Heck, of the specific instances where there still are [HEROIC 4] Missions, only one is impossible to solo, this of course being the final Shroud Mission.
They're also very accessible, with new terminals on each Fleet as well as on Odessen providing easy access to every single 'standard' [HEROIC 2+] Mission; the only ones not present here are any Area Heroics and the CZ-5X Droid on CZ-198.
Because of this, Heroics swiftly became the thing to do; the access was easy, the payout was good, and there was the additional reward of the Alliance Supply Crates.
Of course, this also means that for many people they have replaced the previous credit-grind system of the Dailies. Comparisons between the two have been done several times before, of course, but I'd like to just wade in and add my own views to the pile-up.
This will also be solely from an endgame perspective. Heroics are of course an invaluable source of XP Gain for levelling nowadays - so much so that they are the most widely-advised supplements to planetary and class quests - and Dailies don't emerge until Level 50 with The Black Hole and Section X.
~~~
The first thing which strikes me about Heroic missions, no matter on which planet they are, is often how disjointed and clunky the system feels. In travelling to the vast planets such as Balmorra, Alderaan, or Belsavis, for the majority of cases there is only one Heroic in any given area. There isn't much room to 'balance' between completing aspects of two separate missions.
In cases where there are multiples it's sometimes the case that some are done quickly whilst others take far longer, like for example for those two (potentially quite time-consuming) Republic Alderaan missions in King's Pass with the Killiks.
For Dailies, which more often than not take place in areas specifically built around them, this can happen more frequently. For example, on Yavin IV two separate missions share the exact same bonus missions, and so it is possible to complete both missions just through killing just three specific mobs.
There are still aspects where the missions are just as disjointed as the majority of Heroics, but unless you're doing GSI or Makeb it's nowhere near as noticeable for the majority of Dailies.
~~~
Reward
This is actually really quite interesting to compare.
There are a grand total of 73 Heroic Missions available from the Imperial terminal, with Agents and Hunters receiving two more than Inquisitors and Warriors who only receive 71. Republic Players can choose from a total of 71, with Smugglers and Troopers again receiving two more than Consulars and Knights who only receive 69.
Each of these missions rewards 18,360 Credits, 5 Common Data Crystals, and 2 Glowing Data Crystals. This means that for Imperials there's a maximum payout of 1,340,280 Credits, 365 Common Crystals, and 146 Glowing Crystals, whilst Republic players receive a maximum of 1,303,560 Credits, 355 Common Crystals, and 142 Glowing Crystals.
However, these tallies are totally ignoring any Bonus Mission which grant a payout of 12,240, 14,688, or 1,8360 Credits depending on which Mission you're doing at the time. I personally haven't gone through each and every single Heroic to see how much each Bonus adds to the grand total, but somebody in the Community has made a spreadsheet to this end. It is worth stressing that currently it is outdated since they recently made every Heroic grant 18,360 Credits, but as far as I'm aware nobody's provided something more recent since.
Basically, you stand to gain well over 2,000,000 Credits per week through Heroics. This total can increase exponentially if you do them all with a group as well.
Another reward one can earn from Heroics are the Alliance Supply Crates. You can earn a couple of thousand Credits for opening each of these, let along a few thousand for selling the contents. For 73 Crates one could earn at least 300k quite easily.
Dailies are a slightly different kettle-of-fish. Unlike the Heroics, which can only be done once a week now, the Dailies can of course be done every single day. Thus, the maximum payout per week is understandably going to be higher if you do them every single day, but what about the short-term rewards?
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been studying the payout for Dailies across both factions. Of course some planets have exactly the same missions per faction, so we'll start with the rewards for one day's worth of questing for these.
- GSI: 16 Standard Missions, 4 Heroic Missions: 272,208 maximum Credits, 32 maximum Common Crystals.
- CZ-198: 4 Standard Missions, 1 Heroic Mission: 67,318 maximum Credits, 21 maximum Common Crystals, 2 Glowing Crystals.
- Oricon: 5 Standard Missions, 4 Bonus Missions, 1 Heroic Mission: 117,012 maximum Credits, 31 maximum Common Crystals, 2 Glowing Crystals.
- Rishi: 4 Standard Missions, 1 "Above-Board" Mission: 61,200 maximum Credits, 13 maximum Common Crystals, 2 Glowing Crystals.
- Yavin IV: 8 Standard Missions, 7 Bonus Missions: 136,746 maximum Credits, 16 maximum Common Crystals.
- Ziost: 5 Standard Missions: 61,200 maximum Credits, 20 maximum Common Crystals.
Total: 715,684 maximum Credits, 133 maximum Common Crystals, 6 maximum Glowing Crystals.
Now obviously doing all four GSI planets in a day is rather crazy. The weekly only requires two sets of missions to be completed in a week anyway, but just for the sake of integrity I thought I'd better tot up the maximum payout for these anyway.
The remaining areas - Black Hole, Section X, and Makeb - all have the same number of missions, and thus have the same payout pretty much across the board for both factions. However, there is one small anomaly with Section X.
