It would be much better to make it legacy wide so ppl don't have to worry about using different characters.

No - please not. It is better as it is. It is one of the last motivations for me to play, getting char for char to the max level.

No - please not. It is better as it is. It is one of the last motivations for me to play, getting char for char to the max level.

One person’s motivation is another person’s nightmare. For me it’s an incentive not to play my Alts or even play as much as I used to.

I guess they cant please all of us. Maybe they could just give us the option to turn double CXP on or off at will.

One person’s motivation is another person’s nightmare. For me it’s an incentive not to play my Alts or even play as much as I used to.

I guess they cant please all of us. Maybe they could just give us the option to turn double CXP on or off at will.

Rubbish. The more you play alts, the more synergistic it gets. The math simply is not on your side.

Throw in bolster, etc., this is by far the easiest MMO I've played to gear or to minimize its impact.

Frankly, a bit disappointed -- we both are individuals with strong points of view -- but you continue to ignore facts demonstrated by simple math.

I could easily chart a path of 2 hours / week play time to get someone to GC 300 in a three to four months, depending on whether the bonus weeks apply -- which is fairly frequently. Once you have that bonus, it takes even less time for an alt. Keep in mind, the impact of this is largely irrelevant given bolster, ability to get decent left side gear immediately at 70 (by which I mean 246). It also assumes that the ONLY thing you do is heroic weeklies. This ignores completely the ability to get extremely good gear via GTN or the Command Token vendor the exact moment you hit 70.

I just don't understand the fixation people have on GC number, when it so demonstrably provable to minimize its impact. And, it is demonstrably provable to gain levels very quickly. And, IT IS DESIGNED TO BE A SUPPLEMENTAL FORM OF GEARING.

Sorry Trix: Math trumps tirade.

Dasty

Given the weekly dailies bonus, I have little sympathy for anyone who doesn't have at least one character to 300 by now unless they are new. It has been 10 months now with that bug. Even just taking 20-25 minutes / week and doing JUST ZIOST AND CZ-198, you would have at least one 300 by now or dang close.

What bug?

What bug?

Last year in August for some inexplicable reason the daily quests on Yavin, Ziost, Oricon, Makeb, CZ-198, Black Hole, Iokath, and Section X suddenly started giving out enormous amounts of CXP. At the time, they called it a "bug" -- as of November 2017, they baked it in and said it is no longer unintentional. It is unclear why those particular hubs were afflicted by the original bug, or why they were selected to grant gobs of CXP for very little effort / time. They did adjust the daily part for those hubs, and increased the rates for other areas, but in no way that matches the bang for your buck by doing the weekly.

Doing each of those weekly hubs, which all told would take about 3 to 3 /12 hours would pretty much mean you have a level 300 character within a couple months. That hasn't changed. While doing all of those weekly hubs every week would make most people's eyes bleed, even doing just 3 of them a week, in addition to your other regularly scheduled activities you enjoy would get you to GC 300 pretty darn quickly.

Throw in other bonuses, legacy-wide UCs (though I agree the costs are a bit steep), and you can have a very decently geared character very quickly . For a supplemental gearing system -- that's pretty decent and the reason I find complaints specious.

To provide some rough math...

You need 1.23 million CXP total to reach GC 300. If you do the Heroic Weeklies only with just standard CXP boost and the unlock at 70 you will get around 140k to 150k per week. Let's for the sake of argument say you get 123k, even though that number is easily shy by about 15 k minimum.

That means you can get to 300 in 10 weeks doing absolutely nothing but the 8 heroic weekly hubs, the time investment of which is about 3 to 3 1/2 hours, and even that's probably too high. This also assumes no double CXP weeks, no alt bonuses, no dark vs. light side 15 % bonus, no consumable CXP bonus packs, and that you literally do absolutely nothing else.

Dasty

Honest question:

 

After all the changes to CXP, is it really still worse than previous?

 

From my very limited understanding (I never did Ops or PvP), it used to be that the only way to get top level PvE gear was through Ops. Maybe also NM mode FP's?? And there was an RNG element in that in that you had to win the roll on the drop. So I never had near BIS gear.

 

Now, you still have that. But there's also the (slooow) option to just do whatever you want, and you'll (slooowly) accrue the gear through CR crates. Plenty of RNG, but you will most definitely get at least to a ton of 246's if not 248's.

