Gear and Progression changes coming with 7.2

[BryantWood]

Hey Community!

It’s time to talk about the changes you’ll see coming with patch 7.2 that impact gearing and progression!

Increasing the Power Floor
7.2 will be the first time we raise what we call the power floor! As the 7.0 era progresses, we will occasionally raise the base item ratings for Legacy of the Sith content. Here are the changes that will come with increasing the power floor:

• Rewards from the Legacy of the Sith story will be increased to 322 (up from 318)
• The minimum item rating of gear dropped for level 80 players in non-PvP content will be increased to 324 (up from 320)
• The minimum item rating of gear obtained for level 80 players in PvP content will be increased to 322 (from 318)
• The item rating of gear sold by the Conquest Gear Vendors will be increased to 324 (up from 320)
• The item rating of gear sold by the PvP Gear Vendors will be increased to 322 (up from 316)
• New Vendors will be added to the Fleet selling Flashpoint and Operations gear at item rating 324 for their respective currencies
• Gear vendors on the Fleet have been repositioned to make room for the new vendors

Why are we increasing the power floor?
As the Legacy of the Sith expansion continues we will increase the maximum item rating to bring new power to the game, like we did with patch 7.1. For players who are recently joining our community or recently reaching level 80, this increases the amount of effort required to catch up to the community. We want these players to be able to play with you all, so these floor increases are aimed to ensure the effort required doesn’t become too daunting. Power Floor increases will happen less often than Power Ceiling increases.

Increasing the Power Ceiling
With 7.2 we’ll be doing our second power increase, introducing higher item ratings of power to defeat your enemies! Here are the new maximum item ratings players can obtain:

• Noble Decurion Gear – 336 (up from 330)
• Elite Decurion Gear – 336 (up from 330)
• Supreme Decurion Gear – 336 (up from 330)
• Tionese Gear – 336 (up from 330)
• Columi Gear – 336 (up from 330)
• Rakata Gear – 336 (up from 330)
• Thyrsian Gear – 332 (up from 328)

New modifications from Hyde and Zeek
Hyde and Zeek have upped their antics, broken into The R-4 Anomaly (likely thanks to the awesome strategy guides you all have made), and returned with ideas for even higher levels of gear! Players can speak with Hyde and Zeek in the supplies section of the Fleet, near other modification vendors, to acquire new missions that unlock Prototype and Artifact modifications at Item Ratings 332 and 336! There will be no item rating requirements to begin these new missions, and the missions will require the deconstruction of Prototype and Artifact gear at Item Ratings 332 and 336 respectively.

Making it easier to see upgradable gear
We’ve seen feedback and confusion from the community around the current gear upgrade system. One issue we’ve identified and will be addressing relates to the discipline filter. When trying to upgrade gear obtained from another discipline, Targeter’s gear on a Guardian for example, our upgrade vendors will not show possible upgrades until you remove the discipline filter by selecting “all”. We are going to remove filtering from these upgrades so players will be able to see all upgradeable gear, whether it’s for your current discipline or not!

Currency Conversions

• The Spoils of War vendor on the fleet currently sells a Bag of 50 Tech Fragments for 50 Conquest Commendations. We heard your feedback that 50 is too little and makes using this conversion bothersome. We will be changing this to a Bag of 200 Tech Fragments for 200 Conquest Commendations! We’ve also increased the ways players can purchase the Bag of 200 Tech Fragments. Gear vendors will now sell these bags for 200 WZ-1 Accelerants, 200 OP-1 Catalysts, or 200 FP-1 Stabilizers respectively.
• Additionally the Conquest Gear Vendor will offer a new item to help players with Conquest Commendations progress towards Prototype gear! A Bag of 200 FP-1 Stabilizers will be available for 500 Conquest Commendations.

Reducing the frequency of Systech Gear
We’ll be reducing the frequency that Systech Gear drops from defeating Strong and Elite enemies. This change will increase the frequency of currency bags from these enemies.

Take this new power and defeat your enemies across the galaxy! These changes can be played on the Public Test Server. If you have any feedback while playing, please post it here!

