The loot that drops out of flashpoints and hardmodes, although much more appropriate now than when the game first launched, is woefully low.

With the current level of gear, I think it would be much more appropriate for someone to be able to get their full set of Rakata armor (not weapon or offhand though) from Hardmode Flashpoints alone.

Particularly with how difficult Lost Island is. I would much rather do a hardmode EV or KP for one week than ever go to Lost Island in full Columi.

Gear progression outside of operations is stagnant and in no way able to prepare someone to participate in the harder raiding content.

Note: I say this as someone who weekly clears all the way up to Hardmode TFB on a weekly basis. We seem to be making great progress in NiM EC too.

I agree, unless you happen to be a part of a large Raiding Guild. You will not be able to gear up. Large Guild Raid primarily with Guld members. You may get lucky and get a spot when they need to fill a hole. I have, but it is rare. You are disadvantaged as a small Guild. I would bet that Less then 25% of Subs are in large guilds. So that means 75% of your member base are frustrated with how to progress past Columi and normal HM FP's.

Maybe the developers don't see that, but it is.. That frustration leads to loss of subs.

I have managed full Black Hole on two of my 50's only by grinding out BH coins. (aside from main hand and off hand that is only an OPS drop). Large guilds are getting these in Campaign drops. Far easier.

<flame suit on>

If someone was serious about gearing up for raid content as a new player, i would advise them to farm credits as much as possible and buy stabilizers in bulk and get 61's crafted while farming BH comms. Honestly i have sold a stack of 10 stabilizers as cheap as 1.3 million (can be easily farmed in a single day), that would net them a little over a bh piece a day and they wouldnt have to worry about wasted parts.

I would like to see them add maybe a nightmare setting to flashpoints that is set around the gear level of columi/rakata compared to quest greens and have that maybe drop rakata... will it happen no...

I had this same thought, about Rakata dropping in HM Flashpoints. I think it's a good idea, but another question that arises is, What about the operations? What incentive would there be for people to Run HM EV/HM KP. Same for SM Denova and every other operation difficulty that drops Rakata gear. So i think they'd have to re-itemize bosses. Hell, or not. I'd love all my companions to be wearing Rakata gear since it'd drop so much. I just don't think it's as simple as changing flashpoint loot to drop Rakata. But on that note, i'd still love to see it happen in some form.

This would also be a better platform for people to enter higher end raids, allowing people to get more involved in content!

The loot that drops out of flashpoints and hardmodes, although much more appropriate now than when the game first launched, is woefully low.

 

With the current level of gear, I think it would be much more appropriate for someone to be able to get their full set of Rakata armor (not weapon or offhand though) from Hardmode Flashpoints alone.

 

Particularly with how difficult Lost Island is. I would much rather do a hardmode EV or KP for one week than ever go to Lost Island in full Columi.

 

Gear progression outside of operations is stagnant and in no way able to prepare someone to participate in the harder raiding content.

 

Note: I say this as someone who weekly clears all the way up to Hardmode TFB on a weekly basis. We seem to be making great progress in NiM EC too.

Can we stop with these threads? You ahve access to

-2 relics

-2 implants

-1 earpiece

- 1chest

And thats all without setting foot in a single HM Op.

Not only that you also get BH comms for not setting foot in an Operatiojn which provides you with everything bar a MH weapon.

You can get a comparable to Campaign weapon from PVP.

Just stop with the "i want faceroll dungeons for rakata +" you already have it. Gear progression in this game is fine, Maybe a few more T2 Fp's could help I'll agree there. But witht he difficulty of HM EV/KP getting rakata geared is really not an issue.It requires that thign called time to get geared and theres nothing wrong with that.

Its more just the difficulty that Lost Island hardmode seems to be scaled to.

I would not want to attempt Lost Island hardmode with people in still mostly Columi. Loot progression should allow people to gear up for a hardmode flashpoint by using other hardmode flastpoint loot drops.

