What is the purpose changing the character sheet item level tooltips?

This is an idiotic change that really only benefits end game players. While it is easier for them, it's more difficult for the players who are leveling. Even then it isn't so much of a big deal with non mod-able gear.

Green or blue gear always had a gear score before I just never paid attention to it. I always compared stats so I got an apples to apples look at it. Yes a Guardian piece and a Might piece might have the same rating but if I've been going heavy endurance then rating really doesn't mean as much.

As for mod-able purple or orange gear that is where my complaint comes in. Before I could look at a glance with no thought at all and see who mods needed to be updated while I was in imperial fleet. At level 37 I could open my character screen and see, about half of the stuff was for 35 and the other 33 or lower. Made it easy to count how many I needed and what types took all of 5 seconds. Now I have to ctrl + rclick a few pieces look at the installed mods level and then look at the rating. Try and remember that while I ctrl + rclick a few more pieces that are the lowest rating, and the mid rating. Then I can start adding up what pieces I need to replace after I've done that. I went from a quick 5 second glance to a process that takes 10 to 20 times that.

I don't have any characters that are max level. I do have 4 characters 30 + and powertech at 48. So I don't raid. Even if I did have a 55 I wouldn't raid. I haven't done an MMO raid in years. They aren't worth the time, and I question if they are really even worth the story. Yet here is a change made for raiders forced down the throat of the causal player. Bioware took a system that was stupid easy to understand and made it complicated. I guess somebody forgot the KISS theorem. Keep It Simple Stupid

Cant we have something to show up what is our overall Items Rating ? Like a WoW`s Gear Score.
Well , that could be deceiving , cuz you can have 2-3 max rating items and your overall IR would be high , even if the rest of your items are green garbage. But if Im wrong about this , Overall Item Rating would be useful and easy to see how good is your armor and are you ready for HM, OPs , NiM.

It's essentially the equivalent of WoW's gear score, just for individual pieces. I use item rating all the time, and try to advance my gear by 10 points every 5 levels or so up to 50. As soon as my toons hit 50 they're at the Makeb vendor trading up their 108s & 112s for a fresh set of 140 purple Armorings. (Try and time it to where you have the full 100 when you hit 50.)

From there I go back and do dailies & weeklies for planetary comms to fill out the mods & enhancements. 140s will allow 2 players + companions (crafted level 49 108 to level 50 122 greens will suffice for them) to complete level 50 normal flashpoints. (Though Lost Island and Kaon are beasts for 2 level 50 players with 140 gear.) Level 50 FPs, Makeb & Oricon heroics are how we gear up to 156s & 162s for HMs, which we've 2-manned up to Athiss.

I guess they can now add item rating req for leveling FPs too.
Then we could start seeing "Undergeared" more often as a reason to kick someone. For example you could get kicked from Mando Raiders for not having item rating 76 gear or better.

Frankly, you could check that even before now, if you bothered about gear to know what the number meant. And I never found anyone care enough about gear while they were sub-50.

I think it was done to unify the system, which was needed, as 3 number meaning the same thing confused the hell out of many people.

This. It's not about exclusion, it's about understanding expectations. My wife & I enjoy 2-manning FPs and heroics. (We've made it up to HM Athiss - no small feat for 2 players in only 162 gear.) And working with the item level system to gear up as we level up is part of our preparation.

Understanding where our characters are with regard to item level versus the FP or heroic helps us to predetermine how badly we'll get our asses kicked. If we feel like the challenge of beating a wipe-night then we'll do the Foundry in 76 gear, or D7 in 106 gear, or Lost Island in the Makeb 140s. The item level system also helps us gear our companions properly.

This is one of the dumbest unrequested changes I can recall. I don't like it for end game...but I can get used to it I suppose. For leveling, though, it's a mess. For those saying that it's just another number to get used to that's really not relevant. The old number corresponded to your own level so it had meaning. You knew that if you were level 32 and your armoring or mod was level 26 you should probably upgrade. Now, I have no idea *** an item rating 82 corresponds too. There's no link between your level and that item rating to clue you into how far behind you are.

At the very least there should be an option of how to display in the UI settings. Similar to the different cooldown type options.

Actually I would like to see someone beating Emperor in level 30-ish greens.

This confussion happened at end game, because then the lvl of the items no longer matters. It matters how powerful an item is compared to another of the same level.

But for leveling there was no confussion, since what matters is the level of the content. All the leveling content is shaped according to a lvl. Having the gear matching that is the most simple and effective way. Now, there's an completely arbitrary scale that means nothing per se. Yeah, one can get used to it by making a translation. Gear rating 82 -> lvl 28. That's great. What's the benefit of that ? None whatsoever.

It goes to show that this change was not really necessary. I have always talked about "72 gear" for (and instead of) Underworld or "78s" for Oriconian stuff. And now I keep getting back to these numbers so that they mean something, when I read 180 I translate it as 78 gear in order to have an idea of what kind of gear people are wearing.

I do agree that we had a lot of numbers but it's a little too late to change that. Maybe it was obscure to some idiots but to me each of these numbers had its meaning.