You're presuming that anyone who wants less of a challenge doesn't know how to play already, which is a stretch. I certainly do know how to play. You're also assuming that people who are only able to get to a certain level of skill CAN learn to play better and that isn't always the case, given things like connection speeds, disabilities, age and reflexes. Challenging content just isn't fun for some of us who would prefer to enjoy the story.

 

If you truly want challenging content, you already have places to go in the game to play it. You can set every chapter of KOTFE to MM. You can do NiM Ops, ranked PvP and the many other challenges that the game offers to players who want it. A player who finds the tuned up story too difficult will have no place to go, other than to leave.

 

It's as though the game is a ski resort that already has plenty of double black diamond, black diamond and blue square trails - but the players who enjoy those are now insisting that the resort needs to demolish the single existing bunny hill because everyone needs to learn to ski like them. If you're going to accept hat different players have different skill levels, then the bunny hill needs a place as much as the black diamonds.

Yes, barring crippling disabilities, anyone can get to a level that renders story content trivial with the new scaling. This is not a hard or particularly complex game to learn the basics of. It's strange to see you proclaim that you "know how to play" while simultaneously arguing that the new scaling will make story content so hard as to be unplayable. Meanwhile, most "endgamers" as you call them will readily admit that there are areas they can improve at. If you are averse to any sort of self-improvement, then that's a different matter, but don't frame it as some kind of inherent inability to learn that other people (not you ofc) may have, that design needs to account for.

As I said, tailoring the game to people with crippling disabilities or playing with moonbase-level lag is simply not reasonable, but I'm starting to suspect that being reasonable is not that important to you. Simply getting the story part of the game to be like a visual novel is all that matters, consequences be damned. Hiding behind people with disabilities to hide your own selfishness is trite and facile. Perhaps let actual disabled people speak up for themselves instead of assuming they need to be coddled, hmm?

To continue your ski resort analogy, you want the base game experience to be akin to staying in the bar watching other people ski. Developers have decided that you at least have to get out there. Starter world content is your flat base station where people first learn to move around with skis strapped to their feet. If you've never seen people lose their balance and fall there, even while standing completely still, you've never been to a ski resort. And yet, no one's complaining that such areas are too dangerous or need to be made flatter or less slippery for people who want to take it easy.

Yes, barring crippling disabilities, anyone can get to a level that renders story content trivial with the new scaling. This is not a hard or particularly complex game to learn the basics of. It's strange to see you proclaim that you "know how to play" while simultaneously arguing that the new scaling will make story content so hard as to be unplayable. Meanwhile, most "endgamers" as you call them will readily admit that there are areas they can improve at. If you are averse to any sort of self-improvement, then that's a different matter, but don't frame it as some kind of inherent inability to learn that other people (not you ofc) may have, that design needs to account for.

 

As I said, tailoring the game to people with crippling disabilities or playing with moonbase-level lag is simply not reasonable, but I'm starting to suspect that being reasonable is not that important to you. Simply getting the story part of the game to be like a visual novel is all that matters, consequences be damned. Hiding behind people with disabilities to hide your own selfishness is trite and facile. Perhaps let actual disabled people speak up for themselves instead of assuming they need to be coddled, hmm?

 

To continue your ski resort analogy, you want the base game experience to be akin to staying in the bar watching other people ski. Developers have decided that you at least have to get out there. Starter world content is your flat base station where people first learn to move around with skis strapped to their feet. If you've never seen people lose their balance and fall there, even while standing completely still, you've never been to a ski resort. And yet, no one's complaining that such areas are too dangerous or need to be made flatter or less slippery for people who want to take it easy.

I'm not hiding behind anything, I'm acknowledging that people in this game have different levels of ability, connection issues, and other factors that may limit the level to which they can play, and that some players do not find super difficult content to be fun.

You're claiming that everyone can get to some arbitrary level, while at the same time admitting that "challenge is relative." Meanwhile on the PTS level 75s were dying on Dromund Kaas. You're ignoring that there are alreadymany opportunities in the game to pursue challenging content to your heart's content, instead insisting that every area in the game has to be brought up to some arbitrary standard that you think is acceptable. Instead of choosing the challenge where it exists, you're saying everyone has to play the base game to your standards.

