First off, we removed the requirement to have the BioChem profession to use Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals. This was done to (a) remove pressure of players to pick up BioChem for optimal combat performance and (b) to open up the sale of BioChem products to a larger audience on the Galactic Trade Network.

YES !!!

Now we have THE BEST profesion in the game and the product that will be in demand, and it's consumed at use !

I see river of credits from all those poor sucker without biochem

Good job BioWare

As part of this effort, specifically for PvP, we are also working on changes that will reduce the gear related power difference between new characters at level 50 and players in full PvP gear. We feel that at the current time, this difference is too high.

That's great to hear. I love the single player portion of this game, but post-50 PvP is such an unbearable grindfest it feels so disconnected and out of place. The more persistence you guys can manage between solo, PvE, and PvP I think the better it will be for everyone in the long run.

Please stick to your guns on this one, do what you feel is right, and not cave into a vocal elitist minority. I've seen enough good games crash and burn because of similar situations.

It took a whole 2½ weeks for me to get completely geared in Battlemaster/Champion gear. I mean, there's something wrong with the game then, if you can get most of the best stuff in 2 weeks. And I would like to add that I'm not particularly lucky, in fact I have like 10 duplicates.

But I guess 2 weeks is too long for new 50's to cope, so a nerf is in order...

(Instead of just making the Centurion gear easier to obtain, or adding a blue set in between)

Oh well... *shrug*

Making Exotech / Energized non biochem needed, fine, great infact.

But nerfing rakata down to the lvl of them dosnt make any sense.

Then you might aswell remove rakata, it serves absolutely no purpose, rakata should stay better, it does make sense that people who keep theyr biochem has a SLIGHT edge, though much smaller now that exotech/energized is usable by anyone.

Honestly this witchhunt of biochem needs to end.

I'd be all for reusables that are a bit less effective than one-shots. Just having any kind of reusables is great already. Yes, I'm biochem on my main.

 

Currently my only worry is that there is not enough credit sinks in this game. If this isn't fixed soon enough, credits will become worthless.

Critical Oranges will be a huge credit sink.

Why is keeping Biochem as is, and giving the other crafting skills a comparable unique buff a very bad idea? The same reason that racials are a bad idea. It's impossible to achieve exactly equal value bonuses. At best you can have bonuses that are better for certain classes/roles/playstyles. At worst, you get flat out better, the same as the situation we have now.

So what you do is make sure each profession gets it's unique thing - but it can be acquired by anyone for an exchange of credits. That way, you can ensure that no-one gets a combat advantage that is unavailable to someone else. This is what is being aimed for. You can get the best Biochem stuff by making it OR buying it. Everyone will want critical orange weapons and armour, which you can make OR buy, creating a commercial demand for Armstech/Amormech/Sythweaving/Artifice. The only thing GZ hasn't addressed is Cybertech, but I'm sure that isn't forgotten either.

It is our intention to gradually, over multiple patches, reduce the impact of situational consumables on endgame combat resolution and shift the factors which determine the outcome of combat more towards personal skill. As part of this effort, specifically for PvP, we are also working on changes that will reduce the gear related power difference between new characters at level 50 and players in full PvP gear. We feel that at the current time, this difference is too high.

A fresh 50 should never be able to have a chance vs someone in full battlemasters.

It's just insulting.

My server's ecomony is awful. There is nothing you can do to fix it unless you merge the servers or allow for server transfers.

When is that going to happen?

YES !!!

Now we have THE BEST profesion in the game and the product that will be in demand, and it's consumed at use !

I see river of credits from all those poor sucker without biochem

Good job BioWare

Pretty much this.

Not only chemists will have the benefit of never having to spend a penny on consumables once they get Rakata items, now they can also pretty much rip off everyone else who doesn't have biochem. Way to go if you wanted any semblance of "balance".

I am sorry for being blunt, but your devs or whoever is responsible for "balancing" the crafting in SWTOR is thinking in a wrong direction (if at all).

Seriously, you cannot make a game better by making the only viable crafting skill LESS attractive. You have to make all the others MORE attractive to players, not the other way around. Doing what you are doing now is going to produce more frustration than relief.