See you later, I promised Hyde I’d help look for Zeek’s glasses.

 

EDIT: With 7.2, it is the Conquest Gear Vendor that will offer the bag of 200 FP-1 Stabilizers and not the Spoils of War vendor. 

[OlBuzzard]

TYVM for update!!  Much appreciated !!  I also appreciate the work done as well!!

[Exly]

2 minutes ago, BryantWood said:

Increasing the Power Ceiling
With 7.2 we’ll be doing our second power increase, introducing higher item ratings of power to defeat your enemies! Here are the new maximum item ratings players can obtain:
Noble Decurion Gear – 336 (up from 330)
Elite Decurion Gear – 336 (up from 330)
Supreme Decurion Gear – 336 (up from 330)
Tionese Gear – 336 (up from 330)
Columi Gear – 336 (up from 330)
Thyrsian Gear – 332 (up from 328)

I don't seed Rakata gear listed.  Is it getting the same level increase as other gear?

[sGroggy]

pve: 336
pvp: 332

Why?

[BryantWood]

4 minutes ago, Exly said:

I don't seed Rakata gear listed.  Is it getting the same level increase as other gear?

Yes it will! Great catch, the initial post has been updated.

[JakRoanin]

Question, will the Solo Gear Path aka purgatory finally provide a way to do missions for Hyde and co. ?

[Crystal_Mind]

2 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

Question, will the Solo Gear Path aka purgatory finally provide a way to do missions for Hyde and co. ?

Looks like it. Grindy as heck, though, since you'll have to purchase a piece of flashpoint gear and then upgrade it a bunch. The conversion rate does not look favorable unless they tweaked costs. 😬

23 minutes ago, BryantWood said:

Currency Conversions
The Spoils of War vendor on the fleet currently sells a Bag of 50 Tech Fragments for 50 Conquest Commendations. We heard your feedback that 50 is too little and makes using this conversion bothersome. We will be changing this to a Bag of 200 Tech Fragments for 200 Conquest Commendations! We’ve also increased the ways players can purchase the Bag of 200 Tech Fragments. Gear vendors will now sell these bags for 200 WZ-1 Accelerants, 200 OP-1 Catalysts, or 200 FP-1 Stabilizers respectively.
Additionally the Spoils of War vendor will offer a new item to help players with Conquest Commendations progress towards Prototype gear! A Bag of 200 FP-1 Stabilizers will be available for 500 Conquest Commendations.

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by Crystal_Mind
thoughts on grind

[Screaming_Ziva]

42 minutes ago, BryantWood said:

Currency Conversions

 

The Spoils of War vendor on the fleet currently sells a Bag of 50 Tech Fragments for 50 Conquest Commendations. We heard your feedback that 50 is too little and makes using this conversion bothersome. We will be changing this to a Bag of 200 Tech Fragments for 200 Conquest Commendations! We’ve also increased the ways players can purchase the Bag of 200 Tech Fragments. Gear vendors will now sell these bags for 200 WZ-1 Accelerants, 200 OP-1 Catalysts, or 200 FP-1 Stabilizers respectively.
Additionally the Spoils of War vendor will offer a new item to help players with Conquest Commendations progress towards Prototype gear! A Bag of 200 FP-1 Stabilizers will be available for 500 Conquest Commendations.

Please please please add 200 Tech Frags for 200 Daily Resource Matrix to one of the vendors.  Many people have those maxed out and, with the recent increase in them, they're just going to waste.

[Kaoticmijit]

Why upgrade all the gear when the people who have been progging to get the best gear now have gear that isn’t much better than all the other gear that people with no skills or desire to do anything endgame related get to just waltz around in gear close to people who spend countless hours a week to get the gear? Seems like a waste to raise item levels if you’re going to coddle to people who don’t want to put the work in.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Kaoticmijit

[Plactus]

Will the legendary implants be increasing to match the new item level, or are they staying at 334 for now?

[Saeten]

Please stop increasing gear levels after this round for at least 1 year. The grind you are pushing is terrible......