Your analogy doesn't hold water. People do fall on the bunny hill, and some skiiers never leave it. Some will never even get to the blue squares, but will spend the day navigating the bunny hill. That's not good enough in your world; you apparently think they all need to "learn" to get to the black diamonds.

As for those of us who "can play," but are here for stories, there's a time-value exchange. If something takes too long or is so difficult that it is stressful or requires a trip to Dulfy to learn mechanics, it becomes completely boring and tedious and is not enjoyable to me. I will not do the heroics on Ossus and Dantooine because I don't find them worth the time to clear; I won't go through the Umbara flashpoint more than the once required by the story because it's too tedious to be fun. The same way that back when I was playing Nintendo as a kid, I was perfectly willing to learn to get through Ninja Gaiden III but couldn't be bothered with Dragon's Lair because it was too much of a pain.

There's no evidence that the majority wants the difficulty in the class stories and heroics ramped up, and I fully expect that after the change the forum will be full of people complaining, and then leaving. The heroics on Ossus and Dantooine don't seem to be popular. If that's what you want, as I've said before, I hope the raiders and people screaming for everyone to be forced to play to their standards are enough to keep the lights on, but I doubt you will be.

In the meantime, I've said my piece and I'm not reading this thread again.

In the meantime, I've said my piece and I'm not reading this thread again.

I've heard that before.

The change in difficulty as it stands from the final PTS version did absolutely nothing to address what the "we want a harder game" people wanted. It in no way made any content harder for the people who already found it too easy and it does nothing to cause people to "learn" their classes, rotations, etc because it only impacts the people who wouldn't have played the group content anyway. All it really accomplishes is to increase frustration with the content (or lack thereof). It was a total waste of development resources from that perspective, except that it slows down gearing by making battles/missions take longer, which is maybe the real reason for the change.

You mean the same players who complain about the gear grind?

I agree it won't change much at all and that's if it even makes it into the live version. However you can always change your own gear to make the game more difficult, so really have very little sympathy for you. As for other players not been good at there class, well you can only control what you do. Personally IMO don't think you have the right to decide what others do.

@ IoNonSoEVero

I agree with all that you said in post 77. I just really don't see the need to quote the entire post. I do agree with you.

I remember not being able to beat that final boss fight on Tatt for the smuggler without getting help. (Because you didn't have a healer at the time). I remember not being able to finish the Jedi knight story because I couldn't beat the emperor with T3. Had to get help. And as a solo player who plays for the stories, I found that very annoying. Now.... after playing for almost 9yrs, having most of the holocrons, and all the class buffs, I've gotten better. I know and use interrupts, dcs, etc even during fights I know I won't lose because I always play with a healing companion. I get buy with the green gear mods from the vendors. I'll run the occasional solo FP and planetary quest just because I like the story line (heeeey Thanna ). Fwiw...I've never had any trouble with any of the fights in KOTFE/KOTET and beyond with any of the classes. (That should give you an idea of my skill level)

And now they're about to change the difficulty of the content I run the most. I play ALL games on easy because I don't care about the challenge anymore. I got my fill of "challenge" after I finally beat Battletoads and Mike Tyson's Punch Out as a kid.

So it's real simple. If I find it's gotten to difficult to complete (which I highly doubt btw), there are plenty of other things I can spend $15 a month on. I'm not here for the gear grind, the endgame content, the group content, or to be "challenged". I'm here for the star wars story... that's it.... plain and simple.

So let's see... we're got a few more days until 6.0 goes live. I wonder if I'll still be here at 6.01.

I'm not hiding behind anything, I'm acknowledging that people in this game have different levels of ability, connection issues, and other factors that may limit the level to which they can play, and that some players do not find super difficult content to be fun.

