What to do at 50?

[Bolawan]

Hey,

 

This question may be pre-emptive but i'd just like a bit of feedback from those of you at the cap already.

Once you hit 50 where do you go? So far it seems like all the planets are built with questing and levelling in mind but, once you're done with that, whats left?

Is there a version of a capital city where people hang out? You cant hang out on most planets ive encountered so far as pretty much every 5 meters you hit a pack of NPC's.

Granted im only as far as Hoth, but i just want to know what i can expect.

 

Thanks for constructive replies guys.

[Electroflux]

You do 50 stuff.

[TheEwokKiss]

I went back to WoW

[ShadowMasterRP]

No different from WoW/RIFT/etc.

 

You sit in your capital (fleet) and do heroic (hard mode) dungeons (flashpoints) and an occasional raid (operation).

[Bolawan]

Clearly premature in thanking for constructive replies. What is "50 stuff"?

 

Thanks ShadowMaster. Thats what i was looking to find out.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Bolawan

[Zor_Prime]

You do 50 stuff.

 

 

50 stuff or 50 things? I'm confused.

[Finaly]

at 50? you wait that they fix bugs and implement endgame... cause the things that are implemented now lose in every aspect against a game that released in march 1999....

[Enistre]

You PVP your butt off while hoping some one in the Fleet wants to do an instance by reading General LFG spam.

[Rhysling]

I went back to WoW

 

 

LOL So you sit with your 10 85s in Trade chat all day?

[Tersidre]

hard modes... raiding... pvp .... finish crafting.

 

if these things do not fill up your play time you are playing to much.

[Bawheidbob]

play Skyrim?

[Finaly]

play Skyrim?

 

on my 2nd playthrough...

 

i want an elder scrolls mmo....

[Bolawan]

Im on my 2nd run through too. Blitzed through the story now im taking my time exploring.

 

I kinda figured thats what it would be to be fair. I was in SWG at launch too and once the cap was hit there, the game basically just began. The crafting system was immense and the holo grind was also epic.

 

i see alot of sitting around in this one though.

[Rhysling]

Im on my 2nd run through too. Blitzed through the story now im taking my time exploring.

 

I kinda figured thats what it would be to be fair. I was in SWG at launch too and once the cap was hit there, the game basically just began. The crafting system was immense and the holo grind was also epic.

 

i see alot of sitting around in this one though.

 

What SWG did you play? If you played a crafter that was it. One character per server and you could not be combat and crafter at the same time. And the holo grind epic? You mean capping a class, dropping the class, taking another class, capping that class. dropping that class etc, until you did all 36 or hit the secret Jedi before then...

[Finaly]

Im on my 2nd run through too. Blitzed through the story now im taking my time exploring.

 

I kinda figured thats what it would be to be fair. I was in SWG at launch too and once the cap was hit there, the game basically just began. The crafting system was immense and the holo grind was also epic.

 

i see alot of sitting around in this one though.

 

thats the problem...

 

everquest/eq2/swg etc... offered much much more.... and that right from the start....

[Resallaprov]

Dailies, space missions, HM FPs, Operations, PvP, max out companion affection and learn their stories, explore planets you'd like to.

 

Just a few things I've been doing.

[Bolawan]

What SWG did you play? If you played a crafter that was it. One character per server and you could not be combat and crafter at the same time. And the holo grind epic? You mean capping a class, dropping the class, taking another class, capping that class. dropping that class etc, until you did all 36 or hit the secret Jedi before then...

 

Yeah the hologrind was rough but if you had the holos, as i did, it only took 5 proffs and finding out that my last one, Dancer, would make me a jedi was no end of amusement. I basicallty AFK'd that lol. I enjoyed it and was one of the few pre patch 9 jedi on Eclipse.

 

I had an alt account for crafting and i loved it. The demise of the Bio-engineer proff was a dark dark day for me.

The point i try to make though was that the cap wasnt necessarily treading water.

