My idea to make raiding interesting again

[ZUHFB]

Sadly as most raiders will agree the content is not that fun at the moment. The problem is that there is no change in sight, no new raid no new content. Bioware or broadsword or whoever is in charge could make raiding very rewarding again. They could for example add seasonal challenge modes, either by implementing something above nightmare or changing the current nightmore mode. They could recolor the rewards, pink brontes wings? Black Titan-6? Golden Hyperpod? Have one recolor each season for example, it creates a need to obtain them, it creates a need to do it now because who knows when the next recolor comes and the old one gets unobtainable? But regardless of the rewards, I'm sure they can come up with things better than this (but not gear!). 

Just imagine it. Like, "coming in [whatever the next patch is] we add challenge modes to raiding, following things apply in challenge mode for season 1: " and then it's just a list of like the balance they could do for example "added 50% HP to everything in the raid", "cut to pieces is not playable in raids"... they could even add seasonal balance, via just extra mechanics that apply to all fights and raids like "every minute two adds attacking the tanks spawn that deal 1500% more damage to tanks only, they despawn after 15(?) seconds" and they're lift immune, immune to granades. And like if you kill one it drops a circle that increases alacrity by 10% if players stand inside so people can make the decision depending on situation if its worth killing or if idk the pt dps taunts it from the tank and the other one get root kicked into oblivion. 

I mean something like this right, something that can be hard, can be rewarding and doesn't require much attention. Like how much work can it be changing like 1 numbers for the hp, disabling ctp (EXAMPLE CHILL OUT JUGGERNAUTS) in raids and like adding a new timer based mechanic that is the same in all fights. Recoloring the mounts or whatever, I doubt thats a lot of work, just slap a filter on it and let's go. The raiding player base is getting bored, people are going for TTK. I heard there are groups killing styrak without any knocks. Trying this has no downside imo, I would definitely give this a try - exclusive mounts (even if they're recolors) are just cool. 

And if people don't want a challenge just make the challenge mode optional so those teams can still enjoy the current versions. I'd certainly give this a try.

 

side note: i picked ctp because imagine torque with 50% more HP right, so burning isn't happening (ideally) so you'd need like ST damage to kill shoots laser but also aoe to keep the sides controlled and ctp + reflect for the fire is just so broken that I doubt the fight could be fun with ctp existing. 

TLDR: add timer based mechanic to all operations (optional!) that if the groups sacrifices [dps, healing, survivability] (examples: kill add, heal add, soak circle) they get a buff or they "wait it out" by coordinating [ccs, interrupts, positioning] but if the "waiting it out part" fails there should be a drawback like everybody gets slowed by 50% for 5s or something, nothing crazy like "everybody gets stunned for 6s" like thats just not fun then right. And slap 50% HP on everything, again optional.

[Traceguy]

The raiding side of the game seems fine. There's an unlimited number of raid interest from players right now, excluding the endangered species known as Tanks. What could make things better is to get rid of the week lockout. The closer you get to next Tuesday, the harder it will be to find tanks for your NiM raid as most tanks will have reached lockout earlier in the week, and since there are too few tanks as is, that's likely 99% of all potential tanks on the server.

Also, there's a limited number of HM and NiM ops run because nobody has the skill needed for harder operations. Making the current ones more hard isn't going to help anything. Even some of the SM ops like R4 and Gods are hardly ever run because they too offer too much difficulty for average players. You hardly ever see anything more than KP HM, which still requires the host to beg that people know how to solve the puzzle, or refrain from joining the group. People do NiM Nefra/Dash because those are the only bosses players can reliably kill, when they could just get their Rakata gear from actually playing a full NiM.

The content that is severely lacking interest from players in the game right now are WBs, Star Fortresses, Uprisings, Master Mode FPs, and GSF. Fix the rewards, make the loot more interesting. In the old versions of the game, Flashpoints actually dropped interesting gear. Now it's all the same trash. The rewards for completing a MP FP are nearly 100% useless. The blue FP armor that drops is worthless as you should be using Hyde and Zeek mods, which by the way, you can unlock 340 blue mods without ever touching a single MMFP or Operation.

