I enjoy real solo content as I said earlier. But let's not have things mixed up. My point was not "erhmagad, dont give good gear 2 thoze noobs". My point was since the beginning that group content rewards better rewards than solo content for a reason. There's a lot more than mechanical difficulties in group content than in solo. But that's not all, if you start to reward group content reward in solo content, what's the incentive to group content then ? I'm a raider, but if I can quickly gear my alts for HM ops without ever needing someone else why would I bring my alts to group content where someone can screw something up and make us wipe or do a better roll on a token I want ?

 

You have the classical reaction of a solo player, you want everything the game can offer by doing only your thing. I'm sorry, but if you want PvP gear you have to PvP and if you want ops gear you have to run ops. You just want to eat your cake and have it.

I'm allowed to want what I want but in all honesty I don't really expect to get it. Eric asked what we think the gear rewards for this content should be and I gave my opinion. I'm not demanding that the devs acquiesce and maybe one day I'll get over my aversion to operations and actually get the gear I'd like. What's clear is that the way I want the game to be and the way you want the game to be are different and that's fine.

I'm not going to argue about the same points over and over but I do wonder about a few things you said about ops. You described all the preparation, learning about mechanics, reading up on your class and rotations to make you effective so that you could clear the hardest content in the game and then what? Your (I'm assuming 224) armour is your badge of honour and you don't want that diminished? I get that but how much effort did it take to clear your first SM Op or rather how much effort, preparation and skill does it take now?

I'm a natural min/maxer but I come from single-player RPGs, I read all the same guides you do but knowing my gear is gimping me drives me nuts even if I don't need it for the content I enjoy. Every excuse I come up with not to take part in ops will sound just like that to someone who enjoys them...an excuse. I won't even bother explaining again why it's not really for me but I'm not alone in this and wanting an alternative way to get BiS gear that suits my preferred playstyle isn't the most outlandish request ever made. It's not even what I'm asking for; I'm just asking for the next step up in gear that I see as the natural progression from comms gear and only as a reward for what I hope is extremely challenging content, which I realise you will never see as equally challenging even if it included everything you listed above such as dps checks and complex mechanics (just not group mechanics obviously) so we are at an impasse.

Finally the argument that you and others make about players not bothering with ops if they can get the same gear from solo play is nonsensical. If people don't want to run ops and have to be tempted to participate with slightly better gear, what's the point in running ops with these people? If they're not enjoying it and are only there to gear up, then I don't expect anyone is having a good time. If op participation is so low that you believe offering the same (SM) rewards for much more difficult solo content will lead to a mass exodus of players from operations, then operations are really in a sorry state. Why try and force it if things are so dire? I don't know if the situation is really that bad, I'm guessing it could be better but what I do know as a relatively new player (sub since the summer) is that the average hardcore raider or even just your average old-timer who runs FPs isn't exactly welcoming newcomers with open arms so I'm not surprised people don't want to play. You need thick skin to get past all the grief you get just from trying to do what you keep getting told to do, which is "L2P". I'll think I'll just do the P part by myself but don't expect me to come back when I actually get good. I'm not a masochist.

I'm allowed to want what I want but in all honesty I don't really expect to get it. Eric asked what we think the gear rewards for this content should be and I gave my opinion. I'm not demanding that the devs acquiesce and maybe one day I'll get over my aversion to operations and actually get the gear I'd like. What's clear is that the way I want the game to be and the way you want the game to be are different and that's fine.

You're allowed to ask what you want. You can ask a surgeon job if you have a manager diploma, but since you didn't do what's needed to be a surgeon, you won't be one. The same thing goes in an MMO, if you don't do what's needed to get gear, you won't have gear.

I'm not going to argue about the same points over and over but I do wonder about a few things you said about ops. You described all the preparation, learning about mechanics, reading up on your class and rotations to make you effective so that you could clear the hardest content in the game and then what? Your (I'm assuming 224) armour is your badge of honour and you don't want that diminished? I get that but how much effort did it take to clear your first SM Op or rather how much effort, preparation and skill does it take now?

