Edit: Updated again to reflect the new information clarifying the way commendations will work in 3.0 posted 11/25/2014.

Confirmed information:

1. Planetary and Classic commendation will be going away. Existing comms will be rolled up into Basic commendations.
   
2. Elite and Ultimate commendations will remain, however any existing commendations you have will become Basic commendations instead. Conversions will be handled at the following rates.
   
   • Planetary - 3 basic commendations for each planetary you have
     
   • Classic - 1 basic commendation for each 2 classic commendations you have
     
   • Basic - You will retain 1 basic commendation for each basic you have
     
   • Elite - 2 basic commendations for each Elite commendation you have
     
   • Ultimate - 3 basic commendations for each Ultimate commendation you have
     

Note: This is not a downgrade in terms of what you can purchase, as Basic comms will be buying the same or better gear in 3.0 as Ultimate comms currently purchase.

[*]The basic commendation cap will remain at 1000, but at the time of conversion you will be allowed to overflow commendations to up to (but not over) 2000 basic commendations.

[*]The new tiers will therefore be:

• Basic - leveling gear and entry level 60 gear. (Believed to be 186 gear with a level 58 requirement.)
  
• Elite - 192 gear (specific level not confirmed)
  
• Ultimate - 196 gear (specific level not confirmed)
  

[*]PvP commendations will not be affected by 3.0. However, there will be new tiers of PvP gear purchasable at level 60, and existing level 55 PvP gear will no longer be acquirable.

Original post(s) included below:

Let me start by saying I did not hear the Twitch Stream myself, so this is all hearsay now, but I'm looking for confimation that this is what we expect based on Friday's stream. I will update this post if anyone has information that invalidates any of it.

 

 

1. 
    
   
2. 
    
   
3. You will get to carry your existing Elite and Ultimate commendations into 3.0. There will be no downgrade or conversion of commendations.
    
    
   
4. Elite commendations will purchase 192 gear.
    
    
   
5. Ultimate commendation will purchase 196 gear.
   

 

If true, I have to get BUSY!!!! See ya!

The only thing incorrect in your post is entry level 60 Ops gear, it will be 186 (current top NiM gear), not 180. That being said, with stockpiled ELite/Ultimate comms you shouldn't have much issues gearing at least 1 character on first week using few alts and legacy armor transfer

Edited the OP to reflect that.

Yeah, if this is all true, there is no reason to spend any commendations. Heck, might as well max Basics, Planetary and Classics while your at it to make sure you can fully gear with 186 at launch.

Reducing to just three comm types with one of them good for the entire leveling range up through entry level ops gear seems like a smart and welcome move.

Is the cap on the new "Basic" comms then going to be the current 400 (is it 400?) instead of the planetary cap of 100?

Edited the OP to reflect that.

 

Yeah, if this is all true, there is no reason to spend any commendations. Heck, might as well max Basics, Planetary and Classics while your at it to make sure you can fully gear with 186 at launch.

That last bit might be pushing it. It's not THAT hard to get more Basic comms. Smoke em if you got em, I say.

Edited the OP to reflect that.

 

Yeah, if this is all true, there is no reason to spend any commendations. Heck, might as well max Basics, Planetary and Classics while your at it to make sure you can fully gear with 186 at launch.

Yeah, save your planetary/classic/basic for alts that you don't play that much so u can buy them new Basic gear while Elites/Ultimates will go to your main. Plus lowbies, it will be much easier to gear them with Basic comms farmable on 55s/60s

Reducing to just three comm types with one of them good for the entire leveling range up through entry level ops gear seems like a smart and welcome move.

Agree, one of the best comm changes they did (if it actually goes live). Will be very clear for first timers and allow more flexibility to gear lowbie alts for veteran players

That last bit might be pushing it. It's not THAT hard to get more Basic comms. Smoke em if you got em, I say.

Even so, the leap in value from 156/162 gear to 186 makes it pretty hard to justify spending any of the lower comm types today, unless you're already capped out on them or just dying for gear that you can't get any other way.

Plus lowbies, it will be much easier to gear them with Basic comms farmable on 55s/60s

It makes me wonder if they're going to do something stupid like make all the mods buyable with Basic comms BoP or something. If they don't it probably will improve the supply on the GTN of anything that can be purchased for Basics and sold. Could make for a nice second income stream from grinding anything that rewards Basic comms, which would not be entirely bad.

Sounds interesting and nice other than I have to learn new schematics.

Just a suggestion (and most will not like it)

With this change why not make the Basic gear tradeable.

Just the basic gear, not the elite or ultimate.

It makes me wonder if they're going to do something stupid like make all the mods buyable with Basic comms BoP or something. If they don't it probably will improve the supply on the GTN of anything that can be purchased for Basics and sold. Could make for a nice second income stream from grinding anything that rewards Basic comms, which would not be entirely bad.

