In all seriousness, I ran about 5 flashpoints and 1 warzone last night and got a real feel for the gearing system.

 

It's....different.

 

Think of gearing now more like a journey rather than a destination. I honestly don't think it is meant anymore to be a "grind" - rather, something you just get here and there and can passively fiddle with until one day, you wake up and "oh wow, my gear is pretty good now!"

 

Looking at it, I can tell you what the preferred path is for gearing in the game now:

 

Other than for weapons, don't bother with custom armor unless its for image designer looks. The whole game is made now to favor those who DON'T modify their equipment. Most of the equipment you get will NOT have armorings, mods, enhancements, barrels or hilts you can rip out of it.

 

Because of this, you can also completely ignore amplifiers and set bonuses until you have your end-game armor anyway. Reason being, set bonuses feel pointless because the game just tosses new whole gear you can't pull mods out of to replace it. It feels like set bonuses are now intended to be at the end of the journey, not all along.

 

Amplifiers certainly are useful, and if you want to make a "crafting set" of armor, that can be good, but anything combat oriented is a complete waste of credits thanks to the rate you get new equipment and the uncapped credit increased costs per roll - a cap of 50k credits per roll would have made a lot of sense here.

 

That being said, it isn't impossible to gear if you use a suit with mods in it - just be prepared for a longer path.

 

To sum up the 2 paths:

 

Path 1:

 

Gear with whatever you get, using the appearance tab for looks. Don't bother to work with mods - just grab gear as you get it, and replace it as soon as you get better until you get to endgame. Once in endgame, then finally invest in amplifiers, set bonus armor, and even wait until this point for augments, as you will be switching out armor like nuts until you get to around armor rating 304 or so.

 

Path 2:

 

You will get the occasional piece of gear you can rip mods out of, but not nearly as frequently as the other gear. Rip out what you need as needed. Use any scavenged tech parts to pick up mods from the Spoils of War vendor on fleet. Pretty much otherwise the same recommendations as above, but because you will get a lot you can't use, the process will be slower.

 

 

 

So I know I joked about this being the gearing of doom. Its not 100% awful if you gear with path 1. Getting to endgame is going to be a slog, and I found that it likely will be a lot more enjoyable to treat gear as a journery rather than a destination for now, because most content can be run with green level gear without issue.

 

That last line is what saves this system from being a complete trainwreck. And as I said a month ago in PTS - there are some good bones here. I think if they re-evaluate some of their gearing decisions, and make it more fun for people who like to use mods instead of just gear as a whole, and put a credit cap limit on how expensive amplifiers can get that is REASONABLE, then I think we may have something pretty decent here. Maybe even if there was a way to transfer amplifiers we want from one piece to another would be a huge help, because that alone would also make grabbing set bonuses earlier than end-game worth it, in conjunction with easier ability to get modifications.

 

I think we all expected the gearing to be a finished product by the time Onslaught hit. But really, I think this is going to be something that is just the beginning. There are things worth saving here - ideas that are good but perhaps implemented in a poor way, that can be fixed and the game ends up with something better than we think right now.

 

But its got a long way to go. We're going to find out just how much the developers really listen to the players when this thing hits live - do they stick completely to their guns? Or will they start making those needed adjustments in the aftermath?

Wow, someone on these forums finally gets it.

In all seriousness, I ran about 5 flashpoints and 1 warzone last night and got a real feel for the gearing system.

 

It's....different.

 

Think of gearing now more like a journey rather than a destination. I honestly don't think it is meant anymore to be a "grind" - rather, something you just get here and there and can passively fiddle with until one day, you wake up and "oh wow, my gear is pretty good now!"

 

Looking at it, I can tell you what the preferred path is for gearing in the game now:

 

Other than for weapons, don't bother with custom armor unless its for image designer looks. The whole game is made now to favor those who DON'T modify their equipment. Most of the equipment you get will NOT have armorings, mods, enhancements, barrels or hilts you can rip out of it.

 

Because of this, you can also completely ignore amplifiers and set bonuses until you have your end-game armor anyway. Reason being, set bonuses feel pointless because the game just tosses new whole gear you can't pull mods out of to replace it. It feels like set bonuses are now intended to be at the end of the journey, not all along.

