For the past couple of years I've been occasionally pumping out a series of posts called "The Good, The Bad, and The Eeehhhhhs". These posts looked at three of the most major updates of 5.0's patch-cycle (5.0, 5.2, and 5.10) and listed each of the things that I liked and disliked about them.
I had originally planned to follow suit with a post for 6.0, but upon reviewing the first finished draft, I realised three things. Firstly, I was unhappy with one particular section (which just so happens to be the subject of today's post) and I desired to rewrite it; secondly, there was nothing which I considered on reflection to be 'bad' as a whole (thus negating a third of the title); and thirdly, it was set to be the longest post on the blog and there was still more stuff I likely could find to add.
So instead of following through with that original plan, I decided to nip these issues in the bud and break down the sections into their own individual posts. This also enables me to use these posts for International Picture Posting Month 2019 throughout the entirety of November, whereas otherwise it is entirely possible that I would just make one post on the 22nd of November and attempt to cram in as many images as possible in one go.
I haven't even finished retrieving stills from all the story footage yet.
~~~
The first subject up for scrutiny in this "Thoughts on 6.0" series is the new gearing system, Spoils of War. This was announced in April as being BioWare's attempt to introduce the fastest manner of gearing yet released; a claim which was later strengthened by the facts that they were fully embracing Legacy gear and making gear drops based entirely off item level. As long as you were regularly doing stuff, you'd regularly be getting little upgrades throughout that would make you more and more powerful.
We were also informed of their plans to introduce new items - Tacticals - and a bevy of set-bonus items to allow us to customise our characters to just be that little bit stronger in certain areas. A couple of months later, an additional aspect of gearing, Amplifiers, were unveiled; these were extra stats that weren't being factored into balance targets and were just meant to be another small way for us to customise our characters to be as powerful as we liked.
Since this system has hit Live, how do all these claims hold up?
In retrospect, pretty damn well.
~~~
The Basics
Their claims that gearing would be the fastest we've yet known have indeed rung true for many players. I myself acquired my Gunslinger's full set-bonus on the 27th of October, less than a week after Onslaught had launched, and went on to acquire full 306-rating gear for her on the 31st of October. I have since reached full 306-rating on my Guardian and am in the midst of collecting her own set-bonus gear.
Gear comes in many, many, tiers in 6.0. Starting with 268, every time you reach an alternate average gear-level (i.e. 270, 272, etc.) you will start seeing the next tier(s) up drop in your loot and various reward crates. Because of this, the fastest way to gear up in 6.0 is to do whatever gives the most stuff in as short a window as possible.
Gear comes in many, many, tiers in 6.0. Starting with 268, every time you reach an alternate average gear-level (i.e. 270, 272, etc.) you will start seeing the next tier(s) up drop in your loot and various reward crates. Because of this, the fastest way to gear up in 6.0 is to do whatever gives the most stuff in as short a window as possible.
The various Tacticals are certainly making waves within my guild. Already we're seeing various classes and specs which may not have been all too 'viable' in the past - Sharpshooter, TK, and Gunnery - seeing new life breathed into them with certain Tacticals selected. Specs which were already fairly meta are also seeing extra benefits from certain items - a couple of which I'll delve into in a bit - but the fact that we can potentially see a more diverse caste of viable classes in endgame PvE is something which I am a huge fan of.
Set-bonus items range from incredibly useful to downright perplexing, and there are still a couple of classes which could really benefit from further options in my opinion. I've found good sets for my Guardian and Gunslinger but am not at all keen on any of the available class-specific options for my Sage. I imagine with more focus being put on horizontal progression that we'll see further sets be released to coincide with future daily zones or group content and I look forward to seeing what they may come up with.
I feel it's a little early to judge Amplifiers on their effectiveness, and that's largely because it's quite difficult to work out exactly what impact they make in the first place. I do have some thoughts about them as a concept which I'll get to in the next-but-one section.
On the whole, 6.0's gearing seems to have nailed its primary objectives. It's incredibly fast to get gear, and there are innumerable options to cater many little things to your personal playstyle. All that remains is to see how the system develops as 6.0 goes on.
~~~
The Specifics: Gear Acquisition
When it comes to getting gear, there are numerous options ahead of you. You can focus on specific bits of content, farm Renown crates, grind Tech Fragments, the list goes on. Some of these are currently more beneficial than others.
Due to the speed of the majority of Flashpoints available, and the fact that you get not one but two boxes of gear for completing the repeatable 'random' mission for Master mode, you get proportionately more gear from completing a single one of these things than you do in really any other content (Scum and Villainy perhaps notwithstanding). Running a few of these in a single evening alone is incredibly rewarding and so these are easily the best things to do to get gear quickly.
