131243-what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-to-prepare-for-the-next-drop

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TAs we all know, the game is about to undergo a major transition from a hybrid P2P/CREDD model to F2P soon. While this has rightly put a lot of attention and focus on the cash shop and what will be in it and what will be sold, there's a bunch of other changes in the coming drop that will profoundly the current players--particularly with respect to gear, stats, and runes. If you're already active on the Closed Beta Test servers, you probably are already planning out how to make that transition as seamless as possible--this thread is to provide some handy tips for the people who aren't on the test servers, to help them know what to expect and how to keep their game experience as pleasant as possible.A disclaimer before I start: everything that I will suggest here is advice based on either the current implementation of the existing beta or developer statements about intended changes to it that have yet to arrive, and so all of those suggestions are based on two assumptions: first, that the current beta is similar if not identical to the drop that will be going live in the next few weeks; and second, that there aren't any aspects of the coming changes that are so obscure that I haven't seen them or even any mention of them in the test forums. I want to caution that nothing currently on the beta servers is guaranteed to be in the version that ultimately goes live, and that I certainly make no guarantee of having been able to see, hear about, or do every single thing in the beta version, so neither of those two assumptions is guaranteed to be correct either. The advice I'm handing out here is based on what I anticipate will be of greatest interest and importance to the most people--if you want a more comprehensive list of changes, best check the patch notes and the beta forums.Also, special thanks to The Unnamed Aurin for help putting this together and also for becoming a badass raider with me to test the imbuements on crafted Master-grade gear! Who was that masked Aurin? We may never know.1. There is no point in optimizing the elements or stats in your runesets in preparation for the upcoming transition. 2. There is no point in unlocking new runeslots, or to re-rolling rune slot elements, in preparation for the upcoming transition. 3. UPDATE! Endgame crafted gear of all grades (Epochos, Adventus, and Archivos-grades) that is made before the transition to F2P will be converted to iLevel 90 for Epochos and Adventus gear and iLevel 98 for Archivos gear. Tests on the PTR are still ongoing and I'll update further as more details come in. That retains the value of this gear, so don't toss what you've got! And thanks to the devs for fixing this and not subjecting existing gear to new requirements.4. There is no point to buying new AMPs for use after the transition. 5. Eldan Runic Modules and Runic Elemental Fluxes obtained now will not remain available after the transition. 6. Weaponsmith/Armorer/Tailor/Outfitter gear schematics and Eldan Data Fragments obtained now will not remain available after the transition. 7. There is no point in valuing different grades of Elemental Signs for use after the transition. 8. There is no point in valuing different class and elder game runeset rune fragments for use after the transition.9. Existing crafted Mastercraft Materials will not remain available after the transition. 10. If you plan to transfer to the PvP server, free transfers must be done BEFORE September 28. 11. If you have characters on the arkship (levels 1-3), move them off the Arkships into the game world before September 28 or they will be deleted.
 
12. NEW! Build up your plat reserves. You're going to need it because ALL EXISTING GEAR (except for that from the token raid gear vendor; see details from point 2) is going to have runeslotting status completely reset. You're going to need to re-add runeslots that you have already added and re-tune runeslot elements that you've already fluxed in order to re-optimize your runes. Both of those can be done with plat, but it will take a lot.The TL;DR reasons for these things are listed below!1. Runesets rationale: All of the existing rune sets--at least that I have tested so far or heard of anyone else testing--are planned to cease to exist in 3 weeks. All runes from those runesets, whether slotted into gear or not, will be converted into tokens that can be redeemed for some of the new runesets. There are only two types of tokens that seem to exist--purple tokens that correspond to Exceptional/Gladiator runes that count twice for the runeset bonuses, and blue tokens that correspond to the regular runeset runes that only count once. Those tokens don't differentiate based on element or based on which stat they boost, so unless you really care a lot about element and stat for your play in the next few weeks, there's simply not much value to spending ten times as much on a runeset's Fire X Rune of Brutality as you would on the same runeset's Water X Rune of Deflect Critical. If they're both blue-quality runeset runes, they'll both convert to the same blue token.2. Runeslots rationale: Your existing gear is not going to revised, it's going to be completely replaced with new gear--or in the case of crafted gear, with tokens that can be redeemed for new gear. What this means is that all of your current rune slot unlocks are going to be reset and in the current beta implementation, you will have to re-unlock them. The runesets also will have a completely different relationship between stats and elements from the one that currently exists. Your current rune slot element optimization will need retuning following the transition. Both the unlocks and the rune slot element re-rolls will be done through a direct plat-based purchase or through service tokens. The prices depend on the gear's iLevel and are still being adjusted--you can check the latest planned estimates in the Tradeskills subsection of the Closed Beta Testing Forum, in the thread titled "Serious Concern: Gearing Cost". UPDATE! Good news for anyone who has raid token gear--it has been pointed out that your gear will be made available with the extra slot being unlocked and set to a slot that accepts any element (referred to as Omni slots on live, and Fusion slots in the beta version)! So if you have raid token gear, your costs to re-optimize runes for that gear will be discounted. If you do not have raid token gear, then you're still going to need to reoptimize and unlock all runeslots as if it was entirely new gear. Congratulations to those of you who have raid token gear! The devs are listening to you!3. Crafted gear rationale: Epochos, Adventus, and Archivos gear are about to all be converted into tokens that are currently redeemable for new gear that no longer directly matches the new master crafting system. Tests are ongoing; see recent posts in the Closed Beta Test forum section, Tradeskills subforum, Crafting Changes thread for the latest details. Newly mastercrafted  gear after the transition will have limited power until it is activated by unlocking 2 content-gates in the form of imbuements. For Genetic-grade gear, for example, imbuement requires activating a triggerable object in the entry lobby of Genetic Archives, the second imbuement requires killing X89. So unless you're either attuned for raiding already or plan to get attuned for raiding, you won't be able to unlock either imbuement. Unless you plan to kill the entry raid boss in Genetic Archives, you will only be able to unlock the first of the two. Similar imbuements will lock all new Mastercraft gear behind Dungeon Bosses/World Bosses, Genetic Archives, or Datascape depending on the quality of the Mastercrafted gear; Mastercrafted gear will additionally require materials called Matrices that drop in those instances in order to create it, just like Archivos-level gear currently does with Biophage Clusters.4. AMPs rationale: To avoid confusion, I want to be clear: this one is about any AMPs that you have or are planning to buy, and not the endgame items that unlock additional AMP points. After the transition, you won't need to collect and unlock the AMPs themselves at all any more. AMPs that you still have in your possession are currently converted into 50 silver. Don't spend more than that on them unless you really want to have them unlocked now.5. Runic Modules and Fluxes rationale: Existing Eldan Runic Modules will each be converted into a token that can be used to obtain RNG-based runecrafting materials bags, and existing Elemental Runic Fluxes will each be converted into 10 tokens for the same bags. Of course, this also means that paying more for an Elemental Runic Flux than 10 times the price of an Eldan Runic Module prior to the transition would be a waste of money unless you plan to use them prior to the transition.6. Schematics and Eldan Data Fragments rationale: Unlearned schematics are currently converted into 250 Crafting Vouchers and Eldan Data Fragments are currently converted into 1250 Crafting Vouchers. Also, the existing tech trees are about to undergo major changes to make the professions much more oriented on Armor/Weapons and not on other stuff, so even unlocking those schematics won't necessarily allow you to craft that gear after the transition. Things are still very ambiguous about what's going on with the Technologist tree and I haven't heard much about the Architect tree at all, so I can't advise on either of those. Anyone who can, please chime in!7. Elemental signs rationale: Each element is about to have only one quality-level for signs, and all different grade quality levels for the same element are currently converted to that one quality level. For example, each Sign of Fire prior to the transition--whether base level, greater, major, or Eldan--is converted into a single Sign of Fire (only one quality level exists) after the transition. If you plan to use the signs you have before the transition, the quality level matters; if you plan to carry them over, the quality level doesn't matter.8. Runecrafting mats rationale: Runecrafting is getting an overhaul and all rune fragments for making class runesets and elder game runesets that I've tested so far, as well as Eldan Rune Fragments, are converted to the same High-Grade Rune Fragments. (Rune fragments not listed there appear to be changed to lower-grade rune fragments). So paying a plat for Fire Starter Rune Fragments and a silver for Head Wind Rune Fragments is a bit silly unless you plan to get a lot of use out of them in the next few weeks.9. Mastercraft mats rationale: Master Crafting is about to become much more steeply dependent on dropped/salvaged materials, with an additional requirement for schematics and items that can be purchased from the Crafting Vendor for Crafting Vouchers. Most existing Mastercraft materials are currently converted into Complexity Matrices, which will also drop in dungeons and which will be required for some of the lowest-level Mastercraft gear. Notable exceptions include Smart Cloth, Tech Leather, Corium Acceleron, and Vitalium Ingots, which currently convert into purple expert-grade crafting mats for their respective professions.10. PvP server transfers rationale: Free server transfers were to help people consolidate as the population drained; now that the game's going F2P, they expect populations to increase again. They are suspending free server transfers with the launch of F2P on September 29, but the servers are going doing in preparation for that September 28. Be sure you have transferred BEFORE the servers go down or expect to have to pay to transfer!11. Arkship exodus rationale: 99 out of 100 characters prefer not to be deleted and the one who says he does is just kidding. 'Nuff said.12. Costs for re-adding and re-tuning runeslots: Re-adding rune slots will have costs that vary with item iLevel and quality. For reference, dungeon BoE gear will cost about 75 gold per piece to add a runeslot; contract gear will cost about 1.4 plat per piece; BoEs from Datascape will cost 2.25 plat per piece. There will be 7 pieces of gear that can hold runeslots, so if you have gearsets that can have runes added to them, you'll have to pay this fee 7 times per gearset, per character. These costs will apply whether you've already added those runeslots to your existing gear or not. 
 
