G12 and Heroic Raid Reward Changes

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Hello Holotable Heroes,

With this week’s update, we will be introducing the next two slots of Gear XII (informally “G12+” for the purposes of this post), as exclusive rewards for completing the Heroic Sith Raid. With this will come some changes to the rewards for the Heroic Sith Raid. These changes ONLY impact the Heroic Tier.

Because of the sensitivity of the Heroic Tier and the nature of the rollout of our initial changes to the raid rewards, we’re going to be especially descriptive around the changes we’re making, and why we’re making them.

These are also not the final changes to the rewards and gameplay. We are looking into other small changes to accomplish other goals of ours, as well as some concerns expressed by players, however these are the only changes we are making in the near future.

CONTEXT:
When we released the Heroic Tier Sith Raid, we included a “bonus” chance to receive a fully crafted G12 piece, as a placeholder for our eventual release of G12+ as an exclusive reward. This chance was implemented incorrectly, and gave out complete G12 pieces to all Ranks the majority of the time. (Top 3 performers are actually likely to receive 2 full pieces.)

This gear inflow was far beyond our original intent, and without changes would have driven a gap between the top 0.1% of players and the rest of the game that would have been impossible to close. It would have caused us to be unable to keep rewards and incentives balanced across gear levels in the long run. However, between the difficulty of the Raid, the changes to on-damage effects in Phases 3 & 4, the changes to the Expose mechanic, we decided to leave the rewards in as implemented until G12+ was ready, out of respect for the massive investment players made into their Sith Raid teams at launch. Our first pass at changing raid rewards was not well-received, further confirming that changes could only be made when we were ready to introduce a new, exclusive reward.

THE CHANGES:
Our primary goals for these changes are as follows:

1. To reward guilds who have focused and collaborated enough to complete the Heroic Tier - This raid is our most challenging PvE content to date - even as we are making changes to the rewards, we want them to remain commensurate with the effort required.
   
2. To trade value for exclusivity - Players will receive one to two less guaranteed complete G12 pieces in exchange for consistently earning brand new top-end G12+ components. We believe this is a very fair trade as when completed, G12+ pieces are some of the most powerful gear we have released and will provide a power boost almost comparable to upgrading from G11 to G12. Specifically:
   EVERY Heroic Tier participant will make progress toward 1 of 6 exclusive pieces of top-end, G12+ gear, every raid
   Only players Rank 10 or better will still have a chance to receive a complete piece of existing G12 gear
   All participants will still receive pieces of G12 salvage and the same non-G12 Mystery Box as before
   
3. To reward the effort of top performers, while preserving an incentive for lower-ranking players to advance - We are reducing the number of reward tiers in order to create clear milestones for all players in a guild to work towards.
   
   First, we are removing reward tiers 31-40 and 41-50. All players below Rank 20 will receive the same tier of rewards.
   
   Secondly, all players will make progress towards G12+ in every raid. Below are the details on how G12+ works and how the G12+ rewards are distributed in each tier:
   
   G12+ Recipe:
   There are 6 pieces of exclusive G12+ gear. The recipe is as follows:
   • G12+ Component A (50 salvage)
   • G12+ Component B (40 salvage)
   • Two G12 components (Will be grindable on the Ships PvE table)
   • One non-G12 piece
   
   In the raid rewards, component A and B will always be given for the same G12+ piece to ensure consistent progress.
   
   G12+ Heroic Sith Raid Reward Tier Summary:
   After each raid:
   • Ranks 1-3 will earn 50%-100% of the G12+ components required for one piece of exclusive G12+ gear.
   • Ranks 4-10 will earn exactly 50% of the G12+ components required for one piece of exclusive G12+ gear.
   • Ranks 11-20 will earn 20%-50% (40% on average) of the G12+ components required for one piece of exclusive G12+ gear.
   • Ranks 21-50 will earn 20%-50% (30% on average) of the G12+ components required for one piece of exclusive G12+ gear.
   
   Additionally, Ranks 1-10 have a small bonus chance to earn an extra fully crafted piece of G12+.

To reiterate, only the G12 component of the Heroic Tier is being significantly changed at this time. We are actively monitoring player feedback and progress across other tiers and will continue to make adjustments in the future.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these upcoming changes
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