Let's Talk About Pre-Crafting (2.0)

Man oh man there is a lot to unpack here, but I will try my best.

@Zeu and @Nikoms565 this thread is not about getting refunds for money spent on mods which were subsequently nerfed. I know a lot of pre-crafters have buyers remorse about splurging on the original mods and it was really unfortunate the devs nerfed them but honestly for the sake of balance I think they had to. I really don't know how those who had the rug pulled out from underneath them should be compensated, and that is not a fight I am qualified to make. The whole update was disastrous and we have many disaffected parties in the fallout. The one silver lining is that I don't think they are done tweaking the power of mods yet because the whole system has thus far failed to make underused toons more viable, which as I understand was the original impetus for implementation along with the general fun of customizability. The best suggestion I've seen so far is to have mods grant a fixed bonus and then subtract a % of that toon's particular stat. So a +30 / -10% speed arrow would end up giving a higher boost when equipped to a slower toon like plo koon than to a faster one like QGJ due to intrinsic balancing in the equation. Hopefully a neat change like this would help ease the sting of overpaying for a stockpile of nerfed mods?

@ShaolinPunk this situation is directly analogous to the first pre-crafting issue, and the long-term ramifications are actually quite difficult to predict. Any sort of advantage a player gets over the competition has the potential to compounds itself manifold over time. Better mods allow players to reach higher ranks in arena, purchase more refreshes, complete galactic war with greater frequency, earn higher rewards in raids, build up their roster faster with their higher influx of credits, crystals, and guild currency, and ultimately speed up their progress in being able to complete T3 mod challenges and farm high tier, potency, speed, and crit damage mods. The initial advantage does not simply dissipate over time, but often expands in unseen and indirect ways. This is why pre-crafting issues are so important to discuss. Advantages are considered fair if they are paid for by people who want to expedite the grind. No one has a problem with that. But in this case, the fundamental mechanics of the game were changed- it's not like those who failed to pre-craft simply missed out on a temporary event, giveaway, what have you. I'd like to give the devs the benefit of the doubt and believe that this was not intended to be presented to us as an opportunity to spend money to get ahead, causing players to clamor and boosting revenue in the short term. This appears to be a case of severe lack of foresight couple with a disproportionate overreaction. And we should consider the impending consequences.

@Wundalicious thanks for sharing your story, it is good to hear from players who are still on the grind to level 80. The mod fiasco has affected you guys the most I'm sure, and many who do not think pre-craft 2.0 is a big deal should pay attention to your voices.

@Grraauuggh lol what? I know it looks like a huge wall of text on a mobile device but I really did put spaces between my paragraphs, promise!