I am wondering if threat generation is being scaled. This is the reason I always decline an FP pop if the group is lopsided in terms of level. A level 30 healer bolstered up to 75 is still going to be useless to true level 75 tank and dps. Bolster only ups their stats--it doesn't provide access to all the abilities they would have at 75. A lowbie healer isn't going to be able to keep characters at cap alive. The threat generation of (a) character(s) at cap also means that they will be disproportionately targeted by the enemy.

If we are not going to get solo mode for all the FPs that don't have them currently, something needs to be done about the disparities in threat generation. For players that are X levels above the average level of the group, something has to be done if tiers are not going to return--and that likely means buffing the threat generation of the lower level characters up to the highest level character. Either that, or the cd on the threat reduction ability each pc has needs to be greatly reduced. A cd on the ability of 1 minute only in FPs seems reasonable to me.

 

If we are not going to get solo mode for all the FPs that don't have them currently, something needs to be done about the disparities in threat generation. For players that are X levels above the average level of the group, something has to be done if tiers are not going to return--and that likely means buffing the threat generation of the lower level characters up to the highest level character. Either that, or the cd on the threat reduction ability each pc has needs to be greatly reduced. A cd on the ability of 1 minute only in FPs seems reasonable to me.

?

I'm reading this as though you think low level characters should be taking aggro instead of the max levels?

At max levels you have a lot more dcds and utilities available to handle aggro than you have at lower levels.

Part of learning your class is learning how to handle a little aggro, even if you're dps or heal spec.

A max level SHOULD be taking more aggro than lower levels. On live I even try to avoid combat stealthing when I'm running with sub-70s since getting that little extra dps isn't worth seeing some poor lowbie go splat as soon as they get aggro.

Quick note: Both Korriban Incursion and Assault On Tython have wrong scaling, I have 222k hp in 278 gear. I should have like half if I am scaled..

Interesting... I'll check that too ! That would make a huge difference !

Thanks for the heads up !

interesting I tried to enter PTS like Eric stated as how to enter and cannot find a setting button, I have help, cinematic, preferences, credits, server selection and quit, no idea how to enter PTS, alts already copied

its not in the game, its in the launcher. on the launcher there is a gear on the bottom left side. you click that and set it to public test, after you have put in your password, on the same screen as the play button

Actually it seems all vet FPs are having different scaling - if there is any at all. Apart from mentioned Tython/Korriban the Rishi and Mando raiders also did not scale us down to 70 - our levels went down, but stats did not, we had over 200k hp and seemed like other stats were not capped either.

It makes vet FPs a bit easier and gear matters again, it might make it maybe soloable again people reach 306 ratings - we only had like 272 and 278 with 2 companions, so the bosses were still challenging and we had to use kolto stations and dcds (though no wipes). Trash mobs went to easy mode again.

Overall it felt more balanced, trash mobs were just that, bosses presented reasonable challenge - though 4 low level players might struggle without healer.

Quick note: Both Korriban Incursion and Assault On Tython have wrong scaling, I have 222k hp in 278 gear. I should have like half if I am scaled..

Interesting... I'll check that too ! That would make a huge difference !

 

Thanks for the heads up !

OKIE... just some more info to help:

1. I just reran Tython LIVE on my main character (which happens to be a Smuggler / Gunslinger. This character has completed everything up to and including Ossus.

Current level: 70

Gear rating: 251

total HP listed on Tython FP just a few minutes ago: 30680

2. My character on PTS:

Current level 75

Gear rating: 270 (tried to use a character that was close to the 251 rating on the live game.

total HP listed on Tython FP (on PTS ) .. 28351. (that is correct: less HP I even double checked the numbers before I posted this)

BOTH were done in "story" or "solo" mode to be consistent with the posts I've been discussing in the last few posts in this thread.

****EDIT: I almost forgot: PTS normal play on Onderon HP is currently 194740 for this character. I used the same one in all of the FP's mentioned. ****

The live game actually moves faster and my character will take out enemy targets at a faster rate. However, BOTH are still doable without any complications.

Lana Bug: I will post this in the bug area on both PTS and the normal bug reports. IMO … there is a definite bug to be reviewed. Lana will become immobilized and stop interaction at nearly the same point on both live game and PTS. This time I switched over to HK-55 as soon as the problem occurred. HK followed and preformed all tasks as a companion set for healing should. As far as I could tell there were no other issues. Just Lana would stop, remain stationary and no longer function at all !

I hope this adds to what we have been discussing thus far... at least a little bit!

Conclusion: most of the FP's seem to be doable … even in solo or story mode with the exceptions of .

** Crisis on Umbara:

** A traitor Among the Chiss :

** The Nathema Conspiracy

As for the rewards when completing these in the mode described... that should be looked into.

I want to call out Uprisings here, because I feel like they might have been forgotten.

The purpose of Uprisings has always been Flashpoints-Lite, for the days when you can't get a Master Mode group together or times when you want to train up new group players.

