Hey everyone, guess what? Check out the upcoming 6.2.1a patch notes: Resolved an issue where Troya Ajak’s Ability “Songbird Salvo” was causing too much damage in the Spirit of Vengeance Flashpoint - Master Mode. Looks like we weren't just imagining things after all.

That's the thing--after killing some people with her beefed up circles, she'd go on and do 'normal' dps and even two remaining team members, with no heals, could actually finish her. Did you encounter the initial circles at the start of your fight? that seems to be the killer for a lot of people now.

Thanks I think these are good tips for any situation. However the topic of concern is about whether this change is intentional. Just to be sure, you can watch the effects of the red circles in older Youtube's of the same MM fight and you can see it doesn't hit nearly as hard.

I'm glad it wasn't just us!! And yes, survivability does seem to be easier with fewer people. There must be something I'm not aware of.

I healed a well geared and competent group through SoV master mode today and things were smooth until we hit the 3rd boss Troya Ajak. Normally no big deal but today I noticed that immediately upon engaging her, we were hit with her red circles. These red circles immediately took off 90% of our health and even killed 1 team member instantly. We had no chance. Tried again a few times and the fight always started with circles. Whether stacking or spread out, it made no difference and it was over before it started. I never remembered it being so bad. We eventually beat her by starting the fight with our best DCD to survive the initial hit. I did end up succumbing to them again but luckily my group had enough HP to finish her off. Is this normal? I've googled and watched videos and the red circles seem to be no big deal. What has everyone's experience been since the 6.2.1 patch? Thx for your help.

Hey thanks for the reply. I'm not sure if I see things the same way. Again I'm not arguing right/wrong here but let's see how this plays out... With content, most lvl75 players still have comfortable access to enjoy 90-95% of the game's content without worrying. I think in terms of accessibility, this is very reasonable and it won't suddenly exclude more people. We see evidence of this in many SM Ops where it's no big deal to have even lvl70 players present. So in most existing ops, it won't change much either from the status quo. Personally i've yet to see anyone recruit for nightmare mode ops in fleet chat. But if you're able to quickly gauge gear scores for suitability, even more people might actually get a chance to experience challenges that they would not have otherwise been able to try out. my 2 cents.

Thank you for explaining it so well and for contributing these real examples. Indeed the augs and amps provide such a huge swing that it's almost like comparing lvl 306 vs 268 gear. With equally skilled players, the difference is substantial. I'd also like to bring up the impact to expansion content. The next release of gear will likely start at 307 and up. For a maxed out 306 player with augs and amps, it may not be worth upgrading gear until getting lvl325 gear. However, there's no quick way to make that determination using just gear rating.

What you say is not wrong and is extremely valid. Of course there is more to a player's overall output than gear but when picking up a pug, we can only go by what is observable and measurable in the UI. (skill is not) So whether you're an HR department or a raid leader, you gotta go by role and what's on paper (ie, what's listed on a resume or--in our case--gear score) to determine who gets a shot.

Notice I deliberately refer to gear performance. (a term used in sports and military) Of course actual player experience, skill, execution, etc accounts for a significant % of overall performance.

It's just about making differentiation and valuation more visible, straightforward, clear, and reflective of actual gear performance. 306 isn't actually reflective of a hard cap since augs and amps extend actual performance considerably. Some guilds and groups may choose to use the updated gear score to determine suitability for certain content when in need of a quick pug. Some people may just want to have their investment be made more visible. For me, it's just the principle of valuation. And lastly, when you get gear drops, seeing some with scores of 307 or 308 (maybe due to a gold armor amp) will make it easier to take notice and worth examining.

As the title states, I'd like to propose the idea of enabling augments and armor amps to be reflected in the gear score. (perhaps allowing us to see gear in the 306-320's range for endgame) I'm sure I'm not the first to suggest this, but it makes sense since gear is essentially being upgraded. A brand new 306 player vs. one with maxed out augments and armor amps might appear equal at first glance. However, a 306 player with maxed out endgame augments and gold armor amps has a significant advantage over one with default 306 amps and no augments. I understand there may be concern about the potential of judging or excluding players by their gear score. However I've not experience that in game thus far. Thanks for your consideration.

I'd say it also depends on cadence. Up until 2016 a news release was made every single month. Then suddenly nothing. Again the intention of my post is really about optics and customer relationship management strategy. Especially in this business model, regular customer engagement is important.

Hi everyone, As a family of new and returning players we are impressed with the vast improvements to the game but also taken aback by the small, seemingly trivial opportunities on the website that haven't been addressed. We believe the following pages should be edited asap to improve perception towards all your hard work: The Developer Blog: the last dated update was from 5 years ago. This gives the public an impression that there's been little to no progress in development. 5 years is a lifetime. Press Release Page: again, nothing since 2016 and no mention of Onslaught. Even a Happy New year message with a 2021 timestamp shows that there's still someone working in the office. The Events Page: leads to a 'Page not found' error. Not professional. Whether the above shortcomings reflects reality or attitudes in the office, what's important is to keep wearing that professional armor. We love the game as it's given many of us a positive experience while under COVID lockdown. We hope to see the renewed interest and growth in SWTOR continue for many more seasons. Keep up the good work.