[GnatB]

1. Roll a different class until you've seen all 8 stories.

2. Play something different until there's a new EP then go back to step 1.

 

 

If you're blowing your way to lvl 50 without smelling the roses, and THEN looking for something to do, that's *your* problem for skipping the actual game.

 

'Course, I've never really understood the need (or participated in) "end game" content.

[LordSatoh]

1. Roll a different class until you've seen all 8 stories.

2. Play something different until there's a new EP then go back to step 1.

 

 

If you're blowing your way to lvl 50 without smelling the roses, and THEN looking for something to do, that's *your* problem for skipping the actual game.

 

'Course, I've never really understood the need (or participated in) "end game" content.

 

That doesn't cut. 10% new content and 90% EXACTLY what you did with first char. No no no no. Booooooooooring.

[TheEwokKiss]

LOL So you sit with your 10 85s in Trade chat all day?

 

LOl so you sit with ur one 50 on the Fleet all day?

[Arkulin]

Hey,

 

This question may be pre-emptive but i'd just like a bit of feedback from those of you at the cap already.

Once you hit 50 where do you go? So far it seems like all the planets are built with questing and levelling in mind but, once you're done with that, whats left?

Is there a version of a capital city where people hang out? You cant hang out on most planets ive encountered so far as pretty much every 5 meters you hit a pack of NPC's.

Granted im only as far as Hoth, but i just want to know what i can expect.

 

Thanks for constructive replies guys.

 

PvE Gearing

 

Ilum and Belsavis Dailies - This is probably the most significant source of pre-raid PvE gearing available right now. Well, at least the most consistent. Once you complete your story quest you'll be able to start the Ilum chain. I highly recommend doing this, as well as the Belsavis Bonus Series (at 50). Ilum has about 6 dailies (1 is heroic) and Belsavis has about 6 as well (2 heroics). Between the Daily Commendations you'll get from these, as well as the quest rewards, you should be able to buy an Epic Armoring/Hilt/Barrell, and you'll get an Epic Enhancement, Mod, and Companion Weapon from the quests. That means that doing your Belsavis and Ilum dailies basically gets you a piece of epic gear per day with the rewards. This is a must do for PvE gear. It also gets your companions pretty geared out because of the repeatable quest that gets them a moddable level 50 weapon.

 

Hard Mode Flashpoints - The way these work is that the bosses up to the final boss will drop epic gear, and the final boss will drop a class token. All bosses will also drop Tionese Crystals, which are used in conjunction with other commendations to purchase epic PvE gear from the Tionese vendor on the Fleet. The Hard Mode Flashpoint Effort-to-Reward is kinda ****ed right now, but here's a quick suggestion:

 

Black Talon - This is pretty easy, even for fresh 50s. It's basically as quick as doing @ 11.

 

Boarding Party - Semi-long instance with challenging final boss. Poor reward for time invested.

 

The Foundry - Last boss is bugged and starts 1-shotting tanks at 30%, not worth doing.

 

Directive 7 - Haven't done on Hard Mode, some say this one is challenging and heal intensive.

 

The Battle for Ilum - Haven't done on Hard Mode, but most people are saying it's not that bad. Boss drops an Offhand token.

 

The False Emperor - An hour and a bit worth of trash and bosses for most. Some medium challenge level. Not worth time invested.

 

Tokens/Commendations - Similar to the badge system in WoW (or Valor Points), go to your vendor to see what costs what. Tionese Commendations are the lowest (rating 126 gear) and are gotten from completing Hard Mode Flashpoints, and Normal Mode Operations (as well as doing your Daily Hard Mode Flashpoint and Weekly Hard Mode Flashpoint quests). Columi are a level up (for Rating 136 gear) and are from Hard Mode Ops and Nightmare Mode Ops. Use these in combination with Tionese Crystals to purchase set gear. WARNING - Your set bonuses do not show on your gear in the vendor window. Make sure you're picking the correct piece of gear for your spec (based on the name) so you get set bonuses that aren't worthless (e.g. A piece of gear that looks fine for a Sith Assassin DPS spec, actually would have Sith Sorcerer bonuses because it was intended for them...do some research before making the purchase).