Similarly, any runeslot that needs to have an element reroll to match new runeset requirements will cost 18 gold (dungeon BoE)/ 35 gold (contract) /56 gold (DS BoE) per reroll per slot. There can be up to 35 slots per gearset, per character, and the odds of getting a particular element that you need for optimization purposes per reroll is 1 in 5. These costs will apply whether you've already used Runic Elemental Fluxes to optimize a given runeslot on your existing gear or not.
 
Costs listed are based on the PTR costs on 9/25, with F2P launch on 9/29. They appear to be the final, intended cost for F2P launch. See the Closed Beta Test forums, Tradeskill subforum, "Serious Concern: Gearing Costs" thread for the latest details.
 
 
 
If you've got other aspects of the coming changes that people should know about to help smooth out the coming transition, please feel free to post 'em here!
Edit: Updated to include the PvP server transfers and Arkship characters deadlines and to separate the list into the bullet quick-read summary on top and the TL;DR reasons for those summary points below.
 
 
 
 
NOTE: The AH/CX is offline in preparation for the transition!
			
				
	Edited September 25, 2015 by yasfan	
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so those of us who have been using crafted gear for ages are being arbitrarily nerfed to push us into content (raids) we're obviously otherwise not interested in doing.
 
gg carbine, gg.
 
1 step forward, 2 steps back.
 
and i guess it's too late to send back that wildstar retail box copy or refund the last 4 months of sub i put in for based on the strength of the ptr too. way to hit below the belt.	
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so those of us who have been using crafted gear for ages are being arbitrarily nerfed to push us into content (raids) we're obviously otherwise not interested in doing.
 
gg carbine, gg.
 
1 step forward, 2 steps back.
 
and i guess it's too late to send back that wildstar retail box copy or refund the last 4 months of sub i put in for based on the strength of the ptr too. way to hit below the belt.
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Well, this is really more to lay out what people should be paying attention to as the transition comes up. If there's stuff you don't like and want them to reconsider, please do feel free to bring it up--please don't turn this into a measuring contest of who's getting slapped around more. But I'm also keen to see suggestions for what people should do in the event that Carbine doesn't change its plans substantially, so that there's more that people can do than just suck it up.
 
If they don't change anything about the rune slots issue, the solution is get plat or service tokens. The plat you can get now on live, the service tokens will have to wait until the transition.
If they don't change anything about the crafted gear imbuements, the solution is to either get attuned and raid to be in a position to unlock the imbuements, or get new gear of comparable power that isn't crafted so that the imbuement lock doesn't matter.
 
I will not pretend that these solutions are fair, or that they seem reasonable to me, but those are the options if these aspects of beta are retained in the F2P launch.	
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Load up on Signs of Fusion now.  Healers will also want Signs of Water, Fire and Air for their rune sets; again quality doesn't matter.  Also consider spamming Shiphands for the runes that drop there.  Every rune gets converted to a token, and you'll want those tokens to make re-runing a bit more painless.  You'll also want to spend your rune tokens on your Fusion specials first, then go for stats/ sets.
 
As for pvpers, your prestige will be converted to gold on f2p, so you might consider keeping those merc payments to help with runing.  Also don't bother runing your pvp gear much beyond what you've got.  Focus on saving cash for rune slot unlocks on the T2 Season 2 gear that you'll want to start grinding immediately.  You won't be able to slot most of the good rune sets for pvp in your Season 1 gear.	
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Oh, some other things I should mention:
 
Be cautious about advice like "buy X now" given with no explanation of why this would make sense to do.
An overt falsehood like "prestige is going to be converted to gold" sounds superficially similar to a developer statement like "prestige vouchers being stockpiled to circumvent the 10,000 prestige cap will be converted into gold". 
Be sure to pay attention to exactly what is being said. All runesets are made up of runes, but that doesn't mean that all runes are in runesets.
Search the Closed Beta Testing forums if something sounds really suspicious or ask for confirmation from other sources.  
 
moderator edit: content
			
				
	Edited September 7, 2015 by Chillia	
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I dont know what 50% of this even means.
 
I am happy they are making everything so clear and easy to understand.	
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I dont know what 50% of this even means.
 
 
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Signs of Fusion will be good to stock up on live due to the fact that they have a notoriously low drop rate on the ptr right now, and as an example the Superb Fusion runes take 16 signs each to craft.  Again, you might consider saving your merc payments from pvp contracts as those can be converted to gold in order to help unlock rune slots on your gear (which are really expensive).
 
As for buying other signs, element runes are tied to specific stats.  Fire for Crit, Water for Multi-hit and Air for Focus Recovery; all pretty good stats for healers, esp. considering many of the healing specials proc from crit or multi-hit.  I'm sure players can find a more comprehensive guide to runing on the ptr forums....???
 