 

You're claiming that everyone can get to some arbitrary level, while at the same time admitting that "challenge is relative." Meanwhile on the PTS level 75s were dying on Dromund Kaas.

Keep the strawmanning up, it's good fun. Story content and base planets are not being made "super difficult". Super difficult is Victoria II Krakow on Very Hard. It's getting to GE in CS GO. It's mastering a new aircraft in DCS. Not dying in Dromund Kaas with the new scaling is not, in any way shape or form, "super difficult".

The fact that level 75s died on DK is evidence of the same principle by which people trip and fall while stationary in a ski resort's gathering area. No matter how low the bar is, some people will fail. This principle is not, and should not be, used to justify lowering the bar even more. I didn't see any of that in my time testing the new scaling, but I'm sure they all went away as soon as I logged in or something. Note that you didn't see them either, but are rather relying on second-hand feedback from a guy that insisted that enemies in heroics should be falling over dead simply because he's level 75. A compelling reason if I ever heard one.

And yes, challenge is relative, and the level 75 who died in DK can learn with very little effort to, uh, not die on DK. Putting a companion on heal stance, autoattacking and healing between fights should be enough. If he wants to solo heroics, more advanced tactics like not standing in stupid may be required, as those are tuned with groups in mind. This is an online game and players wanting to group up with friends should also have some open world content available for them.

Sorry you're not getting your visual novel, but I've had to put up with story end bosses not surviving even the opener since 4.0.

I remember not being able to beat that final boss fight on Tatt for the smuggler without getting help. (Because you didn't have a healer at the time). I remember not being able to finish the Jedi knight story because I couldn't beat the emperor with T3. Had to get help. And as a solo player who plays for the stories, I found that very annoying. Now.... after playing for almost 9yrs, having most of the holocrons, and all the class buffs, I've gotten better. I know and use interrupts, dcs, etc even during fights I know I won't lose because I always play with a healing companion. I get buy with the green gear mods from the vendors. I'll run the occasional solo FP and planetary quest just because I like the story line (heeeey Thanna ). Fwiw...I've never had any trouble with any of the fights in KOTFE/KOTET and beyond with any of the classes. (That should give you an idea of my skill level)

 

And now they're about to change the difficulty of the content I run the most. I play ALL games on easy because I don't care about the challenge anymore. I got my fill of "challenge" after I finally beat Battletoads and Mike Tyson's Punch Out as a kid.

So it's real simple. If I find it's gotten to difficult to complete (which I highly doubt btw), there are plenty of other things I can spend $15 a month on. I'm not here for the gear grind, the endgame content, the group content, or to be "challenged". I'm here for the star wars story... that's it.... plain and simple.

 

So let's see... we're got a few more days until 6.0 goes live. I wonder if I'll still be here at 6.01.

I only found the First Son difficult at as a solo player (Consular story) so know how it feels.

I would not worry to much at present time about 6.0. Remember on the PTS you are given very high rated gear which you can fully augment and auto go to level 75. On live many will be doing this in standard gear at rated around 230 up to 258. As some will be in 230 gear I assume it will be set around that level at level 70+. Maybe slightly more difficult but not so much so it put casual/solo players off. So it won't be as difficult as many are saying from playing on PTS. It certainly was not like it was on PTS when Ossuss went to the live servers. Best wait and see.

Keep the strawmanning up, it's good fun. Story content and base planets are not being made "super difficult". Super difficult is Victoria II Krakow on Very Hard. It's getting to GE in CS GO. It's mastering a new aircraft in DCS. Not dying in Dromund Kaas with the new scaling is not, in any way shape or form, "super difficult".

 

The fact that level 75s died on DK is evidence of the same principle by which people trip and fall while stationary in a ski resort's gathering area. No matter how low the bar is, some people will fail. This principle is not, and should not be, used to justify lowering the bar even more. I didn't see any of that in my time testing the new scaling, but I'm sure they all went away as soon as I logged in or something. Note that you didn't see them either, but are rather relying on second-hand feedback from a guy that insisted that enemies in heroics should be falling over dead simply because he's level 75. A compelling reason if I ever heard one.