Also, if you want to

reduce the impact of situational consumables on endgame combat resolution

and

reduce the gear related power difference between new characters at level 50 and players in full PvP gear.

You might as well remove consumables and PvP-specifig gear from the game altogether.

No one in the right mind will spend in-game credits or grind valor/warzone commendations is consumables/PvP gear don't provide a significant edge. Obtaining a power difference is a goal many seek. Remove it, and you will have an army of disappointed players.

Great news about the lessening of gear importance with PVP. It will breathe life into PVP for players that have reached 50 and tire of getting 3 shotted by gear whores. Skill should always be the primary factor in PVP, and it's good to see you're adhering to that.

Ignore the coming QQ threads about people who like having gear win battles for them.

The focus on player economy and crafting professions is also welcome.

My suggestion for future PVP content: focus on Open World PVP (and I don't consider Ilum OPEN world).

Do you know how hard I worked to get my pvp gear? Now some chump in pve gear, valor rank 12, is going to be put on the same level as me, for lack of a better...Negro Please! BM tokens are already rare as it is. Compile that with the fact that Sith outnumber republic 7:1 on my server and camp Ilum. Thus, making completing the daily/weekly Ilum missions a pain like no other. Now you're telling me quit pvping dude, it's getting nerfed and will soon be a waste of your time. Gee Thanks. More incentive to go to Guild Wars 2 or perish the thought, Back to WOW. Don't screw with my pvp gear; noobs will get owned, let them, it's how they learn. I don't need some little stupid grabbing the ball and carrying it back to our side, let him die from one ambush by a well-armed sniper. It's bad enough I spent a fortune reverse engineering and leveling biochem only for you to nerf that and it's use with warzone medpacs (which are COMPLETELY freaking useless now). Seriously, do you even play this game that you are beating down to regurgitated garbage. Need some incite, look at how low WOW pvp has sunken, I beg you to rethink this colossally bad decision.

Yöu, Jedi Guardian Tank, Rank 61, Sith Meditation Sphere

This encourages players currently rolling new characters or thinking about swapping to biochem to stick with where they are now and wait for the list of 'in the works' changes to be revealed officially. For gods sake will someone ban these people that pick one sentence out of a statement and start to whine.

As far as I can see ALL the changes that are listed are great for a small update. Little tweaks. 1.1.2 will not be a major content patch. Imagine the outrage that all the try hards would (and probably still will) have when they find out that biochem isn't the only way to play... it never should have been. Crew skills and crafting should involve trading so that everyone can reap the benefits. That's how a market works.

PVE based crafted items should require you to PVE. You should not be able to craft PVE gear greater than raid gear without mats that you would get from those same raids. This facilitates the people having poor luck with drops. If someone wants to sell the final product then that should be their choice but realistically that is only going to happen at small group level because guild raids are going to want to gear up guildies. With this in mind I think rare materials like that should have trading restrictions on them but the final product shouldn't.

PVP based crafted items should require you to PVP. They shouldn't be a grind though as that would make them easier to obtain than PVE materials... though maybe more time consuming. Maybe a chance to drop out of the bags to add more hope of getting geared (and potentially making money from the stuff you craft). Maybe an additional currency for winning to pay for them. Maybe something tied to Illum, I don't know.

The idea is to make crafting viable without making playing the other aspects of the game useless or less efficient or less challenging. Bringing them together is the ideal solution. It's a tough balancing act and while I would love to work with the team doing it I don't envy the job with all the whining, short sighted, impatient, and rude customers they have writing in this very forum.

The game has it's faults. But as with all MMOs it will always be a work in progress. Even when it feels perfect they will still be working on it. ************ about what they give us without offering ideas as alternatives is idiotic. They can't implement every idea and it won't happen next day... this isn't a UPS delivery service. Give them time, they have put enough story in to this game to keep the normal person busy for months... the person who works full time, plays in the evening and realistically pays far more for the game than the 'no lifers' (as they have less time to play).

We don't know if they will get it right but we know they want to. I can understand why they are taking their time to look at what changes will go it... if they got it wrong and put it on here there would be a million posts flaming them with useless criticism.

Take your time guys, get it right.