The loot that drops out of flashpoints and hardmodes, although much more appropriate now than when the game first launched, is woefully low.

 

With the current level of gear, I think it would be much more appropriate for someone to be able to get their full set of Rakata armor (not weapon or offhand though) from Hardmode Flashpoints alone.

 

Particularly with how difficult Lost Island is. I would much rather do a hardmode EV or KP for one week than ever go to Lost Island in full Columi.

 

Gear progression outside of operations is stagnant and in no way able to prepare someone to participate in the harder raiding content.

 

Note: I say this as someone who weekly clears all the way up to Hardmode TFB on a weekly basis. We seem to be making great progress in NiM EC too.

While I agree that Gear progression outside operations is stagnant, these flashpoints aren't really tuned to need anything near the drops that you get out of them and too many things drop Rakata to begin with (6 OPs drop Rakata now). Honestly, if these were to drop Rakata, Bioware may as well remove 56 mod gear from the game.

I think a better answer would be to add more tier 2 FPs and allow THOSE to drop Rakata.

Its more just the difficulty that Lost Island hardmode seems to be scaled to.

 

I would not want to attempt Lost Island hardmode with people in still mostly Columi. Loot progression should allow people to gear up for a hardmode flashpoint by using other hardmode flastpoint loot drops.

Done Lost Island recently? 3 months ago I would have agreed completely. But something's been changed in that operation between then and now (don't know if it's the soft enrage timers, or if there's more time to move or what, but it's different). It's easily puggable in columi at this point...long as the tank knows what to do.

If someone was serious about gearing up for raid content as a new player, i would advise them to farm credits as much as possible and buy stabilizers in bulk and get 61's crafted while farming BH comms. Honestly i have sold a stack of 10 stabilizers as cheap as 1.3 million (can be easily farmed in a single day), that would net them a little over a bh piece a day and they wouldnt have to worry about wasted parts.

 

I would like to see them add maybe a nightmare setting to flashpoints that is set around the gear level of columi/rakata compared to quest greens and have that maybe drop rakata... will it happen no...

you might be able to farm 1.3M in a single day, but that doesn't mean everyone can, especially if it entails GTN playing or rolling that FOTM Crew Skill and farming mats with it. Dailies in the game when done everyday give about 400k a day - and they do take substantial amount of time, especially with SX.

Allow people to queue for Tier 1 operations (EV/KP) in Hardmode, as opposed to just Story Mode.

It's yet another way to earn BH comms, and makes it easier to find groups for this content.

I think the normal hard modes are fine. Lost Island should either drop better gear or be nerfed.

Please tell me that you are kidding about the part i highlighted. Unless you have not payed any attention to patch notes or did not do HM Lost island when it was released, it was nerfed. It was nerfed to the point of beyond faceroll easymode now. No, it does not need to be nerfed any further and it most defiantly does not need to be dropping beter gear because it already drops beter gear than an of the other HM FP's. It's a Tier 2 flashpoint for a reason.

I think the normal hard modes are fine. Lost Island should either drop better gear or be nerfed.

Please tell me that you are kidding about the part i highlighted. Unless you have not payed any attention to patch notes or did not do HM Lost island when it was released, it was nerfed. It was nerfed to the point of beyond faceroll easymode now. No, it does not need to be nerfed any further and it most defiantly does not need to be dropping beter gear because it already drops beter gear than an of the other HM FP's. It's a Tier 2 flashpoint for a reason.

Done Lost Island recently? 3 months ago I would have agreed completely. But something's been changed in that operation between then and now (don't know if it's the soft enrage timers, or if there's more time to move or what, but it's different). It's easily puggable in columi at this point...long as the tank knows what to do.

Straight from the 1.4 patch notes (and just a little FYI, Lost island isn't an operation). Granted most of the stuff changed was for story mode but some significant changes were made to the HM version. Totally agreeing with you that the FP is EASILY puggable in columi.