The remaining areas - Black Hole, Section X, and Makeb - all have the same number of missions, and thus have the same payout pretty much across the board for both factions. However, there is one small anomaly with Section X.
- Black Hole: 5 Standard Missions, 1 Heroic Mission: 83,232 maximum Credits, 25 maximum Common Crystals, 2 maximum Glowing Crystals.
- Section X (Republic): 4 Standard Missions, 1 [AREA 2+], 1 Heroic Mission, 3 Bonus Missions: 145,163 maximum Credits, 25 maximum Common Crystals, 2 maximum Glowing Crystals.
- Section X (Imperial): 4 Standard Missions, 1 [AREA 2+], 1 Heroic Mission, 3 Bonus Missions: 148,837 maximum Credits, 25 maximum Common Crystals, 2 maximum Glowing Crystals.
- Makeb: 8 Standard Missions: 97,920 maximum Credits, 8 maximum Common Crystals.
Total: 326,315 (Republic)/329,989 (Imperial) Credits, 58 Common Crystals, 4 Glowing Crystals.
So what's the anomaly with Section X? As I said, it's small. So small that it's actually barely noticeable; whilst all three of the Bonus Missions pay the same amount for Imperials (7,345 Credits), only one pays this amount for Republic players. The other two both pay 5,508 Credits.
Sure, the deficit of 3,674 Credits is absolutely miniscule, but it's still worth mentioning. Integrity is important to uphold.
The Weekly missions for each of these planets also can't be ignored. Again, there are some certain anomalies here and there, as well as an entirely separate Weekly mission 'series' which I'll get to in a moment. This list will also only be looking at Weeklies which can be done by oneself, so neither Walking on Hallowed Ground nor Heart of Ruin will be mentioned here.
- Black Hole & GSI: 27,540 Credits, 20 Common Crystals, 12 Glowing Crystals.
- Section X & CZ-198: 22,032 Credits, 20 Common Crystals, 12 Glowing Crystals.
- Oricon: 22,032 Credits, 30 Common Crystals, 12 Glowing Crystals.
- Yavin IV (Dailies): 19,092 Credits, 20 Common Crystals, 12 Glowing Crystals.
- Yavin IV (The Enemy Within): 19,092 Credits, 14 Common Crystals, 10 Glowing Crystals.
- Ziost: 27,540 Credits, 16 Glowing Crystals, 4 Radiant Crystals.
Total: 186,900 Credits, 104 Common Crystals, 78 Glowing Crystals, and 4 Radiant Crystals.
As you can see, there's a fair amount of inconsistency here. Not only are Credits all over the place but so too are the Commendations in some cases. Oricon giving 30 Common Crystals when nearly every other mission grants 20 is an unchanged relic from the 'olden days' of Dailies.
There's only one Weekly mission left to touch upon, and this is that of Makeb.
If you're familiar with how Makeb 'used' to work prior to 4.0, the planet used to offer a Staged Weekly whereby you could only choose one mission to do at a time from a set selection, complete 3, have a long-ish interlude mission halfway through, then complete 3 more from a different selection, and you'd be done.
Now, the Staged Weekly has been replaced by a "more traditional" Weekly, whereby you'd pick up all of the required missions at once and the Weekly is to complete them all. Keeping in with its former nature, every single mission associated with this Weekly is a Weekly mission in of itself. Simple and straightforward enough, right?
It actually really isn't.
Outside of the Heroics, which have been removed from this Weekly due to being their own separate entity, every single mission which used to be a part of the Staged Weekly is a possible option. However, each week there are only six missions to collect from the terminal.
This means that each week the terminal offers something different. It could be mostly the same from one week to another or it could be totally different.
This also makes it rather difficult to give a 'correct' total of Credit payout, since some of these missions have a Bonus whilst others do not, and of course not every Bonus pays for the same amount. Even more frustratingly, not every mission pays out the same amount! The majority reward 19,092 Credits, but a couple grant 15,910 Credits instead.
Assuming that you get six missions which all have Bonus Missions and all pay the same amount, the maximum amount of Credits you can earn from Makeb is 170,862 Credits, 26 Common Crystals, and 12 Glowing Crystals including the overall Weekly mission.
So adding these totals up, we come to the following tallies:
- Daily payout: 1,041,999 (Republic)/1,045,673 (Imperial) maxium Credits, 191 maximum Common Crystals, and 10 Glowing Crystals.
- The above with all soloable Weeklies: 1,399,762 (Republic)/1,403,435 (Imperial) maximum Credits, 321 maximum Common Crystals, 100 maximum Glowing Crystals, and 4 Radiant Crystals.
In the short-term, then, Dailies are actually favourably comparable to the base Heroic payout in terms of Credits. However, with the Bonus Missions for the Heroics factored in, the Daily Credit payout is left looking relatively pathetic.
For Data Crystals, the comparison is slightly less favourable, with the maximum amount one can earn in one day with all Weekles factored in is only 44/34 Common Crystals and 46/42 Glowing Crystals fewer than a weeks' worth of Heroics.