I'd like to be full 224, but I'm mostly 220, but that's not the point. Even as faceroll as SM ops are today, unprepared groups can't clear content. I experienced it a few times in my guild (we have some casual players and our GM organize a raid night for them where more experienced players can come to lend a hand). And I assure you that even with all the nerfs to mechanics, damage output and health pool, some boss are still really hard for some people. Sure it's not as hard as before, but they still need preparation (and my GM 5-10' explaining of mechanics before each fight won't deny that).

I'm a natural min/maxer but I come from single-player RPGs, I read all the same guides you do but knowing my gear is gimping me drives me nuts even if I don't need it for the content I enjoy. Every excuse I come up with not to take part in ops will sound just like that to someone who enjoys them...an excuse. I won't even bother explaining again why it's not really for me but I'm not alone in this and wanting an alternative way to get BiS gear that suits my preferred playstyle isn't the most outlandish request ever made. It's not even what I'm asking for; I'm just asking for the next step up in gear that I see as the natural progression from comms gear and only as a reward for what I hope is extremely challenging content, which I realise you will never see as equally challenging even if it included everything you listed above such as dps checks and complex mechanics (just not group mechanics obviously) so we are at an impasse.

That's why 208 optimized set bonus gear is a good idea. It's an upgrade even if you wear 220 crystal gear and it's a middle-ground between your solution and a gear reward that wouldn't be interresting (i.e. 220 non-set gear or less)

Finally the argument that you and others make about players not bothering with ops if they can get the same gear from solo play is nonsensical. If people don't want to run ops and have to be tempted to participate with slightly better gear, what's the point in running ops with these people? If they're not enjoying it and are only there to gear up, then I don't expect anyone is having a good time. If op participation is so low that you believe offering the same (SM) rewards for much more difficult solo content will lead to a mass exodus of players from operations, then operations are really in a sorry state. Why try and force it if things are so dire? I don't know if the situation is really that bad, I'm guessing it could be better but what I do know as a relatively new player (sub since the summer) is that the average hardcore raider or even just your average old-timer who runs FPs isn't exactly welcoming newcomers with open arms so I'm not surprised people don't want to play. You need thick skin to get past all the grief you get just from trying to do what you keep getting told to do, which is "L2P". I'll think I'll just do the P part by myself but don't expect me to come back when I actually get good. I'm not a masochist.

Well...if you encountered people not welcoming newcomers, you either were really unlucky and found bad attitude people or weren't showing envy to learn. I'm glad to teach people mechanics in ops or even FP, on rotation or else. But what really bothers me are people clearly showing they don't care and even if I'm most the time calm and patient, I lose my nerves really quickly with those people.

But you take the problem the other way around. The problem is not that people will stop to run op because they can get the same gear by an easier mean. The problem is that people like you won't take the step to start doing op, looking for a guild and embark in all the optimizing gear game since they can have this gear by an easier mean. I'd really like to convince you to come with my guild run a SM op, show you how fun it is and teach you some things but I'm pretty sure I can't convince you and that make me sad (plus I'm sure we're not on the same server)

unmodable weapons are rubbish, I paid good money for my cartel market lightsaber, I fail to see why I shouldn't be able to use it just so people who play a dying type of content can feel self important

I agree in a way, not that operations are dying content or don't deserve focus anymore but considering they are focusing on other areas of the game it doesn't make sense to fill it full of trash while operations still the only content to drop viable endgame upgrades.

I actually got a better idea that wont upset the endgame balance too much, remove implants/earpieces/relics/offhands from operations (and fill those bosses with gear people will actually roll for) and drop them in the eternal championship instead.

Then have 216 dropping for 5, 220 for 7 and 224 for 10 encounters.

There you have it, decent gear dropping outside of ops but you still need to do ops to get your set bonuses. Both operations and solo content will compliment each other rather than one or the other being the be all & end all.

