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Feedback: Gear Score and how it is calculated
nwnghost
Member, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 0 Arc User
Active Companion Bonuses that grant stats will increase your Gear Rating.
After thinking about this more I'm ready to explain why this is a bad idea.
I believe the intent behind Gear Score is to be a measurement of a persons gear, not their companions, feats, and boons. And I believe the reason that we're seeing so many pugs advertise things like 12k GS requirements for T2s is exactly because Gear Score is NOT accurate for measuring a persons gear and does in fact include these things that it really shouldn't. I think if Gear Score did actually measure a persons gear - and only a persons gear - it would be much more useful for ascertaining whether or not a person is actually ready for a dungeon or not, and we would see less people so concerned with fluffing this stat at the cost of actually being ready for dungeons, and less pugs requiring GS ratings far above the intended value necessary for the dungeons.
Reading the above 2 comments encouraged me to create this thread to post about my opinion on Gear Score and what is/is not included and listen to what others have to say on the matter.
Currently, Gear Score considers:
Items worn by Character
Buffs from Feats
Buffs from Item Sets
Hitpoints from CONstitution
Buffs from Active Companion
Buffs from allies' feats modified by your feats
Buffs from Powers
Boons
What this results in generally, is a massively inflated Gear Score rating that has poor correlation with actual difficulty of content, i.e. dungeons. Additionally, it results in a large number of players who may have good gear but fewer buffs being denied entry to dungeons (either due to actual low Gear Score or due to other players requiring a certain gear score). Furthermore, it these days allows a large chunk of the playerbase to skip Tier1 dungeons completely and head straight for Tier2.
Examples:
A character that picked all the Hitpoint boosting feats and has a higher than average CONstitution for that class will have a gear score generally 600-1000 points higher than a class that chose primary stats which do not inflate Gear Score.
A Conqueror spec Guardian Fighter will have around 3000-5000 more Gear Score than a Protector or Tactician spec GF, which often denies the non-conqueror spec GFs access to channel formed parties for dungeons (just about anyone asks for 13k+ GFs, but 13k is about the max you tend to get after being fully stacked with enchants as a Tank build, while on the other hand, a new 60 conqueror spec in blue items will be 13k)
Wearing a 2+2 set (+450 x2 from 2 different sets) as opposed to a 4 set grants 450 additional Gear Score, but the 4 set does not impact Gear Score at all.
In my humble opinion, Gear Score should be just what the name says. Your score from Gear alone.
Hence it should include only:
Items worn by Character (including hitpoint boosting items, but not including CON/feats)
Buffs from Item Sets
Additionally, wearing a 4 set should grant a flat boost of 750 or 1000 to the Gear Score to signify the impact the bonus has on the character and to not disadvantage those who go with a full set in terms of party finding.
What this does:
Makes it harder to skip Tier1 dungeons altogether because your gear score will not reach 8300 quite so easily (you can still get your T1 pvp set, but you can't skip to T2 dungeons with blues alone). This also immerses players more into the story and results in more dungeons being played.
Is an actual measure of Gear Score and gives players a better idea of a person's actual equipment/capability to survive a dungeon.
Those who meet the minimum requirements of a dungeon will actually be sufficiently geared to beat it and consequently fewer complaints that the minimum GS setting for dungeons is too low for players to actually beat it.
Prevents ostracism of characters/players who did not do all they can to max out/inflate their gear score and thus makes more builds viable outside of guild-group play (where few care about GS).
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
As knowing whether a person can or not is hard people tend to look at their GS, personally I try to inspect people who wants to get in my party if I think they need anything above basic skills. If their build looks good I consider inviting people in blue gear to T2 dungeons.
I would, however, want a 4/4 bonus on a T2 set to give a 500 GS bonus, and a T1 4/4 bonus to give 450 GS, to make 4/4 more valid than 2 sets. Or at least equal bonus to GS to using 2 different sets. 750-1000 is way to much here tho imo. The impact of the 4-piece bonus is noticeable, but not vital. Better stats can in many cases outshine the set bonus. (I.e. 1000 power/crit beats most setbonuses by far.)
Also, I find several T2 dungeons fully doable in all blue gear, done PK, SP, FH, Karr fully legit, with the current patch, with a CW in mostly blue gear. It's fully doable, after all, the step from blue gear to T1 is quite small. Knowing what I am doing and how said dungeon is done is much, much more important.
And, the Gauntlgrym set is T2, and easily attainable by having blue gear.
To prevent the ostracism of players not inflating their gearscore, it's simple, if you're using a good build and can play, people will want to play with you again.
Having more players encouraged to run GG for their T2 gear is probably a good thing too as it certainly lacks players (especially on the Luskan side) all the time.
As for preventing ostracism: Sure, if they play well you will invite them again, but would you (or rather the general public) invite them in the first place? Outside of guild channel and legit channel, I doubt I've ever seen a message in LFG channel for T2 dungeons which did not ask for say 11k+ or PM GS. Its all about crossing that initial boundary, and even then, in future would you invite them or someone who has 2-3k more GS who calls in LFG channel, without knowing which stats those 2-3k fall into?
The proposed change is primarily aimed at setting a more realistic benchmark for average joe player (vast majority of users) who looks at LFG channel and thinks that particular GS is a minimum requirement rather than those who know that GS isn't the end-all of all things.
For example, when I called in LFG chat with my newest alt project (a tank GF, hence much lower GS than conqueror) both during and out of Delves times saying that I have 10.9k GS, I didn't get a single invite even from T2 parties actively needing a GF. PMing some usually results in no reply or "too low GS" (or words to that effect).
I've been able to get in parties with "sub-standard" gearscore when trying, but yes, it's very hard, was as a CW, so demand was higher than for a GF. And I would, as all sane people invite the one with the better gear, which I admit. Mainly since that most likely means better DPS and more experience. Would still inspect them, and eventually kick if I found their build HAMSTER, and the lower GS one's looked good.
I really dislike limitations, I really, really do. I've suggested this before, and that is that they add a "recommended Gearscore" as well, let it be 8.5-9k for the harder T1 dungeons, and 10-11k for T2, and somewhere 11.5-12.5k for CN/MC. This would give people the OPTION to join, but, let us take it even further, if they are below this recommended GS, let them get a note saying "You are below recomended GS, are you sure you want to proceed" note.
. . . . .This would provide new players with a more realistic benchmark, as I admit, 5 somewhat unexperienced players, even at 9.5k GS, has small chances of beating most T2 dungeons.
And I'm sorry to hear you didn't have much luck on your GF, but yes, this is where inspecting potential players becomes important. I would really like if one could inspect people who had PM'd you, instead of the tardy process of finding their instance and what not.