Myself, and many others, have saved up and purchased a dread guard proc relic (dread guard relic of elemental transcendance or dread guard relic of dark radiance). Previous versions of these relics were not considered best in slot and hence have not undergone rigorous testing.

Upon acquisition and testing of the current dread guard relics it has been demonstrated that the relics crit mechanics vary between relics. This information is not in the item description nor was it in any patchnotes. It many cases it is counter-intuitive (ex. Sage who does internal damage will crit more with the elemental proc relic than the internal relic proc). Bascially, purchasing the wrong relic for your class/ac means that you wasted your 300 daily commendations on a relic that does not crit as it should.

In summary of the crit mechanics:

Dark Radiance (internal damage) -> uses tech crit

Kinetic Tempest (kinetic damage) -> uses tech crit

Elemental Transcendance (elemental damage) -> uses force crit

Cerulean Nova (energy damage) -> uses force crit

My sage does internal and kinetic damage... so i bought the Dread Guard Relic of Dark Radiance (which does internal damage). However, this relic is using a tech crit rate (which i dont have) to calculate it's crit chance. Hence, I only crit 15-20% of the time with it. However, If I would have purchased the Dread Guard Relic of Elemental Transcendance I would be critting 35-40% of the time with it.

This 'crit mechanic' was only described recently in the following threads:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=562338

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=556288

I have submitted a ticket (7048243) for a refund for my relic so I may purchase the correct one for my class and have been denied because too much time has elapsed. Others have had the same result. One person has posted that they received a refund for their relic for the same reasons i posted. Time is irrelevant. This is a hidden mechanic that was not obvious within the first 2 hours of using this relic. In fact it took ~ 2 weeks of discussion and data crunching in the forums to figure out this hidden crit mechanic.

I must insist that I receive a relic refund for my 300 coms or an exchange of my useless DG relic of dark radiance for the DG relic of elemental transcendance.

Thanks

/signed.

I wonder if this is a bug or intended.

The relic description actually says that it should crit 30% of the time on any dmging skill you use. It should not depend on any of your stats it should not crit more than 30% or less than 30% regardless of your class, force or tech crit chance.

So this smells more like a bug than a hidden mechanic but if its intended they should realy change the item description because many ppl will have the wrong relic.

/signed for it to be investigated asap because i'm using the wrong one also if thats true

Same for me, though that i was right about bought internal relic for 1.6mln, then CS refused to change my relic to elemental or refund my credtis and i bought for my own more 300 daily commandations elemental relic... Please refund my creditsya for that bug.

/signed

The relic description actually says that it should crit 30% of the time on any dmging skill you use. It should not depend on any of your stats it should not crit more than 30% or less than 30% regardless of your class, force or tech crit chance.

 

So this smells more like a bug than a hidden mechanic but if its intended they should realy change the item description because many ppl will have the wrong relic.

 

/signed for it to be investigated asap because i'm using the wrong one also if thats true

The description is referring to the proc rate, the crit is rolled on only after it procs.

/signed.

Enoax, I know we were both watching those forums- I submitted a bug report which was closed, and have now submitted a report under item/loot which is open and waiting resolution. I do not want to wait out the time and effort to get another 300 comms because of a hidden mechanic.

/signed as well.

I have submitted a ticket to support as well for a refund on my relic (ticket # 7154132 I believe). I bought it a week or two ago so I'm not holding my breath. CS has been less than stellar in this regard.

Edit: I have also posted in this thread Inconsistent Dread Guard Proc Relics Damage Type . CS, please review this bug.

rather than receiving a refund, i would just like relics to follow the highest crit chance of a character

for instance, smugglers have a higher ranged critical chance, and vanguards have skills that add to elemental crit chance/damage.

and stupid me found someone crafting the elemental proc relic, which i got for my commando when he decides to go into assault.

so simply offering a refund won't resolve the underlying issue imo

You have to be kidding me? Why would they change this up?

BIOWARE - Can you ADDRESS this please. Maybe clean up the Infotip or correctly CRIT following the character class. (Internal being SORC/SAGE for example).

I've logged an in game ticket as well now and expect to get the AUTO Reject from CS. Looks like forums are going to be busy until this is resolved.

The description is referring to the proc rate, the crit is rolled on only after it procs.

Ohh my bad should have guessed that but for some reason i thought he was talking about the proc chance.

So yeah they need to put that text on the relics ( tech dmg, force dmg) and find a way to refund us/swap the relics we have.

