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New Patch... I mean Expansion, means new Gear?


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As seems the case in most MMOs... a new expansion, new levels, new missions, usually means new and better gear.

 

So I'm kinda curious, before I bother trying to grind Ops and HMs and whatnot.

 

How likely is it, that the first Green drop will completely dwarf the stats on the shiny Black Hole gear we're supposed to be striving for?

 

When I was 49, I had some of the best stuff I was able to wear. Then I hit 50, and some little ATM on the fleet gave me some Recruit gear. Bye bye 49 gear! Oh, and then along came the free Tionese Comms a little later.

 

Now I can't decide which free set is better than the stuff I was grinding Comms and/or asking guildies to help me mod. Couple that with the new epic Ship mods, that you could grind for, or just buy with Cartel coins.

 

Thinking back to the days I used to play "The MMO That Shall Not Be Named", when a new expansion would come along. The first reward you got for killing 5 indigenous species, was better than the best I'd had on 5 minutes before.

 

So yeah... should we bother with Dailies anymore? Or just throw money at Bioware, and wait to reap the rewards of Pay2Win?

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So yeah... should we bother with Dailies anymore? Or just throw money at Bioware, and wait to reap the rewards of Pay2Win?

 

First off, I wouldn't expect to see the new expansion for at least 4 months, probably closer to 6, so, regardless of how the developers implement the gear progression, what you get now will still be useful in that time frame.

 

Secondly, whether current end game gear is going to be completely overshadowed by the new gear depends heavily upon how the developers choose to implement it. It's entirely possible the item levels on gear (tionese is 51, columi is 56, Rakata is 58) are simply going to increase by 5, such that the 63 gear we're currently using will be more akin to Rakata or Columi was 1 year ago at TOR's initial release. It's also just as likely that the devs will perform a "gear reset" like other MMOs have tended to do and just make Makeb drop grade 63 gear from the introductory quests, but most of that was due to the massive difference between leveling gear and maxed out raid gear in the aforementioned game, which hasn't happened to the same extent here (here, the difference between intro and max is roughly 75% more damage/survivability; in previously mentioned games, the increase was severalfold, in the 3-4 times range).

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  • 3 weeks later...
Thank you Seven_Deadlies for voicing the money scam in all mmos. I have always had the same opinion, and dont see it enough anywhere. Everyone prob knows it, but still 'pays2win' because the only other option in video games is play 10-100 hours, and then your done. bye bye character work, bye bye all the time you spent, everything ends and onto the next game. I actually feel sad when this happens. MMOs at least go on and on as long as the company is hosting servers. Its unfortunate that sales people are in charge of creative. MMOs could be easier, funner, have more community, and not be designed simply to keep people paying.
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I tbelieve there will come a new level of item modifications. Mods/hilt/barrelt/armoring/enhancements level 28 perhaps ? The new FP will probably drop gear at BH level (26). Atleast, that would make most sense for this game and the way gear works in swtor.

So you can just stay in your old gear, and put new higher level mods in them ^^

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I just hope that when they do bring in new gear they don't alter the lower lvl gear stats etc. I know in WOW atm there is a huge issue with players using the new lvl 80 grade MOP items and they are able to full clear the current raiding content that is lvl 90. There are players that have solo cleared the MOP content...thats right solo...at lvl 80. Paladins are able to equip the new lvl 80 MOP grade gear and the stats are so high that it pushes their defensive abilities over the top and there is a bug with vengeance that allows it to tick for million of hps with a judgement. There is a certain paladin that has cleared all the old lvl 80 content, lvl 85 content, and now lvl 90 content by himself...he was even able to do a HM 25m LK kill as a level 80 paladin tank!

As long as bioware doesn't gimp the gear like blizzard did we should be fine.

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Thank you Seven_Deadlies for voicing the money scam in all mmos. I have always had the same opinion, and dont see it enough anywhere. Everyone prob knows it, but still 'pays2win' because the only other option in video games is play 10-100 hours, and then your done. bye bye character work, bye bye all the time you spent, everything ends and onto the next game. I actually feel sad when this happens. MMOs at least go on and on as long as the company is hosting servers. Its unfortunate that sales people are in charge of creative. MMOs could be easier, funner, have more community, and not be designed simply to keep people paying.

 

and this post makes sense why?

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id expect it all to improve that bit but not that massive improvements you saw in wow, so its going to be worth getting and you'll want to strive towards but the stuff youre using now should still be pretty decent enuff.

 

this is my best guess and seems most likely.

