They said on stream ultimate and elite comms are staying the same but classic comms, planetary comms and basic comms will combine into basic comms and the caps will probably stay the same.

He also said we will probably hit the cap on basic comms when we do 1-60

So....are they getting rid of planetary comms all together? If so that would be fantastic news IMO.

Even if they could just drop the classic comms that would make me happy.

So....are they getting rid of planetary comms all together? If so that would be fantastic news IMO.

 

Even if they could just drop the classic comms that would make me happy.

Yep, all leveling and end-game entry comms will be the same, great change

He also said we will probably hit the cap on basic comms when we do 1-60

They said on stream ultimate and elite comms are staying the same but classic comms, planetary comms and basic comms will combine into basic comms and the caps will probably stay the same.

 

He also said we will probably hit the cap on basic comms when we do 1-60

Did they mention what the conversion ratio for turning Classic and Planetary Comms into Basic Comms would be?

It compels the question, will Basic gear stay the same, or will the tier roll up by one the way it did last time?

(IE, when Basic gear went from ilvl 156 ---> ilvl 162?)

It compels the question, will Basic gear stay the same, or will the tier roll up by one the way it did last time?

 

(IE, when Basic gear went from ilvl 156 ---> ilvl 162?)

Rolled up almost for sure, 156 (or slighty higher) will be in Rishi vendor, then slighty higher in Yavin vendor then new Basic gear

Did they mention what the conversion ratio for turning Classic and Planetary Comms into Basic Comms would be?

no mention of that

no mention of that

Thanks for the answer. Guess we'll find out more as the weeks progress.

"You won't lose Ultimate commendations or anything between now and Shadow of Revan..."

Eric this is a terrible terrible move. Clean slate please, bump them to Basic with a massive overflow if you need. But this... ???

Okay, I am slow on the uptake, so does that mean that there will be one class of commendations that buy into gear up to 162, and are earn-able throughout the game like the planetary used to be, i.e unranked zones will give them out, quests, etc?

It means that if basic/elite/ultimate work on 3.0 launch like they did for 2.0 launch:

Basics will purchase everything up to rating 186 gear

Elites will purchase 192 gear thats crap

Ultimates will purchase 198 gear thats crap

"You won't lose Ultimate commendations or anything between now and Shadow of Revan..."

Eric this is a terrible terrible move. Clean slate please, bump them to Basic with a massive overflow if you need. But this... ???

I find it hard to believe this is final but time will tell I guess.

"You won't lose Ultimate commendations or anything between now and Shadow of Revan..."

Eric this is a terrible terrible move. Clean slate please, bump them to Basic with a massive overflow if you need. But this... ???

Well, IMO that is one of the best improvements they could make. If I am not mistaken, all dailies provide either planetary or classic comms, with only weeklies providing basic comms to casual players.

If I am correct, this means that basic comms will become the new common comm, and will give you access to up to 163 gear, or perhaps as high as 183, which is fantastic.

Note, I am open to corrections if my conclusions are wrong.

What exactly is wrong with this? Or do you think that veteran players wouldn't "game" system and walk out in near-full 198s after first week anyway? Of course they would, legacy armor + multiple alts cover that

My issue with this is that between now and SoR anyone can farm/be carried/whatever to 300 ultimate comms from 16sm facerolls and flashpoints. Level to 60 and collect 2 pieces of gear of the same rating as the drops from new HM ops (say an Offhand and Implant; which wouldn't affect set bonuses) this is assuming the price-tag doesn't change much on those items.

Sounds great, right? However the problem which the community and BW should be considering is how long it takes between the SoR launch and when we start seeing comments such as:

"Sorry noob, you don't have 60K HP you can't do this sm op /votetokick"

Something I'm sure plenty of us have seen, and maybe experienced (especially with 12x XP). While this is almost certainly inevitable we should still care to delay it as much as we can. Giving away top tier(-ish) gear on day one will only bring that time so much closer.

I'm a big fan of the change to planetary/classic comms though but feel that the Makeb mod vendor should be looked at while this is being changed. The Rakata mods you can get worked great until the GSI bolster; now there's really no point in buying them at all.

"Sorry noob, you don't have 60K HP you can't do this sm op /votetokick"

The solution to this problem is to be the person in charge of the PUG and form your own group in Fleet. Then you get to decide if you're going to stick to the actual recommended gear rating for the Operation, or impose some higher standard that appropriately geared players do not meet.