I agree in a way, not that operations are dying content or don't deserve focus anymore but considering they are focusing on other areas of the game it doesn't make sense to fill it full of trash while operations still the only content to drop viable endgame upgrades.

 

I actually got a better idea that wont upset the endgame balance too much, remove implants/earpieces/relics/offhands from operations (and fill those bosses with gear people will actually roll for) and drop them in the eternal championship instead.

 

Then have 216 dropping for 5, 220 for 7 and 224 for 10 encounters.

 

There you have it, decent gear dropping outside of ops but you still need to do ops to get your set bonuses. Both operations and solo content will compliment each other rather than one or the other being the be all & end all.

I actually like this idea, throw in some crystals so we can grab some of that gear as well and its gold. But this is from a solo player, I don't know how raiders will like this idea. You'd actually be forcing raiders to do this content for the rest of their gear so probably won't work. This is one of the better ideas though.

I actually like this idea, throw in some crystals so we can grab some of that gear as well and its gold. But this is from a solo player, I don't know how raiders will like this idea. You'd actually be forcing raiders to do this content for the rest of their gear so probably won't work. This is one of the better ideas though.

You get flooded with all types of crystals from just doing alliance stuff. You get a lot of crystals just for raising specialists' influence levels. You can get the crystals from datapad in your alliance base every 2 levels.

You have barely enough time to use your 216 offhand before you have enough Radiant crystals to get 220 offhand.

I agree in a way, not that operations are dying content or don't deserve focus anymore but considering they are focusing on other areas of the game it doesn't make sense to fill it full of trash while operations still the only content to drop viable endgame upgrades.

 

I actually got a better idea that wont upset the endgame balance too much, remove implants/earpieces/relics/offhands from operations (and fill those bosses with gear people will actually roll for) and drop them in the eternal championship instead.

 

Then have 216 dropping for 5, 220 for 7 and 224 for 10 encounters.

 

There you have it, decent gear dropping outside of ops but you still need to do ops to get your set bonuses. Both operations and solo content will compliment each other rather than one or the other being the be all & end all.

Interesting idea and I kind of like it but would not want it done this way. The reason is that this would "force" raiders to solo grind in order get their gear just like solo players are now "forced" to raid to get good gear.

As such I'm all for alternative ways of gearing so long as none is easier of faster than the other.

Interesting idea and I kind of like it but would not want it done this way. The reason is that this would "force" raiders to solo grind in order get their gear just like solo players are now "forced" to raid to get good gear.

As such I'm all for alternative ways of gearing so long as none is easier of faster than the other.

If it's mk-4 stuff then raiders will just ignore it.

I agree in a way, not that operations are dying content or don't deserve focus anymore but considering they are focusing on other areas of the game it doesn't make sense to fill it full of trash while operations still the only content to drop viable endgame upgrades.

 

I actually got a better idea that wont upset the endgame balance too much, remove implants/earpieces/relics/offhands from operations (and fill those bosses with gear people will actually roll for) and drop them in the eternal championship instead.

 

Then have 216 dropping for 5, 220 for 7 and 224 for 10 encounters.

 

There you have it, decent gear dropping outside of ops but you still need to do ops to get your set bonuses. Both operations and solo content will compliment each other rather than one or the other being the be all & end all.

I'm not totally against this idea, but relics and offhand are 2 of the 3 items (with mainhand) that provide the biggest DPS increase per item so the boss should have to be incredibly hard in order to not upset end game balance and that's again BW logic of making solo content doable by the vast majority of the player base.

You'd actually be forcing raiders to do this content for the rest of their gear so probably won't work.

Maybe it's the current system that doesn't work well, if they don't provide BiS rewards outside of raiding the EC will end up just like HM flashpoints in where they don't provide decent enough rewards to consider running. While raiding should be the primary place you go to get geared I don't think it should be the sole focus of PvE endgame.

And considering you can already get most of your gear BiS just from face rolling EV/KP HM's when the the priority what harm is it going to do if a challenging piece of solo content that most couldn't probably clear drops something decent?

So force raiders through the content I say...

