I don't know whether this is the right place for this thread. If not, please move to correct place.

As a relatively new player (I have a Imperial Operative 65, and just started 2 Republic Sage/Infiltrator ~19 to see which I prefer), I found a couple things frustrating.

1) Loot drops in the 1st location (Tython). As both Sage/Infiltrator are light/adaptive armor, I kept getting Medium armor drops (I would say ~70% of the time) with the very occasional something else drop. I would like to see like 80% of drops be for my character with maybe 20% being other. I'm just saying it is frustrating to me not to be able to use most of the loot.

If grouped, probably 80%-100% should be the combination of players. Like if you have 1 Heavy, 2 Light, 1/3 should be Heavy, 2/3 Light?? Same would apply to weapon drops for the classes in the group. At least 80%-90% of the drops should be based on what the player(s) can use regardless.

2) There is a bit of jumping in the game, especially for Datacrons (which I enjoy a lot). The problem is jumping is VERY frustrating for me. I have spent 1+ hr trying to do something I want to do that should be "easy" but the jumping that seems to be tied to the geometry of surfaces, fails. I will be standing on a pipe trying to jump to another pipe and instead of jumping, I just fall off/down and have to get back to the same spot again and again and again and again... until I get it "just right" to within a foot or 1/10th of a second. Or I will be standing next to a vertical surface that I want to jump to the top of. When this happens, I can't tell whether I can't jump there or whether I am just not in the right place jumping. Again, after half a dozen or dozen jumps "it takes". Something should be done about this. I have been in other games that did not have these issues. Datacrons are very FUN but this jumping makes them VERY frustrating and time wasting and therefore, they become irritating. This also applies to regular game play but not as much because there isn't as much jumping involved.

3) *I* think there is WAY too much XP in the game. It should be cut at least in half and probably to 1/4 - 1/8. On my first character (the Imperial), I got to 65 before I even met my 2nd companion - without even trying! I just did the story lines presented, optional quests (triangle+"plus") and some Heroic+2 missions for gear mostly. As an Operative, I even sneaked past >50% of the mobs (not killing them for XP). So, I ended up playing the rest of the story lines as a 65. When you add the weekly special events, the XP is "through the roof". Something is very wrong with the XP system IMHO. Also, my doing space battles, to get my ship up to level 6, may have added XP. So there is LOTS of XP. WAY WAY too much IMHO.

4) Which leads to scaling (this applies to PVE and PVP as well). Somewhere I read that when you are over the level of the planet/area, it scales you to like the max of the area + 2. This for me was still VERY much overkill because of abilities.

The issue is that although some things like armor, damage, etc. are scaled, abilities are not "removed". This means a level 20 char and a level 65 char scaled to 20 are VERY different. The level 20 char doesn't even have the whole set of abilities that define the class whereas the 65 does.

This is particularly evident in PVP warzones where a 20 char is raised to level 65 without the skills to be that and consequently gets creamed. Honestly, I don't even want to try PVP until I'm at least 65, preferably with really great gear 216+. It is NOT fun being creamed. So either the PVP stuff should be real levels (to within say 5) but probably there aren't 16 people (8 each side) within that tight of range, or scaling should be different (which is what I propose).

To rectify this, I would suggest a different scaling. Since NPCs in PVE can't complain, I will for them. For PVE, if an area is level 20 for example, a 20 char doesn't scale. A 10 would be like ~25, a 65 would be like ~10 (to offset the added abilities). Taking away abilities from higher up's would be impractical.

For PVP, the lowest char in the warzone should scale to 65. Everyone should scale DOWN from that based on their level. For example, if a level 20 char is the lowest in the warzone, it becomes the 65. A true 65 scales down to ~40 because of the added abilities. A 40 would be ~50. Just a thought to level the playing field.

As you can probably tell, I don't play PVP because for me, it is not fun. I guess if you are a 65 with all uber gear and stuff, PVP must be "fun" creaming everyone - not taking hits yourself (/flexes muscle). I doubt everyone else that dies, thinks it's fun. Whatever. If the PVP stuff doesn't change, *I* won't be playing it - no big loss there I know. But keep in mind, there are lots of people who think and feel as I do. Losing isn't fun.

