Okay, so this could easily devolve into a lot of me whining, and nobody wants to read that, I'm not even there, yet, but I've read that, somewhere along the way, the great game of eight stories (three of which I've even liked) will become the one story, no matter what you play, and somewhere in that, all of your companions disappear; some may even die. As that WoW-style story plays, you will get some new Companions, and some of the old ones, from across the eight classes, might even return, regardless of what class you are playing. I really don't like this. I'm not even going to whine about money spent on gear, as I do like that they can wear whatever, now, and i don't have to get them upgrades, too, but as I said, I won't sit here and just further complain. I will, however, ask WHEN does it happen, in game? I have a Knight, and a Trooper, both standing around on Ilum, a positively BORING intermission planet, trying to wrap that up, prior to starting Rise of the Hutt Cartel. Will I get to play that expansion with Kira? Elara? Will they disappear in Shadow of Revan, or wait until KotFE? Since MMOs won't allow me to "go back", or copy the toon, I figure I should inquire. Also, and this might be purely opinion, but how good are the post-story expansions, story wise? If I am to be truthful, my current plan is to finish up my Inquisitor (she is starting on Belsavis, as of this posting, and I presume there are two more worlds, after that), and get her through the expansions. I have little attachment to the Companions for her, besides Khem Val, and look forward to her meeting Lana, and the rest; finally, another Sith follower, but not one who feels like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. If I follow this plan, is it really worth it to also carry the others into the newer content? Sure, I'm paying to play it, but one of the best things, for me, about this game, especially compared to WoW, for instance, was the myriad stories. My Trooper was a bit boring, compared to the story for the Knight, but it wasn't because my Knight, and my Inquisitor, had already done these things. I very much like Mass Effect series, but I'll never play them again, just to see how different Shepard is, as a different class; I replay them because the story is fun. If the new stuff is all the same, regardless of what class/faction I am, is there a strong reason, besides better gear, to carry 3+ characters through it, or just stick with the one? Most don't have Guilds, waiting for me to catch up to their skill, and I solo pretty much everything, so I'd think my gear is, overall, good enough, as I update it. Will it feel really any different for my Knight, my Trooper, than it will for my Inquisitor? Enough so to be worth the loss of romanced, high Affection Companions? Lastly, the new variant of crafting has thrown me for a complete loop, with the new, weird stuff I need to make stuff, almost none of which I've found (assume it's for sale, on the fleet), but do your characters still have anything to do with specific jobs, beyond their Affection level? Kira used to be better at Synthweaving, while Val was good with Artifice, I think, and some had improved Crit opportunity. Are all of these things gone? My Trooper was my Cybertech-crafter, and I liked that M1 was good for that, but now I don't know if he is, and he's Aff 8, to Elara's 14, or 17, I don't recall, so is he still contributing to it, in a way she isn't? Nothing I break seems to make Research happen, and I can't buy blues, anymore, I've noticed (been playing since the beginning, but I took a six month break, in November), so I was going to make them with M1-4X, but I haven't learned many, don't seem to, now, and new, weird crafting components confuse me, but if Elara's better now, due to higher Affection, I would like to know. All right, that should wrap it up, for me. Again, sorry for the whining part, but these followers were part of why I really liked SWTOR, and maybe we get good new ones, too, I don't know, but I won't mind knowing where this little river is flowing to, before I get in the boat. Thanks much.

Well, my Presence seems to float around 700 on two characters, and the Followers in question for each, Kira (Guardian 40), and Elara (Medic 45), are both level 10, with both their stories completed, minus that one bit of Kira's since she makes me finish the Knight story, before that last, little bit. Not sure yet where that will put them for effectiveness, but I might need to go get some more gifts, just for fun Thanks again, everyone, for helping walk me through the changes. My game is still the bit unresponsive it's always been, but I think I'll get past that, and the game should go back to being the fun I always thought it was (at least the Knight and Inquisitor stories; sorry Trooper, but your followers a a tad better than your quest). Have a good one, everyone. May the 4th be with you!

