Progression Changes coming in 7.3

[BryantWood]

Hey Community!

In patch 7.3, we will be making some changes in an effort to reduce the complexity of Gear Progression in the Legacy of the Sith expansion. I wanted to take some time to discuss these changes with you.

Removal of Daily Resource Matrices
Daily Resource Matrices, rewarded mostly from Daily and Heroic missions, are going to be removed and activities that used to reward DRMs will instead reward Conquest Commendations. This removal will also make it so players of PvP, Flashpoints, and Operations will no longer be required to play Daily or Heroic areas to upgrade their gear (more details on this later in the post).

Players won’t need to do anything to prepare for this currency removal. During maintenance for the 7.3 patch all Daily Resource Matrices and their boxes will be converted into Conquest Commendations. You’ll receive 1 Conquest Commendation for each Daily Resource Matrix.

More breathing room on currency caps
We’ve heard your feedback on the frustration currency caps cause and will be raising the weekly caps for progression currency as follows:

• Increased the weekly cap of Conquest Commendations to 6000 (up from 2500).
  • Increased the total cap of Conquest Commendations 4000 (up from 2500) to account for the removal of Daily Resource Matrices.
• Increased the weekly cap of FP-1 Stabilizers to 3000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 2500.
• Increased the weekly cap of WZ-1 Accelerant to 2000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 1200.
• Increased the weekly cap of OP-1 Catalyst to 2000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 1200.

Fewer currencies required to upgrade gear
We will also be reducing the currencies required to upgrade gear, allowing players to better focus on the content they enjoy. Here are the coming changes, organized by their vendor.
Conquest Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => Conquest Commendations, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece,Conquest Commendations, Credits 
 
Flashpoint Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => Flashpoint Stabilizers, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece, Flashpoint Stabilizers, Credits 
 
Operations Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => Operation Catalysts, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece, Operation Catalysts, Credits 
 
PvP Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => PvP Accelerants, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece, PvP Accelerants, Credits

Legendary Implants Vendor:
To Purchase => Conquest Commendations, Tech Fragments, Credits
To Upgrade => Previous Implant, Conquest Commendations, Tech Fragments, Credits, Previous Implant

 

These will not be the final changes to Gear and Progression, so please continue to send your constructive feedback on these changes and overall progression.

Gotta jet, Lonndar Eadwinn has something really interesting to show me and I’m already late!

 

This thread will reopen for feedback once PTS goes live. We wanted to give everyone time to read over the changes first.

Thread is now opened (05/05/2023)

Players can provide feedback on the Gear Progression coming to 7.3. Be sure to read this initial post before jumping on the PTS. 

• Have you run into any bugs? If so, please offer step by step details so we may be able to reproduce your experience. 
• Is there any other general feedback you would like to share? 

[akdonkey]

I still think the greatest way to remove credits from the game is just plain and simple.  Sell Armor and Weapons for plain credits. I know many won't like this but it could and would pull the most credits out of the game.

[XioaMei]

catering to pvp again

[akdonkey]

1 hour ago, XioaMei said:

catering to pvp again

I'm not sure that's it but they are really pushing PVP here. I hate it. I've tried it not one part of PVP in this MMO is fun.

[Dekibra]

7 hours ago, XioaMei said:

catering to pvp again

how are these changes catering to PvP?! All of us are benefitting from removing at least one of the way too many currencies

 

 

[DawnAskham]

General feedback...

Hyde and Zeek mod vendor and legendary implant vendor should both be legacy based once the relevant missions are completed (even though the items are legacy, it's annoying having to remember which character completed the missions and then futz around moving gear through mail / legacy bay).

The implant vendor should offer implants for credits once a set has been obtained and fully upgraded.

Implants should have a refund timer - it's too easy to accidentally purchase another base implant when trying to upgrade, and highly annoying given the costs.

Content should always have at least a chance to drop upgrades from boss loot - the current model of 'complete a bunch of group content to get garbage greens for deconstruction to get currency to buy upgrades' is annoying and feels unrewarding - might as well just drop currency instead of all the garbage green gear and save us from having to deconstruct.

Weekly missions for operations awarding OP-1 should be available EVERY week for EVERY operation. 

 

[JakRoanin]

First, THANK YOU! Getting rid of DRM's is the best news I've had about gearing since 6.0 got abolished! However, I still think more can be done. The fact that Hyde and Zeek demand FP and OP currency to open the MODS is just unfair. Why not have Conquest MODS available as well? Also raise the Tech Fragments cap! It's beyond ridiculous to be at 11,000! 20,000 would be better. People have alts!

