With the clock winding down on this game, there has been a gear related problem that has bothered me for some time now. This thread is strictly about this subject. No anti-cheat, no bugs, no glitches, no exploits, etc.
Why has all high end gear & exotic gear been left at the 1272 main stat cap, instead of there being farmable versions at the 1401 main stat cap? Surely it can be easily implemented without too much fuss and work. I seriously doubt that it would throw any semblance of balance out the window either. Why can't we finally get "classified" versions of these pieces to tide us over for the next 6 months of the game's life? Why are we stuck with inferior gear in comparison?
Also, to coincide with this, why are game modes such as last stand & skirmish still normalized down to 1272, instead of the appropriate 1401? I know that I personally do not wish to run a watered down version of one of my builds for no good reason. Hence, one of the main reasons I choose to never participate in those normalized modes.
At this point, I just can not see the merits in utilizing inferior gear or playing game modes that make my builds weaker. Especially since it seems like such an easy fix to implement. I'm curious to hear your official answer to this.
I agree with the OP. I regularly play Skrimish and LS and, in my view, the normalization is not necessary anymore. I don't think there are many players in these modes nowadays who still wear the non-classy gear sets. I assumet this was the reason for the normalization in the beginning or I am wrong?
Once classified gear was introduced, everything else was immediately relegated to trash. Hybrid builds, with and without Ninja, and high-end builds were abundant and diversity was everywhere. Where is the value in such sought-after items like Savage Gloves now? Even the 6 pieces of exotic gear are considered garbage.
I agree with OP and others, and would call for Classified High-End and Classified Exotic gear to be introduced as a "thank you" to all the players who are still playing and have stuck with TD through good times and bad.
IMHO. According to their track record, it seems easier to nerf everything then to buff anything. I doubt you will ever get an answer, I think that is their excuse.
In many debates over things that would fix the game, often times some would argue they didn't want to pull their resources off of TD2 to fix anything here. Cause it only delayed the sequel, but surely they could hire a few people to maintain and fix as needed and wouldn't have to waste resources. In the end someone high enough up the corporate ladder just said, "No!" and they moved on.
The thing to remember is that classified gear was a stealth gamerscore increase.
If they actually increase all of the other scores to match, then they'll be admitting that is the case.
They were very specific at the time to say it wasn't a gamerscore increase, so this change would involve being caught out in yet another lie. That would be bad publicity on the lead up to their next game. It's easier to just ignore the problem and leave this game to slowly die.
You're right though, it would make sense for all of the numbers to match, but then we'd get the gamerscore increase they said they weren't going to do. It's the same stupidity they seem to use on most of their game decisions. It's almost as if they're making stuff up as they go and hoping for the best instead of planning for the best![]()
I remember them saying they didn't want the focus to be taken away from classifieds - the end all be all gear. That is why high end and exotic gear haven't been raised to 1401.
Now, that's not the case in the PvP game modes. I main a Hexotic build in the game modes and I can tell you this: it requires more effort, execution, and skill to use than what you may find with a classified build. This is not me being cocky, this is me being objective.
I don't really have a problem with exotics having a cap at 1272 as their bonuses are in other directions. Though I find the normalisation at 1272 a bit odd - surely it would have made more sense to normalise everything at 1401 so as nothing gets broken on a build and to give a better variety in PVP (where some of the bonuses are more applicable to PVE which makes the limit at 1272 there more sense).
The normalisation at 1272 when many of my builds I've spent a lot of time getting min/maxed around 1401 (most of my setups are hybrid not 6 piece classified) is one of the reasons I've not really bothered with skirmish, etc.
Well I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in being dumbfounded on this topic. I agree with the reasons that have been stated here thus far. Besides the obvious truth of the stealth gear score increase, I just can't come to any logical conclusion why we are still stuck with stat inferior gear. The classified grind began 13 months ago. The last of them were released 8 months ago. There's 6 months left until the sequel. At this point, why not just let us die hards and current players have a few extra pieces to go grind for by creating "classified" versions of high ends and exotics? Literally, the only thing changing is going from 1272 to 1401.