Would you be able to provide some clarification on why the rewards provided through raids are not exclusive to raids, Guild Store, or Shard Shop?
For example, the gear piece Mk 5 Athakam Medpac Salvage is found on two regular energy nodes:
Light Side Battles: 9-G (Normal)
Light Side Battles: 9-D (Hard)
The same piece is also available in Tier V of the TAC Gear Challenge.
The piece gets used by 50 different characters to create the full Mk 5 Athakam Medpac and requires 60 salvage per character.
With the TAC Gear Challenge repeating three times a week, a player who has been at Level 85 for more than 60 days will acquire a fair amount of this specific piece by simply completing Tier V of TAC Gear Challenge.
The problem, however, is that this same piece of gear is also a possible reward given in the new Sith Triumvirate Raid. What can happen is that a player may be "rewarded" with the same piece of gear from completing the single most difficult aspect of the game at the present that the same player could receive from doing the TAC Gear Challenge multiple times throughout the week or through freely obtained energy through Light Side battles.
Is there some reason that this is the case?
The reason that the Mk 5 Athakam Medpac Salvage is not available until Tier V of the TAC Gear Challenge is that players will not necessarily need this piece until they reach a high enough level that will allow them to gear characters to Gear 11 or Gear 12 and will require these pieces. With that in mind, players who are able to complete the higher tiers of the Sith Triumvirate Raid, where this specific piece can also be rewarded, are also those who have the ability to complete Tier V of the TAC Gear Challenge and have also been able to complete that challenge enough times to craft well over 50 full Mk 5 Athakam Medpacs. Receipt of the Mk 5 Athakam Medpac Salvage as a reward in the Sith Triumvirate Raid becomes unnecessary to anyone who could compete in the raid because the piece is so readily available earlier in the game and, with randomized rewards, the receipt of this piece provides an unpleasant player experience given the difficulty of the raid.
Any clarification on this decision would be welcome.
EA Staff (Retired)
