The definitive word on end game itemization in 1.2

Hey,

Let me check into the status of that with the Crew Skills designers regarding these questions and get back to you.

My only questions are what is the new warzone commendation cap and what will happen to existing commendations that will be removed in 1.2 (mercenary/centurion/champion/battlemaster)? Will they be converted automatically to warzone commendations at some rate or do we just lose any we currently have?

Answered this before, but here we go:

In 1.2 there is no way of getting a white crystal.

We will probably introduce some way to obtain the crystal through gameplay at some point in the future (definitely not in 1.2, likely not in 1.3), but whatever that ends up being, it will not be as easy as walking up to that vendor.

Existing PvE gear will not change, no. Basically we found that way too many people have modded their PvE gear in a lot of different ways and there is no clean way for us to make changes to that gear without causing serious trouble for a large number of players (see Battlemaster for a small taste of the problem).

Since existing PvE content is also balanced for that gear, there is no pressing in game need to change the stat distribution on the gear apart from 'it is certainly not optimal' and, as you said, a lot of players have taken the matter into their own hand and already adjusted gear to their liking.

Going forward, the stat distribution on gear (Black Hole, Campaign) is significantly improved.

Currently no, but that's something we are looking at for the future.

Nothing stops you from moving BM mods into the Champion gear chest in 1.2 and matching color to chest though. You'll also get the ability to augment it in the future (we're aiming for Game Update 1.3) , so definitely hold on to that Champion shell.

Will it be possible to still get white crystals or are they being completely removed? For those that already have white crystals also would we be able to keep them?

What is happening with the current weekly quests? If I turn them in now will I be able to pick up the "new" weeklies Thursday that award Ranked and unranked Warzone commendations? If I hold off on turning these current weeklies in, will they automatically be converted to the new weeklies and award Ranked and/or unranked Warzone commendation?

Similarly, if I do the weekly hard mode operation quest today or tomorrow, will I be able to pick up the new weekly operation quest that awards the new commendations (is there even one?)? If I complete them today or tomorrow but don't turn them in, will I get the new rewards on Thursday or will I lock myself into current rewards?

A few other notes that escaped the initial post:

Augments stay at their current effective level (49) and we are not planning to add a new tier of augments in the near future.

Augments also had their stats adjusted/split (as discussed in other threads) to account for their wider availability in the system. The overall effect of the change is a net increase in survival time for players due to increased health from endurance.

There are also a large number of changes (and fixes) to creature abilities in 1.2 as well (too many to list individually as single abilities can affects hundreds of creatures), so you may see different results running PvE content after 1.2.

Can we please get rid of Tionese Crystals? The fact that they exist actually makes it more difficult to get Tionese Gear than getting Columi. I am flooded with Tionese Coms and always waiting on Crystals to get gear. Crystals seems near useless as it is.

Some bad news for Sentinel/Marauders.

Power/surge enhancements have been left out of our gear which is once again critical and accuracy heavy

They ended up giving them to the trooper/mercenary's and the sage/sorcerers's.