As an aside, the game probably should be adaptive. It should "watch" you play and adjust the levels of the NPCs to make "winning" more challenging. I mean, if NPCs have say 1000 HP and you are creaming them, they should go up like 1 HP per your win. If you lose (die), they should go down like 10% and stay there. They should remember at some point so there is no yo-yo effect. Then, if you level up, they should adjust again with the 1HP then 10% then stop. Just my 2 cents.

1) Loot drops in the 1st location (Tython). As both Sage/Infiltrator are light/adaptive armor, I kept getting Medium armor drops (I would say ~70% of the time) with the very occasional something else drop. I would like to see like 80% of drops be for my character with maybe 20% being other. I'm just saying it is frustrating to me not to be able to use most of the loot.

As they say, RNG Is RNG.

2) There is a bit of jumping in the game, especially for Datacrons (which I enjoy a lot). The problem is jumping is VERY frustrating for me.

Then don't do it. I never bother with the vast majority of datacrons for this reasons.

3) *I* think there is WAY too much XP in the game. It should be cut at least in half and probably to 1/4 - 1/8.

It is what it is and it's not going to change.

This is particularly evident in PVP warzones where a 20 char is raised to level 65 without the skills to be that and consequently gets creamed.

Only level 65s can queue for level 65 WZs. WZ bolster does not work the way flashpoint bolster works.

Honestly, I don't even want to try PVP until I'm at least 65, preferably with really great gear 216+.

The highest rated PvP gear is 208. If you did WZs in 216 gear, you would be at a severe disadvantage. You should read the PvP forums before you start PvPing.

1) Loot drops in the 1st location (Tython). As both Sage/Infiltrator are light/adaptive armor, I kept getting Medium armor drops (I would say ~70% of the time) with the very occasional something else drop. I would like to see like 80% of drops be for my character with maybe 20% being other. I'm just saying it is frustrating to me not to be able to use most of the loot.

Keep in mind that although SWTOR can be played solo it is still an MMO. You don't necessarily get what you want/can use from random drops (I think the HCs/FPs rewards are different...they are for your class).

Btw you can still use the skins if you like them even if your class can't wear a particular item (ex - heavy armor on sage) with the outfit designer. I will let you to figure out how it works as it's pretty simple (please note that it is somewhat expensive (in ingame credits) ...).

If grouped, probably 80%-100% should be the combination of players. Like if you have 1 Heavy, 2 Light, 1/3 should be Heavy, 2/3 Light?? Same would apply to weapon drops for the classes in the group. At least 80%-90% of the drops should be based on what the player(s) can use regardless.

As I said there is no need to change how drops work as it is an MMO. And the rewards in FPs and HCs are for your class...

2) There is a bit of jumping in the game, especially for Datacrons (which I enjoy a lot). The problem is jumping is VERY frustrating for me. I have spent 1+ hr trying to do something I want to do that should be "easy" but the jumping that seems to be tied to the geometry of surfaces, fails. I will be standing on a pipe trying to jump to another pipe and instead of jumping, I just fall off/down and have to get back to the same spot again and again and again and again... until I get it "just right" to within a foot or 1/10th of a second. Or I will be standing next to a vertical surface that I want to jump to the top of. When this happens, I can't tell whether I can't jump there or whether I am just not in the right place jumping. Again, after half a dozen or dozen jumps "it takes". Something should be done about this. I have been in other games that did not have these issues. Datacrons are very FUN but this jumping makes them VERY frustrating and time wasting and therefore, they become irritating. This also applies to regular game play but not as much because there isn't as much jumping involved.

Hmm I have to say ''keep them as it is'' because datacroms are something optional. As long as they are not/the jumping is not part of the main game your frustration doesn't matter I am afraid, because it was something you choose to do:)

3) *I* think there is WAY too much XP in the game. It should be cut at least in half and probably to 1/4 - 1/8. On my first character (the Imperial), I got to 65 before I even met my 2nd companion - without even trying! I just did the story lines presented, optional quests (triangle+"plus") and some Heroic+2 missions for gear mostly. As an Operative, I even sneaked past >50% of the mobs (not killing them for XP). So, I ended up playing the rest of the story lines as a 65. When you add the weekly special events, the XP is "through the roof". Something is very wrong with the XP system IMHO. Also, my doing space battles, to get my ship up to level 6, may have added XP. So there is LOTS of XP. WAY WAY too much IMHO.

