+1 There's literally nothing more that needs to be added to the conversation.

Tbf, gearing itself isn't that RNG. Yes, you can get lucky and get a drop that you want from some crate or boss, but about 90% of my gear came from solo grinding flashpoints on my stealthers, then spending the tech frags to buy the pieces I need. You'll hit conquest doing just that, which again grants you gear and more importantly, more tech frags. It is insanely fast (and not RNG) compared to 5.x, even if you only have a few hours per day to play. Now min-maxing (specifically amplifiers) and reverse engineering OTOH, are the real gambling bits. If you're credit-starved, just say no.

Because KOTFE has a few parts that involve your not having a heal comp with you, I'd suggest switching to or learning Annihilation/Watchman spec, the self-heals help a fair bit with your survivability. Don't hit all your DCDs and medpacs at once, but spread them out as much as you can based on their cool down times. If you're not at 306 yet, maybe grind some flashpoints to gear up--you'll hit a lot harder with a good tactical and set bonus.

Never made a forum post before, but I'd just like to say: A HUGE thank you to Eric and the dev team for stopping this exploit so close to a big expansion, AND having the kindness to wait for the double XP to end first. It's a small kindness and consideration, you didn't have to do it, but you did. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. The lost deposit in in-game credits for hundreds of listings? Pffttt... chump change....and it's not even real money! 10/10 will gladly pay it again for such a serious exploit fix. p/s: Hopefully you'll also investigate all those who curiously defended those exploiters as having just "hoarded a lot of platinum items..." despite all evidence pointing otherwise (new armor sets, and far, far too much quantity), and even turned around and accused the OPs (more than one thread IIRC) who reported the bug as being the exploiters themselves. The OPs definitely should've kept to PMs to report it, but those who adamantly defend what is an obvious exploit do bear investigating.