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I just hope that when they do bring in new gear they don't alter the lower lvl gear stats etc. I know in WOW atm there is a huge issue with players using the new lvl 80 grade MOP items and they are able to full clear the current raiding content that is lvl 90. There are players that have solo cleared the MOP content...thats right solo...at lvl 80. Paladins are able to equip the new lvl 80 MOP grade gear and the stats are so high that it pushes their defensive abilities over the top and there is a bug with vengeance that allows it to tick for million of hps with a judgement. There is a certain paladin that has cleared all the old lvl 80 content, lvl 85 content, and now lvl 90 content by himself...he was even able to do a HM 25m LK kill as a level 80 paladin tank!

As long as bioware doesn't gimp the gear like blizzard did we should be fine.

 

are you sure you aren't talking about the bug that lets you one hit ko bosses?

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are you sure you aren't talking about the bug that lets you one hit ko bosses?

 

positive. They are stacking MOP grade greens/blues and are able to max their stats for defense,parry,dodge and max mastery...its sick vengeance hits for so much!

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The level 51-55 items dropping from Makeb will be vendor fodder. What is called Dread Guard/lvl 63/27s will be second best in slot IF Bioware continues the trend we have seen thus far when it comes to endgame PvE gear. Bioware has said that endgame PvE gear progression post-RotHC will be different (take that as you will). My guess is: an introduction to new set bonuses.

 

Brought to you by Captain Obvious. No need to thank me noobos.

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So I'm kinda curious, before I bother trying to grind Ops and HMs and whatnot.

 

How likely is it, that the first Green drop will completely dwarf the stats on the shiny Black Hole gear we're supposed to be striving for?

 

 

"...we can reassure you that the gear you've obtained in our current endgame will continue to be relevant after the expansion is released, and it will provide a great bootstrap into the higher-level content offered by Rise of the Hutt Cartel. You won't be replacing your Dread Guard gear with gear you pick up as you level, and thanks to improvements in the way item power is calculated, we won't be handing out any entry-level gear at the new level cap. "

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php

 

 

Why don’t you learn to search/read before adding to the avalanche of threads QQ’ing about the minutia of RotHC? Especially since THIS VERY POINT has been directly addressed by a Dev post (caveat: whatever a Dev’s word is worth these days).

 

If Dread Guard won’t be replaced by gear acquired while leveling to the new cap…neither will BH/Campaign; since the difference between Lvl 26 to Lvl 27 mods is only +3 to each stats/mod.

 

BH/Campaign might be the new Recruit gear (the absolute bare minimum necessary to squeak by at the new endgame) but it isn’t likely to be irrelevant either.

 

This is a traditional MMO, precious gear you've worked weeks/months to obtain will suddenly and painfully be made obsolete. Get used to it.

Edited by kustrin
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I am expecting something along the lines of Columi level gear awarded upon doing Makeb quests, which will pretty much make it so that everyone who is fresh 55, will have Columi gear to go with it therefore eligible for Tier 2 Flashpoint (s) and entry HM ops.
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I am expecting something along the lines of Columi level gear awarded upon doing Makeb quests, which will pretty much make it so that everyone who is fresh 55, will have Columi gear to go with it therefore eligible for Tier 2 Flashpoint (s) and entry HM ops.

 

That I reckon is going to be what happens, min maxed dread guard gear will be meant for new endgame ops. Columni is kinda the most available gear to collect, given that you obtain comms from weeklies and pieces from hm fps and basic ops.

 

I doubt that they will put any more than one set after dread guard as dread guard atm can clear you easily through everything. (NM EC)

So ought to scale to be good enough for HM ops end game.

 

Just my thoughts.

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Firstly, if you are focusing on the gear to the point where you think it might not be worth playing until the DLC is released... you really need to sit down and think why you play. Gear comes and goes. Bosses still take about 6 minutes to kill, regardless of difficulty and level. Loot drops are what help you progress, not the other way around. The journey is what is supposed to be the fun part, not the end.

 

But back to your concerns about greens replacing purples...

 

As someone else has said, the CRS's have already directly addressed this - by saying that your endgame gear will still be viable when you reach 55.

 

Keep in mind that the quests from 50 to 51 have to be possible by someone who's just dinged 50. That's roughly pre-tionese level gear.

 

Personally, my best guess is that :-

 

 

  • Quests @51 will drop Tionese level gear
  • Quests @52 will drop Columi level gear
  • Quests @53 will drop Rakatta level gear
  • Quests @54 will drop Black Hole level gear
  • Quests @55 will drop a mix of Campaign Level and Dread Guard level gear

 

So yes, your Dread Guard level gear will still be usable at level 55. But everyone else will be wearing something similar anyway.

