SWTOR Outlines Massive Gear Changes Coming In Onslaught Expansion

Do you want to customize your play style and earn gear playing the content you want to in Star Wars: The Old Republic? I mean, sure, it -- and, admittedly, most other MMORPGs -- has been saying it's been doing that for years, but this time, BioWare really means it.

Today's developer blog about the gear changes coming in the Onslaught expansion this September goes over it all in great detail, talking about set bonuses ("that help tailor your character’s playstyle"), new tactical items ("to fit your personal playstyle"), and amplifiers that provide a new stat bonus and you will be able to -- wait for it -- "tailor these bonuses to fit their playstyle."

As for how you'll be getting all this playstyle-altering gear, you'll be getting more stuff in general, and it will be legacy-bound, not character-bound, so your Jedi Knight and Trooper can swap their gear drops. The Galactic Command system, which has seen its ups and downs, will be relegated to a secondary system and renamed "Renown." Tiers will be removed, with gear quality being bound to your character's power, not their tier in the old GC system, which is being removed. You'll still receive ranks in the Renown system, but they're strictly for bragging rights and will be reset at the start of every season, the length of which has yet to be determined.

Additionally, activities that produce experience points will also award Conquest Points, giving you even more gear, and players "will be able to craft relevant, end-game gear." All of this is meant to help players gear up by playing the way they want to, which was again a central tenet of Galactic Command when it launched, two and a half years ago.

Anything you don't need can be deconstructed, which grants you a new currency, which can be redeemed at two different vendors. The first lets you get a random item of a specific type, such as a chest piece, while the second sells you specific items from a rotating inventory. Significantly, a form of "bad luck protection" will be implemented for set and tactical items, which forces the system to hand out a desired item after a set number of bad drops.