Armor searching is pretty easy. Just set it to "Armor" and then the class (heavy, medium, light or adaptive). You can search like that no problem or you can set it to search specifics (helm, chest, etc). Maybe you have a character in the name field?
The only real things I'll comment on is to not buy gear with credits. You should keep well enough geared via quest rewards and commendations. As for spending commendations - thats what they are for. Upgrade your gear first, then your companion's if you have enough and they are worth while items.
You don't "suffer", you just get the standard XP instead of a boosted XP.
Clever players realize that rested XP doesn't make a difference to mission/quest rewards and only effects XP gained from killing mobs/enemies.
[edit]Subs[/edit] actually are getting a slightly higher amount of XP than before. When the "who gets what" page says that F2P get less XP they mean than subs. [edit]F2P players[/edit] are the new "100%" rate, which subs used to have.
The thing is is that it is you and not the F2P model. Up until P2P launched all players were getting XP at the same rate you are now. With the launch of F2P people who sub get extra XP. So there was almost a year of people with no leveling problems.
He isn't the only companion this happens with either. Atleast 2-3 other times I've gotten a guest for part of my class chain and then lost them after a quest or two before getting them back again. It's usually explained in the dialog.
Another note about shields is that they do re-charge in flight, but not while you're shooting. So holding the mouse to shoot is a good move when you have something to shoot at, but be sure you aren't holding the mouse button when your shields are low.
Back when I played another MMO this was the most common crafting set up. You didn't hope for crits to get 2 of the item, but rather you expected a tip. It's a fairly routine setup in online games.
That depends on if you do flashpoints or PVP. I've been as many as 6 levels ahead of my "current" planet (based on class quests) on a couple characters.
A major thing to be wary of is buying PC parts from Futureshop/bestbuy. The do not have fair prices 95% of the time. For that same price you could get a 6670 which would be decent enough for lower settings in SWTOR. The 6470 wouldn't cut it. Have a look at ncix or newegg.ca if you're in Canada.
As a price comparison for them NCIX has a 6470 on sale for $20.99 right now, so they have way nicer prices.
Strength is slightly better than accuracy (aka take 10 strength over 10 accuracy) but not by a lot. As for the 110% beside accuracy - that's the cap for the stat. Anything past 110% is wasted.