Hey everyone, I'm a founding player who has come back after a long time away to revisit nostalgia and have been enjoying my very limited free-time by playing the game casually.

 

My questions is--based on my understanding of the new bolster and stat caps, gearing for anything below Ops is basically pointless, is this right?

 

Being a casual player these days I'm not looking to achieve BiS or anything, but the tangible increases in general effectiveness is still a fun and rewarding part of getting some new gear. It seems as though the new changes to any content that is not high level group content means that I will no longer experience this improvement and I'm disappointed if that's the case.

 

So all this new gear will not make any actual difference stat-wise when I'm doing say, Heroics, Dailies, Story Missions, etc? I can upgrade my gear from 270 to 298 and see no improvements to any of my stats unless I'm doing an Op, correct?

 

Just trying to understand it, thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me and sorry for anything I posted that is inaccurate or previously resolved.

You can already see how level sync works on the sub-70 planets. That's what they're doing to the flashpoints.

 

This means that only the primary stats (master/endurance/power) are capped. Your secondary stats (accuracy/alacricity/critical and defense/shield/absorb) are not capped.

 

Gearing isn't pointless, but it does mean you'll be better off buffing your secondary stats than the primary stats for everything but the newest (level 75) content.

 

Set bonuses and tacticals will also work even with level sync, although they might take too much time to acquire to make them worth going for as a casual player.

You get a buff debuff symbol for every gear level you are over the instance you are in, so Hammer Station at 306 is at 19 but yout health and mastery don't change. If you had blue level sixteen gear you would be okay as well. Just crit alacrity and accuracy would be changing. On onderon it will matter. Dxun and any other level 75 area. 236 gear for 70 area is about as high as you need. As long as you can kill it and it not drag out then you are fine.

I recently did the Ossus weekly ( 10 daily missions) with a sorc dressed only in Left-side 252s and a lightsabre. - All my legacy gear was on a mirror character and I forget to change outfit appearance on the sorc to remind me. IIRC my highest rank comp for that character is about 35-40. I did think it took a tad longer, but I wasn't really trying to speed -run it anyways.

 

So I'd agree, that so long as your companion is doing reasonable DPS, and you doing a little off-healing you can basically go anywhere almost naked. - Although some abilities do require a main-hand weapon to enable them.

 

If I wasn't completely sick of dailies It'd be interesting to repeat the experience with only the lightsabre and a companion at lower level.

 

So yeah, except for operation level PVE and PVP, gear is almost pointless. Unfortunately without a gear-grind there's little to do in the game otherwise.

 

BioWare seem to think that another gear grind and level cap increase is gonna bring floods of customers to their door. - Rather than offering real and original content. - .....And uh..... GL with that.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Storm-Cutter

I recently did the Ossus weekly ( 10 daily missions) with a sorc dressed only in Left-side 252s and a lightsabre. - All my legacy gear was on a mirror character and I forget to change outfit appearance on the sorc to remind me. IIRC my highest rank comp for that character is about 35-40. I did think it took a tad longer, but I wasn't really trying to speed -run it anyways.

 

So I'd agree, that so long as your companion is doing reasonable DPS, and you doing a little off-healing you can basically go anywhere almost naked. - Although some abilities do require a main-hand weapon to enable them.

 

If I wasn't completely sick of dailies It'd be interesting to repeat the experience with only the lightsabre and a companion at lower level.

 

So yeah, except for operation level PVE and PVP, gear is almost pointless. Unfortunately without a gear-grind there's little to do in the game otherwise.

 

BioWare seem to think that another gear grind and level cap increase is gonna bring floods of customers to their door. - Rather than offering real and original content. - .....And uh..... GL with that.

 

Lightsaber and i'm no fan of grinding content, it never translates with me. on occasion if i'm in the mood i might do some but the chances are few and far between that i'd actually do anything of the sort. I'm looking for a new adventure, not to go back and rehash the old stuff like it was a dead horse that needs beating until it is atomized.

