As an example to clarify things. If I've haven't even completed the Heroic Level (reach level 25 with a DvL character), and I kill 50 Rakghouls on Taris, then it doesn't matter that I haven't reached Eternal Level, I'll still get the Living Plague achievement for Legendary Level. But, for example, if I don't complete the Legacy Level achievement Flashpoint Responder before completing all of the Valiant Level achievements (Outlander, Revan, Home Sweet Home), I won't get the achievement Dark vs Light: Valiant Level until I go back and finish Legacy Level, because Dark vs Light: Legacy Level is a requirement for Dark vs Light: Valiant Level.

You should be able to queue for flashpoints as a group, however, only the group leader is allowed to queue the group. What you're describing sounds like what happens when a group member other than the leader tries to access Group Finder.

As Jedi_riches mentioned above me, all repeatable Heroic missions have been scaled so that they can be completed by two players, and the improvement to the Companion system means that you and a Companion should be able to complete it.

Welcome back! So to help with your exact problem, BioWare re-classified a whole bunch of quests as "story quests." These are the quests that are most tightly woven into the story of the game, and they have a special purple mission symbol. First, check your log to see if you have any story quests unfinished. Their titles will also be in purple. If not, then you're good to go, you can move on to the next part of the story. If you haven't yet, however, I'd pick up the quest "The Jedi Prisoner" from MP-77. He's on the fleet, next to the Mission Departures elevator, and he'll have a shiny purple quest symbol over him. Completing that quest will give some needed context for events later on. Chapter 4, which takes place on the planet Makeb, is unlocked from your ship starting at level 47. The opening cutscene spoils the end of your class story, hence the warning. As a Republic character, the story on Makeb isn't as critical for you to know, but it might still be worth doing once so you have the full story if and when you play an Imperial character. Between chapters 4 and 5 are the planets Oricon and CZ-198, but they each have their own individual story that doesn't yet impact the rest of the game. Oricon actually continues the story started in the operation Explosive Conflict, and if you're interested in playing through that, the chain goes Explosive Conflict (ops) -> Terror from Beyond (ops) -> Scum & Villainy (ops) -> Oricon -> The Dread Fortress (ops) -> The Dread Palace (ops). CZ-198 is a Daily area with kind of an excuse plot, but if you ever wanted to stick it to Czerka...you can talk to RK-C3 on CZ-198, who will send you back to the Gav Daragon to talk to the actual quest NPC. (RK used to also be on the fleet, but I couldn't find him.) The story there is told through two Tactical Flashpoints, which are meant to be completed by 2 or more characters. With a high-rank companion you can probably complete them solo, but it'll be a lot easier with a friend. Chapter 5 continues the main story arc of the game, and leads directly into the story of the most recent content. It also spoils things that happen at the end of your class mission, and I think a plot element from Makeb is referenced. But as long as you've finished your class story, you should be fine to go into Forged Alliances directly. I hope this helps!

Okay, so you want to get into crafting! This is good. Crafting mods is...moderately complex, so let me try to break this down for you. Every crafting skill, except Biochem, can make some modifications. Armormech makes Resistive (high Endurance) Armorings, and requires Scavenging and Underworld Trading. Synthweaving makes Versatile (high Mastery) Armorings, and requires Archaeology and Underworld Trading. Artifice makes Hilts for lightsabers, vibroswords (but not knives), and the like, and requires Archaeology and Treasure Hunting. Armstech makes Barrels for blasters and vibroknives, and requires Scavenging and Investigation. And finally, Cybertech makes Mods, which all modifiable gear uses, and Enhancements, which are used by all modifiable gear except belts and bracers. It requires Scavenging and Underworld Trading. If you want to use strictly modifiable gear, but only dedicate one character to crafting, Cybertech offers the most bang for your buck. You'll need 7 or 8 armorings, 1 or 2 hilts or barrels, 9 mods, and 7 enhancements for a full set of modifiable gear, and Cybertech can cover both mods and enhancements. However, a couple of notes. Crafting can be very credit-intensive. Crafting is very time-intensive. And if you're looking to do endgame crafting, you probably want to be in something other than Cybertech. If you're trying to craft while leveling, don't bother trying to reverse-engineer stuff, and get your materials from gathering nodes instead of crew skill missions. And always have all of your companions (other than the one you're traveling with) working on your crew skills. If you've got any specific questions, let me know. Have fun!