 

So again, at its current state: is it worse than previous. And if so, how? If you just ignored it and did the old way (run Ops ... NM FP's?) - is it slower/worse than before?

In the days of 4.x...

A PvPer could get 204 (second best) in less than a week (do the daily for five days also gets the weekly, which generated sufficient comms for full set of (full expertise) gear. It took another two or three weeks to get full BiS 208

A PvEer could use the Priority Hard Mode Op system and run HM EV and HM KP and get a 12 of 14 slots of BiS (rating 224) ; helmet and implants were the only pieces you could not get from the easiest HM OPs of the game.

It was INCREDIBLY easy to get fully geared in 4.x.

Then 5.0 hit and both systems were replaced with a 100% random loot box system. basically gain a CXP level get a loot crate and PRAY you got something you wanted/needed. Progression raid groups were unable to resume progression because they simply could not get the gear they needed to resume HM and/or NiM raiding. Crafting only went so far...characters were using 240 mods and enhancements and the 224 set bonus armorings.

Eventually - over the course of several updates/patches/fixes - BW got the Command Crate system to the point it should have been since it launched: OPs bosses dropped tokens, PvP awarded comms, and command crates was and is more a supplement to the more controllable gear grind (granted the math for PvPers to gear up was skewed; to go from 230 to 248 you need something like 3500 unassembled components at a rate of 1 or 3 per match or something like that.

BUT regardless of the changes to Galactic Command, it was not and is not as easy to gear up as it was back in 4.x because the priority operation system is still not available. So for non-NiM raiders the path to BiS is either PvP or command crates; one cannot walk into HM EV and HM KP and get BiS gear.

That is the root of the primary complaint against command crates: the population had it VERY easy and now it is no longer that easy.

Getting back to the OP's suggestion, BW has made changes that make leveling an alt to 300 that much easier:

1. each time you get a non-mirrored class to 300 you receive a 25% CXP bonus across your legacy to a maximum of 100%

2. plenty of double CXP weeks

3. CXP packs, open them and you get CXP; trick: save them until a double CXP week, I know people who have taken characters from 1 to 300 just doing that. I have personally gotten two characters from the low 100s to the 290s doing this.

4. CXP boosts can be purchased for relatively little and/or drop from command crates.

If you work the system, 1 to 300 ain't that tough.

That said, I think one of the assumptions most of us are making is that a given player is involved with an active guild; one that engages its members to group up and do stuff together. The best methods of CXP acquisition are "large group" activities: Ops and PvP. If a player is not in an active guild, then participating in the highest CXP/hr activities is that much harder and the CXP grind can feel impossibly daunting.

The question becomes, what does the OP really want? Do they want a system whereby they get a single character to 300+ and then ALL characters get tier 4 crates with every CXP level the individual character gets? This won't happen, primarily because it would negate the overwhelming majority of the "grind". Some may welcome this, but be careful what you wish for. Without something to reach for, most players stop playing; we need that carrot.

However how about a system where all characters in a legacy contribute to the Command level of the legacy, BUT it takes a LOT longer to reach the pinnacle? For example: the CXP required for each Command Level is increased by 4 or 5 times, BUT upon reaching that level all characters of max level in a legacy get a CXP pack. The flaw in this design is that it all but necessitates alts. And while this game does favor creating alts, there are those who only play one character.

Just spit balling, trying to get a reasonable discourse going

I don't need Command XP to be Legacy wide. But I would love it if Unassembled Components, a legacy bound item that is used exclusively as a vendor currency, were just moved to the CURRENCY tab as a legacy bound currency.

It is mildly annoying that I have to run the daily Op on 8 different characters to assemble the currency to upgrade one of them, but then have to race each of them through their flagships and whatnot to track down the Legacy Bank so that I can actually give the currency to who needs it.

Currency belongs in the currency tab, under the Legacy Bound section. There is no reason to tie up inventory slots holding Unassembled Components, Golden Casino Tickets, Eternal Arena Medals, etc. If an item's only purpose in the entire game is to be traded to a vendor as a form of currency... then it's a currency, and it belongs in the currency tab.

That’s a complete load of cods whollop. You are coming from the position of playing more than the average player and also as someone who already has multiple Alts geared to CXP 300.

 

If you are new or don’t have any characters at CXP 300. It is still difficult and too grindy for a lot of people who don’t play more than 20 hours a week.