[elimatorxv]

On 5/6/2023 at 9:10 PM, akdonkey said:

I still think the greatest way to remove credits from the game is just plain and simple.  Sell Armor and Weapons for plain credits. I know many won't like this but it could and would pull the most credits out of the game.

no thanks

[StrikePrice]

Is there a reason why Tacticals don't drop as loot anymore? It would be nice to add Tacticals back as loot from Vet FPs. It's not technically progression, but kinda. 

[DawnAskham]

9 hours ago, StrikePrice said:

Is there a reason why Tacticals don't drop as loot anymore? It would be nice to add Tacticals back as loot from Vet FPs. It's not technically progression, but kinda. 

Another annoying change that should be reverted - at least some of the loot drops in group content should be useful and useable, not just 100% garbage to deconstruct for some convoluted currency-based system.

Adding back the chance for tacticals to drop would be an improvement.

 

18 hours ago, JakRoanin said:

First, THANK YOU! Getting rid of DRM's is the best news I've had about gearing since 6.0 got abolished! However, I still think more can be done. The fact that Hyde and Zeek demand FP and OP currency to open the MODS is just unfair. Why not have Conquest MODS available as well? Also raise the Tech Fragments cap! It's beyond ridiculous to be at 11,000! 20,000 would be better. People have alts!

 

Agree - Mods should be available for all tracks at all item ratings - as it is, until one completes the Hyde & Zeek quest, one is stuck with whatever stat distribution Bioware puts on the fixed armor. To keep the desirability of the Hyde & Zeek mods, do what the game has historically done - make the green base easy to obtain mods stuff like B Mods and high endurance armor and enhancements.

The lack of mods also means most players still gearing up won't bother with augments (which add a not insignificant amount of player power), because who wants to waste augment kits on gear that will soon be replaced (as opposed to augmenting a shell once, and just updating the mods along the way).

Edited May 8, 2023 by DawnAskham

[StrikePrice]

20 hours ago, DawnAskham said:

General feedback...

Hyde and Zeek mod vendor and legendary implant vendor should both be legacy based once the relevant missions are completed (even though the items are legacy, it's annoying having to remember which character completed the missions and then futz around moving gear through mail / legacy bay).

100%. It makes no sense for a player locked vendor to sell all legacy bound gear. That just makes extra work for no reason. Unlocking it for the legacy would be a nice quality of life change without changing who gets what equip. 

Right now, I have to swap characters to the right class that has it unlocked, buy the items, equip to unbind them (or wait for the cooldown) and put them in legacy storage, log into the other toon and grab them. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by StrikePrice

[Nee-Elder]

10 minutes ago, StrikePrice said:

Right now, I have to swap characters to the right class that has it unlocked, buy the items, equip to unbind them (or wait for the cooldown) and put them in legacy storage, log into the other toon and grab them. 

Remember you can also send them via in-game MAIL ( to your other characters ) and it automatically un-binds them too.

[klizilii]

General feedback:

The flashpoint tree for upgrading gear feels like the worst experience out of all the options.  The removal of DRM & Conquest comms will help, but the upgrade cost is still a major barrier.  I feel like either reducing the currency FP-1 upgrade cost or changing the way the weekly mission works would help a lot.  Having to select all of the missions in the filter to progress the weekly mission with the reward crate is quite punishing on players as there are still some flashpoints that are just exceptionally hard.  Perhaps letting players progress the weekly mission with a minimum of 20 flashpoint selected would be a better way forward.

A lot of players never find out about Hyde and Zeek until they read a guide or get told by other players in game.  Perhaps it would be a good idea to push players towards finding that quest/NPCs, this could easily be tied to charging the Neuro-key quest so you're sent to those two upon charging the key.  These vendors are easily the biggest boost to progression for the current gearing system (outside of R-4 token system).

Overall, I'm happy with the simplification of currency requirements, but it would be nice to take this opportunity to tweak the rewards on uprisings to make them a viable part of the gear progression.

[klizilii]

22 hours ago, DawnAskham said:

Implants should have a refund timer - it's too easy to accidentally purchase another base implant when trying to upgrade, and highly annoying given the costs.

 

I'm confused, aren't they refundable?  I've upgrade an implant with an augment in it and when I sold the upgrade back to the vendor, it gave me my old legendary back with the augment in it.  I even was able to refund multiple upgrades to the same implant and get back the original with an augment in it.  Does this have something to do with the auto equip feature making it so you can't refund it?

[jedimasterjac]

9 minutes ago, klizilii said:

A lot of players never find out about Hyde and Zeek until they read a guide or get told by other players in game.  Perhaps it would be a good idea to push players towards finding that quest/NPCs, this could easily be tied to charging the Neuro-key quest so you're sent to those two upon charging the key. 

Honestly it should just auto-add to your quest log when you hit 80 and have a big LAUNCH button just like the ones you get for choosing a second combat style.

