I have to say bioware, you actually had me excited when I found out offhand armorings were not bound to slot. I'm currently one of the players that has campaign armorings in my belt/bracer and a campaign hilt in my mainhand. I'm one of the players you were targeting elite war hero towards so we wouldn't continue to do this.

 

Well unfortunately with the release of a new tier of PvP gear, you decided to release an equivalent tier of PvE gear alongside it, so my campaign armorings will just be upgraded to dread master equivalents - as will my hilt and offhand armorings.

 

My main interest in the PvP offhand armorings were so I could stop using battlemaster armorings to keep my PvE set effect with PvP armor stats. I was prepared to farm as many offhands as I could to accomplish this. But for some reason you took what would have been a smart idea to get people investing time getting PvP armorings, and turned it into the same situation it was before except even worse. Why not allow players to customize their gear the way they want to?

The reason : balance. The only new stuff of the upcoming patch are weapon and off-hand item. Firstly this off-hand items allowed to upgrade the whole gear at a Elite War Hero level, but there was a class and its mirror that couldn't : Smugglers and Agents.

These classes only have weapons as off-hand items, shotriflles and knives use barrels. Not binding them to the slot would allow all classes to run with 146+ armorings on all their gear while Smugglers and Agent would be stuck at 146 armoring, meaning less damage reduction, less main stat, and less endurance... in two words : total imbalance

Edited September 19, 2012 by Altheran

A better solution would be to allow armoring to be globally interchangeable and also add cheaper and more affordable off hands for dual wielding classes. Having PvP armoring being limited to certain slots is not only annoying, awkward, cumbersome but blatantly wasteful and forces the serious, end game competitive PvPers to "work and grind" for their gear; don't get me wrong a certain amount of effort and work should be involved to achieve success and especially greatness but SWTOR is going at it completely wrong. As is, the grind is not fun, preposterously pedantic and grows stale almost immediately upon beginning the process. Edited September 19, 2012 by LeonHawkeye

We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

We plan to make these slot restrictions more consistent in the future

 

Thanks for this.

 

TL;DR some players were "gaming" the intention of the designers. Some would call this exploiting, though I would not in this case, but it is a gray area. It is however gaming the system for unintended outcomes, and personally I am glad to see Bioware is attentive to this AND is working to adjust the modable gear to give players the results intended by design, while eliminating the ability to game the design intention.

 

Players are clever and will find every possible short cut in an MMO. It keeps the development team on their toes too.

Thats some good clarifying info.

 

However I believe the question was more specifically asking about 1 certain element:

 

PvE:

There are "generic" armorings that can go in any slot such as a bracer.

 

PvP:

There are NO generic armorings to use in bracers.

 

Why?

I talked to Senior Game Balance Designer Jason Attard about mods that are bound to slots and our plans for them. Here are some comments he had about the system and its future:

 

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots. This is because some less expensive items, like gloves and boots, are much easier to acquire than "expensive" items like a Chestpiece or Helmet. We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

We plan to make these slot restrictions more consistent in the future, with any Armoring, Hilt, or Barrel you extract from an item becoming bound to the equipment slot you extracted it from. We do not intend to add the same slot restrictions to Modifications or Enhancements, as those item mods have a smaller impact on the overall power of the item.

 

What he's not taking into consideration is the war hero offhand is tied with mainhand for the most expensive item piece to purchase. I'm not suggesting to set it up where everyone is farming cheap boots for their guts to place inside of their chestpeice to avoid cost. I'm actually suggesting doing something quite the opposite - buying the most expensive armor peice to modify cheaper items that don't have the desired armorings available for them.

 

For example, If I want a war hero armoring without a set effect bound to it - what do I do?

 

With the offhands the way they were previously - they didn't have a set effect and weren't bound to slot so I could do this at a steeper cost than I would with traditional gearing methods, something I'm fine with. Another suggestion would be to add pvp set that doesn't have set bonus bound to it's armorings and then we could purchase the individual gear pieces for their bound to slot armorings. Currently the only way to do this is with lower tier battlemaster armorings.

 

PvE players can currently do this because black hole armorings don't carry set effects, so they're free to chose between all the PvE and PvP set effects. PvP'rs are limited to PvP set effects or using lower tier armorings to achieve alternate set effects. They also are able to obtain armorings from loot tables that aren't bound to slot or carry a set effect.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Order-Sixty-Six

Ok so fair is fair....Remove all none slot specific armorings from PvE endgame loot tables. Then PvP folks dont have to Farm PVE encounters to Get armorings for their Wrist and Belt...Because no one else will have them either. Fixed.