 

Amplifiers certainly are useful, and if you want to make a "crafting set" of armor, that can be good, but anything combat oriented is a complete waste of credits thanks to the rate you get new equipment and the uncapped credit increased costs per roll - a cap of 50k credits per roll would have made a lot of sense here.

 

That being said, it isn't impossible to gear if you use a suit with mods in it - just be prepared for a longer path.

 

To sum up the 2 paths:

 

Path 1:

 

Gear with whatever you get, using the appearance tab for looks. Don't bother to work with mods - just grab gear as you get it, and replace it as soon as you get better until you get to endgame. Once in endgame, then finally invest in amplifiers, set bonus armor, and even wait until this point for augments, as you will be switching out armor like nuts until you get to around armor rating 304 or so.

 

Path 2:

 

You will get the occasional piece of gear you can rip mods out of, but not nearly as frequently as the other gear. Rip out what you need as needed. Use any scavenged tech parts to pick up mods from the Spoils of War vendor on fleet. Pretty much otherwise the same recommendations as above, but because you will get a lot you can't use, the process will be slower.

 

 

 

So I know I joked about this being the gearing of doom. Its not 100% awful if you gear with path 1. Getting to endgame is going to be a slog, and I found that it likely will be a lot more enjoyable to treat gear as a journery rather than a destination for now, because most content can be run with green level gear without issue.

 

That last line is what saves this system from being a complete trainwreck. And as I said a month ago in PTS - there are some good bones here. I think if they re-evaluate some of their gearing decisions, and make it more fun for people who like to use mods instead of just gear as a whole, and put a credit cap limit on how expensive amplifiers can get that is REASONABLE, then I think we may have something pretty decent here. Maybe even if there was a way to transfer amplifiers we want from one piece to another would be a huge help, because that alone would also make grabbing set bonuses earlier than end-game worth it, in conjunction with easier ability to get modifications.

 

I think we all expected the gearing to be a finished product by the time Onslaught hit. But really, I think this is going to be something that is just the beginning. There are things worth saving here - ideas that are good but perhaps implemented in a poor way, that can be fixed and the game ends up with something better than we think right now.

 

But its got a long way to go. We're going to find out just how much the developers really listen to the players when this thing hits live - do they stick completely to their guns? Or will they start making those needed adjustments in the aftermath?

 

A "fair" assessment … perhaps. There are other aspects of the game that should do well (those are for another post … another thread).

 

Gearing: IMO BW pretty much ignored a large part of those who were on PTS. Some aspects of the total RNG will not hurt too much … EXCEPT where the vendors are RNG … that presents another issue.

 

Supposedly crafting received a last minute reprieve, but this is unconfirmed as it was not tested. IMO … As this will affect a huge part of the game / community I sincerely hope that the final "adjustments" work.

 

It is not my point to be contentious at this point in time. I will be patient to see what develops next.

In all seriousness, I ran about 5 flashpoints and 1 warzone last night and got a real feel for the gearing system.

 

It's....different.

 

Think of gearing now more like a journey rather than a destination. I honestly don't think it is meant anymore to be a "grind" - rather, something you just get here and there and can passively fiddle with until one day, you wake up and "oh wow, my gear is pretty good now!"

 

Looking at it, I can tell you what the preferred path is for gearing in the game now:

 

Other than for weapons, don't bother with custom armor unless its for image designer looks. The whole game is made now to favor those who DON'T modify their equipment. Most of the equipment you get will NOT have armorings, mods, enhancements, barrels or hilts you can rip out of it.

 

Because of this, you can also completely ignore amplifiers and set bonuses until you have your end-game armor anyway. Reason being, set bonuses feel pointless because the game just tosses new whole gear you can't pull mods out of to replace it. It feels like set bonuses are now intended to be at the end of the journey, not all along.

 

Amplifiers certainly are useful, and if you want to make a "crafting set" of armor, that can be good, but anything combat oriented is a complete waste of credits thanks to the rate you get new equipment and the uncapped credit increased costs per roll - a cap of 50k credits per roll would have made a lot of sense here.

 

That being said, it isn't impossible to gear if you use a suit with mods in it - just be prepared for a longer path.

 

To sum up the 2 paths:

 

Path 1:

 

Gear with whatever you get, using the appearance tab for looks. Don't bother to work with mods - just grab gear as you get it, and replace it as soon as you get better until you get to endgame. Once in endgame, then finally invest in amplifiers, set bonus armor, and even wait until this point for augments, as you will be switching out armor like nuts until you get to around armor rating 304 or so.