Uprisings are actually great little group content nuggets, with some great design in there, and some really fun mechanics. Further, they were balanced great as released, so that the jump to Master Mode was serious and the division between modes was really clear. Doing the easier mode was truly easier than doing a Flashpoint and thus more welcoming to newer or casual players (or to people who really want to solo it), and Master Mode was a true challenge (especially on a few specific Uprisings) that experienced groups could have a good time tackling.

On live, my Master Mode experienced friends and I could farm lower difficulties for giggles and conquest, and tackle Master Modes for fun and challenge. Some Uprisings in Master required a full group (and be genuinely tough), but some of them could be two-manned by truly experienced players with their comps.

Those same people (who were two-manning it on master in live) went in on PTS this weekend and tried Fractured in story, and it worked us as a full group of four. Whatever tuning has been done to tune these up, it definitely went too far. I feel like the original Uprisings were scaled carefully, but like the tune-up on PTS was done with careless blanket number increases. Whatever those were, bring them down.

Uprisings have never rewarded as much as Flashpoints do, and that's even more true now in 6.0 when there aren't multiple bosses dropping FP loot. The difficulty needs to reflect this truth.

A previous poster went into this as well, and I'll quote them below because it's worth repeating (especially the note about heals feeling oddly low, I definitely felt that on my Sage):

We also did Story Uprising: Firefrost - I ran it 7 times on live solo this week so I could compare it. On PTS it was much harder (the shot from walker almost oneshotted me, on story mode, while on live it takes maybe 20% hp?). I noticed the mobs were level 75 here and not 70. But again in duo with my friend and 2 companions we did not wipe here - though it was close and we had to use kolto stations, as my friend could not keep me healed up enough (we both run nim opses, so we kinda know our classes well, and it really felt like heals are drastically lower than on live and my jugg felt like glass cannon). We did not try harder modes, we could barely do story mode and it felt more like master mode on live.

 

Again, in the uprising nothing but credits dropped. And I mean nothing, no gear, no renown packs, no tech fragments, nothing. I bugged it here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=968969 and suggested to add drops based on difficulty of uprising (we could have 1 item dropping on story, 2 on vet and 3 on master from each boss - which would make the easiest one, Freactured, not the optimal choice as it does not have 3 bosses like harder ones).

Currently on PTS the uprisings are not worth running at all. I find it baffling, they are done already, they work, there are some interesting mechanics, but instead of adding rewards to them to make them attractive it feels like BW wants to close them down? I know that many (if not most) players never ran them or did just Fractured and maybe one or two more randomly. So when I run with them for their first time, they really like them, they feel fresh to them - unlike FPs that everyone of them ran dozens of times. But there are no incentives to do them - not a conquest objective (seriously, why did you not add one time objective to each conquest for 1-2 uprisings like it is done with FPs?), weekly on PTS does not give equipment crates like FP weeklies do and only give a very low amount of tech fragments (40-60-80 story-vet-master weekly). Most of the Uprisings on vet mode are actually harder than vet mode FPs, as the amount of adds is same or even greater (and with less possibilities to skip them) and bosses have more than one mechanic to do, which is on par with vet FPs like LI/BH/Kaon. I mean, it is not like we get new content very often, so I just don't understand why not capitalize on what is already done in game, when it is matter of "just" adjusting the rewards.

I agree that Uprisings are a hidden gem that need to be brought forward and not buried, nor broken by careless tuning. I have managed to bring a lot of group-content-averse friends through Uprisings and they actually enjoyed them (as opposed to Flashpoints which they find more intimidating), and for my experienced group content friends Uprisings are always a refreshing break from the FPs we've seen a million times.

As the above-poster said: they already exist, they work, they're fun, and they should be incorporated more into conquest goals and given rewards and tuning commensurate with the unique niche they fill.

Arrg, my stupid English.

 

I mean with that:

 

1. All FP in the VM. Should only be accessible for real 70s.

 

OR

 

2. (and I would prefer that) All FP are adjusted so that each level can do it. Means: a group of level 15, can do it just as easily as a group of 70s.

Don't worry about English grammar, mine is very poor as well. I also understand many players posting here, English is not there first language.

As for your points, your entitled to them, I just don't agree with you with regards to VM. The propose of the threads in PTS is for feedback. As such both points are valid and are the many other points posted. Its up to BW what ends up in 6.0

 

People saying they can no longer solo Veteran mode is a different thing seeing as how that was always intended as group content. I am sure when the dust settles on 6.0 and people have a chance to work out gearing and strategies that we will see people challenging themselves and soloing group content and if they can then great.

Sorry it's not. This is for balance feedback which will include doing FP's solo. Now if BW only intend it for group then it seems Ok on Vet mode for groups. If it is now meant for solo as well then it's not. That's not mine or your decision. If any player puts info down and it's not what BW are looking for in this thread they will just ignore it.