Lost Island

Transgenic Sample Eleven's overall damage has been decreased in Story Mode.

Project Sav-Rak no longer spits Rak Rot in Story Mode.

In Story Mode, Doctor Lorrick no longer casts Satchel Charge, and Corrosive Smash's cooldown has been increased.

Doctor Simlo and Doctor Proxinus are now easier to defeat.

The Putrid Shaclaw's Infectious Bite no longer causes Festering Rot in Story Mode.

LR-5 Sentinel Droid's Discharge now gives players a 4.5-second warning in Story Mode (and a 3-second warning in Hard Mode) before activating its ground effect. Players can now move the impending effect away from the group or tank. Plasma Arc no longer has an activation time and is executed while moving, and Incinerate is correctly marked as area of effect damage.

In Story Mode, LR-5 Sentinel Droid's Discharge ground effects have a longer duration before growing in size, and it is limited to 3 active effects at one time. Incinerate's damage has been reduced, its damage over time effect can be dispelled, and it is now only applied to its primary target (instead of nearby targets).

ok lets take out all the irrelevant information and I'll respond to the parts that have bearing.

Lost Island

LR-5 Sentinel Droid's Discharge now gives players a 3-second warning in Hard Mode before activating its ground effect. Players can now move the impending effect away from the group or tank.

Utility change, neither nerf nor buff and not enough time for the size of the effect

Plasma Arc no longer has an activation time and is executed while moving,

buff not nerf

and Incinerate is correctly marked as area of effect damage.

no bearing, just a tooltip

So no, I'm not kidding.

Now given the difficulty level I could see it staying the same if it dropped better gear, but it just isn't worth the hassle as it is.

And I cleared it on my sentinel before those changes above.

I do LI HM several times a week on my various toons. It's worth it for the comms you get from the Rakghoul Weekly. It's also worth running on a new toon for gear, as the Columi mainhand and Rakata chest are nice upgrades for a new 50. The difficulty in LI HM is that it requires a mobile playstyle - you can't stand still through any of the boss fights and everyone needs to be on the ball. That's why so many people coming up against it for the first time find it too hard. Once you adapt, it's cake.

Seriously though, to those complaining about gearing up, go on fleet chat and set up a pug op. You'll get well-geared people join in for comms or just because they want something to do. If you need Columi, set up a group to do story mode ops through groupfinder for comms. You need Rakata, pug a group for EV or KP HM and set a reasonable minimum gear requirement. It remains the quickest way to get a new 50 geared.

Lost Island

LR-5 Sentinel Droid's Discharge now gives players a 3-second warning in Hard Mode before activating its ground effect. Players can now move the impending effect away from the group or tank.

 

Utility change, neither nerf nor buff and not enough time for the size of the effect

The tank no longer needs to move LR-5 from the middle even in groups melee heavy because the melee can direct the drop elsewhere. Ranged are already on the outside so no real significant change for them except to position the drop elsewhere. No, this would not really be considered a nerf however, this mechanic makes the instance significantly easier for this boss.

Before this change, this boss was the group check to see how well the group would know the mechanics. Groups would find themselves not being able to pull off the kill because the tank could not understand the mechanics between moving the droid while interrupting incinerate and the melee would always seem to find themselves in front of the boss during incinerate cast times instead of being stacked behind the boss making the healers job way harder than it should be. Now this boss is just another boss.

The timer is still too tight to keep it entirely out of the center. I have found that he still has to be moved.

I think the Savrip's snot balls need to be adjusted. That is where I see the most wipes at.

Straight from the 1.4 patch notes (and just a little FYI, Lost island isn't an operation).

Mistyped, but, uh, thanks.

ok lets take out all the irrelevant information and I'll respond to the parts that have bearing.

 

 

Lost Island

LR-5 Sentinel Droid's Discharge now gives players a 3-second warning in Hard Mode before activating its ground effect. Players can now move the impending effect away from the group or tank.