As for me I recently tried gearing up on my other account and it did not go as smoothly as on my main one, that is true! I used the fastest available method, which was PVP (solo and group ranked) for UCs and HM ops for stuff. Getting to rank 300 was not even considered as it takes quite long and I have a 12 hour playing week. The problems I faced were ofc partial losing in ranked due to lack of gear (but it wasnt that bad, the Merc ended up with 1398 rating) and the unlocky rolls at the HM ops bosses. Ofc along I got up in the GC ranks, but nowhere near 300. Its nice Bioware gives you a week of double CXP when you play for 12 hours per week only.

Gearing up for a new player is a long topic, but in general, YES, it is NOT ideal. However, it really comes down to what this player will be doing.

- If he wants to raid, he can join a raid guild. When in a guild they do gear runs, so 242s should not be a problem as those can be gained in 1 night with a guild.

- if he wants to PVP, well, that might be a problem. Bolster is to 242, thats pretty much the gear you get from HM and the best way to gear is to gather those UCs and upgrade 242s to 248s. You gain UCs from unranked PVP and by disintegrating gear. However, you get less from disintegration in Tier 1, so yes, it takes long. Even bying the full 230 gear was a bit frustrating cause you get also less Command tokens in Tier 1.

- there is no point 3 as if you dont want to raid or PVP you dont need gear in the game

Lastly you can of course buy 246 gear from GTN, however, for that you need credits which are also not easy and grindy to come by! All in all the new player is lost and the only thing he can do is grind, but grind smartly. Once you have a toon at rank 300 you get more UCs from disintegration, you probably got some 242 pieces that you upgraded to 248s, you can buy the legacy perk to get cxp boost etc etc.

The main issue here is the many bugs people have used in the past when they were still adjusting CXP. There were things like the enormous Daily rewards and even Macro Snowballing that game people many 300 rank toons! But its all fixed now so new people simply have to grind. Having said that I am still IN FAVOR of the current system, its finally well balanced, well setup and yes, requires a grind, but its an MMO, it needs to have that!

But its all fixed now so new people simply have to grind. Having said that I am still IN FAVOR of the current system, its finally well balanced, well setup and yes, requires a grind, but its an MMO, it needs to have that!

Yes I am in favor of the system the way it is now. *Shh we need to be quiet, too much of us being pleased with this & the studio will change it.*

I currently have 22 toons on SS. -1 since she's not 70, so with 21, I have 16 that are Rank 300.

Of those 16 I have 4 (8 technically as they're mirrors) that are all or almost completely 248s. (One is 248 min/max, with 240's if I recall.) The rest are 236-242s.

That's just casual play. Granted a few months ago I could average 4hrs a night in game, I'm now playing maybe 2hrs a night & some nights I don't play at all. I'm also sitting on 4k+ UC and plenty of shells so I could get 248s on other toons too.

For a new player, yes it might be harder. But once you get one toon to 300 it's not as hard. Especially if you play Ops too.

TIPS:

1. Always send your CXP boxes to the toon you're working on. That way you're still leveling the rank, even when you're not on that toon.

2. Save all your HM shells when you're in Tier 3. Even if you have that on the toon you're playing on. You can use UCs to transfer them over with legacy gear. (Excluding left side as you can't legacy that.)

3. Fully unlock the CXP legacy perk for each toon you want to level to maximize the gains. It costs 3mil I believe.

4. The Weeklies: Yavin, CZ, Oricon, Black Hole, Ziost are great ways to get command rank. Get a pattern you're used to & you can quickly complete those heroics. (Make sure a Command Boost is running.)

Rubbish. The more you play alts, the more synergistic it gets. The math simply is not on your side.

 

Throw in bolster, etc., this is by far the easiest MMO I've played to gear or to minimize its impact.

 

Frankly, a bit disappointed -- we both are individuals with strong points of view -- but you continue to ignore facts demonstrated by simple math.

 

I could easily chart a path of 2 hours / week play time to get someone to GC 300 in a three to four months, depending on whether the bonus weeks apply -- which is fairly frequently. Once you have that bonus, it takes even less time for an alt. Keep in mind, the impact of this is largely irrelevant given bolster, ability to get decent left side gear immediately at 70 (by which I mean 246). It also assumes that the ONLY thing you do is heroic weeklies. This ignores completely the ability to get extremely good gear via GTN or the Command Token vendor the exact moment you hit 70.

 

I just don't understand the fixation people have on GC number, when it so demonstrably provable to minimize its impact. And, it is demonstrably provable to gain levels very quickly. And, IT IS DESIGNED TO BE A SUPPLEMENTAL FORM OF GEARING.

