They should probably make the jawa scrap vendors give out free mats too. Just to make the testing easier.

I did multiple live > PTS character copies and have about 20k of each type of jawa scrap...but it was a long winded way to do it.

 

Also, the auto leveling terminal only takes your crew skills up to 500 (at least before Tuesday's patch anyway).

Yeah... if they effectively never set things to let players actually test the crafted gear pathway... that's a bad sign that the crafted gear approach is probably a non-starter and will simply get ignored given the current materials costs. Which means our guild (who usually cranks up a crafting factory for things like this) will simply flush the plan and move on.

A conversation in a different gear thread prompted me to check if you can RE the 258 mods from the MWS gear, and you can: https://i.imgur.com/rXoVUcR.png

The mats to craft it: https://imgur.com/kpwShI7

So I guess that's how you can get mods/enhancements that aren't bound to a slot but... that seems pretty steep. First of all you have to buy an expensive piece of gear and then RE the mod and hope you get the schematic (can it actually fail? it says 60% but I would hope 100% considering the expense).

And then the mats aren't completely horrible except for the NiM GotM drop. Unless that particular one drops like candy in there? But that seems a little crazy for a single mod to me.

This whole system just sounds convoluted and stupidly expensive and/or grindy to me.

This is absolutely insane. At they very LEAST the MWS shards should be legacy-wide. 4 months to gear? And, forget about trying to min-max your mods and enhancements.

Seriously, what are the Devs thinking with this?

This is absolutely insane. At they very LEAST the MWS shards should be legacy-wide. 4 months to gear? And, forget about trying to min-max your mods and enhancements.

 

Seriously, what are the Devs thinking with this?

Said restrictions WILL NOT stop the clever and determined player with a plan.... not in terms of the end goal, nor in terms of your very linear thinking about time-2-gear.

I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of min-maxing....but using the 252 vendor you CAN get any type of armor for a specific slot. You can get tank gear from any class if the mods you want are in the armor for the other class.

DPS toons can get armor pieces with from multiple classes as well.

If one pair of boots has critical, another set has either alacrity or accuracy. The armoring and mod are the same usually.

So, at the very least, there is some ability to customize beyond the "take what they give you as your default armor choice"

I'm completely surprised that the 258's are RE'able.

That doesn't make much sense.

If I'm not mistaken, the current BIS, the 248 stuff, is NOT re'able and the top crafted pieces are 246 via schematics.

As for the grind....people with multiple alts will be able to gear faster than people doing it with only single toons.

Even though the "currency" is bound per toon...if I take 4 toons through and max them out in the same week period that you do a single toon....I'll either have 4 pieces for one toon (via legacy armor) or 1 piece for each of the 4 toons.

If they do keep the "per toon" restriction in place....I can only suggest to you to make some expendable alts.

There's time to level them up in a hurry before the patch is released.

As for the grind....people with multiple alts will be able to gear faster than people doing it with only single toons.

Even though the "currency" is bound per toon...if I take 4 toons through and max them out in the same week period that you do a single toon....I'll either have 4 pieces for one toon (via legacy armor) or 1 piece for each of the 4 toons.

 

If they do keep the "per toon" restriction in place....I can only suggest to you to make some expendable alts.

There's time to level them up in a hurry before the patch is released.

Not sure I get it. Personally out of 20 something toons, only 2 have full access to Iokath; some are in infinite limbo, having lost all companion but the story is the same regardless of class/imp/pub. The infinite tunnel that Kofte/Kotet was/is killed gameplay.

I only hope that t KOFTE/KOTET content is made really optional (like Illum/ROTC/Yavin/Rishi). or at least remove the consequence of losing original companions and having story choices made for you like for Iokath. Besides old companions come back as husks only (no more planetary commentaries). so I am even less interested in doing KOFTE/KOTET;.

This game has turned into the infinite grinding empire and I honestly don't think I have the energy or will to keep grinding. Games are supposed to be fun. Don't make photocopying the new rpg.

As for the grind....people with multiple alts will be able to gear faster than people doing it with only single toons.

Even though the "currency" is bound per toon...if I take 4 toons through and max them out in the same week period that you do a single toon....I'll either have 4 pieces for one toon (via legacy armor) or 1 piece for each of the 4 toons.

 

If they do keep the "per toon" restriction in place....I can only suggest to you to make some expendable alts.

There's time to level them up in a hurry before the patch is released.