I'm not totally against this idea, but relics and offhand are 2 of the 3 items (with mainhand) that provide the biggest DPS increase per item so the boss should have to be incredibly hard in order to not upset end game balance and that's again BW logic of making solo content doable by the vast majority of the player base.

I didn't choose those pieces as must have things to drop just an example, it could even copy what LI HM pre 2.0 did and drop a 224 chest and 220 MH on the final encounter. My point is there needs to be something decent if this content is going to be a challenge so it's still worthwhile after the player has ran their first operation.

However I do think set implants and earpieces would be good dropping outside operations as they tend to be the least rolled for items.

I didn't choose those pieces as must have things to drop just an example, it could even copy what LI HM pre 2.0 did and drop a 224 chest and 220 MH on the final encounter. My point is there needs to be something decent if this content is going to be a challenge so it's still worthwhile after the player has ran their first operation.

 

However I do think set implants and earpieces would be good dropping outside operations as they tend to be the least rolled for items.

Implants and earpiece is actually a good idea, but as I said earlier the EC has to be really hard, way harder than Heroic Star Fortress in fact in order to drop at least 216 tokens

If it's mk-4 stuff then raiders will just ignore it.

I suppose they could go for crafted but what about existing pieces? The quoted comment of mine was a reply to the idea of removing all of those drops from raids after all.

I might be coming late to this discussion, and I only read through the first dozen or so pages, but it seems to me that a lot of the contribution in this thread is coming from the people who run operations. We're talking here about solo content, so maybe the perspective of someone (e.g. me) who plays that content almost exclusively is useful.

I don't need better gear, really. By the time I start KotFE on my characters, I have a full set of 208 armor and a few hundred green crystals, and equipment drops mostly get vendored or thrown onto the GTN. With 208 gear and a 20+ companion, I can solo a heroic star fortress with a little perspiration.

What I really want is a 208 main-hand weapon with mods. It's the most frustrating thing in the game to be gearing up with the crystals and discover that there is no way to get the hilt/barrel mods for the main hand without going on the GTN and paying a fortune for them. It's actually infuriating.

The other thing I would want is 208 relics that are "on equip" and not "on use." I don't need another button to push. I don't need another defensive cooldown. Just give me a relic that does its thing, like the 208s I'm buying of the GTN now.

I'll also agree with the folks upthread who suggest cosmetic shells, or empty "orange" gear. That said, please don't just throw another ugly set of armor at me. Take some time and pay attention to what people are asking for, and provide some armor without an overabundance of tubes, or a butt-cape, or a superhero cape, or bug-eyes. Make it look good.

The other thing that is always nice, but seldom mentioned, is cash. Lately it seems like anything worth buying from the GTN is **** expensive. I'm guessing that this is because the crafters have made so much cash that it no longer has any meaning to them. I like the larger cash payouts from the Revan and KotFE missions, but it would be nice to have a recurring source of funds once a character gets through that content.

The last point I'll make about rewards has more to do with how they're handed out: give me account-bound tokens and let me pick what I want (like on Ziost.) Let me amass a stack of these tokens in my stronghold bank so that I can gear up alts when they get to level 65 (usually happens on Hoth these days.) That includes a mainhand weapon. If you want to have the vendor charge 150 green crystals plus some number of tokens, fine... but give me a way to get my 208 weapon (modded) without being screwed on the GTN.

Finally, regarding the challenge level, I'll again agree with a comment I saw upthread: knocking out a heroic star fortress with just your companion seems like a good baseline. I've seen suggestions that companions should not be allowed, and I can only say I can't tell you my honest opinion of that idea within the forum use guidelines. Suffice it to say that I won't be doing this without my companion, except maybe once to get Bowdaar. I like my companions, and I'll be playing content with them, or looking for other games.

When designing challenging encounters, please don't just take the lazy approach of adding "boss immunity" to everything that is supposed to be tough. Let us use the full range of our abilities, without limitation. Better yet, design the encounter to require us to use the full range of our abilities. That's a much more enjoyable challenge than backing into a corner and running through a basic rotation until the thing dies. I really dislike being thrown around and knocked down by a "boss" that I can't use my stuns and interrupts on, or knock back, etc. If I'm subject to the physics, so should my opponent be.