 

And yes, challenge is relative, and the level 75 who died in DK can learn with very little effort to, uh, not die on DK. Putting a companion on heal stance, autoattacking and healing between fights should be enough. If he wants to solo heroics, more advanced tactics like not standing in stupid may be required, as those are tuned with groups in mind. This is an online game and players wanting to group up with friends should also have some open world content available for them.

 

Sorry you're not getting your visual novel, but I've had to put up with story end bosses not surviving even the opener since 4.0.

That's what you get when your MMO is very story-heavy. People come here for single player experience and are completely ignorant of the MMO parts. This guy you replied to is a special kind of solo player, though. Picking an example of some terrible player dying on lvl 75 on DK and saying that this proves that it's too hard. And the fact that most of even "average" players are not dying does not matter? He cherrypicked one small example that fits him and tries to look smart.

I also totally agree with you about difficulty. These people think that this is "super difficult"? Seems like they have never even played a single player game (a story-based one!) on hard difficulty. Oh, the memories of Dragon Age Origins on max difficulty... You get amazing story AND great challenge together. That's a well-made video game, right there.

Anyway, this is an MMO. Same rules don't apply. In the open world content you can't have a Nightmare difficulty for players like me and an Easy difficulty for people who want to watch an interactive movie. You have to have a middle ground. One of a few very good points raised in this thread is that over the last few years we have seen an influx of players who join group content but are not prepared for it. What else can prepare them for it if not the main story line? It's not like they have anything else to do before they reach group content. We now have Story mode flashpoints that are a great intro to instance-based content but they are clearly not enough to teach the basics of playing your class. Especially, as they were originally designed to cater to these "story player" needs - to have minimum/no challenge for watching the cutscenes.

Personally, I think that vanilla was great in difficulty. Some people needed help to fight their story bosses? Well, that's great! That teaches you cooperation and how to group up with other people - it's an MMO after all! Or they could bash their head against that boss for a while, get better and do it on their own. I, personally, feel really great when I overcome a challenge by myself.

Level scaling made things easy, way too easy - but level scaling as a whole was needed, yes. It was not right that max level players could one-shot everything and even solo world bosses. That's not a good design for an MMO. So, we have to keep the level scaling, for sure. But making low level planets harder, making it so story bosses take at least one rotation to kill? That is what is missing compared to vanilla. We need it back. For "high-end" players to not be totally bored, for newbies and just bad players (sorry not sorry) to have something to push them into getting better. I can see how some people are concerned that the game will get "too hard". That's why this testing phase was needed, that's what balancing is. A middle ground needs to be found.

In my opinion, the latest version of level scaling we have seen on PTS was ok. It was definitely not "super difficult" how some people called it here. If stuff like this is "super difficult for you", you should really stick to watching movies and not demanding for Multiplayer games to be scaled down to your skill level. And unless you have an actual disability or you are of a senior age, don't tell me you can't get better. I don't believe you. You are just being lazy or there is some other lame reason. At the very least you can group up with someone, if open-world content is truly too difficult for you - that's one of the things this difficulty is supposed to encourage, as, again, this is a multiplayer game, so: a) Not everything is supposed to be soloable and b) You are supposed to seek help from fellow players if you are indeed having difficulties. Be it getting carried, fight getting explained to you, a guide being suggested for a read, does not matter.

People who spend hours on the forums complaining that some trivial fights are too difficult for them could have used this time to learn their class/learn the fight/get a friend or a guild and beaten that fight (and many others) long ago. This game is far from becoming "super difficult", the story part of it, anyway.

Neutral viewpoint -

My first character on hutta had to tread lightly. Could not auto fight everything in it's path. You venture in too close to the wookie bounty hunter at the campsite and you either die or run away.

Fast Forward to KOTFE

Holding toothpicks on my eyelids while fighting trash mobs without taking any real damage. Even when leveling up new characters I could set things to max difficulty and my companion would heal past anything they could dish out.

