DCUO's Gear/CR Model is just a Rat Race. Where's the fun?

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Nuubia, Aug 13, 2015.

  1. Superskull85 Devoted Player

    Not pointless but mods can become time and Cash consuming on a monthly release cycle + Elite variants.
    • Like x 1
  2. Remander Steadfast Player

    A simpler way to look at it is that, assuming the trend of 3 IL increases per Episode on the (un)common, vendor, and rare gear continues, there will be 3 such increases from Episode 15 to Episode 18. Well, 3 x 3 = 9, and 112 + 9 = 121. ;)

    Something crossed my mind in considering all this, though. With stat flattening, relative CR scaling, relevancy banding, and monthly episodes, it seems like gear tiering has sort of become obsolete. :eek: What I mean is any "tier" label (e.g., Tier 1, 2, 3, ....) in the future will really be an arbitrary partition in the gear progression. There is no longer a significant leap in gear progression from tier to tier. It's just a measured progression of CR by which content is gated. I wonder how that will be handled down the road. Will they just announce Tier 8 sometime next year? Will there be future tiers? Will the tier system be eliminated altogether? :confused:
    • Like x 1
  3. Remander Steadfast Player

    Another thing to consider. If the IL increase of 3 per episode does continue, we're only going to be looking at a little of 10 CR (9 x 1.15 = 10.35) increases every 3 episodes. The difference between DLC 14 and Episode 17 will end up being close to 15 CR, but jumps will never be that big again. We will be CR 151 at the end of Episode 20, CR 161 for Episode 23, and on. So, we won't reach CR 200 until around Episode 35. :eek:

    Again, this is all conjecture. ;)
  4. TKMcClone Steadfast Player

    Seems like a long way away from my first visit to the watchtower and the excitement of seeing the Dark Specter Batsuit for the first time...:(
    • Like x 2
  5. VulcanusCenturion Level 30

    I cannot find an answer to my question anywhere, someone please point me in the right direction, or answer if you are absolutely sure that your answer is in fact correct.
    1st off, I have 4 toons Im running BP with non-stop, I have spent so much real money to purchase replay badges that I am embarrassed to share the current total.
    I have a few 120 pieces scattered amongst my toons, and for each single piece a toon has, it has also gotten a duplicate for that piece.

    QUESTION---- my main toon is Hardlight, I have been waiting for this Energy Construct Style forever, and thus far I am pleased with the syle "look" on this Green Lantern toon, I have gotten the chest finally after well over 20 replays, and the back, after 10 more replays. It has been another 15 plus replays so far for the 120 legs on this toon, they just wont drop. So I ask, when will I be able to purchase the
    Energy Armor Style Legs (style) at the Style Vendor ???
  6. Remander Steadfast Player

    They have stated that all drop styles like that will eventually make it to the rare style vendor, but there will be a delay to encourage actually running the content. How long a delay, I have no idea.
    • Like x 1
  7. buddah Well-Known Player

    I think increasing the IL by 3 is stupid. The Devs should just keep the IL the same for episodes 15-17 then increase the IL in 18.
  8. Solmes202 Loyal Player


    The solution is to factor both into CR and return SOME level of character crafting to the game.
    • Like x 1
  9. UltraVillain Committed Player

    Indeed the race for gear is now the overwhelming reason to play DCUO as fun, story, individuality and character progression have been major casualties of the last 10 to 15 updates.

    Crafting and mods do need to be given some greater value than we see at present...the ability to radically elevate CR was patently ridiculous but perhaps a top tier mod on gear adding +3 to Cr would not break the bank and might just makes for a better way to bridge the odd skipped dlc than the gear spread that content is now forced to drop.

    As with SP the real problem of modding comes with the absurdly OTT stats provided by gear alone - all but rendering any % gain worthless, a stat crushing exercise for gear would see the value of stats enabled by SP and mods to have gain some meaning again.
    • Like x 2
  10. Solmes202 Loyal Player


    I agree 100%. Of course that would mean players actually having to put real effort into their progression. Right now it is DCUO-The Remedial Edition with the motto "Why play when you can just show up?"
    • Like x 2
  11. Remander Steadfast Player

    Since we only get 4-6 pieces of gear per episode now, there needs to be an increase to maintain the CR build across the episodes. The overall CR jump with this method over 3 episodes will actually be less than the old DLC method. CR will reliably increase by a little more than 10 every 3.
  12. Burning_Baron Loyal Player

    Guys , the only gear you replace are the blue drops. The only time you replace a purple is if you get the dropped version.

    The 120 you get this month with be valid all three months. There is no higher cr version of these pieces. There will be no 123 chest or 126. The same will be said for next month's round of gear .

    At the end of the cycle you will have gear comprising of 120, 123, and 126.
    • Like x 2
  13. Remander Steadfast Player

    Exactly. The only ones replacing the top IL gear pieces during Episodes 16 & 17 will be those going after the Elite gear set.
  14. MEBegnalsFan Devoted Player

    It is why I have been a been supporter of best gear in vendor. Increase MoV to buy it or decrease MoV earned in the instances, whatever changes are needed to make a player earn it. Sorry, getting a LUCKY 120 piece in a raid is not EARNED, that is LUCK. Someone who grinded for hours each day to get 60 MoV to buy the 118 piece EARNED it vs LUCK.