 

Path 2:

 

You will get the occasional piece of gear you can rip mods out of, but not nearly as frequently as the other gear. Rip out what you need as needed. Use any scavenged tech parts to pick up mods from the Spoils of War vendor on fleet. Pretty much otherwise the same recommendations as above, but because you will get a lot you can't use, the process will be slower.

 

 

 

So I know I joked about this being the gearing of doom. Its not 100% awful if you gear with path 1. Getting to endgame is going to be a slog, and I found that it likely will be a lot more enjoyable to treat gear as a journery rather than a destination for now, because most content can be run with green level gear without issue.

 

That last line is what saves this system from being a complete trainwreck. And as I said a month ago in PTS - there are some good bones here. I think if they re-evaluate some of their gearing decisions, and make it more fun for people who like to use mods instead of just gear as a whole, and put a credit cap limit on how expensive amplifiers can get that is REASONABLE, then I think we may have something pretty decent here. Maybe even if there was a way to transfer amplifiers we want from one piece to another would be a huge help, because that alone would also make grabbing set bonuses earlier than end-game worth it, in conjunction with easier ability to get modifications.

 

I think we all expected the gearing to be a finished product by the time Onslaught hit. But really, I think this is going to be something that is just the beginning. There are things worth saving here - ideas that are good but perhaps implemented in a poor way, that can be fixed and the game ends up with something better than we think right now.

 

But its got a long way to go. We're going to find out just how much the developers really listen to the players when this thing hits live - do they stick completely to their guns? Or will they start making those needed adjustments in the aftermath?

 

Thanks for sharing your perspective! Sounds like an honest assessment.

All fairly accurate observations.

 

1). Do not open any renown crates until you are close to item rating 306.

2). Always equip the highest item rating equipment in your possession whenever you open gear crates, like the boxes from warzones or [WEEKLY] missions.

3). Your personal loot drops from bosses on flashpoints and operations will depend on your average item rating level. Think of that before you engage each boss and take a few moments to make sure you are optimizing your chances.

Wow, someone on these forums finally gets it.

 

I mean, I understand it; I just don't like it.

I agree for the most part, but I think getting mods (not min/max) is actually not that hard. I was able to roll a full set pretty quickly from both drops and RNG vendor. Granted, without the handy tech frag dispenser that'll take a bit longer

 

Here's my plan:

 

I was able to solo spam Hammer Vet and get from @ 270 (once I figured out that vendors sucked back in early PTS 2.0) to 306 in what probably amounts to 6+ hours of play. On live I can do that with a combo of vet / nim ops, vet solo and mm group fps, and whatever else like conquest, reknown, and so forth.

 

After vertical gear progression to 306 it's all about acquiring set bonus, tacicals, and mods. I'm going to save my tech frags for bonus set pieces, tacticals, and mods RNG vendor rolls for the most part, but if I'm maxing out and need something I'll roll Zykken or Takkana for gear just to make room for more currency.

 

Yes, right now mods are the biggest issue. I was getting pretty good mod drops though just running content, so at least from my experience getting enough random mods to fill a full set of bonus gear, which will take several weeks of dedicated play imho, is just going to happen alongside that process.

 

After that comes min/max, which will take a while unless they make mods available via non-RNG.

Edited October 12, 2019 by cibacrome

All fairly accurate observations.

 

1). Do not open any renown crates until you are close to item rating 306.

2). Always equip the highest item rating equipment in your possession whenever you open gear crates, like the boxes from warzones or [WEEKLY] missions.

3). Your personal loot drops from bosses on flashpoints and operations will depend on your average item rating level. Think of that before you engage each boss and take a few moments to make sure you are optimizing your chances.

 

I probably shouldn't bump this so soon, but this is EXTREMELY good advice.

 

Now my view...

 

Vertical gearing, by which I mean getting to Ilvl 306, will actually be quite easy (particularly if you follow Phal's advice). Moreover, if you go through the annoying process of transferring gear to alts while they level, it means they will get to Ilvl 306 very, very quickly too. In that sense, gearing alts up to an acceptable level seems to be quite easy. Personally, I find it annoying that I have to transfer gear just for Ilvl to other characters, but I'll deal with it since it will be a relatively short process.