I submitted a ticket (#7124052) about this on 12/2/12 asking for a refund of the daily comms or an exchange. I just received this reply today:

I am Protocol Droid G4-Z4, Human-Cyborg relations.

 

Thank you for contacting us regarding your restoration request.

 

After investigating your request, I regret to inform you that on this occasion I am unable to refund or exchange your "Dread Guard Relic of Dark Radiance". I appreciate that this may be disappointing, and I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Thank you for your patience and understanding while I investigated your request. Should you require further assistance with this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Several people in various threads claim they received a swap. (At least one in this thread, for example post #48 on page 5): http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=562338

Assuming they are truthful, then I think it is really awful customer service to deliver such inconsistent results. I would appreciate an actual reason why I am ineligible for a refund/exchange while others were. Some people received responses like it had been too long since they purchased their relic. It's been a long time for me now since I submitted my ticket almost two weeks ago. However, I had only recently purchased the internal proc relic at the time of submission. I guess they realized that canned response didn't apply.

Personally, I am unwilling to farm another 300 daily comms to purchase a duplicate relic of a different damage type due to this undisclosed change. Bioware should have announced this change with the patch notes and by overlooking or omitting this change, then they should give EVERYONE a refund/swap who requests it. The new dread guard relics haven't been out that long. I will only be happy with a Bioware response that would (1) refund/exchange my relic; or (2) fix the underlying mechanic that makes the elemental proc relic superior for sorcerer.

Denied a 2nd time. too long has passed. It's like they aren't reading my ticket. Will try a 3rd time.

Related tickets:

7215463

7048243

Denied a third time. requested it be escalated. Manager said no too. Action maybe taken on my acount. I may beat them to taking action on my account.

My response:

RE: hidden crit mechanics on dread guard proc relics and request for reimbursement of my dread guard of dark radiance or exchange for a dread guard relic of elemental transcendence.

This is my fourth and final ticket relating to this issue. Last ticket, action was threatened against my account. I find this appalling. I'm alerting you to a game mechanic that put force users (~half the population) who may have purchased said relic at a disadvantage.

There is no item discription or patch notes detailing that the different relics have different proc mechanics based on either force or tech crit. Not only that but the mechanics are counter-intuitive. The best proc relic for my class is elemental even though I do absolutely NO elemental damage. Most of my damage is internal yet the internal proc relic doesn't crit even half the time the elemental one. This mechanic is misleading.

Many people are affected by this, whether they know it or not. there has been a thread up in customer service with people requesting the same thing I am requesting. Other have posted in sorc forums they have been reimbursed for the exact same issue. Customer service has not addressed this issue in the official forums in the two threads created regarding this.

As for testing gear on the test server as suggested in the last ticket.. that is laugable. Not only has no server transfers to the test server happened since the spring... to grind a toon to 50 then grind out 300 daily coms to test an item is unrealistic.

If it was just credits, or cartel coins or running a zone again i would have no problem just buying another one. But it's 300 daily coms. It take weeks to a month to grind that many. Being that i just grinded 600 to buy the two relics I currently own I am not willing to grind out another 300 to purchase another.

I invite you to take action on my account for submitting multipe tickets on the same issue. If this issue isnt resolved to my satisfaction I'll take my own action on my account.

I closed my second ticket after all the text in it mysteriously vanished. I am not going to bother submitting another ticket or escalating, especially after seeing how futile it was for the OP to keep sending tickets. By this point I almost have enough daily comms to buy another relic, or not, as I wish.

Obviously BioWare doesn't care if individual people quit. End game raiders are in the minority, and they do not matter to BW. Right now they want to milk the pbase for as much as possible through the cartel market. BW knows that raiders will stick with their guilds and stay subscribed for $15/mo despite the problems. After all, I've stayed with them for a year now for some odd reason. To be honest, Jeff Hickman, Joveth Gonzalez, etc. I met at the SWTOR Cantina Tour seemed very nice. Too bad they're not the ones answering the in-game tickets or dealing with individuals' problems on a regular basis.

I think it is funny though that the OP was threatened with "action" against his account for submitting three tickets. I wonder what the punishment is for failing to be appeased by stock responses from horrible CS droids. Do you lose the right to submit in-game support tickets? What a loss...

Do they actually ban people from the game for submitting multiple tickets on the same issue if previous tickets failed to resolve the issue to the player's satisfaction? Amazing.