There is too much xp you are right...although I suspect you did a little grinding to get to 65 so fast:D

4) Which leads to scaling (this applies to PVE and PVP as well). Somewhere I read that when you are over the level of the planet/area, it scales you to like the max of the area + 2. This for me was still VERY much overkill because of abilities.

Unless they have changed it very recently you are downlevelled to the planet's max level.....you begin to meet mobs your level when you are in the appropriate area...

The issue is that although some things like armor, damage, etc. are scaled, abilities are not "removed". This means a level 20 char and a level 65 char scaled to 20 are VERY different. The level 20 char doesn't even have the whole set of abilities that define the class whereas the 65 does.

You are wrong (mostly): the power of the downgraded high levels come not from the added abilities, but from all the...procs (you know ''if you use this ability your next [such ability] will do double damage or have +25 crit chance or something)....

...and the levels you have above the mobs: you seem to get +defense vs mobs that are lower level than you - why when before they introduced level synch one or few high levels could solo stuff they weren't suppose to. Mind that this doesn't work on special abilities, but as mobs mainly use standard attack it is very noticeable.

(notice that your level 19 char will dodge/parry alot vs level 10 mobs)

To rectify this, I would suggest a different scaling. Since NPCs in PVE can't complain, I will for them. For PVE, if an area is level 20 for example, a 20 char doesn't scale. A 10 would be like ~25, a 65 would be like ~10 (to offset the added abilities). Taking away abilities from higher up's would be impractical.

Can you elaborate further?

As an aside, the game probably should be adaptive. It should "watch" you play and adjust the levels of the NPCs to make "winning" more challenging. I mean, if NPCs have say 1000 HP and you are creaming them, they should go up like 1 HP per your win. If you lose (die), they should go down like 10% and stay there. They should remember at some point so there is no yo-yo effect. Then, if you level up, they should adjust again with the 1HP then 10% then stop. Just my 2 cents.

Hmm I suppose such system can be fun for some...but on the other hand that they don't scale down the game if you are bad player is a good thing, isn't it. That way you are forced to learn your class better/ play better and that is good thing! As I said SWTOR is still a MMO game, you will eventually have to play with other players (FPs or HCs) and....while some lack of knowing all the ins and outs of your class is ok and can be expected, please don't be the guy/girl that don't know anything (to the point of actually making the FP harder for the rest of the party) and expect me to teach him/her....you will be kicked:D

As they say, RNG Is RNG.

RNG is OK but I still think at least half the drops should be something you can use.

Then don't do it. I never bother with the vast majority of datacrons for this reasons.

As I said, for me, they are fun. I have been playing computer games since they came out (XT days). In the DECADES of playing games where jumping was used, I have NEVER had so much difficultly doing something "simple". Just yesterday, I fell through a small crack 4x!!! because I couldn't jump from a say 2 foot ledge with a round corner. Yes, eventually I got it but why? I get that if I jumped too late and just fell. But just flat jumping? Like I said, I have NEVER in all the games I've played had even remotely this many problems. Sorry, but it is not ME. It is the geometry of the surfaces you jump from (I have programmed for over 30 years also so I have some idea of what is going on). VERY VERY fortunately, most of the game does not rely on jumping or it would be a major chore. The only thing that comes to mind is when you had to jump in that story part where you have to jump from ship to ship while they are moving down the road. Some of the geometry of the ships caused some problems again.

BTW, I think this is related. The speeders don't "act" right because of geometry. A speeder should be vertical unless you are turning (leaning into the turn). My speeders seem to angle me with the terrain (which is wrong). Length-wise (pitch - nose up/down) it should follow the terrain, but sideways it should be vertical (no roll). So, I believe that when you jump, instead of a vertical surface, it is making you jump from the angle of the terrain, like the speeder. THIS is what is causing the problems jumping and should be looked at.