 

Of course, the operative term is "acceptable level." It seems quite clear based on the feedback from Eric (or lack thereof about the mod vendor being RNG)...

 

It's all about horizontal gearing now. That's the long-term carrot on the stick they are using to get us to keep playing.

 

Personally, I would prefer a system of RNG protection where they allow us to purchase the specific item we want, albeit at a much higher cost. This is what they had in 5.6, which to me was the pinnacle of gearing systems not just for this MMORPG, but any. They have settled the issue for Set Items and Tacticals, and I'm fine with the RNG for left side items since they are legacy bound. On Amps, I'm with Kendra -- either they matter or they don't -- and I agree with Zion about the cost cap.

 

Obviously, that leaves Mods, which leads me to...

 

Math dictates that some people will lose out on their 20th roll trying to get the Mod they want. It baffles me why BW doesn't want to afford them some type of protection.

 

Dasty

Edited October 12, 2019 by Jdast

"It's all about horizontal gearing now. That's the long-term carrot on the stick they are using to get us to keep playing. "

 

Carrot, really? The issue is that we have to re-gear to run the same old content. You were doing nim? got to re-gear again with a tedious and intricate rng system to do the same old thing. For some players it is not a carrot at all, I am simply throwing the towel.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Eriamea

"It's all about horizontal gearing now. That's the long-term carrot on the stick they are using to get us to keep playing. "

 

Carrot, really? The issue is that we have to re-gear to run the same old content. You were doing nim? got to re-gear again with a tedious and intricate rng system to do the same old thing. For some players it is not a carrot at all, I am simply throwing the towel.

 

I didn't say you had to like the carrot. As I made pretty clear in my post -- I'm not fond of that carrot either.

 

I'm simply saying they believe there are a lot of rabbits. If the content is good, I'll be a rabbit. If not...

 

Dasty

Edited October 12, 2019 by Jdast

I didn't say you had to like the carrot. As I made pretty clear in my post -- I'm not fond of that carrot either.

 

Dasty

 

You are right... BW seems rather intent on the carrot - stick model of gaming. If I've hung around this game for what, 6 or 7 years I obviously don't need that carrot to keep playing, Musco.

 

Play your way is appearing to be a practical joke

I mean, I understand it; I just don't like it.

 

Trust me, I am in the same boat.

 

However, one thing I can safely put to bed is the whole "RNG" sentiment.

 

Yes, there is some mild RNG, but frankly, with the way the fleet vendor is combined with the fact that you don't need to be absolutely min-maxed to run most content, it all works well enough and you definitely feel the trend of gear carrying you ever upward - you aren't really ever left feeling like "oh crap, I really need gear piece xyz so I can move on to harder content, but the game isn't giving it to me!" To me, that's what bad RNG is like.

 

Rather, its the overall design itself that feels rough. The whole thing feels well...overdesigned. Complexity for its own sake. Artificial rather than a natural extension of the game.

 

That said, there's enough good here that it can be streamlined and made really good, even with all the tiers of gear, if the devs want to.

 

The question is, will they want to? It won't be in time for Onslaught, and the developers notoriously go into hibernation after the fall expansions until about March of the following year, so it'll be a while before we know for sure one way or the other.

I probably shouldn't bump this so soon, but this is EXTREMELY good advice.

 

Now my view...

 

Vertical gearing, by which I mean getting to Ilvl 306, will actually be quite easy (particularly if you follow Phal's advice). Moreover, if you go through the annoying process of transferring gear to alts while they level, it means they will get to Ilvl 306 very, very quickly too. In that sense, gearing alts up to an acceptable level seems to be quite easy. Personally, I find it annoying that I have to transfer gear just for Ilvl to other characters, but I'll deal with it since it will be a relatively short process.

 

Of course, the operative term is "acceptable level." It seems quite clear based on the feedback from Eric (or lack thereof about the mod vendor being RNG)...

 

It's all about horizontal gearing now. That's the long-term carrot on the stick they are using to get us to keep playing.

 

Personally, I would prefer a system of RNG protection where they allow us to purchase the specific item we want, albeit at a much higher cost. This is what they had in 5.6, which to me was the pinnacle of gearing systems not just for this MMORPG, but any. They have settled the issue for Set Items and Tacticals, and I'm fine with the RNG for left side items since they are legacy bound. On Amps, I'm with Kendra -- either they matter or they don't -- and I agree with Zion about the cost cap.