For now, you have an Armstech craft it and send it over. Or you just wait for a patch to fix it.

Once your character reaches level 53, there will be a quest on your ship to begin the Forged Alliances storyline. After you complete Forged Alliances, you can begin Shadow of Revan from the same terminal on your ship. However, if your character was created using a level 60 token, you will not be able to play the Shadow of Revan storyline on that character.

Sorry if the blue text was too dark, I switched to a slightly brighter blue, I hope that helps. And yeah, the TL;DR is "Custom gear is superior to Heroic Drops if you are willing to craft your own modifications. Purple crafted gear is better than heroic drops, and blue slightly worse."

Since I still like looking stuff up... Aftermarket Boltblaster's Body Armor +20 Endurance +9 Power +9 Critical Rating +17 Mastery Drops from a class quest. Chestpiece with Adept Enhancement, Lethal Mod, and Versatile Armoring 9 +17 Endurance +11 Power +9 Critical Rating +17 Mastery Available at level 18 for 6 Common Data Crystals Aftermarket Boltblaster's Body Armor MK-2 +26 Endurance +12 Power +11 Critical Rating +23 Mastery Drops from Heroics and Tactical Flashpoint bosses from levels 17-24 Mullinine Onslaught Jacket +26 Endurance +11 Power +11 Critical Rating +23 Mastery Crafted by Armormech at 110, equippable at level 16. Chestpiece with Adept Enhancement, Lethal Mod, and Versatile Armoring 9 +23 Endurance +15 Power +11 Critical Rating +23 Mastery Crafted by Synthweaving at 140 & Cybertech at 140/150, equippable at level 18 Aftermarket Boltblaster's Jacket MK-3 +29 Endurance +13 Power +14 Critical Rating +31 Mastery Drops from Tactical Flashpoint final/bonus bosses at levels 17-24 Alusteel Onslaught Jacket +31 Endurance +14 Power +13 Critical Rating +29 Endurance Crafted by Armormech at 150, equippable at level 16. Chestpiece with Adept Enhancement, Lethal Mod, and Versatile Armoring 9 +28 Endurance +17 Power +14 Critical Rating +28 Mastery Crafted by Synthweaving at 140 & Cybertech at 140-150, equippable at level 18 So assuming that this establishes a pattern, Custom > Flashpoint Final/Bonus Boss Drops > Crafted > Custom > Heroic Rewards/Flashpoint Boss Drops > Crafted > Custom > Quest Reward. However, the differences within a given gear tier are fairly minor (Artifact/Prototype/Premium), and the "less powerful" options are available earlier.

The trainer teaches "Artusian" relics that are item rating 200, and those can be reverse-engineered to yield rating 208 "Singing Stone" relics.

I think the point was for Arcann to come off as desperate and irrational. In his own mind, five years ago he claimed the throne that should have been his birthright from the man who robbed him of his brother. And now his father has come back from the dead wearing the body of the very outlander that he scapegoated for Valkorion's murder. Valkorion has already taken the one thing Arcann cared about most, Arcann cannot lose the Eternal Throne to him too. But for all his resources, the Eternal Fleet, the Knights of Zakuul, the overwhelming technological advantage of the Eternal Empire, he cannot find Valkorion. He had to rely on Heskal to arrange a meeting, and then Valkorion escapes. So he attempts to compel the galaxy to turn over Valkorion to him, and his attempt fails. He is the Emperor of Zakuul, he's supposed to have the supreme power in the galaxy, and yet on the one thing that could possibly undo him, the galaxy resists him. He tasked the Knights with finding Valkorion, so it must be their failure, and since the entirety of the Knighthood failed him, it is the entirety of the Knighthood that must be taken to task. The fact that his demands make Vaylin balk is the entire point of that scene, to establish that Arcann is desperately afraid, and that fear has driven him to madness. After all, death and destruction is fun and all, but he's demanding she sacrifice half of her Knights for no real reason. That's not fun anymore. This is the point where Vaylin realizes Arcann has lost it, and by proxy, the player.