Therefore -

I favor a tweaking the difficulty to make the game more interesting. I realize for some it's about looking fashionable at the cut scene and getting to the next one asap. For others it's about game play mechanics. At the very least I'm happy they are working on this.

Can we take the 'new player who's never played SWTOR' before out of the equation please. It's not like this is being ported over to Steam or Apple store (which would be awesome for Bioware). Subsequently 6.0 should be focused on bringing back pve/pvp/raiders who dropped off in the last several years.

Keep the strawmanning up, it's good fun. Story content and base planets are not being made "super difficult". Super difficult is Victoria II Krakow on Very Hard. It's getting to GE in CS GO. It's mastering a new aircraft in DCS. Not dying in Dromund Kaas with the new scaling is not, in any way shape or form, "super difficult".

 

The fact that level 75s died on DK is evidence of the same principle by which people trip and fall while stationary in a ski resort's gathering area. No matter how low the bar is, some people will fail. This principle is not, and should not be, used to justify lowering the bar even more. I didn't see any of that in my time testing the new scaling, but I'm sure they all went away as soon as I logged in or something. Note that you didn't see them either, but are rather relying on second-hand feedback from a guy that insisted that enemies in heroics should be falling over dead simply because he's level 75. A compelling reason if I ever heard one.

 

And yes, challenge is relative, and the level 75 who died in DK can learn with very little effort to, uh, not die on DK. Putting a companion on heal stance, autoattacking and healing between fights should be enough. If he wants to solo heroics, more advanced tactics like not standing in stupid may be required, as those are tuned with groups in mind. This is an online game and players wanting to group up with friends should also have some open world content available for them.

 

Sorry you're not getting your visual novel, but I've had to put up with story end bosses not surviving even the opener since 4.0.

Did you even test it yourself or are you making it up as you go along

Playing the game

No two people are going to play the exact same character the exact same way. Jut out nature alone makes this virtually impossible. Our very nature makes it almost next to impossible to play the exact same character exactly the same way even in the same instances... Unless your cybernetic implants are more efficient than most !

That said:

1. I did run PTS. I also made certain of a few things to ensure that the conditions in which I did those tests were without 300+ armor (almost the opposite in fact); I ran primarily Heroics, FP's and even re-ran one or two of the KotET stories (one in Veteran mode live).

Please note: I do not see myself as anything more than average at best. Frankly my catches up with me from time to time... I have good days and (to be perfectly candid) I have some days that I wonder why I even logged in ! (UGH ! .. Hey... that's just how it really is)

2. Findings: I wish I had taken the time to captivate, or more precisely, record or generate spread sheets to quote specific stats. Frankly I love reading that sort of thing.. That's why I really appreciate those who take the time for such things (even if I disagree with their particular position). For that lack of specific information I apologize. BUT what I can tell you is that the last day or so of the PTS I ran a total of 10 Heroics.

Note: selection of those 10 Heroics come from the "activities" selection of the UI … then to selecting "SOLO" form the drop menu.... then from there the area of which I ran a group of 5 heroics. I was able to complete all Heroics and (before the day was out) two more FP's. All of these I selected from the same menu / settings. My over all gear rating was 272 to 274. ( I did gain a couple more of pieces of "greens" that were 274 gear which I used thus raising my average). I would also add that I used companions that were at or about 20-30 in order to use "average" stats. IMO .. this insures the fact that I was not "overly geared" or using support from a Companion that was "maxed out". I hope this makes some sort of sense to everyone.

Again out side of three FP's off of Odessen ( post KotET story in particular).. I was able to complete ALL of the Heroics and FP's.

IMO … barring any further "adjustments" from BW that would change this I would not worry too much unless parts of the story or equipment is hidden in the more difficult area (ie a new Heroic that is required to be completed in Veteran or above mode).

3. As for the over all difficulties of the entire game I have often suggested that there be 3 levels of difficulty EVEN for the solo player.

** Story mode (both single and multiplayer)

** Veteran mode (both single and multiplayer)

** Master (death before dishonor) mode for both single and multiplayer

IMO the foundation is already there. yes it would take some programming to get this completed. BUT … I also see where gaming has developed to the point where this might be a viable solution for most everyone.

