I'm surprised I don't see any threads about this. Could I be the only one having this problem? I'm doing prestiges of characters I've played quite a bit in the past, so I know how they play, and what their damage numbers and survivability have been. And I'm finding them now hopelessly squishy and totally unable to kill bosses in patrol zones. I'm dying constantly, events are timing out before I can even put a dent in boss damage meters, and I'm routinely being overwhelmed by mobs.
I used to be able to start a prestige with level 1 gear from the gear vendor and go to 20 or even further before buying again, using max settings on my vacuum to level pets. Sometimes I would actually play without gear in slots 1-5, just using random medallions and artifacts I found along the way. Now it's as though I have to have the very best available gear on my hero in every slot and refresh it on every level or I can't advance...and even then it is super hard! Meanwhile, solo X-def and Holo-Sim are totally unplayable.
I have 10,000 Omegas and rank 5 i70 Legendaries for leveling. Is it supposed to be this hard??? Because it sort of isn't fun anymore. :(