I honestly don't know. However, I regularly see an item called 'Rakghoul Vaccine' for sale at Med Vendors, and that apparently was only useful during a specific event that no longer takes place, so it's likely that the vendors themselves will remain and keep their stock.

If you're asking how to get Cartel Certificates, you have to get them by buying Contraband Packs (which require Cartel Coins to buy). In them, you'll get a Contraband Resale Item. Most of the time, this will be a Rep item, but occasionally, you'll get a Cartel Certificate instead. Note, however, that the packs that the Cartel Certificates come in are being phased out, so you've got a limited time to get anything you want before the packs (and the means to get the Cartel Certificates) are gone.

As an example, take the Inventory. With the default keybind setup, you can open your inventory by pressing either the 'I' button, or the 'B' button on your keyboard. 'I' is used when you have the time to move your hand over the keyboard, so it would be used when you're not in a fight. If you are in a fight, you can't afford to take your hands off of your quickbar keys, so having the B button also open the inventory allows you to quickly pop it open, down any consumable you have there, and pop it back closed without having to stop attacking your opponent. The same thing can be set up with any keybind function in the game if you want. Personally, I don't see the need, but it's there if you want it.

In my experience, items from the Contraband Vendors doesn't unlock in Collections. I wasted 4 Cartel Certificates and 25k buying a Satele Shan Holostatue from the Contraband Resale Corporation, and it never unlocked in Collections. I actually had to go and buy the version that originally came in a pack off the GTN to have access to it in collections. I remember reading somewhere that Collections only works on Cartel Market items; since the Rep versions of these items aren't Cartel Market items, you can't use them to unlock the items in Collections.

I recently picked up HK, and did some thinking about this myself. My conclusion: Since HK's base Cunning is higher than his base Aim, I would make Cunning his primary stat, since he can get that higher than his Aim stat. HOWEVER, if you're using him on a low-level character, you'll want to stick with Aim. The issue is getting your hands on moddable Droid Parts. Until you can get a full set of them, you have to make do with the premade, prestatted greens that the game gives in mission rewards (these are actually intended for your Ship Droid, but aren't actually specific to him, so you can use them on any Droid companion you have). Since these premade Droid Parts are all Aim-based, it's better to have him stick with Aim. However, once you get some moddable Droid Parts (however you end up doing it), you can start switching him over to Cunning, where his higher base stat will mean better damage. Of course, this is all my conclusion; it's not backed up by math or anything. From the sound of it, going 50/50 would provide a higher Crit Chance, but I prefer to work with the more consistent damage you get from low crit and higher standard damage than to rely on getting a crit to inflict serious damage.

Your post's second sentence implies that short range damage is weak in general. If that's the case, why are Marauders and Sentinels considered the best DPS classes in the game? They both work exclusively at short range.

Short version: Augments are a type of item modification, used to increase your stats. However, unlike other modifiable gear, which has slots for all appropriate mods by default, you have to manually add an augment slot to your gear yourself, and it has to be done at an item Modification Station using an Augment Kit. Once the slot has been added, I believe that adding and removing Augments can be done in the field; you just need the station to add the slot itself. Augments are desirable because they are anotber source of stat boosts, and the higher your stats, the more damage you can deal and take. However, adding an augment slot to an item is expensive. Either you have to blow 36k to put a MK-9 Augment Slot into a single piece of equipment, or you have to constantly upgrade your Augment slots as you level. Most people therefore ignore Augments until they hit the level cap, when they have the money to blow over 500k to add a Mk-9 Augment slot to all their gear. Combine that with the fact that there isn't much of a market for low-level Augments, and it's generally a better idea to wait until endgame to start Augmenting your gear. Also worth noting: while normal item modification items can only be applied to armor and weapons/offhand items, Augment slots can be applied to anything. This means your Earpiece, Implants, and Relics can be Augmented, offering a further boost to your stats from items that normally can't be modded.

You're probably used to games where every stat does something specific, and your character's ability to deal damage is based on that statistic. For example, in Dragon Age: Origins, Strength determined the damage you caused with Longswords, regardless of your class. You're expecting the same thing from The Old Republic However, The Old Republic turns this formula on it's head. Assassins and Shadows are melee classes, but their abilities use Willpower to determine their damage, not Strength. Even the basic abilities that the Consular and Inquisitor start with follow this rule. Frankly, I find that the easiest way to think of it is this: Willpower is the primary stat for any AC that has the Consular or Inquisitor as a Base Class. Strength is the primary stat for any AC that has the Knight or Warrior as a Base Class. Aim is the primary stat for any AC that has the Trooper or Bounty Hunter as a base class. Cunning is the primary stat for any class that has the Smuggler or Agent as a Base Class. There are no exceptions in the player classes, ever.

