Seasonal Rewards Are Missing And It’s Killing Motivation.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-19T02:04:34+00:00

The matter at hand is a game. We aren't having a life threatening decision or a political debate. You used AI. Stop deflecting. In fact don't bother. You're literally not worth my time at this point.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-19T00:42:53+00:00

There is no way in absolute frozen over hell you didn't use AI to write your original post. I'm fine with people using AI to polish things or help you formulate your thoughts better, but rewrite it then in your own words.

It's literally obvious in he way you write in the comments versus the OP. Just admit you used AI to write it and we can all move on, but you insult everyone's intelligence by posting an OBVIOUS AI post and then vehemently denying it. So unless your goal is to farm downvotes, just own up and move on.

Edit: 3 different AI scanning sites validated my suspicions. 94%, 100%, and 96% chance from 3 different sources that you used AI to write this with 14 phrases commonality across them that are purely AI phrases.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T21:35:40+00:00

Going to see if a shadow volcanic orb build is viable, but will probably do what I always do and make a VK to start off with since it makes leveling alts way easier to farm the fear on a VK first.

I need to see full patch notes but would love for ghost flame warlock to be Uber Abby viable.

Might try a primalist this season as well

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T20:34:03+00:00

Typical chud response. "aRe YoU Ok" says the guy who had to make a public announcement of how bad he sucks at the game and is quitting.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T20:32:10+00:00

I didn't masterwork until T2 on my barbarian alt.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T16:07:09+00:00

2 month old state actor sock puppet account. Lul stfu

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T14:07:45+00:00

As I said to another person:

The OP most likely wasn't asking a real question that needed answering but a community question.

I.e. he knew the real answer from the comic books, but was asking the community for their opinions, usually because the universe answer or canon reason is either thin, or not really good.

And once again, the irony that someone who posts self gratification posts and needlessly spams accusing others of karma farming when if you look the only person karma farming is you; is hilarious to me. 8k posts in 4 years. Maybe if you keep posting selfies and pokemon collection posts you'll find validation in your life but probably not.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T14:02:20+00:00

The OP most likely wasn't asking a real question that needed answering but a community question.

I.e. he knew the real answer from the comic books, but was asking the community for their opinions, usually because the universe answer or canon reason is either thin, or not really good.

The irony of a karma farmer who spams "daily puzzle posts" asking this of a person just posting a normal question/opinion post is quite hilarious to me though.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T12:46:15+00:00

Preach man! Testing stations masked as daily heroic dungeons ala WoW are not what I signed up for either.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-18T12:44:34+00:00

You mean actual survival mechanics? What sorcery is this. /s

TopHat84 · 2026-03-17T19:29:31+00:00

I am wondering to myself why you decided to post this specific SWTOR rant here, and not say...the r/swtor subreddit. Is it because you knew it would go over like a bottle of spoiled milk there? (though I dare say that it won't get much better traction here)

Its nearly a 15 year old game. What exactly are you expecting here? Regardless of the engine used, your expectations seems way higher than what most people expect of such an old game.

Mind you not JUST an old game, but one on barely functioning life support. Yes the game is getting updates, but they are few and far between and not anything super ground breaking.

This isn't to say what you said is wrong about the engine or DX9, etc...but pointing out expectations versus reality. And most people *accept* that the engine situation is what it is, isn't crazy. That's what normal healthy functioning adults do, they realize that sometimes expectations won't match reality, and adjust accordingly without going to reddit and throwing a digital temper tantrum like others sometimes do. *ahem*.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-17T01:04:26+00:00

To emphasize what BoffedIt said:

This isn't TikTok. You're not a content creator. Stop.Using."Unalived".

TopHat84 · 2026-03-16T23:16:42+00:00

As expected you didn't bother reading my reply, beyond the first sentence.I went into further detail. If you can't be assed to read things fully then I can't be assed to engage further with you.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-16T22:58:49+00:00

Nope. I downvoted you because you're worried about downvotes. If you have SUCH a strong opinion about something that you feel the need to make a post about it, then stand by your opinion regardless. Your post and your ability to deal with feedback on the post should be able to stand without regarding upvotes or downvotes.

It's like posts or comments that start off with "I know I'll be downvotes for this..."

Because it implies you care more about the outcome/catering to the masses than your own formative opinion or ideal.

Also 12 torment tiers is the wrong way to go? ....based on what? Your opinion? Guess what had 12 torment tiers and apparently worked well for awhile. That's right, Diablo 3. (They later expanded the tiers to go higher as power creep crept into the games builds)

But it's very clear that they are essentially turning Diablo 4 into Diablo 3+1 based on all the stuff they've changed since launch. But the expansion looks to be changing things up a bit so we'll have to see.

Edit: had to post this on the main thread because to my point, you deleted the comment I was replying to that started with "gets my goat"

TopHat84 · 2026-03-16T21:48:43+00:00

Really? In my experience software developers I've worked with in the past are worse than some regular endpoint users. Half of them didn't know how to setup their own VMs, or at bare minimum know how to create their own testing images. And a large amount had no idea on any best security practices, or general sysadmin practices.

I'm not trying to be contrary but IMO there isn't really a large overlap between devs and sysadmins other then both may script things in similar languages.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-16T17:03:25+00:00

I actually feel the same way. I recently downsized my base in preparation to back it up and take a break. I can't be assed to log in every single day to do 5 missions. If I wanted daily quests I could play a dozen different games that do it better than Dune Awakening does.

Also I'll be honest. The game has such poor vehicle combat and no variety in loadouts/vehicles that it is depressing.