Personally, I'm going to buy or craft my Fusion Specials first, since they offer some really nice proc effects or passives that some on the ptr are even considering unbalanced.  Hopefully some of the more op ones get toned down or eliminated, but as a pvper I would be stupid not to slot Steadfast, for example.  Besides these runes don't require costly slot re-rolls to slot in gear.
 
As for rune sets, most of those start at iLvl 80 and can only be slotted in ilvl 70 gear or higher.  Season 1 pvp gear transfers over at ilvl 50, and while it should rally up in intanced pvp, it won't rally to the full ilvl 100.  This combined with the fact that most good rune sets (cynosure and Clean Coat for healsingers) can't be slotted is why I plan to grind for the season 2 imbuement gear as quickly as possible before I even consider runing seriously.  I do plan to dump some basic runes in my season 1 gear, but those are relatively easy to craft.  It just doesn't seem wise to me to waste rune tokens and slot re-rolls on that gear that I should be replacing asap anyway.  This even seems to be why Carbine is starting Season Two after the launch of f2p instead of at the same time.  So players can be geared in the optimal set and start getting it imbued.
 
moderator edit: content
			
				
	Edited September 7, 2015 by Chillia	
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Don't worry, raiders are getting *cupcake*ed by the gear changes as well. It's an equal opportunity fisting for all.
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Just a gentle reminder that there's no need for name calling or insults here on our WildStar forums. 
 
Also please remember that the PTR is always subject to change, things are not set in stone as we go through our testing. 
 
Thanks
- Team WildStar 	
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			I said weeks ago the time till F2P would be better spent on live farming pets dye and housing items...not playing the PTR, these changes? always going to happen 	
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yeah. we all earned our gear already, whatever avenue we took to get it. we don't deserve this at all.
 
i don't think i'm alone in suggesting that this change is very negative and won't be recieved well by returning or new players, in the face of one of the most common points of commentary on the game whenever and whereever it comes up is the raiding stuff, wether the attunement or people feeling like they were being forced into it.
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			I have a lot of Protostar Runic Bartering Fragments stockpiled from doing Contracts. So my question is: How are those affected by the changes? Should I convert them all into runes before the transition or just leave them be?	
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I have a lot of Protostar Runic Bartering Fragments stockpiled from doing Contracts. So my question is: How are those affected by the changes? Should I convert them all into runes before the transition or just leave them be?
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			hmm I like getting the renown vouchers for the renown contracts 1500...was the easiest way for me to get that done fast was to save those till I got the contracts..they want renown drops to do anywhere :(	
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Presuming that shiphands still reward renown tokens--I haven't run one on the CBT so I don't know how they are--you'll still be able to stockpile those for the renown contract.
Presuming there's still a renown contract, which I haven't been keeping an eye out for explicitly.  :lol:
 
But at the moment, I find myself thinking back to the good old days of launch, when the game's developers decided to make a special currency called renown to "incentivize" group play among the very large demographic of MMORPG players who spend most of their time playing without a team. While it was technically possible to earn it at a crawlingly slow pace by yourself through challenges and FABkit expeditions, the time required per renown was a massive investment compared to running around group content. Even AFK.
 
As an incentive, it worked about as well as most attempts to push people into doing something they don't want to do, in a venue they don't actually have to show up at. It added yet another line item on the very long list of why the largest demographic of customers for this type of game should leave.
 
The live game still has very few ways for players to earn renown without being in a group. There's the miniscule rate of renown acquisition from challenges and FABkits, there's the renown you get from completing Shiphands, and there's the renown you get from contracts.
 
Incoming change in red. It's not that I think increasing the rate of glory acquisition through Contracts is a bad thing, but they could easily have simply added it to the RNG loot table for the blue cases and that would have done a far better job of providing some balance than simply taking renown out of this system completely.  :(	
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I imagine that change should make it easier for people who never, ever run dungeons (like me!) to acquire the gear from the Glory vendor. I mean the ones that do not require tokens from bosses. Since the Contract rewards are pretty RNG, that should let people fill in the gaps by buying the gear directly. 
Of course, the usefulness of the change is enterely dependant on how much Glory each voucher is giving out and if the gear in question is an actual alternative for progress.	
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I imagine that change should make it easier for people who never, ever run dungeons (like me!) to acquire the gear from the Glory vendor. I mean the ones that do not require tokens from bosses. Since the Contract rewards are pretty RNG, that should let people fill in the gaps by buying the gear directly. 
Of course, the usefulness of the change is enterely dependant on how much Glory each voucher is giving out and if the gear in question is an actual alternative for progress.
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			They= carbine studios making it confusing as hell.	
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They= carbine studios making it confusing as hell.
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			So pretty much everything that I dumped out of my bags to quick-buy my last month of Credd will be completely changed/replaced, so there's no point to buying/stockpiling it. Got it :)	
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			I've just hit 50 and was thinking of getting some crafted gear to get out of greens but I won't now!  I don't think I will bother putting runes in my gear either (not doing group content atm).Are the unique pets, decor, bags etc being removed from challenges?  Will you not be able to obtain them in F2P?I was keeping some tailoring and technologist recipes in case I wanted to take up the professions later on, these will disappear I guess?	
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			I haven't played around much with the challenges on the PTR, but certainly recipes that haven't been learned will be exchanged for Crafting Vouchers. So they're not completely useless, but at least the tailoring ones will disappear. The technologist tree, it's still pretty unclear what's happening to it. There's a bunch of recipes that have changed but the tech tree hasn't, so... still a work in progress, it seems.	
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			Tip. Level your characters off the starting ship or they will get deleted.	
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			You may want to add that those that want to use a free transfer to the PVP server should do so as a part of their preparation, as those transfers will shut down as a part of the drop.	
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Tip. Level your characters off the starting ship or they will get deleted.
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So are we sure that existing arkship characters will be deleted? I know they've done this sort of thing before, but I couldn't find any developer statement that this was coming through the Dev tracker...
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			So are we sure that existing arkship characters will be deleted? I know they've done this sort of thing before, but I couldn't find any developer statement that this was coming through the Dev tracker...	
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So are we sure that existing arkship characters will be deleted? I know they've done this sort of thing before, but I couldn't find any developer statement that this was coming through the Dev tracker...
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It is specified here in our knowledge base (there may be other places, this is just the one I know is easily located) 
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Yasfan, I have a question. About those thingies I've been stockpiling (and don't remember the name of right now) that are used for attunment OR can be used with some Lopp in main cities to get rng boxes (I think they used to also sometimes give "oranges" called Titian I think I remember, but i'm sure *YOU* remember those, you were part of that thread back in the days ;) !).
 
So are they still used in the F2P version of attunment or should we spend them at the Lopp ?
I have like 130 and I know the Lopp will give you trash items on the PTR now, so better spend them now, unless they're still in use for attunment when F2P hits ? 
I don't know how to check this, My attunment trinket was like x/13 on live and now shows 2/4 on PTR...	
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Yasfan, I have a question. About those thingies I've been stockpiling (and don't remember the name of right now) that are used for attunment OR can be used with some Lopp in main cities to get rng boxes (I think they used to also sometimes give "oranges" called Titian I think I remember, but i'm sure *YOU* remember those, you were part of that thread back in the days ;) !).
 
