Tested CZ-198 for both balance and conquest - combat sentinel at average IR 271 with Scourge on heals at influence 15, seemed a little slower going than on live but that may have been an inefficient set choice? (Overwhelming Offense tac/[6]Perfect Form set). Overall I’d call it fairly balanced! The sync to 56 appears to be working okay. I may come back with another set and tactical.

Now, the conquest half...no. I’d thought maybe actively pursuing conquest goals would make it feel less slow (as I’d only been testing the limited range of things in phase 2 before) but 50k is just too much, especially with an operation-heavy event run like Titans of Industry. I am very rarely up for ops in the first place, and on top of that never play the same character all week. Give us the general Galactic Conquest goal back and/or maybe look into reducing it to 25-30k? Be kinder to us people with more than one character/not enough play time in the week/both. Conquest is all I’m going to really be playing for once I run out of story and if I can’t do that then what’s the point?

What planet’s that on? I can’t remember.

Mek-Sha, the new one alongside Onderon.

This feels like it might be the best topic to put this in. Despite really not wanting to spoil myself on anything story related, I gave in and went to Onderon in order to do a test around node gathering, and I noticed that the random PVE trash mobs were working me over in an unexpectedly severe way.

I was playing a Sage healer in rating 280 gear (acquired from breezing through both Veteran and Master mode Flashpoints on PTS) with an Influence 50 DPS companion, and my companion and I almost wiped multiple times on groups of three trash mobs with no golds among them. I have a lot of Master Mode group content healing experience, routinely solo story mode group content (from Heroics to Uprisings to Flashpoints), and am one of those people who enjoyed pounding the Eternal Championship in pursuit of all of those solo achievements across all the classes. Open world PVE content shouldn't ever come close to wiping an experienced player with a level 50 comp who has pulled only three mobs.

If open world was tuned like KOTET chapters once were (to the assumption that everyone is playing a DPS with a high influence healing companion), then you seriously need to re-tune or you are going to get a lot of pissed off people who want to play their healers and tanks (or who just aren't hardcore players). Save the difficulty spike for Heroics and group content.

Taris, Heroics (Mostly)

Me: Lvl 29-31 Infiltration Shadow

Companion: Level 14 Qyzen

Taris level cap: 21

Endurance cap: 2879 health, vs. 5395 on Live

Um... Not fun, to put it mildly.

A few of the lower level heroics were mostly fine. Total Elimination (level 15) was a breeze. I stealthed away from Fall of the Locust's starter golds, but once inside the compound, pretty much everything died without too much effort.

Fallen Stars was basically fine, but the visual effects of the Mandalorian Destroyer's poison against the new Kolto Shell companion ability made it almost impossible to see what I was doing. https://i.imgur.com/rRL06n2.jpg

Mutation (level 18...?) was also ok. I didn't kill the end boss because, though champ fights at low levels are fairly easy, they take forever. You're constantly running low on resources, you barely do any damage with your abilities, and you're stuck doing basic attacks until you can't hit 1 anymore.

Rakghoul Release (level 20) was a whole different kettle of fish, which is why I haven't started Knight Fall yet. The stacking heath debuff you can never get rid of from the rakghoul plague makes your health extremely low (2700 or so) for the whole heroic. I died once, a first for me. The whole thing was an exercise in how to grit your teeth.

Taris - Olaris quests and Knight Fall Heroic

Companion: Qyzen, level 14

Taris level cap: 21

Me: Levels 30-32 Infiltration Shadow

Endurance cap: 2879 health, vs. 5395 on Live

Knight Fall -- surprisingly few issues, considering the mobs are at levels 19-20, close to the cap. Kolto Shell, the companion healing ability, is super annoying in close fights. You and your companion both have this bubble around you that appears when you're hit and flashy debuff effects turn it opaque. The ability lasts for three minutes, long past the end of several battles. It shows up for days when you're trying to travel in stealth. It's very intrusive.