[DawnAskham]

49 minutes ago, klizilii said:

I'm confused, aren't they refundable?  I've upgrade an implant with an augment in it and when I sold the upgrade back to the vendor, it gave me my old legendary back with the augment in it.  I even was able to refund multiple upgrades to the same implant and get back the original with an augment in it.  Does this have something to do with the auto equip feature making it so you can't refund it?

Not sure about upgrades or the auto-equip feature, but I accidentally bought one of the base versions when trying to buy an upgrade, and selling it right back gave me credits instead of all the currency doodads.

[klizilii]

45 minutes ago, DawnAskham said:

Not sure about upgrades or the auto-equip feature, but I accidentally bought one of the base versions when trying to buy an upgrade, and selling it right back gave me credits instead of all the currency doodads.

Well, I check in game and they have a 2h refund timer and I get fully refunded the cost.  So unless it is getting equipped on purchase, it is refundable.

[HobbesToo]

On 5/4/2023 at 8:43 AM, BryantWood said:

• Increased the weekly cap of Conquest Commendations to 6000 (up from 2500).
  • Increased the total cap of Conquest Commendations 4000 (up from 2500) to account for the removal of Daily Resource Matrices.
• Increased the weekly cap of FP-1 Stabilizers to 3000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 2500.
• Increased the weekly cap of WZ-1 Accelerant to 2000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 1200.
• Increased the weekly cap of OP-1 Catalyst to 2000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 1200.

Why is the total cap lower than the weekly cap, the way it is now ensures that we can never reach the weekly cap. Shouldn't the daily / weekly cap numbers be switched around?

[klizilii]

1 hour ago, HobbesToo said:

Why is the total cap lower than the weekly cap, the way it is now ensures that we can never reach the weekly cap. Shouldn't the daily / weekly cap numbers be switched around?

You spend currency upgrading gear, then farm more currency, spend, farm, spend, farm... until you hit the weekly cap.  The weekly cap is to make sure players can't have excess currency to stockpile to buy/upgrade new gear when they increase the item rating cap again.

[DeannaVoyager]

On 5/8/2023 at 5:20 PM, DawnAskham said:

The lack of mods also means most players still gearing up won't bother with augments (which add a not insignificant amount of player power), because who wants to waste augment kits on gear that will soon be replaced (as opposed to augmenting a shell once, and just updating the mods along the way).

 

On 5/9/2023 at 3:58 AM, klizilii said:

You spend currency upgrading gear, then farm more currency, spend, farm, spend, farm... until you hit the weekly cap.  The weekly cap is to make sure players can't have excess currency to stockpile to buy/upgrade new gear when they increase the item rating cap again.

 

These two things I quoted are the biggest reason why there is no point in gearing up anything after the first character, and which also makes Hyde & Zeek pointless. The other flaws with Hyde & Zeek design are that they are only unlocked on one character instead of legacy (which was mentioned earlier too and is beyond stupid), and that they don't sell relic & earpieces. There wouldn't be a need for artificial currency caps, if we could just gear up once and be done with it. I have several characters I don't raid with sitting at 330 gear with old augments or no augments at all, because I have better things to do in my life than mailing mods from character to character every time they release a new tier. I'm also done with wasting time or money on augmentation kits. When I play the game, I want to actually play it, instead of gearing up over and over again.

 

- Get rid of unmoddable gear. No-one wants to see it as end game gear, ever.

- Release the highest item rating at the beginning of an expansion, not at the end, or remove augments from the game instead of forcing people to add them to disposable  carbage unmoddable gear. Never ending gearing is not content.  

[Syal]

Quote

Daily Resource Matrices, rewarded mostly from Daily and Heroic missions, are going to be removed

hé bha il était temps !!!

[DawnAskham]

9 hours ago, DeannaVoyager said:

 

 

These two things I quoted are the biggest reason why there is no point in gearing up anything after the first character, and which also makes Hyde & Zeek pointless. The other flaws with Hyde & Zeek design are that they are only unlocked on one character instead of legacy (which was mentioned earlier too and is beyond stupid), and that they don't sell relic & earpieces. There wouldn't be a need for artificial currency caps, if we could just gear up once and be done with it. I have several characters I don't raid with sitting at 330 gear with old augments or no augments at all, because I have better things to do in my life than mailing mods from character to character every time they release a new tier. I'm also done with wasting time or money on augmentation kits. When I play the game, I want to actually play it, instead of gearing up over and over again.

 

- Get rid of unmoddable gear. No-one wants to see it as end game gear, ever.

- Release the highest item rating at the beginning of an expansion, not at the end, or remove augments from the game instead of forcing people to add them to disposable  carbage unmoddable gear. Never ending gearing is not content.  