The problem the devs were trying to solve was not "slicing is useless." The problem was "sliced tech parts, except of the highest grade, are useless." Only augments and augmentation kits used them, and the common wisdom was that augments before level cap were pointless...which is pretty much true, non-endgame augments are a credit sink not worth the effort. Which in turn meant that grade 1-10 sliced tech parts were also pointless. There was literally no reason to run a mission to get sliced tech parts that wasn't grade 11 in 3.X.

So maybe I can help explain what the difference in opinion is here, Menace. The point that you're arguing is that the Grand Chance Cubes are a better deal for the consumer than a new suite of limited bronze items. In terms of credit value (which is pretty much the only objective metric we can use), you're correct. The argument being made against the chance cubes, however, is more an emotional one than a logical one. Yes, bronze items are the CM equivalent of vendor trash. Yes, buying a hypercrate would leave you with more duplicates of that pack's bronze items than you knew what to do with. These are not being contested. But there was the feeling that even if it was trash, at least it was new trash. It's a perception issue. EDIT: Full disclosure, I don't actually buy CM packs to begin with, so I don't really have a dog in this fight. I'm just trying to see if I can facilitate communication.

All of the 212 crafted gear can be reverse engineered twice to get a 220 version. So Armstechs and Artificers can each craft their respective 220 mainhands.

The short answer - no. The more detailed answer. The old 208 Defiant MK-16 gear is now 212, with the stats increased to reflect the new rating. The 212 gear still REs to 216, and then 220. There is a new tier of grade 9 gear with rating 200, that reverse-engineers to rating 208 and requires level 61. It's meant to be a bridge between the grade 8 gear and endgame gear.

Premium is TOR-speak for "green". Prototype (Blue), Artifact (Purple), and Legendary (Violet) gifts will still be available.

California?

I'm probably wrong, but Operative?

You can reverse-engineer the armor components to get augmentation kit components. You never have to actually build any armor.

No, it's just the prevailing view among crafters is that gathering missions are too expensive and an inefficient use of time compared to gathering in the field.

From a pure stats standpoint... MK-3 (Artifact) Flashpoint gear > Artifact Crafted Gear > MK-2 (Prototype) Flashpoint/Heroic Gear > Prototype Crafted Gear > Vendor Mods = Story Quest Rewards ...at least during the leveling phase.

Orgus Din takes you on as his Padawan during the events on Tython, but your apprenticeship ends with the story there - you are given the rank of Jedi Knight, and while Orgus is still your Master in terms of "the Jedi who trained you," he no longer has the authority of being your teacher. Any deference you give him is out of respect for what he's done, not because it is expected of you. Similarly, Kira is knighted at the end of Chapter 1, but continues to call you "Master" out of respect, and chooses to continue to follow you rather than striking out on her own. Satele doesn't really interact with you much after Tython either, at least not during Chapter 1. And when she does, the authority she holds over you is that of commander, rather than teacher. Like Yoda over Obi-Wan. That said, I feel Satele would have chosen you as a Padawan if not for her role as Grandmaster demanding other things from her. And I believe if you tell her you'd rather have her than Orgus as your master, she says as much.

If you're going to craft, Biochem is a good profession - you can make stims that persist through death, and the artifact stims last for 8 hours, plenty of time to reach the next tier. So a bit of how stats work. Mastery and Endurance are primary statistics. Every Armoring and Mod has them, and Enhancements have some measure of Endurance as well. Power is a secondary statistic. The other is Defense Rating, which isn't relevant to you as a DPS class. Every Mod and Enhancement you will use has some level of Power. Accuracy, Alacrity, and Critical Rating are tertiary statistics. Since these are only found on Enhancements, Augments, and non-modifiable gear, you'll naturally have less of it, but this is also where the choice in gearing comes from. Of the three, Critical Rating is the most powerful, due to the way critical hits work. Every Marauder discipline has a way to automatically generate critical hits, and if your critical hit chance is over 100%, the excess becomes extra damage. As a better way to demonstrate this, say you have a critical chance of 25%, and a critical severity of 55%. This means you have a 25% chance of striking a critical hit that deals 55% more damage. Well, if you have an attack that automatically critically hits, such as Force Scream with the Execute buff, it adds 100 to the critical chance for that attack. So now you have 125% chance to crit. That extra 25% that would otherwise be wasted is instead added to your severity. 25% of 55 is 13.75, so your automatic crit does 68.75% extra damage. Accuracy is only important if you're planning on doing group PvE content. In regular overworld fights, the miss chance is pretty much negligible - you'll never miss against weak, standard, or strong enemies, and only miss 5% of the time against elite enemies or 10% of the time against champions. But in Flashpoints or Operations where every bit of damage counts, that miss chance becomes really important to overcome, so you'll have to prioritize Accuracy until you reach 110% accuracy. Alacrity can be good, but only if you're fast enough to take advantage of the ability to push your buttons faster. Most people (including me) aren't.

