Time to max a character

That was using a stockpile. With a big enough stockpile, any tool can be maxed in 10 minutes.

Not really a question that can be answered…
Near launch we could only do 3 attempts on a hard node without refreshing, then 5, then 8, then 5 again, so the metric shifted.

How much arena income do we have to play with for node/energy refreshes?
Is the character on accelerated drops?
Cantina node? Hard node? Ship node? Multiple locations?
Gear required varies widely from character to character as well (especially from near launch to g12 release, and from g12 release to post kyrotech release)
How much other income do you have to drive gearing (guild results in TW/TB, how many raids can guild complete at what tier?personal GAC/raid standings/ Conquest completion, how many challenge tiers can player clear in various assault battles)?

While I kind of think I see where you are leading with this - does it it still take the same amount of time now to go to R8 as it did for a player to take a character to 7 star/level 70/g8 (IIRC, those were our initial caps?) at launch?

I think starting at 0 shards, it is probably faster than it used to be if you are talking about a non-accelerated hard node character that you don’t refresh (5 attempts vs 3, and there is just so much more passive gear inflow and multiple new sources of gear than we had near launch - in terms of a middle of the road player focusing on a single character, I am in no way saying that the current gear flow is adequate for multiple character prerequisite pacing for GLs/event releases) for the average player.

It would all depend upon focus. Is it straight gear farming or are characters being farmed as well? What level is your guild at for raids, TW and Challenge rancor gear for relics? First couple of relic levels could be easy.
but time for relic 5+ is another bag of cats.

If CG hadn’t invented cryotech gear the time it takes to get to G12 a toon would be cut in half. 400-600 pieces of cryotech is extremely hard to come by using normal farming means. What really has become a problem for me is relics chewing up all my lower level gear. I’m running out of the third teir relic gear especially. I would hate to have to burn up energy to farm unneeded gear just to recycle it at the Jawa scavenger.

"HershBathens;d-247582" wrote:


When I think of the term gear crunch, this is the metric that comes to mind. My expectation is that as the game matures, this time to max a character should remain constant. As the time to obtain upper level relics increases, time to obtain lower level gear should decrease.

On this point this would lead to an odd situation that would punish older players.

This could be seen as a catch-up mechanic, but kind of on the other side.

Pure math, not necessarily realistic as per this game, but to show the point.
Max lvl g12
Time - 6 months

Next upgrade r7
Keep it at 6 months

Old player would have 6 months + the few months of the adjusted farm with new r7 timeline. (G12-r7)

Player starting after r7 upgrade 6 months.

I dont think I have seen a game try to operate that way.

This is not to say they shouldn't address the crunch or pinch points or what not, just that the idea they should stay the same length doesnt seem like a realistic setup.