So are they still used in the F2P version of attunment or should we spend them at the Lopp ?
I have like 130 and I know the Lopp will give you trash items on the PTR now, so better spend them now, unless they're still in use for attunment when F2P hits ? 
I don't know how to check this, My attunment trinket was like x/13 on live and now shows 2/4 on PTR...
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Oh, yes, I do remember those. They were when I stopped paying cash for my sub and moved to CREDD. Ah, the good ol' days. ^_^
 
Those things are called Partial Primal Patterns and they do remain in your inventory with /ptrcopy. The last time I checked for the Lopp trader, it was still there but only had 1 case type now that requires 30 PPPs each. That was about a week ago, I haven't checked since then.
 
I haven't tested it out to see what's in it because I've never gone specifically looking for an easy supply of PPPs and at 30 per case I'm not about to farm them. >.< Sorry!
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He's asking if primal patterns are still required for attunement on ptr.
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Well, you don't even need the Partial Patterns until after you clear GA, so I couldn't really say either. My guess is that the primal patterns won't be part of the requirement anymore, just defeating Ohmna....but I could be completely wrong.
 
 
Also, there is a second Imbuement Material called Encrypted Datashards. Those are used for the Pink Avatus weapons, but you get them through a lot of different level 50 content.	
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Just did another test on PTR about the primal patterns. I spent 120 (so 4 times 30) and got :
 
1 Sign of air	3 silk toile, 3 buckskin leather, 4 silk scrap, 5 Rough hide	1 Sign of logic	3 buckskin leather, 5 Rough hide, 3 Bladeleaf, 1 yellowbell seed
I think on live you only get gear right ?
(azure, mauve, titian for blue, purple and orange gear)	
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I haven't checked it in ages, but yeah, the 30 PPP case used to give out mostly RNG blue trash, a little RNG purple trash. I never got anything but blue garbage from it, I think I tried twice to get a purple item I didn't already have and decided that really, I'd be better off farming the plat for BoE raid drops. There were scattered reports of RNG oranges--although Jabbithole never managed to get one in their database in >200 tries, so... *shrug*
 
Maybe they took them out again once people started griping that this was just not the right way to have people earn legendary gear. Maybe the odds of them popping was so low that it required a playerbase bigger than the game was able to hold onto after the drop. Maybe they were only ever in those boxes on the test server and the people posting screenshots of them were trolling for giggles. Who knows.
 
In any case, if the high-odds return on spending 30 PPPs is a small handful of green/blue crafting mats....  :lol: Yeah, those are super valuable.	
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			Pretty much why I've iced my newly 50 spellslinger. No point progressing right now until the drop.	
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Pretty much why I've iced my newly 50 spellslinger. No point progressing right now until the drop.
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Yup. That's why I switched to Dominion, at least for now. 
 
At don't feel like I'm wasting time leveling.
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			Yasfan, I eagerly await your update with the expanded discussion on your current gear's rune slots.	
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Yasfan, I eagerly await your update with the expanded discussion on your current gear's rune slots.
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Ok, so I'm going to display my ignorance here, but since I haven't played around on the PTR, perhaps someone can explain to me.
 
There's been a lot of discussion about unlocking slots and how only token gear will have slots unlocked- but in the deep dive it says that all slots will already be unlocked. What am I missing here?	
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Ok, so I'm going to display my ignorance here, but since I haven't played around on the PTR, perhaps someone can explain to me.
 
There's been a lot of discussion about unlocking slots and how only token gear will have slots unlocked- but in the deep dive it says that all slots will already be unlocked. What am I missing here?
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			http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/2015-09-02-deep-dive-improving-runes/ Oh, and lastly, Rune slots will also never be locked—if you see a Rune slot, you can use it immediately.	
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So how does adding slots work? Do we still have to add slots to our gear?
 
Is there a post somewhere that actually explains the new rune system well?	
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Why wouldnt you progress?  
 
-Still have gear and in fact, your gear will most likely be buffed.  Some dungeon blues will turn to epics.  Some GA epics will turn to OHmna epics.  DS epics will turn to Avatus epics.  Weapons are huge in this aspect.   I think all gear is getting buffed or staying the same power, nothing is being nerfed except I think some PVP stuff.  And even than, PVPers will be farming prestige for that new loot.  Having that dungeon loot will prepare you for world bosses next in the progression path and world boss loot is good.  And just have to do the boss to get loot, no random roll off against other players.  I can forsee world boss farming instead of dungeon farming, not only for loot but for pets.
-The only way to get the Pure (GA) or Divine (DS) runes is by trading in rune tokens you recieve from modules/fluxes.  
-Crafting is still crafting and recipes transfer over.  The only ones are the master level recipes.  And those require crafting vouchers so start doing the daily crafting to earn those.  Also, the Archivos gets made into a token you can trade into and craft a new GA level item.  Yep, still have to do imbuements, but still better than dungeon loot.  
-Stockpile mats.  Mats=Money.
-Only way to get food is to craft it with cooking, no longer purchase it from vendor so either purchase ALOT from vendors or level up cooking a little (haha, good luck with that hahaha).
-Grind out that money so can purchase expert riding so can own the awesome Hoverboard racing!
			
				
	Edited September 11, 2015 by Orrestes	
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-The only way to get the Pure (GA) or Divine (DS) runes is by trading in rune tokens you recieve from modules/fluxes.
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Hmmm, would it make sense to buy a bunch of modules then?  I've got like 30K glory and nothing to spend it on until we get SD down. 
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http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/2015-09-02-deep-dive-improving-runes/
 
Oh, and lastly, Rune slots will also never be locked—if you see a Rune slot, you can use it immediately.
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OK, so all this talking about "unlocking slots" really means "adding slots"?
 
The the issue is, I have to re-add slots to each of my pieces of (non-token) gear now?	
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128 for divine rune and you get 1-3 and 64 for pure and get 1-3 and 32 rune tokens for the dungeon level superb.  Its 1 for 1 on modules and 1 for 10 on fluxes.
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			Here is the link on how runes work in terms of re-rolling and "opening" slots (aka adding slots): https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/129478-serious-concern-gearing-cost/page-2&do=findComment&comment=1355281	
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{| class="blockquote"
Here is the link on how runes work in terms of re-rolling and "opening" slots (aka adding slots): https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/129478-serious-concern-gearing-cost/page-2&do=findComment&comment=1355281
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I'm not quite sure what this means :(  I haven't really been able to follow what the new system looks like in terms of how to get set runes and such (I just asked over on the PTR forums).
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-The only way to get the Pure (GA) or Divine (DS) runes is by trading in rune tokens you recieve from modules/fluxes.  
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I'm gathering some of the bug reports I can find that tell what happens to rune slots and gear after transition:
 
User lost unlocked (aka added) slots: https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/131153-some-small-and-medium-and-major-bugs/&do=findComment&comment=1359479
 
User lost one slot in the transition (he's reporting that the items became support items, but you can see that he went from 5 slots to 4 slots): https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/130847-issue-incorrect-weapon-stats/&do=findComment&comment=1357407
 
I got bored after 7 pages, but those should give you a clear idea what I mean when I say that your gear does not transfer over with the same amount of slots as you had on live. Second link even has shiny pictures.
 
I did not include the reports of support systems becoming SP only and losing ALL rune slots.  I don't know if that is fully intentional to not have slots anymore on support systems.
 
PS: This is to show that indeed this IS what happens and people should be aware that they may need to spend resources on adding slots back (and probably re-rolling because the rune slots you get after don't match what you already had PLUS with the new system, what rune slots you need may not be the same)
			
				
	Edited September 11, 2015 by DeaHamlet	
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On Rune Slots:
 
For many of us, we already had the maximum number of runeslots because we had added those that were possible to add.
When our gear is removed and we need to replace it, we're not adding a new runeslot because we already added it. It was already present in our gear, and it is now being removed.
We will need to add it again, and the cost for doing so is enormously larger in the F2P version than the cost of a few Eldan Runic Modules is now.
We've been calling that "locked" because what we already paid to access, we are being denied access to in the replacement gear.
 