Apologies; when I say "solo", I just mean that I want to be able to go do Story Missions, like taking out the various super weapons, or finding the relics of a certain Sith Lord, for another certain Sith Lord, and not get killed because the bosses are always gold, accompanied by silver elites, or the occasional gold+silver combo bosses. For instance, in the Knight story, I know I was getting ready to go kill some Gen'Dai, and while i don't know how tough they'll be, I know how tough cartoon Dirge was, blah, blah, blah. I've had times where I and my chosen Follower couldn't hack it, even when leveled for it, and while I accept that, if the Followers had gotten weaker, due to a lack of boosts from their gear, I'd be screwed, whether it was their veiled attempt to try and remind me it's an MMO, or not. As for their value, I wasn't trying to downplay it, and think I'll appreciate their flexibility, but if they can all do pretty much anything, then the game will find it hard to possibly make me WANT to use Tanno, or Doc. Part of learning their stories was having to use them, and now, I may not HAVE to, which could be good, but also risky. I'll be glad if I can have more reason to use Kira, Elara, or M1, and ignore many of the rest, but it sort of worried me. I have several I rarely used, and if that will now handicap me, to the point I might as well NEVER bring them along, then I wanted to know, because their stories might never get told, in my game. Without spoilering it, I'm thinking back to a certain fight the Knight has, where they must bring a certain Follower I NEVER field, and if his Influence will suck, I'll never finish that story line. Also, and this is likely my computer's fault, I'd frequently have the Companion disappear/become invisible. They'd still be there, but I couldn't target them to heal them, or stuff, and they'd go down. Not sure if the game will still do that. This, and my game going into single digit frame rates on Alderaan is why I haven't moved my Scoundrel in ages. Kind of glad Alderaan gets blown up, to be truthful. As with them, I wasn't trying to downplay the crafting, but I often fail to see the reason to craft armor, or weapons, as the game gives you plenty of access to moddable ones, which you often CAN'T make, and now your Companions can't even use that benefit. Seems most people would just make a Cybertecher, for their own upgrades, and otherwise focus on the skills that get them loot, or really rare schematics, which I, at least, never found, otherwise. Certainly, I could be missing an aspect of this part, but not sure. I certainly got the mails full of old gear, but was a bit confused by it, seeing as few of them looked cool, and that's petty much all there was to that aspect of them. By this point, my Companions are all in armor, robes, or a bikini, so I don't really need their "remember when I joined you, wearing this?" gear. "Yes, Kira, I DO remember, and then I got you the cool armored robes, and NOW you look cool, while Elara is wearing a plasteel bikini (needed ONE follower to). Also, I hope either the game will port in my old followers, WITH their gear, into KotFE, when they become available, or I'll have the chance to swap out their gear, and give it back. If it eats my fancy gear, and being an MMO, there's no going back, or reloading a previous save file, I'll be quite grumpy. I hadn't had a chance to field-test them, after the 7-hour update process, so sorry about that. I started up my Inq, because I wanted to see where she was (Nar Shadaa), and saw that Khem Val wasn't in his usual spot; then I realized his gear slots were gone, and I flipped out. Switched to my Com. Medic, and saw Elara still had gear, so was less worried. Then, I hopped off, started reading the Internet, and thought I better come here, and inquire, before I flipped out entirely over all the changes in the time I was gone. Thank you very much, everyone, for your help. I don't have to work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have a good opportunity to pick through the changes, and see if I can still play this without acknowledging it as an MMO, and, if so, happily see where the Inquisitor, Knight, or Trooper story leads. Please have a good one.