Olaris quests, no issue.

I did the Endar Spire quest, and the droid at the end is way overtuned for a story quest, especially with the massive endurance nerf. Several of the level 19 gold rakghouls in Knight Fall did far less damage than the droid.

TBH, I'm getting really sick of the PTS experience. Level sync feels uneven and sloppily done. The biggest issues I've been having is that enemy damage is about the same as on live, but you take much harder hits because your health pool is extremely low. Please increase it!

Tested level sync on Makeb with a level 70 Mara.

On live this syncs to level 56 and I get:

3121 mastery, 2885 endurance, 1568 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

33478 health, 3511 AR, 24.78% DR, 1368 -1535 primary damage, 100-150 secondary, 1034.1 bonus,

108.57% accuracy, 34.06% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

On PTS this syncs to level 55 and I get:

1815 mastery, 1659 endurance, 736 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

18499 health, 5891 AR, 24.01% DR, 850 - 936 primary damage, 87 - 131 secondary, 559.0 binus,

108.57% accuracy, 31.25% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

This is the same character with the same gear. Virtually half the health and damage as live.

This makes the heroics in particular significantly more difficult, since the mob health there seems not to have changed. Some people may welcome that, but I think it is far too late to be making difficulty changes to long established content. It will only serve to alienate a lot of players who have grown accustomed to the current state of the game.

Tested level sync on Makeb with a level 70 Mara.

 

On live this syncs to level 56 and I get:

3121 mastery, 2885 endurance, 1568 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

33478 health, 3511 AR, 24.78% DR, 1368 -1535 primary damage, 100-150 secondary, 1034.1 bonus,

108.57% accuracy, 34.06% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

On PTS this syncs to level 55 and I get:

1815 mastery, 1659 endurance, 736 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

18499 health, 5891 AR, 24.01% DR, 850 - 936 primary damage, 87 - 131 secondary, 559.0 binus,

108.57% accuracy, 31.25% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

This is the same character with the same gear. Virtually half the health and damage as live.

 

This makes the heroics in particular significantly more difficult, since the mob health there seems not to have changed. Some people may welcome that, but I think it is far too late to be making difficulty changes to long established content. It will only serve to alienate a lot of players who have grown accustomed to the current state of the game.

It may not be the same gear actually. The 230/236/240 rating augments were nerfed, so unless your gear was 228 purple artifact crafted augments then the stats will be different

Also, unless you copied over one of each class onto PTS you won’t have all four class buffs.

Lastly, and the one thing I’m not sure about, I don’t recall off the top of my head if anyone’s current/live set boni have a passive stat benefit. If there is an advanced class with a live 2- or 4- piece set bonus that gives a passive stat buff, remember that all the set bonuses were moved to shells and may not be active on the PTS version of your toon.

So double check your class buffs, set boni, and augments

Tested level sync on Makeb with a level 70 Mara.

 

On live this syncs to level 56 and I get:

3121 mastery, 2885 endurance, 1568 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

33478 health, 3511 AR, 24.78% DR, 1368 -1535 primary damage, 100-150 secondary, 1034.1 bonus,

108.57% accuracy, 34.06% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

On PTS this syncs to level 55 and I get:

1815 mastery, 1659 endurance, 736 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

18499 health, 5891 AR, 24.01% DR, 850 - 936 primary damage, 87 - 131 secondary, 559.0 binus,

108.57% accuracy, 31.25% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

This is the same character with the same gear. Virtually half the health and damage as live.

 

This makes the heroics in particular significantly more difficult, since the mob health there seems not to have changed. Some people may welcome that, but I think it is far too late to be making difficulty changes to long established content. It will only serve to alienate a lot of players who have grown accustomed to the current state of the game.

What scares me about this is Bioware think they had the balance nearly correct and we were just supposed to be double checking.

I just don’t know what to say when I see these figures. I want to pull my hair out and I wonder who thought such a “significant” nerf was required. This is the sort of stuff I would have expected to see on pts 1, not pts 3.