    I know many players are sick and tired of the luck game and would like best gear in vendor.

    I wouldn't mind going back to the way gear was designed with HoP I and WotL II where raid gear had slight better stats. And if they wanted to, make elite gear get the affinity bonus on top of those stats. I would be fine with that and I'm sure most in the community would be as well, but they made it very clear best gear in raid with higher CR, well almost every time now.
    • Like x 2
  15. Burning_Baron Loyal Player


    The only way this would happen again is if gear went back to being attuned. That is why they made the change in the first place.

    People geared up to fast and they complain and now they aren't gearing up fast enough and they complain. The old way of random mid tier gear and bought tier gear was the best way in my opinion. Elite gear should be a better version of the same style that you an buy by getting special marks from the elite maps. They would be cheaper and the "elite mark" would reset every tier meaning you can't hoard it.
  16. MEBegnalsFan Devoted Player

    Huh...

    If they go back to the HoP and WotL II way of doing raid vs vendor gear, that would work. Gear was unattuned for those eposides as it is today. That would make the small content players happy and if they do run a raid CR would be the same, just a slight bonus to stats for those with raid gear and those with elite would have slightly better stats from the affinty bonus.

    I'm just surprised that that DCUO continues to push out RAID gear = best gear when there has been a big ask for vendor gear = best or least have the same item level as raid gear. Something has to be done, and hopefully it starts with eposide 18.
    • Like x 1
  17. Burning_Baron Loyal Player





    Either way you slice it the best gear still comes from doing a raid. Having the same CR are mans nothing when the people with raid drops will still have the best gear.

    If we go back to gear dropping like how it did in Sons of Trigon things would be better. You get rare drops that drop in any roll but you have a higher chance of the gear actually dropping so completing a set does'nt seem like a far off dream. Then the marks get you the best gear. There has to be some form of grind.

    They then should return to putting more legendary drops at the final Boss like in the Batcaves. Brainiac's back piece was a coveted item back in the day and no one complained that it didn't drop enough.

    We are lucky we don't have to roll on gear anymore. Without the randomness factor somewhere there is no reason to keep a player playing. The entire point of these games is to prey on our need to be rewarded.
  18. MEBegnalsFan Devoted Player

    It does mean something when facing enemies. Vedor gear should get you to the max CR so that way you will not be impacted by CR differential. Using HoP 2 vendor gear was 124 and not 126. If Vendor gear would have been 110 players purchasing venodr gear would have reached max CR.

    The new content a player can get to max CR without a 120 piece but in the next eposide as CR continue to rise if a player only gets vendor gear and is UNLUCKY they will start to lag behind those with best dropped gear.
    • Like x 1
  19. Remander Steadfast Player

    This is actually incorrect. In Episode 16, there will still be no difference in CR between vendor and raid gear. The only difference arises with Episode 17. There will be a 1 CR difference between someone in full raid gear and someone in full vendor gear. That's it.
    • Like x 1
  20. Mepps Sr. Community Manager


    Update: Time constraints being time constraints, the gear progression for this first cycle is not exactly as we had intended from the outset. The progression starting with our second 3-month cycle is a lot cleaner and simpler, and I'll detail that shortly.

    Cycle 1

    The chart above is incorrect where it comes to Elite Gear CR. For this first cycle (and only for this first cycle), Elite Gear will have the same Combat Rating as the rare drops from the Episode it is in. Episode 16's rare and Elite gear is all 123. Episode 17's rare and Elite gear is all 126.

    This does mean those of you going for Elite gear will replace your rare gear quicker than we would like, potentially in the next Episode, and that's why the second cycle works differently.

    (*Side note, there are no elite weapons - The shoulder style listed above in Episode 16 drops in Episode 17.)

    Cycle 2+

    For our second 3-month cycle, starting with Episode 18, we have made some adjustments to correct the first cycle's too-quick gear replacement. The intent has always been for you to replace gear once every three months - like you did prior to monthly Episodes - and the new pattern accomplishes that.

    Common drops will fill out a full set just as they do now. No changes there.

    Then, each Episode, you'll have a segment of the full set that gets upgraded, and it's the same at each of the rarity levels. Vendor gear, rare gear, and Elite gear from any specific Episode will all be the same slots. Vendor gear will remain lower in CR than rare and Elite gear, and rare and Elite gear will be the same CR. Here's the pattern:

    Episode 18
    Chest, Legs, Belt Back (vendor, rare, elite)

    Episode 19
    Head, Hands, Feet, Shoulder (vendor, rare, elite)

    Episode 20
    Weapon, Neck, Face, Trinket, Rings (vendor, rare)

    You'll notice there is no elite gear in Episode 20, and that instead the elite content comes out in the first two months. This means, once you have achieved that full set of Elite gear (and the full 8-slot bonus), you keep it for the longest amount of time. (This is also likely where Survival Mode will drop in the cycles as we go forward.)

    I hope that's made things more clear, but please continue with any questions you might have. We predicted the initial quick-replacement of this first cycle wasn't ideal and have already made changes to address that when we get to the next cycle.
    • Like x 14