 

Oh and on this note...BW any tips on what to do with the 4 glove, and 4 boots WH armorings that I have laying around my bank from fixing the horrible itemization of your gear?

 

We are not children(you dont have to punish us because your design had a loop hole) stop worrying so much about this kind of pointless dribble....Average the prices across all pieces and then remove the Slot specific tag then no one can buy the cheap pieces because there are none.....Instead you created an inconvenient complicated mess with armorings....Pfft.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Soljin

We are not children(you dont have to punish us because your design had a loop hole) stop worrying so much about this kind of pointless dribble....Average the prices across all pieces and then remove the Slot specific tag then no one can buy the cheap pieces because there are none.....Instead you created an inconvenient complicated mess with armorings....Pfft.

 

And... the developers take an arrow of rudeness to the knee.

 

I talked to Senior Game Balance Designer Jason Attard about mods that are bound to slots and our plans for them. Here are some comments he had about the system and its future:

 

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots. This is because some less expensive items, like gloves and boots, are much easier to acquire than "expensive" items like a Chestpiece or Helmet. We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

We plan to make these slot restrictions more consistent in the future, with any Armoring, Hilt, or Barrel you extract from an item becoming bound to the equipment slot you extracted it from. We do not intend to add the same slot restrictions to Modifications or Enhancements, as those item mods have a smaller impact on the overall power of the item.

 

Way to miss out on the entire POINT

 

People who raid can get 25 armorings to put in belts and bracers they can mod, PvP players can not get

these armoring ! PvP players are forced to use the default ugly gear from the vendors.

And... the developers take an arrow of rudeness to the knee.

 

 

Thanks for pointing that out for us.

 

They deserved it!

The point here is that pve boys can get 26 armorings they can put everywhere. We, as pvpers, cant put armorings in bracers/belt because there are no free armorings to get by pvp.

 

And btw, I bought like 10 pairs of boots cause I wanted to optimized my equipment, not because it was cheaper. And I bought the armorings I wanted for the bonuses I wanted.

Yeah, cause your sets suck. The price doesnt matter here.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Kaddie

The point here is that pve boys can get 26 armorings they can put everywhere.

 

"PvPer's" are not restricted from having them. They are drops or crafted (and can be purchased), but I get your point (it is strange that they are BiS for PvP). They should have kept set bonus attached to shells, it worked fine the way it was prior to 1.2...

Can we please get a pvp armoring usable in belt and bracers for everyone not just people who got their bm gear before 1.2? It's up to 1.4 soon and still no option to look how we want to look.

I talked to Senior Game Balance Designer Jason Attard about mods that are bound to slots and our plans for them. Here are some comments he had about the system and its future:

 

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots. This is because some less expensive items, like gloves and boots, are much easier to acquire than "expensive" items like a Chestpiece or Helmet. We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

We plan to make these slot restrictions more consistent in the future, with any Armoring, Hilt, or Barrel you extract from an item becoming bound to the equipment slot you extracted it from. We do not intend to add the same slot restrictions to Modifications or Enhancements, as those item mods have a smaller impact on the overall power of the item.

 

Does that mean you intend to change the 1.4 off-hand armoring to be slot restricted before you put the code to live? Its already been asked on test and ignored.

The point here is that pve boys can get 26 armorings they can put everywhere. We, as pvpers, cant put armorings in bracers/belt because there are no free armorings to get by pvp.

 

And btw, I bought like 10 pairs of boots cause I wanted to optimized my equipment, not because it was cheaper. And I bought the armorings I wanted for the bonuses I wanted.

Yeah, cause your sets suck. The price doesnt matter here.

 

What you don't want all accuracy and alcrapcity on your gear? Your insane and don't understand the stats. Just ask there lead developer who put acc. on pve tank gear.

 

The armor stats between sets and up through the set progression are non-sense. You go from a chest with one set of mods to the next tier having different stats.

 

The armoring in this game is intentionally build to be unoptimized and make you spend a ton of money.

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots. This is because some less expensive items, like gloves and boots, are much easier to acquire than "expensive" items like a Chestpiece or Helmet. We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

Makes perfect sense. Thanks Allison

Thanks for pointing that out for us.

 

 

Pretty much. I'm surprised she's here in the PvP forums. Her crusading is usually in General Discussion.

The reason : balance. The only new stuff of the upcoming patch are weapon and off-hand item. Firstly this off-hand items allowed to upgrade the whole gear at a Elite War Hero level, but there was a class and its mirror that couldn't : Smugglers and Agents.