[illgot]

48 minutes ago, sGroggy said:

pve: 336
pvp: 332

Why?

if Hyde and Zeek still require 330 it stops PvPers from using modified gear plus this drags it out 2 levels every update. Eventually I suspect the end game is to have PvP always be 2-4 levels below the highest PvE gear so this means PvP gear has more room to grow while PvE may remain 340 for a much longer period.

[TyrFoge]

21 minutes ago, Plactus said:

Will the legendary implants be increasing to match the new item level, or are they staying at 334 for now?

I had this exact same question. They aren't specifically addressed in the "floor/ceiling" section at all. If they aren't getting an iR boost it would be nice to have a rationale addressed for that decision for player reference.

Edited November 10, 2022 by TyrFoge

[Syal]

1 hour ago, BryantWood said:

Currency Conversions
The Spoils of War vendor on the fleet currently sells a Bag of 50 Tech Fragments for 50 Conquest Commendations. We heard your feedback that 50 is too little and makes using this conversion bothersome. We will be changing this to a Bag of 200 Tech Fragments for 200 Conquest Commendations! We’ve also increased the ways players can purchase the Bag of 200 Tech Fragments. Gear vendors will now sell these bags for 200 WZ-1 Accelerants, 200 OP-1 Catalysts, or 200 FP-1 Stabilizers respectively.
Additionally the Spoils of War vendor will offer a new item to help players with Conquest Commendations progress towards Prototype gear! A Bag of 200 FP-1 Stabilizers will be available for 500 Conquest Commendations.

And what about conversions getting matrix from CC or TF ?

[Malibbu]

Sorry i did read but i dont feel i understand totally so i will ask away :

- actually my gear is 330 (with mods from Zeek) and augmented.

Will i have to refarm the armor in flashpoint and then buy again new mods to get the new rating ?

In this process will i lost my augments and mods ?

Thank you

[Loc_n_lol]

Why not increase the max ilvl of R-4 story mode gear ? Might make those green tokens useful for something...

 

Quote

Currency Conversions
Gear vendors will now sell these bags for 200 WZ-1 Accelerants, 200 OP-1 Catalysts, or 200 FP-1 Stabilizers respectively.
Additionally the Spoils of War vendor will offer a new item to help players with Conquest Commendations progress towards Prototype gear! A Bag of 200 FP-1 Stabilizers will be available for 500 Conquest Commendations.

Well that's good, really, but it still seems overcomplicated in the end... just merge all the currencies into tech frags ?

Edited November 11, 2022 by Loc_n_lol

[Nee-Elder]

3 hours ago, Malibbu said:

Will i have to refarm the armor in flashpoint and then buy again new mods to get the new rating ?

In this process will i lost my augments and mods ?

Sort of yes-ish  to the 1st question ( he already stated there would be a new mission from Hyde&Zeek , so you should def. try to read the 'Dev Tracker' threads for yourself when you have time)  ...and  No to the 2nd question (as long as you remember to REMOVE the  augs & mods beforehand ) .

2 hours ago, Loc_n_lol said:

 but it still seems overcomplicated in the end... just merge all the currencies into tech frags ?

QFE  ^ ,  the whole entire  'currency' tab  has become beyond silly  imo

Edited November 11, 2022 by Nee-Elder

[ThanderSnB]

2 hours ago, Malibbu said:

Sorry i did read but i dont feel i understand totally so i will ask away :

- actually my gear is 330 (with mods from Zeek) and augmented.

Will i have to refarm the armor in flashpoint and then buy again new mods to get the new rating ?

In this process will i lost my augments and mods ?

Thank you

You won't have to farm a whole set, just get one blue accessory (earpiece, relic, etc.) and upgrade it to the new cap of 336. This will unlock blue 336 mods. Purple would require purple item from nim ops. You will lose the augment slots on accessories and legendary implants (if they are upgradable). Be sure to pull out your augments before upgrading to avoid losing them. You won't lose augments on weapons or armor if you use the same pieces and put the new mods in them.

If you don't already have one, you can prepare now by running some flashpoints on your 330 character until you get a blue relic. Save it in your bank until the update comes out. Then you only have to upgrade it from 330 -> 336. Or for purple mods, prepare by running nim ops until you get any 330 purple, save it in bank, etc.