 

With that stated, we will see if Bioware will bring more grindy content in 6.0. what goes on PTS is a beta product and beta products are subject to change.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Celise

I dunno I'm sorta torn....do I think gear is less relevant? Sure, but I'm also sick of chasing the gear Carrot on the treadmill of MMO's.

 

Maybe that's why I have more fun in SWTOR than I do in other MMO's I play....YMMV though.

LOL! People need to make up their collective mind. On the one hand we have people complain that the "necessary" gear is too much of a grind and/RNG, and on the other we have people saying gear doesn't matter. 🤔

 

Personally, I'm somewhere in the middle. I find that for anything below high-end PvE, including veteran FPs, gear doesn't really matter too much, but better gear does help. I usually try to make some effort to get "better" gear - currently 252 - but I'm in no hurry. (And I'm really not concerned about 258s.)

LOL! People need to make up their collective mind. On the one hand we have people complain that the "necessary" gear is too much of a grind and/RNG, and on the other we have people saying gear doesn't matter. 🤔

 

It makes sense to me. Both sides are right.

 

I guess it depends on your point of view. For me, after what I experienced on the PTS: everything is completely pointless with those changes. I feel zero motivation to continue playing. I'm not even looking forward to the story anymore. This new system is just extremely terrible in every way. Nothing on the PTS is enjoyable for me. I'm sorry, but if this goes live, I don't see myself playing this game anymore.

 

All I wanted was a bit of new story and a few new things to play. This is all what they had to do. It could have been so simple.

Hey everyone, I'm a founding player who has come back after a long time away to revisit nostalgia and have been enjoying my very limited free-time by playing the game casually.

 

My questions is--based on my understanding of the new bolster and stat caps, gearing for anything below Ops is basically pointless, is this right?

 

Being a casual player these days I'm not looking to achieve BiS or anything, but the tangible increases in general effectiveness is still a fun and rewarding part of getting some new gear. It seems as though the new changes to any content that is not high level group content means that I will no longer experience this improvement and I'm disappointed if that's the case.

 

So all this new gear will not make any actual difference stat-wise when I'm doing say, Heroics, Dailies, Story Missions, etc? I can upgrade my gear from 270 to 298 and see no improvements to any of my stats unless I'm doing an Op, correct?

 

Just trying to understand it, thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me and sorry for anything I posted that is inaccurate or previously resolved.

 

You don't need gear for SM operations either. You will be bolstered.

Bolster for PVE is the same as for PVP.

 

First, some tiers of gear bolster better than others .They provide better stat distribution for things such as crit and alacrity. If you care about doing the max amount of damage or healing possible, you'll care about getting good gear.

 

This is especially true with augments, since bolster just assumes you have endurance-heavy augments.

 

If you want to run any MM flashpoints that aren't Red Reaper or Hammer Station, stats are also important. You simply won't beat enrage timers if you're running unmodded 230s (unless there are modded 258s in your group). Your healer won't have what it takes to get you through Ortuno or D7 or the rakghoul FPs or anywhere in Blood Hunt if they don't have decent gear. Forget about any bonus bosses in most MM FPs either.

 

And, of course, if you PVP there's no question, unless you're extremely talented you'll always be at a disadvantage with sub-par gear.

 

In normal FPs (which everyone is seriously overleveled for right now), you don't need it. Run Nathema, Umbara or Chiss and it's another story most of the time.

Getting some different responses here, which doesn't clear it up for me really. I will post a couple of quotes from folks over at the PTS Forum which speaks to my concern.

 

"Level sync is a joke in how it is working as my level ten with fleet vendor gear is three times stronger than a level 75 in augmented gear." -Hawkbatt (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=968025&page=8)

 

"There is no balance with level sync going down and only going up does it work better for you. I saw this on live with a level 55 186 geared and augmented toon. Low power but good balance to stats. The other way around on pts you are weak if not for you crit alacrity and accuracy.