For Data Crystals, the comparison is slightly less favourable, with the maximum amount one can earn in one day with all Weekles factored in is only 44/34 Common Crystals and 46/42 Glowing Crystals fewer than a weeks' worth of Heroics.
In the long-term, the Dailies undeniably yield a more profitable result. Ignoring the noticeably more far-flung Daily missions of GSI and Makeb, one can earn over 670k Credits per day from Black Hole, Section X, Oricon, Rishi, Yavin IV, and Ziost. Doing so for the remaining six days of a week can yield over 4 million Credits, not to mention the fact that you can earn 1,000 Common Crystals over these six days as well.
This is a fair bit of effort to put in, but certainly repeating Dailies two - three times per week puts them in a slightly better spot to contend with Heroics with all bonus missions factored in.
~~~
Personal Preference
At the end of the day, it does all come down to what people prefer to do.
From an objective standpoint, I would argue that Heroics can sometimes be the more inconvenient. There are cases where people 'need' to venture into the PvP Instances just to avoid competition and negate long spawn-times (because of course these missions were never designed to be farmed), but there are planets where such a thing is not an option. I'm sure that we've all had Valen Korik and Irradiated Rakghouls pilfered from under our watchful eyes before now.
Because not many people actually do them, Dailies offer very little competition nowadays. This means that previously aggravating missions like on Black Hole and Section X where people could steal a mission objective are no longer as big an issue as they used to be. This may still happen occasionally but undoubtedly this is one of the few instances where Heroics are worse off.
There is very little 'challenge' with either of these routes. The only real 'challenge' in the standard Heroics comes from end-bosses who have higher HP since there are never any real 'mechanics' as such.
As for Dailies, outside of a couple of instances, the only 'challenges' come from little tasks to set yourself. Back in the days when Oricon was relevant these challenges included burning down certain bosses either before they became immune to damage or healed a large portion of their health, because some of these chaps really did have quite interesting mechanics for mere Daily bosses.
Challenges such as these have sadly been negated by level-scaling and increased Companion power, but at least the Black Hole 'challenge' of sneaking around and avoiding detection is still there.
Challenges such as these have sadly been negated by level-scaling and increased Companion power, but at least the Black Hole 'challenge' of sneaking around and avoiding detection is still there.
Whilst the Heroic missions for Black Hole have been 'neutered' and are now a [HEROIC 2+], the Heroic mission for Section X is still a [HEROIC 4] and can now be done completely solo. As part of this, they have sadly removed the laser gates and all but one of the security lasers, but the final boss is still something of a challenge, and he also does have some interesting mechanics to watch for.
Certainly back when 4.0 and this change were still fresh, his Force Siphon proved to be slightly troublesome for a lot of people who exclusively used Healer Companions.
Personally, I adore the 'style' of the Daily missions and how each a good number feel intricately tied into the world on which they are set. Oricon and Ziost are my two particular favourites, with Eyes into the Past (the one where you have to scan dilapidated structural points and create a holo-replacement version) being my singular favourite mission of the lot.
Although I will always have a soft spot for the Big Red GSI Mission on Alderaan. As a hobbyist wildlife photographer and twitcher, traversing across the landscapes of Alderaan - already my favourite planet in the entire game - to find a rare giant red Thranta just resonates with me.
There is no real point to this article. I just found it interesting to compare the old method of farming credits to the new after almost an entire year of avoiding the Daily missions (and actually now a couple of months of avoiding Heroics due to being all but completely burned out).
I guess if I had to state what the 'point' is, it's that there are more ways of gaining Credits than people give the game credit for having nowadays. The appeal of Heroics is far greater than it ever used to be, and the priority transports give a semblance of convenience, but ironically this has resulted in Daily areas being far less populated than they ever have been - and therefore far easier to quest in - outside of mat-farmers on Yavin and Rishi.
Obviously, comparing Heroics to Dailies as a one-time fling will almost always result in the Heroics coming out on top, but it's still interesting to see that they're still at the very least a decent source of Credits and Data Crystals.
Although I will always have a soft spot for the Big Red GSI Mission on Alderaan. As a hobbyist wildlife photographer and twitcher, traversing across the landscapes of Alderaan - already my favourite planet in the entire game - to find a rare giant red Thranta just resonates with me.
~~~
There is no real point to this article. I just found it interesting to compare the old method of farming credits to the new after almost an entire year of avoiding the Daily missions (and actually now a couple of months of avoiding Heroics due to being all but completely burned out).
I guess if I had to state what the 'point' is, it's that there are more ways of gaining Credits than people give the game credit for having nowadays. The appeal of Heroics is far greater than it ever used to be, and the priority transports give a semblance of convenience, but ironically this has resulted in Daily areas being far less populated than they ever have been - and therefore far easier to quest in - outside of mat-farmers on Yavin and Rishi.
Obviously, comparing Heroics to Dailies as a one-time fling will almost always result in the Heroics coming out on top, but it's still interesting to see that they're still at the very least a decent source of Credits and Data Crystals.
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