It is what it is and it's not going to change.

It is too bad really. Right now, my Infiltrator is 32 in a 22 level area (I haven't even tried the space combat in my ship stuff). *I* try to do "ALL" or at least as many quests in the zones/planets as I can. I want to enjoy the game. People have put in A LOT of effort with the environment (great BTW), quests, dialog, etc. I want to enjoy it and not race to 65 as is very typical in MMOs (you can even make a 60 char off the bat, for example). So perhaps, that is why I am getting soooo much XP. I still think there is way too much XP in the game.

Only level 65s can queue for level 65 WZs. WZ bolster does not work the way flashpoint bolster works.

Well, idk. All I know is I tried a WZ (an introductory quest). At ~18, it made me a 65.

The highest rated PvP gear is 208. If you did WZs in 216 gear, you would be at a severe disadvantage. You should read the PvP forums before you start PvPing.

Like I said, I don't typically do PVP anyways. If other people are into it, fine, good, great, wonderful for them. Leave it as is.

Keep in mind that although SWTOR can be played solo it is still an MMO. You don't necessarily get what you want/can use from random drops (I think the HCs/FPs rewards are different...they are for your class).

Btw you can still use the skins if you like them even if your class can't wear a particular item (ex - heavy armor on sage) with the outfit designer. I will let you to figure out how it works as it's pretty simple (please note that it is somewhat expensive (in ingame credits) ...).

 

As I said there is no need to change how drops work as it is an MMO. And the rewards in FPs and HCs are for your class...

I don't mind drops that aren't for my char. I can sell them. I am just saying it would be good if at least 50% were for my char. As far as skins, I am aware of them. That is nice.

Hmm I have to say ''keep them as it is'' because datacroms are something optional. As long as they are not/the jumping is not part of the main game your frustration doesn't matter I am afraid, because it was something you choose to do:)

See my previous post.

There is too much xp you are right...although I suspect you did a little grinding to get to 65 so fast:D

No grinding at all. In fact, *I* try NOT to grind unless really really necessary (like to get a specific drop from something (in other games)). Like now, I'm 32 in Taris just doing the quests (plus 4 datacrons and the Heroic+2's).

If I started the space battles from my ship quest thing, I am sure I would be a couple levels even higher. No grinding at all. Also, as an Infiltrator, I have even avoided like 50% of the fights in an area that most others would have to clear.

Unless they have changed it very recently you are downlevelled to the planet's max level.....you begin to meet mobs your level when you are in the appropriate area...

That is what happened, but the mobs seem to be "too easy". But then... I play stealthy rogue types and know how to put one or two others "to sleep" (CC - crowd-control), so I end up fighting stuff usually one at a time.

As an aside, I guess I have expectations. I played Everquest (the original) of many years. EQ was designed for group play with only a couple classes that could solo effectively beyond level 30. An even white "con" was for a 2 person group. A yellow con was for 3-4 people. A red con was for a 6 person/raid. These newer MMOs seem to be designed for soloing. Oh well.

You are wrong (mostly): the power of the downgraded high levels come not from the added abilities, but from all the...procs (you know ''if you use this ability your next [such ability] will do double damage or have +25 crit chance or something)....

...and the levels you have above the mobs: you seem to get +defense vs mobs that are lower level than you - why when before they introduced level synch one or few high levels could solo stuff they weren't suppose to. Mind that this doesn't work on special abilities, but as mobs mainly use standard attack it is very noticeable.

(notice that your level 19 char will dodge/parry alot vs level 10 mobs)

That too...

Can you elaborate further?

I guess that the mobs seem to be "easy". Perhaps it is just that I'm playing a class that bypasses a lot of them. Coming in with a higher level char just makes them easier and easier. So I was just suggesting lowering a higher level char somewhat to make it more even.

Hmm I suppose such system can be fun for some...but on the other hand that they don't scale down the game if you are bad player is a good thing, isn't it. That way you are forced to learn your class better/ play better and that is good thing! As I said SWTOR is still a MMO game, you will eventually have to play with other players (FPs or HCs) and....while some lack of knowing all the ins and outs of your class is ok and can be expected, please don't be the guy/girl that don't know anything (to the point of actually making the FP harder for the rest of the party) and expect me to teach him/her....you will be kicked:D

I agree about training people. But I am referring to scaling UP a zone to the level of a char. That would make you have to learn your class better. Keep the pressure on.