How do you figure that works and how many hours of play do you expect you will need to play to achieve that?

How do you figure that works and how many hours of play do you expect you will need to play to achieve that?

To me it looks like the weekly can be done in less than an hour, probably less than a half hour with some optimizing (yes, even with hold the line as it is today)(yes, they should tone it down. alot). Personally, i'm planning on pushing 8 chars who have Nathema finished and using the crystals they get to buy gear and boost my main healer. I've got stockpiled unassembled components for a long time. 8 hours for 8 crystals, probably dropping closer to 4 hours over the week. Another 4000 UC's for another 8 crystals (buying only 1/week/char). The 8 chars will get me enough rep to be in the heroic tier sometime during the 2nd week. Some time during week 2 i'll start seeing a fairly major improvement in my gear.

To me it looks like the weekly can be done in less than an hour, probably less than a half hour with some optimizing (yes, even with hold the line as it is today)(yes, they should tone it down. alot). Personally, i'm planning on pushing 8 chars who have Nathema finished and using the crystals they get to buy gear and boost my main healer. I've got stockpiled unassembled components for a long time. 8 hours for 8 crystals, probably dropping closer to 4 hours over the week. Another 4000 UC's for another 8 crystals (buying only 1/week/char). The 8 chars will get me enough rep to be in the heroic tier sometime during the 2nd week. Some time during week 2 i'll start seeing a fairly major improvement in my gear.

Can you please list the weekly requirements/missions to get the 4 crystals.

As I understand it, the heroic is MM and not many people will be able to complete that solo.

Also, it’s good that you have a stock pile of UCs, but what about those that don’t.

The only people this gearing will benefit will be MM players, the super rich and the those with massive stock pile of UCs. All of those players are only a small percentage of players. What about the rest of us?

The amount of Alts you have for the regular player won’t have as much of an impact as you think.

For a regular player it will take about 2-3 weeks per gear slot. With 14 gear slots, that is somewhere between 28-42 weeks to gear up one character. Which is over a year and totally unacceptable.

What if you want to play multiple Alts in pvp. Do you have to sacrifice gearing up them just so you can gear one?

What about the rest of us?

The rest probably does not need the gear for the stuff they do in game.

Dont get me wrong, I am doing for example ranked, where the 258 will be needed, but I will not play enough to get the gear fast enough so that will put me into a big disadvantage.

The rest probably does not need the gear for the stuff they do in game.

 

Dont get me wrong, I am doing for example ranked, where the 258 will be needed, but I will not play enough to get the gear fast enough so that will put me into a big disadvantage.

Let me rephrase, what about the rest of us pvpers who don’t do MM, aren’t super rich or have a stock pile of UCs.

Let me rephrase, what about the rest of us pvpers who don’t do MM, aren’t super rich or have a stock pile of UCs.

Lemme get this right....

You dont do MM FP's, Heroics etc, so you arent a PVE player.

You arent rich, so you arent playing GTN (crafting/selling etc).

And you dont have a stock pile of UC 'cause you arent a pvp player.

You need 258 gear for what then? RPing?

Lemme get this right....

 

You dont do MM FP's, Heroics etc, so you arent a PVE player.

 

You arent rich, so you arent playing GTN (crafting/selling etc).

 

And you dont have a stock pile of UC 'cause you arent a pvp player.

 

You need 258 gear for what then? RPing?

They literally just told you. They PvP. Us PvPers use our UCs to gear our alts and thus don't have massive stockpiles because we actually used them to get min-maxed 248 gear, sometimes multiple sets per character.

They literally just told you. They PvP. Us PvPers use our UCs to gear our alts and thus don't have massive stockpiles because we actually used them to get min-maxed 248 gear, sometimes multiple sets per character.

Thank you. It saved me from having to repeat myself

248's have been out for months and months are super easy to obtain via PvP with UC. How do you not have a toon from each mirror class in full 248's? Do you know about legacy gear? Did you know you can craft 246 left side?

Filthy casuals™ trying to dictate gearing in this game

----------------------------

That said, I am concerned about the time sink for this gear grind. There is simply not enough new content in 5.10 to warrant TWO new gear tiers. We have to grind new gear for.... Ossus and GFTM? That's it? Tell me there's some more secret content coming out. And when is 6.0? We've been waiting 2 years.

Can you please list the weekly requirements/missions to get the 4 crystals.

As I understand it, the heroic is MM and not many people will be able to complete that solo.