Sorry it's not. This is for balance feedback which will include doing FP's solo. Now if BW only intend it for group then it seems Ok on Vet mode for groups. If it is now meant for solo as well then it's not. That's not mine or your decision. If any player puts info down and it's not what BW are looking for in this thread they will just ignore it.

If some type of content is meant to be potentially doable for a group of four low-level (this means lacking in class abilities - even with boost to 70/75 they can't execute effective rotation) and\or newbie players, it must be soloable for well geared and skilled player with min-maxed stats, using proper rotation and high level companion. If it's not soloable to some players, it won't be doable for some groups.

Ran a few FPs in the last couple days, and noticed a trend that the boss adds seem ridiculously overpowered compared to everything else. Examples:

• Umbara VM - Canni and the assassin boss died very quickly, but all six of Canni's turrets got buffed to max level and became ridiculously tanky. I (experienced tank with 280+ gear) died twice to the adds after both bosses were down, and the group nearly wiped. Overall killing the turrets took longer than the boss fight itself. Group was all lvl 75 and knew what they were doing; I suspect a less experienced or lower level group would have failed to clear it entirely.
  
• Cademimu MM - Similar story; the wookiee boss died in a minute or two, but the ugnaught adds stayed alive for another couple minutes after the fight. They weren't dangerous like the turrets but they did have about 330k health each, compared to ~95k health for silver trash in the rest of the FP. Given that these spawned rapidly in waves of four each, killing them felt like a serious chore.
  

I sincerely hope BW retunes the balance on FP adds, since this seems to be a recurring problem.

Ran a few FPs in the last couple days, and noticed a trend that the boss adds seem ridiculously overpowered compared to everything else. Examples:

• Cademimu MM - Similar story; the wookiee boss died in a minute or two, but the ugnaught adds stayed alive for another couple minutes after the fight. They weren't dangerous like the turrets but they did have about 330k health each, compared to ~95k health for silver trash in the rest of the FP. Given that these spawned rapidly in waves of four each, killing them felt like a serious chore.
  

 

I sincerely hope BW retunes the balance on FP adds, since this seems to be a recurring problem.

The ugnaughts have always been very tanky, because you're not supposed to kill them normaly, you're supposed to kill them with the wookies flamethrower attack. Sometimes the wookie dies to quickly, before you were able to kill the adds and it's then gonna take a while to kill them, but that happens on the live-servers as well.

Looks like there were some small balance changes with that last small patch a few days ago.

I am now able to solo vet HM again on my gearing up sniper without issues. A little more difficult then when it was scaled down in phase 2, but nothing like it was at the start of phase 3. The trash, mainly the silver star mobs have been toned way down.

The main issue was the drops being down grades almost across the board. For being at iLvl 300, I got 1 302 piece out of 16 pieces of gear. All the others were between 292 - 298.

The awkwardness of "Bolster" and its balance :

Note that we're all level 75 and this is HS Vet Mode via GF.

Me and the Merc were 306 IR, while the other two were sub 300 IR. Difference in HP and damage dealt was incredible. It took nearly a minute and a half for the Sin (Hatred if I'm correct) to kill off one of the big droids, while I was melting them in sub-30 seconds time.

I have no idea how I got level-sync'ed down to 70, and got more HP than what I actually have while not level-sync'ed and/or bolstered. Usually I max out at around 250-260k health pool.

Assault on Tython is not remotely doable by 4 DPS. The adds are crazy overpowered.

I'm not sure if all of the people saying these FPs are too easy are running with a healer, but 4 DPS groups seem to be struggling a lot against adds (not bosses). This doesn't include Hammer Station, Mandalorian Raiders, etc., but later FPs instead.

Are we going back to needing roles in Vet FPs again?

Tested using:

Solo:

DPS 258 gear augmented with level 10 heal companion.

Was able to complete VM Hammer station without any issues about 20 minutes.

-Hiccup 1 was I did not micro companion on last boss and she died to sweeping gunfire

DPS 300 ilvl no augments with level 10 heal companion:

Smashed VM Hammer station in under 10 minutes.

The VM buff for higher gear level is broken and should be removed to make the content more challenging, at 300 ilvl i was getting 24 stacks of the buff and made the content so trivial. For a challenge if the drops didnt depend on gear level i would have stuck to 258 gear, so that I only get 1 stack of the buff.

MM

Do not change anything, content is challenging and fun again!

For me in current stage of pts vet was quite ok if u running with 4 damage dealer.

On Mastermode depending on gear etc its a bit more challenging but doable and fun, but if ppl starting to be optimized on gear etc there is a high change master mode getting even more boring than on live server now.

Question still is if u going to level cap the flashpoints, why u cant downgrade stats for crit, shield, acc, etc etc based on the gear u could max have on that level as well? Chars on higher levels still have an advantage due to their abilities and would save u a lot balancing time on later gear and level upgrade.

Esp MasterMode should should still be a challenge, which is really a problem these days for not beeing.