 

Flashpoint Dailies/Weeklies - These are straightforward and gotten from the Fleet. Complete 1/day and 3/week to get the max reward. Basically you'll just be doing Black Talon to complete this quest.

 

PvP Gearing

 

Champion Gear Bags - There are a variety of ways to get these (described below). They will have Centurion Commendations, and randomly they will have a loot token for a specific slot of Champion PvP gear. By doing all of your dailies and weeklies, your potential earning of bags would be 20 per week. (7 for Ilum Daily, 7 for PvP Daily, 3 for Ilum Weekly, 3 for PvP Weekly). Additionally, any purchased bags are icing on the cake.

 

Battlemaster Gear Bag - These are similar to Champion Gear Bags, though they have better stats (Rating 140). You can only get these if you're Valor Level 60 [edit: thanks hooj] from PvP (you can see on your PvP queue screen what your progress is).

 

Currency and Gear Purchase - Champion and Battlemaster bags are purchased with Commendations, like anything else, but they're a bit easier to obtain. The Champion Bag at 50 (Rating 136) is easily purchased with 200 Warzone Commendations and 200 Mercenary Commendations. Merc Comms are primarily gotten through a Warzone Comm conversion (3:1 conversion rate) at the PvP vendor, but can also be gotten on Ilum and Tattooine, by participating in World PvP and getting chests. Basically, for every 800 Warzone Commendations you get, you'll be able to get a chance at a piece of gear from a bag (by converting down some of those to Merc Comms).

 

Battle for Ilum - On the fleet you will get a Daily and a Weekly to contribute to the War Effort on Ilum by taking control points on the western portion of the planet. This is pretty straightforward, but is a bit of a pain in the *** due to the requirement of Republic needing to be there to flip the node. Often times you will go to Ilum and all nodes will be Empire controlled. Best wait this out while you're queuing for your PvP daily/weekly. You need to get 5 control points for the daily and 15 for the weekly. The daily will get you 1 Champion Gear bag, and the weekly will get you 3. Pretty awesome rewards, though random.

 

Daily and Weekly PvP Wins - These two quests are picked up on the Fleet. Win 3 matches a day, and 9 a week. Daily gets you 1 Champion Gear bag, and the weekly gets you 3.

 

Crafting

 

This is self-explanatory, and unfortunately most of the crating recipes blow with the exception of Biochem. Feel free to look into why we're all whining about our craft skills elsewhere.

 

Conclusions

 

So as you can see, PvP is the quickest way to gear up in this game at the moment. It's slightly more reliable, and certainly gets your more gear per minute spent. The downside is that the gear is relatively tight on the stats it provides, and you get the Expertise stat on the gear (which is a PvP only stat that increases PvP Helaing, increases dmg/reduces dmg vs. Players). Do your Ilum Control point daily/weekly, and your PvP daily/weekly to max out gear gain here. Only bad thing is that it's random what's in the gear bag, so it's entirely possible to get nothing or an item you already have.

 

It's definitely worth doing your Ilum and Belsavis dailies for Tionese Crystals and for the Epic mods/enhancements/Armorings, etc to get yourself in somewhat of a raid-ready state.

 

Flashpoint Dailies/Weeklies seem to only be worth doing if you just do Black Talon. Sadly, you can only do this once per day. Hopefully, Bioware will retune/tweak the drops and mechanics for some of the buggier Flashpoints to make it worth doing more than just Black Talon.

 

Feel free to add/correct anything I've put in here. I'll edit this as I see more info come in (especially info/opinions on the Flashpoint worthwhileness).

 

Happy 50'ing!

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Hitting 50 and wrapping up class quest (minor spoilers)

 

The last "regular" planet is Corellia (47-50) and your class quest ends after this, but there's a follow up quest chain taking you to Ilum which is the level 50 planet with daily quests, "open world warzone" etc.

 

You MUST finish your class quest line AND the Ilum quest line in order to unlock the majority of level 50 PvE content.