It's definitely doable, and you'll certainly kill more quickly that way, but the focus of a Tank isn't doing damage; it's building and maintaining Threat and staying alive. Equipping a Power Generator means giving up a portion of your defenses, so you'll be more frail than you would otherwise be because the only way you have of mitigating incoming damage is via Defense and Buffs from skills. That being said, my general impression of the Juggernaut is that it's less reliant on Shield Chance and Absorption than the other two Tank classes are. Shadows/Assassins are primarily Defense Tanks, but the fact that they wear Light Armor means they need as many layers of defense as they can get, in case the RNG doesn't let them block an incoming attack. Vanguard/Powertech Tanks, on the other hand, focus their defense on their Shields, so it's their primary source of damage reduction. Juggernauts focus more on Armor Rating, Defensive Cooldowns, and buffs from the Immortal tree to stay up. The loss of the extra layer of defense a shield gives may not hit them as hard. All that being said, I have a level 52 Immortal Juggernaut that has 0 Power and uses a Shield, and I don't have any problems killing things. Of course, I also bomb around with Jaesa, so she brings the damage I lack.

It also wouldn't work for the Lightside Sith Warrior. About the time you get Jaesa, it's made clear what's going on (it's a bit muddy until then). The short version is that the Lightside Sith Warrior believes in the Empire's *ideals*, but does not agree with it's *methods*. He or she is therefore working to gain enough power to make a significant change in how the Empire does business. They still believe in the Empire's ideals, though, so for them Defection makes no sense.

Alright. That's good to know. I wasn't sure, and most end-game guides don't cover that time where you're not quite at the Level Cap, but are still beyond normal leveling. Thanks for the quick response.

I have a level 51 Juggernaut who is still working on her Chapter 3 story. However, when she hit 50, I took the time to gear her in mods from the Makeb vendor on the Fleet. Is there another vendor somewhere that takes Planet Comms and offers better mods, or am I basically done gearing until I start doing missions that give other types of Comms?

The problem you're seeing isn't a problem with your DPS; it's a problem with the tooltip. Abilities like Force Lightning deal one hit per second for three second, but the tooltip gives the damage as if these abilities did one single hit. In order to get an accurate idea of how much damage you should expect to see per hit, you need to divide the tooltip damage by 3. In your case, 4146 divided by 3 equals 1382. The damage your seeing is slightly lower probably because of enemy resistances, but other than that, it's where it's supposed to be. So don't feel like you're too weak; given the information we have, you're where you're supposed to be. Whether that damage is what you should expect to see at your level is another matter, but we don't have enough information to determine that.

That's something you need to get into contact with Customer Service to resolve.

It's not Diplomacy; the Companion Gift mission return actual gifts. I'm pretty sure that Gift Fragments are specifically from Treasure Hunting.

That's a bug. I would submit a bug ticket.

Short version: every item you equip has an Item Rating near the top of it's tooltip. This gives a general idea of how powerful that item is. End-game content has recommended Item Ratings; in other words, it's recommended that all your gear be at or above the recommended Item Rating for that mission. It's likely that the group you attempted to join rejected you, not because the level of your Implants was too low, but because the level of your gear in general was too low. So grabbing a few Implants off the GTN may not be enough to get you into a group for the mission you want to do.

Bring up your Inventory, then click the 'Collections' button in the bottom left corner. This brings up the Collections window. The first section of this (in a gold box) has the names of packs listed. You can view the contents of each pack by clicking on the name of the pack, at which point it will list what is in that pack.

One thing about Marauders: because they're pure DPS, they can take a very long time to get grouped when you use Group Finder. I'm not sure if this is because the game fills the DPS slots last, or because there are so many DPS players, but if you're going to be using Group Finder regularly, be aware of this. Do note, however, that you can still find groups in Chat or Guilds, so while this is something to be aware of, it's nowhere near game-breaking. Personally, I like the Sith Warrior playstyle. However, I tend towards the Immortal Juggernaut (basically, I Tank). The Companion progression is actually very good for a Tank; you get your rDPS, then your Healer, then your mDPS, followed by your Melee and Ranged Tanks. As a DPS, you also do pretty well, since your Healer is your second companion (not including the ship droid). However, if you're playing DPS, but prefer to have a Tank to soak up most of the threat, you're basically SooL, as the Sith Warrior gets their Tanks last. As for story, it's pretty solid. I'm still in chapter 3, but it's nice to know I'll be able to kill someone who has annoyed me from the moment I met him. I'd be more specific, but I don't want to spoil anything for you. Finally, the Rage tree is shared between both the Marauder and the Juggernaut. I can't offer firsthand input on it, but I keep hearing it referred to as overpowered. So at the very least, the Rage tree should be pretty solid for PvE play.