 

Utility change, neither nerf nor buff and not enough time for the size of the effect

 

Plasma Arc no longer has an activation time and is executed while moving,

 

buff not nerf

 

and Incinerate is correctly marked as area of effect damage.

 

no bearing, just a tooltip

Plasma Arc losing its activation time is most-definitely a nerf. It used to screw up the ability of the tank to position the thing. Tank would be dragging him, he'd stop in the middle of a bubble and the tank would potentially have to eat bubble damage or risk an incinerate going off while out of intercept range (in some cases...note that I'm just talking about problems people did run into while learning the fight, not problems they should have run into if the tank was doing it right).

And the 3 second warning is also big. When the FP launched, there was no such warning and, for half the people trying to do the thing the first plasma arc would be invisible because of the crappy engine.

But I feel there have been more stealth nerfs to HM LI that haven't been listed in those patch notes. Savrak's spit is something else that seems to have been nerfed even in Hard mode. Used to be tough-ish to heal through. Now, it's nothing. His enrage also seems more lenient.

The loot that drops out of flashpoints and hardmodes, although much more appropriate now than when the game first launched, is woefully low.

 

With the current level of gear, I think it would be much more appropriate for someone to be able to get their full set of Rakata armor (not weapon or offhand though) from Hardmode Flashpoints alone.

 

Particularly with how difficult Lost Island is. I would much rather do a hardmode EV or KP for one week than ever go to Lost Island in full Columi.

 

Gear progression outside of operations is stagnant and in no way able to prepare someone to participate in the harder raiding content.

 

Note: I say this as someone who weekly clears all the way up to Hardmode TFB on a weekly basis. We seem to be making great progress in NiM EC too.

You can already do 2 weekly's from areas (Black Hole and Section X), get 35 BH comms a week facerolling through a Group Finder FP, and do the flight mission with gives a couple BH's. That's plenty of ilvl61 gear. They don't need to start giving away Rakata gear as well since Rakata is barely an upgrade over Columi. The jump from Tionese to Columi is big... Rakata is negligible. It's fine the way it is.

Mistyped, but, uh, thanks.

 

Plasma Arc losing its activation time is most-definitely a nerf. It used to screw up the ability of the tank to position the thing. Tank would be dragging him, he'd stop in the middle of a bubble and the tank would potentially have to eat bubble damage or risk an incinerate going off while out of intercept range (in some cases...note that I'm just talking about problems people did run into while learning the fight, not problems they should have run into if the tank was doing it right).

 

And the 3 second warning is also big. When the FP launched, there was no such warning and, for half the people trying to do the thing the first plasma arc would be invisible because of the crappy engine.

 

But I feel there have been more stealth nerfs to HM LI that haven't been listed in those patch notes. Savrak's spit is something else that seems to have been nerfed even in Hard mode. Used to be tough-ish to heal through. Now, it's nothing. His enrage also seems more lenient.

No the spit still hits just as hard as it always has, and his enrage still one shots people. perhaps it seems easier because you have better gear now. The three second warning is nice, especially compared to the nothing we used to get but it's still not enough time to get the balls away from the party reliably.

if it drops on your healer he/she has to stop healing the tank to move it which generally over stresses them.

I can't really comment on what has been said as far as better gear dropping in HMs but I'd settle for the item that drops for columi gear being universal (ya know columi boots, columi chest). I've run about 20 HMs so far (I know it's not a ton) but have yet to see anything other than jedi drops off the final bosses, it's starting to be very discouraging, even more so when the item is just greeded because all the jedi already have the items.

I'm wearing just customs with armor and mods/enhancements with the daily items in them, I do have my columi belt and bracers but my god can I PLEASE get something with a set bonus on it already?? I almost have enough coms for to BUY my chest piece but I know if I do it'll be the first item i actually get.

Edit: I just realized I can buy 4 pieces of Tionese armor with all the coms and crystals I have but I haven't gotten any of them to drop (Tionese or Columi) that's just sad.