 

After that, you start going out to earn the rating 154, 158, 162, 166 levels of gear.

 

This line intentionally left blank

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If the quest rewards continue to be green items, they won't necessarily be even that far above current Tionese (which is purple).

 

First off, some definitions to avoid confusion. Items have three different ways of measuring their power: grade, level and rating. Grade is the one shown in the modification name, for example Advanced Skill Barrel 24 (as found on Columi weapons). Level roughly corresponds to character levels; up to level 50 it's always one higher than the required character level, and items above that require level 50. Columi gear is level 56. Finally, rating is the one shown in parentheses after armor value or weapon damage. The rating for Columi items is 136.

 

The ratings very roughly follow a formula where a blue is 10% better than a green of the same grade, and a purple is 20% better. The differences get slightly smaller at higher ratings. Currently there exists (ingame) no blue or green gear at Tionese level or above, which means grade 23 or above, but the game data contains these all the way up to grade 28. There is also a large gap in item levels between grades 23 (Tionese) and 24 (Columi), with the former being level 51 and the latter level 56.

 

If they follow the practice of tying item level and character level together, the final rewards from Makeb would be level 55 or 56, which seems to correspond to Columi. But since they'd likely be green or at most blue, their rating would be 118 or 128.

 

Remember that the fights in the story content on Makeb won't correspond to current ops, or even flashpoints. Those are group content. The storyline quests will be solo content, and the mobs will be scaled accordingly. I fully expect a skilled player to be able to finish Makeb wearing whatever they had when finishing Corellia and chapter 3 of the class story (though in that case the quest rewards will be genuine upgrades, so why not don them).

 

With the free Tionese handouts at level 50, another option is that players are expected to buy it before heading to Makeb. This would mean that the final rewards could be level 63 or even level 65 greens, with a rating of 132 or 136. This is on par with current Columi gear. Compare with Dread Guard items, which are level 63 purples and have rating 150. Integrating such a mandatory gear upgrade into the story might be difficult, but there are other strange turns of events as well (what's with the chapter 2 ending and the mandatory visit to fleet, which has no actual conversation?).

 

Having said all that, there are some open questions to further mix things up:

 

Firstly, in many MMOs and other games with a leveling system, gaining levels in expansions is much slower than in the original game, and each level is much more powerful. As an example I'll mention Anarchy Online and its Shadowlands expansion, which offered 20 additional levels, but due to scaling of abilities and perks each level corresponded to roughly 5 old levels. Another example is Dungeon Defenders, whose 10 expansion levels take several times as much time to gain as the original 70 levels, and the stats on new equipment are several times as high. This generally feels like an artificial grind intended to keep players busy with the new content longer. Will Bioware do the same here? SW:TOR's leveling is very much story-driven, so it would be a shame if they introduced a grind now.

 

Secondly, what will happen to the level requirements of existing 50+ items? Will they be bumped to follow the current pre-50 items, which would mean a level requirement of 50 for Tionese and 55 for Columi and everything higher? If so, players would suddenly be wearing items they no longer meet the level requirement for. On the other hand, leaving them at a level 50 requirement would create an inconsistency with newly introduced items, which undoubtedly will require levels 51-55.

 

Thirdly, will the existing endgame content be scaled up to 55? The formulas for hitting enemies use attacker and defender levels. The current endgame only contains level 50 mobs, so a level 55 player could faceroll through them. If they are not scaled, this would offer a very easy way for players to acquire high-level gear after hitting 55. Clearing the old ops with a single group or even less might become the preferred way to acquire gear for new endgame content. On the other hand, scaling the levels would essentially lock the players without the expansion out of all endgame content. Other options would be introducing a new difficulty mode with level 55 mobs, or capping the level at 50 for the purposes of combat calculations.

Edited by DataBeaver
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The developers have already stated that Dread Guard gear will not be replaced by any gear while leveling to 55 and that it will be relevant in the new op. meaning DG = what tionese was at launch. DG will be the second highest tier and the new op will drop the highest when the expansion hits
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You won't be replacing your Dread Guard gear with gear you pick up as you levek and thanks to improvements in the way item power is calculated, we won't be handing out any entry-level gear at the new level cap. "

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php

If Dread Guard won’t be replaced by gear acquired while leveling to the new cap…neither will BH/Campaign; since the difference between Lvl 26 to Lvl 27 mods is only +3 to each stats/mod.