Hope that perspective was helpful.

I agree in a way, not that operations are dying content or don't deserve focus anymore but considering they are focusing on other areas of the game it doesn't make sense to fill it full of trash while operations still the only content to drop viable endgame upgrades.

 

I actually got a better idea that wont upset the endgame balance too much, remove implants/earpieces/relics/offhands from operations (and fill those bosses with gear people will actually roll for) and drop them in the eternal championship instead.

 

Then have 216 dropping for 5, 220 for 7 and 224 for 10 encounters.

 

There you have it, decent gear dropping outside of ops but you still need to do ops to get your set bonuses. Both operations and solo content will compliment each other rather than one or the other being the be all & end all.

I like this idea actually.

Hello everyone,

 

This is Steven Chew and I’ll be coordinating as well as working on the Eternal Championship. Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for providing their input. It’s very encouraging as a developer to hear from players who are engaged in the content that we create. I’ve been going through the posts on this feature for Game Update 4.2, and wanted to give some insight on what we’re trying to achieve with this.

 

As mentioned in the stream, this is meant to give the solo player (with companion) a series of challenges that gets progressively harder. The goal is to have the first 5 rounds be achievable by players who have just completed the first 9 chapters of KotFE, but with some additional elements. By successfully completing Round 5, they will get gear that is better than what they’ve been able to get from the story content. Beginning in Round 6, the challenges will start increasing in difficulty and building up to the final encounter in Round 10. We are still in the process of fine-tuning what the difficulty increase feels like.

 

The Eternal Championship provides an alternative way for solo players to get higher tiers of gear, albeit at a slower rate compared to Flashpoints/Operations. The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players.

 

Looking through the posts in the thread so far, I’ve seen suggestions that match some of what we’re trying to do, some beyond the scope of this feature, and some additional ideas that are “that’s cool, we should consider that”. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread so please keep those suggestions coming. I won’t be able to reply to each person individually, but will post an update when we have something substantial to share.

 

Again, thanks for taking the time. See you in game (from the shadows, you never know when a developer is stealthily following you around).

Thank you Sir for taking the time to talk to us. Have a good day.

Will the encounters be tuned separately for each role?

+1

This is a question I think that needs to be considered. Some specs just have an easier time of solo content than others and how do the devs see this difference affecting their balance concerns.

Or should I get my Sorc to chapter 9 as fast as possible

If the devs really want to have a difficulty test why is gear and previous attainment being allowed into the mix? This seems to muddy the balancing curve, as I've said before those that like to set themselves challenges are likely to have the best gear (or close to it) already as well (and probably most of the other buffs as well) and so any challenge set for entry level players they will breeze through. The same reasoning applies to the companions and their influence as well, although I can understand why the devs may put content in the game that encourages players to spend time raising companion influence.

Will the ten encounters be spaced out (allowed to take a break between each bout) or will you have to go through it in one go?

Have the design team considered any Attack Wave mechanics?

Fight new waves to fail, the higher the wave you reach the more bragging rights you have... it may also demonstrate any imbalances between AC/Discipline/Companion if a certain combination regularly out performs others.

Where would the solo Revan fight on Yavin 4 sit on the current scale of difficulty?

Personally I felt it was a wasted opportunity and did little else than serve as an interactive screen saver to keep the player awake. A reasonable fight mechanic, but far too many stuns/interrupts that were unavoidable, and at the same time npc healers that meant a player had to make a concerted effort to get themselves killed.

Some of the Oricon boss fights were a good balance, until a character outlevelled and out geared them. The champions in the Oricon H2 area remained some of the toughest solo fights I've found in the game. A good example of timing interrupts against mob abilities that could swing a fight, but were survivable if you used defensive cool downs, and a wider variety of ability combinations.