 

Obviously, that leaves Mods, which leads me to...

 

Math dictates that some people will lose out on their 20th roll trying to get the Mod they want. It baffles me why BW doesn't want to afford them some type of protection.

 

Dasty

 

 

To address this, you can target a specific slot now with the vendor. No guarantees it will be exactly what you want or best in slot, but I've found whatever they give you, it will be good enough to get you to the next tier of gear, and it won't be a hindrance at all to whatever content you want to run, barring NiM Ops.

To address this, you can target a specific slot now with the vendor. No guarantees it will be exactly what you want or best in slot, but I've found whatever they give you, it will be good enough to get you to the next tier of gear, and it won't be a hindrance at all to whatever content you want to run, barring NiM Ops.

 

Agreed … with one addendum: you can also get the same piece twice !

IMO.. three strikes and your out ! Move on to another piece. (other wise it can get to be too expensive)

 

For whatever it's worth … if it were not for that one factor I could live with the rest. It would still not be the best system (to me at least) … but I could live with it !

Drops for crates are far from good (Renown Crates). I was in full 306 gear and I was getting mods etc 302, 304 rating.

How's the system working if it gives me gear that has lower rating than what I currently own? Makes no sense.

 

Drops seems to be fixed now, 'cause in previous phase, my MM sniper was getting tank mods.

 

Getting set bonus pieces will be a nightmare, currently priced gear pieces are 3k per one and they dont have any mods, armorings etc in it, just empty shells.

 

Keep in mind that Takena (vendor which sells mods) are selling you RNG mods, you dont know the stats, you dont know anything before you buy it, when you do, its gonna give u some random mod with random stats.

 

Good luck getting 3,4,5,6 exact same mods. So, whoever thinks of min/maxing properly, see you in a few years, 'cause thats probably how long will it take to get the exact stats on all mods. There's just too many diferent types of mods and too much RNG.

 

One day, you wake up and "oh wow, my gear is pretty good now!"

 

Yes and then I'll realise that 20 years have passed and I'll be like "dafaq was I grinding for?"

I am just hoping that the influencers will get those 'gearing for dummies' guides up quickly because with all these mods and gear sets I haven't the slightest idea what my characters need. I'm still sticking with my plan of not playing my 70s much to try to avoid getting them to 75 so they won't be forced into this.

I think OP has a pretty good grasp on the gearing system they are giving us.

 

Do content while you slowly work your way up through 18 different "levels" (or gear ratings) of gear drops and vendor purchases until you get to an average of 302 - 304. Then you can start playing the vendor slot machine (because it's still heavy RNG for these specific purchases) for the 306 armorings / mods / enhancements / barrels / hilts to fill in the 3000 fragment / 1 million credit (per piece) endgame set bonus armor sets...after at some point either buying or looting the tactical you want.

 

The one positive from that system is that even if you get 20 "incorrect" mods/enhancements/whatever from the slot machine vendor, you have alts that can probably use those too, right? So you may not be able to get your sniper up FIRST...but you'll have pieces of gear for ALL of your toons.

 

Don't get me wrong, gearing in PTS phase 3 was TONS better than gearing in PTS phase 1. They listened to the player base and tweaked a really bad system to make it less bad.

 

I'm going to miss being able to buy random pieces from the GTN. I suspect many people take that for granted and don't realize yet that it's going away. (You can't sell legacy bound gear and all new gear drops, and crafted items, are legacy bound)

 

And amplifiers...don't even get me started on amplifiers. It's not like I warned people about that two months ago or anything.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=966989

I think OP has a pretty good grasp on the gearing system they are giving us.

 

Do content while you slowly work your way up through 18 different "levels" (or gear ratings) of gear drops and vendor purchases until you get to an average of 302 - 304. Then you can start playing the vendor slot machine (because it's still heavy RNG for these specific purchases) for the 306 armorings / mods / enhancements / barrels / hilts to fill in the 3000 fragment / 1 million credit (per piece) endgame set bonus armor sets...after at some point either buying or looting the tactical you want.

 

The one positive from that system is that even if you get 20 "incorrect" mods/enhancements/whatever from the slot machine vendor, you have alts that can probably use those too, right? So you may not be able to get your sniper up FIRST...but you'll have pieces of gear for ALL of your toons.