Do the people coming up with this even play the content they are changing the difficulty for.

Seriously, they should get Musco to play the stuff before they push to us. His skill lvl is probably the same as the average player base they are targeting. If he can do it and thinks he will have fun doing it at that lvl every day, then push it to us to test and offer feed back to tweak it,

The same as the crafting. Get Musco to do that too and not “cheat too much” with dev tricks.

I use Eric as an example because he is our communication channel to the dev teams. I would love him to come testing with the rest of us to see our perspective. Hopefully our concerns would carry more weight when they need too (crafting and lvl sync balance).

It may not be the same gear actually. The 230/236/240 rating augments were nerfed, so unless your gear was 228 purple artifact crafted augments then the stats will be different

Also, unless you copied over one of each class onto PTS you won’t have all four class buffs.

Lastly, and the one thing I’m not sure about, I don’t recall off the top of my head if anyone’s current/live set boni have a passive stat benefit. If there is an advanced class with a live 2- or 4- piece set bonus that gives a passive stat buff, remember that all the set bonuses were moved to shells and may not be active on the PTS version of your toon.

 

So double check your class buffs, set boni, and augments

I hope that’s the case for the difference. But my fear is, it’s not.

What scares me about this is Bioware think they had the balance nearly correct and we were just supposed to be double checking.

I just don’t know what to say when I see these figures. I want to pull my hair out and I wonder who thought such a “significant” nerf was required. This is the sort of stuff I would have expected to see on pts 1, not pts 3.

Do the people coming up with this even play the content they are changing the difficulty for.

 

Seriously, they should get Musco to play the stuff before they push to us. His skill lvl is probably the same as the average player base they are targeting. If he can do it and thinks he will have fun doing it at that lvl every day, then push it to us to test and offer feed back to tweak it,

 

The same as the crafting. Get Musco to do that too and not “cheat too much” with dev tricks.

 

I use Eric as an example because he is our communication channel to the dev teams. I would love him to come testing with the rest of us to see our perspective. Hopefully our concerns would carry more weight when they need too (crafting and lvl sync balance).

No augments in the gear (a mix of crate gear from 230 to 246) It is a newish charcter I was levelling up prior to 6.0.

I do have all the class buffs on live and PTS. I rechecked that they were applied.

I do have full Mara set bonus on live, but that does not affect stats, just abilities. FWIW the gear on PTS also shows the same bonus text, but may not be active. In any case it would just be a small effect on gameplay.

I left the character at 70 on PTS - I wanted to get a true sense of what will happen to existing characters with 6.0, I will level up with the terminal and re-test with level 75 gear

Tested level sync on Makeb with a level 70 Mara.

 

On live this syncs to level 56 and I get:

3121 mastery, 2885 endurance, 1568 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

33478 health, 3511 AR, 24.78% DR, 1368 -1535 primary damage, 100-150 secondary, 1034.1 bonus,

108.57% accuracy, 34.06% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

On PTS this syncs to level 55 and I get:

1815 mastery, 1659 endurance, 736 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

18499 health, 5891 AR, 24.01% DR, 850 - 936 primary damage, 87 - 131 secondary, 559.0 binus,

108.57% accuracy, 31.25% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

This is the same character with the same gear. Virtually half the health and damage as live.

 

This makes the heroics in particular significantly more difficult, since the mob health there seems not to have changed. Some people may welcome that, but I think it is far too late to be making difficulty changes to long established content. It will only serve to alienate a lot of players who have grown accustomed to the current state of the game.

Did you activate the GSI terminal to track you and see if the boost it gives is still there? 18k for Makeb is way too low to do anything. 33k is really the minimum for that planet.

Tested level sync on Makeb with a level 70 Mara.