(Just in case someone says something about the OP changes... I am one and I don't think they are that bad.)

rufl pvp gear nerfs.

make raiding nightmare operations in blues possible too, just to be fair.

Do you know how hard I worked to get my pvp gear? Now some chump in pve gear, valor rank 12, is going to be put on the same level as me, for lack of a better...Negro Please! BM tokens are already rare as it is. Compile that with the fact that Sith outnumber republic 7:1 on my server and camp Ilum. Thus, making completing the daily/weekly Ilum missions a pain like no other. Now you're telling me quit pvping dude, it's getting nerfed and will soon be a waste of your time. Gee Thanks. More incentive to go to Guild Wars 2 or perish the thought, Back to WOW. Don't screw with my pvp gear; noobs will get owned, let them, it's how they learn. I don't need some little stupid grabbing the ball and carrying it back to our side, let him die from one ambush by a well-armed sniper. It's bad enough I spent a fortune reverse engineering and leveling biochem only for you to nerf that and it's use with warzone medpacs (which are COMPLETELY freaking useless now). Seriously, do you even play this game that you are beating down to regurgitated garbage. Need some incite, look at how low WOW pvp has sunken, I beg you to rethink this colossally bad decision.

 

Yöu, Jedi Guardian Tank, Rank 61, Sith Meditation Sphere

You shouldn't be able to 'dominate' because of gear. You should have an advantage. Currently, higher PVP ranks decimate and that is not how it should be. PVE gear still won't stand a chance as they haven't said they are removing the expertise just balancing it so it's more accessible and skill based and not about gear... You should not have god like advantage JUST because you have more time to play and/or luck from bags (which is essentially how it works now). Skill and teamwork should be the core of PVP and an awesome team of players should be able to give a team or better geared equal skilled players a run for their money even if it does end in defeat.

While some people may consider I am only level 48 and so my opinion doesn't count... my hard grinded rank 8 rogue from early rift (before they made it easier) says high. Gear disparity there was insane and was implemented that way because of PVE gear scaling... I wanted the gear balanced then too (and that WAS a lot of work). I had an argument against them making it quicker to get to rank 8 and be on an equal 'rank' thank me but it was nothing to do with the gear, more to do with time invested in achieving rank 8.

You need to look on the other side of the coin. At least if you PUG a game the team supporting you having worse gear won't be as detrimental to the success of the game... it will just be down to the skills and coordination of the players.

As part of this effort, specifically for PvP, we are also working on changes that will reduce the gear related power difference between new characters at level 50 and players in full PvP gear. We feel that at the current time, this difference is too high.

So this will become a game for noob and idiots? Just for the money more noob happy less qq more subscription more money. If u follow the same path as wow this game will die fast.

Start the Farm of Columi and Rakata gear for pvp

As part of this effort, specifically for PvP, we are also working on changes that will reduce the gear related power difference between new characters at level 50 and players in full PvP gear. We feel that at the current time, this difference is too high.

Key to bringing new blood into PvP and preventing PvP endgame from stagnating. *golfclap*

Please tell me why biochem is the only profession you guys are looking into. Seriously, every other profession is so godawful you would be a completely numbskull to choose it over biochem, yet you guys keep tweaking only biochem.

 

Armormech, synthweaving, armstech are a complete waste of time due to the fact that nothing you get is unique, every recipe you get can get gained as a full drop by doing hard modes or raids, you guys have put little to know effort into the crafting system. This change to remove the armoring from epics AFFECTS CRAFTING IN NO WAY!

 

Seriously, how is that even put into the profession changes. There are so many problems with crafting. You guys need to dig deeper and try harder.

This, you silly ****. This game is about looking exactly how you want yourself to look in the star wars universe. THE game is still growing, they;re tweaking everything. Biochem is what you got so you ccan make stims OR as they were known in WoW. FLASKS. they've seen that that is over powered and they want people to be a vital part of the economy

always remember. this is like tf2 in a way, they game was a hat simulator

this is a starwars simulator. the ability to remove armoring MEANS im allowed to look like a sith juggernaut while still being an imperial agent SNIPER! i cant do that now because the chest peice says i have 50 strength that i dont need. THATS THE ARMORING I CANT TAKE OUT

biochem isn't the only way to play... it never should have been. Crew skills and crafting should involve trading so that everyone can reap the benefits. That's how a market works.