Another part of that suggestion would be:

** select difficulty level (before choosing single or multiplayer menu)

** If SOLO … choose Dailies area / Heroics area / or FP's to run

** If Multiplayer: use the appropriate drop down menu to select as needed including Heroics / FP's and OP's

I know … many don't want this. I'm just looking for a better way to solve the matter.

If it's worth the time and effort to continually change the armoring system and all related items … IMO it should be just as important to look at a method that provides a good way to tell the story that the developers want told .. as well as providing the means of offering the level of challenges needed to keep as large an audience as possible.

I know: realistically BW probably wont spend the $$$$ to do this... but that is another topic for another time.

Did anyone test Makeb difficulty? I remember when RotHC came out and how "difficult" and fun it was. If you so much as sneezed, you pulled a 2nd or 3rd mob, and probably died. Ahhh the good old days

yeah, I remember that, and frankly, while I'm strong advocate for raising the vanilla difficulty a bit (a significant bit) I remember Makeb was at first a nightmare for me. I was relatively new player back then, and just getting pretty comfortable with the game, Makeb was really hard. The mobs pulled from afar, and were hitting real hard. It was to the point you could not appreciate the visuals of Makeb because it was so hard to just survive.

They adjusted the difficulty later on, not nerfing the mobs, but scattering them a bit more sparsely.

Did anyone test Makeb difficulty? I remember when RotHC came out and how "difficult" and fun it was. If you so much as sneezed, you pulled a 2nd or 3rd mob, and probably died. Ahhh the good old days

I usually survived most of that until we got down to "end game" so to speak. I remember that if you didn't stand in just the right spot under that droid you were fried pretty quick !

I disagree with the OP's take that level sync hurt the game.

It made a whole bunch of content more playable instead of skip-worthy.

And as I recall, people mostly left because of how BioWare crapped on the vanilla stories, combined with very boring level design that consisted of a bunch of hallway fights against the wave upon wave of Sky Troopers.

Level sync was one of those things that everyone *****ed about before the game because they couldn't just run through on God mode in early flashpoints, but in the end made a whole bunch more content playable and relevant.

Did you even test it yourself or are you making it up as you go along

Hello TrixxieTriss. I'm random internet person #461237. You may remember me from such posts as "I soloed Hammer Station after you said it was impossible" and "I soloed Hammer Station with a sniper after you said it could only be done with stealthers".

Today, I'm here to present you my latest work: "You can play solo as a level 75 in Dromund Kaas and not die".

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

(the real question here is who is actually making stuff up as they go, hmm?)

i didnt mind level sync or story mode bolster since it made sm for lvl 47 to 70 and all planets had relevant content again...

what i do mind is making all the vet and mm ops ez mode by taking that same scaling to everything in the game (5.x).

Hello TrixxieTriss. I'm random internet person #461237. You may remember me from such posts as "I soloed Hammer Station after you said it was impossible" and "I soloed Hammer Station with a sniper after you said it could only be done with stealthers".

 

Today, I'm here to present you my latest work: "You can play solo as a level 75 in Dromund Kaas and not die".

 

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

 

(the real question here is who is actually making stuff up as they go, hmm?)

LoL, and we proved soloing as a stealth was cheesy because you could get past the trash mobs that caused the problem.

And I do not remember seeing you post anything about a sniper.

I disagree with the OP's take that level sync hurt the game.

 

It made a whole bunch of content more playable instead of skip-worthy.

 

And as I recall, people mostly left because of how BioWare crapped on the vanilla stories, combined with very boring level design that consisted of a bunch of hallway fights against the wave upon wave of Sky Troopers.

 

Level sync was one of those things that everyone *****ed about before the game because they couldn't just run through on God mode in early flashpoints, but in the end made a whole bunch more content playable and relevant.

The problem with lvl sync was it wasn’t tuned properly for the planets. If the game had all instanced heroics, then lvl sync wouldn’t have been as bad if only applied to them. They could have even added an easy mode, vet and master mode.

