it's like the designers want to make players feel like this is a job, not a relaxing fun experience. I feel so unappreciated for paying my sub faithfully. That's what's got me so upset.

Edited December 22, 2021 by JakRoanin

[Toraak]

While I'm glad the RNG of 6.0 is gone, and don't mind slower gearing. I do think the speed at which solo players get Aquatic resource Matrix's is a bit slow. Last build had each heroic weekly give 100 which I felt was to much, and made gearing to fast, however 20 feels to low and does make gearing from conquest feel a lot more grindy then it should be considering that they are only able to get up to 326 Green gear.

 

With that being said 3 per heroic feels fine, but what about making the weekly for the heroics on each planet 40 or 50 instead of 20 (same for the Daily weeklies). This way solo players still have to work for the gear, but it won't be quite as slow a grind as it is now. With the weekly cap set at 999 this will still give solo players plenty of things to do, and it will still take them a good amount of work to get to the weekly cap, but at the same time they won't hit that cap within one playtime for many casual players.

[neverdespise]

Hello,

 

I noticed that the rewards for missions and side quests are based on the combat style rather than the class that was chosen. I think that it would be much better to get gear that represents the story being played, rather than the style of combat. (i.e. bounty hunter story but receiving agent gear).

[klizilii]

If I had to summarize:

 

Gearing past 320 is super grindy and the "carrot" to do weekly content is barely even a single bite.

[Aethyriel]

Getting gear is grindy as hell. Upgrading a single piece of gear from 320 to the every so slightly better 322 takes way too long considering you will be replacing the 322 gear you spend currency on when you get 324 gear as a direct drop from the higher difficulty Op you can run with 320 gear already.

 

An example would be the cost of increasing Mastery by 0.2%, Critical Rate - not the percentage of actual crit chance - by 0.37% and Power by 0.19%:

 

170 Decurion Isotope Stabilizers

15 Medals of Commendation

25 Aquatic Resource Matrix

 

You get 200 Medals for your conquest per character. So that's fine. Why the hell do you also get 2 of those same exact Medals for clearing a daily random Vet FP? how is one single Vet FP equal to 1% of an entire conquest? Still, one conquest and you can upgrade 10 pieces of gear or so. That's easy.

 

You get 25 Aquatic resource matrix for doing a set of weekly heroic quests. This isn't too bad either. 3-6 heroic missions for an upgrade is reasonable.

 

You apparently get DIS by running Fps. We ran three MM FPs which now take forever. I'm basically already half geared in 320 gear from MM Fps. I have 34 of those DIS. One piece needs 170. Now somebody tell me what the hell went wrong here.

 

Another major issue is not hitting any caps whatsoever with the gear. As I've said, I have almost full 320 gear from MM Fps - I have 104% accuracy and ~ 3% alacrity. The accuracy isn't sufficient. The alacrity does nothing. It's a totally pointless stat right now. The augments have also lost worth and I can't figure out why you'd take a decent gearing system and replace it with this crap while also not updating crafting to reflect gear progression.

 

There is so much uncertainty around crafting currently. Are we supposed to all save up for the 300 augments? Will they be the best we can get during this 7.0 iteration of the game? Because it takes forever for a rather new player to get them and I fear they might be obsolete once the new OP hits and possibly new augments possibly become available but all we get is silence.

 

The new gearing system overall seems super grindy, convoluted, inefficient and punishes players who actually understand what stats they want and why. Removing amplifiers is the same thing. Punishes players who understand their class in order for some super casual who barely manages to complete his story missions to not be frightened by too many numbers and options.

 

The new gearing system offers zero fun. The new loadouts are totally wasted as well because you'll have to all / most of your gear to other characters you play all the time because the max level stuff is so difficult to get and it takes such a long time. And in order for the loadout to load the gear, you need to have it in your inventory or equipped.

 

If you wanted to reward players clearing Nim Ops or playing ranked PVP and such, you could've and should've done it with bind on pickup materials that allow crafting better augments to set themselves apart. Not making everyone go through this long and boring gated gear progression.

 

It doesn't even feel like we're progressing at all. It feels like getting significantly weaker and then slowly building yourself up to still be relatively weaker than your lv 75 counterpart. If this is the final version of the new swtor experience, I'm not sure I want to play it. Probably not.

[JattaGin]

Main gearing acquisition and upgrade flows are now on PTS!

 

• How does the flow of acquiring gear feel?
  
• What are your thoughts on the pace to acquire gear?
  
• Feel free to leave general feedback as well
  

 

Thank you!

 

This feedback is about gearing below level 80.

 

Why do you go back to providing outdated gear during missions?