This is how the market is *supposed* to work, except that it doesn't.

No other profession is currently viable in the endgame, bar the few and far in between grenade uses for cybertechs. Everything Armormech, Synthweaving, Armstech and Artifice can produce has either better versions or exact counterparts in PvE and PvP. Oh yes, you can craft the "skins" for your armor, but this is only viable pre-50 at the moment. Once you hit 50, if you're going to start raiding or PvPing you only need consumables, and maybe a starship upgrade or two, if you're still not sick and tired of flying that arcade game called "Space Combat".

Bottom line (and I'm repeating myself here): You don't fix the situation by making the only good crafting profession choice worse. You fix it by making the other crafting skills better.

You shouldn't be able to 'dominate' because of gear. You should have an advantage.

Tell it to people who spent days and weeks farming commendations.

If it's "just an advantage", then it's far faster to get a set of Columi/Rakata gear, maybe a color crystal with +41 bonus from Kaon flashpoint with rougly the same stats and forget about the repetitive and tedious Valor/Ilum/Warzone grind. Oh, wait, that would kill the whole PvP system for good. See the problem here?

if you follow the logic of "top PvP gear provides too big an advantage" you might as well start thinking in the direction of "Rakata gear makes running normal mode flashpoints/operations too easy" and scrap the whole idea of PvE itemization and progression.

Thing is, if a game is built around obtaining better gear, the better geared will *always* stomp the freshly dinged into the dirt. You want it fair and square? Follow Guild Wars logic or remove gear bonuses altogether, leaving armor as a social "choose your skin" feature only. Otherwise it's a vicious circle.

Wow...they are so quick to burn every bridge with the PvP community. Here is an idea, let's keep taking away from those who have spent time in game getting Battlemaster...then let's nerf it to the point that someone wearing PvE gear can run in and slaughter everyone.

I see this going the wrong direction very quickly.

do you know how hard i worked to get my pvp gear? Now some chump in pve gear, valor rank 12, is going to be put on the same level as me, for lack of a better...negro please! Bm tokens are already rare as it is. Compile that with the fact that sith outnumber republic 7:1 on my server and camp ilum. Thus, making completing the daily/weekly ilum missions a pain like no other. Now you're telling me quit pvping dude, it's getting nerfed and will soon be a waste of your time. Gee thanks. More incentive to go to guild wars 2 or perish the thought, back to wow. Don't screw with my pvp gear; noobs will get owned, let them, it's how they learn. I don't need some little stupid grabbing the ball and carrying it back to our side, let him die from one ambush by a well-armed sniper. It's bad enough i spent a fortune reverse engineering and leveling biochem only for you to nerf that and it's use with warzone medpacs (which are completely freaking useless now). Seriously, do you even play this game that you are beating down to regurgitated garbage. Need some incite, look at how low wow pvp has sunken, i beg you to rethink this colossally bad decision.

 

Yöu, jedi guardian tank, rank 61, sith meditation sphere

sir, do you know how hard it is for us now to get pvp gear. Impossible because chumps like you got in early

I'm in the best Republic PvP guild on my server and we recruit fresh 50's all the time. The gear difference has absolutely nothing to do with game design. It has everything to do with 'casual' players who don't even bother to spend a few creds to upgrade their gear from the GTN. The players we recruit have either obtained their blue pvp set pieces or bought purple mods off the GTN, and they do just fine in warzones. Additionally it takes what maybe 2 weeks for a fresh 50 to gear up in at least half Champion gear? The point of PvP in an MMO is that you build your character and take care of your gear. If BW tries to equalize PvP across gear, then what's the point? I'll go play some FPS game if I want equality in matches.

If you want to make it so fresh 50s don't get hammered in matches, maybe put the blue gear on the in-warzone pvp vendors. Then at least the gear they should be wearing is right in their face. Or maybe lower the cost of the blue gear a tad.

If for some terrible reason BW decides to nerf the high-end pvp gear, we'll just mix in PvE gear. Then BW would have to nerf PvE gear which means PvE gets harder etc etc.

Or here's an idea : START RATED MATCHES ALREADY!!!