Mastery and power relics are useless in anything other than level 75 content.

Level 75 gear will only be useful in the Dxun Operation and on Onderon. Everything else a toon in questing gear is better than you as they are not nerfed for the content." -Hawkbatt (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=968025&page=8)

 

"whats the point of adrenals in a lvl 55 ops... you can only use accuracy or crit adrenals..... yay everything else is useless as it is capped... relics the same you got a mastery proc relic... screw it! it doesnt do anything... what about the sage raidbuff? useless as mastery and endurace is capped..." -Opiklo (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=968025&page=8)

 

There are similar posts but these seemed to sum up what I was asking about. So it seems like the level sync is making gearing for anyting other than the Dxun Op and Onderon not only pointless, but puts you at a disadvantage compared to lower-leveled, poorer geared characters. I hope I'm misunderstanding because that seems awful to me. Anyone else unhappy with this?

...

If you want to run any MM flashpoints that aren't Red Reaper or Hammer Station, stats are also important. You simply won't beat enrage timers if you're running unmodded 230s (unless there are modded 258s in your group). Your healer won't have what it takes to get you through Ortuno or D7 or the rakghoul FPs or anywhere in Blood Hunt if they don't have decent gear. Forget about any bonus bosses in most MM FPs either..

 

This is just blatantly wrong.

All bolstered content is playable with the stats that the bolster gives, so yes, focus on gearing there is sort of pointless, though in group content it is/was considered courtesy to at least get close to one gear level lower than what you are playing drops for loot.

Do better numbers help sure, are they absolutely needed? No.

Especially not inside the FPs. Since people can do MM FP from level 50 on you don't need 230+ gear at all, you can't wear it for the next 20 level. Level 50 item rating is somewhere among 150 if I recall correctly and it is enough.

 

Do you have to be more careful with lower item level, probably. Are you able to carry a whole group of "I don't know how to play my character/role even a little bit", no you are not and rightly so. Those are Master Mode flashpoints after all. But gear is not a factor there at all, knowing how to play though definitely is.

The times you struggle there even with people vastly over geared in 248s or even 258s shows that it is the knowledge of mechanics and class abilities, something remotely resembling a rotation, the fact that too many players are too used to having super strong healing companions instead of learning to step out of pools of bad in time, no interrupts, no stuns used, staying behind bosses ect ect. that is the problem.

There have been several videos been posted by people who successfully did even the more demanding FPs like Bloodhunt MM with just a weapon in hand and otherwise naked, so purely relying on the stats bolster gives. And some of those videos are even from before the last round of streamlining and nerfs of those FPs since 5.0.

A group that has the added stats from any gear and somewhat knows what to do with themselves and the bosses in there is completely fine in there. Or should be if they manage to play together as a group.

 

The only exception actually are the most recent FPs although mostly in Veteran mode, since low levels simply don't yet have the defensive abilities they need there. But since MM is available from level 50 that isn't as bad there.

I've run all those FPs with groups containing one or more under 70 characters, we did them well enough to get through, admittedly not wipe free, but where's the drama in that? That one run through Nathema MM last weekend was even better than most full 70 rnd groups I've had.

Key is to discuss the strategy for those who might not know the mechanics and then players that are able to play their class and role for more than simple tank and spank and hit one ability all over.

More stats do help of course, but only if the player wearing them also is able to use that advantage, then the better the gear you have the more you are able to carry the rest of the group. But essentially the FPs are still designed for a group of four players who all do their part. If they do, bolster is sufficient enough stat wise. If they don't, the better numbers don't really help anyway. Like that 248/252 mixed sorc spamming nothing but lightning bolt all the time, of course enrage timers become a problem there, but that kind of play-style simply isn't meant to succeed in the most difficult mode for 4 player groups. So in the end that is working as intended.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Khaleijo