These classes only have weapons as off-hand items, shotriflles and knives use barrels. Not binding them to the slot would allow all classes to run with 146+ armorings on all their gear while Smugglers and Agent would be stuck at 146 armoring, meaning less damage reduction, less main stat, and less endurance... in two words : total imbalance

 

They already said that offhand items are now modable.

 

Why can't I buy a 146 WH generic slot Armoring for 3K Ranked WZ comms? Who does this hurt?

I talked to Senior Game Balance Designer Jason Attard about mods that are bound to slots and our plans for them. Here are some comments he had about the system and its future:

 

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots. This is because some less expensive items, like gloves and boots, are much easier to acquire than "expensive" items like a Chestpiece or Helmet. We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

We plan to make these slot restrictions more consistent in the future, with any Armoring, Hilt, or Barrel you extract from an item becoming bound to the equipment slot you extracted it from. We do not intend to add the same slot restrictions to Modifications or Enhancements, as those item mods have a smaller impact on the overall power of the item.

It would be great if you opened all the mod slots on belts and bracers, too. It's just stupid that we can't freely choose the look of our belts and bracers because high-end armorings for the PVE and PVP belts and bracers can't be extracted.

They already said that offhand items are now modable.

 

Why can't I buy a 146 WH generic slot Armoring for 3K Ranked WZ comms? Who does this hurt?

 

Agreed.

I talked to Senior Game Balance Designer Jason Attard about mods that are bound to slots and our plans for them. Here are some comments he had about the system and its future:

 

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots. This is because some less expensive items, like gloves and boots, are much easier to acquire than "expensive" items like a Chestpiece or Helmet. We've seen that instead of acquiring an entire set of gear players would often purchase the "cheap" slots multiple times and simply move the mods over into the "expensive" items, allowing players to acquire their gear much more quickly than intended. Now that most of our offhand items have mod slots we are seeing a similar pattern occur with main hand and offhand items.

 

We plan to make these slot restrictions more consistent in the future, with any Armoring, Hilt, or Barrel you extract from an item becoming bound to the equipment slot you extracted it from. We do not intend to add the same slot restrictions to Modifications or Enhancements, as those item mods have a smaller impact on the overall power of the item.

 

Wow, your design team and Senior Game Balance Designer Jason Attard has missed the point entirely why people buy a larger # of boots or gloves (because you say they are easier to acquire). It's not because they are "cheap" it's because they were the only items that have the mods or enhancements in them that are needed to fix the poor stat itemization the design team put on the gear in the first place. The locked in armoring on these pieces are either RE'd for mats or slotted to a companion, as they are no longer needed after you have 1. If the head and chest had the mods and enhancements in them that were needed, you would have seen a much higher number of them being bought. Cost isn't the issue, it's the itemization.

 

And if there are plans in the future to lock in hilt/barrels to the slot they came from, you better make damn sure that the stats are itemized correctly, with the proper higher main stat ones beings used for everything other then tank gear (unlike how most of the pve and pvp gear is now).

Edited September 21, 2012 by Flying-Brian

Many (but not all) of our current endgame Armorings, in both PvP and PvE, are bound to specific slots.

 

The most important set, the first armor with a set bonus that you acquire, does not have it. That means that players are FORCED to play in that set untill they played OPs. And we all know that that is for hardcore people only. So you are condeming the casual players to keep their armor sets forever, instead of being able to use the armoring in better looking social sets.

 

But apperently Bioware prefers to focus on the few hardore players and only give them the choice. And then they wonder were all the casual players went too!

 

Also... we don't buy the boots & gloves just because they are cheaper, we buy them to FIX THE PROBLEMS THAT YOU CREATED with your horrible, horrible stats on the items. Which we are already saying since beta but is never adressed, at the contrary.

Edited September 22, 2012 by Yogol

This will be the end of crafters. the only reason to be anything other then biochem was to learn mods, enhancements, armorings and barrels. You have now taken Armstech completely off the table. not only will barrels not be RE'able, but the good offhands that have already been learned will now just be real expensive shells. With augment tables, orange craftable gear is pretty worthless considering most styles that can be crafted have better looking versions that can drop off mobs. They might as well make a crafting skill that does mods enhancements and augments, and biochem. if they keep with bosses dropping unslotted armorings, they need to add unslotted barrels and hilt to the equation. Either one random armoring and a hilt/barrlel, or one random of the three. Another thing that might help crafters is if u RE the shell and learn the schem, u can craft the shell with the armoring, hilt, or barrel already in it. Right now it would be the same mat requirement as just crafting the slot, and it would make all crafting skills some what useful.