Operations, while still giving players a shedload of loot per boss, aren't anywhere near as useful for gearing as they used to be. While still a leap ahead of the initial state of things during 5.0, Operations loot is largely just a bunch of random gear with set bonus items being really quite rare, particularly in Story modes. Even when such an item does appear, there is a chance that nobody in the group can use it, either because the eligible classes already have that piece or because it's not part of a set which anyone's actually trying to find.
Daily and Weekly crates are presently only found on two planets; Onderon and Mek-Sha. Onderon yields a purple crate with its daily Patrol mission and a gold crate with its weekly while Mek-Sha yields a purple crate with each of its Heroic missions. While they're worth doing just to get those crates the fact that these are the only planets to yield such boxes is quite disappointing, especially when the Ossus weekly still gives boxes of the obsolete 252 gear to Level 75s.
Renown crates, while flowing reasonably reliably, only offer two pieces at most. While the items within them can be upgrades and sought-after items, the crates are definitely not the best source of gear out there. Since Renown is designed to be purely supplementary rather than a main source like Command was, this slow trickle of loot aligns with that concept.
Completing Conquest grants a maximum of two crates; a small one for completing the personal target and a yield-dependent crate for reaching the guild target. I haven't yet seen enough of these to really assess their usefulness, but extra gear is extra gear. I'll take it.
Completing Conquest grants a maximum of two crates; a small one for completing the personal target and a yield-dependent crate for reaching the guild target. I haven't yet seen enough of these to really assess their usefulness, but extra gear is extra gear. I'll take it.
The one piece of content I can't claim to have any personal experience of for loot is PvP. I haven't touched PvP for a looooooong time and I doubt I'll be starting again soon, but from what I'm hearing from people within my guild, 'raw' gearing via PvP is incredibly slow. I don't want to offer any further thoughts on this aspect since I'm fairly sure I'll get something wrong.
Most types of content, as well as just levelling up Renown, yield the new currency, Tech Fragments, which can be used to buy the majority of set-bonus and Tactical items available from class-specific vendors. Kai Zykken is back again, and is now selling a random selection of fully-modded items every weekend at a cheaper cost than the standard vendors. Fragments can also be used to buy boxes of random equipment items, ranging from individual modifications to full items. This currency is Legacy-bound and also comes from the new Deconstruction system so it is very easy to get.
Whenever you enter into any form of PvE group content, there are now two types of loot; group loot and personal loot. Group loot is pretty much the standard Need / Greed affair we've seen forever, and is often where specific sets have a chance to crop up in certain content. Personal loot can encompass pretty much anything, bypassing any and all restrictions such as items having the highest chance to drop in another bit of content. Oftentimes, personal loot is just a bunch of unmoddifiable gear and you get so much of it that your inventory will fill up very, very quickly if you allow it.
Regardless of what you do to get gear, the fastest way of 'effective' gearing is to just grab whatever you get that's an upgrade and use its gear-level to progress to the next gearing thresholds. Min-maxing in any form, be it via Amplifiers, Augments, stat-weightings, etc. is entirely pointless until you have your full desired set-bonus and / or a full set of 306 modifications (even if they're not used in a set-bonus shell).
This also extends to alts. Since everything is Legacy-bound, once you no longer need that unmoddifiable 306-rating chestpiece you can pass it down to the next alt in the gearing pipeline. Similarly, due to the absolute onslaught of loot you'll get even when fully 306 rating, any spare modifications you don't need or can't use can also be passed along. As long as any moddifiable sets you intend to be passing around alts don't say "Requires Sith Warrior, Jedi Knight" or what-have-you then you're golden.
~~~
The Specifics: Min-maxing
Min-maxing this time around is really quite convoluted.
To start with, RNG will yield a lot of mods and enhancements which would in previous expansions be labelled "bad"; A mods, B mods, Barrage, Discipline, Efficient, Proficient, Savant, Studious enhancements, etc. etc. However, even the "good" mods are worth keeping an eye on this time around.
This is because a lot of modifications in 6.0, including armourings, barrels, and hilts, have multiple different variants. You may get lucky and get the standard "Superior Lethal Mod 80" and it's left at that, or you may get unlucky and have to contend with one of the numerous 80R, 80AR, or 80BR variants. These take the stats on the modification and shake them up a bit. For example, the 80R Nimble enhancement -formerly the Quick Savant - changes the values of the tertiary stats (Power and Alacrity) while leaving the Endurance stat untouched.
