Thank you guys for the solid info. I do have a followup question. What sets apart low level (Lv 7/8) modable gear from high/Max Lv modable gear? Does high level gear have stats that are augmented by the mod slots?

We noticed the 4 crates of different pilot suits that we both got. The gear is orange. You are saying that it is both adaptive (changing armor type based on class) and modible (having slots to insert mods) right? So we would just need to use our CDCs to buy level-appropriate mods. We will also have to make use of the costume feature since we don't want to run around in flight suits That covers the armor slots. What about weapons? Should we buy those as well as their required mods from the CDC vendor?

My wife and I have decided to give TOR a try again. We played in beta and at launch but stopped playing after a few months. We had forgotten how nice it is to have a personal story to follow in an MMO and have really enjoyed coming back. I have read up on the changes since we stopped but I do have one specific question about the Critical Path leveling path. I really like the idea of being able to reach max level by only focusing on the important core story but it seems that ignoring the side quests would result in missing out on a lot of gear upgrades as we level. I have noticed that we are receiving some sort of resource crystal reward from class/story missions as well as heroics. These crystals show up under the currency tab but I dont remember thier exact name and am not at my home computer atm. Are these used to keep your gear current in some way? I assume that there is a special vendor but have not found where (we started playing last night). If these crystals are used for keeping up with gear progression how ofted should we be upgrading (roughly)? Thank you in advance for taking the time to read/answer.