In fact I've not been back to Oricon since 4.0 dropped, I should probably take a gander and see if the H2 Champions have retained their punch.

Hello everyone,

 

This is Steven Chew and I’ll be coordinating as well as working on the Eternal Championship. Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for providing their input. It’s very encouraging as a developer to hear from players who are engaged in the content that we create. I’ve been going through the posts on this feature for Game Update 4.2, and wanted to give some insight on what we’re trying to achieve with this.

 

As mentioned in the stream, this is meant to give the solo player (with companion) a series of challenges that gets progressively harder. The goal is to have the first 5 rounds be achievable by players who have just completed the first 9 chapters of KotFE, but with some additional elements. By successfully completing Round 5, they will get gear that is better than what they’ve been able to get from the story content. Beginning in Round 6, the challenges will start increasing in difficulty and building up to the final encounter in Round 10. We are still in the process of fine-tuning what the difficulty increase feels like.

 

The Eternal Championship provides an alternative way for solo players to get higher tiers of gear, albeit at a slower rate compared to Flashpoints/Operations. The highest rating gear will still be reserved for the more difficult group content as those require more coordination and effort from more players.

 

Looking through the posts in the thread so far, I’ve seen suggestions that match some of what we’re trying to do, some beyond the scope of this feature, and some additional ideas that are “that’s cool, we should consider that”. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread so please keep those suggestions coming. I won’t be able to reply to each person individually, but will post an update when we have something substantial to share.

 

Again, thanks for taking the time. See you in game (from the shadows, you never know when a developer is stealthily following you around).

Can you care to expand upon what you guys find as doable so that suggestions posted here are more finely tuned?

Sadly, to me this sounds that the Eternal Championship will be very easy for any raid player but it's best they control the hype early on.

Thanks for confirming that the best gear should only drop from group content. I'm fine with Eternal Championship dropping some 216 gear, which you seem to imply with the slower rate, as long as it doesn't drop 224 gear.

I do hope you took our suggestions to heart when it comes to the mechanics. Like having a boss that must be interrupted to defeat it (think Malgus in the False Emperor flashpoint). Forcing everyone to read up what an interrupt is would go a long way toward teaching new players about game mechanics.

I don't expect players to suddenly be top raid players just from completing all challenges but maybe you can have small lessons like this inside the arena.

In any case, I'm still looking forward to the arena even though it won't be nearly as nice as I had hoped.

Sadly, to me this sounds that the Eternal Championship will be very easy for any raid player but it's best to control the hype early on.

Thanks for confirming that the best gear should only drop from group content. I'm fine with Eternal Championship dropping some 216 gear, which you seem to imply with the slower rate, as long as it doesn't drop 224 gear.

 

I do hope you took our suggestions to heart when it comes to the mechanics. Like having a boss that must be interrupted to defeat it (think Malgus in the False Emperor flashpoint). Forcing everyone to read up what an interrupt is would go a long way toward teaching new players about game mechanics.

I don't expect players to suddenly be top raid players just from completing all challenges but maybe you can have small lessons like this inside the arena.

 

In any case, I'm still looking forward to the arena even though it won't be nearly as nice as I had hoped.

Just keep in mind that some classes are very limited on interrupts. Something like that would depend on how they implement it. It could backfire and upset a large group of players.

To your first point: This is obviously different from raiding and not meant as a replacement. I feel as though it is designed to give another play option to all players, but especially those who don't care to raid.

Better Matrix cube

Have there be a chance for you to get an item to charge (level) your matrix cube. Make it take 15 charges to get up to a max level 65 and its stats dps/heals being somewhere around the 220 SA relic, with an option to make it with tanking stats. The ability to swap stats out of combat would even be better since we can only have one cube. The higher level you can complete, the greater chance of it dropping. Make the charges bound.

Overall, I bring this up because I miss the matrix cube and think this might be a way to bring it back. Add the progression element to it and make it viable in raiding and it could be an alternative for raiders until they get 224 relics. The static stats need to be well thought out though, because too high and it will be immediately preferred over any of the proc relics since its pure dps/heals.

