Let's talk about some real gear grind relief.
So I know the devs have said mathematically relief has been provided. However, as any one who plays the game on a daily basis knows, this relief has not been felt. We need more ways to acquire the most used resources faster. Namely carbanti and stun gun pieces. I currently need over 2500 of each, 200 of each for the team I am currently farming. That's just to move up 1 gear level. At the current drop rates, with challenges and spending gems it will take me nearly 1.5 months to gear 4 toons 1 gear level. It should not be taking us this much time to go up a gear level, at least not until going to g12/g13. This kind of intensive grinding to get our toons to a useful level is severely hampering our ability, especially for new or up and coming players, to participate in a lot of content. Instead of being able to focus on unlocking and leveling new toons we are forced to spend all our time and effort getting toons to a useable level. This intense gear grinding is expected for the late gear levels, but a little ridiculous for the lower gear levels.
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Are you also not doing the Rancor raid and completely ignoring the shard and guild shops?
I'm not crazy about bottleneck gear either, but pretending the only way to get it is with energy or crystals is disingenuous.
Anyway, they don't want you to gear your characters faster. Frustration and impatience are what gets people to spend money.
(The following generally ignores crystal purchases and focuses on primary/reliable sources of obtaining)
Guns - Because GET is not realistically an option any more, and because they were removed from the fleet tables, shard shop is the only semi-reliable source. Recommendation: Add to guild store at same cost as raid gear such as droid callers.
Cuffs - Consistently available in guild shop for a reasonable rate, shows up in shard shop, plus another 10 or so a week from TW (our guild wins both and gets 20). Recommendation: No change.
Carbs - Consistently available in guild shop for a reasonable rate, shows up in shard shop, plus another 80 or so a week from challenges and TW. Recommendation: No change.
Challenge Eyeballs - 50 or so a week from challenges. Also purchasable from shops but is competing with guns, carbs, cuffs, etc. Recommendation: Add back in to tank/sith loot boxes, and boost drop rate to match carbs in challenge.
Hollow Eyeballs - Purchasable from shops. At first glance I was thinking maybe they should be more obtainable, but they are very cheap to buy with crystals vs most other gear. Recommendation: No change.
These are all luck of the draw as to what is available in there. While they do show up from time to time it's still an unreliable way to farm them. Especially if you have characters that need to be farmed as well. Bottleneck gear is fine but it's a continuous bottle neck from g9 all the way to g13. That's the issue.
I have no issue not spending on crystals. Majority of gear is the single biggest waste of crystals in the game. 1400 for 50, nah I'll keep my $20 in my pocket. I do spend here and there, just not on pieces that cost that much.
Bottom line is the devs seem to think that g9/g10 is near end game content which it is not. G11 is marginal depending on the toon. Like I said I have no problem with there being a lengthy grind to get g12 and g13, as this is where end game content really starts to show up.
I agree with most of this. It would be a good way to adjust some of the most sorely needed items. The more I think about carbanti it is probably fine as is. It is just needed by so many, at so many gear levels it feels overwhelming.
@CG_SBCrumb this man just did your job for you. Here yah go! Break out those sticky notes
I check the shard store every day for guns and some weeks it shows up regularly, but other times it can be weeks without one showing up at all!
This right here. I don't think the majority of us are asking for much. No one wants gear to be so easy to come by that you level up in a day.
But there is wiggle room to make it more bearable. The grind has only gotten worsen and they’re claiming they’ve done plenty to make it easier on us, even though the community is screaming out that it’s not. Nobody wants to be handed everything at 100% right away, not the reasonable people at least. But there shouldn’t be a massive gear sink to get to G11 anymore considering how massively undergeared that is compared to G12+ and relic toons.
Is this from the Q&A? Can you repost it?
TOPIC: Economy
Q: Would CG upgrade or add a new tier for daily challenge with better prize?
A: Cyanides - We would! However, We're starting with new Assault Battle tiers before looking into adding tiers to Daily Challenges.
Q: Are there any plans to change the rewards of older missions? ie: missions where jedi shards are the reward, adding ezra or bastila. Or for an empire one getting more shards for newer empire toons?
A: Cyanides - We don't have any plans to change old rewards. We are working on adding new tiers to different events/challenges where new rewards will be added.
@TVF
"We looked into it and decided it was fine the way it is."
I'll believe it when it happens, or they give a more definitive statement.
The second answer is not in response to a question about daily challenges.
That’s easily my worst bottleneck right now. The gold eyeball salvage is a pain but I can manage and know that with actual management can save enough and plan properly. Stun guns are the worst and simply adding them to a store like guild events or even a new challenge tier to get 10-15 per event is fine by me. 30-45 extra salvage a week would go a LONG way the community actually feeling the gear crunch alleviate
But what I was looking at what how many of the remaining items were only in the hundreds for me already v/s which ones were in the THOUSANDS already.
Its those Thousands ones that clearly are not needed in there & could be swapped w/ something more useful.
(I can only imagine what a 4 year player has of these)
I was looking at this from a programming perspective of not "adding" something where it didn't exist already but just altering what is there.
They don't need to go to all the effort to create an entire new tier.
Just fix the final tier to get rid of some of the most useless stuff for things that might be useful.
STR Challenge:
Carbantis = Change from RNG to Fixed-5 (Gives a small boost)
Keypads = Change to Fixed-5 (Gives a small boost)
Eyeballs = Upgrade to "Mk8 Eyeball Component Salvage" - Fixed-2
Droid Callers = Upgrade to Mk5 & reduce # from RNG-5 to Fixed-2
Armor Mod = Replace with Mk2 Holo Lens - Fixed-1
AGI Challenge:
Hyposyringe = Change to Fixed-5
Datapad = Leave it alone
Keypad = Leave it alone
Droid Caller = Replace with Mk1 Keypad - Fixed-1
ElectroBinocs = Replace with Mk3 Holo Projector - Fixed-1
TAC Challenge:
Mk5 Medpack = Leave it alone
Binocs = Replace with Medpack Component - Fixed-1
StunGun = Upgrade to Mk5 - Fixed-1
Mk1 Medpack = Replace with Mk1 Stuncuffs - Fixed-1
Powercell = Replace with Mk1 Armor Mod - Fixed-1
Ability Mat Challenges:
Shift Count of Blue & Green by 1 each to Purple.
Increase rate of Omega drop
Ship Ability Mat Challenges:
Fix Omega & Purple at 1/Sim like Zetas.
Increase Prestige amount.
Those were just some things I thought of that might show some reduction in the mid range gear grind.
CG really needs to change something here. They wont change price tags but they could reduce the amount of salvage pieces to craft a full piece. There are pieces that only need 20 salvage to craft a full piece. They should adapt that to all purple/blue/green/grey gear. They can keep the price tags on the full pieces for people that want to whale but by reducing the ratio for salvage to crafting they would give a solution to reduce the gear crunch.
Concur. I tend to throw on a relic level or two when I G13 someone just for a little extra oomph, but I haven't really noticed much of a tangible difference between plain old G13 and relic 2.
Agreed. Perhaps R7 can be G14 or even G15 with the farm reqs for later relic levels.
These are what you should be converting into relics.