Why wasn't 336 the "Power Ceiling" in 7.x?

[Yojadi]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:26 AM, Gokkus said:

Well you know, it is important that Nim raiders can feel vastly superior to the rest for as long as possible.

 

Also, this way the progression takes longer so players have more to do and are engaged over a longer period of time. The gear grind is a motivator in game after all. It is for me anyhow

Yes it's important that in a story driven MMO that the 0.1% of the population feel superior for a couple weeks.  Bioware will never wake up apparently and realize their community aren't hardcore raiders.

[Toraak]

59 minutes ago, Yojadi said:

Yes it's important that in a story driven MMO that the 0.1% of the population feel superior for a couple weeks.  Bioware will never wake up apparently and realize their community aren't hardcore raiders.

Nothing wrong with harder content giving out better gear. With that being said, there is nothing wrong with BW bumping up all other gear to 336 while at the same time leaving R-4 HM as the place to get BiS. It is tuned like a NiM Operation, and is the newest raid. 

 

By giving others a bump in item rating, it may encourage people to get into R-4 HM, and try it out. Or at the very least help them get past Storymode R-4 if they are still struggling with that.

[ZUHFB]

On 12/13/2022 at 1:26 PM, Gokkus said:

Well you know, it is important that Nim raiders can feel vastly superior to the rest for as long as possible.

 

Also, this way the progression takes longer so players have more to do and are engaged over a longer period of time. The gear grind is a motivator in game after all. It is for me anyhow

As if we need gear for that.

Yeah, just overgear the content so we don't have to learn mechanics or redo some strats - you know, the fun about progression, just take it away

[DWho]

1 hour ago, ZUHFB said:

As if we need gear for that.

Yeah, just overgear the content so we don't have to learn mechanics or redo some strats - you know, the fun about progression, just take it away

If it is so easy, you can always equip weaker gear to increase the challenge. There is no requirement to use the best gear in an operation. If 330 blue is too powerful. try it with 330 green, if that's too powerful, try 322 green or go back to the nerfed 306. That should provide an opportunity to try all the new stat combos and learn new ways to deal with the boss mechanics. The only thing limiting your fun, as you state it, is your own insistence that you don the best gear for all content.

[OlBuzzard]

Too much of the new areas are simply a slog.  All too frequently I'm running in circles using only minimal attacks for prolonged periods of time attacking even the most basic of targets (you die if you stand still or "hunker down").

Either stop hiding the good stuff (by that I define it as 334 BLUE )  or RETURN or companions to a state of being able to heal better.  Please note: I did NOT SAY make companions over the top!! I don't care which.  But something needs to give in this area!!

I HAVE learned the mechanics.  BUT when a NPC can two shot you with his bare fists (upper cut to be precise) something is totally wrong!! Additional note: this was NOT in a Heric 2+ area.   I do NOT expect to be able to "walk through" an area (that's just stupid).  

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest part of SWTOR ... but this whole idea of limiting gear coupled with companion nerf has to go!

[LJ_Gibbs]

23 hours ago, FlameYOL said:

I don't see what the big deal is, its still pretty easy to get to 336 I already upgraded my gear yesterday to the new Irating cap.

I am mainly asking why it wasn't 336 when 330 came out?  I know gear progresses up all the time in MMOs... but we got 330 only a few months ago.  It's like they knew and gated us behind 330 knowing 336 would be out around this time.

[LJ_Gibbs]

7 hours ago, ZUHFB said:

As if we need gear for that.

Yeah, just overgear the content so we don't have to learn mechanics or redo some strats - you know, the fun about progression, just take it away

There we go. 

[LJ_Gibbs]

14 hours ago, Toraak said:

By giving others a bump in item rating, it may encourage people to get into R-4 HM, and try it out. Or at the very least help them get past Storymode R-4 if they are still struggling with that.

No 24 hour reset would help that.

[LJ_Gibbs]

5 hours ago, DWho said:

If it is so easy, you can always equip weaker gear to increase the challenge. There is no requirement to use the best gear in an operation. If 330 blue is too powerful. try it with 330 green, if that's too powerful, try 322 green or go back to the nerfed 306. That should provide an opportunity to try all the new stat combos and learn new ways to deal with the boss mechanics. The only thing limiting your fun, as you state it, is your own insistence that you don the best gear for all content.

Don't feed the troll.

[Toraak]

15 minutes ago, LJ_Gibbs said:

No 24 hour reset would help that.

Not argue'ing that. BW should have had the newest SM Operation have a full weekly lockout for at least the 1st 6 months of the operation. This way guilds could progress throughout the week, instead of from the beginning each day they want to try.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Toraak

[DeannaVoyager]

19 hours ago, LJ_Gibbs said:

I am mainly asking why it wasn't 336 when 330 came out?  I know gear progresses up all the time in MMOs... but we got 330 only a few months ago.  It's like they knew and gated us behind 330 knowing 336 would be out around this time.

Yep. It would have saved a lot of drama and maybe saved a few subs they lost now because of the gearing design. It also created a lot of unnecessary friction in my raiding team, because some of us got invited to R-4 HM runs and some were not. We tried to progress on it when it was launched as a group, but it was pointless as we could see early on some people were not on the level for content like that. 

 

There's also big difference in stats between 330 and 339, but not so much between 336 and 339. Had 336 gear been in game since 7.0, people would have been much more satisfied aiming to get that gear instead of feeling that they are being left behind. Which they totally were, so I can't blame them for that. One day you are raiding as a group, progressing and doing stuff together. Next day half of the group is getting good stuff from raiding with other people, and the other half is not even invited. Sounds like a good way to lift up the team spirit. Oh wait... 

 

[Quendorite]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:02 PM, FlameYOL said:

I don't see what the big deal is, its still pretty easy to get to 336 I already upgraded my gear yesterday to the new Irating cap.

The only limiting factors are mats: I mas maxed out on tech fragments and ops mats, so 1st day I went to "Op gear vendor", bought a blue one and a purple one, improved it to 336, H&Z mission, deconstructed then, and in ~10 minutes I was from 331 to 336.

 

My biggest time sink, ironically, was changing around my augments to waste as few points as possible. The only thing separating anyone level 80 from IR 336 is farming ops, specially since you can buy rakata gear now

[FlameYOL]

8 minutes ago, Quendorite said:

The only limiting factors are mats: I mas maxed out on tech fragments and ops mats, so 1st day I went to "Op gear vendor", bought a blue one and a purple one, improved it to 336, H&Z mission, deconstructed then, and in ~10 minutes I was from 331 to 336.

 

My biggest time sink, ironically, was changing around my augments to waste as few points as possible. The only thing separating anyone level 80 from IR 336 is farming ops, specially since you can buy rakata gear now

Yeah same thing, I already got rakatan earpieces and relics upgraded to max for my tank set and will do the same for my DPS set as I farm the operation catalysts. 

[Shayddow]

"Decades ago, I played an online multi-player text adventure game called Gemstone III (by Simutronics, the same company that supplied SWTOR's original HERO engine)."

Small world. I used to play Dragonrealms, also by Simutronics.  The key thing is that the GMs - and Developers - of both games were VOLUNTEERS, not paid professionals.

You get what you pay for.