What Carbine is referring to as a rune slot being "locked" is completely different. It's what happens after you use one flux and cannot use a second flux to change the element a second time. And it's great that this is going away--but the reality is that the obvious reason it's going away is that the new system has a much narrower range of workable element slots to optimize runeset bonuses, requiring the ability to reroll multiple times more often than not.
 
On Runic Fluxes and Modules:
 
First, I have not checked in a week or so on this, so any testers know of anything that has changed more recently than that, please let me know.
 
Eldan Runic Modules will be exchanged for 1 runecrafting token.
Elemental Fluxes will be exchanged for 10 runecrafting tokens.
Each runecrafting token can go towards the purchase of a runecrafting mats bag, and there are different bags for runes at different iLevels.
The endgame runes are Superb grade (iLevel 80), Pure grade (iLevel 100), and Divine grade (iLevel 120). 
A bag of Superb grade runecrafting mats costs 32 runecrafting tokens.
A bag of Pure grade runecrafting mats costs 64 runecrafting tokens.
A bag of Divine grade runecrafting mats costs 128 runecrafting tokens.
 
Runeset runes require several materials to craft them.
They require Signs of [insert element here].
They require Rune Fragments at the appropriate level.
They require a new material called a Focus that also scales with the rune's level.
Rune set foci come in different flavors according to whether the gear is a general runeset (Set Foci), or a class-specific runeset (Class Foci).
Rune set foci come in Minor and Major forms, where a Minor focus creates a minor rune that counts once towards the runeset bonus; a Major focus creates a major rune that counts twice.
 
The foci are ultimately the high-end material because they determine how many runes you need to achieve the runeset bonus AND they differ according to whether the runeset is a class set or not.
 
When I first found these, I did some repeated sampling to test odds of obtaining the different things inside the bags. This is a few weeks old and may have been tweaked, but at the time I ran them each bag had odds of containing a rune fragment of around 130% on average (meaning about 1.3 fragments per bag).
The odds of containing a Minor Set Focus was about ~10-15%.
The odds of a set containing a Major Set Focus was about 3%.
 
That's data compiled from 83 bags, ranging in quality from Refined to Divine. (Lesser<Normal<Greater<Refined<High<Superb<Pure<Divine); those probabilities don't change enough for me to detect any difference when just looking at a range from Superb to Divine. I never managed to catch a Major Set Focus in either Pure (n=22) or Divine (n=9) bags, but that could easily be explained by the very low odds seen using lower grade bags that I could buy more of with the same number of tokens.
 
I did not ever obtain a bag with a Class Focus in it. They may be in there, but if so the odds must be very low.
 
So unless the odds of those bags providing foci have improved a lot since the last time I checked, foci are going to be the major rate-limiting step in crafting BiS runesets and a few thousand Eldan Runic Modules will be required to obtain enough Pure/Divine bags to get a handful of Major foci at the Pure level or 1-2 Major foci at the Divine level.
 
Edited for clarity.
			
				
	Edited September 11, 2015 by yasfan	
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level 120 runes require divine runes.  Level 100 require Pure runes to make a rune.  Lvl 80 require superior runes.  You can purchase rune bags with a rune token you recieve from modules/flux.  1 module is 1 rune token.  1 Runic Flux is 10 rune token.  Each bag drops 1-3 of the new runes.  There are no augmented runes any of hte old runes now.  You can also buy superior runes with prestige so can use with pvp gear.
 
Didn't think about salvaging because not many will have that gear to salvage.  I hope they fix the 120 salvage.
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			class runes only drop from raids and salvage.  Depending on what bag you buy has that rune.  Divine bag has divine, pure has pure, superior has superior.  And what Yasfan posted.	
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Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm completely confused by all of this.
 
I've been saving exceptional and normal runes, figuring that would be enough. But I think maybe I'll just stick my head in the sand and figure it out when I can get my own hands on this stuff.
 
But when you say "class runes only drop from raids and salvage", does that mean that the rune itself drops, fully formed, and you can just stick it in your gear immediatly? Of anyone, or just the end bosses? Are they BoP?	
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OK, so all this talking about "unlocking slots" really means "adding slots"?
 
The the issue is, I have to re-add slots to each of my pieces of (non-token) gear now?
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Well, lets try to unconfuse you :).
 
3 types of runes you can put in your gear are Regular Rune, Class Rune and Fusion Runes.  I'll explain the tradein at the end.  The gear you have is determined upon what level of rune you can place.  Dungeon gear is 80, World boss is 90, GA is 96-100, Augmented is 110, DS is 116-120.
 
Now to explain the type of runes but before that have to mention there are no more levels of signs.  Its just sign of fire, sign of logic, sign of water, sign of logic, sign of fusion, sign of earth.  There is no Major Sign of element or great sign of element.  You can get them from drops or by salvaging gear.  Level of gear determins how many signs you get back in return.  So a lvl 15 item would most likely give you 1 sign but a lvl 80 dungeon piece gets you about 5.
 
-Normal rune:
There are Runesets that count as bonus and have stats on them that just go towards the bonus sets.  They require a set amount of rune fragment and set amount of sign of <element> and a Set foci.  Minor Set foci that counts as 1 for a runeset bonus and a Major Set foci that counts as 2 for a runeset bonus.  Make the rune, and put it in the correct color.  Each stat will ONLY be that color.  Crit-Fire(red), Crit Sev-Earth(brown), Strikethrough-Air(white), Multistrike-Water(blue), Health-Life(green), Vigor-Logic(yellow?), and i only know dps off top of my head cause ive only looked at dps but there are tank stats and a couple healing ones.  
 
So use a Pure rune fragment (GA) and you can make a rune by using I think 12 Rune fragments and x amount of sign of element and minor/major foci.  So a Pure Havoc rune of crit would require 12 Pure runes and 12 signs of fire and they can be put in a GA gear item and a DS gear item but not a dungeon level due to dungeon gear not meeting the requirement of rune level.
 
-Class rune:
Each class has 6 class runeset.  2 dps runes, 2 pvp and 2 support.  I cant recall but I think there is a lvl 100 dps/support and a lvl 120 dps/support.  Will they make a dungeon set, I don't know.  To make a class set, need a set amount of rune fragment and set amount of sign of <element> and a Class foci.  Colors are the same.
 
So to get a Pure Unity Rune of Crit, level 100 warrior dps class set, need x amount of Pure Rune fragement, x amount of Sign of Fire, x amount of class foci (minor or major).  Class foci drop in Raids and possibly from salvaging gear.
 
-Fusion Rune:
There are fusion rune in the game and can be put in any color slot.  The catch is, depending on the type of fusion rune, can only be put in the respective piece of gear.  Weapon, Helm, Chest, Gloves, Boots.  There are no major/minor, but there are High/Superior/Pure/Divine (I think boots are max High level rune).  So a chest fusion rune can only go in a chest piece of gear.  The iLevel of the rune, the more powerful the fusion bonus.  On the fusion set, it adds a special to that piece of gear.  Think Weapon specials or Calisthenics on boots.
 