Also, it’s good that you have a stock pile of UCs, but what about those that don’t.

The only people this gearing will benefit will be MM players, the super rich and the those with massive stock pile of UCs. All of those players are only a small percentage of players. What about the rest of us?

The amount of Alts you have for the regular player won’t have as much of an impact as you think.

For a regular player it will take about 2-3 weeks per gear slot. With 14 gear slots, that is somewhere between 28-42 weeks to gear up one character. Which is over a year and totally unacceptable.

What if you want to play multiple Alts in pvp. Do you have to sacrifice gearing up them just so you can gear one?

The weekly heroic i'm planning on is NOT the complete 4 master mode flashpoints. it is the 'complete 4 heroic missions on ossus' which are a bit more challenging than open world, but not immensely so (when they get one or two kinks worked out). I've already timed one of the missions down to less than 3 minutes from accepting to completion. Also, expect to see the Hammer Station grind reappear, which will be another source of crystals.

For the UC question, stockpile what you can while waiting for the patch. It is probably going to be at least a month. Everyone getting galactic command boxes should be getting some. Pvp'ers should be getting quite a few more.

Truth be told, i'm not really expecting enough crafted gear to be made to have much of an effect on things. There will be a few raid groups/players that make out like bandits. Unless the balance is much kinder than i anticipate most nightmare groups are going to take a while to get the Gods bosses on farm. And for PvE'ers, everyone will benefit. Everyone will go into operations, flashpoints and any other content with better gear, doing more damage, healing more, and taking less damage. For PvP'ers there will be a period where some high end players will get even more of an advantage.

Yes. it will take a while to regear a character. The more you play the quicker it will happen. Even if i didn't buy crystals with UC's i'd still anticipate getting 8 pieces in week 4, for roughly 16-32 hours of work.

Yes, if you've been playing alts in PVP (or PvE) you will have to make choices on who you gear up first. Just like every other time a new tier of gear has been added to the game.

The weekly heroic i'm planning on is NOT the complete 4 master mode flashpoints. it is the 'complete 4 heroic missions on ossus' which are a bit more challenging than open world, but not immensely so (when they get one or two kinks worked out). I've already timed one of the missions down to less than 3 minutes from accepting to completion. Also, expect to see the Hammer Station grind reappear, which will be another source of crystals.

 

For the UC question, stockpile what you can while waiting for the patch. It is probably going to be at least a month. Everyone getting galactic command boxes should be getting some. Pvp'ers should be getting quite a few more.

 

Truth be told, i'm not really expecting enough crafted gear to be made to have much of an effect on things. There will be a few raid groups/players that make out like bandits. Unless the balance is much kinder than i anticipate most nightmare groups are going to take a while to get the Gods bosses on farm. And for PvE'ers, everyone will benefit. Everyone will go into operations, flashpoints and any other content with better gear, doing more damage, healing more, and taking less damage. For PvP'ers there will be a period where some high end players will get even more of an advantage.

 

Yes. it will take a while to regear a character. The more you play the quicker it will happen. Even if i didn't buy crystals with UC's i'd still anticipate getting 8 pieces in week 4, for roughly 16-32 hours of work.

 

Yes, if you've been playing alts in PVP (or PvE) you will have to make choices on who you gear up first. Just like every other time a new tier of gear has been added to the game.

Nicely presented.. and I agree with your assessments.

They literally just told you. They PvP. Us PvPers use our UCs to gear our alts and thus don't have massive stockpiles because we actually used them to get min-maxed 248 gear, sometimes multiple sets per character.

I have 11-12 chars in 248 gear with 236/240 augs and 50k of UC stored.

Saying "I only do PvP, but I don't have a stock pile of UC" sounds like a BS to me.

The more toons you play with (PvP) the more UC you get from daily/weekly.

The more you play, you get more CXP and a higher % gear drop cause you get more CXP boxes to loot from.

Even if you dont get a drop, you get UC just by destroying the stuff you dont need.

I have 11-12 chars in 248 gear with 236/240 augs and 50k of UC stored.

 

Saying "I only do PvP, but I don't have a stock pile of UC" sounds like a BS to me.

 

The more toons you play with (PvP) the more UC you get from daily/weekly.

 

The more you play, you get more CXP and a higher % gear drop cause you get more CXP boxes to loot from.

 

Even if you dont get a drop, you get UC just by destroying the stuff you dont need.