Armourings, barrels, and hilts only have 80R variants of themselves so are the easiest modification to source via RNG.
Armourings, barrels, and hilts only have 80R variants of themselves so are the easiest modification to source via RNG.
In some cases, this differing stat-weighting can be beneficial. Because of the revised 'caps' for a lot of stats (e.g. 1,213 Alacrity and 1,591 Accuracy), having enhancements which offer differing values may make getting as close as possible to the caps without having too much waste relatively easy. However, the side-effect of that is that in scaled content, where Endurance, Mastery, and Power are scaled down to certain levels, this can still result in wasted stats somewhere along the line.
This is particularly relevant for Tanks, since the only stat they should pay attention to that's scaled down is Endurance. Absorb Rating, Defense Rating, and Shield Rating aren't at all, so unlike previous expansions where a Tank would be advised to stack Endurance, this time around it seems more focus is being put back on their tertiary stats and modifications which promote those specific stats.
Relics, stims, and adrenals this time around aren't quite as clear-cut as they used to be. Because a lot of the content is scaled, this renders the Versatile stim, Attack adrenal, and Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault Relics absolutely useless in the majority of areas. Even the Fortitude Stim is kinda impractical in these places, since while it does give Defense as well as Endurance it's only 109 Defense. Amusingly, and I can't believe this is the case, Healers actually benefit from the Accuracy stim in these areas since they still get 109 Crit from it.
What.
For DPS, the best Relics in scaled areas should now be the Devastating Vengeance (Critical proc) and Primeval Fatesealer (clicky Alacrity). Healers may also want to run with this setup, but the Ephemeral Mending Relic may also be useful instead of the PF Relic. Tanks get away relatively lightly since all of their proc Relics still augment their stats properly, but I'm seeing people say that for them the best Relics are the static Avoidance and Shield Matrix ones.
Presumably this is because the stats on those, being fixed and thus consistent, offer a better benefit throughout a fight than the proc ones.
I personally won't be focusing that much on adrenals this time around, at least not for scaled content. I'm already pushing the boundaries on Critical Rating as it is with the DV Relic in-use and with the PF Relic activated I hit the 1.3 GCD cap so to apply any more Alacrity would be a waste of stats. Maybe when my guild hits Dxun VM for progression I'll think about getting the Attack adrenal sorted and revert back to the Focused Retribution and Serendipitous Assault Relics. Not worth worrying about until then, really.
Due to the crafting changes and the particularly vicious recipe for crafting even the blue Augments, the 'best' Augments to run until the new ones become even slightly farmable are the old 228s. This is because the new ones introduced from Traitor Among the Chiss onwards have had their stats adjusted to correspond to the 6.0 Augment formula of having both Endurance and Power higher than the tertiary stat. The 242 Augments, for example, now have 80 Endurance, 80 Power, and 58 tertiary stat. The old 228 ones have 65 Endurance / Power and 96 tertiary stat.
Sure, you trade away Power and Endurance in going to the 228 ones, but if you're largely going to be doing scaled content those stats do not matter. It's best to just focus on getting your tertiary stats to where you want / need them, and since the 228s are very comparable to the new blues in that regard (126 Endurance, 126 Power, and 95 tertiary stat), it's just incredibly easy and far better value to use them in the interim.
I've never seen an expansion make old gearing items more relevant than they were at the end of their own expansion.
Okay, so it's time to touch on the Amplifiers.
When they were first announced, I had a fair few reservations. Having had exposure to Neverwinter Online and its similar system for its artifact weapons, I wasn't keen to see something like this come to SWtOR. However, unlike Neverwinter, which makes the Cartel Market look tame, the Amplifiers in SWtOR do not require an item which can be found - among other locations - on the cash-shop to re-roll their stats. They 'only' require credits, but the cost of them can escalate exponentially if you allow it (on the PTS I once spent several million of the infinitely-free credits before I got an Amplifier I wanted on a single armouring; happily, this was the worst such instance I had).
However, the fact that Amplifiers aren't included in balance targets and thus could be ignored if desired lifted my spirits. As much as I am not a fan of the concept, I don't mind them being an optional credit sink; it would be another thing entirely if everything was tuned so that Amplifiers became a compulsory credit sink.
Plus, ultimately it's very difficult to really gauge their effectiveness. Because a lot of additional damage can come from other sources, such as Tacticals, it's not as if the Amplifiers are the only things out there that are going to be responsible for DPS numbers. I'm sure there's some way of determining exactly how much difference specific Amps make to specific specs, but I'm not nearly savvy enough with the know-how to really see what needs seeing in this regard.