-Tradin:
The normal runes in the game, either assassin, weapon specialist, class runes give you a replacement token that you can trade for a Regular rune that is not Class set or Fusion set and counts as 1 in the set bonuses.  Think Havoc, Cynosure and a few others.
The exceptional runes give you a replacement token that you can trade for a Regular rune that is not Class set or Fusion set and counts as 2 in the set bonuses.  Think Havoc, Cynosure and a few others.
You can trade them for any level rune.  You cannot trade them in for class runes or trade in for a fusion rune (HUGE IF THEY ALLOWED THIS!!!!! Hint Hint Carbine).
 
Yasfan mentioned this in previous post but I'll copy paste Yasfan (hope you don't mind)
Eldan Runic Modules will be exchanged for 1 runecrafting token.
Elemental Fluxes will be exchanged for 10 runecrafting tokens.
Each runecrafting token can go towards the purchase of a runecrafting mats bag, and there are different bags for runes at different iLevels.
The endgame runes are Superb grade (iLevel 80), Pure grade (iLevel 100), and Divine grade (iLevel 120). 
A bag of Superb grade runecrafting mats costs 32 runecrafting tokens.
A bag of Pure grade runecrafting mats costs 64 runecrafting tokens.
A bag of Divine grade runecrafting mats costs 128 runecrafting tokens.
 
Bag gives up 1-3 fragments which are used in crafting a rune.  I also think gives some foci and signs.	
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Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm completely confused by all of this.
 
I've been saving exceptional and normal runes, figuring that would be enough. But I think maybe I'll just stick my head in the sand and figure it out when I can get my own hands on this stuff.
 
But when you say "class runes only drop from raids and salvage", does that mean that the rune itself drops, fully formed, and you can just stick it in your gear immediatly? Of anyone, or just the end bosses? Are they BoP?
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{| class="blockquote"
not all new runesets will be accessible by redeeming those tokens
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Wow. GG Carbine.
 
You better thank your stars TT and his team create such good raids, because this is such an awful thing I'd surely leave if there wasn't something as compelling as your raids to keep me.
 
I keep hoping this is all a big mistake, given you promised us you'd be allowing us to replace all the runes in our gear. People with optimal runes trading for non-optimal ones is not "replacing"- it's "downgrading".
 
Make it right, Carbine. Make it right.
 
(And, I don't like at all how confusing this all is with no documentation to explain it).
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			The only thing unable to trade for are fusion runes that are basically specials applied to gear AND class set runes that you can make with the material drops from raids.  The lvl 100 and the lvl 120 runes.  PVP classset runes I believe may be from the bags you win/lose from bgs/warplot/arena.  Also may come from prestige purchase.	
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{| class="blockquote"
Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm completely confused by all of this.
 
I've been saving exceptional and normal runes, figuring that would be enough. But I think maybe I'll just stick my head in the sand and figure it out when I can get my own hands on this stuff.
 
But when you say "class runes only drop from raids and salvage", does that mean that the rune itself drops, fully formed, and you can just stick it in your gear immediatly? Of anyone, or just the end bosses? Are they BoP?
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Also, unless I'm mistaken you have to build a set in the same piece of gear right ?
Or did I dream that up and made it more difficult to myself to rune my gear on PTR ?
 
It seems to me you need to have all the same set runes inside the same piece of gear, you can't have 4/8 on boots and the remaining 4/8 on chest for example, you need to get 8/8 on the boots (or chest, or pants, whatever...).
 
This precisely is a huge part of why there's going to be a lot of rerolls necessary, specifically because of the lack of flexibility on where to put your runes.	
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Fortunately all my gear is contract/rep based and my runes are also from protostar,
 
That eldan data fragment info was great guess ill keep doing the daily  for more vouchers :)
 
I guess ill have a lot of tokens because i hardly used my signs and stuff
 
Thanx for the info :)	
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			Thanks for all the info guys. Helps a lot.	
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It's not just crafted gear that's being changed, but also many schematics are being removed. For example, crafted bags can not be made by tailors on the PTR/beta. Crafted bags simply disappear when you try to take them from the mail if you transfer a character over. Hopefully this is fixed before FTP hits live. I've sunk a lot of plat in crafted bags over the past few months and if they are replaced with bags that bind or have a level requirement on them, or are simply not replaced at all, I'm sunk.
 
Started looking for alternatives now, but sadly most equivalent bags have level requirements and/or are unique equipped.
			
				
	Edited September 12, 2015 by frankenbunny	
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{| class="blockquote"
It's not just crafted gear that's being changed, but also many schematics are being removed. For example, crafted bags can not be made by tailors on the PTR/beta. Crafted bags simply disappear when you try to take them from the mail if you transfer a character over. Hopefully this is fixed before FTP hits live. I've sunk a lot of plat in crafted bags over the past few months and if they are replaced with bags that bind or have a level requirement on them, or are simply not replaced at all, I'm sunk.
 
Started looking for alternatives now, but sadly most equivalent bags have level requirements and/or are unique equipped.
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Also, just like all other runes, they won't be usable in gear above their level. This is a big reason why DS crafted gear loses its luster almost immediately.  Even though its ilvl 118 it has to use ilvl 100 runes.
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{| class="blockquote"
Also, unless I'm mistaken you have to build a set in the same piece of gear right ?
Or did I dream that up and made it more difficult to myself to rune my gear on PTR ?
 
It seems to me you need to have all the same set runes inside the same piece of gear, you can't have 4/8 on boots and the remaining 4/8 on chest for example, you need to get 8/8 on the boots (or chest, or pants, whatever...).
 
This precisely is a huge part of why there's going to be a lot of rerolls necessary, specifically because of the lack of flexibility on where to put your runes.
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Just wanted to note that this is not correct.
 
Runes are usable in gear above their level, and they are also usable in gear up to 10 iLevels below their level as well. So DS-grade runes at iLevel 120 will be slottable into all gear iLevel 110 or higher, as is appropriate to ensure that they have any purpose other than "farming Avatus". 
 
This is true for both set runes and class runes.
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If that is the case then it literally just applies to crafted gear.  All Dungeon gear is ilvl 80, all GA gear is ilvl 100 and all DS gear is ilvl 120.
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Maybe we're simply disagreeing on vocabulary here about what counts as "GA gear" or "DS gear", I don't know.
 
But there is content-gated iLevel 96/116 gear that can only be accessed by beating foes inside GA and DS.
Similarly, there are BoE drops from GA and DS that are also iLevel 96/116.
 
They can slot runes that are iLevel 100 and 120 respectively.
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You are correct.  I personally don't consider filler gear, a.k.a crafted and boe gear, to be raid gear.
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Glad to see we have that sorted out then. It remains the case that regardless of which name you use, iLevel 70+ gear can slot iLevel 80 runes, iLevel 90+ gear can slot iLevel 100 runes, and iLevel 110+ gear can slot iLevel 120 runes.
 
It's not content designed to make people want to raid. It's content designed to make people who don't want to raid do it anyway. As for the primary draw of the game, I agree it was raiding. That's part of why only a year after launch, the game has lost a staggering 90% of its revenues and is going F2P. Because they attracted the people they were looking for, and there weren't enough of them to keep the game in business.
 
You'd think the developers would have learned from that experience that trying to force people to raid isn't a viable route to success. But apparently not.
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That's part of why only a year after launch, the game has lost a staggering 90% of its revenues and is going F2P. Because they attracted the people they were looking for, and there weren't enough of them to keep the game in business.
 