Aren't all the current Comm mods BoP?

Aren't all the current Comm mods BoP?

All the ones you can buy with Planetary comms are BoE (maybe not the purple "Rakata" mods from the Makeb vendor, I can't recall on those), so you can buy for comms and dump on the GTN, or freely transfer to alts as you like.

Of course you can move stuff to alts with Legacy Bound gear anyway, but people do cash out planetary comms and just dump the mods on the GTN, which accounts for a nontrivial amount of the supply of leveling mods from day to day.

The blue gear items and orange shells, however, are BoP from planetary vendors.

There also are various lockboxes which I believe are unbound (not sure, but I think the gear that comes out is BoE).

All the ones you can buy with Planetary comms are BoE (maybe not the purple "Rakata" mods from the Makeb vendor, I can't recall on those), so you can buy for comms and dump on the GTN, or freely transfer to alts as you like.

 

Of course you can move stuff to alts with Legacy Bound gear anyway, but people do cash out planetary comms and just dump the mods on the GTN, which accounts for a nontrivial amount of the supply of leveling mods from day to day.

 

The blue gear items and orange shells, however, are BoP from planetary vendors.

 

There also are various lockboxes which I believe are unbound (not sure, but I think the gear that comes out is BoE).

I could swear they were BoP, but I never knew that. Oh well.

I'll still whip them up on my cybertech / artifice / armstech guys anyway. Much easier.

I think "you will not lose elite and ultimate" isn't "you'll be able to buy endgame gear with current coms".

Actually, that's what I found surprising about the way it was stated. If this is accurate, you can buy new end game gear with existing commendations after 3.0 launches.

When RotHC launched they did a similar merge, but all end game commendation were rolled down to the basic level to avoid that kind of jump start. It sounds like that is not going to be the case this time around.

It would be nice to have confirmation on this one way or the other, though. (Eric?)

Actually, that's what I found surprising about the way it was stated. If this is accurate, you can buy new end game gear with existing commendations after 3.0 launches.

 

When RotHC launched they did a similar merge, but all end game commendation were rolled down to the basic level to avoid that kind of jump start. It sounds like that is not going to be the case this time around.

 

It would be nice to have confirmation on this one way or the other, though. (Eric?)

We're now seeing the point of the previous consolidation and the relatively low caps. They now can roll out new tiers without obsoleting comms, just by bumping everything down a tier in terms of what buys what. You still can save comms, but you're limited in how many you can save per character.

With a bunch of alts fully capped out, you might be able to gear one character or a couple with legacy smuggling on day one, but you can't save enough to gear them all out, and if you only run the gear grind on one character then you can't save enough to gear that one up fully.

So the number of characters on your account that have to run the content to get geared up always will be one or more, assuming you're not just grinding on many and gearing on one indefinitely.

So, Elite to purchase 192, and ultimate to purchase 196... everything currently available then drops to basic gear (186)?

That would seem to be the case unless we get some info contradicting it. (Eric?)

Assuming each piece costs the same as it does now, you'll need 1,180 commendations to get full max level gear, not including a main hand or relics. To me, that's not too much risk of people being supremely over geared on day one. At most, someone could do 5 characters, and they're not going to be at all close to ideal stats.

Really like this proposal basically.

Good post Brewski!

 

I wanted to explain exactly how the Commendation stuff will work in 3.0 as I know I still had some questions I was unsure of on the stream. Here is the basic layout of what will happen in 3.0.

• Planetary and Classic Commendations no longer exist. All current Planetary and Classic Commendations will become Basic.
  
• All Elite and Ultimate Commendations that you have will become Basic Commendations. Elite and Ultimate Commendations still exist but you will need to earn them anew in 3.0.
  

I know there are a few followup questions; what will the cap be, is there a conversion rate, etc. We are still working out details like that in testing but as soon as we have it nailed down I will let you know!

 

-eric

Thanks for the information Eric! That's more in line with what I was expecting, so it's good to have it clarified.

I will update my OP to reflect this.

Good post Brewski!

 

I wanted to explain exactly how the Commendation stuff will work in 3.0 as I know I still had some questions I was unsure of on the stream. Here is the basic layout of what will happen in 3.0.

• Planetary and Classic Commendations no longer exist. All current Planetary and Classic Commendations will become Basic.
  
• All Elite and Ultimate Commendations that you have will become Basic Commendations. Elite and Ultimate Commendations still exist but you will need to earn them anew in 3.0.
  

I know there are a few followup questions; what will the cap be, is there a conversion rate, etc. We are still working out details like that in testing but as soon as we have it nailed down I will let you know!

 

-eric

Will the caps be raised Eric? Or will you have a one time cap overage allowed like you did previously?

Well, that scuppers my plan to be fully geared nice and quickly.

Will the commendation gear be updated to only contain stats relevant to one's function?