So, first, please let me start by saying I took a vacation from SWTOR for a few months, and have come back to a rather different game. Wondering if they really mailed me all the starting gear, JUST in case I actually liked any of it enough to want to copy its skin onto something else? Also, some of this will probably just be me complaining, or at least appear that way, so I apologize, ahead of time. What all has happened to followers, in the last few months? I got on, and now their gear is utterly pointless, beyond cosmetic taste? I hear that they can each play any of the three roles, so now most have very little value, unless they happen to be your "I use this Skill!" bonus-wielder, or the follower you like/happen to be trying to woo? Here comes some of the whining. I'm well aware that this game is an MMO; it's too bad, as they won't make a real Star Wars video game while they still have so much content they have to sit on, and I don't really WANT to play with strangers, on my server, while my friends quit either after finishing a toon, or when "free to play" turned out to be a bit false (it's "free to demo", even if you HAVE been a subscriber since the beginning). Thing is, I always liked this game because the Followers let me get around some of the "want to be solo" I was having. I put some effort into getting them orange gear, or better, and keeping their parts as close to max as I could, but now this is unnecessary? How good will they still be? Will I still be able to solo most of the story missions? I get that the Heroics will be a bit harder, but that was always intentional, so no loss there. Will my regular play still work well? I read that, for a while, they got way overpowered, then way weak, and now...I don't know if Kira/Elara and I will still be able to play, without needing another player to bail us out, even if we are leveled. Onto class skills. Do many of them still matter? I'm not in a guild, at moment, except for one character, my Knight, so no one is hoping I'll make them a sword, or a piece of armor. Making armor never seemed so critical, with all the cosmetic suits they've always tossed out, and weapons are now equally irrelevant to Followers, so I only need mine, which the game is rather free with. Making Mods, and stuff, I can still see, but only my own, as Followers won't benefit from them. Cybertech, and some of the other crafting ones, never seemed to give out the ship parts, the orange suits, or such, anyway, so I'd see Cybertech as it, and Commendations will help offset making those, too, by buying them from vendors, now that I only need the one set every so many levels. When I finish a story, say the Inquisitor, the Knight, or the Trooper, and get into the post-game stuff, will these Followers even carry over? I'm very fond of Kira, and Elara, and would be sad if they don't stick around, even if Lana does seem interesting. Okay, I think I'm done, for the time being. Sorry to ask/whine stuff I'm sure has already been asked, but if I lump all my thoughts together, I'm more certain to not forget any, and to get answers to them, so thanks very much for reading it, and for any advice/information you might feel like sharing. Please have a good one.

Hmm, this is sad. I expected people to post, sort of like in WoW, when they would brag where they found certain stuff. I was hoping some people had some knowledge of how they got these schematics, and under what not-GTN circumstances. Starting to remind me of Torhead, with all of its No Screenshots/no Comments entries

Okay, so in several threads, I have commented on being interested in finding suits/sets of mod slot gear, nice looking sets of orange stuff that I and my companions can wear, as the game progresses, that I can slip new armors, mods, augments, what have you, as they become available. My first hitch is that many of these equipments have a class requirement, and Companions don't have a class, either yours or one similar to their own. This eliminates many of their options. I decided between four Rep characters I am building to run Synthweaving, Armormech, Cybertech, and Artifice; these four professions SHOULD get me decent gear for my characters, their comps, and upgrades to put in both. My second dilemma hit me after I started this plan; many schematics are NOT available for purchase from the vendor. So, if I am reading things correctly, the only ways to get, say the Republic Trooper's Chestguard schematic, which would make the same named piece of armor, a nice option for Elara, for instance, are to buy it off the GTN (my server's is strong in the greedy side of the Force, and the lvl 50 required region), hope that it drops from a random mission (screw planning now), or forgo getting it, and have someone else make it for me (again, greed-strong people, and my Guild, for their pluses, might not care too much about me, since I haven't got a lvl50, yet). So, I didn't just write this to whine; that's a side-effect of the game making me grumpy; the armor isn't "awesome" till I further pay out to get the mods for it, so I don't know why it tries so hard to keep so many things I want from me. The point here is for me to ask this: are there any clues/hints one might know for how/when I might start finding schematics for orange gear, as rewards for missions? I have run numerous for various Crew Profs, and others besides, and don't believe I have gotten any of them. Is there a level to expect it, or a likely reward type, in Crew Missions, that could result in schematics being a prize? I just want to know because I put a bit of my hopes on four characters and their prof choices on being able to make such gear, without having to rely on the kindness of strangers, or the greed many more of them have. Any advice on how I might go about finding these schematics, without making a trip to the GTN, would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I apologize ahead of time, this is going to be a bit of a whiny rant. Well, here goes: This is the sort of thing that makes me unreasonably grumpy. I whine some when I want to plan for stuff, and I go to Torhead, or some such, and the item's entry page is effectively empty; game's 8+ months old, and that site is still a skeleton, but that's just how it is; it's a work in progress. When I can't necessarily plan due to the game saying "well, you MIGHT get this, but it will be rather random, so you can't strive for it, just hope", that makes me sad. I'm trying to lvl up Synthweave, Armormech, Cybertech, and Artifice between my 4 Rep characters so I can make cool gear for them, and for others, just to find that many of the things I want, like the moddable orange gear that DOESN'T require a class, since Companions don't inherit yours or their approximation, are totally random. I can either pay out my ***** for them, on GTN, and even then, there are next to no pieces or schematics on my server, or blindly hope and pray that I luckily find them, though with no idea how likely that is. Nothing says how likely the receive of such a schematic is, or what level of the Crew Skill is necessary to even start hoping for it. The orange gear schemes should be easy to get, especially when I will possibly have to also pay out the usual place to get the mods to shove in them, as I go; they are more "look how you want, if you can afford the legos". I know it is supposed to be an MMOrpg, but many of the best things in this game, for me, stem from the fact that, if I want to, I can ignore many of the people around me, and conduct much of what I am required to without help, beyond my Companion. If I do need help, either in battling or lore, I can ask, an actually get an answer, sometimes, without having to wait for a few hours for someone to post on a thread, but I don't NEED them for everything. Then this happens. Why can't they just let me enjoy the best parts of my crafting professions, without having to pander to greedy lvl 50's, or play roulette till I accidentally get lucky? For my example, I've been just trying to find moddable stuff for Kira, where she doesn't look dumb (I think that the R1 Soc gear looks kinda that way, sort of like a wedding dress), or like a slave dancer (seems just too easy, after I pay out for it and bits, since my Social is a slow-rising number). Any other few options are buildable by my Synthweaver (that character), except that I apparently can't intentionally get that scheme, or the ones for my Elara to get moddable armor. I could try PvP gear, I suppose, but again, not as social, and PvP kills me instantly, without me inflicting much damage, which I'd get if I was a 50, going up against pimped PvP gear, but I'm a 30s, and was 27 lvl last time I PvPed, so not sure what advantage they had over me, beyond pure skill. Okay, that's the end of the rant. Perhaps, if I am lucky, I can get someone in my guild to help me, if they care about their not-50s (a rare trait in MMO's), or someone here might give me some constructive advice/tips. I acknowledge I am not the best player, or even close, and one of my favorite aspects of this game's "can go it alone" attitude is that it means my mistakes won't elicit endless jabs of insult from the strangers I was teamed with, but one of the joys of here is I can choose to ***** two paragraphs, and if someone doesn't want to read it, they can skip it, or they can help me learn to improve. K, thanks for reading.