Edited November 11, 2022 by ThanderSnB

[Malibbu]

1 hour ago, Nee-Elder said:

Sort of yes-ish  to the 1st question ( he already stated there would be a new mission from Hyde&Zeek , so you should def. try to read the 'Dev Tracker' threads for yourself when you have time)  ...and  No to the 2nd question (as long as you remember to REMOVE the  augs & mods beforehand ) .

QFE  ^ ,  the whole entire  'currency' tab  has become beyond silly  imo

I did read it, but it was not clear for me, sorry if i have bothered you

[Nee-Elder]

14 minutes ago, Malibbu said:

I did read it, but it was not clear for me, sorry if i have bothered you

No worries,  and you didn't  bother anyone  lol  jeez  these forums sometimes.

All i did was merely recommended  when you have time to read  the BioWare Dev threads,  since that's where most of the info & intel  is.   No judgement.  I just merely made a simple recommendation and even  hyperlinked it for you too.

smh

*Hopefully you also read  @ThanderSnB 's  reply above cuz  they def. explained it better than i did.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Nee-Elder
Reason: sensitive humans presume 'tone'

[eabevella]

The Currency Conversion is a correct step, or may I say a correct attempt to patch the mess that is the 7.0 gearing system. Nevertheless, it's better than no fix at all, even though it's almost a year too late.

[Darthmoriquendi]

5 hours ago, Malibbu said:

Sorry i did read but i dont feel i understand totally so i will ask away :

- actually my gear is 330 (with mods from Zeek) and augmented.

Will i have to refarm the armor in flashpoint and then buy again new mods to get the new rating ?

In this process will i lost my augments and mods ?

Thank you

This is what I want to know. Do I have to deconstruct my 330 earpiece I have just leveled twice only to have to level another 320 or 324 if they change drop levels all the way to 336? Right now it is five upgrades. Once 7.2 drops it will take six upgrades from 324 to 336 so more grinding. Is it going to cost more than 170 FP-1 Stabilizers per upgrade? This is getting old and taking way to many materials. The thought of grinding fp again makes me want to vomit. I can't keep up anymore. And yes all the augments I just placed in my gear and my alts I have to remove. 

If bioware is going to continue on this grind route just for the sake of keeping us grinding, then crafting mk for augment slots needs to go. Armor needs to just come with an mk slot automatically just like mod slots or give us the option to remove them and reuse them. 

And still no way to spend matrix....

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Darthmoriquendi

[RyvickTheFirst]

Your entire gearing system sucks. DO BETTER!

[TheRedThreat]

Can you explain the pvp gear falling behind solo decuriangear or even purchasable mods?

 At launch it was decent gear  to have. Not the best but not bad at all. then it falls behind by 2ilvls, now you lower it to be behind by 4ilvls. This progression defeats the purpose of getting pvp gear.    What’s the benefit at this point?

not to sound too pessimistic, but it’s starting to feel like the dev team doesn’t value the pvp community. I understand that may not be true, but these decisions on top of other pvp decisions give this impression.

[Darthmoriquendi]

2 hours ago, ThanderSnB said:

You won't have to farm a whole set, just get one blue accessory (earpiece, relic, etc.) and upgrade it to the new cap of 336. This will unlock blue 336 mods. Purple would require purple item from nim ops. You will lose the augment slots on accessories and legendary implants (if they are upgradable). Be sure to pull out your augments before upgrading to avoid losing them. You won't lose augments on weapons or armor if you use the same pieces and put the new mods in them.

If you don't already have one, you can prepare now by running some flashpoints on your 330 character until you get a blue relic. Save it in your bank until the update comes out. Then you only have to upgrade it from 330 -> 336. Or for purple mods, prepare by running nim ops until you get any 330 purple, save it in bank, etc.

If we only had to upgrade to 336 to be eligable,  that would not be an issue. But if we have to deconstruct the earpiece again, that is where the problem is. Regrinding this earpiece from base level to max is getting old as well as farming for fp stabilizers only for them to be lost to the void through decon.