But because so many are open world heroics, that made it impossible and so they did the whole game at lvl sync, which changed the feel of it too much for me.

I also wish they hadn’t made if so gearing hardly mattered anymore as you lvld and they hadn’t removed gearing for companions. Making all comps the same was also a bad decision in the vanilla part.

I had no issues with them making the newer comps more generic and able to do any role. But they should have kept the old ones the same so that people learnt to play with comps on heals, dps and tank.

It wasn’t just one thing that made vanilla too easy. It was all 3 or those things and lvl sync had the biggest impact of the 3 because it wasn’t tuned properly and comps were made OP on healing. There was no longer a threat that you might die if you messed up and you could one shot or AOE everything and never use another ability or DCD in vanilla.

This caused a major shock to people when they hit Kotet/Kotfe Because all of sudden things got harder. So Biowares initial response to the QQ was to adjust comps healing more. This once again had a negative affect on player skill across the game. From pve to pvp, players forgot what DCDs were or the way most of their abilities worked.

The simplistic approach also caused a bunch of players to leave. It wasn’t until later in the Kotet that Bioware added veteran and master mode for people who wanted some challenge.

Pvp has never really recovered since 5.0. Too many dedicated PVPers left because they removed pvp gear. This left the less skilled players who don’t know what a DCD is to run around pvp with their heads chopped off because a large portion of the objective pvpers left the game and they only got to learn from the ranked death match crowd who only think numbers mater. Hence, pvp is an absolute shambles now and more and more pvpers have left or just stopped playing. Pvp skill lvl is at the worst this game has ever seen, there is such a massive gap between bottom to top and even us good (not excellent) players feel like veteran pve trash mobs are harder to kill (which they will be in 6.0).

Now I’m not saying bioware should now alienate all those player who’ve only ever played while the game is easier. That’s not really fair to them since Bioware designed it that way for 4-5 years. But I think this change would have been better if they just let players have veteran and story mode instances from lvl 1 that you could switch between. We already have a pvp instance, making the 6.0 difficulty changes and just putting them in another instance would have been the best of both worlds.

I also don’t agree with how they’ve decided to Nerf comps. They haven’t reduced their actual numbers on abilities, they’ve add a pause in their rotation instead. This makes them seem clunky and you die because of the pause, not because they are doing less healing. What would have been better in my opinion is just reduce the ability numbers instead. That would have kept the healing smoother and predictable.

The problem with lvl sync was it wasn’t tuned properly for the planets. If the game had all instanced heroics, then lvl sync wouldn’t have been as bad if only applied to them. They could have even added an easy mode, vet and master mode.

But because so many are open world heroics, that made it impossible and so they did the whole game at lvl sync, which changed the feel of it too much for me.

 

I also wish they hadn’t made if so gearing hardly mattered anymore as you lvld and they hadn’t removed gearing for companions. Making all comps the same was also a bad decision in the vanilla part.

I had no issues with them making the newer comps more generic and able to do any role. But they should have kept the old ones the same so that people learnt to play with comps on heals, dps and tank.

 

It wasn’t just one thing that made vanilla too easy. It was all 3 or those things and lvl sync had the biggest impact of the 3 because it wasn’t tuned properly and comps were made OP on healing. There was no longer a threat that you might die if you messed up and you could one shot or AOE everything and never use another ability or DCD in vanilla.

This caused a major shock to people when they hit Kotet/Kotfe Because all of sudden things got harder. So Biowares initial response to the QQ was to adjust comps healing more. This once again had a negative affect on player skill across the game. From pve to pvp, players forgot what DCDs were or the way most of their abilities worked.

 

The simplistic approach also caused a bunch of players to leave. It wasn’t until later in the Kotet that Bioware added veteran and master mode for people who wanted some challenge.