Now, I'm sure that there are numerous threads that cover this, but I don't feel like peeling through them, and figure this will give me the most up-to-date answers. I am having a conundrum; how might I best kit up my lady Companions? Now, I know three of the better options; Soc 1 gear from Coruscant, Soc 2 gear from Nar Shaddaa, and the Dancer gear from the Sec Key vendor, but I'm feeling a bit odd of late, and actually want to dress them up in something a bit more "looks like their character", rather than ****ty dancer or my bride. Between most moddable gear having a class limiter 9which the Companions don't meet), and my seeming inability to increase Social rating at all quickly, and looking at the 30,000 cred price tag the Dancer outfit will have, I find myself with few options. Are there any good ones I am missing? Are there ANY Jedi-looking light armor sets Kira might be able to wear, or heavy armors for Elara? If not, what's some good gear to keep and eye out for, to make them good as I play? Thanks much, and have a great day.

It's a shame they don't do anything to discount the cost of pulling out Mods and stuff. Seems weird, when I'm doing all the work, that I am paying so much money (almost 1,000 cred on some of my mods, and I presume it only gets higher as I proceed) to recover one, just to put in a better one. Paying GTN, and thus someone else for the manufacture, that's fine. Paying a courteous player who spends a half hour just making me stuff (and I DIDN'T have to pay for it, so it was even more awesome) is also fine. But paying to pull a mod out, myself, so i can put another in myself, that's like me just lighting cash on fire, at a safe distance, while I change my own oil. One supposes that I could argue I won't need the mod again, since EVERYTHING in this game Soulbinds, and some Comps don't use the same stats I do, but I think I can still make them useful, and wish it didn't cost so bloody much to do it, again, especially when I do all the work. If it was different between in-field modding, and taking the time to trek back to civilization, leaving your mission behind, that would make a bit more sense, but nope. Oh well.

So, as I may have mentioned in the past, I am playing a J. Guardian for my current primary toon. As I progress, I find myself wanting to sport a particular look; heavy armor + robes. Ideally, I want to look something like Master Ven Zallow, in the Deceived trailer, and the intro load screen, but his armor, the Jedi Battlelord set, is WELL out of my reach, at least at present, if not forever. Are there any other sets of armor Jedi Knights of the Tank persuasion can acquire that look SOMETHING like that? Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Customizable is preferred, but "regular" could work, too. Thanks much.