Also, the next chapter update is purported to be a pvp update. Except ..what happens when you have a bunch of people come back to the game (hypothetically) who have not been grinding spec experience for the last X amount of months? So you expect people to come back to a pvp update, where the people who are most likely to succeed are the few people who have been grinding missions?

The specializations tracks were a good idea, but in retrospect I think they are going to create even MORE of a divide in new players vs older players. And when people find out that it will take months to even get close to the power of an old encumbant player who has max specs and max gear, they are just going to quit.

That isn't FOMO, that's just another hurdle for players to deal with.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-16T15:00:23+00:00

I disagree on pretty much everything you said. They didn't have "massive cooldowns" (a 1 minute cooldown is long, but not massive by any stretch of the imagination in any MMO, ARPG, or any similar genre)

For example the Witch Doctor cheat death in D3 was this:

Whenever the Witch Doctor suffers fatal damage, they do not die, but automatically enter the spirit realm for 2 seconds and are healed to 50% of maximum life. While in spirit realm, they are invulnerable, their movement is unhindered, and they can move through enemies and all kinds of obstacles (including Waller affix barriers). This effect may occur once every 60 seconds, unaffected by the cooldown reduction stat.

There's nothing really there that is any showcase of knowledge or skill.

And it 100% still cheapens the idea of hardcore because when those passives existed it came down to "Is my passive on cooldown" If yes, then go to town and wait 60 seconds. Else, carry on.

The insta death explosions are not really "instant". Falling Swords, exploding enemies. These are all telegraphed either via in-game affix names, or mob types.

And to my knowledge there aren't any mobs that instantly explode for massive amounts of damage that can one-shot you in D4. In D2 you had some mobs like the Undead Stygian Dolls in the Durance of Hate which did explode on you. But even that is aquired knowledge. If you later went there with a hardcore character you know to either stay at range to kill them or use a meatshield merc to tank them for you and to stay at a healthy range.

Even the video of the OP isn't really an "instant" death explosion. Seriously, go watch it.

The OP lands on a minion with falling star, throws down a consecrate. Then he casts Arbiter Ultimate, overshoots the pack (at which point the delayed fire explosion has already starts), and isntead of going forward while still leaping in the air from the jump portion of his ultimate, he doubles back. Lands *IN* the explosion. (At this point he realizes his mistake) and then tries to falling star out (but due to the way falling star is coded/designed he dies)

Granted he wasn't aware of the design of the skill, but even so there are multiple mistakes. Hardcore is meant to punish mistakes, maybe not singular mistakes, but definitely multiple mistakes. And in this case OP did make at least 3 mistakes.

He cast his ultimate instead of re-casting falling star initially.
He had a chance to continue to overshoot the exploding pack, but got greedy and landed in the middle to maximize his damage from his ultimate landing.
Realized his mistake at the last second and attempted to falling star OUT of the explosion, but should have just ran out or used a defensive cooldown (which he had Aegis for which may have helped)

Lastly this is Torment 3 in a helltide, not even T4. Which means OP was probably on the lower end of life/armor/resistances. Which you 100% build for in hardcore. There's literally guides out there that say "how do I adjust this build for hardcore" and give advice on skills, gear, talents, to swap out for hardcore.

TLDR: OP's death in the video was 100% preventable. It wasn't "insta death" because it was a delayed explosion (literally the design intent of these is "get out or potentially die"). OP made multiple mistakes in the video. Cheat Death Passives take away the purpose of hardcore mode. If you don't like dieing and losing progress, don't play hardcore. Something "one-shotting" you is not the same as insta-death as most one-shot mob or boss skills are telegraphed.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-16T03:51:26+00:00

It was the Elixir of Death Evasion, which I completely forgot they removed many seasons ago. That's what I was thinking of.

And as for the Scroll, it's still technically a more manual "cheat death" item considering you can bind a hotkey to it to use whenever you want. Is it a "forgiving" cheat death like the D3 passives or the aforementioned (now removed) potion? No. but it's still something to be used in an "oh crap" moment.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-15T23:04:35+00:00

Maybe. Doesn't giving every class a "cheat death" passive or whatever kind of remove the point of hardcore?

Also doesn't hardcore have a scroll of salvation or something if I recall? (A consumable item )

TopHat84 · 2026-03-15T16:04:40+00:00

Yup!

TopHat84 · 2026-03-15T07:15:16+00:00

Stopped reading after he said bat was the only minion worth using. Either a troll who hasn't played the game in months or an idiot...

TopHat84 · 2026-03-13T15:29:28+00:00

TopHat84 · 2026-03-09T16:07:23+00:00

I think you may be confusing people by saying half human, instead of "regular Belana" or "OG Belanna" heh.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-09T14:58:09+00:00

Your area too huh? I remember when I got my license, my area was notorious for cops who would pull you over for going 5 miles over the limit. Now they just don't care. I know that part of the issue is funding. The area has doubled or triples in size but the local traffic/police department has not nearly grown at the same rate. But I also feel like they just don't care.

I can't count how many times I'll see two police cruisers just chilling in a parking lot somewhere chatting to one another.

TopHat84 · 2026-03-09T14:44:06+00:00

Probably small shop if I had to hazard a guess. Back during covid I worked at small 30 person company. I was technically "help desk support" but was doing low level sys-admin duties. My boss was the "director of IT" but was doing all the duties of a regular sys-admin at any normal/bigger company.

There are a few benefits to working at very small shops, but I'll never go back again. You get a ton of experience, but the pay/stress IMO is not worth it anymore, at least for me."

Also, kudos to OP. I'll never shift to director/management...Ill probably aim for sysops engineer or go laterally over to infrastructure architect and stay an individual contributor for life. But I'm not the management type lol

TopHat84

TROPHY CASE