Yup. I'd like to know how many hours they play per week. I'm guess less than 10, probably less than 5.

And then the mats aren't completely horrible except for the NiM GotM drop. Unless that particular one drops like candy in there? But that seems a little crazy for a single mod to me.

Tyth drops 2 Forgotten items, we have killed it 4-5 times since it was released and according to my notes, it always drops 1 Curio and either a Binding or a Strand, on 16man we got 2 Strand and 1 Curio. Sisters on the other hand always dropped 3 Forgotten items, we got 2 Bindings and either 1 Memento or 1 Strand, on 16man those were simply doubled with us getting 4 Bindings and 2 Mementos. Have yet to see the Transformer item, which is used to make Mainhand/Offhand.

So basically, after NiM raiders have min/max:ed their gear, since items you buy through reputation or craft still have their mods/enhancements bound to slot, you will start seeing the Forgotten items on GTN and depending on how many good pve guilds you have on the server, the price will vary a lot.

The weekly heroic i'm planning on is NOT the complete 4 master mode flashpoints. it is the 'complete 4 heroic missions on ossus' which are a bit more challenging than open world, but not immensely so (when they get one or two kinks worked out). I've already timed one of the missions down to less than 3 minutes from accepting to completion. Also, expect to see the Hammer Station grind reappear, which will be another source of crystals.

 

For the UC question, stockpile what you can while waiting for the patch. It is probably going to be at least a month. Everyone getting galactic command boxes should be getting some. Pvp'ers should be getting quite a few more.

 

Truth be told, i'm not really expecting enough crafted gear to be made to have much of an effect on things. There will be a few raid groups/players that make out like bandits. Unless the balance is much kinder than i anticipate most nightmare groups are going to take a while to get the Gods bosses on farm. And for PvE'ers, everyone will benefit. Everyone will go into operations, flashpoints and any other content with better gear, doing more damage, healing more, and taking less damage. For PvP'ers there will be a period where some high end players will get even more of an advantage.

 

Yes. it will take a while to regear a character. The more you play the quicker it will happen. Even if i didn't buy crystals with UC's i'd still anticipate getting 8 pieces in week 4, for roughly 16-32 hours of work.

 

Yes, if you've been playing alts in PVP (or PvE) you will have to make choices on who you gear up first. Just like every other time a new tier of gear has been added to the game.

Correct. The math and synergistic effects of alts has been explained countless times across multiple threads, across multiple forums. You explained it perfectly and succinctly. Moreover, and I find frustrating as this thread demonstrates, is that it is clear that some haven't even looked at what is on the PTS and the methods of Masterwork Shard (MWS) acquisition.

For those who do know what is on the PTS, one of three things must be true:

A) They don't understand math (and we aren't talking differential equations here);

B) They constantly want to create a narrative that the devs are anti-PvP because they want Bolster to be BiS; or

C) Both.

Dasty

P.S. I would recommend NOT opening post GC 300 Galactic Command Crates now. After 5.10, you can open them with a chance to drop MWS. When 5.6 dropped in November 2017, many of us took advantage of the stockpile of unopened crates we saved up given the new mechanics it introduced.

For those who do know what is on the PTS, one of three things must be true:

 

A) They don't understand math (and we aren't talking differential equations here);

 

B) They constantly want to create a narrative that the devs are anti-PvP because they want Bolster to be BiS; or

 

C) Both.

 

Some PvPers want the old expertise system back.. even though the use of this mechanic is actually on the decline in MMOs. WoW removed expertise years ago... and as the 800 lb gorilla in MMOs.. they largely set design trends for the industry.

Just stop. Separate gear sets always worked fine in this game.

I ain't swapping out diddly. Zero. I have friends who want me to PVP, and I'm casual, and I'm sure as heck not going to bother with multiple sets of gear. I don't even swap gear between mirror classes, they each have their own.

I detest swapping.

If expertise comes back, here's one less person in your queue.

 

P.S. I would recommend NOT opening post GC 300 Galactic Command Crates now. After 5.10, you can open them with a chance to drop MWS. When 5.6 dropped in November 2017, many of us took advantage of the stockpile of unopened crates we saved up given the new mechanics it introduced.

I think they're calling 258's (or 252's?) Tier 5 gear, so that leads me to believe that GC 300 will now drop T5 crates. I suspect 236 will be phased out. So hoarding T4 crates might not be worthwhile.