What do you do when you get a new comp? I have been using Kira since I got her, and could easily end up like a friend of mine, not using T7 again, till the game says "hey, you know that one companion you got, way at the beginning? Yeah, he's the ONLY one that can go with you to fight Darth Vitiate, because the Sith Emperor will turn anyone else who accompanies you, so I hope you kept him up to date." but I assume I'll have to use characters like Doc and Scourge, when I get them, and they work totally differently, stat-wise, then Kira. Did you just find them each some moddable stuff, during their time, and ignore Kira till you 50'd? What might be a good set of orange gears for my Guardian? He's around 30, now, and I have to keep playing him to unlock Legacy, so that my other chars don't do stuff, and NOT add to that XP bar.

I suppose. It's just that it's hard for me to know if I'll be able to keep the orange fear competitive, compared to the relatively nice stuff I find as I go. I never seem to buy from vendors, unless they are comm vendors, so it's usually thanks to completing missions that I get newer stuff, or the GTN, if I feel the price is appropriate. I haven't shelled out for the Rep Dancer or Social oranges, yet. I'd been considering it, just to give one piece for mods to go in, but my cybertech-toon is my 14 Commando, so he's got a long ways to go before he's making life for himself, my Guardian, and my Scoundrel any easier, and I'm not in good enough with my guild to get offers of services in the crafting dept. If there was good "regular" looking orange gear, but the Social usually looks silly, and the Rep. Dancer is SPENDY. Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open, maybe find a good orange piece or two on one planet, and then put them away till I buy their mods on the next one.

At the risk of just sounding dumb, or simple, is there a good way to rate the orange gear I might find? Of course, it's going to look like ***** when I first peruse it, because all of its mod slots are empty, and I don't inherently remember what bits are sitting in some other piece, on me, or in the Hold. They might be great kitted up, but I'm going to have to guess, and waste cred/comm to find out, and then pay more to wrench a mod out of my old gear (a mechanic I hate, as i wonder where my money goes when I pay myself).

At the moment, the Commando cybertecher and Scoundrel artificer are lower level (C.Lvl 15 and 12, respectively, though they both get played with some regularity), so I will be building them up, both to help themselves and my Guardian. The Guardian, my "primary", is my Synthweaver, so I'll have to see how well that helps him. Right now, the Jedi only has two moddable gear pieces, a Fusion-core lightsaber, and some Exemplar's or something robe. The robe has turned out great, and with me keeping its mods consistent, though maybe not the highest they can be, it has stayed ahead of every chest piece I find, as I go. The lightsaber, on the other hand, always falls behind on everything but Endurance, compared to ANY lightsaber I find as I progress. That is part of why I began this thread, so this is working nicely. Kira's DB-saber is moddable, and that has worked well, but her stat depends are different than Ender's, so I can't make his better the same way. I haven't been given any other orange gear, or felt like shelling out comms for it, over the mods, and I have no idea how to get the orange gear from the Coruscant Legacy vendor, while the PvP gear is too high lvl for even my 30 Guardian (another moment where I whine that the game only cares when I can't get better, except with mods). I'm running through Alderaan right now, so maybe while there, or right after, I'll look into finding some orange gear that I missed. I'm sure one of my biggest fails is that I don't usually do Heroics, Flashpoints, or PvP. This game so often lets me get away from needing groups, that I often forget it's an MMO, and when I do want to run, that's when no one else is looking to. As for PvP, I can't stress enough how bad I am at it. I die constantly, and can't land a point of damage. I've never killed anyone before they killed me, and that was at lvl 25, even. It's disheartening because I'm playing a Tank, so one would think I could absorb a bit more damage. I guess it's that I don't know anyone in the team, so no strategy. It happened in WoW, too, but at least as a Mage, i expected to be glass, while here, I expect a Jedi Guardian to be wall-worthy, not floor-deco. These limits on my playing have likely denied me some good gear, but learning that helps. Maybe I can fix it. Thanks for the advice. I'll try to take it to heart, and check back for if any other thoughts are shared.

Why are these in here? I might like that the mod benches are available, but I can do that on the fly, away from any such table, and it works the same. I still pay out the ***** to remove a mod (some of them), if I want to keep it for some other piece of alterable gear, whether I do it myself, or on the bench. What purpose do they serve? I note they can sometimes be elusive, and even my ship doesn't seem to have one, so how important are they?