 

Don't get me wrong, gearing in PTS phase 3 was TONS better than gearing in PTS phase 1. They listened to the player base and tweaked a really bad system to make it less bad.

 

I'm going to miss being able to buy random pieces from the GTN. I suspect many people take that for granted and don't realize yet that it's going away. (You can't sell legacy bound gear and all new gear drops, and crafted items, are legacy bound)

 

And amplifiers...don't even get me started on amplifiers. It's not like I warned people about that two months ago or anything.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=966989

 

Several of us tried … you pretty much took point on providing information that was detailed enough to make sense of the matter. Others did well too.

 

You did as much as anyone could ask.

 

Now we wait !

Drops for crates are far from good (Renown Crates). I was in full 306 gear and I was getting mods etc 302, 304 rating.

How's the system working if it gives me gear that has lower rating than what I currently own? Makes no sense.

 

Drops seems to be fixed now, 'cause in previous phase, my MM sniper was getting tank mods.

 

Getting set bonus pieces will be a nightmare, currently priced gear pieces are 3k per one and they dont have any mods, armorings etc in it, just empty shells.

 

Keep in mind that Takena (vendor which sells mods) are selling you RNG mods, you dont know the stats, you dont know anything before you buy it, when you do, its gonna give u some random mod with random stats.

 

Good luck getting 3,4,5,6 exact same mods. So, whoever thinks of min/maxing properly, see you in a few years, 'cause thats probably how long will it take to get the exact stats on all mods. There's just too many diferent types of mods and too much RNG.

 

One day, you wake up and "oh wow, my gear is pretty good now!"

 

Yes and then I'll realise that 20 years have passed and I'll be like "dafaq was I grinding for?"

 

So, renown are now like a bonus. Don't expect it to be a major source of gear - the devs said that going into this.

 

The vendor IS random, BUT it will always offer you at least an upgrade now - may not be precisely the one you want, but like I said before, its pointless to try to min-max before endgame, and the vendor items will get you to the next tier.

 

The people who hold that every drop ever should be a substantial upgrade to what they already have are going to be disappointed. As I said, this is going to be a journey, not a quick destination.

I think OP has a pretty good grasp on the gearing system they are giving us.

 

Do content while you slowly work your way up through 18 different "levels" (or gear ratings) of gear drops and vendor purchases until you get to an average of 302 - 304. Then you can start playing the vendor slot machine (because it's still heavy RNG for these specific purchases) for the 306 armorings / mods / enhancements / barrels / hilts to fill in the 3000 fragment / 1 million credit (per piece) endgame set bonus armor sets...after at some point either buying or looting the tactical you want.

 

The one positive from that system is that even if you get 20 "incorrect" mods/enhancements/whatever from the slot machine vendor, you have alts that can probably use those too, right? So you may not be able to get your sniper up FIRST...but you'll have pieces of gear for ALL of your toons.

 

Don't get me wrong, gearing in PTS phase 3 was TONS better than gearing in PTS phase 1. They listened to the player base and tweaked a really bad system to make it less bad.

 

I'm going to miss being able to buy random pieces from the GTN. I suspect many people take that for granted and don't realize yet that it's going away. (You can't sell legacy bound gear and all new gear drops, and crafted items, are legacy bound)

 

And amplifiers...don't even get me started on amplifiers. It's not like I warned people about that two months ago or anything.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=966989

 

Amplifiers would actually be a fun great system at any point, IF ONLY THEY PUT A CREDIT CAP ON HOW EXPENSIVE IT CAN GET.

 

I got a chance to test them a lot in phase 2 playing with the PTS funny money, but I also quickly realized just how horribly expensive it is to get what you want in each slot, else have to wait for the resets each week.

The devs made it intentionally this way, but the real question is why - when slapping say a 50k credit cap limit on it would make the whole thing more useful and fun at any level.

This gearing system is far too complex. Even with 'guide for dummies', no regular player should be expected to understand all of the intricacies of this inane system. I -still- regularly see level 70 folks running around in unmodded ~218 gear. Does EA really believe those folks will suddenly embrace an even more complex system? This is going to be a blood bath folks. Don't fool yourselves that there's a chance this is going to work. I just wonder how many more guilds I'll inherit.