 

I just finished chapter 3 with my smuggler, who started level 75 and is now level 77. The gear I got from Corellia is irating 114. Which means, it is 100% useless. You did it so right with the previous gearing system: You always got gear according to your irating. But now, all the gear I received while playing the class missions was rubbish again, and I vendored it immediately. What is the point? I don't understand why you're going back to a system which you abandoned, because it was bad? It makes no sense to me.

[Pricia]

This feedback is about gearing below level 80.

 

Why do you go back to providing outdated gear during missions?

 

I just finished chapter 3 with my smuggler, who started level 75 and is now level 77. The gear I got from Corellia is irating 114. Which means, it is 100% useless. You did it so right with the previous gearing system: You always got gear according to your irating. But now, all the gear I received while playing the class missions was rubbish again, and I vendored it immediately. What is the point? I don't understand why you're going back to a system which you abandoned, because it was bad? It makes no sense to me.

 

You mean drops or mission rewards? Drops have always been your level but rewards whatever level the mission was originally intended for.

[shadowlight_]

The number of Decurion Isotope Stabilizers required to upgrade gear from Flashpoints seem excessive. Many pieces require 85-140 isotopes. With each boss potentially dropping 6 isotopes, that would make 14-23 bosses to upgrade one piece. That is on top of getting the other mats.

 

Also, hopefully that GSF will also give a path to upgrade gear similar to pvp or else GSF pops may not happen as often.

[ralphieceaser]

I would be completely ok with gear being more grindy to get to max.

 

But with the way it is now, people have to grind a lot for gear that is seriously inferior to OPS, 326 and no mods while ops get 330-334.

 

I am sorry but when you know ops players are getting 330 gear through ops and you have to grind like crazy for a sad 326 we have a problem, same problem as WoW where korthia gave a pathetic 233 after weeks of grinding while anyone that raided/m+ was at 252-259.

 

And I hope you know that historically casuals who never did ops, never end up doing OPS because the best gear is there, only few like me do, the majority dont bother and often quit when they know there's no point grinding for gear that is inferior

Remember, the social barrier of OPS is the real problem and why people most people dont bother, that obstacle is not something that have ever been overcome by increasing rewards, only the removal of said obstacle can get people in it for the rewards.

[EHKodiak]

The cost of gearing is a bit nuts. 60 aquatic resource matrixes for a conquest gear upgrade? Oof - was much better the way before.

[Pricia]

, the majority dont bother and often quit when they know there's no point grinding for gear that is inferior

 

Yep, I'm not planning to. There's no point. In the last two years I've leveled and geared 34 characters. As a solo player, there's not really much incentive to stick to one character at max level. And I love the story, so I made new alts. I still did CQ on all of them because I love the game and I felt like I was actually getting something from it (fragments, embers, being able to trade for RPMs etc).

 

They totally ruined the game I've loved in the last 2 years. All that's left now is the story and it will be done in one week (on all my characters). Even CQ will give laughable rewards after 4 characters. Huge grind for every single character to end up with gear that's worse than what I currently have. Why even bother?

Edited December 24, 2021 by Pricia

[FlameYOL]

• How does the flow of acquiring gear feel?
  

I've gotten to Irating 322 today by doing the flashpoint progression path, specifically veteran flashpoints. The flow of acquiring gear itself isn't too bad, doesn't take too long to do a veteran FP so doing three for an upgrade isn't a big deal.

 

I'd say the biggest issue I've encountered is that a lot of times I'll be getting drops from the boss that is inferior to my 322 gear instead of an upgrade, is this a bug or intended because if its the latter I think its a huge flaw. I shouldn't be getting equipment I'm not able to use, also a lot of duplicates even when I was still on the process of acquiring 320 gear. As an example I would get 3 or 4 double-bladed lightsabers in a row despite my lowest Irating pieces being my headpiece, chest piece, belt, etc.

 

Upgrading it through the vendor isn't too bad but I feel like the prices could be less steep, just slightly obviously you wouldn't want the players to be able to upgrade to max Irating 30 seconds after the patch is out because everyone and their Akk dogs farmed Hammer Station. But doing one weekly should net you enough of the aquatic resource matrices for an upgrade IMO, as well as doing the FP weekly equivalent with the new decurion isotopes, or perhaps just slightly more. But as it is I do believe its a bit needlessly grindy.

 

• What are your thoughts on the pace to acquire gear?
  

Thank you!

Again this has potential, its not as grindy as the 2.0 gearing used to be but its not as RNG-heavy as the 5.0/6.0 era is. I'd say the biggest issues with it for me right now is the duplicates dropping from the boss, and the cost of materials that I feel should be slightly lower. But overall it won't take too long to get to max Irating, and I like the idea of making dailies and heroics relevant when it comes to endgame (or just in general).

