How much would be lost.

Set the Light/Dark selector to whichever way you want to go. Continue to take the Light/Dark options as are appropriate for your character.

Er... No. Skills level up at pre-determined levels. There are some levels where no skills levels and no new skills are gained. At these levels, you won't have anything to train at the class trainer. So it's fine if, at LVL 65, you have a skill that is only LVL 58. That would be the max level for that skills (until, for example, BW raises the level cap to 70 and increases the max level of the skill in question to 59.)

Correct. I unlocked Chiss so I could make a Chiss Smuggler.

My character has a Biochem level of over 300. I have a schematic that requires Biochem 100. However, the game is telling me my skill level isn't high enough to learn he schematic. I remember seeing posts about this before, but can't find them now. I've tried swapping companions and sending my companions on mission, but I still can't learn the schematic. Help?

It's a square thing that looks like it is made of mesh. If I had to guess, you didn't actually click on the lore item. The modification station is not the lore item. There is a thing that looks like a sign right next to the mod station. That's what you have to click on.

I openly admit to being an alt-aholic. I'm also replaying a few classes that I had to 40+ prior to unsubscribing about 1.5 years ago so I can work on companion affection. (My new toons have higher affection than my older ones with the starting companion because of changes in the affection system.) I know where I am going with most of my new characters, but there's two I'm not sure about. I have a Jedi Sage (Heal spec) and a Sith Assassin (Tank spec). I have another Jedi Counselor and Sith Inquisitor that have not chosen Advanced Classes yet. I don't want to play the Heal or Tank specs, since I already have those. What I'd like is (1) a character that takes advantage of stealth abilities, and (2) one that does good AoE. I've tried looking at class guides, but most of the ones I've found talk about pre-4.0. I did check dulfy this morning, but the guides there either focus on PvP (which I don't do much of) or don't address what I am looking for. (They assume you have picked your advance class and spec and explain how to play it.) Could someone please let me know which specs do what I want? Thanks.

Recent changes have made companion equipment purely cosmetic. Before 4.0(?), you did have to equip your companions and keep their gear up (as well as your own).* Now a companion's combat performance is tied to your Influence with them. If you want to put your companion in all starter-world greens, you can with no loss. On the converse, you can put your companion in top of the line gear, and they will perform the same. Those are tied together, so I will address them together. First, there is no requirement to have a crafter. You can take all gathering missions (or a mix of gathering and mission) and then sell what you get on the GTN. If you do want to craft, you can only have 1 crafting crew skill per character. All blue recipes are learned from your crafting trainer (the same person you got the crafting skill from. There's one on most every story planet, as well as the Fleet.) Hit B to bring up Crew Skills and you will see an icon for each of your crew skills. If you have a mission or gathering skill, clicking on the icon will bring up a window with available "missions." (Gathering skills also have missions.) Missions have a credit cost, but will get crafting supplies. Gathering skills also allow you to get some crafting supplies in the world. (A * icon on the map indicates a node you can harvest.) If you click on the icon for the crafting skill, a window will pop up showing all the recipes you know, separated by type. (i.e. Armoring, Mods, Enhancements, etc.) Click on the name of a recipe and it will show you what materials you need to make that item, as well as a preview of the item that you can both preview (CTRL+Left Mouse) and compare to what you are currently wearing. At the bottom of the window is a button that says "Craft." Click that and the selected companion will leave to make the item. How fast a mission or crafting goes (as well as the chance of getting a critical success) is tied to your Influence with that companion. * I cry at the amount I spent when the game first came out keeping my companions up to date. My LVL 40-42 characters were all in LVL 28-32 gear when I came back because I had to "spread the love."

Probably a really stupid question, but I am going to ask anyway... If I use Cartel Coins to unlock the Legacy items for companion influence (i.e. "gains X% more influence from gifts"), does that unlock for all characters on my legacy, or only the one I unlocked it on? I know it says the unlock is only for that character, but I wasn't sure if that only referred to unlocking via credits, and CC unlock was Legacy-wide.

I just came back and picked up with my LVL 40+ toons. (I have new-class-itis in any game, so had never gotten any character to 50...) While running around the Republic Fleet, my Jedi Sage picked up a quest that sent him back to Nar Shadda, called "Road to War." I'm supposed to talk to an NPC on Nar Shadda. Well, she has a quest marker on the map (but not over her head), and when I talk to her, all she says is "You're cute, but I'm busy. Maybe next time." I'd really like to progress this quest, but don't know what to do to actually make her acknowledge me...