Best in Slot doesn't necessarily mean highest stats, though that certainly does help. Best in Slot means the best item you can have in that slot. While stats do play a role in this, sometimes other factors play a part. Probably the best example I can tbink of is from Golden Sun: The Lost Age. This game was for the Game Boy Advance, and the blade with the highest stats was the Darksword. However, the Darksword was cursed, which meant that the character wielding it had a chance to be stunned during their round in combat. The weapon that was generally accepted as the best was called the Sol Blade. The Sol Blade was slightly weaker, but wasn't cursed. In addition, it had a Unleash (basically, a special effect that had a random chance to trigger) that caused it to deal 3x damage. It also had a higher chance to trigger, and certain gear had hidden properties that boosted the chance for the Unleash to trigger. If I remember correctly, if you stacked those items, you could end up with over 90% chance for the Unleash to go off, so the sword that was slightly weaker than the strongest sword in the game ended up being significantly better. Short version: while the items with the highest stats are pretty much always a contender for Best in Slot, they aren't always actually the Best in Slot items.

A crit is a crit, no matter what step of the crafting process you're at. The only thing that changes is what happens when you get a crit: * Mission skills return more materials, and sometimes, you get stuff of a higher rarity. * Anything that goes directly into one of the equip slots on your Character Sheet becomes Augmented. * Everything else creates a second copy for free. Crit chance boosts affect all of these equally, with the exception of Companion Crit bonuses; those only affect what they state. As for Crit Bonuses, I've heard that maximizing a companion's affection provides a passive 5% Crit Bonus, but no one seems to be able to confirm that.

In my opinion, the only roles you need to fill as a Tank are DPS and Healing. You have two choices for each: DPS - You can choose from Vette or Jaesa here. Either is fine, but Vette has the advantage; I'll explain why in a moment. Healing - You can choose from either Malavai or the Ship Droid here. However, Malavai wins hands-down. This is because Droid companions are rather hard to gear. Combine that with the fact that the Ship Droid starts with no gear equipped at all, and you've got a very difficult character to gear. The only exception to this is if you're a Cybertech; they can make the gear for the Ship Droid easily. Now, the most efficient combination of companions is Vette and Malavai. This is because they both use Medium Armor, and. oth use Cunning as their Primary stat. Most of the time, you'd have Vette out, as most fights don't really need healing. However, when you are up against a tough enemy or group of enemies, you would strip Vette, summon Malavai, and equip bim with the gear you took off of Vette. This means you only need to keep two sets of gear current: yours, and theirs. This means you can take more time to play the game, and less time gearing up your companions.

The general consensus on loot rolls is this: For any item you plan to use for the character you're playing, you roll Need. Doesn't matter if it's Bind on Equip or Bind on Pickup; if you're actually going to use it, then you can roll Need on it. If the item doesn't have your stats (Willpower when you're a Jedi Knight, for example), or if you plan to use it for a Companion, or you plan to just sell it, then you select Greed. Also, it's considered rude to roll Need on an item that doesn't have your stats, or that would only be useful for a companion. The moment someone selects 'Need', anyone who selected 'Greed' loses any chance of getting the item. So, if something is an upgrade for you, feel free to Need it.

For your first character, I recommend holding off on Crafting initially. Crafting can be a serious drain on your cash reserves if you start it at Level 10, when it becomes available. My suggestion is to start off by taking Slicing, and making sure to grab every Slicing Resource Node you see as you go through the worlds. Once you get to about 50k Credits (which won't take too long), you can start crafting seriously. As for the issue of your crafting not keeping up with your level, I've never had that problem. In fact, thanks to the amount of crafting I do, I actually have times where I simply stop crafting because the stuff that I can make isn't useable because my level is too low. I've had this happen with both Cybertech and Biochem. I suppose I could see this happening with any of the other crew skills, but I've never had the issue myself with those two skills. For an initial character, after you've got a nest egg to start your crafting, I'd recommend Biochem. The Reusable Medpacks and Stims are great, increasing your primary stat without having to waste money buying them. The ability to make Implants is also nice; in my experience, these are rather rare from mission rewards, so it's nice to be able to fill those equip slots earlier. Also, even a Healer can use Biochem. The Stims improve both your primary stat, and your Power, resulting in more powerful heals. As for the Medpacks, it's a once-per-fight instant heal that costs you no Energy. You can use it to keep yourself up without having to waste Energy that could have been used to heal your companion/group member. And Biochem medpacks (even the basic green ones) are far superior to the ones you would buy from Med Droids, so they actually heal more health. I generally get about 1/3 to 1/2 of my health back when using an at-level Reusable Medpack (1/3 is only because the character is a Tank, and is using two +41 Endurance Crystals from the Cartel Market; I generally have about 800 Health more than I would if i was using Color Crystals from mission rewards). Finally, keep in mind that no choice is set in stone. If you like, you can use Biochem to level, then, once you get to end-game, unlearn it and take the one you actually want. If you do a Google Search on 'swtor [crew skill] leveling guide' (where '[crew skill]' is replaced with the crew skill you actually want), you'll find guides on how to quickly and efficiently level your chosen Crew Skill from 0 to 400 or 450.

Thank you for this. It's good to see how someone who knows the class inside-out does things, as it gives me a place to start when working my Tank. I especially appreciate the points on getting threat on multiple targets; that's a weak point for me (though that's primarily because I only just hit 40, and am playing PvE with a comp who won't wait for the 5 seconds I need to build threat). This entire series is much appreciated.