Bioware has posted a lengthy list, outlining most of all the details of what to expect with the Eternal Championship Arena coming with Chapter XI.
Gear Rewards from Eternal Championship | 01.22.2016, 08:46 PM
Hi everyone,
I’d like to share some additional details on the Eternal Championship with you. This will touch on several topics as follow:
- What is the story behind the Eternal Championship?
- The Eternal Championship is the latest trend in entertainment among Zakuul’s decadent upper class, who happily “tour” the lower levels of their capital to watch their social underlings engage in brutal death matches for fortune and glory.
- More details regarding the backstory will be revealed next week in the Developer Live Stream with Charles Boyd!
- Leading up to the launch of Game Update 4.2, we’ll also post a Developer Blog about the Eternal Championship.
- How does the Eternal Championship work?
- You start the Eternal Championship by picking up an access Mission, similar to a Flashpoint. You begin at Round 1, and then attempt to complete as many rounds as you can. Completing each round will grant you a certain number of Common Data Crystals. After every round, you check-in to decide whether you want to continue or cash out. The total number of Common Data Crystals you obtain depends on how many rounds you complete.
- You can repeat the Eternal Championship as many times as you wish by picking up the access Mission again.
- There are 3 weekly Missions to defeat Boss 5, Boss 7, and Boss 10 respectively. Completing each of these will grant you rewards, which will be explained later on.
- Composition of the fights for each round.
- Each round consists of a single fight with a boss encounter. In most cases, they will involve adds.
- For Rounds 1-5, they involve a single major mechanic in addition to other combat abilities. These rounds are catered towards players that have just finished Chapters 1-9, and are intended to guide you towards more complex fights. This could involve defeating mobs in a specific order, stepping out of AoE indicators, managing multiple mobs at once, interrupting abilities, etc. As you get further in the rounds, you might see a combination of these at the same time. The goal is to show these mechanics, rather than punish you for failing to deal with them. You will see the impact and cause the fight to take longer, but you won’t be one-shotted because of it.
- Once you step into Round 6 and continue on to Round 10, unsuccessfully dealing with these mechanics has a more significant impact. Because the Eternal Championship is being catered to a wider audience, we have to strike a balance between being challenging versus frustrating. Hardcore raiders with full 224 gear will most likely not have too much trouble beating these fights, but hopefully they’re interesting enough that the consensus is that they’re cool to play through.
- There were multiple posts asking if these fights will be tuned for each class, or even change depending on what class you play. The answer is that it’ll be the same for each class, but we’re aiming to balance it so that all classes will be able to get past it. Some will undoubtedly be easier than others, but we’re trying our best to make sure that it’s not too frustrating for the others.
- Gear drops for the Weekly Missions.
- As mentioned in an earlier post, the Eternal Championship is intended for players to have an alternate way to gear up to a higher tier of gear other than grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation. I’ve seen several posts about gear suggestions, and here’s our current plan based on the input we’ve seen so far.
- Weekly 1 for defeating Boss 5: Rewards choice of 204 rating static gear.
Why: The first 5 rounds are intended for players coming straight from the chapters, and as such rewards you with gear that is higher rating than what you’ve been getting so far (190). - Weekly 2 for defeating Boss 7: Rewards an “Arena Token” that can be exchanged for a choice of 208 rating static gear.
Why: Rounds 6-7 are catered towards players working towards Tactical Flashpoints, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those. - Weekly 3 for defeating Boss 10: Rewards multiple “Arena Tokens” that can be exchanged for a choice of 216 rating static gear.
Why: Rounds 8-10 are catered towards players working towards HM Flashpoints and SM Ops, and as such rewards you equivalent rating gear from completing those.
- Weekly 1 for defeating Boss 5: Rewards choice of 204 rating static gear.
- What exactly is static gear? They’re gear pieces that have pre-determined stats that cannot be changed. The other type of gear is moddable gear, which have modifications that can be swapped out to change the stats and get the best build possible for the player’s respective class/discipline. Moddable gear can be purchased using Data Crystals from the vendors found on the Fleet and Odessen.
- Now some of you might be thinking “Why reward static gear?” The main purpose is to help solo players gear up, not necessarily be the most optimized stat-wise. Getting an upgrade would generally help improve the player’s damage/defense/healing output, but not necessarily hit the best combination of numbers/stat modifiers. Also, we didn’t want to diminish the moddable gear that you can get from the Data Crystal vendors. Again, the intent is to allow players to gain higher tiers of gear over a period of time. Grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation will gear you up faster, but we didn’t want to limit players who don’t frequently group from getting the gear altogether.
- We are introducing a new “Arena Token” (final name TBD) that can be exchanged for 208 or 216 rating static gear from a vendor. Completing Round 10 will give you enough tokens to get a 216 piece off the bat. If you’re only able to clear Round 7, you can get a 208 piece or save up to get a 216 piece. The tokens are Bound to Legacy, so you can trade them to your alts if desired/needed.
- The 3 weeklies also reward you with Common and Glowing Data Crystals. So for players who are so inclined to delve into modifications and change the stats for your gear, you have the option of getting the moddable gear from the Data Crystal vendors once you’ve saved up enough.
- Gear with set bonuses are still reserved for Operations. Those are unique to that content and will remain as such.
- As mentioned in an earlier post, the Eternal Championship is intended for players to have an alternate way to gear up to a higher tier of gear other than grouping up for a Flashpoint or Operation. I’ve seen several posts about gear suggestions, and here’s our current plan based on the input we’ve seen so far.
- Other than Data Crystals and Gear, what else can you get from doing the Eternal Championship?
- Boss 7 has a chance to drop a new minipet.
- Boss 10 has a chance to drop a new mount.
- New achievements and titles.
- If you have any ideas for achievements or titles, definitely share those. I saw one particular post about giving unique titles for each class that completes Round 10, which is great! We’ll be looking into it.
I hope that this gives you a better idea of what the Eternal Championship is all about. Definitely appreciate all the feedback on gear ratings and difficulty. If you see anything that you have suggestions on or have an alternate opinion about, please share it.
Thanks everyone!
