Devs wondering is this an issue in ur opinion

Players leveling pretty much never need to learn roles or machanics. Speedy leveling due to every 2 seconds we get drops raising cr till end game is an issue. We have heard forever now high cr players single handedly wrecking content robbing new players the experience.

Results = end gamers who simply dont know basics. Underdeveloped not even bad simply untested. The result as u often say everyone wants to win is the difficulty has declined. Universially. The 1st 2 years the game pushed us and beat us down on every level. Now the baseline of years one and two seem higher then even our elite content.

As a sub carrier all I am garunteed is 3rd rate rewards. As a new young laddie strolling through the watchtower how my hero toon dreamed of one day obtaining that nice shiny gear set. We worked our tails off to grind out the suits and then after we reached max cr we put in work on skill points. There was a rewarding feeling and a reason to stay logged in and run everything

I am not garutneed even the 2nd best rewards? After subbing and supporting dcuo for 2 years being able to fully gear then supporting (begrudgingly) the luck progression I now am garunteed the 3rd rate gear? The cool little bells and whistles to make the game fun is so unattainable its simply disheartning.

After 2 years the game got easier and our rewards got worse. Simply how is this to appeal to the players who have stuck out the ruff early years and have been customers u can count on month in month out year in year out?

In my 3 years plus the "ccasuals" are not the spenders but mearly is fluff profits added to the commited players who are losing out due to dcuos changes.

For the record it should be noted the devs seem to listen and work double time to accomodate us as much as possible and from me atleast its appreciated

I don't know why people act like paying a subscription entitles them to everything. I know you understand that there's nothing you can't get with time and effort.

What is a 3rd rate gear? ANd why do you think you are only guaranteed that?

Vendor gear is 3rd best. It is what progression is based off. It is the cause of content being so easy since content is scaled to vendor gear. Cr differential in its current form is killing this game for those that enjoyed challenge.

It is not too hard to get the rare drops from alerts and raids, because if you have no luck, you just craft the rare pieces.

I just spit out my coffee laughing at this!

6-8 weeks without replays to craft 1 piece. You are not guaranteed a single drop. The only thing guaranteed is the ability to buy vendor gear which is 3rd best. Logic please apply before posting thanks so much

No joke. If I get another 4 scrap box from an Elite piece of gear, I think I might scream.

Unfortunately, years of bad decision making has lead to a game which depends upon replay badge sales.

Replay badges aren't useful or necessary until the current tier, where they are used as a lottery ticket to take a gamble on trying to get a piece of the best gear.

Because so much stock has been invested in generating revenue via replay badges, we suffer from a game that can't be too challenging, instances which must be short, a messed up and disengaging rewards structure, and a progression system that catapults new players right to the end game.

All a new player has to do is beat instances and they'll be rewarded with gear that inflates their CR rapidly. The game doesn't filter out high CR players, meaning those players don't need to learn anything and can be carried. There is no proving ground or learning curve any more. You simply just have to show up and you'll win.

I doubt the developers care or see this as a problem because it means that more people get to the money making zone faster this way, which means more revenue for them.

On the one toon that i run everything on, i'm fully geared. I would usually be right there with the op, but i don't see a problem with the new drop system.
I use the replays i get every month and that's it. I have a feeling the alert drop system is going to change, but it if don't players should get fully geared before next set of episodes. I think players just look at the number of metaloids and get overwhelmed, but they come quick.

I have to disagree. I've seen people get the op hands on a single first time run meanwhile I have spend 40$ on replay badges to get the op hands. I'm a year one player and have never received any op items.

Craftin rare pieces is garbage. The metaloid drop rate is too low to make missing gear before the next set. I've Ben getting 2 4 6 metaloid drops. Even from elite gear I still get low metaloid drops from salvaging.

So you spend $40 on on replay badges to get something based on luck?
Wow, just wow

I fall more in lite with Pit, I have 3 toons all 147 or 148 in both roles as well as the OP hands. I spent a grand total this month of $5 on replays

Okay so Top rate gear would be the elite stuff that only drops in elite alerts and raids. Second rate gear is the BLUE gear that drops in Duos, alerts and raids (example CR 116 chest piece ect). Third rate is Vendor? Funny because at the same time Zamaron was dropping CR 116 gear I could go to the vendor and buy CR 118.. doesn't that make vendor gear second not third? And of course in last place is the junk gear.. 112 in 151617 and now 122 in 18-20.

Now admittedly in the alerts like Desecrated Cathedral you had CR 123 drops (the rare stuff) and CR 119 drops along with the CR 112 junk but at that time .. the highest chest, legs, back and belt you could get were 116 from the duo and 118 from the vendor. The 123 and 119 gear in the alerts was weapons, boot, gloves and helms.

Its a progressive process .. Hey at one point when Demon Pit arrived I still had a few CR 18 pieces and even the CR 122 JUNK gear was an improvement. Plus if I had enough marks I could head to the vendor and buy better armor than the 118s I had in place. That upped my CR and made doing the Duo and the raids/alert easier. Its a much more confusing system at times but whatever makes my alts stronger and better is fine by me.

^
This has to be the funniest post I have seen all week. The amount of content it would take you to replay to get gear even outside of luck is about a replay a day to get 2 pieces of gear. Especially considering you need to save all those scraps to create the rings and neck for the final month.

Actually the blue stuff would be 4th rate gear. Vendor 3rd, reg rare 2nd, elite is top of the line. If you want to consider the regular rare drops as top of the line then that's on you but most consider elite above the regular rare drops. If you think they are as equal as sp and mods are useless so whichever side of the fence you land on there

Just to make sure.. did you actually read my post?

Because the very first 16 words I typed said top gear is the ELITE that drops in ELITE raids and alerts. After that #2 would be the rare drops from things like DC(n) UM (n) and so forth.

I think what the op is really presenting is old school vs current school.

The fact is that the way the game is now, there really isn't a satisfactory reward structure for old school. Those of us who walked 10 miles in the snow every day to get T1 feel like players entering today are pretty much handed most stuff and rushed into the end game RB fest. It's funny that there is all this complaining about the R&D gear system when it should suit old school more than current school who appear to be more than willing to RB their way to top CR.

It's a bit hipocritical. Old school being mad at current because they can quickly reach max CR via a luck/RB system. It seems to me that the reason R&D is looked down upon is because it does not offer a quick free way to the max gear. Explain it any way you like, all I see is people mad they can't get max gear the fastest way possible without spending more money than their membership. Best vendor gear and you'll be in here complaining about the grind.

I do think the vets are somewhat casualties of the current state of the progression game. But only in the sense that it's different now than it was back then. I seriously doubt that will change. So I play the game because I still enjoy it overall and sure I miss some of the olden days, but you either stay the course or leave and get replaced by 2-3 eager RB players. And those will eventually get replaced and so on. Just the way it is.

I'm going disagree with that - the R&D system is flawed. As long as there are gear pieces that can only be crafted, filling in for 'no luck with drops' is not an option. I have 3 toons dividing my time so, my scraps are divided too. It will be impossible to craft 2 faces and 4 rings on each of my 3 toons, unless the cost is reduced.

Yes the cost of must-craft pieces seems too high.

But the OP claimed that it is too hard to get rare gear and I simply don't believe him, because sooner or later you are lucky enough to get a rare drop. What is hard to get is a specific rare drop and that's where R&D gear helps: To get that last 1 rare piece...