Who says they don't need it? If you are "juggling alts," then you have alts. And unless you make all the same class, they are going to need different things. I have 6 crafting alts - one for each craft. I started them off gearing each other up once they were all to their respective space station. (I admit my 2 highest level characters are only gatherers, and I had large amounts of Tier 1 and 2 materials when I started.) By the time I had everyone geared, my crafters had levels of 50+ and everyone had better gear than they did when I started. Heroics do give better gear, but what you get is random. Need a new Armoring? Sorry, you got another ear piece. Crafting allows you to get what you need when you need it. Run missions for materials. You don't level yourself, but you level your crafting and get materials. (All of my crafters, except Biochem, can craft higher than they can use. Biochem is the exception because she was higher level to start with.) That is a good idea. I don't know why the schematics start at LVL 8, given that the earliest someone could get them is 10 (by using an Emergency Fleet Transport to go up, get Crew Skills, and go back to the starting planet). 12-14 is more likely. Please note that your companion is capped at the planet's max. But yes, leveling is pretty easy. I almost never had to heal my companion on my Sage (currently LVL 42). Sometimes I did, but not a lot. (I want to point out that most of the time I was leveling the Sage, gearing companions was required. So I and my companions were all a little under-geared because I had to "spread the love.")

I feel less stupid now. I have an Archeo mission, requirement 150, My character has an Archeo level of over 200, but the game is telling me I don't have enough skill. I was starting to wonder if I misunderstood the requirements for the mission.

Thanks.

I've seen people say there is something you can buy in the Cartel Market to allow spec swapping in the field. Where is it? I went looking for it last night, but could not find it. Thanks.

I recently came back from a long time away to a lot of changes. Most things I have figured out, but I do have one question. My highest level character got his Stronghold. Do my other characters automatically have access to it, or do I have to send them keys? Either way, how do I send them all to the Stronghold?

He always looks like he is wearing just a loin cloth. Open the inventory window to make sure the armor to make sure it is all there. If so, you are good to go.

That isn't quite right. Mods need to be upgraded on every planet, but you don't have to upgrade all modifications every time. Each time you go to upgrade, check to see which modifications are the lowest level. Replace the lowest first, then if you have more comms, upgrade the next lowest, and so on...

It won't automatically upgrade. You have to get modifications (armoring, mods, enhancement) for it and replace the modifications that are in it. You can get the modifications from the GTN, from quest rewards, or from vendors (regular and commendation) on a planet. If you continue to upgrade your mods, you can use the same shell (which is all adaptive armor is) from 10-50.

Make sure you don't have any text in the window where you can type. I've had blank searches come up, only to discover I forgot to delete a previous search. Make sure you don't have someone selected in the "useable by" pulldown. Make sure you are searching at the right level. Crafting materials are useable at LVL 1, so if you have your search set for your level (i.e. 25-30), crafting materials won't come up.

So don't. Buy oranges off the GTN and use planet comms to upgrade the mods in your armor and hers. Or (when you get high enough level), run low-level FP's solo and collect the gear that drops. As an aside, don't pass down your old mods. First, you'll have to pay to extract them from your armor, which can get expensive. Second, it means she will always be undergeared. Try to keep yourself and whichever companion you use the most in the best gear possible. (I usually swap out 3 or 4 mods per planet, depending how how old the mods I'm using are.) It sticks in my mind there was a nerf, but it's still a valid way to level. Also, you can use PvP comms to get orange gear. Those appropriate for your level. Low level ones are quick if you run them solo, but you won't get a lot of XP for them. If you use the group finder, it will automatically give you the option to queue up for ones of the right level.

If I had to guess, you had some bad luck. That or you got into a match where the other team was queued up in groups and were working together. It happens. Next time you end up in a battle like that, you may be on the winning side.

There is your first problem - the level disparity. If you team up with your LVL 33 friend, you either won't get much XP (if you do missions for the LVL 11 characters), or you and the Knight will stand around and try not to die (if you do missions leveled for the LVL 33). I would recommend you tell the LVL 33 to roll an alt and catch up with you on Coruscant. Class quests go on to end game, yes. However, all planets have planet quests that can be run by anyone. Talk to anyone with a yellow triangle over their head and they will give you their quest. You can tell the difference between a class quest and a planet quest by looking in your quest log. (They will be listed as "Class" or under the name of a planet.) You can't abandon them. You can level to 50 without doing them, if you PvP, run FP, or do space missions. However, you won't get your companions, meaning your ability to do crafting will be reduced. You'll have to go to planets anyway to get crafting materials, though (unless you buy from the GTN).

Bring up your skill tree. (I think the default button is K, though I may be brain dead right now...) That should bring up a window to allow you to pick your AC.

Pretty much, yes. Quest rewards will be directed at either you or a companion, but random drops are random. I believe drops in FlashPoints are intended for a member of the party, but that is not always the case. (My BH soloed one with my healer companion and got a few drops with STR...) But just questing in the world, you could get anything. Even gear with stats a future companion uses may not be useful. All companions come with appropriate gear. So the (say) Light Armor with Willpower that you picked up on Dromman Kas will be useless by the time you pick up a Light Armor wearing Willpower-user on Alderaan. Maybe. Look specifically at which stats are being increased and what the decrease is. My main is an IA/Sniper and I run with Kaliyo (ranged tank). So if something drops that raises her Endurance, but lowers her Aim, I may go ahead and equip it anyway. Or if the decrease is really small compared to the increase, I may equip it. Nope.

Open your abilities window (I believe the default key is P). Find the ability you want to put on the bar. Click and drag to the spot on the bar where you want it.