You'd think the developers would have learned from that experience that trying to force people to raid isn't a viable route to success. But apparently not.
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Forcing people into content they don't want to do won't work from any perspective, not just non-raiders.
 
When the best weapons for raiding came from pvp, raiders win traded enough to get the weapons and then stopped doing it. They didn't all of a sudden discover a love for pvp or somehow manufacture additional free time in which to play both content modes. They either did barely enough to get what they needed to do what they actually wanted to do, or it was one of the contributing factors towards them leaving the game.
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{| class="blockquote"
[...]
 
But there is content-gated iLevel 96/116 gear that can only be accessed by beating foes inside GA and DS.
Similarly, there are BoE drops from GA and DS that are also iLevel 96/116.
 
They can slot runes that are iLevel 100 and 120 respectively.
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{| class="blockquote"
It's not just crafted gear that's being changed, but also many schematics are being removed. For example, crafted bags can not be made by tailors on the PTR/beta. Crafted bags simply disappear when you try to take them from the mail if you transfer a character over. Hopefully this is fixed before FTP hits live. I've sunk a lot of plat in crafted bags over the past few months and if they are replaced with bags that bind or have a level requirement on them, or are simply not replaced at all, I'm sunk.
 
Started looking for alternatives now, but sadly most equivalent bags have level requirements and/or are unique equipped.
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Exactly why having gear that is at the same level as raiding gear but is obtainable through single player content is just as stupid.  It forces raiders to do that content to keep up in raiding.
 
Edit:  I should note that when I said the content was designed to make people want to raid, I never said I thought it was smart.  Just that it seemed obvious why they were doing it.  
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You can place a iLvl 100 rune on iLvl 96 piece of gear ?
Really ?
 
Hey I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I find this very surprising, oh and totally counter-intuitive.
But hey maybe that's just me  :wacko: !
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It's not stupid.  It is stupid to put all BiS in the same basket... DS.  It is wise to spread out BiS across your entire game content.  Raiders might not like having to raid, run 5man content, run world bosses, etc... but it is much healthier for the game.  It is not healthy for the game to have people who just log in for raids and sell BOE raid drops to pay for runes and food because they never run anything else.
It is not healthy for people to run 5man dungeons, get lucky on the drops, and be done with that content for good.  Whether you move on cause there's nothing in there left to get or because you've moved on to content that gives you better stuff.
 
Being done with everything except raids (gear wise) in a couple of months is a horrible system.
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Exactly why having gear that is at the same level as raiding gear but is obtainable through single player content is just as stupid.  It forces raiders to do that content to keep up in raiding.
 
Edit:  I should note that when I said the content was designed to make people want to raid, I never said I thought it was smart.  Just that it seemed obvious why they were doing it.  
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{| class="blockquote"
It's not just crafted gear that's being changed, but also many schematics are being removed. For example, crafted bags can not be made by tailors on the PTR/beta. Crafted bags simply disappear when you try to take them from the mail if you transfer a character over. Hopefully this is fixed before FTP hits live. I've sunk a lot of plat in crafted bags over the past few months and if they are replaced with bags that bind or have a level requirement on them, or are simply not replaced at all, I'm sunk.
 
Started looking for alternatives now, but sadly most equivalent bags have level requirements and/or are unique equipped.
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{| class="blockquote"
The current solution is to tell nonraiders to either leave or raid, so it's worth asking if there's other ways to keep raiding progression and nonraiding progression from competing with each other.
 
Because there is, and the game's developers have already even implemented it--badly at first--and then improved it considerably to reduce competition between PvP and PvE progressions. They just need to do the same thing again between solo/small group/5-person content and raids.
 
Raid specific stats for gear that is obtained in raids and intended to be used in raids, and solo/small group stats for gear that is obtained outside of raids and intended to be used outside of raids would prevent either raiders or nonraiders from ever feeling pressured into doing the other type of content unless they wanted to. This game's developers were actually toying with this idea enough to even tell all of us and the press about it, and then never implemented it.
 
In my opinion, that mistake is long overdue for fixing. Separate the two major PvE playstyles on to separate tracks that don't overlap. Stop holding back nonraid progression content to keep raiders happy, and stop pushing people who don't actually enjoy raiding into raids for the phat lewt. If you want to do both types of content, do raid progression on raid nights and nonraid progression other times.
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When did single player content on the level that you've been asking for become normal for MMOs?? You act like its supposed to be present.  And rather than playing any of the hundreds of enjoyable single player games available today you continue to ask for long standing single player content in a game and genre that revolves around group play.  That is like me being upset that the housing content in Wildstar isn't more like Sim City.
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Oh please. Singleplayer content is in the game, in form of shiphand missions, therefore it is completely justified to ask for more in that regard. You're missing the point though, her argument (I think) wasn't about "give us more singleplayer content", but about "give both raiders and non-raiders enough to do for the game to be enjoyable". Which very much does *not* mean more singleplayer content, but more content for players who enjoy group play without wanting to do actual raiding (be it because of time constraints or out of other reasons). Let's face it, the community of MMOs is growing older and older. Most of the people who were part of the hardcore raiding circle back in the early world of warcraft days are now in their middle twenties or older and simply don't have the time do spend hours every week to go raiding. It's simply bad game design to completely disregard that playerbase by solely focussing on raids, in my honest opinion.
 
Raids are a great thing and certainly necessary, but that doesn't mean that carbine shouldn't focus on adding more content for the rather large part of the playerbase that enjoys shiphand missions and five man dungeons.
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So what happens to the materials that were in the bags that are removed? Do they get transferred to your in-game mail until you find a replacement, or do they just disappear is a puff of inventory space error?
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Exactly why having gear that is at the same level as raiding gear but is obtainable through single player content is just as stupid.  It forces raiders to do that content to keep up in raiding.
 
Edit:  I should note that when I said the content was designed to make people want to raid, I never said I thought it was smart.  Just that it seemed obvious why they were doing it.  
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Wylf, Yasfan is wanting solo player content with the rewards on par with raiding.  Either with same stats or different set of gear for it.  
 
This game in the past year has focused on releasing solo content.  Raiding really hasn't added much content.  Bug fixes, balancing from the change to gear/stats/40>20man.  1 boss encounter with some trash.  	
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Guys I apologise if this question has been asked and answered but what happens to normal runes in our gear in ftp? Do they still exist or are they wiped? by normal I mean say a air rune of deflect crit etc  that you might put in until you get a better one, do we get a token to replace them or do we have to buy new ones? And if its a token would it be a token to buy a normal air rune or could I trade it for any rune?
 
Thanks in advance	
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Oh please. Singleplayer content is in the game, in form of shiphand missions, therefore it is completely justified to ask for more in that regard. You're missing the point though, her argument (I think) wasn't about "give us more singleplayer content", but about "give both raiders and non-raiders enough to do for the game to be enjoyable". Which very much does *not* mean more singleplayer content, but more content for players who enjoy group play without wanting to do actual raiding (be it because of time constraints or out of other reasons). Let's face it, the community of MMOs is growing older and older. Most of the people who were part of the hardcore raiding circle back in the early world of warcraft days are now in their middle twenties or older and simply don't have the time do spend hours every week to go raiding. It's simply bad game design to completely disregard that playerbase by solely focussing on raids, in my honest opinion.
 