I agree you don't want to teach people. But from the groups I have been in, there isn't a whole lot of strategy or tactics (coming from EQ). Yes, there are somethings like "hit this panel when it lights up" or "kill the adds". But it doesn't seem like there is any patience in the groups or people using their special skills - "wait til I CC that one". People just run in and wack at stuff. Unless you are a healer, I don't see a whole lot of training going on.

In EQ, you had pullers, tanks, DPS, healers. Each had a function to do and hand off to next person or time stuff so you wouldn't get agro (agro should be on the tank so healer didn't have to heal everyone).

I have stealth and can CC a mob. This isn't even needed or used in any group I am in. Just run in and wack away. Other than extra DPS or helping someone else do a quest, I haven't seen any reason for groups. They really aren't satisfying to play in.

I don't know whether this is the right place for this thread. If not, please move to correct place.

 

As a relatively new player (I have a Imperial Operative 65, and just started 2 Republic Sage/Infiltrator ~19 to see which I prefer), I found a couple things frustrating.

 

1) Loot drops in the 1st location (Tython). As both Sage/Infiltrator are light/adaptive armor, I kept getting Medium armor drops (I would say ~70% of the time) with the very occasional something else drop. I would like to see like 80% of drops be for my character with maybe 20% being other. I'm just saying it is frustrating to me not to be able to use most of the loot.

 

If grouped, probably 80%-100% should be the combination of players. Like if you have 1 Heavy, 2 Light, 1/3 should be Heavy, 2/3 Light?? Same would apply to weapon drops for the classes in the group. At least 80%-90% of the drops should be based on what the player(s) can use regardless.

 

2) There is a bit of jumping in the game, especially for Datacrons (which I enjoy a lot). The problem is jumping is VERY frustrating for me. I have spent 1+ hr trying to do something I want to do that should be "easy" but the jumping that seems to be tied to the geometry of surfaces, fails. I will be standing on a pipe trying to jump to another pipe and instead of jumping, I just fall off/down and have to get back to the same spot again and again and again and again... until I get it "just right" to within a foot or 1/10th of a second. Or I will be standing next to a vertical surface that I want to jump to the top of. When this happens, I can't tell whether I can't jump there or whether I am just not in the right place jumping. Again, after half a dozen or dozen jumps "it takes". Something should be done about this. I have been in other games that did not have these issues. Datacrons are very FUN but this jumping makes them VERY frustrating and time wasting and therefore, they become irritating. This also applies to regular game play but not as much because there isn't as much jumping involved.

 

3) *I* think there is WAY too much XP in the game. It should be cut at least in half and probably to 1/4 - 1/8. On my first character (the Imperial), I got to 65 before I even met my 2nd companion - without even trying! I just did the story lines presented, optional quests (triangle+"plus") and some Heroic+2 missions for gear mostly. As an Operative, I even sneaked past >50% of the mobs (not killing them for XP). So, I ended up playing the rest of the story lines as a 65. When you add the weekly special events, the XP is "through the roof". Something is very wrong with the XP system IMHO. Also, my doing space battles, to get my ship up to level 6, may have added XP. So there is LOTS of XP. WAY WAY too much IMHO.

 

4) Which leads to scaling (this applies to PVE and PVP as well). Somewhere I read that when you are over the level of the planet/area, it scales you to like the max of the area + 2. This for me was still VERY much overkill because of abilities.

 

The issue is that although some things like armor, damage, etc. are scaled, abilities are not "removed". This means a level 20 char and a level 65 char scaled to 20 are VERY different. The level 20 char doesn't even have the whole set of abilities that define the class whereas the 65 does.

 

This is particularly evident in PVP warzones where a 20 char is raised to level 65 without the skills to be that and consequently gets creamed. Honestly, I don't even want to try PVP until I'm at least 65, preferably with really great gear 216+. It is NOT fun being creamed. So either the PVP stuff should be real levels (to within say 5) but probably there aren't 16 people (8 each side) within that tight of range, or scaling should be different (which is what I propose).