 

On live this syncs to level 56 and I get:

3121 mastery, 2885 endurance, 1568 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

33478 health, 3511 AR, 24.78% DR, 1368 -1535 primary damage, 100-150 secondary, 1034.1 bonus,

108.57% accuracy, 34.06% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

On PTS this syncs to level 55 and I get:

1815 mastery, 1659 endurance, 736 power, 1140 crit, 390 alacrity, 600 accuracy

18499 health, 5891 AR, 24.01% DR, 850 - 936 primary damage, 87 - 131 secondary, 559.0 binus,

108.57% accuracy, 31.25% crit chance, 75.95% multiplier

 

This is the same character with the same gear. Virtually half the health and damage as live.

 

This makes the heroics in particular significantly more difficult, since the mob health there seems not to have changed. Some people may welcome that, but I think it is far too late to be making difficulty changes to long established content. It will only serve to alienate a lot of players who have grown accustomed to the current state of the game.

AT 75 in full 306 (Onderon stuff from the vendor - no set bonus or tactical) there was some improvement as expected since syncing does not apply to critical, alacrity, accuracy or armor rating - but still well below live

1815 mastery, 1659 endurance, 736 power, 2562 crit, 431 alacrity, 1293 accuracy

18499 health, 7700 AR, 25.21% DR, 872 - 1029 primary damage, 94 - 141 secondary, 559.0 binus,

108.55% accuracy, 32.42% crit chance, 77.12% multiplier

Did you activate the GSI terminal to track you and see if the boost it gives is still there? 18k for Makeb is way too low to do anything. 33k is really the minimum for that planet.

Thanks for the reminder. It did not change stats (it was primarily designed to boost up lower level characters from the old cap of 50 when Makeb launched), but the other benefits could be somewhat useful - heal probes in combat 2% every 3 sec I think, and 250% to exploration xp (for the few places I haven't gone to)

I've run around with my Lightning & Madness Sorcs… and everything feels completely broken. Broken past the point I want to play the game. And hard ! It's a game not a 2nd job !

1) Level sync system is beyond ridiculous. I have a lvl 75 character fighting lvl 17 enemies (Dromund Kaas' heroics; I do them every day on Live therefore I use them for measure) and have to engage a full-fledged fight ?! And die several times ? Is this still an RPG or not ? Why ? I'm lvl 75 ! They should die just by running past me !

What is the point of playing the game and getting levels past lvl 20 now if I can't see/feel the power my character gain with each level ?!

2) Volt Rush still useless piece of junk. Endless Offensive + Element Convention can help for a little bit, so little it's literally irrelevant, but it's gated with the Operation wall.

And I can't see how any other set can be used. Why add them at all ?

3) Force Storm, poor Force Storm, do nothing in this patch. In lightning it can be used to power up Chain Lightning. But the Chain Lightning itself do little to none damage.

Death Field — do nothing. If you have Slow Mercy, Death Field can be used to spread Demolish and finally do some good AOE damage. So. The only way to have AOE damage as a Sorcerer now is to play in Madness with the Slow Mercy tactical ? So much of a "play how you want" I can sense in here… So so much.

And at the same time : ↓

4) No sets for Madness ? No, really, there is none !

And why do you like slow effects on everything that much ? Maybe it's because I don't PvP but I see no reason to have any slow effect in the game at all.

5) At the same time, Unnatural Preservation does not scale well. That dribs and drabs it heals now can't save anyone. And I don't even want to start talking about Resurgence and Dark Heal ! They could save the character before, I could even heal a party member for a small bit to keep him alive. Now, in 6.0, you can toss them away from the skills bar. And with the bots heal got nerfed, it's hard to survive now. Why did you think harder is better and especially why change the old contend - I can't imagine. But the game is far behind the "being fun" point.

My 3rd character is Assassin but I don't even try. The only thing I can say is : I can't find neither set nor tactical I can use. And I don't understand how anyone can use something you offer for the Assassins. Plus, the new ability even more of a joke compared to the Sorcs' one.

And finally the conquest's objectives are beyond achievable. With that ungodly expensive crafting, that part of the game is dead.