The reason SM ops have such a unlimited interest from players is that they offer 2,000 Techfrags. That alone is a good enough reward to run EV/KP/DF/DP day in, day out, all week long.

They gave us a PVP seasons, but GSF doesn't count for that if I'm not mistaken. Aside from CQP, there's zero reason why anyone should play GSF. There's no cool armor sets, decos, mounts, companions, or anything. Really, if they'd add a season for GSF, or add GSF to PVP Seasons, that alone could help.

 

 

[ZUHFB]

3 hours ago, Traceguy said:

Also, there's a limited number of HM and NiM ops run because nobody has the skill needed for harder operations. Making the current ones more hard isn't going to help anything. Even some of the SM ops like R4 and Gods are hardly ever run because they too offer too much difficulty for average players. You hardly ever see anything more than KP HM, which still requires the host to beg that people know how to solve the puzzle, or refrain from joining the group. People do NiM Nefra/Dash because those are the only bosses players can reliably kill, when they could just get their Rakata gear from actually playing a full NiM.

Did you read what I wrote? 

I do not care about gear, like who cares about gear? It's not going to matter. My suggestion is an optional layer ontop of the already existing fights, thats why I wrote twice that it is optional.

4 hours ago, Traceguy said:

The content that is severely lacking interest from players in the game right now are WBs, Star Fortresses, Uprisings, Master Mode FPs, and GSF. Fix the rewards, make the loot more interesting

I play none of this because all of this is irrelevant, it drops no mount, no relevant title no nothing. There is nothing to gain therefor there is no reason to do it. Plain and simple, this now applies to raids too because nobody clears NiM raids for the gear. They want the mount or the title or the achievement, having this season with slightly changed rewards and self imposed bonus mechanics is just good for the game.

Rewards from this CANNOT be interesting because its not hard, if its not hard its not scarce and if its not scarce it's just not worth obtaining. Scarcity creates value. It's a very basic concept.

4 hours ago, Traceguy said:

The blue FP armor that drops is worthless as you should be using Hyde and Zeek mods, which by the way, you can unlock 340 blue mods without ever touching a single MMFP or Operation.

Having gear drop from a gamemode harder than this is not good, it makes it easier - which is the exact opposite of what is supposed to happen. Again, i already said this before.

4 hours ago, Traceguy said:

The reason SM ops have such a unlimited interest from players is that they offer 2,000 Techfrags. That alone is a good enough reward to run EV/KP/DF/DP day in, day out, all week long.

I do not care, the suggestion is very obviously only directed towards NiM operations. Everything else is just loot pinyata anyway and even MM is honestly.

Read the text again with the added context of this reply. MM-Raiders are very bored, the game is not hard by any means. Nobody raids in swtor because they seek a challenge, unless its self imposed like TTK or no-knock styrak. My suggestion is simply taking what is there and adding anything to it, that changes seasonally so it never has to be touched again. 

[Toraak]

well of course your bored. NiM Operations were balanced back in 7.0 around item level 326ish. Now your all in 344. If you were managing to kill those bosses back then you'll definitely have a much easier time of killing them now. 

 

Ever think of going back to 324 purples and doing them for the challenge? Should add more challenge.

Edited February 14 by Toraak

[ZUHFB]

3 hours ago, Toraak said:

well of course your bored. NiM Operations were balanced back in 7.0 around item level 326ish. Now your all in 344. If you were managing to kill those bosses back then you'll definitely have a much easier time of killing them now. 

 

Ever think of going back to 324 purples and doing them for the challenge? Should add more challenge.

Nah you misunderstand, this gear difference does not matter at all - at least DPS wise. It's more the HP increase that makes you able to just run through without a care in the world. 

Nobody plays this game for a challenge, gear is not enough. I even said I do not want this to be about gear. It's not that changes like adding 50% HP to all bosses would make it hard to beat them since they still do no damage, it's just about making it interesting. This adds a dynamic element to otherwise completely static fights. 

Again, if it doesn't affect you there is no need to be against it since there will only be stuff added. There is no losing party.