Additionally, due to the RNG factor, you may just get stuff which has a good Amplifier on it for your spec anyway. It's not really worth spending thousands upon thousands of credits to get something if your next loot-drop has a chance to yield exactly the same Amp you just bought on a specific item.
But then, due to the nature of RNG and how central it is to Spoils of War, the same could be said about many aspects of this particular system. Amplifiers are just the easiest thing to highlight in this regard.
~~~
Case Study: Guardian and Gunslinger
When it comes to how I gear my characters, particularly with regards to Tacticals, I tend to look only at those which augment my current rotations. With one exception which I'll get to a bit further down, I am not at all keen on anything which involves changing my rotation either by necessitating using a new ability or a familiar ability in a new way. Similarly, I would not want to take anything that reduced the cooldown of any of my integral abilities by any means since that would throw me off entirely.
For the time being, I only have two of my characters on each faction levelled to 75; my Guardian, Gunslinger, Juggernaut, and Sniper. As expressed above my Gunslinger and Sniper are both pretty much done, while my Guardian and Juggernaut both need a little extra work. It won't be too much longer until I have all four characters on equal footing, however; I imagine I'll have achieved this by the end of this week.
Since these are the characters who I have found the clearest path forward for, I thought I would just lay out what I have acquired, or am in the process of acquiring, for them. Since I am primarily a Republic character, this section will be using Republic terminology. Apologies, steadfast Imperial readers.
Guardian
For the time being, I only have two of my characters on each faction levelled to 75; my Guardian, Gunslinger, Juggernaut, and Sniper. As expressed above my Gunslinger and Sniper are both pretty much done, while my Guardian and Juggernaut both need a little extra work. It won't be too much longer until I have all four characters on equal footing, however; I imagine I'll have achieved this by the end of this week.
Since these are the characters who I have found the clearest path forward for, I thought I would just lay out what I have acquired, or am in the process of acquiring, for them. Since I am primarily a Republic character, this section will be using Republic terminology. Apologies, steadfast Imperial readers.
~
Guardian
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| For those who can't make out the darkened text: (4) Whenever you gain or use a Force Clarity ability charge while in combat, your damage is increased by 10% for 10 seconds. (6) Dealing damage has a 10% chance to build a Force Clarity ability charge. Can only occur once every 5 seconds. |
Because this set is also a generic Knight set, I've also seen a couple of Sentinels in my guild express their liking of it. While one of them is merely collecting it to use it as a placeholder until they get their Culling Blade set, I'm pleased to see that this set appeals greatly to both Knight classes.
Prior to 6.0a, I wasn't particularly keen on the available Tacticals for Vigilance. The one I had been using on the PTS, Higher Focus, proved rather clunky at times so I was unsure whether or not to buy it. Mercifully, because I had bought myself time by focusing purely on my Gunslinger for the first week, BioWare solved this problem for me on the 29th of October.
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| Cross out "Slash" and substitute in "Blade Barrage" |
Hemophilic Slash was one Tactical I wasn't keen on using because, as the name and tooltip suggests, it was originally based around Slash. I don't use that ability at all in my rotation, so I was loathed to include an ability that I wasn't used to using even though it yielded a moderately useful benefit. In 6.0a, BioWare amended its functionality so that the burns refreshed whenever Blade Barrage dealt damage. In so doing, they took a decent enough Tactical and turned it into one of the most useful options available for this spec.
Thanks, BioWare!
It's not a game-breaking Tactical by any means. The burn effects can still fall off; this just means that they burn for longer thus get more benefit from the Burnmaster passive. Although, to be fair, Vigilance doesn't really need an amazing mega-buff from a Tactical. This sort of adjustment, small yet noticeable, is the sort of thing I like to see.
For her Amplifiers, I'm presently thinking that Force Sensitivity is best for her. I have three options for her, with Armour Penetration and Periodic Intensity being the others. I've chosen Force Sensitivity since her Melee attacks get a nice bursty boost from Force Clarity so I wanted to give her Force attacks (which just so happen to include the amazing Vigilant Thrust) a consistent boost alongside them.
Gunslinger
It's not a game-breaking Tactical by any means. The burn effects can still fall off; this just means that they burn for longer thus get more benefit from the Burnmaster passive. Although, to be fair, Vigilance doesn't really need an amazing mega-buff from a Tactical. This sort of adjustment, small yet noticeable, is the sort of thing I like to see.