 

Sorry Trix: Math trumps tirade.

 

Dasty

Wait, what’s math got to do with me finding it boring grinding another Alt to 300?

I know it gets better and easier when you have one of each master class, but that doesn’t make it fun. That’s what I was trying to get at.

I get that mathematically it becomes easier the more classes you have. I’m definitely not disputing that. But it doesn’t get more fun. For me it becomes less fun.

As for pvp and Bolster. Here are somethings to consider.

Bolster only takes you close to 242 lvl. The closer you get to 242, the less work it does and it can get tricky trying to keep your percentages balanced.

Once you get past lvl 242 Bolster it is fairly easy to keep your stats in a range that is acceptable for that gear lvl.

This all works ok in theory, even though there is a still a sizeable gap between 242 and 248 gear and if you are a good player you can overcome that.

Where the difficulty arises is with Augments. Specifically the 236-240 ones.

When you add 236 Augments to full min-maxed 248 gear, the difference between 242 Bolster and them is huge.

Not only do they have 50-60k more health, they also have more damage potential through master, power, crit, alacrity and accuracy because you can add more than the base line bolstered stats.

When you have less of a stat pool to choose from, you need to be careful to balance them as best you can so that you dont lose damage potential.

So why not just add those to bolstered gear? Because Bolster looks at your total gear numbers and it gets confused or is broken when you add Augments. I’ve tested this by adding Augments to bolstered gear and it actually reduces stats, not increases them.

There is also something else to take into account and that is how alacrity percentages are working. They don’t just follow a curve anymore because there are now artificial stepping stones. If you have alacrity between these lvls they are wasted..

Here are the teirs.

0-702 Alacrity = 1.5sec GCD

703-1859 Alacrity (7.15+%) = 1.4sec GCD (1.39991)

1860+ Alacrity (15.41%) = 1.3sec GCD (1.29971)

Now you are wondering what this has to do with Bolster. Obviously the more alacrity you have the faster your GCD, but if you stack too much and don’t have a large stat pool like 248 gear + 236-240 Augments, you will actually harm your output because you sacrificed too much crit. (Usually accuracy isn’t needed as much in pvp)

Here is an example.

Jugg in 242 gear (bolstered).

Juggs should have a bare minimum of 7.15% alacrity, which you can get with bolstered gear if you sacrifice all of your accuracy and some Crit. This is usually a fair trade off.

Jugg in 242 gear (unbolstered)

This is when you can add Augments and they don’t F up your stats. So you can add aguments. What sort and what lvl depends on how many credits you have and if you can be bothered wasting credits on augmenting lower tiered gear.

At this point you can look at adding extra crit (through master augs) and alacrity and even accuracy. But you won’t get your Jugg to 15.41% alacrity without making a sacrifice to dps.

Jugg in 248 gear

You don’t even need to min-max the 248 gear because you can just use the Augments to do this, That means you can basically use what ever gear drops and not have to worry about swapping out enhancements or caring if a crit, alacrity or accuracy implant drops.

With 236-240 Augments, you can min-max and theoretically still have stats left over. (Not actual stats I’m referring to the law of diminishing returns).

This means you can have nearly every stat right at that point that if you could add more, it wouldn’t do that much.

The Jugg can then have -

15.41% alacrity

5% accuracy

Everything else mastery to max crit and damage numbers.

At the same time you also have that massive health difference.

This allows someone to pump out massive damage and be much harder to kill.

I hope that explains why Bolster 242 gear isn’t the golden bullet to mimimse gear gap as you think. It’s not even close to being enough.

We have gear gods roaming pvp in full 248 +236-240 gear. The difference can definitely be felt when you fight these guys. I can out play people who have better gear to the point they should have easily died if we had the same gear and they still end up winning. That is not fun and extremely frustrating and demoralising. If all you do in this game is pvp, having gear gods who rule over you only because of their gear is exasperating and makes a lot of people quit matches.

So what does that have to do with the current system. As a pvper, you need better gear as fast as you can get it so that pvp is about skill and not gear. When it takes 3-4 months to gear one Alt, that is painful. Even thinking of gearing another alt at that point is off putting because you have to grind against gear gods for another 3-4 months. None of that is fun or an incentive.

Honestly, the worst thing Bioware did was removing pvp gear and introducing this mess.