Not really. The most common answer you'll get is that during the levelling phase, gear doesn't really matter. The game is designed so you can use the gear drops you get from the story (purple) quests and be perfectly fine, so there isn't any tangible benefit to min-maxing your gear. If you still want to min-max, however...new mods become available every 4 levels after 10 - so 10, 14, 18, and so on. You can get away with only updating every 8 levels (18, 26, 34...). As a DPS class, you always want to use Versatile Armorings/Hilts and Lethal Mods. Choose the unlettered mod - so Lethal Mod 11, instead of Lethal Mod 11A - unlettered mods have more total Mastery and Power than the lettered equivalents. If you can't get unlettered mods, A mods are acceptable, but switch to unlettered as soon as you can. The enhancements most useful for you are Adept, Initiative, and Quick Savant. Initiative enhancements grant Accuracy, which is mostly an endgame concern, but if you want to do lots of flashpoints can be useful - Elite enemies have a 5% defense chance, and Champion enemies (like Flashpoint bosses) have a 10% defense chance, so Accuracy will offset that...and make your off-hand attacks a little more likely to hit normal opponents too. Quick Savant is mostly for Carnage, it grants alacrity, which makes your animations and cooldowns faster. Adept is the most useful for levelling, and grants critical rating, which makes you both more likely to score a critical hit and makes your criticals hit harder. I usually just stick with all Adept Enhancements while levelling, but again, you can swap in some Initiative Enhancements if you want to run Flashpoints. Don't bother with augments. They're a massive credit-sink that are really meant for endgame. EDIT: I just realized I never answered on where you could find this stuff. Item modifications can be bought from vendors near the hub of each planet, or on the Imperial Fleet. Each modification costs 2 Common Data Crystals. You can also craft your own modifications - Synthweaving makes Versatile Armorings, Artifice makes Hilts, and Cybertech makes Mods and Enhancements. If you don't have modifiable gear, pretty much all gear from the Cartel Market is modifiable, and you can also purchase a set of modifiable gear using Common Data Crystals from a vendor on the fleet, each item costs 6...except I think belt and bracers, which cost 4.

Because I like looking stuff up, here's a quick bit of research. At level 17, Heroic missions begin dropping the Aftermarket set. The Aftermarket Boltblaster's Body Armor (MK-2) grants 26 Endurance, 12 Power, 11 Critical Rating, and 23 Mastery. There's a commendations vendor for level 18 modifications, so an equivalent set of mods for a chestpiece would be the Adept Enhancement 9 (+4 Endurance, +5 Power, +9 Critical Rating), Lethal Mod 9 (+7 Mastery, +5 Endurance, +6 Power), and Versatile Armoring 9 (+10 Mastery, +8 Endurance) That gives total stats of 17 Endurance, 11 Power, 9 Critical Rating, and 17 Mastery, demonstrably worse than the Aftermarket armor. However, there is another mod vendor at level 22, and Heroic missions don't drop the Decorated set until level 25. But even so, a set of Adept Enhancement 11 (+6 Endurance, +6 Power, +11 Critical Rating), Lethal Mod 11 (+9 Mastery, +6 Endurance, +7 Power) and Versatile Armoring 11 (+12 Mastery, +10 Endurance) grants total stats of +22 Endurance, +13 Power, +11 Critical Rating, and +21 Mastery, still worse than the Aftermarket MK-2 gear. So, purely from a stats standpoint, you're better off using Heroic mission gear. And for a "planning ahead" standpoint too - Heroic Missions reward you with Data Crystals as well as gear. The mods are still useful for keeping your main-hand weapon up to date...unless, of course, you craft your own.