This gearing system is far too complex. Even with 'guide for dummies', no regular player should be expected to understand all of the intricacies of this inane system. I -still- regularly see level 70 folks running around in unmodded ~218 gear. Does EA really believe those folks will suddenly embrace an even more complex system? This is going to be a blood bath folks. Don't fool yourselves that there's a chance this is going to work. I just wonder how many more guilds I'll inherit.

 

Same. Ever since this gearing system was announced in that stream I've spent more time looking around Ossus and Dantooine; I still see alot of 230's or there abouts more or less. The more and more this new 6.0 system is described I'm wondering how many will actually try to pick this up and which ones will simply throw up their hands and log out.

 

I have seen a couple 6.0 guides around twitter from the Influencer's that seem to do a good job at *Explaining the system and how the parts affect each other and the overall system but again, there are so many variations of so many parts, they simply cant cover them all. If I / we need a spread sheet, notes from various sources, excess parts ( I wear the outfits I've chosen and Paid For, Including Weapons, Period) and "Time" to Experiment with then it becomes a job and that doesnt sound like much *Fun and Something I'd *Like to Pay for.

As for the path 2 the OP describes I wonder to what extent crafting is the way to go there. Set bonuses are no longer linked to mods but shells apparently. That means that it's going to be interesting to those who prefer path 2 to hunt down shells with set bonuses that can be modded and then add the mods.

 

Eric also did mention there would be an increase in mods dropping in the game so I wonder how that will work out. But the big thing, again is crafting. I'd like to know to what level/rating we will be able to craft mods.

 

I know people freaked out about the costs but that was also addressed by Eric in saying that they would increase the number of mats per node and that on the PTS there really only was one place with those nodes and that would not be the case on the live servers.

 

So all in all it's still very much unclear to me how hard path 2 would be compared to 1 but it may not be as bad as suggested.

 

Does anyone know what happens with augments in 6.0 btw?

Well, with PTS shutting down, the gearing of doom is UPON US.....

I keep kicking myself for not taking statistics in college, it'd come in handy for gearing.

I've been thinking about the path I'm going to take for gearing and I've come up with a few thoughts.

 

Current set bonus gear. A number of my characters use legacy gear for their set bonuses. With those set bonuses being moved to the shell from the armor mod I've started keeping any piece with a set bonus, even if lower rating, that drops from a command crate. I'll purchasing cheap 230 pieces to fill in the blanks. This way when 6.0 drops I should be able to pull out my mostly 252 mods and stick them into a shell with the set bonus. I know this will only be useful until level 75, but I'd rather keep my set bonus for those four levels.

 

I won't be spending any more command tokens on command boosts. I know they'll carry over as renown boosts, but renown doesn't seem worth focusing on anymore. Crates may be a nice supplement, and I may take the advice to hold all of mine until I get a higher irating, but I won't be trying to farm renown points for crates.

 

My main focus for gearing will be my main. I'll work on their gear specifically and focus on getting them to a high enough irating that I start getting the good stuff. As I replace pieces I'll stick the old piece into storage and rotate those out as new stuff comes in. This way I'll eventually have a decent set of high irating gear that I'll use to pass around to my other characters to give them a head start on their gearing. Now that everything will be legacy bound, including left side gear, I think this is the best way to gear up in the new system. By doing this I'll be able to pass over gear with a high irating, 300'ish I'm thinking, so my alts don't have to start the grind from irating 252 (or whatever the base irating will be for Onslaught). Over time I'll set up this base, lvl 75, gear with some augments and play with the amps so new characters have something to equip at lvl 75 and can go right into working on their end game gear set.

 

Depending on how I'm acquiring gear I may save all tech frags to purchase pieces from Kai or the other vendor, or I may purchase a piece on occasion from Takana to fill in a gap if I have a slot that is lagging behind. The gear I get on alts I haven't decided yet if I'll leaving it on them or pass it to my main to gear them up faster. This, or course, would only be a factor early on. Then I'll have to decide it I keep the gear or break it down for the fragments. I'm leaning toward turning everything into tech frags and just focusing on my main's gear since they'll eventually have a full set of gear to pass around to my alts.

 

That's my plan for now. Most of my characters are in full or nearly full 252 gear, which should be sufficient for a while as I work on my main. But I'm not going to stress out on gear. I'm not going to play with amps until I start getting my final gear set. I may play with them some on the set I put together for my alts and new 75's, but until then amps will just be a nice little bonus. Although, I may try to set up some crafting sets.