OP gear...is it even worth the grind anymore?

I do have to say...I'm pretty disappointed at the time and effort (not to mention replays and money spent in game) that I put in pursuing OP items that become obsolete so quickly. There has to be some kind of change. Maybe scaling...or unlocking when new episodes hit. The effort to get these items is painstakingly long. Maybe instead of pieces we get OP mods that boosts our gear to OP status stats. Something that rewards those who work for the hard to get items like Omnipotence Gear. I only had 1 OP item drop before AF3. Once I got that I developed that "want" for more. With AF3...I got the neck and ring...and was very satisfied. It took forever to do it., but none the less I felt a sense of pride in my toon. Starro came along...I got every OP item available. Again very satisfied. AoJ brought 3 more...very satisfied with the 2 out of 3 I managed to get. Then...revamp hit. I figured long before it came to live those OP items would give me better stats and a more powerful toon. It wasntbas dramatic as I assumed. Then they buffed them up...awesome. Very pleased once again. Now RwC has the OP hands...I'm one collection away from getting it (chasing that ever elusive complex crime-scene). But now my AF3 OP items are just ho hum. Decent to have on my Tank builds...lowers the CR a little but the stats are still decent. Starro Items are useless now. For some reason Ibcant seem to salvage them. Took so long to get them and alot of replays...doesnt seem right to just get rid of them despite there uselessness. My AoF OP items are my best right now....they still bring better stats than the highest gear available...the OP hands will too when/if I get them, but now episode 30 is almost here and it has gear that's going to make almost all my OP items irrelevant. Seriously...is it even worth the hassle? It's too much to do to get and it gets outdated faster faster. I cant be the only one feeling this way. My whole point is there has to be a longer lifespan for the items...any which way we do it. I have tons of ideas...for instance...they scale as new episodes with higher gear comes out. Maybe less and less each episode that it eventually needs replacing, but gives it a worthy life span...and makes it worth the grind of all grinds to get.

What could possibly be done to remedy this? Or am I just gonna have to start just leaving it alone and say..."it is what it is." I really don't want to...this was alot of my motivation to play. I wanna be the best I can, a sense of achievement....not for bragging rights or competitively...but for myself. When I play I try and be the best teammate....tank...dps I can be for my group. My numbers on the scoreboard dont always show the value I bring to the group. I main as Fire...pretty much middle of the pack powerset wise. Though I enjoy competition...I know where I stand...so I keep my humbleness. Can't lie and say I don't wish the would bring fire to the top for a little bit like Electric Nature and Rage got after being at the bottom of the popularity ranks. Those powers are doing well. I like my OP items because it helped so much with survivability I was able to hang damage wise for the most part. Now...it's going away. Kinda disappointing. Now I'm just thinking it'll be the basic grind for best gear and mods...and leave OP gear alone. Not wortg the trouble anymore.

I'm one of those spewing opinions like vomit type writers. Apologies for my long windedness. Just feeling like the winds been taken outta my sails a little bit despite the episode I been most looking fowad to about to hit Live.

Appropriate. Lol. I got carried away.

Unfortunately, this is something people have to figure out on their own.

Think of this. Can you imagine how many replays people spent on Prime battle ground, or any other raid that had a chance at OP items? How did those people feel last October when OP items were put into vendors?

OP items are just a status thing. Just to say you have it. Now, it's not really impressive. Someone either got lucky, replayed the crap out of content, or spent millions on collections. Nothing in this line is about playing a game.

The biggest problem I have with the way OP items are handled now it that there is a feat for collecting them. So even if you don't get it now while it's relevant, you have to still keep playing the instance part relevance, play the broker, or decide that those are feats you will never complete. If they were 0 point feats, it wouldn't be as much of an issue.

I really like the idea of a op mod, because i feel the same. I grind to get the op gear but they become obsolete so quickly. I already have the op hands and now the new episode is going to replace the op head. All the work to get them, it would have been nice that the new episode would be op chest or something. But the op mod is a really good idea.

Disagree with "nothing in this line is about playing a game" on the grounds of:
This is supposed to be a stat driven game. I play the game to acquire better stats. OP items grant better stats. Maybe for some its about status...I can understand that, but not for myself. We ALL play for better gear, better styles, better stats, better whatever...status or no status. We PLAY. Im not throwing shade or anything of that nature. Nothing but respect for everyone on the forums. I felt the need to post here...because it does affect gameplay to me. Imo I think the whole OP gear needs to be revised. We are playing for better stats to make our superhero or villian more powerful. We want the best of the best. But everything is so disposable. And some of that disposable stuff takes alot of time and effort to acquire. Just saying.

Thank you. It should be on the draft table at the very least for the devs. The Artifacts is something that can be kept and ranked up....why not mods? Everyone want OP...from a business standpoint OP makes money. Makes people play...but its far too disposable. Very short lived benefits. Like you said OP head when we just had an OP head in AoJ. Give us something we can keep for a longer period....make it worth the grind for awhile...not 2 episodes in a few months. If we had mods we could "grow" into something more powerful...I'd be all over it. The mods we have currently are ho hum. Some better than others. The OP mods could change the landscape for powersets and what's a better power than others. Keeps us content with the powers we love instead of the FOTM powers evry update.

Yeah, the op mod would be a great idea, imagine the possibilities the devs can do with a op mod, the different kind of stats, ect.