Raids are a great thing and certainly necessary, but that doesn't mean that carbine shouldn't focus on adding more content for the rather large part of the playerbase that enjoys shiphand missions and five man dungeons.
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Guys I apologise if this question has been asked and answered but what happens to normal runes in our gear in ftp? Do they still exist or are they wiped? by normal I mean say a air rune of deflect crit etc  that you might put in until you get a better one, do we get a token to replace them or do we have to buy new ones? And if its a token would it be a token to buy a normal air rune or could I trade it for any rune?
 
Thanks in advance
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You want people to log on and do content outside of raiding because they enjoy it, not because they have to. Having rewards usable by raiders from content other than raiding makes that content tedious and boring purely because that content becomes a necessity rather than an option. I have never met a single person who enjoys doing dailies every day just to get that shoulder enchantment or the BiS preraid gear or an AMP/ability point. 
 
Now having a money incentive is another story. That way people can still choose what they do and don't do. And if they choose to do nothing they aren't hurt outside of needing to get money.
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That's it. Everything else has been "here's a new bit of content that will not give you any further progression than the old bit of content" (Northern Wastes, Blighthaven, Defile, Star-comm, Vet Shiphands, BoB, Ultimate Protogames) or "here's something that will give you better rewards for no challenge at all. Get to grinding." (Contracts).
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Bg's and arena's are single player content ?? Pretty sure you need at least 2 players to constitute a PvP scenario
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			Regarding the business about crafted bags.  Apparently this is not an intentional change but a current beta bug.  The F2P Beta forum has had an update saying that it is being looked into.	
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The current solution is to tell nonraiders to either leave or raid, so it's worth asking if there's other ways to keep raiding progression and nonraiding progression from competing with each other.
 
Because there is, and the game's developers have already even implemented it--badly at first--and then improved it considerably to reduce competition between PvP and PvE progressions. They just need to do the same thing again between solo/small group/5-person content and raids.
 
Raid specific stats for gear that is obtained in raids and intended to be used in raids, and solo/small group stats for gear that is obtained outside of raids and intended to be used outside of raids would prevent either raiders or nonraiders from ever feeling pressured into doing the other type of content unless they wanted to. This game's developers were actually toying with this idea enough to even tell all of us and the press about it, and then never implemented it.
 
In my opinion, that mistake is long overdue for fixing. Separate the two major PvE playstyles on to separate tracks that don't overlap. Stop holding back nonraid progression content to keep raiders happy, and stop pushing people who don't actually enjoy raiding into raids for the phat lewt. If you want to do both types of content, do raid progression on raid nights and nonraid progression other times.
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Perhaps we should not distract from the objective of providing an objective list of upcoming changes with discussions of the issues with the upcoming changes. 
And by we, I also mean myself. I'm not into deleting comments I have made, but I promise to stop commenting further on the wiseness of upcoming changes in this particular thread. 
 
My apologies, yas.	
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Regarding the business about crafted bags.  Apparently this is not an intentional change but a current beta bug.  The F2P Beta forum has had an update saying that it is being looked into.
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Well, like I said in another post, focusing on other types of game play is fine once the game is successful but splitting dev time right now is not the smartest idea.  Especially when Carbine has put so many of its eggs in the group PvE basket already.
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So if development time is best focused on what will make the game successful, would you agree that Carbine doubling-down on raiding would not be the best use of development resources, since raiding failed to retain the numbers of subscribers need to keep this game afloat?
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Tex, you are going to get declared an heretic by the HARDCORE! raiding inquisition.
 
And let me point out that Carbine didn't put that many baskets on the PvE group content: they put it in the PvE raid content, which is a subset of group content.
There's a hierarchy of progression in the game that goes: solo -> small group -> raiding. Raiders are better equipped for every PvE content independently of that content being designed for soloing, for small groups or for 20-men raids. 
 
Edited for reasons inquisitorial!
			
				
	Edited September 14, 2015 by Ildur	
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Tex, you are going to get declared an heretic by the HARDCORE! raiding inquisition.
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			I don't know. The end-game crafting changes seem to be designed to funnel everyone into raids . I think that the hardcore! developers are actually ducking behind their desks, waiting for the right time to strike.	
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			I still vote for hardcore RP servers. No? Alright :(	
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Oh, that already happened WAY WAY WAY back in the Black Ops days. I was the sole voice for Casual Wildstar back then and it was awful, the amount of abuse and hate thrown my way.
 
Humorously enough, here I am two years later. The game is going more casual every drop and pretty soon, legions of unwashed Freebot Casuals will come storming in the gate.
 
And where are the #HARDCORE crowd? Almost entirely gone. Where are the #HARDCORE Developers? Already gone, months ago.
 
I won. :lol: ;)
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You weren't the SOLE voice...
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On a different tack, how many people have, as of today, actually completed the current crop of raids, over a year later? Maybe what? 100? 200? Total? If that.
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Completely meaningless statistic. What is more important is how many people have experienced and enjoyed the raids, which is a lot more than 200.
 
 
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			Role Exile  :rolleyes: In all seriousness, don't do it though it's just a tongue in cheek comment!!!!  :lol:
			
				
	Edited September 15, 2015 by Charge	
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Oh sure ... maybe double that number.  :lol:
 
Look, I don't really think that designing raids is a waste of time. I know that even if no one is actually completing them, at least a few folks are having fun trying them out and progressing. I wouldn't say that's a "meaningless statistic" though. It's a very important statistic.
 
Development time needs to be spent in a way that the studio is developing content for the greatest number of players before fixating on the top-tier, barely-touched content. That means more Vet content, more leveling zones, more and varied Contracts, more battlegrounds. Raids and Warplots should be WAY WAY WAY down the list of priorities. 
 
That's just good business sense.
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I would say that fun raids also give people something to look forward to from a pve standpoint. Just because people aren't currently doing the raids doesn't mean they don't ever want to do them. A bigger problem as far as that's concerned is the barriers to entry placed in front of the raids.
 
A more valuable statistic would probably be the number of folks who started climbing the attunement wall and gave up, along with the number of guilds that started progressing on datascape and gave up at the first boss. I think Carbine has seen both of those, which is why they significantly lowered the attunement wall and gave people access to the minis after system daemons to get past both of those barriers. I think there are tons of people who want to experience the content and would make fine raiders who were or are still stopped by unnecessary barriers.
 
Now if we'd just get over the ridiculous amp/ability grind we'd be golden.	
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Need to start treading carefully now, starting to head into the territory of the selfless becoming selfish  	
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Well, like I said in another post, focusing on other types of game play is fine once the game is successful but splitting dev time right now is not the smartest idea.  Especially when Carbine has put so many of its eggs in the group PvE basket already.
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Its refreshing to see raids not being completed in a week.
 
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Well raids are only seen by a small portion of the population, it wasn't enough to retain significant players to stop going f2p, the focus should really be on smaller group content ,pvp and daily zones
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I'm really confused as to the recurring theme throughout this thread of "Don't do anything now, because it's pointless when F2P hits...".
 
There are SO many things you can be doing to prep for F2P that will benefit you IMMENSELY, and give you a leg up when it drops.
Stop being such Debbie Downers :)	
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Need to start treading carefully now, starting to head into the territory of the selfless becoming selfish
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I'm really confused as to the recurring theme throughout this thread of "Don't do anything now, because it's pointless when F2P hits...".
 
There are SO many things you can be doing to prep for F2P that will benefit you IMMENSELY, and give you a leg up when it drops.
Stop being such Debbie Downers :)
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