I have always followed this rule myself and never remove any player who is geared at the actual recommended gear level for the content. In fact, having a few players who are slightly below the actual recommended gear level doesn't phase me either. Just this evening I lead a hard mode Dread Palace PUG run where I accepted a Mercenary healer geared head-to-toe in 168, with set-bonus (33K HP), who had never even tried any of the hard mode Operation content since 2.0 was released. We full cleared the instance wiping only twice on Raptus and twice on Council.

He also passed the Raptus healing challenges. And before the claims of "he was carried by the other Healer" are made, my guild full cleared hard mode Dread Palace with all of us in 90% 168 gear back when it was released, so players at that gear level can make an appropriate contribution to a clear.

Don't worry about trying to change other players' opinions as to what gear level they should accept into the group they are in charge of. Impose your own standards on your own groups.

Isn't minimum gear for the new ops going to be 186? If so I'd expect that to be coming to the basic vendor.

I'm not sure how excited I am about this announcement. I really like the RothC release and converting my comms into something useful(ish) but still being on the same footing as everyone else regarding relevant endgame gear. This will mean people can just faceroll the GF ops until they've a ton of ultimate commendations then gear out fully. It might take some of the fun out, unless they plan to up the gear level more often.

This will mean people can just faceroll the GF ops until they've a ton of ultimate commendations then gear out fully.

My expectation is that a lot of "story mode only" players are going to be getting a rude awakening when the new Operations are released. Fleet PUG "facerolling" of the story mode version of the new Operations is going to be several months away.

The key point is that the vast majority of players are not going to be quickly out-gearing the new 186 recommended story mode operations. They will have mostly 186s from Basic vendors, etc. with a few poorly itemized 192/198 pieces from the Elite and Ultimate commendation vendors (i.e. they will essentially be at the recommended gear level.) This means that tanks will tank damage, healers will actually have to heal the entire group, and DPS will actually need to perform decently to clear bosses.

Perhaps the experience was different on other servers, but when Dread Fortress and Dread Palace were released, it was a good three months on The Shadowlands of many PUGs wiping on Draxus and people "LFG DF SM starting on second boss." I fully expect there to be one, or more, "roadbump" (or "PUG killer" if you prefer) bosses in the new operations when most of the group is in 186s.

Did they confirm that Elite/Ultimate would be for lvl 60 OPS gear?

It would be strange if they don't wipe the slate clean. Anyone with enough alts will be in full HM OPS gear by the end of the first day if they don't.

Did they confirm that Elite/Ultimate would be for lvl 60 OPS gear?

 

It would be strange if they don't wipe the slate clean. Anyone with enough alts will be in full HM OPS gear by the end of the first day if they don't.

Well commendation gear. I wouldn't call it ops gear. It will be poorly itemised and no set bonuses and no main hands as usual I would think.

I do think however that they would transform your current commendations to a lower tier. So you might end up having all your current comms transformed to basic comms or something like that.

Well commendation gear. I wouldn't call it ops gear. It will be poorly itemised and no set bonuses and no main hands as usual I would think.

 

I do think however that they would transform your current commendations to a lower tier. So you might end up having all your current comms transformed to basic comms or something like that.

Yes, it isn't great, but it will make SM OPS completely trivial and HM OPS easy for everyone who has it. Putting the highest tier OPS on farm mode day one for more than just the top players can't be good for BioWare.

Its really easy to get Ultimate comms at the moment and with the XP event, you can easily have ten characters maxed out on comms in four weeks.

My issue with this is that between now and SoR anyone can farm/be carried/whatever to 300 ultimate comms from 16sm facerolls and flashpoints. Level to 60 and collect 2 pieces of gear of the same rating as the drops from new HM ops (say an Offhand and Implant; which wouldn't affect set bonuses) this is assuming the price-tag doesn't change much on those items.

 

Sounds great, right? However the problem which the community and BW should be considering is how long it takes between the SoR launch and when we start seeing comments such as:

 

"Sorry noob, you don't have 60K HP you can't do this sm op /votetokick"

 

Something I'm sure plenty of us have seen, and maybe experienced (especially with 12x XP). While this is almost certainly inevitable we should still care to delay it as much as we can. Giving away top tier(-ish) gear on day one will only bring that time so much closer.

 

I'm a big fan of the change to planetary/classic comms though but feel that the Makeb mod vendor should be looked at while this is being changed. The Rakata mods you can get worked great until the GSI bolster; now there's really no point in buying them at all.

I know I am going to spend my 300 ulti comms on 2 offhand sabers to reverse engineer. who needs fancy gear right off the bat, it's all about getting schematics first.