 

To rectify this, I would suggest a different scaling. Since NPCs in PVE can't complain, I will for them. For PVE, if an area is level 20 for example, a 20 char doesn't scale. A 10 would be like ~25, a 65 would be like ~10 (to offset the added abilities). Taking away abilities from higher up's would be impractical.

 

For PVP, the lowest char in the warzone should scale to 65. Everyone should scale DOWN from that based on their level. For example, if a level 20 char is the lowest in the warzone, it becomes the 65. A true 65 scales down to ~40 because of the added abilities. A 40 would be ~50. Just a thought to level the playing field.

 

As you can probably tell, I don't play PVP because for me, it is not fun. I guess if you are a 65 with all uber gear and stuff, PVP must be "fun" creaming everyone - not taking hits yourself (/flexes muscle). I doubt everyone else that dies, thinks it's fun. Whatever. If the PVP stuff doesn't change, *I* won't be playing it - no big loss there I know. But keep in mind, there are lots of people who think and feel as I do. Losing isn't fun.

 

As an aside, the game probably should be adaptive. It should "watch" you play and adjust the levels of the NPCs to make "winning" more challenging. I mean, if NPCs have say 1000 HP and you are creaming them, they should go up like 1 HP per your win. If you lose (die), they should go down like 10% and stay there. They should remember at some point so there is no yo-yo effect. Then, if you level up, they should adjust again with the 1HP then 10% then stop. Just my 2 cents.

1) RNG is RNG, sorry for your luck. Get some cash, and buy some cartel armor off the market, it is adaptive. Or take up crafting.

It would be awesome if you only got drops that were useful for those involved in the kill (group mates, or you and comp if solo), but it is a minor nuisance once you have played the game for even a short while.

2) Some of the Datacrons are a real pain to get, especially if you lag. I have given up getting a few because of the jumping/lag issues.

3) Xp is fine, if you do everything there is, including space, pvp, starfighter, you will outlevel everything fast. It is there for options. You don't have to do it all.

4) Scaling is fine. You are downscaled to a planet's max level. And pvp is done with level range groupings. A level 20 is never going to be grouped with a true 65. And if you wait until 65 to do pvp, with your operations PVE gear, you will get clobbered, due to them having far more expertise than you, as you will lose out on the expertise bolster for your gear. (IIRC, you want max 192 gears for max expertise bolster.) Your proposed level ranges would result in extremely long waits for the queue to pop.

Ability synergies you unlock (using x gives a boost to y) and utilities probably have more impact than most new abilities you get. You are vastly exaggerating the gap.

All in all, I would prefer they worked on fixing the bugs, and eliminating the "gold spammers" before they worried about changing most of what you are suggesting. Some of it just doesn't need changing, anyways.

There are several games out there that seem to have no trouble at all detecting the players class and dropping appropriate loot. I see no reason at all why SWTOR should be any different...it's just dumb.

Yes, jumping in this game is just plain awful. The Hutta pipes datacron springs to mind.

The Hutta pipes datacron springs to mind.

First, don't miss the jump to get on the thing. Not terribly hard, but for the junpimg impaired... if you miss it's like 45 mins wait for it to come around again.

Then a 30 minute meandering ride to your destination - if it doesn't glitch and drop you to your death on the sands below.

Then jump off and hope you land on top of the sandcrawler. Again, not extremely difficult, but if you miss, you have to hike back and wait for the thing to wander back to the boarding point, and then jump on and take that 30 minute ride all over again...

Then after you collect the datacron on top, you have to step (not jump) off and hope you don't step too far over the side to hit the little platform partway down where the second datacron is. If you miss, it's another hike, wait, jump on, wait, jump off, try again...

Used to be you had to do every datacron (or at least every one you wanted) on every character. Now you only have to get them once, and they apply to your whole legacy.

What do we have here...

I. Well. Level scaling for PvE - no, it won't work your way. As someone mentioned, there's a miss chance for everyone when attacking the target of higher level, and essentially ALL of the abilities (except maybe some ground-targeted aoe) would miss when level difference hits 7. 7 is the number.