 

This means that if you hit level 50 early on Corellia you'll be doing a bunch of quests without getting xp. It seems it's possible to finish with class quest while still 49 and then get the remaining xp on the Ilum quests, but I am not 100% sure about this. Any missing xp should be easy enough to get with warzones, daily quests (including heroics on Ilum+Belsavis+Corellia), flashpoints etc.

 

Level 50 PvP & Gear

 

This is just as much a joke as we feared it would be. There's a warzone on Ilum with 5 checkpoints that can be conquered by either imperials or republic. You can pvp here if you want, but there's very little point in doing so. Killing the enemy is actually a really bad idea when doing the quests since you need them in order to have any checkpoints to capture... which makes the whole thing even more ridiculous.

 

On The Fleet there's two repeatable quests available at level 50 (even without class quest being complete):

 

Daily quest to take 5 checkpoints. Reward is 1 champion bag or battlemaster bag.

Weekly quest to take 15 checkpoints. Reward is 2 champion bags + either 1 battlemaster bag or 1 extra champion bag.

 

The champion bags contain a few centurion tokens and a random chance to get a champion item. The chance for getting items seems pretty high (50% of our bags had items), but people on forums have been whining about much worse the results. The battlemaster bag requires valor rank 60 so no idea what's in that one.

 

Besides the PvP warzone there's also the possibility to pvp on the remaining parts of Ilum. There seems to be decent overlap in daily quest areas between republic and imperial so it's a good candidate for some action. There's also the "open world ffa" tiny area on Tatooine, but that area is tiny and generally useless.

 

Level 50 PvE & Gear

 

Besides the Ilum quest chain mentioned above there's a bunch of daily quests on Ilum as well as a few on Belsavis. The reward for these quests are "daily tokens" which can be used to buy level 50 purple gear for some item slots as well as some pimp rewards. You get 1 token for each regular quest, and more from heroics.

 

Daily token items:

 

Tier 23 purple item mods "barrel" (8 tokens)

Tier 23 purple item mods "hilt" (8 tokens)

Tier 23 purple item mods "armor" (8 tokens)

Purple earpieces (120 tokens)

Purple implants (120 tokens)

 

This means if you're a crafter doing mods/earpieces/implants you will want to check the vendors before wasting too much on purple recipes. The daily items are higher tier than anything we can reverse engineer based on the schematics from our crafting trainer.

 

Besides the purple gear there's also a vendor that sells blue level 50 bracers for 50k credits a piece as well as a crappy weapon vendor. These two vendors are the same as the "credits" vendors on Corellia.

 

Other than that, while the champion PvP items have some expertise stats on them, the remainder of the stats are so good that they can easily serve as first tier purples for PvE.

 

Beyond this there's of course Flashpoints in normal and hard mode as well as the 8-man Operations.

 

Repeatable Quest List

 

Ilum:

 

5 PvE daily quests

1 Heroic-2 daily quest (3 tokens for quest, 2 more for bonus)

1 daily PvP quest

1 weekly PvP quest

 

Belsavis:

 

8 PvE daily quests

1 Heroic-2 daily quest

2 Heroic-4 daily quests

 

Random stuff

 

The commodation vendor for Corellia tokens sell blue tier 22 item mods including "mod" and "enhancement" for 2 token each which is incredibly cheap. I got a bunch of these for my orange gear level 50 gear + for my companion as well. Not up to purple item standards, but still pretty good.

 

The quest chain for Belsavis dailies start on the republic fleet. Once you're on Belsavis it will be named "Belsavis: Bonus Series".

 

It's a good idea to explore all zones on Belsavis when questing there at level 40-45. Getting to some of the dalies require you to have the teleportation points at the far end of the zone. If you don't have those you'll have to find them without having the quests to guide you.

[Gryffin]

As has already been listed, once at 50, the content available to that character is limited to PvP, crafting and trading or group orientated PvE. If you're not interested in PvP, already maxed your crafting and aren't into 'Operating' with a guild then sadly there really isn't much you can do other than reroll and repeat.