Star Wars: The Old Republic is adopting a new philosophy towards gear progression in the upcoming Legacy of the Sith expansion. It wants to let players get the gear they need to do the content they want and to allow gear to grow in strength as players do. With Legacy of the Sith, RNG will be completely eliminated from the equation: bosses will all now drop either currency used to buy gear upgrades or an item that gives a character’s weakest piece of equipment a power boost.
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With this new system, each type of content will have a certain “gearing ceiling”–a maximum power level each type of content can reach–with some higher than others. For example, Master Flashpoints and challenging solo Conquests will provide access to stronger gear than Veteran level ones, and raid-like Operations will provide access to the best gear available, the absolute best being available in the new raid, the R-4 Anomaly. As the game releases additional patches, the gear ceiling will rise for all content, meaning everyone will be able to improve their gear even if they are casual or new The Old Republic players.
That isn’t all Star Wars: The Old Republic has planned for its Legacy of the Sith expansion. Alongside the ability to decouple combat and story class, allowing force-users and gunfighters to customize how they fight independent of the narrative they play, The Old Republic is adding legendary items–a concept familiar to World of Warcraft players. Characters will be able to collect and upgrade two of these powerful items, which carry unique power-ups for a character’s abilities, much like the set bonuses this system is replacing.
Old and new The Old Republic players are satisfied with the new systems. It will make gearing simpler for all players and ensure they can always get a gear upgrade if one is available. Giving players control over the process via upgrades and currency means they won’t suffer the frustration of having a redundant piece of gear drop because of bad luck.
Plenty of players are irked by the changes coming in Legacy of the Sith, of course. Many think The Old Republic is making a mistake by copying World of Warcraft with its inclusion of legendary items. That said, in spite of recent legal troubles, Blizzard has seen incredible success recently, so borrowing another system or two from World of Warcraft is probably not a bad plan. Crafters, however, are worried they may not be able to create gear anymore, since the update didn’t mention how crafting would be affected. Players will have to wait and see if The Old Republic details how crafted gear will fit into this new system, if at all.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is available for PC. Legacy of the Sith is slated to launch somet time in December.
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Source: SWTOR Website