One of the rewards should be a box, role appropriate Tank DPS Healer. In that box is a 224 unlettered mod and a random 224 optimized enhancement. By keeping Hilt/Barrels, armoring, and non-modifiable gear out of it, it makes it a proper reward that can always be used because of legacy gear and its small enough that it wouldn't be considered OP or to powerful of a reward because its 1 box a week and its only a Mod and Enh. Even offer a PvP version of the box if wanted.

It's a small reward that can be used by everyone and make sure its always worth it to run it every week.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE ALMIGHTY REVAN, MAKE SURE YOU TEST EVERY FIGHT WITH EVERY ROLE OF EVERY CLASS. DON'T FAIL LIKE YOU DID WITH RAV/TOS BY MAKING IT A GIANT F U TO MELEE

By every role of every class, i mean Tank, Heal, DPS and doesn't need to be every DPS spec the class has just the common played one.

Sadly, to me this sounds that the Eternal Championship will be very easy for any raid player but it's best to control the hype early on.

Thanks for confirming that the best gear should only drop from group content. I'm fine with Eternal Championship dropping some 216 gear, which you seem to imply with the slower rate, as long as it doesn't drop 224 gear.

 

I do hope you took our suggestions to heart when it comes to the mechanics. Like having a boss that must be interrupted to defeat it (think Malgus in the False Emperor flashpoint). Forcing everyone to read up what an interrupt is would go a long way toward teaching new players about game mechanics.

I don't expect players to suddenly be top raid players just from completing all challenges but maybe you can have small lessons like this inside the arena.

 

In any case, I'm still looking forward to the arena even though it won't be nearly as nice as I had hoped.

I think a boss that requires an interrupt would be a good idea for this, and it wouldn't be anything that'd be too hard to implement for solo content since it's been done before. I know one of the Oricon storyline missions has a boss-ish enemy that "required" an interrupt when on level or it'd sap your health. Once over leveled, and I imagine this is true even with level sync, the interrupt wasn't really necessary since you could kill it long before it got a chance to get much of its health back. But something like that as a mechanic for one of the boss fights would definitely be a good idea for this.

Just keep in mind that some classes are very limited on interrupts. Something like that would depend on how they implement it. It could backfire and upset a large group of players.

 

To your first point: This is obviously different from raiding and not meant as a replacement. I feel as though it is designed to give another play option to all players, but especially those who don't care to raid.

I'm not talking about having an interrupt every 10 seconds, that would be too much. Just have the boss do a 5 second cast sometime during the fight and let it be an insta-kill if it doesn't get interrupted. They'd have to ensure that they boost the accuracy so the interrupt cannot miss (e.g. for healers) but outside of that, every class is able to do this.

It would teach players to watch the boss' cast bar, which is a valuable lesson for any flashpoint and operation boss fight in the game.

Bonus points if they add some other abilities that must not be interrupted (like the snipers in Denova that don't lose their shield if you interrupt Shoot First) to ensure players look at which ability the boss is casting. And even better would be if they ignore leaps and only accept "real" interrupts. But I'm already demanding too much.

And yeah, I now understand that this is not targeted at veteran players.

During the livestream, they talked about how even the first five challenges should feel worth it for experienced players, and that the final boss should be very difficult (which is why there are different weekly quests depending on how far you get).

But apparently they changed their mind since then, or there was a misunderstanding and they explained it wrong during the livestream. Because they now state that it is intended for solo players. But I understand that this happens during development so I'll accept however they want to tune the fights.

I think a boss that requires an interrupt would be a good idea for this, and it wouldn't be anything that'd be too hard to implement for solo content since it's been done before. I know one of the Oricon storyline missions has a boss-ish enemy that "required" an interrupt when on level or it'd sap your health.

Yeah, you're right, I remember that boss now, and all the confused players in chat asking why they couldn't beat the boss. But if I remember correctly, that had to do with the small add that no one killed. Once the add was dead, the boss stopped his channel.