Exactly

I've even thought as far as what if they changed abilities with in powersets along with boosting stats of the gear applied to. Example...fire powerset OP hands mod in hands...changes the item level from 183 to 193...and the ability absorb heat is no longer a single target power but a multi-target and adds a few DOT ticks. Just ideas I kicked around. Can u imagine possibilities for other powersets?

Exactly, i really like these ideas.

I feel your pain. I did the same thing. I remember reading the post on the Daybreak Newsfeed that was making a big deal out of that Starro mask that they instantly made almost useless literally a week or two after the event ended and they dropped AoJ. I agree that it is almost not worth it. Almost... I hate that they are outdating them instead of doing the smart move and releasing the pieces that are not currently released (Legs, chest, shoulders). Terrible idea.

Just because this new gear will be a bit higher in CR does not mean that it will be better stats wise. I currently wear:

OP Head, Necklace, Gloves, Belt, Back, Mask, AF3 Ring, Starro Ring, and Utility Belt with the 183 vendor gear filling in the blanks. I have the man-bat commandos, a boo or creepy jack, orbital, and the 183 trinket.

Even with the lower CR I am currently 213 CR equipped, and I still am technically 214 CR without even buying the vendor pieces to replace the mask, ring, necklace, etc. The main reason I keep them is because I take a huge hit in Dominance if I drop them, and for me that is a stat that is not easy to come by. I have plenty of restoration, so losing out on like 60-70 resto instead of sacrificing thousands of dominance seemed like a smart thing to do. Especially with the other options.

TBH I didn't read all of the OP's first post-

To me, they've never been worth it. Never needed it & sure as hell not gonna spam replays just to get them
ESPECIALY when something can and will be obsolete in the next 1-2 episodes. If that's your thing to be the UBER top tier CR all the time...cool I'm happy for you. I'm not doing it though

That's just it. You don't have too. That's the lesson everyone needs to learn on their own. While having high skill points is a plus, and makes things easier. Just like OP gear, it's not necessary to run content.

TL;DR OP items are not needed, but they're purposely created with the intent of making you want it to the point of need. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you can get off their chase treadmill...or not, and continue to bang your head on the wall as you throw your wallet at the screen. Happy Hunting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long Version:

You are right on the edge of realizing something big, something important...and just as you come close, you get back in line for the chase. Yes...the chase. Omnipotent Pieces have always been positioned as the ultimate chase item. An elusive item given by random (computer programmed) luck, and not to those who work hard. An item imbued with great stats that are supposed to make your toon stronger. What's not to like. It's also highly unnecessary.

No matter how it's said or laid out, no one can hear those words over the cognitive dissonance created by the whole "stats are important" mantra instilled in our heads (even in the CR differential era). But, i'll say it again...OP items are unnecessary. They serve one purpose and one purpose only...to whip players into a chase frenzy that they cannot escape. These unnecessary items come with these shiny stat numbers that look very impressive and make you spend all kind of money OR a serious amount of time in content to get. Both which serve to help the company, not YOU, the player...because either you're spending money on replays for a chance at the items or on Stabilizer Keys to hopefully get something of value that you can broker with, or you're running an army of alts in-game which provides other players a warm body to run content with. Another way to look at it, you've been purposely infected with Pokemon Fever....gotta catch 'em all.

The sooner you come to grips with this never ending treadmill, the easier it becomes to get off and chase at a more comfortable level as opposed to driving yourself crazy. I know that sounds odd, but the truth is that as long as you play this game, you won't ever really not want to chase after them...it's just a matter of managing expectations and doing things in a smart way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking about the longevity of these items...their short lifespan is very much intentional. Remember, these are chase items...if they make them last long, sure people will chase after them, but then they'll lose interest in regular for those slots. The whole game is centered around getting you to chase the next best thing. Got that AoJ OP...great, now here's an even better one with better stats...aaannnd GO. The thing hasn't come out, you haven't even finished the one OP piece from this episode, and you're already worrying about the next piece and how your current items will become obsolete. They got you like a fish on a hook.

Something else you need to consider...yes, the vendor gear in the next episode will eventually replace the OP items you got from Age of Justice. But if you got them during the lifetime of that Episode and got to still keep them during the current Episode, you've gotten a decent amount of mileage from them. More than you did the AoJ vendor gear. Also, taking into account the considerable grind in the following episode, you'll be replacing the OP items last, not first. So you'll have had the benefit of their use within the span of 3 episodes (not entirely, but still).

However, if that still bothers you, your best bet is to completely change your perspective on OP items...particularly the ones with unique styles (sorry, but the OP hands in this episode does NOT qualify as unique since it is a poor re-skin of the Herald of the Black hands). Don't chase the OP items for the stats...get them for the feat points (the long grind) and for the style (which will outlast its statistical value by a long mile). The collection pieces will continue to drop long after the content is remotely relevant, and their secondary value will not diminish...unless you hate styles () or don't give two farts about feats.

Though it's never been admitted to or even hinted at, I suspect that this is done this way for a reason...Elite Affinities. Outside of the accessories (rings, utility belt, face and neck), OP items count as Elite gear. When you have the right amount of Elite gear you get to activate the Elite affinities that you slot in your Generator. In fact, if I get the current OP hands I will activate the Elite affinities for having four Elite pieces of gear (since I have the 3 pieces of OP gear from AoJ)....even though I haven't stepped foot in Elite content since AF3. And since the affinities for having 6 & 8 pieces of gear are rather Meh, just having the first two affinities is enough. Nice little loophole right? You didn't even consider that...I can't imagine they didn't consider that at all.

Starting to get it. Guess I'm chasing the carrot.