For her Amplifiers, I'm presently thinking that Force Sensitivity is best for her. I have three options for her, with Armour Penetration and Periodic Intensity being the others. I've chosen Force Sensitivity since her Melee attacks get a nice bursty boost from Force Clarity so I wanted to give her Force attacks (which just so happen to include the amazing Vigilant Thrust) a consistent boost alongside them.
~
Gunslinger
I find it quite amusing how cyclic the Gunslinger set-bonus tends to be. Ever since 3.0 introduced six-piece set-bonus items we've enjoyed having additional charges to Smuggler's Luck and, most importantly, a recharge of 15 energy whenever Illegal Mods was activated. This set bonus stayed true throughout 4.0 and 5.0, and proved to be the only set to not see any tweaks throughout any expansion.
I imagine this is because Gunslinger rotations tended to be very energy-starved without it so BioWare couldn't find a way of justifiably replacing it without risking angering a lot of Gunslingers.
While there are other sets of course available for Gunslinger in 6.0, this particular set bonus once again remains in place in the form of Precise Targeter. Because Smuggler's Luck is now a charge ability having additional charges of it this time means that we've got some additional clunkiness when utilising it and some reduced burst in longer fights, but at least we've got that additional 15 energy on Illegal Mods still.
The funny thing is, that no longer seems to be as crucial as it once was.
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| <3 |
Not that it isn't already insanely powerful as it is...
For Sharpshooter, I run with Agitating Energies. Vital Shot getting refreshed and having its damage tick whenever Penetrating Rounds and Trickshot deal damage is incredibly useful and results in the spec having substantially more sustained than it ever used to. Since the absence of Vital Shot means that there's a GCD gap in my Sharpshooter rotation now, I fill it with a quick basic attack somewhere in-between the two Charged Bursts, their Trickshot, and the immediate next Aimed Shot. Not too drastic a change by any means.
The common end result is that, with these two Tacticals, energy management is hands-down the best it's ever been for both Dirty Fighting and Sharpshooter. In the first instance, that's more energy that comes from DoT ticks and in the second it's because you no longer have to reapply Vital Shot to a target that already has it. The only times I've had to use Cool Head in fights are when I've been rezzed or if I've had to use my Sweeping Gunfire at a bad time. That's... that's marvellous.
I genuinely don't care if other Tacticals result in more burst damage or the highest parses on StarParse; the fact that I no longer need to worry about Energy as much as I used to is reason enough to stick with these Tacticals alone in my eyes.
For her Amplifiers, I'm running with Periodic Intensity. While ostensibly only for Dirty Fighting, it is worth noting that with the Sharpshooter Tactical I use, Vital Shot is now the highest-parsing ability in that spec so it should augment the new sustained aspect of the spec.
At least, in theory. As I say I have no idea how much impact these things really have in-practice.
~~~
Conclusion
On the whole, I do like what they've done with the gearing in 6.0. It's very alt-friendly, the Tacticals introduce an entirely new level of functionality to several specs, and it's incredibly easy to at least get to max-rating. The nitty-gritty details aren't my favourite things that BioWare has ever tried to introduce to shake up the gearing system, but even the 'worst' of these (in my opinion, Amplifiers) aren't presented in a way that makes me get too hung up on things.
I'm very curious to see how the system develops. As I say, the thing I hope that comes from it most of all is at least one set that I like for my Sage. Right now I'm not too enthusiastic about their DPS set options, but at least both Balance and TK have great Tacticals to keep them going in the interim.
I'm also interested in seeing what other improvements they can make in other areas. If PvP gearing truly is as slow as I'm hearing, this does ideally need tweaking. Similarly, Operations should ideally give sets more reliably in lower difficulties. With the increased focus on collecting gear before properly 'sorting' your gear, there really isn't much justification behind making some sets that much harder to acquire than a lot of others. I got six of my Gunslinger's seven set items just through Tech Fragments alone while the seventh came from a Flashpoint crate. A set that comes from Ops only is going to take a lot more time than that and that, in my opinion, isn't a fair difference.
Although, to be fair, until the vendors were introduced on the PTS everyone was going to be on a much more level playing field. I'm grateful for those vendors' existence and I know there are plenty of good sets on them, but it's still a tad aggravating for some people to have to hunt for their best sets when another character can just pitch up to the vendor and buy theirs outright.
Although, to be fair, until the vendors were introduced on the PTS everyone was going to be on a much more level playing field. I'm grateful for those vendors' existence and I know there are plenty of good sets on them, but it's still a tad aggravating for some people to have to hunt for their best sets when another character can just pitch up to the vendor and buy theirs outright.
We'll just have to see how things go on. For now, I for one am happy with what they've done.
Next up: Crafting changes.
Next up: Crafting changes.
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