Pvp has never really recovered since 5.0. Too many dedicated PVPers left because they removed pvp gear. This left the less skilled players who don’t know what a DCD is to run around pvp with their heads chopped off because a large portion of the objective pvpers left the game and they only got to learn from the ranked death match crowd who only think numbers mater. Hence, pvp is an absolute shambles now and more and more pvpers have left or just stopped playing. Pvp skill lvl is at the worst this game has ever seen, there is such a massive gap between bottom to top and even us good (not excellent) players feel like veteran pve trash mobs are harder to kill (which they will be in 6.0).

 

Now I’m not saying bioware should now alienate all those player who’ve only ever played while the game is easier. That’s not really fair to them since Bioware designed it that way for 4-5 years. But I think this change would have been better if they just let players have veteran and story mode instances from lvl 1 that you could switch between. We already have a pvp instance, making the 6.0 difficulty changes and just putting them in another instance would have been the best of both worlds.

 

I also don’t agree with how they’ve decided to Nerf comps. They haven’t reduced their actual numbers on abilities, they’ve add a pause in their rotation instead. This makes them seem clunky and you die because of the pause, not because they are doing less healing. What would have been better in my opinion is just reduce the ability numbers instead. That would have kept the healing smoother and predictable.

** The issues with the sync will more than likely never go away. There's no telling how deeply imbedded the coding is in order to clean that up.

** The idea of no longer gearing our Companions … that's fine. ( at least to me anyways)

** Nerfing the companions might have been better if not for the pause in the rotation. Frankly when that happened I thought I was experiencing some sort of lag ! For whatever it's worth I do agree that the form of reduction you are talking about would have made more sense. It seems like there is always something ! !

** I know I keep suggesting it … and it keeps being ignored … BUT if the 3 tier difficulty system were utilized straight across the board for the entire game it could save a ton of problems. IMO … the higher the range of difficulties … then the more strategic the right type of companion (healer / tank / ranged / melee … etc.) Then the companion settings (healing / tank ) and the STYLE or TYPE of combat the companion is set for becomes much more important ! YES this means revamping the companions and their settings based upon the level of difficulty that is being used by the individual player.

BUT... I'm guessing that none of this is important … sooo there you go !

LoL, and we proved soloing as a stealth was cheesy because you could get past the trash mobs that caused the problem.

 

And I do not remember seeing you post anything about a sniper.

I don't know if was that guy, but someone said they just ran by the mobs until they lost aggro.

I don't know if was that guy, but someone said they just ran by the mobs until they lost aggro.

Tried that on lightning sorc and rage jugg, did not work because you run into other mobs before they lose lock and your healer can’t keep up.

I was even healing myself on my Sorc and I used ED on Jugg. So I have to question how truthful that person on the sniper was.

Did anyone test Makeb difficulty? I remember when RotHC came out and how "difficult" and fun it was. If you so much as sneezed, you pulled a 2nd or 3rd mob, and probably died. Ahhh the good old days

For what you describe I would move the quotation from 'difficult' to 'fun'

Tried that on lightning sorc and rage jugg, did not work because you run into other mobs before they lose lock and your healer can’t keep up.

I was even healing myself on my Sorc and I used ED on Jugg. So I have to question how truthful that person on the sniper was.

Yes, because if you can't figure out how to do it, that must mean whoever said they did it must be lying. I'd almost forgotten how fragile people's egos are on the internet.

I didn't do it on a jugg on PTS, but the strategy is the same: corner pull and use your disablers and AOE to kill the weaker adds first. So slam to stun weak mobs and spread dots, pop reflect when they wake up, roar when the reflect falls off. If you aren't completely useless at dps, that affords you enough time to kill all of the weaker adds, removing a big chunk of incoming damage. Picking off the two remaining gold droids should be no problem.

On a sorc it should be even easier because force storm stuns weak adds and you can lift one of the golds before retreating behind the corner... plus all the crazy DR sorc gets if properly specced and great burst AOE.

And by the way, you do know that it's actually two different trash pulls, right? The silver droids to your right as you come out the door can be ignored or killed separately from the bigger pull to the left with the two elites.

edit: the post where I described how I did it on sniper.