They need to stop trying to go back to fixed gear pieces with crappy itemization.

If they want to separate faster / easier pathways from more difficult / time-consuming, use higher endurance modifications in the faster / easier pathway.

[xordevoreaux]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:58 PM, DawnAskham said:

Hyde and Zeek mod vendor and legendary implant vendor should both be legacy based once the relevant missions are completed (even though the items are legacy, it's annoying having to remember which character completed the missions and then futz around moving gear through mail / legacy bay).

Yes, that would be nice.

 

[JayForerunner]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:43 AM, BryantWood said:

Hey Community!

In patch 7.3, we will be making some changes in an effort to reduce the complexity of Gear Progression in the Legacy of the Sith expansion. I wanted to take some time to discuss these changes with you.

Removal of Daily Resource Matrices
Daily Resource Matrices, rewarded mostly from Daily and Heroic missions, are going to be removed and activities that used to reward DRMs will instead reward Conquest Commendations. This removal will also make it so players of PvP, Flashpoints, and Operations will no longer be required to play Daily or Heroic areas to upgrade their gear (more details on this later in the post).

Players won’t need to do anything to prepare for this currency removal. During maintenance for the 7.3 patch all Daily Resource Matrices and their boxes will be converted into Conquest Commendations. You’ll receive 1 Conquest Commendation for each Daily Resource Matrix.

More breathing room on currency caps
We’ve heard your feedback on the frustration currency caps cause and will be raising the weekly caps for progression currency as follows:

• Increased the weekly cap of Conquest Commendations to 6000 (up from 2500).
  • Increased the total cap of Conquest Commendations 4000 (up from 2500) to account for the removal of Daily Resource Matrices.
• Increased the weekly cap of FP-1 Stabilizers to 3000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 2500.
• Increased the weekly cap of WZ-1 Accelerant to 2000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 1200.
• Increased the weekly cap of OP-1 Catalyst to 2000 (up from 1200).
  • The total cap will remain at 1200.

Fewer currencies required to upgrade gear
We will also be reducing the currencies required to upgrade gear, allowing players to better focus on the content they enjoy. Here are the coming changes, organized by their vendor.
Conquest Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => Conquest Commendations, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece,Conquest Commendations, Credits 
 
Flashpoint Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => Flashpoint Stabilizers, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece, Flashpoint Stabilizers, Credits 
 
Operations Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => Operation Catalysts, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece, Operation Catalysts, Credits 
 
PvP Gear Vendor:
To Purchase Gear => PvP Accelerants, Credits
To Upgrade Gear => Previous Gear Piece, PvP Accelerants, Credits

Legendary Implants Vendor:
To Purchase => Conquest Commendations, Tech Fragments, Credits
To Upgrade => Previous Implant, Conquest Commendations, Tech Fragments, Credits, Previous Implant

 

These will not be the final changes to Gear and Progression, so please continue to send your constructive feedback on these changes and overall progression.

Gotta jet, Lonndar Eadwinn has something really interesting to show me and I’m already late!

 

This thread will reopen for feedback once PTS goes live. We wanted to give everyone time to read over the changes first.

Thread is now opened (05/05/2023)

Players can provide feedback on the Gear Progression coming to 7.3. Be sure to read this initial post before jumping on the PTS. 

• Have you run into any bugs? If so, please offer step by step details so we may be able to reproduce your experience. 
• Is there any other general feedback you would like to share? 

Looking forward to trying things out in the coming days. The daily matrix resource was, I admit, a bottleneck so completely eliminating that need would make upgrading simpler and easier. No complaints here.

 

Plus, there's so much left for me to do on the main server, I haven't gotten around to the PTS version (doubly since you can only import your progress once and exactly once, so I want to make it count).

 

As for the person who mentioned Augments, at Level 80 when gear can give 1,000 stat points, the +100 from an appropriate augment is small...but fair, it may actually not be a negligible quantity. Still, because of how much work goes into Augment Kit Mk 11, I wouldn't bother until I got the ultimate top-tier gear (which seems to be rating ~ 336 to 340 as of this writing). Green, blue, or purple, I'm not super worried about that nuance right now as I'm still catching up (plus at that top tier, I hear it's more tradeoffs than straight upgrades comparing the colors, and specifically tradeoffs on the order of naught point two percent - which is, as I'd word it, negligible).

Edited June 12, 2023 by JayForerunner

[Lost-Savage-XIII]

Gearing in this game is beyond IDIOTIC! Four there are FOUR GEAR PATHS (simply stupid) The worst part is that is AFTER THEY TRY AND STREAMLINE! BW loved making work for no reason, maybe the new guys will fix this mess.