[ralphieceaser]

lot of times I'll be getting drops from the boss that is inferior to my 322 gear instead of an upgrade, is this a bug or intended because if its the latter I think its a huge flaw.

That is a big issue I ve been mentioning for a while.

 

 

If you spend some time doing content, and dont get something out of it that is relevant for you, you feel annoyed that you wasted your time for NOTHING.

 

At least in 6.0 even if all the drops didnt happen to be useful, you could just RE them and get tech fragments which is something that let's you progress your character's power in a more deterministic fashion, meaning at least you got something good out of it.

[klizilii]

If people would kindly read the information the dev team has provided us they would know that you do not get gear upgrades from bosses. You only get items that match the item rating of the currently equipped item.

[Pricia]

That is a big issue I ve been mentioning for a while.

 

 

If you spend some time doing content, and dont get something out of it that is relevant for you, you feel annoyed that you wasted your time for NOTHING.

 

At least in 6.0 even if all the drops didnt happen to be useful, you could just RE them and get tech fragments which is something that let's you progress your character's power in a more deterministic fashion, meaning at least you got something good out of it.

 

And solo players have no opportunity whatsoever of getting gear drops. None.

 

Horrible.

[merovejec]

And solo players have no opportunity whatsoever of getting gear drops. None.

 

Horrible.

 

You can get the 322 gear by doing heroics and conquest. But I understand what u mean. Right now u get gear based on rating from anything u do, so for a solo player thats the best.

[merovejec]

If people would kindly read the information the dev team has provided us they would know that you do not get gear upgrades from bosses. You only get items that match the item rating of the currently equipped item.

 

Then there should be no gear drops, why are they there in the first place? In a MM Fps i got an gear upgrade, i got a 326 piece while im mostly 320 gear.

[Dmnqwk]

Maybe Bioware should ask themselves a simple question

 

'Why gear?'

 

They've stated 'we want operations players to farm better gear because they need it to perform better in harder operations' then while the logic doesn't immediately follow, it is congruent that 'nobody outside of operations needs to do any gearing whatsoever because the content stays the same.'

 

Just give everybody access to as much 326 as they want, for credits if need be as a money sink, and have it so you don't bother to gear at all unless you're doing operations.

 

Seems a bit stupid to give anybody 316 only to have them spend a month farming 326, then nothing for the 8 months it takes before any new content comes out and they boost the number.

 

About time Bioware put some thought into it.

[Lady_Myajha]

I'm going to set my two cents in here. But solo players getting told to force group or go home, and the fact that when you do the missions you run the risk due to RNG of not getting anything useful and just wasting time, has to be the worst idea ever in the history of MMOs.

 

So I say do away with RNG. You already have a system in place for Tech Fragments, just use those as rewards. So, without actually real numbers, a story flashpoint gives you 1 tech fragment, a vet flashpoint gives you 3 tech fragments, a operation gives out 5 tech fragments, and a full raid gives out 7 tech fragments. Do away with gear drops entirely, and just have it be RNG tech fragment drops in their place.

 

You then can go an purchase gear that is actually useful. The higher the iRating the more tech fragments it cost, and the more grind you have to do.

 

This system will still reward those who raid more, but not put out into the cold the solo player.

[Pricia]

You can get the 322 gear by doing heroics and conquest. But I understand what u mean. Right now u get gear based on rating from anything u do, so for a solo player thats the best.

 

Nope you don't get any GEAR drops as a solo players. You only get upgrade parts. Which means that, basically, if you're a solo player with alts, you can't even give your alts your best gear to get better drops... because you don't get drops. You have to upgrade everything from scratch for every single character.

 

The only way that would be ok is if the gear could be added to collections, with a minimal fee to unlock it for all characters. The way it is, it's going to actually take years to gear up alts as a solo player.

 

Again, absolutely horrible.

[Mankall]

I agree reaching that was far too quick, the pace was far too fast, I could gear to 306 in just a week or two so I absolutely agree the pacing needed fixing.

 

On that point, I have to disagree.

 

There is one thing, people tend to forget, and the developers like to ignore with a lot of enthusiasm: The players can creeate up to 100 characters on every single server! And no matter how many characters the players create or play with in the end, when I give the players that possitibility, a gearing system that is slow paced or endless grinding or is bound to a character is absolutely a no go. And that goes for other systems as well.

 

So far, the only positive thing, I can say about the 7.0 gearing system is, that the items are still bound to the legacy.

 

The system doesn't feel rewarding. It just feels grindy. The update paths make it too complicated. Essentially it is a step backwards. Locking bis-gear behind specific content is discriminatory. The argument that comes up at that point: "For the content you play, you don't need that. Green is enough!" is not valid. Players are competitive. and humans are jealous by nature.

 

In total that system feels more like work, instead of fun.