Therefore downscaling lvl65 player character to level 10 in level 20 mob are would result in player being unable to kill anything. Full stop.

II. As for PvP - well, there used to be a 'lowbie' queue - up to level 29, 'midbies' to level $maxlevel-1$ and max level pvp, both rankeds and regulars. Not completely sure of how it is now but:

1) They now scale everything to lvl 65 (displayed), used to 'scale' lowbies to 29, midbies to 59 (when 60 was the max level) to make them at least somehow competitive, remove miss chance I've talked before and scale stats to around the same level.

2) However, each class retains the skills and if you're queuing at level 14 you'd be certainly in disadvantage, right you are. No, they're not really going to rework it as everyone who really cares about PvP at all are mostly concerned with rankeds/max level PvP, they only group for low lvl PvP for fun and if they do so, you'll most likely get roflstomped anyway both in 1v1 and vs premades. Reason for this? Better optimized gear, having consumables etc etc. Not to speak about skills.

PvP in this game has enough issues already for developers to have a constant headache, and it's only max lvl - class balance (mostly), new maps coming out after like 2 years of no new content for pvpers etc etc. They got their hands full with it.

And BTW max item rating for lvl65 PvP is by no means 192, it's 208 now (actually pretty easy, always same level as top tier augments since PvPers and PvErs share augments). And yes, you need expertise and no accuracy in gear for PvP, highly unlike PvE.

Don't take leveling PvP seriously, you won't stay in leveling for long.

III. And now we get to XP. What can I say... XP gains kept increasing for as long as I have played SWTOR, all because here with lockout system having alts (at least for raiding) is (was?..) highly beneficial, so people complained about leveling 5th toon of the same class through the same environment, which I can completely understand. These days, if you don't boost your character to 60 via token, you're only supposed to do the class story to hit 60. No sidequesting; God forbid no space missions. From the point of view of people who need to level multiple toons of the same class (what's worse - of the same BASE class) it's grinding exp.

I agree that the solo experience is probably the best SWTOR can offer now but developers have succumbed to cries of people who hated leveling (myself included), so they made it easy.

Look, you have 1 planetary quest same for fraction (4 base classes, 8 advanced classes), and the same story for 2 advanced classes per each base class.

That means after you explore everything in sight and decide to level Sage right after your Shadow... Aye, it would totally suck cause you'd be in a vacuum new content-wise. Nothing new to do. Like literally.

I've seen all the class stories and have done all planetary stories, some on my first characters, some split about some more. Not sure about more sidequesting, however.

And then again I've leveled around 18-20 toons to max level before 4.0 and tokens came. Wait till you get there, if exp would be cut in 1/8 of its current values now THAT would be real grinding.

Also, sidequesting with overlevel is almost the same, they've nerfed all the storyline bosses as well so you still roflstomp everything no matter if with level sync or not. You have to be ~3 levels below the boss for it to be remotely challenging and even then it feels more like killing stuff takes too long, not too difficult.

Which brings us to the next point.

IV. Killing everything is too easy.

In short - yes, it is. Cries about stuff being difficult were too loud, and it seems people are more or less content in their majority with the current state of affairs. Customers are happy, developers are happy. I don't think they'd revert this change they brought in 3.0+.

"I don't need my abilities" - yes, that was the exact reason behind nerfs. People actually needed to do not so-completely-random button whacking in order not to wipe, of course some of them just wanted to watch glorified interactive cutscenes and how cool they look smashing stuff no matter the efficiency, so when big bad boss punished them for this behavior, they went to cry to mama. Or developers, in that case.

Unfortunately, group content was made the same. They REMOVED all the mechanics potentially causing wipes from storymode operations. Well, tried to (Spoiler: EC SM causes wipes for some groups due to 'dps check' on probes. What a joke). Literally, most infamous examples include Kephess in phase 1 TfB (it used to need to be lured to pillars etc etc but now it JUST.STANDS.THERE. Well, hits tank with auto attacks. That's it, big dummy) and Calphayus in Palace (phase 3 was removed completely again and turned into dummy phase).