 

This is a traditional MMO, precious gear you've worked weeks/months to obtain will suddenly and painfully be made obsolete. Get used to it.

 

this, meaning dread guard will be BiS when the expansion does come out. the way i look at it is columi might be what is at the end of the new level cap, but it looks more likely it will be a slight step down from it without a set bonus. this is all untill they phase in a new set of gear to beat dread guard which most likely will come from TFB NiM and/or a new Operation which nothing has been said about so its not likely to come anytime soon. IMO it might be 8months-a year and half before dread guard is replaced as BiS.

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We should be seeing a new raid before we see the expansion, and hence a higher tier of gear then DG.

 

This based on the fact that we wont we see the new expansion for another 4 to 6 months, and hoping that they learned their mistake by not providing new raid content in a timely fashion after 1.2. Also there is a 28 set of gear already datamined from the game.

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We should be seeing a new raid before we see the expansion, and hence a higher tier of gear then DG.

 

This based on the fact that we wont we see the new expansion for another 4 to 6 months, and hoping that they learned their mistake by not providing new raid content in a timely fashion after 1.2. Also there is a 28 set of gear already datamined from the game.

 

 

4 to 6 month whys that spring is only two months a way , and they have been meeting the dead lines like they said they would ..March is spring ?

 

 

Rise of the Hutt Cartel, the first Digital Expansion for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, is due to be released in Spring 2013. For more information and announcements about this exciting new Digital Expansion, please visit our Digital Expansion Page at http://www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/RiseoftheHuttCartel.

 

 

at the most it will be 5 month if that if you go by what is posted by them, summer is five month away ..

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4 to 6 month whys that spring is only two months a way

 

June is still a Spring month technically, just like March is actually a Winter month (the Summer Solstice is June 21st and the Spring Equinox is March 20th so a majority of those months are actually the Spring and Winter, respectively). The game could be released 5 months from today, and it would still technically be a Spring release.

 

The reason that most people (myself included) think that RotHC isn't going to be released within the next 2 months and will most likely be released in the 4-6 month range is that it's not even in the closed beta yet (or, if it is, it's only in the friends-and-family phase 1 beta stage; as soon as it progresses beyond the people that actually signed an NDA rather than just agreeing to keep their mouths shut online, leaks happen no matter how hard the company tries). When you start seeing content leaks, you'll know that the expansion is going to be coming within the next month or two. It doesn't help that the developers themselves haven't actually given a date and instead just given a release season, which is a notoriously vague and poorly defined time frame since it gives them 3 months of working time (if not more since Spring can easily be pushed into Summer).

 

An xpac without a set date and non-friends-and-family closed/open beta, is generally a beta with more than a couple months left to develop. When we start seeing leaks (especially concerning the specific abilities that the classes will be getting) and people whispering about closed beta keys/access, we'll know it's coming sooner rather than later. As it stands, later is the safe bet.

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June is still a Spring month technically, just like March is actually a Winter month (the Summer Solstice is June 21st and the Spring Equinox is March 20th so a majority of those months are actually the Spring and Winter, respectively). The game could be released 5 months from today, and it would still technically be a Spring release.

 

The reason that most people (myself included) think that RotHC isn't going to be released within the next 2 months and will most likely be released in the 4-6 month range is that it's not even in the closed beta yet (or, if it is, it's only in the friends-and-family phase 1 beta stage; as soon as it progresses beyond the people that actually signed an NDA rather than just agreeing to keep their mouths shut online, leaks happen no matter how hard the company tries). When you start seeing content leaks, you'll know that the expansion is going to be coming within the next month or two. It doesn't help that the developers themselves haven't actually given a date and instead just given a release season, which is a notoriously vague and poorly defined time frame since it gives them 3 months of working time (if not more since Spring can easily be pushed into Summer).

 

An xpac without a set date and non-friends-and-family closed/open beta, is generally a beta with more than a couple months left to develop. When we start seeing leaks (especially concerning the specific abilities that the classes will be getting) and people whispering about closed beta keys/access, we'll know it's coming sooner rather than later. As it stands, later is the safe bet.

 

 

IF you so then it most be ty .. just remember how the release went in Sept 2012 , but if you say so, then it must be time will tell and I agree with your time lines but the way BW does things lets see ...

 

I know how beta etc work but its how BW works that not with the others why I said what I did , what I should have said was how about 8 to 9 month from now ... owell

Edited by moonshoter
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