Too much XP is too much - OP Companions - Badly tuned level sync

Any multiplayer game is a competition, taking on harder challenges has to give better rewards.

Breaking the game design seems a worse option than just giving feedback so that Bioware can fix the game design. I really hope they don't actually intend this, for companions to be invincible against champions etc. No successful game is one which plays itself, board games or computer games, at least not a single one which I can think of. The most successful games all contain real competitive challenges.

If you think the game isn't challenging enough. it is in your hands to make it more challenging without calling for nerfs that might ruin the game for others.

Much like then PvPers in some games don't level because they wanna stay in lower brackets that are more challenging. Same principle applies here.

If you like your companion but think they are too powerful. Then simply turn off some of their abilities. Problem solved.
If you think you are too powerful. Then don't use some of your abilities. Or don't use the best gear. Game just became more challenging.

I've been back in the game since Oct 2nd and came in as a subscriber. I played for a while at launch and then stopped because I was too hellbent on the game not being like SWG (pre-NGE). On top of it I was expecting KOTOR 3 and got the MMO instead. Anyway, after a couple of years figured I'd re-sub since my son started playing Star Wars Rebels on his computer. I played through 3.0 for the most part (after a few re-rolls and finally deciding on the classes I want to focus on), and enjoyed it all the way up to early release for 4.0.

Before the patch I was starting to understand my limits and had strategies planned around some of the tougher things I wanted to accomplish. For the most part I was successful. I usually only have between 3-6 hours to play a night depending on how late I get started. Anyway, enter 4.0; Some things I was pleasantly surprised at (the level sync and rework of the XP for core planets), somethings I was irked at (the removal of some of the item vendors, replaced completely by mod vendors), and somethings I haven't experienced yet (getting someone to 60, farming all the datacrons etc).

I guess I'm what you'd call a casual gamer; having a family, 3 kids, and a full time job limits my play time but I make a point to play every night when I can. Everyone has been calling the comps OP so I figured I'd do a little test and see what happened when I re-rolled my consular/shadow and see how it went. That was the class that pissed me off the most and I wasn't going to touch it for awhile. Over the weekend, playing about 8 hours on saturday and 8 hours on sunday, I got my shadow up to lvl 27. Played casually as I have to walk away from the computer from time to time to hang out with my kids etc etc, but I managed to hit lvl 27 just starting out on Taris. When I got to Taris I was already lvl sync'd for the planet.

My experience with the companion is maybe they're a little overpowered lol. At first I didn't mind it and I was wondering what all the ruckus was about. Then when I got on Corusant, I did knocked out all the heroic's first then did the story line and planet arcs. I didn't have to worry about health having Qyzen Fess on heals. My health didn't drop below 70 - 80% in anything I did. Did the solo flashpoint (Esseles) no problem. I did run into a problem trying to run it in tactical mode as I could barely clear the first group of mobs (took 3 deaths to clear them). So there is a point where it becomes an issue.

I guess my opinon is a little split. On one hand, I like that I can lvl up any of the classes just doing the class story and planet story arcs. The somewhat OP'd companions are interesting, but I definitely do feel more "jedi-like" not having to worry about a whole lot killing me, because the companion has my back big time lol. I would say if they balanced it, to take it down a notch or 2 and at least let my health get to 50% or so. I'm sure thats a tedious fix in the big picture of things so I'm not going to worry about it.

I'd be open to them adjusting it a little bit if they can. But if its not possible then I'm not going to worry about it. Either way the completionist in me is going to run through the storylines of all the classes and see how things go. So overall, I like all the changes and they're fun for me and compliment the amount of time I have to devote to the game. But as I said, a little adjustment would be nice as I want to feel Jedi-like running through this content, not like a player who has a god as my companion lol.

If you want that, get to end game, leveling content is not something you challenge yourself with in any MMO. The only challenge you'll get is grinding xp, and that's the most boring challenge there is.

Real competitive challenge is end game, that's why HM Ops and Ranked PvP are 65+.

You know, as a fairly new player to SWTOR, i'm a little taken back at the replies given to people who are simply raising feedback about their personal experience.

I thought that was what the forums were for, instead ppl just seem intent on trying to strike down anything someone has to say that is taken as negative against 4.0 changes.

All i was doing was trying to point out that the difficulty in this game has severely lowered. I highlighted this by telling my experience with my lvl 16 sith warrior and comp.

I went straight to nar shadda after DK, not realising i was supposed to go to balmora first, and found that the comp at level 16 was able to stay at almost full health fighting multiple groups of level 21 mobs.

If you dont believe me, give it ago for yourself. statrt a new sith warrior. Does not take very long to get your ship at the end of DK.

If you think its bonuses or something, Start on a new server so you dont have all those legacy bonuses and datacron thingy bonuses, i dont have those bonuses.

I personally think that its a little silly that a lvl 16 can do this, hence my reason to feel the game is to easy now.

I would simply like to see a bit more of a challenge in the combat side of things, im not calling for a roll back or massive nerf or any drastic change.

I guess this game is not for me then. Guess i will look for something else for me and my wife to play.

cheers all.

That does not solve the problem, and it has been explained multiple times in this thread for why not. Why go in circles?

This is simply not true. It's well within my hands to call for gameplay to be added back to this game, and truthfully I do not believe it will ruin it for others. I suspect it will actually save the game from dying when people realize it's absolutely boring to play a game that doesn't actually need to be played and where companions always outshine you, once the initial feeling of power relative to the old system has worn off.

I already am at end game, who said anything about leveling? Playing this as a solo RPG as I always have is now mind-numbingly boring to the point I'm just not and have stopped all week. There's no actual gameplay or challenges to put myself against, or progression to be made. As per the video, Nadia is invincible against even champions.

This is no longer actually a game. A game involves having to do something. It involves design so that the player is given challenges and then gets reward out of defeating those challenges. Even in Mario, which I played when I was like 5, you had to jump across the hole and avoid the enemies.

It isnt. Either you want more challenge either you dont want. Going in your story insatnce and you compete with whom or what? The only competition is in your head.

Other people are also giving feedback. So what makes you so special to think your feedback is above everyone elses? Are you "competing" with them as well?

I already explained why this doesn't satisfy the requirements? Have you not read the thread or are you just not interested in actually responding to what other people have to say? I don't know if it's even worth repeating the explanation that we want both interesting (actual) gameplay and be rewarded for our game time competitively in an environment where we must bid against each other on the GTN etc with the outcomes.

Why make up these straw men? Nowhere have I ever said that other people's feedback is above or below mine? In fact there are people disagreeing with me here literally saying not to post and just play the game as it is, did you mean to criticize them? Or is truth just not valued in your conversation?

You can't use your companion in Operations or Warzones, and your complaint is about OP'd companions... So how are you at endgame since no endgame has companion use allowed?