Want a challenge? Go for nothing less than hardmodes and mayhap some selected HM flashpoints (Lost Island, possibly Battle of Rishi...)

Rest was MEANT to be possible to complete being semi-afk, eating and whatnot, making yourself comfortable in front of the screen where your character does cool stuff. It never was too hard, tbh, but now it's ridiculously easy, and that's 4.0 for you. I'm almost sure people mostly are happier that way (looking around, reading forums...).

So not, revert is not going to happen. For some challenge+mechanics, they are introducing Eternal Championship. And HM/NiM operations, ofc.

V. Further elaborating your point about synergy and mechanics, don't you dare to compare it to other games. In SWTOR, there are no 'pullers'. Boss' aggro is normally always set to one of the tanks (or offtaunting dps), heals press green buttons, dps just kill stuff. Sometimes, you need to stay in a specific spot (which CAN be hard while maintaining other activities), interrupt the add or click something. Or face specific direction (hehe). But cmon, what else could one invent? All the group synergy lies in 'split in 2 groups' or 'you do the interrupt first' or 'i will kill the add'.

Ahem. SWTOR technically DOES have an issue with player-player interaction in PvE (intercede/guardian leap and pull are of little to no use except for pranking people, there are but a few buffs where you choose to use them etc etc), but that's because of using some classes would be better than others. I don't see how it's a major issue, however, but both SWTOR community and developers team seem to be against it. Probably because of more plain issues with class balance (class X has A dps on dummy, class Y has B dps on dummy, B>A, Y can translate it easier from the dummy to the boss, why play X, gg). You would barely see operative, assassin or even sorc dps players in most progression groups now, and there's a good reason for that.

PvP balance is even a major issue (operatives/assassins/sorcs still are strong there), people do complain a lot, and devs can't make PvP and PvE balance separate. Which is the root of the problem - buff operative damage, and PvP will become unplayable. Keep operatives as they are - and no one will dps on them in PvE.

Which is the reason there can't be really some specific skill-focused mechanics (some stuff can be made easier in certain setup, but in majority of cases, no).

As for PvE being easy, leveling was made to be extremely quick and passable by literally everyone, so were storymode operations/flashpoints (people complained about having a few braindead people in a group being able to ruin the whole group... Nuff said).

VI. Jumping? Aside for some lore (not much), there's a minor stat boost. Want to get it and not ask yourself each time if you can make this jump or not? Go read/watch a guide. Swtor-spy ones are good enough. The hardest datacron for me was Tatooine roof one, and the problem was exactly the pipe jumps. This way or another, especially when you want full exploration - you brought it on yourself. Make up your opinion already about whether hard content is good or not.

Developers think content meant to be run by everyone should be pleasant for everyone, and I agree. I disagree, however, about how they define said content

Aside from that, it's 'datacron/achievement/seeker droid HUNTING' for a reason. Everyone going for this essentially brings it down on himself. No one said your previous gaming experience matters. No one said it should be the way you see it (go starfighter for example, I know a person having sort of motion sickness from turning upside down et cetera). Do it or do not, it has been like this for ages and some people enjoyed it the way it was despite all of the frustration in the way. It's actually one of the reasons it's appealing for people.

tl;dr: Game is THAT easy and meant to be so. Cross-player interaction in PvE is not becoming a thing in the nearest future, nor raiding content would (should?..) include a need in some class-specific skill. Knowledge of your class skillset WILL, however, be required from the certain level of content difficulty.

All mechanic-intensive bosses, also known as 'pug breakers', were removed or tuned down significantly in storymodes. For hardmodes and nightmares you are meant to have some team communication like Teamspeak or Mumble if having troubles (not really all that needed for HMs, in all fairness). Some sort of communication is highly desired on many bosses on the highest difficulty setting.

Thank you all for all your comments. I appreciate it.

I am a newbie, just couple months. These were just my issues.

I still think at least 50% of the gear should be for your char / group. Jumping should be better. These would be relatively "easy" fixes.

Balancing classes has always been a problem in MMOs. This one is HIGHLY PVP driven, so I can see why certain things are the way they are - including having 60+ chars right off the start for higher raid play.

Thank you again for your input.